Episode 1 - Pilot

EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT

A lone car speeds down the straight, two-lane highway, its high beams a shining beacon of light in the surrounding darkness. The car jerks, adjusting its course as it flies down the interstate.

INT. CAR - NIGHT

A man, mid-thirties, receding hairline, sits at the wheel of the car. He wears a rumpled suit and wide rimmed glasses. As he drives, he looks around nervously, constantly looking into his rearview and side mirrors. He pulls on the wheel, adjusting constantly, though this should be an easy drive. The road goes through an open plain, there are no bumps or turns. The man uses his sleeve to wipe the sweat dripping down his face.

On the seat next to him is a leather suitcase, held shut by two catch latches.

"Come on... come on..." the man mutters as he checks his mirrors again. "Okay," he says, nodding to himself as he turns back to look ahead. He sighs in relief, trying to slow his panicked breathing.

The right headlight of the car flickers, then dies. "Nononono... God, please..." the man mutters, his breathing speeding up again. The left headlight flickers and dies as well. The man checks his mirrors, abject terror plain on his face despite the surrounding darkness.

The latches on his case give way. Papers come flying out of it, filling the car with fluttering debris.

EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT

The car, headlights off, speeds down the highaway. One of its wheels comes off its axle, and it veers sharply off the road. It sails through the air for a moment, before plunging into the ditch. It crashes violently against the ground, rolling a few times, before coming to a stop. Its rear lights flicker and die.

The camera dollies back from the scene of the crash to reveal a nearby sign that reads:

OPENING CREDITS

The screen is dark. Then, flashes of lightning illuminate roiling clouds. The third bolt reveals the title card. AGNOSTOPHOBIA is sprayed over a Yin-Yang symbol with a Dragon on one side and a Phoenix on the other.

Cut to a very large man as he steps out of the woods and looks down at a small town. He is wearing jeans, sturdy boots and a checked lumberjack shirt. He carries an old leather backpack. He looks tired. "THELONIUS as MANGAS". With a sigh he continues walking, the camera stays and sees him walk away towards the town. Shadows creep in from the bottom of the frame, spreading across the ground, reaching towards him.

Sophia is drinking tea on her family home, the figure of a small dragon in bluish white light curled around her and on the back of the room a small altar can be seen with her parents’ photograph on it. "NIGHTINGALE as SOPHIA CHEN". The altar catches fire behind her. It consumes her parents' picture and quickly grows to engulf the whole wall.

Getting ready montage in close-ups. Bullet proof vest, buttoning up the suit. Checking the 9mm and putting it in the holster. Getting in the SUV. And finally seeing Matthew's face/eyes as he adjusts the rear view mirror. "DONQWAF as MATTHEW LEONS". He picks up a pager to look at a message on it. In the mirror, a ghostly face opens it's mouth wider than any living creature could.

Eshe is training by herself in a bare room, her staff in a corner. She is striking at non-existent opponents and dodging their blows in turn. A momentary loss of balance leaves her on the tips of her toes and she transitions into a few ballet moves to catch herself, before coming to a stop, laughing breathlessly. "ANOTHER AKA as ESHE MESERET DANIAT". In the window behind her, the sky turns orange and what looks like dozens of asteroids come raining down from it.

Ominous images flash across the screen. A corpse, hanging by its feet from a tree with writhing branches. A man running from a mob with glowing green eyes. Hands pushing out of the wall as a child reads nearby. A statue weeping blood as it strangles a priest.

We see the four hunters surrounded, fighting a group of thugs with fire surrounding their fists. Mangas fights with a stop sign, torn from the ground, cement still hanging onto its base. Eshe twirls her staff, parrying and counter attacking. Sophia, her spear crackling with lightning, drives some of the thugs back with powerful thrusts as Long Wang surrounds her body protectively and snarls. Matthew fires his 9mm, taking out some more thugs who were rushing in.

We get a nice, final shot of the four hunters grouped together, each in their own fighting stance. Strange, shadowy shapes hang above them, looking akin to puppeteers.

