WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.000 Now one of your pudding. I got a string going 2 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:06.120 on here, something just because my dog. Something killed your dog. 3 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:08.960 My dog. We're flying through the air over the tree. 4 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:13.640 I don't know how it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm 5 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.120 really confused. All I saw was my dog coming over 6 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:17.800 the fence and he was dead. And once you hit 7 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:19.679 the ground like, I didn't see any cars. All I 8 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:38.320 saw was my dog coming over the fence. Sat, what 9 00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:42.960 are you putting? We got some wonder or something crawling 10 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:51.920 around out here? Did you see what it was? 11 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:52.240 Or was it was? 12 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.719 Standing enough? I'm out here looking through the window now 13 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.479 and I don't see anything. I don't want to go outside. 14 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:05.120 Jesus Quice, you better hello, get thebody out here? What 15 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:07.599 quen on out there? I thought of amnures about tex 16 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:10.519 forty nine? I don't know. Easy ann out there? Yeah, 17 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:11.560 I'm walking right hey. 18 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:16.319 November one through fifteenth, seventeen ninety nine, we left the 19 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:19.000 valley on the first day of November. There was nothing 20 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.439 more to see, nothing more to learn. We had found 21 00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:25.280 what we came looking for, more than we came looking for, 22 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:28.079 and two of our company had paid the ultimate price 23 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.719 for that knowledge. The creatures had shown us their stronghold, 24 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:36.480 their population, their ancient presence on this continent. They had 25 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:39.400 allowed us to witness things no human had witnessed before. 26 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:43.920 Now it was time to go home. The decision was unanimous, 27 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:47.560 which surprised me. I had expected Sam to argue for 28 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:51.640 staying longer, for pressing deeper into the creature's mysteries. But 29 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:55.280 even Sam, who had spent twenty years searching for this moment, 30 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:58.719 agreed that we had reached the end. I know what 31 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:01.400 I needed to know, he said quietly, as we packed 32 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:05.680 our meager supplies. They're real, They've always been real, and 33 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:08.840 they're going to be here long after we're gone. Is 34 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:12.280 that enough? It has to be. He looked at the 35 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:16.759 valley spread out before us, the ancient forest, the winding river, 36 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:21.199 the creatures visible on every ridge and clearing. Some questions 37 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:23.919 don't have answers we can live with. This might be 38 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:27.479 one of them. The journey back through the canyon felt different, 39 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.639 easier somehow, as if the creatures were helping us leave, 40 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:34.639 as they had helped us enter. The passages that had 41 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:39.360 seemed impassable before now open smoothly. The obstacles that had 42 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.319 blocked our path on the way in had somehow vanished. 43 00:02:42.919 --> 00:02:45.960 They wanted us to go. Maybe they had always wanted 44 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:50.120 us to go. Maybe the entire journey, the guidance, the gifts, 45 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.759 the revelations, had been designed to lead us to this moment, 46 00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:57.360 to show us enough to understand, to burden us with 47 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:00.280 knowledge we could never share, and then to send us 48 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:03.479 back into the human world with the weight of that understanding. 49 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:09.039 A cruel joke perhaps, or something else entirely with the creatures, 50 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:12.719 it was impossible to know. The debate about what to 51 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:15.560 do with our knowledge began before we left their territory. 52 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:20.360 Thomas argued for publication. This is the greatest discovery in 53 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:23.919 natural history, he said, his voice carrying echoes of the 54 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:28.919 certainty he'd once possessed. A surviving population of unknown hominids, 55 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:33.039 evidence that challenges everything we thought we knew about human evolution. 56 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.800 We have a duty to share this with the scientific community. 57 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:38.439 And what happens? 