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Speaker 1: I shot the buck just after dusk, beneath the stand

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of ash trees mottled with rot. The sound of the

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rifle cracked through the quiet in that empty stretch of forest,

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and for a second everything stilled. Then the insects resumed.

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It was in sport, It never was. The thing limped

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when it moved back, Legs swollen at the knee, left antless,

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split and jagged at the base, eyes already clouding. From

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fifty feet away, I could smell the sickness. I've worked

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enough control jobs to know the signs of chronic wasting

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disease see w D for short. Before the field tests

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confirmed it. Wasting is slow. It hollows them out from

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the inside, leaves them standing in creeks with their mouths open,

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drinking nothing. The state's mandate was clear. Any deer with

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visible symptoms was to be put down and reported. I

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approached with gloves on tug the usual post mortem photos

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and recorded the GPS coordinates, marked the tag number AH

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DASH seven seven sixty nine, clipped beneath the skin fold

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near the right shoulder, standing insert deep enough that scavengers

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wouldn't reach it easily. The retrieval team was scheduled to

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arrive by morning to haul the body in for testing

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and disposal. I stayed long enough to watch the flies settle.

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Then I hiked back through the thinning trees and drove

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to the ranger's lot, where I kept my temporary log book.

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Entry made time, recorded, another task finished. The next morning,

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I got a call. Nothing there, the guy said, through

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the crackling line. Some bone scatattered, no hide, no carcass.

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I told him. I bagged it clean, tagged it myself,

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gave the coordinates again. Most have been coyotes or a bear.

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You know how quick they are this time of year.

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I also knew what was normal and what wasn't. Predators

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don't clean up after themselves. There was no fur left,

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no drag marks, no prints in the soil around the site.

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They logged it as unrecovered. Told me not to worry.

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These things happen. Still, I wrote a secondary entry in

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my personal field notes, separate from the agency forms mail

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estimate five years left ant LA fracture swollen rear joined

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tracking tag ardas seven seven sixty nine confirmed, no retrieval,

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carcass missing. It wasn't the first time something went off

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script out here, but this one wouldn't leave me. Something

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about the way it looked just before I pulled the trigger.

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Not startled, not wide eyed, just still. Later that evening,

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while transferring photos for filing, I noticed the last one

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in the series, a frame taken just before I shouldered

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the rifle. The bugs standing there, angled toward me, head tilted.

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It almost looked like it was waiting. I wasn't even

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thinking about it when it showed up again. It was

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nearly midnight when I sat down with a trail camp footage.

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We rotate through drives every few days, set up motion

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triggered camps across the perimeter to catch anything sick or

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staggering through the zone after hours. The forrest goes dead

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quiet at night, but that's when the worst ones move.

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The late stay each wonderers the ones the diseases already

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hollowed out. That was my part of the job. Tracked

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sig deer and called the population to reduce the spread.

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We had an on site lap working on possible treatments

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at the same time. I clicked through without much focus,

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just background noise. While I compiled sample logs. One camera

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had flagged motion across the ravine three nights prior. The

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footage was grainy, black and white, timestamped just after one

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a m. A deer across from right to left, angling

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downhill through a dried creek bed limber but slow. I

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paused on the third frame. Something about the shape caught me.

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I zoomed in, rear legs slightly raised, the joint bulged

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front left antler crooked backward at the base, not broken off,

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but walked like the cor had splint. I already knew

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what I was looking at before the shape got closer

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to the camera. There was a faint glint behind the shoulder.

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One of our tracking tags, iridescent under infrared, positioned exactly

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where I had inserted our dash seven seven sixty nine.

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It was the same buck the one I shot, no mistake,

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same wound, same tag, same stance. I leaned forward, rewound

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and let it play again. But this time I noticed

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something else. The gate was wrung. The rear leg didn't

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drag in the twitchy spasmodic way late stage CWD sofferers

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usually moved. It swung smooth, unbroken, too clean. There was

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no tension in the neck either. The head stayed level

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even as it walked uneven terrain, as if something else

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was moving the limbs, but not from within. No bobbing,

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no tension through the spine. It was as if the

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body was being pulled forward in segments, carried, not powered.

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I went cold. I checked the GPS location embedded in

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the file. It was within a quarter mile of the

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same stand of ash where I'd shot it days ago.

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It has the same elevation and the same forest density.

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I crossed reference the tree formations behind the figure, thin

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lines of leafless branches, a birch with a split trunk,

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and matched them to my phone photos from the calling sight.

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Too close, too precise. There's a coincidence, and then there's this,

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which meant either the shot had missed somehow or something

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else was walking around with a dear skin. I didn't

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sleep much that night. I lay in my cot with

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my laptop screen still open, paused on the frame of

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that buck, standing still in the ravine, head, low limbs,

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straight eyes, barely catching the light. It was facing the camera.

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The footage kept coming. Each morning, brought a new flagged clip.

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Each time, the same buck, same shattered antler, and the

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same crooked back leg, always alone, always after midnight, always

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brushing at the edge of the camera's infrared beam, as

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if it knew just how much it could show without

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being caught full on. At first I thought I was

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looking for patterns out of paranoia, but by the third

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night I started marking the appearances on a field map.

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The dots were scattered at first, too scattered to mean much,

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But on the fifth entry I saw it. It was

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moving in a slow arc, not a wondering loop, not

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lost or disoriented pattern. There was structure to it. The

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deer was following a wide perimeter path around the zone.

