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Short filmTranscript
00:00My girlfriend and I stumbled onto two systems by pure accident.
00:04One was the 100x macro multiplier.
00:07The 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.
00:28I rationed carefully.
00:29I scraped through five brutal years on a dwindling stockpile.
00:33And 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!
00:41Ethan, you're a good person every other way.
00:43You're just so incredibly selfish.
00:45Liam 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.
00:56Then 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.
01:14My 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.
01:29She shot me a triumphant, sidelong look.
01:31The satisfaction in her eyes was barely even hidden.
01:34Cold clarity settled in my chest.
01:36I let out a slow, quiet breath.
01:38In my last life, I saved her.
01:40But she killed me for someone else at last.
01:42She loves Liam that much?
01:44Fine.
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.
02:01She grabbed a glass off the table and activated the macro multiplier.
02:15I watched her with flat, cold eyes.
02:19This woman.
02:20This is the woman I nearly destroyed myself protecting.
02:23Babe, 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.
02:46The moment the deluge hit, she'd swoop in as Liam's savior.
02:49Bringing food, offering survival, and make him fall for her.
02:53She didn't get it.
02:54If 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.
03:13The 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.
03:26Pasta, 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.
03:48I 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.
03:58With the system, she could expand any food source she needed.
04:01So why bother stockpiling?
04:03She was too busy daydreaming.
04:04That evening, Ava came in, looking totally lost in her 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.
04:45I 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?
05:00Nah, 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.
05:10She 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.
05:27If I hadn't been reborn, if I hadn't already spent all my money, she would have killed me
05:31again, just more slowly.
05:33Now, watching her look so proud of herself made me sick.
05:36I thought I'd been good to her.
05:38I 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, it's Liam's family.
06:14You have the multiplier, why won't you help them?
06:16I said no, that's...
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, who gave her everything.
06:29I was completely done with her.
06:30Fine.
06:32Babe, you're the best.
06:33I just knew you wouldn't be upset over something this small.
06:36I'm tired, going to sleep.
06:39You 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-powered generator.
06:50Even 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.
07:07She 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.
07:23I 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.
07:49I 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
08:11hidden 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.
08:22It could supply clean oxygen for years.
08:24I stored 5 bottles of mineral water in a small ceramic tank and set up phone-controlled
08:29lights powered by a generator.
08:30I crouched in the bunker's 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
08:45fence around the soil.
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.
09:05She 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.
09:22Grab something and let's go.
09:23Liam stood in the doorway.
09:24She searched for 20 minutes.
09:26Found 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, connected one end to the base of the cistern, and ran
09:54the other end along the perimeter of the garden plot, drilling small holes at intervals so that when I opened
09:59the valve, water would flow evenly to each seedling's root zone.
10:02To collect rainwater as a backup, I mounted a small drainage channel along the top of the bunker and ran
10:11it into a separate sealed container, filtered through a layer of filter cotton, clean enough to water the plants and
10:17drinkable in an emergency.
10:19Once that was done, I opened the seed packets and began sowing.
10:22Leafy greens, eggplant, cucumber.
10:25Remember, I covered each row with a thin layer of soil, watered it through, and stepped back.
10:34Around midday, I opened the camera feed, pointed at Liam's apartment door, and caught Ava mid-argument with Liam's mother.
10:41You 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, what do we eat later?
11:06Liam appeared behind her, slid his arm around her shoulders.
11:10Ava, come on.
11:11Do what mom says.
11:13Get through this stretch first.
11:15Once things settle down,
11:17I'll buy you anything you want, more than he ever had in that fridge of his.
11:21Two sentences from Liam.
11:23That was all it took.
11:24Ava's expression went soft and yielding, and she nodded.
11:27I put down the camera feed, and picked up the small hoe to loosen the soil around the new seeds.
11:32She'll never understand.
11:34People who only know how to take, will always want more.
11:38That afternoon,
11:41I fashioned a set of small storage crocks from the ceramic fragments I'd brought,
11:45sealed them with adhesive,
11:47and set them aside to cure,
11:49for pickles and fermented vegetables once the harvest came in.
11:52I vacuum sealed a portion of the bread and instant pastas against moisture damage,
11:56and arranged them on a dry rack.
12:01The chicks jostled each other at the fence line, pecking at stray grass seeds.
12:05I scattered a handful of feed and watched them scramble for it,
12:08and something in my chest settled a little.
12:13Outside my bedroom window, far above the bunker, a light drizzle had begun.
