WEBVTT

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Speaker 1: [rock music]

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Speaker 1: Mortal Steel, episode eight.

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Speaker 1: Part 10: Babies, Bodies, and Steel.

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Speaker 1: Dr. Marie Singer stood at the end of
an underground tunnel in the

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Speaker 1: dark. Moments like this were
precious. It gave her an opportunity to

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Speaker 1: reflect on her mistakes. Where to
start? Hitting her third grade

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Speaker 1: teacher in the face because she
didn't know what mitosis meant. No, that was too
far

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Speaker 1: back, and she wouldn't classify that
as a mistake anyway. Taking on the Hail Mary

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Speaker 1: project. Yes, in retrospect, that was
a poor career choice.

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Speaker 1: Based on her current situation,
perhaps a lethal one. It wasn't long until
Sister

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Speaker 1: Francesca interrupted her inner
dialogue.

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Speaker 2: Do you think we're gonna die?

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Speaker 3: Quite probably.

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Speaker 1: Hmm. It was rare that Ursula offered
her opinion. When she did, she

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Speaker 1: was usually right.

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Speaker 4: Hush, you two. There's hope yet. Did
either of you hear where that robot went off

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Speaker 4: to?

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Speaker 4: If you're shaking your heads, I can't
see that.

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Speaker 3: I'm shaking my head.

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Speaker 1: Ugh. Why couldn't someone other than
Francesca have jumped down this hole? As a

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Speaker 1: matter of fact, why had she? She
added that as one more

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Speaker 1: mistake to the list, directly under
the imaginary heading, choices that will

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Speaker 1: probably kill me.

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Speaker 1: A bright vertical white line appeared
in the darkness near them. The line resolved

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Speaker 1: into an open doorway with a
kind-looking woman standing inside.

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Speaker 1: She'd come down this hole because
even low odds were better than zero.

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Speaker 1: Marie reorganized her mental list,
only belatedly realizing she should probably say

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Speaker 1: hello.

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Speaker 4: Is this New Hope?

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Speaker 1: The stranger closed her eyes and
smiled warmly, moving to the side while holding
the

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Speaker 1: door open for them to enter.

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Speaker 3: It is. I'm so glad you found us. I'm
Kelly John Four.

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Speaker 1: Dr. Singer traded a nervous glance
with the other two. Well, with Ursula anyway.

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Speaker 1: Francesca just gave her that same
slightly annoyed, slightly bewildered look she

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Speaker 1: always did. It said, "Why are you
looking at me?" Marie

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Speaker 1: walked in first, signaling with her
hands to enter battle formation. The other two

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Speaker 1: flanked her to the left and right,
and slightly behind. One of them groaned
audibly.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't hard to guess who. Kelly
John Four appeared to be human,

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Speaker 1: and Dr. Singer considered herself to
be somewhat of an expert on the topic as well.

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Speaker 1: She would recognize a cyborg.
Supposedly, New Hope had some past

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Speaker 1: dealings with the late, great
Professor Saitama. To what extent they had their

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Speaker 1: own version of the Hail Mary project,
well, that she had never discovered.

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Speaker 1: No, no. She had stayed as far away
from politics as possible and

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Speaker 1: kept her focus on building The Man.
She'd said that phrase so

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Speaker 1: often it was burned into her very
soul. No time for politics. No

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Speaker 1: time for a relationship, or family,
or friends, or God.

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Speaker 1: Just building The Man. This, this was
not the time to

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Speaker 1: have a mental breakdown. Marie balled
a fist, prepared to club this kind-looking

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Speaker 1: lady at the first sign of danger.

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Speaker 4: Where are you taking us?

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Speaker 3: The cafeteria.

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Speaker 1: She let the balled fist relax.

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Speaker 4: Oh, that's very kind of you.

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Speaker 1: Sister Francesca leaned uncomfortably
close to Marie's left ear.

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Speaker 2: What if they're going to eat us?

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Speaker 1: Kelly John Four flashed that
wonderful smile again. No wonder they sent her
to greet

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Speaker 1: them. She was infuriatingly friendly.

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Speaker 3: We're not going to eat you. If you
don't want to come, you don't have to.

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Speaker 2: So you'll let us leave?

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Speaker 4: Francesca.

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Speaker 1: Kelly put a thoughtful finger to her
chin and shrugged.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know. Probably. You can
ask the intercom.

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Speaker 2: I think she's stupid.

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Speaker 4: Will you stop?

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Speaker 1: Fortunately, Kelly either didn't hear
or didn't notice the insult. Or maybe it

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Speaker 1: simply didn't phase her. The four of
them walked down a hallway lined with steel

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Speaker 1: doors which had no handles or locks.
Very curious.

