1 00:00:01,960 --> 00:00:06,919 It began with a black bag over my head, six or seven men seizing 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,640 me off the street on my way home from work, Holding me at gunpoint 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,320 in the back of a van. They explained in detail what would happen to 4 00:00:15,359 --> 00:00:20,760 my family if I didn't listen to them. Until that moment, torture was 5 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:26,120 just a word. I'd never given it much thought. I wasn't prepared to 6 00:00:26,199 --> 00:00:30,719 hear some of the things they told me. By the time they were loading 7 00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:37,520 me onto a helicopter, I would have done anything they asked. I arrived 8 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,159 at the Black site, kicked out of the chopper, where my feet hit 9 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,840 the hard packed, wet mud with a splash. Black hood torn off so 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,359 hard it hurt the skin on the tip of my nose, and then I 11 00:00:51,439 --> 00:00:57,719 got my first look at the place. Can't say if it met my expectations 12 00:00:57,799 --> 00:01:02,759 or not. I didn't have any idea where I was going or what it 13 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:07,719 was supposed to look like when I got there. Still it managed to leave 14 00:01:07,719 --> 00:01:15,120 me feeling surprised. An abandoned village nestled in the jungle, mostly one room 15 00:01:15,159 --> 00:01:22,120 hovels, lots of corrugated iron. Here and there lay burned allotments, dyeing 16 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:26,280 pepper plants left untended, their fruits stamped into the earth by the passage of 17 00:01:26,359 --> 00:01:33,319 soldiers dressed in all black, rotten fences and troughs to feed. Long dead 18 00:01:33,359 --> 00:01:38,920 pigs and goats lay smashed to pieces, and then lurking on a hill like 19 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:45,439 some architectural jump scare was a three story hospital made of glass and steel, 20 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:51,159 stated the art, built in a place where tarmac was just a rumor. 21 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:57,680 Officially, it had been put there by a charitable nonprofit wanting to research novel 22 00:01:57,719 --> 00:02:04,319 diseases and potential cures deep in the jungle. Unofficially, it had always belonged 23 00:02:04,319 --> 00:02:08,199 to the CIA, a useful place to test strange things with pots in the 24 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:16,039 name, and when the time came, a useful place to dissect the impossible. 25 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:23,280 Imagine my surprise when I was escorted by armed men to an office with 26 00:02:23,439 --> 00:02:28,520 my name on the door and discovered that I was to be in charge of 27 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:35,360 its latest major project, head of Research. Printed on the glass, real 28 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:40,879 official looking big black letters like I'd always worked there. First thing, I 29 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:46,360 thought, how long do they intend to keep me here? But that didn't 30 00:02:46,439 --> 00:02:53,199 last long. The hospital became my home and has been ever since. Less 31 00:02:53,199 --> 00:02:58,639 than twenty four hours after my arrival and hid my feet up on the desk, 32 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:04,159 barking orders at technicians. I slipped into the role easier than I'd like 33 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,039 to admit. You see, where they got me was on scientific curiosity. 34 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:14,840 That how they ensured I was on board with the project. That's why they 35 00:03:14,879 --> 00:03:19,680 never pointed a gun at me after day one. They didn't have to. 36 00:03:21,879 --> 00:03:25,919 The second I saw that thing inside the Messiah's chest cavity, I was a 37 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:32,639 willing asset. No more me, only the project, the discovery, and 38 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:39,400 the revelations. Lying on that slab nestled in the flesh of an otherwise normal 39 00:03:39,439 --> 00:03:46,639 looking man was a white hot piece of divinity, a pinprick in the fabric 40 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:52,000 of reality. I don't know how else to describe it. It was like 41 00:03:52,039 --> 00:03:57,240 I'd spend my whole life seeing two dimensional shadows, and then I suddenly got 42 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:03,039 a glimpse of the three dimensional shapes them. I haven't seen my children since 43 00:04:03,039 --> 00:04:09,520 they took me, couldn't tell you their names. I was never the same 44 00:04:09,719 --> 00:04:14,280 after the first autopsy. No one in that place was sane. After the 45 00:04:14,319 --> 00:04:21,120 scalpel first bit into his flesh, Attrition amongst the research staff was incredibly high. 46 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:27,600 Every day, another nurse seized by stigmata, or a once faithless lab 47 00:04:27,639 --> 00:04:32,759 technician struck by the call to write the Third Testament. The guards dealt with 48 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:39,600 the unwilling members of the team. Traumatized scientists and clinicians lined up one by 49 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:46,600 one against an exposed brick wall in the jungle heat and shot. I remember 50 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:53,319 smoking in the cafeteria in between surgeries, nervously shaking as I tried to ignore 51 00:04:53,360 --> 00:05:00,519 the pop pop pop of some of my more stubborn colleagues being executed. And 52 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,319 then back to work, where I suppressed the feeling that I was the worst 53 00:05:04,399 --> 00:05:11,279 kind of traitor. Next day there'd be new faces scrubbing up and asking for 54 00:05:11,399 --> 00:05:15,879 orders, another pair of hands shipped in from God knows where. Back to 55 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:25,560 cataloging divinity. At times I imagine joining the objectors, the people who found 56 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,439 religion in a sterile, black ops lab. But that thing we pulled out 57 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:35,600 of him, that baffling enigma that burned my eyes and consumed the project. 58 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:43,279 Everything we learned about it felt like a quantum leap in our understanding of microbiology. 59 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:47,759 We tested everything we could get our hands on, plants, animals, 60 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:54,199 humans. I tried not to look any of them in the eye, quiet 61 00:05:54,199 --> 00:05:58,519 people taken from some quiet part of the earth where they wouldn't be missed, 62 00:05:59,439 --> 00:06:04,439 All of them scared, did they know? I mean, really no, 63 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:12,000 the suffering they were in for definitely not. They expected to be shot, 64 00:06:12,079 --> 00:06:15,879 I imagine, not to wake up with the roof of their mouth fined with 65 00:06:15,959 --> 00:06:21,160 eyeballs. I'm ashamed to say, but those kinds of results invigorated me, 66 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:28,720 excited me, even when it all fell apart and I missed the evacuation. 