TEAM DOWNBURST COMMS TRANSCRIPTION LOG - DIGITAL.
FOR HARD COPIES CONTACT ARCREC@NWS.INTERNAL.GOV OR CONTACT YOUR MANAGER FOR ARCHIVES/RECORDS OFFICE NUMBER. DO NOT PRINT THIS LOG. FOR INTERNAL DATABASES AND AI REVIEW ONLY.
DATE: 09/19/2054.
LOCATION, BASE: 28° 8' 49.9056'' N 82° 45' 24.4440'' W. TARPON SPRINGS, FL.
LOCATION, AGENTS: VARIED. REFER TO PAGE ONE.
STORM: XVI.
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RIVER: I think I can feel the rain again.
ICARUS: Yeah, wind’s picking up too. Think she’ll—
FROSTBITE: Hey! Ding-dong. Break’s over, everyone. Almost out of the eyewall.
ICARUS: River, you owe me twenty.
RIVER: Never promised you anything.
FROSTBITE: Making bets without me?
ICARUS, RIVER: [Laughter]
TRANSIT: Definitely not advisable. Recordings, people—
MESSENGER: Let’s worry about that after we handle the back-half of the eyewall. Hope everyone’s caffeinated and ready to go…
LANTERN: Do I really just…keep sitting here?
ICARUS: What, you’d rather go out there in a hundred-and-eighty-five mile per hour winds? Instead of sitting in here and just lighting a nice fire for us?
LANTERN: [Deep breath] [Long exhale]
ICARUS: Thought so, newbie.
ICARUS: This one’s all us. You did enough tonight.
MESSENGER: He means that in a nice way.
ICARUS: Eh.
MESSENGER: Icarus.
ICARUS: No, yeah, I do. I do, I swear.
RIVER: Can we just get this over with already? I want to go to bed.
RIVER: Ah. Do we even have beds? Or are we in sleeping bags?
MESSENGER: The latter. You two, get out there. Cliffhanger—
CLIFFHANGER: Yep.
MESSENGER: Help them out?
CLIFFHANGER: Always got work to do.
MESSENGER: Y’all got this. Nothing but net.
ICARUS: Ohhh, slam dunk, KOBE! And the crowd goes absolutely goddamn off-the-walls in-SAAA— [Indecipherable; high wind speed conditions]
FROSTBITE: Thank God. I hate when he talks basketball.
TRANSIT: Ding.
FROSTBITE: Ugh.
MESSENGER: They can still hear us, you know. Well, probably.
MESSENGER: Guys, if you can hear us — worst conditions are for the next couple hours. Conserve your energy, okay? We’re a shitty team—
TRANSIT: Ding.
MESSENGER: —but we’re good at what we do.
MESSENGER: Icarus, River, you know how to feel it out, you know when to work for it and when to let it slide. Roll with it.
MESSENGER: Cliffhanger… Just help keep them from blowing away when they need to breathe. You know how it is.
MESSENGER: Any of you need anything, anything, patch through. But just let Cliffhanger close off the top first so we can hear you.
MESSENGER: Also, as usual, no shame in aborting if you need to. I’d like for all of us to make it through this storm.
MESSENGER: And, um… Yeah. That’s it, right? Frostbite?
FROSTBITE: [Vague noise]
MESSENGER: Yeah, that’s it. I’ll give updates as needed.
MESSENGER:
MESSENGER:
MESSENGER:
MESSENGER: God. Talk about hunkering down.
FROSTBITE: We don’t usually have an audience this big.
LANTERN: Really? I mean, I know Transit was complaining earlier—
TRANSIT: Sorry!
LANTERN: No, it’s fine, it didn’t bother me. AI, Transit did not make me upset. I just meant, more— I didn’t know how unusual it was. You know?
QUOTA: It’s been a while since we’ve been stationed at a potential direct hit. I think we’re a bit biased right now.
LANTERN: Oh.
QUOTA: Coastal towns like this, you know. It’s harder. Tourism industry and all that, even still. A lot of people that live in these areas don’t make enough to leave. Might lose their job, or they can’t afford to grab a hotel somewhere—
LANTERN: Shelters, though. Like this one. Transit was right, why did we have to rescue so many people—
TRANSIT: I would like to clarify, that was heat of the moment, I was not really upset with anyone except for Derecho, except I’m not upset with them either because that would be negative talk against co-workers—
LANTERN: What’s the saying, you— you run from the water, you hide from the wind…
QUOTA: And if they can’t run from the water? If their house isn’t built to hide from the wind, but they have to hide anyway? If they’re too old or sick to leave, if they’re too poor, if they’re too—
LANTERN: I don’t get that. Life or death, life or death, it’s just—
MESSENGER: Can we talk about something else, maybe?
[ Radio silence from 21:00 to 21:02 ]
MESSENGER: Sorry.
LANTERN: No, sorry, that was on me. Shouldn’t have said that. Sorry. Um…
LANTERN: Well, actually, maybe I should say, you know, thank you, also. For, uh, putting up with me. I mentioned to Icarus earlier, I’m not— I was just a teacher, before joining up, and I know the rest of you have been a team for a lot longer—
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN: Hey! Fire guy! Can you light some more candles?
LANTERN: —and I just really appreci— Oh. Oh, yeah! Yeah, sure, let me just—
MESSENGER: Annnnddd there he goes.
FROSTBITE: He’s a little adorable.
QUOTA: This job might eat him alive.
TRANSIT: Oh, come on…
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN: Thank you, really, my daughter’s scared of the dark—
LANTERN: It’s okay, it’s okay. You don’t have to thank me.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN: I never really trusted you folk until tonight, actually. Color me surprised when you brought all those people here.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN: Kinda thought a guy like you would just set this whole place all ablaze, you know? Like them Jews up in space with the lasers, or those drones that drop flammable material in dry seasons—
LANTERN: Oh! Hah.
