---
layout:          post
title:           "MAGP 34 - Eliminations"
date:            2025-03-20 15:00:00 # in UTC
episode_type:      [episode]
tags:            []
voiced:          []
categories:			"tmagp"
podcasts: ["tmagp"]
title_prefix:	"MAGP"
prev_categories: ["tmagp"]
prev_prefixes: ["MAGP"]
prev_episode:	['033']
prev_episode_num:		['033']
prev_episode_title:		["Peer Review"]
next_categories: ["tmagp"]
next_prefixes: ["MAGP"]
next_episode:	['035']
next_episode_num:		['035']
next_episode_title:		["Terms and Conditions"]
episode_title:   'Eliminations'
episode_number:  '034'
summary:         "CATXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX<br/>ERROR (Unknown Source)"
content_flags:   ["Death", "Graphic Violence", "Murder", "Imprisonment", "Psychological Torture", "Suicide", "Intrusive Thoughts (homicidal type)"]
acast_url:      https://shows.acast.com/themagnusarchives/episodes/the-magnus-protocol-34-eliminations
official:        true
---

#### ANNOUNCER

This episode is dedicated to Gray Anderson. 

##### [Intro Theme]

#### ANNOUNCER

Rusty Quill Presents: The Magnus Protocol.

Episode Thirty-Four -- Eliminations.

##### [Music]

---

<!-- 1. MEDICAL ROOM -- DAY, LIGHT RAIN (TAPE RECORDER) SAM is sleeping uneasily in a medic cot. GEORGIE sits writing in a notebook at a nearby desk. SAM stirs then awakens confused. He looks around, slightly panicked, and notices an IV drip in his arms. No one notices the tape recorder under the bed.  -->

##### [Tape recorder clicks on]

#### GEORGIE

I wouldn't touch it. The nurse said it was hard enough finding a vein for it in the first place. 

#### SAM

_(weakly)_ What? 

#### GEORGIE

I think it's just saline, some electrolytes... probably some vitamins, if they've got them. They didn't give me the full run down.

#### SAM

Why? 

#### GEORGIE

To keep you alive? You were in a bad way when we picked you up, "Sam." Malnutrition, dehydration, the works. 

#### SAM

Oh. Um... Thanks? 

#### GEORGIE

Don't mention it. Now it's your job to convince me that we were right to use those resources. 

#### SAM

_(a bit stronger)_ How long was I asleep? 

#### GEORGIE

You've been in and out for a couple of days.

##### [Pause.]

##### [Sam adjusts himself and settles into a more upright position.]

#### GEORGIE

Comfy? 

#### SAM

Yeah, although actually if you've got another pillow --

#### GEORGIE

What are you?

##### [Beat.]

#### SAM

Excuse me? 

#### GEORGIE

What are you? 

#### SAM

I don't understand the question. 

#### GEORGIE

Are you human? 

#### SAM

What else would I be?

##### [Georgie does not answer.]

#### SAM

Y-yes. Yes, I'm human. 

#### GEORGIE

And that's a problem. Because the only humans allowed in the London Exclusion Zone are me and my team. And you're not one of my team, "Sam."

#### SAM

...Where am I? 

#### GEORGIE

We've checked pretty much the whole border at this point and can't find any breach, any tracks, no evidence at all of how you got yourself inside. 

#### SAM

Please, I just need someone to explain what's happening --

#### GEORGIE

So as far as we can tell, you came from the Square Mile. And humans don't come from the Square Mile. 

#### SAM

What? Look, I don't even know how I got there, okay? I don't even know where there is. Last thing I remember... I was in the basement and there was, uh... 

#### GEORGIE

So what's the deal, "Sam"? By the look of you, I'm guessing some kind of hunger thing, right? You look into my eyes, make me realise the hunger in my soul and turn the whole building into cannibals? 

#### SAM

No, there were people. I saw people... In a dream... I didn't know them, but... Celia was there.

And I think... you were there. 

#### GEORGIE

Okay, so some kind of dream-eating creature then? Help me out here, "Sam." What's your thing? What's your schtick? What's your messed up little horror power? 

#### SAM

Wait, are you talking about--? 

#### GEORGIE

All the monsters have one.

##### [Beat.]

##### [Sam is fully awake and making connections.]

#### SAM

We call them Externals. 

#### GEORGIE

Who's "we"? 

#### SAM

I work for the Office of Incident Assessment and Response. We're a branch of the UK Civil Service. Or *were,* maybe... You said that was London you found me in? 

