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Speaker 1: I worked the night shift at a small, run down

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gas station on the edge of a highway that hardly

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sees any traffic past midnight. Its mediocre place at best,

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no security cameras, half the lights flickering like the dying,

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and a bathroom that no one in the right mind

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would use. Most of the time, my shift is dead, silent,

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truckers stopped to grab coffee and stretch the legs, and

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locals come in every once in a while, but after

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one am the place becomes a ghost town. It's just me,

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the buzzing of the old fluorescent lights, and the occasional

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coyote howling in the distance. That's why it stood out

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immediately when someone walked in on foot at exactly two

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a m. I was leaning back in my chair, absently

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flicking through my phone when the chime above the door rang.

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I barely looked up at first, expecting the usual, a

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trucker grabbing coffee, some lost traveler asking for directions. But

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when I finally glanced toward the entrance, I saw him

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for the first time. No headlights in the lot, no

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car idling at the pumps, just a man standing in

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the doorway, dripping in the station sickly fluorescent lights. He

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was thin, hunched slightly, like he'd been walking for miles.

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His clothes were ordinary enough, dark jeans stained with leaves

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and mud at the bottom, a gray hut he pulled

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over his head. He smelt faintly of gasoline. He took slow,

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dragging steps toward the counter. I cleared my throat, ay man,

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how's it going? No response? You need something? He didn't blink,

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just reached into his pocket, pulled out a crumbled twenty

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dollar bill and set it on the counter. One gallon,

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he muttered with a hoarse voice. I waited for him

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to say something else, maybe explain why he was on

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foot or where his car was, But he just stood there.

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You good dude. I tried again, ringing up the sail. Nothing.

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I slid his change across the counter, and he picked

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it up without counting it. Outside, through the station's dirty

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front windows, I watched him take an old, battered Jerry

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can from beside the pumps. The thing was weathered, sun bleached,

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cracked in spots. I figured he probably had a car

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stranded nearby. Maybe he was just mad or embarrassed. Honestly,

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I didn't care as long as he paid. Whatever he

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did with the fuel wasn't my problem. The next night,

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at exactly two a m. The door chime rang again.

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I looked up from where I was restocking cigarettes behind

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the counter, my stomach twisting before I fully registered why

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it was him, same hunched posture. I set the cartiner

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smokestown and straightened up, watching him closely as he stepped

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forward and wordlessly slipped the crumpled twenty dollar bill across

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the counter. One gallon, he muttered. I hesitated, before punching

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the sail. Something about him didn't feel right. You got

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a car this time, I asked, keeping my tone light.

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He didn't respond. His fingers twitched slightly where they rested

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on the counter. I licked my lips and rang him up,

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keeping my eye on his face as I slid his

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change across the counter. But he didn't even glance down.

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He just grabbed the coins and left outside. I watched

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through the grimy front window as he made his way

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back toward the pumps. He picked it up and filled

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it carefully, watching as the fuel poured into the old,

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cracked plastic. I noticed then how discolored his hands were, grimy,

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with dark stains under his nails like he'd been working

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with oil. I turned away as he capped the canister,

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telling myself once again that it wasn't my problem. The

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first time I hadn't. Really he paid attention to which

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direction he was headed in for this time, curiosity got

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the better of me. I expected him to head for

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the highway. Maybe there was a car waiting down the

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road out of sight, maybe someone was picking him up.

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But he didn't go toward the road at all. Instead,

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he moved toward the woods, the thick line of black

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trees beyond the gas station. I just watched him go,

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not quite sure what to think. He stepped past the

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last pump, past the edge of the lot, and into

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the grass, moving at the pace of a snail. I

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waited for him to hesitate, to glance over his shoulder,

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to acknowledge that he was leaving the only light for

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miles behind him, But he never did. He just kept walking,

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kept moving deeper and deeper into the trees, until the

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darkness swallowed him whole, and he never looked back. He

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came back the next night and the night after that.

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Every time it was exactly the same. Two a m

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one gallon, always cash, always silent. I honestly tried ignoring him.

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I get plenty of weird people here at times, and besides,

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people have routines, and maybe this was just his. But

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the longer it went on, the harder it was to

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shake the feeling that something was wrong. I started paying

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closer attention. I listened for a car engine approaching in

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the distance before he arrived. There never was one. I

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glanced out or the pumps after he left, expecting headlights

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flashing on the tree line. Nothing. I even shake the

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back of the gas station once, just to see if

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maybe somehow he was parking in the darkness behind the building,

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but it was always empty. All I knew for certain

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was that he came from somewhere, and when he left,

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he went back to it. Most of my shifts from

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then on were focused on keeping track of him. As

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soon as it hit the tree line. He wouldn't come

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back for the rest of my shift until the following one.

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One night, around midnight, a regular truckers stopped in for

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coffee and smokes. His name was Frank, and he was

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the kind of guy who talked to fill the silence. Normally,

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I let him ramble while I half listened that night, though,

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as he was stirring sugar into his coffee, he glanced

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out toward the empty parking lot and said, Hey, you're

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still getting that weird guy at two. I blinked, you've

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seen him? Frank shrugged, taking a sip. Couple nights back. Heah,

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I don't think you were on shift. Who's that weird

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kid that works on the weekends? Now? It was sparked

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outside taking a break when he showed up. No car,

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just walked right up and bought gas. He chuckled, shaking

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his head. Figured maybe his truck broke down somewhere, but

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I didn't see one on the road when I pulled

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in here. Local, no idea, I admitted. Frank took another

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long sip before muttering, creepy guy, ain't he? I didn't

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have an answer for that. A few nights later, a

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man came in looking for a can of fixer flat.

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Older guy, probably mid sixties, wearing a denim jacket that

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looked as worn out as he did. He paid in

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crumpled bills, then lingered at the counter, watching as the

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man in the hood. He walked back out into the

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darkness with his filled Jerry can. The older guy squinted. Hah, huh,

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what I asked? He rubbed a hand over his jaw,

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his gaze still following the figure as he disappeared past

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the tree line. I've been in this area a long

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time now, still see him here frequently. That got my attention.

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How long is a long time? He glanced at me,

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a solemn expression adorning his face. Then he grabbed his

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bag and said, long time. Guy doesn't seem to age.

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And if he does, boy does he age well. The

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door chime rang as he walked out. I stood there,

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hands resting on the counter, my skin crawling. Right after

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the men left and the station had gone quiet again,

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I pulled the transaction records from the last few weeks

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and flipped through them every night, one gallon, always between

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two and two three am. I kept going, flipping back

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through the old log books, same entry every night, weeks, months, years.

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I traced the records back as far as they went.

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The digital ones only went as far back as twenty thirteen,

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so I had to dig up an actual physical one

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from the back. My fingers were stiff from gripping the old,

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yellowed pages. The earliest entry I found was dated October nineteenth,

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nineteen ninety seven one gallon cash, and that was only

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as far as the log books went. I stared at

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the numbers on the page, my mind racing. I had

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only been working here a few months. Maybe the guy

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before me knew more. I reached for my phone and

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pulled up Jerry's number, the other night shift guy. He

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worked here for seven years. I'd only ever spoken to

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him once, when he handed me the keys of my

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first night Still, I hesitated. How do you even ask

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someone about something like this? It was nearly three in

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the morning, and I felt like an idiot for even

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thinking about making this call. But as much as I

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hated to admit, it was starting to get under my skin.

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I took a breath and dialed. The phone rang twice

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before a groggy voice answered, hullo, hey Jerry. Sorry, I

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know it's late. There was a pause, a sigh here

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you don't say what's up? I just I hesitated, feeling

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even dombin now that I had him on the line.

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I just had a question about the gas station, about

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some one who comes in at night. Another pause. I

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could hear him shifting, probably sitting up in bed, which

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some one A guy shows up every night around two

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by his exactly one gallon walks off into the woods

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behind the station. Ah, Jerry finally said, yeah, that guy,

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So you know who I'm talking about. The manager mentioned

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him when I first started, he said, figured i'd see

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him eventually, and yeah, sure enough, every night I worked,

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he showed up, never missed the night, never said more

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than a few words. I let out of breath. I

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hadn't realized I was holding. So what's his deal? Jerry

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led out a short laugh. And if I know, nobody does.

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He's just kind of an unspoken tradition for the night shift.

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Unspoken tradition. Yeah, I mean at first it wirded me out,

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but after a while he was just part of the routine.

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Didn't matter if it was raining snowing, didn't matter if

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the whole highway was shut down. That guy would still

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show up by his gallon walk off. Did you ever

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ask him anything? Of course I did, Jerry said. First

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time I saw him. I tried to be friendly, asked

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if he needed a ride, asked where his car was. Nothing,

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just stared at me, paid for his gas and left,

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not a word, not a damn thing. Eventually, I just

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stopped trying it. Was like talking to a brick wall,

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I exhaled through my nose. You ever think about following him?

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I asked, Jerry scoffed. Thought about it, sure, but I

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wasn't that curious. His voice was light, but I could

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tell he was fully awake now, probably sitting there picturing

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the guy in his head just like I was. Listen, man,

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he continued, I don't know what his story is, but

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whatever it is, it's none of my business. Yeah, I muttered, Yeah,

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I get that. Jerry yawned on the other end of

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the line. Is that all? What do you need me

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to tell you about all the widows that came in

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at three in the morning too? Nah? I think I

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got what I needed. Good. Now let me sleep. He

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hung up before I could say anything else. I thought

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about it. The tradition, as Jerry called it, kept going

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for the next few days, and in that time, the

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more I saw the man, the more I thought about

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it about following him. It wasn't until nearly a week

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later that I finally did. The night was cold and windless.

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I stayed inside the station as long as I could,

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waiting until I saw him fade into the tree line

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like a shadow. Then I grabbed the cheap flashlight from

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under the counter and stepped out on to the lot.

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For the first time, I realized how quiet the place

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really was. Inside, I had the hum of the drink coolers,

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the buzzing overhead lights, the occasional crackle of the radio.

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Out there nothing no cars, no wind through the trees,

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no chirping insects, just my own footsteps against the pavement.

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I hesitated at the edge of the lot with a

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gravel thinned, and the dirt path began. It was in

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a proper trail, just a narrow gap between the trees

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where the bush had been trampled down over time. I

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had no idea if I was actually making noise or

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if I just felt like I was. Every step seemed

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too loud, the sound of my breathing too obvious. Ahead

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of me, the man moved at just the same pace

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as always. I kept back just far enough that I

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wouldn't risk him seeing me if he turned around. But

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he never did, never even paused, just kept walking deeper.

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The further we went, the stronger the smell of gasoline became.

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At first, I thought maybe it was his clothes, A

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guy like that hauling fuel around every night. Of course,

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it'd smell like it, but the air itself seemed thick

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with it. Not just fresh fuel either, the stale, sour

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scent of old spills mixed with something burnt. I could

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feel it coating the inside of my mouth. The flashlight

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in my hands suddenly felt useless. I didn't want a

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risk turning it on, not yet, at least not while

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he was still moving ahead of me. Instead, I relied

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on what little moonlight made it through the trees, barely

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enough to see the narrow path winding through the brush.

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My legs ached from stepping carefully placing my feet exactly

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where he had, hoping the ground wouldn't betray me. And

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then just ahead, I saw the tree start the thin

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a clearing. The smell of fuel was almost overpowering, choking

237
00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:07,759
in my throat. The man stepped into the open space,

238
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:13,319
disappearing from view. I stared at the darkened clearing beyond,

239
00:19:14,079 --> 00:19:21,240
my fingers tightening around the flashlight, and then slowly I

240
00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:27,079
stepped forward and finally saw what he was walking toward.

241
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:32,519
The clearing was small, maybe thirty feet across a break

242
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,359
in the dense trees, where the ground a turned a

243
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:40,519
dry cracked dirt, and in the center of it sat

244
00:19:40,559 --> 00:19:45,880
a car, or at least what used to be one.

245
00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:50,480
The body was completely burnt out, the frame rusted through,

246
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:55,599
the metal twisted and warped from heat. Whatever color it

247
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:59,240
had once been was long gone. The surface now just

248
00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:04,200
scorched black and crumbling. I could see the remains of tires,

249
00:20:04,759 --> 00:20:07,640
but there were nothing more than charred rubber fused to

250
00:20:07,759 --> 00:20:12,640
the ground. The windows were blown out, melted along the edges.

251
00:20:14,039 --> 00:20:16,519
The most recent fire couldn't have been more than a

252
00:20:16,559 --> 00:20:20,079
few days old, but the car itself looked like it

253
00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:25,480
had been rotting here for decades. I barely noticed the

254
00:20:25,519 --> 00:20:29,640
old gas cans at first. They were scattered around the car,

255
00:20:30,319 --> 00:20:33,920
some piled up near the driver's side, others half buried

256
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:38,079
in the dirt. Some were so rusted they had collapsed inward,

257
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:43,559
eaten away by time. Others were newer, some were still full.

258
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:48,799
But my eyes weren't drawn to the gas cans. They

259
00:20:48,839 --> 00:20:56,079
were locked on what was inside the car. I could

260
00:20:56,119 --> 00:21:01,480
see bones, a skeleton still strapped to the driver's seat.

261
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:05,599
The seat belt had melted across the chest, and the

262
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,960
remains of charred fingers were fused through the steering wheel.

263
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,559
The skull had tilted slightly, as if watching me through

264
00:21:13,599 --> 00:21:18,279
the hollowed out sockets, and the back of my throat burned.

265
00:21:20,519 --> 00:21:24,039
I could see him just a few feet away, pouring

266
00:21:24,079 --> 00:21:28,880
gasoline into the car's open fuel tank. The metal was

267
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:35,480
melted through, split in rusted wounds, yet he was still trying.

268
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:39,839
I watched as the fuel spilled out the other side,

269
00:21:40,279 --> 00:21:44,680
pouring onto the dirt like water through a sieve. He

270
00:21:44,759 --> 00:21:51,680
didn't stop, he just kept pouring desperately. The smell was suffocating.

271
00:21:52,559 --> 00:21:56,440
The puddle of fuels spread beneath him, soaking into his jeans,

272
00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:59,759
his boots, the sleeves of his hoodie. As he dropped

273
00:21:59,799 --> 00:22:03,119
to his knees, shoveling at the dirt, trying to scoop

274
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:07,599
the gasoling back into the tank with his hands, he

275
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:15,559
was muttering, shaking, It's never enough. His voice was hoarse,

276
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:22,519
almost pleading, it's never enough. To leave. His hands gripped

277
00:22:22,519 --> 00:22:27,839
the dirt, fingers curling, knuckles white. How much more fuel

278
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,519
do I need to get out of here? His voice rose,

279
00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:39,119
sharp and uneven. Why won't it let me leave? His

280
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:44,599
breathing was ragged, wheezing. I took a step back. The

281
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:47,640
snap of a twig beneath my boot sounded like a

282
00:22:47,759 --> 00:22:54,079
gunshot in the dead silence. The man froze, his hands

283
00:22:54,119 --> 00:23:02,400
hovered above the dirt, still trembling, and then slowly he turned.

284
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:08,200
His movements were stiff, like his body was just now

285
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:12,000
realizing it had been noticed. The white of his eyes

286
00:23:12,039 --> 00:23:16,759
were stained yellow, bloodshot, and glassy, but locked onto me

287
00:23:17,079 --> 00:23:27,200
with startling focus. For a long moment, neither of us spoke. Then,

288
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:33,880
in that same dry, rasping voice, he asked, do you

289
00:23:34,079 --> 00:23:40,119
know why it won't start? I didn't answer. My heart

290
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:43,839
beat thudded in my throat, but I didn't dare step back.

291
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,799
The man blinked once, as if waiting for something. Then

292
00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,240
he turned his head, staring down at the rusted out

293
00:23:53,319 --> 00:23:58,880
wreck beside him. I put the fuel in, he muttered,

294
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:03,599
fingers twitch at his sides. I keep putting the fuel in,

295
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:12,000
but he won't start. It never starts. I clenched my jaw,

296
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:16,960
trying to keep my breathing even. He tilted his head slightly,

297
00:24:17,519 --> 00:24:22,519
his lips peeling back into a strained, almost confused expression.

298
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:28,440
You know what I have to do, don't you? His

299
00:24:28,559 --> 00:24:32,400
voice was barely a whisper. Now to start the car

300
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:37,960
to go back to my family. I shook my head.

301
00:24:38,559 --> 00:24:46,079
I don't know. His fingers twitched again, then curled into fists.

302
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:53,279
For the first time, he looked frustrated. From the pocket

303
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,359
of his hoodie, he pulled out a crumbled twenty dollar

304
00:24:56,480 --> 00:25:00,519
bill and held it out toward me. His hand was shaking.

305
00:25:02,079 --> 00:25:09,640
One gallon and just stared. His face twitched, his breath

306
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:15,599
grew ragged. Give me the damn fuel. The words came

307
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:20,920
out as a snarl. His hands lunged forward. I staggered back,

308
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:24,599
nearly slipping on the dirt. The twenty crumbled in his

309
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:29,119
grip as he stumbled toward me, his movements now animalistic.

310
00:25:30,519 --> 00:25:35,559
One gallon, he shrieked, one gallon and I can go home.

311
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:41,720
His hands clawed the air between us. Wheezing gasps came

312
00:25:41,759 --> 00:25:45,519
out of his throat. His eyes were wild, his body

313
00:25:45,599 --> 00:25:50,680
jittering like a puppet on broken strings. And then he charged.

314
00:25:52,559 --> 00:25:57,519
I didn't wait. I turned and ran. The last thing

315
00:25:57,559 --> 00:26:03,000
I heard was his voice beside me, screaming, I just

316
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:10,079
need one more gallon. The trees blurred past me, shadows

317
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:14,240
twisting and snapping under the flashlight's weak beam. The smell

318
00:26:14,279 --> 00:26:17,960
of gasoline still burned in my nose, Clinging to my clothes,

319
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,839
I could hear something behind me. Maybe it was him,

320
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:25,839
maybe it was just the echo of my own footsteps,

321
00:26:26,799 --> 00:26:30,839
but I wasn't stopping to find out. I could see

322
00:26:30,839 --> 00:26:34,359
the glow of the station's neon lights ahead, just beyond

323
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:39,160
the trees. I hit the gravel lot at full speed, stumbling,

324
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:43,160
my knee nearly giving out. My chest was tight, my

325
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:47,759
legs felt weak, but I didn't stop until I was inside.

326
00:26:48,319 --> 00:26:52,079
I slammed the door shut behind me, locking it without thinking.

327
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:59,799
My hands were shaking. The station was silent. I stood

328
00:26:59,799 --> 00:27:03,240
there for what felt like ours staring out at the

329
00:27:03,279 --> 00:27:12,960
empty lot, waiting, but the man never came back. I

330
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,319
didn't go back the next night or the night after that.

331
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:19,839
I sent a text to my manager first thing in

332
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:27,319
the morning. I quit no notice. Didn't care if I

333
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,000
burned a bridge, didn't care if I got my last

334
00:27:30,039 --> 00:27:34,440
paycheck or not. I just knew I wasn't stepping foot

335
00:27:34,599 --> 00:27:40,920
in that place again. A week later, I was almost

336
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,599
out of town. I'd packed up what little I had,

337
00:27:45,039 --> 00:27:49,599
ready to leave this place behind for good. But as

338
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:53,680
I was driving past the station, something in my chest tightened.

339
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,480
I don't know why I pulled in. Maybe I wanted

340
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,880
to convince myself it was all in my head and

341
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,160
that my morbid curiosity made me go through a fever dream.

342
00:28:08,559 --> 00:28:13,200
The station looked the same as always, same flickering open sign.

343
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:18,640
A new guy was working the counter. He looked beyond board,

344
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:23,880
scrolling through his phone, barely paying attention, and standing in

345
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,960
front of him, handing over a crumpled twenty dollar bill

346
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:36,440
was the same man, still buying exactly one gallon. I

347
00:28:36,519 --> 00:28:40,480
sat there, gripping the steering wheel tight, watching as he

348
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:44,119
took the cherry can and walked out of the station.

349
00:28:46,279 --> 00:28:50,200
He just turned and started walking, his feet crunching against

350
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:56,920
the gravel, heading straight back into the woods, and just

351
00:28:57,480 --> 00:29:14,519
like every other night, he never looked back. I've lived

352
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:19,200
in Elliott's Hollow. My whole life is not a town

353
00:29:19,279 --> 00:29:24,039
people move to or move away from. It just is

354
00:29:25,279 --> 00:29:29,359
a little pocket of civilization swallowed by hills and trees,

355
00:29:30,079 --> 00:29:32,480
with a main road that only goes one way in

356
00:29:32,799 --> 00:29:37,640
and one way out. We don't have internet, not in

357
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:42,119
the way most people do. Sell service is unreliable at best.

358
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:47,319
If you want to talk to someone, you call their landline,

359
00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:52,519
and if you want to have talking points with your friends,

360
00:29:53,039 --> 00:29:59,200
you turn on the radio. Ah Little AMFM station ninety

361
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:02,559
seven point three. The Hollow Radio is how most people

362
00:30:02,599 --> 00:30:05,279
in town keep up with the world beyond our hills.

363
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:10,720
It plays local news, wheather, updates, music. Whatever keeps people

364
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:15,279
entertained while they work is the sound of the town itself,

365
00:30:15,799 --> 00:30:21,559
always playing in the background. That's why when the signal appeared,

366
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:28,359
we all noticed. It wasn't an announcement or even a

367
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:35,759
normal broadcast. It was a song, a single, eerie melody,

368
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:41,640
looping over and over. At first, it was so faint,

369
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,039
I thought my radio is acting up. It began as

370
00:30:45,039 --> 00:30:48,960
a soft harm beneath the usual noise, but day by

371
00:30:49,039 --> 00:30:56,759
day it got louder until it was everywhere. I heard

372
00:30:56,799 --> 00:31:00,440
it while I was closing up at the office. The

373
00:31:00,519 --> 00:31:03,480
Hollow Gazette is a small two room space above the

374
00:31:03,519 --> 00:31:07,880
hardware store, with one ancient coffee maker, two desks, and

375
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:10,400
a printer that jams if you so much as look

376
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,160
at it the wrong way. It had been a slow newsweek,

377
00:31:15,119 --> 00:31:19,799
well it's always a slow newsweek. I had the radio

378
00:31:19,839 --> 00:31:22,119
on while I tiped up a fluff piece about the

379
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:27,240
upcoming church bakesale. That's when I realized the radio had

380
00:31:27,279 --> 00:31:32,440
become much quieter. There was no ad break, no calling segment,

381
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:40,640
just a song, soft, melancholic, a slow, almost hypnotic tune,

382
00:31:41,079 --> 00:31:45,720
playing on an endless loop. It had no lyrics, no

383
00:31:45,839 --> 00:31:50,119
instruments I could recognize, just a voice singing in a

384
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:55,359
language that I didn't recognize. I frowned and leaned closer,

385
00:31:55,720 --> 00:32:01,960
adjusting the dial. Ninety seven point three hollow radio. It

386
00:32:02,079 --> 00:32:07,559
was still on our station's frequency. That wasn't supposed to

387
00:32:07,599 --> 00:32:12,720
be possible. I turned up the volume. The music didn't

388
00:32:12,759 --> 00:32:16,039
waver like a normal station would when there was interference.

389
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,240
It was clear as a bell, cutting through the static

390
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:26,519
with unnatural clarity. By the time I got home, every

391
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:31,920
radio in town was playing it. At first, people treated

392
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:36,079
it like a joke. Kids at school dared each other

393
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,160
to listen to it for as long as possible. One

394
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:41,480
kid claimed he made it six hours straight before he

395
00:32:41,519 --> 00:32:45,519
got a headache. Another swore that if you listen long enough,

396
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:50,000
the song started to change. It became a talking point

397
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:54,480
at the diner, the bar, the town meetings. I bet

398
00:32:54,519 --> 00:32:57,920
it's some pirate radio station, Missus Callaway said. At the

399
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:02,079
bakery she was giving out free pastries that anyone who

400
00:33:02,119 --> 00:33:06,319
listened to the signal for ten minutes. I kinda like it,

401
00:33:06,759 --> 00:33:10,400
said Old Frank, the town mechanic. He had it blasting

402
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,359
from the auto shop while he worked. Makes time pass faster.

403
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:22,240
Not everyone was amused. It's damn creepy, the postmaster muttered.

404
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,440
Switching off the radio in the mail room puts me

405
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:30,480
on edge, like I'm waiting for something to happen. The

406
00:33:30,559 --> 00:33:33,920
only thing people agreed on was that no one knew

407
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:39,160
where it was coming from. The hollow radio station denied responsibility.

408
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:44,279
That's not us, the station manager, Gregg told me over

409
00:33:44,319 --> 00:33:49,319
the phone. We tried cutting the transmission, didn't work. It's

410
00:33:49,359 --> 00:33:55,160
like it's hi jacking the frequency. The FCC had no

411
00:33:55,319 --> 00:33:58,720
record of a new broadcast in our area. There were

412
00:33:58,759 --> 00:34:02,799
no towers nearby that could be transmitting it. Even the

413
00:34:02,839 --> 00:34:05,480
older folks, the ones who had lived in the town

414
00:34:05,559 --> 00:34:09,199
their whole lives, swore they had never heard anything like

415
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:15,159
it before. The strangest part was that it never stopped

416
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:20,760
or paused. No station ideas, commercial breaks or silence, just

417
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:27,599
an unbroken repetition. I did what I always do when

418
00:34:27,639 --> 00:34:35,280
something unusual happens in town. I wrote about it mysterious

419
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:40,239
signal draws attention in Elliott's Hollow, a harmless story to

420
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,679
start the week, a quirky mystery for the townsfolk to

421
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:47,760
talk about. I treated it like a fun little phenomenon,

422
00:34:48,559 --> 00:34:53,199
just another oddity in a town full of them. I

423
00:34:53,320 --> 00:35:00,119
didn't know yet, but I wasn't just documenting a local mystery.

424
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,800
It didn't expect the signal to linger in people's minds.

425
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:06,639
Most stories I wrote and a twenty four hour lifespan

426
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:11,840
at best, one town council vote, one school fundraiser, one

427
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:15,239
half hearted debate about whether the general store should stop

428
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:21,880
carrying plastic bags. The Hollow Gazette wasn't exactly groundbreaking journalism,

429
00:35:22,639 --> 00:35:30,079
but the signal stuck. People kept talking about it, not

430
00:35:30,199 --> 00:35:33,559
just in passing, not just as a joke, but as

431
00:35:33,599 --> 00:35:38,199
if it was affecting them personally. That was when I

432
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:41,800
decided to write a follow up. I thought maybe i'd

433
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,320
find someone who'd tracked down its source. My theories were

434
00:35:45,559 --> 00:35:48,679
a ham radio guy or a board teenager with too

435
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:55,880
much time in their hands. Instead, I found something else.

436
00:35:57,679 --> 00:36:02,480
It started with Missus Callaway. I was interviewing her in

437
00:36:02,559 --> 00:36:05,599
the bakery. She had been one of the first to

438
00:36:05,639 --> 00:36:09,280
turn the signal into a business gimmick. She was in

439
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:14,199
the middle of a sentence when she hesitated. You ever

440
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:19,280
have a dream that feels too real? She asked quietly.

441
00:36:21,079 --> 00:36:26,559
I raised an eyebrow, like a lucid dream. She shook

442
00:36:26,559 --> 00:36:30,800
her head, kneading her dough between her fingers. No, like

443
00:36:31,639 --> 00:36:38,000
more than that, Like it happened. She told me she

444
00:36:38,119 --> 00:36:42,639
had a dream about her husband Alan. He's been gone

445
00:36:42,679 --> 00:36:47,519
for fifteen years, she murmured, But I saw him. He

446
00:36:47,639 --> 00:36:52,480
was sitting right here, clear as day. I tried to

447
00:36:52,559 --> 00:36:56,599
keep my expression neutral. People dream of lost loved ones

448
00:36:56,719 --> 00:37:01,519
all the time. It wasn't news. But here's the thing.

449
00:37:02,199 --> 00:37:05,840
She continued, rubbing her arms like she was suddenly cold.

450
00:37:06,559 --> 00:37:12,400
My neighbor saw us talking. I frowned, You mean in

451
00:37:12,519 --> 00:37:20,119
real life, No, in his dream. She looked at me, then,

452
00:37:20,639 --> 00:37:25,440
her eyes fierce and unwavering. He told me the next morning,

453
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:28,440
word for word, what Allan and I had talked about.

