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I Have 45 Minutes Until My Execution. But I've Already Seen What Happens Next. · Creepy Stories to Fall Asleep To

• 0:00
  45 minutes, that's what they gave me.
• 0:04
  The execution team moved like they done this 100 times before.
• 0:09
  Probably had two guys in Gray uniforms.
• 0:13
  Didn't say a word, just grabbed my arms and walked me down that
• 0:16
  hallway I'd memorized. Every crack in the chair was
• 0:20
  already waiting. It wasn't electric or anything
• 0:23
  dramatic like that, just this metal thing with medical
• 0:27
  restraints, the kind they use in hospitals.
• 0:30
  White padding on the armrests. Someone had cleaned it recently.
• 0:35
  I could smell the disinfectant. The first restraint went around
• 0:40
  my left wrist, tight. The metal bit into my skin and I
• 0:45
  figured that was the point. They wanted me still.
• 0:50
  The ankle restraints came next, then the right wrist.
• 0:54
  By the time they were done, I couldn't move much more than my
• 0:57
  fingers. That's when Jasmine walked in.
• 1:02
  Doctor Burke, I should say. She never let me call her
• 1:06
  Jasmine. Not in three years.
• 1:09
  Always carried that same clipboard.
• 1:12
  Always wore that white coat like armor.
• 1:15
  Her hair was pulled back tighter than usual.
• 1:16
  Today, I guess executions were formal events.
• 1:22
  She nodded at the guards, and they left.
• 1:25
  Just her and me in the room now, and whoever was watching through
• 1:28
  that window behind her. I could see them moving around
• 1:32
  back there, Shadows in white coats.
• 1:35
  The observation deck. I'd never been on that side
• 1:38
  before. The technicians were setting up
• 1:41
  the injection. I watched them through the
• 1:43
  glass. These people I'd never seen
• 1:45
  before, handling the stuff that was going to kill me.
• 1:49
  Two syringes. The first one would neutralize
• 1:52
  what they called my abilities. The second one would stop my
• 1:56
  heart. Made sense, I guess.
• 1:59
  Couldn't have me seeing my own death coming and somehow
• 2:02
  changing it. That would mess up their whole
• 2:04
  procedure. The facility hummed around us.
• 2:09
  It always did that. This low electronic buzz you
• 2:11
  stop noticing after a while. Air filtration, computers,
• 2:16
  whatever. Three years I've been listening
• 2:19
  to that sound. Three years of the same white
• 2:22
  walls, the same sterile smell, the same routine.
• 2:26
  Breakfast at 7, testing at 9, lunch at noon, more testing at
• 2:31
  2:00, dinner at six, lights out at 10.
• 2:35
  Rinse and repeat. Jasmine checked something on her
• 2:40
  clipboard. Protocol 7 grants you the right
• 2:44
  to a final statement, she said. Real official, like she was
• 2:49
  reading from a script. I looked at her for a second.
• 2:54
  She had these lines around her eyes that hadn't been there when
• 2:57
  this whole thing started. Guess three years of
• 3:00
  experimenting on people takes a toll.
• 3:04
  You want to know what really happened in Chicago?
• 3:06
  I said. She blinked, Wasn't expecting
• 3:11
  that. Probably 200,000 people died,
• 3:16
  she said. We know what happened.
• 3:19
  No, You know what it looked like, You know the body count,
• 3:23
  you know the timeline. I shifted in the chair as much
• 3:27
  as the restraints would let me. You don't know what actually
• 3:31
  happened. The technicians were still
• 3:34
  working behind the glass. One of them held up a syringe to
• 3:38
  the light, checking for air bubbles.
• 3:41
  Real professional. The incident has been thoroughly
• 3:44
  documented, Jasmine said. Has it?
• 3:48
  I asked, did your documentation mention that I tried to stop it?
• 3:54
  Did it mention that I saw it coming six months before it
• 3:57
  happened and spent every day trying to figure out how to
• 4:00
  prevent it? She looked at her watch.
• 4:04
  Black band. 38 minutes, she said.
• 4:09
  That's enough time for what? To explain what actually
• 4:14
  happened, starting from the beginning, I watched her think
• 4:18
  about it. She could have just sat there
• 4:20
  and waited for the clock to run out.
• 4:23
  Probably should have, but I knew Jasmine and I knew she was
• 4:27
  curious. Always had been.
• 4:30
  It's what made her good at her job, and probably what kept her
• 4:34
  up at night. She pulled over a chair from
• 4:37
  against the wall and sat down. The clipboard went on her lap.
