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00:00My girlfriend and I stumbled onto two systems by pure accident.
00:03One was the 100x macro multiplier.
00:06The other was the 100x micro minimizer.
00:10Three days later, the great deluge hit.
00:12Without warning, torrential rain swallowed the city.
00:15Everyone was trapped inside, no way out.
00:18Overnight, resources became the only thing standing between life and death.
00:22I had instant pasta and packaged bread.
00:24With the macro multiplier, I stretched every last scrap.
00:27I rationed carefully.
00:29I scraped through five brutal years on a dwindling stockpile.
00:32And the moment the rain finally stopped, she pushed me off the roof.
00:36If you hadn't stolen my macro multi-malter, I could have used it to save Liam's family!
00:40Ethan, you're a good person every other way.
00:43You're just so incredibly selfish.
00:44Liam was Ava's childhood sweetheart.
00:46She had asked me to save his family.
00:48I refused.
00:49But this was the deluge.
00:51No one had it easy.
00:52I wasn't about to hand our lifeline to people who had no claim on it.
00:55Then the world went black.
00:57When I opened my eyes, I was back.
00:59Back to the day of the systems.
01:01Back to the very beginning.
01:03This time, Ava moved first.
01:05Her hand shot out and locked onto the macro multiplier before I could blink.
01:09That's when I knew, she'd been given a second chance too.
01:12Please select into systems.
01:13My head was still spinning.
01:15Thick and slow.
01:16Like wading through mud.
01:17Hadn't she just pushed me off a roof?
01:19The vertigo took a moment to pass.
01:21Then Ava snapped out of her daze and lunged forward.
01:26Confirmed.
01:27System has been bound to you.
01:28She shot me a triumphant, sidelong look.
01:31The satisfaction in her eyes was barely even hidden.
01:33Cold clarity settled in my chest.
01:35I let out a slow, quiet breath.
01:38In my last life, I saved her.
01:39But she killed me for someone else at last.
01:42She loves Liam that much?
01:43Fine.
01:44This time, I'm not lifting a finger to help her.
01:47Then, I'll take the micro minimizer.
01:54Confirmed.
01:55System has been bound to you.
01:58Ava could barely contain herself.
02:00She grabbed a glass off the table and activated the macro multiplier.
02:08Oh my god!
02:11It's real!
02:13The macro multiplier is actually mine!
02:16I watched her with flat, cold eyes.
02:18This woman.
02:19This is the woman I nearly destroyed myself protecting.
02:22Babe, now that the macro multiplier is mine, aren't you even a little jealous?
02:27I can enlarge anything I want.
02:29Your micro minimizer sounds pretty useless, honestly.
02:34What's the difference?
02:35It's just a system.
02:36You wanted it, so you took it.
02:38I genuinely don't mind.
02:41Let her think she's win.
02:43I knew exactly what she was planning.
02:45The moment the deluge hit, she'd swoop in as Liam's savior, bringing food, offering survival,
02:51and make him fall for her.
02:52She didn't get it.
02:53If anyone found out about her system, she'd be the most hunted person in the building.
02:58Everyone would come for her.
02:59Ava practically bounced out the front door.
03:06Ava?
03:07What are you doing here?
03:11Come on, let's talk inside.
03:13The moment his door clicked shut, I picked up my phone and checked the date.
03:17The 14th.
03:18Three days until the deluge begins.
03:20There's still time.
03:21I got in my car and drove straight to the nearest supermarket.
03:24I emptied the shelves.
03:25Pasta, bread, water, toilet paper, vegetable seeds, vitamins, all the essentials.
03:32On a whim, I grabbed a crate of baby chicks too.
03:35Then, I stopped at a furniture store and bought a full set for my space.
03:38I was building myself a new world.
03:40My apartment was on an upper floor.
03:42In my last life, floodwaters never reached it, even at the worst of the deluge.
03:46I wasn't leaving.
03:47I was just going to live differently.
03:49I spent until my bank account hit zero.
03:52Ava, meanwhile, hadn't prepared a single thing.
03:55She knew the deluge was coming.
