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They followed an awful smell… Campfire Stories with MrBallen - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: So tonight, I have two stories to tell you, and
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Speaker 1: they're great stories. But when I was thinking about how
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Speaker 1: I would go about teasing the stories like I do
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Speaker 1: at the top of these episodes, I couldn't quite think
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Speaker 1: of sort of what the connective tissue was between them.
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Speaker 1: But then I realized, really what makes these stories exceptional
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Speaker 1: is that they're both just excellent stories. As I'm getting
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Speaker 1: hit by the heat of this fire, to be told
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Speaker 1: around the campfire.
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Speaker 2: But before we get into those two.
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Speaker 1: Stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and
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Speaker 1: mysterious delivered in story format, and you come to the
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Speaker 1: right campfire, because that's all we do, and we upload
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Speaker 1: two three even four times every week. So if that's
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Speaker 1: of interest to you, go ahead and invite the like
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Speaker 1: button to come to your campfire and cook some smores
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Speaker 1: with you, but give them the wrong date and location. Also,
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Speaker 1: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
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Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly outloads. Okay,
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Speaker 1: let's get into tonight's stories. In the late nineteen nineties,
1:16
Speaker 1: in rural New York, there were these two teenage girls
1:20
Speaker 1: named Rachel and Molly, and they were both very good friends.
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Speaker 1: They were part of a bigger group of friends in
1:25
Speaker 1: their high school that sort of spent a lot of
1:27
Speaker 1: time together, but Rachel and Molly oftentimes were together by
1:31
Speaker 1: themselves quite a bit. And the thing that sort of
1:34
Speaker 1: drew the two together and really sort of made them
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Speaker 1: friends in the first place, and also drew them to
1:38
Speaker 1: that bigger group was their shared love of goth culture.
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Speaker 2: So being goth, especially in the late.
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Speaker 1: Nineties and early two thousands, if you were like a
1:48
Speaker 1: high school kid, basically meant you wore all black clothes,
1:51
Speaker 1: you had like black you know, nail polish, black lipstick,
1:54
Speaker 1: your hair's black. You sort of embraced all things dark
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Speaker 1: and macabre. People were genuinely very into sort of like
2:03
Speaker 1: the idea of embracing the dark side of things. Other
2:05
Speaker 1: people just did it as like a fashion statement, but
2:08
Speaker 1: in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands, it was.
2:11
Speaker 1: It was definitely a thing, certainly in America, and Rachel
2:14
Speaker 1: and Molly were both very committed goths and they just
2:17
Speaker 1: sort of loved that whole vibe. And one of the
2:21
Speaker 1: things that Rachel and Molly really liked to do as
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Speaker 1: goth teenagers is they and their group of friends would
2:29
Speaker 1: go hang out in the local cemetery. Now, at first,
2:33
Speaker 1: the reason they did this was actually to sort of
2:35
Speaker 1: be ironic.
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Speaker 2: You know.
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Speaker 1: It's like they were known as the goth kids in
2:38
Speaker 1: their high school, and so the idea of them hanging
2:41
Speaker 1: out in the cemetery just seemed kind of too on
2:43
Speaker 1: the nose, and so they went out there almost like
2:46
Speaker 1: a joke, the whole group of them. But they found
2:49
Speaker 1: this the cemetery was kind of a cool hangout spot,
2:52
Speaker 1: and they began to really enjoy hanging out in the
2:55
Speaker 1: cemetery and it became sort of like their go to thing,
2:58
Speaker 1: especially on the weekends. Now, typically when Rachel, Molly and
3:04
Speaker 1: their friends would go hang out in the cemetery, they
3:07
Speaker 1: would do so at night to sort of maximize, you know,
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Speaker 1: the darkness, you know, really really leaning into the whole goth.
3:13
Speaker 2: Side of things.
3:14
Speaker 1: But also they would always go as a group, like
3:18
Speaker 1: it was Rachel, Molly and several other people that would
3:21
Speaker 1: be in the cemetery hanging out at one time. Like
3:24
Speaker 1: Rachel and Molly did not go there just the two
3:26
Speaker 1: of them. It was always a group, and part of
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Speaker 1: the reason was it was just more enjoyable that way.
3:32
Speaker 1: But also despite their their love of spending time in
3:36
Speaker 1: the cemetery. It was still a cemetery at night, and
3:39
Speaker 1: it was, you know, a little bit creepy, and so
3:41
Speaker 1: there was you know, strength and numbers, you know, and
3:43
Speaker 1: so they liked being there with a group. It felt safer.
3:47
Speaker 1: One Friday night, Rachel was home alone when she got
3:50
Speaker 1: a call from Molly, and Molly asked her, Hey, do
3:52
Speaker 1: you want to we want to go hang out in
3:54
Speaker 1: the cemetery and Rachel's like, duh, like that's what we
3:57
Speaker 1: do on the weekends. I'd love to go, like come
3:59
Speaker 1: pick up, let's go. And so Rachel she gets already
4:03
Speaker 1: and you know, she's waiting outside and eventually Mollie shows
4:06
Speaker 1: up in her car, and the first thing Rachel notices
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Speaker 1: is that Mollie's all alone in the car. She is
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Speaker 1: not with the group that normally she would be with
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Speaker 1: when they picked Rachel up.
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Speaker 2: So Rachel she walks out to.
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Speaker 1: The car and she climbs in and she says to
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Speaker 1: Molly like, hey, so are we now going to pick
4:23
Speaker 1: up the rest of our friends? Like where is everybody?
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Speaker 1: And Mollie's like, actually no, I tried getting in touch
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Speaker 1: with everybody else, but everybody's either.
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Speaker 2: Busy or working or hung over from last night.
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Speaker 1: So it's just going to be us two at the cemetery, Like,
4:39
Speaker 1: is that okay? And Rachel admittedly did not think this
4:43
Speaker 1: was okay because again, like this was not an activity
4:46
Speaker 1: that these girls did by themselves. Rachel was very close
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Speaker 1: with Molly and vice versa, like that was fine, it's
4:52
Speaker 1: just it's a little uncomfortable being in the cemetery without
4:56
Speaker 1: the big group.
4:57
Speaker 2: But you know, Rachel didn't want to be rude.
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Speaker 1: She sort of felt like Molly had already clearly made
5:01
Speaker 1: peace with them being alone out there, and so Rachel's like, oh, yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's fine, Like it'll.
5:08
Speaker 2: Be great just the two of us, like let's go.
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Speaker 1: And so, even though she sort of didn't want to,
5:12
Speaker 1: you know, she gets in the car and they take
5:14
Speaker 1: off and they drive, you know, the half mile to
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Speaker 1: the to the cemetery.
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Speaker 2: Now, this cemetery was enormous. It was like this massive, very.
5:25
Speaker 1: Old cemetery and when you pull up to it, as
5:28
Speaker 1: as they did in their car, you would first see
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Speaker 1: this this huge like medieval gate, like this archway that
5:34
Speaker 1: sort of goes across the entrance to the cemetery and
5:38
Speaker 1: like the big wrought iron gates. They're sort of permanently open,
5:40
Speaker 1: but it's this very like sort of Gothic looking, you know,
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Speaker 1: archway that you drive through. And then once you're in
5:46
Speaker 1: the cemetery, the roads you're on basically cuts down the
5:49
Speaker 1: very middle of the cemetery all the way to the backside.
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Speaker 1: It's a huge probably like over a mile from one
5:55
Speaker 1: side to the other, and it sort of split the
5:57
Speaker 1: cemetery into two big parts, the right and the left
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Speaker 1: side as you go in, and where they Mollie Rachel
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Speaker 1: and their friends loved to hang out was sort of
6:06
Speaker 1: as you're driving.
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Speaker 2: Into the cemetery, like the back left corner.
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Speaker 1: And the reason they liked that area is because on
6:14
Speaker 1: the left side of the cemetery, sort of on the
6:17
Speaker 1: left hand side, there was sort of like rolling hills
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Speaker 1: that all the plots were in, and in particular, in
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Speaker 1: the back left corner of the cemetery, there was like
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Speaker 1: this one depression in the earth where there really weren't
6:30
Speaker 1: that many tombstones, and there was like a big boulder
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Speaker 1: sitting at the bottom of the depression and a tree
6:35
Speaker 1: that was next to it. And so basically if you
6:38
Speaker 1: were scanning across the top of the cemetery, just from
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Speaker 1: the gate, looking out at the entire expanse of land.
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Speaker 1: Anybody that was down in that sort of depressed area
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Speaker 1: in the back left corner, you basically couldn't see them.
