The Caprine Cure.Conclusion

[Roe Jogan, Pundit (Daniel); Max Power, CEO (Mike K); Kyle Miles, Mogul (Josh); Roma Holiday, Dilettante (Andrew); Vibrant Visionary, Social Media Influencer (Bill)]

🎥 Vibrant Visionary’s Final Vlog: “The Caprine Cure Conclusion – Mother Provides?”

[Opening Frame: Static. Then a shaky feed from Vibrant’s glasses. He’s running, breath ragged, voice urgent.]

🎙️ Vibrant (panting): “Vern here—Vibrant, that is. We’re heading back to the resort. First priority: check the Jeep. No time for dead batteries or flat tires. I’ve got footage from the old spring. You won’t believe what we found…” Vibrant silently chastised himself for using his real name.

[Cut: Roma glancing back nervously. Kyle and Roe halt.]

🎙️ Kyle (off-camera): “What are we doing? They could be waiting to convert us. Convert to what we want—or what they want?”

🎙️ Roma: “Without my helicopter, we’re trapped. This feels like nature worship gone wrong.”

🎙️ Vibrant: “There’s a trapdoor back at the spring. We’re alone out here. We need proof before we make any decisions.” To his audience: “About to loss cell-coverage. We’ll let you know what we find.”

[Signal cuts. Virant can only record from inside the spring.]

🎙️ Vibrant (voiceover): “We lifted the trapdoor. Shoulder-high water. Petroglyphs everywhere—dancing figures, bonfires, goat-headed men. The deeper we went, the stranger it got. Came upon an LED lantern on a ledge where we climbed out of the water and into a muddy tunnel that required us to crawl on our knees. Handprints showed others used this tunnel to crawl towards the spring.”

[Footage: A droning sound grows louder.]

🎙️ Vibrant (whispering): “Something’s ahead. Something old.”

[Cut: Chamber large enough to stand in.]

🎙️ Vibrant: “More petroglyphs floor to ceiling: grotesque animals, goat-headed men, fungus with eyes, even trees with mouths danced around the bonfire!” Vibrant gasped, “Trees can move! Just like the one back at the old spring!”

The LED light reflected from something on a stone bench at the center of the chamber: five copper/brass chalices! Closer inspection revealed the bench more an altar with runes depicting plants, animals- especially goats, and other nature creatures watching a mother figure giving birth upon the altar. More frightening was finding our names engraved on these chalices filled with liquid.

·         Roe smelt his and detected the aroma of dark coffee.

·         Roma confirmed hers was the scent of crushed delphinium pedals.

·         Vibrant smashed his chalice against the altar, “This is TOO arranged and ritualistic. My followers were right about this cult activity. Hell No!”

·         Roe splashed his content across the altar as Roma emptied hers and filled the chalice from her water-bottle. 

[Footage: Another Cleft.]

🎙️ Vibrant: “We found another cleft. Could lead to the ‘Employee Only’ room near the steam-room. We could slip in unannounced and get the hell away from here! We’re crawling south. Smells like compost and ancient earth.”

[Kyle’s hallucination:]

[failed POW save] Kyle spilled into his high-rise office where he found stacks of stock reports showing a downward trend of his investments. Standing at the window, he watched as a tow truck hooked up his Lamborghini and pulled away. His life spiraled out of control. And that’s when his phone rang, “It doesn’t have to be; mother provides.” Kyle threw his phone away in fright. A knock at the door proceeded the woman entering: she with the head of a goat. Kyle raised his gun…

[Vibrant’s hallucination:]

[failed POW save] Vibrant stood in his broadcast booth where he saw his director and crew with furrowed brows. Saw their displeasure at his video. Vibrant looked at his phone and watched the number of followers dropping away. His career was plummeting. And that’s when his phone rang, “It doesn’t have to be; mother provides.” Vibrant threw his phone away in fright. A knock at the door and Nyla’s voice caused him to quickly barricade the door, “Go away! I don’t want to join you.”

[Back in the ‘Employee Only’ room.]

Without his phone for live broadcast, Vibrant could only record the scenes for future replay from his glasses as he covered his ears with his hands while Kyle held his rifle ready. And that’s when Nyla entered, “So what do you think? Did you see enough to want to join our family?”

