WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:03.600 The rain patters incessantly against the Hiker’s hood. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:07.080 The sound that has been accompanying her for the last four hours of walking through the 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:08.710 Blue Ridge Mountains. 00:00:08.710 --> 00:00:13.000 Just that noise and the squelch of her shoes as they tread their way up the gravel path. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.530 It doesn’t help that it’s now almost pitch black. 00:00:16.530 --> 00:00:18.530 Come to Blue Ridge, you’ll love it here. 00:00:18.530 --> 00:00:19.840 We can go out together. 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:21.200 Yeah right. 00:00:21.200 --> 00:00:24.930 Her friend had bailed on her at the last minute, taking half of their equipment with her so 00:00:24.930 --> 00:00:28.539 the Hiker had to buy herself a whole new tent and sleeping bag that morning. 00:00:28.539 --> 00:00:33.579 Now, as she trudges her way up yet another trail in the pouring rain, she seriously wonders 00:00:33.579 --> 00:00:35.600 if it was worth the trip out to Virginia. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.910 She is so absorbed by the rain and the darkness that she fails to see the man walking towards 00:00:39.910 --> 00:00:41.600 her until the last second. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:43.630 He isn’t coming along the path. 00:00:43.630 --> 00:00:44.780 Not at all. 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:47.470 Instead, he is marching straight up the ridge on her right. 00:00:47.470 --> 00:00:51.719 Making a beeline for her, he’s dressed in ragged waterproof clothes that catch and tear 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:54.280 on the bushes as he pushes his way through them. 00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:56.730 He closes the gap to her startlingly fast. 00:00:56.730 --> 00:01:00.559 So quickly in fact that she has to jump back out of his way to stop him from walking right 00:01:00.559 --> 00:01:01.560 into her. 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:05.609 She catches her heel on a rock and loses her balance, landing squarely on her tailbone. 00:01:05.609 --> 00:01:09.229 A dull ache shoots up her torso, enough to wind her. 00:01:09.229 --> 00:01:12.920 But as she gasps for air, the man just walks right on past. 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:17.100 He crosses the path and strides up the embankment to the left, disappearing into the woods without 00:01:17.100 --> 00:01:19.270 so much as a glance back at her. 00:01:19.270 --> 00:01:22.869 By the time she’s got the air in her lungs to call out at him indignantly, he’s long 00:01:22.869 --> 00:01:24.119 gone. 00:01:24.119 --> 00:01:26.259 Her breath doesn’t fully come back though. 00:01:26.259 --> 00:01:28.350 Some part of her feels rattled. 00:01:28.350 --> 00:01:33.109 As she gets up, feeling that familiar squelch in her boots, and continues along the trail 00:01:33.109 --> 00:01:36.469 she can’t quite settle her lungs into their normal pattern. 00:01:36.469 --> 00:01:40.920 She walks another mile or so, but the anxiety doesn’t go away. 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:41.920 That settles it. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:43.189 She won’t camp on her own tonight. 00:01:43.189 --> 00:01:46.259 There’s a hostel just up the ridge that she can go to. 00:01:46.259 --> 00:01:50.240 It might be quiet because of the weather, but there’ll at least be some company there. 00:01:50.240 --> 00:01:53.829 The last thing she wants is to be a woman camping alone with a strange man marching 00:01:53.829 --> 00:01:55.579 around the woods like that. 00:01:55.579 --> 00:01:57.090 Safety in numbers. 00:01:57.090 --> 00:01:58.229 And numbers there are. 00:01:58.229 --> 00:02:02.749 As she approaches the hostel, she spots a small gang of tents surrounding it. 00:02:02.749 --> 00:02:06.029 There is a little canopy outside with an open fire underneath. 00:02:06.029 --> 00:02:10.170 Rain bedraggled campers huddle around the flames like a group of waterlogged moths. 