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Jim Hello, this is missus Horn.

All right.

What do you mean he's missing?

How is he missing?

He's dead in the morgue?

Did you misplace him?

Well, I'm sorry.

I just don't understand.

How he could.

But how can you?

Look?

I appreciate the call, but what exactly are you going to do to rectify this.

You've already told me that I can't have him back until after the autopsy.

Now you're telling me.

He's he's what up and run off?

Now you listen to me?

Hello, Hello, God, damn it, I'm coming.

Hold on.

Corne, who's there?

Hello?

No, No, Hello, it's you're dead.

They said you were dead.

I was.

I'm not now Jesus, Jimbo, can I come in in the shadows?

He looked normal, like himself, like my dad's buddy, good old Jimbo.

Jimbo, the steady, the kind, the regular Joe Jimbo who liked fishing and fiddling around the garage and war movies and a million other things that men of his generation turned to in late middle age.

His voice and his presence were well worn grooves in my life.

But this was all wrong.

This Jim stepping closer so that the street light fell across his face, his normal face, with his normal smile, wearing his slacks and a button up shirt, his loafers on my porch like he'd been a million times?

Can I.

This sweet, normal Jimbo horn with his normal dead man smile.

It was the eyes.

There was something in the eyes, something off that I couldn't quite place, something that set every nerve in my body on edge, something that made my brain scream no, no, no, over and over.

But then that thing in me, that lifelong practice of being polite, so much of a habit that I just spoke without thinking.

Uh, of course, Jimbo.

Shit, after you thanks.

That the kitchen you know where it is all put on coffee.

Coffee isn't necessary.

Sit Sit, Jim, I'll stand, Jim.

I'm going to be honest.

This is this is scarying the shit out of me, Like I wish you'd just at least sit so I could stand on the far side of the kitchen island while we spoke.

Okay, fair enough, I don't want to scare you.

What's that on the counter.

It's just an old keepsake box.

What's inside keepsakes?

Huh?

Place feels different, doesn't Yeah?

With your dad going it feels bigger, emptier.

Yeah, it does.

What the fuck is going on, Jimbo?

You're dead.

And yet here you are.

I was as surprised as you are, kid.

So talk what happened.

It's a long story.

Well, I can make the time to listen to a story about a man coming back from the dead.

Fair enough.

I don't remember a lot after I went into the hospital.

The illness, it blurs everything.

It was like having a hot knife in the middle of your skull, and I couldn't focus a hole of thought.

It was just pain and a howl and sort of rage.

I don't know.

I was never a violent man, Karen, but I wanted to hurt, to destroy, to kill that street preacher.

I remember getting my hands on him.

I wanted to press my fingers through him.

Remember, want to feel his skin give way, this strong need to press through his muscle and his veins, and get my hands into his visra to tear him apart and sell by self, and then well, it just flashes.

After that, I had moments of clarity, of course, fear, remorse, sadness, the rage, eating it all, pressing against the insights of my skull, hot, feverish.

And then there is a light, like everyone says, I could see it coming from far above me, so far up above the hospital ceiling, above the clouds, out beyond the sun.

Even was overtaken everything.

It was warm, it was beautiful, everything they tell you, all of it.

I could feel myself begin to float, could feel the warmth overtake me.

I don't know, like I was back in the womb.

It sounds crazy, but I was pulled back high.

The light retreated a pinprick, and then it was extinguished, and all of the warmth and goodness went with it, and I was alone in this icy darkness, sized Jesus Christ.

I was a lone Karin, more alone than I've ever been.

And I've been alone when I was a little kid.

My mom died, and it felt like being ripped from the world, like nothing could reach me, like I'd never feel love again.

This was so much worse, Jesus Jim.

And then I found myself back in the body.

I was in the cabinet in the morgue.

That feeling was still there with me, but I recognized it now, really recognized it for what it was.

When was it?

It was a terrible, terrible thirst, deep painful, like every cell in my body was screaming with it.

I had crossed an infinite desert and was parched.

And so I went looking to quench it.

I managed to push my way out of the Morguel locker.

I wasn't alone.

There was a body laid out covered in a sheet.

That preacher, the one I heard dead on the table.

I never thought about him in life.

You know, besides a couple of noise complaints here and there when he was on a tear, But besides being batshitt, you know, he was harmless.

So I left him alone for years, maybe telling him to keep it down a little.

