Episode 17 - A Montana town disappears and Do you know the people you trust are real?
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This podcast episode delves into the unsettling narratives of the Overton Protocol and the Replacements, each shrouded in mystery and existential dread. The Overton Protocol presents a chilling account of a government cover-up that culminated in the inexplicable disappearance of an entire town, leaving only silence in its wake. Following this, the story of the Replacements unfolds, as it explores the profound implications of identity and reality, revealing a world where individuals may not be who they appear to be. These narratives compel us to confront the fragile nature of our existence and the hidden forces that may shape our lives unbeknownst to us. Join us as we traverse these eerie tales that blur the lines between reality and the extraordinary.
Transcript
Imagine a world teetering on the edge of the familiar, a place where the fabric of the everyday begins to unravel, revealing glimpses of the extraordinary lurking beneath.
Speaker A:You're about to embark on a journey into the enigmatic, where the peculiar and the perplexing intertwine, where every tale twists the mind and tugs at the spirit.
Speaker A:It's a descent into the strange, the mysterious, and the unexplained.
Speaker A:This is when reality frays.
Speaker A:New episodes are published every Monday and Thursday, and when Reality Phrase is available everywhere, fine podcasts are found.
Speaker A:Before we move on, please hit that Follow or Subscribe button and turn on all reminders so you're alerted when new episodes are released.
Speaker A:Today's episode contains two stories.
Speaker A:First up is the Overton Protocol, the haunting tale of how a decades old government cover up resulted in the disappearance of an entire town.
Speaker A:And second is the Replacements, a story that will leave you wondering who is real and who isn't.
Speaker A:Now let's get to the stories.
Speaker A:Under the vast, merciless sky of Montana's high plains, where the wind carves relentless paths through sprawling sagebrush, sits the town of Overton.
Speaker A:93 people call it home.
Speaker A:Other than a handful of struggling ranches, the closest outpost of civilization is 41.2 miles away.
Speaker A:There is no purpose or reason for the town to exist other than some hardy pioneers put down roots more than a century ago, and their descendants haven't found a reason to go anywhere else.
Speaker A:Gayle Ralston, born and raised in Overton, was behind the wheel of a battered pickup.
Speaker A:She was tired and ready for sleep, having just worked the graveyard shift in a meat processing plant 40 miles away in Redstone, the old Ford rattled hard on the rutted road that led to the tiny town, kicking up thick clouds of dust that marked her passage across the empty plains.
Speaker A:Cresting a low ridge that overlooked Overton, it took her a few moments to notice something was off.
Speaker A:It was a cold morning, the temperature well below freezing.
Speaker A:With only a few exceptions, every house was heated by a wood burning stove and the geography tended to block any breeze, resulting in a layer of smoke blanketing the shallow valley on winter days.
Speaker A:But the air was clear.
Speaker A:For someone like Gail who noticed small details, it struck her as odd half a mile later and she realized there were no vehicles or people moving.
Speaker A:This struck her as odd, and in combination with the absence of a smoke layer, it tickled the back of her head.
Speaker A:Gail slowed, looking around as she began passing small, weathered houses.
Speaker A:A few more moments passed before she realized there weren't any dogs barking furiously at her truck's passage.
Speaker A:Concern creased her face, and she came to a gentle stop with a squeal of brakes.
Speaker A:She spent nearly a minute looking around before shutting off the truck and climbing out into the bitterly cold morning.
Speaker A:Silence was the first thing she noted.
Speaker A:There was a complete absence of sound.
Speaker A:No vehicles moving, nobody splitting wood to heat their home.
Speaker A:Gail turned a circle, then began walking down what passed for Main street in Overton.
Speaker A:Houses felt empty.
Speaker A:She knocked on a few doors, but there was no answer.
Speaker A:She began calling out when she pounded on a door, her voice seeming unnaturally loud in the stillness ahead.
Speaker A:A handful of cars were clustered in the town's only intersection.