EXT. UNKNOWN - NIGHT

Eshe plummets down from the sky. The wind howls in her ears and tugs at her clothes. Debris falls alongside her, crashing into her, bruising and cutting her flesh. She hits the ground and feels her bones snaps and shatter.

INT. SUV - DAY

Eshe wakes up with a start. Her seatbelt stops her forward motion as she instinctively tries to stand. Another bad dream...

The four hunters are all sitting in Matthew's SUV, driving down Highway 25. A sign flashes by:
BAR NUNN 3 miles.
CASPER 8 miles.
DOUGLAS 57 miles.

Middle of nowhere, Wyoming.

Matthew's superiors hadn't provided him with much information. The code on his pager had said: BAR NUNN, WY. UNKNOWN. LOW.

Mangas looks out the window, seeing the plains stretch out all around them and the mountains on the horizon. This place reminds of the steppe. Of his long lost home...

Sophia can feel Long Wang’s displeasure. She’s not sure why, but he seems to have a profound dislike for this place. Unlike the feeling of hatred she gets when the Phoenix Clan is concerned, this feels more like… contempt.

Matt focused on the road ahead, tapped his fingers to the tune of “Big Iron” by Marty Robbins.

His eyes flick to the rear view mirror, seeing Eshe start in her sleep and wake up.
His thoughts start to wander, her peaceful sleeping face bringing flashes of other thoughts.
With a slow blink he banishes the thoughts and brings back his focus.
“You all right Eshe? Bad dream?”

Eshe's breathing is shallow and laboured in the moments right before she wakes - her body is convinced that it is dying. When she wakes up, it is with an unbearable pressure on her chest and she tries to get it off until she realizes that it is just her seatbelt, because she is in a car - Matt's SUV to be precise.  She crosses eyes with Matt in the rearview mirror and gives him a shaky smile. "Yeah. It was pretty fucked.  But I'm alright... Really." She looks out the window trying to get her bearings; in her panicked awakening, she had not seen the road sign. "Do we still have far to go?"  She leans forward and places a hand on his shoulder. "Are you good to keep driving?  We could switch if you'd like."

Sophia is sitting in the backseat, she is looking ahead at the back of the seat, anywhere is good really. She is more distracted by Liz's displeasure.

"What is it, Liz? A warning might be awesome right about now before it's too late to prepare."

Her eyes move briefly to Eshe's brusque awakening, but once she notices Matt has it covered she goes back to watching the seat.

Boss question:

Matt’s eyes widen a little, but relax as she lays her hand on his shoulder. He smiles briefly into the rear view mirror at Eshe.

“Of course. I have plenty more in me. Plus, it’s only a few more miles.”

"Oh! Great!  It will be nice to stretch a bit.  I wonder what the local diner is like." One of the few reliable things in their travels was that there was always some kind of local diner. "I hope they have milkshakes!"  Eshe wistfully imagines the frosty beverage before furrowing her brow slightly as she recalls that they still do not know what awaits them in this tiny speck of a town.  Shrugging to herself, she sighs and leans back in the seat; with only a few miles left to go, it was only a matter of time before they found out.  

moarhair wrote:

Only perceived by Sophia:

Sophia frowns and whoever happens to be looking in her direction through the rearview mirror or directly notices it easily. How the hell am I going to do that? She thinks.
Then out loud she answers Liz. "Deal, I guess, you already told me so it's only fair I do my part."

Another AKA wrote:

"Oh! Great!  It will be nice to stretch a bit.  I wonder what the local diner is like." One of the few reliable things in their travels was that there was always some kind of local diner. "I hope they have milkshakes!"  Eshe wistfully imagines the frosty beverage before furrowing her brow slightly as she recalls that they still do not know what awaits them in this tiny speck of a town.  Shrugging to herself, she sighs and leans back in the seat;  with only a few miles left to go, it was only a matter of time before they found out.  

At Eshe's mention of milkshakes Sophia can't help feeling excited, ever since she was introduced to the drink she is made sure to have one whenever they are on the menu but then shakes her head, she was getting distracted.
The next she directs to everyone in the car. "Liz says a greedy fool kicked a hornet's nest, and now everybody is getting stung, whatever that actually means we will learn once we arrive but we should get ready to deal with a lot of angry people too."

