1
00:00:01,879 --> 00:00:07,599
A few months ago, the civil
township of Wainley, North Carolina was officially

2
00:00:07,679 --> 00:00:14,080
revoked. The areas had a dwindling
population for decades, and with less than

3
00:00:14,119 --> 00:00:18,760
a dozen people living there as of
writing this, the town has been absorbed

4
00:00:18,879 --> 00:00:25,559
into the neighboring area. For most
people, this is a footnote. No

5
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:30,559
one really knew about Wainley. Hell, even the post office got confused at

6
00:00:30,559 --> 00:00:35,640
times. But that town used to
be something, and the people who came

7
00:00:35,719 --> 00:00:41,359
from there are as real as it
gets. I was one of those people,

8
00:00:43,039 --> 00:00:49,200
and I want to tell the story
of what happened. In the nineties,

9
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:55,159
Wainley was home to approximately three thousand, eight hundred people. The main

10
00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:00,240
export was corrugated steel roofing sheds produced
by the Wainley Metalwork, Roofing and Tiles.

11
00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:07,920
There were two dairy farms, the
Ansons and the Boughs. We also

12
00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:11,439
had a small barley and wheat refinery, a high school, two large off

13
00:01:11,519 --> 00:01:18,719
site admin offices, and one of
those small scale business incubators. Apart from

14
00:01:18,719 --> 00:01:23,000
that, there wasn't much to see
in Wainley, just this flat chunk of

15
00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:30,799
land amid a big pile of nothing. In those days, people were already

16
00:01:30,879 --> 00:01:37,719
leaving town. Businesses were split between
Rayetteville and Roseboro. A lot of people

17
00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:42,200
figured that there was no point making
big investment plans for a town that was

18
00:01:42,239 --> 00:01:49,000
bleeding out hell. Even Wainley Metal
Working considered relocating south to Wilmington, abandoning

19
00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:57,120
their namesake. But despite all that
sour gloom, there was an industry decisions

20
00:01:57,319 --> 00:02:02,959
that caused the downfall of Wainley.
I was thirteen years old in nineteen ninety

21
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,879
three. I grew up with my
mom Rennielle Rennie for short, and my

22
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:15,560
dad Morgan. My little brother Amos
had the room right across the hall.

23
00:02:15,879 --> 00:02:21,639
He was just ten years old at
the time. It was the last month

24
00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,439
of middle school. The following autumn, I was supposed to study at Wainley

25
00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:30,039
High but for all of primary school
you had to take the bus out of

26
00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:36,759
town. Took us about twenty five
minutes one way, not too bad,

27
00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:43,919
but it singled us out us Wainley
kids reunit at that point, arriving and

28
00:02:44,039 --> 00:02:50,280
leaving in Unison. It was a
Friday afternoon in late May. I was

29
00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,680
on the school bus on my way
back home. There were these two kids

30
00:02:53,719 --> 00:02:59,919
in front of me who couldn't stop
talking about their latest Super Nintendo game staff

31
00:03:00,039 --> 00:03:05,680
Fox. I think I zoned out
their entire conversation, instead opting to stare

32
00:03:05,719 --> 00:03:10,199
out the window. When we got
to the Wainley Town sign, I noticed

33
00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:16,159
something strange. There was a man
from the Sheriff's office using a roller to

34
00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:24,919
add something to the sign. All
I saw was the word no. There

35
00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:30,159
were several police cars blocking the road
into town. I recognized the faces of

36
00:03:30,199 --> 00:03:36,199
the officers, but I hadn't talked
to them before. There weren't a lot

37
00:03:36,199 --> 00:03:39,520
of criminals in Wainley, and my
family were all in the straight and narrow.

38
00:03:40,879 --> 00:03:46,560
Even my dad, who joked about
being a bank robber, he wasn't.

39
00:03:46,439 --> 00:03:53,319
He was a corporate lawyer. The
bus stopped, and so did the

40
00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:58,680
conversation. No more star fucks.
The double doors at the front of the

41
00:03:58,719 --> 00:04:02,719
bus whooshed open, and an older
policeman stepped on board with his hands on

42
00:04:02,759 --> 00:04:09,560
his walkie talkie. He looked at
the driver and nodded, then turned to

43
00:04:09,639 --> 00:04:15,800
us. They they're kids, he
said, I'm Officer Gallan. We're not

44
00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:18,000
going to keep you here too long. We just need to have a little

45
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:25,560
talk. If that's okay. Is
that okay? Kids? There was a

46
00:04:25,639 --> 00:04:31,600
muttering yes, coming from the Wainley
Middle School children myself included. Officer Gallan

47
00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:38,879
nodded, hiding a white smile under
a wild mustache. All right, I'll

48
00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:44,680
be back, sir. Would you
accompany me out for a sec? The

49
00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:49,120
driver stepped outside with Officer Gallon.
Meanwhile, the rest of us kept looking

50
00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:56,800
around trying to see what was wrong. Maybe there's an accident, said one

51
00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:00,639
of the younger kids. Maybe someone
got hurt. I think there's a fire,

52
00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:06,160
said another. Mom says you can't
barbecue because a fire hazard. Maybe

53
00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:11,600
there's a murderer, said the star
Fox kid, and they found like heads

54
00:05:11,639 --> 00:05:17,680
and stuff. Gross, I added, you're gross. I looked back outside

55
00:05:17,879 --> 00:05:23,519
as the other kids started to squabble. It went from fire to accident,

56
00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:30,639
to murderers to space aliens, then
right back to talking star Fox. Meanwhile,

57
00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:35,319
I stared off in the distance,
and that in turn gave me an

58
00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:41,399
idea. I could see the back
of the town sign from the rear view

59
00:05:41,399 --> 00:05:47,560
window. I leaned back and looked
out. The sign read You're now leaving

60
00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:57,720
Wainley, but there was a large
white text box added to it no milk.

