EPISODE 2: Thirsty 

INT. PLANE - DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

A loud airplane engine. Pratcher is shouting over it.

PRATCHER

Take this map! 


The generator is marked in red.


You'll need to get the power on first thing! 


Do you have any health issues I should be aware of?

LEADS 

Just headaches. 

PRATCHER 

You'll be fine. 


Those might get worse for a week or two. 


The elevation is higher than you're used to. 


Just stay hydrated. 

A bell.


Strap down, we’re landing soon. 

TRANSITION 

EXT. OUTSIDE OF THE STATION, DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

PRATCHER 

That's your building! 


Front door doesn't lock, you can go right in. 


There's a garage down the way but you won't need it. 

(To the Pilot)


We need to get out of here before the weather turns.

(To Matthew)


Go in, get the electricity on, follow the instructions! 


The scientists will be here in six weeks! Got it!?

LEADS 

Yeah! 

PRATCHER 

We'll pick you up at the end of Summer. 

Door slams. Crunching of boots gets louder as plane noise dissipates. 

INTRO MUSIC

CREDITS 

Station Blue.

Episode 2.

Thirsty.

INT. DORM ROOM - DARK 

Matthew is in a sleeping bag on top of a dorm bed.

LEADS 

Oooh it’s chilly. 

LEADS 

First day in the Station. At least I think it’s the first day. *yawn*

I don't know how long I've been out for. I just fell asleep in the first room I found. 


I have no idea what time it is.


I don't have a watch and I left my phone with Pratcher.  

 

My last water bottle is empty.


I have one more sack lunch from McMurdo but then I'm out of food.


I’m feeling really sluggish. Pratcher said we're pretty high up elevation wise so it's probably just that.


My heads throbbing a bit but that’s manageable. 

 

I don't know how people keep a regular sleep schedules down here. 


The sun is always up so you need light blocking curtains, but then your room is pitch black so you don't know when to get up. 

I faded in and out must have been a half dozen times. 


Better get to it. My flashlight kind of sucks and I can’t do much until I get the electricity on.

He emerges from his sleeping bag.


Let's go explore. 

???. VOICE OVER 

VOICE OVER

Idiot. 


Do you ever find yourself yelling at characters in movies.


'She's the killer', 'don't go in the basement', 'it's right behind you!'? 


That'll give you a taste of what it's like to listen back to these. 


Not that there's anything I can do about it now.

TRANSITION 

INT. FIRST FLOOR HALLWAY - DARK

LEADS 

I can see my breath, not that that's surprising. 


And it’s so dark I might as well be underground. 


All of the first floor windows are in the dorms so there’s not natural light in the hallway. Should be better when I get the electricity up.


I've poked my head through most of the rooms, we’ve got a long hallway, 4 rooms on each side with a communal bathroom at the end. 


The map suggests there’s another 

set of dorms on the other side of the floor and the big rooms are up ahead. 


With any luck I won't have to bunk with anybody scientists show up.

He opens a door.


Hello? Oh.

He jiggles a locked door.


Locked up. No luxury suites for me. It's even darker here.


Fire axe on the wall. Reminds me of Beanie's hammer story. 


This should be it.  

He opens a door.


Aha! 

He flips a few switches. The power comes on.

A light blows out.


Well. This is worse.


Half the lights are out. Another quarter of them need to be replaced. 


Still going to need this crummy flashlight. 


So, here's the game plan. 

I'm out of water so the kitchens are the first step. 


Then I have to make my way up to the third floor where the camera room is.


Apparently surveillance is a big part of my job here. 


What that entails is beyond me, but if they're cool with my hanging out watching a bunch of security cameras while I scribble in my journal, I won’t be complaining

He opens a door.


Damn, almost all the lights are out in this section. 

 

So according to the map.


Let's see...


These double doors should be the mess hall. 

He opens a door.

INT. MESS HALL - DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

LEADS 

Where's the light switch. 


Huh. Bigger than I thought it'd be. 


They left one table and chair out but there are a bunch folded up against the wall. 

Chalk board, they probably do their meetings in here.


I can’t make out what was last written.


Right wall has steel shutters over a counter top, the kitchens ought to be on the other side of that. 

He opens a door.

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

LEADS 

Whoa. It's big. Cafeteria style.


How the hell am I going to cook here? These pans are huge. What am I going to do, cook a dozen eggs for myself?


Do they even have eggs?


I don't even know how food shipments work here. Probably should have asked Pratcher or Glasses. 


The Winter crew in McMurdo made a pretty big deal about the fresh vegetables we brought.


You know this kitchen looks a lot like the ones in the churches my Old Man used to drag me to.


What a hypocrite. 

???. VOICE OVER

VOICE OVER

My Father. 


I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. 


My Father and I don't really get along. We never have. 


He's a cold man. He gives off that military vibe despite being a high school teacher. 


He always wanted to be a college professor but it didn't work out. He wanted me to go into academia, to live his dream. 


That... Wasn't for me. I was a C student on a good day. I wanted to drop out of high school to work construction. It was better money than any of the other kids were making and I thought I could work my way up. My ex stopped me from leaving early...


