1 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,160 Speaker 1: The scream comes on the wire and I hit the 2 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:15,080 patch button before anyone else understands what it is. The 3 00:00:15,119 --> 00:00:18,000 woman on the line screams for her child. Her voice 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,640 is raw and sudden. The feet snaps into a household 5 00:00:20,719 --> 00:00:22,679 kitchen with like from a refrigerator door and a dog 6 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:26,320 frozen a woman's feet. Fear sits in my throat. I 7 00:00:26,359 --> 00:00:28,160 say the pro to call number into the console and 8 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:30,079 tell Mauran to hold the line while I write the 9 00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:34,240 cameras the camera feed is corrupted. We need immediate pack up. 10 00:00:34,759 --> 00:00:36,960 Static blims across the woman's face for a beat, then 11 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,039 closed to show her sitting up in bed and screaming 12 00:00:39,079 --> 00:00:42,520 until her body goes silent. A second later, I say, Marin, 13 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,200 record everything, and she replies, recording into the mic with 14 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,359 fingers that sound like they are shaking. Within fast sentences 15 00:00:48,399 --> 00:00:50,679 of the call, I know the problem. The alert that 16 00:00:50,719 --> 00:00:54,240 woke the town has become a live event emergency transmission. 17 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,079 Our unpatch really has admitted an immediate and active threat, 18 00:00:57,079 --> 00:01:00,399 and our only unusual directive is mechanical. Keep will awake 19 00:01:00,439 --> 00:01:03,719 and watch the clock. I am a Liz Read. I 20 00:01:03,759 --> 00:01:05,760 am the night ignition on duty at the Rural Ease 21 00:01:05,799 --> 00:01:09,159 up orst. It handles the county's broadcast, interrupts and emergency feeds. 22 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:13,200 I inventory my hends coal ink stained with a radio 23 00:01:13,239 --> 00:01:16,319 headset clamped over my hair. The headset smells like steel, 24 00:01:16,359 --> 00:01:20,280 coffee and ozone. My ID badge is frayed. The plastic 25 00:01:20,359 --> 00:01:22,879 is a hallline crack beside my name. I tap the 26 00:01:22,879 --> 00:01:25,640 transmits which three times, breathe once, and arrate what I 27 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:28,799 see into the lock. Marin reads the coal signs aloud, 28 00:01:28,879 --> 00:01:32,920 havers and home line active female estimated age fifty two, screaming, 29 00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:36,120 then silence at nine minutes thirty two seconds. Her voice 30 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,159 is flat, nears. Nico is on speaker in the background, 31 00:01:39,239 --> 00:01:43,079 asking for clarification. Rouke is twenty minutes out from the farmhouse. 32 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,840 I tell them to move fast, Sir. Doubt and suspicion 33 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:48,680 shift under my skin as I watch the frozen dog 34 00:01:48,719 --> 00:01:52,200 in the video. The animal does not bark. It stares 35 00:01:52,239 --> 00:01:54,799 at something above the bed and does not blink. My 36 00:01:54,879 --> 00:01:56,879 hands moved to the archived terminal and I pulled the 37 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,280 last twelve hours of recorded feeds. The feature is the 38 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:03,840 same red bloom over sleeping subjects at intervals. I mark time. 39 00:02:03,879 --> 00:02:07,159 Could then feel a different motion inside my chests. All 40 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,560 I must prove the pattern before more people die. We 41 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:12,520 drive to the have Orson farmhouse with work in a 42 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:14,840 borowed cruiser and a single set of hand held radios 43 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:18,080 tuned to the emergency band. The cast smells like old vinyl, 44 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,199 and the weathered leather seat squeaks when I shift. Rokis 45 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:24,439 jaw Titans, He says, Liz, if this is a prank 46 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,560 and I cut him off, daunty joke, Rok. People died 47 00:02:27,599 --> 00:02:30,439 on the line. At the farmhouse. The door is unlocked, 48 00:02:31,039 --> 00:02:33,960 the kitchen life flickers. A dog sits at the foot 49 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:36,199 of the bedroom door with nails clicking on the floorboards. 50 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:39,199 The bed is disturbed. The sheet is twisted towards the center, 51 00:02:39,199 --> 00:02:41,719 as if someone jerked awake. On the night stone sits 52 00:02:41,759 --> 00:02:43,879 a small analog timer with a red seven printed on 53 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:46,879 its face. The hand is stopped at exactly seven minutes. 54 00:02:47,759 --> 00:02:49,680 I pick the timer up. It is warm. There is 55 00:02:49,719 --> 00:02:51,560 a smear of sweat on the crob edge. Or calls 56 00:02:51,599 --> 00:02:54,520 out missus have orson. A touch of fabricancer is them 57 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:56,879 before A neighbor steps from shadow and says she's gone. 58 00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:59,280 The neighbor names her Maren. Had already loved it, and 59 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,919 the dog does not move back At the outpost, I 60 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:04,840 run the shift recordings with nas Anaka and dispatch off Summarin. 61 00:03:05,479 --> 00:03:07,759 We sit in the dark arcave room with screens outlining 62 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,080 hundreds of ViOS of captured audio and video. Anakah and 63 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:13,800 were in point to the same pattern. Seven minutes of 64 00:03:13,879 --> 00:03:16,360 visual calm, then a sharp screen that precedes a sudden 65 00:03:16,439 --> 00:03:19,199 stop in the subject's pulse on record of vitals. That 66 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,240 detail alone vitals flat lining exactly after the screen turns 67 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,520 speculation into a crisis. I set up a methodical test. 68 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:28,400 We organize a controlled watch at the hospital to keep 69 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:31,319 a terminally ill patient awake under observation. I write the 70 00:03:31,319 --> 00:03:33,479 protocol on a sticky note and taper to the monitor. 71 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,159 Anakar reads the lines aloud as I tape them. Stimulate 72 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:41,560 every sixty seconds, record doll responses. Do not allow eyes 73 00:03:41,599 --> 00:03:45,560 to close longer than ten seconds. Log any abnormal visual artifacts. 74 00:03:46,319 --> 00:03:49,280 Report immediately. The volunteer system veils and nurse warns we 75 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:51,439 can t force this, and then she does exactly there 76 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:54,080 for two hours, we keep toward bright and noisy coffees 77 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:57,840 brewed television's plaistatic channels. A patient closes his eyes for 78 00:03:57,879 --> 00:04:00,599 a handful of seconds and then wig screen mean clutching 79 00:04:00,639 --> 00:04:03,879 at his chest, his monitors flat line within five sickonds 80 00:04:03,879 --> 00:04:06,560 of the screen. Annix slams her palms on the bedside 81 00:04:06,639 --> 00:04:09,000 rail and says, it didn't he work, It didn't he work. 82 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:12,360 Her voice breaks until brittle practical anger. We approve a 83 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,800 town patrol with volunteers at the community center. Tom is, 84 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:18,040 a carpenter, signs up in jokes about staying awake on 85 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,920 that coffee. He nods to Rook and says, I've done 86 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,000 all nighters before. Ella, we got this. I hand him 87 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:25,959 a look sheet and a watch and say countdown in 88 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,680 two minute increments. Call if you need help. The patrol 89 00:04:29,759 --> 00:04:32,639 is a live experiment in human endurance. He don Hall 90 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:35,759 smells of sweat and pored coffee. People rotates sitting at 91 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,839 a table under a single fluorescent lamp. A single small 92 00:04:38,879 --> 00:04:40,800 television in the corner shows an official band of the 93 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:44,000 flock is red and white. For three hours, nothing happens. 