61
00:05:59,519 --> 00:06:02,480
Before I got the chance to tell
the other kids, Officer Gellan came

62
00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:08,879
back on board the driver got back
in his seat. I had a very

63
00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:13,519
productive talk with mister Harley here,
and he tells me that I've stumbled upon

64
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:18,160
a particularly crafty and well behaved group
of students. Is he right about that?

65
00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:25,160
Is that what you are? Of
course we were in unison. We

66
00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:30,519
agreed with Officer Gellen, well,
in that case, you might be able

67
00:06:30,519 --> 00:06:34,240
to help me out. See,
we're looking for a special something that we

68
00:06:34,319 --> 00:06:40,199
can't bring into town or people might
get sick. And we wouldn't want anyone

69
00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:45,680
to get sick, now, would
we? Of course not? Then I

70
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:49,000
hope you won't mind some of my
officers checking your backpacks to make sure nothing

71
00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:56,360
bad snuck along, would you.
Two officers stepped on board as Gellen hurried

72
00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,839
outside to hold an approaching sedan.
Someone was trying to get out of town

73
00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:08,360
but was turned away one by one. The officer had a short talk with

74
00:07:08,439 --> 00:07:15,480
us and went through our backpacks our
lunch is. Specifically, when they got

75
00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:18,439
to the star Fox Kid just ahead
of me, I heard them asking him

76
00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:24,040
a series of questions what he'd been
eating, how long ago, if it

77
00:07:24,079 --> 00:07:31,279
had gone to the bathroom since strange
questions. Turns out he had chocolate milk

78
00:07:31,439 --> 00:07:38,079
as part of his lunch. The
officer who asked clicked his walkie talkie twice,

79
00:07:38,879 --> 00:07:43,600
some sort of discreet signal. When
they got to me, I handed

80
00:07:43,639 --> 00:07:47,720
them my backpack. Have you had
anything to drink today? He asked?

81
00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:55,480
My mom made lemonade. I said
that sounds great, which my mom made

82
00:07:55,480 --> 00:08:01,399
me some, he smiled. Anything
to eat, any cheese, any milk,

83
00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:07,319
just fish sticks and rice? I
said, and catch up doesn't sound

84
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:13,600
too bad. He rummaged through the
backpack and seemed relieved not to find what

85
00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:18,439
he was looking for. A right, looks like we're done. You have

86
00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:26,040
a good weekend, now you too. Once they'd gone through every backpack,

87
00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:31,040
they circled back to the star Fox
kid. They asked him to come along

88
00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:35,679
and said they had to ask a
couple more questions. It was scary.

89
00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:41,879
He started crying, and they tried
to encourage him every step of the way.

90
00:08:43,039 --> 00:08:46,480
They said they were going to call
his parents and everything was going to

91
00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:54,320
be fine. I wasn't so sure. Once the boss started rolling, I

92
00:08:54,399 --> 00:09:01,120
looked back to see offers a gallon
in the rear window and smiling anymore.

93
00:09:01,519 --> 00:09:07,159
He had this grim look on his
face, staring straight into the asphalt,

94
00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:13,200
motionless. There was a long line
of cars being turned away, some cars

95
00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:20,879
I recognized friend and neighbors looking to
make a quick exit. The boss had

96
00:09:20,919 --> 00:09:24,200
to pull to the side at one
point to let a fire truck pass.

97
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,679
I got the impression that something big
had happened, but no one was telling

98
00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:35,120
me what it was. The conversation
had died down, and I had to

99
00:09:35,159 --> 00:09:39,080
fill the silence with my worries.
There was no chatter to distract me.

100
00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:45,799
By the time we got to the
bus stop, I saw all our parents

101
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:52,080
lined up, my mom and dad
included. Amos was also there. He'd

102
00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:56,919
taken an earlier boss and had been
home since lunch. As I stepped off,

103
00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:03,840
my dad swept me up in his
ms. Mom was crying, What

104
00:10:03,879 --> 00:10:07,720
did they do? Dad asked,
did they take anything? What did they

105
00:10:07,759 --> 00:10:13,080
ask you? Mom took me from
him. Give it a rest, Morgan,

106
00:10:13,519 --> 00:10:20,440
She spat, let's go home.
Amos seemed disinterested, instead clutching a

107
00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:24,720
teenage music Ninja Turtles comic that they
bribed him with. There was a man

108
00:10:24,879 --> 00:10:31,759
in camouflage within a sort rifle walking
up and down the street, asking people

109
00:10:31,799 --> 00:10:35,600
to disperse and return to their homes. Mom and Dad hurried back to the

110
00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:41,799
car, sticking me and Amos in
the back. He went straight to reading

111
00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:46,639
his comic, but I kept looking
out the window. As we got back

112
00:10:46,639 --> 00:10:54,279
on the road heading home, I
noticed several strange signs. The most prominent

113
00:10:54,320 --> 00:11:00,559
one was on the window of a
corner shop, no milk by order of

114
00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:05,759
the National Guard. When we took
the road by the Bow's dairy farm,

115
00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:09,840
I heard popping noises. Before I
got the chance to ask, my dad

116
00:11:09,919 --> 00:11:18,440
intervened. They're celebrating. He said, it's just fireworks. We lived at

117
00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:22,799
the end of a street next to
a roundabout. We had three neighboring houses.