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Speaker 1: Emergency exits? Or something else.
Dr. Singer stepped

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Speaker 1: covertly to the side and rapped three
times on one of the doors as she passed.

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Speaker 1: [knocking] Nothing happened.

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Speaker 1: Kelly opened the door at the other
end of the long hallway. It led to a large lobby

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Speaker 1: that had been retrofitted into a
small cafeteria. 50 or so people in vintage

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Speaker 1: clothing sat at the tables, stood in
line, and, well, generally looked like normal

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Speaker 1: people, if a little malnourished. She
took it all in.

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Speaker 1: Pieces. The clues of an unknown
puzzle to put together in her

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Speaker 1: mind. Clues she might need later. Not
much communication came

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Speaker 1: out of New Hope. If old world fiction
was any guide, that was

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Speaker 1: probably not a good sign. Francesca
and Ursula hurried ahead to the end

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Speaker 1: of the food line with a complete lack
of decorum. Kelly John 4 closed the door

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Speaker 1: behind them. There was neither a
handle nor a lock on this side.

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Speaker 1: And as she closed the door, Dr. Marie
Singer heard her first

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Speaker 1: clue.

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Speaker 1: [banging]

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Speaker 1: Kelly quickly closed the door all the
way. Marie met her eyes. She saw

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Speaker 1: not the gleeful look of a spider
catching a fly, but the terrified,

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Speaker 1: shameful look of a fly betraying its
own.

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Speaker 1: Then an instant later, she smoothed
the expression and smiled as if nothing had

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Speaker 1: happened. Marie put a gentle hand on
Kelly's upper arm.

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Speaker 1: It was time to stop building the man.
The man was built and gone.

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Speaker 1: It was time to start asking
questions.

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Speaker 4: What was that?

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Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't ask, and
neither should you.

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Speaker 1: Kelly John 4 walked away toward a
table of people waving to her. She kissed a man

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Speaker 1: seated there and then took the baby
from his arms.

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Speaker 1: She cradled it in her arms in that
way that only a mother does, like it

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Speaker 1: was the only thing in the world.

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Speaker 1: What she would give to feel that
again.

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Speaker 1: It was still not the time for a
mental breakdown. Dr. Singer joined the other
two in

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Speaker 1: line. They were speaking to each
other quickly under their breath.

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Speaker 2: And what kind of a name is Kelly John
4?

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Speaker 4: Perhaps we should ask her.

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Speaker 1: Francesca shot her a look of total
confusion.

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Speaker 2: You can't just ask the crazy cult
people if they're crazy.

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Speaker 4: Why not?

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Speaker 2: Because, because...

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Speaker 4: Oh, because they don't do it in
movies?

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Speaker 2: No. Because they'll murder us right
away.

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Speaker 1: Marie looked over at Kelly John 4 and
her thin, cheerful companion skeptically.

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Speaker 4: I don't think she's the murdering
type.

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Speaker 1: So she left the line and walked right
over to their table, then did the unthinkable.

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Speaker 1: She simply asked for all their
secrets up front.

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Speaker 4: Why are you named Kelly John 4? And
are you going to murder us?

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Speaker 1: Kelly John 4 looked like she'd been
run through with a spear. The look of horror on

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Speaker 1: her face was frameable artwork.

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Speaker 3: I, I...

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Speaker 2: Holy crap, they were going to murder
us.

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Speaker 1: But instead of sprouting fangs then
attacking, Kelly John 4 pulled her baby tightly

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Speaker 1: to her chest and began crying.

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Speaker 3: Please, don't make trouble. Please.

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Speaker 3: They let me keep this one.

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Speaker 3: They let me keep her.

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Speaker 1: A fire grew in Marie Singer's chest,
a rage she did not know

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Speaker 1: she still contained.

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Speaker 1: A fire which had started when her son
died, Raphael, and had

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Speaker 1: burned her soul every day since.

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Speaker 1: Her eyes narrowed to slits, the gaze
sharp as a razor.

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Speaker 4: You will keep this one. You will see
her laugh and learn and grow well into

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Speaker 4: adulthood. You will see her live.

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Speaker 1: Then she placed a gentle hand on
Kelly's upper arm for a second time.

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Speaker 4: Now, why don't you tell me everything
about this place so I can make sure she lives?

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Speaker 1: And so she could tear it apart. Dr.
Singer really didn't need to know

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Speaker 1: any more. It might take time. It
might put many entries under

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Speaker 1: choices that will probably kill me,
but you didn't mess with kids, and you

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Speaker 1: sure as hell didn't mess with moms.

