This is Science Friction on Hudson River Radio dot Com, Episode ten, The
Crawling Sponge. So remember, boys and girls, it's not just the big
things like nuclear bombs that could kill you. Tiny invisible germs can be just
as deadly. This has been the wonderful world of pestilence, brought to you
by the National Board of Education. Mary Beth, please get the lights,
he asked Miss Nelson. Now, class, your homework assignment is to make
a list of ten things or places in your home where deadly germs can grow.
Okay, I'll see you all tomorrow. Have a good night. It
was an unusually warm spring afternoon in Stony Point, New York, in nineteen
fifty four as Marybeth Tanner walked home from school. Hi, Mommy, I'm
home. Can I have some milk and cookies? Of course, dear,
but just two cookies. I don't want you to spoil your dinner. I
was school today, pretty neat. We saw a movie all about germs and
how they make you sick and can kill millions of people, And good heavens,
that's quite enough the things they teach children these days. Did you know
germs are everywhere? Like on the floor in countertops, and especially in sponges.
That's why I clean everything every day. And here's the new Dishow detergents
dis show. Yes, see here on the label, dis showed detergent is
formulas with special radioactive compounds scientifically proven to kill germs on contact. Gee wiz
radioactive compounds. I feel safer already. Now go do your homework far.
We'll have dinner as soon as your father gets home. Stony Point was one
of the test markets for the new Disho detergent, and every housewife in town
took advantage of this special introductory price of only twenty nine cents a bottle.
Later that evening, after Marybeth was asleep, Missus Tanner was cleaning up in
the kitchen. Now that's strange. I could swear I'd put the sponge back
right next to the sink. What's it doing on the other side of the
kitchen on that counter? Oh no, did I just see that sponge move
on its own? Good Heavens, I hope there's not a big bug that's
under the sponge. Grabbing a fly swatter. Missus Tanner cautiously approached the sponge.
She hated all bugs, and she always kept everything so clean she never
even needed to use the flyswatter. Oh, that sponge definitely moved. If
there's a cockroach under there, I'll just die. Raising the flyswatter, she
slowly leaned down to flip over the sponge, when something even more bizarre and
frightening happened. A grotesque leg suddenly thrust out from the side of the sponge.
What on earth? Then another leg popped out, and another and another,
until the sponge raised up on six hideous, insect like legs. Missus
Tanner was about to scream, but before she could utter a sound, the
sponge creature leaped through the air and clamped down on her face, directly over
her mouth. An hour later, Yes, this is Doctorpkins. Oh hi
Ben, something wrong? What unconscious on the kitchen floor. I'll be right
over. Fifteen minutes later, Look, doctor, the smelling salt are bringing
her around. What happens now, missus Tanner, don't try to get up.
Can you tell me what made you pass out? I can't remember.
I was cleaning the kitchen and next thing I knew you were using smelling salts
to wake me up. Probably working too hard. Now Ben is going to
help you up. To bed tomorrow morning, after you finished making breakfast and
doing the laundry and vacuuming. Maybe you should just relax and put your feet
up for a few minutes before you do the grocery shopping and start cooking dinner.
And I'll prescribe some iron pills for you. Don't worry, doctor,
I'll make sure she takes two five minute it breaks tomorrow. Oh, please,
don't fuss over for me. I'm sure I'll be fine. Hello,
Yes, he's here. Why okay, I'll tell him doctor, you're answering
service want you to call Six other women in town had passed out. Good
heavens. I hope this isn't some sort of mass hysteria, but just in
case it's something infectious, best to keep your daughter away from your wife for
a few days to be on the safe side. Well, looks like I
have a long night ahead of me. Give my office a call tomorrow if
anything changes. It was the same scenario all across town, housewives cleaning up
after dinner, and each was found unconscious on the kitchen floor with no recollection
of what happened, and doctor Watkins had barely gotten any sleep when the phone
started ringing again right, and nearly as women making breakfast started fainting. By
the end of the week, hundreds of housewives had passed doubt, and now
oddly they all had insatiable appetites and couldn't stop eating everything in sight. Oh,
hi, Chie Smithers, how can I help you? Doctor Watkins started
to stop by at this hour. But our phones at the station or ring
off the hooks because of this fainting illness. Well, I hardly think this
is a matter for police. Well on, neither do I. But people
want answers. There's a rumor going around this could be some type of chemical
or biological warfare from the Russians aimed at Stony Point. Really, no one
in the right mind would bother with a place like this. Then what's the
answer. I don't know. I can't find anything wrong with any of these
women. I'm still not ruling out mass hysteria. Mass hysteria, yes,
you know, women, One of them fates and then suddenly all of them
imagine something is wrong with them, and then they all start dropping like flies.