94 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:46,839 Then Thomas Head drops his hands and clenched the mark 95 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,920 and he snores wants. Marina is three feet away. When 96 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:53,399 it happens. She grabs his shoulder and shakes him. He 97 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,439 wakes with a scream that cuts right through the group. 98 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:58,639 Thomas drops to the floor, convulses for a breath, and 99 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:02,639 goeslimp run to him. Brook checks his pulse and says 100 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,199 he's dead. The room breaks into shouting and frantic hands. 101 00:05:05,879 --> 00:05:08,199 I radio the hospital. The radio sound is wrotten, wet 102 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:12,560 in my ear. After that, the town watch dissolves. Accusations fly. 103 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:18,000 Someone blames the proceder, someone blames the volunteers. Someone says 104 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,199 we should evacuate. I refuse to let the poorcoal collapse 105 00:05:21,199 --> 00:05:24,360 into panic. I gather the remaining staff and order cameras 106 00:05:24,399 --> 00:05:27,319 and analog logs checked for signal bleed. We will find 107 00:05:27,319 --> 00:05:30,160 a pattern. What die following one another. On the control 108 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:33,079 of room monitors, Marine rewinds a feed from a farmhouse camera. 109 00:05:33,639 --> 00:05:36,680 The image flickers in black and white for a single frame. 110 00:05:36,759 --> 00:05:38,720 A red pulse bleeds across the frame, and a shadow 111 00:05:38,759 --> 00:05:41,240 of Olat locks on the bed. The shadow is not 112 00:05:41,279 --> 00:05:43,720 a person, It is a flat shape that spans the 113 00:05:43,759 --> 00:05:46,759 length of the mattress. The pulse precedes every fatal event 114 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,800 by seven minutes. I freeze the frame with both hands, 115 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:52,959 trembling and say there it is market marine tits. The 116 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,720 time could like a prosecutor. We test theory with the 117 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:58,720 outpost analog six e V bank. I hook a worn 118 00:05:58,759 --> 00:06:01,279 Coke's cable to an old var and watch old footage 119 00:06:01,319 --> 00:06:04,160 bull under the head. The tape shows a child sleeping 120 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:06,240 in a curt and a second later, red smear spills 121 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,839 over the frame. The child wakes screaming, then the feed 122 00:06:08,879 --> 00:06:12,639 collapses with a popostatic ever recording with a fatality. Bear 123 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,920 is the same anomaly, A seven minute bleed asilent, pause, 124 00:06:15,959 --> 00:06:19,399 as scream, then cessation. The evidence forces an ethical line 125 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:23,160 at the hospital. Annik argues for patient sedation to eliminate suffering. 126 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,560 I refuse sedation would make them vulnerable. I say, we 127 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,480 are trying to keep them awake. Sedation is the exact 128 00:06:29,519 --> 00:06:32,439 thing that lets this happen. Annika slaps down a chart. 129 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,920 If keeping them away kills them too, what then she asks? 130 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,600 Her question shifts me again from suspicion to dread. I 131 00:06:40,639 --> 00:06:42,920 borrow a strayed dog from the alley behind my apartment 132 00:06:42,959 --> 00:06:45,279 that we call Corrr. She is a lean mot with 133 00:06:45,319 --> 00:06:47,240 a white patch on her chest and a limping gait. 134 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:49,759 I put her in the kennel corner of the control 135 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:51,879 room and give her one of my socks to lie on. 136 00:06:52,519 --> 00:06:54,879 People laugh at the sock until Cora stiffens and points 137 00:06:54,879 --> 00:06:57,680 her muzzle toward the south window. She will not move. 138 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:01,079 I feel my stomach drop at how she stares. Kra 139 00:07:01,199 --> 00:07:03,879 freezes for four minutes and thirty eight seconds. Then she 140 00:07:03,959 --> 00:07:07,040 winds once impresses her paws to the glass. I open 141 00:07:07,079 --> 00:07:10,240 the window, and a neighborer's cat darts passed. Kra does 142 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:12,600 not follow. I ask Rook you see that. He nods 143 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:16,120 but does not speak. His jaw clinches, dog sends things. 144 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:17,959 He says we should listen to that a file that 145 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:19,920 the way is a practical step, and hands someone else 146 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,639 a kennel key. That night, while the outposts broadcasts a 147 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,759 directive telling listeners to stay awake into report visual anomalies, 148 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:29,120 the feed is hit by a synchronized glitch. The monitor's flutter, 149 00:07:29,839 --> 00:07:32,120 a red seven blooms in the corner of every screen. 150 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:35,160 The control room lights dim, and the emergency siren and 151 00:07:35,199 --> 00:07:38,959 the studio clicks between pitches. Someone behind me inhales sharply, 152 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,439 and the sound cracks in the open mic. A yon 153 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:45,639 technician on overtime. Dean sits slumped against a console. One 154 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,040 minute he is checking levels. The next his eyelid shut 155 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:50,720 for barelio blink. He wakes with a scream that does 156 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:54,240 not belong to him. His monitor's flat line, the desk 157 00:07:54,319 --> 00:07:57,399 lamp rolls against the table when his body slumps. I 158 00:07:57,439 --> 00:07:59,600 grab the headset and shove record onto the arkave with 159 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,120 my thumb. My breath tastes metallic. I do not have 160 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:06,439 time to process a personal grief. I throw everyone into action. 161 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:09,680 Murrain keeps the patch open, Brook and I run a 162 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:11,920 full sweep of a control room, and the server racks. 163 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:15,279 The shadow crosses the monitors while Dean is alive, and 164 00:08:15,319 --> 00:08:18,279 then Dean is not on the screen. The shadow looks 165 00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:20,199 like a smear of dark tape laid across the feed. 166 00:08:20,839 --> 00:08:23,519 In the room, the air smells of burned ozon. During 167 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:26,879 the breach, the broadcast wobbles into a loop for seven minutes. 168 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:28,959 The red pulse blooms at the same interval, and the outpusts. 169 00:08:28,959 --> 00:08:32,960 Transmission becomes a repeating instruction stay awake, watch the clock 170 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,519 log anomalies. I take over them. I can read the 171 00:08:35,519 --> 00:08:38,799 procedural lines I have practiced earlier My voice is flat. 172 00:08:39,519 --> 00:08:42,360 I say the rules in slow, measured beats. I tell 173 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,240 the county to monitor their animals for stirring. I tell 174 00:08:45,279 --> 00:08:47,320 them to call us when the first red bloom appears. 