apocalypsehowcomm | Event - Appalachia: Into the Pines

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Event - Appalachia: Into the Pines

Appalachia: Into the Pines

Footage plays on the television as a new story comes on, showing a series of sweeping vistas, intercut with clips of wolves that have clearly been filmed at some local wildlife sanctuary. "As far as anyone knows it, the last wolf to ever freely roam the Allegheny Mountains was slain in West Virginia in 1897. Daniel Stoffer Hamrick saw to the beast's passing, and the woods in our part of the world have gone quieter ever since. Appalachia does not forget its history, though. It buries it beneath coal and flyash, debts and white powder and pills. And the blood of people taken before their time, by the mines, by the mountain, by things we don't have names for, just hurt. But Appalachia does not forget.

"This is Cindy Parsons with Channel 5, Wolf News." Footage cuts to a newscaster standing outside a gated apartment complex with FYRE's logo emblazoned on it. "As we know, our beloved Wolf Pen is home to one of the biggest FYRE worker housing complexes in Wyoming County. It is a monument to the history of our town, and this week, we'll be on the lookout for visitors from all over the country, coming to see the grand re-opening of the historic Bluestone Mine as a museum."

Footage cuts to a nondescript businessman, identified by the news footage as Carl Watts, CEO of FYRE. He's smiling blandly as he stands at a podium and gestures to the entrance of the mining tunnel behind him. "The Wolf Pen community has been a partner to us for decades now, and we knew it was finally time to give something back to all y’all. We'll have our soft opening on Monday with a full Rumble Down Under party in the old mines scheduled for June 15th. We'll have a live bluegrass concert and anticipate a huge influx of tourists to the area to help out our neighbors itching for a few more pocketbooks to tend to." A wink.

The footage returns to Cindy. "FYRE has stated that this new museum will provide an educational tool and tourist attraction for those wanting to learn about West Virginia, Wolf Pen, and the hard-working men and women who have made this beautiful part of our nation their home. Time will tell. Time is always telling when it comes to the promises of people who have used our land and our bodies to line their pocketbooks. They fill our blood and our lungs with black tar and-"

Cindy cuts out and is replaced by in-studio anchors. "Thank you, Cindy!" a blonde woman says, smile just a little strained. "I think we're all looking forward to seeing the big opening by FYRE on Sunday and that rocking good party next month. It should be a gneiss one! Now to Tim with the weather. Tim?"

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Finland. [She continues to look skeptical, but not frightened.] Your friends ain't the folk asking about strange things happening in the woods and up at the mines, are they? My mama's been talking to them. Don't rightly know what you're looking for. You wanna see where they been dumping their poison rocks into the crick?

They maybe ask, maybe explore. I am looking for the truth. Lies do not help anyone.

[ The words 'dumping poison rocks into' a local body of water are like a shock through her body. Even here, so far from the ocean, humans poison the water? Have they so completely forgotten their ancestral home? ]

Poison? [ She reins in the instinct to hiss. ] Yes. Show me, please. That is... crime.

[ It's evil, a betrayal to life itself, as far as she's concerned. ]

The poison affect where you live?

I mean... so's living back here. Expect that's why they did their dumping. Know we ain't gonna go to anyone about it. I'm Ruth, by the way. Whatever they dumped has been killing the plants on the banks, some of the little fish nearby. Dunno if it's going further than that, but I know that heads out into Silver Lake. Mostly, it's making it hard with the baby. He don't understand why he's gotta stay outta the water.

[She starts leading the way across the little camp toward the reeds off to one side.]

[ Katrina follows, exerting far more willpower than ever before in order to keep herself from scowling as hard as the ocean churns in a storm. ]

Ruth. I am Katrina. Nice to meet you.

[ At least that one is easy! ]

I... [ what's the word? Oh, forget it. ] I also love the water. I am sad for your son. Also for the... nature. Plants, fish. Birds that eat fish. Animals that drink the water.

[ Water is life itself. Water gave birth to them all. ]

Why you do not tell about this? No one will believe you?