67 00:06:29,519 --> 00:06:34,199 I got to finally rifle through all those classified documents where I discovered I hadn't 68 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:41,360 been selected because I was some genius of microbiology, but rather because my psychological 69 00:06:41,399 --> 00:06:46,560 profile made it clear I'd do anything if you dangled a big enough mystery in 70 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:53,399 front of me. That and the fact that I was actually quite good at 71 00:06:53,439 --> 00:06:59,439 managing projects. Geniuses usually aren't grat at sending out memos or keeping track of 72 00:06:59,519 --> 00:07:08,519 performance numbers. Thankfully, I'm no genius who was humbling at times working with 73 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:13,120 some of the guys down below, being senior to them. Even I mean, 74 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:18,240 doctor Coates was probably the smartest man I'd ever met, no real academic 75 00:07:18,279 --> 00:07:24,000 career, because he had a habit of hyper fixating on things that either couldn't 76 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:29,319 be solved or which no one gave a damn about. But it was pretty 77 00:07:29,319 --> 00:07:33,399 clear this was a guy who could have turned his brain to just about anything 78 00:07:34,319 --> 00:07:39,279 and made a name for himself if he was just a little more on the 79 00:07:39,319 --> 00:07:45,959 ball. He was a NodD and basically gave lectures. Barefoot would respond the 80 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,160 last minute, marking deadlines by giving every student to be through a stabler at 81 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:57,879 the head of his department. That kind of thing. Intelligent but not particularly 82 00:07:57,959 --> 00:08:05,680 sensible. The project broke him, broke his world view, broke his mind, 83 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:13,000 and, towards the end, even his body. You might think the 84 00:08:13,079 --> 00:08:18,680 problem was asking a hyper rational man to process the divine, but if anything, 85 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:24,319 he processed it a little too well. He was the first person to 86 00:08:24,399 --> 00:08:31,080 read the Third Testament without going insane immediately insane, i should say, or 87 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:37,600 maybe he was always nuts to begin with. Either way, he managed to 88 00:08:37,639 --> 00:08:41,159 take all the random scribbles in bits of verse that we'd collected from the personal 89 00:08:41,159 --> 00:08:48,440 effects of the deceased and actually put it together into a single document. Then 90 00:08:48,639 --> 00:08:54,639 he read it and came out looking like nothing special had happened. The next 91 00:08:54,679 --> 00:09:01,879 guy after him, not so lucky, but doctor Coates. He carried on 92 00:09:03,039 --> 00:09:09,279 working for a few days after took measurements of this made records of that slipped 93 00:09:09,279 --> 00:09:13,120 into the background, out of my notice while I focused on trying to figure 94 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:18,799 out some way of getting the Third Testament scanned into a computer without it causing 95 00:09:18,879 --> 00:09:24,600 havoc A lot like the people who read it, machines liked to give out 96 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:33,679 halfway through reading the Third Testament. Not Coats, though he seemed just fine. 97 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:39,080 I should have known better. The first clue that something wasn't quite right 98 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:45,120 was when I went to his office, a cramped space with metal walls and 99 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:50,759 floors, no windows given it was below ground, and a countertop full of 100 00:09:50,799 --> 00:09:56,440 equipment. It was always a mess in there, and usually a bit smelly 101 00:09:56,519 --> 00:10:01,840 too, but it was usually just that unwashed scientists smell. But one day 102 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,000 when I went to call on him, he opened the door and I got 103 00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:13,159 the whiff of something that was just wrong. Smelled a little like death, 104 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:22,919 only not quite just different, moldy almost. Course, he was entitled to 105 00:10:22,919 --> 00:10:28,200 do some experimentations on his own time, and that's what I figured it was. 106 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:33,279 At the time I wrote it off, had other things on my mind. 107 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:41,799 Only the smell got worse with time turned up day after day, and 108 00:10:41,879 --> 00:10:46,399 each time it stung my nose a little more, hung around my sinuses a 109 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:52,639 little longer than coats. He looked a little worse for wear each time too. 110 00:10:54,519 --> 00:10:58,559 Again, nothing serious, the kind of thing that's actually quite normal for 111 00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:03,399 a man like him. I'm used to seeing scientists fixate on a problem, 112 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:09,200 something quiet they won't share with anyone else until they know for sure what they've 113 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:15,759 got. That's what he was like, and I figured when he was ready, 114 00:11:16,399 --> 00:11:20,919 he'd either show me something that would blow my socks off, or it'll 115 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:24,399 be something stupid, like a Goddiss microwave to evenly heat up his lunch by 116 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:31,279 taking it apart and rewiring its inside. Sometimes I wonder, if I caught 117 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:35,919 it earlier, could I have done something about it? Someone smarter might have 118 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:43,000 picked up the odd chemical mixtures on his shelf, or recognized the peculiar smells. 119 00:11:43,039 --> 00:11:48,840 Not me, though, all I can say in hindsight is thank god 120 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:54,840 my office was above ground. By the time his little project had finished working 121 00:11:54,879 --> 00:12:00,159 its way through the floor he was on, he'd killed thirty six people with 122 00:12:00,159 --> 00:12:05,120 his home made nerve gas. Thankfully, the facility was prepared for that kind 123 00:12:05,159 --> 00:12:09,679 of attack, and the automated security systems had the entire level locked down very 124 00:12:09,759 --> 00:12:15,559 quickly, so that the damage wasn't that bad. Could have been a lot 125 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:22,279 worse. But what was weird was the venting system wasn't working. Should have 126 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:26,039 cleared it out and under a day, but four hours later and the gas 127 00:12:26,159 --> 00:12:31,840 levels were the same. The investigation, at least at first, had to 128 00:12:31,919 --> 00:12:39,559 happen remotely. CCTV from his lab was spotty. Something was corroding the cameras, 129 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:45,799 but based on some of his material requests, we guessed he'd been culturing 130 00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:54,679 some unusual fungus to create the bioweapon. Whatever it was, it was potent, 131 00:12:54,840 --> 00:13:00,840 and we were helpless to do anything about it. We had to wait 132 00:13:01,159 --> 00:13:05,879 and hope to God whatever awful thing he'd concocted would wear out on its own. 133 00:13:05,879 --> 00:13:13,559 What little the CCTV could capture made for a grueling sight. Eight scientists 134 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:18,240 dead at their desks, slumped over, blood pouring out of their mouths. 