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Not random, not frantic, steady, predictable, as if it were

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circling something or someone. I checked the camera's placement again,

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laid out the route, and drew the circle. It wasn't perfect,

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but it was closing. In the last three appearances had

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all been a little tighter. I followed the progression and

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placed a pushpin at the rough center. It was us

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the base camp trailer, which meant either this thing was

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tracking me or retracing the path of its own death,

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maybe both. I packed a small kit and headed out

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at first light, telling the team I was following a

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trail report that was an unusual I'd done solo follow

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ups before, and no one questioned it. I hiked about

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forty minutes to reach the spot where i'd put the

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buck down. The ash trees were still there, same slope,

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same wingcarved patch of dead earth with the undergrowth had

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never fully returned after the fires a few years back.

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But there was no blood, no drag marks, not even

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a disturbed pile of leaves. What I found instead was

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a shallow depression in the dirt, ringed with brush and sticks.

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Not a scrape, not a bedding spot. Something had arranged

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the space intentionally. In the center a crude pile of

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gathered debris, small bones, some snapped bird feathers, the twisted

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remains of something that looked like a jaw. It was

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almost organized. It had a rough symmetry, though not in

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a way a deer should be capable of. They don't build,

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they don't nest, they don't collect, which meant it was

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acting on instinct. Something in it, whatever was walking that

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body was aware, deliberate, maybe even learning. I took photos,

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sent them to my field laptop, and marked the area

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for follow up. But I didn't send the images to

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the department, not yet. I wasn't ready to explain why

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I was chasing a deer that should have been rotting

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under six inches of dirt. When I packed up and

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turned to leave, I swore I heard something shift behind

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the tree line. Not the crash of a startled animal,

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just the slow, deliberate shift of weight, as if something

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waited until I looked away. I didn't turn around. I

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walked back to camp with the sense that whatever this

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thing was, it had built something, and it was only

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the beginning. It was nearly three a m. When something

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hit the cabin wall. Not a scratch or scrape, a thud,

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heavy and direct. No follow up, no scurry of retreating hoofs,

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just one single deliberate impact. The sound jolted me upright.

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I stayed frozen for a moment, ear straining. Then another

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noise came, much softer, this time a slight creak of

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the pine frame settling or something leaning into it. I

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grabbed the laptop and flipped through the most recent footage.

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The cabin camp facing the entry showed nothing, just the

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unmoving trail of crusted grass and the steel bare box.

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I clicked over to the rear feed, one I'd set

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up mostly to monitor raccoon activity. That's where I saw it.

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Not close up, not detailed, but enough. The deer stood

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just within the infrared glow, upright, not on all fours, standing.

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Its rear legs were locked to the joints, thin but rigid.

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The rest of the body sacked forward, front, limbs dangling

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like dead weight. Its chest was bowed, the rib cage compressed.

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The head hung far too forward before slowly lifting. Stiff

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and unsure. It took one step forward, then another. Every

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movement was strained, trembling with the effort to balance. It

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moved like a puppet strung by hands that had never

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seen a living thing. But it kept its head upright.

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Even in the poor resolution, I could see it tracking

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the lens. Its face had changed. The snout was partly

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caved in, no longer a clean line of bone and fur.

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Skin slumped over one side, sagging down past the jaw.

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It looked heavier than before, swollen or softened. No glint

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of eyes, just the hollows where they used to sit.

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It didn't graze, didn't sniff, just stood there watching. This

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wasn't a scavenger wearing a carcass. It was an instinct.

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It was tracking something me. I closed the laptop and

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went to the filing crate under the bunk. I dug

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out the original kill log, the handwritten one, but not

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the digital report I filed later. It had blood on

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the corner from the tagging knife, but everything else was clean. Coordinates, time,

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tag code, a quick field sketch, and then I saw

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it scrawled in the side margin, a faint pencil, nearly

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scrubbed away burn after disposal. I hadn't noticed it. The

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retrieval crew had never shown there was an instruction left

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by the lad team. I had missed, which meant whatever

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that thing was, whatever was walking around in the hollowed

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out body of that deer, I had left it there.

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I had given it time. I grabbed the heavy lock

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from the gear chest and bolted the front door, pushed

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the chair under the handle out of some new tiless instinct.

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He wouldn't stop anything with real weight behind it, but

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it made me feel like I was doing something outside.

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The wind had dropped, no forest movement, no insects ticking

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against the window glass. It felt like the woods had

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emptied out, like the normal rules of wilderness had paused.

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I didn't sleep. I sat in the corner with the

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camera feed open, staring at the second angle, waiting for

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it to return. But it never did. Morning light led

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through the close curtains. The print out still sat on

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the counter, half crumpled burn after disposal. I hadn't shown

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it to anyone, who would I tell. I just kept

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refreshing the trail camp and waiting for another ping. Nothing yet.

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My head was starting to hurt, probably from the stress.

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My sinnesses felt swollen and pressure was mounting. Still, I

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needed to see it again, not through a screen. I

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needed something to confirm it was just the deer, some

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rational explanation, something my brain could pin down. I hiked

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back to the clearing in the late afternoon with the

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same gear and the same boots. The air felt heavier

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out there, still but watchful. I stepped carefully, scanning the

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brush around the old kill site. No body, of course,

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that was gone the first time, but something else had

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been left behind. Near a thicket, I found a patch

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of fur snagged along a thorn bush, dark coarse, unmistakable.

