Radio 53 Chapter 1

“Welcome, and good evening, loyal listeners. It's a nice and dreary night in Summer’s Point. If you're new here or just simply love for me to explain myself; I will be your fellow follower tonight, Jed Cantors. Joining me on standby is my lovely producer, Alex Flemmings. Say hello, Alex.”

Robert De Niro chimes in. “You talkin’ to me?”

“Ah, I should explain for the uninitiated; we're having some technical difficulties in the studio today unfortunately, so Alex will have to make do with his soundboard. That won’t be a problem, will it, Alex?

“A wise guy, huh?” Curly says.

“We’re making do folks. Regardless, the time on the clock says 8:34, which means we’re already behind for our regularly schedule program. So, once again, thank you for tuning into Radio 53, the only station that operates with an open mind. Joining us tonight as we delve into the weird, the macabre and the utterly strange events that occur just out of vision. Keep your eyes to skies, folks, because you never know what’s up there, or in your own backyard for matter. This is Jeb Cantors with another rendition of Tremors in the Night.

“Phone lines are gonna open up soon so we can take your calls, but first, the news.”

“Get on with it!”  A crowd cheers.

“Yeah, Yeah, I’m getting’ there. The office of the mayor recently announced a motion to imposed an increase on sales tax. None too happy about that one, but it’s reported that the extra funds will be put back into the education budget. A local woman reported a missing child on Tuesday evening; a young boy of 4 with auburn hair named Matthew went missing during a hiking trip. Any information should be forwarded to Police Chief Struthers, or anyone at Summer’s Point PD. In agricultural news…

A man snores.

“Come off it, Alex, we’re nearly there. As I was saying, there has been a recent interest in renovating the South Chester’s Mine in hopes that the increase work could lead to a nice economic Boone for our little community. A lot of people have been for it, but some local activist groups have been trying their best to veto the development.

“I’m not sure how well known the history of that mine is, but back when I was just a twinkle in my papi’s eye, South Chesters was a big deal. Rich with coal, that’s what dad said. But on September 20th, 1967, there was a cave in. A whole mess of people got trapped down there, and it remained closed up ever since. Now, I can see why we want to dig up the past, but there’s some bad joo-joo going on there. I say, let the dead rest and find some coal somewhere else. Pretty sure I got some in my back yard y’all are welcome to.”

“Ay caramba!” Bart adds.

“Anyway, the phone lines are open folks. We’re diligently awaiting your calls. Remember, the more surreal, the better. Oh, we got one already. Hello, you’re on the air. What’s your name and where ya from?”

“Oh gee, my name’s Jackson and I’m on my way to work up in Dayton.”

“Midnight shift, huh? How’s the weather lookin’ all the way over there?”

“Lookin’ fine, a bit cloudy though.”

“Well, aint that just how it is, right, Alex?”

“You better believe it.” Baloo agrees.

“Good talk, Alex. Well, Jackson from Dayton, what do you got for us today?”

“Well, this happened earlier this evening actually. So, I got up around 4pm, which is already a bit odd because I’m usually not up till 6. I work nights over at the papermill – quality control, that kind of stuff – and I was headin’ over to the Ol’ Donut Hole to get a 6 pack of Boston Cremes. Well, on my way over to the mill, donut in mouth cuz you know I can’t wait, the clouds just start rollin’ in. Mind you it’s been sunny all week, and it’s barely dark out at this point. Either way, I get caught at a light and I swear I saw something move in the clouds.”

“Well, there’s a lot of stuff up there, Jackson. You sure it wasn’t a bird or an airline makin’ a late arrival from CVG?”

“Yeah, at first, I kind of wrote it off, but what got to me was how quiet-like it was. A great big shadow in the clouds, and not a sound to alert ya. I live over by one of the smaller airstrips, and those big boys make a hell of a lot of noise when they’re passing by. What do you think it was, Jed?”

“Now that is a bit odd, Jackson. I wish I had the answers for ya, but that’s a new one. Could be just a trick of the light, you know, like a bird passed just right past the sun to make a big ol’ shadow. Or it could be one of those top-secret aircrafts the boys in blue over at NASA are brewin’ up. Regardless, I know I’ll be keepin’ my eyes on the sky tonight. Thanks for callin’ in, Jackson, and hey, save one of those donuts for me, ya hear?”

“May the force be with you.” Obi-Wan chimes in.

“Hell yeah, Brother!”

The call ends.

“Strange shapes in the sky, huh? Can’t say that’s all too out of the ordinary, but who can tell these days. Moving along, let’s take a small break from calls to get an update by our eyes in the sky, our own chopper reporter, Jeff Stilton. Jeff? Can you hear me, Jeff?”

“I’m reading you loud and clear, Jed!”

“Alright, alright, how’s the weather up there?”

“Oh, that never gets old. It’s lookin’ fine, if a bit cloudy. Sun’s already set and we’re getting a cool 68 degrees in the upper west side.”

“How’s traffic lookin’, Jeff? Do I still have time to make a donut run. That last calls got me hankerin’ for something sweet.”

“It’s past 9, Jed. Aint no one out and about this late. It’s got me wondering why we even have a chopper unit running around in the dead of night.”

“Hey now, if you start askin’ questions, then you could find yourself cutting back your hours. What’ll Chopper Dave do then?”

“Chopper Dave is locked and loaded. He’s doin’ a fine job piloting this hunk of bolts, so what’s say we just shelve the talk and let him do his thing.”

“Sounds like a plan, Stan. Well, you give us a ring if anything funky happens on up there. Got some reports of shapes in the sky.”

“Oh, there’s a hell of a lot of those, Jed. Nothing knew there, but we’ll keep ya posted. Jeff and Dave, out!”

“What would we do without them.”

“Show me the money!” Jerry adds.

“Bit of a miss there, Alex. But the phone lines are now back open. Hello, you’re on the air. What’s your name and where do you hail from?”

“Hot damn! Didn’t think I’d make it through. Name’s Justin up from Portsmouth.”

“How’s it goin’, Justin? What do you got for us today, and please tell me it’s juicy.”

“Oh, do I got some shit for you. Can I say shit on the air?”

“I won’t tell if you don’t, Justin.”

“You the man, Jed! Anyway, you guys ever heard of this like…frog dudes or whatever?”

“Like the one’s up in Loveland?”

“Yeah! Big ass frog people. Well, I saw one of them up over here just a few hours ago.”

“You’re telling me that you saw one of the Loveland frogs up in Portsmouth?”

“Had to have been, Jed. Can’t imagine what else that sucker was.”

“Okay, okay, I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. How about you lay it out where you saw one of our amphibious friends.”

“I gotcha, Jed. Well, and like I said this was a few hours ago, I was walkin’ on over to Jim’s Gas Em’ Up. You know the place, Jed?”

“Jim’s is an institution. Tell me, they still doin’ that fried chicken?”

“You’re readin’ my mind, man! Yeah, I was on my way over to get some chicken. It’s my day off y’know, so I wanted to just kind of lounge about and eat some good food. They toss it in this secret sauce that just makes the whole thing fuckin’ pop. Can I say fuckin’ on the air?”

“Alright, alright, let’s try to keep it at least a little PG.”

“My bad. Anyway, I was on my way over there and it started gettin’ real dark. This was around…say 5 or so. Way too early for that kinda shit, but I hardly noticed on account of my mind being on that chicken.”

“Naturally.”

“Yeah, so I’m walkin’ in, and I buy myself a bucket and a couple brewskis. It’s my day off, why not, y’know? Jim’s there and he’s just kinda lounging about, he sees me come in and makes me fresh bucket. I’m on cloud 9, pretty good day. I couldn’t help myself but chow down a bit on the way out, and while I’m lickin’ the sauce off my fingers, I hear a scuffle.”

“A scuffle, you say.”

“Yeah, like somethin’ rummaging around the trash. So, I take a gander around the side where Jim keeps his dumpsters. He keeps em pretty clean, but I guess the trucks stopped running early today for some reason. Anyway, when I move around the side, I see a shadow rummaging around the trash bins. It looked like some homeless dude, maybe trying to get some scraps of chicken. I can’t blame em, the chicken’s that good.”

“Oh, I believe ya, Jackson.”

“Get in my belly!” Fat Bastard exclaims.

