Someone Dies In This Elevator is a spoiler-driven anthology podcast. We hope you enjoy Let the Elevator Die, A sound lock protects a secret that must be uncovered. Careful, holding on to the past too hard can have consequences.
Rating: R.
This episode contains violence, explosions, audio puzzles, and death in an elevator.
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Starring:
Cait Gallagher (she/her) as Jad.
Lindsay Zana (she/her) as Lao.
Sahar Iman (they/them) as Pri.
Written by Landon Beall (he/him)
Script Editing by Jesse Schuschu (he/him).
Directed by Ryan James Horner (he/him).
Dialogue Editing by Amador Rodriguez (he/him).
Sound Design and Mastering by Colin J Kelly (he/him).
Music by Ali Hylton (she/they).
Associate Produced by Jasmine Soria Sears (she/her)
Executive Produced by Colin J Kelly (he/him) and Tal Minear (they/them).
Artwork by Tal Minear (they/them).
Marketing by Ali Fuller (they/them)
Someone Dies In This Elevator Series Trailer is their Collective Work under Sound Escape Productions, a profit-sharing podcast collective.
Please support Audio Fiction Creators so they can continue making content and telling stories.
Transcript for Let the Elevator Die as follows:
(Outside, it is very windy and dry.. JAD and LAO tinker with a series of levers, knobs, and pulleys connected to a platform.)
JAD: Twist the knob eight degrees to the right.
(A knob twisting.)
LAO: No dice.
JAD: Damn.
LAO: Here, try moving the slider. Last cipher we cracked went negative nine.
JAD: Tried it already, the lever won’t budge. Let me show you.
(Lao crouches)
JAD: The first row goes negative nine, just like the river cipher. But the next row, that gets tricky. First line is pictographic, the line below it–
(JAD pulls a lever and a BELL DING plays from the cipher.)
LAO: Audio.
JAD: Precisely. Tohkehrun didn’t want anyone in or out of that vault.
LAO: We’ll figure this out.
JAD: Is it wrong that I want closure?
LAO: Is it wrong that I still want to know what’s in the vault? We were this close to getting inside before… before Pri’s accident…
JAD: Pri died doing what they loved.
LAO: Jad, I’m Ovalek’s chief archaeologist. Safety was my responsibility. I could have called off that rock climb with a word… I have to live with that.
JAD: And I live having loved. The delights of a thousand realms could never replace Pri.
LAO: I’m sorry, my friend.
JAD: (Lighthearted) Ahhh, you can be sorry by tossing me that rucksack. I’m parched.
LAO: Yeah, yeah.
(LAO tosses JAD the rucksack. JAD takes a swig of water from the canteen.)
JAD: Okay, audio cipher.
(Jad activates a panel and… a BISON GRUNT! Another AIR WOOSH! Then a third, FIRE WOOSH!)
JAD: It’s like it’s coded to the geography of the canyon. Any clues from your journal?
(LAO flips through an old journal.)
LAO: –well, we documented the river, the ravine, the Ovalek barrier– the last thing in here is just a drawing of the platform with these markings…
JAD: That’s the landmarks. You see how they’re arranged around the canyon, though?
(LAO extends a spyglass.)
LAO: Like a compass dial.
JAD: Right on. Start at negative hundred and eighty.
(LAO’s feet shift in the dust.)
LAO: Lighthouse.
(FIRE WOOSH)
JAD: Hundred twenty.
LAO: Waterfall.
(WATER RUSH)
LAO: Windmill, sixty.
(AIR WOOSH)
JAD: We’re getting somewhere. We got the bell tower at zero.
(BELL DING)
LAO: Timber at sixty, Castle at one twenty, Bison at one eighty.
(HAND SAW, DRAW BRIDGE, and BISON GRUNT.)
JAD: NOW. Ciper negative nine… and…
(DRAW BRIDGE BISON GRUNT FIRE WOOSH WATER RUSH AIR WOOSH DING HAND SAW …a gear SLAMS into place!)
JAD: Alright, here we go! Keep your hands away from the edge.
