You Chose Enlarge, I Chose to Survive is a hilarious and thrilling comedy that follows two characters trapped in a bizarre situation. As the world around them collapses due to a mysterious catastrophe, one person decides to grow larger while the other focuses on survival. Through absurd adventures and life-or-death situations, their differing choices lead to comedic encounters and unexpected survival tactics. Can they overcome the chaos, or will their choices be their undoing?
#ComedySeries #SciFiAdventure #SurvivalComedy #DisasterMovie #NewRelease #FunnySciFi #AdventureAndHumor #LifeOrDeathChoices #SurvivalStory #ComedyDrama
#ComedySeries #SciFiAdventure #SurvivalComedy #DisasterMovie #NewRelease #FunnySciFi #AdventureAndHumor #LifeOrDeathChoices #SurvivalStory #ComedyDrama
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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.
00:25With 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.
00:36If 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, thick and slow, like 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.
01:34Cold 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.
02:00She 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.
02:19This 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.
02:45The moment the deluge hit, she'd swoop in as Liam's savior, bringing food, offering survival,
02:51and make him fall for her.
02:53She 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.
03:00Ava practically bounced out the front door.
03:14The 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.
03:47I 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 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?
04:39Lend 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, just
05:32more 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.
06:04When 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?
06:20She 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.
06:28Who gave her everything.
06:29I was completely done with her.
06:31Fine.
06:32Babe, you're the best!
06:34I 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 power generator.
06:50Even during the worst storms, I'd have steady electricity.
06:53Everything else was already on its way.
06:56All I needed now was to wait.
07:00Ava 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.
07:10I 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.
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.
07:47It'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.
08:00Then I looked at the old farmhouse.
08:02It was worn but still solid.
08:04I minimized it too.
08:07That night, I drove home in the dark, took everything to my room, and stored it in the hidden bunker.
08:13Ava 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.
08:20The bunker had a full air filtration system.
08:22It could supply clean oxygen for years.
08:25I stored five bottles of mineral water in a small ceramic tank and set up phone-controlled lights powered by
08:30a 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 seedlings to death.
08:41I 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.
08:49A part had come loose.
08:50I tightened it, added a drop of oil, and closed it up.
08:53The blade spun smoothly.
08:55My 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.
09:32I 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, 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
10:00the valve, water 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 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.
10:23Leafy 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 mid-argument with Liam's mother.
10:41You only enlarged that much bread? We have elderly parents and kids in here. How is that supposed to last
10:47us even a few days?
10:48Get back in your room and bring out everything you've been hoarding and enlarge it, or don't bother showing your
10:53face at my door again.
10:58Those are my emergency supplies. If I use everything now, what do we eat later?
11:06Liam appeared behind her, slid his arm around her shoulders.
11:10Ava, come on. Do what mom says. Get through this stretch first. Once things settle down, I'll buy you anything
11:19you want. More than he ever had in that fridge of his.
11:21Two sentences from Liam. That was all it took. Ava's expression went soft and yielding, and she nodded.
11:28I put down the camera feed and picked up the small hoe to loosen the soil around the new seeds.
11:33She'll never understand.
11:34People who only know how to take will always want more.
11:39That afternoon,
11:42I fashioned a set of small storage crocks from the ceramic fragments I'd brought, sealed them with adhesive, and set
11:48them aside to cure.
11:49For pickles and fermented vegetables, once the harvest came in, I vacuum sealed a portion of the bread and instant
11:55pastas against moisture damage, and arranged them on a dry rack.
12:01The chicks jostled each other at the fence line, pecking at stray grass seeds. I scattered a handful of feed
12:07and watched them scramble for it, and something in my chest settled a little.
12:13Outside my bedroom window, far above the bunker, a light drizzle had begun. The sky in the distance had turned
12:19a bruised, heavy gray. The great deluge was almost here.
12:22My small world was ready. After a full night of careful work, the interior of the hidden bunker had been
12:28transformed into a miniature farm.
12:30Tiny chicks, their voices barely a whisper, were already rooting through the grass for insects.
12:36Beyond the farm plot stood my little house. Every appliance in place, every shelf stocked.
12:43I could finally breathe. Now all I had to do was wait for the storm.
