Nic: From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, it’s Tanis. I’m Nic Silver. We’re telling the story of Tanis in order every two weeks, so if you haven’t listened to the first ten episodes, go back and start there. We’ll try not to get too far ahead by the time you get back.
Nic: As you can tell, my dreams have been strange lately. I've been waking up unsure of where I am. It takes me a while to get my bearings. It's probably stress related, I imagine. Things have been intensifying, to say the least. Last week we learned that Melanie Nedved was actually Veronika Pillman, that there may have been more than a couple of mysterious top secret research studies in the Pacific Northwest, and that Sam Reynolds had been acting... strange.
Well, things are about to get a whole lot stranger. I sat down with Veronika Pillman, formerly Melanie Nedved. I had a lot of questions.
Nic: It was Morgan Miller. She sounded worried about Sam. He was getting worse apparently. She didn't want to get into it on the phone, she told me to get to the motel as soon as I could. I hung up and told Veronika that I had to leave.
Nic: Sam was sitting on the bed, away from the entrance and away from the television. He was facing a blank wall, just staring. He didn't appear distressed really, just... empty somehow.
Alex: Meerkatnip left that message as an audio file on the desktop of my computer... somehow. I'd been mixing an episode of The Black Tapes, so I missed it. Even more disheartening, I missed something else as well. A call from Nic a few hours earlier.
Alex: It's now been five days since I received that message from Nic. We've been doing nothing but searching the woods, talking to police, and canvassing every single person we could find who may have come in contact with Nic, Morgan, Veronika, or Sam prior to their disappearance. I'd spoken with both Cameron Ellis and Geoff van Sant. Both claim that they haven't seen or heard anything.
I wasn't planning on doing this, recording this narration. However, something happened that made it feel... important. Something that made it feel like I should do my best to continue what Nic started with this podcast. We found his voice recorder. And a journal.
The voice recorder was buried in a clearing near the remains of a fire. They used metal detectors and found three cell phones, car keys, and some money as well. The next day they found the second site. It was there they found Nic's journal. It was on the ground along with some camping supplies, a canteen, four sleeping bags, and the remains of a small portable stove. There was nothing else. No clues. Just some camping gear soaked through with rain, and a bunch of footprints heading off into the woods.
After an hour or so of answering questions, they gave us a scanned copy of Nic's journal entries. As I'm sure you've now ascertained, I've been reading them on this podcast since episode five. I'm going to read the last of them for you now.
0:21:48.7
Alex: While combing through the woods, close to the latitude Meerkatnip somehow retrieved from Carl van Sant's tapes, a few miles from the place they found Nic's journal, one of the searchers discovered the cabin.
I was out there with the entire Pacific Northwest Stories team, combing the area with the rest of the volunteers, walking side by side, or as close to it as possible given all the trees, when I heard somebody yell. Everyone turned and started running toward the voice.
We were among the second or third group of searchers to reach the cabin. It was small, much smaller than I'd imagined listening to Tara Reynolds's voice recordings. NObody had entered, and I was just about to push my way through the crowd, when the police arrived and motioned for everyone to step back.
Things happened very quickly after that. Two police officers went inside, followed by two men in black suits who had appeared, seemingly, out of nowhere. I turned and saw a handful of ATVs and other official-looking men and women. They didn't look like police exactly, but they were definitely... something. They had the air of government about them. They had to be some kind of authority. They were the ones who ordered us out of the area, right after the police carried Tara Reynolds out of the cabin.
(rain pouring)
I managed to get a look at her as they pulled her out. She was alive. I could see the whites of her eyes and teeth but everything else was red. Every inch of her was covered in blood. Most of it dry, I think. It was impossible to tell what was skin and what was clothing. Then the guards, or officers, or whatever they were, started dragging us out of the clearing. A few minutes ago we were colleagues, working together in concert to a common end. Now? We were wrangled and shoved, herded like protesters at a rally before the age of video cameras and cellphones. I half expected to see teargas and rubber bullets. Whoever was in charge here was serious about keeping us away from the cabin. Which means I wasn't actually there when they brought out Nic.
Later, I was told by one of our interns, who said she managed to get a look before she was ripped away from the scene, that they walked Nic out shortly after Tara Reynolds, and that he wasn't covered in blood.