135 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:24,039 The fluid looked black on the grainy black and white monitor. But what upset 136 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:30,240 me more were the assistants, dozens of young men and women who didn't really 137 00:13:30,279 --> 00:13:35,039 belong in that place too much to live for, and all of them so 138 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:39,399 scared of what was going to happen to them, And they were just lying 139 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:43,720 there in the middle of whatever it was they were doing in the labs themselves, 140 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:50,039 smashed beakers and machines in disarray. In their rooms. Some of them 141 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:54,720 lay peacefully sleeping, others held each other in secret, little trysts they thought 142 00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:00,840 no one knew about. All over the level, body lay in the floor 143 00:14:00,879 --> 00:14:07,120 in strange positions, and again, the black fluid leaking from every orifice, 144 00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:13,480 staining the floor, their faces and their clothes, soaking their chests and groins. 145 00:14:15,639 --> 00:14:18,960 I remember sitting there and just watching them twitch and foam of their mouths, 146 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:26,480 waiting for death to finally come. Even then the hours ticked on as 147 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:31,200 we waited for the systems to purge the gas twelve twenty four forty eight, 148 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:41,480 nothing happened. It was like everything in there was frozen in time. And 149 00:14:41,519 --> 00:14:48,639 then somehow the lights on that level went out. Emergency lighting came on, 150 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:54,159 bathing everything in red, but combined with the low quality cameras, it was 151 00:14:54,200 --> 00:15:01,480 like gazing at an old video game, grainy, fuzzy resolution. We figured 152 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:05,519 that Coates must have rigged up a remote timer on the electronics, which wasn't 153 00:15:05,559 --> 00:15:11,360 a good guess since his speciality was biochemistry and the security systems were of the 154 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:18,879 highest tier. But what else could it be. Wasn't like someone could have 155 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:24,639 hit the circuit breaker. We knew eventually we'd have to go in there sixty 156 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:30,440 hours, have to shut down. We just had to. There was too 157 00:15:30,519 --> 00:15:35,399 much high value material to leave behind. And there are reports of strange noises 158 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:39,600 down there. Guards posted to the door heard faint sounds on the other side, 159 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:48,000 footsteps They reckoned. Course, I wrote that off. Not a nonsense, 160 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:52,360 I told myself and them, And yet we still went in armed, 161 00:15:52,519 --> 00:15:58,679 because well, if coats were smart enough to rig this whole nightmare, who's 162 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:04,960 this He didn't make a little gas mask to keep himself safe. You'd think 163 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:11,080 I'd be used to working in hazmat suits and I sort of vam, but 164 00:16:11,279 --> 00:16:17,440 going into that sileder floor was something else. The visor felt restrictive, the 165 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:22,399 squeak of the rubber suit was deafening, My breath was too loud, and 166 00:16:22,519 --> 00:16:26,759 every time the insuit radio came to life with one of the soldier's barks, 167 00:16:26,399 --> 00:16:33,440 I damn near jumped out of my skin. And then the door actually opened. 168 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:40,240 Nothing could have prepared me for that. The air was thick with mist, 169 00:16:40,559 --> 00:16:45,440 which lit up harshly with the emergency lighting's red hue. Old metal grates, 170 00:16:45,759 --> 00:16:52,320 vents, open doorways, all of it either blood red or completely dark. 171 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:57,960 There are far too many shadows for it to feel safe. It didn't 172 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:03,440 help some of the bulbs with strobe lighting, rotating sirens that lit the place 173 00:17:03,519 --> 00:17:08,440 up in periodic flashes of crimson light. God. Even the four soldiers next 174 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:14,480 to me look nervous. We passed more than a few bodies on our way 175 00:17:14,519 --> 00:17:18,359 to Coats's lab. All of them lay where they'd been on the CCTV, 176 00:17:19,519 --> 00:17:26,000 at least as far as I could tell. Sounds stupid, but I stared 177 00:17:26,039 --> 00:17:30,759 at a few of them closely, just to make sure. All those reports 178 00:17:30,759 --> 00:17:34,880 of footsteps had started to worm their way into my brain. Couldn't shake the 179 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:41,680 idea we weren't alone down there. When we finally opened the door to Coats, 180 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:48,480 what I saw left me frozen to the spot. The soldiers focused on 181 00:17:48,559 --> 00:17:52,839 the strange growth after the corner of the room, which registered to me only 182 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:57,000 as a dim sort of collection of thick fungal petals crawling up the wall. 183 00:17:59,039 --> 00:18:06,400 Veins pulsing like capillaries in the eye. But to me what really hit home 184 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:11,960 was the empty desk. Last time they had reliable footage of that room, 185 00:18:12,319 --> 00:18:18,160 Coats had been lying there dead as a dodo, blood leaking from his still 186 00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:22,880 open eyes, pulling on the desk and dripping onto the floor. And that 187 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:27,920 stain was still very much there. There was even the faint outline of where 188 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:37,799 his head had been laying, but the man himself was gone. This, 189 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:41,359 even more than the grotesque thing that took up one wall, terrified me. 190 00:18:42,599 --> 00:18:47,799 That quivering mass of fungus was pomping out enough toxic gas to kill half the 191 00:18:47,839 --> 00:18:53,200 base, but it was stationary. At least in another circumstance, I might 192 00:18:53,240 --> 00:19:00,160 have even found it fascinating. But Coats, he had clearly gone off the 193 00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:04,200 deep end. Had he lain perfectly still for days and end to