• 4:43
  38 minutes, she said again, like a warning.
• 4:48
  I nodded. 38 minutes to tell the truth about Chicago, about what
• 4:54
  really happened when my abilities went haywire and
• 4:57
  killed 200,000 people in the span of four hours. 38 minutes
• 5:02
  to explain why everything they thought they knew was wrong.
• 5:06
  I started with the field trip figure that made the most sense.
• 5:11
  Lincoln High, sophomore year, April something.
• 5:16
  Our chemistry class got picked for the Museum of Science and
• 5:19
  Industry tour because our teacher, Misses Rodriguez, knew
• 5:22
  somebody who worked there. Wesley was my lab partner back
• 5:26
  then. Sat next to me on the bus ride
• 5:29
  downtown. Harper was a couple rows up with
• 5:33
  her friends, probably talking about whatever Harper talked
• 5:36
  about. I didn't really know her that
• 5:39
  well. The museum was one of those
• 5:42
  places that's supposed to blow your mind but mostly just makes
• 5:45
  you tired. Giant exhibits everywhere, kids
• 5:49
  running around screaming, tour guides trying to sound excited
• 5:52
  about coal mining displays. We'd been there maybe 2 hours
• 5:57
  when the fire alarm went off. Loud as hell, That piercing
• 6:02
  sound that cuts right through your skull.
• 6:06
  Everyone started moving toward the exits like we'd practiced at
• 6:09
  school a million times. No panic, just that automatic
• 6:14
  shuffle toward the doors. I remember thinking it was
• 6:18
  probably nothing. Fire drills always were.
• 6:23
  That's when the security guy showed up.
• 6:26
  John Washington didn't know his name then, obviously.
• 6:31
  Just some older guy in a uniform with a radio clip to his belt.
• 6:34
  He had this military look about him, straight posture, serious
• 6:39
  face. The kind of guy who probably
• 6:42
  told people to move along all day.
• 6:45
  You 3, he said, pointing at me. Wesley and Harper.
• 6:51
  Special evacuation route for your section.
• 6:55
  Made sense at the time. The museum was huge, had
• 6:59
  probably 50 different ways out. Maybe our group was supposed to
• 7:03
  use a different exit to avoid crowding.
• 7:06
  Wesley just shrugged and followed.
• 7:09
  Harper looked confused but didn't argue.
• 7:13
  Washington let us away from everyone else, down a hallway I
• 7:17
  hadn't seen before, past a bunch of doors marked STAFF only and
• 7:21
  authorized personnel. The fire alarm kept going, but
• 7:26
  it got quieter as we walked. Where exactly are we going?
• 7:31
  Harper asked. Service exit, Washington said.
• 7:36
  Safer this way. I figured he knew what he was
• 7:40
  doing. Security guys usually did.
• 7:43
  The hallway kept going, Turned left, then right, then left
• 7:47
  again. White walls, fluorescent lights,
• 7:51
  that weird institutional smell like disinfectant and old
• 7:54
  carpet. No windows.
• 7:58
  I started getting this feeling like we were going the wrong
• 8:00
  direction, but Washington seemed sure about it.
• 8:05
  Then we reached a door that opened to the outside.
• 8:08
  Not the main entrance where everyone else was probably
• 8:11
  gathering. This was some kind of loading
• 8:13
  area behind the building. Concrete platform, metal
• 8:17
  railings, a few dumpsters and an unmarked white van parked maybe
• 8:23
  20 feet away. That's all right, Washington
• 8:27
  said. Wesley stopped walking.
• 8:31
  Wait, what? Special transport, Washington
• 8:36
  said. Protocol for situations like
• 8:38
  this. That's when I knew something was
• 8:41
  wrong. What kind of fire drill involves
• 8:44
  getting in a van? But Washington was already
• 8:48
  moving toward the vehicle, and he had this way about him that
• 8:50
  made you want to follow orders. Plus, the guy was twice our
• 8:54
  size. The van's side door slid open.
• 8:58
  Another man in Gray cover all sat inside, holding something
• 9:01
  small in his hands. Looked like a medical kit.
• 9:07
  Get in, Washington said. Harper backed up a step.
• 9:12
  I don't think we should. It's fine, Washington said.
• 9:18
  Just a precaution. He put his hand on Harper's
• 9:22
  shoulder. Not rough, but firm.