Mangas sits in the passenger seat of the car. It's uncomfortable, the car is big, but barely any car is made for people his size.
They have been driving for a while, so when the question comes to how much further he adds "bout time."
He continues to look out the window at the landscape. He can't remember how long ago it was when he left his clan. Too long. He could almost see the horses ride across the plains in front of him. Do they still ride the horses like they did back home in the steppe?

Sophia wrote:

"Liz says a greedy fool kicked a hornet's nest, and now everybody is getting stung, whatever that actually means we will learn once we arrive but we should get ready to deal with a lot of angry people too."

"My money is on 'power-hungry asshole conjured something up, that is now outa control.'"

Thelonius wrote:

"My money is on 'power-hungry asshole conjured something up, that is now outa control.'"

Sophie smirk to Mangas "Is it ever something different from that? At this point, I'm more worried about the state of the normies in town. Don't want to deal with a lynch. She grimaces.

EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY

The SUV passes by a highway sign for Salt Creek Route. Matthew changes lane from the left to the right, getting ready to take their exit. As they near the exit ramp, something catches the hunters' eyes.

On the service road running parallel to the other side of highway, a battered car is being pulled from the ditch by a flatbed tow truck. One man is sitting in the truck's cab and another is standing outside near the pulley controls. A highway patroller watches, leaning against the hood of her police car. The tower gets the crashed car about halfway up, before it breaks in two. The front tumbles back down into the ditch. The towers stop the crank and the one outside yells animatedly at the wreck, throwing his hat onto the ground in frustration.

The hunters can't hear what the man said, but by the patroller's reaction, it must have been rather coarse and hilarious, as she looks first shocked, then bursts into laughter.

"That looks like fun." Sophie says with a tone of sarcasm and then when she sees her burst into laughter a small smile appears on her face. "Maybe it is after all. How close are we to town? Do you think that accident has anything to do with us?"

Normally she would ignore these kinds of things, but with Liz's warning, this could be the kind of thing that pushes people into a lynching mindset.

Matt, smiled grimly. “People always want more power. Supernatural or not.”

***

His eyes too, are drawn to the accident.

“We made good time, so it can’t hurt to have a look…”
He turns the car off at the newest opportunity, and heads to the accident. As he pulls up, he turns and addresses the others in the car.
“Keep an eye out for anything funky, but it may be best to let me chat with the officer…”

EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY

By the time the SUV pulls up, the towers have managed to pull part of the car onto their truck's flatbed. The front half is still lodged in the ditch and bits and pieces litter the ground between it and the truck.

The patroller looks up at the SUV as it comes to a stop. She's wearing a wide-brimmed hat and mirrored aviator sunglasses, which hide most of her face. She pushes off the hood of her car and walks closer, looking at the license plate on Matthew's SUV before approaching the driver-side window. She taps it and waits for the agent to lower it.

"Good afternoon. You folks lost or lookie-loos?" she asks with a helpful smile.

Matt lowers the window, and nods at the officer.

“Officer, not lost at all. Matthew Leons, at your service.”

He nods his head towards the crash.

“I’m part of an organization that deals with…”
He hesitates. This was always the hardest part. Some people were open to odd things. Others very much not so.
“…issues of a less standard nature. Was anything regarding this incident…less standard than your usual crash?”

The officer looks from Matthew to the other passengers of the SUV. She's hard to read, hidden behind her aviators, but the way she purses her lips hint at what she thinks of Matthew's claim.

"Sorry, folks. Department policy is not to talk to tabloids. You'll have to look for batboy somewhere else. Have a good day."

Behind her, the towers are hauling another piece of the car onto the flatbed. Suddenly, the pulley gives out and the piece drop. The car piece comes apart as it hits the ground, throwing debris everywhere. One particularly sharp-looking part of car's frame goes flying, its arc taking it straight towards the patroller!