But there was something sad and kind about him that I guess I always sort of admired, so I always just let him be.

But here he was dead like me because of me.

Any guilt I felt was cut short by the cutting thirst.

And there was a water cooler in the room, and at first I moved toward it, but the thought of drinking it repulsed me, confused me.

Even that confusion was shot lived, because before I had a chance to react, someone walked in.

He was way on a face shield that I think must have fogged up, because I don't think that he registered me right away.

But I registered him even halfway across the room.

I could smell him, feel the heat of his body.

I could sense to the flutter of the pulse of blood in his vein.

And what's more, my teeth they suddenly itched, burned my gums as if they were shop and I understood the thirst.

What are you doing stretching?

How are you?

I flew at him, knocking him over.

Finally I was able to grab a hold of his hair, and with as much force as I could must slammed his head into the tile.

I didn't have time to be horrified.

I didn't even think.

I just scrambled at his mask and collar.

And sank my teeth into his neck.

I can't fully describe it, the relief, the warmth of him entering me and spreading outward, tingling in my fingers and toes, and the world well just became God again, and I felt like me for the first time since Bachmann came to town with his axe.

Don't look at me in that way, Corin, Did you kill him?

Jimbo?

I did, well, there was nothing else I could do.

The thirst korn when it takes you, it takes all of you, replaces every impulse you have, and makes you a starven animal, makes you insane.

When I was young, I used to read stories about people who survived disasters or war.

Couldn't get enough of it.

Crazy stuff.

A man riding a tank through the Iron Curtain to escape the Red Army, people who survived plane crashes, murder attempts.

One of them was about a Navy officer who ship went down in the Second World War and how he managed to live for two weeks on a piece of scrap, an old crate or something out in the middle of the ocean.

His small supply of water ran out, and so he drank his piss, and then when he got desperate, finally drank sea water, which just dehydrate you more.

See, kidneys can't handle that much salt, so it tries to flush it out.

You lose more water than you drink, so you vomit.

You get delirious.

Eventually, if you don't get enough regular water to balance it out, you die.

This sailor he got saved before he died, but he went insane, literally insane with thirst.

I can't tell you how I know, but this was worse.

But when I drank from that man, it went away completely for a while.

What happened next, Jimbo.

Next, I cleaned myself up and found a pair of scrubs that fit me from a locker, and I walked right out of the hospital.

It's funny, you know.

I walked right by a couple of boys I worked with on the foss.

They didn't even look up at me, like it didn't register who I was, just another doctor walking the halls of the hospital, even with though shoes on, looking like shit warmed over.

Nobody cast me a funny look.

So I walked right out the door and I made my way home, went barefoot, kept off the road as much as possible.

It was cold, and you know how far the walk from that hospital and into town is, But I wasn't cold, never got tired.

I felt impervious to it all.

I felt strong, energetic now right out of the bar, senses heightened.

I could feel the animals and the trees.

Watching As I passed, I could sense the people in the cars that would go by.

The colors of the world were sharper.

And with each step I could feel it return, the hunger, just a little whisper in my ear at first.

By the time I returned home it was a scream.

Hello, God, damn it, I'm coming.

Hold on, hello, han Uh, I'm really standing here.

Uh, your dad, rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Jim, Jim, is it really you?

Jim, Jim Jim, Oh my god, you're icy cold.

It's freezing out.

Can we go in?

Uh?

Of course, Oh my god, Jim, Oh my god, go get some warm clothes on.

I'll put on coffee.

Oh oh, we need to call the hospital.

They called just now to tell me that you're missing.

Oh God, They're going to be so embarrassed.

Jesus, how could they have pronounced you dead?

Well?

Why don't we hold off on, Colin.

It will take a while to untangle all of this.

Of course, get warm, Oh my god, jem my gym, Oh my gim, Oh my gym, God, how good this is.

Thank God.

I'm gonna get dressed.

Of course.

Go I'll be in the kitchen.

I'm going to get the coffee and the warm fire.

I can't quite describe the strange feeling I got walking through my house.

It didn't feel like mine anymore.

It felt like a perfect reproduction of my house, or perhaps a museum of a dead man's time on earth.

But it was no longer mine.

Maybe it was still Barber's, but the James walker Horn who owned this home and came back to it every night, no longer existed.