Speaker A:With and with a start, she realized they'd all crashed into each other.
Speaker A:Rushing forward, she found them empty, keys hanging in the ignitions, turned to run, but the engines were cold and silent.
Speaker A:What the hell is going on?
Speaker A:Gael muttered to herself, a sense of creeping dread sending goosebumps down her spine.
Speaker A:She ran to the closest house, where she pounded on the door and shouted the owner's name.
Speaker A:Receiving no response, she tried the knob, finding it unlocked, and let herself in.
Speaker A:Still calling out for the owner, Gale dashed through the home, but she was alone.
Speaker A:The stove was cold, and all the lights were off.
Speaker A:Fear began to take Gail as she ran to several more homes that were also empty.
Speaker A:Hurrying back to her truck, she raced home to find her house empty, her children gone.
Speaker A:Frantic, she snatched up the home phone and dialed 911 with a shaking hand.
Speaker A:Sheriff's Deputy Caleb Marsh, a lean man in his early 30s with a face weathered by sun, arrived in town an hour later after a long drive.
Speaker A:While waiting, Gale had entered every other house in town, finding all of them empty, as if the owners had simply just walked away.
Speaker A:She met Caleb in the street, breathlessly relaying what she had discovered.
Speaker A:Caleb was skeptical at first, but after following Gale around town to personally observe that her claims were true and not the ravings of a madwoman, he climbed into his patrol truck to call for help.
Speaker A:His police radio crackled, spitting static that pulsed rhythmically, and he was unable to contact anyone on edge.
Speaker A:He and Gale went into the closest home to use the landline phone, but it was dead.
Speaker A:They rushed to a neighboring house, but there was no dial tone when he lifted the receiver.
Speaker A:Caleb had noted a satellite dish on the house's roof and picked up a remote to turn on the tv.
Speaker A:A blue screen displayed a message loss of signal.
Speaker A:They returned to his patrol vehicle, Gale noticing he kept his hand on the butt of his holstered pistol as they hurried through the silence.
Speaker A:Caleb told her he was going for help, but she refused to accompany him.
Speaker A:She was going to keep looking for her children.
Speaker A:He reluctantly agreed and climbed behind the wheel, but when he turned the key, the vehicle was dead.
Speaker A:With rising panic, he and Gale ran to her battered Ford, but it was dead, too.
Speaker A:They tried several other vehicles with keys hanging from the ignition with the same results.
Speaker A:What do we do?
Speaker A:Gael whispered, feeling a need to not draw attention to them.
Speaker A:But attention from what?
Speaker A:Caleb shook his head, turning a slow circle and surveying everything within sight.
Speaker A:If this is some sort of sick joke, he began, but the fear on Gail's face dispelled any thought that she was pulling a prank.
Speaker A:Okay, he said after a few moments.
Speaker A:Thought we walk A powerful bass rumble, more felt than heard, rolled through the ground beneath their feet.
Speaker A:It lasted for several seconds before going quiet and leaving them in unbroken silence.
Speaker A:We need to go, caleb said softly, his eyes darting, the pistol now in his hand.
Speaker A:You go get, gale said.
Speaker A:I'm not leaving without my children.
Speaker A:Caleb met her eyes, noting a resolve on her terrified face.
Speaker A:I'll be back with help, he said, turning and walking away.
Speaker A:Gael watched him for a moment before dashing to her truck.
Speaker A:Behind the seat was a shotgun, and she made sure it was fully loaded, then shoved spare shells into her pockets.
Speaker A:Feeling a little better now that she was armed, she rushed to her house.
Speaker A:Inside, the silence seemed even more oppressive, as if she wasn't just experiencing the absence of sound but its suppression.
Speaker A:She searched every inch of her home for clues to her children's fate, but found nothing.
Speaker A:She lifted the phone's receiver, but it was still dead.
Speaker A:Her tv, also connected to a satellite dish, displayed a loss of signal message.