But things were rough at home. And the guy I was working for... Well let's just say he didn't lose any sleep over taking advantage of someone like me.


After graduation I left a note at home and took off. Didn't even bother giving my old job notice now that I think about it.


It took a few years before I came back to my home town. After that I tried to visit a few times a year but they'd never last long. 


My last trip didn't go well. We didn't fight, we just... Ignored each other. The tension. It was almost worse. 


After two days of that he mentioned a job fair over his morning paper. Said I need to go, said it was time for me to find something stable. I took the hint, I was just as desperate to get out as he was to have me out.


And that was when I met the Flower Company. 

INT. KITCHEN - DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

LEADS 

You've got to be kidding me.


The water isn't working. 


I'm going to pray to a nonexistent god that I just missed a switch somewhere, cause I know next to nothing about plumbing. 


Have to check the bathrooms sink before I jump to any conclusions.

INT. BATHROOM - DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

LEADS 

Ugh... I hated these mirrors when it was just the flashlight. It's way worse with flickering lights. 


Ugh. Nothing. 


There's got to be a room with pipes, right? Something with a big on off wheel? 


Nothing makes you thirstier than knowing that you can’t get water.

TRANSITION

INT. BACK HALLWAY - DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

Elevator Door opens.

LEADS 

Elevator works. No way in hell I'm taking it. 

He opens a door.


Everything looks on here. Nothing for water. 

The door closes.


This map is next to useless. Gotta start trying doors, it's gotta be around here.

TRANSITION

INT. BACK HALLWAY, DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

LEADS 

Try this, eh...


There's a door up ahead. 


Th... There's something wrong. Something feels wrong. 


This might be it though... The map.


It's...

 

This door isn't on the map.


Why isn't the door on the map?


Yup. I'm out. I'm ou-

TRANSITION

INT. STAIRWELL, DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

LEADS 

This has to be a surveillance map, right? Only the stuff I have to see. Right? THE DOOR is some need to know thing? 


I'm psyching myself out. Things will be fine upstairs. 


I wish Beanie and Glasses were here.

???. VOICE OVER

VOICE OVER

I showed up in my old suit, still too big, with a handful of resumes I kept in my car.


It took me all of four seconds to realize that I didn't belong there. 


Lots of people with corporate smiles hiring for office jobs. Lots of people trying to redefine business causal trying to hire programmers and designers. I saw my old construction boss. I didn't talk to him.


A nice old lady offered me some grocery store cookies and asked me if I had applied anywhere good. 


I told her the jobs weren't really for me. I had a pretty good thing going, working at Salmon joints in Alaska during the fall, ski resorts in the winter and farms the rest of the year. 


That's when she pointed me out to the table in the corner, said if I liked travel that was the place to apply. 


There they were. A man and a woman sitting there, looking even more out of place than I did. They didn't have a table cloth, they didn't even have a sign. I can hardly remember what they looked like.


I picked up one of the blue binders on their table. "Contracting work in Africa, the Pacific and Antarctica." 


The locations? I would have sold my soul to work them. They were looking for scientists, engineers, geologists. I immediately regretted not finishing college.


But I wanted in. I asked them if there was anything else they had available. I was versatile, a good handyman. I didn't have a piece of paper that proved how much money I spent on a degree but I did know how to work. 


The woman took my resume. After a long minute she looked at me and told me I'd need a passport. 


She motioned to the man, who got off of his phone and handed me an old laptop with an application.


After I finished filling out all of the forms I noticed an icon in the corner labeled "PR. S". Before I got the chance to click it the man snatched the computer away, smiling and assuring me that that they would email me as soon as something opened up. 


I stopped by the refreshments table to get coffee for the road. When I looked back I noticed the man and woman packing up the Flower Company table. 


It would be another year before I heard from them again.

INT. STAIRWELL, DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

Footsteps climbing stairs. 

LEADS 

The second floor is off limits, to me at least. I don't have keys to open them. We're going straight to the third. 


You know that door probably goes to a boiler room or something I'm not supposed to mess with. I bet it's on the maintenance map. 


It's getting warm. 

DOOR OPEN

INT. THIRD FLOOR, DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

LEADS 

Light! 


I never thought I'd be so happy to see windows. 


Can't see much out of them with the storm but it beats the hell out of the flickering catacombs below. 

 

There's a balcony out there. 


It's pretty frosted over right now but if I find some chairs that'll be a good writing spot when the weather clears. 


I'd peek out now but I left my bunnyboots by the entrance. 


It's not so bad up here. A lot of windows, a lot of open space, neat artifacts. Almost looks like one of those educational museums you get in National Parks. 


Old photos. Is that McMurdo Station? Has to be. Lot less buildings back then.


Drinking fountain. Do I dare?

He tries the fountain, nothing happens.


Worth a shot. 


Pratcher told me that all of the binders I'd need for running the Station will be in the camera room. Maps says it's pretty close. 

???. VOICE OVER 

VOICE OVER

That job fair? That was almost a year ago. 


