Page 1 of Our Last Echoes

PART ONE

THE FOLLY OF THISISLAND

EXHIBIT A

Final radio broadcasts of the Landontown residents

From the island of Bitter Rock, Alaska

12:48 PM, SEPTEMBER9, 1973

UNKNOWN:... if anyone’s hearing this. This is [indistinct] of the Landontown Fellowship on Bitter Rock. Our phone is out. The winds and rain are violent. Mist everywhere. Can’t [indistinct] evacuate. Everyone on Belaya Skala has taken shelter in the church. I—

3:45 PM, September 9, 1973

UNKNOWN: Storm is continuing. Flooding is becoming a concern. We don’t know if—

UNKNOWN: We thought we were alone, but—

5:34 PM, September 9, 1973

UNKNOWN: There are figures in the mist. They’re everywhere. Can anyone hear me? Is anyone there? You need to come for us.

UNKNOWN: They have our voices.

12:03 AM, September 10, 1973

UNKNOWN: If anyone can hear me, do not come to Bitter Rock. Do not come to Belaya Skala. Do you hear? Don’t come! Don’t—

UNKNOWN: He’s here. God help us. God help us, he’s here!

1:13 AM, September 10, 1973

UNKNOWN: There is no salvation.

Note: Landontown was located on the island of Bitter Rock, Alaska. Thirty-one residents were present on September 7, 1973. Only Theresa Landon, wife of founder Cole Landon, was absent. Multiple attempts were made to respond to the final radio calls of the residents, but none of these attempts appear to have succeeded.

All thirty-one residents vanished without a trace. No further communication was received. No bodies were ever recovered.

They were not the first.

They would not be the last.

INTERVIEW

Sophia Novak

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

The camera is positioned to one side of a study. Bookshelves line the walls; a heavy wooden desk in the center of the room is covered in orderly but prolific stacks of folders, books, and papers. A photograph on the desk shows Dr. Andrew Ashford standing with Miranda and Abigail Ryder, his wards, in front of a sycamore tree.

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