Scene 3: Mark's Home

Mikael continues to try and find leverage on the door, or a way to spring the locking mechanism. He glances around for anything he might be able to use. Seeing nothing he tries to wedge his fingers into the gap between the door and its frame, gives it a pull and yelps as his fingernail is ripped backwards.

He steps backwards, down from the stairs and stamps his foot, sucking in a sharp breath, then releasing it through pursed lips. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," he hisses, "Ouch, ouch, fuck." He cradles his hand close to his chest as the pain subsides. He looks at his digit to find no blood, but the nail had separated a fair amount from his finger. A shudder moves through his body and he shakes it off. "Sorry," he says to the others, "All good now. Shit." He's thankful Kajsa wasn't here to see this play out, but dreads the story Sabine will surely tell her later.

Yumin cringes as Mikael tries to pry the door open. Less is more with these things and a delicate touch is required. Still… she won’t embarrass the boy by pulling an "ummm… actually…"

Perhaps she’s glad that the door is stuck.

"Maybe we had better just go. Come back when she’s not listening to… whatever that is in there? She’s obviously going through something."

Eric looks around showing some uncharacteristic nerves, "I'm still a bit uncertain about the whole plan. If it was something physical I'd be all for it, but I'm not so sure about those mental effects. What happens if we all end up like Mark?"

Seeing his friend struggling with the door Eric gives out a slight sigh, "We're sure that's his room right? If we need someone up there then I can give it a go."

Eric looks around for the best way to get up there, plotting his route as much as possible and starts climbing towards the window.

As much as Mikael works the door, he can't get it to open until he has to give up in frustration.
Eric meanwhile finds a couple of handholds to get up the wall - the outside of the window frame, a loose brick... - and makes his way up to the window to Mark's room. Looking through the window, it definitely looks like a teenager lives (or rather, lived) here. The walls are covered in photos, there are dirty clothes on the floor, a small TV with a Super Nintendo is standing in one corner. There is no bed, just a couch and a desk with school books, many of which you all also own.

Eric grabs hold of the window frame and tries to rattle it to open up but in the process loses his footing and drops, his hand catching between the window and the frame. Pain shoots through his arm but he doesn't fall, held in place by his hand before he manages to regain his footing. By a stroke of luck, this fumble of his managed to force the window to swing open on its hinges, allowing him to climb inside, his hand throbbing with pain."Yumin?", Peter asks suddenly, looking at the girl next to him. "Are you okay? You look kind of pale."

Sabine moves to lean quietly against the lintel of the kitchen door, as if somehow remaining silent and not overly reacting to situations she is somehow invisible to would-be onlookers. This should have been a far more simple task than it is turning out to be and the rocker waits and hopes that there is something up in the dead boy's room that will assist them in putting an end to all the weirdness and bring the murderers to light.

Yumin reels back, almost puking with the smell. She sits down in the back garden, and takes shallow gasps of air. A wave of nausea wracks her body, and then passed quickly. She stands back up, legs shaking under the effort. She grabs onto Peter for stability as she climbs to her feet.

"Yeah… yeah. Just felt a little weak all of a sudden." she swallows the saliva that has pooled in her mouth.

"I’m okay now! Thank you."

"Eric! ERIC!" she whispers up to the window!

Eric releases a slight grunt, barely audible to his friends below, though internally he was screaming... What was that? Broken fingers? Dislocated shoulder? Shattered elbow? Maybe just a bit of a bruise?

Realizing he'd probably achieved what he wanted nonetheless, and had somehow got his hand through the window, Eric wasn't about to give up. He grits his teeth and pulls himself up onto the windowsill. Taking a quick scan to make sure it's empty, he steps carefully into the room beyond. Unfortunately he's not so sure of the plan beyond that.

Hearing Yumin's frantic whispers, he holds his hand close to his chest and sticks his head back out of the window quietly replies "Err guys... I'm in... Is anyone else coming? What should I look for? Can I help anyone else up?"

A slightly goofy grin spreads on Peter's face as Yumin holds on to him and he grips her in turn by her arms. "What happened?", he asks, trying to look serious and worried rather than happy about the pretty girl holding on to him. "Did you get one of those weird attacks, like the people at school?"

Sabine immediately follows Eric up the side of the house. "Help me up, will ya?" She asks quietly of him. Clearly, the rocker has some hidden athleticism of her own, as her lighter body makes it up to the window and she pulls herself up and inside.

"You alright, Eric?" She asks him in a hushed tone, as she notices him favoring the arm. "Let's do this quickly and the hell out of here."

Sabine takes in all the photos around the room.

"Is that what happened to those kids at school?"

She watches as Sabine climbs up the side of the house into the open window.

"Just smelled some blood. Don’t worry about it! Are… you going up there?" she looks up, indicating the open window.

Peter follows where she's pointing with his eyes and frowns. "I'm not great at climbing but if you're all going in, I won't stay out here all by myself. Are you climbing up? Do you want me to give you a boost?"

"Might be better if some of us stay down here. In case we need a distraction! Don’t you think?"

Peter considers this, then nods eagerly and says: "Yes, we'll be the lookouts! And cause a distraction if you need one."

Mikael shakes his hand again as he considers climbing up to join the others. "Yeah," he says, "I'll give it a shot. You're gonna have to help me up, Eric." Mikael steps over to the side of the house and tries to follow the others' lead as to where to place his hands and feet.