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Speaker 1: [upbeat music]

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Speaker 1: Ethan and the gang rode their bikes
through the broken city for almost an hour. Even

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Speaker 1: on vehicles well-suited for fast
travel, it was laborious. The lead rider

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Speaker 1: put up her hand and signaled for them
to stop.

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Speaker 1: The seven of them pulled up in a line
and cut the engines on their bikes

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Speaker 1: The scene before them was quite
unlike the rest of the urban landscape. It could

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Speaker 1: best be described as a pit lined with
bones and covered in a webbing of bizarre,

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Speaker 1: alien arteries, as if the earth
itself had sprouted some living tumor, and the

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Speaker 1: infection had spread across this
football-sized clearing.

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Speaker 1: At the bottom of the pit was a gaping
hole. From here, it was impossible to

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Speaker 1: see how deep.

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Speaker 1: One of the scary boys chuckled and
made a joke to his companion, elbowing them in

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Speaker 1: the side. Then both of them looked at
Ethan and laughed again.

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Speaker 5: What's so funny?

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Speaker 1: [laughs] It's a butt hole. He put a
hand to his

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Speaker 1: face.

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Speaker 5: Seriously?

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Speaker 1: We're not going in there.

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Speaker 5: And why not?

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Speaker 1: Just look at it.

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Speaker 5: I thought this was supposed to be
your ally.

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Speaker 1: The scary boy shook her head. That
doesn't mean I'm going in the demonic butt hole.

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Speaker 1: Then the other scary boys laughed,
and Ethan ground his teeth.

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Speaker 5: Fine.

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Speaker 1: He got off the bike and started
making his way down the incline, careful to
avoid

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Speaker 1: stepping on any of the pulsing veins
that grew up from the ground. Surely there was

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Speaker 1: a more convenient way to meet with
this creature. If there was, the scary boys
would

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Speaker 1: have likely withheld that information
simply for their own amusement.

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Speaker 1: Ethan looked up the hill at the scary
boys. They seemed content to watch him

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Speaker 1: struggle, still laughing and cutting
jokes at his expense.

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Speaker 1: At last, he made it to the edge of
the hole and looked down. A wave of

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Speaker 1: warm, foul air wafted upward. There
was only darkness, so

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Speaker 1: he switched to infrared. It helped a
little in the sense that he could see what was

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Speaker 1: down there now. It did not help to
know what he would be dropping

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Speaker 1: down into.

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Speaker 1: A pit of human bodies. The walls and
floor were made of

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Speaker 1: people, reanimated corpses attached
to each other to form a single

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Speaker 1: gigantic organism.

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Speaker 1: Countless undead eyes watched him
from the walls and floor of that pit.

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Speaker 1: Untold numbers of human mouths opened
and spoke as one, calling

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Speaker 1: for him.

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Speaker 5: You may enter, warrior.

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Speaker 1: Ethan took one last look up the hill
at the other riders. They hadn't left,

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Speaker 1: yet.

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Speaker 1: Then he groaned with resignation and
let himself fall into the demonic butt

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Speaker 1: hole.

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Speaker 1: Dozens of limbs reached out to catch
him with surprising gentleness. The hands and

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Speaker 1: legs and faces broke his fall, then
pushed him along the floor of bodies to a place

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Speaker 1: where the flesh parted before him, a
small hill of dirt upon which he could

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Speaker 1: stand.

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Speaker 1: When he found his balance there, the
many limbs of the creatures disappeared back

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Speaker 1: into an indistinct writhing mass.
Ethan spun around in a circle,

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Speaker 1: trying to take in the sight, so
unimaginable that he found it difficult to even

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Speaker 1: comprehend, even as he looked right
at it. He queried his second

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Speaker 1: mind.

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Speaker 5: Oh, do you have the ability to
repress memories?

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Speaker 1: The answer came back as pure
intuition. Of course, it was one of his

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Speaker 1: most used functions.

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Speaker 1: That response didn't make him feel as
good as it should have.

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Speaker 5: Can you repress this memory?

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Speaker 1: Again, the response was immediate,
but this time it replied with a quotation from

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Speaker 1: some old world psychological text.
Traumatic memories can be

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Speaker 1: useful if framed correctly. They can
provide lessons that a person may draw

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Speaker 1: upon later in life for strength.
Repressing memories, therefore, is almost

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Speaker 1: never in a person's best interest.

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Speaker 1: Ethan rolled his eyes. That was a
very fancy way of saying, "I can do it, but you

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Speaker 1: can't." He turned his attention back
to the corpse abomination before him,

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Speaker 1: the so-called corpse mother. He had
only two priorities now.