I was in Jackson Hole when they called me. I had just gotten in from Alaska and was planning on spending the month in Wyoming.


The original person they hired? They dropped out. I had less than a week to get to LAX. They had a private research station that I would be preparing for their scientists. I accepted obviously, before I even knew where they were sending me.


It wasn't until the end of the conversation when I mentioned it. Flying out of Los Angeles meant I obviously wasn't going to Africa. 


Christchurch they said. Christchurch New Zealand. And from there, Antarctica. 


I started packing immediately. I had gear to buy. I had things to sell. Someone to visit.


I was on the road the next morning.


I was going to Antarctica. The most remote continent on the planet. 


I knew nothing about Antarctica other than it had penguins and snow. 


Not that living here has taught me that much more. I know that it's dry, dry enough to chap your lips and crack your skin. I know that the only respite you can get from the never setting sun comes from the intense ice storms or the confines of these man made Stations. 


Mostly I know that humans were never meant to live here. That my presence here is as unnatural as a man walking on the moon. 


But if I could send a message into the past, if I could teach young me what now me knows, would I have stopped? Turned around? Stuck to the States? 


No. 


Nothing would have stopped me. 


Past me would say to relax, that we've been afraid before, that fear was the sign that we were on the right path.


Past me saw this as the ultimate opportunity to find himself.


Well guess what past me? I found myself. 


I found myself in that room you're about to enter.


I found myself in Station Blue. 

INT. CAMERA ROOM, DAY (ALWAYS DAY)

LEADS 

The air is so stale. 


Lets prop this open. 

 

I guess this is my new nest. Could use a window.


I didn't realize there were so many cameras. There's a whole wall of screens here.

He flips a switch, powering on the screens.


Where was I. Binders.


They look just like the ones at the job fair.


That's the one, water and power. Come on give me some answers...


Oh, this doesn't look too complicated. I just missed the room. 


First thing I'm doing is drinking a whole pitcher of water.


Second thing is replacing all the bulbs in the bathroom and taking a shower. It's been a few days. Between the hike, the flight over here and however long I was asleep I’m overdue.

The computer boots up.

LEADS 

Computer is up. 


I'm not too techy but this looks easy enough. One program, click to control the cameras. 


Alright, Screen B1 on? 


There's the kitchen. Must want to spy on what they're putting in the soup.


...if there were people here they would have laughed at that.


B2, hall, B3, hall. 


It's dark but it says that's the gym... Should be on the first floor. Hard to make out but it looks like it's crammed with machines. 


Bathroom hallway. If they're filming in the bathroom I'm quitting.


Freight elevator. Still open, that's weird. 


Looks like the second floor cameras are all password protected. That's fine, it'll be good to have somewhere new to explore when the brains show up.


C2. No lights.


This place needs a bar. I could be a bartender. Bartender on the bottom of the world. 


C NOOOO.


Oh... Oh gosh. Hahah, oh that's not funny. 


Some jerk left a cardboard cutout in front of the camera at what... The map says is the rec room. 


Is that Elvis? That's Elvis. 

 

Oh man, that was a good one. Can't believe that got me.


I'll check these rooms out tomorrow. 


It could use a fresh coat of paint and I'm not going to be able to sleep properly until I get the lights going but all around the Station looks pretty well put together.


I think that's all of them. 


Mm no wait, there's supposed to be one more. The back hallway isn't on here. 


I'm checking the program, everything is activated... One of the cameras isn't represented here. 


I wonder...

 

It's old, has one of those giant 90s monitors. 


So blue. This has to be Windows 97, taking me back to my old Oregon trail days. 

 

"PR. S." That rings a bell...


Only one other icon on here.


Wait... Is that?

VOICE OVER

You know what's coming, right?

LEADS 

This is a sick joke.

VOICE OVER

You're smart. You know where that camera is pointing. 

LEADS 

Why? Why dedicate a whole computer to this?

 

It's THE DOOR.


There's just enough light to make it out.


It's the last camera and it's looking down exactly at that door.

OUTRO MUSIC - FRIGID WIND

This episode of Station Blue was written and directed by Chad Ellis and produced by Gretchen Schrieber. 

The cover art was created by Kessi Riliniki.

Our intro and exit music, Frigid Wind, was composed by Sage GC.

Pratcher was voiced by Jay Speck.

Matthew Leads was voiced by Chad Ellis.

You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @StationBluePod and email us at stationbluepodcast@gmail.com

Transcripts will be available when our website goes up, but in the meantime you can request them by emailing stationbluepodcast@gmail.com

Want to help others find Station Blue? Leave a 5 star review on iTunes and share it with a friend, or a stranger.

Episode 3 of Station Blue will release in two weeks.

While you wait we recommend listening to Lake Clarity, a horror audio drama podcast.

Five teens head up to Camp Clarity to celebrate their last summer together, but little do they know they’re about to stumble on dark secrets surrounding the lake.

If you enjoy classic 80’s slasher movies, you’ll love Season 1 and 2 of Lake Clarity. 

That’s all for tonight!

My name is Kristen McLaughlin, and until next time.

I will haunt you.