Listeners, Please note the following is an immersive audio
drama that includes strong horror themes and potentially
upsetting scenes for some audiences.
For those with specific phobias, please view our show notes or
episode bio for a list of content warnings.
For everyone else, you've been warned.
Thank you and good luck. Hey, Johnny.
Yes, Al, I must ask you a question.
What's that Al? Have you heard of mushroom
frittata? Sure haven't.
What's it all about? Well, Nancy, my beautiful wife
makes a mean frittata. I'm just obsessed with them.
Whip a bunch of eggs up with some sour cream and parm, top it
with some spices, and even toss in a few sauteed mushrooms and
bada ping bada. Boom.
Frittata The night is still, the forest dark, a distant scream, a
Lantern spark. Through tangled woods you make
your way where unseen eyes observe their prey.
A creaking branch, a whispered name, a chilling wind, an ebbing
flame. The path ahead is cold and
frail. Secrets weave through night's
thin veil. Old legends speak of spirits
near, of those who vanished, drowned in fear.
Moonlight fades and shadows swell on the trail.
To wanna tell. The.
Tell us exactly what happened. I I have no idea Maggie was
going to make edible flower crowns to the kids and figured
the garden near the kitchen would have stuff that would be
safe the. Gardens have limits, isn't it?
I, I, I don't know. She thought it was OK.
But now she won't wake up. No, yes.
I don't know, I went hunting for some help since I've been with
the kids all day while Julie is. This year sucks.
Jen. I I found Amanda freaking out,
She said she couldn't get her to respond and her eyes were wide
open. I'm sure it's going to be OK.
As long as she's breathing, we are good.
Watch where you step. Are there usually this many
anthills? I don't think so, man.
They're everywhere. Try to ignore them.
Can you get the latch, Amanda, Maggie, Nurse Carol went back to
town. But we're.
Oh shit. Mandy, What's wrong with her,
Amanda? Just make sure she's breathing,
maybe there's a snake or something.
Flip her over so she's not snorting mud.
Watch out for those fire ants. Do you think she's allergic?
She's awake. Maggie.
Maggie, what happened? Are you OK?
There's something in her mouth. What is that?
Did she? Did she eat something?
What? It's growing.
Get them out of her. Someone get misweed?
What the hell is she going to do, Jen?
Oh fuck, they're in her nose. Mark, man, I'm not touching her.
They're coming out from under her eyelids.
Mushrooms don't grow that fast. I'm going to.
Be sick, Amanda, guys. Hey, it's Amanda too.
Look at her mouth. Wait, I think I can understand
her. What's she saying?
She shouldn't be. No one knows.
Oh, I don't feel so good. Tom.
Tizzy. There has to be something in the
air. Jen grab Maggie's legs, don't
get near her mouth. I'll grab Thomas, are you OK to
get Amanda? She can't be alive with those
things growing out of her like that.
She can't breathe. How is she still talking?
Jen, just go if you can't help get yourself out and get Miss
Wade. Yeah, I, I I just can't.
I'm, I'm so sorry. I can't.
Don't apologize. Just just go run, Jen, run.
My, my legs won't. Everything's spinning, No?
No, no, no, no. Jen, Jen, listen, you have to go
run. I want to go home.
What do we do, Mark? Get Maggie and Amanda out first,
then Thomas, then Jen. You want me to touch them?
Look at Thomas's nose. He's got them.
We can't just leave them. Yeah, we can look at Maggie,
man. There's something on the caps of
those mushrooms. Then don't touch that bod.
We have to do something. Oh, why is Amanda moving like
that? Mark, I don't know.
I don't ow. Did one of them grab you?
Oh God, dude, I think I'm going to be sick.
Oh, everything is spinning. They're all over my heads.
Mark, I'm getting out of here. I I feel something's wrong.
They're OK. Ow, Joey.
Joey. They're OK, Joey.
There are mushrooms growing out of their eyes, guys.
I don't think they're OK. No there isn't.
Ow dude, watch your foot. You standing in a bunch of ants.
I swell up if I get bit Ow I'm going to be worm food and Ant.
Food. I don't get it.
Why? Why did they look?
OK, I don't know what's going on.
What is this stuff in the air? Looks like dust.
Maybe it's the ants? In the air.
No, maybe we're immune or something like spider man.
He's. Not immune.
He's radioactive. What are you doing?
Get up, snap out of it. Ow, snap out of it.
Get them out of me. Get them out.
Mark, Joey. Oh my God, what just happened?
Hey, hey, hey, get Maggie out. Get out of the garden.
Something's wrong with it. Rise and shine, Tommy boy.
It's not real. It's not happening.
I could still feel them under my eyelids.
That was horrible. What's going on?
Oh, we don't know. Just just just help.
Maggie, Joe, Joey, come on. Kicking them everywhere.
And. It's getting closer, it's trying
to push through. Where did it go?
How are these fire ants? Stop it.
Why are you kicking fire ants on me?
We have to get out of the garden.
Help Amanda and Maggie TomTom look at me.
Are you OK? I I don't know how.
Do you feel you can be all right?
OK. Andrew didn't go home.
Did this happen to him? Everything hurts.
You got bitten by 1000 fire ants.
Of course everything hurts. We have to talk about this later
when all the kids are in the cafeteria.
Do you know where Sarah and Cassie are?
They were just dying. I don't want to talk about this
later. I want to go home.
And leave the kids. Nurse Carol's gone, Miss Wade is
hiding something, and whatever is going on is getting worse.
Sarah and Cassie, I think they were doing pine cone mobiles
today, maybe archery? Don't tell them what happened.
Not all of it. Stay away from mushrooms I guess
and and keep the lit spots. We should be safe in the camp.
In camp. Yeah, Mags, we're in camp.
