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SMNTY Fiction: Terminus, Part 2 (Chapter 7.2) · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. We'll welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: one ever told you production, but I heeartt you and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: welcome again to another edition of Spiny Fiction. This is
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a once a month thing that has a bit more
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: sound effects thanks to the amazing Christina, our super producer.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: It is ongoing. We are in the second of a trilogy,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and this one was originally called Big Things Start Small,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: but I just called them all Terminus, Part one, Part two,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Part three because otherwise I don't know what's going to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: happen here. It's confusing enough when I'm titling things. So yeah, this,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I would suggest you listen to the other ones first,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: but you too what you want. I can't tell you
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: what you do. This is something that I wrote for
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: National Novel Writing Month and twenty eleven, I believe is
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: when you try to write a novel in a month,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and it's a very dystopian end of the world thing
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that looking back now, I'm like, oh, little did you
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: know what was to come? But I don't really edit
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: them that much because I like looking back at it
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and talking about it. What was going on in my
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: head at the time. I remember exactly where I was
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: when I wrote this, which I wrote it on pin
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I wrote with a pin on paper, and then I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: had to submit it. You got to type it up.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know what I was thinking, but if you
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: heard the last chapter, it was a very introspective chapter.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: They had just had this really traumatic experience. This one
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: is them talking that out. So content learning for descriptions
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: of violence, description of murder, nothing too in depth memories
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: of violence, non explicit descriptions of panic and anxiety. I
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: would say of like low self worth, illness into the world,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: projecting not a healthy not the healthiest relationship. I think
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: in light of the world they live in, it's understandable
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and I'll talk about this a little bit more at
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the end, but like, yeah, not the healthiest of relationships.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: So a recap. Yes, there's this virus that's really decimated
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the human population. It turns out it was released purposely
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: by the religious component of the US government, and they
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: had a vaccine, but they destroyed it all because they
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: were really they would rather have power than help people.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: And they did have two vaccines. They saved one for Madison,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: who is their grandson, and Tilda managed to get him
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the vaccine and broadcast Tilda his mom broadcast to the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: world like what they had done, and they flee and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: now they're on the run, and they have recently been
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: confronted by a rogue group who attacked them and Tilda
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: was forced to kill them with the help of Madison.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: It's the first time Madison has had to do something
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: like that, So they're dealing with the fallout of all
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: of that. On top of that, they've got this call
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: from the leader of this underground rebellion who's saying like, hey,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: we need you to come back to DC because we
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: can make a vaccine, but we need your son, Madison
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: to do it. And Tilda and Madison have been on
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the run their whole lives because she illegally in this world,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: conception is controlled, children are controlled. So she ran away
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: with him, and so they've been on the run this
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: whole time, and she's really struggling with like trust and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to believe about any of this.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: They've found this place. They're exhausted, they're gonna stay the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: night there. Tilda has been putting off this conversation she
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: needs to have with Madison about what happened, and that
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: is where we are. Let us get into the fiction.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Outside was brittle and crisp, the air sharp in her lungs.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: The grass crunched beneath her feet as she crossed over
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: to the barn, unlatching the fence. Inside were two rows
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: of stables, outfitted with tools and pails and saddles. On
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the other side was a big pen that looked like
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: ed once been used for and cows and other livestock,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: long troughs. No feed, though one of these times she
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: hoped they'd find something for Scout in one of these barns.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Tilda went around the back of the farmhouse to the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: silo on the opposite end. It was a looming, ominous structure,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: menacing against the horizon. Tilda had never been inside a silo.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: She wasn't entirely sure what one would look like. On
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the inside. She located a discrete metal door in front
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of the metal cylinder, having to use her weight to
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: leverage it open, not that it was that heavy, but
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that it had been so long since it had been opened.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: The creak of it wrenching open echoed loudly in the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: metal canister. It released a breath of stale air. Tilda
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: blinked at the darkness within, not knowing what to expect.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: It was empty, just a metal container of nothing. Everything
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: was muted, her footsteps on crystal granules of dirt, swallowed
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: by the emptinss she just released from its cage. She
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: felt like if she screamed, there would be no sound.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: She tread a careful path to the center, spinning in place,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: looking at the gleaming metal walls. The light from her