03:56She just wasn't worried.
03:57With a system, she could expand any food source she needed.
04:01So why bother stockpiling?
04:02She was too busy daydreaming.
04:04That evening, Ava came in, looking totally lost in a fantasy.
04:08Babe, hypothetically, if I saved Liam's whole family, do you think he'd be grateful?
04:18No.
04:20Are you kidding me?
04:21Of course Liam would be grateful!
04:23I didn't respond.
04:24I was already scrolling through listings on my phone, finalizing the last few things I needed.
04:29She killed me once.
04:30I'm not giving her a second shot at it.
04:32This time, she's on her own.
04:36Babe, do you have any cash?
04:38Lend me a few thousand.
04:40I want to buy some food.
04:43No.
04:44I just bought a new refrigerator.
04:47My account is empty.
04:51You bought a refrigerator?
04:53Why on earth would you need a new refrigerator?
04:56Because I wanted one.
04:57Is that a problem?
04:59Nah, never mind.
05:01I was just wondering.
05:02Babe, you know those snacks you had stashed in your room?
05:06I gave them away to the elderly residents who live alone in the building.
05:09She looked at me expectantly, waiting to be called generous.
05:13I stared at her.
05:14In one afternoon, Ava got the system she wanted.
05:17Without a word to me, she took all my emergency food and gave it away to strangers.
05:21She knew I had nothing else.
05:23She knew exactly what she was doing.
05:25But she didn't feel guilty at all.
05:26If I hadn't been reborn, if I hadn't already spent all my money, she would have killed me again.
05:32Just more slowly.
05:33Now, watching her look so proud of herself made me sick.
05:36I thought I'd been good to her.
05:37I stood by her, left school to work hard for her, and gave her everything.
05:41I even bought us an apartment and asked for nothing.
05:44Then Liam moved right across the hall.
05:46They grew up in the same village.
05:51Liam's family later got rich and moved away.
06:03When Ava saw him again, she fell for him hard.
06:07In my past life, even during the worst of the deluge.
06:11No, I won't do it.
06:12Please, Ethan.
06:13It's Liam's family.
06:14You have the multiplier.
06:15Why won't you help them?
06:16I said no.
06:17How can you be so cold?
06:19She secretly gave away a third of our food to his family.
06:23I found out too late.
06:25She valued a man who gave her nothing more than me.
06:27Who gave her everything.
06:28I was completely done with her.
06:30Fine.
06:31Babe, you're the best.
06:33I just knew you wouldn't be upset over something this small.
06:37I'm tired.
06:37Going to sleep.
06:38You should get some rest too.
06:40I walked into my room and locked the door.
06:43Then I sat down and started planning in earnest.
06:46I had already ordered a compact wind power generator.
06:49Even during the worst storms, I'd have steady electricity.
06:53Everything else was already on its way.
06:55All I needed now was to wait.
06:59Ava thought her system made her untouchable.
07:01She spent a few hundred dollars on snacks and locked them in her room.
07:05She checked the lock twice.
07:06She was afraid I'd steal from her.
07:08She never saw the irony.
07:10I wasn't staying in this apartment at all.
07:13Even shrunken to 1% of my size, someone might still stumble across me here.
07:17I needed a space no one else knew about.
07:19And I had one.
07:20A hidden bunker, built inside my bedroom wall.
07:22I built a secret room in the wall during the renovation.
07:25Ava never knew about it.
07:27Only my phone could unlock it.
07:30She'd never get in.
07:31I also drove 10 miles into the wilderness.
07:34I used the micro-minimizer to shrink fertile soil and trees.
07:38Then stuffed them into a duffel bag.
07:40They'd become my farm and supplies.
07:43I sent all my deliveries to my old farmhouse.
07:46It's in an abandoned village with no one around.
07:48I moved through the empty rooms using the micro-minimizer on everything.
07:53Furniture, food, seeds, medicine, tools.
07:59Then I looked at the old farmhouse.
08:01It was worn but still solid.
08:03I minimized it too.
08:06That night, I drove home in the dark, took everything to my room, and stored it in the hidden bunker.