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A few feet beyond that, I spotted a smear of

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something dark on the flat side of a spilled rock.

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Looked dry and waxy, not rot exactly, almost preserved I

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pulled the sample with tweezers, wrapped it in foil, and

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packed it for the walk. Back in my cabin, I

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set up my old field scope. It was an high end,

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barely better than a biology student's training model, but it

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could still read enough at low magnification. I sliced the

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sliver from the waxy tissue and placed it on a

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slide with a sailine drop. The second I looked through

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the lens, I felt the back of my neck go cold.

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There were seams, not cuts, not scars, seam lines, tiny

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symmetrical striations crossing in a grid pattern just below the surface.

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The cells weren't dried out either. They were alive. More

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than alive, they were organized, pulsing faintly. Something was knitting

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them together, as if the tissue had been rebuilt rather

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than preserved, which meant it hadn't died the way I thought,

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or if it had, it hadn't stayed that way. No

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dear tissue behaves like that, especially not after sitting exposed

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00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,799
to weather or scavengers for days. It should have been

236
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,680
dust by now. I set up a quick test with

237
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:35,079
what I had, some ammonia base cleaner and a few

238
00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:40,599
protein indicators crude, sure, but good enough for basic reactivity.

239
00:18:41,759 --> 00:18:45,119
I placed another tissue sliver in a shallow dish, added

240
00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:54,039
the cleaning agent, and watched. The reaction was instant, violent bubbling,

241
00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:57,359
a hiss of vapor, and a reek like scorched air

242
00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,119
and formaldehyde. The tissue turn black, curling in on itself

243
00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:06,039
like it had nerves. The smell was chemical, but sharp

244
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:09,920
enough to sting behind my eyes. I rinsed the dish

245
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:14,200
and flushed the sample. My hands were shaking, but I

246
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:18,759
couldn't stop thinking. I couldn't stop asking myself what regenerative

247
00:19:18,839 --> 00:19:22,920
mechanism could survive that reaction? What kind of biology could

248
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:29,559
fake life that cleanly? I searched for anything similar, fungal colonies,

249
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:36,079
synthetic graphs, parasitic worms that repurpose host tissue, but nothing matched.

250
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:42,519
By nightfall, I was just staring at the wall, mind blank.

251
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:47,799
The camera feed pinged. I tapped on the app the

252
00:19:47,839 --> 00:19:54,319
clearing cam had triggered. There it was again. The deer

253
00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:59,279
stood at the tree line, just standing. But something was different.

254
00:19:59,319 --> 00:20:02,920
This time. I had to squint to see it, but

255
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,319
I couldn't unsee it. Once I noticed it. The left

256
00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:13,640
foreleg was gone, not chewed or torn, just missing. The

257
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:17,319
skin along the shoulder was smooth, pale under the moonlight,

258
00:20:17,799 --> 00:20:22,680
stretched tight like clay. But the thing didn't limp. It

259
00:20:22,759 --> 00:20:26,480
stood evenly, shifting its weight like the limb had never

260
00:20:26,559 --> 00:20:30,880
been there at all. I assumed. In further, as much

261
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:36,160
as the grainy frame would allow, the deer turned toward

262
00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:43,079
the camera. I froze. The neck didn't turn smoothly. It

263
00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:47,519
cracked sideways, fast and unnatural, the rest of the body

264
00:20:47,559 --> 00:20:52,599
remaining still a snap in the joint or somewhere deeper.

265
00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:59,160
But it didn't recoil, didn't blink. It just stared directly

266
00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:03,640
at the lens, and for a moment I had the

267
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:12,640
horrible impression it saw me, not the camera me. Then

268
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:21,079
it walked off screen, not limping, not struggling, just walking purposefully.

269
00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:27,000
I shut the app and sat there until sunrise. No

270
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:32,920
new alerts came in that night. I stopped sleeping for

271
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:36,599
more than an hour at a time. The headaches were worse, now,

272
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:41,119
full pressure behind the eyes, like something swelling beneath my skull.

273
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:45,480
My nose wouldn't stop bleeding that morning. It was just

274
00:21:45,519 --> 00:21:49,279
a thin trickle that ran whenever I tilted forward. I

275
00:21:49,319 --> 00:21:54,119
couldn't hold food, couldn't hold a thought. I told work

276
00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,480
I was sick. I didn't go in. I didn't tell

277
00:21:57,519 --> 00:22:01,000
them why. I just wanted to be alone to figure

278
00:22:01,039 --> 00:22:05,480
it out, to run the test again. I kept telling

279
00:22:05,519 --> 00:22:09,680
myself this was chronic wasting disease. I had studied it,

280
00:22:09,759 --> 00:22:13,720
after all, that's why we were here. But this didn't

281
00:22:13,759 --> 00:22:18,720
match the spread pattern, no drooping ears, no emaciation, and

282
00:22:18,799 --> 00:22:24,160
the regeneration didn't make sense. The movement, the fact that

283
00:22:24,279 --> 00:22:29,720
it stood. I pulled up the trail camarchive, a new

284
00:22:29,759 --> 00:22:34,400
ping two nights ago, camera twelve, the farthest one facing

285
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:38,880
the southern edge where the old logging road ends. At

286
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:43,720
first I thought it was a poacher, human shape movement,

287
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:49,319
slow head tilted too far down, but the figure was shirtless,