trick us, 194 00:19:06,559 --> 00:19:11,079 that didn't seem right again, I thought the bodies we passed the way, 195 00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:15,359 they looked so still, but not lifeless, like a porcelain doll. 196 00:19:17,279 --> 00:19:22,759 There was that slight suggestion of something working behind the eyes. What do we 197 00:19:22,839 --> 00:19:26,200 do with this? One of the men asked, take samples, burn the 198 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,400 rest. I replied, if gas levels don't go down in a week, 199 00:19:30,799 --> 00:19:36,200 we'll have to purge the whole floor with phosphor us. The whole time, 200 00:19:36,559 --> 00:19:40,880 I had my eyes and the space around us under the desk on top of 201 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:48,119 the cupboards. If Coats wasn't at his desk, where was he? Where 202 00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:52,039 the hell did this thing come from? The same soldier muttered as he laid 203 00:19:52,039 --> 00:19:56,599 a series of thermal charges on the fleshiest parts of the mold. It seemed 204 00:19:56,599 --> 00:20:02,440 to flinch in response to his touch, but otherwise benign. Ah. He 205 00:20:02,519 --> 00:20:07,359 probably took some of the subjects tissue samples. We know it propagates unusual levels 206 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,480 of growth in plants and animal tissue. Explains why the cast levels don't go 207 00:20:11,559 --> 00:20:18,000 down. What'sn't metabolizing? I gave the soldier an odd luck. What he 208 00:20:18,079 --> 00:20:23,759 said, you are the only ones within education. Fair enough, I replied, 209 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:29,799 with a quick shake of the head. It isn't metabolizing anything except his 210 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:34,839 tissue. It's a well, bluntly, I mean, I think of the 211 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,880 fish and the bread, right. It's something we've known about his tissue samples 212 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:44,279 for a while now, spontaneous creation of matter and energy out of nothing. 213 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:51,799 But to give Coats credit this is a pretty novel application. He's created an 214 00:20:51,920 --> 00:21:00,000 infinite bioweapon. Why, I was about to reply, I haven't the slightest 215 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:04,920 clue. When a loud bang drew attention to the doorway. Outside lay a 216 00:21:06,039 --> 00:21:11,480 darkness, broken only by the strobing of a red light flashing on and off. 217 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:18,279 It revealed, for just this single instant, the outline of a man 218 00:21:18,599 --> 00:21:23,839 standing in the hallway. The soldiers swore nervously as they raised the rifles. 219 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:30,039 By the time the light came back, the figure was gone. Who the 220 00:21:30,039 --> 00:21:36,240 hell was that, one barked, must be coats. Another replied, CHOP's 221 00:21:36,279 --> 00:21:38,680 done, I cried, ware, gesturing to the charges. Let's get the 222 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:45,759 hell out of There are no miracles left for you. You have made your 223 00:21:45,799 --> 00:21:52,640 own miracles. The words were growled, so loud and deep they seemed to 224 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:59,759 vibrate my very bones. The soldiers snapped to attention, but me, I 225 00:21:59,799 --> 00:22:04,119 took a little longer to turn back to the corner of the room. I 226 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:10,079 knew what I was going to see, but God I didn't want to see 227 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:15,440 it. There are other gardens, but not for you. Do not spoil 228 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:22,839 the other readings goat to emerge from the thing in the wall calling himself free 229 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:30,480 with a wet squelch. He stood not naked, but clearly naked. As 230 00:22:30,519 --> 00:22:34,559 his skin began to absorb his clothes, he looked like a burned victim coated 231 00:22:34,559 --> 00:22:41,160 in algae. He loves you in spite of everything. He loves you, 232 00:22:42,279 --> 00:22:48,720 and there is a place in Heaven for you all. But it is time 233 00:22:48,799 --> 00:22:56,119 to I can't blame the soldier who pulled the trigger. It wasn't just the 234 00:22:56,119 --> 00:23:02,200 fact that Coach was speaking with a mouth that a grown grotesquely across his abdomen, 235 00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:07,160 but rather that the words were drilling straight into our heads like some prushing 236 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:11,240 off. It made my eyes cross, my ears ache, and my nose 237 00:23:11,319 --> 00:23:17,319 bleed. Two other men had vomited, splattering the inside of their visors with 238 00:23:17,519 --> 00:23:23,359 thick fluid. They were the first to go. They didn't see what hit 239 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:30,599 them, and I'm somewhat glad. Coats angered by the gunshot, moved with 240 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:36,759 the elegance of a dancer. I stumbled out into the corridor as he tore 241 00:23:36,839 --> 00:23:42,279 them apart, his arms seemingly flowing right through their biohazard suit. The remaining 242 00:23:42,319 --> 00:23:48,240 soldier, the trigger happy one, was beside me as I fled. It 243 00:23:48,319 --> 00:23:52,200 wasn't far to the exit. I hoped would make it the rest of the 244 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:56,799 way without incident, and in just a few short hours I might be able 245 00:23:56,839 --> 00:24:00,920 to put the few images I had of coats pulling flesh and fabric apart like 246 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:06,000 it was tissue deep, into some recess of my mind and just move on. 247 00:24:07,559 --> 00:24:11,839 But it was only a few short steps into the dark before the remaining 248 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:18,119 soldier began to fire blindly at the corridor behind us. It was a mistake 249 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:22,799 for him to turn around in the fraction of a second where his eyes had 250 00:24:22,799 --> 00:24:26,599 been turned away, he missed one of the bodies lying on the ground. 