Nic: I asked Dr. Burnnett to try and help me make sense of what happened. Why I couldn't' remember certain things. Why I might be feeling... distant. Separate from my mind, at times. Like I'm somehow floating a few feet above myself. IT's not all the time, and I feel like it's receding, but it's still... disconcerting.
Nic: As I've indicated on this podcast in the past, I'm definitely a skeptic when it comes to things like hypnosis. But I'm willing to try anything at this point.
You're probably wondering why I'm willing to try anything, especially something I'm pretty sure that, to be frank, falls somewhere under the umbrella of quackery. Well, it's because I'm missing time.
I remember, if not specifics, general things. Like I remember moving through rooms, endless corridors, in the other place, but when I try to bring it into sharp focus in my mind, it becomes a blur in the corner. I can't remember details. I kept track by carving marks into the wall of room one, what you would understand as the cabin. I eventually found Tara Reynolds in room 1136. She was shaking in a corner, covered in blood. When she heard me enter the room, she turned to me, smiled, and offered me something to eat. It was her arm.
The recordings I made with Dr. Burnnett while under hypnosis are... well. They're pretty crazy, actually. I'm not sure what to make of them. I'm still processing the experience. On teh subject of Tanis, there have been some developments. The most significant being, the entire area has been walled off.
Cameron Ellis told me there was a coalition of government officials, scientists, and corporate entities vying for control of the area. What he continues to refer to as The Breach.
For now, Cameron Ellis and TeslaNova are acting as a kind of official liaison between all the participants. So, for the moment at least, he has almost unlimited access to the area. Access he appears intent on taking advantage of.
What does that have to do with me? Well, he's asked for my help. He's asked me to take part in a kind of research study in the region he called The Breach. Cameron Ellis is reopening Pacifica Station.
It's Tanis. I'm Nic Silver. We'll be back again soon. Until then, keep looking.
Tanis is produced by Terry Miles. Produced, mixed, and edited by me, Nic Silver. Executive producers Terry Miles and Paul Bae.
Nic: For legal and safety reasons, we've elected to change some names, and leave others out entirely. We don't do this very often, but we're not willing to compromise people's safety for any reason.
Thanks again for listening to Tanis.
- Nic: In the dream, I remember walking through the woods looking for a cabin. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't make out the face of the person walking beside me. Every few minutes the flapping of wings above my head forced me to duck. I thought they were bats at first, but then I saw one above me as it twisted and turned as if trying to reach the light of the moon. It was a giant month. Dark red underbelly, wide leathery brown fluttering wings. They flitted around constantly above our heads like small crows. I thought I heard the person beside me refer to them as "night birds," but I don't remember actually hearing a voice.
- By the time the cabin appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, it felt like we'd been walking forever. I spun at the sound of a deep low cry, and when I turned back around, the cabin was there. Right in front of us.
- We carefully stepped through the door and moved into a small wooden room. The person beside me I still couldn't actually see. I felt like I might be able to see them if I didn't look right at them, but I just couldn't make them out. There was something on the floor, a dark stain in the boards shaped exactly like a small woman in the fetal position. On a table next to a small bed: teeth at the bottom of a pitcher of clear water. Not false teeth, loose teeth.
- I was suddenly very tired and had to lie down on the bed. I tried to stay away but the darkness slowly flowed over me like water, into my nose and throat, drowning me to sleep. I couldn't move. Something was there, staring at me. And I understood that they had been my companion the entire time. It was a tall blur of a man wearing the head of a bird, the now-familiar mask of a medieval plague doctor. But as I sat up and looked closer, I realized it wasn't a mask. Then I fell asleep.
- I woke up in a burst of blood and radiant like. The bird-thing was nowhere to be seen. I rushed out of the cabin and ran as fast as I could through the fog-wreathed sleeping trees. But the moon disappeared somewhere and soon the darkness was complete. I could no longer see where I was running. That's when I heard it coming up behind me. Clicking. Breathing. And then I heard its wings. And then I fell, and it was upon me.
Nic: As you can tell, my dreams have been strange lately. I've been waking up unsure of where I am. It takes me a while to get my bearings. It's probably stress related, I imagine. Things have been intensifying, to say the least. Last week we learned that Melanie Nedved was actually Veronika Pillman, that there may have been more than a couple of mysterious top secret research studies in the Pacific Northwest, and that Sam Reynolds had been acting... strange.