Mangas, thusfar unmoving and uninvolved in the conversation sees the projectile fly directly for the patroller. Out of nowhere his huge body tilts in the passenger seat, one hand releasing the buckle of his safety belt, the other reaching out to the patroller. The officer yelps in surprise and instinctively reaches for her gun on her right side. She manages to loosen it, but before she gets to pull it out on Mangas, she stumbles back and falls flat on her back, after a short fall. Mathew groans under the weight of the big man making him remember that he is lying full weight on the driver. Mangas tilts back on his seats, buckles his seat belt again and continues staring out of the window.

Sophia sees all this happen and calmly extends her hand, making a sudden flash of lightning come out from the left of the car piece to push it back, just enough to buy some time for Mangas rescue.

The flying piece of the crashed car bounces off the SUV, leaving a large scratch on its hood, and lands in the middle of the service road.

The tower in the truck steps out and comes running towards the SUV. The other one stays by the truck, visibly flustered as he checks on the pulley. "Oh, Lord! Sandra, are ya alright?" asks the younger one as he helps the officer to her feet.

"Yes... I think so..." She checks to make sure she's not injured, then brushes the sand off her uniform. "What the hell happened, Bert?"

"I don't know! The winch is strong enough t'lift armored trucks! It shouldn't've given in like that!"

The officer grunts, then leans to look into the SUV at Mangas. "Thanks, big guy. I owe you one."

"If y'bring your truck by the shop, we can take care o' that scratch for ya," says Bert with an embarrassed smile.

Mangas shows no reaction to the thank you off the officer, but the faintest of nods. He continues staring at the wreckage. The car seems brittle and unusually heavy. He suddenly unbuckles again, opens the door and without a comment or look at the officer walks over to the salvaged piece of the car. He touches the metal to see whether it is changed in any way, tries to break of a piece to check whether it really is brittle. Then he walks over to the piece that just flew to them and lifts it up, to see whether the weight matches expectations.
"Were there any passengers in the car?", he asks noone specifically.

Matthew had been focused on the officer when the bit of metal flew off, when Mangas arm flew past him, pushing the officer out of the way, followed by a flash of light that left him partially blinded for a second.
Then followed Mangas weight.
“Hhuuuuuuuuu….”
Matt wheezed and pathetically pushed at Mangas bulk before the big man got off him.
“Oh thank god….”
He listened to the interaction and said nothing, figuring he had done enough.
As the tower spoke up, Matthew nodded at him.
“Thanks, we will take you up on that. We will just follow you there if that’s ok?”

Bert grins and straightens up. "Sure! It ain't far. We'll get movin' in a minute. We won't be gettin' the rest o' the wreck onto the bed with a broken winch anyway," he says, with a snorts and a chuckle. He waves at the hunters in the SUV and walks back towards the truck. He starts helping the other tower carefully detach the piece of the wreck from the broken winch.

Mangas examines the wreckage. The frame and body of the car doesn't seem especially brittle. They seem fine. As he looks at the pieces, he notices a series of little tears and scratches in groups of three and parallel to other groups of three. His tracking experience tells him that these are claw marks of a small creature, maybe the size of a cat or a raccoon. His keen nose also picks up the smell of machine oil, but one quite unlike the oil oozing from the car's remains or coming from the tow truck. It is accompanied by the scent of ozone, akin to the smell left after lightning strikes.

Sophia also gets out of the car, following Mangas, her eyes glowing red from Liz's power running through her. Whatever did this most have left a supernatural print and she was going to find it.

"Look, what is that?"

To Sophia's disappointment, there are no tracks that fit Mangas' description. Amidst the wreckage, however, she finds an open suitcase surrounded by a number of brochures. She picks one up.

On the cover is a happy-looking nuclear family standing in front of a McManor. The words CASPER HEIGHTS, written in a bold font, hover above the house. Inside the brochure is a map of a suburb like so many others. It looks to be an expansion of Bar Nunn to the East of the current town.

If that's where the car was coming from, perhaps so did the creature, Sophia reasons.

"You folks seem awfully interested in this crash," Sandra, the patroller, says from behind Sophia, her tone oozing with suspicion. "Why is that?"

Sophia puts away the brochure in one of her pockets. "Like Matt said, work, if you don't wan to believe us." She shrugs. "Nothing we can do about it."

She pats Mangas on the arm and then starts heading to the car. "Seems like Bar Nunn to the east of town is the place to go." She tells everyone on the car.