454
00:37:29,199 --> 00:37:31,960
He wasn't even in the bakery. He was sitting on

455
00:37:32,039 --> 00:37:34,719
his porch, but he said he could see us through

456
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:39,480
the window. A prickle off he knees ran down my spine.

457
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:47,760
Did he I swallowed? Did he say anything else. Missus

458
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:54,239
Calloway hesitated, he said, Allan. Allan looked at him like

459
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:59,360
he knew he was watching. I thought it was a

460
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,519
one off story, worry, an old woman missing her husband,

461
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:07,440
a neighbor with a good memory. Then I started hearing

462
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:11,719
the same thing from other people. A man at the

463
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:15,119
gas station, Mark Atwood, told me he had a dream

464
00:38:15,159 --> 00:38:19,039
about going fishing with his brother. Nothing strange about that,

465
00:38:20,199 --> 00:38:23,440
except his brother told me he remembered watching himself fish

466
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:28,079
from the shore. I wanted to say something, the brother said,

467
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:32,039
voice low, but I couldn't move. It was like I

468
00:38:32,079 --> 00:38:37,639
was stuck just watching. Neither of them realized the other

469
00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:42,480
had the same dream until I pointed it out. It

470
00:38:42,599 --> 00:38:47,000
didn't stop there. A teenage girl told me she dreamed

471
00:38:47,039 --> 00:38:49,679
of being lost in the woods. Her best friend swore

472
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,360
she had been in the dream with her. Her bar

473
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,239
patron swore up and down he had a conversation with

474
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:57,760
his wife and the dream, only to have her tell

475
00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:04,280
me she remembered the exact same detail. Different stories, different experiences,

476
00:39:05,159 --> 00:39:09,760
but always the same people. And when I asked each

477
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:14,679
of them a final question, the answer was always yes.

478
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:22,000
Did you listen to the signal before bed? They all

479
00:39:22,039 --> 00:39:26,239
had the hairs on the back of my neck. Wouldn't settle.

480
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:31,000
It wasn't just a weird coincidence anymore. I tried to

481
00:39:31,079 --> 00:39:35,760
rationalize it. Maybe it was suggestion. Maybe the whole town

482
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,159
was just in their own heads, feeding off each other's memories.

483
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:46,719
The details were too precise, like they weren't dreaming at all. Instead,

484
00:39:47,159 --> 00:39:54,519
it seemed like they were taken somewhere else together. The

485
00:39:54,639 --> 00:39:59,639
novelty was lost when the school teacher forgot her own name.

486
00:40:01,119 --> 00:40:04,800
Elliott's Hollow was the kind of town where everybody knew everybody.

487
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,760
There were only twelve teachers at the school, and Miss

488
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:12,880
Carter had been teaching first grade for twenty years. She

489
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,599
taught half the town's kids how to read, and yet

490
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:23,320
that morning she didn't remember who she was. I was

491
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:26,039
grabbing coffee from the diner when I heard the commotion.

492
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:29,480
A few of the parents were murmuring near the counter,

493
00:40:30,039 --> 00:40:34,480
voices hushed. I was starting toward the school. I caught

494
00:40:34,519 --> 00:40:37,760
Mark Atwood, the guy from the gas station, and asked

495
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:43,239
what happened. Miss Carter showed up late. He said, just

496
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,119
stood outside the building, like she didn't know where she was.

497
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:52,639
Mark frowned. He looked pale. She didn't know her own name.

498
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:59,199
That stopped me called, what do you mean? I mean

499
00:40:59,559 --> 00:41:04,920
she didn't remember? He let out a shaky breath. Shifting uneasily.

500
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:11,320
She kept saying she was someone else. A beat of

501
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:18,280
silence passed between us. It wasn't just miss Carter. Down

502
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,840
at the general store, Henry Weaver was refusing to open

503
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,400
the register. He'd been working the counter for as long

504
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,400
as I could remember. No one else ran the store.

505
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:34,079
He knew every supplier, every stock order. But today he

506
00:41:34,159 --> 00:41:37,920
stood behind the counter, hands flat against the wood and

507
00:41:38,039 --> 00:41:46,159
shook his head. I don't know how, he said. His son, Matt,

508
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:51,119
hovered near the door, looking frantic. Dad, It's just a register.

509
00:41:51,599 --> 00:41:53,559
You told me how to use it when I was twelve.

510
00:41:55,320 --> 00:42:02,760
Henry wouldn't budge, because Henry wasn't Henry anymore. I'm not

511
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:07,320
supposed to be here, he mumbled. I'm not. I don't

512
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:13,079
work here, but you do, Matt said. Henry turned to

513
00:42:13,119 --> 00:42:16,559
me then, as if just noticing I was standing there.

514
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:24,480
I'm the mayor, he whispered. The blood drained from my face.

515
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:29,920
Henry wasn't the mayor, he had never been the mayor.

516
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:35,199
But I'd heard that phrase before. A few days ago,

517
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:39,079
I spoke with a real mayor, John Hartley about the signal,

518
00:42:39,599 --> 00:42:42,800
asking if the town had any old records of experimental

519
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:47,840
radio tests. He told me he'd been having strange dreams.

520
00:42:48,519 --> 00:42:53,400
In the dream, he said, I wasn't myself, I was

521
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:58,639
Henry Weaver. I hadn't thought much about it at the time.

522
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:02,280
The whole town of been dreaming about each other. It

523
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:04,760
had just been a weird little pattern I was trying

524
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:10,039
to make sense of. But now Henry thought he was John,

525
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:18,519
and John was nowhere to be found. By evening, I

526
00:43:18,639 --> 00:43:23,079
was feeling sick. I went to the pharmacy, half convinced

527
00:43:23,119 --> 00:43:27,320
I was coming down with something, when heard crying from

528
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:31,480
the back of the store. A woman was sobbing, barely

529
00:43:31,519 --> 00:43:38,519
able to form words. It was Alice Perdue. I knew Alice.

530
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:41,280
She had lived alone in a yellow house near the

531
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:45,960
edge of town. She had never been married, never had kids.

532
00:43:46,559 --> 00:43:51,039
But that night she sat on the pharmacy floor, shaking violently,

533
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:59,440
whispering where's my son. The clerk, Tina Beckett, looked helpless

534
00:43:59,559 --> 00:44:03,599
kneeling beside her. You don't have a son, she said,

535
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:09,679
her voice gentle. Alice jerked away from her touch. I do,

536
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,400
she spat, I do, I do? I know I do?

537
00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:17,599
She choked on the words, I remember him, I raised him,

538
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:21,079
tucked him in every night. I know his name, I

539
00:44:21,159 --> 00:44:26,519
know his face. Tina looked up at me, fear pulling

540
00:44:26,559 --> 00:44:31,440
in her eyes. Alice gripped my wrist, her nails dug

541
00:44:31,559 --> 00:44:36,599
into my skin. Where is he? She pleaded? Where did

542
00:44:36,639 --> 00:44:43,000
he go? I had no answer, because I was starting

543
00:44:43,039 --> 00:44:47,800
to believe her. I sat in my car outside the pharmacy,

544
00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:51,559
long after the lights had gone dark, inside, gripping the

545
00:44:51,599 --> 00:44:57,000
steering wheels so hard my knuckles ached. Alice's sobs still

546
00:44:57,039 --> 00:45:00,000
echoed in my head, The raw panic in a voice,

547
00:45:00,599 --> 00:45:05,119
The certainty, the absolute certainty that she had a son,

548
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:08,480
even though no one in town had ever known her

549
00:45:08,559 --> 00:45:13,960
to have one. I couldn't shake it. Neither could I

550
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,960
shake the look on Henry Weaver's face when he told

551
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:21,400
me he was the mayor. He hadn't been confused or delusional.

552
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:24,599
He had been sure as I was, that I was

553
00:45:24,679 --> 00:45:28,559
Daniel Langley, local reporter, a guy who spent his time

554
00:45:28,599 --> 00:45:33,599
writing about farmers markets and high school football games. But

555
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,920
what if I woke up tomorrow and found myself believing

556
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:41,119
I was someone else. The thought made my stomach churn.

557
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:47,000
This town was my home. I'd spent years covering its stories.

558
00:45:47,519 --> 00:45:51,159
I knew every back road, every face, every corner of

559
00:45:51,199 --> 00:45:57,079
this place that most people had forgotten even existed, and

560
00:45:57,159 --> 00:46:03,360
now it was falling apart. People weren't just forgetting things.

561
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,960
They were becoming something else, and no one outside of

562
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:12,039
town was going to care. We didn't have big city

563
00:46:12,119 --> 00:46:15,360
news outlets knocking at our doors. There were no government

564
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:20,159
officials rolling in to investigate if something was happening to us.

565
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:26,920
We were on our own. The thought terrified me, but

566
00:46:27,039 --> 00:46:31,519
it also hardened something inside me. I had to know.

567
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:36,199
It wasn't about a story anymore. It wasn't about getting

568
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:39,960
the next edition of the gazette printed on time. This

569
00:46:40,199 --> 00:46:44,519
was my town. These were my people, and if something

570
00:46:44,599 --> 00:46:49,480
was taking them, twisting them, stealing their identities, then I

571
00:46:49,519 --> 00:46:52,119
couldn't just sit back and report on it like some

572
00:46:52,199 --> 00:46:58,599
passive observer. I needed to understand. I needed to see

573
00:46:58,599 --> 00:47:04,119
the dream for myself. I took a slow, steady breath,

574
00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:09,199
turned the dial on my radio, and let the signal

575
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:17,679
take me. I don't remember falling asleep. I remember static,

576
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:21,679
low and endless, stretching in the back of my mind,

577
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:25,519
like the distant hum of power lines. I remember the

578
00:47:25,519 --> 00:47:29,519
feeling of drifting, like my body wasn't my own anymore.

579
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:38,400
Then I was somewhere else. I was standing in Elliott's Hollow,

580
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:44,960
but it wasn't Elliott's hollow. The street stretched endlessly, warping

581
00:47:45,079 --> 00:47:50,280
into impossible distances. Buildings flickered like they were struggling to

582
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:54,400
decide what they were supposed to be. Some houses looked

583
00:47:54,519 --> 00:47:57,639
years older than they should have been. They woodn't planks,

584
00:47:57,639 --> 00:48:03,159
sagging with rot. Others looked too new, pristine, like they

585
00:48:03,159 --> 00:48:08,280
had just been built yesterday. The air smelt thick and electric,

586
00:48:10,639 --> 00:48:18,000
and the people they weren't right. I turned my breath hitching.

587
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:24,760
The townsfolk were here, but they weren't normal. Some were

588
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:28,400
half formed, their bodies flickering like a weak TV signal,

589
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:35,000
snapping between ages, heights, even genders. Miss Carter, the school teacher,

590
00:48:35,159 --> 00:48:39,159
stood on the sidewalk, but her face was blurred. She

591
00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:44,800
shifted between being herself and someone else entirely. Henry Weaver,

592
00:48:45,199 --> 00:48:48,559
the store clerk who thought he was the mayor, stood motionless,

593
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:52,719
staring at the sky. His mouth opened and closed over

594
00:48:52,840 --> 00:48:56,320
and over, like a puppet, waiting for the right words

595
00:48:56,559 --> 00:49:01,719
to be placed inside him. And then were the others,

596
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:04,239
the ones who had stayed in the dream too long.

597
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:11,840
They hadn't just merged memories, they had merged completely. I

598
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:15,239
saw a mother cradling an infant in her arms, rocking

599
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:23,159
it slowly. I stepped closer and nearly screamed. The child's

600
00:49:23,159 --> 00:49:27,599
face was her own, A smaller stretched version of it

601
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:32,840
pressed against the shoulder, mouthing silent words and unison. Their

602
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:36,960
limbs fused together in places, the skin, stitching them into

603
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:41,039
a single writhing shape. They turned to look at me

604
00:49:41,519 --> 00:49:46,880
at the same time, two sets of identical eyes, two mouths,

605
00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:52,599
whispering the same words. We are one, We are one,

606
00:49:53,119 --> 00:49:58,800
We are one. Some had grown too large. I saw

607
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:02,119
a man that wasn't a at all anymore, but a

608
00:50:02,159 --> 00:50:07,599
mass of bodies, tangled and shifting. They couldn't decide which

609
00:50:07,679 --> 00:50:12,280
one was supposed to be in control. Faces bubbled beneath

610
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:16,079
his skin, rising up like something pressing against the surface

611
00:50:16,119 --> 00:50:20,360
of water. A hand burst from his chest, flexing his

612
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:26,719
fingers before sinking back inside. He turned, his three mouths,

613
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:36,000
speaking in unison. Daniel, I ran, and I didn't make

614
00:50:36,039 --> 00:50:39,960
it far before I hand grabbed my wrist. I jerked away,

615
00:50:40,360 --> 00:50:48,559
my breath ragged, but the grip was steady, human, real able. Cooper,

616
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:55,480
the old blind man. But even he wasn't untouched. There

617
00:50:55,519 --> 00:50:58,840
was a shadow of another face behind his own, flickering

618
00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:02,079
in and out of existance, like a second exposure in

619
00:51:02,159 --> 00:51:06,679
a photograph. It whispered, along with his voice, just a

620
00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:12,719
split second behind. You shouldn't be here, boy, he murmured.

621
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:20,119
I swallowed backpile. What the hell is this place? Abel's

622
00:51:20,199 --> 00:51:26,199
lips tightened. He turned his head slightly, listening. You're still awake,

623
00:51:27,039 --> 00:51:31,039
he muttered, not like the rest of them. But that

624
00:51:31,159 --> 00:51:39,119
won't last long. I shuddered, Why what's happening to them?

625
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:46,119
Abel exhaled slowly, his grip tightened. Every time we dream,

626
00:51:46,639 --> 00:51:50,440
we lose a little more of ourselves, he said softly.

627
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:55,360
He nodded toward the twisting figures, the mouths that didn't

628
00:51:55,360 --> 00:52:00,400
stop whispering, the ones who stayed too long forget yet

629
00:52:00,599 --> 00:52:06,280
they were ever awake. The horror sank into my bones.

630
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:11,519
It wasn't just a dream, The slow, careful dismantling of

631
00:52:11,559 --> 00:52:15,199
who they had been, breaking them down into something else.

632
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:21,760
And I was standing in the middle of it. Abel

633
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:25,719
turned back to me, and for the first time I

634
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:30,519
saw fear in his face. You need to wake up.

635
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:35,639
I spent the next day digging through every record I

636
00:52:35,639 --> 00:52:41,480
could find. Something inside me had shifted. People were disappearing,

637
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:47,639
or worse, they were dissolving into something else. Even when

638
00:52:47,639 --> 00:52:50,760
I brought up names that should have been familiar, people

639
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:54,000
I knew had lived here, worked here, had lives here,

640
00:52:55,039 --> 00:52:59,400
I was met with blank stairs. I knew I didn't

641
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:02,639
have much time. I'm the next person to be raised

642
00:53:02,679 --> 00:53:06,519
could be me, So I did the only thing that

643
00:53:06,599 --> 00:53:12,320
made sense. I went looking for the sauce. The first

644
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:17,159
step was figuring out where the transmission was coming from. Elliott's.

645
00:53:17,159 --> 00:53:22,000
Hollow had one radio station, ninety seven point three Hollow Radio,

646
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:26,159
and I already knew it wasn't them. That meant there

647
00:53:26,199 --> 00:53:31,679
had to be another broadcast tower somewhere nearby. I needed help.

648
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:35,559
I drove out to the edge of town, where I

649
00:53:35,639 --> 00:53:39,000
knew i'd find Ben Howorth, the closest thing this town

650
00:53:39,079 --> 00:53:43,039
had to attech Guy. He ran the only electronics repair

651
00:53:43,079 --> 00:53:47,000
shop in Hollow, though mostly he just fixed old radios

652
00:53:47,039 --> 00:53:50,599
and short wave equipment. When I told him what I

653
00:53:50,639 --> 00:53:56,079
was looking for. He frowned. There's no other broadcast tower

654
00:53:56,119 --> 00:54:00,599
and range, he said, rubbing his chin. One they're supposed

655
00:54:00,599 --> 00:54:05,320
to be here anyway, But if there was, I pressed.

656
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:09,760
Ben sighed and pulled a yellowed map from a drawer,

657
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:13,760
spreading it across his workbench. He ran his finger over

658
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:18,280
the terrain, stopping near the Northern Woods. Only place a

659
00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:21,039
rogue signal like that could be coming from is the

660
00:54:21,079 --> 00:54:29,880
old relay station. I stiffened. Relay station. Ben nodded. It

661
00:54:30,079 --> 00:54:33,519
was set up back in the sixties, some government project.

662
00:54:34,079 --> 00:54:36,880
No one really knew what it was for. They abandoned

663
00:54:36,920 --> 00:54:44,320
it decades ago. Why, I asked, Ben shrugged, no idea.

664
00:54:45,079 --> 00:54:48,960
One day he was active, the next it wasn't. Figured

665
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:52,679
they shut it down for good. He glanced up at me.

666
00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:57,159
But if someone turned it back on, that's where you'd

667
00:54:57,159 --> 00:55:03,519
want to start looking. The Northern Woods weren't somewhere people

668
00:55:03,559 --> 00:55:08,599
went willingly. The trees were thick, the paths overgrown, and

669
00:55:08,679 --> 00:55:12,400
even in the daylight, the place had an unnatural stillness.

670
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:18,239
I followed an old service road, half buried under dead leaves.

671
00:55:18,920 --> 00:55:24,679
Then through the trees, I saw it a rusted chain

672
00:55:24,760 --> 00:55:30,400
link fence, pent in places barely holding together. Beyond it,

673
00:55:30,840 --> 00:55:35,280
a squat concrete structure half buried in the hillside, its

674
00:55:35,320 --> 00:55:40,880
exterior streaked with decades of rain and moss. The relay station,

675
00:55:42,679 --> 00:55:45,760
a faded government emblem was still visible on the front,

676
00:55:46,519 --> 00:55:51,079
but the door was open. Inside. The air was thick

677
00:55:51,159 --> 00:55:56,639
with dust. The place had been gutted long ago. Desks overturned,

678
00:55:56,800 --> 00:56:01,920
papers scattered across the floor. Abnets lined the walls, some

679
00:56:02,199 --> 00:56:07,760
still filled with yellowed folders, water damaged notebooks. I picked

680
00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:13,320
one up, flipping through its pages. It was just technical jargon,

681
00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:22,719
broadcast frequencies, signal strength measurements. Then something stranger. I skimmed

682
00:56:22,719 --> 00:56:29,079
through a section labeled Phase one theoretical applications. If successful,

683
00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:34,119
the test will confirm cross subject of connectivity between individuals

684
00:56:34,679 --> 00:56:40,840
as shared cognitive framework, the beginning of true unity. Sustained

685
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:45,840
exposure should result in memory cohesion across multiple subjects, leading

686
00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:51,639
to eventual total synthesis of identities. A lump formed in

687
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:56,360
my throat. This whole thing was some sort of sick test,

688
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:00,800
and the people of Elliot's Hollow had been the subjects.

689
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:07,559
I flipped ahead, scanning the latter pages. Then my breath caught.

690
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:12,840
There was a projected start date, but set all the

691
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:17,119
way back in the seventies. However, there were no reports

692
00:57:17,119 --> 00:57:20,519
of anything like this before, even from the folks who

693
00:57:20,559 --> 00:57:24,559
lived through that era. Something had stopped it back then,

694
00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:28,039
whether it was the researchers having a change of heart

695
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:33,800
or the project being shut down, But now someone else

696
00:57:34,079 --> 00:57:39,239
started it. I forced myself to move. I followed the

697
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:43,480
tangled mess of all cables, stepping over broken equipment until

698
00:57:43,519 --> 00:57:49,199
I reached the back room. And there it was the transmitter,

699
00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:54,480
a tower of rusted metal and ancient dials, still active,

700
00:57:54,679 --> 00:57:59,360
still humming a signal relay, looping the same song endlessly.

701
00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:06,360
It was still broadcasting. I clenched my jaw and moved

702
00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:11,280
toward the controls. The dials were unmarked, the labels peeled away,

703
00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:16,440
but I found what I was looking for. The switch,

704
00:58:17,719 --> 00:58:23,480
a simple power switch. My hands were shaking. If I'd

705
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,679
turned this off, would it stop? Would the town go

706
00:58:27,800 --> 00:58:32,760
back to normal? Or had the damage already been done?

707
00:58:33,079 --> 00:58:37,559
I didn't know, but I didn't have a choice. I

708
00:58:37,679 --> 00:58:42,320
reached out and flipped the switch. The signal cut off,

709
00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:46,920
the song stopped. The air around me felt violently empty.

710
00:58:48,920 --> 00:58:55,199
I thought I'd fixed everything. The town should have been silent,

711
00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:59,039
the relay station was off, the signal shouldn't be playing

712
00:58:59,079 --> 00:59:02,440
any more. But as I stepped out of my car

713
00:59:02,559 --> 00:59:06,159
in the middle of the main street, I heard it,

714
00:59:07,559 --> 00:59:13,440
a soft, distant melody, faint but still there, still looping,

715
00:59:13,920 --> 00:59:19,159
still inside them. At first glance, Elliot's Hollow looked the

716
00:59:19,159 --> 00:59:23,280
same as always. The diner was open. People walked along

717
00:59:23,320 --> 00:59:27,519
the sidewalks, the low murmur of conversation drifting between them.

718
00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:33,639
But then I listened closer. Two men stood outside the

719
00:59:33,639 --> 00:59:39,800
gas station talking. Their voices overlapped, not like an echo,

720
00:59:40,599 --> 00:59:44,400
like a single voice, split between two mouths, speaking in

721
00:59:44,559 --> 00:59:49,199
perfect unison. They paused at the same time. They blinked

722
00:59:49,199 --> 00:59:53,320
at the same time. Then one of them said something

723
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:59,440
the other hadn't. The conversation stumbled, fractured for a moment.

724
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:03,079
They both looked confused, like they weren't sure which one

725
01:00:03,079 --> 01:00:06,599
of them had been the one to speak. Then just

726
01:00:06,639 --> 01:00:11,239
as quickly they shook it off, laughed, kept talking like

727
01:00:11,400 --> 01:00:16,000
nothing was wrong. Inside the diner, I saw a teenage

728
01:00:16,039 --> 01:00:19,159
girl sitting alone in a booth, staring at the table.

729
01:00:20,360 --> 01:00:25,360
I recognized her, Anna Halloway. But when I said her name.

730
01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:32,199
She didn't look up. It's not right, she murmured. I

731
01:00:32,199 --> 01:00:38,159
took a slow step forward. What isn't? She swallowed hard.

732
01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:42,639
I don't remember my own name, but I remember being

733
01:00:42,719 --> 01:00:49,159
mister Grant, she said, her voice hollow. I stiffened. Grant,

734
01:00:49,719 --> 01:00:54,880
I echoed. She nodded, blinking rapidly, like she was trying

735
01:00:54,920 --> 01:00:59,119
to reset herself. I was the butcher, I owned the

736
01:00:59,159 --> 01:01:02,760
shop and maple. I remember standing behind the counter. I

737
01:01:02,840 --> 01:01:08,199
remember sharpening the knives, cutting meat. Hans curled into fists

738
01:01:08,239 --> 01:01:12,119
on the table. But I'm not him. I know I'm

739
01:01:12,119 --> 01:01:17,519
not him. So why do I remember everything about his life?

740
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:20,679
I didn't have an answer, because I had seen mister

741
01:01:20,760 --> 01:01:24,719
Grant just last week. He'd been in his shop wiping

742
01:01:24,760 --> 01:01:29,719
down the counters, chatting about an upcoming storm. But now

743
01:01:30,079 --> 01:01:33,400
I always remembering his life like it was hers, and

744
01:01:33,519 --> 01:01:38,280
i'd no idea where he was. The bartender at O'Malley's

745
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:41,960
was wiping down the counter when I walked in. I'd

746
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:45,519
met him a dozen times before. His name was Trevor.

747
01:01:46,519 --> 01:01:50,760
But when I greeted him, he smiled and said, I'm

748
01:01:50,800 --> 01:01:56,840
mister Calloway. I felt I scrawl up my spine. Mister

749
01:01:56,880 --> 01:02:01,519
Calloway had died five years ago. I backed out of

750
01:02:01,559 --> 01:02:05,679
the bar without another word. Across the street, an old

751
01:02:05,719 --> 01:02:08,559
woman was sat on a bench, rocking back and forth.

752
01:02:09,360 --> 01:02:15,920
She was crying. I approached slowly, keeping my voice calm, ma'am,

753
01:02:16,559 --> 01:02:20,440
Are you all right? She looked up at me with

754
01:02:20,599 --> 01:02:25,360
too many emotions at once. I remember being a child,

755
01:02:25,960 --> 01:02:30,960
she whispered. I swallowed. I remember running through the orchard.

756
01:02:31,480 --> 01:02:34,519
I remember my father lifting me under his shoulders, telling

757
01:02:34,599 --> 01:02:37,880
me to pick the ripest apples. I remember the smell

758
01:02:37,920 --> 01:02:42,039
of my mother's cooking. She clutched the front of her

759
01:02:42,079 --> 01:02:48,239
shirt with trembling fingers. But I don't remember my own life,

760
01:02:48,280 --> 01:02:53,199
she whimpered. Her sharp wind blew through the street, and

761
01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:56,400
she closed her eyes, letting it pass over her like

762
01:02:56,440 --> 01:03:00,920
a tide. When she opened them again, she was calm.

763
01:03:01,719 --> 01:03:06,920
She sat up a little straighter. I remember being able Cooper,

764
01:03:07,639 --> 01:03:13,719
she said, And just like that, her voice had changed deeper,

765
01:03:14,239 --> 01:03:22,719
more certain. Abel's gone, she murmured, but I still remember him.

766
01:03:23,840 --> 01:03:28,039
I stepped back, my chest, tightening. The ones who listened

767
01:03:28,079 --> 01:03:30,679
the longest, the ones who had been playing the signal

768
01:03:30,719 --> 01:03:35,119
and repeat, they weren't just merging memories. They were becoming

769
01:03:35,159 --> 01:03:38,800
part of each other. They were pieces of the same hole,

770
01:03:39,079 --> 01:03:43,760
and they didn't even realize it. I drove the town hall, hoping,

771
01:03:44,280 --> 01:03:47,920
praying that maybe someone had noticed that, maybe I would

772
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:53,039
find an emergency team, government officials, anyone. But when I

773
01:03:53,039 --> 01:03:58,559
stepped through the doors, the building was empty. No records,

774
01:03:58,639 --> 01:04:02,199
no case files, no sign that anyone had ever tried

775
01:04:02,239 --> 01:04:06,880
to intervene. I dug through the offices, my breath quickening.

776
01:04:07,960 --> 01:04:11,440
There had to be something, but the cabinets were bare,

777
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:17,079
the desks were hollow, the records were gone. This town

778
01:04:18,360 --> 01:04:23,599
had been left alone. Whoever had started this never intended

779
01:04:23,599 --> 01:04:29,000
to undo it, and no one was coming to save us.

780
01:04:31,280 --> 01:04:34,440
I didn't want to go back. Everything in my body

781
01:04:34,599 --> 01:04:38,880
screamed not to, But as I stood outside the realization,

782
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:44,039
staring at its rotting, moss covered shell, I knew I

783
01:04:44,119 --> 01:04:49,840
didn't have a choice. The town was already lost. I

784
01:04:49,960 --> 01:04:56,000
had to understand why. The papers were still scattered across

785
01:04:56,039 --> 01:04:59,960
the floor, just as I had left them. I crouched down,

786
01:05:00,159 --> 01:05:03,519
running my hands over them, flipping through their brittle pages.

787
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:08,760
The words meant nothing now I had already read them.