175 00:08:47,919 --> 00:08:49,919 There is a sharp confrontation with the mayor of a 176 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,759 wehather to order an evacuation. He calls on speaker and says, Alaiz, 177 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:57,159 can you guarantee safety if we stay? I answer with facts, 178 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:00,960 the pattern, the seven minute interval, the recorded dead. He 179 00:09:01,039 --> 00:09:03,559 asks for certainty, and I cannot give it. We have 180 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:07,399 no countermeasure other than wakefulness and observation. The mare says, 181 00:09:07,399 --> 00:09:10,960 then we evacuate, and the line goes silent. Work Slam says, 182 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,440 palming to the console and says, we can team move everyone. 183 00:09:14,039 --> 00:09:17,720 Roads are clogged. Evacuation will kill more than this. The 184 00:09:17,879 --> 00:09:20,559 argument is short and bitter. In the control room, I 185 00:09:20,639 --> 00:09:23,200 push the archive reels for a full review. I need 186 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:25,679 a clue that will change how we fight this. At 187 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:27,759 three in the morning, Mauren finds a repeat from two 188 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:30,840 days earlier. The same red polse peers on a funeral 189 00:09:30,879 --> 00:09:34,240 home's monitor and then on a neighbor's baby monitor. The 190 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:37,080 repeat has an extra frame wants a ham pressed to 191 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:39,399 the inside of a window, fingers spread flat. Then the 192 00:09:39,399 --> 00:09:42,919 shadow moves on the shot rewrites the pattern. This is 193 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:46,000 not a random bleed, It is targeted. The mere Chapter 194 00:09:46,039 --> 00:09:48,159 twas comes when I recognize a voice in the background 195 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,600 of a looped feed while isolated on a grainy audio track. 196 00:09:51,919 --> 00:09:54,159 A child's voice hums a tune under the static, a 197 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:55,960 tune I used to hear as a kid walking past 198 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,000 a church near the train yard. The realization changes the 199 00:09:59,039 --> 00:10:01,639 scale of the threat. It is not only a phenomenon 200 00:10:01,639 --> 00:10:04,320 of signal. It is anchored to places and sounds that 201 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:07,240 people in the town will recognize. I call anakin and 202 00:10:07,279 --> 00:10:09,799 she answers with a single word, do you mean? And 203 00:10:09,919 --> 00:10:13,720 then stops her silence is a live wire. We try 204 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,879 to weaponize recognition. I organize a plan to use dogs 205 00:10:16,879 --> 00:10:20,320 as sentinels. Coral will ride with me along the neighborhoods 206 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,960 we can still reach. Rook will drive, Marim will keep 207 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,559 the feet open. We mark houses on a paper map 208 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:29,799 and assign two volunteers to each sector. The plan is brittle, 209 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:33,120 but it gives people movement and puripose on patrol. Cora 210 00:10:33,159 --> 00:10:35,279 holds at a driveway in points toward the bedroom window, 211 00:10:35,279 --> 00:10:39,200 of swall Cottage. A family sleeps inside. I tap the 212 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:41,480 window and see the red pulse almost overlay the glass, 213 00:10:41,639 --> 00:10:44,399 pleading numbers through like a shadow clock. I pound on 214 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:46,879 the door and shout wake up. A man bolts from 215 00:10:46,919 --> 00:10:50,399 the bed with his throat roer. He says, what what's happening? 216 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,799 Cors circles his legs and winds. Recands them extra coffee 217 00:10:54,799 --> 00:10:56,440 and a watch, and tells them to stay awake in 218 00:10:56,440 --> 00:10:58,840 the living room with lets on. They'll look at us 219 00:10:58,919 --> 00:11:00,919 like they are choosing to trust ranges over their own 220 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:03,919 sense of safety. The climax occurs back at the outputs 221 00:11:03,919 --> 00:11:06,399 at dawn. We are on air. The county loot through 222 00:11:06,399 --> 00:11:08,919 our signal. When the breach hits a second time, the 223 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,759 red pulse begins to build across every monitor, synchronized with 224 00:11:11,799 --> 00:11:14,600 the counter feed. A staffer in the back who had 225 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:17,200 knotted off jerks awake and dies with the same scream 226 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:20,919 as before. The server's haycup. The studio lights go down 227 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:24,399 to minimum emergency illumination. The broadcast is hammering us with 228 00:11:24,399 --> 00:11:26,919 the pattern we have been tracking. I go live on 229 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:30,080 the primary channel and read the procedural summary into the microphone. 230 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:33,960 My voice is low, flat, precise. I say, remain awake, 231 00:11:34,519 --> 00:11:38,039 Monitor your animals, call this number with any red bloom. 232 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,039 Do not let anyone sleep alone. I do not say 233 00:11:41,039 --> 00:11:43,399 the things I want to say. I am not supposed 234 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:45,759 to be human on air, But the worn crack in 235 00:11:45,799 --> 00:11:48,200 my id badge feels against my chest, like a reminder 236 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:49,840 of all the lives that now depend on the words 237 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:53,000 I speak. The control room camera banks shows the dark's 238 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:56,240 mirror across the staffer's bed. The monitors are saturated with 239 00:11:56,279 --> 00:11:59,639 horizontal tears. Every screen shows a silhouette sliding like a 240 00:11:59,639 --> 00:12:02,519 strip of tape. Muran types into the console with two 241 00:12:02,559 --> 00:12:04,799 fingers and asks me a liar's dew weak up power 242 00:12:04,799 --> 00:12:08,519 to the transmitters. I consider it. Pulling the feet would 243 00:12:08,519 --> 00:12:11,240 stop us from warning people. Not pulling it might spread 244 00:12:11,279 --> 00:12:13,840 the patter and further. I choose to remain on air. 245 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:17,559 When the second staffardize my hands moved by instinct, I 246 00:12:17,639 --> 00:12:19,600 hit the emergency bus and patch the feet to a 247 00:12:19,639 --> 00:12:22,519 stand by recorder. I've rip the ex locable out of 248 00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:24,039 the desk and loop it around my wrist like a 249 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,399 line out. I feel row heap behind my eyes. I 250 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,320 taste a bit of copper on my tongue. I keep speaking, 251 00:12:31,279 --> 00:12:34,000 I keep the count. The immediate breach ends when the 252 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,200 power grid hiccops in a passing generator kicks in for 253 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,399 a split second. The red pulse collapses, and the monitors 254 00:12:40,039 --> 00:12:42,240 marin exhales a son that is half Lathor and half 255 00:12:42,279 --> 00:12:44,840 cry Rooks, lumps in a chair and rubs his face 256 00:12:44,919 --> 00:12:47,559 until a smear of blood appears in the knuckles. We 257 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:50,480 have held the line, but a cost. In the aftermath. 258 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:53,399 I record a brittle procedural summary. I name the rules 259 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:57,320 and state the necessity as plainly as I can. Rule one, 260 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:01,440 do not sleep alone. Rule to lock any red bloom 261 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:06,360 and call immediately. Rule three, put animals on watch. My 262 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:09,039 voice reads like a manual. There is no up left 263 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:12,919 in tone, A less times, names and locations. I put 264 00:13:12,919 --> 00:13:15,279 Dean and Thomas's names into the lock as formal entries, 265 00:13:15,279 --> 00:13:17,559 and I do not let myself say anything more than necessary. 