As he starts, he looks over his shoulder and winks at Yumin, "You two behave down here, huh? Can't be lookouts if you're makin' out, no matter how bad you want to. Just uh...make duck sounds or something if someone's coming." He laughs at the idea of making Peter as uncomfortable as possible. Yumin, being collateral damage, will get an apology later if she hates him for it.

Mikael makes his way up and in through the open window without much trouble.
Peter turns bright red and stutters something before giving up and just turning his face away so Yumin hopefully won't notice.

Mark's room is very messy. There are clothes lying around everywhere, as well as books and even some empty plates. The house smells bad, like an uncomfortable mix of mold, incense and rotting food.
There is a section of the room that has been closed off with a construction of cardboard, pressed wood and bedsheets. Peeking inside, the teens find an improvised darkroom for developing photos that Mark seems to have built himself.

The walls are plastered in photographs, a lot of which seem to be shot in the same general location, somewhere out of town, and a lot of them feature human-like robots in strange assortments of clothes.
On Mark's nightstand, a book captures the teens' attention due to its title: "Your Inner Primal Force" by Dr. Liv Himmelshöjd

Eric, with his left hand held close to his chest, greets Sabine and Mikael as they enter the room with him. "Hey,
it stinks in here... It was like that when I got here... So err what should we be looking for? I think I've heard rumours of those robots." Eric points towards the robots wearing clothes. "Do either of you know where these were taken? I heard the robots were near the quarantine zone to the north."

Eric gingerly takes his hockey stick and starts quietly rummaging around the room, flipping things over and moving things whenever anyone needs, keeping his eyes open for any clues about what happened to Mark.

Sabine searches through Mark's things and spends extra focus in the area of the makeshift darkroom with Eric's stick action. Then, turns her attentions to the photos of the robots to see if she can determine where they were taken or details of the different individual robots.

"Duuude," Mikael says in a low tone, "That. is. rank." He winces at the smell but quickly starts to get acclimated to it. He shakes his head as Eric points out the photos of the clothed robots. "I told you guys he was a weird kid," Mikael says. "This proves it. Why do you think he would take these? Was he in any kind of photography classes at school or something? No idea where they were taken - how about you, Sabine?"

As he awaits her answer, he starts looking around the rest of the room for anything bizarre or out of place that might speak to how - and why - Mark was murdered. He feels particularly drawn to the book next to Mark's bed and moves to pick it up.

Mikael picks up the book. He looks it over and rifles through it.
On the blank first page, there is a dedication in a messy, barely legible handwriting. It says: "To Mark, my apprentice, shooting for the stars". Glancing over the chapter headlines and skimming some paragraphs, the book describes methods for a person to get rid of their "conformity virus" (metaphorically) and to become whole, which the author claims will end all wars.
There is also a page about the author in the very back. It shows a picture of a very serious woman with hard eyes and the description describes her as a medical doctor with a holistic perspective, running a therapy center called Primal Force located north of Sånga-Säby.

As Mikael and Eric search the room, they find multiple camera bags with cameras of different sizes and makes. As they open these, they find a small piece of paper, folded up next to the camera in one of them. Opening it up, the only thing written on it are the numbers 336699.

Sabine, meanwhile, looks over all the pictures on the walls in detail. She notices that many of the robots, which are dressed in strange assortments of clothes, ponchos, cowboy hats and feathered hairdresses mixed with thick coats, heavy boots and woolly hats in a strange mix of Russian looking winter clothes and stereotypical cowboy and Native American get-ups. She also notices that it seems to only be a small group which he has photographed many times and that they seem to be aware of it, as they even seem to be posing for some pictures. Mark must have known these robots. She also notices a small handwritten caption on one of the photos. The picture shows a damaged looking robot smiling at the camera and the caption underneath reads "The Shaman".
The landscape in the background of the images seems vaguely familiar to Sabine but it takes her until Eric points out what he has heard about robots to the north until she makes the connection and realizes these pictures have been taken in the Torslunda Marshes, a region in the evacuation zone that that has been turned into marshland by the mysterious floodwater that rose from the Loop and made the vac uninhabitable. Finding the exact spots where they were taken might still be difficult but she thinks she has a rough idea of where they would have to look.

As she walks from picture to picture, absorbed in what she sees, Sabine accidently kicks over a pile of dirty dishes, glasses and mugs standing on the floor that she hasn't noticed before. Before she can react, it topples and the mugs and glasses crash to the floor, shattering loudly. The music downstairs stops, then there is a moment of silence and finally, stomping steps towards the stairs and then coming up towards Mark's room.

"Scheiße!" Sabine exclaims, though in a rather subdued volume, as she momentarily digresses to German in her stress. She pulls the photo of The Shaman into her hand and quickly sits down on the couch, placing the photo across her knees and lowers her face into her hands. Her whole body takes on the visible posture of one saddened and in mourning over something.

It is not too much of a stretch for her. She had experienced much loss in her past and the similarities between her situation and Mark's were not so distant from each other. Sabine can feel her face reddening. She did not often let the sadness show to others, but in this case it may actually work to their advantage.

She trusts that the friendship she shares with Eric and Mikael, will let her show a vulnerable side of her, Sabine usually reserves for only her therapist or, more honestly, her voice trainer.