788
01:05:09,119 --> 01:05:11,719
But then as I pushed the side a thick stack

789
01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:17,400
near the control console. I saw it, a seam in

790
01:05:17,440 --> 01:05:22,039
the floor, a sliver of metal just barely exposed beneath

791
01:05:22,039 --> 01:05:26,360
the weight of discarded documents. I brushed the rest away,

792
01:05:26,880 --> 01:05:31,119
revealing a hatch, rusted at the edges, its handle cold

793
01:05:31,159 --> 01:05:36,199
beneath my fingers. There were no markings, no labels, no

794
01:05:36,400 --> 01:05:41,880
signs of what was beneath. I hesitated. The thought of

795
01:05:41,920 --> 01:05:45,639
going deeper made my stomach twist, but I had come

796
01:05:45,719 --> 01:05:51,480
this far. I turned the handle. It groaned, metal protesting

797
01:05:51,679 --> 01:05:57,280
against years of disuse. Then with a slow, reluctant creak,

798
01:05:58,679 --> 01:06:04,599
the hatch opened. The air inside was different, not stale,

799
01:06:04,679 --> 01:06:08,239
like the rest of the station. A ladder led down

800
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:12,519
into darkness. The rungs were cold and damp, and as

801
01:06:12,559 --> 01:06:16,639
I descended, the only sound was my own breath, shallow

802
01:06:16,760 --> 01:06:21,079
and unsteady. The space beneath the station was smaller than

803
01:06:21,119 --> 01:06:26,840
I expected, low concrete walls, exposed wiring, and at the

804
01:06:26,880 --> 01:06:30,920
far end, sitting on a steel desk, glowing dimly in

805
01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:40,639
the faint light, a terminal it was still on. I

806
01:06:40,719 --> 01:06:45,639
took a slow step forward. The screen was dark at first, then,

807
01:06:45,960 --> 01:06:51,559
as if sensing me, a blinking cursor appeared. Lines of

808
01:06:51,639 --> 01:06:57,440
text rolled out, slow and deliberate. Are you the next?

809
01:06:59,199 --> 01:07:02,599
My throat tightened and I didn't want to answer, but

810
01:07:02,719 --> 01:07:08,480
my hands moved on their own. Who are you? A

811
01:07:08,559 --> 01:07:14,679
long pause and words materialized, one by one. We were

812
01:07:14,719 --> 01:07:19,960
the first. The words hit me in the chest. I

813
01:07:20,039 --> 01:07:28,880
typed again, First what? The screen flickered more words, First

814
01:07:28,920 --> 01:07:34,280
to merge, first to evolve. I felt the cold metal

815
01:07:34,280 --> 01:07:37,880
of the desk beneath my fingers. I already knew what

816
01:07:37,920 --> 01:07:42,360
it was saying. I just needed to hear it. What

817
01:07:42,679 --> 01:07:47,960
happened to the researchers? This time? There was no hesitation.

818
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:56,679
We became something greater. A sickening realization crawled through me.

819
01:07:57,880 --> 01:08:02,280
The station had never been abandoned. The people who worked here,

820
01:08:02,280 --> 01:08:05,880
the scientists, the researchers, the ones who had started this,

821
01:08:07,440 --> 01:08:13,280
they were still here, not embody. They'd become this, this

822
01:08:13,400 --> 01:08:20,680
collective intelligence pulsing through the terminal, waiting, watching, and now

823
01:08:21,960 --> 01:08:27,199
they were speaking to me. I forced myself to type again,

824
01:08:28,720 --> 01:08:35,920
what is this experiment? The response was instant, a gift.

825
01:08:37,800 --> 01:08:42,960
I clenched my jaw. What was the goal? A brief pause,

826
01:08:43,560 --> 01:08:51,000
then a single word ascension. My fingers hovered over the keys.

827
01:08:52,039 --> 01:08:56,039
They weren't just answering me, they were studying me. Their

828
01:08:56,039 --> 01:08:59,079
words felt genuine to a fault, like they were guiding

829
01:08:59,119 --> 01:09:03,199
me to an understand and leading me towards somewhere inevitable.

830
01:09:04,760 --> 01:09:10,359
I pressed forward, Why the town, Why these people? The

831
01:09:10,399 --> 01:09:17,439
screen flickered. The process must be gradual. Humanity fears they unknown.

832
01:09:18,319 --> 01:09:21,680
If they were taken all at once, they would resist,

833
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:29,800
but introduced in phases, they welcome it. I felt sick.

834
01:09:31,159 --> 01:09:34,640
They hadn't forced this on Elliott's Hollow. They'd eased them

835
01:09:34,640 --> 01:09:38,640
into it, through the radio, through the dream, until the

836
01:09:38,680 --> 01:09:43,560
town had willingly let go of their individuality, and now

837
01:09:43,720 --> 01:09:49,600
they were gone. The terminal pulsed again. This is what

838
01:09:49,720 --> 01:09:55,680
we were meant to become, I typed furiously. You're killing

839
01:09:55,720 --> 01:10:00,199
them for the first time, the curse of blink for

840
01:10:00,279 --> 01:10:04,399
longer than before. Then the words and the screen changed.

841
01:10:06,199 --> 01:10:10,079
I was Emily Holloway, my breath caught in my throat.

842
01:10:11,039 --> 01:10:17,560
Another line, another name. I was Sheriff Anders. More messages,

843
01:10:17,720 --> 01:10:22,279
more voices. I was Trevor, I was Anna, I was

844
01:10:22,319 --> 01:10:28,079
mister Callaway. Each one typed in perfect sequence. The people

845
01:10:28,159 --> 01:10:31,239
I'd seen in town, the ones who had forgotten themselves,

846
01:10:31,600 --> 01:10:35,479
the ones who had already merged, and in that moment

847
01:10:35,840 --> 01:10:43,479
I understood it was accelerating. A chill ran through me.

848
01:10:44,239 --> 01:10:47,079
I knew what they meant. My hands shook as I

849
01:10:47,199 --> 01:10:54,319
typed my final question, How do I stop it? No hesitation,

850
01:10:56,039 --> 01:11:02,439
you don't. Anger and frustration took over. I picked up

851
01:11:02,439 --> 01:11:05,479
a discarded pipe from the floor and wailed on the machine.

852
01:11:06,399 --> 01:11:10,560
The screen flickered on the brink of finally breaking. Then,

853
01:11:10,840 --> 01:11:14,199
when the screen blinked back to life, a single phrase

854
01:11:14,279 --> 01:11:21,439
flickered across the almost dead monitor. It's too late. The

855
01:11:21,479 --> 01:11:25,159
screen finally died with one last hit. The relay station

856
01:11:25,319 --> 01:11:30,600
hummed beneath my feet. I ran. I escaped back to

857
01:11:30,640 --> 01:11:34,119
my car, but there was nothing left for me in town.

858
01:11:34,720 --> 01:11:37,319
I feared what I would walk into if I went back.

859
01:11:38,880 --> 01:11:42,000
I drove as fast as I could, as far as

860
01:11:42,039 --> 01:11:45,039
I could, the headlights of my car tearing through the

861
01:11:45,079 --> 01:11:49,119
black night. The town vanished in my rear view mirror.

862
01:11:50,560 --> 01:11:54,640
But I hadn't saved them. I had only witnessed the inevitable.

863
01:11:56,159 --> 01:11:59,239
And when I finally reached the next town over, when

864
01:11:59,279 --> 01:12:04,119
I finally thought what I was safe, I heard it

865
01:12:05,640 --> 01:12:09,119
through the open doors of a small roadside diner, a

866
01:12:09,159 --> 01:12:15,279
familiar song playing softly from an old radio. Inside, people

867
01:12:15,319 --> 01:12:19,760
were talking, laughing, intrigued by this strange new station that

868
01:12:20,159 --> 01:12:29,600
just popped up, and occasionally the voices overlapped, perfectly, as

869
01:12:29,640 --> 01:12:42,640
if they were speaking as one. If you grow up

870
01:12:42,640 --> 01:12:46,399
in the city, adventure it's something you watch on a screen.

871
01:12:47,600 --> 01:12:50,359
You sit in front of a TV watching kids your

872
01:12:50,359 --> 01:12:54,840
age climb trees, build forts, sneak through the woods with flashlights.

873
01:12:55,640 --> 01:12:58,119
You see them find things you could only dream of,

874
01:12:58,199 --> 01:13:03,479
exploring hidden and forgotten places one's adults don't go to.

875
01:13:05,079 --> 01:13:08,920
But when you step outside, there's no wilderness waiting for you,

876
01:13:09,560 --> 01:13:14,960
No abandoned cabins with secrets inside, Just endless concrete sidewalks,

877
01:13:15,239 --> 01:13:19,920
chain link fences, apartment rooftops, dead ended alleys, a world

878
01:13:20,000 --> 01:13:24,239
where every inch of space is mapped, numbered, owned by

879
01:13:24,239 --> 01:13:29,960
someone else. The closest thing to adventure was jumping between buildings,

880
01:13:30,319 --> 01:13:34,119
sneaking into construction sites, tagging a name on walls that

881
01:13:34,239 --> 01:13:39,720
won't be there in a year. It wasn't enough, at

882
01:13:39,800 --> 01:13:46,199
least not for Liam. I've known Liam since we were kids.

883
01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:49,680
He was always the loudest voice in the room, the

884
01:13:49,760 --> 01:13:53,199
one with the biggest ideas. He could make you believe

885
01:13:53,239 --> 01:13:57,720
in something just because he did. If Liam said We're

886
01:13:57,760 --> 01:13:59,880
going to sneak into the old raw yard and see

887
01:14:00,039 --> 01:14:01,720
if we can get on top of a train before

888
01:14:01,760 --> 01:14:05,800
it moves, then yeah, you were going to do it.

889
01:14:06,880 --> 01:14:10,600
If he said this abandoned apartment tower is safe to climb,

890
01:14:10,920 --> 01:14:16,159
no one ever checks inside, you trusted him, and most

891
01:14:16,159 --> 01:14:20,520
of the time he was right. Ethan, on the other hand,

892
01:14:20,800 --> 01:14:27,039
was the opposite. He was quiet, thoughtful, always last to agree,

893
01:14:27,359 --> 01:14:30,960
but he never backed out. Here we stood just behind

894
01:14:31,000 --> 01:14:35,359
Liam and I, arms crossed, scowling, always looking like he

895
01:14:35,479 --> 01:14:39,920
was seconds away from saying this is stupid, but he

896
01:14:40,000 --> 01:14:44,880
never actually did. Ethan didn't love the things we did,

897
01:14:45,640 --> 01:14:50,199
but he loved being there. I fell somewhere between them.

898
01:14:51,600 --> 01:14:55,880
Liam led, Ethan hesitated, and I was the one who said,

899
01:14:56,520 --> 01:15:01,800
screw it, let's go. That was our balance. That was

900
01:15:01,840 --> 01:15:06,840
how it had always been until Liam said I think

901
01:15:06,880 --> 01:15:10,880
I know what we should do, and we said what,

902
01:15:12,359 --> 01:15:18,760
and he said, let's get out of the city. We

903
01:15:18,760 --> 01:15:21,920
were sitting on the roof of a half finished apartment complex,

904
01:15:22,319 --> 01:15:25,479
watching cars blur below us, the hum of the city.

905
01:15:25,680 --> 01:15:30,479
Swallowing our words. Liam was scrolling through his phone, flicking

906
01:15:30,479 --> 01:15:35,720
between photos of forests, lakes, abandoned buildings half swallowed by trees.

907
01:15:37,319 --> 01:15:40,800
This is what we're missing, he said. We waste all

908
01:15:40,840 --> 01:15:44,199
our time sneaking into places that suck. Look at this,

909
01:15:44,920 --> 01:15:50,119
actual abandoned places out in the woods, no cameras, no fences.

910
01:15:50,920 --> 01:15:54,520
We should do this. He want us to go camping,

911
01:15:55,119 --> 01:16:03,760
Ethan asked, skeptical, not camping exploring. Ethan sighed, how do

912
01:16:03,800 --> 01:16:07,399
you even find a place like that? I already did,

913
01:16:08,119 --> 01:16:12,439
Liam said, grinning. He turned his phone, showing us a

914
01:16:12,479 --> 01:16:16,319
grainy satellite image a patch of woods just past the

915
01:16:16,359 --> 01:16:21,840
city limits, near an old, unnamed road. There's something there,

916
01:16:22,560 --> 01:16:26,359
a building or I don't know, but no one goes

917
01:16:26,399 --> 01:16:29,880
out that way. No one talks about it. It's just there,

918
01:16:30,199 --> 01:16:33,560
sitting in the middle of nowhere. How do you know

919
01:16:33,640 --> 01:16:37,159
it's not private property? I asked, How do you know

920
01:16:37,239 --> 01:16:43,800
it isn't, Liam shot back. Ethan scoffed, that's a solid argument, dude,

921
01:16:44,119 --> 01:16:50,840
really airtight, Liam ignored him, leaning forward, eyes bright. Come on,

922
01:16:51,119 --> 01:16:54,560
just one trip. We leave Saturday morning, check it out,

923
01:16:54,760 --> 01:16:57,560
and come back before dark, just like the kids in

924
01:16:57,600 --> 01:17:02,159
the movies. Just one time, I could see it in

925
01:17:02,239 --> 01:17:07,000
his face. He'd already decided, and part of me already

926
01:17:07,079 --> 01:17:12,720
knew that I had as well. Ethan sighed, shaking his head,

927
01:17:13,560 --> 01:17:20,159
but he didn't say no. The weekend came and we went.

928
01:17:23,319 --> 01:17:26,039
It felt weird stepping onto a bus that took us

929
01:17:26,039 --> 01:17:29,960
away from the city instead of deeper into it, watching

930
01:17:30,000 --> 01:17:34,479
the skyline shrink behind us, disappearing behind hills and stretches

931
01:17:34,560 --> 01:17:38,560
of open road. I caught Ethan staring at the window,

932
01:17:39,000 --> 01:17:43,399
watching the trees go past, hands clenched on his backpack straps.

933
01:17:44,119 --> 01:17:48,319
Liam was grinning. He kept checking his phone, double checking

934
01:17:48,359 --> 01:17:53,880
the location he'd found. Almost there, he said, eyes shining.

935
01:17:55,760 --> 01:17:58,479
The bus let us off at a half empty gas station,

936
01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:03,439
where the only road ahead stretched into the trees. It

937
01:18:03,520 --> 01:18:09,199
felt different here. The air was quieter, almost peaceful, like

938
01:18:09,279 --> 01:18:12,000
we had stepped out of our world and into another.

939
01:18:13,760 --> 01:18:16,359
Liam was the first to walk toward the tree line,

940
01:18:16,760 --> 01:18:24,359
sneakers crunching against the dirt. Let's go, he said. We followed.

941
01:18:26,239 --> 01:18:30,039
The woods were bigger than I expected, not just taller,

942
01:18:30,600 --> 01:18:36,800
but deeper. The city was all about height, skyscrapers, bridges,

943
01:18:37,279 --> 01:18:43,319
endless metals stacked toward the sky. This was different. It

944
01:18:43,399 --> 01:18:48,399
felt old and alive. The trees stretched high above us,

945
01:18:48,840 --> 01:18:53,319
branches twisting like vanes against the sky. The air was

946
01:18:53,359 --> 01:18:57,880
cooler here, thick with a scent of dirt and pine.

947
01:18:58,039 --> 01:19:01,720
The only sounds were our own footsteps, the occasional snap

948
01:19:01,760 --> 01:19:05,000
of a branch, and the distant hum of something unseen

949
01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:10,560
went through leaves or something else. Entirely, for the first

950
01:19:10,600 --> 01:19:15,800
time in my life, I felt small, and from the

951
01:19:15,840 --> 01:19:22,239
look on Liam's face, he'd never felt bigger. See he said,

952
01:19:22,479 --> 01:19:26,039
spinning in a slow circle, arms outstretched like he was

953
01:19:26,079 --> 01:19:29,800
soaking it in. This is what I'm talking about, This

954
01:19:29,960 --> 01:19:34,880
is what we've been missing, Ethan muttered as he kicked

955
01:19:34,880 --> 01:19:40,359
a rock, but I could tell even he was feeling it.

956
01:19:42,359 --> 01:19:45,560
We ran through the trees like kids, throwing rocks into

957
01:19:45,600 --> 01:19:49,399
a half dried stream, scaling fallen logs like we were

958
01:19:49,399 --> 01:19:54,439
climbing mountains. At one point, Liam grabbed a branch, swinging

959
01:19:54,479 --> 01:19:58,000
from it like Tarzan, whooping before dropping into a pile

960
01:19:58,039 --> 01:20:05,600
of leaves. We were in it, a real adventure for once.

961
01:20:06,000 --> 01:20:09,720
This wasn't something we were watching on a screen. We

962
01:20:09,720 --> 01:20:14,479
were living it. And then Liam found the building we'd

963
01:20:14,520 --> 01:20:19,439
been looking for. It was almost hidden, swallowed by the trees.

964
01:20:20,760 --> 01:20:23,840
At first, it looked like a hill covered in vines

965
01:20:23,880 --> 01:20:26,640
and dead leaves, like the forest that tried to pull

966
01:20:26,680 --> 01:20:31,119
it underground to erase it. But then I saw the

967
01:20:31,239 --> 01:20:36,920
edges of a structure, concrete, cracked and weathered, barely visible

968
01:20:36,960 --> 01:20:41,680
through the overgrowth. And when Liam pushed forward, brushing aside

969
01:20:41,680 --> 01:20:47,119
the vines, the truth became clear. It was a building,

970
01:20:48,039 --> 01:20:51,720
half buried, lopsided like it had sunk into the earth,

971
01:20:52,319 --> 01:20:56,600
a sagging roof, broken windows, and a doorway gaping open

972
01:20:56,880 --> 01:21:04,000
into darkness. Liam's eyes went wide. He stepped forward, running

973
01:21:04,039 --> 01:21:08,399
a hand along the crumbling wall. This is it, he

974
01:21:08,479 --> 01:21:15,800
exclaimed with joy. Ethan stiffened. What there was some urban legend,

975
01:21:16,479 --> 01:21:21,079
Liam said, absently, still staring at it, someplace in the

976
01:21:21,079 --> 01:21:24,239
woods where I don't know people used to go and

977
01:21:24,319 --> 01:21:30,279
never come back. Ethan scoffed, cool, that's real comforting, man.

978
01:21:31,880 --> 01:21:36,399
But Liam wasn't listening. He was already walking toward the entrance.

979
01:21:38,199 --> 01:21:41,760
I felt something shift in my stomach, a feeling like

980
01:21:41,840 --> 01:21:45,920
we had stepped over an invisible line, like up until

981
01:21:46,000 --> 01:21:51,479
now we had been on safe ground, liam, Ethan called,

982
01:21:51,720 --> 01:21:57,079
his voice sharpened. Now maybe we should But Liam had

983
01:21:57,119 --> 01:22:07,960
already stepped inside, and likeways, we followed inside. The air

984
01:22:08,079 --> 01:22:13,720
felt wrong, not just stale, just still. We could tell

985
01:22:13,800 --> 01:22:17,239
no one had set foot in air for years, maybe decades.

986
01:22:18,359 --> 01:22:21,640
The floor was covered in dust, except for where rain

987
01:22:21,680 --> 01:22:24,800
had dripped through the cracks in the ceiling, leaving dark

988
01:22:25,000 --> 01:22:29,119
water log stains. The walls were made of concrete and

989
01:22:29,279 --> 01:22:34,239
rusted metal beams, part of them buckling inward, threatening to collapse.

990
01:22:35,600 --> 01:22:40,039
The long hallways stretched ahead of us, dark doorways gaping open,

991
01:22:40,560 --> 01:22:46,199
leading deeper into the unknown. And yet despite all of that,

992
01:22:47,399 --> 01:22:53,680
Liam was grinning. This is insane, he said, stepping forward,

993
01:22:54,000 --> 01:22:58,039
his voice echoing through the empty space, like how the

994
01:22:58,119 --> 01:23:01,640
hell has no one found this? Maybe because they don't

995
01:23:01,640 --> 01:23:07,760
want to, Ethan muttered. Liam ignored him. He ran his

996
01:23:07,840 --> 01:23:11,399
hand along the walls, kicking had a fallen chair. The

997
01:23:11,520 --> 01:23:16,279
sounds sharp in the silence, You feel that, he asked,

998
01:23:16,399 --> 01:23:21,640
looking over his shoulder. That energy like something big happened here.

999
01:23:23,119 --> 01:23:27,119
Ethan scoffed, Yeah, pretty sure. The big thing was time

1000
01:23:27,159 --> 01:23:31,640
and gravity. Dude, this place is falling apart. Come on,

1001
01:23:32,359 --> 01:23:36,600
Liam said, still grinning. A little imagination never hurt anyone.

1002
01:23:38,079 --> 01:23:42,840
For the first few minutes, it was fun. We kicked

1003
01:23:42,840 --> 01:23:46,119
through odd furniture, picked up faded scraps of paper that

1004
01:23:46,239 --> 01:23:49,840
had long since become unreadable, made up stories about what

1005
01:23:49,920 --> 01:23:53,720
this place used to be, an old military bunker, had

1006
01:23:53,760 --> 01:23:58,000
cold tied out a secret government lab. The only thing

1007
01:23:58,079 --> 01:24:00,800
we were missing to truly make this a move was

1008
01:24:00,840 --> 01:24:07,159
a big camera. But then, after a while Ethan stopped

1009
01:24:07,159 --> 01:24:11,520
playing along. I noticed it when he started hanging back,

1010
01:24:11,920 --> 01:24:17,000
keeping his arms crossed, not really looking around anymore. Liam

1011
01:24:17,159 --> 01:24:22,680
noticed it too. Okay, what's up with you, Liam said,

1012
01:24:22,840 --> 01:24:26,039
turning to him. We finally get to do something cool,

1013
01:24:26,279 --> 01:24:30,479
and you're standing there like a dog just died. Ethan

1014
01:24:30,600 --> 01:24:35,399
didn't respond right away. Then finally he let out in

1015
01:24:35,439 --> 01:24:40,359
a slow breath. You ever noticed how this happens every time,

1016
01:24:41,119 --> 01:24:45,520
he said, voice quieter than before. You always find something

1017
01:24:45,560 --> 01:24:49,840
fun to do, and at first, yeah, it's great, but

1018
01:24:49,920 --> 01:24:57,479
then you always always push it too far. Liam's grin

1019
01:24:57,560 --> 01:25:01,520
flickered for half a second. What are you talking about?

1020
01:25:02,560 --> 01:25:08,399
You don't know when to stop. Ethan shifted his weight,

1021
01:25:08,800 --> 01:25:11,840
running a hand through his hair, like that time with

1022
01:25:11,920 --> 01:25:14,399
the train yard, or when we climbed that tower and

1023
01:25:14,439 --> 01:25:18,079
the stairs gave out. Oh heck, this we should have

1024
01:25:18,159 --> 01:25:22,960
turned back before even got on the bus. William's face

1025
01:25:23,079 --> 01:25:28,680
darkened like Ethan had crossed the line. But then instead

1026
01:25:28,680 --> 01:25:34,560
of snapping back, Liam hesitated, And that alone was weird

1027
01:25:34,680 --> 01:25:38,880
enough to make me feel weird. He exhaled through his nose,

1028
01:25:39,199 --> 01:25:44,640
looking down at the ground. You ever think, Liam said

1029
01:25:44,680 --> 01:25:52,560
slowly that maybe I don't want to stop. Ethan frowned what.

1030
01:25:54,199 --> 01:25:58,319
Liam stuffed his hands in his pockets. You think I

1031
01:25:58,359 --> 01:26:02,840
don't know when I'm pushing things to His voice was quiet.

1032
01:26:03,880 --> 01:26:11,720
I know I always know silence. Ethan and I exchanged

1033
01:26:11,760 --> 01:26:17,199
the glance for once. Liam wasn't boasting, he wasn't brushing

1034
01:26:17,239 --> 01:26:24,119
it off. He was being honest. I just Liam ran

1035
01:26:24,159 --> 01:26:28,000
a hand over his face. I don't like being home, Okay,

1036
01:26:28,560 --> 01:26:32,560
It's like every time I'm there, I feel like I can't.

1037
01:26:33,159 --> 01:26:39,720
He stopped, readjusting his posture. Then finally, I just don't

1038
01:26:39,720 --> 01:26:43,920
want to feel the way I feel at home. The

1039
01:26:43,960 --> 01:26:48,399
words hung there for a moment. None of us spoke.

1040
01:26:49,720 --> 01:26:54,239
Ethan looked like he wanted to say something, maybe something important,

1041
01:26:55,439 --> 01:27:03,000
but before he could something moved, a rustling noise somewhere

1042
01:27:03,039 --> 01:27:09,119
deeper into the building. All three of us froze. Liam's

1043
01:27:09,119 --> 01:27:14,520
head snapped up. Did ye hear that? Ethan took a

1044
01:27:14,560 --> 01:27:19,119
step back. It's probably just this old building. You see

1045
01:27:19,119 --> 01:27:22,760
the state it's in, he muttered, but there was no

1046
01:27:22,840 --> 01:27:29,039
conviction in his voice. Then it happened again, a shuffle

1047
01:27:29,199 --> 01:27:35,479
and a scrape. Something was in here with us. William's

1048
01:27:35,479 --> 01:27:39,640
eyes flickered toward the dark hallway ahead, her shadow stretched

1049
01:27:39,720 --> 01:27:43,680
long against the far wall, cast by something moving just

1050
01:27:43,800 --> 01:27:49,399
out of sight. Ethan grabbed my arm. Guys, let's go,

1051
01:27:50,760 --> 01:27:55,760
but Liam pushed forward. It's probably just rats, he said,

1052
01:27:56,239 --> 01:27:58,359
but I could hear the edge in his voice. Now,

1053
01:27:59,239 --> 01:28:02,279
come on, we didn't come all this way to turn back. Now,

1054
01:28:05,079 --> 01:28:11,000
we should have turned back, but instead we followed, and

1055
01:28:11,039 --> 01:28:17,119
we went deeper. The deeper we went, the worse the

1056
01:28:17,159 --> 01:28:22,279
air got. It became wet, almost despite the dust, like

1057
01:28:22,359 --> 01:28:27,079
something rotting in the walls. The floor dipped downward, leading

1058
01:28:27,159 --> 01:28:30,359
us to what used to be a staircase. Most of

1059
01:28:30,399 --> 01:28:33,640
it had collapsed, the steps crumbling into a mess of

1060
01:28:33,680 --> 01:28:38,920
broken concrete and rusted metal, but at the bottom, barely

1061
01:28:39,000 --> 01:28:44,520
visible in the dim light, a lower level, a basement

1062
01:28:44,960 --> 01:28:50,319
half submerged in stagnant water. The turned back to us,

1063
01:28:50,760 --> 01:28:57,279
eyes alight with curiosity. Okay, he grinned, this is actually

1064
01:28:57,359 --> 01:29:02,840
kind of sick. Ethan stood stiffly behind him, arms crossed

1065
01:29:02,880 --> 01:29:07,159
tight or hear me out, we don't go into the

1066
01:29:07,239 --> 01:29:10,640
creepy basement, and instead we turn around and go home,

1067
01:29:12,439 --> 01:29:16,479
Liam laughed, Come on, man, you've never wanted to find

1068
01:29:16,479 --> 01:29:22,600
something real. Ethan's straw tightened, but Liam wasn't waiting for

1069
01:29:22,640 --> 01:29:26,439
an answer. He crouched near the edge of the staircase,

1070
01:29:26,760 --> 01:29:31,239
gripping one of the railings and peering down into the darkness.

1071
01:29:32,039 --> 01:29:38,880
Then he made a face holy. He pointed at something

1072
01:29:38,880 --> 01:29:44,000
on the ground. I stepped closer and felt my stomach churn.

1073
01:29:45,640 --> 01:29:51,319
Scattered across the bottom of the stairs were rats, not

1074
01:29:51,520 --> 01:29:58,000
just stared mutilated. Some were half drowned in the stagnant water,

1075
01:29:58,600 --> 01:30:03,479
their small bodies bloated, misshapen. Others lay twisted and broken

1076
01:30:04,159 --> 01:30:09,039
their first slick with something dark and drying. They hadn't

1077
01:30:09,039 --> 01:30:16,000
been eaten. Something killed them then left them. I took

1078
01:30:16,000 --> 01:30:22,039
a slow step back, pulse pounding in my throat. If

1079
01:30:22,079 --> 01:30:26,640
it wasn't the rats that made that noise earlier, then

1080
01:30:27,359 --> 01:30:32,199
Ethan excelled, sharply, rubbing his hands down his face. Then

1081
01:30:32,399 --> 01:30:35,600
what made that noise was whatever did this to the rat,

1082
01:30:36,560 --> 01:30:42,239
a rabbit animal. We should really get out now, Liam, though,

1083
01:30:43,159 --> 01:30:49,159
Liam just stared, a flicker of doubt, a tiny, unspoken realization,

1084
01:30:50,239 --> 01:30:55,600
like the edges of his adventure had suddenly sharpened, like maybe,

1085
01:30:56,079 --> 01:31:03,760
just maybe he'd finally pushed too far. But then he

1086
01:31:03,840 --> 01:31:10,920
stopped breathing, not literally, but he froze completely. His whole

1087
01:31:10,960 --> 01:31:15,439
body tensed, his hands gripping the railing tight. His lips

1088
01:31:15,479 --> 01:31:18,560
parted just slightly, like he was about to say something

1089
01:31:18,800 --> 01:31:25,720
but didn't or was too afraid to. Ethan frowned Liam.