TRANSIT: Did you all talk about me like this?
MESSENGER: They probably talked about me like this, too. Don’t worry.
TRANSIT: But. But did you talk about me like this?
MESSENGER: Well.
TRANSIT: Oh no.
QUOTA: It’s okay! You were fine. Really nervous, but fine.
QUOTA: Best damn driver we’ve ever had, that’s for sure, too.
TRANSIT: Nervous? Nervous?
FROSTBITE: You still are, to be fair.
TRANSIT: Oh no.
MESSENGER: Honestly, I was surprised you were a storm chaser before this!
TRANSIT: Well, I always thought it was interesting. I was never all that good at math, couldn’t become a meteorologist, so I figured, okay, turn it into a hobby instead. But then I got sick of waiting for rain—
MESSENGER: Vegas is probably a horrible place to become a storm watcher, yeah.
TRANSIT: Yeah! So. Storm chasing.
LANTERN: Hey there. I’m here to light some candles?
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (2): Oh! Hear that, baby? It won’t be dark anymore.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (3): [Crying]
LANTERN: No tears! No tears, you’ll be okay. Sun’s gonna come out tomorrow, just like it always does. And, for now…
LANTERN:
LANTERN:
LANTERN: There. See? Just like the sun.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (2): Just like the sun!
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): Goddamn. Ain’t that somethin’.
TRANSIT: I guess this is a whole other level of storm chasing, though.
QUOTA: We had a bet on if you’d quit or not.
TRANSIT: No.
FROSTBITE: And a secondary bet for those of us who thought you would. Tried to guess when you’d quit. Days, weeks, months—
FROSTBITE: It was all of us. All of us were in on the secondary one.
TRANSIT: Nooooo.
MESSENGER: None of us won, though! Ain’t a big deal.
CLIFFHANGER: [Indecipherable]
MESSENGER: Yeah, Cliff?
CLIFFHANGER: [Indecipherable] bet— [Indecipherable] three weeks—
MESSENGER, FROSTBITE, QUOTA: [Laughter]
TRANSIT: I hope you all get docked for this.
QUOTA: [Gasp]
MESSENGER: You take that back!
FROSTBITE: No, no! Let him say it! I’ll take the points for it, I don’t care. I’m just proud of him for finally growing a fucking backbone.
TRANSIT: [Groan]
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): Thanks again.
LANTERN: No, come on, you really don’t have to thank me.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): No, no, I gotta! I really gotta. On behalf of everyone shoved in this shithole of a shelter who’d have to listen to my daughter cry her eyes out if we didn’t get out candles lit, thank you.
LANTERN: Hah. Yeah, okay, you’re welcome.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): Great. Now, can I ask something?
LANTERN: Oh, sure.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): Is it true the government’s the one sendin’ all these storms to us?
LANTERN: Huh? Sorry?
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): I saw a video the other day, actually. It was, uh, that shitter from the MWS—
LANTERN: N-W-S. National.
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): NWS, yeah— the head honcho type guy— and he was giving a press conference, sayin’ this storm was headed to us again ‘cause we don’t fall into all them liberal mind-game—
LANTERN: What? Oy, no, that’s not—
CLIFFHANGER: Hey—
LANTERN: Sorry, uh—
CLIFFHANGER: Can we— [Indecipherable, high wind speed conditions] light— [Indecipherable] [Indecipherable]
MESSENGER: Close the top, Cliff.
CLIFFHANGER:
CLIFFHANGER:
CLIFFHANGER: Can we get some light out here, please?
MESSENGER: Oh—
LANTERN: Really, sorry, I gotta— My ear’s talking at me—
UNKNOWN VOICE, CIVILIAN (1): Shit, they did, didn’t they! That’s them tuggin’ on your leash so you don’t say nothin’!
LANTERN: God, no, absolutely not that, you watched a fake video, it’s not real, someone deep-faked it, I really need to get back to my team now, sorry—
LANTERN: Hi, sorry. Light? Me? Fire?
CLIFFHANGER: You, yep.
LANTERN: Right, okay. Sure. I can do that. How do I—
ICARUS: He’s being sarcastic. We need flashlights.
CLIFFHANGER: Sorry.
LANTERN: Oh.
LANTERN: Well.
LANTERN: Can I come, anyway?
LANTERN: I think this guy I just helped is convinced we brought the storm here ourselves. A little my fault, maybe. Um.
RIVER: You’d rather stay out here with us in the humidity and the raging winds and the sideways rain and the hail and the—
LANTERN: Yes please.
LANTERN: Bonding experience?
ICARUS: You try to bond with me, I’m kicking you out.
CLIFFHANGER: Let the kid in, man.
CLIFFHANGER: Can’t say I blame him. Nobody put customer service as part of our job requirement—
TRANSIT: Ding! Ding! Civilians, not customers!
CLIFFHANGER: Yeah, yeah.
LANTERN: Also I’m not a kid, I’m in my late thirties—
QUOTA: If you’re under forty, on our team, you’re a kid.
TRANSIT: Welcome! Club of two, now.
LANTERN: Yippee.
LANTERN: I’ll get the flashlights. Any other requests?
RIVER: Water.
ICARUS: Piss bucket.
CLIFFHANGER: Trail mix.
LANTERN: I’m having second thoughts.
MESSENGER: No take-backs. Rule one.
LANTERN: I’m not having second thoughts. Why are we being funny, by the way?
LANTERN: Why am I being funny? I saw dead bodies a few hours ago.
QUOTA: We’re funny to cope with how fucked all of this is because we only get ten free therapy sessions a year. Rule two.
LANTERN: Right. Got it.
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