I don't know. Maybe, but from our reports, every one of
these incidents occurred in their kitchens. Couldn't it be something these women are using
to cook or clean something that's causing this. Chief, I have my handsful
prescribing iron pills and tranquilizers to half the women in town. Feel free to
do all the detective work you want, but I have excuse me a moment.
Hello, doctor Watkins. What calm down, mister Tanner, Call an
ambulance. I'm on my way now. What that was, Ben Tanner?
Something terrible has happened to his wife. I could barely understand him, though
he was practically hysterical. Come on, we'll take my car. Will be
right back with more of science fiction theater on Hudson Rilla Radios. Call Ny,
why don't you go ahead and play with the other boys. I'm too
tired, Ma, that's because you didn't need a healthy breakfast. Young man.
Here, try a bowl of delicious Pogo cereal. Pogo cereal, that's
right, Poco creal not only taste good, it's good for you, with
plenty of sugar for energy and four times the caffeine and a cup of coffee
to put that bounce back in your step. You're right, ma, I
feel more energetic already. Who make sure your children start every morning with a
nutritious bowl of Pogo cereal and Mubby bouncing off the walls all day long.
Now return to science fiction theater on Hudson River Radio dot Com. At the
Tanner residence, the Chief and doctor Watkins found little Mary with her arms around
her father, who was kneeling on the lawn, walking back and forth and
sobbing. Ben Tanner had survived both the battles of Tarawa and Pelaloo during World
War Two and never flinched. But whatever he had just witnessed happening to his
beloved wife had fractured his mind. Oh, Ben, for God's sake,
what's going on? Something bed happened to mommy. She's upstairs in bed.
Can you tell us what's wrong? No, daddy was crying too much.
I never saw daddy cry before I heard mommy screaming. And then Daddy screamed,
and then he ran into my room and grabbed me and carried me downstairs.
Please help my, mommy. We'll do our best. Honey, here
comes an ambulance. Now you stay here with your daddy. Marybeth, come
on, doc, let's see what's going on. Ascending the stairs to the
Tanner's bedroom, neither of them was prepared for the shock and revulsion they were
about to experience. Good, Good, God, Heaven. She's dead,
dead. It looks like a landmine went off in her stomach. What could
cause that? Nothing in medicine that I know about. It's like she exploded
from the inside out. Still think this is mass hysteria. I can't even
begin to imagine what this is. But if it happened to missus Tanner,
it could happen to those hundreds of other women in town who have been acting
strange. Doctor, Look here on the floor, these strange, little bloody
tracks leading to the open window. You're right, it's it's like something crawled
across the floor, up the wall and out the window. Dozens of them.
Are we dealing with some sort of animal attack? Could be, but
from inside of a person. I'll know more once we get her body to
my office and I can perform an autopsy. And Chief Chief, what what's
wrong? Murphy? Oh, dear God, what happened to missus Tanner?
Don't look, Murphy, now focus what's going on? Oh the switchboard is
lightened up back at the station. Something terrible is happening to all the women
who fainted. Dear Lord, doctor, you were right. Looks like you'll
have a lot of bodies to examine. But I need to go get to
these other locations. Call me the instant you learn anything. As the chief
stepped outside the Tanner house, little Mary Beth tugged on his trouser leg.
Is my mommy going to be okay? The doctor will be bringing her to
his office. Honey, did bed germs get her? We don't know what
happened to her yet do We shouldn't have any grums in our house, mommy
says dis sho keeps all the bed grums away, especially in the sponge.
Yes, dear, I'm sure your mommy kept the house very clean. Now,
this nice officer Murphy is going to take you and your daddy to the
station for a while. I have to go check on other kids now to
make sure they're all okay. It was a night of terror beyond imagination in
Stony Point. The same gruesome, unspeakable thing that happened to missus Tanner began
happening two dozens and then hundreds of women. Police officers and ambulance personnel were
completely overwhelmed, and many broke down in tears, seeing body after body and
then children panicked and ran out into the night, which was the last thing
they should have done. Tommy, just get in the car. But Dad,
we can't leave mom in there like that. Listen, something is going
on in Stony Point and we need to save ourselves and get the hell out
of town. Wait. What are those things over there in the bushes?
Let me shine my flashlight over there? What on earth? They look like
huge sponges with legs and they're heading right for us. Quick, Son,
get in the car. They've got me, Dad dat. Oh no,
they've got me too. Ah. The scene played out over and over again
across the entire town that night. By morning, more than half the population
of Stony Point had fallen victim through the crawling sponges. Doctor, for the
love of God, do you have any answers yet? As best as I
can tell, something laid its eggs inside these women and then they hatched and
burst out and crawled away. You can't be serious. We could possibly do
that. It's almost sounds alien. I'm willing to believe just about anything at
this point. I obviously need specimens of the hatchlings to examine before I can
know for sure. Well, that's the problem. Anyone who has seen whatever
these things are have been killed, torn apart by the hatchlings. It's all
too much. We need the government to help. I called the army and
they thought I was nuts until I told him the number of victims. Heavily
armed troops should be arriving within the hour. There's nothing like men with guns
to make me feel safer. Please tell them I need hatchling specimens. Across
Stony Point, thousands of crawling sponges spread out and continued to feed and grow
larger. Officer Murphy tried to use his patrol car to run over one sponge
the size of a cereal box as it crossed the road, but it sprang
to safety at the last second. But at least he saw it and lived
to tell his story. A giant What are you out of your mind?
Murphy? I swear, Chief, it looked like a kitchen sponge, only
was the size of a box of sugar smacks with legs. I swear,
if I hear one more crazy word out of you, Murphy, I'm gonna
wait. A sponge, yeah, Chief, A giant, nasty sponge.
Mary Beth Tanner mentioned a sponge and some type of detergent. Her mother used,
what are you thinking. I'm thinking I wants them meant to go to
the Tanner's house and a few of the other victims houses and bring back their
kitchen sponges and detergent. It's a long shot, but I just got a
good feeling about this. Yes, sir, Chief, I'm on it,
and be careful. These things could be anywhere. The police officers cautiously entered
half a dozen houses to collect the kitchen sponges and detergent. It seemed like
a ridiculous task, but with so many inexplicable deaths, they were willing to
try anything. Thirty minutes later, back at the police station, how did
it go? Murphy? Strangest thing, Chief, As you can see in
this box, every one of those women was using that new DISHO detergent,
and the sponges couldn't find a single one. What woman doesn't own a sponge?
You're right, this is beyond coincidence. Let me see one of those
bottles, Hm says here. It's made with specifically formulated radioactive compounds. I
wonder Murphy, get a bottle of this dishow to doctor Watkins asap and tell
them about these missing sponges. Shirt chief, oh, and a captain mentor
from the army just arrived and asked to see you. Okay, send them
in. Well, gee, Smithers, it's about time. What the hell
is going on in Stony Point? Looks like the beaches of Normandy. You
have an invasion going on here, but the government doesn't know about. As
a matter of fact, we are Captain there's some sort of unknown creatures and
we think they were breeding inside of women. Creatures. What's with all this
detergent? You plan on catching all these creature babies and giving them a bath.
Look, Captain, my people are dying horrible deaths, hundreds of good
people, men, women and children. This is no laughing matter. Now
you can either help or get the hell out of my town. You know
how many times we've been called in to some hit town for some sort of
legs monster or alien invasion and it turns out to be a kid in a
rubber mask. I'm sorry people are getting killed here, but couldn't it be
the result of escaped convicts or a motorcycle gang or someone who just went playing
loco here? Look at some of these photos of women. We found dozens
and dozens of them. Does this look like the work of a human being?
Great Caesar's ghost, I had no idea Captain, Menter, one of
your men is badly hurt. He's outside, soldier, Dear lord, what
happened? You've been torn to bits? Sponges, sir, big sponges,
they got me. He's dead. Men spread out in teams afore end.
What's all the commotion you there? Stop? What's wrong? Why are you
running? Bu sponges? Sponges, they're coming his wife, Run for your
life, sponges. What the hell is he talking about? Over there?
Look and there and there. My god, they're coming from everywhere. They
looked like sponges, but they're huge and with legs, and there's thousands of
them. Your men will get slaughtered out there. Everyone should take shelter in
the station, town hall, or in the firehouse. They're the steadiest buildings
in town. The streets were filled with crawling sponges of all sizes, from
slightly larger than normal to the size of massive steamer trunks. It all depended
on how much they had been able to feed fall back man into the building.
Fall Back The captain hadn't noticed that a sponge the size of a bread
basket had stuck up behind him and was about to strike. Captain, look
up behind you, Turning and drawing his cold pistol, he fired several shots,
but they all seemed to bounce off the spongey body of the monstrous creature.
Incredulous, he froze for just a moment, but that moment was all
the sponge needed to spring towards its prey. Oh no oh. Fortunately,
with split second timing and magnificent hand eye coordination, the Chief swung his billy
club, connected with the mutant sponge and sent it flying half a block.