288
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:55,440
stumbling with hands twitching at his side, knee stiff. Then

289
00:22:55,480 --> 00:23:01,160
he turned slightly toward the lens and I froze. I

290
00:23:01,319 --> 00:23:07,559
recognized him, not the face, the posture, the build, the

291
00:23:07,559 --> 00:23:12,200
way one shoulder hunts slightly from an old break. It

292
00:23:12,279 --> 00:23:15,720
was Nathan, one of the seasonal hires who helped with

293
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,160
retrieval and sight clean up. He hadn't shown up the

294
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:24,359
base in over a week. New angle camera thirteen, same

295
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:29,880
clearing thirty seconds long. The deer came through first from

296
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:35,680
the left, limping, dragging one hind leg. Then it stopped,

297
00:23:36,559 --> 00:23:41,119
just stood there. Seconds later, the man entered from the

298
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:46,440
opposite side, crawling hands and feet in the dirt. He

299
00:23:46,559 --> 00:23:52,880
stopped a few feet from the deer. Neither reacted. There

300
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:58,319
was no fear, no sound. They simply coexisted, standing and

301
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:03,440
swaying in the same poisoned wind. That was the last clip.

302
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:08,640
No new alerts came after that. I closed the app.

303
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:13,400
I sat there for hours, waiting for another pin. The

304
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:17,519
room was still, but I couldn't hear birds anymore, no

305
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:21,680
buzz of summer insects outside the cabin. Even the trees

306
00:24:21,759 --> 00:24:27,720
looked off. The underbrush is too low, too quiet. I

307
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,319
checked my nose, another streak of blood on the back

308
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:37,119
of my hand. I hadn't even felt it. I felt woozy,

309
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:50,480
so I lay down and passed out. The final trout

310
00:24:50,519 --> 00:24:53,160
cam clip was still frozen on screen. When I woke

311
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,680
I shut the laptop. My nose had started bleeding again,

312
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:02,000
slow and steady. Using a warm smear down past my

313
00:25:02,079 --> 00:25:05,599
upper lip, I wiped it with a sleeve of my hoodie,

314
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,599
staring at the wall for a moment as my breath

315
00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:13,400
came in shallow polls. The air felt too heavy, or

316
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:17,640
maybe my lungs were slowing down. I tried calling Nathan,

317
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:20,559
the assistant I thought I had seen in the footage.

318
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:25,920
A call rang twice, then cut the voicemail. The backup

319
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,240
tablets still had access to the DNR field office network.

320
00:25:30,039 --> 00:25:32,400
I logged in and pulled the remote track of logs.

321
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:37,000
No check ins for thirty six hours, not from the

322
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:42,960
monitoring team, field counters or even the auto flagged deer cams.

323
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:48,799
Nothing hyping the emergency contacts. All three admin names came

324
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:54,000
up offline. In the bathroom mirror, I didn't look right.

325
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:58,279
The skin under my eyes was drawn and waxy. My

326
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,119
face pale in a way that life couldn't explain. A

327
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:04,920
red burst had crept into the white of my left eye.

328
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:09,359
Capillaries bloomed outward like roots. When I pressed a knuckle

329
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:15,160
to my cheekbone, the pressure dulled slowly, without edge. I

330
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:19,079
didn't need a blood panel to confirm it. Whatever was

331
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:23,119
in the deer, whatever it kept it moving, was in

332
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:28,599
me now too, And if I was infected, it meant

333
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:33,680
I was on a timer. I didn't bother calling the

334
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:38,359
office again. I didn't report symptoms. There wasn't anyone left

335
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:42,599
to explain it to. If I waited for help, I'd

336
00:26:42,599 --> 00:26:47,880
be a walking corpse before anyone arrived. I packed fast

337
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:52,960
cold packs, the preserved sample trail notes, ammonia strips, and

338
00:26:53,039 --> 00:26:58,000
field accelerants, every drive that had footage, a USB with

339
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:02,039
basic microscope imaging software, enough canned food to last a

340
00:27:02,039 --> 00:27:06,000
few days if I needed them. The wind outside had

341
00:27:06,039 --> 00:27:11,400
gone still. The cabin didn't creak. No birds called, no insects,

342
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:16,240
just the low hum of trees remembering their weight. The

343
00:27:16,319 --> 00:27:19,880
main lab was seventy miles north d n R, affiliated

344
00:27:20,039 --> 00:27:24,640
but independent. It had a backup generator, cold storage, and

345
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:28,440
a sterilization hood. If I could get there before my

346
00:27:28,519 --> 00:27:33,079
symptoms worsened, maybe I could finish what I started, trace

347
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,200
the spread, burn out whatever I had learned to wear skin.

348
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:40,880
I locked the cabin door behind me one last glance

349
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:48,720
at the tree line. Nothing moved, but the silence felt aware.