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Speaker 1: One, deal with this creature as fast
as possible. And two, find

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Speaker 1: somewhere to bathe.

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Speaker 1: Thousands of human mouths began to
speak.

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Speaker 5: You are in disgust. Why? There are

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Speaker 5: so many hearts and necks and eyes.

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Speaker 5: They are not being used. Surely you
can see, Pastor,

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Speaker 5: the compulsion to the practicality of
this.

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Speaker 1: As much as Pastor Cutter wanted to
start pulling the trigger on the messenger, or

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Speaker 1: better, refill his tank of holy fire,
he didn't kill

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Speaker 1: indiscriminately. Not only was that
not heroic, a trait which his second mind

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Speaker 1: seemed almost pre-programmed to
admire, it wasn't right.

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Speaker 1: If this thing wasn't harming humans,
at the very least it deserved to be rotated to

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Speaker 1: the bottom of his things to kill
list. The Lord knew that list was already

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Speaker 1: unrealistically long.

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Speaker 5: I take it the stalker told you I was
coming.

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Speaker 6: Yes. I was promised a home by

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Speaker 6: Melchizedek.

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Speaker 5: Well, forget whatever he told you.
Here's the deal. One, you don't attack unless

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Speaker 5: I say go. Two, you don't hurt anyone
acting only in

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Speaker 5: self-defense. And three, you do all
that, and you can have the dead

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Speaker 5: bodies of anyone in New Hope, as long
as they die of natural causes.

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Speaker 6: Promise already broken.

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Speaker 5: What is your answer, demon?

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Speaker 6: I decline.

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Speaker 1: There was movement in the darkness
all around him. He cocked his arm to load two

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Speaker 1: shells into the gun, then flipped to
infrared only.

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Speaker 1: He saw distinct creatures made of
people separating itself from the mass of parts
at

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Speaker 1: the edge of the pit. The tide of
human limbs rose at his feet, threatening to
pull

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Speaker 1: him into the mass. He kicked away the
first grasping hands. If that happened, he

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Speaker 1: would disappear into suffocating
darkness beneath hundreds of writhing,
reanimated

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Speaker 1: bodies. His second mind didn't
request this capability, but it gladly

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Speaker 1: request his terror. As the bodies
rose to his waist, Ethan

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Speaker 1: forced himself to remain calm.

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Speaker 5: Did I mention that I have a bomb?

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Speaker 1: The flesh abomination stopped
enveloping him.

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Speaker 5: Oops. Must have slipped my mind.

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Speaker 1: The stitched-together creatures
released him, then slipped and folded back into
the

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Speaker 1: walls and floor.

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Speaker 6: You break your master's word and then
threaten my life.

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Speaker 6: Your deeds are crooked, my lonely
warrior.

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Speaker 1: Ethan wasn't sure if that was a
compliment or an insult coming from a demon.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully, it would never catch his
bluff. While he had a bomb, he had no way of

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Speaker 1: setting it off now. His second mind
pinged him with an update.

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Speaker 1: Hmm. Apparently, that was no longer
true. With his most recent

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Speaker 1: patch, he'd acquired full control
over a very explosive self-destruct.

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Speaker 1: And it had been the very pocket
fusion reactor itself that powered him the
entire

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Speaker 1: time. That, that would be a very big

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Speaker 1: boom. He could glass half of old LA.

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Speaker 1: Now, that was a very useful
negotiation tool. Of course, that had

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Speaker 1: the same drawbacks as using fission
nukes back when the hordes first appeared.

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Speaker 1: But when innocents mixed tightly with
enemies all across the globe, nuclear weapons

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Speaker 1: could not be used effectively. At
least, not unless you wanted to duke it out in a

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Speaker 1: fallout wasteland afterward. A few
places had still taken that route, despite the

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Speaker 1: drawbacks.

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Speaker 6: Why did the defenders kill my
children? Am I to allow

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Speaker 6: this?

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Speaker 5: Then you'll lose a few roaches.

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Speaker 6: Why do you speak so to a human
mother? Because you believe

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Speaker 6: we disgust, we deserve death?

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Speaker 1: Damn it. What was with these
monsters? Were they making sense, or was he
simply too

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Speaker 1: far gone to tell the difference
anymore? What happened to the good old days?
Like

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Speaker 1: when they jumped at you snarling and
you got to blow them apart, then go home

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Speaker 1: knowing you did the right thing.

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Speaker 1: It was going to get exhausting if
every nightmare he slew gave him a lecture

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Speaker 1: about the value of life with its
dying breath.

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Speaker 5: Fine. Just treat the people like
people and the monsters like

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Speaker 5: monsters.

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Speaker 6: How do you know the difference?

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Speaker 5: By their actions.

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Speaker 6: I accept.

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Speaker 5: Good. Because if I have to climb back
down here again, I'm setting off a nuke.

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Speaker 5: [outro music]

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Speaker 1: The camera turned to fit the subject
into the frame.

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Speaker 7: What is your name?

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Speaker 1: Temperance. Sister Temperance.

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Speaker 1: Where am I?

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Speaker 7: I will give you a questionnaire.
Please answer it to the best of your ability.

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Speaker 1: Then the intercom ran down the list
of forty questions. It would give them a

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Speaker 1: satisfactory quantitative view of the
subject's true religious convictions and

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Speaker 1: personal history with faith. Yeah, as
close as one could get to quantitative anyway.

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Speaker 1: It took quite a while to get the
subject to finish the questionnaire, as they

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Speaker 1: continually interrupted to ask
questions or spend long moments trying to peer
into

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Speaker 1: the next room.

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Speaker 7: Now I'm asking you to pray for twenty
minutes. Pray as hard as you can in whatever

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Speaker 7: way is most meaningful to you. If you
need something specific to pray for, pray for

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Speaker 7: safety. Pray that you will escape.

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Speaker 1: Where am I?

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Speaker 1: Twenty minutes later, the intercom
remotely opened the metal gate between
experiment

291
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Speaker 1: chambers four and five. The intercom
did everything remotely, except think

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00:25:48.620 --> 00:25:54.000
Speaker 1: perhaps. Hmm. That idea deserves some
deliberation, but not now.

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Speaker 1: The intercom turned its visual system
back to the camera feed. An uncontrolled demon

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Speaker 1: moved toward the opening from the
other side. Predictably, the subject tried to

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Speaker 1: flee. It was one of the so-called
cull hounds. They looked like bizarrely tall

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Speaker 1: dogs with reverse joints and a skin
disease, but they actually had a lot more in

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Speaker 1: common with spiders. The
exceptionally strong, sharp fibers on their body
were what

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Speaker 1: allowed them to find and kill people
cowering in unexpectedly high places like

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Speaker 1: apartments, skyscrapers, and even
second-floor attics.

300
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Speaker 1: The subject pressed her back, moving
away from the demon as expected. It was rare,

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00:26:36.560 --> 00:26:41.540
Speaker 1: but sometimes the subjects attacked
the demon first. The dog-like creature had been

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Speaker 1: reused for multiple experiments by
then, so it was more cautious than was ideal.
The

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00:26:47.260 --> 00:26:49.440
Speaker 1: intercom made note of that in their
logs.

304
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Speaker 1: The demon cautiously touched one
foreleg to an almost invisible divide between
the

305
00:26:56.040 --> 00:27:01.120
Speaker 1: two rooms. The hairs on that foreleg
burst into flame, and the demon froze in place,

306
00:27:01.760 --> 00:27:07.160
Speaker 1: staring down the subject with
statue-like patience. Again, the intercom noted
this

307
00:27:07.220 --> 00:27:12.540
Speaker 1: creature's familiarity with the
process. It knew a meal was inevitable. It would

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00:27:12.580 --> 00:27:18.260
Speaker 1: need to be destroyed after this
experiment regardless. [screaming]

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00:27:18.340 --> 00:27:20.640
Speaker 7: That's it. Just keep praying.

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00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:25.960
Speaker 1: The intercom switched over to the
camera feeds of the neighboring experiments. Two

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00:27:26.020 --> 00:27:32.000
Speaker 1: more newly acquired subjects acted as
controls, one with a sealed room, the

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00:27:32.060 --> 00:27:37.080
Speaker 1: other with a sealed grate between
them and the demon. In the experiments so far,

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00:27:37.460 --> 00:27:43.260
Speaker 1: removing that grate had made all the
difference. The study of consecration was

314
00:27:43.340 --> 00:27:48.400
Speaker 1: such a laborious one. It was
frustratingly difficult to measure objectively.

315
00:27:49.360 --> 00:27:55.280
Speaker 1: But if anything without fangs was
going to survive the apocalypse, it would need
to

316
00:27:55.340 --> 00:27:58.360
Speaker 1: be understood completely.

317
00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:04.540
Speaker 1: If humanity could reliably generate a
natural weapon against the demons,

318
00:28:05.980 --> 00:28:08.240
Speaker 1: maybe a future was still possible.

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00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:12.760
Speaker 7: If you need something specific to
pray about, pray for survival.