118
00:11:24,879 --> 00:11:28,440
Two of them were elderly couples who
rarely left their homes, and the

119
00:11:28,519 --> 00:11:35,120
last was another family with a teenage
boy. We'd hung out a bit before

120
00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:39,320
he started high school, but we'd
fallen out of touch in the last year

121
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:43,440
or so. Still, I had
fun memories of watching movies on their big

122
00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:48,600
screen TV and playing video games.
I bet they had the new Star Fucks

123
00:11:48,639 --> 00:11:58,759
game. As we turned the corner, the street was in chaos. The

124
00:11:58,879 --> 00:12:03,519
Masons were out on the lawn arguing
with two fire marshals. The other elderly

125
00:12:03,559 --> 00:12:09,480
couple, the Stevenson's, were dragging
bags to their car. The other family

126
00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:16,799
were nowhere to be seen, and
the suv wasn't in the driveway. The

127
00:12:16,919 --> 00:12:20,679
front door was half open and the
lock broken. There was a piece of

128
00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:26,639
white paper with red techs nailed to
the side of the door. Just go

129
00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:31,919
to your rooms. Dad said,
we'll talk over dinner. But what's going

130
00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:37,480
on? I asked, We'll talk
about it later, he insisted, For

131
00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:43,600
now, I need you to stay
in your rooms. Amos looked up from

132
00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:48,080
his comic book. Can I play
Nintendo as long as you want? Honey?

133
00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:56,600
Mom smiled, and tonight there's no
bedtime. Amos looked up at me

134
00:12:56,080 --> 00:13:01,159
like we were going to Disneyland.
It took him a moment to realize that

135
00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:07,360
he was the only one smiling,
and he didn't understand why. To be

136
00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:18,120
fair, neither did I. We
hurried inside. Amos and I ran upstairs

137
00:13:18,159 --> 00:13:22,600
and got to our rooms. Amos
had been allowed to keep the Super Nintendo

138
00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:28,559
in his room while I had a
VCR. It was fair enough. He

139
00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:33,639
could play games and I could watch
movies. But I wasn't in a mood

140
00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:39,519
to watch anything. I had this
sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong,

141
00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:46,000
and I kept looking out of the
window, hoping to see something. The

142
00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:50,919
Stevensons were arguing next to their car, and the Masons were being ushered back

143
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:56,600
into their house. I could see
smokestacks rising from the dairy farms, and

144
00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:01,840
flashing lights from fire trucks going back
and forth down every now and then.

145
00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:09,399
If I listened closely, I could
hear popping noises. It didn't sound like

146
00:14:09,519 --> 00:14:16,039
fireworks, it sounded like gunshots.
I'd only been in my room for a

147
00:14:16,039 --> 00:14:22,039
couple of minutes before I heard a
careful tapping at the door. Amos stepped

148
00:14:22,039 --> 00:14:26,799
in with this haunted look on his
face, his eyes wide and unblinking.

149
00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:35,480
Can you help me with my science
project? He asked. It's acting funny.

150
00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:41,639
Amos had been working on a science
project for school. It wasn't a

151
00:14:41,639 --> 00:14:46,480
big deal. He'd taken different kinds
of milk and placed them in cups to

152
00:14:46,519 --> 00:14:50,120
see which ones went bad first.
He usually checked it before he went to

153
00:14:50,159 --> 00:14:56,600
bed, making notes about changes over
time. Can you please look, he

154
00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:05,120
asked. It's really weird, all
right. For something to make Amos say

155
00:15:05,159 --> 00:15:09,679
please, it had to be something
out of the ordinary. I walked across

156
00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:16,240
the hall to his room, catching
a whiff of an argument downstairs. Mom

157
00:15:16,279 --> 00:15:20,519
had raised a voice. There was
a certain pitch to it when she was

158
00:15:20,559 --> 00:15:26,480
worried about something, and she wasn't
holding back this time made me feel sorry

159
00:15:26,519 --> 00:15:30,840
for Dad half the time. It
wasn't even him she was angry at.

160
00:15:31,279 --> 00:15:35,200
I followed Amos, passed the poor
screen for Contra three and up to the

161
00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:41,919
window. Yeah, the cups resting
on a small metal tray with plastic wrapping.

162
00:15:43,159 --> 00:15:48,240
He stopped just ahead of it.
I heard this noise, and he

163
00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:54,679
pointed at the cups, clutching his
notebook. I haven't opened it, Mom

164
00:15:54,720 --> 00:16:00,759
says it smells too much. As
I approached, I saw the cups rattle,

165
00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,519
not much, but enough to make
a noise. I could see the

166
00:16:07,519 --> 00:16:12,840
plastic wrap shaking. Looking into the
cups, it took me a while to

167
00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:18,639
understand what I was looking at.
At first I thought it was maggot,

168
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:26,200
but it wasn't. It looked like
something had coalesced at the bottom of each

169
00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:30,720
cup, and there were these tiny
white strands shooting out of it, prodding

170
00:16:30,759 --> 00:16:37,120
the plastic for weaknesses. It sort
of looked like an egg in a way,

171
00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:42,879
with these inches long, strands that
moved independently of one another, all

172
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,759
of it in milky white. It
keeps moving, he said. Look.