08:12Ava had been so excited these days, thinking she was ready for the apocalypse.
08:16She didn't notice where I went or what I did at all.
08:19The bunker had a full air filtration system.
08:21It could supply clean oxygen for years.
08:24I stored five bottles of mineral water in a small ceramic tank and set up phone-controlled lights powered by
08:30a generator.
08:30I crouched in the bunker center and looked at the tiny landscape before me.
08:35The farm needed a fence first.
08:37Otherwise, the chicks would peck all the seedlings to death.
08:40I used the straightest branches from the many trees, tied them with wire, and built a low fence around the
08:46soil.
08:46Next, I fixed the wind generator.
08:48A part had come loose.
08:50I tightened it, added a drop of oil, and closed it up.
08:53The blade spun smoothly.
08:54My phone started charging.
08:56I worked past midnight.
08:58Then my phone buzzed.
08:59The motion sensor by my bedroom door had been triggered.
09:02I checked the camera.
09:03Ava was sneaking into my room.
09:04She held a small screwdriver.
09:06She dug through my wardrobe, bookshelf, and desk, muttering angrily.
09:13He must have something hidden.
09:15He bought a whole fridge.
09:16There's extra food.
09:18Why does he get more than me?
09:20Hurry up.
09:20Don't get caught.
09:21Grab something and let's go.
09:23Liam stood in the doorway.
09:24She searched for 20 minutes, found nothing.
09:27She kicked the wardrobe and stormed out, cursing under her breath.
09:31I stared at the ransacked room on the camera.
09:34I felt nothing at all.
09:36Good thing I'd already moved everything that mattered.
09:40After daybreak, I started building a small irrigation system.
09:44I cut the miniaturized plastic tubing into appropriate lengths,
09:51connected one end to the base of the cistern,
09:53and ran the other end along the perimeter of the garden plot,
09:56drilling small holes at intervals,
09:58so that when I opened the valve,
09:59water would flow evenly to each seedling's root zone.
10:02To collect rainwater as a backup,
10:07I mounted a small drainage channel along the top of the bunker
10:10and ran it into a separate sealed container,
10:13filtered through a layer of filter cotton,
10:15clean enough to water the plants and drinkable in an emergency.
10:18Once that was done, I opened the seed packets and began sowing.
10:22Leafy greens, eggplant, cucumber.
10:25I covered each row with a thin layer of soil,
10:29watered it through,
10:30and stepped back.
10:34Around midday, I opened the camera feed,
10:36pointed at Liam's apartment door,
10:37and caught Ava mid-argument with Liam's mother.
10:40You only enlarged that much bread?
10:43We have elderly parents and kids in here.
10:45How is that supposed to last us even a few days?
10:48Get back in your room and bring out everything you've been hoarding and enlarge it.
10:52Or don't bother showing your face at my door again.
10:57Those are my emergency supplies.
10:59If I use everything now,
11:01what do we eat later?
11:05Liam appeared behind her,
11:07slid his arm around her shoulders.
11:09Ava, come on.
11:11Do what mom says.
11:12Get through this stretch first.
11:15Once things settle down,
11:17I'll buy you anything you want,
11:19more than he ever had in that fridge of his.
11:21Two sentences from Liam.
11:22That was all it took.
11:24Ava's expression went soft and yielding,
11:26and she nodded.
11:27I put down the camera feed
11:29and picked up the small hoe
11:30to loosen the soil around the new seeds.
11:32She'll never understand.
11:33People who only know how to take
11:35will always want more.
11:38That afternoon,
11:41I fashioned a set of small storage crocks
11:44from the ceramic fragments I'd brought,
11:45sealed them with adhesive,
11:47and set them aside to cure,
11:49for pickles and fermented vegetables
11:50once the harvest came in.
11:52I vacuum-sealed a portion of the bread
11:54and instant pastas against moisture damage
11:56and arranged them on a dry rack.
12:01The chicks jostled each other at the fence line,
12:03pecking at stray grass seeds.