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Speaker 1: They're sort of tucked away down there with the rock
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Speaker 1: and the tree. And so for you know, teenagers, you know,
6:56
Speaker 1: for Rachel Molly and their friends, that was like a
6:58
Speaker 1: great place to hang out and kind of be away
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Speaker 1: from the prying eyes of the public. And so, you know,
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Speaker 1: Rachel and Molly they drive through this gate and they
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Speaker 1: make the familiar drive right down the middle of this
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Speaker 1: road all the way to the very back of the cemetery.
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Speaker 1: By this point, it is getting dark outside. It's not
7:16
Speaker 1: totally dark yet, but it's pretty dark. Nobody's out at
7:19
Speaker 1: the cemetery, no one really ever was occasionally on the
7:23
Speaker 1: other side of the cemetery, basically on the exact opposite
7:26
Speaker 1: side from where they would hang out. Sometimes the college
7:29
Speaker 1: kids that were in town there was a university in
7:32
Speaker 1: their town. They would sometimes hop the fence on the
7:34
Speaker 1: other side and there was like a little bonfire section,
7:37
Speaker 1: like right up against the fence in the cemetery, totally
7:40
Speaker 1: not allowed, but they would sneak over and do that sometimes,
7:43
Speaker 1: but that was sort of rare. But other than those
7:45
Speaker 1: occasional college students over there, the cemetery was basically always vacant.
7:50
Speaker 2: And so they get to the either side.
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Speaker 1: They park their car, they get out, and they walk
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Speaker 1: right from the road basically right down this you know,
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Speaker 1: it's a gentle sloping hill, but down into the.
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Speaker 3: Depression their their hangout spot.
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Speaker 1: And once they get down there, there's that that big
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Speaker 1: rock and the tree, and they each took up positions
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Speaker 1: sitting on the rock, leaning against the tree, and then
8:09
Speaker 1: just began crushing cigarettes and just hanging out, because that's
8:13
Speaker 1: that's what you know, goth teenagers in rural New York
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Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties did so. Rachel and Molly, they're
8:19
Speaker 1: just they're doing their thing. They're having a nice time.
8:21
Speaker 1: They're you know, swapping stories, they're talking about their boyfriends,
8:24
Speaker 1: about drama at school, and eventually, you know, it gets
8:29
Speaker 1: fully dark outside and the girls are still just having
8:31
Speaker 1: a nice time, and Rachel's actually thinking to herself like,
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Speaker 1: actually this is kind of nice, Like this isn't scary,
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Speaker 1: this is this is kind of cool, Like I'm having
8:39
Speaker 1: you know, good one on one time with my buddy here.
8:42
Speaker 1: But eventually as they're they're down there, they start to
8:46
Speaker 1: smell smoke. Now, remember, periodically on the other side of
8:52
Speaker 1: the cemetery, like pretty far away was that bonfire area
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Speaker 1: that college kids sometimes would you know, start bonfires over there.
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Speaker 1: And you know, when Rachel and Molly had first come
9:02
Speaker 1: into the cemetery, they had looked over there and hadn't
9:05
Speaker 1: seen a fire. But they're thinking, you know, we've been
9:07
Speaker 1: hanging out here for quite a while. It's entirely possible
9:10
Speaker 1: that in the time we've been down here that those
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Speaker 1: kids have hop defence started a fire, and that's what
9:15
Speaker 1: we're smelling now. The fire itself really had no bearing
9:19
Speaker 1: directly on whatever Molly and Rachel were going to do
9:21
Speaker 1: that night. I mean, they're on opposite sides of the cemetery,
9:25
Speaker 1: but Rachel and Molly knew that historically, whenever there was
9:29
Speaker 1: upon fire over there, eventually.
9:31
Speaker 2: The police would always show up because.
9:33
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to do that, and they would kick off,
9:35
Speaker 1: you know, the kids, they'd make them put their fire out,
9:38
Speaker 1: and then always the police would do, you know, a
9:40
Speaker 1: check of the entire cemetery and anybody that was hanging
9:43
Speaker 1: out in there, like Molly and Rachel were also got
9:46
Speaker 1: kicked out, even if they were not starting fires. And
9:49
Speaker 1: so Molly and Rachel they looked at each other after
9:51
Speaker 1: smelling this fire, and they both sort of have the
9:53
Speaker 1: same thought, like, we should probably just leave, you know,
9:56
Speaker 1: before the police get here and make us leave. And
9:59
Speaker 1: you know, after all, they'd been there for quite a while,
10:01
Speaker 1: they were about ready to.
10:02
Speaker 2: Leave anyhow, so this was like no big deal.
10:04
Speaker 1: So, you know, they put out their last cigarette, they
10:06
Speaker 1: got their stuff, and they turned and began walking back
10:09
Speaker 1: up the hill, back in the direction they had come
10:11
Speaker 1: down on, back in the direction of their car. And
10:14
Speaker 1: as they're walking up, they're expecting to crest the hill
10:18
Speaker 1: and you know, see their car and see the whole cemetery,
10:21
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe way off in the distance, you know,
10:23
Speaker 1: maybe they'll they'll see a flicker of the of the
10:25
Speaker 1: bonfire that they must be smelling.
10:28
Speaker 2: But as they walk.
10:29
Speaker 1: Up and they see their car and they look out
10:32
Speaker 1: across the cemetery, they don't see a fire over there. Instead,
10:37
Speaker 1: basically right over to their right, like you know, one
10:39
Speaker 1: hundred meters away from them, was another sort of depression
10:43
Speaker 1: in the cemetery another rolling hill that sort of went
10:45
Speaker 1: down out of sight, and they could see basically the
10:48
Speaker 1: tops of a flickering fire like in the in the
10:51
Speaker 1: neighboring depression, like one hundred meters away. Now, when they
10:55
Speaker 1: showed up, they were definitely alone on this side of
11:00
Speaker 1: the cemetery.
11:00
Speaker 2: There was nobody else.
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Speaker 1: Here, and so clearly someone has shown up and started
11:05
Speaker 1: a fire while they were here, and they've never seen
11:09
Speaker 1: any behavior like this. This is like completely unusual, like
11:12
Speaker 1: no one starts fires over here, Like what is that?
11:16
Speaker 1: So the two girls are they're curious, like did the
11:19
Speaker 1: college kids come over here to start a fire?
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Speaker 2: Because again they can only see.
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Speaker 1: The tops of the flames of this fire down in
11:27
Speaker 1: this neighboring depression. They can't see the person or people
11:29
Speaker 1: who are around it. But they're thinking, like the people
11:33
Speaker 1: over there have no idea that we are over here.
11:36
Speaker 1: And so the two girls are like, well, what if
11:37
Speaker 1: we kind of go back down to where we were
11:39
Speaker 1: and sneak up the far side of our sort of
11:42
Speaker 1: hild in area and poke our heads over and like
11:45
Speaker 1: see who's fire this is? You know, we'll see the
11:48
Speaker 1: college kids and see what they're doing. We can like
11:50
Speaker 1: spy on them or something.
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Speaker 2: And the two girls are like, yeah, why not, We're
11:53
Speaker 2: already here.
11:54
Speaker 1: And so the two girls they turn around, they walk
11:57
Speaker 1: back down into the base of their depression where they're
12:00
Speaker 1: the big rock and the tree was that they were
12:01
Speaker 1: just sitting on for the past couple of hours, and
12:04
Speaker 1: they walked past it basically to the other side.
12:06
Speaker 2: And begin walking up that hill.
12:09
Speaker 1: And as they're getting closer and closer to the top
12:11
Speaker 1: of this hill, when eventually, once they reached the top,
12:13
Speaker 1: they could peer over and see the fire and see
12:16
Speaker 1: whoever was there. Right as they got almost to the top,
12:20
Speaker 1: Rachel sort of unintentionally makes some noise, like the way
12:23
Speaker 1: she was walking and she sort of made a sound
12:25
Speaker 1: as she stepped on something. But she accidentally makes a
12:28
Speaker 1: fair amount of noise, and the only noise in the
12:31
Speaker 1: area was the sound of the fire, like they hadn't
12:33
Speaker 1: heard any voices yet, and so Rachel she just covers
12:36
Speaker 1: her mouth and looks over at Molly, and Molly kind
12:38
Speaker 1: of looked at her like.
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Speaker 3: What are you doing, Like we're sneaking up on these people,
12:41
Speaker 3: like why are you making noise?
12:42
Speaker 2: And the two girls they just freeze for.