173
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:55,240
He stepped up to it and put
his finger on top of the plastic.

174
00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:02,840
The strands in the cup immediately reacted, shooting straight up. It looked almost

175
00:17:02,919 --> 00:17:07,640
electric in a way. Why does
it do that? He asked, don't

176
00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:12,279
touch it? I said, we
gotta put it away. Should we tell

177
00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:19,319
Mom? I could hear them arguing
downstairs and shook my head. We should

178
00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:26,240
throw it away, I said,
let's flush it. Amos protested all the

179
00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:30,759
way to the bathroom, but didn't
want to make a fuss. I told

180
00:17:30,839 --> 00:17:36,119
him I'd take the blame and he
could go back to playing contra. That

181
00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:40,680
seemed to do the trick. I
placed the tray on the floor next of

182
00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:47,039
the toilet. I put on Mom's
plastic cleaning clothes just in case. As

183
00:17:47,079 --> 00:17:51,200
I took off the plastic wrap,
those little white strands shot out of the

184
00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:56,799
cup, aiming straight at my face. They were a lot longer than I'd

185
00:17:56,799 --> 00:18:03,319
suspected, just inches away from my
face. I panicked and dropped the entire

186
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:08,559
cups down the toilet with a squeal. Looking down, they squirmed and twisted

187
00:18:08,599 --> 00:18:15,119
back and forth, these white strands
whipping around like worms in agony. It

188
00:18:15,279 --> 00:18:21,240
was so much longer than I'd anticipated, and I could feel them prodding against

189
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:26,680
the plastic gloves. They were looking
for the warmth of my skin. The

190
00:18:26,759 --> 00:18:32,160
tips were much sharper than anticipated,
and almost poked a hole in my gloves.

191
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:40,480
I flushed. After waiting a few
seconds, I could see some strands

192
00:18:40,599 --> 00:18:45,119
moving at the bottom of the bowl. I flushed again, and again and

193
00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:52,920
again. Finally there was nothing left. I dumped half a bottle of toilet

194
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:59,119
cleaner in, flushed again, and
waited. And as they sat there for

195
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:03,759
ten minutes, just watching the water, there was this tingle in my spine,

196
00:19:04,519 --> 00:19:10,039
like I'd escaped some great danger,
the same kind of rush you'd get

197
00:19:10,319 --> 00:19:15,960
if you'd nearly stepped on a snake
or seen a bear. I went back

198
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:21,119
to my room and brought out a
notebook. No Milk, I wrote at

199
00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:26,000
the top. I tried to name
all the places in town where there might

200
00:19:26,039 --> 00:19:30,279
be a lot of milk or milk
based products. The dairy farms were obvious,

201
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:34,839
but there were also the high school
cafeteria, the corner shop with a

202
00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:41,359
soft serve ice cream, and the
convenience store. Since this was a town

203
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:48,920
with several dairy farms, milk and
cheese were sort of everywhere. I listed

204
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:52,880
at least two dozen locations where there
might be a lot of dairy products.

205
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:59,839
There was a loud banging on the
front door downstairs. Amos and I rushed

206
00:19:59,839 --> 00:20:03,160
out out of our rooms to see
what was going on. From upstairs,

207
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:10,119
I saw Dad open the door to
a man in military uniform. Mom looked

208
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:14,960
up the stairs. Get back in
your rooms, she said, we'll tell

209
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:18,400
you when you can come out,
right, Mom, what's going on?

210
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,720
Just play your games? She said, wait there, but Mom, I

211
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:33,240
rooms, she yelled. Now she
wasn't messing around. Amos and I looked

212
00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:45,079
at one another and silently decided to
stick together on this one. There was

213
00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:49,799
a discussion between my parents and the
man at the door. Amos and I

214
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:56,119
retreated back to my room. He
kept reading, but he kept getting distracted.

215
00:20:56,519 --> 00:21:00,240
You think it's bad, he asked, putting down his comic book.

216
00:21:03,079 --> 00:21:07,720
Amos had always been a bit of
a pain, lots of pranks and scares,

217
00:21:08,079 --> 00:21:14,720
but this time was different. We
weren't playing around. It was like

218
00:21:14,759 --> 00:21:21,799
a silent agreement. Yeah, I
said, I think so. Why what's

219
00:21:21,839 --> 00:21:26,599
so bad? I think there's something
wrong with the milk, But you've flushed

220
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:32,400
it right, Not just that milk, I said, all of it,

221
00:21:33,039 --> 00:21:41,000
all milk in town. It's it's
all gone bad, worse, I said,

222
00:21:41,799 --> 00:21:49,359
like real bad. What happened next
was quick. I heard someone coming

223
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:55,039
up the stairs, and in the
next moment, my parents opened the door

224
00:21:55,079 --> 00:22:00,079
to my room. They asked us
to remain calm. They asked us to

225
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,920
be quiet. They asked us to
come along, stay close, and don't

226
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:11,039
ask any questions. On our way
out, I saw the man in uniform

227
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:17,480
stepping into our upstairs bathroom. Seconds
later, he sprinted back out, yelling

