Work Text:
[Calm Pub Sounds]
[A few people are talking in the background]
William
*drunk* [Glass clinks] Another one barkeep.
Marcel
You're really downing these, I’ll pour you one more, but then I'll have to cut you off.
William
*drunk* Huh… sure whatever…
[Beer pouring]
[Clink]
Marcel
If you don't mind me asking what's the occasion?
William
I just needed a quiet place to drink and pay respect to an old friend.
Marcel
Oh, I’m sorry for your loss, would you want to talk about it? Tell me… What's on your mind?
William
You’ve heard about the 2005 Pierre Grey's Lakes forest fire right? The details of it are pretty well known now, not because it was particularly devastating, the park is close enough to the border B.C that a fast and combined response quickly quelled the flames. No, it's known because of the mystery that's been built up around it. Not sure exactly where or how the rumours originated, but the story would go that since it was the middle of April, and the snow hadn’t even all melted in the region, the forest fires had to be of man made origin. That combined with a vague description of the ignition source as a large amount of fuel. The sheer oddity of the fires sparked speculation and from there conspiracies theories bloom. Anything from some stupid campers, to purposeful acts of terrorism, the odd alien theory here or there, I even was told one once in a bar that looped in Bigfoot. I’m here to tell you they're all wrong, I’ve never seen someone get the story even close to right. They couldn't, it doesn’t make sense. The only people who saw what really happened are me and Louis Cloutier but well, he isn’t with us anymore so he can't corroborate my story.
Okay before you dismiss my story out of hand, I have paperwork, I carry it on me just so I dont immediately get dismissed when I tell this story. I worked there at the time, I can even prove to you, I was the one that was sent out to investigate when the fire tower reported black smoke billowing from the woods. Ok, so now that I know you're listening, let me explain myself. The park is a lot calmer in the colder seasons, so the job gets a lot slower, and we get to enjoy the park almost completely free of noise pollution. That's why I loved April weather. It's still cold enough that the air is quite crisp, but the birds have migrated back so when I did my rounds I could indulge in the beauty of all those bird songs without any hint of noise pollution. I swear you can hear nature grow when it's that quiet out there. So that's what I was doing in the early morning of the 14th, I was finishing up my rounds when my radio flared up scaring me half to death as I was starkly pulled back to reality. George Evans, the fire lookout was screaming at the top of his lungs about black smoke billowing from the middle of the forest. I was surprised to say the least and as soon as I responded he cut me off and threw some coordinates at me and told me to tell Louis to get off his ass and come with me asap. So I woke up Louis who was still fast asleep, and after force-feeding him a cup of coffee and catching him up, we rushed out the door.
The coordinates George gave us were quite far off the main trail somewhere between the northern two lakes. As we were heading up the road, we could quickly make out the pillars of black smoke spiralling into the sky at a concerning rate. We immediately confirmed the smoke with George so he could contact the firefighters, and then we continued on foot to investigate the source. That’s when Louis caught something. He brought my attention to the smell of smoke. Wood has a distinctive smell when it burns, wet wood even more so, it's a bad smell musty and sour. It tends to overpower pretty much anything else as it sits thick in the air. But when I smelt the air here there was another smell mixed in. Gasoline. This immediately put us on high alert. There's no reason for gasoline to be burning this deep into the woods and whatever the source is, it isn't natural. We picked up the pace rushing into the woods following where the smoke led.
We saw our first burning trees a few moments later. I quickly pulled out my GPS and called in to George to give him the precise coordinates of the fire. He told us that the “fire department” was on their way and told us to not stick around much longer. We’d already turned our heads back when we heard it, screaming from inside the forest. A cold chill ran down my spine and both of us turned to see a person rapidly approaching us from within the flames. They were lit ablaze by an inferno which roared around them shooting undulating pillars of black smoke into the air as they screamed something at the top of their lungs. I wanted to help, but as soon as the situation hit me, my whole body froze. Louis had always been braver than me, he immediately jumped to action, rushing into the flames to save them. Being frozen in place, I was able to take in what was approaching us more carefully. What I saw melted my panic away into horror. Whatever was running towards us was unrecognisable with the majority of their skin being molten, waxy blobs of flesh slowly flowing into one another and coalescing into something vaguely human shaped. Their only features were two charred holes in the place of eyes and a mouth which bellowed out smoke with every word the thing chanted. I was snapped back to reality when Louis let out a horrified scream as he reached out to grab the figure. His hand passed right through their abdomen, the flesh simply giving way before slowly melting back into place. The figure turned to him and grabbed onto his hip wax now rapidly flowing onto Louis hip and slowly spreading to the rest of his body. He cried for help, but I didn’t know what to do. I'd left my rifle in the truck and I didn’t fancy my odds of attacking it directly. Louis' screams were now quickly weakening as he choked on the thick noxious smoke that filled the surrounding air. Seeing no other option, I desperately fumbled to unholstered my walkie so I could call for help. I gripped it tight, already screaming into it before I had even hit the button, but as soon as I did an explosion cracked through the air and sent me flying back violently into a nearby tree and setting trees ablaze all around me. The impact knocked the wind out of me and I struggled to regain my breath as frantically extinguished the flames that were burning up my uniform. My ears were ringing so loud that I couldn’t hear the increasingly ferocious flames roaring around me as they quickly spread to more and more trees. The first time I tried to stand up, a pain ripped through my stomach. I cried out before falling back to the forest ground. I managed to get up slowly, trying to put as much body weight onto myself as I practically hugged a tree. My vision was blurred and swayed with every step I took, only accentuating the piercing headache that was splitting my skull. I managed to push myself from tree to tree slowly but surely making my way out of the forest and back to my truck.