12:17The sky in the distance had 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 had been transformed into a miniature farm.
12:30Tiny chicks, their 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, every shelf stocked.
12:43I could finally breathe.
12:44Now all I had to do, was wait for the storm.
12:49In the final 12 hours, Ava stayed hidden in Liam's apartment again.
12:53His family tolerated her, but 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, just 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, I called Ava.
13:24Hey babe, something wrong?
13:26Just a work thing.
13:26I'll be pulling an all-nighter at the office.
13:28Don't wait up.
13:32Okay, I'll eat alone tonight then.
13:34Bye.
13:34She didn't ask if I'd be safe.
13:37Didn't suggest I come home before 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, opened the control app on my phone, and 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.
14:35Inconvenience, 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.
14:50I tended the farm.
14:53I fed the chickens.
14:56I watered the seedlings.
15:00Checked the generator output.
15:02Monitored the water levels in the cistern.
15:06The routine was simple and absorbing, and the hours passed without friction.
15:11Ava, apparently, had already decided I was dead, drowned somewhere in the flood waters.
15:16She didn't seem particularly broken up about it.
15:19I wasn't broken up about that either.
15:22On 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.
15:29Feathers ruffled and dull.
15:31Uninterested in the feed I scattered.
15:33One had its eyes half closed.
15:35My chest tightened.
15:36These birds were my primary long-term protein source.
15:39I couldn't afford to lose them.
15:41I 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.
15:58Sticky, 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
16:15for 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
16:24and separated the symptomatic birds into a temporary isolation area,
16:28away from the healthy flock.
16:30For the next several days, I checked on them morning and night,
16:36adjusting concentrations, swapping in clean bedding and fresh water.
16:41Slowly, 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,
16:57and strutted toward the food trough with full, unselfconscious confidence.
17:02The 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.
17:11Every careful decision I had made in those three days before the deluge,
17:14the manual, the medications, the seeds,
17:18was already 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.
17:27Ava had brought Liam into the apartment.
17:29They were sitting in my living room together.
17:31Ava with a smile that barely contained its own triumph.
17:34Liam looking slightly distracted, eyes moving.
17:38Do you still have anything left at your place?
17:41Not much. Should have stocked up earlier.
17:43The first floor units are already flooded.
17:46I 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,
17:59then 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? That's actually possible?
18:14Don't believe me?
18:16Watch.
18:17She turned to the apple sitting on my coffee table,
18:19and activated the macromultiplier.
18:21The apple swelled, expanding in seconds until it was the size of a small boulder,
18:25crashing down onto the table's surface 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,
18:56which meant she didn't see it.
18:58The fractional pause, the brief flicker of something cold and calculating behind his eyes.
19:02Before Liam carefully rearranged his expression into something warm and tender,
19:06he 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.
19:14Of 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.
19:24I always knew you felt the same way.
19:28What about him?
19:33Him?
19:34He said he was working late.
19:39The 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,
19:57one hand still resting on 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,
20:16but this,
20:18the casual cheerfulness with which she had just written off my probable death,
20:22that 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,
20:36and exactly zero reasons to 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.
21:11When I was done, I photographed the spread, the simmering pot, the marbled beef,
21:17the gleaming surface of the broth, and posted it to my social media.
21:21Howling storm outside. A feast inside. Some 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,
21:54and sent it to her without a single word. The 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?
22:09I've been on crackers and instant pastillas for days.
22:12Babe, I'm starving. I'm so hungry.
22:15She dragged the last few words into a whine, the way she always did when she wanted something,
22:19and thought being pitiful would work faster than arguing.
22:22But I could hear exactly what was underneath it. Not hunger, not fear, indignation.
22:28How dare you have something I don't. I looked around the bunker, the steady hum of the generator,
22:33the soft rustling of the chicks in the enclosure, the smell of broth and warm soil,
22:38and something I took a moment to identify. Genuine peace.
22:42Still at the office, I said pleasantly. They ordered in for the team.
22:46Rain's too bad for me to head home. Find something in the kitchen you'll manage.
22:50You can't be serious. Babe, I don't want crackers. I want-
22:55Sorry. Can't help you.
22:56I ended the call. On 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, gone like it had never existed.