12:44
Speaker 1: A second, waiting to see if you know, whoever was
12:46
Speaker 1: over there heard them and sort of reacted to the
12:48
Speaker 1: noise Rachel made, but it was silent, sort of eerily silent.
12:53
Speaker 1: And at this point Rachel and Molly, it was like
12:56
Speaker 1: the mood just shifted, like they had not reached the
12:58
Speaker 1: top of the hill yet, they had not seen whoever
13:01
Speaker 1: was at this fire, but it was like something just.
13:04
Speaker 2: Felt wrong now.
13:05
Speaker 1: And the two girls looked at each other and they're like,
13:08
Speaker 1: maybe we should just turn around and leave. And they
13:11
Speaker 1: both were like, yeah, let's get out of here, like
13:12
Speaker 1: this doesn't feel right. And so right then and there,
13:15
Speaker 1: the two girls, as quietly as they could, turned and
13:18
Speaker 1: retreated back down to the center of the depression where
13:21
Speaker 1: the rock and the tree was, and they begin walking
13:23
Speaker 1: back up the original side of the hill in the
13:25
Speaker 1: direction of where their car is parked at the top.
13:28
Speaker 1: Then as they're walking up, Rachel just happens to turn
13:32
Speaker 1: back around where they had just been, just to look
13:34
Speaker 1: in the direction of where they had just been, and
13:36
Speaker 1: now she sees there is clearly a man standing on
13:40
Speaker 1: the ridge line with the fire behind him illuminating him,
13:43
Speaker 1: and he's just standing there sort of ominously staring in
13:46
Speaker 1: the direction of Rachel and Molly, and he's just not
13:49
Speaker 1: saying a word, he's just looking in their direction.
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Speaker 3: Clearly he was the one over at the fire.
13:54
Speaker 1: He must have heard them. And Rachel she whips around
13:56
Speaker 1: and she's like, Molly, look, look, look, and Molly looks,
13:59
Speaker 1: and she's like, let's get out here. We don't know
14:00
Speaker 1: who that guy is. Like, we got to get out
14:01
Speaker 1: of here. And so Rachel and Molly they begin quickly
14:04
Speaker 1: walking up the hill and then a second later, Rachel
14:07
Speaker 1: turns back around and the man is no longer on
14:09
Speaker 1: the hill, but then she sees movement and she realizes
14:12
Speaker 1: he's running down the hill in their direction, and so
14:16
Speaker 1: the girls starts screaming. They start running up the hill.
14:19
Speaker 1: Rachel's constantly looking around, and this guy's gaining on them.
14:21
Speaker 1: They get to the top of the hill, they charge
14:23
Speaker 1: over to Molly's car. They jump inside, they lock the doors,
14:26
Speaker 1: they fire it up, and they drive off, and as
14:28
Speaker 1: they're driving, Rachel's looking out the back window and she
14:31
Speaker 1: sees this man basically looking he's reached the road, like
14:34
Speaker 1: he almost got to them, and he was looking in
14:36
Speaker 1: their direction, and as they drove off, he just slowly
14:40
Speaker 1: turned and walked back down the hill out of sight.
14:44
Speaker 1: And so Rachel and Molly they're like totally shaken up
14:47
Speaker 1: by this, Like clearly that wasn't a college kid, like
14:50
Speaker 1: that was a forty something year old man who they
14:52
Speaker 1: had never seen before. Like the whole situation just felt
14:56
Speaker 1: totally just creepy and spooky.
14:59
Speaker 2: And they really didn't know what to make of it.
15:00
Speaker 1: They sort of felt like, what could have happened if
15:02
Speaker 1: he reached us, Like what was what was he trying
15:04
Speaker 1: to do?
15:04
Speaker 2: Like what just happened? But ultimately when they got home,
15:08
Speaker 2: or when Mollie.
15:09
Speaker 1: Dropped Rachel off at her house, the two girls were
15:12
Speaker 1: sort of like, man, that was that was crazy?
15:14
Speaker 2: Huh. You know.
15:15
Speaker 1: They kind of like chalked it up as like just
15:17
Speaker 1: a crazy night, you know, like, oh boy, we better
15:19
Speaker 1: you know, stay out of there alone at night, you know,
15:20
Speaker 1: like it was just sort of a joke by the
15:22
Speaker 1: time they were done for the night. And so Rachel,
15:25
Speaker 1: you know, she goes into her house, doesn't even tell
15:27
Speaker 1: her mom. She just you know, puts her stuff down,
15:29
Speaker 1: goes to a room. And Mollie she went to her house,
15:31
Speaker 1: and she too, didn't even tell anyone she went to
15:33
Speaker 1: bed as well. The next morning, Rachel woke up and
15:37
Speaker 1: she went downstairs into the kitchen and her mom was
15:39
Speaker 1: in there, and her mom was just kind of doing
15:41
Speaker 1: her morning routine, and when she saw Rachel come in,
15:44
Speaker 1: she said to Rachel, like, hey, how was your night
15:46
Speaker 1: last night? And Rachel was like, oh, you know, it
15:48
Speaker 1: was fine. Me and me and Molly went out. It
15:50
Speaker 1: was fine, no big deal. And her mom was like, oh,
15:54
Speaker 1: did you hear what happened last night? And Rachel's like, no,
15:57
Speaker 1: what do you mean what happened? And her mom was like, well,
16:01
Speaker 1: a woman in her town got kidnapped and she actually
16:04
Speaker 1: she got kidnapped from the very parking garage where I park,
16:08
Speaker 1: like she worked in the same building as me. She
16:10
Speaker 1: got kidnapped. And Rachel's like, oh my god, what happened
16:14
Speaker 1: to her? Like did they find her? And Rachel's mom
16:18
Speaker 1: was like, no, Unfortunately it was too late. When they
16:22
Speaker 1: found her, she was dead. And in fact, whoever kidnapped
16:25
Speaker 1: and then killed her brought her body last night to
16:29
Speaker 1: the local cemetery and burned her in this huge bonfire,
16:34
Speaker 1: and whoever did it still hasn't been caught.
16:38
Speaker 2: And when Rachel heard this.
16:39
Speaker 1: It was like her whole world came crashing down because
16:42
Speaker 1: suddenly she understood what had happened the night before. That
16:46
Speaker 1: fire was no ordinary fire. That was the killer that
16:49
Speaker 1: chased them down the hill. That fire very.
16:52
Speaker 3: Likely contained the woman who had been killed.
16:54
Speaker 1: They were right next to this person, this killer, and
16:57
Speaker 1: this horrible thing happening. And even more creepy is like
17:01
Speaker 1: they were there very likely when the killer arrived, set
17:05
Speaker 1: up shop and began burning this body, you know, no
17:07
Speaker 1: more than one hundred meters away from them. And what
17:10
Speaker 1: would have happened if that man who chased them, what
17:13
Speaker 1: would have.
17:13
Speaker 2: Happened if he caught them?
17:15
Speaker 1: And so Rachel she pours her heart out to her
17:17
Speaker 1: mom and tells her everything that happened the night before,
17:20
Speaker 1: and her mom is like, oh.
17:21
Speaker 2: My god, I can't believe this happened.
17:23
Speaker 1: You have to tell the police because they haven't caught
17:25
Speaker 1: this guy, like you.
17:26
Speaker 2: Have a description of him, like, go talk to the police.
17:29
Speaker 1: And so, sure enough, Rachel she gets in touch with
17:32
Speaker 1: Molly and you know, tells Mollie what happened, and Molly's
17:34
Speaker 1: totally in hysterics.
17:35
Speaker 2: They can't believe what a.
17:36
Speaker 3: Close call this was, and they do go to the police.
17:39
Speaker 1: They tell them, you know, to the best of their ability,
17:41
Speaker 1: what they remember about this guy, which unfortunately was not much.
17:45
Speaker 2: It was like he was average.