251 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:33,240 I jumped, He didn't. I was dimly aware of there being no one 252 00:24:33,279 --> 00:24:37,799 beside me, only when the gunshots grew fainter and fainter. As I left 253 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,880 him behind, one of the shots dinged off a panel by my head, 254 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:47,480 and to this day I suspect it was not a ricochet, but a deliberate 255 00:24:47,519 --> 00:24:52,839 attempt to get revenge from me abandoning him. Still, I didn't look back 256 00:24:53,640 --> 00:25:00,119 down until I reached the secure door. I thumb the keypad frantically, terrify 257 00:25:00,319 --> 00:25:04,079 as my ears registered the sound of approaching footsteps, muffled by the bio hazard 258 00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:11,880 suit. God, I couldn't stop myself. I looked. I had nothing 259 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:17,000 else to do except wait for the security to clear me and open the door, 260 00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:21,519 and there was no guarantee they'd even do that. I might be waiting 261 00:25:21,599 --> 00:25:27,680 forever, staring at nothing as Coats came closer and closer. Without even realizing 262 00:25:27,759 --> 00:25:34,319 what I was doing, I turned and saw the soldier with a gun. 263 00:25:36,599 --> 00:25:41,359 Jeez. Coat's office was out of sight, so I had no idea if 264 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:45,839 he repeated this with the other two. With the man, I saw he 265 00:25:47,039 --> 00:25:52,920 was in pieces yellow and red in ragged strips, the coat of the ceiling 266 00:25:52,079 --> 00:25:56,839 as much as the floor, and barreling towards me on all fours, legs 267 00:25:56,839 --> 00:26:03,319 and arms too long for a normal man. Came Coats, eyes wide, 268 00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:10,319 jaw distended, chunks out of his head still missing, but his mouth it 269 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:15,319 silently spoke the same few words, almost in time with his loping gallop, 270 00:26:15,279 --> 00:26:22,039 over and over and over. It would take days for me to even realize 271 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:27,640 what it was he was saying. Thankfully, before he'd managed to reach me, 272 00:26:29,319 --> 00:26:33,759 the doors opened and a hail of gunfire filled the corridor ahead Coats, 273 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:40,079 fast as lightning disappeared into some dark crevice, and I was dragged to safety 274 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:45,960 before the worst might happen. As soon as I was on the other side, 275 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:49,759 I told security to flood the place with phosphorus, and everything was purged 276 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:56,279 white, hot, fire and demand. By the time it was over, 277 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:02,400 only metal remained, and even then a lot of it had melted and cooled 278 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:07,119 in strange shapes on the floor. I also went out of my way to 279 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:12,880 kill any attempts at reclaiming the lost workplace. Higher ups were mad all that 280 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,000 square footage lost, but I said the risk of contamination was too great. 281 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:23,720 Of course, I left out the part where I returned one quiet night a 282 00:27:23,759 --> 00:27:30,000 few days later and placed my ear against the thick steel wall that I knew 283 00:27:30,079 --> 00:27:33,759 ran close to one of the vents on that level. It was faint, 284 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:41,279 but I heard Coats whispering. Only then did I get the final clue to 285 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:45,799 what Coats had been saying as he came towards me in the flashing red of 286 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:52,519 that darkened corridor. We love you, We love you, We love you, 287 00:27:52,839 --> 00:27:59,400 we love you, we love you. Even now, the cameras showed 288 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:03,240 that level to be a sterile, hollow space, but I cannot escape the 289 00:28:03,279 --> 00:28:08,839 feeling that if I were to open it, I would see Coats come slithering 290 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:15,240 out of some long forgotten vent, perhaps worse for wear given all the time 291 00:28:15,319 --> 00:28:21,240 that has since passed, But Coats, none the less terrifying and misshapen, 292 00:28:22,079 --> 00:28:26,319 were desperate to spread the very Testament that twisted his mind and body, that 293 00:28:26,519 --> 00:28:33,279 caused him to try and breed something that might well have ended the entire world. 294 00:28:33,839 --> 00:28:37,880 And the worst thing of all, what had been saying to me in 295 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:45,039 that corridor? What if it was true? What if he hadn't done it 296 00:28:45,119 --> 00:28:55,680 out of hate but love? And the time I assumed the force we were 297 00:28:55,720 --> 00:29:02,400 dealing with was hostile, But what if it wasn't Everyone who goes near the 298 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:07,279 Third Testament kills themselves. And until Coates, I thought it some kind of 299 00:29:07,319 --> 00:29:12,680 twisted revenge. But what if that wasn't the case. What if he wasn't 300 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:18,079 doing it out of spite or hostility? What would that mean for me? 301 00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:26,839 Forgiveness? If so? That terrified me, because after everything I'd been through, 302 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:32,799 I doubted I'd have the strength to resist that kind of offer. For 303 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:37,359 weeks, I lay awake at night wondering just what the hell might be in 304 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:42,000 those words that could compel people like coats to do what they did. And 305 00:29:42,079 --> 00:29:51,519 yet despite everything, I still haven't read the Third Testament. Coates was a 306 00:29:51,559 --> 00:29:56,119 genius and he still gave in. I know that I did some pretty messed 307 00:29:56,160 --> 00:30:00,640 up stuff in the name of scientific curiosity, but well, I guess I'm 308 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:07,839 not ashamed to say I'm also a coward. I'm afraid of dying. Curiosity 309 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,640 can only get you so far, and after seeing everything that happened to the 310 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:18,680 people who read that thing, I couldn't bring myself to risk it. Whatever 311 00:30:18,839 --> 00:30:26,799 the Third Testament is, hearing it seems pretty bad for your health. I 312 00:30:26,839 --> 00:30:30,960 don't think I even deserve to be forgiven if that is what he's offering. 313 00:30:32,559 --> 00:30:36,599 It was poetic justice that out of all the people who managed to make the 314 00:30:36,599 --> 00:30:41,680 evacuation, I wasn't one of them. Leaving on foot is hardly an option 315 00:30:41,799 --> 00:30:45,519 for me. I mean, even if I had the strength to hike through 316 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,839 hundreds of miles of rainforest, I need to reach the outer fence first. 317 00:30:51,839 --> 00:30:55,640 And strange things have festered in the chemical pits, where they disposed of the 318 00:30:55,640 --> 00:31:02,079 body's soft mounds of ash and bone that sing from time to time, exciting 319 00:31:02,119 --> 00:31:06,240 the birds in the canopy to take off and make strange patterns in the sky. 320 00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:11,839 If they can sing, they must have mouths, right, And if 321 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:18,559 they have mouths, what else? I think about coats? About what kind 322 00:31:18,559 --> 00:31:22,119 of hands would reach out to drag me into those rotten pits of long dead 323 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:29,000 flesh and drown me in filth? And I shudder. I could try and 324 00:31:29,039 --> 00:31:36,200 sneak past, but it really isn't safe outside the hospital. It isn't safe 325 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:41,160 inside, to be fair, But what choice do I have? At least 326 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:45,160 there's still power, internet, food to last me over a century, and 327 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:52,759 security doors. I keep everything below sub level one firmly locked away. While 328 00:31:52,799 --> 00:32:00,440 out there well, I see things sometimes moving quickly between the old bildings. 