I think that's when it fully sank in as they walked into the bedroom and peeled off the hospital scrubs and opened the drawer on my old mahogany dresser and put a dead man's clothes on this new body.

I was no longer James or Jim or Jimmy or Jim bow.

I was no one's son, no one's husband.

When I looked in the mirror, I couldn't see any trace of him, just clothes hanging on this new body, someone different, looking out the eyes and examining himself and Couren.

He was so.

Thirsty, and in the kitchen I could smell her through the freshly brewed coffee.

Last week's dinner dishes forgotten in the sink.

The smell of her pushed all the others away.

I wanted her, Barbara.

Ah, you scared me.

Oh, jim My, jim My sweet husband.

I thought i'd lost you.

Shoh, it's all okay.

I'm here now, Okay.

I didn't know if you'd want a beer or coffee or what.

So why don't you say it?

I'll serve you.

I think I'll stand if it's all the same.

I guess you've been lying down for a while, haven't you, Poor Jim?

Do you want me to make you something to eat that won't be necessary?

I just can't believe it.

I mean, they said you died.

We're gonna have words with those doctors.

I'll call my brother.

I'll bet there's a malpractice lawsuit in all of this.

Are you okay, Jim?

I am great, Bob, you just seem different.

Well, I did just come back from the dead.

I suppose that would change a man.

Are you sure you don't want something to eat?

I'm not hungry.

Oh well, gonna go grab a sweater from upstairs.

It's a little chili.

You want me to turn up the thermostat.

It doesn't matter, you're so cold.

Jim.

There was a moment there when old Jimbo came rushing back into my head.

Get away, He said, you love her, Bob, Bob.

I think, Oh, don't worry about the beer, Jim, I'll clean it.

No, Bob, I'd better go.

No, no, don't go, Jim.

I think I'm having trouble being close to you.

I'm afraid I've hurting you.

What do you mean hurt me?

I'm still sick, Barbara.

I'm sicker than I was before.

I think, Honey, why don't you go lie down.

I can call the doctor.

Maybe they have some medicine.

No, I should just get out of here, Jim, Jim, get off of me, Barbara.

But it was too late.

Her heart was beating too fast, too loud, and I could smell.

It in the air, the iron and a blood, the salty, sweet taste of my tongue, and then my teeth was suddenly in a neck, that neck I kissed so many times in the past, and the rush of relief, the flood of joy into my system.

I'm feeling more vital with every hot spurt of blood in it.

And then the sudden repulsion of myself as I drained the life out of her.

Jim, bow, did you did you kill Barbara?

No?

But I came awful close.

She's still alive, I think, so, I hope.

So should I go check on her?

No, don't reach for the phone, even to call an ambulance for her.

I'll make sure she gets help later.

Jim, what's in that box corn?

Nothing?

You'll hover and like it's something.

It's insurance against what I don't quite know.

I'm sorry, Corin for what.

Jim, I'm just so thirsty.

I'm just so goddamn thirsty.

And then chaos.

It happened so quickly, faster than a man of his eyes should Jim Horn lunged at me, catching my shirt sleeve in and pulling me tight against him his freezing, frenzied flesh.

And then he backed away, clutching a sucking hole in the center of his chest, dark blood gushing out, his eyes, almost feral, an animal dying, His mouth twisted in hatred, two sharp fangs bared at me, and then he was still.

It was then that I felt it in my hand, warm and sure, Josiah's wooden steak.

It's truly incredible how quickly the numbness sets in when your world is altered beyond belief, the loss of a loved one, being laid off from a lifelong job, finding out that vampires are real, and then killing one in the same instant.

I had to move to do something, to be anywhere but here.

I grabbed the stale pack of cigarettes from the back of the spice cabinet, where I'd hidden them from Dad over the years.

I walked outside.

I didn't even think to close the door.

No Jesus, tastes like shit.

Corin.

Who's there, Marie?

Oh my god, I'm so sorry.

I oh, oh no?

What uh are you?

Is that blood there was?

Are you hurt?

No?

Here, let me see Marie.

No, no, no, it's not It's not me.

Is there is there someone else here in your house?

Yes?

Yeah, okay?

Can I go in and check?

Yes?

Yeah, okay, okay.

I waited for the telltale scream.

It didn't come.

Instead.

Did he scratch you, bite you?

Did you get any blood in your eyes or your mouth?

Karen?

I need you to think no, uh uh no, he didn't hurt me at all.