17:46
Speaker 1: Height, you know, he looked to be maybe in his forties. Like,
17:48
Speaker 1: there wasn't much to their description. But fortunately, just forty
17:52
Speaker 1: eight hours later, the police were able to catch this
17:55
Speaker 1: guy and he would make a full confession. Luckily two
17:59
Speaker 1: days later, not really because of the girl's description at all,
18:03
Speaker 1: but just sort of by luck alone, the police happened
18:06
Speaker 1: to see the victim's car in town. Somebody was driving
18:09
Speaker 1: the victim's car around, and so they pulled this person
18:12
Speaker 1: over that wound up being the killer, who, after being arrested,
18:16
Speaker 1: did make a full confession. And so, needless to say,
18:20
Speaker 1: Rachel and Molly, when they think about what happened that
18:22
Speaker 1: night in the cemetery, they feel very fortunate that Rachel
18:25
Speaker 1: sort of inadvertently made noise on their approach to go
18:28
Speaker 1: spy on the fire, which ultimately caused them both to
18:31
Speaker 1: sort of rethink their decisions and turn around and leave
18:34
Speaker 1: and very likely saved their life because if that hadn't happened,
18:37
Speaker 1: and they had gone over the hill and had been
18:39
Speaker 1: confronted by the killer. It's entirely possible that both those
18:44
Speaker 1: girls could have wound up in the bonfire as well. So,
18:59
Speaker 1: before I became mister Balin, and you know, told stories
19:02
Speaker 1: on the internet, you know, strange, dark and mysterious stories.
19:06
Speaker 1: I was in the military. I was in Navy seal
19:08
Speaker 1: for for seven years, and there was a time where
19:11
Speaker 1: I believe that was going to be my calling in life.
19:14
Speaker 1: But I ultimately got hurt and honestly, it wasn't really
19:17
Speaker 1: a fit, so I wound up departing, and then obviously
19:21
Speaker 1: the rest is history.
19:21
Speaker 2: I became mister Balin.
19:23
Speaker 1: But you know, I have lots of stories about my
19:26
Speaker 1: time when I was in the military. I have lots
19:29
Speaker 1: of really funny stories about training and scary stories, you know,
19:33
Speaker 1: about my actual service overseas. But one story that has
19:38
Speaker 1: always stood out to me was actually what it was
19:41
Speaker 1: like to deploy for the very first time to Afghanistan.
19:46
Speaker 1: And this is not really a war story, and that's
19:49
Speaker 1: why this story sort of.
19:49
Speaker 2: Stands out to me.
19:51
Speaker 1: So, you know, I spend you know, years, literally almost
19:54
Speaker 1: three years training and becoming a Navy Seal and then
19:57
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, I get to my Seal Team on
20:00
Speaker 1: on the East Coast in Virginia, and you know, so
20:03
Speaker 1: Seal Team Too is where it was, and we start
20:05
Speaker 1: training for our deployment and we find out it's going
20:07
Speaker 1: to be to Afghanistan. And you know, this is back
20:09
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, and so you know, going to Afghanistan
20:13
Speaker 1: likely meant combat. In that time, there was still definitely
20:16
Speaker 1: active combat operations happening. And for Navy Seals and for
20:20
Speaker 1: any like you know, direct combat unit, you do want
20:24
Speaker 1: to go to war, not because you are like a warmonger,
20:27
Speaker 1: but because.
20:27
Speaker 2: That's what you train for.
20:28
Speaker 3: And so it's like okay, like I'm getting ready for combat.
20:32
Speaker 1: And then the day comes and the way you deploy
20:35
Speaker 1: is this is not unique to Navy Seals, but like
20:38
Speaker 1: they don't send you out to wherever you're going in
20:41
Speaker 1: one group because it's sort of risky. You know what
20:43
Speaker 1: if a plane crashes and your whole platoon gets wiped out, right,
20:46
Speaker 1: So you get sent out in like little batches, like
20:49
Speaker 1: sometimes on civilian flights, Like I flew to first to
20:52
Speaker 1: South America with like a couple other seals. We're all
20:54
Speaker 1: dressed as civilians and then we hitched a military transit
20:58
Speaker 1: flight actually into Afghanistan. But again, like my mentality as
21:02
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready for this deployment is like, okay, like
21:05
Speaker 1: this is the thing I've trained for, Like here we
21:07
Speaker 1: go like combat. And I remember I was on this
21:10
Speaker 1: this military plane. This is the last leg actually getting
21:14
Speaker 1: into Afghanistan. And when we actually flew into Afghani airspace,
21:20
Speaker 1: which is an active war zone at the time, the pilots,
21:23
Speaker 1: the military pilots, they turned the lights inside of the
21:27
Speaker 1: aircraft from the white overhead like you know, daytime lights,
21:31
Speaker 1: to red and they told all of us to stay
21:34
Speaker 1: away from the windows. And the reason was like we're
21:37
Speaker 1: now entering, you know, the part of this trip where
21:39
Speaker 1: we're going to land, and in theory, you know, the
21:41
Speaker 1: plane could get shot at. You don't want to get
21:43
Speaker 1: shot at through the window. And I mean, if you
21:45
Speaker 1: think about it, if you're getting blasted by like an RPG,
21:48
Speaker 1: it's not going to matter that like you're near a
21:49
Speaker 1: window or not. But it's it was sort of the
21:51
Speaker 1: stark reminder that it's like, okay, here we go, like
21:54
Speaker 1: we're about to enter.
21:55
Speaker 2: A war zone.
21:56
Speaker 1: And then the way these planes would land is they
21:59
Speaker 1: needed to basically cut down the amount of time they
22:02
Speaker 1: were within small arms range. So the lower you get,
22:05
Speaker 1: the more you know, sort of exposed the plane is.
22:08
Speaker 2: And so the way they'd land is.
22:10
Speaker 1: They would take these really steep descents and basically like
22:13
Speaker 1: fly straight down and then land really abruptly. It was
22:17
Speaker 1: like sort of gnarly. And so we're coming in for
22:19
Speaker 1: this crazy landing. The red lights are on. Everyone's tucked
22:22
Speaker 1: away from the windows.
22:24
Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, we're getting ready for Afghanistan.
22:26
Speaker 1: And we touched down, and you know, it's a successful landing,
22:29
Speaker 1: and now we're in this like pretty well fortified base.
22:34
Speaker 2: Shank is what it was called.
22:36
Speaker 1: And I remember the back of the plane opened up
22:39
Speaker 1: after you know, we sort of had stopped taxiing, you know,
22:42
Speaker 1: we came to a stop and the back of the
22:43
Speaker 1: plane opened up. And remember my mentality is like, okay,
22:47
Speaker 1: we're going to war, right, And I grabbed my pack.
22:49
Speaker 1: The rest of my stuff had been packed on pallets
22:51
Speaker 1: and sent, you know, know, weeks prior. So all I
22:54
Speaker 1: have is a backpack and me and a buddy of mine,
22:57
Speaker 1: another guy on my team, we walk out the back
23:00
Speaker 1: the runway and we basically see Afghanistan really for the
23:03
Speaker 1: first time because I really had the windows on the airplane,
23:06
Speaker 1: by the way, were like these little portholes. You really
23:09
Speaker 1: never got a good look, not to mention we had
23:10
Speaker 1: to avoid the windows. So this is like my first
23:12
Speaker 1: view of Afghanistan, and I remember just like looking around
23:18
Speaker 1: and it was just unbelievably beautiful, Like Afghanistan is shockingly beautiful.
23:25
Speaker 1: It's in every direction three hundred and sixty degrees, these
23:28
Speaker 1: just enormous like massive snow covered mountains and just beautiful fields.
23:33
Speaker 1: It's like untouched land, and like we're in the middle
23:36
Speaker 1: of this like jagged scar across the earth, which is
23:39
Speaker 1: this like NATO base where war is sort of launched
23:43
Speaker 1: out of. But it's like you're looking around at just
23:45
Speaker 1: this unbelievably beautiful place, and it was like in such
23:49
Speaker 1: contrast to what I believed I was coming here for
23:53
Speaker 1: what I was there for, like to fight in a war,
23:56
Speaker 1: and it just like didn't compute, like this is too
23:58
Speaker 1: beautiful a place to be having a war fought. But
24:02
Speaker 1: I mean very quickly after sort of seeing this environment
24:04
Speaker 1: and being like, oh my gosh, you know, we were
24:06
Speaker 1: quickly ushered over to this like holding area and we
24:09
Speaker 1: had to grab our stuff, and then before long we
24:11
Speaker 1: had jumped into these these very up armored military vehicles
24:15
Speaker 1: called rg's, which are like like fifty thousand ton anti
24:19
Speaker 1: ied vehicles. Basically, if it detonates underneath you, in theory,
24:23
Speaker 1: you'll survive, and out we go.
24:26
Speaker 2: You know.