I woke up in my truck bed with a fighter over me to check if I was still breathing. The first words out of my mouth were about how they had to go get Louis from within the forest. The man reassured me they already had people on their way to him and told me that I needed to remain calm and come with him. He brought me to a paramedic who treated my superficial wounds and then sent me to the nearest hospital some 40 minutes from the park. I don’t remember most of the ride there. I only remember the paramedic desperately keeping me awake. When we got to the hospital, they diagnosed me with a severe concussion and extracted several chunks of what I’d later learned was wax from my body and asked me to stay to recover for at least a week. Luckily for me, nothing vital was damaged, but I was left with some pretty horrid scars from the burns. They never found Louis’ body or any sign of the thing that killed him. When they asked me what happened I told them exactly what happened… minus the parts that would make me look insane. I told them that he had rushed in to try to save a person who was trapped in the burning woods only to be consumed by the fire when something suddenly exploded. They didn’t seem to buy my version of events, and I'm not sure if it's because the terror of that day was still stuck in my eyes or because they wrote it off as memory lapses of a severely concussed man.
It didn’t take them long to quell the fires. The ample supply of water from the lakes and some quick backup from the DC made the fires much easier to suppress. I heard they ruled the source as a stash of illegally disposed gasoline that had somehow caught fire. That story never made sense to me, and I don’t think it made sense to a lot of other people which is why so much conspiracy arose from it. I try to not think of it much anymore. I am going to therapy but the reality of the situation… of Louis' death still haunts me and makes me want to drink myself into a coma. I don’t know what I hope telling you this achieves. It’s not like you could do anything at this point. Maybe you're the only ones I believe wouldn't immediately label me insane. Maybe something about making sure Louis' story does not go untold, but more like it's just hoping this can help me get some peace of mind about the events of that day so that I can sleep without my dream all burning away into feverish nightmares.
William
*Drunk* And now’s the point at which you laugh. Don't worry, I'm used to it by now!
Marcel
No I wouldn’t dare. I’m sorry about your loss, whatever happened to your friend, it's a tragedy.
William
*Drunk* Enough of a tragedy to give me one more beer?
[Water pours]
[glass clinks]
Marcel
Huh, no sorry. I think you have enough, here's a glass of water though, and we'll call you a cab so you make it home safe
William
[Gulp] *Drunk* Eh, fine, I’ll go. Thank you for listening to me ramble I guess.
[glass clinks]
Marcel
It was a pleasure
[Footsteps away]
Samantha
Hey Marcel… That guy, did you catch his name?
Marcel
The card said William Smith why?.
Samantha
Holy shit! No fucking way!
Marcel
Is something wrong?
Samantha
That has to be him. Around a year after the Grey's Lakes forest fire, there was a rumour that started going around the internet that claimed the actual source of the fire was supernatural, some type of cult ritual and that there was a massive cover-up of the whole thing.
Marcel
That’s not astounding. The internet makes conspiracies about pretty much every tragedy.
Samantha
Sure but this one was backed up by one of the wardens who first confirmed the fire, warden William Smith.
Marcel
Oh I see. Hmh so he's still retailing his weird version of events to anyone who will listen. Trauma can really mess with people’s memory. It's sad seeing people lose their grip on reality like that honestly.
Samantha
Really? That’s it? *In a mocking tone* “It’s a trauma response”. He had so many vivid details and hell he sounded practically sober as he recalled it.
Marcel
Keyword there being practically, he downed multiple beers over the few hours he was here and who knows how much he drank before he got here.
Samantha
Okay, but still you’re not intrigued?
Marcel
Like I told you, this happens pretty regularly. If you're going to last as a bartender, you can't take drunk’s stories at base value. New patrons love to tell tall tales especially if they think they'll get a free sympathy drink out of you.
Samantha
You're telling me you've heard tales of exploding wax women before?
Marcel
Well no, not that exactly, but I've heard the range of it from the basic wife left me for another man to I was just freed from an alien abduction.
Samantha
Wait, seriously? You HAVE to tell me about that one.
Marcel
Maybe later, for now I need you to go get me a keg of Moosehead from the cellar, Mr. William drank the last of this one.
Samantha
Fine! But I'm going to hold you to it. I want to hear that UFO story, I love that type of story. You’ve piqued my interest and I won't be able to get it out of my head until I know the full details.
Marcel
[laughs] Okay, okay, I’ll indulge your curiosity when you get back up here and as long as the bar isn't too busy.
Samantha
You better!
[Camera turning and refocus noise]
[heavy footsteps down 7 wooden stairs]
Oof, now for the hard part.
[light switch flick]
Really? No lights? HUH! Where is my phone… Here we go.
[surprise yelp] Holy shit!
That is so much cobweb. I really rather not have to touch that, I'm not convinced I wouldn't get stuck in there honestly.
Moosehead… where are you? Molson… Labatt… There we go… huh, shit gross.
[Cobwebs being brushed aside]
Gross gross gross gross gross! Huh, there is no way this stands up to any kind of health code standards.
Ok, c'mon let’s get out of here. 1, 2, 3, up! [effort groan]
[exhausted sigh] Ok, well I'm not lifting that up the stairs that's for sure.
Hmh, welp I can't think of any other way so it's gonna have to work
[Keg rolls on its heel]
[Keg being pulled up thunking up the 7 wooden stairs]