350
00:27:50,279 --> 00:27:53,400
I got in the truck, started the engine and drove

351
00:27:53,519 --> 00:27:57,319
without checking the rear view. If I didn't make it

352
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:05,200
in time, no one would. I reached the lamb just

353
00:28:05,319 --> 00:28:08,839
past dusk. The trees pressed in tight along the road,

354
00:28:09,319 --> 00:28:12,160
branches clawing at the truck as I rolled up the

355
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:16,519
gravel path. No signs of field biologists or late shifts,

356
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:20,160
just the wind and the low hum of the backup generator,

357
00:28:20,559 --> 00:28:26,440
struggling to keep rhythm. The front doors were unlocked. Inside,

358
00:28:26,799 --> 00:28:31,279
the overhead fluorescence flickered behind stained plastic covers. A couple

359
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:35,799
bulbs buzzed in their sockets, casting long, uneven shadows across

360
00:28:35,839 --> 00:28:40,039
the tiled floor. The air smelled faintly of bleach and

361
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:48,559
something else, something deeper, damp, iron, sweet. No voices greeted me,

362
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:52,839
No motion, just the slow, steady beap of a security

363
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,880
door stuck half a jar. In the back hallway, the

364
00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,400
reception desk was abandoned, a mug of coffee. They still

365
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,880
steamed faintly. The room stained with a half finished sip.

366
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,880
A pair of reading glasses sat beside it, folded neatly,

367
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:14,359
as if someone meant to return. They hadn't. I moved

368
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,599
deeper into the facility. The surveillance room was unlocked, which

369
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:23,160
wasn't protocol. The wall of monitors stuttered with looping footage

370
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:27,680
from around the building. Front gate, access hall generator room

371
00:29:28,039 --> 00:29:33,920
exterior trails. One feed caught my attention. A shape crouched

372
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:40,839
in the tree lined behind the lab, not human, broad shouldered, hunched, unmoving.

373
00:29:42,079 --> 00:29:46,039
Another monitor showed a figure walking shirtless down a staff hallway,

374
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:51,279
bare feet, pale skin. He was dragging something behind him,

375
00:29:51,599 --> 00:29:56,079
a metal pool clattering against the tile. There wasn't a

376
00:29:56,119 --> 00:29:59,839
patient wing in this building, no beds, no IV stands,

377
00:30:00,839 --> 00:30:04,759
but I knew what I saw. I killed the feeds,

378
00:30:05,319 --> 00:30:08,720
no need to watch more than I had to. The

379
00:30:08,759 --> 00:30:13,079
freezer lab was worse. The door stood open a few inches,

380
00:30:13,559 --> 00:30:18,319
cold air spilling out inside. The stainless steel racks were

381
00:30:18,359 --> 00:30:23,079
half empty. Tray overturned vials cracked across the floor in

382
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:27,519
a fine glitter of broken glass and thawed residue. The

383
00:30:27,599 --> 00:30:34,039
walls glistened with condensation. Fingerprints smeared into the frost. I

384
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:37,440
found a catalog of samples similar to the ones I

385
00:30:37,519 --> 00:30:42,079
collected myself. Had they been working on this the whole time?

386
00:30:43,359 --> 00:30:48,920
If so, to what end? I checked the surrounding shells

387
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,960
for any signs of tampering. One broken violet spilled down

388
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,079
the side of the unit. The trails stopped at the floor,

389
00:30:56,279 --> 00:31:01,640
but didn't pull instead it split streaks, drawn outward by

390
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:07,039
something moving low and slow. That's when I saw the prince,

391
00:31:08,319 --> 00:31:14,640
not boot treads, hoof prints, but not natural ones. Each

392
00:31:14,759 --> 00:31:19,799
was split, yes, but too long, too narrow. The pressure

393
00:31:19,839 --> 00:31:23,720
pattern was wrung, centered toward the toe, as if whatever

394
00:31:23,759 --> 00:31:29,319
made them had been balancing, creeping. They led away from

395
00:31:29,319 --> 00:31:32,680
the freezer, across the lab floor, right to the wall.

396
00:31:32,799 --> 00:31:38,000
Vent I stepped closer, the cover was off, bent to

397
00:31:38,079 --> 00:31:43,359
the corners. Inside the docked was streaked dark. A few

398
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:47,079
long strands of fur clung to the inner rim, not

399
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:54,279
dear fur, something coarser, almost wirelike something had already been

400
00:31:54,319 --> 00:31:59,559
here before me, or someone had led it in. I

401
00:31:59,599 --> 00:32:05,079
stood a moment listening somewhere in the back wing. Something

402
00:32:05,119 --> 00:32:12,240
metal scraped across tile, then nothing. I closed the freezer

403
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,599
and sealed the remaining samples in my personal cold case.

404
00:32:16,519 --> 00:32:18,839
My hands were shaking as I locked the lab door

405
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:23,319
behind me, and now I wasn't sure who or what

406
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:30,359
had ever been running this place. By morning, my hands

407
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:35,039
were shaking. It started small, just the fingers, but I

408
00:32:35,039 --> 00:32:38,440
couldn't get a cap off a vial without fumbling. My

409
00:32:38,559 --> 00:32:42,920
vision kept slipping out of focus, not constantly, just in

410
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:47,240
rhythmic flickers in the mirror above the lab sink. I

411
00:32:47,319 --> 00:32:50,759
watched my pupils expand and shrink, back and forth, like

412
00:32:50,839 --> 00:32:54,319
they couldn't decide whether they were supposed to do. My

413
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:58,079
gums had started to wake. I tore a sheet from

414
00:32:58,119 --> 00:33:00,519
the back of an abandoned chart and pinned it to

415
00:33:00,559 --> 00:33:05,480
my jacket. If I loose speech, burn the body, do

416
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:10,599
not touch the skin. Then I made for the biology wing.