We're OK. Is she all right?
You look kind of out of it. Out of it?
Out of it what? Come on, let's go find Julie.
I don't think you're the only one who's been seeing shit,
Thomas. Wait wait, hold on.
A zombie chased you down the trail and then got ripped apart
by something when it jumped out of its skin, Suit put.
Your voice down, Yes. You sound crazy.
And you just told us you had a dream Andrew was leading you off
to die. I.
Fell off a Cliff. I'm allowed a hallucination of
6. Never mind.
I believe you, Thomas. Cassie, we're talking about
bleeding trees, Sarah. Get off your high horse, Joey
and Mark Think misses Wade is covering up a murder.
Seriously. Connie would have called to
apologize. Andrew would have called to
apologize if he was. OK, he's not.
I know what I saw that night. It's there every time I close my
eyes. And now it's using his voice.
It said it needed a body and it shredded the one it was using.
The garden is in camp though, right?
You said you were safe once you got to camp, So what happened
with us? Garden in camp.
What was that Max? Is it because we didn't do the
fire the right way? I don't know what the rules are.
The ants pushed up in the fire pits and they were swarming the
garden, so maybe that's a sign. Maggie, you've got to eat
something. A sign that we're east of the
Mississippi. You can't go 2 feet without fire
ants being everywhere. Got to.
Eat something I'm not hungry. We need to bail, man.
Save the Lake is like poison. Mm hmm say it's the trees.
Say the SAP stuck a kids mouth together and the police need to
light the whole place on fire. You can't commit our sin to kill
a ghost, Jen. Have you tried?
Guys, look, it's just two more weeks.
If we're all experiencing whatever this thing is, it's not
a ghost now. It can't catch us off guard
anymore. And if they covered up what
happened to Connie, they won't listen to us if we try telling
them about it. Which means telling Miss Wade is
useless. So we leave.
Why aren't y'all listening to me?
I know at least half of these kids, Joey.
I've even babysat a couple of them or drove them around with
my sister. I can't just leave them to this
thing. What if it goes after you next?
Well, we just have to be smart about it now.
Like a bear. If you know there's a bear, you
tie your food away from camp and up in a tree.
Are we talking about a zombie or a bear?
I'll take the bear. The Bear.
Take the pair, I'm going to the cabin.
Oh, OK, I got the kids. Don't worry about me.
The. Bugs have really freaked her
out, huh? If I thought mushrooms were
going out of my nose and then woke up to ants crawling all
over me, I would be out of it too.
She's been like this for days. She had a nightmare.
It was a really bad one. She couldn't explain what it was
about but how she's ignoring me and it's it's like she's not
even there. Was it like the mirror you told
us about? No, no, there's nothing else
weird in the cabin. What if something is wrong with
her though? Whatever was coming up in the
fire pit was real, Amanda. I saw at least that and we all
saw the garden. I've never been so glad to keep
kids from eating glue. Me too.
I think what Mark means is it could be like the guy Thomas saw
so far we know it can mess with our dreams and show up in
mirrors, maybe even the woods. It was on the trail, followed me
all the way back to camp. Definitely the woods then, and
it's under the camp somewhere and trying to get up through the
fire pit and maybe the garden. It took Connie from the cabin.
Jin snatched her out of a room with a locked door and closed
windows, and the cops believed them when they said she ran
away. What even is it?
It's always just out of sight, even when it was that guy you
told us about. I don't know what to call
something I can't see. Let's just call it that then out
of sight. It's weird as hell and none of
us have really seen it. Do you think it got in Maggie's
head? Maybe it's like rabies, like now
she's allergic to garlic and water.
I don't even know where to start on why you're wrong.
Maggie doesn't have rabies. He could be right though, maybe
it did get in her head that night and just never left.
Maybe it can get into camp if it's using someone else.
It said it was patience, that it needed a body nurse.
Carol is gone, Miss Wade probably knows about this thing
and isn't doing anything about it.
We've still got a bunch of kids who are trying to have a good
time and get home. It's only two more weeks and
we're figuring out how to keep the out of sight off our backs.
Once camp is over we'll fix whatever this is so it doesn't
keep happening. All in favour.
I she asked me if I wanted to go back into town, we could just
quit. You had the chance and you
stayed here all in favor. I'm staying.
Yeah, cool. Well.
Now what? Now we actually pay attention to
the campers. I think yours are chugging milk.
What? Hey, hey, get that out.
No, I told you we weren't doing food pranks anymore.
You're going to make yourself sick.
What do you mean you put mayonnaise in it?
Joe and I told you that if you did this kind of thing again,
you're going to be in take trouble.
I'm warning. You I'm warning.
You. Credits to the cast in order of
appearance Tory Dr. as Alan Wilson.
Geoff Moltz as Johnny Cowan. Marlin Danshui as the Narrator
Aman HK as Mark Green Meg McKellar as Jennifer Darwin Luke
Kimbrough as Joey Miller Frederick Powers as Thomas
Anderson. Jay Wassell as Amanda McMillan.
Rachel Schumacher as Maggie Roberts, M Cross as Sarah Davis.
MB Lee as Cassandra Nelson Kelly, The Kelhop as Julie
Mackey. Credits to our crew.
Executive producer and associate writer Aaron Valentine.
Lead producer and associate writer Saph Bridebel.
Lead Writer Adele King, script editor and law keeper Eli King.
Lead audio engineer, composer and associate writer Meg
McKellar. Audio engineers Este Hernandez
and Jacob Gucci Yamaguchi. Lead visuals artist Dexter
Valentine, Visuals artist. NB Lee.
Thank you for listening to 1.7 Miles to Lake Wanatel, a
Honeydew Studios production. We hope you enjoyed.
Tune in next Saturday for a new episode.