12:05I scattered a handful of feed
12:06and watched them scramble for it,
12:08and something in my chest settled a little.
12:13Outside my bedroom window,
12:14far above the bunker,
12:15a light drizzle had begun.
12:17The sky in the distance
12:18had turned a bruised, heavy gray.
12:20The great deluge was almost here.
12:22My small world was ready.
12:24After a full night of careful work,
12:26the interior of the hidden bunker
12:27had been transformed into a miniature farm.
12:30Tiny chicks,
12:31their voices barely a whisper,
12:33were already rooting through the grass for insects.
12:36Beyond the farm plot stood my little house.
12:38Every appliance in place,
12:40every shelf stocked.
12:43I could finally breathe.
12:44Now all I had to do
12:46was wait for the storm.
12:49In the final 12 hours,
12:51Ava stayed hidden in Liam's apartment again.
12:53His family tolerated her,
12:54but coldly.
12:56His mother didn't hide her dislike.
12:58I heard her complaining to neighbors more than once.
13:02That girl has no shame.
13:04She throws herself at my son every day.
13:06Maybe you'll get a daughter-in-law.
13:08She didn't finish high school.
13:10In her 20s and never worked a real job,
13:12just lived off her boyfriend.
13:14She thinks she can marry into my family?
13:16Not a chance.
13:17I said nothing.
13:18It didn't bother me.
13:20With one hour left until the deluge,
13:22I called Ava.
13:24Hey babe, something wrong?
13:25Just a work thing.
13:26I'll be pulling an all-nighter at the office.
13:28Don't wait up.
13:32Okay.
13:33I'll eat alone tonight then.
13:34Bye.
13:35She didn't ask if I'd be safe.
13:36Didn't suggest I come home
13:38before the rain got worse.
13:39The call was a trick.
13:40I wanted her to think I'd left.
13:42I wanted her to stop watching my side of the apartment.
13:46I hung up,
13:47opened the control app on my phone,
13:49and unlocked the bunker.
13:51The panel slid open silently.
13:55I stepped inside.
13:59Then I turned the micro-minimizer on myself.
14:29This time will be different.
14:31The complaints kept coming for the first few days.
14:34Inconvenience, frustration, ordinary irritation at weather disrupting schedules.
14:39Then the tone shifted.
14:41The humor drained out of the posts.
14:43People started asking questions that didn't have reassuring answers.
14:47My world, by contrast, had never been quieter.
14:51I tended the farm.
14:53I fed the chickens.
14:56I watered the seedlings.
14:59Checked the generator output.
15:02Monitored the water levels in the cistern.
15:05The routine was simple and absorbing.
15:08And the hours passed without friction.
15:11Ava, apparently, had already decided I was dead.
15:14Drowned somewhere in the floodwaters.
15:16She didn't seem particularly broken up about it.
15:19I wasn't broken up about that either.
15:21On the second day, I noticed that several of the chicks had gone quiet and still.
15:26They sat hunched in the corners of the enclosure, feathers ruffled and dull, uninterested in the feed I scattered.
15:32One had its eyes half closed.
15:34My chest tightened.
15:36These birds were my primary long-term protein source.
15:39I couldn't afford to lose them.
15:40I retrieved the veterinary manual I had quietly packed.
15:44A decision made almost on instinct back when I was loading the cart.
15:47Because I had understood, even then, that anything alive requires maintenance.
15:51I crouched beside the sick birds and worked through the checklist.
15:56Red-rimmed eyes.
15:57Sticky, abnormal droppings.
16:00Lethargy.
16:01Loss of appetite.
16:03Foul typhoid.
16:05Almost certainly.
16:06I located the livestock antibiotics I had packed alongside the first aid kit and the seed packets.
16:11Measured out the correct dosage using the miniature graduated cup I'd included for precisely this kind of situation.
16:18Dissolved it in clean water and installed a fresh trough.
16:21Then, I sanitized the entire enclosure with diluted disinfectant and separated the symptomatic birds into a temporary isolation area, away
16:29from the healthy flock.