24:26
Speaker 1: From the base we were on out to this like
24:29
Speaker 1: very forward operating base that was sort of out in
24:32
Speaker 1: the sticks, and it was like sort of a vulnerable
24:34
Speaker 1: spot and it was where we were going to be
24:35
Speaker 1: operating from for the next six months. You know, our
24:38
Speaker 1: mission was pretty pretty vulnerable, you know, we were out
24:41
Speaker 1: sort of actually actively fighting the war. But that first
24:45
Speaker 1: night we get to our actual base, this very stripped down,
24:50
Speaker 1: like very vulnerable spot out in the middle of nowhere,
24:53
Speaker 1: and when we got there, there were the previous team
24:56
Speaker 1: was still there. They were wrapping up their deployment, and
25:00
Speaker 1: there were interpreters who are a central part of the
25:03
Speaker 1: war fighting effort, you know, from our side, and a
25:06
Speaker 1: lot of these interpreters who are pretty young, like in
25:08
Speaker 1: their twenties, like they've been they've been out there working
25:11
Speaker 1: with various units that have come through those bases for years,
25:15
Speaker 1: and because they're working with NATO, they really they don't
25:18
Speaker 1: have a place outside of the base, Like they're targeted
25:21
Speaker 1: by the Taliban and other sort of militant groups because
25:25
Speaker 1: you know, they're working for NATO. They're traders, you know,
25:28
Speaker 1: And so the great promise for these interpreters is that
25:31
Speaker 1: by working with NATO, eventually they'll be given the opportunity
25:35
Speaker 1: to leave Afghanistan and come to the United States. And
25:37
Speaker 1: for some people that's true, not true for everybody. But
25:40
Speaker 1: these interpreters are like hard as nails. They've been in
25:44
Speaker 1: so many gunfights, Like these people have seen some crazy stuff.
25:48
Speaker 1: And I my role was to work with these interpreters.
25:51
Speaker 1: I was going to be someone that worked with our
25:52
Speaker 1: partner for us. And so I get to this little outstation.
25:56
Speaker 1: It's late at night, and it's sort of overwhelming, this
25:58
Speaker 1: whole thing.
26:00
Speaker 2: You know.
26:00
Speaker 1: The team that was already there, still Team eight, they
26:02
Speaker 1: were like so like Cowboy by this point, they'd been
26:05
Speaker 1: in combat now for the last six months. They're all
26:08
Speaker 1: just like jacked and huge beards, like they could care.
26:11
Speaker 2: Less about anything. And I'm like super green.
26:13
Speaker 1: And I went and I met with one of our
26:15
Speaker 1: interpreters to like sort of give me a lay of
26:16
Speaker 1: the land of what to expect over the next couple
26:18
Speaker 1: of days, and so we talked about some operations we'd
26:22
Speaker 1: likely do and sort of, you know, got to know
26:23
Speaker 1: each other a little bit.
26:25
Speaker 2: But at some point one of these.
26:27
Speaker 1: Interpreters, the guy I was talking to, who maybe was
26:29
Speaker 1: like twenty five twenty six and I was in my
26:31
Speaker 1: twenties two, he said to me, he goes bro, Bro,
26:34
Speaker 1: And they all talk in like Western slang, like their
26:37
Speaker 1: English is like rugged, like American military slang because they're
26:41
Speaker 1: around like eighteen year old marines twenty four to seven.
26:45
Speaker 1: He's like, Bro, have you heard the story of what
26:48
Speaker 1: was in the cave in Kandahar. Now we were in
26:51
Speaker 1: a different part of Afghanistan, but he was referencing Kandahar, Afghanistan.
26:56
Speaker 1: And what I would come to find out is there
26:57
Speaker 1: was this this story about a giant like a creature,
27:02
Speaker 1: some huge creature that lived in a cave out in
27:06
Speaker 1: the mountains of kandahart And like Afghanistan again, is this
27:09
Speaker 1: huge just like mountains everywhere, and there are all these
27:12
Speaker 1: cave systems up in these mountains, some of which are
27:14
Speaker 1: like untouched by humanity. And this this terp was like, Bro,
27:20
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it's real, like there was there was
27:22
Speaker 1: a giant up in the caves in candahart like have
27:25
Speaker 1: you heard about this? Like I want to know more
27:27
Speaker 1: than the interpreter did, and so, you know, we didn't
27:29
Speaker 1: really talk much more than that, but it was planted
27:31
Speaker 1: in my mind that there was like this real belief
27:34
Speaker 1: by this interpreter that there was like some truth to
27:37
Speaker 1: this what sounded like sort of a folklore, this crazy
27:39
Speaker 1: story about a giant in a cave. And so it
27:42
Speaker 1: stuck with me, you know, it stuck with me that
27:44
Speaker 1: i'd heard that story. Fast forward, you know, years later,
27:49
Speaker 1: I'm out of the military and I've become mister Balin.
27:53
Speaker 1: You know, I've begun telling strange, dark and mysterious stories
27:56
Speaker 1: on the Internet, and I was thinking about what stories
27:59
Speaker 1: I want to tell. This is like in the very
28:01
Speaker 1: early days of having the channel, and I suddenly remembered
28:05
Speaker 1: like the Candahar giant, and I was like, man, I
28:08
Speaker 1: want to look into that and see if there's any
28:10
Speaker 1: truth to what my interpreter was getting at. And sure enough,
28:13
Speaker 1: I found like this treasure trove of testimony from this
28:17
Speaker 1: special operations group, the Green Berets, that apparently did like
28:22
Speaker 1: this one particular group of green Berets that apparently came
28:26
Speaker 1: in touch with something otherworldly up in the caves of Kandahar.
28:30
Speaker 1: And in particular, there was one soldier who just went
28:33
Speaker 1: by mister K because he was worried about his name
28:36
Speaker 1: getting out there, who gave just like shocking testimony about
28:40
Speaker 1: what they saw. And so I felt like I needed
28:43
Speaker 1: to do this story justice.
28:44
Speaker 2: I wanted to sort.
28:45
Speaker 1: Of compile the notes and put together a story that
28:49
Speaker 1: you know, sort of picked up where my interpreter had began.
28:52
Speaker 1: And I told the story years and years ago, and
28:55
Speaker 1: tonight I'm going.
28:56
Speaker 2: To tell you that story again.
28:58
Speaker 1: So in two thousand and two, there was this Army
29:00
Speaker 1: infantry unit that was out doing a patrol in the
29:03
Speaker 1: Kandahar Mountain ranch. Again, you got a picture just massive
29:07
Speaker 1: snow covered mountains. I mean, this is a huge area,
29:10
Speaker 1: and you know, a lot of times in two thousand
29:12
Speaker 1: and two, these patrols, you know, you'd be sort of
29:14
Speaker 1: looking potentially for cave systems where Talban fighters would be
29:18
Speaker 1: camping out, or you know, sometimes there'd be fighters that
29:20
Speaker 1: were down in the valleys below.
29:22
Speaker 2: But these patrols were.
29:23
Speaker 3: Fairly routine for NATO in two thousand and two.
29:27
Speaker 1: And so this unit they're out on patrol, and generally
29:31
Speaker 1: the way it works really independent of what branch of
29:33
Speaker 1: the military you're in. In the US military, you know,
29:36
Speaker 1: when you're out on patrol, you basically update some level
29:41
Speaker 1: of higher command as you're doing the operation. And also,
29:44
Speaker 1: by the way, virtually no operations, no matter how routine
29:48
Speaker 1: or mundane, like no operations aren't planned out. Like everything
29:52
Speaker 1: is planned like what time you get there, how long
29:55
Speaker 1: you're going to be there, what you're trying to do,
29:57
Speaker 1: when you're going to leave, what platform you're going to
29:59
Speaker 1: use to leave, like everything.
30:01
Speaker 2: Is really coordinated.
30:02
Speaker 1: And so this unit they went out, you know, for
30:05
Speaker 1: the you know, umpteenth time to do this patrol, and
30:08
Speaker 1: at some point in the middle of this this patrol,
30:11
Speaker 1: the higher command lost contact with them. And the reason
30:15
Speaker 1: this immediately stood out as problematic is, you know, it wasn't.
30:19
Speaker 3: Totally unusual for a group to lose comms.