228
00:22:17,519 --> 00:22:23,079
into his walkie talkie. Mom and
Dad hurried us downstairs. Three other men

229
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:27,559
rushed past us up the stairs,
dragging dirt, and went through the living

230
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:33,599
room carpet on their way up,
all in uniform, all armed with the

231
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:37,880
salt rifles. They left the front
door open, and I could see at

232
00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:44,920
least six more people waiting outside.
We got in our car, taking nothing

233
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:48,880
with us except Amos's comic book.
A man tapped the driver's seat window with

234
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:55,599
his rifle, and my dad took
off down the road. We can't get

235
00:22:55,640 --> 00:23:00,880
out of town, mom said,
keeping a voice low more and they're testing

236
00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:06,440
women at the checkpoints. Maybe it's
for the better, Dad said, Who

237
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:12,039
knows how this can affect you.
You might need a vaccine. You've seen

238
00:23:12,079 --> 00:23:15,720
what they did with the dairy cows. They take them out back and then

239
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:21,880
we're not cattle ranny l They're not
putting people down, they're not putting people

240
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,480
rannie out to pasture. Then where
the hell are the god damn? Abanathi's

241
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:32,599
mom rode back. Then being dragged
off was just for fun, for show.

242
00:23:33,759 --> 00:23:37,559
We're not having this discussion, Dad
said, not in front of the

243
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:42,200
kids. I'm almost in the second
trimester, she whispered. And God knows

244
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:48,799
what they'll do if Mark quieted down, holding her hand to her mouth,

245
00:23:49,039 --> 00:23:56,480
Dad looked at her with a mix
of pity and frustration. I feel strange,

246
00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:02,359
Morgan, she continued. And it's
not like last time. There's this

247
00:24:02,519 --> 00:24:07,960
big four way in dissection in the
middle of the downtown area. When we

248
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:11,839
got to that point, the lights
had turned red. There were these military

249
00:24:11,839 --> 00:24:18,640
trucks going by, one by one, at least a dozen covered in blue

250
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,599
plastic tarps. Long after the lights
turned green, the trucks were still going

251
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:30,319
by. As the second to last
truck was going by, there was this

252
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:36,519
loud metal bang, and the entire
trucks started leaning. For a moment,

253
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,759
we all thought it was going to
tip over. Two of the wheels were

254
00:24:40,799 --> 00:24:45,519
off the ground. It tipped back
down and the driver leaned on the horn.

255
00:24:47,079 --> 00:24:51,920
From seemingly every corner of the street, armed men started shouting at us

256
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:57,079
to move. I could see something
moving under the top, something sharp,

257
00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:07,160
poking and prodding against the plastic.
I'd seen it before. Dad stepped on

258
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:11,799
the gas. Going the other way, I saw the high school gymnasium in

259
00:25:11,839 --> 00:25:18,839
the distance, lined with vehicles all
along the street. They told us to

260
00:25:18,839 --> 00:25:23,799
stay here. Dad said, let's
just hunger down and wait. We'll be

261
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:27,839
trapped. We can leave at any
time. We can't go by foot.

262
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:33,480
I don't like the look of those
rifles, you know they wouldn't. They

263
00:25:33,559 --> 00:25:38,319
exchanged the glance and the conversation stopped. Amos and I just kept our heads

264
00:25:38,319 --> 00:25:48,039
down. There were still popping sounds
outside. They were closer now. Dad

265
00:25:48,079 --> 00:25:53,759
found a spot further down the street
and we made our way to the gymnasium.

266
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:59,599
There were at least one hundred people
gathered outside. I picked up a

267
00:25:59,599 --> 00:26:06,119
few things from various discussions going around. For example, the armed men were

268
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:10,480
from the National Guard. Most of
them had showed up early that morning,

269
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:15,880
probably minutes after I had left for
school. There was a lot of talk

270
00:26:15,039 --> 00:26:22,400
from a lot of people. A
soldier explaining something about lactic acid bacteria to

271
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:26,039
one of us science teachers. An
old man complaining about how they took his

272
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:30,599
freezer, a kid being scolded for
not telling his mom he had a milkshake

273
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:36,759
with his lunch. A farm hand
looking distraught, saying something about the new

274
00:26:36,839 --> 00:26:41,480
cowfeed used by ants and farm and
how it was unfair for the bowers to

275
00:26:41,519 --> 00:26:48,160
get shut down. Bits and pieces
of a hundred different stories. But what

276
00:26:48,319 --> 00:26:55,559
struck me the most was a group
of young women looking distraught. One of

277
00:26:55,599 --> 00:27:00,839
them kept repeating the same thing over
and over to a soldier. I'll get

278
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:06,160
rid of it, she said,
It's just it's in there for good.

279
00:27:07,279 --> 00:27:11,240
We had to sign our names on
the way in. Dad signed for the

280
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:18,240
four of us. I barely recognized
anyone. They'd set up green military cuts

281
00:27:18,319 --> 00:27:23,640
two by two with a basic foot
locker for valuables and personal belongings. Dad

282
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:30,400
weaved between aisles of cuts, keeping
me and Amos close. Mom was looking

283
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:34,640
for the restroom. When can we
go back to the house, Amos asked,

284
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:41,359
they're checking the pipes. Dad said
that can take a while, checking

285
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:45,240
the pipes for what. I don't
know, but whatever it is, they're

286
00:27:45,279 --> 00:27:55,880
making sure we're okay. A stone
sunk into my stomach. Maybe what I'd

287
00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:00,519
flushed down the toilet had gotten stuck
in the pipes somehow. Maybe that's what

288
00:28:00,559 --> 00:28:07,119
they saw. For the next few
hours, we stayed put. They handed

289
00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:11,519
out a couple of basic dairy free
meals once every two hours. There were

290
00:28:11,559 --> 00:28:18,200
a couple of soldiers walking down the
aisles, making sure everyone looked okay.