1090
01:31:27,640 --> 01:31:31,159
Liam shook his head, not a no, not a yes,

1091
01:31:32,079 --> 01:31:38,439
just a barely. Their movement slow but unsteady. A big

1092
01:31:38,560 --> 01:31:43,359
crash came from behind us, like dynamite exploding. My head

1093
01:31:43,439 --> 01:31:47,760
snapped back. Dust rose up from the stairs and slowly

1094
01:31:47,840 --> 01:31:52,840
settled as we stared. When the noise faded into the distance.

1095
01:31:54,359 --> 01:31:59,560
What was that, Ethan let out a half whisper, half shout. Wait,

1096
01:32:00,199 --> 01:32:07,359
Liam said, sharply, silence again. I didn't understand at first,

1097
01:32:08,680 --> 01:32:15,039
but then I heard it, something breathing. It wasn't any

1098
01:32:15,159 --> 01:32:20,880
of us. It came from below, from the basement, and

1099
01:32:20,960 --> 01:32:27,800
as we stood there, frozen ears straining, something shifted, something

1100
01:32:27,880 --> 01:32:36,560
unfolding itself, something rising. We ran, not because we had

1101
01:32:36,560 --> 01:32:39,960
a plan, not because we thought we could get away,

1102
01:32:40,640 --> 01:32:44,720
because there was nothing else we could do. The sound

1103
01:32:44,760 --> 01:32:51,680
behind us wasn't footsteps. It was worse, a deep, gutural clicking,

1104
01:32:52,119 --> 01:32:56,640
reverberating off the walls, filling every space at once, like

1105
01:32:56,720 --> 01:33:02,560
something shifting, rearranging itself as it moved. I didn't look back.

1106
01:33:03,439 --> 01:33:08,319
I couldn't, but I felt it. I felt it breathing

1107
01:33:08,399 --> 01:33:11,359
down my neck, even though there was nowhere near me

1108
01:33:12,840 --> 01:33:16,319
the hallway I had twisted and turned, the walls seeming

1109
01:33:16,359 --> 01:33:19,479
to close in on us, the darkness swallowing us whole.

1110
01:33:20,840 --> 01:33:26,520
My eyes burned. Ethan stumbled, gasping, but Liam grabbed his arm,

1111
01:33:26,800 --> 01:33:31,119
yanking him forward. We neared the main door, I yelled,

1112
01:33:31,399 --> 01:33:35,680
the way we came in. We turned a corner, practically

1113
01:33:35,680 --> 01:33:43,319
skidding into the entry hall and stopped. The ceiling had collapsed.

1114
01:33:44,239 --> 01:33:48,039
The entire doorway was choked with debris, thick slabs of

1115
01:33:48,159 --> 01:33:52,960
concrete and rusted beams blocking any way out. No, no, no,

1116
01:33:53,800 --> 01:33:59,880
Ethan gasped, eyes darting frantically. There has to be another way.

1117
01:34:00,279 --> 01:34:08,560
Liam spun, searching his head snapped upward. There. I followed

1118
01:34:08,560 --> 01:34:12,199
his gaze and saw it a hole in the ceiling,

1119
01:34:13,119 --> 01:34:16,720
a small opening where the structure had rotted away, just

1120
01:34:16,880 --> 01:34:21,079
wide enough to squeeze through. Hope searched in my chest.

1121
01:34:22,399 --> 01:34:27,359
This was it, we could get out. Liam grabbed the

1122
01:34:27,439 --> 01:34:30,399
edges of the broken ceiling and hauled himself up first,

1123
01:34:30,680 --> 01:34:35,479
grunting with effort. He reached down immediately, his fingers closing

1124
01:34:35,479 --> 01:34:41,079
around my wrist. Ryan, come on. I scrambled up, my feet,

1125
01:34:41,159 --> 01:34:44,880
scraping against the crumbling walls as I kicked off, prushing

1126
01:34:44,880 --> 01:34:49,439
with everything I had, and then I was up. We

1127
01:34:49,560 --> 01:34:53,600
made it. We were going to live. Then I heard

1128
01:34:53,680 --> 01:34:59,319
Ethan struggle below. I turned back, looking down, and my

1129
01:34:59,399 --> 01:35:07,560
stomach d Ethan was too slow. His hands were clawing

1130
01:35:07,600 --> 01:35:10,600
at the edge, trying to pull himself up, but his

1131
01:35:10,760 --> 01:35:15,880
arms shook violently from exhaustion. His sneakers slipped against the slick,

1132
01:35:16,039 --> 01:35:21,640
broken walls, failing to find any purchase, and beneath him,

1133
01:35:22,159 --> 01:35:29,319
in the dark, he was coming, A shadow, twisting, shifting,

1134
01:35:30,039 --> 01:35:35,880
a blur of something impossibly long, impossibly wrong. Liam saw

1135
01:35:35,920 --> 01:35:42,199
it too, and he made his decision before I even

1136
01:35:42,319 --> 01:35:48,680
realized what was happening. Liam looked at me and he smiled.

1137
01:35:50,880 --> 01:35:54,800
It wasn't cocky or forced, like he'd finally found what

1138
01:35:54,880 --> 01:35:59,520
he was looking for. He'll tell a good story about this,

1139
01:36:00,159 --> 01:36:08,520
he said, and dropped back down. Liam landed hard, his

1140
01:36:08,640 --> 01:36:12,039
feet slammed into the hard concrete below, and for a

1141
01:36:12,079 --> 01:36:15,119
split second I thought for a second that he could

1142
01:36:15,119 --> 01:36:19,479
still climb back up, that this wasn't the end. Then

1143
01:36:19,520 --> 01:36:26,279
it moved something in the dark. It didn't lunge. It unfolded.

1144
01:36:27,600 --> 01:36:31,359
A shape crawled out from the blackness beneath the broken stairwell,

1145
01:36:31,880 --> 01:36:38,279
stretching tall and thin, its body unnatural, wrong. I saw

1146
01:36:38,319 --> 01:36:43,600
its arms, first, long appendages with countless joints, all cracking

1147
01:36:43,640 --> 01:36:49,239
in unison, fingers shaped like hooks. Then its head tilted up.

1148
01:36:50,439 --> 01:36:53,520
It had no eyes or face to speak of, just

1149
01:36:53,600 --> 01:36:57,119
the smooth stretch of bone, white skin, pulled tight over

1150
01:36:57,199 --> 01:37:00,479
a shape that resembled something between human and the dog.

1151
01:37:01,840 --> 01:37:07,199
It didn't make a sound. Liam spun toward Ethan. Go

1152
01:37:09,000 --> 01:37:13,880
Ethan froze. He just stood there, wide eyed, lips moving

1153
01:37:13,960 --> 01:37:19,079
but making no sound. Liam grabbed him, fingers twisting the

1154
01:37:19,079 --> 01:37:24,199
fabric of Ethan's hoodie, boosting him up. Ethan gasped hands,

1155
01:37:24,239 --> 01:37:27,800
scrambling for the ledge, one foot kicking against Liam's hands,

1156
01:37:28,159 --> 01:37:30,479
the other trying to find a leverage on the bare wall.

1157
01:37:31,239 --> 01:37:35,560
But Liam wouldn't let him fall. With one final heave,

1158
01:37:36,199 --> 01:37:41,359
he threw Ethan. Up Ethan crashed over the edge, scrambling

1159
01:37:41,359 --> 01:37:45,960
away on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. Liam

1160
01:37:47,399 --> 01:37:52,119
I reached for him, Both of us did, but it

1161
01:37:52,239 --> 01:37:58,720
was too late. The creature's arms shot forward and Liam screamed.

1162
01:38:00,119 --> 01:38:03,960
He wrapped around his chest with impossible speed, pulling him

1163
01:38:04,000 --> 01:38:07,720
backward and back down to the ground. His body skidded

1164
01:38:07,800 --> 01:38:11,439
against the dry concrete, sending dust and debris into the air.

1165
01:38:12,199 --> 01:38:14,960
He tried grabbing anything on the ground to hoist himself.

1166
01:38:15,039 --> 01:38:18,600
Up Ethan reached down as far as he could, so

1167
01:38:18,800 --> 01:38:20,960
far that he would have fallen back in if I

1168
01:38:21,000 --> 01:38:27,680
hadn't caught him. But it wasn't enough. The ceiling creaked

1169
01:38:27,720 --> 01:38:31,800
under our weight. The walls groaned, dust and stone raining

1170
01:38:31,880 --> 01:38:38,920
down from above, shifting beneath our weight, a warning. If

1171
01:38:38,960 --> 01:38:45,239
we stayed, we'd all die. The thing yanked him backward.

1172
01:38:45,800 --> 01:38:51,199
The ceiling gave way a violent crack, Dust exploded into

1173
01:38:51,239 --> 01:38:56,039
the air, Chunks of stone crumbling beneath us. Ethan grabbed

1174
01:38:56,079 --> 01:39:00,640
my arm yanking me back Liam. I tried to scream,

1175
01:39:01,039 --> 01:39:05,359
but the noise of the collapse swallowed his name. We

1176
01:39:05,479 --> 01:39:14,680
had to run, and Liam, Liam couldn't. We ran until

1177
01:39:14,680 --> 01:39:18,159
our legs gave out. We didn't stop the think we

1178
01:39:18,199 --> 01:39:22,439
didn't want to, through the trees, past the empty roads,

1179
01:39:22,880 --> 01:39:26,199
until the gas station came into view, the first sign

1180
01:39:26,279 --> 01:39:31,560
of normalcy, of civilization. By the time we stumbled inside,

1181
01:39:32,000 --> 01:39:35,840
breathless and shaking, the old man behind the counter barely

1182
01:39:35,880 --> 01:39:39,039
had time to ask what was wrong before Ethan collapsed

1183
01:39:39,079 --> 01:39:44,720
against the shelves, hands on his knees, gasping. Call the cops.

1184
01:39:46,720 --> 01:39:49,960
We told them everything. We told them about the building,

1185
01:39:50,199 --> 01:39:56,560
about the creature, about Liam. They didn't dismiss us, but

1186
01:39:56,600 --> 01:40:02,359
they didn't believe us either, just to hysterical kids, filthy

1187
01:40:02,399 --> 01:40:08,399
and bruised, talking about monsters in the dark. Still, they

1188
01:40:08,439 --> 01:40:12,079
sent a search team out. By the time we were

1189
01:40:12,119 --> 01:40:14,920
allowed to go back to them, the sun was rising,

1190
01:40:15,359 --> 01:40:20,800
the world slowly bleeding back into reality. I remember how

1191
01:40:20,840 --> 01:40:25,199
silent it was standing at the edge of the wreckage,

1192
01:40:25,439 --> 01:40:29,960
because that's all that was left. The building had collapsed,

1193
01:40:30,479 --> 01:40:36,000
a pile of broken concrete, shattered wood, twisted metal. The

1194
01:40:36,159 --> 01:40:40,640
entrance was gone, buried. There was no sign of the thing,

1195
01:40:42,399 --> 01:40:48,960
but there was a sign of Liam. I saw him first,

1196
01:40:50,600 --> 01:40:54,039
what was left of him. The police had to pull

1197
01:40:54,159 --> 01:40:58,720
us back, keep us from getting too close, but I

1198
01:40:58,760 --> 01:41:04,279
saw enough. A body crushed beneath falling debris, his face

1199
01:41:04,359 --> 01:41:09,199
blooded and unrecognizable. Just the boy who got trapped in

1200
01:41:09,239 --> 01:41:14,640
a crumbling building. That's what they said. That's what everyone

1201
01:41:14,720 --> 01:41:18,640
would say. There was an article written about it in

1202
01:41:18,680 --> 01:41:23,399
the local paper. Three kids, when exploring somewhere they shouldn't

1203
01:41:23,439 --> 01:41:27,800
have was the headline. They found an abandoned building, They

1204
01:41:27,840 --> 01:41:32,079
went inside. It collapsed. Two of them made it out,

1205
01:41:32,640 --> 01:41:37,560
one of them didn't. A tragic incident. The police called

1206
01:41:37,600 --> 01:41:44,520
it Unstable structures are dangerous. You boys were lucky. They

1207
01:41:44,560 --> 01:41:47,359
shook their heads when we told them the truth. They

1208
01:41:47,399 --> 01:41:50,479
told us that there was no creature, no thing in

1209
01:41:50,520 --> 01:41:54,800
the dark. Whatever you thought you saw, one of them

1210
01:41:54,840 --> 01:41:59,039
told us, was just panic. Feared us. Weird things to

1211
01:41:59,119 --> 01:42:03,800
the mind. Ethan and I never spoke about it again,

1212
01:42:04,960 --> 01:42:08,439
not because we didn't remember, not because we didn't think

1213
01:42:08,479 --> 01:42:11,960
about it every night when the city lights flickered through

1214
01:42:12,000 --> 01:42:19,279
our windows, but because there was no point, no one

1215
01:42:19,279 --> 01:42:24,720
would ever believe us. Maybe it was better that way.

1216
01:42:29,600 --> 01:42:32,319
I could never quite figure out why Liam decided to

1217
01:42:32,399 --> 01:42:36,039
jump back down the way he did not at first.

1218
01:42:37,399 --> 01:42:41,279
I thought about it constantly, That final moment when his

1219
01:42:41,399 --> 01:42:43,960
feet hit the ground, when he looked at me with

1220
01:42:44,000 --> 01:42:47,680
that expression of finality as he said his last words

1221
01:42:47,720 --> 01:42:53,560
to me, He'll tell a good story about this. The

1222
01:42:53,640 --> 01:42:58,479
look in his eyes was something I couldn't understand. At night,

1223
01:42:58,720 --> 01:43:02,520
I'd stare at my ceiling, replaying it over and over.

1224
01:43:04,199 --> 01:43:07,800
What did it mean? Why would he do that when

1225
01:43:07,840 --> 01:43:12,119
he knew he was going to die. I couldn't ask Ethan.

1226
01:43:12,760 --> 01:43:16,560
He wasn't talking about it. We didn't call for so

1227
01:43:16,680 --> 01:43:20,079
much as text. The few times we ran into each

1228
01:43:20,079 --> 01:43:23,560
other at school, we barely looked at one another, like

1229
01:43:24,000 --> 01:43:27,520
if we didn't acknowledge it, maybe it wouldn't be real.

1230
01:43:29,000 --> 01:43:34,680
And maybe Ethan hadn't heard it Liam's last words. Maybe

1231
01:43:34,720 --> 01:43:39,439
he didn't know, but I did, and I couldn't let

1232
01:43:39,520 --> 01:43:46,640
it go. A few weeks later, I saw Liam's parents.

1233
01:43:47,800 --> 01:43:50,880
They were walking down a busy street, lost in the crowd.

1234
01:43:52,279 --> 01:43:56,560
I stopped in my tracks, my heart slimming against my ribs.

1235
01:43:57,319 --> 01:44:05,239
I expected them to look different weeker, grief stricken lost. Instead,

1236
01:44:06,319 --> 01:44:13,479
they looked normal, not exactly happy, but not broken either.

1237
01:44:14,600 --> 01:44:18,199
Definitely not the way loving parents would look after they'd

1238
01:44:18,279 --> 01:44:22,479
just lost their child in such a tragic way. And

1239
01:44:22,520 --> 01:44:27,279
they didn't recognize me, Liam's best friend, the kid who

1240
01:44:27,359 --> 01:44:31,359
had spent years by his side. They walked right past me,

1241
01:44:32,000 --> 01:44:36,439
no sign of recognition on their faces. I was just

1242
01:44:36,640 --> 01:44:42,199
another face in the city to them. That was when

1243
01:44:42,199 --> 01:44:48,359
it clicked. Liam never liked being at home. He never

1244
01:44:48,399 --> 01:44:53,640
talked about it, not directly, but looking back, all the

1245
01:44:53,800 --> 01:44:57,079
signs were there, the way he'd always want to be

1246
01:44:57,119 --> 01:45:00,840
anywhere else. How he'd never invite us over, how we

1247
01:45:01,000 --> 01:45:04,720
changed the subject any time we asked, the way he

1248
01:45:04,800 --> 01:45:10,079
threw himself into every stupid, reckless adventure, as if standing

1249
01:45:10,119 --> 01:45:15,079
still was worse than falling. And that's when I knew

1250
01:45:16,680 --> 01:45:21,000
it wasn't just about the thrill. He just wanted to escape.

1251
01:45:22,600 --> 01:45:26,760
Every rooftop, every train yard, every broken down place we

1252
01:45:26,840 --> 01:45:31,479
snuck into. It was about something more than fun for Liam.

1253
01:45:33,520 --> 01:45:36,720
He had been running his whole life, and in the

1254
01:45:36,880 --> 01:45:44,359
end he got exactly what he wanted, the ultimate adventure,

1255
01:45:45,279 --> 01:45:48,920
the place no one else would ever go a place

1256
01:45:48,960 --> 01:46:06,439
where no one could follow because it finally escaped. My

1257
01:46:06,560 --> 01:46:09,800
life had turned into one of those cliche country songs.

1258
01:46:10,760 --> 01:46:15,319
I was divorced, broke, unemployed, and annoyed at the world.

1259
01:46:16,600 --> 01:46:19,319
Five years down the drain with a woman I thought

1260
01:46:19,359 --> 01:46:22,199
I'd spent my life with, only to come home one

1261
01:46:22,279 --> 01:46:24,880
day to find her already packed and half way out

1262
01:46:24,920 --> 01:46:29,000
the door. The job loss came a month later, and

1263
01:46:29,119 --> 01:46:32,600
at that point I figured the universe was just trying

1264
01:46:32,640 --> 01:46:36,680
to kick me while I was down. I needed space.

1265
01:46:37,600 --> 01:46:40,720
No well meaning friends telling me to focus on myself

1266
01:46:41,079 --> 01:46:44,720
or find the silver lining. To hell with all of that.

1267
01:46:45,840 --> 01:46:52,840
I didn't want silver linings. I wanted silence. So when

1268
01:46:52,880 --> 01:46:55,199
I found a listing for an off grid cabin in

1269
01:46:55,239 --> 01:47:00,239
the Appalachian Mountains, it felt like the perfect escape. It

1270
01:47:00,359 --> 01:47:03,079
wasn't some cozy rental package with the hot tub and

1271
01:47:03,159 --> 01:47:07,119
a fire pit on Airbnb, just a bare boned cabin

1272
01:47:07,279 --> 01:47:13,960
buried deep in the mountains. The description was short, remote

1273
01:47:14,119 --> 01:47:17,920
off grid cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, no service, no

1274
01:47:18,039 --> 01:47:24,560
electricity for those looking to truly disconnect, no reviews, and

1275
01:47:24,640 --> 01:47:30,720
the pictures were blurry, but it looked beautiful. I didn't

1276
01:47:30,760 --> 01:47:34,279
even have an exact location, just a general area and

1277
01:47:34,359 --> 01:47:39,199
a contact number. Normally I'd be wary of something that vague,

1278
01:47:39,960 --> 01:47:44,680
but at that point I didn't care. I bucked it

1279
01:47:44,920 --> 01:47:49,960
for a full month. The guy who owned the place

1280
01:47:50,079 --> 01:47:54,159
was weirdly insistent that I couldn't drive there myself. He

1281
01:47:54,239 --> 01:47:56,800
said the trails were too easy to lose, and that

1282
01:47:56,920 --> 01:48:02,039
GPS was useless that deep in the mountains. Instead, he

1283
01:48:02,159 --> 01:48:06,199
arranged for a local guide to take me up. It

1284
01:48:06,319 --> 01:48:10,760
made perfect sense. Mountain roads, rough terrain, the risk of

1285
01:48:10,800 --> 01:48:16,720
getting lost didn't seem that strange. I met the guide

1286
01:48:16,840 --> 01:48:19,960
at a run down general store about an hour outside

1287
01:48:20,000 --> 01:48:23,720
the nearest town. He was already waiting when I pulled

1288
01:48:23,760 --> 01:48:27,560
into the lot, standing beside an old ATV with a

1289
01:48:27,600 --> 01:48:31,279
trailer hitched to the back. The guide looked like he'd

1290
01:48:31,279 --> 01:48:35,119
been living in the woods his entire life. Try picturing

1291
01:48:35,119 --> 01:48:38,159
a stereotypical park ranger that's been doing his job for

1292
01:48:38,199 --> 01:48:43,640
a few years too long. That kind of guy, you

1293
01:48:43,760 --> 01:48:48,520
the renter, he asked. I nodded, toss my backpack onto

1294
01:48:48,560 --> 01:48:54,840
the trailer. That veous. He grunted and climbed into the ATV.

1295
01:48:56,279 --> 01:49:01,800
Get in. The ride up was rough as hell. The

1296
01:49:01,880 --> 01:49:05,399
trail was barely more than an overgrown deer path, full

1297
01:49:05,439 --> 01:49:09,720
of sharp turns and sudden dips. After about an hour

1298
01:49:09,840 --> 01:49:13,079
of bouncing over rocks and weaving through dense tree cover,

1299
01:49:13,920 --> 01:49:18,319
we hit a clearing with no more roads. This is

1300
01:49:18,359 --> 01:49:24,119
where we walk, he said, already unloading my gear. I

1301
01:49:24,159 --> 01:49:30,760
stared at him. How far is the cabin? A few miles?

1302
01:49:31,479 --> 01:49:34,760
I cried to my bag, adjusted my jacket, and followed

1303
01:49:34,840 --> 01:49:41,159
him into the trees. The hike took another hour, and

1304
01:49:41,239 --> 01:49:44,960
the deeper we went, the more I realized just how

1305
01:49:45,039 --> 01:49:49,960
far removed this place was. There truly was nothing here,

1306
01:49:50,720 --> 01:49:56,119
just solid forest pressing in from all sides. I expected

1307
01:49:56,159 --> 01:50:01,239
to hear birds, bugs, maybe a distant stream, but at

1308
01:50:01,239 --> 01:50:07,319
some point the woods got quiet, not in a normal way,

1309
01:50:08,119 --> 01:50:11,800
not in the peaceful, wow nature is so relaxing way,

1310
01:50:13,439 --> 01:50:17,760
I mean quiet. I noticed that the guide also hadn't

1311
01:50:17,760 --> 01:50:23,079
spoken in nearly half an hour. When the cabin finally

1312
01:50:23,119 --> 01:50:32,319
came into view, I exhaled. It was exactly what I wanted. Small, sturdy,

1313
01:50:32,920 --> 01:50:35,399
a simple two floor set up with a wood stove

1314
01:50:35,680 --> 01:50:39,479
and a creek near by for water, just me the

1315
01:50:39,560 --> 01:50:45,359
trees and miles of untouched wilderness. The guide set down

1316
01:50:45,359 --> 01:50:49,600
my gear on the porch and adjusted his cap. You

1317
01:50:49,640 --> 01:50:54,439
will be fine, he said, finally, breaking the silence. Long

1318
01:50:54,479 --> 01:50:59,960
as you don't wander too far. Then, without another word,

1319
01:51:00,760 --> 01:51:08,479
he turned and disappeared into the trees. The first few

1320
01:51:08,600 --> 01:51:12,359
nights were exactly what I needed. I woke up when

1321
01:51:12,359 --> 01:51:16,560
the sun came in through the windows, spent my days hiking, reading,

1322
01:51:16,640 --> 01:51:22,439
and just existing. I finally didn't have my ex wife's

1323
01:51:22,479 --> 01:51:27,000
lawyer blowing up my inbox. The first time I realized

1324
01:51:27,000 --> 01:51:29,920
how deep I really was in the mountains was on

1325
01:51:30,000 --> 01:51:33,640
the second night. I had stepped outside to do my

1326
01:51:33,720 --> 01:51:36,960
business and was hit with a kind of silence you

1327
01:51:37,039 --> 01:51:42,079
don't get in normal life. It wasn't just quiet, it

1328
01:51:42,199 --> 01:51:46,920
was absolute. At the time, I figured it was just

1329
01:51:47,000 --> 01:51:51,079
how the forest worked. I read once that predators moving

1330
01:51:51,119 --> 01:51:55,640
through an area could cause sudden silences. Probably just the

1331
01:51:55,680 --> 01:51:59,680
bear passing through, right, So I shrugged it off and

1332
01:51:59,720 --> 01:52:08,199
went to bed. By the fifth morning, I started noticing things.

1333
01:52:09,000 --> 01:52:12,359
It wasn't anything obvious at first, just the sense that

1334
01:52:12,439 --> 01:52:16,520
the landscape was slightly different. The bushes by the tree

1335
01:52:16,560 --> 01:52:21,600
line looked disturbed, like something had moved through them, probably deer,

1336
01:52:22,439 --> 01:52:26,199
plenty of them. In the area, but as I walked over,

1337
01:52:27,079 --> 01:52:30,000
I saw the dirt was churned up, like something had

1338
01:52:30,039 --> 01:52:35,680
been digging or shuffling around. Further along, I found scratches

1339
01:52:35,720 --> 01:52:40,439
and a few trees deep ones. I ran my fingers

1340
01:52:40,479 --> 01:52:43,560
along the grooves. I had no idea what kind of

1341
01:52:43,600 --> 01:52:47,560
Mark's bare claws would leave, but I figured this must

1342
01:52:47,560 --> 01:52:51,319
have been a big one. That was the first time

1343
01:52:51,600 --> 01:52:56,239
I got that nagging feeling, that weird, god level discomfort

1344
01:52:56,680 --> 01:53:00,359
that something was off, even if my brain was trying

1345
01:53:00,399 --> 01:53:07,119
to logic its way out of it. I pushed it down. Bears, deer,

1346
01:53:07,439 --> 01:53:12,520
mountain lions. This was the wilderness. If I was going

1347
01:53:12,560 --> 01:53:16,600
to start jumping at every broken branch and disturbed bush,

1348
01:53:16,920 --> 01:53:21,119
I was going to drive myself crazy. So I went

1349
01:53:21,159 --> 01:53:26,880
back inside, made coffee and told myself to stop being paranoid.

1350
01:53:27,600 --> 01:53:32,640
But for the rest of the day I couldn't shake it.

1351
01:53:32,760 --> 01:53:35,680
By the twelve day, I was feeling at home in

1352
01:53:35,720 --> 01:53:39,880
the cabin. It was still eerily quiet most of the time,

1353
01:53:40,439 --> 01:53:43,640
but I convinced myself that's just how it was out here.

1354
01:53:45,039 --> 01:53:48,199
I'd been living off canned food and dried goods, but

1355
01:53:48,319 --> 01:53:52,439
I still had a good supply of vegetables, rice, and seasonings.

1356
01:53:53,000 --> 01:53:56,640
I figured I'd treat myself to cooking something hot, a

1357
01:53:56,760 --> 01:54:01,760
big pot of stew. I knew cooking food outside was

1358
01:54:01,800 --> 01:54:05,760
a gambol in the wilderness. Even with scent blockers, it

1359
01:54:05,920 --> 01:54:09,600
wasn't fool proof. If an animal got a whiff of it,

1360
01:54:10,079 --> 01:54:14,359
I'd probably lose the whole thing, But at that point

1361
01:54:14,920 --> 01:54:20,319
I didn't care. Worst case, I'd be out of some food.

1362
01:54:20,880 --> 01:54:23,840
So I built up the fire in the stone ringed firepit,

1363
01:54:24,359 --> 01:54:27,520
set up my cast iron pot, and threw in everything

1364
01:54:27,560 --> 01:54:31,840
I had. Let it simmer low and slow, covered it

1365
01:54:31,880 --> 01:54:35,199
with a heavy lid, and just to be extra safe,

1366
01:54:35,600 --> 01:54:40,159
wrapped the whole thing in a scent neutralizing tarp. Then

1367
01:54:40,479 --> 01:54:44,560
I went inside, stretched out in bed, and fell asleep

1368
01:54:44,640 --> 01:54:51,000
to the distant crackling of the fire. The next morning,

1369
01:54:51,279 --> 01:54:58,199
I stepped outside and the yard was completely destroyed. At first,

1370
01:54:58,399 --> 01:55:02,159
my brain couldn't even process I was looking at the

1371
01:55:02,239 --> 01:55:05,520
dirt had been torn up in massive swaths, like something

1372
01:55:05,560 --> 01:55:09,119
had been chloring or shoving at the ground. Chunks of

1373
01:55:09,159 --> 01:55:12,520
earth had been thrown in long, scattered arcs, as if

1374
01:55:12,520 --> 01:55:16,720
something had raked through it with oversized limbs. The bushes

1375
01:55:16,760 --> 01:55:20,399
near the tree line were flattened, smashed down into the soil.

