WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: The Barrow Will Send What it May: Chapter One 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:09.000 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:09.240 Book Club Club. 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:19.960 Club book Club, book Club, ooblis oohuber ellis in the 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.080 book Club. 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:24.959 Hello and welcome to Cool Zone Media book Club, the 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:27.240 only book club where you don't have to do the 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.639 reading because I do it for you. And we're going 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:32.920 back to an older format. We're going back to the 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.000 way the book club started, which is me reading a 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:37.040 book I wrote to Robert. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.680 Hi, Robert. We are returning to tradition. 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.639 That's right. Specifically, when the book club started, I read 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:47.640 a book called The Lamble Slaughter of the Lion, And 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:49.120 you can go back and listen to it if you'd like, 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.120 And you might want to before you listen to this, 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:52.600 but also you might have a different brain where you 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:54.680 can just jump into the sequel, in which case that's 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.320 great because the third book is finally going to come 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.240 out in this series, and so I thought, why not 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.520 read you all second one for free? 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:05.560 Excellent. 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.399 So the first book, The Lama Thought of the Lion, 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.279 had Danielle Kane and a bunch of her friends dealing 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.000 with a demon in a squatted town and then they're 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.039 on the run and then they're like, let's be the 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.320 punk rock Scooby Doo people. And that's my summation of it. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.400 Robert M. I was going to pretend like you haven't 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:28.080 read this book, but I think you've read this book. 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:28.920 Yes I have. 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.960 Yeah, but now you get to hear it, so I 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:33.880 guess I'll just start it. 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.640 Yeah, I mean, I've loved the Danielle Kine series, so 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:42.080 excited to be rereading Slash, listening to the second novella 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.679 in it really just waiting for you to get the 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:45.360 third one out. 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:47.160 Oh, it's being kickstarted right now. 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.960 Slightly harassing you over that. Good. Yeah, get in there 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:51.520 and donate, you motherfuckers. 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.960 Yeah, all right, the barrow will send what it may. 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.200 This was published by tour dot Com the number of 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.800 years ago, twenty eighteen. I don't know. You think I 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:03.919 would know, But that's not the part of the document 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:09.280 I have opened right now, Chapter one. The towering bursts 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.200 of flame that staggered their way across the empty black 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.079 horizon weren't helping my mood. I'd been dozing in the 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.000 back seat of the car, my head against Bryn's shoulder, 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.080 but the staccato, silent bursts were too eerie to sleep through. 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.200 Where the hell are we? I asked outside as far 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:32.000 as I could see were featureless planes, no stars in 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:37.440 the sky, just blackness, blackness, and fire. Hell's about the 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.800 word for it, Brynn said. She was gazing out the window, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.200 her face lit a little by the interior lights of 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.000 the car, and a lot by the occasional streaks of 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.520 fire outside. A single thick black tattoo line cut its 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.320 way down her face from her short bangs to the 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.280 bridge of her nose, and her face was severe, even 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:01.239 more severe than usual. Or maybe I was just drowsy. 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.200 The rest of the passengers were silent, and we tore 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:10.160 down the road through all that darkness. It was gas flaring. 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.920 As I woke up more properly, I remembered, must be 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.000 in North Dakota, somewhere. Excess natural gas production beyond what 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:22.160 they've got the infrastructure for gets burned off. I'd never 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.880 seen it with my own eyes, those flames that stood 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.400 in monument to the wastefulness of civilization. My left shoulder 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:34.280 ached were thread, regular sewing thread held together a crowbar wound. 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.960 My right hand was sore still and modeled with supernatural 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:43.880 gray where an undead goat had bitten it. Behind us, 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.520 a thousand miles of Highway. Ago was nothing, dead bodies 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:52.320 and probably some investigators who wanted explanations. We couldn't really 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:57.120 give a demon killed those police officers, sir, It wasn't us. 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.920 They probably shouldn't have pulled out guns around a blood 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:05.160 red at three antler deer with obvious supernatural agility, So 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:10.040 whose fault was it? Really? No one would believe us 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.240 A week ago. I wouldn't have believed us. We couldn't 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:18.680 go back ahead of us. There was also nothing. We 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.599 had a sort of scattershot map of towns with friends 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.000 who might shelter us, of places that might have books 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.760 or witches who could teach us. Doomsday was convinced that 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:30.880 if we could make it to the Washington coast, we'd 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.400 eventually find people who could get us on a boat 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.280 to the islands off the coast of Canada. Vulture had 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.200 a Google map populated with disappearances and strange phenomenon we 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.800 might look into. But none of us had anything concrete, 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.880 no real plans, only chaos. This is how we're meant 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:56.320 to live. Thursday drove for sixteen hours straight, his fists 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.640 gripping the wheel At ten and two, no music on 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.240 the stee but the ethereal washed out voices of AM 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:07.159 radio preachers were on. Sometimes. I think they were telling 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.040 us that we were going to hell. I always assumed 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.680 that voices like those are telling me that we left 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.360 the fields of fire behind. Just as the sun edged 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.559 over the horizon behind us, Thursday pulled into a rest area, 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.920 quote to watch dawn, maybe eat something. But once the 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.000 engine was off, he didn't even make it out of 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.839 the driver's seat before he fell asleep. The rest of 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.400 us better rested, leaned against the car in the chilly 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:38.120 morning air, and watched that sunrise. If you stay up 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.680 all night, you owe it to yourself to watch sunrise. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.880 Every time Vulture passed around a tiny bottle of orange 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.200 juice he produced from somewhere, maybe his hoodie pocket, because 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.359 those blue jeans short shorts sure didn't have serious pockets 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:57.200 on them. He would have made a good stage magician. 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.680 He had the right kind of charm, and all his 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.400 motions were fluid, almost hypnotizing. He smiled easily, and even 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.279 though his smile rarely looked genuine, when he smiled, you 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.640 found yourself smiling too. Is this going to work out? 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.359 Brynn asked, breaking hours of silence. She was sitting on 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.360 top of the spray painted red old Honda Civic hatchback, 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.960 her steel toed boots hanging down over the side. She 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.160 ripped at a pomegranate, casting its pulp onto the pavement. 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:29.960 Her arms were bare to the shoulder. I'm not sure 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.360 she owned any T shirts that still had their sleeves 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:38.200 on a long enough timeline, Doomsday said, no, but it'll 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.840 work out today. Even if she was only just now 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.440 learning to weave words into ritual magic, Doomsday had a 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:47.840 way of warping the world around her when she spoke. 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.280 What's more important, I asked, laying Low or our new career? 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.479 It was idle curiosity, nothing more. What mattered was our motion, 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:03.799 not our purpose. Low Doomsday said, find some demons, Vulture said. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.760 At the same time, they looked at one another. They'd 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.080 known one another for how long years? I'd not known 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.360 them even a week? But do you know what I 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:13.720 did know? 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:20.440 Robert Evans that products and services also. I was trying 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.680 to think of something to say along the lines of 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.200 all of the gas burning off that you see when 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.920 you drive across certain parts of the rule. But anyway, 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.040 the oil and gas industry sponsor, I don't know. I 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:31.920 don't have anything for you. 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:51.600 Well, here's whatever sponsors us. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:46.520 And we're back. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.120 Could we be sponsored by like the kind of spirit 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:55.960 of vengeance as embodied by wildlife Margaret? Could that be 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.320 our sponsor? Do they have money? 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.880 So? I, well, okay, they could if they do some vengeance. 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.000 First, I'll have Sophie send an email. 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.720 Yeah, that's the easiest way to reach the spirit of vengeance. 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:12.560 Somebody just drop it off to an elk. You know, 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.280 I don't know what would happened if you asked for 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.520 a sponsorship and put it on a piece of paper 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.120 and put it on an elk's antlers. Your life would be. 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.280 In Nobody knows. Nobody knows. And elks seem pretty chill. 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:29.840 That's what they're always seemed like, mega fauna, terrifying, mega fauna. 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:31.960 I secretly don't believe in moose. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.200 No, no, not real. Yeah, absolutely not. 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:38.120 Real conspiracy, no Canadian neighbors. Yeah, but elks, elks are real. 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:42.400 Unfortunately, what is reel and deeply off putting. Our camels 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.720 were like you see camels in movies and like, you know, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.240 camels are a thing. When you first run into a 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.959 real ass camel, it's like, what the fuck? That's like 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.679 a death the size of an elephant, Like, what the fuck? 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.240 This is what people were right, of course, these things 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.599 like you couldn't fight these things on horseback, like no 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:02.600 horse would ever get close to a camel. 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:12.640 Oh my god, all right, that's the story. Yeah, find 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.520 some demons. While laying low, Vulture said it was his 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.000 way of conceding, the more we know about magic, the 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.240 more equipped will be to handle whatever comes at us. 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.360 Doomsday said, so both. I asked, how the hell will 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:31.760 we do both magic, Vulture said, grinning. Brynn, probably delirious, 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.920 laughed with her whole body, her heels banging against the 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.720 window glass. Shut the fuck up, Thursday mumbled from inside 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.480 the car. At least that's what I think he said. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.920 It's what I would have said. Thursday would have driven 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.160 the whole way if we'd have let him, but his 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:52.640 protestations were scarcely audible. As we helped him up into 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.560 the back seat, I took his place behind the wheel, 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.520 Brynn took shotgun, and we ran away from the encroaching day. 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.319 I've spent most of my life in the flyover States, 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.679 and their beauty is largely unmatched throughout the rest of 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.679 the country, but sometimes the endless expanse is too endless. 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.640 I spent the full day driving. Vulture was nocturnal by choice, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.360 and he snorted softly with his face against the glass. 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.320 Thursday was wiped out. Doomsday was wanted for murder more 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.320 actively than the rest of us, and wasn't excited about 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.000 the being the one who would get id'ed if we 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.800 were pulled over. Brynn could have taken a turn, I'm 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.640 sure of it, but I didn't want her to. She 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.920 looked happy sitting there in the passenger seat. She put 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:40.760 her hand on my arm and left it there for 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.040 a long time, and that settled that I wanted to 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:48.480 be the driver I drove all day. I used to 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.760 think I was going to end up a trucker. When 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.480 I first started hitch hiking ten years back, i'd been 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.400 eighteen and fallen in love with basically every lady trucker 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.720 i'd met. Even when that thing happened when I was nineteen, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.120 I had to stab a man trucker in the hand. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.400 Even after that, I had assumed i'd wind up a trucker. 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.840 Open Roads, Solitude, books on tape, decent pay who wouldn't 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:13.559 want to be a trucker. By the time I was 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.600 old enough for the job, I didn't want it, mostly 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.320 because I didn't want any job. I found my niche 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.760 as a wanderer, and driving on some company schedule just 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:26.960 wasn't going to suit me. Still, I was pretty sure 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.720 I was one hell of a long haul driver. We 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.480 crossed into Montana and I kept driving. Glacier National Park 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.000 is probably the single most beautiful place in the country, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.920 and I figured we'd get to sleep there, blend in 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.720 with a tourists at some campground if I just kept 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:47.000 at it. We made it halfway across the state. I 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.800 was on a side highway, avoiding the interstate because the 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.880 occasional small town speed trap seemed like a better bet 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.520 than the highway patrol who might have an all points 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.000 to look for us. Some British man was narrating a 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.760 fantasy book at us from the stereo vultures doing, and 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.120 the sun was just starting to get low. Brinn was asleep, 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.320 Everyone in the back seat was quiet, hadn't said a 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.040 word in an hour. The sun was just starting to 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.840 look a little low on the horizon. I nodded off. 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.440 I came too halfway into the oncoming lane and corrected. 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.040 There was no traffic to run into, just an endless 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:28.360 stretch of Montana Highway. I slapped myself it's usually good 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.000 for about ten minutes or so, and made a mental 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.520 note to pull off at the next exit. Switched drivers, 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.079 I naded off again. I had never crashed a car 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.640 in my life. When I came to, probably a half 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.280 second later, I was in the wrong lane again, fully 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:51.120 this time startled. I corrected fast and saw myself headed 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.000 real quick toward running off the right side of the road, 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.880 so I corrected again. Still wasn't thinking way too fast. 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:00.959 The car went up on two wheels and my vision 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:06.600 got choppy. Blackness, the sunset streaming through the window, with 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:11.840 the road where the sky should be blackness. Maybe I screamed, 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:16.400 Maybe somebody else screamed, where's the reset button? Like I 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.600 was a kid again playing Nintendo. Just hit the reset button, 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:25.200 start over from the last save. No, it's actually happening. Blackness. 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.040 Then it was over. We were twenty feet off the 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.360 left hand side of the road. The car was upright again. 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.319 We'd spun a full three sixty. The windshield was fucked. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.840 A beautiful spider web of fucked, with trees in the 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.680 distance that I could see through the kaleidoscope of fucked. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.800 Guess the car didn't have airbags? What year did air 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.600 bags get to be standard? Thursday's voice cut through the 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:55.880 white noise that I hadn't even noticed. Doomsday. Yeah, Vulture, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:01.480 I'm fine, brin alive. I freaked out. I just started 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:06.839 gasping for air. Danielle, I'd rolled the car. I'd almost 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:11.840 killed Brynn. Danielle fine, I answered, because I wanted to 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.360 be left alone, and answering seemed like the fastest way 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:18.000 to accomplish that. I took off my seat belt. Thank fuck. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.160 We'd all been wearing seat belts, even the people sleeping. 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:25.000 Even the other people sleeping had been wearing seat belts. 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:27.920 I opened the door and tried to stand, but my 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:32.120 legs gave out and I collapsed in on myself. Danielle, 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.160 Brynn said she was next to me, crouching her arm 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:39.120 around me. I fucked up, I said, fighting for air. 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.440 I don't need anything. I'm the one who I gave 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:44.880 up trying to talk. I got my head between my 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.560 knees and I wrenched out gasps no tears, though not 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.120 yet Vulter knelt down on the other side of me, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:54.920 put his arm around me too. I lifted my head 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.320 up to see him wet blood smeared across his brown skin. 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.800 You're bleeding, said, I'm fine, just cut up my arm 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:07.920 a little nothing deep. I fell asleep. We're alive. Vulture 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.800 pulled aside the shoulder strap of my tank top. Hey, 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.040 he said, my stitch is held. Got to get this 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.040 thing away from the road before anyone drives by, Thursday said, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.520 into the trees. Vulture glared at his friend, But Thursday 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.800 was right. We didn't want to deal with cops or 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.280 ambulances or any of that shit. Brinn tried to help 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.520 me up, but I shook her arm off. The only 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.160 thing worse than needing emotional support after what I'd done 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.560 was stubbornly refusing help I so obviously needed, but I 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.120 couldn't help it, which made me resent her support even more. 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:44.200 Pushing a fucking car though that I could do. Vulture 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.680 and I were tied for being the smallest, but no 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.080 one made any suggestion that I should get back behind 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:52.480 the wheel. Doomsday got in and steered while the rest 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:54.840 of us pushed, and we got it into what was 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.720 probably a tree farm. The trees were in those unnaturally 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.080 perfect rows, and I was sure that the car wasn't 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.000 completely hidden, but with any luck, we'd gotten it far 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:05.640 enough from the road that it looked like it was 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.920 supposed to be there. A few cars went by while 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:11.320 we were doing it, but none of them slowed down. 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.520 What's next, Doomsday asked, getting out? Get the VIN numbers off? 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:21.960 Thursday said, it's just VIN. Vulture corrected vehicle identification number 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.720 like ATM machine or PIN number or whatever. Fuck off. 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.280 There'll be a plate on the dash. That's easy, I said, 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.240 cutting in, but it'll also be stamped into the frame 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.160 in a few places. We need a pretty serious file 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.080 to get it out, even if we can get all 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.280 the VIN numbers without taking the thing apart. They talked 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.800 it over for a moment. Then Thursday pried the metal 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.160 tag off the dash, while Vulture and Brinn took off 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:50.760 the plates close enough for government work, I guess me. 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.680 I leaned against the back of the car. I tried 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.160 not to take stock of what condition the car was in, 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.080 but the windows were all busted out and the roof 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.680 was carved in on the back corner. You all right, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.360 it was Doomsday, probably the least emotional of the five 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.960 of us. Strangely that helped. I put my hand on 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.200 the massive dent on the roof. If we'd landed anywhere else, 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.760 I said, we didn't, Doomsday, pulled out a cigarette, lit 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:23.119 it and took a drag. You smoke, I asked, not usually? 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.040 She said, use two more. Still keep a pack around, 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.560 but I could use a cigarette. You did almost just 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.680 kill us all. I'm not going to say, don't remind me. 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.360 I probably won't again. You know what you did, and 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.440 you'll mostly get over it, and there isn't one of 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.840 us who's anywhere near as mad at you as you are. Thanks, 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:47.159 I said, I didn't smoke either, Can I have a cigarette? 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:52.440 I don't bump cigarettes out to non smokers. It's hard 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.640 to hitchhike with five people under normal circumstances. The thing 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:58.680 to do would have been to split into two groups, 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.360 but these obviously weren't normal circumstances. To make things even 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.639 more fun, we had to get a ride before the 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.520 cops stopped us and ran our names. None of us 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.040 had any idea if there were warrants out for us yet, 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.200 and none of us wanted to find out the hard way. 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:19.040 Five people and luggage. Bryn, Vulture, and I all had 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:23.520 travel packs. The days had decent sized suitcases. All of 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.000 them were covered in glass, and Vulture's yellow pack was 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:30.600 now replete with bloodstains. All right, Doomsday said, dropping her 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:32.960 cigarette from her lips, letting it fall to the ground, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.760 where she stomped it out with a heeled boot. Gather around, 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.880 hold hands, got a ritual for this hitchhiking shit. We 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.080 were still in the woods, hidden from the road. I 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.399 took Vulture's hand and Bryn's hand, and the five of 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.400 us formed a little pentagon. You say what I say, 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:54.520 Doomsday said, But like in a round, I'll say a line. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.720 Then Thursday, you say that line while I say the 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.840 next one. Then Bryn, Danielle Vulture, you say the line 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:02.879 that the person on your left would have said last time. 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:05.600 After I say the fifth line, It'll all go on 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.240 without me until Vulture says the last line alone. Anyone 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.080 fucks it up, we just have to start over. First 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.320 time I tried this method, I fucked up every line once. 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:15.640 It's not a big deal. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.159 Got it, Got it? 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:24.000 We said back. We began. We ask for good strangers. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.000 We ask for the barrow to send what it may. 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.880 We ask that ill eyes pass us over. We ask 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.560 for the dead to guard us. We ask that sorrow 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:40.639 be held at bay. It took us about four rounds 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:42.879 to get it right. It's hard to listen to what 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.400 someone is saying while you're talking, but not as hard 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.120 as I would have thought. I'm glad I was never 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.400 the one to fuck up. I don't know how well 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.480 I could have handled any more failure. I felt the 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.880 energy pass between our hands, a subtle thing, the kind 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.200 of thing I might have felt before i'd seen magic. 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.840 But after Vulture said the last line, a silence fell 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.600 over us, and the wind picked up a gyre, spun 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.640 itself between us, the same direction as our ritual, then 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:14.320 spun outward through the trees. Then that's silence, So I asked, 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:18.720 at last, the fuck did we just do? It's nothing, 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.400 Doomsday said, just a spell for good luck with strangers, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.000 keeping people would hurt us away, and all that shit 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.879 about the barrow and the dead. I don't know the 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.000 spell too well. I think Barrow is the name of 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.000 the endless spirit it appeals to. He's a death spirit, 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.840 I guess, But that's not what the ritual is about yeah, great, 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.639 what could go wrong? Well, Robert, I'll tell you what 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:42.560 couldn't go wrong. 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.200 Products and services that support this podcast, one of which 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.959 is the seat belt, which, Margaret, because you brought that up, 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:50.800 I had to look it up. 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:52.119 Huh. 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:55.800 Shockingly, seat belt or air bags sorry, airbags had not 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.440 become mandatory until nineteen ninety eight. 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:00.520 Amazing. 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.240 I am really took this a while on that one. 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.520 I mean, this scene of flipping the car is based 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:09.960 on when I flipped a station wagon when I was seventeen. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.960 I was guessing that a lot of this whole road 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.560 ship part was very very much based on. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.320 Your Yeah, totally, and it was definitely like a nineteen 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.919 ninety four to escort station wagon. It definitely did not 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.320 have airbags, and I was completely unharmed. And if I 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.760 hadn't been wearing a seat belt, I would probably be dead. 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:33.720 So seat belts, air bags and whatever else wear ads are. 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:44.080 And we're back. 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.280 An suv picked us up not ten minutes after we'd 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:55.840 been waiting for those keeping score at home. Neither being 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.240 picked up by an suv nor so quickly is common. 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.359 I mean both have happened to me before, but usually 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:05.880 not while hitching it with five people, two of them 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.760 being people of color and men besides Oh and Brinn 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.960 had that face tattoo, and Doomsday was a bonafide cop 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:17.679 killing husband killing murderer. I actually can't blame anyone who 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:19.919 drove past the five of us, though, no matter what 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.040 their car, no one wants to be outnumbered by strangers 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.199 in their own vehicle. It takes a certain kind of person, 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.760 one with bravery and a belief in doing right by people, 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.399 to pick up a crew like us. It takes a 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:38.159 person like Gertrude Miller. It turns out, where are you headed? 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:40.080 She asked, after the four of us got in the 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.800 back and I climbed in shotgun. I had been designated 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.760 driver dealer with her by a rather hasty consensus decision, 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:50.760 with the caveat that Thursday would be ready to step 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:52.800 in if the driver was a creep or just a 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.600 bro looking to brow down. Gertrude Miller wasn't either of 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:00.119 those things. She was a white woman, probably fifty, with 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.080 a vacant look in her eyes and a cold, but 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.959 somehow genuine smile on her face. She had that tired 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:08.439 look of a woman who done service class work. Her 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:12.680 entire life and the self confidence of the same. Out 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:16.560 to Glacier. I said, you, it's good practice to ask 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:19.440 where a ride is going, Probably more important when you've 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.040 got reason to be skeptical, like when I'm hitching alone 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:24.520