LAO: Haha!
(A cage locks into place over the platform. The gears crank, and then… release. CLUNKCLUNKCLUNKCLUNK-CLUNKCLUNKCLUNKCLUNK they go down the canyon wall.)
LAO: Magnificent–
JAD: That’s a vista you don’t see everyday.
LAO: We’ll have time to gawk on the ascent. We need to focus on entry strategy; that vault’s two miles underground and we’re about to lose sunlight.
JAD: I’ll get the light pack.
(JAD squishes a gel pack to light the way. The platform descends underground!)
LAO: No one from our last expedition made it underground, but we know from their writings that Tohkehrun sealed the vault with a stone lock.
JAD: Well, you know me and puzzles.
(CLUNKCLUNKCLUNK-SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE-CLONK-CLONK. Docking clamps lock onto the elevator. The cage shrinks back into the platform. Their footsteps and voices echo in the chamber)
LAO: Eyes up.
(Ominous slithering in the distance.)
JAD: I think we’ve got company.
LAO: Anyone there? My name’s Lao, this is my friend Jad. We’re explorers from the Ovalek Dominion of Realms. We mean no harm.
(The noise slithers away.)
LAO: I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
JAD: Big creepy underground vaults will do that.
JAD: Lao, why’s the door have a big angry viper on it?
LAO: I don’t know, the texts never mentioned that. Can you crack it?
JAD: I’ll try.
(Big stone button presses, followed by a Hissing launch sound and a CLONG CLONG.)
JAD: It’s a tumbler. Drop the ball, land it in the viper’s fangs to score and open. This is gonna take a while.
LAO: How long?
JAD: Few hours maybe? It’s pure luck.
LAO: Maybe we can blow it and not damage the inside? I brought charges.
JAD: I like the sound of that. Toss me the rucksack?
LAO tosses it. Some rustling in the rucksack.
(A figure slithers from the darkness and into the light.)
PRI: I wouldn’t do that…
(JAD drops the rucksack!)
JAD: Pri…!
PRI: You look like you’ve seen a ghost.
LAO: You’re… you’re alive?
PRI: Something like that.
(PRI slithers around JAD.)
JAD: How are you alive?!
PRI: Tohkehrun’s realm has its ways.
JAD: Ovalek closed this place after your accident. I had no way of knowing… they said you fell down the shaft– I thought I lost you forever.
LAO: You look pale, Pri.
(PRI slithers around LAO.)
PRI: You look… surprised.
(PRI slithers about.)
JAD: What happened to you? –I thought you were dead!
PRI: I was. I died right there where you’re standing.
(PRI slithers closer… closer…)
PRI: Then the vault found me. It gave me new life. I opened the realmcast inside the vault, and I became the new masssssster of the Viper’s realm. Then I waited for your platform to descend.
JAD: I’ve barely slept for three years, I would have come sooner if I’d known.
LAO: Pri… what have you become?
PRI: (Hissssssses!)
(The vault door opens with a CLONG CLONG and a lonnnnnng ass sliding motion. A portal hums inside the vault, the hum building slowly… to a crescendo! An army of slithering snakes materialize from another realm!)
PRI: (Hisses in orderly tones)
ARMY OF SNAKES: (Hisses in acknowledgement and excitement)
PRI: This army of vipers serve me, they go where I go. Where is the realmcast to Ovalek?
JAD: Where it’s always been. Don’t you remember?
(PRI messes with the elevator platform controls.)
PRI: How does it go up?
JAD: It’s a cipher lock.
PRI: Show me.
LAO: I’m not sure that’s a good idea.
(Pri sliiiithers up to LAO.)
PRI: You will take me to Ovalek’s realm.
JAD: I don’t know what happened to you, my love–
PRI: (An animal HISSSSSSS!!!)
PRI: You WILL take me to the surface, Jad.
LAO: Or what?
PRI: (Let’s that hang, then smiles) You will die.
