voice | morning>day | 001>002

[lonelynotforsaken]

[ LO431Y | VOICE | 001 ]

[Martin's day isn't going well. And he's shouting as loudly as Squalo had been on the first communication. He's also very clearly running.]

May day! May day may day may day! Oh, god! Oh, god! May day! There's- Drone. Electricity spikes. Oh, god! East jungle. Close to shore!

[His responses to things may be delayed depending on whether or not he can escape the thing.]

Comments

[aluminumandash]

[ It doesn't sound like a death cry.

Rust checks in every two hours or so—it gets less exact once the sun goes down, but he keeps it up through the night. The message the same, his voice the same. Just Martin's callsign and "come in." ]

[lonelynotforsaken]

[Martin does, eventually, answer. He sounds collected in a way he hadn't yesterday, no nerves, just forced calm and a very quiet voice as he whispers into the radio.]

I'm here. In a cell about as long as I am tall. Around 6 feet. I see the drones that took me, or ones like it. There are two on a set of three pads. Think the third one's out on patrol. Find good cover if you hear the humming, they're too fast to outrun when they spot you.

[aluminumandash]

[ Rust's picked up details from other conversations so they don't have to be written out six times—electrocuted, drugged—along with the near-certainty someone's listening in on the walkies. But what choice does he have? ]

Been 20 hrs. Give or take. [ Lost time's a bitch. ] Only 1 cell? Side effects from drug?

[lonelynotforsaken]

There's more than one, but I can't see into the others. No side-effects that I can tell other than my whole body hurts. I think that was the electrocution and sleeping on hard ground. I can't get more than my hand out between the bars. Looking for alternatives to getting out. There's a mattress in here. Maybe something with the coils.

[Possibly to use as a tool to grab something or a lockpick. Although, it's been a few years since he had to do B&E for Jon.]

[aluminumandash]

Protect self. Wrap hands before grabbing metal.

Fucking suspicious they left everything on you. [ He's off walkie a while, reading along with the lock discussion when he gets the chance. ] Door wired? Alarm, shock?

[lonelynotforsaken]

[He's already doing the first suggestion and doesn't bother to respond to it.]

I think the drone locked me up in here. It doesn't have anything on it that would let it remove things without injuring me. It doesn't look like any actual people have been in this place for a long time. I'm concerned they've left me for a guard that doesn't actually exist anymore. There's a toilet. Checking if I can get water out of the tank, but I only have a plum on me, otherwise, and I haven't had anything to drink since waking up.

[Dehydration would be a horrific way to die.]

There hasn't been any shock from the bars when I touched them. Or the door. Possible there's an alarm if I try to unlock it, but I need to touch it to see what I'm dealing with. None of you know where I am, and I don't know where I am. I'm not planning on any of you rescuing me.

[His tone remains matter-of-fact on that point. He's utterly alone and in serious danger of dying that way if he doesn't act. 'In the end, the only people we have to rely on is ourselves.' Peter's 'wisdom' hadn't always been wrong. Just mostly. Martin mentally shakes the insidious thoughts off. He can worry about that sort of thing later.]

[aluminumandash]

Someones flying the fuckers. [ A logical conclusion to draw in 1995, where all of us live. ] Reupping the drugs.

Good, keep your head on straight. Mundane shitll kill you just as dead. [ If there is an alarm, and Martin's right about the lack of human element (impossible), it could alert everyone to his location.

And if he's not right, he's likely fucking dead. ] Ill find you. May not be a rescue but it wont be you and the jungle.

[lonelynotforsaken]

Possibly. Or it's on an automated system. I'm the only one who's been taken, right? I'm not sure they'd still have the drugs if all three of them ran through their respective shots.

And it's fine. Take care of yourself first, Cohle. I'm not that important. I got myself into this by being stupid. [As the man had pointed out.] I'm the one who needs to handle it. But I do appreciate your advice.

audio

[aluminumandash]

[ He changes over to voice, since this sounds like it's taking a turn. This does not mean his voice contains any particular warmth, though he makes some effort to soften the edges. ] Mm, still sounds...expensive. [ He settles on, in lieu of "preposterous." ] Hard to maintain anything out in the jungle, your shit's gonna get wrecked real fast. And... [ And he still can't picture a drone, other than imagining some cross between a wasp and a helicopter. Can't conceive of a machine with the wit and maneuverability to zip through the trees. ] And who's paying the fucking electric bill?

Nobody's important. [ Rust says the word like he can't wait to get it out of his mouth, coming down hard on the "t"s. ] That's something people tell themselves, they wanna feel untouchable.

I think people not dying in cages is important.

TO994M; voice

[cactusy]

[After one of the middle-of-the-night check-ins:]

He could be dead.

[aluminumandash]

Can't look for a body until daybreak. [ He sounds remote, like he's reading from a manual. ] Birds'll be on him. Crabs. Unless he got swept out with the tide.

[cactusy]

Yeah. Just figured you should... know, if you didn't already.

[aluminumandash]

[ He's speechless a second, that answer by turns funny, aggravating, and obscurely sad. All of it curled together like a fist.

Then he asks, low: ] You know his full name?

[cactusy]

Martin Blackwood.

[aluminumandash]

Thank you. [ He says, more focused. ] Soon as it's light I'll go looking. He said he was drawing arrows in the sand. And I can track, but not...

[ Whatever the fuck the thing that might have killed him is. ]

[cactusy]

Keep an eye out for hiding places as you go. Good chance those drones have cameras on them too, so be careful.

[aluminumandash]

Yeah, I had a run-in. All but pinned me down. Which'd mean it's, ah, motion-detection, not heat-seeking? [ A rare note of uncertainty in his voice. ] Or someone on the other end. Seemed pretty fucking inhuman, though.

text | callsign: DI481O

[salamanca]

Cameras? For what, do you think? How do you know?

[ Some of us are actively faking our own deaths and don't need our very alive image captured anywhere, thanks! ]

DI481O; text

[salamanca]

[ Also after one of the late-night check-ins. ]

Hey, man. You okay?

audio

[aluminumandash]

[ Toneless, abstracted: ] Turn off the walkie if it's keeping you up.

text;

[salamanca]

No, no. It isn't that. I'm just worried about you.

text 😮‍💨

[aluminumandash]

Christ.

text 😢

[salamanca]

What's wrong?

[aluminumandash]

Besides the obvious?

Hows the kid?

[salamanca]

Yeah. Besides that.

Kid's still with me. Physically, he's okay. Emotionally, I'm concerned.