58 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:38.639 Then? 59 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:42.400 Sam asked, what happens when the hunters come, when the 60 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:45.960 settlers arrived with their axes and their rifles. How long 61 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.879 does your hidden population survive once the world knows about them. 62 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:54.639 We could protect them, establish a sanctuary. The government, The 63 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:58.560 government will do what governments always do what benefits them, 64 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.759 what brings them power. Sam's weathered face was hard. You've 65 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:06.800 seen what these creatures are capable of. Do you really 66 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:09.680 think any government would pass up the chance to study them, 67 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.360 to capture them, to use them? Then what we keep 68 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:20.720 silent forever? Pretend we never found anything? Maybe Solomon spoke quietly, 69 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:24.959 but his voice carried weight. My grandmother's people kept secrets 70 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:29.199 for generations, not because they were selfish, because they understood 71 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:33.360 that some truths destroy what they touch. The debate continued 72 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:36.319 for days as we traveled east through the territories of 73 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:39.160 peoples who had known about the creatures for millennia and 74 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:43.240 had chosen to keep that knowledge hidden. The Wyandot received 75 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:46.279 us with something like respect. We had gone into the 76 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:50.240 forbidden lands and returned, which was more than most had achieved. 77 00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:54.120 She who remembers, listened to our accounts with milky eyes 78 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.040 that seemed to see through to our souls. You understand now, 79 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:01.720 she said, what we have always do, understood why we 80 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:05.439 have always been silent. Will you tell us what to do? 81 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:11.079 I cannot. This is your burden, Now your choice, she smiled, 82 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:14.360 and there was genuine warmth in the expression. But I 83 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:17.519 will tell you this. The elder brothers have survived for 84 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.519 longer than human memory. They have survived wars and diseases 85 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:25.439 and the expansion of peoples across this land. They will 86 00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:30.920 survive whatever you decide, and us will we survive. Some 87 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:33.959 truths are heavier than others. Some break the people who 88 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:37.519 carry them. She reached out and touched my chest, where 89 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:41.240 the pendant still hung. You have been marked. That mark 90 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:44.560 carries weight. The question is whether you are strong enough 91 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:47.560 to bear it. I didn't know the answer to that question. 92 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:51.920 I still don't. By the time we reached the Shawnee Territory, 93 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:56.279 a decision had formed, not through consensus, but through exhaustion. 94 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:00.480 We would keep silent. The journals would be hidden, the 95 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:03.480 knowledge would be passed down through my family, waiting for 96 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:06.279 a day when humanity might be ready to learn the truth. 97 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:11.279 If that day ever came. We gathered one final time 98 00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:14.040 by the Ohio River, seven men who had entered the 99 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:16.720 wilderness seeking answers and found more than any of us 100 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:20.480 had bargained for. The evening was cold, the first hints 101 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:24.000 of winter in the air. Across the river, the civilized 102 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:27.680 world waited, towns and farms and people who slept safely 103 00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:30.839 at night, unaware of what walked in the deep places 104 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:34.680 between the mountains. Swear it, I said, Swear that you 105 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:37.279 will keep this secret, that you will tell no one 106 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:41.759 what we found, what we witnessed, what we lost. One 107 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:45.480 by one, they swore Thomas the scientist, who had come 108 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:48.560 seeking knowledge and found the limits of what knowledge should contain. 109 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:53.279 Sam the frontiersman, who had spent twenty years waiting for 110 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:56.759 this expedition and now carried answers that provided no peace. 