Well, things are about to get a whole lot stranger. I sat down with Veronika Pillman, formerly Melanie Nedved. I had a lot of questions.
- Veronika: What would you like to know?
- Nic: What can you tell me about that research study in 2009?
- Veronika: It was a small study, comparatively. Just a few buildings, some tents.
- Nic: And did you apply to go?
- Veronika: No.
- Nic: No?
- Veronika: I was chosen.
- Nic: You were chosen. Okay.
- Veronika: Recruited is probably a better word.
- Nic: And that's where you met future Grackle Jonathan Carnahan?
- Veronika: Yes.
- Nic: So, were you looking for Tanis, or Xanu?
- Veronika: It's not that simple. We were interested in looking... beneath the surface.
- Nic: Beneath the surface, you mean the ground?
- Veronika: Sometimes the ground, yes.
- Nic: So, what were you studying specifically?
- Veronika: A lot of the same things The Grackles are looking at now, actually.
- Nic: Which would be?
- Veronika: Changes. Convergent points.
- Nic: Changes?
- Veronika: Yes.
- Nic: Could you elaborate?
- Veronika: There's really no simple way to explain it, so I'll try to explain it the way it was explained to me.
- Nic: Okay.
- Veronika: The word "node" has many meanings. It is defined as a point at which lines or pathways intersect or branch, a central or connecting point.
- Nic: Right.
- Veronika: Another definition in astronomy, a node is a confluence or convergence, a crossing of sorts. Do you understand?
- Nic: I think so. So far.
- Veronika: In math, a node is the point at which a curve intersects itself. And in botany, a node is the part of the stem from which one or more leaves emerge.
- Nic: Okay, you may have lost me now.
- Veronika: We're looking for... certain points, or bridge sections.
- Nic: Bridge sections?
- Veronika: What you're calling Tanis. What the Haida call Xanu. Some people believe that this might be a kind of... kind of a meeting point, crossing, or convergence.
- Nic: A crossing to where?
- Veronika: That's one of the things we're trying to find out.
- Nic: By looking into the ground at slugs and snails, moths?
- Veronika: By looking at everything.
- Nic: Why the nickname HaidaGurl?
- Veronika: I studied the Haida for a very long time. Xanu was of particular interest.
- Nic: And why are you helping me? I mean, don't get me wrong, I really appreciate it. I'm just not sure I'd do the same for somebody in my position.
- Veronika: You would.
- Nic: What makes you say that?
- Veronika: You love the mystery. You're drawn to it. It's a part of you, Nic. Just like it was part of me.
- (buzzing)
- Nic: I'm sorry, I have to take this call.
- Veronika: It's okay.
Nic: It was Morgan Miller. She sounded worried about Sam. He was getting worse apparently. She didn't want to get into it on the phone, she told me to get to the motel as soon as I could. I hung up and told Veronika that I had to leave.
- Veronika: I'm coming with you.
- Nic: Oh, you don't have to come with me, I can drop you at home on my way, it's fine.
- Veronika: I'm coming with you. I want to help.
- Nic: Okay.
- (car brakes, door opening)
- Morgan: Who the fuck is this?
- Nic: Morgan Miller, this is Veronika Pillman.
- Morgan: You're HaidaGurl?
- Veronika: Yes.
- Nic: And that's Sam Reynolds, Tara's brother. (long pause) Sam?
- Morgan: He just sits there, staring at the wall.
Nic: Sam was sitting on the bed, away from the entrance and away from the television. He was facing a blank wall, just staring. He didn't appear distressed really, just... empty somehow.
- Veronika: Hello, Sam. My name is Veronika. How are you?
- Sam: (in a low voice) There are magical things.
- Veronika: It's not good.
- Sam: (in a low voice) There are dangerous things.
- Nic: What happened? What's wrong with him?
- Morgan: Somebody called him last night. A short conversation.
- Veronika: How short?
- Morgan: A few words at most. And now he... repeats that shit anytime you ask him anything.
- Veronika: He's with them.
- Nic: He's with them, what do you mean? The cult?
- Veronika: He's been hypnotised.
- Morgan: How do we snap him out of it?