#### GEORGIE

Technically. The zone's too dangerous to break down for scrap. And I hate to break it to you, but there hasn't been a proper Civil Service for a while. Government's just one big "Incident Response" for a few years now, so either you're lying or... 

#### SAM

Wait! What year is it!? 

#### GEORGIE

_(dubious)_ 2024.

#### SAM

_(relieved and surprised)_ Oh.

_(realizing)_ Ooooh, okay, yeah. In that case then, I think I might be from another dimension.

#### GEORGIE

...

What. 

#### SAM

_(a bit defensive)_ Oh, what, hunger monsters from post-apocalyptic London are just another day at the office to you, but other dimensions is just too farfetched? 

#### GEORGIE

I mean, it wasn't exactly on my bingo card. _(sighing)_ Okay, let's just skip the whole "why should I believe you" stuff for now and get straight to the big stuff. Why you? Why now? Why hasn't this happened before? 

#### SAM

I don't know. Maybe they have? I mean, there was this tear in -- in the world, my world, but it was hidden. Maybe no one else found it. 

#### GEORGIE

Where was it? 

#### SAM

Basement of an old retail unit in the Hilltop Shopping Centre, if you can believe it. 

#### GEORGIE

_(suddenly serious)_ Hill Top? In Oxford? 

#### SAM

_(surprised)_ Yeah. You know it?

##### [Georgie exhales and puts her notepad down]

##### [She extends a hand to shake]

#### GEORGIE

Georgie. 

#### SAM

_(shaking her hand tentatively)_ Uh... hi, Georgie.

So... does this mean you believe me? 

#### GEORGIE

_(rubbing her eyes)_ You know, Sam, it would have been a lot less complicated if you'd just been a monster.

#### SAM

Sorry, I guess? So, like, can you tell me where I am now? What happened to London? Who are you people? This world is a lot different to mine. 

#### GEORGIE

I suspect it was probably pretty similar until about five years ago, then all hell broke loose. 

#### SAM

What sort of hell? 

#### GEORGIE

The kind where your world is transformed into a psychoformed fear-farm for otherwordly entities outside of human understanding. 

#### SAM

Oh. Okay then. 

#### GEORGIE

It didn't last long, objectively speaking at least. But time wasn't exactly working right. Anyway, we eventually managed to... get rid of them, and we've spent the years since trying to rebuild and get back to something approaching normal. 

#### SAM

Where I landed didn't look normal. 

#### GEORGIE

No. A few places around the world never fully changed back. I think of it as a sort of lingering fear radiation, and London was at the heart of what happened. 

#### SAM

And you look after them? 

#### GEORGIE

We try to contain them. Officially we're part of the wider civil defense militia, but most people just call us "Wardens." I suppose it fits. We try to keep the horrors in and the people out. 

#### SAM

Why would anyone want to get in somewhere like that? 

#### GEORGIE

You'd be surprised --

##### [Door opens]

#### DAVE

Captain, you're needed. 

#### GEORGIE

_(immediate)_ Talk to me. 

#### DAVE

It's Heidi. They found her. 

##### [Click]

---

##### [Click]

#### DAVE

-- we found it near the body. 

#### GEORGIE

How near? Right next to her? 

#### DAVE

Her hand was touching it.

#### GEORGIE

...Was it recording when you found it?

##### [Dave considers, clearly unsure]

#### DAVE

I'm not sure. I don't think so. 

#### GEORGIE

Okay.

How was she killed? 

#### DAVE

Doc's not sure yet, but it definitely wasn't natural. 

#### GEORGIE

Dave. Details, come on. 

#### DAVE

_(tight)_ Sorry, I know, I just --

#### GEORGIE

Feel later, work now. What happened to Heidi? What state was her body in?

#### DAVE

...

_(managing to hold himself together)_ It was pale. Shriveled. Like she'd been sucked dry. And she had -- There was glass all over her body, embedded into the skin, but nothing in the surrounding area. 

#### GEORGIE

Describe the glass? 

#### DAVE

I dunno. Clear? Uh, slightly curved. I think it was, like, camera lenses maybe. A few of them were still whole enough you could make out the shape. 

#### GEORGIE

...

Did Heidi ever tell you about her domain? 

#### DAVE

No. We didn't know each other that well. Why, did she tell you? 

#### GEORGIE

It's part of the standard psych eval for the newer recruits. 

#### DAVE

And it involved cameras?

##### [GEORGIE affirms.]

#### DAVE

...What are we dealing with here, Cap? 

#### GEORGIE

I don't know. I have a suspicion. A suspicion that I really, really hope is wrong. But I can't say for sure. Not yet. 