12:50In the final 12 hours, Ava stayed hidden in Liam's apartment again. His family tolerated her, but coldly.
12:56His mother didn't hide her dislike. I heard her complaining to neighbors more than once.
13:02That girl has no shame. She throws herself at my son every day.
13:07Maybe you'll get a daughter-in-law.
13:09She didn't finish high school. In her 20s and never worked a real job, just lived off her boyfriend.
13:14She thinks she can marry into my family? Not a chance.
13:17I said nothing. It didn't bother me.
13:21With one hour left until the deluge, I called Ava.
13:25Hey babe, something wrong?
13:26Just a work thing. I'll be pulling an all-nighter at the office. Don't wait up.
13:33Okay. I'll eat alone tonight then. Bye.
13:35She didn't ask if I'd be safe. Didn't suggest I come home before the rain got worse.
13:40The call was a trick. I wanted her to think I'd left. I wanted her to stop watching my side
13:44of the apartment.
13:47I hung up, opened the control app on my phone, and unlocked the bunker.
13:52The panel slid open silently.
13:56I stepped inside.
14:00Then I turned the micro-minimizer on myself.
14:10Oh, no.
14:25And I can't stop.
14:26I Beschek tells Chik.
14:28I have proof.
14:28Because these horror characters have cancer's supporter themselves.
14:29I need to inspect her.
14:30I can't wait bleed until I want it.
14:30I won't forget because Iå” dreams and I will mind that.
14:32The complaints kept coming for the first few days.
14:35Inconvenience, frustration, ordinary irritation at weather disrupting schedules.
14:40Then the tone shifted. The humor drained out of the posts.
14:44People started asking questions that didn't have reassuring answers.
14:48My world, by contrast, had never been quieter.
14:52I tended the farm. I fed the chickens.
14:57I watered the seedlings.
15:00Checked the generator output.
15:03Monitored 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.
15:15Drowned somewhere in the flood waters.
15:17She didn't seem particularly broken up about it.
15:20I wasn't broken up about that either.
15:22On the second day, I noticed that several of the chicks had gone quiet and still.
15:27They 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.
15:37These birds were my primary long-term protein source.
15:40I 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.
15:48Because I had understood, even then, that anything alive requires maintenance.
15:51I crouched beside the sick birds and worked through the checklist.
15:57Red rimmed eyes.
15:58Sticky, abnormal droppings.
16:01Lethargy.
16:02Loss of appetite.
16:04Foul typhoid.
16:05Almost certainly.
16:07I located the livestock antibiotics I had packed alongside the first aid kit and the seed packets.
16:12Measured out the correct dosage using the miniature graduated cup I'd included for
16:16precisely this kind of situation, dissolved it in clean water, and installed a fresh trough.
16:22Then, I sanitized the entire enclosure with diluted disinfectant and separated the symptomatic
16:26birds into a temporary isolation area, away from the healthy flock.
16:31For 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.
16:45Their eyes cleared.
16:47They started pecking at the feet again.
16:50One by one, they rejoined the flock.
16:54The last sick chick stood up on its own, shook its feathers out, and strutted toward the food trough
16:59with full, unselfconscious confidence.
17:02The tension in my shoulders finally released.
17:05This was what my past life had given me, if nothing else.
17:08The 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,
17:15the manual, the medications, the seeds, was already compounding quietly in the background
17:21while the world above me fell apart.
17:23With the immediate crisis resolved, I had time to spare.
17:26I 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.
17:39Do you still have anything left at your place?
17:42Not much.
17:43Should have stocked up earlier.
17:44The first floor units are already flooded.
17:46I can't even get out of the building.
17:48And 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?
17:55It's not just me.
17:56There are four of us.
17:57Ava laughed softly, reached out, and playfully tapped his chest,
18:00then dragged her finger in small circles against his shirt.
18:03Then she leaned in close, bringing her lips near his ear, and whispered.
18:12Seriously?
18:13That's actually possible?
18:15Don't believe me?
18:17Watch.
18:17She turned to the apple sitting on my coffee table and activated the macro multiplier.
18:22The apple swelled, expanding in seconds until it was the size of a small boulder,
18:26crashing down onto the table's surface under its own weight.
18:29Liam stared at it, then 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.
18:42But I have one small condition.
18:44Name it.