- Veronika: We don't.
- Morgan: We have to fix him.
- Veronika: If we attempt to fix him he might never return.
- Nic: Okay, that sounds a little bit nuts.
- Veronika: His mind is... elsewhere.
- Morgan: No shit!
- Nic: Where is he? His mind?
- Veronika: It's like a kind of, (sighs) well, being under water might be the best way to explain it.
- Nic: Can't we just shake him out of it?
- Veronika: That would be extremely dangerous.
- Morgan: We have to do something.
- Veronika: We will.
- Nic: What?
- Veronika: We're going into the woods.
- Nic: What woods?
- Veronika: (pause) You know what woods, I think.
- Nic: We're going now?
- Veronika: Yes. But first we have to stop and pick up some camping supplies.
- Morgan: We're going camping?
- Veronika: Yes.
- Nic: What are we gonna do with Sam?
- Veronika: He's coming with us.
- Nic: What makes you think he'll come with us?
- Veronika: He will.
- Nic: You sure?
- Veronika: Yes, I'm sure.
- Nic: Well, I have to call work and let them know.
- Veronika: You should do that now.
- Nic: Okay, how long will we be gone?
- Veronika: I don't know.
- Sam: (mumbling too quiet to hear)
- Nic: Why does Sam keep repeating those lines?
- Veronika: He believes.
- Nic: He believes?
- Veronika: We'll stop here for now.
- Morgan: Where are we?
- Veronika: A staging point.
- Nic: Staging for what?
- Veronika: For what comes next.
- Nic: Tanis?
- Veronika: Maybe. Tanis, yes.
- Morgan: How?
- Veronika: Follow the map.
- Nic: We don't have a map.
- Veronika: That's not true.
- Nic: What are you talking about?
- Veronika: You are the map.
- Nic: Me?
- Veronika: The map is four.
- Nic: Four what, people?
- Veronika: Yes. Three plus one.
- Nic: Three plus one... a runner?
- Veronika: Yes.
- Morgan: What are you talking about?
- Veronika: I'll need everything, electronic phones, anything metal.
- Nic: What?
- Morgan: Why?
- Veronika: If you want to help Sam and Tara, you're gonna have to trust me. I'll bury them in this plastic under this tree. It'll be easy to remember.
- (rustling)
- Veronika: We can pick them up on the way back.
- Nic: What about my voice recorder?
- Veronika: It's impossible, I'm afraid. The wrong kind of electronics can... confuse things. There's a pencil and paper, a sketchbook in that bag.
- Morgan: This doesn't make any sense.
- Veronika: There is something else. We won't be using our names from this point forward.
- Nic: What do you mean?
- Veronika: Where we're going, names will begin to lose their meaning. If we focus on something else, an occupation or a label, we'll have a better chance of remembering or of maintaining our connection. Both to each other and to ourselves. An occupation can be remembered. Here in this place, a name will be lost. It can be very dangerous here, you might forget somebody entirely. Even if they're standing right beside you.
- Nic: Okay, that doesn't make any sense.
- Veronika: You know how you lose the meaning of a word and it becomes like you've never seen those letters together in that specific order before? That's how you'll begin to feel about the names. And eventually the others in the group. You'll begin to mistrust them. And it is in this way that things will begin to fall apart. So there will be no names. You're The Novelist. You're the Zealot. You're the Witness. And I'm The Runner. That is all. I lead, you follow. Nobody steps ahead of me for any reason, ever. You do what I do. You go where I go. The way's complicated. There are no straight lines. There will be waiting. There will be entire days where we might only walk a half a mile or less. You're going to have to trust me. We'll sleep here tonight. Tomorrow things are going to change. Goodnight.
- MK: This is a message for Alex. I'm sorry for taking over your computer but I didn't really know who else to call. I haven't been able to get a hold of Nic. If you talk to him, just tell him to stay away from the woods. I think there might actually be something to all of this stuff. I found some videos of (sighs) well, things that happen to people who spend time in specific regions of the forest, right around where we've been looking. I, uh. It's not good. It's really fucking horrifying actually. Just don't let him go into the woods.
- (voicemail beep)
Alex: Meerkatnip left that message as an audio file on the desktop of my computer... somehow. I'd been mixing an episode of The Black Tapes, so I missed it. Even more disheartening, I missed something else as well. A call from Nic a few hours earlier.