16:30For the next several days, I checked on them morning and night, adjusting concentrations, swapping in clean bedding and fresh
16:40water.
16:40Slowly, incrementally, the sick birds began to recover.
16:44Their eyes cleared.
16:46They started pecking at the feet again.
16:49One by one, they rejoined the flock.
16:53The last sick chick stood up on its own, shook its feathers out, and strutted toward the food trough with
16:59full, unselfconscious confidence.
17:01The tension in my shoulders finally released.
17:04This was what my past life had given me, if nothing else.
17:07The knowledge that preparation is the only insurance that actually pays out.
17:10Every careful decision I had made in those three days before the deluge, the manual, the medications, the seeds, was
17:18already compounding quietly in the background while the world above me fell apart.
17:22With the immediate crisis resolved, I had time to spare.
17:25I pulled up the camera feed.
17:26Ava had brought Liam into the apartment.
17:29They were sitting in my living room together.
17:30Ava with a smile that barely contained its own triumph.
17:33Liam looking slightly distracted, eyes moving.
17:38Do you still have anything left at your place?
17:41Not much.
17:42Should have stocked up earlier.
17:43The first floor units are already flooded.
17:45I can't even get out of the building.
17:47And I've got my parents and my sister to think about.
17:49We're running low.
17:51Ava, what about your place?
17:52Could you spare anything?
17:54It's not just me.
17:55There are four of us.
17:56Ava laughed softly, reached out, and playfully tapped his chest, then dragged her finger in small circles against his shirt.
18:02Then she leaned in close, bringing her lips near his ear, and whispered,
18:11Seriously?
18:12That's actually possible?
18:14Don't believe me?
18:16Watch.
18:17She turned to the apple sitting on my coffee table and activated the macro multiplier.
18:21The apple swelled, expanding in seconds until it was the size of a small boulder, crashing down onto the table's
18:27surface under its own weight.
18:28Liam stared at it, then he grabbed her by both shoulders.
18:31Ava, you're a lifesaver.
18:33Get over to our place and enlarge everything we have, okay?
18:36Ava dipped her head, a flush spreading across her cheek.
18:39Of course.
18:41But I have one small condition.
18:43Name it.
18:45You know how I feel about you.
18:47If I'm the reason your family makes it through this, could you maybe feel the same way about me?
18:51She covered her eyes with both hands, too overwhelmed by her own hope to watch his face, which meant she
18:57didn't see it, the fractional pause, the brief flicker of something cold and calculating behind his eyes, before Liam carefully
19:03rearranged his expression into something warm and tender.
19:06Later, he reached out and took her hand.
19:08What are you even saying?
19:10Haven't we always been together?
19:11We were inseparable as kids.
19:13Of course I have feelings for you.
19:15When this rain is over, I'm going to marry you.
19:18Ava threw her arms around his neck, with a sound caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
19:23I knew it.
19:23I always knew you felt the same way.
19:27What about him?
19:33Him?
19:34He said he was working late.
19:38The way this rain has been going, he's probably drowned by now.
19:43A thin, private smile crossed Liam's face.
19:46Then he steered her toward her room, to fetch the rest of the supplies.
19:52I watched all of it through the camera feed, the phone propped against the water cistern, one hand still resting
19:57on the hoe.
19:58I sat with that for a long, quiet moment.
20:09How did I ever fall in love with someone this foolish?
20:12Foolish was one thing.
20:15But this.
20:18The casual cheerfulness with which she had just written off my probable death, that was something uglier.
20:24She practically sounded hopeful about it.
20:26Not that any of it was my problem anymore.
20:29I was sealed inside a wall, invisible and untouchable, with a working farm, a stocked refrigerator, and exactly zero reasons
20:38to care what was happening on the other side of the plaster.
20:41I went back to the little house, set a pot on the stove, and put together a proper meal.
20:46A steaming feast of spicy broth, thinly sliced Wagyu beef draped over the rim of the pot.
20:53Fresh greens harvested that morning from the garden, silky pastas coiled at the bottom.
20:59The broth came to a rolling boil, the kitchen filled with a deep, rich fragrance.