“Hell yeah! I love you, Alex! Going back to what I was sayin’, I took a closer look and the thing jumped at me. It looked almost like a man, but its skin was all green and cracked, and its eyes…holy shit, they were bright red. The thing lunged at me. It grabbed onto my arm and nearly made me drop my chicken, but I gave it a good wallop and that sent it reelin’ back to the trash.”

“Hold on there, Jackson. Are you tellin’ me that a giant frog attacked you today?”

“Not a giant frog, a FROG-MAN. And it nearly got me too before I sent him back cryin’ to his mama!”

“Wow, this is unprecedented. Were you hurt at all in the altercation?”

“Nah, just a scratch really, but the thing looked like it was ready to bite my head off.”

“Well, maybe go get that scratch looked at. Can never be too careful with frogmen, after all.”

“Oh, I aint got the insurance for that, but I’ll be fine. Nothin’ a bit of Smirnoff can’t fix, amirite?”

“If you say so, Jackson. Well, I’m glad you made it out okay from your encounter, not everyone would be so lucky. Keep that arm elevated and try to get it looked at some time. Got that?”

“You’re sounding just like my old lady, but I’ll keep an eye out. Damn, that smarts.”

“Thanks for the call. Holy hell, Alex. Have you heard of anything like that happening? Maybe just a homeless dude trying to get some free chicken, but who can tell.”

“That escalated quickly.” Ron Burgundy replies.

“Alright, well let’s take a couple more calls and…oh…what’s this? Ladies and gentlemen, it appears our very own chopper reporter Jeff Stillton is reaching out again. No doubt that he’s got his own sighting all the way up that high. We’re patching him in now. Jeff? What’s the news?”

“Yes, uh…hello, Jed. Sorry for reporting so soon, but we’ve got a situation up here.”

“A situation? Now that sounds ominous. What’s got you all spooked, Jeff? Dave doin’ cartwheels behind the controls again?”

“Nothing like that, Jed. Reports of heavy cloud coverage have been popping up since 4pm this evening, and I believe we may have just spotted why.”

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense. What’s got our town all up in the dark?”

“Well, Jed, it’s no news that the mayoral office had approved of the renovations over at South Chester’s Mine. They started drilling earlier this morning and have been at it quite a while. Well, we’re just South of the Mine and there appears to be smoke billowing out from the construction site.”

“Smoke? Well, I hope everyone’s okay. Does it look like there’s been a fire or anything of the like?”

“No, Jed. Actually, I can’t tell where the smoke is coming from. It looks like it’s just rising from the ground itself. I don’t think I’m doing it quite justice, Jed, but there is a lot of smoke. So much that it’s been running all across Summer’s Point and traveling to the neighboring towns.”

“Well, that would explain the clouds, but what does it mean, Jeff.”

“I wish I could tell you. Chopper Dave has been out of sorts for the last couple of miles. Not really talking and just flying closer to the Mine. Jesus, Jed, there’s so much smoke.”

“I would heavily advice you two to not get any closer. You never know what that shit could be. Could be toxic waste lodged under the mine and all that activity sparked it or something.”

“I agree, but Dave is…he’s acting strange, Jed. He’s just staring forward, it almost sounds like he’s whispering something, but I can’t make it out. We’ve just breached the perimeter of the construction zone. The smoke is positively billowing from the ground.”

“You gotta get away from there, Jeff. I got a bad feeling about all this.”

“We’ve just entered the main smokestack. Jed, I don’t know what’s going on, but Dave stopped whispering. It’s dark all around, even darker than before. There’s…there’s something wrong here, Jed.”

“Jeff, you gotta stay calm here. Is there any way you can get Dave away from the controls? Maybe he’s having some kind of episode, but you can’t stay out there. Jeff?”

“Jed…there’s…there’s something moving in the smoke. I can’t make it out…but it’s…moving within the smoke itself, like some kind of creature. What is that?”

“Jeff? Jeff, listen to me, what do you see out there?”

“I don’t…I…can’t…”

Static erupts from the speaker system.

“Jeff? Jeff! Alex, what happened, where did they go?”

“I don’t know.” Replies Doctor Evil.

“This isn’t the time, Alex. Are they gone? Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a parody or part of the show. We’ve just lost contact with our airborne reporting team. I…wish I had more information, but something is going on in Summer’s Point. Please, stay calm and remain indoors for now. Something tells me this is gonna be a long night.”

To be continued