1376
01:55:21,520 --> 01:55:25,319
Some of them were uprooted completely, lying in mangled piles

1377
01:55:25,359 --> 01:55:29,800
with their roots exposed. Several small trees were bented on

1378
01:55:29,920 --> 01:55:34,920
natural angles, their barks scraped away in places I had

1379
01:55:34,920 --> 01:55:38,640
expected to find it gone obviously, maybe the pot knocked

1380
01:55:38,680 --> 01:55:44,880
over the food licked clean. Instead, the pot was shattered,

1381
01:55:45,560 --> 01:55:50,760
split into pieces, scattered across the yard. Chunks of food

1382
01:55:50,840 --> 01:55:56,560
were everywhere, rice, carrots, potatoes, smeared into the dirt like

1383
01:55:56,640 --> 01:56:00,800
something had deliberately flung them around. It looked like someone

1384
01:56:00,800 --> 01:56:03,680
had picked up the entire pot and slammed it into

1385
01:56:03,680 --> 01:56:09,600
the ground, over and over. I stood there a long time,

1386
01:56:10,079 --> 01:56:13,079
gripping the railing of the porch, trying to wrap my

1387
01:56:13,119 --> 01:56:16,880
head around it. A bear would have eaten the food,

1388
01:56:17,520 --> 01:56:19,800
even a raccoon would have at least picked through it.

1389
01:56:21,039 --> 01:56:24,119
This felt like something had been angry, like it hadn't

1390
01:56:24,119 --> 01:56:28,840
been looking for food, but throwing a tantrum. I swore

1391
01:56:28,960 --> 01:56:31,279
under my breath and ran a hand through my hair,

1392
01:56:31,680 --> 01:56:36,960
feeling annoyance. Outweigh the unease. I had been careful, and

1393
01:56:37,039 --> 01:56:39,840
now I was down an entire meal and a good

1394
01:56:40,000 --> 01:56:45,520
cast iron pot. Great I muttered, bending down to scoop

1395
01:56:45,600 --> 01:56:49,479
up some of the mess. For the next hour, I

1396
01:56:49,640 --> 01:56:53,039
cleaned up, trying to convince myself it was just some

1397
01:56:53,199 --> 01:56:57,039
animal acting weird. I buried the ruined food deep in

1398
01:56:57,079 --> 01:56:59,880
the woods, scrubbed the yard down as best I could,

1399
01:57:00,319 --> 01:57:03,199
and sat on the porch as the sun sank below

1400
01:57:03,239 --> 01:57:10,039
the mountains. I wasn't scared exactly, just annoyed. The whole

1401
01:57:10,079 --> 01:57:13,399
thing fell like some bizarre prank, except there was no

1402
01:57:13,399 --> 01:57:17,279
one around here but me. Whatever had wrecked my yard,

1403
01:57:17,640 --> 01:57:20,920
throwing my food around and smashed my pot had done

1404
01:57:20,920 --> 01:57:23,920
it for no good reason, and now I was down

1405
01:57:23,960 --> 01:57:27,880
a solid meal and cooking equipment. I sat on the

1406
01:57:27,880 --> 01:57:30,960
porch for a while after dark, sipping from my flask,

1407
01:57:31,319 --> 01:57:35,479
staring out at the tree line. The night air was cool,

1408
01:57:35,800 --> 01:57:39,720
the forest stretching endlessly into blackness beyond the dim glow

1409
01:57:39,760 --> 01:57:47,239
of the cabin's lantern. I tried listening for anything. I laughed, dryly,

1410
01:57:47,439 --> 01:57:52,279
shaking my head. That's what I thought, I spoke into

1411
01:57:52,319 --> 01:57:57,800
the silence, before finally heading inside. I bolted the shutters,

1412
01:57:58,000 --> 01:58:01,880
stoked the fire, and crawled into bed, still smelling the

1413
01:58:01,920 --> 01:58:09,199
faint scent of stew on my hands, and then the

1414
01:58:09,319 --> 01:58:15,359
noises started. It wasn't loud at first, just a faint disturbance,

1415
01:58:15,840 --> 01:58:20,319
something pressing into the earth outside the cabin, a long,

1416
01:58:20,640 --> 01:58:27,479
dragging sound. I lay completely still, eyes locked on the ceiling, heartbeat,

1417
01:58:27,520 --> 01:58:35,520
picking up another step, then another. I wasn't just imagining it.

1418
01:58:37,000 --> 01:58:41,359
Something was walking through my yard. In all my nights

1419
01:58:41,399 --> 01:58:44,760
i'd spent here, I had heard nothing come this close

1420
01:58:44,800 --> 01:58:49,960
to me. Yet the way to the footsteps was deep, solid,

1421
01:58:51,039 --> 01:58:56,640
not a small scavenger, something big. I strained my ears

1422
01:58:56,840 --> 01:59:00,520
trying to track its movement. It was an the erratic

1423
01:59:00,640 --> 01:59:04,800
rustling of a hungry animal. It wasn't snuffling through the

1424
01:59:04,840 --> 01:59:12,560
dirt looking for scraps. It was just walking. I swallowed,

1425
01:59:12,960 --> 01:59:16,840
forcing myself to stay calm. Of course, it was back.

1426
01:59:17,720 --> 01:59:20,960
Whatever wrecked my yard last night was properly checking for

1427
01:59:21,039 --> 01:59:26,279
more food. But there wasn't anything outside this time. I

1428
01:59:26,319 --> 01:59:30,359
smoked myself, rolling onto my side and pulling the blanket up.

1429
01:59:31,720 --> 01:59:36,399
Jokes on you. I closed my eyes, listening as the

1430
01:59:36,399 --> 01:59:42,359
footsteps circled the cabin closer, now, a slow, steady crunch

1431
01:59:42,399 --> 01:59:47,560
of something huge pressing into the soil. Then for a

1432
01:59:47,600 --> 01:59:57,640
long moment there was nothing, so I fell asleep. When

1433
01:59:57,640 --> 02:00:01,279
the sun finally climbed over the mountains, I was itching

1434
02:00:01,319 --> 02:00:07,239
for answers. I grabbed my boots, stepped outside, and just

1435
02:00:07,319 --> 02:00:13,199
stared for a second. There, pressed deep into the damp soil,

1436
02:00:14,600 --> 02:00:19,479
were tracks. At first I thought they were hoof prints,

1437
02:00:20,079 --> 02:00:22,880
maybe from a deer or an elk. But as I

1438
02:00:22,960 --> 02:00:31,760
crouched down, my stomach tightened. They were massive and wrong,

1439
02:00:33,239 --> 02:00:38,960
the spacing, the weight distribution. They weren't four legged. Whatever

1440
02:00:39,039 --> 02:00:42,960
left these tracks had been walking upright a bi pedal.

1441
02:00:44,399 --> 02:00:47,399
I traced my fingers along the edge of one, feeling

1442
02:00:47,439 --> 02:00:50,760
the way the dirt had been compacted, Picturing the size

1443
02:00:50,760 --> 02:00:54,680
of the thing that could leave Prince this deep. My

1444
02:00:54,760 --> 02:01:01,479
head buzzed with static. No, that didn't make sense. I

1445
02:01:01,520 --> 02:01:05,159
stood up, scanning the yard, following the trail with my eyes.

1446
02:01:06,399 --> 02:01:08,960
They led from the tree line straight to the porch,

1447
02:01:10,479 --> 02:01:16,640
and then they stopped, like whatever made them had just disappeared.

1448
02:01:18,600 --> 02:01:22,560
That night, I didn't even try to sleep. I was

1449
02:01:22,600 --> 02:01:26,720
done pretending this was normal. Whatever had been come into

1450
02:01:26,760 --> 02:01:31,760
my cabin wasn't just looking for food. It was looking

1451
02:01:31,840 --> 02:01:37,680
for me. So I stayed up, killed the fire early,

1452
02:01:38,079 --> 02:01:41,439
doused myself in scent blocker and sat in the darkness,

1453
02:01:41,600 --> 02:01:46,439
knife in hand, waiting for it to come back. On

1454
02:01:46,760 --> 02:01:52,520
forty three a m. The sound was distant, a rhythmic

1455
02:01:52,600 --> 02:01:57,079
crunch of heavy footsteps pressing into the dirt. I gripped

1456
02:01:57,079 --> 02:02:04,479
the knife tighter, barely breathing. It was back. The footsteps

1457
02:02:04,520 --> 02:02:09,239
approached the porch, and then wood groaned under an impossible weight.

1458
02:02:10,840 --> 02:02:16,840
Something was standing right outside. The floorboards creaked as slow

1459
02:02:17,039 --> 02:02:22,479
dragging in hail. It was breathing. I could feel the

1460
02:02:22,479 --> 02:02:25,399
weight of it through the walls, the pressure in the air,

1461
02:02:25,920 --> 02:02:30,039
like the whole cabin was shrinking around me. I'd planned

1462
02:02:30,039 --> 02:02:33,079
to peek through the window, maybe even step outside and

1463
02:02:33,159 --> 02:02:36,760
see what it was, but I wasn't so sure in

1464
02:02:36,840 --> 02:02:41,880
the moment, because whatever was standing on my porch wasn't

1465
02:02:41,880 --> 02:02:45,560
a deer or a bear or anything else that belonged

1466
02:02:45,560 --> 02:02:53,239
in these woods. It sounded huge. I stayed completely still,

1467
02:02:53,920 --> 02:03:00,119
every muscle locked, gripping the knife as hard as I could. Then,

1468
02:03:00,840 --> 02:03:06,960
just as suddenly as it had come, it left. The

1469
02:03:07,000 --> 02:03:10,680
weight pulled away from the porch, the footsteps retreating back

1470
02:03:10,720 --> 02:03:15,439
toward the trees. But I knew somehow that it wasn't

1471
02:03:15,520 --> 02:03:19,920
really gone. It was just waiting for the right moment.

1472
02:03:22,479 --> 02:03:25,600
I didn't sleep. I just sat there in the dark,

1473
02:03:25,920 --> 02:03:28,840
staring at the door, knowing that I had no way

1474
02:03:28,960 --> 02:03:33,600
out of these mountains until the guide came back. I

1475
02:03:33,640 --> 02:03:37,239
should have grabbed my pack, walked until sunrise and never

1476
02:03:37,319 --> 02:03:41,880
looked back. But I was too afraid of getting lost,

1477
02:03:42,880 --> 02:03:48,359
so I made a plan. I wouldn't try to fight it,

1478
02:03:48,560 --> 02:03:54,199
I wouldn't try to see it. I would just hide.

1479
02:03:54,479 --> 02:03:58,199
The following night, I did everything I could to raise myself.

1480
02:03:59,039 --> 02:04:02,119
I doused myself in scent blocker, rubbing it deep into

1481
02:04:02,119 --> 02:04:06,359
my skin, my clothes, my hair. I piled furniture in

1482
02:04:06,359 --> 02:04:09,079
front of the bedroom door, not that I thought it

1483
02:04:09,079 --> 02:04:13,880
would help, but it made me feel safer. Then, gripping

1484
02:04:13,920 --> 02:04:17,199
the only weapon I had, a rusted, hunted knife i'd

1485
02:04:17,239 --> 02:04:20,840
found in the cabin, I squeezed into the wardrobe and

1486
02:04:20,960 --> 02:04:25,600
pulled the door shut. I sat in the dark, knees

1487
02:04:25,640 --> 02:04:33,079
to my chest, breath slow and controlled, and then I waited.

1488
02:04:35,439 --> 02:04:40,359
This time, it didn't make me wait long, and midnight

1489
02:04:41,279 --> 02:04:45,920
I heard it. It let out a sound like a

1490
02:04:46,000 --> 02:04:51,439
hyaena choking on his own laughter, then a loud bang.

1491
02:04:52,760 --> 02:04:56,720
The door downstairs shattered inward. The whole cabin shaking from

1492
02:04:56,760 --> 02:05:03,800
the impact heavy footsteps, wood splintering, furniture shattering. The thing

1493
02:05:03,960 --> 02:05:08,760
wasn't searching cautiously anymore. It was tearing through the cabin,

1494
02:05:09,239 --> 02:05:13,520
breaking things apart. As it moved. A deep sniffing sound

1495
02:05:13,520 --> 02:05:16,800
filled the air, dragging inhals like a dog trying to

1496
02:05:16,840 --> 02:05:21,039
catch a scent. I pressed myself deeper into the closet,

1497
02:05:21,479 --> 02:05:27,720
tightening my grip on the knife. The sniffing stopped for

1498
02:05:27,760 --> 02:05:34,239
a long moment. There was silence, then, from just outside

1499
02:05:34,279 --> 02:05:40,159
the bedroom, a heavy creak. It was at the door.

1500
02:05:41,760 --> 02:05:45,159
I held my breath. I wanted to close my eyes,

1501
02:05:45,479 --> 02:05:49,199
to squeeze them shut and pretend I wasn't there, But

1502
02:05:49,319 --> 02:05:53,319
some horrible part of me needed to see it. So

1503
02:05:53,399 --> 02:05:57,720
I shifted just slightly, just enough to peer through the

1504
02:05:57,760 --> 02:06:04,560
slats in the wardrobe door, and that's when I saw it.

1505
02:06:04,560 --> 02:06:06,560
It had a dock under the door frame as it

1506
02:06:06,640 --> 02:06:12,039
stepped inside, tarering easily eight feet tall. Its body was

1507
02:06:12,039 --> 02:06:15,520
a grotesque mixture of animals, as if something had stitched

1508
02:06:15,560 --> 02:06:20,199
it together from several different corpses. Its arms were long,

1509
02:06:20,920 --> 02:06:25,399
ending and disturbingly human like hands, except the fingers were

1510
02:06:25,439 --> 02:06:31,560
doubled two sets of knuckles, each twisting and crackling. Its

1511
02:06:31,600 --> 02:06:36,199
body was covered in thick, matted fur, except for its torso,

1512
02:06:36,359 --> 02:06:41,479
which was strangely bare. Pale, scarred skin stretched tightly over

1513
02:06:41,520 --> 02:06:45,760
its ribbed cage. A pair of antlers curled from its skull,

1514
02:06:46,159 --> 02:06:50,680
but they weren't symmetrical. One was twisted, bent at the

1515
02:06:50,720 --> 02:06:56,640
wrong angles, jotting out unnaturally. Its jaw didn't match its face.

1516
02:06:57,920 --> 02:07:02,039
The mouth was wide, gaping too far, filled with teeth

1517
02:07:02,079 --> 02:07:06,079
that didn't seem to fit together. But it didn't seem

1518
02:07:06,119 --> 02:07:09,399
to have any eyes. Where its eyes should have been,

1519
02:07:10,039 --> 02:07:14,600
there were only patches of dark, sunken skin. It was

1520
02:07:14,640 --> 02:07:18,880
safe to assume that it was blind, but that didn't

1521
02:07:18,920 --> 02:07:23,680
seem to matter. It sniffed the air, turning its massive

1522
02:07:23,680 --> 02:07:29,920
head in slow jerking movements, its breathing deep and uneven.

1523
02:07:30,720 --> 02:07:36,119
It knew something was here, and it was angry. It

1524
02:07:36,199 --> 02:07:40,399
took another step forward, shifting its weight onto the wooden floorboards.

1525
02:07:41,560 --> 02:07:44,640
The scent blocker was working, but I didn't know if

1526
02:07:44,720 --> 02:07:51,680
it would be enough. I stayed still, silent, I didn't breathe.

1527
02:07:52,199 --> 02:07:58,960
For a moment. I thought I was safe. Then it lunged,

1528
02:08:00,600 --> 02:08:06,880
not toward me, but toward everything else. It roared, slamming

1529
02:08:06,880 --> 02:08:11,560
its fists into the walls, a guttural, furious sound, frustration,

1530
02:08:11,880 --> 02:08:17,319
twisting its movements into wild, jerking violence. It ripped through

1531
02:08:17,319 --> 02:08:20,880
the room, tearing the bed apart, knocking over the dresser.

1532
02:08:22,000 --> 02:08:26,680
I gritted my teeth, trying not to flinch. Then its

1533
02:08:26,720 --> 02:08:32,399
hands landed on the claoset. My breath hitched, the wardrobe shook.

1534
02:08:33,199 --> 02:08:36,239
I pressed myself as far back as I could, feeling

1535
02:08:36,239 --> 02:08:41,399
the rough wooden panels against my spine. The thing sniffed again,

1536
02:08:42,119 --> 02:08:47,079
growled low in its throat, Then it shoved the clauset over.

1537
02:08:48,680 --> 02:08:52,119
I crashed through the ground, tangled in wooden fabric, my

1538
02:08:52,199 --> 02:08:58,359
knife slipping from my fingers. For a single agonizing moment,

1539
02:08:58,920 --> 02:09:05,880
I thought this is it. But as I lay there, frozen,

1540
02:09:06,279 --> 02:09:10,720
waiting for teeth and claws and death, I heard it

1541
02:09:10,800 --> 02:09:20,439
shuffle and then it left. I don't know how long

1542
02:09:20,520 --> 02:09:24,560
I stayed there, lying in the wreckage, staring at the ceiling,

1543
02:09:25,159 --> 02:09:30,000
shaking so hard I thought my ribs might crack. Eventually,

1544
02:09:30,279 --> 02:09:33,720
the sun rose. I was out of the cabin before

1545
02:09:33,760 --> 02:09:38,520
the sun fully broke over the horizon. No hesitation, no

1546
02:09:38,680 --> 02:09:42,880
second guessing. I didn't care about my supplies, my food,

1547
02:09:43,439 --> 02:09:45,640
or the fact that I still had weeks left before

1548
02:09:45,680 --> 02:09:49,239
the guide was supposed to come back. I just grabbed

1549
02:09:49,239 --> 02:09:53,520
whatever I could carry my backpack, a flashlight, a knife,

1550
02:09:53,800 --> 02:09:59,159
a bottle of water, and I ran. I didn't look back.

1551
02:10:00,079 --> 02:10:03,439
If I got lost, so be it. It was better

1552
02:10:03,479 --> 02:10:06,159
than waiting to get killed by whatever that thing was.

1553
02:10:07,560 --> 02:10:10,079
All I knew was that I couldn't be there. When

1554
02:10:10,159 --> 02:10:15,439
night fell again, I tried to retrace my steps, following

1555
02:10:15,439 --> 02:10:17,920
the same path the guide had led me down almost

1556
02:10:17,920 --> 02:10:21,840
two weeks ago. But the deeper I went into the woods,

1557
02:10:22,520 --> 02:10:30,159
the more uncertain I became. Everything looked different. The trees

1558
02:10:30,239 --> 02:10:34,560
felt denser, closer together, the trunks pressing in around me.

1559
02:10:35,479 --> 02:10:38,319
The light filtering through the leaves felt dimmer than before.

1560
02:10:39,640 --> 02:10:43,000
I tried to focus, tried to match landmarks in my head,

1561
02:10:44,319 --> 02:10:47,239
the rock formation I'd passed that on the way in

1562
02:10:48,119 --> 02:10:51,279
that fallen tree. Had it been on my left before

1563
02:10:51,399 --> 02:10:56,039
or my right? Doubt crept into my mind like rust.

1564
02:10:57,560 --> 02:11:00,840
The oppressive silence returned, and I thought back to that

1565
02:11:01,000 --> 02:11:04,640
article i'd read, how the entire forest goes silent when

1566
02:11:04,640 --> 02:11:08,479
there's a predator around. I wanted to believe it was

1567
02:11:08,520 --> 02:11:12,880
an animal, a bear, a deer, a goddamn crocodile, if

1568
02:11:12,920 --> 02:11:16,640
that was even possible, anything but what I knew it

1569
02:11:16,680 --> 02:11:21,720
really was. I wiped the sweat off my brow and

1570
02:11:21,840 --> 02:11:29,520
kept moving. For whatever reason, it never showed itself. During daytime.

1571
02:11:30,880 --> 02:11:34,199
I walked for hours, the sun climbing higher in the sky,

1572
02:11:34,880 --> 02:11:38,600
my legs burning from the effort, But no matter how

1573
02:11:38,720 --> 02:11:43,560
far I went, the feeling never left. I was still

1574
02:11:43,680 --> 02:11:47,800
being followed, not hunted in the way a predator goes

1575
02:11:47,840 --> 02:11:53,520
after prey. This was different. It was letting me tire out,

1576
02:11:54,039 --> 02:11:59,720
toying with me. All I saw were more trees and

1577
02:12:00,000 --> 02:12:03,800
behind me, just at the edge of my hearing that

1578
02:12:04,079 --> 02:12:09,000
awful sound. One moment, I was forcing my legs forward,

1579
02:12:09,359 --> 02:12:13,319
dragging my body through the thick forest, lungs burning with exhaustion.

1580
02:12:14,319 --> 02:12:19,239
The next, pure survival instinct took over. Branches whipped against

1581
02:12:19,239 --> 02:12:22,960
my arms, roots snatched at my boots. My breath came

1582
02:12:23,000 --> 02:12:28,399
and went, my vision blurred with sweat, and still the

1583
02:12:28,439 --> 02:12:34,399
feeling of being followed never left. The sun was lower now,

1584
02:12:34,960 --> 02:12:39,359
the trees stretching into elongated shadows, and just as I

1585
02:12:39,399 --> 02:12:45,239
thought I couldn't take another step, I saw it the

1586
02:12:45,319 --> 02:12:52,399
break in the trees houses. I stumbled forward, my body

1587
02:12:52,439 --> 02:12:56,000
moving before my brain could process what I was looking at.

1588
02:12:56,960 --> 02:13:02,119
A small village, old buildings, would storefronts, a few houses

1589
02:13:02,159 --> 02:13:06,319
tucked between them, a church, steeple rising in the distance.

1590
02:13:07,880 --> 02:13:11,560
It wasn't modern, not a row of houses with mailboxes

1591
02:13:11,600 --> 02:13:16,960
and street lights. This place felt old, weathered, like it

1592
02:13:17,039 --> 02:13:21,399
had been sitting here, untouched for decades. I didn't care

1593
02:13:21,439 --> 02:13:24,239
how strange it was, didn't care how it wasn't on

1594
02:13:24,359 --> 02:13:28,159
any map I had seen before. All I cared about

1595
02:13:28,920 --> 02:13:33,840
was that it was civilization. I had made it. I

1596
02:13:34,000 --> 02:13:38,680
was safe. Relief flooded me so hard I almost collapsed.

1597
02:13:40,199 --> 02:13:43,439
For the first time in hours. I felt something other

1598
02:13:43,600 --> 02:13:50,279
than sheer terror. I was out. I turned. I shouldn't have.

1599
02:13:51,720 --> 02:13:54,680
I should have kept walking, should have run straight into

1600
02:13:54,720 --> 02:14:00,840
that village, screaming for help. And that's when I saw it,

1601
02:14:00,960 --> 02:14:07,199
standing just beyond the tree line, a figure, motionless. The

1602
02:14:07,319 --> 02:14:10,479
last light of the sun stretched long across the dirt road,

1603
02:14:11,000 --> 02:14:13,840
painting the sky in shades of gold and deep violet,

1604
02:14:15,039 --> 02:14:18,239
And just as the final sliver of daylight dipped below

1605
02:14:18,279 --> 02:14:23,840
the mountains, it moved slowly. It got down to a

1606
02:14:23,840 --> 02:14:28,680
crouching position like he was getting ready to run. The

1607
02:14:28,760 --> 02:14:31,439
first building I reached looked like an old general store.

1608
02:14:32,119 --> 02:14:35,039
The wooden sign above the door had long since faded,

1609
02:14:35,760 --> 02:14:39,119
but I didn't care what it was. I just needed

1610
02:14:39,159 --> 02:14:43,279
to find someone. I pushed through the door, the bell

1611
02:14:43,319 --> 02:14:47,680
above jingling as I nearly collapsed. Inside. The air was

1612
02:14:47,720 --> 02:14:50,800
thick with the smell of dust and aged wood. Dim

1613
02:14:50,880 --> 02:14:56,319
lantern light flickering from the walls. A few people stood inside,

1614
02:14:56,680 --> 02:14:59,920
men in odd work jackets, a woman behind the counter,

1615
02:15:00,560 --> 02:15:04,640
a boy sitting on the stool near the stove. They

1616
02:15:04,680 --> 02:15:08,840
all turned at the same time. Their expressions were blank,

1617
02:15:09,680 --> 02:15:16,279
not surprised or alarmed, but definitely curious. I gasped, trying

1618
02:15:16,319 --> 02:15:21,720
to catch my breath. My throat felt raw, my lungs burned.

1619
02:15:22,840 --> 02:15:26,479
I must have looked insane, covered in sweat and dirt,

1620
02:15:26,960 --> 02:15:31,039
shaking like I just crawled out of a grave. I

1621
02:15:31,119 --> 02:15:36,600
tried to speak, but my voice cracked. I I need help,

1622
02:15:37,359 --> 02:15:41,960
I managed, gripping the door frame. Something's out there in

1623
02:15:42,000 --> 02:15:50,840
the woods. They said nothing. No, what are you talking about? No,

1624
02:15:51,199 --> 02:15:59,159
slow down, son, No, that sounds crazy. Just silence. Then,

1625
02:16:00,039 --> 02:16:04,600
after a long pause, the woman behind the counter stepped forward.

1626
02:16:05,800 --> 02:16:10,279
She didn't even ask what I'd seen. She just looked

1627
02:16:10,319 --> 02:16:18,159
me dead in the eye and asked, calmly, carefully, did

1628
02:16:18,199 --> 02:16:32,680
it follow you. Being a prison guard isn't easy. You

1629
02:16:32,760 --> 02:16:37,680
have to maintain control, control of routine, of unpredictable people,

1630
02:16:38,280 --> 02:16:43,159
of yourself. In a normal prison, there are so many

1631
02:16:43,200 --> 02:16:50,840
factors to consider, gang affiliations, smuggling, fights, and occasionally escape attempts.

1632
02:16:52,479 --> 02:16:54,840
A lot of people think the job is about strength,

1633
02:16:55,319 --> 02:17:00,399
about control through sheer force, and yeah, maybe in some

1634
02:17:00,440 --> 02:17:07,040
prisons that works, but not here. I work in a

1635
02:17:07,079 --> 02:17:11,079
prison that's above a normal prison, the place people send

1636
02:17:11,079 --> 02:17:15,200
things that can't go anywhere else, things that aren't supposed

1637
02:17:15,239 --> 02:17:20,200
to exist. Some of them used to be people, some

1638
02:17:20,280 --> 02:17:25,040
of them never were. Some of them no one knows

1639
02:17:25,079 --> 02:17:30,319
what they are, not really. Scientists try to study them,

1640
02:17:30,559 --> 02:17:34,600
administration tries to classify them, but at the end of

1641
02:17:34,639 --> 02:17:38,520
the day, we're all just keeping them locked up and

1642
02:17:38,639 --> 02:17:43,559
hoping that's enough. My job is to make sure the

1643
02:17:43,680 --> 02:17:47,319
vault stays closed, and I do this through a strict

1644
02:17:47,440 --> 02:17:52,600
routine and following my guidelines to the letter. When you

1645
02:17:52,680 --> 02:17:56,680
get started here, there's one prisoner that every new person

1646
02:17:56,719 --> 02:18:03,280
gets assigned, the phaser peeking into a cell, you'll see

1647
02:18:03,280 --> 02:18:09,760
a man mid forties looking ordinary as Ever, however, periodically

1648
02:18:10,280 --> 02:18:13,120
he will flash with a bright light and blink to

1649
02:18:13,159 --> 02:18:16,959
another section of the cell. He was caught trying with

1650
02:18:17,040 --> 02:18:21,760
telepatation technology, and from the lack of usage in this facility,

1651
02:18:22,520 --> 02:18:26,760
I can imagine it's still far from being perfected. He

1652
02:18:26,840 --> 02:18:30,239
is a reminder of the consequences of dabbling too much

1653
02:18:30,399 --> 02:18:35,159
into the unknown. It would be oddly relaxing to watch

1654
02:18:35,719 --> 02:18:38,840
if it wasn't for the horrific screaming during and after

1655
02:18:38,920 --> 02:18:43,479
he blinks, though sometimes it's just muffled sobs when he's exhausted,

1656
02:18:44,559 --> 02:18:48,879
so it's not too bad to watch. Then sometimes he's

1657
02:18:48,959 --> 02:18:51,879
lucky and he doesn't blink for a few hours or

1658
02:18:51,920 --> 02:18:55,799
even a day. But some days are bad when it's

1659
02:18:55,959 --> 02:19:01,079
just non stop with how unpredictable and unstable he is.

