a spirit in the land

Marigold and Robert have been flying for five days to reach the Nahanni National Park. You now know more than you have in years. The plan began in this valley. Roberts says this land is the place of the Dehcho peoples, and there is a spirit in the land. Marigold is uncomfortable here.

The river is wild here, and Marigold is unsettled by the old buildings. She thinks she will know what they're looking for when they see it. She worries that she's keeping Robert away from their people, but Robert says he wouldn't be a good leader if people were dependent on him for every decision. Besides, he wants to know what's going on! They spot a body tied to a tree – it must be years old, but it's been preserved by the cold, and it's obvious that the head has exploded.

Robert tells Marigold a story about the old ways to help her calm down. The Elders taught him about the Tree People, and how they are just like humans. This is why they ask for forbearance and thank them when they cut down a tree. Marigold does feel better now – she finds the words satisfying. They hear a strange whistling noise and see two figures emerge from a cave. The figures hurl themselves down the mountain towards them.

The zombies have no thoughts. They are monstrous. Robert notices that they are dressed in suits and ties, and have been shot in the temple. Don't zombies die if you destroy the brain? Marigold recognises them as CIA standard-issue parkas – the bad person in her dreams, James, is CIA. Robert observes the land for an advantage, and notices a broken trap. Long ago, someone tried to catch your guide in it.

There is a spiral of hollow wooden cylinders that makes a sound when the wind blows from the north. This sound can trap you, little seed. Marigold steps inside and the sound makes her feel sick, a pressure building in her mind. Robert realises she's trying to claw at her temple, and helps her get away from the trap.

Marigold feels better away from the sound, and admits that if she had stayed there, she would have clawed a hole in her head. Roberts thinks the CIA agents bored holes in their own heads to escape the sound before they became zombies. Maybe the corpse tied to the tree is what happens if you don't make a hole quickly enough. Tungsten Valley was a failed experiment. They tried to trap your guide here, but it didn't work. They just did terrible things to themselves. Robert shoots and destroys one of the teeth of the trap to break it. You shouldn't be here anymore.

Robert dispatches the zombies with a baseball bat while Marigold explains what she knows. Since the music festival, she hears voices sometimes, like tuning a radio. A few weeks before the zombies, she heard a scream and knew that hundreds of people had woken up at the same time. Something has been circling the world for so long, something like a tree that takes joy in the world and humanity. The CIA believe it is an alien and tried to trap it and use it. It didn't work in this valley, but it is somewhere further north. She knows about you being in her mind, little seed. Roberts says trees are sentient and it's calling for help to set it free.