18:46You 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,
18:57which meant she didn'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.
19:07He reached out and took her hand.
19:09What are you even saying?
19:11Haven'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.
19:19Ava threw her arms around his neck with a sound caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
19:23I knew it. I always knew you felt the same way.
19:28What about him?
19:34Him? He said he was working late.
19:39The way this rain has been going, he's probably drowned by now.
19:44A thin, private smile crossed Liam's face.
19:47Then he steered her toward her room to fetch the rest of the supplies.
19:53I watched all of it through the camera feed.
19:55The phone propped against the water cistern.
19:57One hand still resting on the hoe.
19:59I sat with that for a long quiet moment.
20:10How did I ever fall in love with someone this foolish?
20:13Foolish was one thing.
20:16But this.
20:19The casual cheerfulness with which she had just written off my probable death.
20:23That was something uglier.
20:25She practically sounded hopeful about it.
20:27Not that any of it was my problem anymore.
20:30I was sealed inside a wall, invisible and untouchable, with a working farm,
20:36a stocked refrigerator, and 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.
20:47A steaming feast of spicy broth, thinly sliced wagyu beef draped over the rim of the pot.
20:54Fresh greens harvested that morning from the garden, silky pastas coiled at the bottom.
21:00The 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.
21:12When I was done, I photographed the spread, the simmering pot, the marbled beef,
21:18the gleaming surface of the broth, and posted it to my social media.
21:22Howling storm outside, a feast inside.
21:26Some of us are doing just fine.
21:28Her comment appeared within 30 seconds.
21:31Babe, where are you?
21:33Then the messages started rolling in.
21:36Babe, the storm is bad. Are you okay?
21:38Babe, where are you eating a hot meal?
21:40I want some too. I've been living on crackers.
21:44Babe, tell me where you are. I'm trapped. I can't get out.
21:47Can you bring food back?
21:49I photographed the cold drink in my hand, ice stacked to the rim, condensation beating on the glass,
21:56and sent it to her without a single word.
21:58The broth is hot. The drink is cold. Life is good.
22:03My phone rang 30 seconds later.
22:05How are you still eating like this?
22:07She demanded.
22:08Can't you bring something back?
22:10I've been on crackers and instant pastillas for days.
22:13Babe, 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
22:20and thought being pitiful would work faster than arguing.
22:23But I could hear exactly what was underneath it.
22:25Not hunger. Not fear. Indignation.
22:28How dare you have something I don't.
22:31I looked around the bunker. The steady hum of the generator. The soft rustling of the chicks in the
22:36enclosure. The smell of broth and warm soil and something I took a moment to identify.
22:41Genuine peace.
22:43Still at the office. I said pleasantly. They ordered in for the team.
22:47Rain's too bad for me to head home. Find something in the kitchen. You'll manage.
22:51You can't be serious. Babe, I don't want crackers. I want-
22:56Sorry. Can't help you.
22:57I ended the call. On the camera feed, Ava stared at her phone for a full three seconds.
23:02Then, she hurled it at the wall of my bedroom hard enough to crack the screen.
23:06All that carefully maintained sweetness dropped in an instant. Gone like it had never existed.
23:12I had suspected for a long time. Now, I had confirmation. I opened the tablet,
23:17navigated to the drama series I've been working through. I had hundreds of novels, anime, and shows
23:22downloaded. More than enough for years. Poured the rest of my drink, settled back against the cushions,
23:27and let the first episode begin. When it ended, I set down my glass, picked up my phone, and switched
23:33the camera feed to the one mounted outside Liam's door. I didn't wait long. Liam's father cracked
23:38the apartment door open and peered both ways down the hallway. Then, he leaned over the railing and
23:43waved downward toward the floors below. Two men came up to the stairwell, wading through calf-deep
23:48water that had already made it up to the second floor. I recognized one of them, a man the other
23:53residents called Old Simph, known throughout the building for his short temper and his appetite
23:57for leverage. His son trailed behind him, a young man who had spent the better part of his adult life
24:02looking for shortcuts. Liam'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. She can
24:12enlarge any object a hundred fold. That's how we've been keeping ourselves fed.
24:17Old Smith's eyes sharpened. His son couldn't contain himself. No way! That's real!
24:22Liam's mother chimed in from across the room. I saw it with my own eyes.