111 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:00.759 Jim the soldier, who had been broken and mended and 112 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:05.160 broken again by what we'd witnessed. Solomon the blacksmith, whose 113 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.959 grandmother's stories had prepared him better than any of us 114 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.800 for the truth. Josiah the minister, who had lost his 115 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:15.639 faith and perhaps found something to replace it, Zeke, my 116 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:18.439 nephew who had entered the wilderness as a boy and 117 00:07:18.519 --> 00:07:25.759 emerged as something else entirely, and myself, Elijah Stone, Captain, explorer, 118 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:31.199 keeper of secrets. We crossed the river at dawn. Behind us, 119 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:34.879 the mountains rose into clouds that hid their peaks. Somewhere 120 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.000 in those mountains, the creatures watched us go. I could 121 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:42.800 feel their eyes on my back. Patient ancient, unconcerned with 122 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:46.040 whatever we decided to do with our knowledge. They had 123 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:50.519 survived for millennia. They would survive this too. The question 124 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:54.639 was whether we would. Marcus turned the final page of 125 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:58.680 the fourth journal. The expedition was over. Seven men had 126 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:01.120 returned from a journey that had claimed two lives and 127 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:04.720 changed the survivors in ways they were only beginning to understand. 128 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:08.399 The secret had been sworn, the journals had been hidden, 129 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:13.439 and the creatures had watched them go, patient as always, eternal, 130 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:18.120 as always, waiting for whatever came next. Marcus looked at 131 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:22.560 the remaining journals, three more, plus the portfolio of drawings 132 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.879 in the bundle of letters, his ancestors' final years, the 133 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:30.480 passing of the torch through generations, the chain of keepers 134 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:34.039 that had led finally to Marcus himself. He was tired, 135 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:38.679 so tired he'd been reading for days, losing track of time, 136 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:43.000 neglecting everything except the narrative that had consumed him. His 137 00:08:43.080 --> 00:08:47.399 body ached, his eyes burned, his mind felt stretched thin 138 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:49.960 by the weight of what he'd learned. But he couldn't 139 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.960 stop now, not when he was so close to understanding 140 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.840 what his father had spent his life guarding, Not when 141 00:08:55.879 --> 00:08:57.559 he was about to learn what it meant to be 142 00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:00.600 the latest keeper of secrets that should never be told. 143 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:03.799 He picked up the Fifth Journal and began to read. 144 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:09.440 November fifteenth, seventeen ninety nine through February first, eighteen hundred, 145 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:13.279 the journey home took nearly three months. Three months of 146 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:16.240 winter travel through mountains that seemed determined to kill us. 147 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:20.159 Three months of frozen rivers and snow covered trails, and 148 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:24.200 nights so cold that ice formed on our blankets. Three 149 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:27.399 months of silence, each man wrapped in his own thoughts, 150 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:30.799 processing what we had witnessed in ways that words could 151 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:35.080 not express. The creatures did not follow us beyond their territory. 152 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:41.639 That boundary, invisible but absolute, remained intact. Once we crossed 153 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:44.759 back into the lands where humans lived and farmed and hunted, 154 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:49.720 the watching eyes disappeared, the wood knocks ceased, the howls 155 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:54.600 that had become our nighttime companions fell silent. We were alone, 156 00:09:54.679 --> 00:09:57.159 truly alone, for the first time in nearly a year. 157 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:02.440 The absence of their presence was strange, unsettling. After so 158 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:05.840 many months of constant surveillance, the feeling of being unobserved 159 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:09.960 seemed almost unnatural. I found myself, looking over my shoulder, 160 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:13.159 scanning the tree line, searching for shapes that were no 161 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:17.279 longer there. They're not coming, Sam said one evening, reading 162 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:21.000 my thoughts. We've left their world. We're back in hours. 163 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:25.559 Does it feel different to you? Everything feels different now. 164 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:29.799 He stared into the fire, his weathered face illuminated by 165 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:33.879 the dancing flames. The world hasn't changed, but we have. 166 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:36.600 We can never look at it the same way again. 167 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:40.600 He was right. The civilized world, when we finally reached 168 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:44.320 it seemed strange to me. The towns we passed through, 169 00:10:44.679 --> 00:10:47.919 the farms we stopped at for supplies, the ordinary people 170 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:51.039 going about their ordinary lives. All of it felt like 171 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:54.120 a dream, a pleasant fiction that we could no longer 172 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:57.879 fully believe in. They didn't know, None of them knew. 173 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:01.919 They thought they were alone on the continent, the undisputed 174 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:04.559 masters of a wilderness that was theirs for the taking. 