- Nic: Hey Alex, it's Nic. Looks like I'm going camping for a day or two, or three, if you can believe it. I'll keep you posted as long as there's cell service, I'll keep my phone on. I have a spare battery. I dropped a pin and sent you a Google Map location, that's where we're parking. I'm going with Veronika Pillman, Morgan Miller, and Sam Reynolds. Okay, wish me luck. Bye!
- (dial tone)
Alex: It's now been five days since I received that message from Nic. We've been doing nothing but searching the woods, talking to police, and canvassing every single person we could find who may have come in contact with Nic, Morgan, Veronika, or Sam prior to their disappearance. I'd spoken with both Cameron Ellis and Geoff van Sant. Both claim that they haven't seen or heard anything.
I wasn't planning on doing this, recording this narration. However, something happened that made it feel... important. Something that made it feel like I should do my best to continue what Nic started with this podcast. We found his voice recorder. And a journal.
The voice recorder was buried in a clearing near the remains of a fire. They used metal detectors and found three cell phones, car keys, and some money as well. The next day they found the second site. It was there they found Nic's journal. It was on the ground along with some camping supplies, a canteen, four sleeping bags, and the remains of a small portable stove. There was nothing else. No clues. Just some camping gear soaked through with rain, and a bunch of footprints heading off into the woods.
After an hour or so of answering questions, they gave us a scanned copy of Nic's journal entries. As I'm sure you've now ascertained, I've been reading them on this podcast since episode five. I'm going to read the last of them for you now.
0:21:48.7
- Alex: Day four. Conclusion. I felt tired, slow. Like I was walking through a thick, viscous liquid. A pressure from somewhere deep within felt like it was pulling, bending me back and onto myself. The blur was excited, vibrating deeply within me. I wanted to stop, to try and find my way home, but I understood that home wasn't where it was, exactly. I knew that going back wasn't the way home. Not anymore. I had to keep going. No matter what happened. Had to see this through.
-
- Someone, I think maybe The Runner, grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. A deeply disturbing feeling, like something was watching. Staring at me. Threatened to stop my feet from moving forward. The blur was on The Runner's side. They both wanted me to move. This is when I realized we were tied together somehow, the runner and I. There was no sense of time here. At some point, maybe seconds ago, maybe hours, or days, we'd been tied together by our wrists with thick white rope.
- I looked at The Novelist, her eyes were wide. She was staring at something I couldn't see. We were all tied together. The Zealot was moving forward, slowly, his eyes on the ground. I made a note to myself to ask The Novelist what she had seen. But, like that moment right before you fall asleep, I knew that I wouldn't remember to ask her anything. That's why I'm writing this down. At least, I hope I'm writing this down. The blur is everything now. There's no point where it ends and I begin. The humming sound is constant, it never stops.
- The runner says, "It won't be long now."
- There are dangerous things.
- Day five, the cave. Along the way, we found very little to eat. Some fungus and nuts The Runner assures us are enough to keep us alive. I haven't slept in... I'm not sure how long. What little water we manage to collect goes quickly. There's no way to tell what time it is. Or day. It's a world of green and sound only. There's nothing but the trees, the humming, and the blur. There's nothing left, nothing else. But that's not exactly true. There was a change in the smell. The smell of the water had slowly been replaced by a sickly sweet sugary musk. A wet earthy scent that filled my head, making it hard to think about anything else.
- Soon we moved out of the deep woods into an area where thin birch trees towered to the sky, and a strange moss grew on the ground around each tree. Slugs and snails and insects were everywhere. And there was a buzzing coming from the air, or the ground. It was impossible to tell. But, and I know this is going to sound strange, but I felt like the sound was somehow... within me. Like it was the blur. Coming alive, coming home.
- We moved into a small clearing. There was a steep rocky hill on one side. In between two large rocks, there was an opening. A cave, maybe? A tunnel? Whatever it was, I knew that the sound, or half the sound, the half that wasn't within me, was somewhere inside that cave.
- Day five, the cave. We stepped inside the cave. My eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, but the moss on the walls appeared to be glowing slightly, just enough to illuminate the way. The way was down. Immediately the tunnel or cave, or whatever it was, started sloping down. It started to get steeper, and we were happy to be tied together at this point. It kept us together, and often protected us from falling.