24:27She put her hand on one apple and it swelled up bigger than a washgat. Our whole family ate off
24:34it
24:34for an entire day. Liam appeared from the hallway, expression easy, measured, calculated,
24:40and wearing a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
24:45Here's what I'm proposing. The whole building is going to be desperate soon. When that happens,
24:53they'll start taking what they need by force. You two are strong. You know how to handle yourselves.
25:00What 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.
25:1230 is an insult. 50. And after the rain stops, the girl keeps working for my family.
25:19Liam held his gaze, glanced at his parents, nodded. 50 it is.
25:23I watched the four of them shake on the deal through the camera feed, my expression unchanged.
25:27I already knew exactly who Liam was. I had always known, in some peripheral way,
25:32the way he talked down to Ava when he thought no one was watching,
25:35the contempt he barely bothered to conceal. I had simply never believed she would choose him anyway.
25:40But what I was watching now was something worse than I had imagined. He wasn't just using her system,
25:45he was using her as a shield, a resource, a liability he was already managing,
25:49and he was recruiting outside muscle to control access to her, as if she were property he owned.
25:55He hadn't considered even for a moment what would happen to Ava if old Simth and his son decided 50
26:00% wasn't enough.
26:02Not long after, I heard Ava's voice through the feed, brighter than it had been in days,
26:07almost buoyant. Liam's mother was speaking to her in warm, honey tones,
26:11entirely unlike the sharpness I'd heard directed at Ava before.
26:14Ava, you're truly something else. With your gift, we don't have to worry about a thing.
26:19What a treasure you are!
26:22You're too kind. Being able to use the system to help your family, that's exactly what I wanted.
26:30We're going to be family soon after all. A short silence fell over the room. Then Liam's father
26:36jumped in, smooth and warm. Absolutely. Liam is so lucky to have you. I said to my wife this
26:44very morning, that girl is something special. You're such a joy to have around. Ava soaked it up like
26:51sunlight, beaming, floating. She had no idea the ground had already shifted entirely beneath her
26:57feet. I switched off the feed and set the phone down. The chicks had grown considerably. Still young,
27:02still noisy, still incapable of taking turns at anything, crowding the trough in a mass of ruffled
27:07feathers and loud opinion. Is that, are those chickens I'm hearing? Yes, I'm feeding them. What?
27:15There's a storm flooding the entire city and you're feeding chickens? I raised them. The silence that
27:21followed had a very particular quality. That's how, where did you even? It's fine, don't worry about it.
27:29The cucumber vines had climbed their trellises overnight and were sending out small yellow flowers.
27:36The leafy greens were coming in on their second harvest. The eggplant hung in small, deep purple
27:43clusters from the vines. The freezer still had months of meat stored and sealed. I was not going
27:48to run out of anything. Ethan, where are you? How do you have vegetables? How are you raising chickens?
27:55Is wherever you are not being affected by the DeLounge at all? Not at all. She could never have imagined
28:00it.
28:00I hadn't gone anywhere. I was right here, on the other side of her bedroom wall. Just a few feet
28:05of
28:05plaster between two completely different worlds. That's incredible! Babe, you have to tell me where
28:13you are. I'll bring Liam and his family over. We're practically family already. And it sounds like there's room.
28:20If you manage it, you're welcome to come. What's that supposed to mean? You don't want us to come?
28:25She had grown accustomed to me bending immediately whenever she asked for anything. This was, evidently,
28:31a version of me she hadn't prepared for. I kicked a chick off my boot, stepped over the fence rail,
28:36and walked back toward the house. My refrigerator was stocked with a solid selection of ready-to-cook meals.
28:42Pre-made pizza, cheese, compressed biscuits, canned beef, Italian sausage, Spanish ham.
28:49I switched on the fan for airflow, pulled a pizza from the small countertop oven where it had been
28:54warming, and set it on the table. The crust had gone beautifully golden in the heat, crisp at the edges,
28:59soft in the center. The cheese melted and bubbling with a deep, rich scent that filled the whole kitchen.
29:04I photographed it and sent the picture to Ava, without comment.
29:13You have pizza? Babe, tell me where you are right now. I've been eating stale crackers and
29:18rehydrated pastas for days, and you're over there with a pizza? You're being so unfair.
