00:00I call them strangers. They abducted us and brought us here.
00:07This city, everyone in it, is their experiment.
00:12They mix and match our memories as they see fit, trying to divine what makes us unique.
00:17One day, a man might be an inspector. The next, someone entirely different.
00:23But when they want to study a murderer, for instance, they simply imprint one of their citizens with a new personality.
00:31Arrange a family for him, friends, an entire history, even a lost wallet.
00:38Then they observe the results.
00:41Will a man, given the history of a killer, continue in that vein?
00:45Or are we, in fact, more than the mere sum of our memories?
00:49This business of you being a killer was an unhappy coincidence.
00:54You have had dozens of lives before now.
00:57You just happened to wake up while I was imprinting you with this one.
01:01Why are they doing all this?
01:03It is our capacity for individuality, our souls, that makes us different from them.
01:10They think they can find the human soul if they understand how our memories work.
01:14All they have are collective memories. They share one group mind.
01:19They're dying, you see. Their entire race is on the brink of extinction.
01:24They think we can save them.
01:26Where do I fit in?
01:27You are different, John.
01:29You resisted my attempt to imprint you.
01:31Somehow, you have developed their ability to tune.
01:40That is how they changed things. That is how they built this city.
01:43They have machines buried deep beneath the surface that allow them to focus their telepathic energies.
01:50They control everything here, even the sun. That's why it's always dark.
01:55They can't stand the light.
01:56So why do they need you?
01:58When they first brought us here, they extracted what was in us so they could store the information, remix it like so much paint, and give us back new memories of their choosing.
02:09But they still needed an artist to help them.
02:14I understood the intricacies of the human mind better than they ever could.
02:19So they allowed me to keep my skills as a scientist, because they needed them.
02:25They made me delete everything else.
02:26Can you imagine what it is like being forced to erase your own past?
02:40What about my past?
02:42What about my childhood?
02:44Shell Beach.
02:45Uncle Carl.
02:47What about this?
02:49This was blank when I found it.
02:51You still don't understand, John.
02:53You were never a boy.
02:55Not in this place.
02:56Your entire history is an illusion, a fabrication, as it is with all of us.
03:01You made those drawings happen with your gift.
03:04You say they brought us here.
03:08From where?
03:12I'm sorry.
03:14I don't remember.
03:17None of us remember that.
03:19What we once were.
03:21What we might have been.
03:23Somewhere else.
03:24Thanks.
03:25Thanks.
03:25Thanks.
03:26Thanks.
03:26Thanks.
03:26Thanks, thanks.
Comments