329 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:06,599 The trees shake and stir, and wed jungle now grows thick and heavy against 330 00:32:06,599 --> 00:32:10,640 one of the glass walls of the hospital. The vines twist and turn and 331 00:32:10,759 --> 00:32:16,079 spell out odd messages. I shut my eyes firmly whenever I have to pass 332 00:32:16,119 --> 00:32:24,039 them. And yet even blind I can hear the tidening fibrous coils as the 333 00:32:24,079 --> 00:32:34,640 clawing flora scratches against the glass. They want me hungering all those corpses we 334 00:32:34,759 --> 00:32:42,400 buried out there, rotting, breaking down, contaminated, with divinity. What 335 00:32:42,559 --> 00:32:46,640 strange waters flow through the soil in this place. Nothing could make me risk 336 00:32:46,839 --> 00:32:54,240 opening the doors and try walking through that vegetation. He might forgive, but 337 00:32:54,319 --> 00:33:01,160 I don't think my former test subjects have. And as for down below, 338 00:33:05,279 --> 00:33:09,039 you know, I never met him while I was alive. Don't know where 339 00:33:09,119 --> 00:33:15,799 they got him from, or even why. My bet he ticked off the 340 00:33:15,799 --> 00:33:21,400 wrong people, got shot and got back up. Maybe they shot him again 341 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,839 and he got up again. Maybe they did it five times, ten times. 342 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:30,759 I don't know. Somewhere along the lines someone worked out they had an 343 00:33:30,799 --> 00:33:37,440 anomaly on their hands. Maybe I wasn't the first person to even try cutting 344 00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:44,480 him open. It's just weird. No one ever told us who he was. 345 00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:51,720 We just knew It'd be years before I wondered who mothered him, loved 346 00:33:51,759 --> 00:33:55,440 him, raised him. I often wonder if this was the way it was 347 00:33:55,480 --> 00:34:00,799 meant to go, or was it just an accident that he bumped into the 348 00:34:00,839 --> 00:34:06,559 wrong people at the wrong time. The Messiah came and the first thing we 349 00:34:06,599 --> 00:34:13,599 did was cut him off. No wonder we failed. Things in the projects 350 00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:19,079 started to go really bad. About six months after the first incision, I 351 00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:23,920 turnover amongst researchers was one thing, but well, it turns out a lot 352 00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:30,119 of the soldiers had religious inclination. Wasn't just us dealing with visions and voices. 353 00:34:31,119 --> 00:34:36,320 At some point they worked out what they were part of. The agency 354 00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:43,239 likes compartmentalization, but it can only go so far. After the religious element 355 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,320 became clear to the guys on the ground, things started to break down. 356 00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:52,920 It was one thing to control the scientists. The guards were armed. When 357 00:34:52,960 --> 00:35:00,679 they broke, they broke hard. Most of his remains are stored in the 358 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:07,480 lowest level. Wrote its easiest to keep things cool. Outside. There's this 359 00:35:07,639 --> 00:35:13,760 long corridor leading to the central chamber, huge, wide enough to dry four 360 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,840 or five cards side by side. And that was where the first card hanged 361 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:24,239 himself. Simple enough, they dragged him away and cleaned it up. It 362 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:29,599 wasn't long after coats. In fact, it was one of the men who 363 00:35:29,639 --> 00:35:35,159 saved me at the door. Were pretty soon another two guys went down there 364 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:39,239 and hanged themselves, and then five, and then eight, and then top 365 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:45,880 side. Some people started blowing their brains out in their barracks in the canteens, 366 00:35:45,559 --> 00:35:51,119 standing watch at the doors, looking out on the jungle. Cigarette hanging 367 00:35:51,199 --> 00:35:58,239 loose on one lip. Seemed almost random, except there was a clear pattern 368 00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:04,960 of escalation when those guys started killing their friends. That when it reached the 369 00:36:05,039 --> 00:36:09,639 point where they couldn't ship new guys in fast enough to replace losses. Once 370 00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:15,639 that happened, orders started getting lost, jobs started being left and done. 371 00:36:15,519 --> 00:36:20,440 One lab got written off because a test subject's body was left to fester over 372 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:23,679 a weekend, and by the time they got the door open there was flesh 373 00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:29,199 growing up the walls. Not enough manpowered to deal with it, so they 374 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:34,800 left it for another day and moved on. Only they forgot to tell the 375 00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:39,079 researcher who worked there, So come Monday, he went in and had a 376 00:36:39,159 --> 00:36:44,440 hell of a surprise. Must have been like stepping into a wall of sour 377 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:50,199 dough. I can only hope he suffocated and it was quick, but who 378 00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:54,719 knows. Not like their stuff as hard and fast rules. For all I 379 00:36:54,800 --> 00:37:04,960 know, he's still in there screaming for air. Meanwhile, that tunnel people 380 00:37:05,079 --> 00:37:08,880 just kept going down there and hanging themselves. I mean, every day I'd 381 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:14,519 wake up and I'd be down a few researchers and a couple more guards would 382 00:37:14,519 --> 00:37:19,119 be missing. Took a shockingly short amount of time for most of the six 383 00:37:19,199 --> 00:37:24,239 hundred people on site to just disappear. God knows when security stopped taking the 384 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:30,239 bodies down, just another job that got lost in the grown panic. By 385 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:37,360 the time evacuation orders came we were down to one hundred people. I estimate 386 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:45,679 that around four hundred ended themselves in that tunnel. I've only visited him once 387 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:51,480 since the project shut down, only had the guts that go look once barely 388 00:37:51,559 --> 00:37:55,559 made it out alive. I felt compelled to try and face up to him, 389 00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:01,679 acknowledged the role I played. Only that meant actually getting to the door 390 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:07,239 at the end of the tunnel, which was by this point pitch black except 391 00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:15,039 for my torch, and blocked almost entirely with hanging bodies, so many pressed 392 00:38:15,039 --> 00:38:20,599 together, so close that I had no hope of making my way through without 393 00:38:20,599 --> 00:38:25,400 bumping into one. Reminded me of the jungle, funnily enough, of a 394 00:38:25,519 --> 00:38:34,079 thick claustrophobic forest made of dried skin and brittle ligaments, different colors and shapes, 395 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:40,119 and of course different levels of decomb Some had lost their noses, lips, 396 00:38:40,119 --> 00:38:46,960 and eyes. Others were a little bloated but still recognizable. Not friends, 397 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:52,119 really, I don't think I actually made one solitary friend on that project. 