21:04I pulled a cold drink from the refrigerator, settled in, and ate slowly, savoring every bite.
21:10When I was done, I photographed the spread, the simmering pot, the marbled beef, the gleaming surface of the broth,
21:19and posted it to my social media.
21:21Howling storm outside.
21:23A feast inside.
21:25Some of us are doing just fine.
21:27Her comment appeared within 30 seconds.
21:48I photographed the cold drink in my hand, ice stacked to the rim, condensation beating on the glass, and sent
21:55it to her without a single word.
21:57The broth is hot, the drink is cold, life is good.
22:02My phone rang 30 seconds later.
22:04How are you still eating like this?
22:06She demanded.
22:07Can't you bring something back?
22:08I've been on crackers and instant pastillas for days.
22:11Babe, I'm starving.
22:13I'm so hungry.
22:14She dragged the last few words into a whine, the way she always did when she wanted something, and thought
22:19being pitiful would work faster than arguing.
22:22But I could hear exactly what was underneath it.
22:24Not hunger.
22:25Not fear.
22:26Indignation.
22:27How dare you have something I don't.
22:30I looked around the bunker.
22:31The steady hum of the generator.
22:33The soft rustling of the chicks in the enclosure.
22:35The smell of broth and warm soil, and something I took a moment to identify.
22:40Genuine peace.
22:42Still at the office, I said pleasantly.
22:44They ordered in for the team.
22:46Rain's too bad for me to head home.
22:48Find something in the kitchen you'll manage.
22:50You can't be serious.
22:52Babe, I don't want crackers.
22:54I want...
22:54Sorry.
22:55Can't help you.
22:56I ended the call.
22:57On the camera feed, Ava stared at her phone for a full three seconds.
23:01Then, she hurled it at the wall of my bedroom, hard enough to crack the screen.
23:05All that carefully maintained sweetness, dropped in an instant.
23:09Gone like it had never existed.
23:11I had suspected for a long time.
23:13Now, I had confirmation.
23:15I opened the tablet, navigated to the drama series I've been working through.
23:18I had hundreds of novels, anime, and shows downloaded.
23:22More than enough for years.
23:23Poured the rest of my drink, settled back against the cushions, and let the first episode begin.
23:28When it ended, I set down my glass, picked up my phone, and switched the camera feed to the one
23:33mounted outside Liam's door.
23:35I didn't wait long.
23:36Liam's father cracked the apartment door open and peered both ways down the hallway.
23:40Then, he leaned over the railing and waved downward toward the floors below.
23:44Two men came up to the stairwell, wading through calf-deep water that had already made it up to the
23:49second floor.
23:49I recognized one of them, a man the other residents called Old Simpth, known throughout the building for his short
23:54temper and his appetite for leverage.
23:56His son trailed behind him, a young man who had spent the better part of his adult life looking for
24:01shortcuts.
24:02Liam's father ushered them both inside and dropped his voice.
24:06I've got something to tell you.
24:08The girl from across the hall has a special ability.
24:10She can enlarge any object a hundredfold.
24:13That's how we've been keeping ourselves fed.
24:16Old Simpth's eyes sharpened.
24:17His son couldn't contain himself.
24:19No way!
24:20That's real?
24:21Liam's mother chimed in from across the room.
24:23Saw it with my own eyes.
24:35Liam appeared from the hallway, expression easy, measured, calculated, and wearing a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
24:44Here's what I'm proposing.
24:46The whole building is going to be desperate soon.
24:50When that happens, they'll start taking what they need by force.
24:54You two are strong.
24:56You know how to handle yourselves.
24:58What I need is someone guarding this door.
25:01Someone who can turn people away and make it stick.
25:03He let that land.
25:05In exchange, you get 30% of everything Ava produces.
25:1130 is an insult.
25:1350.
25:14And after the rain stops, the girl keeps working for my family.
25:18Liam held his gaze, glanced at his parents, nodded.
25:2150 it is.
25:22I watched the four of them shake on the deal through the camera feed, my expression unchanged.
25:26I already knew exactly who Liam was.