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: flashlight was absorbed by the rounded sheets of metal, and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: what wasn't bounced meagerly around shimmered, almost like water on
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: a calm day. Claustrophobia welled up within her, and she
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: desperately sought out the door, retreating out and closing it
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: behind her. Hugging her middle, she could feel the nothingness
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: contained insides silently howling behind her. Trapped once again in
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: its box. She hurried back to the farmhouse, sliding the
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: lock into place behind her and striding back into the
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: main room, where Madison was finishing up with a makeshift
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: bed of especially comfy proportions from the blankets tilt it
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: had tossed down the flashlight she'd given him. Balancing on
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: a table, Scout had already closed her eyes, looking comfortable
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: under the handstown quilt tucked around her. Madison sat back
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: on the couch, sinking into the pile of blankets, watching
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: her intently, Tilda plopped down warily in the love seat adjacent.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Slipping off her pack, she pulled out a water bottle
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and tossed it to Madison once she'd caught his attention,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and then a bag of trail mixed for him and
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: jar of canned fruit for herself. She thought it'd be
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: easiest on her throat. They worked their way through their
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: meals silently, Tilda parsing what she wanted to say, or
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: trying to at least her thoughts kept screeching to a halt.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Unable or unwilling to face what addressing them would mean.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Madison broke the festering silence. First, Are we safe? Tilda
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: couldn't lie as safe as we can be for now?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: He bowed his head of shaggy hair, accepting her answer.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: His place is really big, he tried, yeah, Tilda agreed roughly.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Madison inspected her, appraising. Are you all right? He asked,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: his voice wavering delicately tilt. His throat tightened immediately in response,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I'm fine. Her voice was staggered with cracks and fissures. Look, Madison,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: we need to talk about what happened. His wide gaze
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: held hers, wanting her to explain it, to make it
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: make sense. You killed them to protect me, Madison asserted
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: in a brave voice. Yes, Tilda agreed. I didn't want to,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: but I had no choice. They were going to take
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: us in. She broke off on able to give voice
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: to what they had planned for Madison. They were dangerous,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: she supplied, after she'd caught her breath. Her heart was
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: thumping violently. They would have killed us first. Those are them,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I know, Madison whispered quietly, staring at his feet. He
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: was hurting you, he was. I thought he was going
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to kill you, Madison. Words became mangled, broken collisions of phrases.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: He was sobbing, Tilda realized, and doing his best to
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: hide it from her. Cautiously, Tilda stood and approached him.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Sitting next to her son, the blankets comfortable and mushy
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: beneath her, He crawled into her lap almost the second
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: she sat down, surprising her. Stiffly, she started stroking his back,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: kissing his forehead. It's okay, it's okay, she murmured, hot
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: tears soaked into her jacket. Tilda screwed up her courage.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: She had to ask, are you are you afraid of me? Madison?
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: For a minute, he wept quietly. Tilda thought she might
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: dissolve into sobs as well, But then he said thickly, no,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: you protect me, you you, you saved me. Tilda sagged
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and shocked relief, and then hugged him more tightly, fiercely,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: so grateful at the gift he'd given her. I stabbed him.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Madison choked out into her jacket. I stabbed him. Oh, honey,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Tilda breathed, you saved me. Ellis would have killed me
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: if not for you. She gave him a gentle shake.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: You didn't kill him, just distracted him. He didn't kill him, baby,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: She emphasized. Why they do that? He asked her, heart broken.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Why couldn't they just leave us alone? The world's a
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: dark place. People have been hammered and roughened into creatures
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: of survival, often depraved things driven by instinct. Kindness is
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the exception, not the rule. They weren't safe. Safety didn't
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: exist anymore, not for them. There were people who wanted
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to hunt them down and hurt them, and those people
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: were everywhere, lying in wait, watching, dying, and willing to
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: kill to have a child like Madison, someone untainted by
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: HSB five. Everyone's so scared. This is what fear does.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: It strips away everything else and leaves a monster, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: it's awake, mindless. But of course she didn't say that,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: she couldn't. She just stroked his hair. I'm sorry. I
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: wish things were different. You shouldn't have to grow up
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: in a world like this. It was worthless sentiment, but
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Madison quieted a bit. I Tilda started and then stopped,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: wondering how much she should confide in my Madison. He
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: was her only companion, the only person she could talk to,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and the fact that she had murdered two men in
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: cold blood earlier that day was eating her alive from
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the inside out. Her skin was crawling with the memory
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: of it. But at the same time, and more importantly,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: she was his mother. She shouldn't place her burdens on
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: her child, But where then could she place them? I