417
00:33:12,279 --> 00:33:14,799
Only the emergency lights were working in this part of

418
00:33:14,839 --> 00:33:19,599
the lab, casting dim, jittering gold across the tiles. The

419
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:24,440
carts were overturned, papers had been scattered, trampled, or soaked

420
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:28,200
through from a broken pipe in the ceiling. Breath fogged

421
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:32,920
in the air. It was cold. I pulled the log

422
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:35,880
book from the wreckage of a desk. Most of the

423
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:41,440
pages were useless notes about wildlife counts, nutrition breakdowns, half

424
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:46,839
finished hypotheses. I flipped to the back. There, wedged between

425
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:50,000
two damp pages was a loose sheet of paper with

426
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:56,440
sharp handwriting. Secondary hosts showed accelerated symptoms after exposure to

427
00:33:56,519 --> 00:34:02,759
decomposing infected tissue, delayed infection, corald with chemical disruption, ammonia

428
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:09,639
and alcohol treatments. I stopped. My symptoms started after handling

429
00:34:09,679 --> 00:34:13,239
the sample, but I had stumbled and using ammonia while

430
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:18,559
doing rudimentary tests. Whatever concoction I had accidentally breathed in

431
00:34:19,599 --> 00:34:22,840
hadn't cured me, but it delayed what had happened to

432
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:27,039
the seasonal higher I saw skulking with the deer. It

433
00:34:27,119 --> 00:34:33,119
bought me time a buffer. The others they worked under

434
00:34:33,119 --> 00:34:40,719
protocol sterile precise direct exposure. I followed the note and

435
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:44,880
slipped it into my jacket. There wasn't a cure, but

436
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,119
at least I now understood why I was still walking,

437
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:54,800
and this inspired my makeshift idea. I found one last

438
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,559
working autoclave near the end of the wing. It rumbled

439
00:34:58,559 --> 00:35:01,679
to life when I keyed in the over. I scraped

440
00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:05,480
together everything I could, what remained of the preserved tissue,

441
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:10,920
anything I touched, old gloves, even the container, and loaded

442
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:14,840
it all into the chamber. The inside was coated with

443
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:20,960
black residue, not mold, something else. Maybe someone had already

444
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:25,840
tried this. I set the burn, locked the hatch, and

445
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:30,760
stepped away before the heating cycle could even start. My

446
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:36,360
legs were slower now, not numb, just heavy. Every step

447
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:40,920
felt delayed, like the signals were moving through sludge. I

448
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:44,599
touched the glass in the hallway. I couldn't feel it.

449
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:49,840
I couldn't feel the chill against my fingers. I left

450
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:55,000
through the back. The woods were still gray, The clouds

451
00:35:55,079 --> 00:36:00,559
hung low over the canopy, and somewhere behind me pissed

452
00:36:00,559 --> 00:36:05,239
with steam. I didn't know if the sterilization would do anything,

453
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:09,519
didn't know if it was too late. But I had

454
00:36:09,559 --> 00:36:13,840
one more thing to do. I packed everything I needed

455
00:36:14,119 --> 00:36:19,000
and worked on the move, not a cure, just a

456
00:36:19,079 --> 00:36:27,000
final step, and started walking where it all began. I

457
00:36:27,039 --> 00:36:30,840
didn't follow the trail cameroots this time. The clearing where

458
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:34,679
I shut the book with a carcasse vanished where I

459
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:38,920
should have burned it. I carried everything with me, my pack,

460
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:44,639
an improvised cocktail cleaning ammonia and accelerants. I cobbled together

461
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:48,960
materials for a makeshift device, powdered rust scraped from the

462
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,760
back of hinges of old equipment, and aluminium shavings pulled

463
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:56,559
from trail signs. It wasn't a perfect There might mix,

464
00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:01,559
but it would ignite enough to burn tissue, enough to

465
00:37:01,639 --> 00:37:06,360
destroy whatever was rewriting it. The walk was longer than

466
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:11,760
I remembered, or maybe I was slower. My joints ate,

467
00:37:12,199 --> 00:37:16,519
my fingers tingled. The fever behind my eyes pulsed in waves,

468
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,840
clouding the corners of my vision. But I was still

469
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:26,119
thinking clearly. I could still make decisions. That meant I

470
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:31,599
still had time. I used this time to make improvised devices,

471
00:37:31,639 --> 00:37:36,800
crude but functional. The trees changed before the path did.

472
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:40,119
At first I thought it was just fog settling through

473
00:37:40,159 --> 00:37:45,679
the branches, but the bark had a sheen, not wet waxed.

474
00:37:46,599 --> 00:37:49,639
A fine spread of pale threads ran between the trunks,

475
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,519
and when I brushed past one, it stuck to my jacket.

476
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:59,519
I reached the clearing, it wasn't a nest anymore. It

477
00:37:59,519 --> 00:38:03,519
had blown, and the glade was a full sprawl of

478
00:38:03,599 --> 00:38:09,559
organic spires, sinew and fungal bloom. Long venous threads ran

479
00:38:09,639 --> 00:38:14,119
between trees and into the undergrowth. The dirt looked bruised.

480
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:17,800
There were thick nodules the size of fists half buried

481
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:22,360
in the soil, throbbing fungal stalks that had grown into warped,

482
00:38:22,519 --> 00:38:26,960
ribbed structures, almost like cages. But I couldn't tell if

483
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:30,760
they were meant to keep something in or out. The

484
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,440
smell was worse than any rot i'd encountered, a mix

485
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:39,559
of iron fermentation and something vaguely sweet, like ripe fruit

486
00:38:39,639 --> 00:38:45,800
gun sour. The wildlife was gone, no birds, no insects.