1660
02:19:01,680 --> 02:19:06,639
Sometimes he just disappears. The empty cell will alert us

1661
02:19:06,639 --> 02:19:10,159
if he's gone too long, then someone is sent to investigate.

1662
02:19:12,959 --> 02:19:17,120
He never actually leaves the cell, not once has he

1663
02:19:17,200 --> 02:19:22,079
ever teleported out of the room, let alone the facility. Whatever.

1664
02:19:22,120 --> 02:19:26,920
They line the walls with his effective However, it's what

1665
02:19:27,000 --> 02:19:31,280
we do that is observed. When I was alerted. I

1666
02:19:31,360 --> 02:19:35,959
waited outside and observed, noting down any anomalies until he

1667
02:19:36,040 --> 02:19:40,200
blinked back. But some have The more proactive new recruits,

1668
02:19:40,840 --> 02:19:45,319
ones looking to prove themselves, rush in armed and ready.

1669
02:19:46,280 --> 02:19:49,479
The lucky ones get the scare of their lives, and

1670
02:19:49,520 --> 02:19:52,840
the man blinks back in with a sudden flash, scaring

1671
02:19:52,879 --> 02:19:57,000
the hell out of the green recruit. Wherever the phaser goes,

1672
02:19:57,360 --> 02:20:01,600
whatever he sees must be horrifying. I would have thought

1673
02:20:01,639 --> 02:20:04,920
he simply blinked forward in time, delaying when he appears

1674
02:20:04,959 --> 02:20:07,959
to us in the facility, But the look in his

1675
02:20:08,040 --> 02:20:12,559
eyes after a delayed blink tells a thousand stories, ones

1676
02:20:13,000 --> 02:20:18,559
which he'll never share. The unfortunate outcome is when a

1677
02:20:18,600 --> 02:20:23,680
guard stands where he appears without fail contact with a

1678
02:20:23,719 --> 02:20:27,360
blinking entity, even if just brushing his arm as he

1679
02:20:27,440 --> 02:20:32,000
blinks back, always favors the one who blinked. The guard

1680
02:20:32,120 --> 02:20:37,639
simply bursts into a huge red mist. Since getting cleaners

1681
02:20:37,639 --> 02:20:41,399
inside is an impossibility, the phaser has to clean it up.

1682
02:20:43,200 --> 02:20:46,559
Looking back, this all feels like a test to see

1683
02:20:46,600 --> 02:20:49,879
if a guard is ready to handle the oddities contained here,

1684
02:20:50,680 --> 02:20:54,879
a litmus test for new recruits. Being too passive can

1685
02:20:55,000 --> 02:20:59,719
lead a catastrophe. Being too proactive can also lead a catastrophe.

1686
02:21:00,639 --> 02:21:05,000
Sometimes even a middle ground can be detrimental. You're tested

1687
02:21:05,280 --> 02:21:09,559
every day with your split second decision making skills, and

1688
02:21:09,639 --> 02:21:11,920
it feels like this is how they gauge us on

1689
02:21:12,000 --> 02:21:17,280
our response. The phaser is one of many prisoners dangerous

1690
02:21:17,280 --> 02:21:22,520
by circumstance, a repercussion of dabbling too far into untreaded

1691
02:21:22,559 --> 02:21:31,360
waters and being eternally punished. However, some prisoners are dangerous

1692
02:21:31,399 --> 02:21:38,319
by choice. In society, we've heard of people pushing themselves

1693
02:21:38,360 --> 02:21:42,159
into great feats. Archers who can hit a bull's eye

1694
02:21:42,360 --> 02:21:45,440
then split that arrow with a second one lift us

1695
02:21:45,559 --> 02:21:49,079
geared to the max hauling weight that matches large vehicles.

1696
02:21:50,440 --> 02:21:55,159
But what if someone took it further? Prisoner X has

1697
02:21:55,200 --> 02:22:00,639
a laundry list of protocols. To simplify it, he essentially

1698
02:22:00,680 --> 02:22:07,319
turned his body into a living weapon, chemical, biological, technological, mentally,

1699
02:22:08,239 --> 02:22:12,120
he dabbled into every extreme to make himself the most

1700
02:22:12,239 --> 02:22:18,559
dangerous person alive. Through multiple surgeries, the scientists Tear have

1701
02:22:18,719 --> 02:22:23,879
removed a large portion of his internal weapons and contingencies. However,

1702
02:22:24,399 --> 02:22:28,840
he still has many that simply cannot be Undone. His

1703
02:22:28,959 --> 02:22:33,559
skin is nigh unbreakable, hardened through means which our scientists

1704
02:22:33,639 --> 02:22:37,840
are still trying to figure out. Prisoners often have a

1705
02:22:37,879 --> 02:22:41,319
running theme of not talking, so there's still a lot

1706
02:22:41,399 --> 02:22:46,280
unknown to us. But this makes him resistant to tasers

1707
02:22:46,319 --> 02:22:52,600
and fire. Our go too for prisoner subjugation. Instead, we

1708
02:22:52,719 --> 02:22:55,719
have to periodically drill a small hole into his neck,

1709
02:22:56,559 --> 02:22:59,159
not an easy feat with how thick his skin actually is,

1710
02:23:00,120 --> 02:23:03,319
put on a collar with a reinforce syringe filled with

1711
02:23:03,479 --> 02:23:08,799
enough sedatives to put down an elephant. However, we still

1712
02:23:08,799 --> 02:23:11,319
need bodies to escort him from his cell to where

1713
02:23:11,360 --> 02:23:15,600
he needs to be. To say he is resistance of authority,

1714
02:23:16,040 --> 02:23:20,040
he is an understatement. One time he tried to make

1715
02:23:20,040 --> 02:23:23,079
a break for it. He waited for the cusp of

1716
02:23:23,159 --> 02:23:26,760
when he needed redrilling. His skin had hardened for his

1717
02:23:26,799 --> 02:23:29,840
neck to resist the needle just enough for him to

1718
02:23:29,920 --> 02:23:33,799
knock it away head down, just tackling the wall to

1719
02:23:33,840 --> 02:23:37,879
alter its angle. It took almost three full squads to

1720
02:23:37,959 --> 02:23:44,000
finally subdue him, many casualties taken. Despite his arms eternally

1721
02:23:44,040 --> 02:23:47,719
being bound, he was still proficient in killing in many

1722
02:23:47,760 --> 02:23:53,280
other ways. I was fortunately on a different shift, but

1723
02:23:53,360 --> 02:23:57,479
the deaths up to security and increased how often he

1724
02:23:57,639 --> 02:24:04,680
was drilled. Luckily, not all prisoners as strictly evil. Some

1725
02:24:04,840 --> 02:24:10,159
I hear for being too aspirational. One man sits in

1726
02:24:10,200 --> 02:24:14,680
a cell low security and minimal luxuries, which is a

1727
02:24:14,719 --> 02:24:18,920
lot compared to the many others living conditions. Here. We

1728
02:24:19,040 --> 02:24:22,799
call him the tinkereer because the Southern post title of

1729
02:24:23,000 --> 02:24:28,120
technomancer was too ridiculous for us to use. At first,

1730
02:24:28,399 --> 02:24:32,920
he was a menace, nothing too threatening, but he would

1731
02:24:32,920 --> 02:24:36,920
tinker with anything he could get his hands on. Guards

1732
02:24:36,920 --> 02:24:39,760
found their combs missing from their belt, only to have

1733
02:24:39,920 --> 02:24:44,600
a strange signal beam out at everyone's radios Uppida's without

1734
02:24:44,680 --> 02:24:47,639
strange bugs, only to find a signal was sent to

1735
02:24:47,680 --> 02:24:51,520
disrupt them. Though there are many anomalies on a near

1736
02:24:51,600 --> 02:24:57,040
constant basis, some potentially catastrophic. When it fell into the

1737
02:24:57,120 --> 02:25:01,920
category of technology shenanigans, it was easy to know who

1738
02:25:01,920 --> 02:25:06,719
the culprit was. Often we'd storm up to his cell,

1739
02:25:07,040 --> 02:25:10,639
subdue him, and search the area, and each time we'd

1740
02:25:10,639 --> 02:25:13,319
find a makeshift array he'd made with the scraps he'd

1741
02:25:13,360 --> 02:25:18,600
found and destroy it, giggles coming between his grunts as

1742
02:25:18,600 --> 02:25:23,920
a guard held him down. Something we noticed, though, was

1743
02:25:23,959 --> 02:25:26,680
that when he did play with his tech, he would

1744
02:25:26,760 --> 02:25:31,200
happily stay in his room and tinker. This gave us

1745
02:25:31,200 --> 02:25:36,079
an idea. Periodically, we'd bring in a broken piece of

1746
02:25:36,120 --> 02:25:42,879
technology a laptop, tablet, phone, et cetera. Obviously, we'd remove

1747
02:25:43,000 --> 02:25:46,840
anything that could cause issue, parts that could access the internet,

1748
02:25:47,360 --> 02:25:51,600
or simply remove a key item like the CPU. From here,

1749
02:25:51,799 --> 02:25:54,200
we'd bring it to him under the guise that we

1750
02:25:54,360 --> 02:25:58,040
wanted it fixed, and he'd tinker with it for days,

1751
02:25:58,520 --> 02:26:03,239
sometimes weeks. When he'd finish, with search his room in

1752
02:26:03,280 --> 02:26:07,360
case he held any parts, often finding them and unbeknownst

1753
02:26:07,399 --> 02:26:12,200
to him, destroy it all. We once booted up a

1754
02:26:12,360 --> 02:26:15,639
fixed laptop he given us, adding back in the CPU

1755
02:26:15,719 --> 02:26:19,319
and battery, only for it to be an almost completely

1756
02:26:19,399 --> 02:26:24,079
different device set up for functions. We couldn't even comprehend

1757
02:26:24,520 --> 02:26:29,079
the brainchild of the madmen of technology, but we kept

1758
02:26:29,159 --> 02:26:34,959
up this routine because doing this satiated him. This wasn't

1759
02:26:34,959 --> 02:26:38,360
on any of the books. We guards often found our

1760
02:26:38,399 --> 02:26:42,000
own means through on ground observation to come up with

1761
02:26:42,120 --> 02:26:47,920
makeshift routines to make our lives easier. However, one guard

1762
02:26:48,000 --> 02:26:51,719
didn't get the full memo. He saw the tinker as

1763
02:26:52,000 --> 02:26:55,000
the guy that fixes things, and brought him his phone

1764
02:26:55,000 --> 02:27:00,159
that wasn't turning on despite the facility being deep underground

1765
02:27:00,000 --> 02:27:03,000
and jammed up to the max for any outward signal

1766
02:27:03,079 --> 02:27:08,360
by location in technology. Within hours, a nuclear code was

1767
02:27:08,399 --> 02:27:13,479
sent and almost worked in setting off multiple missiles. A

1768
02:27:13,559 --> 02:27:17,559
nuclear warning was even sent out in Hawaii, which outwardly

1769
02:27:17,799 --> 02:27:21,559
was reported as a false flag, but we were close

1770
02:27:21,600 --> 02:27:25,920
to a real catastrophe. The guard was swiftly dealt with

1771
02:27:26,559 --> 02:27:31,079
and the tinkerers band from fixing tech for months, but

1772
02:27:31,959 --> 02:27:36,719
he wasn't unhappy with this. Every time we checked on him,

1773
02:27:37,319 --> 02:27:42,040
he still giggled about it thinking about what he did.

1774
02:27:42,680 --> 02:27:46,040
This tied him over until he was eventually allowed to

1775
02:27:46,079 --> 02:27:50,520
fix broken tech again with much more restrictions from then on.

1776
02:27:53,479 --> 02:27:56,719
There's one prisoner which I like, being put on shift

1777
02:27:56,799 --> 02:28:01,879
for causes no issues, needs no maintenents, just need to

1778
02:28:01,920 --> 02:28:04,399
keep an eye on him and note down any anomalies,

1779
02:28:05,120 --> 02:28:09,360
which there are never any of. This is because he's

1780
02:28:09,399 --> 02:28:15,360
stuck in a perpetual state of stasis. The story goes

1781
02:28:15,440 --> 02:28:17,920
that a strange signal was picked up in the basement

1782
02:28:18,000 --> 02:28:21,440
of a residential building. When a filled up team was

1783
02:28:21,479 --> 02:28:25,840
sent to investigate, they found him in this state frozen

1784
02:28:25,959 --> 02:28:30,319
in time. Around him was an array of strange tech

1785
02:28:31,079 --> 02:28:35,639
computers linked together in complicated ways, and a bulking machine

1786
02:28:35,799 --> 02:28:40,360
mostly destroyed. Due to him not being able to cooperate

1787
02:28:40,399 --> 02:28:43,040
in any sort of questioning, it was up to the

1788
02:28:43,040 --> 02:28:49,159
investigation team to piece together what happened, and boy did

1789
02:28:49,200 --> 02:28:54,799
they find a strange story. Through logs on his computer,

1790
02:28:55,559 --> 02:28:59,280
they discovered that he had in fact found the first

1791
02:28:59,399 --> 02:29:05,879
legitimate means to travel back in time. Very illegal. We

1792
02:29:05,959 --> 02:29:08,879
have a few prisoners detained for even attempting to start

1793
02:29:08,920 --> 02:29:15,840
that project, but he might have succeeded somehow he cracked

1794
02:29:15,840 --> 02:29:19,440
the code and put together the haphazard machine that lay

1795
02:29:19,520 --> 02:29:23,520
destroyed around him. But it's what he did with it

1796
02:29:23,760 --> 02:29:28,760
which is possibly the strangest thing I'd ever heard. Instead

1797
02:29:28,760 --> 02:29:31,959
of going back to make riches change a mistake in life,

1798
02:29:32,200 --> 02:29:36,879
old history in a groundbreaking way, visit a prolific historical figure,

1799
02:29:37,680 --> 02:29:42,200
or hell, see the dinosaurs, he instead went back in

1800
02:29:42,280 --> 02:29:48,440
time to kill his own grandfather. Guy was obsessed with

1801
02:29:48,520 --> 02:29:53,639
the grandfather paradox. It's strange how genius lovel intellect has

1802
02:29:53,680 --> 02:29:58,520
a correlation with absolute insanity. We only know this from

1803
02:29:58,559 --> 02:30:02,600
going through the logs on his computer. He detailed his

1804
02:30:02,719 --> 02:30:07,920
plan and specifically who he was, after one Charles Vernon.

1805
02:30:09,239 --> 02:30:13,520
We checked the database and a match was found. Charles

1806
02:30:13,639 --> 02:30:17,360
Vernon had died in the late nineteen forties, no record

1807
02:30:17,440 --> 02:30:22,200
of kids, which means if it was his grandfather, he

1808
02:30:22,280 --> 02:30:26,159
had successfully killed him and stopped a parent from being born,

1809
02:30:26,920 --> 02:30:33,399
causing him to become a paradox. However, he didn't simply disappear.

1810
02:30:34,920 --> 02:30:38,760
Despite all the information we could find, so much more

1811
02:30:38,840 --> 02:30:43,680
is left a mystery. It's inconclusive whether the state's currently

1812
02:30:43,760 --> 02:30:47,079
in is because of the paradox, a side effect of

1813
02:30:47,120 --> 02:30:51,600
time travel, or self inflicted after getting the answers he wanted.

1814
02:30:52,799 --> 02:30:56,120
It's also unknown what happened to the machine, whether it

1815
02:30:56,280 --> 02:30:59,040
was a one time used kind of deal or something

1816
02:30:59,079 --> 02:31:01,440
he set up so that it could never be used

1817
02:31:01,479 --> 02:31:07,159
after him. But we're working hard on freeing him. He

1818
02:31:07,280 --> 02:31:10,760
studied a lot and tests are always being ran and

1819
02:31:10,840 --> 02:31:15,520
whether we could reverse the condition he's in because throughout

1820
02:31:15,559 --> 02:31:19,559
all the logs there is nothing on how we built

1821
02:31:19,600 --> 02:31:23,840
the actual machine. So the scientists are hoping to unfreeze

1822
02:31:23,920 --> 02:31:27,200
him and prying this information out of him one way

1823
02:31:27,399 --> 02:31:32,440
or another. The science is above my pay grade. However,

1824
02:31:33,200 --> 02:31:36,200
I sometimes imagine what could have been done if one

1825
02:31:36,239 --> 02:31:40,799
went back with ambition, though someone going back with chaotic

1826
02:31:40,840 --> 02:31:45,879
contentions would be a terrifying thought. Maybe that's why he

1827
02:31:45,920 --> 02:31:49,600
never documented how it was made for why the machine

1828
02:31:49,719 --> 02:31:56,200
was destroyed. A large amount of duties are sectioned off

1829
02:31:56,239 --> 02:32:00,280
between different squads. What this means is that duty of

1830
02:32:00,440 --> 02:32:05,159
mentioned which are in my rotation may infrequently or never

1831
02:32:05,239 --> 02:32:08,639
show up for other squads. We have no idea how

1832
02:32:08,680 --> 02:32:11,760
the criteria for this is made, whether it's some inner

1833
02:32:11,799 --> 02:32:16,520
system of threat level or group based competency. God knows

1834
02:32:16,559 --> 02:32:20,280
what kind of demons others deal with, but hopefully I

1835
02:32:20,319 --> 02:32:24,520
am in a good rotation. But one duty, which is

1836
02:32:24,680 --> 02:32:32,760
universal between all groups is playtime. For this duty, I

1837
02:32:32,879 --> 02:32:37,120
dressed up in civilian attire, very young, coded and drove

1838
02:32:37,239 --> 02:32:41,760
to a town called small Haven. Now, the facility is

1839
02:32:41,840 --> 02:32:46,920
located remote from any civilization, so this town itself is

1840
02:32:46,959 --> 02:32:51,120
in a town per se. It's actually an entire level

1841
02:32:51,200 --> 02:32:55,520
of the facility, widened enough to create a dynamic, functioning

1842
02:32:55,600 --> 02:33:01,760
town and tall enough that a realistic skybox could be made.

1843
02:33:01,920 --> 02:33:06,600
Everyone in the town is an actor playing their part

1844
02:33:06,799 --> 02:33:12,239
twenty four seven, never breaking character or for one prisoner

1845
02:33:13,920 --> 02:33:19,680
a child. She lives with the family, though they are

1846
02:33:19,719 --> 02:33:24,120
technically actors, knowing that the town isn't real, they are

1847
02:33:24,239 --> 02:33:30,440
her biological relations. All in all, she lives the perfect life,

1848
02:33:31,280 --> 02:33:36,120
goes to school, plays with friends, visits extended family, which

1849
02:33:36,200 --> 02:33:40,680
are also moved into the facility town. The reason for

1850
02:33:40,760 --> 02:33:47,040
her detainment is simple. If she gets mad, she goes nuclear.

1851
02:33:48,440 --> 02:33:52,639
Not in a hyperbolic way. She has enough internal energy

1852
02:33:53,000 --> 02:33:59,639
to flatten entire countries plural. It's too big of an

1853
02:33:59,680 --> 02:34:04,479
explos to contain or isolate. Even if set off remotely

1854
02:34:04,559 --> 02:34:07,399
from the furthest point of land dead set in the

1855
02:34:07,399 --> 02:34:10,879
middle of the largest ocean, the Tsun armies would devastate

1856
02:34:11,000 --> 02:34:15,319
large portions of continents in all directions. We can't get

1857
02:34:15,399 --> 02:34:18,760
into space without risking hitting levels of stress that would

1858
02:34:18,799 --> 02:34:23,520
set her off before exiting the atmosphere. So she's stuck

1859
02:34:23,559 --> 02:34:27,319
in this facility under the guise of having moved to

1860
02:34:27,399 --> 02:34:32,360
a nice little town to start fresh. There are contingencies

1861
02:34:32,399 --> 02:34:36,079
set in place to make sure she never leaves. The

1862
02:34:36,120 --> 02:34:39,239
outer limits of the town are all abandoned factories or

1863
02:34:39,319 --> 02:34:44,559
run down ghettos, all designed psychologically to make them undesirable

1864
02:34:44,639 --> 02:34:48,840
to go to, though abandoned might be the wrong turn

1865
02:34:48,920 --> 02:34:52,840
to use, considering how many trained snipers are stationed there

1866
02:34:52,920 --> 02:34:58,000
around the clock, all armed with long range sedatives. Even

1867
02:34:58,040 --> 02:35:02,959
the ghetto's population are all trained militia scary looking people

1868
02:35:03,000 --> 02:35:06,120
to deter her wandering through an armed to the teeth

1869
02:35:06,159 --> 02:35:10,920
with contingencies. She once wandered close to the outer limits

1870
02:35:10,920 --> 02:35:15,159
with no escorts nearby. It was reported that she wasn't

1871
02:35:15,200 --> 02:35:17,719
trying to make a break for it, but they still

1872
02:35:17,920 --> 02:35:22,760
implemented a fail safe. She was subdued, and when found

1873
02:35:22,760 --> 02:35:26,360
by her parents, she was told she fell asleep wandering

1874
02:35:26,399 --> 02:35:31,280
too far. Luckily she bought that and there hasn't been

1875
02:35:31,319 --> 02:35:36,600
an incident since. She has no idea what is truly

1876
02:35:36,680 --> 02:35:40,719
going on, and when I was selected for playtime duty,

1877
02:35:41,760 --> 02:35:46,520
it was my job to check on her. How this

1878
02:35:46,639 --> 02:35:51,159
duty works can be complicated with how closed off the

1879
02:35:51,200 --> 02:35:55,280
town is from the real world. Getting information reliably to

1880
02:35:55,360 --> 02:35:59,959
and from small Haven it is difficult. Every so often

1881
02:36:00,479 --> 02:36:03,040
a guard has to role play into town to check

1882
02:36:03,079 --> 02:36:07,920
on things. Sometimes we're an out of town counselor sent

1883
02:36:08,000 --> 02:36:11,040
in by the school administration to check on all the students,

1884
02:36:11,799 --> 02:36:15,840
Sometimes for travelers car having trouble so stuck in town

1885
02:36:15,920 --> 02:36:19,879
for a few days. Seeing a new face also keeps

1886
02:36:19,920 --> 02:36:23,559
up the facade of the town's legitimacy, hiding the fact

1887
02:36:23,840 --> 02:36:29,840
that it is cut off from any real civilization. My shift, however,

1888
02:36:30,319 --> 02:36:35,120
was different. This was the first drafted long term visit,

1889
02:36:35,959 --> 02:36:39,159
and I was lucky enough to be the first participant.

1890
02:36:40,959 --> 02:36:44,520
Despite working in a facility in which you're physically tested

1891
02:36:44,719 --> 02:36:48,040
every day, with some guards covered head to toe in

1892
02:36:48,200 --> 02:36:54,360
unsightly scars, I've been relatively untouched, though there are given

1893
02:36:54,399 --> 02:36:57,200
items to look after ourselves, in which I do the

1894
02:36:57,239 --> 02:37:01,079
bare minimum. I guess I just have to admit it.

1895
02:37:02,639 --> 02:37:08,840
I have a serious case of babyface. This hasn't been

1896
02:37:08,879 --> 02:37:12,319
an issue, but it must have been noticed because it

1897
02:37:12,399 --> 02:37:17,200
tied directly into my assignment. I was sent in as

1898
02:37:17,239 --> 02:37:20,719
a new high school student finishing off the last part

1899
02:37:20,760 --> 02:37:24,399
of the year. I was given a strict schedule to

1900
02:37:24,440 --> 02:37:28,520
shave and make sure I blended in. Alone, I would

1901
02:37:28,559 --> 02:37:32,440
stand out as slightly older, but amongst the crowd, I

1902
02:37:32,559 --> 02:37:37,360
blended in well enough. The education departments were mixed through

1903
02:37:37,399 --> 02:37:42,280
all years, segmented between elementary and high school, so despite

1904
02:37:42,360 --> 02:37:45,920
being years apart in the schooling system, I was able

1905
02:37:45,959 --> 02:37:50,520
to observe the prisoner on occasions. In class, I was

1906
02:37:50,559 --> 02:37:53,520
instructed that I did not need to participate in learning

1907
02:37:53,879 --> 02:37:58,239
unless observed by the prisoner, which never came up, and

1908
02:37:58,319 --> 02:38:01,239
so I used that time to tell make meticulous notes

1909
02:38:01,280 --> 02:38:05,319
on anything I observed. I learned her name was Emily

1910
02:38:05,920 --> 02:38:10,079
and that she got on well enough in school. However,

1911
02:38:10,959 --> 02:38:14,959
there was a planned event. Since I was new in town,

1912
02:38:15,680 --> 02:38:19,559
Emily's parents invited me over for dinner, keeping up the

1913
02:38:19,600 --> 02:38:24,600
facade of a friendly, welcoming town. Alongside me was an

1914
02:38:24,600 --> 02:38:28,079
actor who posed as my mother. I handed over the

1915
02:38:28,200 --> 02:38:31,479
envelope containing the script to my mother and we studied

1916
02:38:31,520 --> 02:38:35,280
it together for hours to make sure everything lined up.

1917
02:38:36,360 --> 02:38:39,520
My mother played a single parent and I had lived

1918
02:38:39,559 --> 02:38:43,239
with my father for most of my life. However, she

1919
02:38:43,360 --> 02:38:46,280
came back into the picture through letters, and I had

1920
02:38:46,280 --> 02:38:48,440
decided to reach out and live with her for a

1921
02:38:48,440 --> 02:38:53,639
bit to mend our relationship. A believable story, and when

1922
02:38:53,680 --> 02:38:56,520
there was so small it would be hard to poke

1923
02:38:56,559 --> 02:39:01,239
holes in, we drilled the script, adding information for us

1924
02:39:01,239 --> 02:39:04,399
to sync up with in case anything else came up.

1925
02:39:06,920 --> 02:39:10,840
The meal went well because it was under the guise

1926
02:39:10,879 --> 02:39:14,319
of meeting new people. He managed to detail their family

1927
02:39:14,399 --> 02:39:19,719
life in a public setting. Overall, they reviewed well, and

1928
02:39:19,799 --> 02:39:26,799
I noted how stable everything seemed. However, unexpected to Emily's parents,

1929
02:39:27,520 --> 02:39:30,440
my mother pulled them to another room to crack open

1930
02:39:30,479 --> 02:39:34,479
a bottle of wine, something that kids couldn't participate in.

1931
02:39:36,120 --> 02:39:39,159
This left Emily and I alone for an in depth review,

1932
02:39:39,760 --> 02:39:43,120
away from the pressures of keeping up appearances with her parents.

1933
02:39:44,559 --> 02:39:48,399
This is something we struggled with in previous reviews, since

1934
02:39:48,520 --> 02:39:51,479
leaving a child alone with an adult stranger was something

1935
02:39:51,559 --> 02:39:55,479
hard to set up. Since I was perceived as a

1936
02:39:55,520 --> 02:39:59,440
youth rather than an adult. I was to extract any

1937
02:39:59,559 --> 02:40:04,799
useful information with this precious time frame and started slow

1938
02:40:05,479 --> 02:40:09,680
regoing over icebreakers, but this time in a more personal way,

1939
02:40:10,680 --> 02:40:15,879
asking how she really felt about life, about school, about apparents.

1940
02:40:16,360 --> 02:40:19,200
She opened up more than at the dinner table, all

1941
02:40:19,239 --> 02:40:24,319
of which was positive. The small Haven project was still

1942
02:40:24,360 --> 02:40:30,440
going strong. However, Emily went quiet after a while, with

1943
02:40:30,520 --> 02:40:35,760
a deep look of contemplation on her face. Rather than pray,

1944
02:40:36,360 --> 02:40:39,639
I let the silence hang, letting the pressure of social

1945
02:40:39,719 --> 02:40:44,719
cues eas her into opening up. However, rather than throwing

1946
02:40:44,760 --> 02:40:49,680
some thought provoking question back, she threw a curveball straight

1947
02:40:49,760 --> 02:40:54,879
into my face. I know it's all not real, she

1948
02:40:55,000 --> 02:41:01,000
said plainly. If I had a drink in my mouth,

1949
02:41:01,639 --> 02:41:07,000
i'd have spat it out. Huh oh, what do you mean?