Speaker A:Gale stood in the middle of her living room, visually examining everything, when another bass rumble rolled through the house.
Speaker A:This one was much more powerful than the last, rattling dishes and cabinets and causing pictures on the wall to vibrate.
Speaker A:It lasted for nearly a minute before fading out.
Speaker A: h that dated back to the late: Speaker A:She wasn't there to pray.
Speaker A:This was the only structure in town, more than a single story tall, and she wanted the elevated view from the belfry and the steeple.
Speaker A:Gail immediately spotted a trail of scorched prairie grass to the west, a blackened scar cutting across the plains.
Speaker A:Hounding down the stairs, she raced to the edge of the burn, a few hundred yards away from town.
Speaker A:It was like a trail, like something hot had seared the landscape as it passed, without a second thought, Gale followed the blistered track out onto the empty prairie.
Speaker A:She walked for close to an hour, stopping in surprise when the ground beneath her feet turned so soft and spongy it was hard to maintain her balance.
Speaker A:Gail started to step clear, but the ground opened and swallowed her whole.
Speaker A:She landed hard on her back in perfect darkness, the breath whistling out of her lungs.
Speaker A:There were a few bad moments when she was sure she'd suffocate.
Speaker A:Then her body began working again, and she drew a ragged breath.
Speaker A:Sitting up, she groaned in pain, but after a few moments of cautious testing was reasonably confident the worst that had happened was some bruises and a sore back.
Speaker A:Reaching out in the stygian darkness, Gael held her breath for fear of what she might discover, but her hand encountered nothing other than air.
Speaker A:Using the shotgun, she got to her feet and looked up at whatever it was she had fallen through, but could see nothing, not even a seam.
Speaker A:The bass rumble sounded again, much more powerful than the previous times.
Speaker A:The sonic was waves bombarded her, a physical presence in the dark that vibrated organs and caused her teeth to chatter.
Speaker A:It lasted for minutes, leaving her slightly disoriented and sick to her stomach.
Speaker A:As it ended, dim red lights set into a wall popped on.
Speaker A:Surprised to see an entrance to a concrete tunnel and afraid she wasn't alone, Gail raised the shotgun to her shoulder.
Speaker A:After a time, it seemed she wasn't going to be attacked, and she lowered the weapon.
Speaker A:Tentatively, she moved closer to the tunnel, which was also bathed in the same red light.
Speaker A:It stretched so far into the distance that it narrowed into a single black point.
Speaker A:With a deep, steadying breath, she entered the tunnel.
Speaker A:Time stretched out as she made her way down the tunnel.
Speaker A:There was no end in sight, the dark point in the distance remaining far out of reach.
Speaker A:She couldn't tell if she had been walking for one minute or 20.
Speaker A:Sometime later, it could have been hours.
Speaker A:The point began to grow larger until she reached the end.
Speaker A:A steel hatch, like she had seen on submarines in the movies, blocked her path.
Speaker A:A small round window in the upper part, glass, glowed an ethereal shade of blue, and she cautiously stepped close and looked through into a large circular chamber.
Speaker A:Flickering monitors lined the walls, their screens flashing disjointed images of starfields with constellations and faces, human yet not dissolving into static.
Speaker A:Light bent strangely in the chamber, casting prismatic shards.
Speaker A:That dash danced across the hatch's window.
Speaker A:But what drew Gael's attention was in the center of the chamber, a crystalline orb suspended in a web of wires that pulsed with faint electric life.
Speaker A:The orb glowed with a liquid mercury sheen, its surface rippling like water disturbed by a stone and the air around it shimmering as if from a great heat.
Speaker A:Gael was mesmerized by the orb, unable to tear her eyes from it.
Speaker A:She couldn't even look away when tendrils of another consciousness invaded her mind.
Speaker A:She felt the intrusion, but something calmed her, and she marveled as she was given answers to questions she didn't even know to ask.