Matthew hides a smile at Sophia’s response, looking into the review mirror and winking at Eshe, his smile hidden but eyes alight with laughter.
He starts the car and waits for everybody to get in and follows the tow truck as it leaves.

EXT. GARAGE - DAY

Bert wasn't lying: the garage is not very far. It takes the two truck and the SUV a whole 5 minutes to drive from the accident site to Inland Truck Parts and Service. They drive past a chain link fence and Bert indicates to Matthew that he should park the SUV in front of one of the 6 large garage doors of the west side of the big white box of a building.

The tower drives his truck into the garage through one of the open doors and disappears from sight. A few seconds later, the garage door in front of the SUV lifts up and Matthew drives it inside.

INT. GARAGE - DAY

The inside of Inland Truck Parts and Service is surprisingly modern and sleek for such a small town. It seems equipped to handle everything from a pickup to an eighteen-wheeler. The two farthest booths seem to be closed for repairs.

Bert approaches the driver side door and smiles. "I'll have a look, see what t'damage is. If you folks are hungry, t'Hangar ain't far. It's a restaurant, not a real hangar!" he says and laughs goofily. "It's on Prairie Lane. Y'all just head south, an' take t'first right. Can't miss it. It looks like a real hangar! Ha!" He pauses. "But... but it's not. It's a restaurant."

While he talks, the other tower has begun looking at their tow truck, trying to figure out what's wrong with the winch. He seems wholly uninterested in the group of strangers.

Matthew pauses for moment, contemplating taking Lucile out of the trunk, before thinking against it. He already had a bad start with the local police.
“Thanks. We have been driving for a while do you know what happened with this accident? Or what might make a car…do that?”

Bert scratches his head as he thinks for a moment. He shrugs. "The heat, maybe? S'been awfully hot this year. Some people say it's that climate change, but Pastor Mike says God wouldn't let people change his weather, so who knows?"

He looks back at his truck. "S'been happenin' all around town. Trucks and cars breakin' down. Bits and pieces falling off. Bolts unscrewed, solderin' melted or torn. Strangest thing I ever saw. And there's always this airplane oil smell..."

He turns back and grins at Matthew. "But it's been good for business! We been kept busy as bees! People've been laughing it off. You know, technology. New stuff ain't as tough as it used to be. The Elites want to sell us more stuff, so they make it to break. We help each other out here. Real tight-knit community. Besides, no one'd been hurt... until two days ago... People don't drive fast 'round town, but if something breaks while you're speedin'... Poor Mr. Darlington... He just wanted to build folks some houses..." Bert shakes his head sadly.

Matthew had taken a notebook out and noted a few things down.
heat, airplane oil smell, Mr Darlington

"Oh is that the new development area? Cuban heights? Casper heights? And is Mr. Darlington ok?

Bert nods emphatically. "Yeah, that's right. Casper Heights."

He sobers up and takes off his hat. "Mr. Darlington didn't make it. I hear s'going to be a closed casket."

Sophia is looking around, ignoring the people, and instead focusing on getting a feel for the place.

Weird stuff going around, uh? Wonder if we may have a trickster in this town.

Once she is looked inside she walks out to look at the street, she doesn't go far just a few steps out so she can still have the others within sight.

"Hey Bert?  You know how some folks get their backs up over this, that and the other? I feel like there is one in every neighborhood; just seem to be against every and anything!" Eshe laughs thinking back to any number of people with whom she had crossed paths who would fit that description. "Is there a reason that someone would be against the Caspar Heights project?"

EXT. GARAGE - DAY

There's not much to see outside Inland Truck Parts and Service. The Garage is situated in a cul-de-sac. Opposite the large building is another, smaller building with a sloped roof. It's painted green and has a large, fenced-off yard with a bunch of construction cranes and pickups neatly parked in it.

Street view:

INT. GARAGE - DAY

Bert scrunches up his face as he thinks for a moment. "The PTA threw up a stink at first. Somethin' 'bout school capacity or somethin'. They had a protest, 'til Mr. Darlington promised to give 'em some money to build an annex."