398 00:38:53,320 --> 00:39:00,639 But colleagues, people who were under my charge, they looked sad. 399 00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:06,960 All of them looked sad. They should have been buried at home with their 400 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:13,440 families, but instead they were locked all the way in the ass end of 401 00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:17,519 nowhere. Of course, you can bet your ass the agency will make sure 402 00:39:17,679 --> 00:39:22,760 no one ever knows the truth. You know, I still love contact with 403 00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:30,159 them. Anything I post gets screened, arrogant ass ls. No that no 404 00:39:30,159 --> 00:39:35,920 one's going to take me seriously in a record of this project anywhere. All 405 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:39,840 those people just ghosts in a system too big for any one person to keep 406 00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:44,960 track of it all. You know how many people go missing in the United 407 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:51,280 States in a year? What about Europe or the whole damn world. God, 408 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:58,280 this project was just a drop in the ocean. I wanted to put 409 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:01,719 it to bed to see if I could get some kind of answer from him. 410 00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:07,400 It was that idea, trying to get some resolution to this nightmare. 411 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:12,519 I gave me the strength to push past the first dead body and go deeper 412 00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:16,039 into that tunnel. He reminded me of trying to make your way to the 413 00:40:16,079 --> 00:40:21,880 front of a gig, only deathly silent, and the people you barged past 414 00:40:22,079 --> 00:40:27,559 one gently back and forth, the sound of makeshift nooses tightening in the dark. 415 00:40:29,079 --> 00:40:32,679 I think the worst part was the limited vision. My light was just 416 00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:37,400 a lone disk, and God, it was pitch black in that place, 417 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:43,719 like caving, only the floor is slick and you don't have to worry about 418 00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:47,400 a ravine. Made me think about being in the bottom of the ocean with 419 00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:53,400 all the corps's visibility was never more than a few foot ahead. I remember 420 00:40:53,480 --> 00:41:00,199 panicking at the realization I could easily get turned around, and well, if 421 00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:04,559 all those lost souls didn't let me go, what if I wound up going 422 00:41:04,599 --> 00:41:09,239 in circles for hours, days, even on end, just round and round. 423 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:15,599 The nearest wall could be right there and I wouldn't know it. Just 424 00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:22,480 bones and teeth and ribs and hanging in trails, all of them called to 425 00:41:22,559 --> 00:41:28,480 the touch, freezing. Obviously, that's why we'd put him down there. 426 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:34,519 The place was called my own breath, visible in the air, but the 427 00:41:34,559 --> 00:41:38,039 bodies were like the meat you grab out of the fridge in a supermarket. 428 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:45,320 It was just awful. I found the fresh ones the hardest, the stomach, 429 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:50,559 a really rotten body, looks almost like a prop. It isn't. 430 00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:53,480 Don't get me wrong. You look at it and your brain tells you, 431 00:41:53,599 --> 00:41:58,280 damn well, it ain't a prop. But it's a hell of a lot 432 00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,000 easier to convince yourself. It's just the thing when it hasn't got eyes or 433 00:42:02,039 --> 00:42:09,320 skin. For the fresh ones, sometimes they still had expressions like anger or 434 00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:15,760 sadness on their faces. They made me feel watched. And the fact they 435 00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:21,239 were cold and slick with condensation. Every time I bumped into one, it 436 00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:27,440 took everything I had not to let out a whimper. And they moved. 437 00:42:28,519 --> 00:42:32,559 They didn't move, not like that. But there were no drafts down there. 438 00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:38,440 It was perfectly still. They'd been perfectly still for months after the project 439 00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:44,199 shut down, and then I came along and disturbed them, and it was 440 00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:49,960 like a giant Newton's cradle, the static system that I put energy into. 441 00:42:50,159 --> 00:42:54,159 They began to sway and twist and bomp. I'd knock one, and a 442 00:42:54,199 --> 00:43:00,000 fraction of a second later it would knock me back, jostling against my cheek, 443 00:43:00,119 --> 00:43:06,079 culed my arm as inertia rocked it back and forth. Ten minutes in 444 00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:14,320 too far to turn back. That was when the nightmare began started small. 445 00:43:15,159 --> 00:43:19,400 I lost my ability to track what body was where and which ones were sent 446 00:43:19,519 --> 00:43:25,119 swinging by my own clumsy movements, and then fingers combed my hair. I 447 00:43:25,159 --> 00:43:30,400 cried out, and another said touched my beard, my face. I forced 448 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:36,239 myself onwards and started making eye contact with one too many dead men for it 449 00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:43,079 to simply be an accident. Their expressions changed from sullen and listless to angry 450 00:43:43,119 --> 00:43:52,599 and cool, leering smiles and curled lips. Then came the unmistakable sensation of 451 00:43:52,639 --> 00:43:58,880 someone deliberately grabbing for my arm. I had to shake it loose, too 452 00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:02,920 afraid to look back can face the possibility that I'd see one of them moving 453 00:44:04,039 --> 00:44:09,159 and scowling. I pushed on, constantly, having to shake cold fingers off 454 00:44:09,159 --> 00:44:15,039 my elbow or my collar. They groped incessantly, looking for anything to hold 455 00:44:15,079 --> 00:44:20,719 on to. Firm grips pinched my belly, fat, my shoulders, my 456 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:25,760 chest, and then they