Night Vale Unsolved

44

The night came and went without much happening. In the morning, four people in two rooms woke up and stumbled out of bed.

In one room, a hotel room, Ryan and Shane packed their belongings. No agreement had technically been made as to their plans, but with each passing hour it seemed more and more likely that they would be leaving.

Across town, in an apartment, Carlos and Cecil got ready for their respective days. Carlos provided breakfast that morning, and he and Cecil each took advantage of the rare opportunity of a free morning to sit down and eat together.

Out on the streets, the city slowly began to fill up as people started on their daily routines. The chatter of pedestrians floated up through the windows of these two rooms.

But at the hotel, the noise kept growing louder and louder. Eventually, it crossed the line between background buzz into an unignorable roar.
"What is that?" Ryan grumbled, opening the curtains to look out.
"How should I know?" Shane replied. "Maybe it's just...I don't know, a weekly thing they do here. In case you hadn't already noticed, this place is-"
"Come check this out." Ryan cut him off, holding the curtain open wider. Shane went over and peered out. Across the street, a large group of people were gathered. The noise seemed to be coming from them, a sort of chanting that everyone kept up.
"Yeah, I don't know what that's about." Shane eventually said. The two drifted away from the window and picked up their bags. They may as well put them in the car, since it seemed more and more sure that they would be leaving.
"Should we call?" Ryan asked, meaning Cecil and Carlos.
"Nah," Shane answered, "I'm sure we'll see them. We should say bye in person, you know?"
Ryan nodded and picked up his bag. The two men made one last sweep of the room to check for any forgotten belongings, and then made their way down the hallway to the elevator. The ride down was silent, but short. The lobby was empty, save for the line clerk.
"Heading out?" She asked.
"Yeah," Shane and Ryan handed over their room keys. With the awkwardly polite head nod of a goodbye you give people you don't actually know, they made for the doors.

Across town, Carlos and Cecil were on their way to work. They had a few blocks together before they went their separate ways, and they talked and laughed the whole way. Finally, they split off, Cecil turning right to the Radio Station and Carlos not turning at all on his way to the Lab. Now that they weren't with each other in the same physical space, they each noticed separately that there weren't many people out on the streets. Granted, it was late morning on a weekday, but still the city seemed emptier than before.
Carlos and Cecil each pondered this for a while, wondering vaguely if there was something happening, and if the other was experiencing the same thing. Eventually, they shrugged and finished their commute.
As Cecil sat down and began his broadcast ("There are so many things that we do not know. For example, what is that thing? Welcome to Night Vale.") and Carlos greeted his fellow scientists, a crowd of people gathered in front of the hotel.

"Seriously, what is that?"
Now that they were on the ground floor, Ryan and Shane sould hear the chanting much more clearly. They paused, trying to make sense of the overlapping voices.
"Something's...over?" Shane guessed. Ryan frowned, but neither were invested enough to keep guessing.
Outside the doors, though, the source of the noise hit them full on.
Almost very literally.
A large crowd blocked the entrance of the hotel, waking fists and shouting.
"'Scuse us," Shane and Ryan tried to push their way past, but the people pushed right back. After a moment, the shouting people found their rythm, and the word these been repeating over and over became clear.
"Interlopers! Interlopers!"

Suddenly very uneasy with the whole thing, Shane and Ryan made a quick escape back into the hotel. They shut the door behind them and scrambled to the far wall.
The clerk didn't glance up from her copy of a magazine bearing the headline "Glow Cloud Pledges To Reduce Testing In Schools."
There was silence as Ryan and Shane tried to figure out what was happening. Finally, Shane spoke up.
"I take it back."
"What?"
"Let's not wait until we see them in person. Call them."