25:29I had always known, in some peripheral way.
25:31The way he talked down to Ava when he thought no one was watching.
25:34The contempt he barely bothered to conceal.
25:36I had simply never believed she would choose him anyway.
25:39But what I was watching now was something worse than I had imagined.
25:42He wasn't just using her system.
25:44He was using her as a shield, a resource.
25:46A liability he was already managing.
25:48And he was recruiting outside muscle to control access to her.
25:52As if she were property he owned.
25:54He hadn't considered, even for a moment, what would happen to Ava if old Simth and his son decided 50
25:58% wasn't enough.
26:01Not long after, I heard Ava's voice through the feed, brighter than it had been in days, almost buoyant.
26:07Liam's mother was speaking to her in warm, honey tones, entirely unlike the sharpness I'd heard directed at Ava before.
26:13Ava, you're truly something else.
26:15With your gift, we don't have to worry about a thing.
26:17What a treasure you are!
26:20You're too kind.
26:22Being able to use the system to help your family, that's exactly what I wanted.
26:28We're going to be family soon, after all.
26:32A short silence fell over the room.
26:34Then Liam's father jumped in, smooth and warm.
26:38Absolutely.
26:38Liam is so lucky to have you.
26:41I said to my wife this very morning, that girl is something special.
26:46You're such a joy to have around.
26:48Ava soaked it up like sunlight, beaming, floating.
26:52She had no idea the ground had already shifted entirely beneath her feet.
26:56I switched off the feed and set the phone down.
26:58The chicks had grown considerably, still young, still noisy, still incapable of taking turns at anything,
27:04crowding the trough in a mass of ruffled feathers and loud opinion.
27:08Is that, are those chickens I'm hearing?
27:10Yes, I'm feeding them.
27:11What?
27:14There's a storm flooding the entire city and you're feeding chickens?
27:18I raised them.
27:19The silence that followed had a very particular quality.
27:23That's, how, where did you even-
27:25It's fine, don't worry about it.
27:28The cucumber vines had climbed their trellises overnight and were sending out small yellow flowers.
27:34The leafy greens were coming in on their second harvest.
27:39The eggplant hung in small, deep purple clusters from the vines.
27:43The freezer still had months of meat stored and sealed.
27:46I was not going to run out of anything.
27:49Ethan, where are you?
27:51How do you have vegetables?
27:52How are you raising chickens?
27:53Is wherever you are not being affected by the de lounge at all?
27:56Not at all.
27:57She could never have imagined it.
27:59I hadn't gone anywhere.
28:00I was right here, on the other side of her bedroom wall.
28:03Just a few feet of plaster between two completely different worlds.
28:08That's incredible!
28:10Babe, you have to tell me where you are.
28:12I'll bring Liam and his family over.
28:14We're practically family already.
28:16And it sounds like there's room.
28:19If you manage it, you're welcome to come.
28:21What's that supposed to mean?
28:22You don't want us to come?
28:24She had grown accustomed to me bending immediately whenever she asked for anything.
28:28This was, evidently, a version of me she hadn't prepared for.
28:32I kicked a chick off my boot, stepped over the fence rail, and walked back toward the house.
28:37My refrigerator was stocked with a solid selection of ready-to-cook meals.
28:41Pre-made pizza, cheese, compressed biscuits, canned beef, Italian sausage, Spanish ham.
28:47I switched on the fan for airflow, pulled a pizza from the small countertop oven where it had been warming,
28:53and set it on the table.
28:54The crust had gone beautifully golden in the heat, crisp at the edges, soft in the center.
28:59The cheese melted and bubbling with a deep, rich scent that filled the whole kitchen.
29:03I photographed it and sent the picture to Ava without comment.
29:11You have pizza?
29:13Babe, tell me where you are right now!
29:15I've been eating stale crackers and rehydrated pastas for days,
29:19and you're over there with a pizza?
29:21Pizza? You're being so unfair!
29:25Ava's voice came out in a rush, urgent, frantic, the wheedling beneath the anger paper-thin.
29:31She was desperate to pry my location out of me.