30:23
Speaker 1: I mean, you're trying to communicate across huge mountain ranges,
30:26
Speaker 1: you know, using you know, these radios that are really
30:29
Speaker 1: a lot of times not that great, and so losing
30:31
Speaker 1: comms is not that unusual. But generally speaking, like a
30:37
Speaker 1: lot of times, if you lose comms, you get it
30:38
Speaker 1: back pretty quickly. And so there had been a pretty
30:40
Speaker 1: long period of time where no one could get in
30:42
Speaker 1: touch with this unit. And then on top of that,
30:46
Speaker 1: as you know, higher command was beginning to figure out,
30:48
Speaker 1: like what we should do here. Should we send out
30:50
Speaker 1: a quick reaction for us to go find them, should
30:52
Speaker 1: we send you know, air assets overhead to go try
30:54
Speaker 1: to look for them that way. As they're thinking about that,
30:58
Speaker 1: somebody realized that not only had they suddenly gone silent,
31:02
Speaker 1: this huge infantry unit, but also they had not called
31:06
Speaker 1: in a TICK before they went silent. So a TICK
31:10
Speaker 1: or troops in contact is the acronym for basically being
31:14
Speaker 1: in a gunfight. And the reason this is important is
31:17
Speaker 1: you know, when you're in a combat zone, your higher
31:22
Speaker 1: command doesn't automatically know if you're getting shot at or
31:25
Speaker 1: if you're in an active gunfight, you need to call
31:28
Speaker 1: it in. And the reason you call it in is
31:30
Speaker 1: because you may need huge help. You might want air
31:33
Speaker 1: assets to come in and save the day, you might
31:36
Speaker 1: need a metavac, you might need reinforcements. And so basically,
31:39
Speaker 1: the instant you start getting shot at, commanders on the
31:43
Speaker 1: ground or whoever's on the ground could be someone super junior.
31:46
Speaker 2: They'll call into higher command.
31:47
Speaker 1: And say troops in contact, you know, tic tick tick,
31:50
Speaker 1: tick tick, And the reason they do that is basically
31:53
Speaker 1: to have help on standby. Now they're like, Okay, we
31:56
Speaker 1: know something's going down, we're ready to support. And in fact,
31:59
Speaker 1: you know we saw when we were in Afghanistan is
32:02
Speaker 1: if anything, we were like too quick to call in
32:05
Speaker 1: a tick, because it's sort of like a cheat code,
32:07
Speaker 1: right like, oh, I think I heard gunfire, are way
32:09
Speaker 1: over there, Call in a tick, and then immediately you
32:11
Speaker 1: got like wart hogs overhead and crazy assets everywhere, like
32:15
Speaker 1: you're totally protected. We sort of took advantage of it,
32:17
Speaker 1: and a lot of people did, Like it's rare for
32:20
Speaker 1: the reverse to happen, Like people are not conservative calling
32:23
Speaker 1: this in, and so for an entire unit to suddenly
32:27
Speaker 1: go like silent having not called in a tick, it's
32:31
Speaker 1: either a huge like radio problem, but that usually gets
32:35
Speaker 1: resolved relatively quickly, or it's something else, something that is
32:39
Speaker 1: just harder to define because it just doesn't really happen
32:41
Speaker 1: very much. And so after a certain amount of time
32:44
Speaker 1: had passed, when still no one could get in touch
32:47
Speaker 1: with this unit. Ultimately, the Army decided this was, you know,
32:50
Speaker 1: a big enough deal. You know, there was enough people
32:53
Speaker 1: in that unit that were now unaccounted for that they
32:55
Speaker 1: decided to send in an elite military unit to try
32:59
Speaker 1: to find them, and so they tapped this Green Beret unit.
33:02
Speaker 1: So the army's top special forces team, the Green Berets.
33:06
Speaker 1: They grabbed a group of those guys and said, you
33:09
Speaker 1: go out into the mountains of Kandahar to their last
33:11
Speaker 1: known location and figure out what happened to them. And
33:14
Speaker 1: one of the people that was in this detachment of
33:17
Speaker 1: Green Bereys was mister K, one of the people that
33:20
Speaker 1: gave pretty incredible testimony that I'm about to relay to
33:23
Speaker 1: you right now. So mister K and the rest of
33:27
Speaker 1: his small, you know, small group of Green Berets, they
33:30
Speaker 1: hop on helicopters and they fly out to this section
33:33
Speaker 1: of Kandahar where you know, this infantry unit was last
33:37
Speaker 1: and they touched down. And you've got to understand that
33:40
Speaker 1: this is like rural as rural can be. There is
33:43
Speaker 1: you know, no people, like, there's no cities, no nothing.
33:45
Speaker 1: There's like mud huts periodically, but it's just like mountains.
33:49
Speaker 1: You know, you kind of feel like sometimes when you're
33:50
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan that you're like almost on a different planet.
33:53
Speaker 1: And so they touched down and they look around and
33:56
Speaker 1: they see nobody, like there's no locals, there's certainly no
34:00
Speaker 1: you know, American military or NATO.
34:02
Speaker 2: It's just like a wasteland in all directions.
34:05
Speaker 1: And they know that the area they're searching is it's
34:07
Speaker 1: pretty sizable and it's very mountainous, so it's going to
34:10
Speaker 1: be like a very rough several days of basically hiking
34:13
Speaker 1: through the mountains trying to find any sign of this unit.
34:16
Speaker 1: And so they touched down and they all have like
34:19
Speaker 1: extremely heavy packs on.
34:20
Speaker 2: I mean, you got all your.
34:21
Speaker 1: Amo, your equipment, Like this is a rugged thing they're doing.
34:25
Speaker 1: And they start hiking through the mountains. Based on the
34:27
Speaker 1: brief that that unit had given before they stepped out
34:30
Speaker 1: for this mission, they sort of had a rough idea
34:32
Speaker 1: mister K and his unit of the direction of travel,
34:35
Speaker 1: and so they're sort of following that direction. But as
34:38
Speaker 1: they're hiking through the mountains, i mean the unit that
34:41
Speaker 1: mister K was a part of, they didn't find anybody.
34:44
Speaker 1: And for several days, I mean they're out there in
34:46
Speaker 1: the mountains, just hiking all day. You know, they came
34:49
Speaker 1: into contact a couple of times with the enemy, but
34:51
Speaker 1: there wasn't even any ticks or anything. It was just
34:53
Speaker 1: like at a distance, like, oh, there's some fighters over there.
34:56
Speaker 1: But they're on a mission to find these missing soldiers,
34:58
Speaker 1: so they're not trying to with anybody else, like they're
35:01
Speaker 1: just hiking and looking for any sign of this unit.
35:05
Speaker 1: But again, for a few days, they they couldn't find anything. Finally, though,
35:10
Speaker 1: on the fourth day of this rescue mission, so during
35:12
Speaker 1: the daytime, mister Kay and his team they're they're you know,
35:16
Speaker 1: walking along the mountain range and they decide to take
35:19
Speaker 1: this this goat trail that they can see right ahead
35:21
Speaker 1: of them. It's it sort of goes up and over
35:23
Speaker 1: the top of this mountain. They decide, okay, we're just
35:25
Speaker 1: gonna take that goat trail and see what's on.
35:28
Speaker 2: The other side.
35:29
Speaker 1: You know, there wasn't any clear agenda for why this
35:31
Speaker 1: goat trail was of interest, but they're like, oh, you know,
35:35
Speaker 1: everywhere else we're walking is just rugged and awful. At
35:37
Speaker 1: least this this goat trail a literal trail made by
35:40
Speaker 1: goats running along this area. Is easier to walk on,
35:43
Speaker 1: So let's take that. We'll follow it to the other side,
35:45
Speaker 1: and we'll see what's up there, you know. And also
35:47
Speaker 1: we'll be up higher and we can maybe get a
35:49
Speaker 1: view down into the valley on the other side, and
35:51
Speaker 1: maybe we'll see something. And so mister Kay and the
35:54
Speaker 1: rest of the Green Berets begin making their way up
35:57
Speaker 1: this goat trail, which sort of you know, meandered its
35:59
Speaker 1: way up and eventually onto the other side.
36:02
Speaker 2: And as they're walking.
36:03
Speaker 1: Up, they start to notice these little bits of plastic
36:07
Speaker 1: and metal sort of strewn about on the trail, And
36:09
Speaker 1: at first, as they're walking, they don't actually know what
36:12
Speaker 1: they are, but as they keep moving, they start to
36:14
Speaker 1: realize that these are parts of military equipment, like these
36:19
Speaker 1: are parts of radios and other stuff that would definitely
36:22
Speaker 1: belong to, for example, an infantry unit. And so now
36:26
Speaker 1: like mister Kay and the others, they got their rifles
36:28
Speaker 1: sort of ready to go, they're walking up more apprehensively
36:31
Speaker 1: because they're thinking like this, this is obviously connected to
36:34
Speaker 1: what we're looking for, Like, who knows what we're gonna
36:36
Speaker 1: find once we cross the top of this mountain, Like
36:39
Speaker 1: are we gonna find like a bloodbath.
36:41
Speaker 2: Are we going to find the missing unit waiting for us?