You saved my life. That was incredible. Played a couple of seasons of
semipro ball before the war. Looks like I never lost my swing. Now
let's get inside. As everyone ran for their lives and took shelter wherever they
could, one brave fireman thought he would turn a powerful fire hose on the
hideous creatures and drive them back. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that you shouldn't
mix water with mutant sponges. That fool, what does he think he's doing.
The sponges is soaking up all the water and growing even larger. No,
they've got him. Look, those sponges are swollen to the size of
the path and they started to cover the buildings. We're doom, Chief,
The doctors on the line in your office, he says, it's urgent.
Come on, Captain to what the doctors found. I'll put them on speaker.
Go ahead, doctor, and I have Captain Minster of the Army with
me. Chief. I think I know what happened. Working off your hunch,
I put a drop of dishow on a slide and then introduced some bacteria
from my disponge and the results were frightening. It must be the radioactive compounds
in the dishow. Rather than kill the bacteria, it mutated them and accelerated
their growth. What does this mean, distichergin has created a new species of
killer sponges. I think you know the answer to that, Captain. But
how can we fight them? Bullets just bounce off. I don't know.
I'm doing the best I can, but I'll need more time. We're out
of time, Chief, Those huge, swollen sponges are crawling onto the roof.
It's only a matter of time before they crush the building. Mister Chief,
what's the bacteria? Well, Mary bethea didn't see you. Bacteria is
just germs, dear, nothing to worry about. Miss Nelson says the best
way to get rid of bad germs is to use bleach. Now a little
girl, We're very busy and wait, maybe she has something there? What?
Yeah, these things are just enormous germs. Maybe we can bleach or
disinfect them. Miss Nelson also says that you can use alcohol like gin and
vodka two in an emergency. Murphy, we have any bleach in the janitor's
closet, Yeah, there should be plenty there. Grab a few gowns and
fill one of those big spray canisters the janitor uses for pesticides, and meet
me in the door to the roof. What are you planning. I'm gonna
see if we can clean some sponges. Will be right back with law of
science Friction Theati on Hudson River Radio dot com and now for the excite conclusive
of science fiction theater on Hudson for the Rat dot com. There wasn't a
moment to lose, as the enormous water bloated mutant sponges had already crushed half
of town Hall. You know it's suicide going out on that roof. I'm
crazy, but not that crazy. If you can open the door, I'll
spray some bleach on the nearest sponge and see if it reacts. Here,
Chief, we got three gallons of bleach in this canister. Just pump up
the handle and squeeze the trigger and it should spray out several feet okay,
Captain, Now good luck. The Captain opened the door to the long,
flat roof, which was now covered with crawling sponges the size of milk trucks,
and one was just a few feet away. Not sure if this was
his last minute on earth, Chief Smithers stepped forward as far as he dared
and sent a spray of the potent bleach onto the huge sponge. He couldn't
tell if it was the back of the head, or even if it had
a back or head, but the sponge's reaction was swift and dramatic. It's
working. I think it's working. Emboldened by his success, the Chief moved
across the roof systematically sprayed the mutant sponges, which recoiled in pain, shuddered,
and then died. It was working flawlessly until the canister ran dry.
See come back, there's another one behind you. I can't, I'm trapped.
Just as the idiots Sponge moved in for the kill, Officer Murphy raced
onto the roof with a bottle of whiskey and hurled it at the sponge.
Quick this white chief inside, hurry, quick, thinking Murphy. Thanks,
But where the hell did you get the whiskey? Well, perhaps I keep
a wee bottle in my locker for the occasional nip against the cold night air,
you know, for medicinal purposes, of course. Well, if we
get through this alive, every officer and Stony Point is going to have a
bottle of whiskey in his locker. I'm going to radio headquarters and tell them
to get all the bleach and disinfectant they can find, and I'll radio the
firehouse and we'll start calling every place in town let them know how to kill
these crawling sponges. Sadly, more lives would be lost, but inch by
inch, street by street, and sponge by sponge, Stony Point blindly was
cleared up. Unfortunately, if your surviving residents decided to move back into their
houses, which had all been scenes of such horror. Two weeks later,
Mary Beth, are you sure you still want to live here. Yes,
Mommy made this at home, and I won't let bad germs drive us away.
There aren't many other little boys and girls left to play with. That's
okay. People will move back, funny point. It will be a great
place to live again someday. Meanwhile, at a secret underground government weapons lab,
Doctor, we've rounded up the last bottles of the show, and the
manufacturer has given us the formula. Excellent, add them to the storeroom supply.
Have all our bacterious samples arrived? Yes, doctor, good, very
good. Then let's begin our experiments. This has been Science Friction Theater,
a production of Hudson River Radio dot Com, written by Linda Simmon. Don't
forget to subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an exciting adventure. See
you next time the Conscience Friction Theater