29:26Ava's voice came out in a rush, urgent, frantic, the wheedling beneath the anger, paper thin.
29:32She was desperate to pry my location out of me. I bit into the pizza. The cheese pulled in long,
29:38elastic strands. The crust had exactly the right resistance before it gave way.
29:46Wow. This cheese pull is incredible. Seriously. Ethan!
29:52You make a fair point though, as of genuinely considering it. My supplies do have a limit,
29:57but here's the thing. Your macro multiplier can expand any food source by a factor of a hundred.
30:03If you found me, you could multiply everything I have. We'd be set for years. So, find me. Then
30:09just tell me where you are so I can do exactly that. She never wanted to find me. She just
30:13couldn't stand the idea of me having something she didn't. Find me yourself. I ended the call.
30:18On the camera feed, Ava stood in the center of my bedroom and screamed. She swept what remained on the
30:24nightstand onto the floor. She kicked the wardrobe. She threw things. The sweetness she had maintained
30:30for so many years, gone in under 10 seconds. Not long after, word spread to the entire building,
30:36someone had let it slip that the woman in my apartment could enlarge any object by a hundred-fold.
30:41As for who had done the leaking, that required precisely zero guessing.
30:45In the camera feed, Ava stood amid the wreckage of my room, breathing hard, face twisted with impotent
30:51fury. She had smashed the last decorative item on the shelf. Now she sank to the floor, back against
30:56the wall, chest heaving. Across the room, Liam stood with his arms crossed. His jaw was set,
31:01his brow furrowed, but he didn't move toward her. His eyes were doing something else entirely.
31:05Scanning, calculating, drifting toward the door. In the living room, Liam's mother paced in tight loops,
31:11voice low, and tense. What do we do now? The whole building knows. If everyone comes here demanding
31:18food, what do we do? We don't have enough for all of them. I let out a quiet exhale, closed
31:23the camera
31:23feed, and turned back to the farm. The vegetable beds had come alive. Romaine lettuce spread wide,
31:29its pale inner leaves unfurling toward the light. A row of eggplants hung plump and violet from their vines.
31:35The cucumbers had climbed the trellis I'd built and were sending out delicate tendrils.
31:40Their small yellow flowers just beginning to open. The chicks had changed too. The soft,
31:46helpless fuzz of their first days was almost entirely gone. Replaced by proper adult feathers.
31:51Dark at the tips. Iridescent at the edges. Proud. They moved with a new kind of confidence now.
31:58Heads up, scratching at the soil in long, deliberate strokes. Two of them were locked in a very serious
32:04dispute over a single earthworm. I picked up the small hoe and worked my way along the nearest row,
32:09breaking up the surface crust to let the soil breathe. Then I scooped water from the cistern
32:14with a clay ladle and walked the full length of the bed, letting it fall in a thin, even curtain
32:19over the root zones. Warm, filtered light came in through the special glass panels I'd minimized
32:24and installed in the bunker ceiling. Glass that filtered out the rain and impurities while still
32:28admitting natural light. It fell across my shoulders like something I hadn't felt in a long time.
32:34The wind generator cycled in its steady low hum. The phone showed full charge. I went inside,
32:40took the marinated chicken I'd been preparing overnight out of the refrigerator, cut it into
32:44pieces, and loaded it into the roasting tray. The potatoes went in beside it, peeled, cubed,
32:51edges cut to maximize caramelization. The oven door clicked shut. While it cooked, I cracked two eggs
32:57into a small pot. Both collected that morning, still warm when I'd found them. Whisked in a splash of
33:03water, dropped in a handful of fresh cut greens, and had a bright, clean soup ready by the time the
33:09oven timer chimed. I carried both dishes to the small table outside the house and ate with the
33:14garden in front of me, the chickens moving around my boots. Through the bunker's ensulated walls,
33:19the deluge was just a faint sound, distant static, weather happening somewhere else entirely. The
33:26camera feed, when I checked it after dinner, told a different story. The building had cracked. Residents
33:32flooded the hallway outside Liam's apartment, some carrying children, some helping elders, all wading
33:37through calf deep water. They banged on the door, shouted, and pressed their palms against it. Liam's
33:42mother opened it a crack and blocked the gap. Why should we give you anything? This is Ava's ability,
33:49not ours. She doesn't owe you a thing. Figure it out yourselves. It didn't work. In a normal world,
33:56it might have, but the deluge had destroyed normal life weeks ago. People were desperate now. They had
34:01no patience left. The knocking turned to pounding. Voices exploded in the hallway, scared, angry,
34:07begging, threatening. Ava clung to Liam's back, pale as chalk. Back off. There's nothing for you here.