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: didn't want to kill them, She finally settled on a compromise.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Killing should always be the last resort. It takes something
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: from you, You lose a piece of yourself. He climbed
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: out of her lap to sit next to her so
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: he could better look her in the eye. He lost
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: a piece, Madison asked innocently, Yeah, I did, and it
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: was true. She did feel as though something inside her
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: had broken off. She'd felt the same way when she'd shot,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and if she was straight with herself, most likely killed
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the man in Chicago. Madison seemed to think for a second,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I guess maybe I did too. He pulled his knees
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: up to his chest and rested his chin on top
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: of them. I feel different, and I'm worried if I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: don't help with a vaccine, he specified, I'll just feel
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: guilty for the rest of my life. I'll be a bad,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: selfish person responsible for the death of the human race
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: till the thought. But shoved the thought away. They had
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: a vaccine, she reminded herself forcefully. They were trying to
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: manipulate her Madison into coming back, but she wasn't going
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: to put Madison into any more danger than they were
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: already clearly in. You're a good kid, you know that,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: she said fondly, and he flashed her a bewildered look.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: You're so kind hearted, and you're always thinking of other people.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: She paused, pondering the best way to frame what she
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: was going to say. You're not a bad person, you
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: are not selfish. They have a vaccine, and last time
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: we were here with Mark and his friends, they betrayed us.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Madison studied her intently. He had probably always suspected that,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: but not known for sure. They were willing to use
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: you once, and they'd do it again. But if if
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: things change, if something happens that proves to me and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: be safe to go back to DC, that they really
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: need us and we'd help by going back, then we'll
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: go back. I promise. She hoped she wouldn't regret making
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: that promise some day. But until then, I'm not going
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to put you at risk again. We are in enough
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: danger as it is, and I don't think we can
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: trust Mark. Madison processed all of this, his brow wrinkled
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: with deep thought, his cheek smushed against his knee. Tilda
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: took a final swig from her water bottle, her throat
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: painfully dry. After her rather uninspiring speech. Okay, he finally said,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: He looked back over to her. But how will we
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: ever know we can trust someone? Tilda exhaled, slowly, her
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: swollen face, giving a rather painful throb. Trust comes with time,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: with actions. We'll have to wait and see what they do.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: More shiny words that amounted to very little, but they
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: were true. He pressed the heels of his hands to
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: his eyes, a very adult gesture. He sucked in a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: shaky breath. I'm sorry, he hiccuped, I'm so sorry. Tilda
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: cupped his cheeks, tilting his face toward hers. For what, baby,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: for what? He stopped for a moment, fighting an internal battle,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: before he burst out with you've lost the peace. You've
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: lost peace. His voice morphed into a bangled whisper. You
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: lost the piece because of me tilt. His eyes welled up. No, no,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't. None of this was your fault. You're not
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: responsible for the actions of others. Madison looked away, sobbing quietly,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: trying to shield her from his grief. But she wouldn't
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: let him escape her so easily. This she couldn't turn
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: away from you. Give me something to hold on to,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: You make me whole. I would have lost everything, every piece.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: She gave him a gentle shake of the shoulders. If
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: not for you, you gave me that, You give me that
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: something to live for, in a way to piece myself together.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Those bright blue eyes stared at her, an entire universe
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: contained behind their glassy surface, the universe to be lost in.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: They watched her in that way that told her what
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: she was saying was something he was going to remember,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: something he was trying to take in and figure out
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the truth of how it fit in and assimilated into
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: what he knew and what he was shifting pieces, rearranging
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: the responsibility of it unnerved her. She pushed down the crawling,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: insidious unworthiness that lived in her very skin. Without you,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I'd be nothing, I'd have nothing. So don't you dare
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: blame yourself for the actions of those two men. That's
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: giving them power they don't deserve. Tears cascaded over her fingers,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: but he held her gaze, his hand coming up to
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: touch her face, taking in the bruising and the puffiness.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I'll be fine, til de reiterated, cursing the scratchiness of
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: her voice. What if they find us the people he
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: was talking about, he whispered to fear, like a stark
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: candle casting light on his face. We'll keep moving, We'll
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: take smaller roads. We've got scout, she indicated the sleeping
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: horse with a smile. They won't find us. She prayed
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that was the case. Madison nodded hesitantly, wanting to believe.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Let's get some sleep, okay, Tilda suggested, even though they
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: both knew that any sleep they got would be haunted