Speaker A: ancient Artifact Unearthed in: Speaker A:When scientists of the era tried to move it to Los Alamos for study, they experienced temporal anomalies so severe several had to be admitted for psychiatric care, while two others took their own lives.
Speaker A:It was decided best to leave the relic where it had been found.
Speaker A:Seventy years later, a new generation of scientists had decided to experiment with the orbs, to attempt to create a bridge to a parallel dimension.
Speaker A:The test conducted the previous night had ripped the townspeople from existence, stranding them in a parallel world.
Speaker A:More answers and images flooded into Gael's mind than a final plea grasped her heart.
Speaker A:Please help me.
Speaker A:Gael understood, understood everything.
Speaker A:She knew what she had to do and to help another being who had been imprisoned since before time began.
Speaker A:Grasping the hatch's wheel, she tried to turn it, but time had frozen the mechanism into place.
Speaker A:Unloading the shotgun, she inserted the steel barrel through the wheel's spokes and pulled on the makeshift lever.
Speaker A:But no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't budge.
Speaker A:Let me try, a male voice said from behind.
Speaker A:Gael whirled and fell back, her head slamming into the hatch's surface when she saw John, her husband.
Speaker A:Her husband who had died in Afghanistan 10 years ago.
Speaker A:Blood poured into her eyes from a deep gash in her scalp, and she swiped it away.
Speaker A:When she could see again, John was gone, but the hatch stood open.
Speaker A:For a second, Gael was unable to move.
Speaker A:The vision of John had opened deep emotional wounds that had never fully healed.
Speaker A:Hurry.
Speaker A:A voice prodded in her head.
Speaker A:The orb pulsed a frenetic beat, directing her toward the console connected to the cables from which it was tethered.
Speaker A:Following instructions that simply appeared in her consciousness, Gale worked quickly.
Speaker A:Alarms blared and a red light mounted on the ceiling began strobing, but she didn't stop.
Speaker A:Process after process was shut down, triggering escalating alarm sirens.
Speaker A:They're coming.
Speaker A:Rolled through her head.
Speaker A:She turned to look through the open hatch, seeing more than a dozen armed soldiers charging down the tunnel.
Speaker A:They screamed at her when they saw her looking, and the two in front raised their rifles to aim at her.
Speaker A:Hurry.
Speaker A:The voice in her head begged.
Speaker A:Gael's fingers flew across the keyboard with a skill and dexterity she had never possessed.
Speaker A:Another process shut down, one to go.
Speaker A:Gunfire from the tunnel sounded, bullets screaming into the chamber and shattering equipment.
Speaker A:The door.
Speaker A:The voice shouted.
Speaker A:Gael threw herself at the hatch, tugged hard.
Speaker A:Then something slammed into her side.
Speaker A:A strange numbness began to spread throughout her body, but she didn't stop.
Speaker A:The hatch slammed shut and she spun the wheel an instant before the soldiers arrived.
Speaker A:They were stronger than she was, spinning the wheel she was trying to hold.
Speaker A:Her strength was ebbing, but she was able to pick up the shotgun and jam it through the wheel's spokes, which slammed hard up against it.
Speaker A:But it held, and the wheel didn't turn any farther.
Speaker A:Gale turned back to the console.
Speaker A:The soldiers pounded on the hatch and screamed at her to stop.
Speaker A:When they saw her reach for the keyboard, they went quiet.
Speaker A:They are going to use explosives to open the door, the voice said.
Speaker A:Gael couldn't respond, not even in her head.
Speaker A:She was in shock, seconds from passing out.
Speaker A:Hands shaking, she typed in a command, but before she could press the execute button, she collapsed to her knees.
Speaker A:For a long moment she stared at the key and tried to remember why it was so important that she press it.
Speaker A:Slowly her hand came up, fingers grasped the edge of the console.
Speaker A:She coughed and a gout of bright red blood flowed out of her mouth and soaked the front of her shirt.
Speaker A:Gael was so tired.
Speaker A:All she wanted to do was sleep.