266 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:20,399 We lit the broadcast to maintain coverage. While the archive 267 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,080 continues to spool. The monitor in front of me shows 268 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:25,440 a faint red pulse that does not go away. It 269 00:13:25,519 --> 00:13:27,399 lives in a corner of the screen, like a heartbeat 270 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,039 under a rib. Cor puts her head on my boot 271 00:13:30,159 --> 00:13:33,360 and does not stir. I press the transmitbofed once more 272 00:13:33,399 --> 00:13:35,279 to close the loop, and then I remove my head 273 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:38,720 set aside. Some one starts to clap. It is a 274 00:13:38,759 --> 00:13:40,879 neighbor down the block who heard the broadcast and kept 275 00:13:40,879 --> 00:13:44,120 his lights on. I do not join the applause. I 276 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,039 fold my hands over my chest and write the next 277 00:13:46,039 --> 00:13:48,039 steps into the notebook in front of me. I number 278 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,639 them precise and mechanical. Maintain archives, run sentin of patrols, 279 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:55,639 prepare epulov notices, train volunteers. I underline the line that 280 00:13:55,799 --> 00:13:58,000 reads do not sleep. Then I hear a soft knock 281 00:13:58,039 --> 00:14:00,360 on the back door. I stand and walk to the 282 00:14:00,399 --> 00:14:03,279 door with the notebook held like a shield. Marin trails 283 00:14:03,279 --> 00:14:06,159 me and holds a flashlight. Brook stays with the console 284 00:14:06,159 --> 00:14:08,799 and watches the monitors. I open the door in A 285 00:14:08,879 --> 00:14:11,879 volunteer named Greta stands on the landing. She looks at 286 00:14:11,879 --> 00:14:13,759 me with hollow eyes and says they to stand by 287 00:14:13,759 --> 00:14:17,200 for instructions. What do we do now? I point to 288 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:20,440 the radio and hand how my spare head set. I say, monitor, 289 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:24,240 stay in touch, check the dog, keep the clocks running, 290 00:14:24,919 --> 00:14:27,759 count in your pocket, tell us if the red shows up. 291 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:30,320 Her hands close on the headset and she nods like 292 00:14:30,399 --> 00:14:32,360 some one who just received the only usable tol and 293 00:14:32,399 --> 00:14:35,799 a workshop filled with broken machinery. The chapter ends with 294 00:14:35,879 --> 00:14:37,840 me returning to the desk and pressing record and the 295 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,080 final log entry. I speak the last lines into the archive, 296 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,360 names times, the devices we expect to check the places 297 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:47,440 where the red pulse was strongest. The microphone catches the 298 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:50,679 soft sound of course paus on linoleum. The monitor has 299 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:52,919 a faint, looping red smear in the lower right corner 300 00:14:52,919 --> 00:14:54,639 that counts down seven minutes in a rhythm I can 301 00:14:54,679 --> 00:14:57,440 feel in my teeth. I close the notebook and leave 302 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:00,799 the light on. I do not sleep. The directive is 303 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,840 mechanical and brutal, but it is real. I leave the 304 00:15:03,879 --> 00:15:06,279 headset atop a console and step into the narrow corridor 305 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,679 with the generator hums, and then sit on the stair 306 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:11,240 and wait for the next time stamp to arrive. The 307 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:13,960 last sentence is in action. I opened the door to 308 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,080 the control room again and press the transmits, which to 309 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,000 return a loop to the people listening, and the red 310 00:15:18,039 --> 00:15:21,039 pulse on the monitor flickers and begins another seven minute count. 311 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:24,399 The deputy's voice horror into the channel mid breath. I 312 00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:26,360 slaughtered him into the patch and heard Royer and a 313 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,559 man ripping a wordless sound through someone else's speaker. Fears 314 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:31,480 sat solid in my chest and pushed my hands to 315 00:15:31,519 --> 00:15:33,879 the console. I thumb through the REALI a list while 316 00:15:33,879 --> 00:15:37,200 the screaments pooled into ragged, near in human gasps. A 317 00:15:37,279 --> 00:15:40,519 dog barked once, then circled. The deputy tried to give 318 00:15:40,559 --> 00:15:42,759 co ordinates, and marta call's voice pot on the line, 319 00:15:42,799 --> 00:15:46,000 asking where to point a flashlight. The problem was clear 320 00:15:46,039 --> 00:15:48,720 in those first seconds. If sleep'll add the thing to 321 00:15:48,759 --> 00:15:50,799 take a body, then staying awake was no longer in 322 00:15:50,879 --> 00:15:53,799 abstract order, but a physical task that had to be enforced. 323 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:56,399 I had learned to let procedure move my hand before 324 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:59,399 panic move my mouth. I checked the recorder light, flit 325 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:01,559 the mobile vans back a power breaker, and read the 326 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,360 nearest safety directive from the laminated page on my clipboard. 327 00:16:04,919 --> 00:16:08,080 Fear moved through me, tightening throat, colder palms. But duty 328 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,440 made me speak in short, precise phrases. Hat haarld eames live. 329 00:16:11,559 --> 00:16:14,559 I said, do not let anyone in his house watchers 330 00:16:14,559 --> 00:16:17,360 on windows. Only my voice came out flat. This is 331 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:19,559 how I kept the feed clean and the people listening 332 00:16:19,559 --> 00:16:22,159 able to act. The aler shifted scream had been a 333 00:16:22,159 --> 00:16:24,399 warning in practice, and the memory of that moment, how 334 00:16:24,399 --> 00:16:26,320 I hit a patch button and another voice filled the 335 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:29,639 speakers kept my fingers from shaking. The first five minutes 336 00:16:29,679 --> 00:16:32,960 expanded like a map of bad choices. Deputy Groggs came 337 00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:35,120 in over vef breathless the layers. He is in the 338 00:16:35,159 --> 00:16:38,279 living room, dogs pacing, wont to stop barking, Harold's asleep, 339 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,519 and then Gregg's sentence broke. I patched Mardy's audio into 340 00:16:41,519 --> 00:16:43,639 the console so we could both hear the room, the dog, 341 00:16:43,799 --> 00:16:46,240 the sudden, wet sound of a human for it, hold 342 00:16:46,279 --> 00:16:50,039 the patch. Lieutenant Harrow from across the track. Sturdy but thin. 343 00:16:50,639 --> 00:16:53,000 Harrow's come was a muscle. She flux when everyone else 344 00:16:53,039 --> 00:16:55,600 wanted to run. She had been awake on that console 345 00:16:55,639 --> 00:16:58,600 since the alert came down. She smelled of cold coffee 346 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:03,679 and disinfectant. Is log everything rotate waters two ears on, 347 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:06,119 two iurs off at the most. Her order made me WinCE. 348 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:09,599 We needed longer rotations, not shorter, but the point was clarity. 349 00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:12,160 We set the rule aloud, so people could follow it 350 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,119 without asking. The tapeer corder shoved the room into my ear. 351 00:17:15,759 --> 00:17:18,519 Haraldames screamed, then was silent. Then there was a small 352 00:17:18,559 --> 00:17:21,920 accidental sound metal kiss chain, a dog nails on wood, 353 00:17:22,039 --> 00:17:24,599 and finally the hollow thought of a body collapsing. I 354 00:17:24,599 --> 00:17:27,319 wrote the time In the log tuzer Ominus seven, I 355 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:30,400 wrote the collos cadence and the dog's behavior. I wrote 356 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:32,640 that the scream came through loud and clean on Mata coal, 357 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,599 a spatic kitchen radio. My hands wrote in a thin, 358 00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:39,759 whimical way, because fear shoppened me into checkless motion, identify, oscillate, 359 00:17:39,839 --> 00:17:43,599 instruct suspicionarily, then fear, then an odd brutal clarity about 360 00:17:43,599 --> 00:17:46,839 what to do next. Smart did anything on the TV flicker? 