"Oh, and there was Loony Lynn, of course." He gasps and turns beet red. "Aw, that wasn't nice," he mutters to himself. "What I means t'say is: Mrs. Horton weren't happy 'bout it either. Said they should leave the scrapyard alone. But everyone wanted it gone. It's an eyesore and kids would play in it and need shots after, 'cause of all the rust." He grins and his gaze grows distant. "I remember climbin' all around the old planes, and buses, and cars, and trucks, and tractors... Playin' king o' the scrap hill... heh, good times."

Matthew nodded at Eshe and wrote down and underlined “scrapyard” and “mrs Horton”.

“Thank you Bert. You have been a great help.”

Matthew puts the pocket book away and pulls out a slim leather wallet.
“If possible, do you have a loaner we could use? And if so, I’d like you to do a service. And give yourself a generous tip.”

He pulls out, a credit card and hands it over to Bert.

The PTA? Of course Mr Darlington had to pay off the PTA - they were consistently one of the best organized, most cutthroat outfits Eshe'd ever seen.  If ever the PTA decided to move some weight it would be wild! As Matthew settled up, Eshe thought idly about how bakesales might be used to move benzos or launder money, before another question came to mind.

"Sounds like the scrapyard was a lot of fun so I understand why local kids loved it, but why was Mrs Horton into it?  And how'd she land that nickname?"

Eshe gives Matthew a light shrug and crooked smile, as if to say "sorry for not thinking of this earlier" and waits to hear what Bert has to say.

DonQwaf wrote:

“If possible, do you have a loaner we could use? And if so, I’d like you to do a service. And give yourself a generous tip.”

He pulls out, a credit card and hands it over to Bert.

Bert takes the card and starts walking towards the office. "No need for that, sir. We'll do it at cost. You wouldn't need the work done if our winch hadn't up an' broke."

He takes a set of keys of a board with a bunch of sets on hooks and hands them to Matthew. "Won't be as nice as yours, but it'll getcha where ya need to go. It's the white 2006 F-150 Lariat near the back o' the lot. Can't miss it."

Another AKA wrote:

"Sounds like the scrapyard was a lot of fun so I understand why local kids loved it, but why was Mrs Horton into it? And how'd she land that nickname?"

Bert shrugs. "Dunno why she cares, but she's always off about somethin' or another. Spirits and stuff. Back in the day, she might've been tried as a witch! She usually comes into town in the evenin' for a drink at Chatters. If you see the red and white 1948 Harley Panhead in the parkin' lot, she's there! Ain't many of those still roadworthy. I keep tellin' her a woman her age shouldn't be ridin' around on a motorcycle, but it's hard to insist with a hunnerd year old biker who open-carries a Colt! Hah!"

Mangas had spent most of the time outside of the workshop. His head hurt. Ever since they came up with these cars, he always got a splitting headache when he smelled their stink too directly. Sure, before the cars the world also smelled, but it was a different stink. Natural.
At least they got better at making cars and they were convenient at times. But in the end everybody did the same work they did before, just further away.
The time around the Wars had been the worst. That stink was everywhere. But Mangas had found refuge for a few years. In the end one can escape everything, at the cost of comfort. But what comfort does he need...

Now he just walked into the workshop to see what the hold up was about when he overhears the last bit about Mrs. Horton. He nods towards the exit and says "Horton." and walks out, expecting the others to follow. His head is pounding.

Matthew whistles and tosses the keys at Mangas.
“White truck. We will see if we can’t find mrs.Horton. Check at chatters for her bike on the way to the scrapyard.”

He looks back at Bert.
“Thanks again Bert”
He shakes Bert’s hand and heads towards the truck.

Seeing Mangas looking grumpy, well, grumpier Eshe started making her way towards the door.  "Yer good people Bert - be seein' you!"  Outside, she eyes Mangas wondering, not for the first time, how satisfying it would be able to jump over him, or at least to kick a target off of his head.   It was something that she loved doing; clearing new heights, challenging herself to go farther, faster.  She didn't dare ask him... yet.  Shaking her head ruefully, she heads over to the truck. "Might be a bit early to be getting a drink, but then if I was a badass old dame, I'd do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted! " Before even meeting her, Mrs Horton reminded Eshe of her great-aunt, Auntie C; a woman not to be trifled with.