• 9:25
  Guided her toward the van. Wesley and I followed, because
• 9:30
  what else were we going to do? Run.
• 9:32
  The guy was a security officer at a major museum.
• 9:36
  Had to be legitimate. The inside of the van was clean
• 9:40
  but weird. No windows in the back section,
• 9:43
  bench seats along both sides. The guy in coveralls smiled at
• 9:48
  us like everything was normal. Just need you to sit tight for a
• 9:52
  minute, he said. That's when I saw the syringes,
• 9:57
  three of them already prepared. Clear liquid.
• 10:02
  The guy in coveralls held them casual, like they were pencils
• 10:05
  or something. What the hell is that?
• 10:09
  Wesley said. Mild sedative, Washington said.
• 10:14
  Procedure for witness protection scenarios.
• 10:17
  That was the first time anyone mentioned it.
• 10:20
  Witness to what? I asked.
• 10:23
  Something you weren't supposed to see back there, Washington
• 10:27
  said. The fire wasn't really a fire.
• 10:31
  He nodded to the guy in coveralls.
• 10:34
  Before any of us could move, the guy grabbed Harper's arm and
• 10:37
  stuck her with one of the syringes.
• 10:39
  She jerked back, tried to pull away, but he held on.
• 10:43
  Wesley jumped up. Hey.
• 10:46
  Washington caught him, held him still while the guy got the
• 10:49
  second syringe ready. Wesley fought harder than Harper
• 10:53
  had, but it didn't matter. The needle went in his arm just
• 10:57
  the same. I tried to run, got maybe 2
• 11:02
  steps before Washington grabbed my shirt and yanked me back.
• 11:06
  The guy in coveralls had the third syringe ready.
• 11:10
  Don't make this difficult, Washington said.
• 11:14
  The needle pinched going in. Whatever they gave us worked
• 11:18
  fast. Harper was already slumping
• 11:21
  against the van wall, eyes getting heavy.
• 11:24
  Wesley was blinking slow, like he was fighting to stay awake.
• 11:30
  I felt it hit my system. Maybe 10 seconds later,
• 11:33
  everything got fuzzy around the edges.
• 11:36
  The van started moving, but it felt like floating.
• 11:39
  Then nothing. I woke up here.
• 11:42
  Same facility I'm sitting in now, 14 years later.
• 11:48
  They told me it was temporary. Nash Bradley himself came to
• 11:52
  explain things on the second day.
• 11:54
  Distinguished guy in an expensive suit.
• 11:57
  Talked like a college professor. You witnessed something
• 12:01
  classified during the evacuation, he said.
• 12:05
  Industrial accident involving experimental materials.
• 12:08
  Nothing dangerous to you personally, but the nature of
• 12:11
  the incident requires A brief debriefing period.
• 12:15
  He made it sound reasonable. Government stuff, national
• 12:19
  security, the kind of thing you see in movies.
• 12:22
  Said we'd be here maybe two weeks while they made sure we
• 12:26
  understood the importance of discretion.
• 12:30
  What kind of experimental materials?
• 12:32
  I asked. That's part of what we need to
• 12:35
  discuss, Bradley said. But first we need to make sure
• 12:40
  you're all healthy. The exposure might have had some
• 12:43
  effects. Effects.
• 12:46
  That was the word he used. They started with blood tests.
• 12:51
  Simple stuff, or so they said. Daily samples, basic health
• 12:56
  monitoring. Made sense if we'd been exposed
• 12:59
  to something dangerous. Wesley and Harper got the same
• 13:03
  treatment. Then came the supplements.
• 13:06
  Little white pills, twice a day, supposedly to help our bodies
• 13:10
  process whatever we've been exposed to.
• 13:14
  Bradley explained it like vitamins, just a precaution. 2
• 13:19
  weeks turned into a month. The supplements turned into
• 13:22
  injections, Bradley said the oral medication wasn't absorbing
• 13:26
  properly, needed to deliver it directly into our bloodstream
• 13:29
  for better results. That's when things started
• 13:33
  getting weird. The injections made me feel
• 13:36
  different. Not sick exactly, but like
• 13:40
  something was changing inside my head.
• 13:43
  Sounds seemed louder. Colors looked more intense.
• 13:48
  I'd get these moments where I could swear I heard
• 13:51
  conversations from other rooms, even through the walls.
• 13:55
  Bradley called them side effects normal part of the treatment
• 13:59
  process. Month 2 brought the spinal taps.