361 00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:49,960 I asked. Mard answered with a sinkle low sound and 362 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:53,880 said it bled through the picture, red numbers seven minutes 363 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:55,920 on the corner, like some one pasted a timer over 364 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:59,160 the brookhast. The detail landed in my head like a splinter. 365 00:18:00,079 --> 00:18:02,559 Countdown on the screen was not a symptom. It was 366 00:18:02,599 --> 00:18:05,880 a method. If the entity could mark time on electronics, 367 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,079 it could mark time on us. I called Lieutenant Harrow 368 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:12,000 over and pointed at the monitor showing waters feed. Haro 369 00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:15,039 leaned in shaw set. We treat that timer as an 370 00:18:15,079 --> 00:18:18,480 initiating signal. She said, anything that hits a viewer must 371 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:22,000 be handled as little until proven otherwise. Her voice tightened. 372 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,480 I felt a second emotion blossom under the fear resolve. 373 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:28,519 Resolved to make rules that other people could follow. While 374 00:18:28,519 --> 00:18:31,480 exhaust she made their sentences slower. We moved into the 375 00:18:31,559 --> 00:18:34,839 roadside command mode within ten minutes. A folding table, a 376 00:18:34,839 --> 00:18:37,039 coffee thermos, a whitboard with a mark of that wouldn't 377 00:18:37,039 --> 00:18:40,160 tea dry. These were concrete things people could see in touch. 378 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:44,759 Deputy Griggs argued about mampur alaias we Duntee have enough 379 00:18:44,799 --> 00:18:47,680 bodies to watch every house, especially with people who refused 380 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:50,200 to come into the center. Marta wants to stay home 381 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:53,359 with her dog. Marta staying on channel two, I said, 382 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:57,279 Deputy Griggs, you take Hale's road. Harrow assigned two people 383 00:18:57,279 --> 00:19:01,119 to community rotation. The arguments ped up. We cannot risk 384 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:05,599 sleep Arrow. We still kneed drivers for medical calls. Rosa 385 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,000 Chin can handle med coals if we keep her awake. Griggs, 386 00:19:09,559 --> 00:19:11,519 Rose is my medic and she needs rest sooner than 387 00:19:11,519 --> 00:19:16,559 I do, Haro snapped back. No griggs. Roser rests after 388 00:19:16,559 --> 00:19:19,880 the schiff ends right now, she monitors vitals in rotation. 389 00:19:20,519 --> 00:19:23,680 The exchange ended with three quick commands and two grudging confirmations. 390 00:19:24,279 --> 00:19:26,799 The rapid folly of three six lines cut between them 391 00:19:26,839 --> 00:19:28,720 was the exact pattern I relied on when I had 392 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:31,880 to get people to move at the tech table. Meh 393 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:36,039 Hale's cold in Next, his voice jettered, small town at 394 00:19:36,079 --> 00:19:39,720 Western and close to tears. Alais the TV my set. 395 00:19:39,799 --> 00:19:42,039 It's got red numbers, and the dog won't he lie down. 396 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,319 There's a countdown in the corner. It's on my phone 397 00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:48,039 now too. I asked him to describe the numbers. He 398 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:51,119 seven minutes, it counts down, then it stops, and the 399 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:53,559 person on the screen is scream. My dog will not sleep. 400 00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:57,079 He's pacing like he's waiting for something. I asked him 401 00:19:57,079 --> 00:19:59,559 to hold the phone camera steady. The line showed a 402 00:19:59,559 --> 00:20:03,200 living room, cheap lamp, crocheted throw, an anxious labrador that 403 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:06,720 would not cull. An anomaly bled through the feed, A 404 00:20:06,759 --> 00:20:09,880 small red digital timer, blocky and imprecise pulsing on a 405 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,599 corner of the screen. The presence of a scheduled in 406 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:15,839 to vomide the threat machinick. This was no random haunting. 407 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:18,920 It had rules. We set a short experiment. If that 408 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,240 countdown is reel and it sinks with sleep, then timing 409 00:20:21,319 --> 00:20:25,119 watches matters, harrow olays, lock the sink times and send 410 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,160 rotations to the school. Gen make people sign the roster. 411 00:20:28,799 --> 00:20:30,599 I read names aloud as if I were reading a 412 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:35,240 passenger manifest, I said Marco rose Chen, Deputy Griggs. Mister 413 00:20:35,319 --> 00:20:38,680 Hale's rotate now two minutes in the door, three minutes 414 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:40,880 in the window, one minute by the radio. The instruction 415 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,039 fell filamented and cruel. People needed structure. When the world 416 00:20:44,039 --> 00:20:47,160 refused to behave normally, fatigue crept into voices like a 417 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:50,119 physical weight. Rosa started to rub her temple with the 418 00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:52,920 heel of her hand. I am not, she began, then sought. 419 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,319 Because of volunteers, Couf made everyone snap their heads toward 420 00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:57,839 the gym's out a wall. The community vigil at the 421 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:01,599 Jim vell apot faster than night planned. Volunteers arrived holding 422 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,960 thermoses and flashlights. We posted them at doors and at 423 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,880 the long windows that faced the main street. Marta walked 424 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:09,480 and with her radio clip to her belt, and the 425 00:21:09,519 --> 00:21:12,519 labrador resting its chin on her shoe. People argued about 426 00:21:12,519 --> 00:21:14,960 who got to sleep in the chairs. I can take 427 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,839 the next watch, said a man named Cole. He was 428 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,680 not a coal relation but stuck as a volunteer. No, 429 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:24,640 you saw last night, Griggs calls it. He read on it, Liz. 430 00:21:24,799 --> 00:21:26,759 They need a rotation shot. We can tape to the wall. 431 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:28,759 Harrow wrote one with the market that left the thick 432 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:32,599 an even line. The bickering was ordinary and useful. It 433 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:35,319 kept people from shutting down and falling into the wrong rhythm. 434 00:21:35,559 --> 00:21:37,519 I roughly three in the morning, the feed from Marty's 435 00:21:37,519 --> 00:21:41,720 house bled new interference. Mister Hales called back, frantic, it's 436 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,480 on the phone too. The timer jumped to five minutes. 437 00:21:44,559 --> 00:21:47,519 Now I can team make a go away. I watched 438 00:21:47,559 --> 00:21:50,680 ordeal Level's climb and fall like a medronym. We recorded 439 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,079 the jump. Griggs radio that Kenninrook had found fresh claw 440 00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:57,640 marks on Harold Eames portrayl griggs voice shook with anger. 441 00:21:58,279 --> 00:22:01,680 Wroke tried to bite something. Ilias nothing there. Brook's nose 442 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:03,640 is covered in something like paint or sap, but it 443 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,960 isn't tea natural We had a photograph and sand imagery. 