EXT. TOWN - DAY

The town layout of Bar Nunn is a bit strange. It has long, parallel streets that cross regular streets at an acute angle. Matthew remembers reading, before coming into town, that the city was built around the abandoned Wardwell Airport, Casper's original airport.

Bar Nunn, WY:

Chatters is a grey, unassuming building located in a huge empty lot. It sits next to the much more impressive The Hangar, which is built into an actual repurposed airplane hangar.

Chatters:

The Hangar:

The Hunters drive by the bar, but do not see Mrs. Horton's Harley in the parking lot, so they drive on to the scrapyard.

EXT. SCRAPYARD - DAY

The Wardwell Scrapyard is located to the southwest of town, where Trail's End and Palomino Ave meet, in what looks like a lake that dried up long ago. It is enormous and littered with the carcasses of old propeller airplanes, cars, buses, trucks, and even a couple of small boats. It smells of rust, oil and gasoline. A murder of crows seemed to have made it their home and can be heard calling to each other in the distance. From their vantage point, the hunters can feel the heat coming from the metal frames baking in the afternoon sun.

Closer to the road are a few cranes and trucks who look more recent. All of them seem to be falling apart and are missing parts.

Sophia gets down the car, keeping an eye on the crows the whole time, the place looked normal enough, except for them. She takes a deep breath and lets Liz'power reach to her eyes to help her see beyond appearances.

Then she winces when she gets the dry and arid smell of the place. Right, I'm supposed to make this comfortable for them. How am I supposed to do that? — Maybe ocean sounds? Will have to ask Eshe where can I find some in the WooTube app she installed on my phone.

Bert had mentioned that trucks and cars had been losing parts and otherwise coming apart but it was still surprising to see so many newer vehicles in the scrapyard.  "I'm going to go find whoever runs this place," Eshe says closing the door of the pick-up.   "Hopefully they are as chatty as our new friend Bert!"

Matthew had watched out the window as they had driven through town. Not that there was a lot to see…

Arriving at the scrapyard, it was just that. A scrapyard.

He started following Eshe, but hanging back a little so as not to swarm the poor Mrs. Horton, but close enough to assist.

A little way down the path to the scrapyard is a large sign with the same picture that appeared on the brochure Sophia picked up at the accident site. A boring corporate logo, accompanied with the words Cheyenne Real Estate Development Ltd. occupy the bottom right corner of the placard.

A temporary office building, as can be seen at every large construction project sits in the afternoon sun. Eshe makes her way up the stairs to its door, but finds it locked. She peers through he windows and sees that it's deserted. The inside is a mess, with papers strewn across the floor. Computers sit lifeless on the desks.

Eshe crouches and waves Matthew over.
"The office is locked but it looks like it has been tossed,she whispers to him. "Want to see if you can get it open and I'll act as look out?"

Matt knew that if given the choice, Eshe almost always preferred to be the lookout.  She joked about being all thumbs, but the fact was she was great at talking her way out of trouble and at kicking ass (if talking failed), but she often failed at even the simplest task when pressure was high.

As Mangas births out of the car, like a baby from the tight confines of its mother's womb, he curses under his breath and wonders why people don't walk anymore and instead cram themselves into these coffins on wheels for every 2m of way.
He grunts angrily and breathing heavily he walks over to the newer pile of vehicles. He can feel the dark clouds rising inside him and afraid of them and himself, he distances himself from anyone around. With a cry he swings a fist down onto one of the wrecks, hoping to release some steam.
He closes his eyes and tries to breath slower and as the clouds retreat back deep into his subconscious, he opens the eyes again to look at the wreckage more closely. Did the screws rip out? Did they unscrew? What parts seem to be missing, what is consistent between the wreckages?

Matthew stepped up to the door, knocking again before trying to open it.
“Mrs. Horton? Is anybody inside? Are you ok?”
With a small shove he pushes the door open and steps inside, having a look around for anything suspicious, and opening his jacket slightly to give easier access to his 9mm if needed.