Kyle raised his gun and fired: the back of her head exploded with gore splattered on the wall. [Sanity check-failed, 6 points lost, Bout-Of-Madness] While others gasped in horror, Kyle stood in shock at what he’d done. He envisioned his life blowing up, off to jail. But a voice in his head caressed his fear, “You’ll be OK. Mother provides.”

Roma’s own videographer Zack recorded it all, “Holy shit! We’re gonna explode on the scene with this live update.” And that’s when they heard the stampede of people running towards the room; them calling out in advance, “We heard a shot. Is everyone OK?” As Roma grabbed the gun from Kyle’s frozen stance, Vibrant avoided Roe’s vomit pool as he rushed to lock the door. Max looked over his should at the vertical cleft from where they came, “I think we should escape that way.”

While the others slipped back through the cleft, Vibrant hid in a locker. He held his breath when the robed cultists unlocked the door with a key and apprehended the frozen Kyle. He overheard their offer, “Don’t worry Mr. Miles, Mother will provide. Will you let Mother provide?” Other cultists caught Zack before he could squeeze thru the cleft.

[Off camera back at the Spring:]

Almost an hour for Max, Roma & Clara, and Roe to make it back to the pool in the old spring building. Where 20-30 robed cultists waited with raised guns, “No place to go. Come out or we’ll drag you out.” Buck stepped forward with displeasure, “We brought you here to help you. Damn it; did you have to kill someone? Miss Holiday, I’m quite surprised. Sven, who was one of our own planted in your staff told us how meek and mild you were. Now will you allow Mother to provide? Pick your last 2 ingredients.” Defeated, Roma could only cry, “I’m willing as long as I don’t have to become a goat.” Clara looked on with contempt but acceptance as she confessed, “I always knew you were a bitch.”

Roe broke free of his two assailants as he announced his 2 ingredients, “Your left nut and his right.” Buck and the other man screamed in pain as Roe almost bare-handedly castrated them. The other cultists unleashed a barrage of gunfire, killing Roe who fell into the pool coloring it red with his blood.

Max screamed defiantly but he too soon floated in the pool with his throat cut.

Roma and Clara reluctantly drank from their cups filled with their 3 selected ingredients as they repeated, “Yes, we accept Mother.”

[Vibrant peers thru the slats of the locker to record what he can:]

🎙️ Vibrant felt surely, they could hear his heart pounding as he tried to be quiet in the locker. The acolyte assured Kyle, “Accept Mother and we’ll fix this; play up Zack’s video as a hoax.” Vibrant waited another 15 minutes after they left before he exited the locker and slowly crept through the halls of the resort. With no-one in the lobby, he dashed outside to his Jeep, checked to make sure the tires were not flat, held the key as he pushed the start button and exhaled with relief when it started!

EPILOGUE

Roma smiled at her new position in charge of the resort, taking over for Nyla. Clara gladly stood at her side with a clipboard in hand as she read off the next group of attendees to arrive next week.

Kyle settled into his new office as an attendant stenciled new lettering on his door ‘Senior Executive’. He smiled at the realization he’d been promoted as a new sponsor of the resort. He felt pride at finally being accepted into a family.

As Vibrant drove up the caldera road, his Jeep wifi connected to his glasses. He looked in his rearview mirror as he described the scene to his audience, “You won’t believe what just transpired! Some of you were right in your suspicions. Turns out, it was…AHHHH!” [failed Luck: 37 versus 36] At the last second, he saw the tree standing in the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid it and plummeted down the steep slope. In his rush to escape, he forgot to put on his seatbelt: he was ejected from the crash. He lay broken and bleeding yards from the crumpled Jeep that smoked as the horn blared. His last vision was the tree sliding beside him as its roots began to absorb his pooling blood while other roots probed his orifices. His last feelings were a calming return to nature as thoughts of bible verses passed through his mind, “Dust unto dust.”

Days later, the local West Virginia papers reported how a deranged guest murdered another guest and a staff member. Roma was quoted, “We try to enrich everyone’s lives. We thought we had made great strides with Mr. Max Powers. Only afterwards did we learn the history of his prior institutionalization. We have incorporated new vetting checks into our guest selections.”