• 14:04
  Need to monitor the cerebrospinal fluid, Bradley
• 14:08
  said. Make sure the treatment is
• 14:10
  working properly. They'd strap me to a table,
• 14:14
  stick a needle between my vertebrae and draw out fluid
• 14:17
  that looked like water. The brain scan started around
• 14:21
  the same time. MRI machine that made sounds
• 14:24
  like construction equipment. They'd slide me into this tube
• 14:28
  for an hour at a time, tell me to lie still while it took
• 14:31
  pictures of my skull. Bradley always studied the
• 14:35
  results with this satisfied look, like he was seeing exactly
• 14:40
  what he expected. Then came the sensory
• 14:43
  deprivation. They called it therapeutic
• 14:47
  isolation. Put me in a tank filled with
• 14:50
  salt water, warm as body temperature, in a room with no
• 14:54
  light or sound. Said it would help my brain
• 14:57
  process the treatment more effectively.
• 15:00
  But they added something to the water, some kind of
• 15:04
  hallucinogenic compound that made reality bend in ways that
• 15:07
  shouldn't be possible. I'd float in that tank and watch
• 15:11
  colors that didn't have names, hear voices speaking languages
• 15:14
  that didn't exist. Time stopped making sense.
• 15:19
  Minutes felt like hours, or maybe hours felt like minutes.
• 15:23
  When they'd pull me out, Bradley would ask questions.
• 15:27
  What did I see? What did I hear?
• 15:31
  Could I describe the sensations in detail?
• 15:35
  I started realizing the treatment wasn't about exposure
• 15:37
  to experimental materials. The treatment was the
• 15:41
  experiment, and I was the test subject.
• 15:46
  The vision started around month four.
• 15:50
  I remember because that was when they switched from the blue
• 15:53
  injections to the green ones. The geometric patterns came
• 15:57
  first. I'd be staring at the white
• 16:00
  ceiling in my cell, and suddenly there'd be these overlapping
• 16:03
  triangles floating about 6 inches above my face.
• 16:08
  Perfect angles, sharp edges, but transparent, like someone had
• 16:13
  drawn them on glass and held it between me and the light.
• 16:18
  Took me a few days to figure out they weren't hallucinations.
• 16:21
  The patterns moved with mathematical accuracy.
• 16:25
  Same rotation speed every time. Same sequence of shapes.
• 16:29
  Triangle, hexagon, Octagon, back to triangle. 47 seconds for the
• 16:35
  full cycle. I counted.
• 16:38
  Then the moment started repeating.
• 16:41
  Crystal would walk into my room, carrying the breakfast tray,
• 16:45
  Gray oatmeal, plastic spoon, small cup of water.
• 16:49
  She'd set it on the table, say good morning Travis, and turn to
• 16:52
  leave. But sometimes I'd watch the
• 16:55
  exact same thing happened twice. Not similar.
• 16:59
  Identical. Same words, same movements, same
• 17:04
  tiny pause when she checked the lock on her way out.
• 17:08
  The second version would be slightly different, though.
• 17:11
  Maybe she'd stumble a little, or the spoon would fall off the
• 17:14
  tray. Small variations, like someone
• 17:18
  was running the same scene over and over and changing tiny
• 17:21
  details each time. That's when Doctor Burke and
• 17:25
  Connie got excited. The neural pathways are adapting
• 17:30
  faster than we anticipated, Connie said during one of their
• 17:33
  sessions. They'd hooked me up to more
• 17:36
  machines than usual. Wires stuck to my scalp, sensors
• 17:41
  taped to my wrists, some kind of scanner humming behind my head.
• 17:46
  Dr. Burke was reading numbers off a screen.
• 17:49
  Temporal lobe activity is up 300% from baseline.
• 17:55
  What baseline? I asked.
• 17:58
  They ignored me. That was becoming normal.
• 18:02
  Connie leaned closer to her monitor.
• 18:05
  Look at this pattern. The hippocampus is firing in
• 18:09
  sequences we've never recorded in human subjects because you've
• 18:14
  never done this to human subjects before, I said.
• 18:18
  Doctor Burke finally looked at me.
• 18:20
  The compound is working exactly as designed, Travis.
• 18:24
  Your brain is developing new capabilities.
• 18:27
  My brain is breaking, growing, Connie corrected.
• 18:32
  Neural plasticity beyond anything we thought possible.
• 18:37
  They increase the dose. After that, green injections
• 18:40
  became twice daily instead of once.