I mean probably bruised my arms and I twisted my ankle a little bit.

Okay, Okay, you're Okay, then, Marie, there's a dead fucking body in my house.

A body that was already dead got up and came to my house and tried to drink my blood.

I am very, very goddamn far from fucking Okay.

Okay, okay, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

You're right.

That is a lot to process.

What are you?

What are you even doing here?

Well?

I had a message for you, of what a message?

Yeah, okay, what's that?

Well, it's not gonna make any sense.

What is it?

Who's it from?

It's from Ken McLean who he was.

He was an indigent that was brought in last week.

I think he was attacked by the dead man in your kitchen.

Brother Ken the street preacher.

Yes, yes, he uh well, he did scream a few Bible verses when he came back.

Came back, yeah, Kreen, like the man on your floor came back from the dead.

He sat up and walked out of.

The morgue and happened on my floor, where he was then tackled by the National Guard and chained to a bed for observation.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, at least he seemed relieved to be tied down, but he was suffering.

I was sent into checking vitals and his heart was beating, but he was as cold as a grave.

Only was chattering Bible verses.

He said your name?

Oh?

When I pressed him, he said that you'd.

Know what to do, that it was in your blood.

What was the Holy spirit?

I don't know.

He said your family killed vampires.

Okay, sorry, that is absolutely not funny given the circumstances.

You mean, the dead vampire in my kitchen.

Yeah?

What are they gonna do to Ken?

I don't know.

They'll probably take him somewhere more secure, but I think that things are getting ready to get even more scary.

I'm not sure about you, but I'm already scared as shit.

Jesus, What the fuck am I gonna do?

Do you have someone you can call?

Family, a close friend?

What about oh God, Sylvie?

Yeah?

Uh huh?

I mean should I call the cops?

Cops?

What are they gonna do?

Well?

I don't know the CDC.

I can call the contact person.

They'll send someone over, but they're gonna want to bring you in.

Look.

If I was you, i'd get in your car and drive away from Havoc for a few days.

Check in with me tomorrow.

I'll give you any news.

That's incredibly nice of you.

Won't you get in trouble.

I'll say I was checking in on you and found the door open.

No, no, I need to be here, No, no, listen to me.

I've been at the hospital for a while and I have never seen the sort of anxiety that I've been seeing there.

It's not just the staff, the CDC, doctor is the National Guardsman.

Nobody's seen anything like this illness.

I mean, nobody's used to the dead rising from the grave.

They're scared.

Look, something is happening here, something big and sudden that none of us can really understand.

There will be more death karn and the response to it by the government will be swift and will absolutely make it worse.

And I have a job to do here, so I can't leave.

But you can so get the hell out of town, far away.

Hide in a motel because this place it's getting ready to burn.

All right.

Now, Wash yourself.

Off, pack a bag, get in your car and then drive.

You're gonna avoid check points and you don't stop until you get an hour away.

Copy move.

I did as I was told, quick rints in the shower.

A week in Beg.

I didn't go back to the kitchen, but said Mike god bye to Marie at the front door.

I got in the car and pulled out of my drive down my street to the intersection.

A turn left would take me to the highway.

I would drive to Maine.

Had an old friend who lived on the coast.

I'd stay with him just a few days until things blew over.

When I came back, everything would be under control.

At least that's what should have happened with a simple left turn, a quiet exit, safety, a decision not to be involved in whatever horror would come next, a shit, which is why I turned right.

Havoctown was created by me Aaron Mankey.

The show was written and directed by Nicholas Takowski.

This episode was edited and sound designed by Rima lk Ali.

Starring Jewels State as Coreyne Abbys, Chrystal Lee as Demeris, Robin Bloodworth as Jimbo'horn, Summer rain Menkey as Barbara Horn, with additional voice acting from Jonathan Baron and Aaron Mankey.

This season is directed by Nicholas Takoski, with assistant directors Sarah Klein and Jake Diamond.

Casting by Sunday Bowling CSA and meg Mormon CSA production coordinator Wayna Calderon.

Our theme song was created by Chris Childs executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick, with supervising producer Rima Lkali and producers Nomes Griffin and Jesse Funk.

Havoctown is set in the Bridgewater Audio Universe, which includes the hit fiction podcasts Bridgewater and Consumed.

Learn more about both shows, as well as Havoctown at grimandmild dot com, and find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows