Shayla Frandsen
FWD: FWD: URGENT—PLEASE LOOK AT THIS DOCUMENT!.docx
Hey Jim,
I rec’d this email a few weeks ago. Her letter is compelling, but I can’t tell if the attached footage is legitimate or artificially aged. I’ve reached out to Ms. Williams several times with no response. I even called the Mormon building where she attends, but the person on the other end hung up as soon as I mentioned Ms. Williams’s name. Mind checking this out when you have a few minutes?
Thanks,
Steve
——
Steven Tygert
Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Truth and Veracity Publications
“Ratings don’t last. Good journalism does.” – Dan Rather
To whom it may concern,
Continuing revelation makes for strange bedfellows. When the prophet announced technological updates to the church’s filing system, I found myself, a 27-year-old unmarried woman, clearing out the church building library at 7 pm on a Friday night with 85-year-old Brother Stanger. He had been the ward librarian for—well, forever.
I think the bishopric has always seen me as a girl who is quiet and bookish—which, true—because every summer, I came home from BYU and would be called as assistant ward librarian. Once I graduated and moved back home, the bishopric made the calling permanent.
That Friday, I found a camcorder in a cardboard box. It looked pretty old, a bulky Panasonic with a loading deck that popped open when I pressed a button. There was still a tape inside, and someone had written “OAKWOOD 2ND STAKE INTERVIEWS 1996” on it. When I asked Brother Stanger about it, he made a weird face. He told me to put it away. I thought he was angry, but when he didn’t respond, I saw that his hands were shaking, his face had lost all color, and sweat had broken out across his forehead. He wasn’t angry—he was afraid. I asked him what was on the tape. Instead of answering, he pulled the tape from my hands and threw it in the garbage. “Nothing but danger,” he said. “Those were bad times.” I started to protest, and he told me to repent. I wanted to dig the tape out of the garbage right then, but Brother Stanger was 85 years old. I worried it might kill him.
Luckily, I had a key of my own—one of the few perks of being assistant ward librarian. I went back to the church the next morning and let myself in. I pulled the tape out of the trash, put it back in the camcorder, found some cords, and figured out how to plug everything into one of the old TVs. There were a bunch of people in the building for a stake basketball tournament, but nobody bothered me. When you’re the 27-year-old single assistant ward librarian still living in your parents’ ward, you’re used to being ignored.
But no one will be able to ignore this.
Thank you,
Sarah Williams
Attachment One: BBR96.mp4
TAPE BEGINS
*static*
QUESTION, UNINTELLIGIBLE
Sister Jolene Robertson: State my name? What the heck for?
RESPONSE OFF-CAMERA
My name is Sister Jolene Robertson.
RESPONSE
What? No, I’m here for a quilting—
RESPONSE
The quilting bazaar is . . . it’s not real? You made it up?
RESPONSE
You want to talk about what? Absolutely not. I can’t believe that you would trick me and ask me to address that! Everything that happened at Girls Camp four years ago was an unfortunate accident. Anything you’ve heard beyond that is a rumor. I may have been the camp leader, but I don’t know anything about any of it. The church ruled it a bad case of food poisoning, and it’s awful that a wild bear attacked the camp. Once I explained everything to the authorities, they let me go immediately. I don’t know anything. Now turn that fetching thing off!
*static, the screen flickers*
Sasha Berg: I’m Sasha Berg, and I’m seventeen years old. They tried to hide it all. Nobody told us anything afterward but, like, we know what we saw, no matter how many times they tell us we’re wrong. It all started on the second day of camp, when—
RESPONSE
Sure, if you want me to. Girls Camp happens every summer where all the Young Women go camp in the woods for a week. The Oakwood 2nd Stake went to Burning Bush Ranch every year, until . . . you know. There’s, like, hikes and campfires, and we sing all these funny songs, and we cook our own food, and, like, nobody gets any sleep because we stay up late playing card games, and last year a few of us ran through the woods barefoot after all the leaders had—
RESPONSE
Oh. Sorry. Four years ago, I was, like, only thirteen, and everything still felt kinda new to me? On the second day of camp, the leaders told us to stay in our tents because there was an issue because, like, the food had made someone sick. It was weird because Sister Robertson and Sister . . . oh, heck, what was her last name? She was the assistant camp leader. Anyway, Sister Robertson and Sister What’s Her Name interrupted morning flag ceremony and told us all to go back to our tents and wait until they told us it was okay to go back to, like, normal camp activities or whatever.
*the screen flickers*
Sister Margaret Davis: Oh, it’s not ‘Sister’ anymore, hon. You say this is for a school project?
RESPONSE
Very well. Was I surprised when I got called as assistant camp counselor? No. I may be in my sixties, but I remember what it was like to be in the Young Women’s program. I also raised two daughters. Not much has changed about this church since I was a teenager. It’s all the same rules, with different names.
RESPONSE
That may be true, but I don’t think that no longer attending church means I can’t comment on it. I was a member for almost seventy years. Leaving the church was something I’d been considering for a long time, but this was the last straw. It was like a sign from Heaven—well, not Heaven, right? Couldn’t be. I guess that means it was a sign from Hell.
*static*
ANSWERING MACHINE: BEEP An inmate from CENTRAL VALLEY STATE PENITENTIARY has left you ONE new voice mail. Hey, this is Don Makavic givin’ you a call back and, uh, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’ll tell you what I’ve been tellin’ the police since day one, and that’s, uh, I was the caretaker of Burning Bush Ranch as my stake callin’, and I was repairin’ a long stretch-a fence miles away when everythin’ happened. Burning Bush is a sizable chunk of land so, uh, whenever I went out to the border of the property, I stayed in a little cabin out there. There was an issue with the plumbin’ that my son Jason handled before he was attacked by a wild bear, and, uh, I didn’t have anythin’ to do with the deaths and I know nothin’ about any kind of outbreak, but, uh, I’m innocent of any crime, my story has never changed. End of message. BEEP.
*the screen flickers*
Melanie Tripp: Wow, Jason Makavic. Oh my gosh. Yeah, he was the son of the main ranch guy and he was so . . . like, my friends and I, we’d go around the camp and guess what needed repairs, and then we’d wait there to see if he’d come. One time I flushed a sock down the toilet just so that he’d have to come fix it? And I—wait, oh gosh, are you filming already? Oh, jeez, okay. My name is Melanie Tripp, and I’m twenty-one years old and—*laughs* sorry, what else did you want to know?
RESPONSE
Oh my gosh, thank you! Thirty weeks, as of yesterday. It’s a girl, yeah. My husband Rick says he hopes that she’ll get my hair. The world needs more blondes, you know? And Danny can’t wait to be a big brother.
RESPONSE
That’s what Rick said, too! Oh gosh, you two would get along. Anyway, what was I? Oh yeah. Every girl in the stake knew about Jason Makavic. Some of us said that he was the only reason we went to Girls Camp. Well, I never said that, but some of my friends did. Jason was so gorgeous. He had this thick black hair, and he was so tall and, like, angry-looking? I heard that it was just him and his dad growing up, and Jason’s dad still went to church but, like, Jason didn’t? So he always had this bad boy thing going on, and we were all dying to talk to him but he’d just come, fix the toilet, and leave. And he’d always—
RESPONSE
Oh, heck, you’re right. Sorry. They told us to go wait in our tents after morning flag ceremony, and I saw Jason drive by on his big, like . . . what’s it called . . . like his four-wheeler? That big motorbike thing he’d ride all over the ranch to fix stuff instead of talking to anybody? I saw his four-wheeler thing, and I was like, oh my gosh, Jason’s here. I snuck away from the other girls to find him. I thought if I could talk to him by myself, he’d open up more, and Burning Bush Ranch was only a 40-minute drive from where I lived so we could meet up after camp was over. I mean, I was almost 18. My dad would have definitely let me take his car.
RESPONSE
Yeah. So I crept around a little bit, like ducking behind trees and stuff. I saw this group of leaders all together, like Sister Robertson and her husband, who was in the stake presidency, and some others. Jason was there. I was in the oldest age group at camp, so I was kind of like an adult? Which means that I had just as much a right to be at that meeting as any of them. They were all huddled around something that was making a bunch of growling noises. I thought it was an animal. But when I went closer, I saw . . . oh, gosh, it was—
*static*
Margaret Davis: The bathrooms were a bit secluded, and to get to them you had to take a path through the woods. When I’d gotten up to use the restroom that morning—I liked to go early and skip the crowds—I came across a girl laying right in the middle of the path. I thought she was hurt. When I went to help her up . . . gracious. It hardly feels real. I still wonder if I imagined the whole thing.
RESPONSE
Well, the girl was chewing her own arm off.
*the screen flickers*
Sister Jolene Robertson: Margaret Davis will tell you any lie you want to hear, as long as it makes her look better. She’s toying with peoples’ lives here. Peoples’ memories! How can you take her seriously, anyway? She’s departed from the straight and narrow! I’m praying for her, but she needs to be stuffed in a sleeping bag. Nobody was eating anybody. It was a flipping bear attack, okay?
*static*
Sister _______: You’re sure the camera can’t see me? It’s only picking up the audio? *pause* Good. I was one of the adult leaders at camp, and the police questioned me for hours. I know it’s been four years, but I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time. And now *laughs* I’m sorry. I can’t even remember the question you asked me.
RESPONSE
That’s right. Margaret Davis came running from the bathrooms, saying all these things—I mean, she was saying some really wild stuff. My first thought was that she was senile or something. But I’m a convert. I’d only been in the church for two years at that point. I was surprised I even got asked to be one of the camp leaders, I thought that you had to be in the church longer. All I know is that when Margaret Davis was saying that a girl was chewing her own arm off, I thought . . . I don’t know. She’d been a member her whole life. I thought that meant she knew more about everything. Gosh, I was still so young. Anyway, I followed her right away.
RESPONSE
It was terrifying. The girl was—I guess I shouldn’t say who it was. Well, except everyone found out eventually, right? It was Elsie Cooper. She was fourteen years old. Small for her age. I’d helped her carry her bags to her tent the day before. A few of us went with Margaret, and Elsie heard us coming. I mean, I say it was Elsie, but it wasn’t. Does that make sense? It wasn’t her.
*static*
Melanie Tripp: I didn’t know her name. I never kept track of the younger girls and I couldn’t really see her, like, through the bushes? But she had, like, blood running down her chin and skin stuck in her teeth and her arm was torn up, like, torn. You could see her bone sticking out and her skin was, like, in bits on the ground. The worst part was her eyes. They were a strange yellow color, yellow like . . . like pee. Oh gosh, I shouldn’t say that! Can’t let this baby hear me saying bad words. But I’m telling you, that’s the kind of yellow that the girl’s eyes were.
*static*
Margaret Davis: That little girl heard us coming, turned, and instantly attacked Brother Coombs. Lunged right at his neck and tore it open. Blood splattered on me, on Sister Robertson, on—
COMMENT
Yes, of course she was there. Jolene hasn’t told you?
RESPONSE
Well. Isn’t that something. She’s telling you she doesn’t know anything. I suppose that’s been her story for a while. It’s the line she used with the police, repeatedly. But trust me: she and her husband were right there when it all started.
*static*
Sister _______: At first it really surprised me that a bunch of men were at camp. You have to remember, I didn’t grow up in the church. Men at a place called Girls Camp? It seemed so weird. I even asked Sister Robertson about it when I first got there. She got kind of mad that I asked. I didn’t understand why she was so mad, but now I think I do. In the church, men are just . . . everywhere. In everything. And people don’t really like when you say that part out loud.
QUESTION
Yeah, I still go. Most Sundays.
QUESTION
*laughs* I thought I agreed to talk about the outbreak, not how I feel about the church.
*screen flickers*
Margaret Davis: Elsie attacked Brother Coombs, and it was like somebody flipped a switch. Everybody went crazy, but no one really knew what to do. Some of the men tried to pull Elsie off him, but they couldn’t do it. People started running, and Jolene’s husband was ordering everybody around. I remember being able to taste Brother Coomb’s blood in my mouth, from when it splattered on me. Meanwhile, that girl was snarling and biting, using her fingers to scratch at his neck and face and—she was like a drugged-up animal, do you understand me? This teenage girl, attacking an adult man.
QUESTION
I wish I knew how to explain it. You could tell that something wasn’t right. I mean, this little girl had been chewing at her arm and then attacked a fully grown man, so of course something wasn’t right. But a part of me knew, even then, that this was going to be bad.
*static*
Sister Jolene Robertson: My husband has an MBA. He leads teams of people in very important work projects, so he was certainly the right person to take control of the—animal attack at camp. You said I’d be paid for doing this interview, right? You already tricked me once with that quilting lie. I won’t be tricked again, you hear me? I’ll demand my money.
*screen flickers*
Sister _______: We thought that Brother Coombs was dead. Someone had already radioed the Makavics. The guy’s son—I think his name was Jason? The one always wearing black—was there, trying to get control of Elsie, but nobody could. She was so wild, and she moved so fast. She was like a monster. I wish I could describe it better. I’ve always been terrible with words. The Sunday after I got baptized, the bishop called me up to bear my testimony in Sacrament. I got up there, and I was dying. I was all sweaty and stuttering, and I stumbled through what had to be the worst testimony you’ve ever heard. I . . . .
QUESTION
I don’t know. Nothing. *pause* I mean . . . I guess I wish the bishop would’ve at least given me a little bit of warning that he was going to do that. I felt like an idiot. But that was a while ago, and . . . sorry, where was I?
RESPONSE
Right. After attacking Brother Coombs, Elsie ran off into the woods. She was all bloody and slobbering. *pause* Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if we’d been able to contain her. How things might’ve been different. But the outbreak probably would’ve still happened, only with a different starting point. That’s not very optimistic, is it? Not very faithful. I joined the church because it seemed like a safe place, but I’ve always struggled with believing in things that I can’t see. But this was something I saw with my own eyes, and I’ll never forget it. I guess it’s funny that I believe more in zombies at Girls Camp than I’ll ever believe in God, huh?
*static*
Margaret Davis: We all thought Brother Coombs was dead. But after Elsie ran off, his body began to twitch. Those of us who were still there . . . you know how people say they freeze up? Like they’re so stunned they don’t know what to do? Watching Brother Coombs sit up after dying made me freeze up. He was stiff, his eyes were yellow, and his neck was torn open, and—god, his stomach! I forgot about his stomach. She’d ripped open his stomach too, and his intestines were hanging out. He looked at all of us, and we looked back at him. It was a weird moment of quiet.
QUESTION
What happened next? The apocalypse.
*screen flickers*
Sasha Berg: So we’re waiting in our tents. It seemed like there were no adults around, but that can’t be right. And we heard screaming in the distance. We freaked. Nobody knew what was going on. And, okay, it was dumb, but a lot of us got out of our tents to see what was happening. We saw some leaders running past like they’d seen, I don’t know, Satan or something. That freaked us out, too. And then . . . *long pause* wow, heck, sorry, it’s so dumb to cry. I really thought I’d moved past this. It was years ago. I pray all the time that my mind will just, like, forget all of it. I’ve gotten a ton of blessings to try and help. I still get nightmares. People don’t believe me. Some people say I made it all up, they get so mad at me. But I just . . . . *pause* Gosh, sorry! Do you have a tissue? *pause* Thanks. I can still see her so clearly in my mind.
QUESTION
Elsie, of course. She started attacking every girl she saw.
*static*
ANSWERING MACHINE: BEEP You have *pause* ONE new voice mail. BEEP. This is Alexander McGinty from the PR department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, calling on behalf of the messages you’ve left with our office. The church’s extensive internal investigation regarding the incident at Burning Bush Ranch revealed a tragic accident in which a vicious animal attack and *unintelligible unintelligible* claimed several innocent lives. The church stands with the families of the victims, and worldwide membership donations reached *unintelligible* dollars in support. If you continue to make damaging claims or accusations regarding Burning Bush Ranch, the church will be forced to take legal action against you. BEEP
*screen flickers*
Sister _______: Once Brother Coombs woke up, or . . . came back from the dead, whatever you want to call it, I lost it for a little bit. It’s embarrassing. I should’ve immediately gone to warn the girls. But you have to realize, it was terrifying. I barely remember what happened. I ran through the woods like my feet couldn’t carry me fast enough. My blood was pumping like crazy, my adrenaline felt like it was off the charts. I almost felt . . . well. I shouldn’t say.
QUESTION
It’s just that . . . before I got baptized, I did some bad stuff. I mean, most people wouldn’t say it was too bad, but members would. I did some drugs, drank alcohol. I was just a teenager, and I didn’t have the best home life. But there was this one time when I did—I’m not even going to say what drug it was. I only did it that one time because after taking it, I totally spiraled. I felt paranoid, like my limbs had detached from my body. I had all these weird hallucinations and saw things that weren’t there. I was sure I was going insane. That’s sort of how it felt, running away from the monsters.
*static*
Sasha Berg: *pause* Elsie just—she— *sniffs* We hadn’t been in the same ward, but I knew her, you know? When I was a first year, she was my partner for the three-mile hike. And then there she was, attacking girls. Clawing and biting like she was, like, an uncontrollable animal. And the girls she was biting, they were turned immediately, and—
QUESTION
Yep. Turned. I meant what I said. The girls were all turning into her, like they were all . . . listen. I’ve had four years to think about this. I know what I saw. They’d get bitten, and then they’d turn into something that, like, wasn’t themselves? Like they were monsters. Flesh-eating monsters. And then those girls would bite other girls, who started biting other girls, and it felt like there was no stopping it. The ranch was in total chaos. There was blood, like, everywhere, and roaring and screaming. I’m sure I would have been turned into a monster too, except that there was this stampede of girls running away, and I got pushed back into my tent so hard that it collapsed on top of me? I was trying to untangle myself, and everybody was running towards the open field where we played volleyball and had limbo competitions and balloon tosses. Finally I realized that the tent was a pretty decent hiding place, so I stayed there for a while. I might’ve stayed hiding there forever, if it hadn’t been for . . . .
QUESTION
I’m sorry. I still can’t believe she did it. It was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. She saved me. She saved all of us.
QUESTION
Wait, nobody else has mentioned Katie Foxtail yet?
*static*
Melanie Tripp: Ugh. Katie Foxtail thought she was better than everyone.
*static*
Margaret Davis: Yes, Katie Foxtail. Of course I remember her. Horrendously poor. Her parents were in and out of her life, and trust me, it was better when they were out of it. She grew up with her grandma, mostly. When I was Relief Society president, I went over there at least once a month with dinner or brownies. Katie was always such a quiet, watchful child. A child you would look at and know that she’d been mistreated. The other girls always thought she was so strange.
*static*
Sister Jolene Robertson: What words come to mind when I hear the name Katie Foxtail? How about entitled? Uppity? How about she had way too high an opinion of herself? I mean, there were long stretches of time when she didn’t come to church at all. That was someone you looked at and thought, that person is not a full tithe payer.
*screen flickers*
Sister _______: Katie Foxtail kept to herself. She helped cook the food, and she set up her tent by herself. She was quiet. If none of this had happened, I probably would’ve never noticed her.
*static*
Sasha Berg: So I hid under that tent for like, hours, right? I was starving and crying. Okay, and . . . don’t tell anyone this, but I peed my pants. Twice. Then Katie Foxtail found me. She was, like, totally splattered in blood and she was holding this huge knife and also like, the axe that Brother Robertson had used to chop firewood?
*static*
Sister Jolene Robertson: Katie Foxtail was storming around camp waving extremely dangerous weapons. Of course I told the police that.
*screen flickers*
Sister _______: I saw Sister Robertson and her husband run for their car. They jumped in and locked the doors immediately. A few of the younger girls were knocking on the car and crying to be let in, but the Robertsons sped away. Their car left so much dust that the girls couldn’t see the monsters coming for them until it was too late.
*static*
Sasha Berg: Katie told me to follow her. I mean, she was the only person I’d seen in hours who wasn’t some sort of undead monster, so I went with her. We made a break for the log cabin which was like, where we’d have testimony meetings and listen to speakers and priesthood holders. I heard noise behind us. It was the girls—I mean, the monsters who’d once been girls. They made such a weird high-pitched growling sound. I still hear that sound in my nightmares. Katie told me to keep running and, like, not look back? I asked her what she was going to do, but she didn’t answer. I kept running, and people inside the cabin must’ve seen me coming, because they opened the door for me and slammed it shut after I sprinted through. I watched Katie through the windows. She had turned to meet those monsters. Like, head-on, you know? I know what I saw.
*static*
Melanie Tripp: I hid under Jason’s four-wheeler thing. It was kind of nice, because I stayed safe from those weird attacks, but also because I was there when Jason came back. I thought it was finally my chance to talk to him, but all he did was throw me on the back of the four-wheeler and speed me to that gross log cabin where everybody was. I didn’t talk to him again. Gosh, don’t tell Rick I said this, but Jason really was hot.
QUESTION
After that? He and that Katie girl must have, like, linked up or talked or whatever, because every time I looked out the window I saw them fighting off those monster girls together. She was probably like, oh mylanta, I get to fight with Jason, look at how tough and cool I am.
*screen flickers*
Margaret Davis: We sequestered in the cabin for almost 24 hours. All we heard outside was carnage. So many girls and leaders had been bitten. A few of the adults fought back against the horde, but it was Katie Foxtail and Jason Makavic leading the charge. They fought side-by-side for hours. It was quite extraordinary to see how in sync they were. How fearless. Who knows where such depths of bravery came from?
QUESTION
I mean, Katie had only just started going back to church again. She must’ve been—oh, seventeen? Eighteen? But it was her first year at camp. She didn’t know Jason before camp started, no. I think it’s the sort of thing where you discover your truest self when you’re backed up against the wall. Will you fight back? Will you fight for life? *pause* For Katie and Jason, their answer must have been yes.
*static*
Telephone on speaker: RING………..RING……….RING……….RING……….BEEP Hi, you’ve reached the Foxtail-Makavic residence. Leave a message, and we’ll get back to you. BEEP
*static*
Sasha Berg: After it was all over, I met with so many different, like, men? I even met with someone from the Quorum of the Twelve. Everyone told us that what we saw wasn’t actually what we saw. I think they’re hoping that enough time will pass that we’ll start to question ourselves. I think they’re, like, counting on it? Although I get in trouble every time I say it. The Sunday after it happened, my bishop called me “sweet daughter of God.” I was, like, sweet daughter of God? I survived a zombie attack. What have you done lately?
*static*
Sister _______: It was chaos once the police came. There were SWAT teams storming the ranch, HAZMAT suits, ambulances. Never any news crews, though. I heard that church PR dumped a ton of money into making sure nothing made it to TV, but I don’t know. It seems like a lot of people are trying pretty hard to keep everything covered up. I just wish I knew why.
RESPONSE
Exactly. Back when I was first meeting with the sister missionaries, they kept telling me about truth. They told me this is the one true church, and that Jesus said the truth will set me free. They told me that if I wanted to know if the Book of Mormon was true, I should pray. If truth is so important, then why would the church cover up what’s true? Right?
*screen flickers*
Melanie Tripp: Here’s something funny: I actually met my husband Rick that day. He was one of the first police officers who showed up after we managed to call for help. And he was a member of the church! I was like, what are the odds?
RESPONSE
Jason and Katie? I guess they got married or whatever. I tried calling the ranch hotline after camp to see if Jason would pick up, mostly before Rick and I really got serious. But there’s rumors about them. Jason and Katie, I mean. People say they both left the church, and I heard Jason goes to visit his dad in prison, like, every week? The best one I heard is that Katie got, like, scratched by one of the girls, so now she’s half human and half zombie and haunts church buildings. You wanna hear something funny? Last week when I was teaching in Beehives, the girls were being wild, and I told them if they didn’t calm down that Katie would come attack them. Probably shouldn’t’ve done that, but, like, whatever, right? It was funny. And . . . .
What was that?
*door opens*
Whoa. Um—oh my gosh. Wow. I haven’t seen you in forever. Okay, this is so funny, I was just talking about you! Do you remember me? How have you, uh . . . how have you been? Did they ask you to do an interview, too? Wait. What’s wrong? Wait. What are you doing? Stop—!
*static*
TAPE ENDS
Shayla Frandsen earned her MFA in fiction at BYU, and previously earned an MA in English at The City College of New York. She is currently an adjunct professor in the English department at Utah Valley University. Her writing can be found or is forthcoming in New England Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Under the Sun, Blood Orange Review, Literary Mama, and others. Her nonfiction essay “Spin It Again,” found in Under the Sun, is a Best of the Net nominee. Her LDS-related writing can be found in Wayfare, Dialogue, and Exponent II. She was awarded first place in both the 2023 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction and the Blue Earth Review Dog Daze Flash Fiction contest.