487
00:38:46,519 --> 00:38:51,800
But around the perimeter the ground was littered with corpses, rodents,

488
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:57,440
a raccoon, something small and canine, maybe a fox. Some

489
00:38:57,519 --> 00:39:03,400
of them were twitching, breathing, spasming, as if their bodies

490
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:07,440
hadn't caught up with the fact that they were already dead.

491
00:39:08,039 --> 00:39:11,880
One of them, a rabbit, jerked his head upright, jaw

492
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:17,679
twitching open. A sound came out, not a breath, a click,

493
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:23,280
maybe an attempted speech. I didn't stay close enough to listen.

494
00:39:25,199 --> 00:39:30,119
This was what it had been doing, not hunting, cultivating.

495
00:39:31,119 --> 00:39:34,760
It was rewriting the instructions that told muslin bone how

496
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:39,400
to be. In the center of the glade was a

497
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:45,519
mound flesh, hair, antler, segments of deer skull fused with

498
00:39:45,599 --> 00:39:50,679
what looked like vertebrae, human ribs, tangled legs, some still

499
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:55,159
clothed in remnants of field pants. A name patch peeked out,

500
00:39:55,639 --> 00:39:59,519
half fused into the tissue. I didn't go closer to

501
00:39:59,559 --> 00:40:05,079
read it. I already knew. I dropped to my knees,

502
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:09,960
opened my pack, began assembling the ammonia. The heat was

503
00:40:10,039 --> 00:40:15,320
rising in me, now internal pressing. I was sweating hard.

504
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:19,320
My tongue was thick in my mouth. The ammonia stung

505
00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:24,800
my nose, but I needed it. I poured carefully, trying

506
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:28,880
to keep my hands steady. Just a few minutes, just

507
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:36,400
one successful ignition. I heard the footsteps before I saw them,

508
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:43,320
not hoofs, not claws, feet. I turned slowly. A fir

509
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:47,639
might charge. Half assembled in my lap. Three figures stepped

510
00:40:47,639 --> 00:40:52,800
out from behind the edge of the nest. People, or

511
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:57,719
what it used to be my field team. Harris from

512
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:02,440
my old labrotation, Jenna, the intern who logged samples, and

513
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,280
one of the rangers I used to check in with

514
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:09,960
on morning rounds. Their skin looked spongy, water logged, and

515
00:41:10,039 --> 00:41:14,559
blotched with gray patches that pulse beneath the surface. Their

516
00:41:14,639 --> 00:41:17,400
veins ran black and branched across their arms and neck.

517
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:21,000
All three of them stared at me through clouded white eyes.

518
00:41:21,639 --> 00:41:25,360
Lips parted in slow, shallow breaths that didn't sound like

519
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:31,159
breathing at all. They weren't charging. They didn't groan or howl.

520
00:41:32,119 --> 00:41:37,880
They just stepped forward, their arms stiff, their heads tilting,

521
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,280
and their mouths slack, like they were still trying to

522
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:46,639
remember how movement worked to them. I just looked like

523
00:41:46,679 --> 00:41:52,599
another infected returning to the hive. I took a shaky breath,

524
00:41:53,039 --> 00:41:58,320
raised a hand without meaning to. I'm sorry, I said.

525
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:05,360
For a second, something flickered behind Harris's eyes, a twitch

526
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:10,119
in the cheek. His jaw shifted. I saw his lips

527
00:42:10,199 --> 00:42:13,199
try to form a word, but all that came out

528
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:17,079
was a wet rasp, a throat too soft to carry sound.

529
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:22,320
There was still sympathy, a glimmer of humanity that was

530
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:30,280
rapidly fading. Then came the deer. They had no such feelings.

531
00:42:31,079 --> 00:42:35,679
They emerged slowly, deliberately and confident from the trees behind

532
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:39,320
the team. The upright one leaned forward with a step,

533
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:44,199
spine trembling with effort, but its limbs moved cleanly. Now

534
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:50,239
behind it crawled another shoulder twisted, dragging its weight along

535
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:54,639
the patch of exposed roots. The last one moved worst

536
00:42:54,639 --> 00:42:58,440
of all. It dragged a fuse limb that wasn't fully deer,

537
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:03,880
part bone, part human muscle strung together with the wrong tension.

538
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:09,400
They made no noise. Their heads cocked with a mechanical curiosity.

539
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:14,760
All eyes locked on me, and they saw what I

540
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:19,679
was doing. Ahlf puffed out from their nostrils as they

541
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:24,760
ready to charge hoofs bracing to sprint. My hands shook

542
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:28,840
as I reached for the striker. The first scrape gave nothing,

543
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:35,880
The second sparked on a third it caught. I lit

544
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:38,679
the smallest flask of ammonia and hurled it at the

545
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:43,199
edge of the nest. It hissed on contact. The fungal

546
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:46,519
web sizzled, the black, veiny threads pulling back from the

547
00:43:46,639 --> 00:43:52,199
chemical burn like they were alive. That did it. The

548
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:57,599
reanimated abominations stumbled forward, not toward me, but toward the

549
00:43:57,639 --> 00:44:05,639
patch I'd hit. Twitching, compelled, pain, instinct rage, I couldn't tell,

550
00:44:06,639 --> 00:44:11,960
but it told me something important. They had a choice.