23:10I had suspected for a long time. Now, I had confirmation. I opened the tablet,
23:16navigated to the drama series I've been working through. I had hundreds of novels, anime,
23:20and shows downloaded. More than enough for years. Poured the rest of my drink, settled back against
23:26the cushions, and let the first episode begin. When it ended, I set down my glass, picked up my phone,
23:32and switched the camera feed to the one mounted outside Liam's door. I didn't wait long. Liam's
23:37father cracked the apartment door open and peered both ways down the hallway. Then, he leaned over the
23:41railing and waved downward toward the floors below. Two men came up to the stairwell, wading through
23:46calf-deep water that had already made it up to the second floor. I recognized one of them,
23:51a man the other residents called Old Simph, known throughout the building for his short temper
23:55and his appetite for leverage. His son trailed behind him, a young man who had spent the better
24:00part of his adult life looking for shortcuts. Liam's father ushered them both inside and dropped his voice.
24:06I've got something to tell you. The girl from across the hall has a special ability. She can enlarge
24:11any object a hundredfold. That's how we've been keeping ourselves fed.
24:16Old Smith's eyes sharpened. His son couldn't contain himself.
24:19No way! That's real! Liam's mother chimed in from across the room.
24:23I saw it with my own eyes. She put her hand on one apple and it swelled up bigger than
24:29a washgaff.
24:31Our whole family ate off it for an entire day. Liam appeared from the hallway, expression easy,
24:38measured, calculated, and wearing a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
24:44Here's what I'm proposing. The whole building is going to be desperate soon. When that happens,
24:52they'll start taking what they need by force. You two are strong. You know how to handle yourselves.
24:58What I need is someone guarding this door. Someone who can turn people away and make it stick.
25:03He let that land. In exchange, you get 30% of everything Ava produces.
25:1130 is an insult. 50. And 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. I had always known, in some peripheral way,
25:31the way he talked down to Ava when he thought no one was watching, the contempt he barely bothered to
25:36conceal. I had simply never believed she would choose him anyway. But what I was watching now was
25:40something worse than I had imagined. He wasn't just using her system, he was using her as a shield,
25:46a resource, a liability he was already managing, and he was recruiting outside muscle to control
25:51access to her, as if she were property he owned. He hadn't considered even for a moment what would
25:56happen to Ava if old Simth and his son decided 50% wasn't enough.
26:01Not long after, I heard Ava's voice through the feed, brighter than it had been in days,
26:06almost buoyant. Liam's mother was speaking to her in warm, honey tones, entirely unlike the sharpness
26:11I'd heard directed at Ava before. Ava, you're truly something else. With your gift,
26:16we don't have to worry about a thing. What a treasure you are! You're too kind. Being able
26:23to use the system to help your family, that's exactly what I wanted. We're going to be family
26:30soon after all. A short silence fell over the room. Then Liam's father jumped in, smooth and warm.
26:38Absolutely. Liam is so lucky to have you. I said to my wife this very morning, that girl is something
26:45special. You're such a joy to have around. Ava soaked it up like sunlight, beaming, floating. She
26:52had no idea the ground had already shifted entirely beneath her feet. I switched off the feed and set the
26:57calm down. The chicks had grown considerably. Still young, still noisy, still incapable of taking turns
27:03at anything, crowding the trough in a mass of ruffled feathers and loud opinion. Is that, are those chickens
27:09I'm hearing? Yes, I'm feeding them. What? There's a storm flooding the entire city and you're feeding chickens?
27:18I raised them. The silence that followed had a very particular quality. That's how, where did you even-
27:25It's fine. Don't worry about it. The cucumber vines had climbed their trellises overnight and were
27:31sending out small yellow flowers. The leafy greens were coming in on their second harvest.
27:39The eggplant hung in small, deep purple clusters from the vines. The freezer still had months of
27:45meat stored and sealed. I was not going to run out of anything. Ethan, where are you? How do you
27:51have
27:51vegetables? How are you raising chickens? Is wherever you are not being affected by the de lounge at all?
27:56Not at all. She could never have imagined it. I hadn't gone anywhere. I was right here,
28:01on the other side of her bedroom wall. Just a few feet of plaster between two completely different worlds.
28:08That's incredible! Babe, you have to tell me where you are. I'll bring Liam and his family over.
28:14We're practically family already. And it sounds like there's room.
28:19If you manage it, you're welcome to come. What's that supposed to mean?
28:23You don't want us to come? She had grown accustomed to me bending immediately whenever she asked for
28:27anything. This was, evidently, a version of me she hadn't prepared for. I kicked a chick off my boot,
28:34stepped over the fence rail, and walked back toward the house. My refrigerator was stocked with a solid
28:39selection of ready-to-cook meals. Pre-made pizza, cheese, compressed biscuits, canned beef, Italian
28:45sausage, Spanish ham. I switched on the fan for airflow, pulled a pizza from the small countertop
28:51oven where it had been warming, and set it on the table. The crust had gone beautifully golden in the
28:56heat, crisp at the edges, soft in the center. The cheese melted and bubbling with a deep, rich scent
29:02that filled the whole kitchen. I photographed it and sent the picture to Ava without comment.
29:11You have pizza? Babe, tell me where you are right now. I've been eating stale crackers and
29:17rehydrated pastas for days, and you're over there with a pizza? 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. I bit into the pizza. The cheese pulled in long,
29:37elastic strands. The crust had exactly the right resistance before it gave way.
29:43Wow. This cheese pull is incredible. Seriously. Ethan! You make a fair point though,
29:52as of genuinely considering it. My supplies do have a limit, but here's the thing. Your macromultiplier
29:58can expand any food source by a factor of a hundred. If you found me, you could multiply
30:03everything I have. We'd be set for years. So, find me. Then just tell me where you are so I
30:09can do
30:09exactly that. She never wanted to find me. She just couldn't stand the idea of me having something
30:14she didn't. Find me yourself. I ended the call. On the camera feed, Ava stood in the center of my
30:19bedroom and screamed. She swept what remained on the nightstand onto the floor. She kicked the
30:25wardrobe. She threw things. The sweetness she had maintained for so many years, gone in under 10
30:31seconds. Not long after, word spread to the entire building. Someone had let it slip that the woman in
30:36my apartment could enlarge any object by a hundredfold. As for who had done the leaking, that required
30:42precisely zero guessing. In the camera feed, Ava stood amid the wreckage of my room, breathing hard,
30:48face twisted with impotent fury. She had smashed the last decorative item on the shelf. Now she sank to
30:53the floor, back against the wall, chest heaving. Across the room, Liam stood with his arms crossed.
30:58His jaw was set, his brow furrowed, but he didn't move toward her. His eyes were doing something else
31:03entirely. Scanning, calculating, drifting toward the door. In the living room, Liam's mother paced in
31:09tight loops, voice low and tense. What do we do now? The whole building knows. If everyone comes
31:15here demanding food, what do we do? We don't have enough for all of them. Let out a quiet exhale,
31:21closed the camera feed, and turned back to the farm. The vegetable beds had come alive. Romaine
31:26lettuce spread wide, its pale inner leaves unfurling toward the light. A row of eggplants hung plump and
31:32violet from their vines. The cucumbers had climbed the trellis I'd built and were sending out delicate
31:38tendrils, their small yellow flowers just beginning to open. The chicks had changed too. The soft,
31:44helpless fuzz of their first days was almost entirely gone, replaced by proper adult feathers,
31:50dark at the tips, iridescent at the edges, proud. They moved with a new kind of confidence now,
31:57heads up, scratching at the soil in long, deliberate strokes. Two of them were locked in a very serious
32:03dispute over a single earthworm. I picked up the small hoe and worked my way along the nearest row,
32:08breaking up the surface crust to let the soil breathe. Then I scooped water from the cistern
32:12with a clay ladle and walked the full length of the bed, letting it fall in a thin, even curtain
32:17over the root zones. Warm, filtered light came in through the special glass panels I'd minimized
32:22and installed in the bunker ceiling, glass that filtered out the rain and impurities while still
32:27admitting natural light. It fell across my shoulders like something I hadn't felt in a long time.
32:32The wind generator cycled in its steady low hum. The phone showed full charge. I went inside,
32:38took the marinated chicken I'd been preparing overnight out of the refrigerator, cut it into
32:43pieces, and loaded it into the roasting tray. The potatoes went in beside it, peeled, cubed,
32:49edges cut to maximize caramelization. The oven door clicked shut. While it cooked, I cracked two eggs
32:56into a small pot. Both collected that morning, still warm when I'd found them. Whisked in a splash of
33:02water, dropped in a handful of fresh cut greens, and had a bright, clean soup ready by the time the
33:07oven timer chimed. I carried both dishes to the small table outside the house and ate with the
33:12garden in front of me, the chickens moving around my boots. Through the bunker's ensulated walls,
33:18the deluge was just a faint sound, distant static, weather happening somewhere else entirely.
33:24The camera feed, when I checked it after dinner, told a different story.
33:28other than the other thing. My friend, told a different story.
33:29I was about to see it. I was about to see it in the background.
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