29:33I bit into the pizza, the cheese pulled in long, elastic strands.
29:38The crust had exactly the right resistance before it gave way.
29:42Wow. This cheese pull is incredible. Seriously.
29:50Ethan!
29:51You make a fair point, though, as of genuinely considering it.
29:54My supplies do have a limit, but here's the thing.
29:57Your macro multiplier can expand any food source by a factor of 100.
30:01If you found me, you could multiply everything I have.
30:04We'd be set for years.
30:05So, find me, and just tell me where you are so I can do exactly that.
30:09She never wanted to find me.
30:11She just couldn't stand the idea of me having something she didn't.
30:14Find me yourself.
30:15I ended the call.
30:17On the camera feed, Ava stood in the center of my bedroom and screamed.
30:20She swept what remained on the nightstand onto the floor.
30:24She kicked the wardrobe.
30:25She threw things.
30:27The sweetness she had maintained for so many years, gone in under 10 seconds.
30:32Not long after, word spread to the entire building, someone had let it slip that the
30:36woman in my apartment could enlarge any object by a hundredfold.
30:39As for who had done the leaking, that required precisely zero guessing.
30:44In the camera feed, Ava stood amid the wreckage of my room, breathing hard, face twisted with
30:49impotent fury.
30:50She had smashed the last decorative item on the shelf.
30:52Now she sank to the floor, back against the wall, chest heaving.
30:55Across the room, Liam stood with his arms crossed.
30:58His jaw was set, his brow furrowed, but he didn't move toward her.
31:01His eyes were doing something else entirely.
31:04Scanning, calculating, drifting toward the door.
31:06In the living room, Liam's mother paced in tight loops, voice low and tense.
31:12What do we do now?
31:13The whole building knows.
31:14If everyone comes here demanding food, what do we do?
31:17We don't have enough for all of them.
31:19Let out a quiet exhale, closed the camera feed, and turned back to the farm.
31:23The vegetable beds had come alive.
31:25Romaine lettuce spread wide, its pale inner leaves unfurling toward the light.
31:30A row of eggplants hung plump and violet from their vines.
31:34The cucumbers had climbed the trellis I'd built, and were sending out delicate tendrils,
31:39their small yellow flowers just beginning to open.
31:41The chicks had changed, too.
31:43The soft, helpless fuzz of their first days was almost entirely gone, replaced by proper
31:49adult feathers, dark at the tips, iridescent at the edges, proud.
31:54They moved with a new kind of confidence now, heads up, scratching at the soil in long, deliberate
31:59strokes.
32:00Two of them were locked in a very serious dispute over a single earthworm.
32:04I picked up the small hoe and worked my way along the nearest row, breaking up the surface
32:08crust to let the soil breathe.
32:10Then I scooped water from the cistern with a clay ladle and walked the full length of
32:14the bed, letting it fall in a thin, even curtain over the root zones.
32:19Warm, filtered light came in through the special glass panels I'd minimized and installed in
32:23the bunker ceiling, glass that filtered out the rain and impurities while still admitting
32:27natural light.
32:28It fell across my shoulders like something I hadn't felt in a long time.
32:31The wind generator cycled in its steady low hum.
32:35The phone showed full charge.
32:37I went inside, took the marinated chicken I'd been preparing overnight out of the refrigerator,
32:42cut it into pieces, and loaded it into the roasting tray.
32:46The potatoes went in beside it, peeled, cubed, edges cut to maximize caramelization.
32:52The oven door clicked shut.
32:54While it cooked, I cracked two eggs into a small pot, both collected that morning, still
32:59warm when I'd found them.
33:00Whisked in a splash of water, dropped in a handful of fresh cut greens, and had a bright,
33:06clean soup ready by the time the oven timer chimed.
33:08I carried both dishes to the small table outside the house and ate with the garden in front
33:13of me, the chickens moving around my boots.
33:16Through the bunker's insulated walls, the deluge was just a faint sound, distant static, weather
33:22happening somewhere else entirely.
33:24The camera feed, when I checked it after dinner, told a different story.
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