444 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,160 A grainy still arrived parallel scratches setched deep into pine, 445 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:13,920 not the shallow gorges of a raccoon. The marks had 446 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:16,759 been duged with deliberate pressure. That was a new detail 447 00:22:16,799 --> 00:22:19,720 that changed how we handled thresholds. We stayed. A came 448 00:22:19,759 --> 00:22:22,839 in his nine patrol as a controlled action. Deputy Griggs 449 00:22:22,839 --> 00:22:24,599 walked the dog across a porch under my watch. On 450 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,279 the monitor, rook Lund said, an empty patch of air 451 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:30,640 biding at nothing, m whining harrow is rook injured. Friggs 452 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:32,960 checked the dog's muzzle and found it clear of blood, 453 00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:35,359 but smeared with a faint substance that smelt like iron 454 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:39,559 an old linseed. No visible wound, Griggs reported, But rook 455 00:22:39,599 --> 00:22:43,000 won tea oberrical when he focuses, looked at the dog, 456 00:22:43,079 --> 00:22:45,759 powered at the rail, and scraped at Then he bought 457 00:22:45,839 --> 00:22:48,200 once and ran off into the yacht, chasing a blank space. 458 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,759 The cameras could not resolve. We locked the event. The 459 00:22:51,799 --> 00:22:54,079 canine's failure to engage an object in the presence of 460 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:57,400 ritual like scratches shifted the danger. This was not a 461 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:01,039 predator in the ordinary sense. It provoked animals and left 462 00:23:01,039 --> 00:23:04,000 traces at thresholds. We tightened the rules for anyone with 463 00:23:04,039 --> 00:23:07,000 the door facing outside, keep the porch light on, seal 464 00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:09,160 the threshold with duct tape, and place a watcher at 465 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:12,039 a window every minute. The rules were small and mechanical. 466 00:23:12,559 --> 00:23:15,359 They kept people from improvising and sleeping in the narc places. 467 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,079 The pattern of our response was changing from the active 468 00:23:18,079 --> 00:23:21,240 to methodical. I felt suspicion hardened into a brittle form 469 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,599 of confidence, confidence that strict procedure could lower the number 470 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:28,400 of deaths. But then the console he keeped power surged, 471 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:31,279 the main feed cut, then returned the drop frames in 472 00:23:31,319 --> 00:23:34,440 a warp frequency. A thin red seven minute countdown flashed 473 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:37,279 across the outputs monitor without being sourced to any local device. 474 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,119 Harrow cursed and slapped the side of the console. What 475 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,920 the hell it is? Where is that coming from? I 476 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,920 traced inputs and found the signal paths made across three channels. 477 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,200 The countdown existed in the compulsit output as if someone 478 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,400 had stitched a graphic layer into our broadcast. My stomach 479 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:54,799 went cold in the practical way of someone who knows circuits. 480 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,200 This was not supernatural aesthetics. It was a live injection 481 00:23:58,279 --> 00:24:02,039 into our signal chain then created a brutal logistical problem. 482 00:24:02,559 --> 00:24:04,759 If the entity could place a count down in our systems, 483 00:24:04,839 --> 00:24:07,720 then every relay, including the emergency networks, could become an 484 00:24:07,759 --> 00:24:11,319 active vector. Harrow barked out. Orators of cut external feeds, 485 00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,720 now switch to isolated loup bring down the relays to analog. 486 00:24:14,839 --> 00:24:17,759 Only allays do it now, I killed the redundant upling. 487 00:24:17,799 --> 00:24:19,640 Can watch the red time of flicker into static and 488 00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:22,519 then settle into a clean and marked black on the composite. 489 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,240 The action brought us a measure of time, but also 490 00:24:25,279 --> 00:24:29,680 a new realization. The danger had learned our architecture exhaustion. 491 00:24:29,799 --> 00:24:34,079 Then people's voices deputies argued about whether to evacuate. We 492 00:24:34,079 --> 00:24:37,359 can tea move everyone at once, Bruggs wrotes a slick 493 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,720 and people will panic. We move the elderly first, Harrow replied, 494 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:43,160 and we keep at least one mobile unit at the 495 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,599 center for immediate response. The argument went back and forth 496 00:24:46,599 --> 00:24:48,640 in a short folly of lines, while rose a Chan 497 00:24:48,759 --> 00:24:51,000 moved between people with a pulse monitor and a clipboard. 498 00:24:51,559 --> 00:24:53,519 Rose As session shook as she pressed the censor on 499 00:24:53,559 --> 00:24:56,599 to a volunteer's wrist. Pulse is fine, she said, but 500 00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:58,920 her mouth moved tight. She had been in the medical 501 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,079 roll since the alert. She was exhausted, and she admitted 502 00:25:02,079 --> 00:25:04,920 it with a single cut sentence. Then kept working ted 503 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,799 sprint toward the early morning. Climax accelerated when the duty 504 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,039 roster failed. A volunteer seated in the corner with the 505 00:25:11,079 --> 00:25:14,839 thermos dozed off against the gym's wall. Someone's elbow nodged 506 00:25:14,839 --> 00:25:18,039 his shoulder. He jerked awake and said sorry, I didnty, 507 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:21,599 and an awkward silence fell. Harrow's glare pinned him. We cannot 508 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,880 risk that, she said, calmly, you leave now, shift ends 509 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,440 for you. He protested softly, my wife, Harow cut him off. 510 00:25:27,519 --> 00:25:30,519 You en now. If you disobey, you leave us all exposed. 511 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,319 The confrontation was short and public. It showed how far 512 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,160 Harrow would go to keep the watch intact. We tried 513 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,599 to keep everyone busy by giving them tasks sweep the street, 514 00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:43,599 come blinking porch lights, check ovens, wreath the roster aloud, 515 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:45,720 so the tie of voices had to focus on names. 516 00:25:46,319 --> 00:25:48,720 These tasks created a rhythm that acted like a stimulant. 517 00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:53,400 I kept calling names. I kept the recorder running. Then 518 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:55,920 at four point seven. The consoles drift indicato wavered, and 519 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:59,400 our internal clock lie behind the composite again. Lieutenant Harrow 520 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:01,920 leaned back in her chair and let out along then breath, Liz, 521 00:26:02,599 --> 00:26:03,920 I am going to sit for a minute with my 522 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,640 ass closed, she said. If I fade, you wake me. 523 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,599 I felt my stomach drop. No, Lieutenant, you rest at 524 00:26:09,599 --> 00:26:12,400 the desk. I will watch the console. Crooksy relieve her 525 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,079 for one lap around the building. Harrow stared at me 526 00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,359 a long second, and then with a small nod, sled 527 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,200 her cheer forward and closed her eyes. The seven minute 528 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:24,079 fall began as a small, almost courteous thing. Harrow's eyelids trembled, 529 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:28,039 the room's voices dulled distant traffic. Griggs moved away from 530 00:26:28,039 --> 00:26:30,960 the console to relieve her as agreed. I watched the 531 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,400 monitor and saw a faint red numeral fate into exist 532 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,240 in at the corner of Harrow's peripheral display cyral lo 533 00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:40,200 seven laundered. I felt a sudden shift suspicion stung into dread. 