- 4 hours ago
The Diagnosis Of Heartbreak
Category
🎥
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 day luge 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.
00:25With 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.
00:37If you hadn't stolen my macro multi-multer, 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.
00:49I refused.
00:50But 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.
01:00Back 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, thick and slow, like wading through mud.
01:18Hadn'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.
01:34Cold 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.
01:48Then, I'll take the micro minimizer.
01:55Confirmed.
01:55System has been bound to you.
01:59Ava could barely contain herself.
02:00She grabbed the glass off the table and activated the macro multiplier.
02:09Oh my god!
02:12It's real!
02:13The macro multiplier is actually mine!
02:16I 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,
02:26aren'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,
02:47she'd swoop in as Liam's savior,
02:49bringing food, offering survival,
02:51and make him fall for her.
02:53She didn't get it.
02:54If anyone found out about her system,
02:56she'd be the most hunted person in the building.
02:58Everyone would come for her.
03:00Ava practically bounced out the front door and-
03:06Ava?
03:07What are you doing here?
03:11Come on, let's talk inside.
03:14The moment his door clicked shut,
03:15I picked up my phone and checked the date.
03:18The 14th.
03:19Three days until the deluge begins.
03:21There's still time.
03:22I 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.
03:39I was building myself a new world.
03:41My apartment was on an upper floor.
03:42In my last life, floodwaters never reached it.
03:45Even at the worst of the deluge,
03:47I wasn't leaving.
03:48I was just going to live differently.
03:50I spent until my bank account hit zero.
03:52Ava, meanwhile, hadn't prepared a single thing.
03:55She knew the deluge was coming.
03:57She just wasn't worried.
03:58With a system, she could expand any food source she needed.
04:01So, why bother stockpiling?
04:03She was too busy daydreaming.
04:05That 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?
04:22Of course Liam would be grateful!
04:23I didn't respond.
04:24I was already scrolling through listings on my phone,
04:27finalizing 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.
04:37Babe, do you have any cash?
04:39Lend me a few thousand.
04:40I want to buy some food.
04:44No.
04:45I just bought a new refrigerator.
04:47My account is empty.
04:52You 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.
05:03Babe, 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, but 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 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.
05:38I stood by her, left school to work hard for her, and gave her everything.
05:42I 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.
06:24I 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.
06:31Fine.
06:32Babe, you're the best.
06:33I just knew you wouldn't be upset over something this small.
06:37I'm tired. Going to sleep.
06:39You should get some rest, too.
06:40I walked into my room and locked the door.
06:44Then 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.
07:02She 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.
07:09She never saw the irony.
07:11I 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.
07:21Built inside my bedroom wall.
07:23I built a secret room in the wall during the renovation.
07:26Ava 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.
07:54Food.
07:55Seeds.
07:56Medicine.
07:56Tools.
07:59Then I looked at the old farmhouse.
08:01It was worn but still solid.
08:03I minimized it too.
08:07That 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.
08:17She 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 five bottles of mineral water in a small ceramic tank and set up phone-controlled
08:29lights powered by a generator.
08:31I 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 seasons 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.
08:47Next, I fixed the wind generator.
08:49A 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.
08:57I worked past midnight.
08:58Then my phone buzzed.
09:00The 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.
09:17There's extra food.
09:18Why does he get more than me?
09:20Hurry up.
09:21Don't get caught.
09:22Grab something and let's go.
09:23Liam stood in the doorway.
09:25She searched for 20 minutes, found nothing.
09:28She 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.
09:41After 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, and ran the other end along the perimeter of
09:56the garden plot, drilling small holes at intervals so that when I opened the valve,
10:00water would flow evenly to each seedling's root zone.
10:03To collect rainwater as a backup, I mounted a small drainage channel along the top of
10:10the bunker, and ran it into a separate sealed container, filtered through a layer of filter
10:15cotton, clean enough to water the plants and drinkable in an emergency.
10:19Once that was done, I opened the seed packets and began sowing.
10:22Leafy greens, eggplant, cucumber.
10:25However, 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
10:39mid-argument with Liam's mother.
10:41You only enlarged that much bread?
10:43We have elderly parents and kids in here.
10:46How 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, or don't
10:52bother showing your face at my door again.
10:57Those are my emergency supplies.
11:00If 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, I'll buy you anything you want, more than he ever had in that fridge
11:21of 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
11:32seeds.
11:32She'll never understand.
11:34People who only know how to take will always want more.
11:38That afternoon, I fashioned a set of small storage crocks from the ceramic fragments I'd brought,
11:46sealed them with adhesive, and set them aside to cure, for pickles and fermented vegetables
11:51once the harvest came in.
11:52I vacuum-sealed a portion of the bread and instant pastas against moisture damage, and arranged
11:57them 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, and something in my chest
12:09settled 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, the interior of the hidden bunker had been transformed into
12:29a miniature farm.