• 18:43
  The geometric patterns got more complex, doe decay guns
• 18:48
  impossible shapes with angles that hurt to look at directly,
• 18:52
  and the repeated moments started lasting longer.
• 18:56
  I'd watch crystal walk in with breakfast, then watch it again,
• 18:59
  then a third time with slight variations.
• 19:02
  Sometimes the variations were bigger.
• 19:05
  Once I saw her drop the tray, spill oatmeal everywhere, start
• 19:09
  crying. But that version only lasted
• 19:12
  about 10 seconds before it reset to the normal sequence.
• 19:17
  That's when they moved me to the isolation wing.
• 19:21
  We need to minimize external variables, Dr. Burke explained,
• 19:26
  as two security guards escorted me down a hallway I'd never seen
• 19:30
  before, narrower than the main corridor, with doors spaced
• 19:35
  further apart. The other subjects might be
• 19:39
  interfering with your development, Wesley and Harper.
• 19:44
  I hadn't seen them in weeks anyway, but knowing they were
• 19:48
  still somewhere in the building had been oddly comforting.
• 19:50
  Now I was alone with the patterns and the repeating
• 19:53
  moments and whatever the hell was happening to my brain.
• 19:57
  The isolation cell was smaller than my regular room.
• 20:00
  Just a bed, a toilet. And a table bolted to the wall,
• 20:05
  No window. The air tasted stale, like it
• 20:09
  had been recycled too many times.
• 20:12
  They kept running procedures on Wesley and Harper, though.
• 20:16
  I could hear the equipment sometimes humming through the
• 20:18
  walls late at night. Different rhythms than what they
• 20:22
  used on me, Slower pulses, deeper frequencies.
• 20:27
  Made me wonder what they were trying to turn my friends into.
• 20:31
  The real precognition started during month 7.
• 20:35
  Crystal came in for the afternoon injection like always.
• 20:39
  Same routine, same gentle smile that didn't quite reach her
• 20:42
  eyes. She was preparing the syringe
• 20:46
  when I saw her collapse. Not the repeating moment thing.
• 20:51
  This was different, sharp and immediate and absolutely
• 20:55
  certain. Crystal falling forward, hitting
• 20:58
  the table, her body's seizing while the syringe rolled across
• 21:02
  the floor. 3 seconds later it happened exactly like I'd seen
• 21:07
  it. I was already moving when she
• 21:11
  started to fall, caught her before she hit the table.
• 21:15
  The syringe clattered to the ground but didn't break.
• 21:19
  Crystal's eyes rolled back and her whole body went rigid, then
• 21:23
  started jerking in these violent spasms.
• 21:27
  Help. I yelled toward the door.
• 21:30
  Something's wrong. Security guards came running,
• 21:34
  medical team right behind them. They got Crystal stabilized,
• 21:37
  carried her out on a stretcher. Dr. Burke arrived about 10
• 21:41
  minutes later with Connie and two people I didn't recognize.
• 21:46
  Tell me exactly what you saw, Doctor, Burke said.
• 21:50
  So I did describe the vision, the timing, how certain I'd been
• 21:55
  that it was about to happen. Connie was practically bouncing.
• 22:01
  Genuine precognitive ability, Not just temporal displacement,
• 22:05
  but actual future sight. How far ahead?
• 22:11
  One of the strangers asked. 3 seconds, I said.
• 22:16
  That's incredible, the stranger continued.
• 22:20
  The implications for early warning systems, accident
• 22:23
  prevention, military applications, it doesn't work
• 22:27
  like that, I interrupted. They all looked at me.
• 22:33
  The visions aren't simple predictions.
• 22:36
  They create feedback loops. Every time I see something
• 22:40
  that's about to happen, it splits into possibility
• 22:43
  branches, multiple versions trying to exist at the same
• 22:47
  time. Doctor Burke frowned.
• 22:51
  Explain. When I saw Crystal collapse, I
• 22:56
  also saw versions where she didn't collapse, where she
• 22:59
  finished the injection normally, where she dropped the syringe
• 23:03
  but stayed standing. All those possibilities tried to
• 23:07
  happen simultaneously. In my head, Connie was taking
• 23:11
  notes. How many variations?
• 23:16
  Infinite, I said. Every tiny choice, every
• 23:20
  microscopic change creates new branches, and I can see all of
• 23:24
  them at once. That's not possible, the second
• 23:28
  stranger said. Tell that to my brain.
• 23:32
  But they weren't listening anymore.