175 00:11:05.399 --> 00:11:08.399 They thought the forest held nothing but animals and opportunity. 176 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:12.879 They were wrong, and we couldn't tell them, couldn't warn them, 177 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:15.759 couldn't share the burden of knowledge that had cost two 178 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:18.639 men their lives and would haunt the rest of us forever. 179 00:11:19.559 --> 00:11:24.279 The survivors changed in different ways. Jim grew quieter, more stable. 180 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:27.080 The violence that had been building in him seemed to 181 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:31.240 have burned out, replaced by something calmer. He spoke less 182 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:34.960 than before, but when he did speak, his words carried weight. 183 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:38.919 The war that had broken him once had found resolution somehow, 184 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:42.360 Perhaps confronting a terror greater than any battle had put 185 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:47.519 his old demons in perspective. Thomas retreated into documentation. He 186 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:52.720 wrote constantly, notes, observations, theories, as if putting words on 187 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:56.200 paper could somehow contain the chaos of what we'd experienced. 188 00:11:57.080 --> 00:12:02.039 His earlier arrogance was gone, replaced by a of desperate humility. 189 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:05.080 He'd spent his life believing that science could explain everything. 190 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.919 Now he knew better. Solomon carved every night. When we 191 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:13.200 stopped to rest, his knife came out, and shapes emerged 192 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:17.679 from the wood, creatures and humans standing together or apart, 193 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.480 symbols that matched the ones we'd seen in the caves, 194 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:23.799 a visual record that he never explained, but that seemed 195 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:27.960 to bring him peace. Josiah prayed less, not because he'd 196 00:12:27.960 --> 00:12:30.919 lost faith. If anything, he seemed more at peace with 197 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:33.639 spiritual matters than he'd been since the death of his family. 198 00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:39.159 But his prayers were different, now, quieter, more personal, as 199 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:41.720 if he'd found a god who listened, even if that 200 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:45.440 god wasn't the one he'd originally been seeking. And Zeke, 201 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.799 my nephew, who had entered the wilderness as a boy, 202 00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:53.159 had become someone I barely recognized. There was knowledge in 203 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:56.120 his eyes that shouldn't have been. There, a stillness in 204 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:00.480 his manner that seemed ancient. Somehow. He rarely spoke, but 205 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:02.600 when he looked at the forest, I knew he was 206 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:06.240 seeing things the rest of us couldn't perceive. The juvenile 207 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:10.360 had changed him. That connection, whatever it had been, had 208 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:14.039 left its mark. I worried about him, worried about all 209 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:18.600 of us. We reached Wyandot Territory in late December. She 210 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.399 who remembers, was waiting for us. You survived, she said, 211 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:27.120 it wasn't a question some of us. I know her 212 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:31.159 clouded eyes somehow saw everything. The elder brothers send word 213 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:34.200 in ways we do not fully understand. We knew of 214 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:38.200 your losses. We grieve with you. We're going home now, 215 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:42.440 keeping the secret as you advised, as we have kept 216 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:46.320 it for generations. She reached out and touched the pendant 217 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:49.879 at my chest. This belongs with our people, but I 218 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:52.840 think it has chosen to stay with you. What does 219 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:56.240 that mean? It means you are part of their story now, 220 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.960 all of you. For good or ill, you carry their mond. 221 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:04.440 You will carry it until you die. She was right. 222 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:06.600 I've carried it for twenty seven years. 223 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:06.919 Now. 224 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:10.639 As I write these final words, the mark has never faded. 225 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:15.519 The knowledge has never dimmed. Some truths, once known, cannot 226 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:19.039 be unknown. The Shawnee Lands passed in a blur of 227 00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:22.960 snow and silence. Swift Hawk, the guide who had taken 228 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:25.399 us to the boundary and expected never to see us again, 229 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:29.759 stared at us in disbelief when we appeared at his village. 