36:44
Speaker 2: Like they don't know? And so they continue walking up.
36:46
Speaker 1: This trail, and as they get higher and higher, they
36:49
Speaker 1: find bigger and bigger pieces of military equipment on the ground,
36:53
Speaker 1: like whole military backpacks, like bigger.
36:55
Speaker 2: Chunks of radios.
36:57
Speaker 1: And then also they began finding bits of uniform like
37:00
Speaker 1: military uniforms that even.
37:02
Speaker 2: In some cases still had like name.
37:04
Speaker 1: Tags and patches on them, and they were able to
37:07
Speaker 1: see very clearly that those uniforms at least definitely belonged
37:11
Speaker 1: to the specific unit they were looking for. So they know,
37:15
Speaker 1: like they've discovered their first real lead here, and it
37:17
Speaker 1: doesn't look good, And so up the goat trail they go,
37:20
Speaker 1: and they finally get to the very top. And I
37:23
Speaker 1: say this, You know, I'm trying not to be biased,
37:25
Speaker 1: because obviously I was an Avy Seal and I think
37:28
Speaker 1: very highly of US Special Operations and their training. But
37:32
Speaker 1: you know, Green Berets and Navy Seals, they're very different
37:35
Speaker 1: and definitely do different jobs, but in many ways they
37:38
Speaker 1: are peers, certainly in terms of like the rigor of training.
37:41
Speaker 1: And one of the things that it's just absolutely true
37:44
Speaker 1: and I've seen it in combat, is that when stuff
37:47
Speaker 1: gets wild, like in a combat scenario and in a
37:51
Speaker 1: dangerous scenario, these green Berets would have absolutely fallen into
37:56
Speaker 1: their training like flawlessly. This would not have been no
38:00
Speaker 1: matter how crazy or how insane, whatever they saw on
38:03
Speaker 1: the other side of the mountain, whatever it was going
38:04
Speaker 1: to be, they were ready for it. And so they
38:06
Speaker 1: would have been like dialed in making their way up
38:09
Speaker 1: the mountain, getting ready to handle whatever's up there. And
38:12
Speaker 1: so you know, mister k and and his team they
38:15
Speaker 1: make their way to the very top of this goat trail,
38:18
Speaker 1: and when they crested the top, what they saw was
38:20
Speaker 1: like this this plateau. So it wasn't like a peak.
38:23
Speaker 1: It was like this flat section of the mountain. And
38:26
Speaker 1: actually there was there was another section of the mountain
38:29
Speaker 1: that sort of went up beyond the plateau, and there
38:31
Speaker 1: were these huge like cave entrances that.
38:34
Speaker 2: Sort of basically fed out.
38:36
Speaker 1: These three cave entrances fed out onto this plateau as
38:40
Speaker 1: if it was like the plateau was the front porch,
38:42
Speaker 1: and the cave entrances or like the doors that lead
38:45
Speaker 1: into this upper section of the mountain, and on this
38:49
Speaker 1: plateau scattered all over the place is not just you know,
38:52
Speaker 1: more pieces of military equipment, but also pretty obviously human
38:58
Speaker 1: bones or what appeared to be human bones.
39:01
Speaker 2: Like scattered about.
39:02
Speaker 1: And there was you know, no living people up here.
39:04
Speaker 1: The missing unit was definitely not up here, but it
39:07
Speaker 1: looked like if they were up here, I mean, something
39:10
Speaker 1: horrible happened to them. And so once they reached the
39:13
Speaker 1: plateau again you got a picture like this elite military unit,
39:17
Speaker 1: they would have immediately taken up positions all around this
39:20
Speaker 1: plateau because they know these.
39:22
Speaker 3: Cave entrances have to be explored.
39:24
Speaker 1: You have to see who's inside of there, like is
39:27
Speaker 1: the missing unit and there are are the remaining survivors
39:30
Speaker 1: taking shelter in there are their combatants in there. And
39:32
Speaker 1: so mister Kay and his unit they sort of detailed
39:35
Speaker 1: taking up positions, you know, getting ready to engage if
39:38
Speaker 1: they had to. And then once they were in position,
39:41
Speaker 1: mister k and the guy he was next to is
39:43
Speaker 1: shooting buddy, if you will, were tapped to go up
39:46
Speaker 1: to the entrance of one of these caves and just
39:49
Speaker 1: look inside. And so silently they got up and they
39:52
Speaker 1: walked across this plateau while the rest of the team
39:54
Speaker 1: is sort of looking outward and also looking in, so
39:57
Speaker 1: there's three hundred and sixty degree security. So mister k
40:00
Speaker 1: he walks up along with his shooting buddy, and he said,
40:02
Speaker 1: he looked into this entrance, this huge, massive entrance, like
40:06
Speaker 1: could easily just walk into this opening, but it's it's
40:09
Speaker 1: totally dark inside.
40:10
Speaker 2: And so he goes into the cave.
40:12
Speaker 1: And once he gets in there, like it's very dark
40:14
Speaker 1: and he's sort of trying to to look inside to
40:16
Speaker 1: see if he can see anything, and it does go
40:18
Speaker 1: back a little ways, but you know, he barely takes
40:21
Speaker 1: a couple of steps into the cave when he realizes,
40:24
Speaker 1: like there's like this sheer cliff within the cave, like
40:27
Speaker 1: you basically walk in and then it just it shoots
40:30
Speaker 1: straight down, and you know, mister Kay, he caught himself
40:33
Speaker 1: and he looked down to see if he could see
40:35
Speaker 1: what was down sort of in this pit within the cave,
40:38
Speaker 1: but it was just too dark.
40:39
Speaker 2: He couldn't see anything.
40:40
Speaker 1: And then like as he's standing back up again getting
40:43
Speaker 1: ready to sort of assess what.
40:44
Speaker 3: He should do next, he sees a flash of movement in.
40:47
Speaker 1: The far backside of the cave, basically beyond this this
40:51
Speaker 1: crevass that he can't cross, and so mister k instinctively
40:55
Speaker 1: raises his gun like he's ready to engage whatever this is.
40:58
Speaker 1: But before he can, this enormous spear, like a massive javelin,
41:03
Speaker 1: comes soaring out of the cave and impales the shooting body.
41:09
Speaker 1: His name was Dan, the other Green Beret that was
41:11
Speaker 1: next to mister Kay, who went up to explore the cave.
41:13
Speaker 1: The spear impales him, sends him flying back, and this
41:16
Speaker 1: is a plain.
41:17
Speaker 2: View of all the other Green Berets. They all see
41:20
Speaker 2: this happen.
41:21
Speaker 1: And then like in the space of a few seconds,
41:23
Speaker 1: this massive, just enormous human creature, this like twelve foot
41:29
Speaker 1: tall thing comes bounding out of the cave, clears the crevass,
41:33
Speaker 1: and charges out onto the plateau. And it sort of
41:36
Speaker 1: looked like a huge person, but again it's like twelve
41:38
Speaker 1: feet tall. It's got six fingers on each hand, six
41:42
Speaker 1: toes on each foot, it's wearing various animal skins, got
41:45
Speaker 1: this huge red hair, red beard, and it runs out
41:49
Speaker 1: to you know, presumably attack the Green Berets, but immediately
41:53
Speaker 1: they just start shooting it, and in like seconds, this
41:56
Speaker 1: massive creature falls to the ground dead, and so at
42:00
Speaker 1: this point, like after the the creature is down, I mean,
42:03
Speaker 1: nobody knows what to make of this. But again it's
42:05
Speaker 1: like they fall back into their training. They immediately once
42:08
Speaker 1: they know the threat is down and there's nobody else
42:11
Speaker 1: coming out of the cave, they run over to Dan
42:13
Speaker 1: to provide you know, life saving care. But Dan's dead,
42:17
Speaker 1: I mean he was he was killed by this javelin.
42:19
Speaker 1: And so now the team they poked their head into
42:21
Speaker 1: the cave to make sure there wasn't anybody else, but
42:24
Speaker 1: as far as they knew, there wasn't and for sure
42:27
Speaker 1: this this giant was dead, and so like they hadn't
42:31
Speaker 1: found the missing military unit, but now they have a
42:33
Speaker 1: casualty and like they have this horrible thing that's happened.
42:36
Speaker 1: And so one of the team leads for this Green
42:38
Speaker 1: Beret team. They end up calling higher command and they say, hey,
42:41
Speaker 1: you got to come get us. Like we can't even
42:43
Speaker 1: tell you what just happened, but we have a man down,
42:46
Speaker 1: killed in action, and we have this combatant, this this creature,
42:50
Speaker 1: we don't even know what to call it, but you
42:51
Speaker 1: got to get out here, and you got to take
42:53
Speaker 1: this thing too.