#### DAVE

So what's the plan? 

#### GEORGIE

I go have another talk with our guest. You put everyone on alert. Double up the rounds, at least one auto per pair, and notify the other branches. 

#### DAVE

Got it. 

#### GEORGIE

Steer clear of any tape recorders and if you hear anyone starting to get all poetic and tell a really personal, really traumatic story for no obvious reason, you grab them and you run. Understood? 

#### DAVE

Understood. 

#### GEORGIE

Right, you get going and I'll --

##### [Dave notices the tape player is on]

#### DAVE

Captain! 

#### GEORGIE

What? 

#### DAVE

What do we do if it starts to record?

##### [GEORGIE considers the tape player, then sighs, bone-weary]

#### GEORGIE

Pass me that claw hammer.

##### [The hammer is passed]

Then all you do is --

##### [She jams the claw into the tape player and wrenches, once, twice, three times]

##### [The tape player squeals as if in pain]

##### [Click]

---

##### [Click]

##### [Something thuds onto a table]

#### GEORGIE

_(angry)_ What is this? 

#### SAM

What? I don't know, broken junk? Is this another test? _(quieter)_ God, someone really did a number on this thing... 

#### GEORGIE

Fine. Do you know what it was? 

#### SAM

Plastic... Some metal... Magnetic tape -- Oh. 

#### GEORGIE

One of my team is already dead and if this means what I think it means, they're not going to be the last. So no more games. You are going to tell me what you know, right now. 

#### SAM

The tape players, we think they're something to do with the... thing that's been chasing us. It found me near the... the hole -- portal, whatever it is. I'm still fuzzy on some stuff, but it must have come through with me. 

#### GEORGIE

Who's "we"? 

#### SAM

Oh, uh... me, Alice, Gwen, my colleagues at the OIAR. My friends. Alice called it an "Archivist."

##### [Georgie audibly flinches.]

#### SAM

Is that... wrong? 

#### GEORGIE

Tell me everything. 

#### SAM

Right, okay... Uhh... So, I was looking into this old organization called the Magnus Institute --

#### GEORGIE

_(quiet)_ Oh shit. 

#### SAM

You know it? Do you have one in here? 

#### GEORGIE

Used to. 

#### SAM

Yeah, well, ours burned down in the late 90s. 

#### GEORGIE

_(muttered)_ Lucky you. 

#### SAM

_(noticing but pressing on)_ Anyway, Alice and I were poking around and... Our best theory is we accidentally let it loose somehow. Unlocked something or disturbed something or opened something... Or just woke it up, I guess. Since then it's been sort of stalking us and... feeding on people nearby. 

#### GEORGIE

But he hasn't killed you. Why? 

#### SAM

I don't know. It even dragged a story out of me at one point but it didn't finish me off.

I wonder if it wanted us to find this place so it could follow us here...

#### GEORGIE

_(intense)_ What does he look like? What's his voice like? Think, Sam, this is important. 

#### SAM

I -- I don't even know if it is a "he." It's... hard to look at. It dresses in rags, or a cloak, or something that hides most of its shape. But its face...

It's all eyes.

##### [Beat.]

Look, it was an accident. I didn't mean to bring it here --

#### GEORGIE

I don't give a crap what you meant to do. If this is who I think it is... 

#### SAM

What? 

#### GEORGIE

There won't be anything *left* to rebuild.

##### [Click]

---

##### [Click]

#### GARDENER

There we go. Had a good drink in the rain, didn't you, but it's all cleared up now. Just as well, you need a little sunshine, get those berries nice and ripe.

##### [Static begins to fade in]

#### GARDENER

People always say strawberries are easy to grow, but I've never really been able to get a handle on them. Nor any other plant, to be honest. I guess I've got what you might call a brown thumb. But it doesn't matter, I'll stay out in my garden as long as it takes. As long as I'm here, in the fresh air and the sun, trying to give things life, it doesn't matter if I succeed or not.

##### [She pauses, realising she's monologuing]

#### GARDENER

_(straining with effort to stop)_ It's not the sun, though, not really, nor the sky nor open air... Even at the end of it all it was never the cave that scared me, but I need to see the world moving, to watch the light grow and dim, the sun to march on its path, the clouds blow through the sky. It reminds me the world is moving, that I'm not stuck in that long empty moment.

When I was young I read about a man who went into a cave for two months. He was some sort of scientist and wanted to see what would happen to him if he just didn't come out. So down he stayed, no watches, no clocks, no night and day, for what he thought was two months. It was four. His whole sense of time had become unstuck. That stayed with me. That scared me. To be trapped in a moment, to have no sense of motion... And the longest moment I was ever trapped in was when I killed a man.