00:02:10.170 --> 00:02:14.200 Their brightly colored raincoats are draped heavily over their shoulders, lit up eerily 00:02:14.200 --> 00:02:16.140 by the orange glow. 00:02:16.140 --> 00:02:21.000 The nearest guy, in a blue coat, waves her over and explains that the hostel is already 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:22.000 full. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.561 Apparently, hikers have been flocking to the building all day to escape the rain; some 00:02:25.561 --> 00:02:30.320 of them are too exhausted and wet to say a word, just heading straight inside and sitting 00:02:30.320 --> 00:02:31.510 in a bunk. 00:02:31.510 --> 00:02:33.820 They are packed in there like sardines apparently. 00:02:33.820 --> 00:02:35.230 Definitely a fire hazard. 00:02:35.230 --> 00:02:37.670 The smell in there, he explains, is unbelievable. 00:02:37.670 --> 00:02:41.000 She has probably dodged a bullet being late and having to camp outside. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.170 A girl from the group gets up and shows the Hiker to a good spot, raised slightly above 00:02:45.170 --> 00:02:48.180 the puddles that threaten to turn the grass into a swamp. 00:02:48.180 --> 00:02:51.350 The Hiker thanks her and starts to set up her new tent. 00:02:51.350 --> 00:02:52.410 It goes terribly. 00:02:52.410 --> 00:02:54.990 She’s never set up one like it before. 00:02:54.990 --> 00:02:58.300 Whoever designed it had clearly never gone camping in the rain. 00:02:58.300 --> 00:03:01.790 The inner has to go up first, before she puts the outer rain cover over it. 00:03:01.790 --> 00:03:05.800 So right away, her room for the night has been drenched in rainwater. 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:06.910 Perfect. 00:03:06.910 --> 00:03:10.690 She throws her bag inside and hurries back over to the fire, eager to get out of the 00:03:10.690 --> 00:03:11.880 rain for a bit. 00:03:11.880 --> 00:03:13.870 There’s quite a crowd gathered around the fire. 00:03:13.870 --> 00:03:19.300 They mostly just sit in silence, only a handful of campers keeping the conversation going. 00:03:19.300 --> 00:03:23.990 Many of the strangers don’t say a word at all, just sit there staring into the flames. 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:28.010 The Hiker does the same for the longest time, just enjoying the feeling of having her hood 00:03:28.010 --> 00:03:33.000 down, some warmth on her wrinkled fingertips, and a bit of human company around her. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:37.060 After what feels like an hour, the guy in the blue coat asks if anyone wants to hear 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:38.480 a ghost story. 00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:42.360 Immediately, four different people start yelling at him to stop being such a cliche. 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.110 They’re grown adults, surely they can have a normal conversation around a campfire at 00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:49.880 night without having to reach for such low-hanging fruit. 00:03:49.880 --> 00:03:51.100 They can’t. 00:03:51.100 --> 00:03:52.920 A woman starts things off. 00:03:52.920 --> 00:03:57.100 She talks about a boy from her school who’d gone missing up in these mountains years ago. 00:03:57.100 --> 00:04:01.000 On the night of his junior prom, he’d skidded off the road and down a ravine. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:02.670 No one ever found the body. 00:04:02.670 --> 00:04:06.640 Then, as if by magic, he’d appeared at his girlfriend’s house on the following year's 00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:09.780 prom night, dressed in the same clothes he’d gone missing in. 00:04:09.780 --> 00:04:14.560 But when her parents came to wake her up in the morning, he had mysteriously vanished. 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:17.290 No one finds it particularly scary. 00:04:17.290 --> 00:04:19.259 Someone else jumps in with a story of his own. 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:20.259 Similar theme really. 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:24.199 A cousin had a friend who knew someone who owned a kayak that he’d capsized on some 00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:25.199 rapids. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:29.009 Ten years later, he turned up at a campsite in the middle of the night, and so on and 00:04:29.009 --> 00:04:30.099 so on. 00:04:30.099 --> 00:04:33.009 Safe to say, none of the ghost stories are any good. 00:04:33.009 --> 00:04:37.050 The Hiker stops listening, staring into the flames and letting her mind drift. 00:04:37.050 --> 00:04:39.460 She can’t help but let her mind drift back to the man from earlier. 00:04:39.460 --> 00:04:42.330 The Hiker shudders involuntarily. 00:04:42.330 --> 00:04:45.110 One of the campers around the fire asks if she’s okay. 00:04:45.110 --> 00:04:47.430 She tells them it’s just the rain. 00:04:47.430 --> 00:04:48.650 That man. 00:04:48.650 --> 00:04:50.659 Something had been seriously wrong with him. 00:04:50.659 --> 00:04:54.360 Dressed in tattered waterproof clothes, walking in such a straight line. 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:55.680 Totally ignoring her. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:58.979 Not just ignoring her but nearly walking through her. 00:04:58.979 --> 00:05:00.319 Should she tell someone? 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:02.199 Maybe he is still somewhere out there? 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:03.550 Maybe he’s sick. 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:05.199 She should say something. 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:07.979 The Hiker sits herself up straight and looks around the circle. 00:05:07.979 --> 00:05:10.830 She is just opening her mouth to speak when she freezes. 00:05:10.830 --> 00:05:12.599 There he is. 00:05:12.599 --> 00:05:13.599 The man. 00:05:13.599 --> 00:05:14.919 Sitting two places to her left. 00:05:14.919 --> 00:05:16.999 How had she missed him? 00:05:16.999 --> 00:05:20.040 Rain drips from his hood and runs down his sleeves. 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:21.040 He isn’t looking at her. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:26.219 He isn’t looking at anything; just staring straight ahead, at something beyond the fire. 00:05:26.219 --> 00:05:31.229 “Is everything okay?” the guy in the blue coat asks, noticing the Hiker’s discomfort. 00:05:31.229 --> 00:05:35.349 She gathers herself and tells him everything’s fine, but the interruption is enough to kill 00:05:35.349 --> 00:05:37.099 the conversation. 00:05:37.099 --> 00:05:39.930 An uneasy atmosphere settles over the campfire. 00:05:39.930 --> 00:05:41.729 No one quite knows what to say. 00:05:41.729 --> 00:05:45.289 The only sounds are the crackle of the campfire and her breathing. 00:05:45.289 --> 00:05:48.319 She can hear it speeding up again, her lungs falling out of rhythm. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:49.949 Out of sync with her body. 00:05:49.949 --> 00:05:51.460 In sync with her growing panic. 00:05:51.460 --> 00:05:53.159 Is he following her? 00:05:53.159 --> 00:05:54.690 It’s too much. 00:05:54.690 --> 00:05:57.349 The Hiker excuses herself and gets up from the fire. 00:05:57.349 --> 00:06:01.099 She walks in the direction of her tent but with every step she finds her lungs falling 00:06:01.099 --> 00:06:02.759 further out of rhythm. 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:03.759 Breathe in. 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:04.759 Breathe out. 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:05.759 Simple as that. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:06.759 One breath in. 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:07.759 One breath out. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:08.759 In through the nose. 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:09.759 Out through the mouth… 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:11.229 Is he behind her? 00:06:11.229 --> 00:06:12.229 Is he… 00:06:12.229 --> 00:06:13.229 She wheels around. 00:06:13.229 --> 00:06:14.229 No. 00:06:14.229 --> 00:06:18.259 No, he is still sitting with the crowd staring into the fire, just like the lady next to 00:06:18.259 --> 00:06:19.860 him, and the young kid next to her. 00:06:19.860 --> 00:06:24.160 In fact, half of the people sitting around the fire don’t seem to be moving at all. 