34:21Then someone grabbed a wooden plank and slammed it into the doorframe. Liam stepped back, quietly,
34:26carefully, until he was standing behind his mother. Ava! Do something! You have the system! Give them
34:37something, anything! Just make them leave! Ava stood between the wall and the crowd, with her hands shaking
34:42and her jaw locked. She understood what giving them anything would mean. Once you fed a crowd, the crowd
34:47returned, hungrier, bolder, with more people behind it. But the alternative was the door coming off its hinges,
34:53and Liam's family already shrinking backward. She gave in. She grabbed a single piece of bread from
34:58the kitchen counter and activated the macromultiplier. The bread swelled, slowly, then rapidly, until it
35:05stood nearly waist height and dense as a vehicle tire. It hit the floor with a heavy thud. The hallway
35:10went silent for approximately three seconds, then every person in it surged forward at once. They tore the
35:16bread apart with their hands, with their teeth. The noise was immediate and overwhelming. A scramble of
35:21bodies, sharp elbows, raw voices. No one waited. No one thought of anyone else. Ava pressed herself
35:27against the wall and watched. Liam's family exhaled with relief, as if they had solved something. They
35:33had solved nothing. The bread was gone in minutes, and the crowd, far from satisfied, was simply now
35:38confident that this door was worth coming back to. The people surged forward again before long.
35:46This time, the demands had escalated. Water, blankets, clothing. Ava should come with us.
35:54We've organized on the lower floors. She'll be safer with us. Mutually beneficial.
36:09The cabinet was nearly empty. Every item she enlarged was an item they couldn't replace. Ava didn't want to.
36:15Ava. Just this once. I'll take care of you. I promise. She looked at him. She activated the system.
36:28The crackers expanded. Before the last of them had finished swelling.
36:34The shoving started before anyone had even gotten a piece. People clawing at each other. Punching. One
36:42man slamming another hard into the wall. Hard enough to leave a dent. When it finally gave way,
36:46people poured through the apartment like water finding its level. Lifting couch cushions. Dragging
36:51shelves off walls. Pulling cabinet doors from the hinges and tossing them aside. Liam's family retreated
36:57to the master bedroom to turn the lock. They sat in the dark. Still and silent. While everything
37:02outside was stripped to nothing. Ava folded herself into the corner of the bedroom. Arms wrapped around
37:08her knees. And stared at her own hands. The system that had felt like a superpower three weeks ago.
37:14The thing she had bargained and maneuvered and ultimately betrayed a person for. Had become a target
37:19painted directly onto her back. She had wielded it to buy affection. And instead, bought a siege. And in
37:25the quiet of that corner, other memories surfaced. Not of Liam. Of me. The years I had worked myself
37:31down to nothing. So she could live without worrying about money. The apartment I had bought before I
37:39was 25. Because I wanted her to feel stable and secure. The five years in my past life where I
37:44had
37:44rationed every meal. Stretched every resource. Refused to break even when she begged me to give our stores
37:50away. Because I had understood, even then, that survival required making hard choices and holding
37:56to them. She had called me selfish for that. She had pushed me off the roof for that. And now,
38:02she was
38:03crouching in the dark in a stranger's trashed bedroom. And all her cleverness and all her beautiful plans
38:08had led her here. The deluge didn't pause. The rain fell without interruption. On the lower floors, water had reached
38:15the base of the stairwells. The building's lobby was fully submerged. The air in the locked bedroom
38:20smelled of wet plaster and mildew and fear. The macro multiplier had grown unpredictable. Sometimes
38:26failing to activate at all. Other times, stuttering halfway through enlargement. Whatever it was drawing
38:31from, it was running low. Liam was the first to say it directly.