JAD: Pri, we need to get you some help–
PRI: God Empires weren’t built on the backs of dissent. They were born with vision, and purpose, and I will NO LONGER BE CONFINED TO A CAVE when there’s an entire dominion waiting to be conquered from the surface.
JAD: I can’t let you go. I won’t.
(PRI unsheathes a knife and jabs it against JAD’s throat!)
PRI: You will. Or my knife will draw blood.
JAD: (Struggling) You aren’t Pri, are you? You killed them.
PRI: I reanimated a corpssssssssssse.
JAD: You snake.
PRI: Take me to the surface. NOW!
JAD: Screw you.
LAO: No, I’ll take you! Just let em go.
JAD: Lao! We can’t do that!
PRI: (Angry hisses!)
LAO: Ignore them. Let them go, Pri, and I’ll take you.
PRI: Very well.
(PRI shoves JAD away.)
JAD: (Catching their breath)
LAO: You okay?
JAD: I’ll be fine. I hope.
LAO: (Whispering) Trust me. Get my rucksack… we’ll need it.
(JAD grabs the rucksack. PRI slithers onto the platform with JAD and LAO.)
PRI: Take us up.
LAO: (Sassy) As you wish.
JAD: Timber, bell tower, windmill, waterfall, lighthouse, bison, castle–
(HAND SAW DING AIR WOOSH WATER RUSH FIRE WOOSH BISON GRUNT DRAW BRIDGE …GEAR SLAM! The cage spirals over the platform, and we CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK Up up up! We climb through the darkness.)
PRI: I have not missed this dry air.
(Lao and Jad do not respond, then)
LAO: I’m parched. Mind if I have some of your water, Jad?
JAD: Have at it.
(LAO takes the charges out of the rucksack and arms their timer!)
PRI: What?!
JAD: BLOW IT, LAO!
LAO: (Throwing the charges!)
(The charges fall, bouncing on the elevator pylons, and… BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!!! The elevator griiiinds to a halt, swaying in the air!)
JAD: (Coughing) Shit!!
LAO: You okay?!
JAD: (Coughing) I’m fine–
(The shaft walls buckle and crack, ready to collapse at a moment’s notice. Rocks and debris falls on to the platform)
PRI: NOOOOO!!!
(PRI cuts JAD!)
JAD: (Screaming)
PRI: You will both die!
(PRI bears fangs and bites JAD! JAD grabs PRI)
JAD: (Screaming, fighting)
PRI: (Hissing, fighting)
JAD: (Struggling) Lao, climb out to the canyon floor! Don’t wait for me!
(Kicking, hissing, slithering- a struggle for the upper hand! The platform sways, the rocks intensifies.)
PRI: (Fighting) Betrayer!
JAD: (Fighting) You’re a monster!
(PRI stumbles backwards, but grabs JAD, pulling them both off the platform. JAD holds on, but PRI manages to BITE JAD’S LEG!!!)
JAD: AGHGGGGGGGGHHH!!!! UGH! UGH! UGH!
(kick! Kick! KICK!)
PRI: (Screaming until impact) HIIIISSSSSHHHAAAAAAACCCCKKK!!!
(PRI falls down the shaft, thunderously falling to the bottom! LAO grabs JAD’s hand!)
LAO: I gotcha!
JAD: (In so much pain) I can’t…
LAO: You can do it, Jad!
(The Platform is swaying… above, CRACKING! CRUMBLING! ROCKS EVERYWHERE!)
JAD: It’s not… gonna hold… much longer… go…
LAO: I’M NOT LEAVING YOU!!!
JAD: –no, I can finally rest… Live well, Lao–
(JAD slips into the shaft, falling, falling, into the emptiness.)
LAO: NOOOOOOOOOOOO, JAD!!!! JAD!!! DAMMIT!!!
(The platform sways again, sliding inches closer to doom!)
LAO: Damn! Gotta jump, Lao, gotta jump!
(LAO jumps onto the canyon wall! The elevator slides, and detaches, THUNDEROUSLY crashing into the canyon!)
LAO: –rest well, old friends.
(Lao climbs the canyon wall, boots fading into the emptiness.)
FIN.