291
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:23,200
But people were far from okay.
I saw this one athletic guy shaking like

292
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:29,599
a leaf, coughing into his hand
over and over. It sounded awful,

293
00:28:30,319 --> 00:28:34,240
like his body was trying to push
something out. When the patrol made their

294
00:28:34,319 --> 00:28:42,920
rounds, they took him outside.
I didn't see him again. Mom was

295
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:48,359
in the bathroom for a long time, at least an hour. When she

296
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:52,240
got back, she had this slightly
ash and complexion, like she hadn't slept

297
00:28:52,279 --> 00:28:57,839
for days. Dad was worried,
but she kept telling him she was okay.

298
00:29:00,319 --> 00:29:04,480
Once it started to get dark.
The patrol said they were closing down

299
00:29:04,519 --> 00:29:11,079
for the night. A curfew was
in effect. Dad had all kinds of

300
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:15,599
questions, but didn't want to start
arguing with armed soldiers. I could tell

301
00:29:15,799 --> 00:29:22,200
he was holding back corporate lawyer or
no personal freedoms, or a big sticking

302
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:29,160
point to him. I remember this
big clock over the scoreboard. If you

303
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:33,119
managed to filter out the cries and
the occasional scream, that clock was the

304
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:38,160
only thing you could hear, and
I could swear that the seconds were getting

305
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:44,400
longer the more you listen to it. Mom and Dad shared a cut,

306
00:29:44,799 --> 00:29:48,200
well, Amos and I got one
each. Amos went out like a light,

307
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:56,359
but I stayed up long after midnight. I couldn't help it. That

308
00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:02,799
damned clock kept me up. With
the lights off. All I saw was

309
00:30:02,839 --> 00:30:07,400
the sharp shadows cast by the crescent
moon creeping in through the cloud cover.

310
00:30:07,839 --> 00:30:12,759
As the screams and cries turned to
snivels and snores, I was left awake,

311
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:21,559
staring into the ceiling. I heard
someone whispering about megabacteria, something in

312
00:30:21,599 --> 00:30:26,480
the methane, the lactic acid,
the gas lines. Nobody knew for sure.

313
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,000
There was one guy who kept muttering
about birds, being the source,

314
00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:37,559
claiming it had rained feathers moments before
things hid the fan. There was this

315
00:30:37,599 --> 00:30:42,119
one drunk man by the exit who
kept talking out loud to himself. They

316
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:52,319
danced like skinny little worms reaching through
the stars, skinny little worms, just

317
00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:59,480
like I'd seen in my brother's science
project. I'd been drifting in and out

318
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:04,279
of sleep for one or two hours
when I snapped to attention. I heard

319
00:31:04,319 --> 00:31:08,799
someone running past me and looked up
to see Mom's side of the cart empty.

320
00:31:11,319 --> 00:31:15,160
Dad sat up, rubbing the sleep
out of his eyes. Rainie,

321
00:31:15,599 --> 00:31:22,240
he whispered. He noticed me looking
his way. You see, when mom

322
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:27,240
went I shook my head. He
got up and took me by the hand.

323
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:37,039
Let's go look. We went down
the aisles hand in hand. It

324
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:41,400
was eerie watching all these strangers sleeping
around us like nothing was going on.

325
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:48,759
Even the drunk guy by the exit
was out called by now. I don't

326
00:31:48,839 --> 00:31:52,279
know if I was imagining things,
but I had the mental image of those

327
00:31:52,279 --> 00:31:59,359
skinny little worms appearing. Sometimes when
I looked at the sleeping people, I

328
00:31:59,359 --> 00:32:05,640
imagine little shadows scurrying to hide,
something crawling out of a nose and ear

329
00:32:05,839 --> 00:32:10,079
and mouth. We walked past this
one man who looked sick, who had

330
00:32:10,079 --> 00:32:15,440
a metal bucket next to his cart. I could hear little tapping movements from

331
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:22,599
the bottom of it, as if
something was struggling to reach out. She

332
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:29,799
might be in the bathroom. Dad
said, let's go. Look. There

333
00:32:29,799 --> 00:32:35,440
were two patrol men by the bleachers, smoking and telling stories. They kept

334
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:39,519
passing a bottle back and forth.
Dad kept his head down, making sure

335
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:45,720
not to look them in the eye. We went through her short hallway and

336
00:32:45,839 --> 00:32:50,440
made it to the bathrooms. The
power was still on, but all the

337
00:32:50,519 --> 00:32:54,200
lights are off, making the emergency
exit sign the only thing to guide us.

338
00:32:55,759 --> 00:33:00,599
Dad was about to step inside the
bathroom when I took on his sleeve.