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:28.620 In fact, none of those people looking into the fire have said a word all evening. 00:06:28.620 --> 00:06:32.199 Not a laugh, not a smile, nothing. 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:36.349 And come to think of it, there must be eleven of them sitting around that fire, but there 00:06:36.349 --> 00:06:38.979 are only five tents set up out here. 00:06:38.979 --> 00:06:42.169 A figure emerges out of the darkness so suddenly it makes her jump. 00:06:42.169 --> 00:06:46.370 He can’t be more than a few feet away from her but in the darkness she would never have 00:06:46.370 --> 00:06:48.099 guessed he was there. 00:06:48.099 --> 00:06:52.509 This new stranger walks straight past her, over to the fire, and takes her empty spot. 00:06:52.509 --> 00:06:53.520 No introductions. 00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:55.409 No asking if that space was taken. 00:06:55.409 --> 00:06:57.479 He just sits down. 00:06:57.479 --> 00:07:01.430 Quietly as she can, the Hiker walks back over to the group, careful to hang back just out 00:07:01.430 --> 00:07:03.270 of the flickering glow of the fire. 00:07:03.270 --> 00:07:06.770 She watches as the newcomer takes the exact same pose as the others sitting around the 00:07:06.770 --> 00:07:10.150 fire, blank expression, staring straight ahead. 00:07:10.150 --> 00:07:12.319 The guy in the blue coat welcomes the new guest. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:13.460 No response. 00:07:13.460 --> 00:07:15.360 He puts an arm around the stranger. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:16.360 Nothing. 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:17.990 He asks if he’s okay. 00:07:17.990 --> 00:07:20.009 Had a long day? 00:07:20.009 --> 00:07:21.009 Silence. 00:07:21.009 --> 00:07:24.400 The concern seems to register on the guy’s face, and indeed on the faces of the others 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:25.509 sitting around the fire. 00:07:25.509 --> 00:07:29.210 Or rather, on half of the faces of those sitting around the fire. 00:07:29.210 --> 00:07:32.610 The other half just carries on staring into the flames. 00:07:32.610 --> 00:07:33.610 The faces. 00:07:33.610 --> 00:07:35.979 There’s something strange about their faces. 00:07:35.979 --> 00:07:39.900 Their skin, it isn’t just rain-soaked and cold, it looks slightly bloated. 00:07:39.900 --> 00:07:40.900 Sallow. 00:07:40.900 --> 00:07:44.940 Like a thin layer of plastic wrapped too tightly around a piece of meat that had been forgotten 00:07:44.940 --> 00:07:46.139 about. 00:07:46.139 --> 00:07:48.629 All of a sudden, the guy in the blue coat stands up sharply. 00:07:48.629 --> 00:07:51.949 “I’m going to bed,” he announces in a slightly choked voice. 00:07:51.949 --> 00:07:52.949 “I…” 00:07:52.949 --> 00:07:56.939 Then he runs, scrambling away from the fireside and out into the rain. 00:07:56.939 --> 00:07:59.180 The Hiker catches up to him and grabs his arm. 00:07:59.180 --> 00:08:03.319 He wheels around and stares at her with wild eyes, looking her up and down, then pulls 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:04.319 away. 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:06.080 Heading for the door to the hostel. 00:08:06.080 --> 00:08:09.749 From behind her, the Hiker hears the others from around the fire all getting up to leave 00:08:09.749 --> 00:08:10.749 too. 00:08:10.749 --> 00:08:12.669 And this time it really is everyone. 00:08:12.669 --> 00:08:14.949 Even the strangers with their bloated skin. 00:08:14.949 --> 00:08:16.039 Everyone is getting up. 00:08:16.039 --> 00:08:19.330 She turns back to Blue Coat and implores him to let her come and stay in the hostel for 00:08:19.330 --> 00:08:20.330 the night. 00:08:20.330 --> 00:08:22.379 She doesn’t feel safe out here anymore. 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:25.590 He just shakes his head at her, mouthing noiselessly. 00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:27.770 His eyes lock with something over her shoulder. 00:08:27.770 --> 00:08:30.900 She spins around to see the stranger, the newest one to join them at the fire. 00:08:30.900 --> 00:08:32.419 He’s right behind her. 00:08:32.419 --> 00:08:33.660 Inches from her face. 00:08:33.660 --> 00:08:35.010 The smell hits her. 00:08:35.010 --> 00:08:38.010 It isn’t overwhelming, but it is there, sure enough. 00:08:38.010 --> 00:08:41.810 The smell of rotting meat, barely making it to her nostrils as if it was seeping through 00:08:41.810 --> 00:08:44.030 the gaps of a closed dumpster. 00:08:44.030 --> 00:08:46.040 The stranger does not look at her though. 00:08:46.040 --> 00:08:50.740 He raises a lazy arm and pushes her out of the way, eyes fixed on the door to the hostel. 00:08:50.740 --> 00:08:53.360 Blue Coat drops all pretense and starts running for the door. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:57.810 He reaches it, dives inside, and slams the door hard behind him. 00:08:57.810 --> 00:09:01.080 The stranger continues to walk to the door, all the way to the doorstep. 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:02.750 Then stops. 00:09:02.750 --> 00:09:04.900 Another of the strangers joins him. 00:09:04.900 --> 00:09:07.300 Then the stranger with the tattered waterproofs. 00:09:07.300 --> 00:09:08.460 Then the others. 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:10.570 Seven figures standing by the doorway. 00:09:10.570 --> 00:09:13.620 Not knocking, shouting, or doing anything at all. 00:09:13.620 --> 00:09:18.890 Just waiting patiently, as if at any moment someone will come and let them in. 00:09:18.890 --> 00:09:20.570 The Hiker stands motionless. 00:09:20.570 --> 00:09:21.900 She holds her breath. 00:09:21.900 --> 00:09:23.800 Maybe they’ve forgotten that she is here. 00:09:23.800 --> 00:09:25.780 She glances around back over to the fire. 00:09:25.780 --> 00:09:27.650 The others seem lost as to what to do. 00:09:27.650 --> 00:09:31.360 All of them are right on the verge of running, only there’s nothing to run from. 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:34.760 The strangers aren’t doing anything, they aren’t even looking at them. 00:09:34.760 --> 00:09:37.470 Just waiting by the door to the hostel. 00:09:37.470 --> 00:09:40.810 The Hiker, still holding her breath, creeps over to the group. 00:09:40.810 --> 00:09:43.560 Three girls, including herself, and two guys. 00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:46.660 They all exchange silent looks of fear with one another. 00:09:46.660 --> 00:09:48.310 Maybe they are overreacting. 00:09:48.310 --> 00:09:50.360 Maybe these strangers don’t speak English. 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:53.890 Maybe they are just exhausted from the wet weather and acting strangely because they’ve 00:09:53.890 --> 00:09:55.040 become a little delirious. 00:09:55.040 --> 00:09:57.680 Maybe it’s all just one big prank. 00:09:57.680 --> 00:09:59.500 Maybe, maybe, maybe. 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:03.800 For a long time, they stand like that; the five of them huddling near to the fire, the 00:10:03.800 --> 00:10:05.840 strangers waiting by the door to the hostel. 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:06.840 No one speaking. 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:07.840 No one moving. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.350 The fire sputters and shrinks the longer they stand there. 00:10:11.350 --> 00:10:13.310 The strangers remain totally still. 00:10:13.310 --> 00:10:14.310 Creepy? 00:10:14.310 --> 00:10:15.310 Yes. 00:10:15.310 --> 00:10:16.800 But nothing bad has happened. 00:10:16.800 --> 00:10:17.800 No one is being attacked. 00:10:17.800 --> 00:10:19.120 No one is in danger. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:21.560 Maybe they are overreacting after all. 00:10:21.560 --> 00:10:23.070 Tiredness sets in. 00:10:23.070 --> 00:10:24.920 It must be 2 AM, maybe 3. 00:10:24.920 --> 00:10:27.140 Would it be crazy to just go to bed? 00:10:27.140 --> 00:10:31.230 Those strangers, odd as they are, are not actually doing anything. 00:10:31.230 --> 00:10:32.840 And it is so dark and so cold. 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:37.630 Maybe if they just get into their tents and go to bed, everyone would be gone by the morning. 