38:38This is your fault. If you hadn't been showing it off, none of this would have happened. Ava stared at
38:45him. You're the one who asked me to use it. You're the one who- I asked you to help
38:50us. Not to advertise
38:52yourself to the entire building. His voice was flat and final, carrying nothing of the warmth.
39:00We're out of food. We've got half the building camped outside the door. And now you can't even
39:05get the system to work reliably. We're going to die here. Because of you. Liam's mother stepped in
39:13without missing a beat. I said from the beginning that you weren't right for my son. A girl like you,
39:18no degree, no real job, no prospects. I should have said something sooner. You're the one who brought
39:24this trouble to our door. This is on you. Ava looked at the two of them. The woman who had
39:30called
39:30her a treasure 24 hours ago. The man who had promised her marriage. She saw them clearly, perhaps
39:36for the first time in years. She was not family to these people. She had never been a girlfriend,
39:41a partner, a future daughter-in-law. She was a resource they had milked until it backfired. And now
39:47she was a liability they needed someone to blame. She had been exactly that from the very beginning.
39:52The rain didn't relent. Water seeped under the bedroom door and spread across the floor in a
39:57dark, growing sheet. The air turned thick and heavy, soaking into clothes and skin. Liam's father had
40:03been coughing since the second week. A deep, wet cough that wouldn't stop. Now he could barely get
40:08out of bed. Liam's mother followed days later, vomiting, chills, and fever, too weak to stand.
40:13They ran out of clean water early. They drank whatever pooled on the floor, strained through whatever
40:18fabric they could find. It wasn't enough. Ava watched them waste away from across the room.
40:23She felt no satisfaction. No grief. Only a deep, hollow exhaustion. Like she'd finally reached the
40:29end of something she'd been trapped in far longer than she'd known. She tried to leave. The water in
40:33the hallway was waste deep. The crowd outside had grown even more desperate and unpredictable.
40:38There was no safe way out. She activated the macro multiplier one last time, trying to enlarge a
40:43wooden plank into something she could float on. Nothing happened. She tried again. The system was
40:48gone. Its power had burned out completely, leaving no trace, no warmth, nothing she'd once taken for
40:53granted. I watched it all on the camera feed, sitting cross-legged on the floor of my small shelter.
40:58A cup of tea cooled beside me. Then I sat down my phone, walked out to the enclosure, and scattered
41:03the
41:04evening feed. My small farm had settled into something I could only call, genuinely good. The chickens had
41:09settled into a routine. Scratching in the morning, dust bathing in the afternoon. They laid steadily
41:14now. Three or four eggs before noon. I had more than I could eat fresh, so I tried recipes I'd
41:20never
41:20had time for. A light sponge cake. Soft boiled eggs with vinegar salt. Slow cooked custard that
41:25set golden and smooth overnight. I'd expanded the farm twice, adding more compact topsoil and rotating
41:31crops. Tomatoes, herbs, and a small citrus tree. It had fruited faster than I expected, with clusters of
41:37tiny, sharp, tart fruit. The little house had been refurbished room by room, with the time and materials
41:42I had. A proper desk. Bookshelves along one wall. A reading corner, with the lamp angled just right. I
41:48read in the evenings. I gardened in the mornings. I cooked every meal with real attention. Through the
41:53camera feed, the world above me told a different story. The deluge had passed the one-year mark. Conditions
41:59in Liam's apartment were deteriorating fast. Liam's father was gone. Malnutrition and the persistent
42:04respiratory illness had taken him in his sleep. The room still smelled of flood water and mildew.
42:09Liam's mother was fading fast too. By the first anniversary of the deluge, Liam was barely
42:15recognizable. The easy confidence that had defined him, his polished composure, casual arrogance,
42:21was gone. He was gone. His face sharpened. High cheekbones, hollow, lifeless eyes. He moved slowly.
42:28He barely spoke. With no food left, they scraped lime plaster from the walls to quiet their hunger.
42:33It wasn't living. It was just surviving. Each morning, Ava sat by the window and watched the
42:38rain. Quiet, finally accepting it would never stop. In her better moments, she turned over the memory
42:44she couldn't stop returning to. In the reading room, I was working through the backlog of books I had
42:49always meant to get to and never had. I'd made a small study in one corner of the house. Shelves,
42:55a workbench, a lamp angled just right. After dinner, I read philosophy, agriculture, history, guides. I taught
43:02myself woodworking from a manual, finishing two pieces from early minimized timber. A stool,
43:07a narrow side table under the lamp. When the deluge hit its third year,
43:11the camera feed across the hall went still. Flood water had risen too high to survive.