Ain't that. Like I said, we're not exactly living legal out here. We start getting the authorities involved, they might try to run us out. Sheriff looks the other way for now, but you start making noise? That's when they come after you. We don't got much, but we got something, and I can make sure we stay fed. Might get harder once Noah's grown a little more, but... we'll figure that out when we get there.

[She pushes through a thinner section of reeds and holds it open for Katrina.]

Mind where you're stepping. Try to hop over it.

[The creek is only a thin trickle of water at the moment. Something that's colored an ugly, polluted color and stinking of rot. There are yellowed plants and small fish carcasses along the banks. Mosquitos buzz everywhere. Ruth seems to take this in stride as she hops over the Creek and continues upstream along the far bank, which has fewer reeds.]

[ Katrina follows, easily avoiding the things Ruth warns her about. She keeps her face neutral, but her heart feels like it's being torn apart in her chest. Everything is dying, because FYRE is polluting the water. And these people, Ruth and her family and the others... Humans showing their worst, abandoning their own, putting the good of the few over that of the whole community. ]

This is sad. I want to help you, but I think I cannot. I am... very new here.

[ She sees in Ruth a leader, so her heart goes out to the human for her strength. ]

Aw, you don't need to do nothing, honey.

[Ruth offers her a bracing smile.]

Us folk out here are made of tough stuff. We'll get by. And maybe I can convince some of the boys I work with to help me shovel some of this, cart it off to the dump. At least get it out of the water. I hate seeing everything dying. Ain't gonna be no tadpoles or frogs this summer, just flies and skeeters.

Yes. Clean the water. If I stay longer, I will come help.

[ ADI probably won't keep them here long enough for her to help, but that's where her heart is. ]

This water, this plants-- they make your family sick before you see the poison?

My baby heard it happening, actually. Thinks he saw what done it. Next morning I checked, and we knew well enough to keep away. I ain't the most educated lady in Wolf Pen, but I know what comes outta them mines makes people sick, even if it's needed. We been keeping away, hauling water in from town.

[Ruth finally comes to a stop and motions for Katrina to look at the large mound of rubble piled on the bank and tumbled into the creek. The rocks, strangely, don't appear to have been carved out by machines or pickaxes. There are what look like claw marks in some of the bigger pieces, and they're all different sizes.]

[ "What" done it, not "who", an interesting way of phrasing it, which the mess confirms. No human did this, and no human machinery. A helicopter could not have hovered above the treetops to drop the rocks off without leaving obvious traces.

But more importantly, there are the clawmarks. Sirens make narks like that underwater, in their true form. This was intentional, but even so, where are the footprints? Could it be those white things she and Misty faced the other night? ]

What did your son see?

[ There's not a hint of doubt or suspicion of Ruth or her son in Katrina's voice. She knows they're telling the truth. ]

Well... he thinks he saw some rock monsters. Big old things as tall as you and me, maybe taller. And he said they were being told what to do by a woman along with a shadow monster. He's a sweet thing, but he's still young. I'm wondering if he saw some sort of machine and got scared?

But... [He brows furrow.] But I don't know how they got all this in here without leaving evidence of where they come from or where they were going. It's like they arrived with the stuff and then popped outta existence. Hah... maybe they're mole people? Come up from the ground?

[ People in Bristol Cov think they've seen mermaids, and they're right. Creatures connected to the soil and rocks don't seem all that far-fetched to Katrina, but that's not why she's here. ]

Stranger things have happen.

[ She shrugs. She's seen people do that when they say that. Also, it's true. For example, she is literally a mermaid. ]

I do not know what could do this, but I can tell my friends. Maybe they hear or see something on hike.

[ There's a brief pause, then she looks right at the human. ]

Ruth. If I have time, I come back and help. If not, I will not forget this. You and your family, you must be safe. I thank you for what you tell me.

[Ruth's smile is a bit awkward.]

Don't know how this is all helpful, 'less you're one of the folk trying to run FYRE out of business?

I want only for everyone to be safe.

[ And that's the best way she can put it, the most concise way to express the truth. ]

I walk with you back to your home.

Finland's got just about the strangest folk I ever met. But good ones.

[She'll motion the mermaid to follow and head back, hopping carefully across the creek to avoid slipping in.]

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Event - Appalachia: Into the Pines

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Thank you for your patience!

no worries!

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