339
00:33:01,119 --> 00:33:06,440
That's for the ladies, Dad,
I said, I'm sure they won't

340
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:12,319
mind. We stepped through the door. Moonlight was coming in from a frosted

341
00:33:12,359 --> 00:33:17,519
glass window, casting an eerie shadow
across the floor. We split up and

342
00:33:17,559 --> 00:33:23,839
started knocking on the stalls. It
was quiet. Dad had this worried look

343
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:30,599
on his face. Maybe you should
step outside this, he said, just

344
00:33:30,799 --> 00:33:36,839
for a while, let's check.
I said, it'll be quick. Wait,

345
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:44,240
let's I opened one of the stalls. I barely saw anything in the

346
00:33:44,279 --> 00:33:49,359
moonlight. I couldn't see much more
than outlines. I saw a pair of

347
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:54,480
still hands holding up a bloated belly, with these little dancing worms pushing their

348
00:33:54,519 --> 00:34:01,240
way out of the skin like a
goddamn human garlic press. The tapping sound

349
00:34:01,279 --> 00:34:07,680
of a hundred thin parasites looking for
a new host. Some were just an

350
00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:12,440
inch long, others were as tall
as an arm. One of them poked

351
00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,079
the nail on my thumb, but
it couldn't latch on. I saw chunks

352
00:34:16,079 --> 00:34:21,920
of hair strewn across the floor,
a side effect of late stage infection.

353
00:34:23,119 --> 00:34:29,440
A hand fell over my eyes and
I was dragged outside. When I lugged

354
00:34:29,519 --> 00:34:35,679
up, I saw Dad. His
entire body language had changed, like he

355
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:39,960
was in pain. For a few
seconds, all he did was stare at

356
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:45,599
me. Then there was a bang
on the door, coming from the inside.

357
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,239
I need to get your brother,
he said. I need to get

358
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,000
to your brother, and I need
you to get to the car. But

359
00:34:54,159 --> 00:35:00,119
Dad, what here? He handed
me the car keys. I'm trusting you

360
00:35:00,559 --> 00:35:06,440
and I need you to hurry.
But what about another bang on the door.

361
00:35:07,599 --> 00:35:12,960
Dad straightened his back and pushed it
shut. I stepped back, feeling

362
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:17,480
my pulse rise through my chest.
Go he yelled, I'll meet you outside.

363
00:35:19,679 --> 00:35:22,360
Running back out, some of the
cloud cover had cleared. Outside.

364
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:28,199
I started running down the aisles,
trying to find my way back to Amos.

365
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:34,800
It was difficult. Everything looked different
in the dark. There was this

366
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,280
woman who got out of a cut
just a few feet ahead of me.

367
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:45,239
She carved and this avalanche of worms
trickled out of her mouth. They spilled

368
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:50,679
onto a chest and scattered across the
floor. She turned to me, chunks

369
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:55,079
of hair coming off her scalp.
She wheezed at me, her brown eyes

370
00:35:55,199 --> 00:36:00,480
tired from crying. She tried to
say something, to call for help,

371
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:08,320
but all I heard was that inhuman
wheezing as little white worms made their way

372
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:15,559
across a chest. I don't know
if I was the one who started it,

373
00:36:15,519 --> 00:36:22,480
but someone did that first scream,
that choirer screams as lives came crashing

374
00:36:22,519 --> 00:36:29,639
down. There were so many parasites, so many victims. Some who just

375
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:34,719
felt funny and tried to sleep it
off, waking to a nightmare. Others

376
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:39,519
had tried keeping their sickness a secret. There were no patterns, no limits.

377
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:46,800
Everyone was susceptible, young, old, strong, frail. There were

378
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:52,440
some with parasites coming out of their
stomachs, others through the ears, mouth,

379
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:55,519
and nose. There was this one
man who had them in his left

380
00:36:55,519 --> 00:37:00,360
eye. As they reached out to
others for help, the parasites spilled from

381
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:07,760
one person to the next, boring
into their skin. I didn't find Amos.

382
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:12,599
He found me. He kept telling
me that a bad man had taken

383
00:37:12,599 --> 00:37:15,880
his comic book and that he ran
away looking for dad and help. He

384
00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:21,000
asked a hundred questions at once,
but I just grabbed him and ran,

385
00:37:21,599 --> 00:37:27,000
clutching the car keys so hard that
my hand cramped. We made our way

386
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,199
to the exit, but there was
a rush of people going in and out

387
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:36,000
like a waterfall. Someone yelled telling
people to drop to the floor. Ten

388
00:37:36,079 --> 00:37:40,599
others screamed back, begging for help. Others just screeched like wounded animals,

389
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:47,000
trying to alert the flock of incoming
danger. Amos stuck to the floor and

390
00:37:47,119 --> 00:37:54,719
I followed him. Then the gunshots
started. We got out by crawling on

391
00:37:54,800 --> 00:38:00,719
all fours. One of the soldiers
tripped over me, accidentally taking me across

392
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:05,480
the ribs. When we got outside, we stuck to the wall and kept

393
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,960
a low profile. Amos couldn't stop
crying, but I just pulled him along.

394
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:16,159
I could barely hear anything over my
ringing ears and pounding pulse as gunshot

395
00:38:16,199 --> 00:38:22,440
after gunshot rang out behind us.
We crawled our way through the flower beds,

396
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:28,119
using the high school was blue sunflowers
as cover. Most people were stuck

397
00:38:28,119 --> 00:38:32,639
inside. Some made their way out, filtering back into the military tents outside.