Speaker A:But there was one thing she had to do first.
Speaker A:She pressed the execute key with a shaking finger a fraction of a second before the explosive breaching charges detonated.
Speaker A:The overpressure waves shattered equipment and filled the air with dust and shrapnel.
Speaker A:Gale was flung into a corner where she couldn't move.
Speaker A:Blood was already pooling under her when a soldier came to stand over her, a pistol aimed at her head.
Speaker A:Thank you, Gail heard an instant before the soldier pulled the trigger.
Speaker A:Gale Ralston was behind the wheel of a battered pickup.
Speaker A:She was tired and ready for sleep, having just worked the graveyard shift in a meat processing plant 40 miles away in Redstone.
Speaker A:The old Ford rattled hard on the rutted road that led to the tiny town, kicking up thick clouds of dust that marked her passage across the empty plains.
Speaker A:Cresting a low ridge that overlooked Overton, she looked down at the town, which was wreathed in a haze of smoke from wood burning stoves pulling to a stop at her modest home.
Speaker A:She smiled at her husband, John and her children.
Speaker A:They were just leaving for school and work.
Speaker A:John stopped his truck, hopped out and ran over to give her a kiss.
Speaker A:If you're enjoying the stories, please support the podcast by buying me a coffee.
Speaker A:The link is in the episode's show notes and I would greatly appreciate your support.
Speaker A:Now onto today's second story, which is the Replacements Jason Hart's pulse was racing and his hands trembled.
Speaker A:Thoughts of what he had to do swirled chaotically through his head as he splashed a couple of fingers of scotch into a cut crystal tumbler to calm his nerves.
Speaker A:By all appearances, Jason was living an enviable life.
Speaker A:He was a well respected attorney who attracted the highest of high end clients.
Speaker A:He lived in a sprawling home in the Virginia countryside with two perfect children and a beautiful wife who happened to also be a US Senator.
Speaker A:He had met Marie a little over a decade ago.
Speaker A:She had been a staffer for a senator who found himself in trouble with the IRS and SEC over some shady real estate transactions.
Speaker A:The senator had retained Jason to represent him.
Speaker A:There had been more than a year of hearings, depositions, filings, and motions during which Jason had fallen head over heels for the young Senate staffer who accompanied his clients seemingly everywhere.
Speaker A:Eventually, all the charges against the senator were dropped and six months later Jason and Marie married.
Speaker A:Four years after that, the senator retired, throwing his support behind Marie to replace him.
Speaker A:She had won the seat and was currently running for re election.
Speaker A:And something was wrong.
Speaker A:A few months ago, Marie had grown cold and distant when he pressed.
Speaker A:She claimed stress and assured him their marriage was fine.
Speaker A:But they stopped having sex and she lost interest in activities she had always enjoyed.
Speaker A:Jason had heard from talk about rough patches in their marriages and chalked it up to the stress of campaigning while raising a family.
Speaker A:He'd decided the best thing he could do was be patient.
Speaker A:Two weeks ago, he'd been approached by a man who claimed he worked for a certain federal agency but had refused to name which one.
Speaker A:He stated he was aware of acts of treason by certain officials, but was afraid to come forward with what he claimed would be a bombshell story that would topple the entire government.
Speaker A:This wouldn't be his first time dealing with a whistleblower, and Jason had listened with an open mind until the man began talking about replacements.
Speaker A:At least that's what he had called a supposed black book project being run by a consortium of some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.
Speaker A:According to the man, clones were being used to replace powerful and influential people.
Speaker A:The clones were pre programmed to obey their masters.
Speaker A:Then a carefully edited version of the real person's neural scan was implanted.
Speaker A:Everything from personalities to memories to mannerisms were transferred to their replacement.
Speaker A:Jason had listened as the man described marvel of bioengineering and neural transference.
Speaker A:It sounded like science fiction, but he had to acknowledge that much of what was now common tech had also once sounded like the fever dream of a Hollywood scriptwriter.