- We descended beneath the forest for what felt like hours, miles into the earth, when we came to some roughly hewn stone steps. The Runner untied us at this point and we started down the stairs into complete darkness. They were stone, long and thin, and they went on forever. And after four, five hours of walking, the wall slowly started to change. The deep green moss continued to light the way, providing just enough of a phosphorescent glow to reveal... more stairs. We continued.
- There are magical things.
- After another hour or so of walking, we came to an old wooden door. The Runner put her ear against it and listened. The Runner didn't speak. None of us could speak. We were exhausted.
- There are dangerous things.
- I felt like The Runner wanted to say something as she moved to look over each of us in turn. But she seemed to see what she wanted behind our eyes, because... without a word to any of us, she turned around and opened the door.
- We get what we deserve.
- We stepped into a large ornate room. It was empty, but it felt like it might have been some kind of banquet hall at some point in time. Time was a question, at what point in time did this room exist? It felt ancient. Like... Beowulf ancient. The hum and the smell were overwhelming, staggering. Was the room humming? Or was the air humming around it? Wherever the sound was coming from, we could all feel it. Deep inside. It was strumming a chord, like hands across my rib cage, from the inside. The blur was responding, vibrating within me. It was invasive and disconcerting. Everything was blurring, moving in slow motion, like weeds at the bottom of a dark green lake.
- The Novelist was the first to see it. Her eyes were huge. She was yelling and running before I realize there was an open door on the far wall. There was light. After walking at least nine miles into the earth, we'd arrived, somehow, back where we started. Through the open door were familiar trees. I ran after The Novelist, or the blur pulled me. Either way.
- All four of us stepped out into the clearing. The familiar tall birch trees, the insects, everything was the same. We'd been in this clearing before, only now... there was no rocky wall or cave. Instead, behind us where the cave had been, was a small 10x10 hut. A small hut we'd just stepped out of. A hut that contained a vast hall inside that was at least a thousand feet long, and a ceiling that was at least ten times as tall. We stared at each other in disbelief and re entered the hut. I understood that we'd just experienced an impossibility, and upon re entering the hut, I expected the inner dimensions to match. I expected a small room. But inside that tiny 10x10 square structure, the enormous hall remained, cool and dark.
- The blur was quiet. Still for the first time since I noticed it. It took my eyes a long time to adjust from the sunlight back to the darkness of the hall. Shadows were everywhere, in every corner. Whispers, thrumming, and shadows.
- There are dangerous things.
- Something was different, alive. The thrumming was awful... at first. But as I slowly got used to it, the pain and discomfort faded into something else: a fulness, and acceptance. I understood that this room was impossible, that there's not way it could be this big on the inside. The Runner saw her first. Someone was in there with us. Tara Reynolds. That's when everything went black.
- (birds chirping)
Alex: While combing through the woods, close to the latitude Meerkatnip somehow retrieved from Carl van Sant's tapes, a few miles from the place they found Nic's journal, one of the searchers discovered the cabin.
I was out there with the entire Pacific Northwest Stories team, combing the area with the rest of the volunteers, walking side by side, or as close to it as possible given all the trees, when I heard somebody yell. Everyone turned and started running toward the voice.
We were among the second or third group of searchers to reach the cabin. It was small, much smaller than I'd imagined listening to Tara Reynolds's voice recordings. NObody had entered, and I was just about to push my way through the crowd, when the police arrived and motioned for everyone to step back.
Things happened very quickly after that. Two police officers went inside, followed by two men in black suits who had appeared, seemingly, out of nowhere. I turned and saw a handful of ATVs and other official-looking men and women. They didn't look like police exactly, but they were definitely... something. They had the air of government about them. They had to be some kind of authority. They were the ones who ordered us out of the area, right after the police carried Tara Reynolds out of the cabin.
(rain pouring)
I managed to get a look at her as they pulled her out. She was alive. I could see the whites of her eyes and teeth but everything else was red. Every inch of her was covered in blood. Most of it dry, I think. It was impossible to tell what was skin and what was clothing. Then the guards, or officers, or whatever they were, started dragging us out of the clearing. A few minutes ago we were colleagues, working together in concert to a common end. Now? We were wrangled and shoved, herded like protesters at a rally before the age of video cameras and cellphones. I half expected to see teargas and rubber bullets. Whoever was in charge here was serious about keeping us away from the cabin. Which means I wasn't actually there when they brought out Nic.