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: with ghosts. Madison tightened his grip at her suggestion, a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: spark of fear igniting behind his eyes. It's okay, she repeated,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: switching off his light and gently laying him down on
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the mountain of pillows and blankets. He dissembled, pulling him
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: close to her chest and tugging a comforter down over
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: both of them. Neither of them shut their eyes, each
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: staring into the darkness. The comforter pulled heat around them,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: a net of warmth cocooning them. Tilda fought asleep, encroaching
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: upon her her brain buzzing until something heavy settled behind
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: her eyes and her brain shut off like a light switch.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: She dreamt that Madison was gone. She didn't know where
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: he was or how long he had been missing, just
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: that he was gone and she needed to find him.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: She'd been reduced to an automaton with only one purpose,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: her need to find Madison, her compass, her being, everything,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: her singular universe. It was cold, but she didn't notice
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: her body was dead. Her limbs hung limply and swung
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: as she stumbled forward in the never ending sea of nothing.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: In her brain was a constant refrain, her catechism, Home
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: is where you are. Home is where you are, Home
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: is where you are, looping constant. A whimpering dredged her
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: from her sleep with a breathy gasp. It was dark,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the darkest part of the night. Madison was whippering, softly, squirming,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: caught in the throes of a nightmare, her head heavy
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and confused. Tilda murmured comforting words in Madison's ears, clumsily
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: petting his hair in his arm. Lost at sea, that's
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: how she felt, caught in the waves, not sure which
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: way was which, unable to catch her breath, dehydrated it
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: hungry and shriveled, seasick and homesick and desperate for solid ground,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: And Madison was lost with her. She wondered what nightmares
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: haunted him tonight. She imagined Ellison Jake played a large role,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: impossibly even herself. Her throat seared, her body throbbed, her
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: face burned. She felt weak and flimsy, stiff in some
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: places and soupy in others. Madison quieted and snuggled deeper
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: under the covers. Tilda shut her eyes but felt dizzy,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: as though she was on a raft, rocking and careening
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: over cresting and troughing waves. She swallowed back the nausea
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: rising in her throat, the pain like a shard of glass.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: She wheezed, opening eyes that were hot and her swollen face.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: She could see shapes, shadows darting through the room, but
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: she knew she was hallucinating in her exhaustion, her tired
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and stress added brain firing with all the excess nerves
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: generated by the day's events. Her eyes closed, a time
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: would pass and she'd open them again, not truly achieving
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: sleep for the rest of the night. And that brings
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: us to the end of this edition of spenty fiction.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I hope that you enjoyed it. As I hinted that before,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I apologize for my bad acting. I'm trying not to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: like go overboard, but sometimes I feel like I go
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: underboard in a way. It's like kind of a mess. Really,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to narrate it in a way that
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: is not jarring, right, So apologies for that, thinks is
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: always to super producer Christina, who makes these amazing And
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I did as I mentioned, I did want to say
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: before you yell at me, before you write in, I
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: know that this is not the healthiest relationship. I know.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And actually I've said this before. I'm really excited for
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: us to get to the ending of this story because
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: it's examined, it's like talked about, because she's basically defining
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: all of her worth through her son, all of her
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: everything is about Madison, and that will be dealt with later.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: But I just want you to know I do know. Okay,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that's not the healthiest thing. And I think in terms
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of the apocalypse, in the life they've lived, it makes
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: sense that they don't have the healthiest copying mechanisms. They're
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: very attached to each other in a way that's not
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the healthiest thing. I think it makes sense, but it
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: will be confronted. We will get to it. And yeah,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: this was a pretty It had a pretty intense conversation
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: in this one, and I had forgotten about how they
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: really talked it out. So I hope that you all
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: enjoyed it. I hope that you're continuing to enjoy this.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I love hearing from you all about it. And yeah,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: if there's anything that is in this realm of fiction
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: that we could do that's in the public domain you
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: would like us to try, we do like doing these.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: You can email us at Stephanie moms Stuff at iHeartMedia
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at mom
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at Stuff I've
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Never told you. We're on YouTube, we have a tea
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: public store, and we have a book you can get
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: wherever you get in your books. Thanks as always too,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: our super producer Christina are executive for us to Maya
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and our contributor Joey, thank you and thanks to you
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: for listening Stuff I Never Told You the protection of
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: my Heart Radio. For more podcasts or my heart Radio,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: you can check out the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. You're only
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: on you t