551
00:44:12,159 --> 00:44:15,920
They didn't lunge at me, not yet. They went for

552
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,440
the fire. I didn't give them time to rethink it.

553
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:23,559
I lit the thermite and hurled it toward the center

554
00:44:23,599 --> 00:44:28,320
of the nest. The flash was instant and vicious. A

555
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,360
column of heat tore through the fungal bed, charring it

556
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:35,039
in a heartbeat. A few deer were caught in the process.

557
00:44:36,199 --> 00:44:41,000
The smell made my vision swim, something between spoiled meat

558
00:44:41,039 --> 00:44:46,320
and plastic insulation. Instinct kicked in, and my old crew

559
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:50,840
sprang into action, rushing to save their colony. The mound

560
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:54,320
in the center shrieked, not with sound, but with pressure.

561
00:44:55,119 --> 00:44:59,360
A thick static humb filled the air. My eyes pulsed,

562
00:44:59,519 --> 00:45:05,039
my ears rang. Harris screamed, not a human sound, just

563
00:45:05,079 --> 00:45:10,760
a rupture of voice. He collapsed midstep. Jenna followed, limbs

564
00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:13,159
still jerking on the ground like fish on a dark

565
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:17,880
The upright deear tried to flee, but collapsed as soon

566
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:21,920
as their connection severed. I lit the final charge, the

567
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:25,320
biggest one, and rolled it into the heart of the nest.

568
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:30,920
It ignited on contact. The second explosion was worse than

569
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:35,480
the first. Trees caught, Flames raised up the stalks. The

570
00:45:35,559 --> 00:45:39,320
sinew network snapped and curled in on itself. A line

571
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:42,039
of fungus tried to retreat down the roots, but the

572
00:45:42,079 --> 00:45:47,559
fire chased it. But most importantly, all the bodies caught flame,

573
00:45:48,119 --> 00:45:54,159
destroying any remnants of this horror. I stumbled back, coughing

574
00:45:54,199 --> 00:45:59,960
into my sleeve. My vision smeared. One eye darkened, hi white,

575
00:46:00,119 --> 00:46:05,840
did it, but my hand came back red blood. The

576
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:10,880
glade thrashed like a body in seizure. Then it went still.

577
00:46:12,639 --> 00:46:15,800
I stood there until the flames reached the ridge, until

578
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:19,440
the entire bloom turned black and brittle, until the heat

579
00:46:19,639 --> 00:46:27,519
burned the smell away. Only then did I turn and walk, burned, sick,

580
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:32,920
bleeding from both eyes, but lighter than I'd felt in weeks,

581
00:46:33,719 --> 00:46:38,239
because I'd done something real, because I'd ended it, or

582
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:43,199
at least made sure it wouldn't spread any farther. And

583
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:48,119
if I was wrong, if something crawled out later, I

584
00:46:48,159 --> 00:46:55,280
wouldn't be here to see it. I sat slumped in

585
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:59,960
the truck, throat raw, eyes blurred, my fingers barely were.

586
00:47:01,199 --> 00:47:03,880
They kept slipping on the recorder's button before I finally

587
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:10,039
managed to press it down. Sample sterilized, the sauce, nest burned.

588
00:47:10,559 --> 00:47:16,119
Secondary host transmission confirmed my voice didn't sound like mine

589
00:47:16,119 --> 00:47:19,960
any more. I waited for a long moment, letting the

590
00:47:20,039 --> 00:47:26,440
silence settle, before speaking again. My name is Elias ward Field.

591
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:30,800
I D seven two six o one dashbe contracted wild

592
00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:36,360
life biologist, stayed assigned. I acted alone. I have destroyed

593
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:40,599
all known infated samples. The growth site has been neutralized.

594
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:48,239
There are no survivors. I paused, listened, nothing but the

595
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,719
low wind through the ridge. No movement in the trees,

596
00:47:52,039 --> 00:47:56,639
no footsteps in the brush. If anyone finds this log,

597
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,159
do not come looking for survivors. There is nothing left

598
00:48:01,199 --> 00:48:06,719
worth recovering. I clicked the recorder off and let it

599
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:10,760
drop into my lap. My head rested against the window.

600
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:16,079
The cold glass felt steady, almost grounding. The woods outside

601
00:48:16,119 --> 00:48:20,800
were still chocked in ash and fog. I took the

602
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:23,760
cassette and sealed it in a weather proof specimen case,

603
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:27,800
marked it clearly, left it outside near the truck, but

604
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:31,480
not too close. If any one did find this place,

605
00:48:32,199 --> 00:48:37,119
they'd find the truth first. Then I sat back inside

606
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:42,320
and looked at the keys of my palm. I lied

607
00:48:43,039 --> 00:48:49,440
I hadn't destroyed all traces. There was still one left me,

608
00:48:51,519 --> 00:48:56,159
but that we'd be dealt with shortly. The fermite was rigged,

609
00:48:56,639 --> 00:49:01,199
crude but functional, set beneath the seat, tied to the ignition.

610
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:05,719
I checked the fuse three times earlier before my vision went.

611
00:49:07,159 --> 00:49:13,039
When the key turned, the reaction would start heat metal flame,

612
00:49:14,119 --> 00:49:20,280
nothing left to spread. I took a final breath, no

613
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:36,039
last words, no dramatic farewell. I just turned the key