Later, I was told by one of our interns, who said she managed to get a look before she was ripped away from the scene, that they walked Nic out shortly after Tara Reynolds, and that he wasn't covered in blood.
- Dr. Burnnett: Uh, is it on?
- Nic: Yup, we're recording.
- Dr. Burnnett: Okay great.
- Nic: So um, where should I start?
- Dr. Burnnett: Anywhere is fine.
- Nic:Okay, I just, I'm not sure what to focus on. Maybe you could um?
- Dr. Burnnett: Okay. Just tell me anything you can remember about the cabin.
- Nic: Well I remember them pulling me out, walking into the light, it was really bright outside. I had to cover my eyes, there were a lot of people, I remember. I was interviewed by the police there on the site, and then, and for hours later at the station. It felt like days. And then I went home.
- Dr. Burnnett: Okay. What can you tell me about inside the cabin?
- Nic: (long pause) Uh, well. I can't really remember much of anything, sadly. I remember walking a long time on the last day. I remember we all felt like we were going in circles, but The Runner, uh Melanie, Veronika, assured us that we were following a path, some kind of path. ALthough the path involved doubling back and avoiding certain areas that were right in front of us. It was definitely not the shortest route.
- Dr. Burnnett: Okay. Well, I think we'll be able to clarify a few things. Are you ready?
- Nic: Y-yeah. I'm ready. But, um. I just don't think I'm a good candidate for hypnosis?
- Dr. Burnnett: No? Why is that?
- Nic: Well, my mind is pretty active, generally. And I also don't...
- Dr. Burnnett: You're a skeptic.
- Nic: Yes.
- Dr. Burnnett: (laughs) That's fine. Just listen to my voice and keep your mind focused on the sound of the metronome.
- (rhythmic ticking)
Nic: I asked Dr. Burnnett to try and help me make sense of what happened. Why I couldn't' remember certain things. Why I might be feeling... distant. Separate from my mind, at times. Like I'm somehow floating a few feet above myself. IT's not all the time, and I feel like it's receding, but it's still... disconcerting.
- (rhythmic ticking)
Nic: As I've indicated on this podcast in the past, I'm definitely a skeptic when it comes to things like hypnosis. But I'm willing to try anything at this point.
You're probably wondering why I'm willing to try anything, especially something I'm pretty sure that, to be frank, falls somewhere under the umbrella of quackery. Well, it's because I'm missing time.
I remember, if not specifics, general things. Like I remember moving through rooms, endless corridors, in the other place, but when I try to bring it into sharp focus in my mind, it becomes a blur in the corner. I can't remember details. I kept track by carving marks into the wall of room one, what you would understand as the cabin. I eventually found Tara Reynolds in room 1136. She was shaking in a corner, covered in blood. When she heard me enter the room, she turned to me, smiled, and offered me something to eat. It was her arm.
The recordings I made with Dr. Burnnett while under hypnosis are... well. They're pretty crazy, actually. I'm not sure what to make of them. I'm still processing the experience. On teh subject of Tanis, there have been some developments. The most significant being, the entire area has been walled off.
Cameron Ellis told me there was a coalition of government officials, scientists, and corporate entities vying for control of the area. What he continues to refer to as The Breach.
For now, Cameron Ellis and TeslaNova are acting as a kind of official liaison between all the participants. So, for the moment at least, he has almost unlimited access to the area. Access he appears intent on taking advantage of.
What does that have to do with me? Well, he's asked for my help. He's asked me to take part in a kind of research study in the region he called The Breach. Cameron Ellis is reopening Pacifica Station.
It's Tanis. I'm Nic Silver. We'll be back again soon. Until then, keep looking.
Tanis is produced by Terry Miles. Produced, mixed, and edited by me, Nic Silver. Executive producers Terry Miles and Paul Bae.
Nic: For legal and safety reasons, we've elected to change some names, and leave others out entirely. We don't do this very often, but we're not willing to compromise people's safety for any reason.
Thanks again for listening to Tanis.