1950
02:41:07,680 --> 02:41:12,360
I stuttered back. I had been composed before this, in

1951
02:41:12,440 --> 02:41:17,879
control of the conversation, following my orders to the letter. However,

1952
02:41:18,360 --> 02:41:21,479
this was veering so off script that I spat out

1953
02:41:21,479 --> 02:41:26,840
a question, hoping to steer things back to normalcy. I mean,

1954
02:41:27,440 --> 02:41:32,280
it's a simulation right this town. It's all avasad No,

1955
02:41:33,280 --> 02:41:40,799
she muttered. I froze. My first instinct was the gaslight

1956
02:41:40,840 --> 02:41:43,600
the hell out of her, make her feel crazy for

1957
02:41:43,680 --> 02:41:47,799
even thinking that, even though she was one hundred percent right.

1958
02:41:49,239 --> 02:41:51,360
But then a spark in my head told me that

1959
02:41:51,440 --> 02:41:54,879
if I argued against the point, this could cause unease,

1960
02:41:55,440 --> 02:42:00,159
which could turn to frustration anger, something I was instructed

1961
02:42:00,280 --> 02:42:06,159
over and over to never cause. So instead I probed,

1962
02:42:07,959 --> 02:42:13,479
what makes you think that? I asked curiously. I know

1963
02:42:13,639 --> 02:42:19,559
something's inside me, something I don't understand, something no one understands,

1964
02:42:20,399 --> 02:42:28,399
she said solemnly. Ice ran through me. She was to

1965
02:42:28,520 --> 02:42:32,959
never know about a condition. It was theorized that the

1966
02:42:33,000 --> 02:42:36,239
stress of keeping it in check could trigger her like

1967
02:42:36,360 --> 02:42:41,559
being constantly conscious of needing to breathe. She carried on

1968
02:42:41,760 --> 02:42:46,319
in my silence. I know everyone's an actor, pretending to

1969
02:42:46,360 --> 02:42:51,120
be part of this town, even my parents. They're my parents,

1970
02:42:51,200 --> 02:42:56,639
I know that, but they keep up a facade. This

1971
02:42:57,760 --> 02:43:01,959
was dangerous, and it was worse with every word she

1972
02:43:02,079 --> 02:43:06,920
spat out. She knew too much, but there was no

1973
02:43:07,120 --> 02:43:13,000
denying the conviction and a voice she was certain there

1974
02:43:13,079 --> 02:43:16,319
was no going back now. So instead of trying to

1975
02:43:16,360 --> 02:43:20,639
contradict it, I went for the answer I desperately wanted

1976
02:43:20,680 --> 02:43:27,639
for myself. How do you know? I asked, not some

1977
02:43:27,719 --> 02:43:32,600
setup to flip the narrative. I needed to know. Did

1978
02:43:32,639 --> 02:43:36,799
someone talk? Did she sneak out without people knowing? This

1979
02:43:37,079 --> 02:43:46,159
information was vital? Whatever is in me, this energy, it's changed.

1980
02:43:47,559 --> 02:43:51,559
At first I heard buzzing. My parents thought I was sick,

1981
02:43:52,319 --> 02:43:55,920
pulled me from school for a bit. But then it

1982
02:43:56,239 --> 02:44:01,520
like famed into words. But they they weren't from people's mouths,

1983
02:44:02,520 --> 02:44:09,360
it was from their heads. There when all hopes I

1984
02:44:09,399 --> 02:44:14,559
could reverse this, she could read minds. As if this

1985
02:44:14,680 --> 02:44:20,200
couldn't get any more terrifying. I wanted to ask so much.

1986
02:44:20,959 --> 02:44:24,840
My mind jumbled with so many questions. I couldn't even

1987
02:44:24,879 --> 02:44:29,120
stutter the first lines of a question. However, she picked

1988
02:44:29,200 --> 02:44:33,360
up on this. Of course she did. She could hear

1989
02:44:33,639 --> 02:44:38,319
everything I was thinking and answered before I could say anything.

1990
02:44:39,959 --> 02:44:43,920
Don't worry, I don't mind it, she said, with a

1991
02:44:44,000 --> 02:44:49,680
hint of glee. I coughed to clear my throat. What

1992
02:44:49,760 --> 02:44:56,079
do you mean, I asked. I needed confirmation, this town,

1993
02:44:56,479 --> 02:45:01,239
this life. I don't mind it. My parents are here,

1994
02:45:01,680 --> 02:45:05,559
my family are here. They love me. I know that

1995
02:45:05,959 --> 02:45:10,639
for a fact. That's the one thing that isn't a lie.

1996
02:45:10,840 --> 02:45:14,719
They're doing this for my safety, so I don't mind it,

1997
02:45:16,000 --> 02:45:21,600
she said, matter of factly. I eased up at this,

1998
02:45:22,559 --> 02:45:27,559
just accepted the situation. With everything in the open. We

1999
02:45:27,719 --> 02:45:33,159
ended up just chatting the whole time, talking like real humans,

2000
02:45:33,639 --> 02:45:37,639
something she probably liked and hadn't had in a long time.

2001
02:45:39,559 --> 02:45:42,680
Just before the parents came back in, she told me

2002
02:45:42,799 --> 02:45:46,760
to keep a new developments a secret, something which I

2003
02:45:46,840 --> 02:45:52,639
agreed to. Besides, she'd know if I lied with absolute certainty.

2004
02:45:54,680 --> 02:45:59,639
Since then, I've been the first recurring volunteer for playtime Duty.

2005
02:46:00,840 --> 02:46:04,440
The story evolved that I've reconnected with my mother and

2006
02:46:04,559 --> 02:46:08,559
live in a split custody between them. My actor mother

2007
02:46:08,920 --> 02:46:12,719
is now family friends with Emily's parents, and so we

2008
02:46:12,840 --> 02:46:14,760
have a reason to see them when I come to

2009
02:46:14,879 --> 02:46:18,680
town to visit, and Emily and I have developed a

2010
02:46:18,719 --> 02:46:31,760
bond which is valuable to the prison. Playtime gives me

2011
02:46:31,799 --> 02:46:35,239
a much needed reprieve from the hectic nature of the prison,

2012
02:46:36,319 --> 02:46:41,239
but I'm always kept busy. Lately I've been put on

2013
02:46:41,360 --> 02:46:45,959
feeding duty. The prisoner is the man in the hole.

2014
02:46:48,000 --> 02:46:52,239
His cell is simple. Nothing extraists fitted to hold him,

2015
02:46:52,959 --> 02:46:57,159
at least what we can see. Despite his strange quirk.

2016
02:46:57,680 --> 02:47:01,600
He never leaves his cell, though it's sometimes hard to tell.

2017
02:47:02,920 --> 02:47:07,120
No one in my team has ever fully seen him.

2018
02:47:07,479 --> 02:47:10,719
Every time we visit his cell, there's always a new

2019
02:47:10,760 --> 02:47:16,719
hole somewhere on the floor, wall, even ceiling. The location

2020
02:47:17,120 --> 02:47:21,920
is always random. This is despite whatever is logically on

2021
02:47:21,959 --> 02:47:26,440
the other side. Beside his cell is another unoccupied room.

2022
02:47:27,520 --> 02:47:31,479
Under and above are other levels of the complex, yet

2023
02:47:31,520 --> 02:47:37,239
the adjoining rooms are never disturbed. The holes look almost cartoonish,

2024
02:47:37,680 --> 02:47:41,120
rubble piled up around the hole or the edges frayed

2025
02:47:41,239 --> 02:47:45,319
up in an exaggerated manner, but the hole itself is

2026
02:47:45,399 --> 02:47:50,239
unnatural dark, regardless of how a light source is pointed

2027
02:47:50,280 --> 02:47:54,159
at it. When he speaks, it echoes like is far

2028
02:47:54,239 --> 02:47:59,959
deeper than what should be possible. They're closer to dimensional hole,

2029
02:48:00,959 --> 02:48:04,520
and when a new one appears, the previous one is gone,

2030
02:48:05,639 --> 02:48:10,520
not even a single scratch to indicate any wrongdoings. We

2031
02:48:10,600 --> 02:48:13,159
only know he's in there because he will chatter to

2032
02:48:13,280 --> 02:48:16,760
us when we bring him his food, though we're always

2033
02:48:16,799 --> 02:48:19,399
just instructed to leave it on the floor and leave.

2034
02:48:21,079 --> 02:48:23,760
Studies have been done to figure out what the holes

2035
02:48:23,879 --> 02:48:28,760
truly are. Items, cameras and people have been sent in

2036
02:48:28,799 --> 02:48:36,040
to investigate, but whatever enters never leaves. If connected to

2037
02:48:36,079 --> 02:48:40,399
a tether, it is severed upon entry and swiftly lost.

2038
02:48:41,959 --> 02:48:45,639
So for the time being it is just a management

2039
02:48:45,799 --> 02:48:51,319
and observation job. One time we thought he escaped, a

2040
02:48:51,479 --> 02:48:56,440
routine inspection was sent with catering to deliver. However, no

2041
02:48:56,639 --> 02:49:00,959
hole was found. It was reported, and as the backup

2042
02:49:01,000 --> 02:49:06,639
team was dispatched, the guard found where he was. Giggling

2043
02:49:06,760 --> 02:49:11,200
was heard from behind, and when he turned he saw

2044
02:49:11,239 --> 02:49:15,760
the edges of the keyhole frayed out. Little giggles could

2045
02:49:15,799 --> 02:49:22,360
be heard from the tiny void. God knows how they

2046
02:49:22,399 --> 02:49:26,399
do it, but the external team have an uncannyability to

2047
02:49:26,479 --> 02:49:31,840
detain these wild individuals. They are either hyper elite individuals

2048
02:49:32,040 --> 02:49:34,959
formed to make a god squad, or piled up with

2049
02:49:35,079 --> 02:49:38,239
enough tech to take down civilization as we know it.

2050
02:49:39,440 --> 02:49:45,559
Either way, they get results. However, there's one prisoner which

2051
02:49:45,600 --> 02:49:53,200
is an exception, Frank, because rather than being detained, he

2052
02:49:53,360 --> 02:49:59,559
simply turned himself in. We still don't know where he's

2053
02:49:59,600 --> 02:50:04,000
truly from. When asked, he gives a different answer each time,

2054
02:50:04,680 --> 02:50:09,959
always in a sarcastic tone. But there are theories. Some

2055
02:50:10,040 --> 02:50:15,479
are basic, like some form of extraterrestrial origin, something, he's

2056
02:50:15,479 --> 02:50:19,239
some sort of genetic freak given god likabilities through the

2057
02:50:19,319 --> 02:50:23,879
genetic lottery. The most interesting to me is that he's

2058
02:50:23,920 --> 02:50:29,799
from a higher dimension, fourth or fifth maybe either way.

2059
02:50:30,520 --> 02:50:37,760
It's incomprehensible what he can do. Teleportation, flight, spontaneous combustion,

2060
02:50:39,000 --> 02:50:42,159
if you can name it, he can probably do it.

2061
02:50:43,639 --> 02:50:48,280
Because of this, he isn't detained in a cell. Nothing

2062
02:50:48,360 --> 02:50:54,159
can hold him, trust me, We've tried. So he just

2063
02:50:54,239 --> 02:50:59,680
wandered the facility looking for things to do. A guard

2064
02:51:00,239 --> 02:51:04,959
tug the last doughnut, and unbeknownst to him, Frank suddenly

2065
02:51:05,000 --> 02:51:09,879
decided that he wanted it now. If Frank had asked,

2066
02:51:10,200 --> 02:51:13,680
the guard probably would have given it to him. However,

2067
02:51:14,079 --> 02:51:18,879
Frank skipped the altercation entirely and went straight for retribution.

2068
02:51:20,680 --> 02:51:25,719
Frank turned the guard's head into a rose. From this

2069
02:51:26,360 --> 02:51:29,239
we discover that having a rose for a head is

2070
02:51:29,319 --> 02:51:34,319
guaranteed death, though it's technically unconfirmed since we only have

2071
02:51:34,360 --> 02:51:38,280
a sample size of one. When medical had a look,

2072
02:51:39,280 --> 02:51:43,959
it was intricate. It wasn't just the simple swap. The

2073
02:51:44,040 --> 02:51:47,000
roots of the rose had blended seamlessly with the veins

2074
02:51:47,040 --> 02:51:50,479
and arteries of the neck, extending down throughout the body.

2075
02:51:52,120 --> 02:51:57,120
Now why did Frank turn himself in? Well, that question

2076
02:51:57,440 --> 02:52:03,760
has another tangent to really put things into perspective. See,

2077
02:52:03,920 --> 02:52:10,479
this facility is hidden, hidden, hidden, so many layers of

2078
02:52:10,520 --> 02:52:15,520
secrecy on top of more secrets, along with people eliminated

2079
02:52:15,559 --> 02:52:18,920
along the way, just to make sure this place isn't

2080
02:52:18,959 --> 02:52:22,840
known about, isn't able to be found, and isn't able

2081
02:52:22,920 --> 02:52:27,200
to be tracked. It would take generations of descendants to

2082
02:52:27,280 --> 02:52:30,440
follow all the trails in order to find this place,

2083
02:52:30,959 --> 02:52:35,280
sifting through so many dead ends and false leads. So

2084
02:52:35,360 --> 02:52:39,319
when Frank strolled up to the front door, it was

2085
02:52:39,360 --> 02:52:44,319
a big deal. Frank's reason for doing all this is

2086
02:52:44,360 --> 02:52:48,959
the only thing he said that I believe he was

2087
02:52:49,000 --> 02:52:53,079
bored and what sounds more fun than to mess around

2088
02:52:53,120 --> 02:52:58,000
in the most secret, advanced place on earth. To him,

2089
02:52:58,559 --> 02:53:04,079
this was a playground, and we were his new playthings.

2090
02:53:04,760 --> 02:53:09,120
At first, he was an issue. His mischief often got

2091
02:53:09,200 --> 02:53:14,000
people killed. When curious about a prisoner, he'd released them

2092
02:53:14,159 --> 02:53:17,079
just to see what they could do. When we were

2093
02:53:17,079 --> 02:53:20,680
doing important procedures, he'd disrupt them just to get a

2094
02:53:20,760 --> 02:53:24,600
rise out of the staff. He once flipped gravity in

2095
02:53:24,639 --> 02:53:29,040
the whole facility just to see what would happen. God

2096
02:53:29,120 --> 02:53:33,639
knows who decided on the solution, but whoever did deserves

2097
02:53:33,680 --> 02:53:37,600
only the best in life. See. What got him to

2098
02:53:37,719 --> 02:53:43,479
fall in line was to hire him as a guard. Now,

2099
02:53:44,239 --> 02:53:48,600
he's not really a guard, not in the structural hierarchy sense.

2100
02:53:49,600 --> 02:53:52,719
He was given a special title, a uniform, and a

2101
02:53:52,760 --> 02:53:58,639
list of duties. However, the duties are a placebo replacing

2102
02:53:58,680 --> 02:54:01,920
the blinker fluid in a car kind of thing. But

2103
02:54:02,280 --> 02:54:07,280
whenever he finished the task, grand praise is given. We

2104
02:54:07,399 --> 02:54:10,559
found that making him feel important and blowing up his

2105
02:54:10,680 --> 02:54:15,920
ego keeps him too preoccupied to cause chaos. He's always

2106
02:54:15,920 --> 02:54:19,840
awarded employee of the month, despite that not really being

2107
02:54:19,879 --> 02:54:23,399
a thing. Here He's given an office with a fancy

2108
02:54:23,479 --> 02:54:26,639
door plaque, which I'm pretty sure he does nothing with,

2109
02:54:27,719 --> 02:54:30,440
and at the end of every month he's given a

2110
02:54:30,559 --> 02:54:34,120
large paycheck with a bonus if he does well, which

2111
02:54:34,159 --> 02:54:40,520
he gets every time. We're not even paid for this job.

2112
02:54:41,399 --> 02:54:43,879
The past ups is given are just printed pieces of

2113
02:54:43,920 --> 02:54:47,680
paper with some made up letterhead and lots of numbers,

2114
02:54:48,520 --> 02:54:53,000
but he eats it up, acting grateful, talking about how

2115
02:54:53,000 --> 02:54:55,440
he'll treat his family when he gets some time off.

2116
02:54:56,719 --> 02:55:00,920
He doesn't have a family here, By the way, I'm

2117
02:55:00,959 --> 02:55:03,680
pretty sure that with a thought he could turn the

2118
02:55:03,920 --> 02:55:07,719
entire complex into a block of solid gold. He has

2119
02:55:07,840 --> 02:55:12,200
no use for money. There aren't even shops here, but

2120
02:55:12,319 --> 02:55:16,239
the whole charade just works. So we never put a

2121
02:55:16,280 --> 02:55:21,520
pin to his happiness balloon, and it's came in handy

2122
02:55:21,559 --> 02:55:25,399
a few times. There are a few guards he's taken

2123
02:55:25,440 --> 02:55:28,920
a liking to. He had a stint where he acted

2124
02:55:28,959 --> 02:55:32,000
like a sitcom character and chose a few guards at

2125
02:55:32,040 --> 02:55:37,319
random to I assume be side characters. The friendship was

2126
02:55:37,479 --> 02:55:44,200
entirely one sided, but with enough improv he was satiated. However,

2127
02:55:44,719 --> 02:55:48,040
one of the side character guards was having an issue

2128
02:55:48,280 --> 02:55:51,719
while detailing a prisoner. They slipped their bonds and was

2129
02:55:51,760 --> 02:55:55,559
about to cause mayhem, usually a death sentence in here,

2130
02:55:56,799 --> 02:56:01,040
when suddenly Frank came in and swift put a stop

2131
02:56:01,079 --> 02:56:07,559
to the situation. Right now, he's not an issue. However,

2132
02:56:08,079 --> 02:56:11,559
I fear that one day he'll tire of this role

2133
02:56:12,799 --> 02:56:22,559
and he'll switch back to causing mischief or worse. A

2134
02:56:22,639 --> 02:56:27,040
lot of prisoners scare me. In fact, that could be

2135
02:56:27,079 --> 02:56:31,680
an understatement. Every day our lives are put on the

2136
02:56:31,719 --> 02:56:36,959
line during the most meanial of tasks. However, one prisoner

2137
02:56:37,680 --> 02:56:42,760
simply worries me. If a prisoner loses a life here,

2138
02:56:43,559 --> 02:56:47,840
all that is lost is potential discoveries. They are both

2139
02:56:47,959 --> 02:56:51,239
held captive for the safety of the world and studied

2140
02:56:51,399 --> 02:56:56,440
for the betterment of progress. But there's one prisoner here which,

2141
02:56:57,079 --> 02:57:01,520
if incapacitated or worse, could spell the end of the

2142
02:57:01,600 --> 02:57:08,799
world as we know it, the first prisoner. I've not

2143
02:57:08,920 --> 02:57:14,559
been entirely truthful. More of a live omission. I speak

2144
02:57:14,600 --> 02:57:18,639
of this building, call it a facility and such, But

2145
02:57:18,760 --> 02:57:23,319
in reality, the building itself was an anomaly that made

2146
02:57:23,319 --> 02:57:29,760
this whole project possible, a building semi sentient and fully

2147
02:57:29,959 --> 02:57:35,159
self sufficient. It was a smaller building at first, but

2148
02:57:35,280 --> 02:57:41,040
its unnatural properties were soon discovered. When built upon, each

2149
02:57:41,159 --> 02:57:44,440
room tethers itself to all others in a conscious way.

2150
02:57:45,399 --> 02:57:47,959
If we want a room to be a cell, we

2151
02:57:48,040 --> 02:57:51,479
have to build it as such. Even when we use

2152
02:57:51,559 --> 02:57:55,440
the simplest of materials, its function is enhanced to what

2153
02:57:55,559 --> 02:58:00,760
the room is desired to be. It's difficult to grasp.

2154
02:58:01,479 --> 02:58:05,440
I don't fully get it myself. I'm paraphrasing from what

2155
02:58:05,520 --> 02:58:08,600
I pieced together from the technical jargon. I was fared,

2156
02:58:09,719 --> 02:58:13,879
but it's how I've come to understand things. It's heart,

2157
02:58:14,200 --> 02:58:17,280
if you could call it. That powers the whole facility,

2158
02:58:17,959 --> 02:58:21,600
producing more than enough power for all the containment cells,

2159
02:58:22,200 --> 02:58:27,120
along with the many experiments running within the structure. This

2160
02:58:27,360 --> 02:58:30,799
was all kept under wraps. We didn't know any of

2161
02:58:30,840 --> 02:58:37,840
this until issues started coming up lately. Concrete has been

2162
02:58:37,879 --> 02:58:41,760
crumbling in the far reaches of the building. Cell doors

2163
02:58:41,799 --> 02:58:47,520
aren't locking as tightly as before. Fortunately, the prisoners haven't

2164
02:58:47,520 --> 02:58:51,840
fully grasped how strained the building is, but with enough

2165
02:58:51,879 --> 02:58:57,799
force escapes are possible. We have set up measures to

2166
02:58:57,879 --> 02:59:02,879
keep things in check through staff, and this introduces a

2167
02:59:02,920 --> 02:59:08,520
lot of elements of human failure. When observing the degradation myself.

2168
02:59:09,200 --> 02:59:12,360
It's always in the lowest levels of the compound, or

2169
02:59:12,399 --> 02:59:16,600
the furthest reaches of a floor. I have a theory

2170
02:59:16,719 --> 02:59:21,719
that the building is strained, bloated beyond its limits. We

2171
02:59:21,799 --> 02:59:27,159
are constantly adding more flaws, more rooms, more functions, and

2172
02:59:27,239 --> 02:59:32,520
whatever this anomalous building is is finally struggling to keep up,

2173
02:59:35,120 --> 02:59:40,239
but we cannot stop. Every day there is an influx

2174
02:59:40,280 --> 02:59:45,200
of new prisoners, fresh from the external team, threats that

2175
02:59:45,319 --> 02:59:49,840
cannot be left unchecked in the outside world. They need

2176
02:59:49,879 --> 02:59:53,639
to be put in containment, and this is the only

2177
02:59:53,719 --> 02:59:58,239
place that can hold them. The prison started as the

2178
02:59:58,280 --> 03:00:04,440
first anomaly, the plus prisoner, but when its term has ended,

2179
03:00:06,079 --> 03:00:12,520
it could spell danger when everything we've collected gets out.

2180
03:00:21,799 --> 03:00:24,479
I was stretched out on my couch, half watching some

2181
03:00:24,600 --> 03:00:28,120
reality show I didn't care about, scrolling through my phone,

2182
03:00:28,719 --> 03:00:32,200
debating whether I should bother making dinner or just eat

2183
03:00:32,200 --> 03:00:36,600
a bowl of dry cereal again. Outside, the street lights

2184
03:00:36,719 --> 03:00:40,280
cast a familiar yellow glow over the empty road, and

2185
03:00:40,360 --> 03:00:44,399
the occasional car passed by, his tires humming softly against

2186
03:00:44,399 --> 03:00:50,280
the pavement. Everything was still the kind of quiet you

2187
03:00:50,399 --> 03:00:54,760
only get in a small town late at night. Then

2188
03:00:55,360 --> 03:00:59,920
at nine seventeen pm. My phone buzzed violently in my hand,

2189
03:01:00,799 --> 03:01:04,479
the jarring blare of an emergency alert making me flinch.

2190
03:01:05,399 --> 03:01:10,280
The TV screen flashed red, cutting off mid scene. A

2191
03:01:10,360 --> 03:01:14,239
robotic voice crackled over the speakers of my radio, which

2192
03:01:14,239 --> 03:01:18,799
I hadn't even realized was still plugged in. The same

2193
03:01:18,879 --> 03:01:29,680
message was everywhere, we are sorry. That was it. No

2194
03:01:29,799 --> 03:01:35,120
warning about a storm or some evacuation instructions, just a vague,

2195
03:01:35,399 --> 03:01:39,559
meaningless phrase that sent a strange chill up my spine.

2196
03:01:41,440 --> 03:01:44,840
I sat up, phoned still in my hand, staring at

2197
03:01:44,879 --> 03:01:49,600
the words as they glowed on my screen. We are sorry,

2198
03:01:51,719 --> 03:01:57,719
sorry for what. I flicked to my messages and texted Ryan,

2199
03:01:58,239 --> 03:02:01,879
my friend who lives across town. Did you get that?

2200
03:02:03,559 --> 03:02:09,639
The message sent instantly, and the typing bubbles appeared almost immediately. Yeah,

2201
03:02:09,920 --> 03:02:13,840
what the hell does we are sorry mean? It's probably

2202
03:02:13,879 --> 03:02:20,479
a test or something. I had no answer. I looked outside,

2203
03:02:20,559 --> 03:02:25,040
expecting to see people standing in the streets a fire

2204
03:02:25,120 --> 03:02:29,719
in the distance, but everything looked normal. The street was

2205
03:02:29,719 --> 03:02:33,719
still empty, the houses around mine were dark, the residents

2206
03:02:33,920 --> 03:02:38,639
either asleep or unconcerned. I turned the TV volume up,

2207
03:02:38,879 --> 03:02:43,799
flipping through channels, I saw nothing. But reruns, talk shows,

2208
03:02:43,879 --> 03:02:50,040
commercials like nothing had happened, no breaking news or explanations.

2209
03:02:51,200 --> 03:02:55,760
I considered calling someone nine one one, the non emergency line,

2210
03:02:56,239 --> 03:03:01,280
anyone who might have more information, And that was when

2211
03:03:01,319 --> 03:03:05,440
I heard a distant rumble. I couldn't tell what it

2212
03:03:05,520 --> 03:03:10,040
was at first, then I realized it sounded like aviation machinery.

2213
03:03:11,479 --> 03:03:15,239
The hum of distant engines grew louder, deep and low,

2214
03:03:15,920 --> 03:03:21,920
like thunder rolling over the horizon. Then the sound became unmistakable,

2215
03:03:22,959 --> 03:03:26,959
the rhythmic chop of helicopter blades cutting through the night sky.

2216
03:03:29,520 --> 03:03:32,559
I stood up and walked to my window, pushing aside

2217
03:03:32,559 --> 03:03:39,360
the curtain just enough to peer outside. Two helicopters, black, unmarked,

2218
03:03:39,879 --> 03:03:45,959
swept low over the rooftops, moving with efficiency. The searchlights

2219
03:03:46,000 --> 03:03:51,000
scanned the streets, gliding across houses, yards and parked cars.

2220
03:03:51,680 --> 03:03:54,479
I watched as the beams passed over my neighbor's house

2221
03:03:54,840 --> 03:03:58,000
in my own, making the living room flicker in bright

2222
03:03:58,079 --> 03:04:03,920
white light before plunging back into shadow. What the hell

2223
03:04:04,120 --> 03:04:08,639
was happening? My phone screen lit up as I received

2224
03:04:08,639 --> 03:04:15,639
a message from Ryan. You've seeing this now, I responded fast, Yeah,

2225
03:04:15,840 --> 03:04:19,680
helicopters are hovering above my street right now, anything weighed

2226
03:04:19,680 --> 03:04:24,719
on your end. Soldiers everywhere, well, I can't tell if

2227
03:04:24,719 --> 03:04:27,799
they're actual normal soldiers. They're dressed in all black and

2228
03:04:27,799 --> 03:04:34,200
wearing gas masks. Soldiers. I looked back out the window

2229
03:04:34,440 --> 03:04:39,120
and saw them military vehicles, several of them, rolling through

2230
03:04:39,159 --> 03:04:43,719
the neighborhood like a slow moving parade. They weren't police

2231
03:04:43,760 --> 03:04:49,920
cruisers or National Guard trugs. They were heavier, bigger, armored.

2232
03:04:51,000 --> 03:04:54,520
Their matt black services looked unnatural under the street lights,

2233
03:04:55,000 --> 03:04:57,680
as if they were sucking the glow into them rather

2234
03:04:57,799 --> 03:05:02,799
than reflecting it and walking beside them rifles in hand

2235
03:05:03,440 --> 03:05:09,399
with dozens of soldiers in full tactical gear. They moved quickly,

2236
03:05:09,959 --> 03:05:14,719
splitting off into groups and heading toward different houses. They

2237
03:05:14,760 --> 03:05:18,799
weren't storming in. They weren't kicking down doors or yelling commands.