230 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:34.720 You returned, he said, No one returns we did. Then 231 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:38.600 you're either blessed or cursed. I cannot tell which, neither 232 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:43.320 can we. The Lenape Territory came next. Gray Owl had 233 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:47.240 died in our absence, old Age, his people said, though 234 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.519 I suspected the weight of the secrets he'd kept had 235 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:54.000 finally become too heavy. But as people remembered us, remembered 236 00:14:54.039 --> 00:14:57.039 the pendant he'd given me, remembered the warnings that had 237 00:14:57.080 --> 00:15:01.919 gone unheeded for more Sasquatch ot to see. We'll be 238 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:09.000 right back after these messages. You have seen them, an 239 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:14.240 elder said, not a question. You have walked in their world. Yes, 240 00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:17.240 and now you understand why we do not speak of 241 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:22.879 these things. Yes. Good, he nodded slowly. Then perhaps the 242 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:27.200 elder brothers chose wisely in letting you live. We reached 243 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:30.919 the first American settlement in late January, a small town 244 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.840 on the edge of the frontier, populated by farmers and 245 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:37.279 merchants who knew nothing of what we'd witnessed. They welcomed 246 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:40.759 us warmly. Travelers were rare and winter and asked the 247 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:44.559 questions that travelers are always asked, Where have you been? 248 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:49.879 What did you find any luck? We lied, We smiled 249 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:52.919 and lied, and accepted their hospitality, and pretended to be 250 00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:57.679 ordinary men returning from an ordinary expedition. The words tasted 251 00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:00.440 like ash in my mouth, but I said them anyway. 252 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:05.960 Some truths cannot be shared, Some burdens must be carried alone. 253 00:16:06.039 --> 00:16:08.759 We pushed on toward Richmond, toward the tavern where this 254 00:16:08.840 --> 00:16:12.360 journey had begun nearly a year before, toward the moment 255 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.600 when we would have to decide once and for all 256 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.639 what to do with the knowledge we carried. The world 257 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:21.600 was unchanged, the towns, the roads, the people going about 258 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:24.759 their lives. All of it was exactly as we'd left it. 259 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:29.039 But we were not unchanged. We would never be unchanged again. 260 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:33.600 We had seen the truth, and the truth had seen us. 261 00:16:34.759 --> 00:16:37.519 Marcus read the words twice, feeling the weight of them 262 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:41.279 settle into his bones. His ancestor had carried this burden 263 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:44.440 for decades, had lived in the shadow of knowledge that 264 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:48.000 could never be shared, had watched the world continue in 265 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:52.039 its ignorance while he alone understood what waited in the wilderness. 266 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:55.279 His father had done the same, and now it was 267 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:59.320 Marcus's turn. He looked at the window. Dawn was breaking 268 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:02.440 over the mountain, painting the sky and shades of pink 269 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:06.559 and gold. He'd been reading all night again. Days had 270 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:08.839 passed since he'd first opened the trunk in the cellar, 271 00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:14.519 days of reading, of revelation, of understanding, and he still 272 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:18.480 wasn't finished. There was more to come, the Oath, the 273 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:23.519 Keeper's Legacy, the epilogue that would bring everything together. Marcus 274 00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:26.559 stretched his aching muscles and went to make coffee. Then 275 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:28.640 he returned to the chair and picked up the journal. 276 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:31.720 The end was approaching, and he needed to see it. 277 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:38.319 Through February through March eighteen hundred, Richmond, Virginia, we gathered 278 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:41.680 one final time at Thornton's Tavern, the same tavern where 279 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:45.000 we had met nearly a year before, the same private 280 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:48.359 room where nine men had drunk whiskey and shared dreams 281 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:52.880 and prepared to journey into the unknown. Now only seven remained, 282 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:56.000 and the dreams had been replaced by nightmares that would 283 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:59.680 never fully fade. Two chairs sat empty at the table, 284 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:04.519 on re Beaumont's chair, Will Harper's chair. We didn't speak 285 00:18:04.519 --> 00:18:07.799 of them directly, but their absence filled the room like smoke, 286 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:11.599 like grief, like the weight of everything We couldn't say. 287 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:15.400 The whiskey was poured, the fire burned low in the hearth. 