Making sense of Hollowbody‘s story can be quite difficult, especially if you miss key documents while exploring the lost city of Barnsdon. Without the Record of Events document, you only have fragments to work with to piece the narrative together.
If you want to understand the unknown entity that talks to Mica, and learn what happened to Barnsdon, then here’s our rundown of Hollowbody‘s story. We hope it answers some of your questions, but be warned: Major spoilers lie below.
Hollowbody plot, summarized
The story of Hollowbody follows two characters: Sasha and Mica. When Sasha goes missing searching for her colleague Mark, her partner sets out to find her. But civilization as we know it is long forgotten. Leaving the safety of Aeonis, Mica heads into the sealed city that houses a deadly pathogen. Sasha is lost somewhere inside the exclusion zone; a place where no human dare to enter. Little is known about the lost city, aside from the evacuations that took place.
Like Sasha, Mica becomes stranded in an unfamiliar land, with no obvious means of escaping as a massive wall contains the contagion. Crash landed in the middle of desolate British city, Mica must overcome her small survival odds, and hold onto what hope she can to find Sasha—and bring her home.
Mica first climbs to the roof of the nearest apartment complex to get her bearing on her current location. Here is where she meets the Wounded Stranger. You can either talk him off the ledge or condemn him. Whatever outcome happens here impacts your ending. Mica gets limited communication with her friend Tax, who is the reason she was able to travel to the exclusion zone in the first place. He advises her to get to the underground station as Sasha is located there.
Mica traverses through the park, graveyard, sewers, and city, determined to find Sasha somewhere inside the station.
What happened to Barnsdon in Hollowbody?
Barnsdon was forever changed by Sherwood Estate Management‘s plans to revitalize the city by erecting new buildings, add jobs, and boost community morale. The focus of this brand new city was a MetroLink line, the same underground station that Sasha ends up in. This line would link neighboring towns to the midcity, offering exciting new jobs for citizens.
It didn’t take long for the complaints to flood in. Work hours extended beyond human capabilities. People were getting sick, others died. The fear to work spread like wildfire, while others waited for Sherwood’s promise of new career opportunities. Sherwood began removing people from their homes by force. Homeless rates soared, forcing people to live in tents. Their terrifying zero tolerance policy put more bodies on the street.
Sherwood’s MetroLink was a cover up for something far more sinister. People were trapped inside their houses, quarantined from a sickness of unknown origin. Each death was unique, but all could be explained as natural causes. Sickness spread from apartment to apartment, plaguing anyone who came into contact with it. The water was contaminated too. Symptoms included vomiting blood, nightmares, and erratic and aggressive behavior. It appeared to have its own form too, rather than being airborne. The organic matter spread out its roots, consuming everything in sight, including birds and dogs.
The creatures Mica evades and kills are residents of Barnsdon, a twisted form of what was previously human. Incapable of communication, they sob and lash out, begging for a cure, or an end to their suffering. Residents were heavily monitored by Sherwood, where staff wearing stab-proof vests would mark apartments with a red cross to indicate if the person was sick—or worse dead. Apartments were boarded-up as the residents feared for the worst, with some taking their own lives to avoid getting sick.
Sherwood staff were aware of the risks and were complacent in their cruel actions, with some taking extreme measures to ensure the residents couldn’t escape. No one was allowed to leave.
Who or what is Mother?
Speaking to Mica throughout her journey, Mother is the unknown voice, talking to our protagonist every time she reaches a new save point. She observes Mica and can pinpoint her location at all times as she calls Mica every step of the way. Acting as the save station for Hollowbody, the phone calls offer an insight into the main antagonist of the story. Mother appears to have telepathic powers, as she and Mica hint that the phone lines couldn’t possible still work.
Based on Sherwood’s role in the events, it seems they purposely released Mother to Barnsdon and all neighboring cities. The MetroLink gave them access to Mother who slept deep underground. Contained to the MetroLink tunnels, Mother sprouted from the soil and latched onto all living organisms, sucking the life out of Barnsdon’s residents. Wanting nothing more than to be free from its confinement, Mother lures the curious with visions and dreams. She uses her telepathy to lure Sasha and later fools Mica in the end.
Mother appears to be a sentient entity that appears like a tree to the human eye. The cosmic horror of Mother would mean we’d be incapable of understanding its true form. Its tree appearance is likely a guise, or the only form Mother can take for humans to understand. There is, of course, that possibility that Mother is Mother Nature, with the tree being the Tree of Life.