started reaching for my eyes. At one point I 457 00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:30,440 made the mistake of crying out, and a freezing cold finger with a slightly 458 00:44:30,519 --> 00:44:36,800 furried texture slid into my mouth. The only relief came when I dropped to 459 00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:40,760 my hands and knees and crawled the entire time. My mind raised with a 460 00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:47,679 terrible possibility that I really was just being sent in circles over and over and 461 00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:54,360 over, and they were never going to let me leave. I would die 462 00:44:54,400 --> 00:45:00,920 down there in the dark, smothered by their rotting hands. God damn, 463 00:45:01,679 --> 00:45:07,239 I came close to giving up. When my torch finally alighted upon an open 464 00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:13,800 space. I cried out a heaving, wet sob made of relief and joy, 465 00:45:14,519 --> 00:45:17,559 and my muscles, given new life, worked over time to get me 466 00:45:17,599 --> 00:45:23,119 out of that horrible nightmare and into freedom. I didn't stop until I bumped 467 00:45:23,159 --> 00:45:28,639 my head against the steel wall with a dull clang, and looked up to 468 00:45:28,679 --> 00:45:36,840 see the vault's door, at last, the place we'd frozen him. I 469 00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:40,159 got up, with what little dignity I had left, brushed down my clothes, 470 00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:47,400 and risked only the briefest of glances back. The bodies looked inert now, 471 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,519 just like they had before I entered. I could have tricked myself into 472 00:45:53,559 --> 00:46:00,559 thinking it was my imagination. Only half my shirt was now into hatters on 473 00:46:00,599 --> 00:46:05,039 the floor, and I could still see strips of it still clenched in a 474 00:46:05,039 --> 00:46:13,159 few of their hands. I did my best to compose myself and I entered 475 00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:22,440 the vault. We hadn't left him in a very nice state. The plan 476 00:46:22,679 --> 00:46:28,960 was the catalog everything. Yeah, we excited the most striking biological anomalies, 477 00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:35,960 but the remaining flesh. I mean, we wanted to know everything, every 478 00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:42,039 last capillary, every last cell. We wanted it recorded. So we had 479 00:46:42,039 --> 00:46:46,159 this special machine flown in. It works by taking a piece of flesh and 480 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:52,280 slicing into a layer that's barely a micrometer thick, and depositing it into a 481 00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:59,519 slide. That slide is digested and then stored in specialized cold refrigeration units. 482 00:47:00,519 --> 00:47:05,360 It's usually used on a sample not much bigger than a potato, But for 483 00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:13,079 him we had something specially made, frozen stood vertigal. We put him on 484 00:47:13,119 --> 00:47:17,880 the machine where it worked, creating about one slice every three hours. Only 485 00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:22,719 at the end. Well, first, no one came to take the slides 486 00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:28,760 away, so they gathered on the floor below in a terrible mess. And 487 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:36,480 second, no one had bothered to check if he was still dead. Stupid 488 00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:40,639 of us, really, of course he came back to life, only this 489 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:47,400 time he didn't get to leave the cave. I often wonder if he had 490 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:52,480 anything left to say, but by then the machine had reached his nose, 491 00:47:53,800 --> 00:48:00,079 just his eyes at the top of his head looking right at me. Fall 492 00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:06,280 me. God, we made a mess of things, didn't We made the 493 00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:13,079 Romans look gentle in comparison. I fell to my knees and begged for forgiveness. 494 00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:21,639 And the worst part he gave it. Obviously not verbally, but he 495 00:48:21,679 --> 00:48:25,400 shouldn't surprise you to know he had other ways of putting thought to my head. 496 00:48:27,559 --> 00:48:31,000 I was so angry at myself. I was positive I'd find some kind 497 00:48:31,039 --> 00:48:39,400 of punishment waiting for me. When I didn't, he forgave me, told 498 00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:45,599 me I was loved after everything I'd done. I mean, God, that 499 00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:52,239 hurt the most. I didn't deserve it, still don't. And then he 500 00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:59,159 gave me the Third Testament, or rather the cliff notes. Not enough to 501 00:48:59,239 --> 00:49:04,039 drive me nuts, but the gist of it, so to speak, did 502 00:49:04,039 --> 00:49:07,360 a number on me. Anyway. By the time I was done sobbing on 503 00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:15,800 the floor, I lugged up and he was gone. Nothing remained, just 504 00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:22,920 broken glass in a machine cutting empty air. Going back through the tunnel was 505 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:29,280 no easier than going in, but I hardly remember it. I lost a 506 00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:34,679 couple of weeks after that little trip down below, but eventually I came to 507 00:49:34,880 --> 00:49:42,320 in my office. Now I stay above ground. I've asked for rescue, 508 00:49:42,679 --> 00:49:45,440 but the agency feels I best serve my country by staying where I am, 509 00:49:46,159 --> 00:49:52,440 making sure nothing else leagues out. It's messed up, but I think, 510 00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:59,800 for once they might be right. I've considered sharing what he gave me, 511 00:50:00,639 --> 00:50:05,320 considered even putting it in bits of writing here. Might even go get the 512 00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:10,400 full Testament and upload it, but that would involve reading it, and like 513 00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:17,400 I said, I'm a coward and I don't want to die. Everyone who 514 00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:23,800 reads it dies by their own hand. I guess all I can say is 515 00:50:24,719 --> 00:50:32,719 the Third Testament. It's something of a warning, an outline of what's coming 516 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:37,840 our way, so bad that he came just to offer us a way out, 517 00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:45,760 a promise that this somewhere else, and an acknowledgment that we're going to 518 00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:52,840 need It makes me think of Coats, smartest man I ever met, whose 519 00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:59,079 first reaction to knowing what was on the way was to try and engineer something 520 00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:07,000 to wipe youmanity all out. Given to what we did to him, I 521 00:51:07,119 --> 00:51:09,480 wonder if we don't deserve it