288 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:20.000 Outside February rain streaked the windows, blurring the lights of 289 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.920 the city beyond. We need to decide, I said, what 290 00:18:23.960 --> 00:18:26.799 do we do with what we know? The debate had 291 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:29.920 been ongoing for weeks, but now it reached its final form. 292 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:33.480 Each man spoke in turn, laying out the arguments that 293 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:36.799 had consumed us since we left the Hidden Valley. Thomas 294 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:41.680 went first. The scientific community deserves to know. This discovery 295 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:45.640 could transform our understanding of natural history, of human evolution, 296 00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:49.799 of the very nature of intelligence on this planet. To 297 00:18:49.880 --> 00:18:52.759 keep its secret would be a crime against knowledge itself. 298 00:18:53.720 --> 00:18:56.960 And what happens when the hunters come? Sam asked, when 299 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:01.160 the government sends expeditions with orders to capture specimens, when 300 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:03.200 every fool with a rifle thinks he can make his 301 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:07.759 fortune bringing back a creature's head. We could establish protections, 302 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:12.240 set boundaries, make it illegal to laws don't stop men 303 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:14.920 who smell profit. You know that as well as I do. 304 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:18.720 Sam's voice was hard. We saw what they can do, 305 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:22.440 We saw what they've survived. But even they have limits, 306 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:26.599 even they can't survive a war with humanity. Then what 307 00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:31.079 we stay silent forever? Let future generations think they're alone 308 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:35.039 in a world that's anything but Solomon spoke next, his 309 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:39.240 voice calm and certain. My grandmother kept secrets her whole life, 310 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:43.799 secrets her grandmother kept, and her grandmother before that, not 311 00:19:43.880 --> 00:19:49.160 to protect themselves, to protect others from what from truths 312 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:52.240 they weren't ready for, from knowledge that would destroy what 313 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:55.720 they touched. He held up one of his carvings, a 314 00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:59.640 creature standing with one hand raised palm out. These beings 315 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:03.079 have served because they stayed hidden because they let humans 316 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:06.920 believe they were alone. The moment that changes, the moment 317 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:11.279 the world knows the truth, everything changes with it. Maybe 318 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:14.680 it should change. Maybe humanity needs to understand that we're 319 00:20:14.680 --> 00:20:18.880 not the only intelligent beings on this continent. Maybe, But 320 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.440 are we the ones to make that decision? Do we 321 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:23.720 have the right to change the world because we happened 322 00:20:23.720 --> 00:20:26.880 to stumble into something we were never meant to find. 323 00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:32.599 The debate continued for hours, arguments and counter arguments, hopes 324 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:36.200 and fears, the weight of responsibility pressing down on all 325 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:39.440 of us. In the end, it was Josiah who found 326 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:42.720 the words that resolved our impasse. I came on this 327 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:47.319 expedition seeking proof of God's design, he said, quietly, seeking 328 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:50.519 evidence that the world made sense, that there was purpose 329 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:54.079 behind the suffering i'd witnessed. I didn't find that proof, 330 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.440 but I found something else, mystery, wonder, the understanding that 331 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:02.240 the world is larger and stranger and more terrifying than 332 00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:05.839 anything I'd imagined. He looked around the table, meeting each 333 00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:08.640 man's eyes. In turn, I don't think we have the 334 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:11.799 right to share this, not because the creatures need protection, 335 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:16.839 though they do, but because humanity isn't ready. We're too young, 336 00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:20.720 too eager to destroy what we can't understand, too willing 337 00:21:20.759 --> 00:21:24.200 to take what isn't ours. And when will we be ready? 338 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:28.440 I don't know. Maybe never, maybe in one hundred years, 339 00:21:29.079 --> 00:21:32.240 maybe in a thousand. He smiled, and there was peace 340 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:34.519 in the expression that hadn't been there when we started 341 00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:38.880 this journey. But I do know this. The knowledge will survive. 