12:30Tiny chicks, their voices barely a whisper, were already rooting through the grass for insects.
12:35Beyond the farm plot stood my little house.
12:38Every appliance in place, every shelf stocked.
12:43I could finally breathe.
12:45Now all I had to do was wait for the storm.
12:50In 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.
13:21With one hour left until the deluge, I called Ava.
13:24Hey babe, something wrong?
13:26Just a work thing.
13:27I'll be pulling an all-nighter at the office.
13:28Don't wait up.
13:35She 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.
13:41I 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.
13:52The panel slid open silently.
13:55I stepped inside.
13:59Then I turned the micro-minimizer on myself.
14:29This time will be different.
14:32The complaints kept coming for the first few days.
14:35Inconvenience, frustration, ordinary irritation at weather disrupting schedules.
14:40Then 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.
15:00Checked the generator output.
15:03Monitored the water levels in the cistern.
15:06The 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.
15:22On 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.
16:01Lethargy.
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.
16:31For the next several days, I checked on them morning and night, adjusting concentrations, swapping in clean bedding and fresh
16:40water.
16:41Slowly, incrementally, the sick birds began to recover.
16:45Their eyes cleared.
16:47They 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.
17:02The 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, the manual, the medications, the seeds, was
17:19already 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.
17:42Should have stocked up earlier.
17:44The 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.
17:50We're running low.
17:51Ava, what about your place?
17:53Could 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.
18:03Then 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.
18:29Then he grabbed her by both shoulders.
18:32Ava, you're a lifesaver.
18:34Get over to our place and enlarge everything we have, okay?
18:37Ava dipped her head, a flush spreading across her cheek.
18:40Of course.
18:41But I have one small condition.
18:44Name 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?
18:52She covered her eyes with both hands, too overwhelmed by her own hope to watch his face, which meant she
18:57didn't see it.
18:58The fractional pause, the brief flicker of something cold and calculating behind his eyes.
19:03Before Liam carefully rearranged his expression into something warm and tender, he reached out and took her hand.
19:08What are you even saying?
19:10Haven't we always been together?
19:12We were inseparable as kids.
19:14Of course I have feelings for you.
19:16When 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, one hand still resting
19:58on the hoe.
19:59I sat with that for a long, quiet moment.
20:10How did I ever fall in love with someone this foolish?
20:12Foolish was one thing, but this, the casual cheerfulness with which she had just written off my probable death, that
20:23was something uglier.
20:24She practically sounded hopeful about it, not that any of it was my problem anymore.
20:30I 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, a
20:47steaming feast of spicy broth, thinly sliced Wagyu beef draped over the rim of the pot, fresh greens harvested that
20:55morning from the garden, silky pastas coiled at the bottom.
20:58The broth came to a rolling boil, the kitchen filled with a deep, rich fragrance.
21:05I 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, the gleaming surface of the broth,
21:19and posted it to my social media.
21:22Howling storm outside, a feast inside. Some of us are doing just fine.
21:27Her comment appeared within 30 seconds.
21:31Babe, where are you?
21:33Then the messages started rolling in.
21:35Babe, the storm is bad. Are you okay?
21:37Babe, where are you eating a hot meal? I want some too. I've been living on crackers.
21:43Babe, tell me where you are. I'm trapped. I can't get out. Can you bring food back?
21:49I photographed the cold drink in my hand, ice stacked to the rim, condensation beating on the glass, and sent
21:56it to her without a single word.
21:58The 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? I've been on crackers and instant pastillas for days. Babe, 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, and thought
22:20being pitiful would work faster than arguing.
22:22But I could hear exactly what was underneath it. Not hunger. Not fear. Indignation. How dare you have something I
22:29don't?
22:30I looked around the bunker. The steady hum of the generator. The soft rustling of the chicks in the enclosure.
22:36The smell of broth and warm soil, and 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.
23:11I had suspected for a long time. Now, I had confirmation.
23:15I opened the tablet, navigated to the drama series I've been working through.
23:19I had hundreds of novels, anime, and shows downloaded. More than enough for years.
23:24Poured the rest of my drink, settled back against the cushions, and let the first episode begin.
23:29When it ended, I set down my glass, picked up my phone, and switched the camera feed to the one
23:34mounted outside Liam's door.
23:35I didn't wait long. Liam's father cracked the apartment door open and peered both ways down the hallway.
23:41Then, 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.
23:50I recognized one of them, a man the other residents called Old Simph,
23:53known throughout the building for his short temper and his appetite for leverage.
23:57His son trailed behind him, a young man who had spent the better part of his adult life looking for
24:02shortcuts.
24:02Liam's father ushered them both inside and dropped his voice.
24:07I've got something to tell you. The girl from across the hall has a special ability.