00:10:37.630 --> 00:10:41.650 So that is what they do, agreeing with their plan in hushed whispers. 00:10:41.650 --> 00:10:43.560 The Hiker volunteers to go last. 00:10:43.560 --> 00:10:48.340 The others all get their things and disappear into their tents, as she stands to watch. 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:50.220 None of the seven strangers by the door move. 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:52.880 They just wait there patiently. 00:10:52.880 --> 00:10:54.040 Expressionless. 00:10:54.040 --> 00:10:55.410 Slightly bloated. 00:10:55.410 --> 00:10:57.030 Waiting to be let inside. 00:10:57.030 --> 00:10:59.950 Finally, it is her time to go to bed. 00:10:59.950 --> 00:11:03.360 Quickly as she can, she unzips the door and ducks inside. 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:06.230 The zip is loud, much louder than she expected. 00:11:06.230 --> 00:11:07.260 Stupid new tent. 00:11:07.260 --> 00:11:11.340 So loud that as she closes it behind herself, she sees the stranger in the tattered coat 00:11:11.340 --> 00:11:14.260 turning to look at her, through the closing gap. 00:11:14.260 --> 00:11:15.260 Then nothing. 00:11:15.260 --> 00:11:17.240 She is on her own. 00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:18.240 Finally. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:21.480 She is holding her breath again, and through what she thought were impenetrable canvas 00:11:21.480 --> 00:11:25.340 walls comes a sound, just audible over the pattering rain. 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:26.340 Footsteps. 00:11:26.340 --> 00:11:28.570 A shadow falls over the tent. 00:11:28.570 --> 00:11:30.860 The zipper slowly drags its way open. 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:35.100 The rainy wind blows in, carrying with it the stench of rotten meat, as the stranger 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:37.780 crouches down and crawls into the tent. 00:11:37.780 --> 00:11:41.410 There isn’t space in there for the both of them, he crawls virtually onto her lap, 00:11:41.410 --> 00:11:43.200 his face inches from hers. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:46.240 Looking right at her but not seeing her at all. 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:48.370 Now she is breathing, hard and fast. 00:11:48.370 --> 00:11:52.070 Shallow breaths that wrack her lungs and send her whole body into convulsions and heave 00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:54.620 that horrible smell into her nose. 00:11:54.620 --> 00:11:55.620 More footsteps. 00:11:55.620 --> 00:11:59.410 The whole tent lurches to the side as another one of the strangers crawls in, stretching 00:11:59.410 --> 00:12:00.990 the canvas out to the left. 00:12:00.990 --> 00:12:04.820 He puts a heavy clammy palm directly onto her arm, absently pinning her down. 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:08.750 Once he’s in, just like the other stranger, he just stops and waits. 00:12:08.750 --> 00:12:11.790 A third one forces his way into the tent. 00:12:11.790 --> 00:12:14.890 The Hiker is now lying flat on her back, half pinned down. 00:12:14.890 --> 00:12:16.690 There’s nowhere left for her to go. 00:12:16.690 --> 00:12:18.560 There is physically no space left in the tent. 00:12:18.560 --> 00:12:20.260 There is no air to breathe. 00:12:20.260 --> 00:12:22.550 Nothing but these strangers. 00:12:22.550 --> 00:12:24.630 Footsteps surround her, yelps from the other tents. 00:12:24.630 --> 00:12:26.510 Zips opening, poles bending. 00:12:26.510 --> 00:12:27.730 Then silence. 00:12:27.730 --> 00:12:32.040 Nothing but the patter of rain, as the five campers lie there, closed in by these seven 00:12:32.040 --> 00:12:33.750 strangers. 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:35.490 Breathe in, breathe out. 00:12:35.490 --> 00:12:38.410 Breathe in, rotten meat, breathe out. 00:12:38.410 --> 00:12:43.200 The Hiker lies there totally still as panic attack after panic attack wracks her body, 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:46.350 as the strangers in her tent do nothing. 00:12:46.350 --> 00:12:47.750 Time warps out of shape. 00:12:47.750 --> 00:12:49.540 She has no idea how long it has been. 00:12:49.540 --> 00:12:53.480 But every so often, a new set of footsteps will march themselves purposefully up to the 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:57.420 entrance of her tent and a new shadow will join those encircling her. 00:12:57.420 --> 00:12:59.250 How many are there now? 00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:01.340 She can count them by the light of the fire. 00:13:01.340 --> 00:13:02.340 Nine? 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:03.340 Twelve? 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:05.050 The counting gets easier. 00:13:05.050 --> 00:13:07.560 Somehow the fire is growing steadily brighter. 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:10.990 Brighter and brighter, until she can feel the warmth of it even from here. 00:13:10.990 --> 00:13:12.820 But no, it’s too bright. 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:13.820 Too warm. 00:13:13.820 --> 00:13:15.770 That can’t just be from that fire. 00:13:15.770 --> 00:13:18.340 Besides, no one out there is feeding it. 00:13:18.340 --> 00:13:20.020 Then the screaming starts. 00:13:20.020 --> 00:13:24.110 Just a few muffled yells at first, rising to blood-curdling shrieks within seconds. 00:13:24.110 --> 00:13:26.760 Within a minute, the sound of a roof collapsing. 00:13:26.760 --> 00:13:29.670 Sparks land on the tent and seer little holes into the material. 00:13:29.670 --> 00:13:32.610 The hostel, it’s burning. 00:13:32.610 --> 00:13:35.720 The Hiker wants nothing more than to break out of the tent and run to help. 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:37.650 But the strangers surround her. 00:13:37.650 --> 00:13:38.650 Doing nothing. 00:13:38.650 --> 00:13:40.160 Just pinning her down. 00:13:40.160 --> 00:13:41.270 Motionless. 00:13:41.270 --> 00:13:42.370 Stinking. 00:13:42.370 --> 00:13:43.370 She blinks. 00:13:43.370 --> 00:13:44.720 They’re gone. 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:47.010 The pressure on her arm isn’t there anymore. 00:13:47.010 --> 00:13:48.980 The shadows on the fabric are gone. 00:13:48.980 --> 00:13:50.520 Just the light from the fire remains. 00:13:50.520 --> 00:13:53.841 That, and the smell still wafting in the air. 00:13:53.841 --> 00:13:57.360 The Hiker gasps for air and receives a lungful of smoke. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:59.680 She throws herself forward and out of the opening in her tent. 00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:01.230 It is too late. 00:14:01.230 --> 00:14:06.220 The hostel burns fiercely, just as the morning sun crests over the horizon and the last droplets 00:14:06.220 --> 00:14:08.820 of rain fall at her feet. 00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:12.860 That morning, the Hiker found herself standing right in the middle of SCP-1102. 00:14:12.860 --> 00:14:18.740 You see, this particular anomaly is not a creature at all as you might have expected, 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:20.530 but rather a region. 00:14:20.530 --> 00:14:25.200 Within the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, USA, is a geographical area known for a disarming 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.790 but ultimately harmless supernatural occurrence. 00:14:28.790 --> 00:14:31.540 Well, mostly harmless. 00:14:31.540 --> 00:14:36.490 Only occurring at night and during periods of rain or snow, a seemingly random area within 00:14:36.490 --> 00:14:39.470 the Blue Ridge Mountains will undergo a strange event. 00:14:39.470 --> 00:14:43.460 All of the corpses within that region will seemingly come back to life. 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:45.870 This is no simple reanimation, however. 00:14:45.870 --> 00:14:49.500 The original bodies do not suddenly rise out of the ground. 00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:52.670 Instead, exact copies of those bodies appear. 00:14:52.670 --> 00:14:56.620 While these copies are close enough to the original person to fool observers from a distance, 00:14:56.620 --> 00:15:00.100 they fail to be all that convincing upon closer inspection. 00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:04.120 The skin is the biggest giveaway, looking somewhat deteriorated and different in color 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:05.730 from the original person. 00:15:05.730 --> 00:15:09.780 The most obvious difference, however, is the behavior. 00:15:09.780 --> 00:15:14.710 Corpses created during an SCP-1102 phenomenon lack full brain function. 00:15:14.710 --> 00:15:18.380 While studies have found flickers of activity occurring between the neurons, it is nowhere 00:15:18.380 --> 00:15:21.070 near enough to sustain intelligent thought. 00:15:21.070 --> 00:15:25.810 These bodies find themselves driven by one simple and very human desire. 00:15:25.810 --> 00:15:27.570 They want company. 00:15:27.570 --> 00:15:32.120 Any corpses, human or otherwise, will seek the nearest crowd of their own species and 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:33.750 gather with them. 00:15:33.750 --> 00:15:36.880 Beyond this drive, little is known about their motivations. 00:15:36.880 --> 00:15:43.220 Once with the group, they do not feed, reproduce, seek dominance, or even offer any social interaction. 00:15:43.220 --> 00:15:47.880 They just return to their nearest point of civilization, simply to be there. 00:15:47.880 --> 00:15:50.590 Until all of a sudden, they aren’t there. 00:15:50.590 --> 00:15:56.700 When the sun rises after an SCP-1102 occurrence, every walking corpse simply disappears along 00:15:56.700 --> 00:15:59.080 with the original corpse that it was copied from. 00:15:59.080 --> 00:16:00.450 Not a trace is left behind. 00:16:00.450 --> 00:16:04.990 Unless of course, you happen to get that smell trapped in your brand new tent. 00:16:04.990 --> 00:16:09.370 And this brings us to what was most unfortunate about the incident up at the hostel in the 00:16:09.370 --> 00:16:12.390 Blue Ridge Mountains that our Hiker bore witness to. 00:16:12.390 --> 00:16:16.920 The fire that started had nothing to do with SCP-1102. 00:16:16.920 --> 00:16:20.880 All that happened was our friend in the blue coat felt so afraid of the strangers standing 00:16:20.880 --> 00:16:25.240 outside that he sat himself right up against one of the hearths inside. 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:28.460 Close enough for the edge of his coat to catch fire. 00:16:28.460 --> 00:16:33.340 While the whole building did burn down, rescue services only found eight bodies inside. 00:16:33.340 --> 00:16:36.220 Far from the maximum capacity the hostel offered. 00:16:36.220 --> 00:16:40.090 Almost as if everyone else crowded inside that building had mysteriously vanished. 00:16:40.090 --> 00:16:45.450 Of course, keeping an SCP like this one away from the public eye is no small task. 00:16:45.450 --> 00:16:49.900 Containing a seemingly random geographic phenomenon is virtually impossible without sealing off 00:16:49.900 --> 00:16:51.230 the whole mountain range. 00:16:51.230 --> 00:16:55.950 Instead, a group of dedicated agents has spent several years running an information operation 00:16:55.950 --> 00:16:57.240 instead. 00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:00.840 Taking the truth of these events, and dressing them up as cliched ghost stories. 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:03.270 The kind you’d tell around a campfire. 00:17:03.270 --> 00:17:07.010 So next time you sit across from someone toasting a marshmallow and telling you about a friend 00:17:07.010 --> 00:17:10.350 they once had, it might just be worth paying attention to. 00:17:10.350 --> 00:17:14.510 You never know who might be on their way to join you. 00:17:14.510 --> 00:17:18.730 if you want to support this important mission, while also getting influence over the anomalies 00:17:18.730 --> 00:17:23.120 we cover and an exclusive look behind the scenes, check out the Dr. Bob patreon and 00:17:23.120 --> 00:17:26.870 become a junior researcher today 00:17:26.870 --> 00:17:32.310 Now go and watch another entry from the files of Dr Bob, like SCP-3998 The Wicker Witch 00:17:32.310 --> 00:17:36.190 Lives, for more frightening remnants of the past coming back to haunt you. 00:17:36.190 --> 00:17:40.150 And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we 00:17:40.150 --> 00:17:44.049 delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.