534 00:26:40,759 --> 00:26:42,640 I wanted to shut and slap the panel, and I 535 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,640 wanted to move the entire truck five miles away. Instead, 536 00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,160 I punched the intercom and said, Lieutenant, open your eyes now. 537 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,920 There was a pause. Her head dipped, our breath left her. 538 00:26:53,599 --> 00:26:56,720 Then she made a choking sound and screamed. She screamed 539 00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,039 in a way I will not forget. Two gut held 540 00:26:59,079 --> 00:27:00,680 notes torn out of a throw that lapsed into a 541 00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:04,519 sharp exhail in silence. Her body convulsed, then slackened, and 542 00:27:04,599 --> 00:27:06,640 the recorder picked up a tiny where it sound as 543 00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:09,359 her body hit the seat. I lunged across the console 544 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,440 and grabbed her shoulder. Her eyes were open, but unseeing. 545 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,000 I checked her pulse with fingers that felt like blocks 546 00:27:15,039 --> 00:27:18,319 of ice. There was a beat. I remember the beat 547 00:27:18,319 --> 00:27:20,319 because I count beats by tasks now. And then the 548 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:23,599 line went cold. I radio Griggs in free clet sentences. 549 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:27,279 Harrowed down a counsole. Paul's absent locked the van, sealed 550 00:27:27,319 --> 00:27:31,319 the room. Griggs repeated my words fast and moved. Arrow's 551 00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:33,440 death turned the outposts from a command posted into a 552 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,519 casualty zone. People lost the thin buffer of leadership that 553 00:27:36,519 --> 00:27:39,079 had kept them moving. Martin began to cry at abrupt, 554 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,400 sharp sobs that she tried to hide behind clenched hands. 555 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,480 Lieutenant Harrow, she said, then stopped because the words sounded 556 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:47,759 small and ridiculous. With a dead woman in front of us, 557 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,400 Griggs jawl worked, He barked orders to keep people from 558 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:56,440 milling and collapsing. We no longer debate irrotations. We enforced them. 559 00:27:56,799 --> 00:27:59,400 The immediate external event after Harrow's collapse was the feed 560 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:03,119 corruption surging again, screens breaking into pixelative rain, and a 561 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,839 chorus of small alarms going office house after has reported 562 00:28:05,839 --> 00:28:09,079 their own red timers. The casualty list grew in minutes. 563 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:12,200 Martis Liberdore let out along single howl that was not 564 00:28:12,279 --> 00:28:14,759 like a dog's usual howl. It was a signal of 565 00:28:14,759 --> 00:28:17,680 grief and confusion. I felt my hands move without thought 566 00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,240 because training filled the space as fear could not. I 567 00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:23,119 checked the log and updated the casualty list. Harold Ames, 568 00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,640 Lieutenant Harrow, two names that meant certain things now. Doyle 569 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,279 left unlocked. A volunteer tried to sleep a small failure 570 00:28:29,279 --> 00:28:33,519 of procedure. The concrete causes were clear, not symbolic. We 571 00:28:33,599 --> 00:28:35,920 lost the composite uplink for the day, but salvaged a 572 00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:39,440 single loop, my mobile van's recorder and a patched downalog feed. 573 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,759 Their transmitted only the essential instructions. I stood in the 574 00:28:42,839 --> 00:28:44,680 van with the mic in my hand, and condensed every 575 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,440 rule into a short set of commands that could be 576 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:48,720 repeated in a monotone and understood even by someone with 577 00:28:48,759 --> 00:28:52,319 half their wits. Do not sleep alone, assayed into the microphone. 578 00:28:52,759 --> 00:28:56,319 If you must shut your eyes, have two watches, seal thresholds. 579 00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:59,319 Do not let screen show red numerals. If you see 580 00:28:59,319 --> 00:29:02,359 a timer, v accuate to the community center immediately. Saying 581 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:04,039 the rules out loud made them real in the worst 582 00:29:04,079 --> 00:29:07,000 possible way. Saying them also made me a different thing, 583 00:29:07,119 --> 00:29:09,440 a clerk of survival, instead of simply a man listening 584 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,359 to radio. I recorded the final directive into a file 585 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:14,039 that I labeled stand By and appended it to the 586 00:29:14,119 --> 00:29:16,559 end of the emergency loop. I spoke for a long 587 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:18,960 minute and kept my voice flat and procedural. Because war 588 00:29:19,039 --> 00:29:22,480 motion would trip its readers and volunteer watchers, I included 589 00:29:22,519 --> 00:29:26,200 a specific survival step. When a countdown appears, sound a 590 00:29:26,279 --> 00:29:28,640 three bell alarm at the door and force everyone within 591 00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,400 ear shut to stand and count o lad to seven 592 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,559 won the timer reachi zero, perform an immediate head count, 593 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,440 and move everyone to the community center. The rule was 594 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,559 designed to use human voices against whatever injected those timers. 595 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,079 Whether that would work, I could not prove, but it 596 00:29:42,119 --> 00:29:44,319 was something that other people could do under stress, and 597 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,240 that mattered. Twists surface While I logged at the events 598 00:29:47,319 --> 00:29:50,400 later that morning, the pattern in the casualty times matched 599 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:53,519 the nightly maintenance window of our own analog loops. I 600 00:29:53,559 --> 00:29:55,440 pulled out my note book and ran times across the 601 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,640 page like a technician running a diagnostic. The early scream 602 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,079 the inject had count down the heir or collapse. Each 603 00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,799 fell into rhythm that mash won ourssistant swap masterclocks. If 604 00:30:04,839 --> 00:30:07,000 the entity could learn the windows when our equipment cycle, 605 00:30:07,079 --> 00:30:09,000 then it could tend its influence to coincide with our 606 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,079 blind spots. In other words, we had been hosting the 607 00:30:12,119 --> 00:30:15,640 vector without knowing it. The discovery shifted blame and responsibility 608 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,079 in a way that made my stomach heavier. Our own 609 00:30:18,119 --> 00:30:21,279 infrastructure had become the medium. I called Gerks and laid 610 00:30:21,279 --> 00:30:24,480 this out in short sentences. The injections align with our 611 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,559 maintenance swaps, I said. It uses our clock to see 612 00:30:27,599 --> 00:30:31,279 the timers. We must change swap times and ron tess immediately, 613 00:30:31,839 --> 00:30:34,359 Griggs kiss softly. So it's been in our systems longer 614 00:30:34,359 --> 00:30:37,119 than we thought. He asked, I