I never even knew his name. Not before and not after I fled. It was nothing, just an argument in a pub. I didn't even think when I pushed him. But when he went down as his head sailed towards the wood of the broken barstool... I don't know how to measure the time that took. Two seconds? Two hours? Two forevers. And even when it had happened and I was running from the pooling blood and the accusing eyes, the moment didn't end. Every time I closed my eyes I saw it, my life trapped in the amber of those seconds when I realized with crystal clarity the violence of which I was capable.

When the world died screaming and I was taken to that cave, I didn't understand why. It was dark, but I wasn't afraid of the dark. It was cramped, but I wasn't afraid of tight spaces. I thought I was going to die, but I wasn't afraid of death. Not my death, at least.

There were others there, shapes and silhouettes in the gloom. Enough detail to realize how many people were down there with me. And in the middle, sat between us all, the only thing we could see clearly in that place: the rusty knife.

There was only one, and we all immediately knew what that meant.

Nobody said a word. In the deep, in the dark, I have no idea how long we were there before it all ended, but in all that time not a one of us spoke. What would we have to say? Each and every one of us knew we were a killer, and what could a killer say that would ever be trusted in a place like that. And so the moment stretched on, dragging the pain of our potential cruelty across our souls with a point sharper than any blade.

I would imagine picking up the knife, its cold heft, the reassuring weight of it. My mind swarmed with images of rusty points buried in flesh, of how my muscles would feel as they forced it through skin and into muscle. Would it hit one of their ribs? Or a clean cut right to the heart? Or perhaps messier, slashing open their stomach, filling the cave with the stench of blood, acid and death.

I didn't want to. The idea repulsed me, left me lying there shaking and pressed up against the wall. But it didn't matter what I wanted. All that mattered was what I knew that I *could* do it.

I longed for one of the others to pick it up and raise it in anger. If only one of *them* would lunge at me. Slice *my* stomach open, spill *my* entrails across the stony floor. Then I would be free. Maybe not free of that place but at least free of that lingering, growing, pulsating temptation.

In the end I was the first to break. I was the first to take the knife that lay in the middle of the cave, but not the last. 

#### ARCHIVIST

_(hungry)_ PICK IT UP.

##### [The Gardener reaches down and finds a rusty knife in her grip]

#### GARDENER

It felt in my hand exactly as I thought it would. The weight, the balance, the coarse wood grain of the handle. My stomach curdled at the feeling, at the butcher's extension of my body and will.

The others didn't flee or cower or try to defend themselves. Instead, they crept forward in pathetic supplication, silently begging to be released from what they might do in turn.

But my motives were entirely selfish. I grasped the blade and angled its wicked, rusted point. Then I closed my eyes, though that was pointless in the dark... 

#### ARCHIVIST

YES.

##### [The Gardener stabs herself in the gut, gasping]

#### GARDENER

_(pained)_ It... did not cut cleanly. It tore... and caught... on every scrap of my flesh... but it did not help. So I pulled it out... and tried again. 

#### ARCHIVIST

*YES.*

##### [Another stab]

#### GARDENER

_(Wheezing)_ The heart... was difficult. It was an excavation of rib... and lung... and so much blood... But it did not help... So... I pulled it out and tried again. 

#### ARCHIVIST

*YES!*

##### [The Gardener slits her own throat.]

#### GARDENER

_(gurgling)_ I slit... my throat... but there was no escape... from that eternal... second... of violence.... It did... not... help...

##### [The Gardener finally dies]

##### [The ARCHIVIST is sated. For now.]

##### [Click.]

---

##### [Music]

#### ANNOUNCER

The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 International License. The series is created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J Newall, and directed by Alexander J Newall.

This episode was written by Jonathan Sims and edited with additional materials by Alexander J Newall, with vocal edits by Lowri Ann Davies, soundscaping by Tessa Vroom, and mastering by Catherine Rinella with music by Sam Jones.

It featured Shahan Hamza as Samama Khalid, Sasha Sienna as Georgie Barker, with additional voices from Beth Eyre.

The Magnus Protocol is produced by April Sumner, with executive producers Alexander J Newall, Dani McDonough, Linn Ci, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton, and Associate Producers Jordan L. Hawk, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius d'Raven, and Megan Nice.

To subscribe, view associated materials, or join our Patreon, visit rustyquill.com. Rate and review us online, tweet us @therustyquill, visit us on facebook or email us at mail@rustyquill.com.

Thanks for listening.