342 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:42.880 It will pass from one generation to the next, waiting 343 00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:45.400 for the day when someone decides the time has come, 344 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:49.880 and that's enough. It has to be enough. The vote 345 00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:55.359 was taken six in favor of silence, one abstention Thomas, 346 00:21:55.720 --> 00:21:58.400 who couldn't bring himself to agree, but couldn't bring himself 347 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:02.519 to oppose either. The oath was sworn. I swear to 348 00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:05.680 keep this secret, each man said in turn, to pass 349 00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:08.480 it only to those who can be trusted, to wait 350 00:22:08.519 --> 00:22:10.839 for the day when humanity is ready for the truth. 351 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:14.440 Until that day comes, I will guard this knowledge with 352 00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:18.480 my life. Seven hands on the table, seven voices in 353 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:21.960 the dim room, Seven men bound together by an oath 354 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:25.279 that would define the rest of their lives. The partings 355 00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:29.319 that followed were brief but heavy with emotion. Thomas returned 356 00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:32.680 to Philadelphia to a career that would never quite satisfy him, 357 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:35.759 to a lifetime of knowing that his greatest discovery would 358 00:22:35.799 --> 00:22:40.039 never be published. He died in eighteen twenty six, still bitter, 359 00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:44.759 still regretting the choice we'd made, Josiah headed west, seeking 360 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:48.240 something he could never quite name. He found peace somewhere 361 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:51.680 in the territories beyond the Mississippi, living among people who 362 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:55.839 didn't ask questions about his past. He died in eighteen eighteen, 363 00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:00.279 at peace with himself and whatever God he'd found, and 364 00:23:00.279 --> 00:23:03.480 went north to find his grandmother's people to share the 365 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:07.160 stories that had prepared him for everything we'd witnessed. He 366 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:10.640 passed from fever in eighteen fifteen, but not before teaching 367 00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:15.000 his children the same stories his grandmother had taught him. Sam, 368 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:18.119 Dear Sam, who had waited twenty years for answers and 369 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:21.799 found more than he'd bargained for, returned to the wilderness, 370 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:26.039 not to the creature's territory, but close enough. He lived 371 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:28.799 another twenty three years, most of them alone in the 372 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:32.640 mountains he loved. He died peacefully in eighteen twenty three, 373 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:36.839 exactly as he would have wanted. Jim stayed in Virginia, 374 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:39.640 trying to rebuild a life that the war had shattered 375 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:44.000 and the expedition had shattered again. He married, had children, 376 00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.480 lived quietly until eighteen thirty, when his heart finally gave out. 377 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:53.039 His last words, according to his wife, were about the creatures, 378 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:57.559 a language she didn't understand, a secret she would never know. 379 00:23:58.920 --> 00:24:02.960 Zekephe went home to his mother, who never learned where 380 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:06.400 he'd been or what he'd seen. He married young, had 381 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:10.480 children young, died young. The knowledge he carried seemed to 382 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:13.160 burn through him faster than the rest of us. He 383 00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:16.880 was gone by eighteen twenty, aged only forty and me. 384 00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:20.440 I built a cabin in the Virginia Mountains as close 385 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:24.160 to the creature's territory as I dared to go. I married, 386 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:29.000 fathered children, lived a life that appeared ordinary from the outside. 387 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:32.440 But every night I watched the forest. Every night I 388 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:35.599 waited for signs that they were still out there. They were, 389 00:24:36.279 --> 00:24:39.559 they are, And when I die, which will be soon now, 390 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:43.200 I think the burden will pass to my son, and 391 00:24:43.240 --> 00:24:47.400 from my son to his children, and from them to theirs, 392 00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:51.119 the chain of keepers stretching forward into a future none 393 00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:54.480 of us can see. Waiting for the day when humanity 394 00:24:54.559 --> 00:24:58.839 is ready, if it's ever ready. Marcus set down the 395 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:02.599 sixth Journal. His ancestor's voice had grown quieter in those 396 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:06.960 final pages, more reflective. The fire of the expedition had 397 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:11.039 cooled into something steady and enduring, a lifetime commitment to 398 00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:14.880 a secret that could never be shared. The seventh Journal 399 00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:19.119 remained Elijah's final entry, the passing of the torch to 400 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:23.359 the next generation, and then the epilogue, the present day, 401 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:28.240