24:10She can enlarge any object a hundredfold. That's how we've been keeping ourselves fed.
24:16Old Smith's eyes sharpened. His son couldn't contain himself.
24:20No way! That's real!
24:21Liam's mother chimed in from across the room.
24:23I saw it with my own eyes.
24:26She put her hand on one apple and it swelled up bigger than a washgaff.
24:31Our whole family ate off it for an entire day.
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.
24:47The whole building is going to be desperate soon.
24:50When that happens, they'll start taking what they need by force.
24:55You two are strong. You know how to handle yourselves.
24:59What I need is someone guarding this door. Someone who can turn people away and make it stick.
25:04He 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.
25:27I already knew exactly who Liam was.
25:29I had always known, in some peripheral way, the way he talked down to Ava when he thought no one
25:34was watching,
25:34the contempt he barely bothered to conceal.
25:37I 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, he was using her as a shield, a resource, a liability he was already
25:48managing,
25:49and he was recruiting outside muscle to control access to her, as 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
25:59% 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. With your gift, we don't have to worry about a thing.
26:18What a treasure you are!
26:21You're too kind. Being able to use the system to help your family, that's exactly what I wanted.
26:29We're going to be family soon, after all.
26:32A 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.
26:46You're such a joy to have around.
26:49Ava 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,
27:05crowding 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.
27:12What?
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.
27:35The 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. I was not going to run out of anything.
27:49Ethan, where are you? How do you have vegetables? How are you raising chickens?
27:54Is 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, on the other
28:02side of her bedroom wall.
28:03Just a few feet of plaster between two completely different worlds.
28:09That's incredible! Babe, you have to tell me where you are. I'll bring Liam and his family over. We're practically
28:15family already. And it sounds like there's room.
28:19If you manage it, you're welcome to come.
28:21What's that supposed to mean? You 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.
28:48I 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.
29:12You have pizza? Babe, tell me where you are right now.
29:16I've been eating stale crackers and rehydrated pastas for days, and you're over there with a pizza?
29:21You'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.
29:34I bit into the pizza.
29:35The cheese pulled in long, elastic strands.
29:39The crust had exactly the right resistance before it gave way.
29:43Wow.
29:45This cheese pull is incredible.
29:49Seriously.
29:50Ethan!
29:51You make a fair point though, as of genuinely considering it.
29:55My supplies do have a limit, but here's the thing.
29:57Your macro multiplier can expand any food source by a factor of a hundred.
30:02If you found me, you could multiply everything I have.
30:04We'd be set for years.
30:06So, find me.
30:07Then just tell me where you are so I can do exactly that.
30:10She never wanted to find me.
30:11She just couldn't stand the idea of me having something she didn't.
30:15Find me yourself.
30:16I ended the call.
30:17On the camera feed, Ava stood in the center of my bedroom and screamed.
30:21She swept what remained on the nightstand onto the floor.
30:24She kicked the wardrobe.
30:26She 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.
30:35Someone had let it slip that the woman in my apartment could enlarge any object by a hundredfold.
30:40As 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.
30:56Across the room, Liam stood with his arms crossed.
30:59His jaw was set, his brow furrowed, but he didn't move toward her.
31:02His 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? The whole building knows.
31:15If everyone comes here demanding food, what do we do?
31:18We don't have enough for all of them.
31:20I let out a quiet exhale, closed the camera feed, and turned back to the farm.
31:24The vegetable beds had come alive.
31:26Romaine 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.
31:42The chicks had changed too.
31:44The soft, helpless fuzz of their first days was almost entirely gone.
31:48Replaced by proper adult feathers.
31:50Dark at the tips.
31:52Iridescent at the edges.
31:53Proud.
31:54They moved with a new kind of confidence now.
31:57Heads up, scratching at the soil in long, deliberate strokes.
32:01Two of them were locked in a very serious dispute over a single earthworm.
32:05I picked up the small hoe and worked my way along the nearest row, breaking up the surface
32:09crust to let the soil breathe.
32:11Then I scooped water from the cistern with a clay ladle and walked the full length of the bed,
32:15letting 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 the
32:23bunker ceiling.
32:24Glass that filtered out the rain and impurities while still admitting natural light.
32:28It fell across my shoulders like something I hadn't felt in a long time.
32:33The 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.
32:57Both collected that morning, still warm when I'd found them.
33:01Whisked in a splash of water, dropped in a handful of fresh cut greens,
33:05and had a bright, clean soup ready by the time the oven timer chimed.
33:09I carried both dishes to the small table outside the house and ate with the garden in front of me,
33:13the chickens moving around my boots.
33:16Through the bunker's insulated walls, the deluge was just a faint sound,
33:20distant static, weather happening somewhere else entirely.
33:25The camera feed, when I checked it after dinner, told a different story.
33:28Inimi
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