Speaker A:He'd left the meeting dismissive of what he had heard.
Speaker A:But three days later, as he was leaving work, he found a package waiting for him on the front seat of his car.
Speaker A:At first he'd been irritated that someone had invaded his space and he nearly threw it away.
Speaker A:But something, curiosity perhaps, had stayed his hand.
Speaker A:Breaking the seal, he found three thick folders and a USB drive.
Speaker A:He casually flipped through the hundreds of pages.
Speaker A:This was proof of the whistleblower's fantastic tale.
Speaker A:Jason had returned to his office and spent until the next morning pouring over the documents.
Speaker A:He tried to convince himself this was all an elaborate hoax, but the sheer volume of information discounted that possibility.
Speaker A:He moved on from the hard copy documents to the USB drive, which contained more than a thousand video files, each titled with a name he recognized as someone in a position of power or great influence.
Speaker A:And the names were not limited to a America.
Speaker A:This was global.
Speaker A:Jason clicked a high profile name, watching in rapt attention as a video clayed.
Speaker A:A man whom he immediately recognized lay on a gurney in what appeared to be a laboratory.
Speaker A:A bird's nest of thin wires was attached to his head, leading to a computer interface.
Speaker A:A large screen at the head of the gurney displayed vital signs and brain waves.
Speaker A:The camera pulled back as an exact copy of the unconscious man was led into the lab.
Speaker A:His movements were slow and unsure, not unlike a child still learning to walk.
Speaker A:He was assisted onto another gurney and monitoring leads attached to his body and head.
Speaker A:Vitals and brain waves for each were then superimposed on the screen, and it was obvious their brain activity was very different from each other.
Speaker A:The technicians left the room and it appeared nothing was happening until Jason noticed a change in the brain waves.
Speaker A:There was much more activity from the man who had been let into the room than when he was first connected.
Speaker A:Unable to tear his eyes away, Jason watched for nearly half an hour as both brain waves and the physical vital signs of the clones steadily aligned with the original until they were indistinguishable from from each other.
Speaker A:With a sense of growing dread, he scrolled through the list of names that had been replaced.
Speaker A:He knew many of them, either personally or as business acquaintances, but there was a name that turned his blood cold.
Speaker A:Sick to his stomach, he realized this couldn't be allowed to continue.
Speaker A:Jason threw back the remainder of the scotch and plunked the glass down hard enough that could it cracked, but he didn't care.
Speaker A:It was time to set things right, and the little things no longer mattered.
Speaker A:Entering his home office, he tugged open a wall panel to reveal a large safe.
Speaker A:He punched in the combination and the door opened automatically.
Speaker A:Inside, several guns a deer rifle, a pair of Benelli shotguns, and a pistol.
Speaker A:Ignoring the long guns, which were best suited for hunting, he loaded the pistol and tucked it into his waistband at the small of his back.
Speaker A:Securing the safe, he left the office and went upstairs, where Marie was preparing for a campaign event later that evening.
Speaker A:They shared a bedroom and the door was locked when he tried to enter.
Speaker A:She had claimed their son had walked in on her stepping out of the shower a few months ago and had taken to keeping the door locked when she was going to be undressed.
Speaker A:Rather than knock and interrupt her, Jason reached up to the top of the door frame, where a tool to release the lock was kept out of the kid's reach.
Speaker A:He popped the knob free and stepped through.
Speaker A:The air in the bedroom was steamy from Marie having just taken a shower.
Speaker A:He caught a glimpse of her in a mirror and stepped into the bathroom doorway.
Speaker A:Marie was startled when she noticed him snatching a towel to cover her nude body.
Speaker A:Jason smiled at her, but she was clearly irritated at the intrusion.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker A:She asked, clutching the towel at her breasts.
Speaker A:It was the moment of truth, and Jason was unable to speak.
Speaker A:She glared at him, then turned away and began brushing her hair.