42:54
Speaker 2: We don't even know what it is.
42:55
Speaker 1: And so not long after two helos showed up, and
42:59
Speaker 1: one of them was to transport the Green Berets and
43:01
Speaker 1: to transport Dan back to the base. And then the
43:05
Speaker 1: other helo had this huge net that they basically wrapped
43:09
Speaker 1: around this dead, huge giant and they strapped it up
43:13
Speaker 1: to the underside of the helo and then they flew
43:15
Speaker 1: off with this giant. And you know, mister k and
43:19
Speaker 1: his unit they expected to be brought back to base
43:23
Speaker 1: and to basically debrief the mission, which you know, in
43:26
Speaker 1: Layman's terms, means you basically talk through what actually happened
43:30
Speaker 1: and you sort of put it down in your after
43:32
Speaker 1: action report, like what happened, you know, what mistakes were made,
43:35
Speaker 1: what did we do? Like you basically put it on
43:38
Speaker 1: the record, like what happened, and then you do it
43:41
Speaker 1: typically like right afterwards, even if you've had like a casualty,
43:44
Speaker 1: you immediately document what's happened. And so they go back
43:48
Speaker 1: to base expecting not only to tell their story about
43:51
Speaker 1: seeing this giant, if you will, but to maybe get
43:55
Speaker 1: some clarification about what the heck just.
43:57
Speaker 2: Happened, Like, you know, they wanted some more information.
44:00
Speaker 1: But when they got back to base, and they did
44:02
Speaker 1: their after action report, which they sort of did on
44:05
Speaker 1: their own.
44:05
Speaker 2: Nobody came to talk to them.
44:06
Speaker 1: The unit was sort of pushed off to the side
44:08
Speaker 1: and told to just, you know, write down what you
44:10
Speaker 1: saw and just leave it at that. After they wrote
44:13
Speaker 1: it all down and they included, you know, the truth,
44:15
Speaker 1: everybody on the team saw what they saw, they were
44:18
Speaker 1: told by higher command that they actually could not publish
44:21
Speaker 1: those details in their after action report and they had
44:24
Speaker 1: to change it, like this is this. We can't say
44:26
Speaker 1: you fought a giant in a cave. We can't say that,
44:29
Speaker 1: Like there's no way that's true. You can't say it.
44:32
Speaker 1: And so mister k and his team, like despite knowing
44:35
Speaker 1: it wasn't true, they went and they changed the report
44:37
Speaker 1: and they just said they came in contact with the enemy,
44:39
Speaker 1: and the enemy, you.
44:40
Speaker 2: Know, through small arms fire killed Dan.
44:43
Speaker 1: And then after they submitted this you know, erroneous report,
44:47
Speaker 1: they were then told to sign all these non disclosure
44:50
Speaker 1: agreements to basically say they would not talk about what
44:52
Speaker 1: they actually saw in that cave. And after that, I
44:55
Speaker 1: mean Dan and the rest of his unit, I mean
44:58
Speaker 1: they were basically told, you can't talk talk about this.
45:00
Speaker 1: This is too sensitive, and they even went looking for
45:03
Speaker 1: more information about it, and they found that all of
45:05
Speaker 1: the reporting in Afghanistan around that time about that operation
45:09
Speaker 1: had been heavily redacted. I mean, mister K never even
45:12
Speaker 1: found out what happened to the missing unit that they
45:14
Speaker 1: had gone out looking for, Like it was just this
45:16
Speaker 1: big mystery. But fast forward fourteen years to twenty sixteen,
45:21
Speaker 1: and mister K just felt like he didn't want to
45:23
Speaker 1: keep this a secret anymore. And he spoke to some
45:25
Speaker 1: other members of his team that were there, and they
45:28
Speaker 1: too were just like really shaken up by what happened
45:30
Speaker 1: and just felt like it was wrong that nobody knew.
45:32
Speaker 1: And so that's what ultimately prompted mister K to go
45:35
Speaker 1: public with his story. And also when he went public,
45:38
Speaker 1: what he also discovered is that other people sort of
45:42
Speaker 1: in the military hierarchy also had some level of exposure
45:47
Speaker 1: to this giant. I mean, what mister K would discover
45:50
Speaker 1: is that after the giant had been hoisted in that
45:53
Speaker 1: net by that Heilo and flown off somewhere, apparently it
45:57
Speaker 1: had been brought to an airfield in Afghanistan another NATO
46:00
Speaker 1: basse and pilots that we're going to be transporting this
46:03
Speaker 1: to another base. Remember seeing this twelve to fifteen foot tall,
46:08
Speaker 1: giant looking person with six fingers on each hand and.
46:11
Speaker 2: Six toes on each foot in this net.
46:14
Speaker 1: They remember seeing it and actually describing it in there
46:17
Speaker 1: after action report, and they would say they were told
46:20
Speaker 1: not to include those details, and those details were redacted
46:23
Speaker 1: and made top secret. And so basically mister Kay, after
46:26
Speaker 1: coming forward, quickly learned through the great line that basically
46:29
Speaker 1: everybody affiliated with the Giant was told not to talk
46:32
Speaker 1: about it, and the government basically shut it down, redacted
46:36
Speaker 1: it and made it top secret. Now I don't really
46:39
Speaker 1: know what to make of this story. You know, there's
46:40
Speaker 1: a part of me that does want to believe that,
46:42
Speaker 1: you know, the testimony of mister k is totally legitimate.
46:46
Speaker 1: But there's also a part of me that knows that,
46:48
Speaker 1: you know, this could all just be made up. But
46:51
Speaker 1: a lot of people claim to have seen this thing,
46:53
Speaker 1: and I remember so distinctly, you know, my own interpreter
46:57
Speaker 1: back in twenty thirteen being so can vinced that there
47:00
Speaker 1: was something in the caves in Kandahar, and he really
47:03
Speaker 1: wanted to know more about it.
47:04
Speaker 2: It's like there's some level of truth to this.
47:07
Speaker 1: I mean I was, you know, in Afghanistan, and I
47:10
Speaker 1: was in the mountains of Afghanistan, not Kandahar.
47:13
Speaker 2: I was in Logar.
47:14
Speaker 1: But I mean we used to walk by and look
47:18
Speaker 1: up and see these cave entrances, and I got to
47:20
Speaker 1: tell you it's unsettling.
47:22
Speaker 2: I mean, who knows what's inside of those things?
47:25
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem entirely impossible that a giant could be
47:28
Speaker 1: in there. You know, like this is this is a
47:30
Speaker 1: landscape that's just it's different. It's like a different planet
47:33
Speaker 1: out there. But I mean, really, what you're left with
47:36
Speaker 1: here is you have an entire infantry unit that's still
47:39
Speaker 1: unaccounted for, at least publicly, and you have an Army
47:43
Speaker 1: Green Beret in Dan who was killed in front of
47:46
Speaker 1: his team, and they want answers, and you know, it's
47:49
Speaker 1: like what you see is the government apparently went to
47:51
Speaker 1: great lengths to cover up what happened, or to at
47:55
Speaker 1: least disguise the truth. Whether or not they're covering something
47:58
Speaker 1: up remains to be seen. But I think there's more
48:01
Speaker 1: to the story that we.
48:02
Speaker 2: Simply don't know. But I'd love to hear what you
48:04
Speaker 2: think in the comments.
48:05
Speaker 1: So why don't you let me know in the comments
48:07
Speaker 1: and I'll get back to as many people as I can. Hey, everyone,
48:14
Speaker 1: just a reminder, I'm going on tour this year, which
48:18
Speaker 1: means if you go, you can experience never before heard
48:21
Speaker 1: stories from me.
48:23
Speaker 2: Live and in person. We did this in twenty twenty
48:25
Speaker 2: four and people loved it.
48:27
Speaker 1: So get your tickets today at tour dot bollinstudios dot com,
48:30
Speaker 1: right now before they sell out. That's tour dot bollinstudios
48:34
Speaker 1: dot com. I can't wait to see you all.
48:36
Speaker 2: At the shows.
48:38
Speaker 1: All right, Thank you all so much for joining me
48:40
Speaker 1: tonight at the Campfire. And if you enjoyed this, remember
48:44
Speaker 1: we actually have a whole playlist of Campfire.
48:47
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48:49
Speaker 1: If you want to do that, go ahead and click
48:51
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48:53
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,