43:16Liam's mother was the last to move. Then she stopped. The camera showed Liam, alone,
43:21motionless in water that covered most of the bedroom floor. He hadn't made it. Ava was in the far corner,
43:26still two. Her face was dry on the grainy feed. Tears shed long ago, but they lingered in her set
43:32jaw.
43:32Her tilted head, unspoken. None survived the storm. Each paid the full price for their choices.
43:38I closed the feed. No satisfaction. No grief. Only the quiet calm of finally letting go of something
43:44long over. I set the phone face down. Beyond Liam's door, the hallway held only dark water and slow decay.
43:50I turned to the garden. The cherry tree, transplanted last year with the microminimizer,
43:55tended through two growing seasons, bowed under clusters of deep red fruit, catching the simulated
44:00light from the ceiling. The cherry tree bore heavy, glowing fruit. Each cluster bowed the branches,
44:06lit from above by the ceiling panel's soft glow, as if they held light inside them. Newly hatched chicks,
44:11the second generation, born in the bunker, trailed their mother along the vegetable bed,
44:15learning their small world in quick, purposeful steps. Their down was fresh snow white,
44:20bright against the dark soil. A few days later, the camera covering the interior of my old apartment
44:25registered movement for the first time in months. Three men waded through waist-deep water in the
44:29hallway, wearing the same clothes they'd had for weeks. They reached Liam's broken door and
44:34shouldered over inside. Last survivors. I could see it in their movements. The sharp economy,
44:39the flat eyes that no longer expected good. Whatever they'd lived on was gone. I watched as they
44:44searched, methodically. Mattresses upended, cabinets torn open, furniture checked.
44:49One found Ava's neat stack of empty tin cans, organized by size. He stared, then let them
44:55clatter into the water. Another found the oversized apple core, the one Ava had enlarged for Liam,
45:00back when the system worked. It had dried black, but was still unmistakably huge.
45:04What did these people have? Where's the food? There's nothing here!
45:09Something's wrong with this. Way too big. The rumors. You think someone could really enlarge things?
45:20If she could make food bigger, where is it? Why is there nothing left?
45:26They searched for 20 more minutes and found nothing useful, only rotted clothes and a rusted knife.
45:31On the way out, the tall man kicked apart the table Ava had used for demonstrations.
45:35The wood cracked, dull and final, like a sentence ending.
45:41I hadn't moved from my chair. I reached up into the cherry tree beside my terrace and plucked a small
45:46cluster. The skin was warm from the light. The flesh was dense, sweet under a clean,
45:52bright tartness that lingered on my tongue.
45:54In another life, I used to drive across the city for the best cherries, because she once said she
45:59liked them. I brought them home every week. Later, I found out she'd given most to Liam.
46:05Now, I grew them myself, and I didn't have to share a single one.
46:10I washed and pitted the extra cherries, simmering them with sugar until they turned jewel dark red.
46:16I poured them into glass jars, sealed them, and lined them on the shelf with pickles and
46:21fermented sauces. The great deluge had been a crucible. It had burned away everything fake.
46:26For the next two years after that, the rain continued, and I didn't need it to stop.
46:30For the next two years, the rain continued, and I didn't need it to stop.
46:34I watched the chickens raise their second and third generations. I tended the vegetable beds,
46:39planting, harvesting, composting, rotating. The orchard grew. A pear tree, a fig tree,
46:45heavy with sweet fruit all summer. I learned woodworking, weaving, building. I kept everything
46:51running. I watched seedlings become trees. I thought sometimes of my parents. They'd always
46:56wanted me to learn to take care of myself. Truly, completely, without leaning on anyone.
47:01Now I understood. That was the most real kind of love. The quiet, structural kind that holds
47:06everything else up. In the fifth year of the deluge, the ceiling light brightened earlier,
47:10had a new angle. The change grew clearer each week. One morning, I woke to silence. Real silence.
47:18Not the bunker's muffled hush, but pure absence. The rain had stopped. I lay still,
47:23listening. Then I knew it was time.
47:26You
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