"What the hell?" said a voice behind him, and Carlos turned around to see Travis, who looked completely done with everything. "Where- What-"
"I'll try to explain later. What did you want to see me about?"
"Well, you went to see that newscaster, and then you didn't come back. We heard the report. Either you didn't relay the facts very well or he didn't."
"It was him."
"Well, now there's this thing."
He strolled deeper into the lab, flipping the "Off" button on the radio as he passed it. Instead of complying, the radio shot electric sparks at him and increased the volume by several notches. "Lights seen in the sky above the Arby's," came Cecil's voice through the speaker. "Not the glowing sign of Arby's. Something higher, and beyond that. We know the difference. We've caught onto their game. We've caught onto the glowing lights above Arby's game."
Travis kicked the radio lightly in irritation. "It's not even plugged in. How is it transmitting signals? But that's not important. At least, not at the moment." He glared at the radio for a few seconds, then continued to where the other scientists were standing around, writing notes.
"Did you feel anything today? In the ground?"
Carlos raised his eyebrows. "You mean like an earthquake? No, not even a tremble."
Travis pushed the seismic indicator towards him with a sense of finality before collapsing into a chair. "We checked this at the monitoring station about ten minutes ago. I'm done."
Carlos frowned. "But... An eight point nine size earthquake? Going on right now? But- well, maybe the equipment malfunctioned in the way here. Maybe we passed through some magnetic disturbance which threw the instruments off balance."
Even as he said it, Carlos knew it wasn't true. "You should probably tell your new friend about it," suggested Delaney. "See if anyone knows anything about earthquakes around here."
"He's not exactly my friend."
Delaney shrugged, leaning against the table. "Mmm. He seems to be quite smitten by you. Even still, if every radio is like this piece-of-crap one in here, than almost everyone must be listening and someone might know something. I mean, the town should be falling to pieces. But somehow, it is not."
Carlos sighed and stepped out to call Cecil. After all, the radio host had said to call any time, and seemed flexible enough to stop his show for short conversations.
"Hello, this is Cecil Palmer."
"Hi Cecil, this is Carlos."
Carlos cringed as Delaney strolled out and smirked as Cecil said, "Ooh, Carlos! Great to hear from you again, so soon!"
"Yeah. Um, I wanted to tell you that our seismic indicators have been going crazy, as if there is a huge earthquake going on right now that no one can feel. Do you think you could broadcast that? We don't want people to panic, but sometime might know something about it."
"Giant earthquakes that no one can feel?" asked Cecil in a skeptical tone.
"Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with our sensors, and-"
"I thought that the next government issued one wasn't until next week. Hmm. But that's neat!"
Carlos huffed in frustration, ignoring the part about "government issued one" for the moment. "No, its not. I don't know what's going on with this place, but we will find out."
"Looking forward to it!" he said, and Carlos rolled his eyes. "So..." continued the broadcaster, "It'd be great to know you better. Do you have any plans the next week?"
"Um, I have to go. Bye." Carlos hung up and stick his phone in his pocket, his cheeks burning even though no one else heard. He didn't want to be rude, but still. He had only known him for one day. Delaney was hauling several boxes of unbroken supplies into the lab. "Tomorrow starts cleanup. It's a disaster in there. Right now we're just going to set up the rest of the equipment and hope that nothing weird and impossible happens to send us to an alternate dimension."
Carlos snorted. "From what we've seen today, I wouldn't be surprised."
"Neither would I. Grab the Petri dishes, they're about to fall. Thanks."
They continued down into the underground lab. Travis had turned the seismic indicator over to examine the parts and see if he could find anything wrong with the inside, but shook his head. "Perfect condition. It was brand new and had been tested to check if it was working once before we came. Nothing wrong with it," he moaned. Fredrick was curled up on the floor like he often did when something made absolutely no sense and there was no solution. Neal and Bethany were picking up the mound of broken slides from by the entrance and didn't say anything.
"Carlos and his scientists at the monitoring station near Route 800 say that their seismic monitors have been indicating wild seismic shifts, meaning to say that the ground should be going up and down all over the place." Everyone looked up at the radio. "I don't know about you folks, but the ground has been as still as a tiny globe rocketing around an endless Void could be. Carlos says they've double checked the monitors and they are in perfect working order. To put it plainly, there appears to be catastrophic earthquakes right here in Night Vale that absolutely no one can feel. Well, submit an insurance claim anyway. See what you can get, right?" There was a slight smirk in the man's voice as he said it. "Traffic time, listeners. Now, police are issuing warnings about ghost cars out on the highway-" The man continued with his report as Travis stared at the radio, mouth agape. "This is ludicrous."
Carlos sighed. "I think that's just the way it is. I want to hear what he's saying about the cars."
He set his box down and walked over to the radio, leaning against it. After a few minutes, Travis cleared his throat. "You can't just listen to the radio all day, anthropologist. You have to go out and do as well. We're a team, and we have to work together. Right now, you and Delaney finish unloading the car, and then you can go on studying them."
Carlos rolled his eyes in annoyance, climbing the ladder outside to get the last couple boxes. As Delaney started loading the boxes into his arms, he jerked to look where a screech sounded nearby. A black sedan came flying around the curb, shooting past them at an alarming speed. The windows were tinted so they couldn't see inside, but it swerved to the other side of the road, taking the paint off the side and ripping off the rearview mirror of a car parked across from Big Rico's. It continued, not slowing or stopping, for several meters before disappearing. There wasn't a flash or a bang or anything, it just simply disappeared.
Delaney dropped her boxes and rushed forward to the car, followed by Carlos. She ran her hand over where the mirror had been, quickly pulling back and rubbing her palm on her pants.
"It's hot from friction, as if something had rubbed against it very, very quickly. At least one hundred miles an hour, probably more. If that car was a projection or a hologram or even... a ghost, like that newscaster said, I don't think that would happen."
Just then, a door appeared on the side of Big Rico's and a man walked out, a black tufted tail curling from behind his back. He started walking across the road, but stopped when he saw the scientists standing next to the mutilated car. Delaney held up her hands. "We didn't do anything, this car came flying around the bend and-"
The man's cat ears drooped and he cast his orange eyes downward. "Again? I just fixed it from the incident last week! Oh well."
Slipping between them, he picked up the chunk that had broken off, got in the car, and drove away. The scientists stared after him for a moment, then turned and went back towards the lab.
"He didn't even question it," muttered Delaney.
"Think we should tell Travis?" asked Carlos after a pause.
"He's frustrated enough already. I wouldn't bother him." The tone of her voice warned Carlos that she was frustrated too, so he dropped the subject.
A/N- Bit awkward place to leave off, yes, but it's the best I could do for now. Next is the last section of Pilot and after that comes Glow Cloud (ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD). I may or may not be Joseph Fink, there's about a one in seven billion chance. And hey, thanks.