398
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,679
Amos and I made our way back
to the car. My fingers barely

399
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:45,039
worked as I fumbled to open the
door. When I finally did, I

400
00:38:45,079 --> 00:38:49,719
could see more people heading our way
from down the road. I got out

401
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:53,440
the car and pushed Amos into the
back seat. I followed him, locking

402
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:59,039
the doors from the inside. We
curled into the leg space between the back

403
00:38:59,119 --> 00:39:05,000
seat and front, hugging each other
tight as I hushed him. He couldn't

404
00:39:05,039 --> 00:39:10,639
stop crying. He had so many
questions piling up that they were overflowing into

405
00:39:10,639 --> 00:39:16,480
a jumbled mess. Questions about Mom, about Dad, about the people outside,

406
00:39:17,119 --> 00:39:22,760
about the bad man who took his
comic book. As the gunfire died

407
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:30,199
down, people started pouring out,
but they weren't just people anymore. One

408
00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:36,239
of them noticed our car. One
of them spotted us inside, and after

409
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:40,719
that first one came another and then
another in less than half an hour.

410
00:39:42,119 --> 00:39:46,519
There were so many of them they
were blocking all the windows. All they

411
00:39:46,679 --> 00:39:52,239
saw was silhouettes, and all I
heard were wheezing noises, bodies calling for

412
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:58,639
help, begging, pressing themselves against
the windows to get at us, rattling

413
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:05,960
coughs over and as something inhuman settled
in their throats. I could only see

414
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,440
parts of them as they banged on
our windows. There was this one man,

415
00:40:09,599 --> 00:40:14,679
smiling at me, with little worms
dancing between the gaps and his yellow

416
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:21,840
teeth. He pressed himself against the
passenger window, meeting my gaze. Bad

417
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:29,039
man, he groaned, bad man. Help. An eternity passed in the

418
00:40:29,079 --> 00:40:34,360
back of that car, and sometime
during that eternity, the noises stopped.

419
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:40,000
Maybe they moved on, maybe they
got shot. I don't know, But

420
00:40:40,159 --> 00:40:46,199
at some point the sun broke through
and we were both okay, panicked,

421
00:40:47,159 --> 00:40:54,800
but okay. There were soldiers outside, rounding up people from the gymnasium and

422
00:40:54,920 --> 00:41:00,960
people from the tents. Some were
sent back home after sign some documents.

423
00:41:00,519 --> 00:41:07,280
Others were asked to stay near their
vehicles until further notice. And me,

424
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:14,159
well, I refused to open the
door for anyone. Amos and I stayed

425
00:41:14,199 --> 00:41:21,719
in there for hours until we could
feel the heat baking us. Then the

426
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:28,800
door opened. My dad had a
spare set of keys. Seeing his familiar

427
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:34,199
face outside the passenger side window was
everything I needed to know that in some

428
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:39,199
way we'd be okay. He'd locked
himself in one of the stalls and kept

429
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:45,159
quiet all night. Looking back at
it, he and everyone else were forced

430
00:41:45,199 --> 00:41:51,840
to sign some kind of agreement.
We were given a hefty compensation, and

431
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:55,239
all we could say was that it
was killer bacteria coming from one of the

432
00:41:55,320 --> 00:42:01,440
dairy farms, which in a sense
was true, but it didn't tell the

433
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:07,440
whole truth. It took Dad years
to build up the courage to tell me

434
00:42:07,559 --> 00:42:15,840
what really happened to Mom. Six
years. I think apparently she was pregnant,

435
00:42:15,559 --> 00:42:20,639
but the whole thing had been a
bit touch and go. They didn't

436
00:42:20,679 --> 00:42:24,599
want to tell us until they were
sure she was just at the point where

437
00:42:24,599 --> 00:42:34,320
her body had started lactating and milk
protein just I don't know. I can't

438
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:37,159
shake the feeling that maybe it was
her that I saw in that stall.

439
00:42:39,599 --> 00:42:45,760
Dad took the money and left town. He and so many others, some

440
00:42:46,039 --> 00:42:51,920
moved in, encouraged by the sudden
price drop, I guess that's how the

441
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:57,519
town made it all the way to
twenty twenty three. One hundred and seventy

442
00:42:57,519 --> 00:43:02,840
six people died in totally or indirectly. Well. What they don't tell you

443
00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:09,280
is that thousands were permanently scarred.
Some of the girls who just ended puberty

444
00:43:09,519 --> 00:43:15,079
had to get sterilized or they might
risk another outbreak years down the line.

445
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:20,280
They did some tests on me as
well, but determined I was fine.

446
00:43:21,119 --> 00:43:28,840
Amost too, guys are affected differently. I still have that bacteria in me

447
00:43:29,199 --> 00:43:35,400
in some capacity. While I can
eat and drink dairy nowadays, there is

448
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:40,239
that part of me that just can't
bring myself to try the thought of reliving

449
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:45,000
any part of that day gives me
this sickening feeling in the pit of my

450
00:43:45,119 --> 00:43:52,079
stomach. I feel my pulse rising
just thinking about it. Seeing that white

451
00:43:52,119 --> 00:43:57,039
liquid fills me with a sense that
there is so much moving around in it

452
00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:01,320
that I just can't see. If
it hadn't been for what happened that day

453
00:44:01,679 --> 00:44:08,599
in nineteen ninety three, I think
Wainley would have been fine. But as

454
00:44:08,639 --> 00:44:22,639
it stands, I'm glad it's finely
gone.