Speaker A:Jason hesitated further, then gathered the courage to answer a question he really didn't want to know the answer to.
Speaker A:With a shuddering breath, he stepped into the bathroom.
Speaker A:Marie turned, mouth opening to berate him, but all that came out was a cry as his hand darted forward and ripped the towel from around her body.
Speaker A:What the hell is wrong with you?
Speaker A:Marie cried, whirling so her back was to him.
Speaker A:Where is it?
Speaker A:He asked, his voice cold as he moved to loom over her.
Speaker A:What are you talking about?
Speaker A:She snarled.
Speaker A:Show me, he said, grabbing her arm and forcing her to turn to face him.
Speaker A:She tried to conceal her body, but he twisted her arm behind her and she cried out in pain.
Speaker A:Your Caesarion scar, he hissed in her face.
Speaker A:What happened to it?
Speaker A:Marie stared at him, her eyes flat.
Speaker A:You're not her he said in a low, dangerous voice.
Speaker A:You're not even real.
Speaker A:Jason drew the pistol and pressed it to Marie's head, but couldn't make himself pull the trigger.
Speaker A:After five seconds that felt like an eternity, Jason lowered the gun and fled the bathroom.
Speaker A:Marie, unnaturally calm, watched him dash out of the bedroom and listened as he ran outside, then raced away in his car.
Speaker A:Still nude, she strode to the window and watched the black Mercedes disappear around a curve while placing a call.
Speaker A:He knows, she said into the phone.
Speaker A:Jason drove fast, his hands shaking.
Speaker A:He was distraught, and part of him still refused to believe the proof he'd seen with his own eyes.
Speaker A:But he had thought through the possibility and was prepared to go to the press.
Speaker A:He pressed a speed dial button on his phone before the call could connect.
Speaker A:There was a horrible electronic screech from his phone and the screen went dark.
Speaker A:Frowning, Jason took his eyes off the road to check the phone and didn't see the massive dump truck that shot out of a side road directly into his car's path.
Speaker A:The impact was brutal.
Speaker A:The Mercedes airbags, all that saved his life.
Speaker A:Within seconds, an ambulance screamed to a stop behind the mangled car.
Speaker A:EMTs leapt out and forced Jason's driver side door open.
Speaker A:Less than 60 seconds after the crash, Jason had been sedated and loaded into the back of the ambulance, which disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.
Speaker A:Arrived.
Speaker A:Two months later, Marie Hart won re election to her Senate seat.
Speaker A:She took the stage to deliver a victory speech, thanking her loving husband and children who stood at her side, all beaming with pride.
Speaker A:The pundits on TV and social media began repeatedly commenting that Marie and her perfect family should be the party's candidate for the White House in four years.
Speaker A:Deep in the wilds of West Virginia lies a heavily guarded subterranean facility ostensibly operated by a private corporation no one has ever heard of.
Speaker A:Hundreds of thousands of square feet where no one really knows what happens.
Speaker A:In a room larger than an aircraft hangar, more than a thousand pods that resemble hyperbaric chambers are aligned with military precision.
Speaker A:These are stasis pods, each one supporting a person who is in a medically induced coma.
Speaker A:Each pod is labeled with a name.
Speaker A:In the rare occasion when the last names are the same on two pods, they are grouped together.
Speaker A:A third of the way down.
Speaker A:Row 114C are two such pods.
Speaker A:They belong to Hart, Marie, and Hart, Jason maintained in stasis in the event they are ever needed to cede a new replacement.
Speaker A:The stories presented are inspired by true events.
Speaker A:Names and locations may have been changed for privacy reasons new episodes of When Reality Freys are uploaded every month, Monday and Thursday.
Speaker A:If you're enjoying the journey into the strange, the mysterious, and the unexplained, be sure to press that Follow or Subscribe button and turn on all reminders so you're alerted whenever an episode drops.
Speaker A:Until next time, thank you for listening to When Reality Frays.