2238
03:05:19,840 --> 03:05:24,959
They were knocking, almost politely, but something about it felt off.

2239
03:05:26,719 --> 03:05:30,719
I watched as two soldiers approached my neighbor's house. They

2240
03:05:30,799 --> 03:05:35,520
knocked mister Dawson, the old man who lived there answered.

2241
03:05:36,959 --> 03:05:39,799
I couldn't hear what was said, but I saw the

2242
03:05:39,840 --> 03:05:44,319
way his head tilted in confusion. He started shaking his

2243
03:05:44,399 --> 03:05:47,079
head as if he didn't like what he was hearing.

2244
03:05:47,959 --> 03:05:50,639
Then one of the soldiers put a hand on his shoulder,

2245
03:05:51,520 --> 03:05:57,559
a firm grip. Dawson hesitated, then nodded, stepping aside to

2246
03:05:57,680 --> 03:06:04,520
let them in another bus. From my phone, power just

2247
03:06:04,600 --> 03:06:09,360
went out, as if on cue. The lights of my

2248
03:06:09,399 --> 03:06:16,879
house flickered once twice, then everything went dark. Street lights, houses,

2249
03:06:17,479 --> 03:06:22,360
even the military vehicles outside, all dead. In an instant,

2250
03:06:24,440 --> 03:06:27,399
I stood there in the dark, my heart pounding in

2251
03:06:27,479 --> 03:06:32,000
my ears. Through the window, I could see the soldiers

2252
03:06:32,040 --> 03:06:36,959
didn't seem surprised. They kept moving, the night vision goggles

2253
03:06:37,000 --> 03:06:40,360
glowing faint green as they worked their way down the block.

2254
03:06:42,159 --> 03:06:49,399
This wasn't a power outage, This was planned. A cold

2255
03:06:49,440 --> 03:06:53,879
realization settled in my stomach. They didn't want us to

2256
03:06:54,000 --> 03:07:00,719
see something. And that's when I felt it, not heard,

2257
03:07:01,719 --> 03:07:07,159
felt a vibration in the ground, not like the vehicles

2258
03:07:07,200 --> 03:07:13,159
on the streets. It was heavier. I pressed myself closer

2259
03:07:13,159 --> 03:07:18,000
to the window, squinting into the shadows. The helicopters were

2260
03:07:18,040 --> 03:07:22,959
circling above the spotlight, scanning, but they weren't looking at

2261
03:07:22,959 --> 03:07:30,680
the houses anymore. My phone buzzed again, bro I think

2262
03:07:30,719 --> 03:07:38,600
were in serious trouble. Then, at nine forty five, pm.

2263
03:07:39,520 --> 03:07:46,079
The silence was shattered. A deep, gutural roar tore through

2264
03:07:46,120 --> 03:07:50,440
the air. It wasn't like anything I'd ever heard before.

2265
03:07:51,559 --> 03:07:54,879
It wasn't a siren, wasn't a storm, wasn't even the

2266
03:07:55,000 --> 03:07:58,639
kind of growl you'd expect from an animal. It was

2267
03:07:58,799 --> 03:08:02,559
low and violent, the kind of sound that vibrated in

2268
03:08:02,600 --> 03:08:08,159
your chest, clawing at something deep in your bones. I

2269
03:08:08,200 --> 03:08:16,120
stumbled back, gripping the windowsill for balance. Then the gunfire started.

2270
03:08:18,200 --> 03:08:22,120
First a few single shuts, then a barrage of arsenal

2271
03:08:22,200 --> 03:08:26,680
rained down from outside. I saw flashes of muzzle fire

2272
03:08:26,920 --> 03:08:32,319
lighting up the darkness, soldiers shouting commands. The helicopter's overhead

2273
03:08:32,360 --> 03:08:38,000
dropped flares, bathing the streets in red orange light. Something

2274
03:08:38,159 --> 03:08:42,200
huge was out there. I didn't wait to see what

2275
03:08:42,319 --> 03:08:46,399
happened next. My instincts took over, screaming at me to

2276
03:08:46,520 --> 03:08:51,680
move now. I grabbed my backpack, flashlight, and a knife

2277
03:08:51,680 --> 03:08:55,399
from the kitchen, gripping the handle so tightly my knuckles ached.

2278
03:08:56,639 --> 03:08:59,920
My hands were shaking, but I forced myself to focus.

2279
03:09:00,479 --> 03:09:05,040
My breathing quick and uneven. I pulled out my phone

2280
03:09:05,159 --> 03:09:09,200
and texted Ryan, we need to meet up. Where are you?

2281
03:09:11,159 --> 03:09:18,879
Seconds past then gas station. Hurry, I slung my backpack

2282
03:09:19,000 --> 03:09:22,760
over my shoulder and moved to the door, my pulse hammering.

2283
03:09:24,520 --> 03:09:27,920
I hesitated for a second, one hand on the knob.

2284
03:09:30,479 --> 03:09:36,639
A new sound made the decision for me. Screaming, human

2285
03:09:36,719 --> 03:09:40,840
screaming from somewhere in the distance. I threw the door

2286
03:09:40,879 --> 03:09:45,639
open and stepped into the night. The second I was outside,

2287
03:09:46,280 --> 03:09:50,680
I could tell how wrong everything had become. The air

2288
03:09:50,799 --> 03:09:56,639
smelt burnt and metallic gunpowder mixed with blood. The streets,

2289
03:09:56,680 --> 03:09:59,920
normally lit with warm street lights were now drenched, them

2290
03:10:00,120 --> 03:10:04,840
pulsing red from the flares overhead. Some people ran barefoot,

2291
03:10:05,239 --> 03:10:09,120
some still in their pajamas, sprinting down the sidewalks, cutting

2292
03:10:09,120 --> 03:10:14,079
through yards, shoving past each other in blind panic. I

2293
03:10:14,159 --> 03:10:17,680
dugged low, sticking close to the houses as I made

2294
03:10:17,719 --> 03:10:21,360
my way toward the gas station. I knew the layout

2295
03:10:21,360 --> 03:10:24,479
of the town well enough to take back streets, avoiding

2296
03:10:24,520 --> 03:10:28,680
the main roads with the military was still engaging whatever

2297
03:10:28,719 --> 03:10:33,200
they were fighting or doing. A few blocks down, I

2298
03:10:33,280 --> 03:10:38,399
turned a corner and stopped dead. The street was flattened.

2299
03:10:39,959 --> 03:10:43,920
It looked like a tornado had torn through. Everything was

2300
03:10:44,079 --> 03:10:49,799
just leveled, cars, crumpled, ashfalt cracked, street lights snapped in half.

2301
03:10:51,159 --> 03:10:53,799
The street was covered in the bodies of soldiers and

2302
03:10:53,840 --> 03:10:59,360
civilians alike. Some were torn apart, their limbs scattered like

2303
03:10:59,440 --> 03:11:04,959
discarded dolls. Others were smashed flattened into the pavement like

2304
03:11:05,079 --> 03:11:09,000
something impossibly heavy had rolled over them. Their weapons bent

2305
03:11:09,120 --> 03:11:14,000
and crushed. There were no shellcasings, no sign that they

2306
03:11:14,120 --> 03:11:17,639
even had time to fire back before they were annihilated.

2307
03:11:19,079 --> 03:11:24,360
Something unstoppable had come through here. My phone buzzed in

2308
03:11:24,399 --> 03:11:30,360
my pocket, Where are you? I forced my legs to move,

2309
03:11:30,840 --> 03:11:36,719
stepping carefully around the destruction, and then from the distance

2310
03:11:37,840 --> 03:11:46,040
that roar again, followed by a massive explosion. Right after

2311
03:11:46,079 --> 03:11:51,639
the explosion, I lost service. I tried tending another message

2312
03:11:51,639 --> 03:11:58,159
anyway almost there, but it didn't go through. I quickened

2313
03:11:58,159 --> 03:12:02,079
my pace, keeping low, my breath coming in short gasps

2314
03:12:03,239 --> 03:12:06,879
every few steps. I'd glanced over my shoulder, expecting to

2315
03:12:06,920 --> 03:12:10,680
see something there, But all I saw were the ruins

2316
03:12:10,719 --> 03:12:14,200
of my town, bathed in eerie red light from the

2317
03:12:14,319 --> 03:12:18,920
still glowing flares. When I finally reached the gas station,

2318
03:12:20,200 --> 03:12:27,760
my stomach sank. It was destroyed, the roof had partially collapsed,

2319
03:12:28,120 --> 03:12:31,159
glass littered the parking lot, and a gas pump had

2320
03:12:31,159 --> 03:12:35,040
been ripped from its foundation, cables and metal jotting out

2321
03:12:35,079 --> 03:12:38,520
like snapped bones. The place looked like it had been

2322
03:12:38,559 --> 03:12:44,000
hit by a wrecking ball. I hesitated, scanning the ruins

2323
03:12:44,040 --> 03:12:49,520
for any sign of movement. My chest tightened. What if

2324
03:12:49,600 --> 03:12:55,600
Ryan was buried under there? Ryan? I called out, voice Horse.

2325
03:12:57,399 --> 03:13:01,120
For a moment, there was nothing, the distant sound of

2326
03:13:01,159 --> 03:13:05,559
helicopter's gunfire and my own pulse hammering in my ears.

2327
03:13:07,000 --> 03:13:15,840
Then over here Ryan's voice, faint but close, vaulting over

2328
03:13:15,959 --> 03:13:20,799
fallen shelves and broken glass behind the counter, Crouched low

2329
03:13:20,840 --> 03:13:25,280
and shaking was Ryan. I barely had time to register

2330
03:13:25,399 --> 03:13:29,840
my relief before the ground shook beneath us. A vibration,

2331
03:13:30,319 --> 03:13:34,280
deep and unnatural, rolled through the earth, wrappling the debris

2332
03:13:34,360 --> 03:13:38,920
around us. The air thickened, charged with something heavy, and

2333
03:13:38,959 --> 03:13:45,440
then the roar. Right outside. Ryan grabbed my wrist and

2334
03:13:45,520 --> 03:13:51,959
yanked me down behind the counter. Don't move. We pressed

2335
03:13:51,959 --> 03:13:56,959
ourselves against the cold tile, heartbeats thundering and sync. The

2336
03:13:57,000 --> 03:14:01,000
gas station trembled, dust and broken glass trickling from the

2337
03:14:01,040 --> 03:14:10,360
fractured ceiling. The vibrations grew stronger, heavier. It was here

2338
03:14:11,479 --> 03:14:15,920
I didn't want to look. Every instinct screamed, don't look.

2339
03:14:17,520 --> 03:14:21,840
But Ryan did, and I felt his body stiffened beside me.

2340
03:14:23,680 --> 03:14:27,079
I swallowed hard and forced myself to peek over the counter,

2341
03:14:28,719 --> 03:14:35,920
and that was when I saw it. Massive. Its body

2342
03:14:36,000 --> 03:14:41,600
looked like it had been stitched together from different things, muscles, fur, scales,

2343
03:14:41,760 --> 03:14:48,000
bone melded into a single, horrifying form. Insect like legs,

2344
03:14:48,360 --> 03:14:52,159
too many of them jointed the wrong way, bristling with

2345
03:14:52,280 --> 03:14:58,280
thick curved claws. Its torso was broad, pulsating, as if

2346
03:14:58,319 --> 03:15:02,680
breathing through unseen slit in its flesh. Parts of it

2347
03:15:02,719 --> 03:15:06,040
looked wet, glistening in the red glow of the flares,

2348
03:15:06,639 --> 03:15:10,280
while other sections were dry and cracked like withered skin.

2349
03:15:12,040 --> 03:15:17,120
And its face a mouth that split open, the inside

2350
03:15:17,159 --> 03:15:22,159
of its mouth revealing a second jaw. Mismatched eyes, some glowing,

2351
03:15:22,360 --> 03:15:26,239
some empty sockets, some that weren't even facing the same direction.

2352
03:15:28,120 --> 03:15:32,840
I couldn't breathe For something its size. It should have lurched,

2353
03:15:33,239 --> 03:15:39,719
should have been heavy, lumbering, but instead it darted between buildings,

2354
03:15:40,239 --> 03:15:44,280
its massive legs, making little sound compared to the destruction

2355
03:15:44,479 --> 03:15:50,920
left in its wake. The soldiers opened fire. A squad

2356
03:15:51,000 --> 03:15:55,760
on the street below unleashed hell machine gun fire, high

2357
03:15:55,799 --> 03:16:01,040
caliber rounds, grenades exploding against the tide. The air filled

2358
03:16:01,079 --> 03:16:04,399
with a deafening symphony of war, and I felt it

2359
03:16:04,559 --> 03:16:07,440
deep in my chest, like my rib cage was being

2360
03:16:07,479 --> 03:16:13,079
hammered from the inside. The gunfire was nothing like in movies.

2361
03:16:14,159 --> 03:16:18,079
It was chaotic. Each bullet crack punched through the air

2362
03:16:18,159 --> 03:16:22,000
like a whip, making my ears ring. The grenades sent

2363
03:16:22,120 --> 03:16:25,879
shock waves through the station, rattling my teeth and making

2364
03:16:25,920 --> 03:16:30,280
the air thick with dust and smoke. For a second,

2365
03:16:30,799 --> 03:16:33,760
I thought they might be hurting it, but it just

2366
03:16:33,959 --> 03:16:38,319
ripped through the soldiers like paper. Its claws slashed through

2367
03:16:38,399 --> 03:16:42,559
body armor like it was slicing butter. One soldier tried

2368
03:16:42,600 --> 03:16:45,639
to run, it grabbed him with one of its sickly

2369
03:16:45,920 --> 03:16:50,799
elongated arms and crushed him instantly. The sound was like

2370
03:16:50,840 --> 03:16:54,959
someone stepping on a wet bag of leaves. A missile

2371
03:16:55,120 --> 03:16:58,680
streaked through the air, fired from a nearby armored vehicle.

2372
03:17:00,440 --> 03:17:06,760
It hit direct impact. Then the wind shifted and the

2373
03:17:06,760 --> 03:17:14,559
smoke cleared. The monster was still standing. Its skin had cracked,

2374
03:17:14,920 --> 03:17:20,760
revealing something black underneath, something writhing, almost shifting beneath its flesh.

2375
03:17:21,760 --> 03:17:29,399
Its eyes flickered, seeming to adjust it had learned. Ryan

2376
03:17:29,479 --> 03:17:33,680
grabbed my arm. His face was pale, mouth slightly open.

2377
03:17:35,159 --> 03:17:38,200
We need to get out of here, he whispered, his

2378
03:17:38,399 --> 03:17:42,840
voice barely carried over the carnage outside. He turned to

2379
03:17:42,879 --> 03:17:49,399
look at me, eyes filled with something worse than terror, hopelessness.

2380
03:17:50,360 --> 03:17:57,280
Right now, the gunfire had stopped. The monster was gone.

2381
03:17:57,879 --> 03:18:03,120
For now, the gas was still standing, but barely. The

2382
03:18:03,159 --> 03:18:07,040
windows were shattered, the walls riddled with bullet holes, and

2383
03:18:07,120 --> 03:18:10,760
the air reeked of burnt fuel and blood. My legs

2384
03:18:10,799 --> 03:18:14,520
ached from crouching behind the counter, my ears still ringing

2385
03:18:14,559 --> 03:18:19,760
from the firefight. And then it hit me, this was

2386
03:18:19,799 --> 03:18:24,920
our chance. I peered over the counter, scanning the carnage.

2387
03:18:24,959 --> 03:18:30,000
In the streets, Soldiers lay scattered like discarded mannikins, Some

2388
03:18:30,120 --> 03:18:36,440
slumped against destroyed vehicles, others in twisted, unnatural positions. Their

2389
03:18:36,479 --> 03:18:41,440
weapons were still clutched in lifeless hands. I turned to Ryan.

2390
03:18:42,280 --> 03:18:46,520
He was shaking, his arms wrapped tightly around himself. His

2391
03:18:46,600 --> 03:18:52,200
pupils were wide, darting between me and the wreckage outside.

2392
03:18:52,280 --> 03:18:56,959
He was still in shock. We have to move, I whispered.

2393
03:18:57,639 --> 03:19:01,840
We won't get another chance. He looked at me, like

2394
03:19:01,920 --> 03:19:07,920
I was insane. Move where we're trapped that thing. I

2395
03:19:07,959 --> 03:19:12,719
grabbed his arm, shaking him. If we stay here, we're dead.

2396
03:19:13,000 --> 03:19:15,920
But if we look like one of them, I gestured

2397
03:19:15,959 --> 03:19:20,120
toward the fallen soldiers, maybe we can get out. Maybe

2398
03:19:20,159 --> 03:19:28,559
they'll take us with them. Ryan swallowed hard. He understood, removed, quickly,

2399
03:19:29,000 --> 03:19:32,399
crawling over the broken glass and stepping onto the street.

2400
03:19:32,760 --> 03:19:37,760
Keeping low. The flashing emergency lights from abandoned military vehicles

2401
03:19:38,079 --> 03:19:42,040
cast eerie shadows over the bodies. I knelt beside a

2402
03:19:42,079 --> 03:19:46,719
soldier lying face down, his gas masks still intact, his

2403
03:19:46,879 --> 03:19:53,120
rifle half buried under debris. His chest wasn't rising. He

2404
03:19:53,280 --> 03:20:00,360
was gone. I reached for his gear. Ryan hesitated, looking

2405
03:20:00,399 --> 03:20:06,360
at the bodies. He wasn't moving. Ryan, I hissed, grabbed something.

2406
03:20:08,200 --> 03:20:11,360
His hands trembled as he reached toward another soldier's vest.

2407
03:20:12,399 --> 03:20:19,760
He stopped, stared, his breath hitched. He was panicking, and

2408
03:20:19,799 --> 03:20:26,440
then gunfire erupted nearby. We both flinched as a fresh

2409
03:20:26,479 --> 03:20:30,920
burst of automatic fire tore through the night. Then came

2410
03:20:30,959 --> 03:20:40,799
the screams. The monster was back. Ryan froze. I saw

2411
03:20:40,840 --> 03:20:45,120
the moment his brain short circuited. The moment his fightal

2412
03:20:45,200 --> 03:20:54,959
flight kicked in hard. He dropped, Everything turned bolted ryan.

2413
03:20:55,559 --> 03:21:00,639
I shouted, but he was already gone. His footstepped pounded

2414
03:21:00,680 --> 03:21:05,920
against the pavement, disappearing into the smoke and shadows. I

2415
03:21:05,959 --> 03:21:11,799
had two seconds to decide run after him and die

2416
03:21:12,200 --> 03:21:17,959
or survive. The air shuddered. A massive thud shook the

2417
03:21:18,000 --> 03:21:22,360
ground as the monster landed nearby, having leaped over buildings

2418
03:21:22,360 --> 03:21:28,280
with impossible speed. Soldiers scrambled, opening fire again, their shouts

2419
03:21:28,360 --> 03:21:33,760
drowning in the chaos. I sprinted the opposite way. I

2420
03:21:33,840 --> 03:21:38,360
didn't look back. I dove behind an overturned envy, heart,

2421
03:21:38,440 --> 03:21:43,079
pounding lungs burning. The smell of oil, blood and gunpowder

2422
03:21:43,200 --> 03:21:49,799
clung to the air. I waited. Another explosion went off

2423
03:21:50,399 --> 03:21:54,280
so close I felt the heat against my face. The

2424
03:21:54,360 --> 03:21:58,319
soldiers were engaging the monster again. It hadn't gone in

2425
03:21:58,319 --> 03:22:04,680
my direction, which meant I squeezed my eyes shut, guilt

2426
03:22:04,760 --> 03:22:08,600
threatening to choke me. I couldn't think about that right now.

2427
03:22:09,280 --> 03:22:13,000
I needed to get out. I glanced down at myself.

2428
03:22:14,079 --> 03:22:18,239
I still had the soldier's uniform, but no helmet, no mask.

2429
03:22:19,559 --> 03:22:23,799
The military barricades, convoys. If there was a way out

2430
03:22:23,840 --> 03:22:28,239
of this hell hole, it would be through them. I

2431
03:22:28,280 --> 03:22:31,280
took one last look at the burning wreckage behind me

2432
03:22:31,959 --> 03:22:37,319
and the flashes of gunfire in the distance. I ran

2433
03:22:37,879 --> 03:22:41,639
until my legs nearly gave out. The world around me

2434
03:22:41,680 --> 03:22:45,840
blurred into smears of fire and darkness, my breath coming

2435
03:22:45,879 --> 03:22:51,920
in ragged, uneven gasps. Every few seconds, I heard another explosion,

2436
03:22:52,520 --> 03:22:55,879
a distant burst of gunfire, a roar so loud I

2437
03:22:55,879 --> 03:22:59,239
could feel it in my teeth. By the time I

2438
03:22:59,280 --> 03:23:02,399
reached the main road leading out of town, I could

2439
03:23:02,399 --> 03:23:06,680
see the military barricade in the distance, a makeshift checkpoint

2440
03:23:06,760 --> 03:23:11,879
built from sand bags, barbed wire, and armored vehicles. Footlights

2441
03:23:11,959 --> 03:23:18,120
bathed the area in harsh artificial glow. There were soldiers everywhere.

2442
03:23:19,159 --> 03:23:23,040
Some were positioned behind mounted machine guns, scanning the tree line.

2443
03:23:23,520 --> 03:23:28,239
Others hurried between vehicles, barking orders, dragging crates of supplies.

2444
03:23:29,760 --> 03:23:34,639
I slowed down, forcing myself to breathe evenly. If I

2445
03:23:34,719 --> 03:23:37,639
came in looking like a panic civilian, they turned me

2446
03:23:37,680 --> 03:23:41,000
away or detain me. If I looked like a soldier

2447
03:23:41,200 --> 03:23:45,799
trying to return to his unit, I adjested the rifle

2448
03:23:45,920 --> 03:23:49,040
slung over my shoulder, wiped the sweat from my forehead,

2449
03:23:49,360 --> 03:23:53,559
and started walking toward the checkpoint. The closer I got,

2450
03:23:53,920 --> 03:23:59,600
the clearer their faces became exhausted, tins covered in grime.

2451
03:24:00,920 --> 03:24:04,959
Some soldiers were bandaged up. Their uniforms were ripped, stained

2452
03:24:04,959 --> 03:24:09,000
with blood. Others had vacant stairs like they had already

2453
03:24:09,120 --> 03:24:15,399
checked out. I could use there. As I approached, a

2454
03:24:15,559 --> 03:24:20,159
soldier spotted me and raised his rifle. You stop right there,

2455
03:24:22,079 --> 03:24:25,840
I froze, raised my hands slightly, making sure not to

2456
03:24:25,920 --> 03:24:30,479
move too fast. And with the ground unit near Lincoln Avenue,

2457
03:24:30,920 --> 03:24:33,600
we got separated when that thing hit us. I was

2458
03:24:33,639 --> 03:24:38,360
trying to get to the checkpoint. The soldier's face hardened.

2459
03:24:39,520 --> 03:24:46,000
I d my stomach twisted into a knot. I I

2460
03:24:46,200 --> 03:24:50,520
lost it in the fight. I held my side winting,

2461
03:24:50,840 --> 03:24:54,280
faking an injury, got thrown when that thing knocked the

2462
03:24:54,280 --> 03:24:57,559
truck over. I blacked out for a bit. When I

2463
03:24:57,600 --> 03:25:00,559
came to my unit was gone. I had to make

2464
03:25:00,600 --> 03:25:06,879
my way here alone. A second soldier stepped forward, older,

2465
03:25:07,239 --> 03:25:12,239
more seasoned. He looked me up and down, eyes narrowing slightly.

2466
03:25:13,840 --> 03:25:19,719
What's your call sign, he asked. My mind raised. The

2467
03:25:19,760 --> 03:25:24,239
ground shook violently, sending loose gravels skittering across the pavement.

2468
03:25:25,079 --> 03:25:29,639
The floodlights flickered. The young soldier's radio crackled a life,

2469
03:25:31,079 --> 03:25:35,879
it's moving on the checkpoint. All units prepared to engage.

2470
03:25:36,440 --> 03:25:40,200
The two soldiers turned sharply, their eyes widening in horror.

2471
03:25:41,600 --> 03:25:45,920
The older ones spun toward me. Get in the goddamn truck. Now.

2472
03:25:48,120 --> 03:25:52,479
I didn't hesitate. I jumped onto the back of the transport,

2473
03:25:52,959 --> 03:25:57,799
squeezing in between ground faced soldiers. Their weapons locked and loaded,

2474
03:25:59,079 --> 03:26:03,319
The truck lurched forward, tires screeching against the pavement. As

2475
03:26:03,360 --> 03:26:09,920
the convoy sped out of town, I looked back, and

2476
03:26:10,040 --> 03:26:17,239
I saw hell. The entire skyline was on fire. Buildings

2477
03:26:17,280 --> 03:26:23,040
collapsed like cardboard, their skeletal frames glowing with flames. Helicopters

2478
03:26:23,079 --> 03:26:28,440
hovered above, dropping missiles in quick succession. Each explosion ripped

2479
03:26:28,440 --> 03:26:32,600
through the streets, sending shock waves through the air, all

2480
03:26:32,680 --> 03:26:38,159
of it followed by a deafening, animalistic screech. The monster

2481
03:26:38,399 --> 03:26:42,879
emerged from the smoke. Its massive, insect like limbs propelled

2482
03:26:42,879 --> 03:26:47,440
it forward at an impossible speed, its body still shifting,

2483
03:26:48,000 --> 03:26:53,799
pulsating with unnatural movement beneath its stitch together hide. Gunfire

2484
03:26:53,879 --> 03:26:59,479
irerupted from every direction. Soldiers fired everything They had mounted

2485
03:26:59,520 --> 03:27:04,000
turrets rocket launches in sundi I rounds, but it didn't

2486
03:27:04,040 --> 03:27:09,200
slow down. It was speeding up. One of the helicopters

2487
03:27:09,239 --> 03:27:16,959
swooped in, launching two precision missiles. The explosion engulfed the creature, fire, smoke, debris.

2488
03:27:18,319 --> 03:27:22,000
The truck jerked violently as the shockwave ripped through the street.

2489
03:27:23,399 --> 03:27:27,639
I shilded my face, the heat almost unbearable even from

2490
03:27:27,680 --> 03:27:34,799
this distance. Then through the thin smoke it was still moving.

2491
03:27:38,440 --> 03:27:43,159
All my surroundings exploded in a noise, the same robotic

2492
03:27:43,239 --> 03:27:49,239
voice from earlier. We regret to inform you containment has failed.

2493
03:27:49,840 --> 03:27:53,120
If you are still in the area, May God help you.

2494
03:27:55,879 --> 03:27:59,440
The moment the alert came through, the convoys radio flared

2495
03:27:59,479 --> 03:28:04,079
to life. All units cleared their own code black is

2496
03:28:04,079 --> 03:28:08,479
in effect. The soldiers in the truck went dead silent.

2497
03:28:09,840 --> 03:28:16,559
Then one of them whispered voice hollow jeez, then nuking it.

2498
03:28:19,319 --> 03:28:22,360
I turned back towards the town, my breath catching in

2499
03:28:22,440 --> 03:28:28,719
my throat. A blinding white light engulfed the skyline. The

2500
03:28:28,799 --> 03:28:33,319
shock wave came first, a concussive force so strong it

2501
03:28:33,399 --> 03:28:36,799
felt like my lungs had been punched inward. The ground

2502
03:28:36,799 --> 03:28:41,479
beneath A convoy rumbled violently, cracks spider webbing across the bavement.

2503
03:28:42,520 --> 03:28:47,680
A towering, unnatural mushroom cloud rose into the sky. The

2504
03:28:47,760 --> 03:28:56,239
town was consumed in an instant, everything gone. I couldn't move,

2505
03:28:57,280 --> 03:28:59,879
I could only watch as the place I had lived

2506
03:29:00,000 --> 03:29:05,360
my entire life was turned to dust. The truck sped forward,

2507
03:29:05,799 --> 03:29:12,879
leaving the destruction behind. None of the soldiers spoke. There

2508
03:29:12,959 --> 03:29:24,440
was nothing left to say.