said, either it's been 615 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,359 testing us, or it's been waiting for an opening. We 616 00:30:39,359 --> 00:30:41,759 made ourselves the idea that the network, something we had 617 00:30:41,759 --> 00:30:43,720 built to help people, was now away. The thing reached 618 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,000 in our homes changed the problem from purely defensive to 619 00:30:46,039 --> 00:30:48,920 partly forensic. We had to fix a mistake we'd may 620 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,920 without realizing it. Ros Chen and mat Call helped me 621 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,000 test the analog loop. Rose's fingers move with the practiced 622 00:30:55,039 --> 00:30:57,039 economy of a medic who could apply a bandage with 623 00:30:57,079 --> 00:30:59,599 one hand and record of vital with the other. Marty 624 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,400 crutch by the van and held a Foham cam a 625 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,599 steady Wireleye switched clock signals. We ran the loop with 626 00:31:04,599 --> 00:31:07,720 a dummy feed and watched for injected ovalays. The test 627 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:11,279 produced a small, ugly result. At one of the swap intervals, 628 00:31:11,279 --> 00:31:13,359 a faint end pixel right numerable blinked in the test 629 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:17,039 green for a heartbeat, and then vanished. Martyrs were allowed. 630 00:31:17,039 --> 00:31:20,519 It was their alias. It was like a stutter. Rosa 631 00:31:20,599 --> 00:31:22,640 rubbed her eyebrow ridge and set then is watching the 632 00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:25,559 swap too. The test made the threat feel smaller because 633 00:31:25,559 --> 00:31:27,960 we could measure it, and larger because measurement proved it 634 00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:32,799 could adapt. We made hard choices, change maintenance windows, unpredictably, 635 00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,119 shot the master clock across multiplanalog units, and forced manual 636 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,279 confirmation at each hand of the new procedures required more 637 00:31:39,319 --> 00:31:42,440 bodies and more time. People argued about the labor, then 638 00:31:42,519 --> 00:31:45,680 accepted it because the alternative was death. Priggs and I 639 00:31:45,759 --> 00:31:48,400 drove a short perimitive patrol with Rooke and confirmed the 640 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:51,400 claw marks on three more houses. The marks repeated with 641 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,279 a rhythm, parallel scratches near the threshold and feign concentric's 642 00:31:55,319 --> 00:31:58,960 groups at dormans. We bagged photographs, labeled them and added 643 00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,920 them to the logger with times amps each labeled themage 644 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:03,880 felt like a small victory, a collective fact to put 645 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,279 against an otherwise eluding threat. A final external event closed 646 00:32:07,279 --> 00:32:09,839 to the chapter. As torn wooke the town. A cap 647 00:32:09,839 --> 00:32:12,960 pulled into the community center's empty law. The headlights made 648 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,880 the plywood sign blint. I opened the van door without 649 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:19,240 thinking and stepped out. The driver got out to it 650 00:32:19,319 --> 00:32:22,680 was mister Hale's. He held his labradorous leash tightly and 651 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:24,680 looked like a man who had not slept in thirty 652 00:32:24,759 --> 00:32:27,720 six iOS. He pushed a small portable radio into my 653 00:32:27,759 --> 00:32:29,759 hands and said I heard it on my way in 654 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,000 someone's broadcasting on a local band and telling people to 655 00:32:33,039 --> 00:32:36,200 open their windows. I turned it off and took the battery, 656 00:32:36,799 --> 00:32:38,599 figured you to want it. I looked at the radio, 657 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,279 cheap plastic, a cracknity antenna, and felt the surge of 658 00:32:41,319 --> 00:32:44,799 relief that comes with a specific, actionable object. I accepted 659 00:32:44,799 --> 00:32:46,559 the radio and the dog, and I felt the shape 660 00:32:46,599 --> 00:32:48,440 of our next set of tasks more clearly than I 661 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:52,440 had denials. Isolate the device, mappet frequencies, and distribute the 662 00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:55,279 revised watch roster. I went back inside and set the 663 00:32:55,359 --> 00:32:58,559 radio on the table. I felt nose inematic cathosis, no 664 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:02,519 neat moral triumph. There was work, procedural updates, casualty logging, 665 00:33:02,559 --> 00:33:04,240 and a new set of signs taped to every door 666 00:33:04,279 --> 00:33:07,400 in town. The final directory, recorded into the analog loop, 667 00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:09,680 summarized what we had learned and what we now demanded 668 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,640 of every listener. I said the rules allowed once more, 669 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,400 and then sealed the recording. Before I left the van, 670 00:33:15,519 --> 00:33:17,640 I rewound the tape, press play and listened to my 671 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,839 own voice read the list in a dead mechanical caredence. 672 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:25,200 The rules were concrete, peap watchers mark thresholds, changed maintenance windows, 673 00:33:25,319 --> 00:33:28,440 and isolate any red numerals the moment they appear. I 674 00:33:28,519 --> 00:33:30,119 closed the van door and put my hand in the 675 00:33:30,119 --> 00:33:32,680 handle for a long count. My palms were rough from 676 00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:34,880 the radio knobs, and my wristwatch had a crack spidering 677 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,960 across its crystal. The watch returned away. Our systems had 678 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,759 read it for decades, practical and indifferent. I felt a 679 00:33:40,799 --> 00:33:42,640 shift in the room that was not merely the low 680 00:33:42,799 --> 00:33:45,079 wash of a van engine. It was the knowledge that 681 00:33:45,119 --> 00:33:46,799 we had ended the immediate flare up, and that the 682 00:33:46,799 --> 00:33:49,240 town had fewer sleeping eros and more rules because of it. 683 00:33:49,799 --> 00:33:51,880 I snapped the van's lock and felt the click register 684 00:33:52,039 --> 00:33:54,880 like an answer. Some one called my name, Mardaquite, and 685 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,480 I turned. She handed me a list of nomestape to 686 00:33:57,519 --> 00:34:01,079 a thermos and said, alayers, keep us awake. I folded 687 00:34:01,079 --> 00:34:03,079 the list into my pocket and checked the recorder light 688 00:34:03,119 --> 00:34:05,599 one last time. I left the mobile van with the 689 00:34:05,599 --> 00:34:09,400 analog of lip sealed and the casualty log updated. Outside 690 00:34:09,559 --> 00:34:11,840 the labrador padded beside martyr and nose at the first 691 00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:17,119 cardboard sign we had posted keep watch report timers. I 692 00:34:17,159 --> 00:34:19,480 walked toward the community Senta doors and heard the faint 693 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:21,760 three bell knock. I had instructive volunteers to use his 694 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,039 an alarm. It came from the far side of the 695 00:34:24,039 --> 00:34:26,800 lot and stopped as suddenly as it began. The sum 696 00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,400 made me move faster. We had won a set of ires, 697 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,440 but not the war. The last thing I did in 698 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:33,679 the outpost was locked the door, set the exterior light 699 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:35,639 to blink on manual instead of timed, and thumb the 700 00:34:35,679 --> 00:34:38,519 bankeys into my pocket. That was the concrete closure for 701 00:34:38,559 --> 00:34:40,639 the chapter. In action tied to a decision I could see, 702 00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,679 touch and repeat. I walked away with MARTA's dog at 703 00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:45,159 my heel and a noise in the air that might 704 00:34:45,159 --> 00:34:47,239 have been a crow and might have been nothing at all.