• 23:35
  They were too busy celebrating their breakthrough, planning
• 23:38
  their next phase. I could see it in their faces,
• 23:41
  that excited gleam that scientists get when they think
• 23:45
  they've discovered something revolutionary.
• 23:48
  Doctor Burke scheduled an emergency meeting.
• 23:51
  Connie started preparing new compounds.
• 23:54
  The strangers made phone calls about funding and timelines and
• 23:57
  field applications. They gave me the enhanced
• 24:01
  injection 2 days later. Same green liquid, but darker,
• 24:05
  thicker. It burned going into my arm,
• 24:09
  left this metallic taste that lingered for hours.
• 24:13
  This is our most advanced formula, Connie explained as she
• 24:17
  withdrew the needle. Concentrated neural accelerants,
• 24:21
  Targeted neurotransmitter modulators, compounds we've been
• 24:25
  developing specifically for you. What's it supposed to do?
• 24:30
  Expand your range? Increase clarity?
• 24:34
  We think you might be able to see minutes ahead instead of
• 24:36
  seconds. The transport came that
• 24:40
  afternoon. 2 black SUVs, professional drivers, security
• 24:45
  team in tactical gear. Doctor Burke sat across from me
• 24:49
  in the back seat as we drove through Chicago traffic toward
• 24:52
  downtown. Where are we going?
• 24:56
  Field test, she said. Controlled environment, but with
• 25:00
  real variables. We need to see how your
• 25:03
  abilities function outside the facility, the Willis Tower.
• 25:09
  I recognized it as we pulled up to the entrance.
• 25:13
  They'd reserve the entire observation deck, somehow
• 25:15
  cleared out all the tourists, just us and the equipment
• 25:19
  they've been setting up all morning.
• 25:22
  Connie was waiting with her monitors and sensors, ready for
• 25:26
  the real test. Travis, 18 minutes left.
• 25:32
  I could see Burke checking her watch again.
• 25:36
  Bradley wanted a demonstration, I said.
• 25:39
  Real world application of enhanced precognitive ability.
• 25:43
  He'd been pushing for field testing since month 6, but the
• 25:47
  other researchers kept saying I wasn't stable enough.
• 25:50
  I shifted in the chair. The straps were cutting into my
• 25:53
  wrists, but I'd gotten used to that years ago.
• 25:57
  April 22nd. That's when Bradley finally got
• 26:01
  approval. They loaded me into a van at
• 26:04
  4:00 in the morning, drove me downtown to the Willis Tower,
• 26:08
  took the elevator up to the observation deck.
• 26:12
  Burke was writing again, fast, little scratches across her
• 26:16
  notepad. They'd cleared the whole thing
• 26:19
  out somehow. No tourists, no staff except the
• 26:23
  security guy. Bradley had paid off.
• 26:26
  Just me and Connie with her equipment cart, all those
• 26:29
  monitors and sensors she'd been hooking me up to for months.
• 26:33
  The memory was sharp, clearer than most things from that time,
• 26:38
  probably because of what happened after.
• 26:42
  Bradley told me to look out over the city and describe what I saw
• 26:45
  happening in the next hour. Every detail I could pick up he
• 26:50
  wanted. Specifics.
• 26:51
  Names, locations, exact times. Said this was my chance to prove
• 26:57
  the program worked. I closed my eyes for a second.
• 27:02
  Even now, talking about it, I could feel that familiar
• 27:05
  pressure building behind my forehead.
• 27:08
  The thing about precognition nobody understands is how it
• 27:12
  spreads. It's not like looking through a
• 27:15
  window at future events. It's more like stepping into a
• 27:18
  river. And that river connects to every
• 27:21
  other river. Burke looked up from her notes.
• 27:26
  Explain that I focused on one person first.
• 27:31
  Guy in a brown coat walking down Michigan Ave.
• 27:34
  Simple enough, right? I could see him stopping at a
• 27:37
  coffee cart in about 12 minutes, ordering a large dark roast,
• 27:43
  paying with exact change. The pressure was getting
• 27:47
  stronger. Just talking about it brought
• 27:50
  some of it back. But then I saw the woman behind
• 27:55
  him in line. She'd order a latte.
• 27:58
  The barista would be out of oat milk, so she'd get regular
• 28:01
  instead. She'd be late for her meeting
• 28:03
  because of the extra wait time. I opened my eyes.
• 28:08
  Burke was staring at me now. The meeting she'd be late for
• 28:13
  involved six other people. I could see all of them too.
• 28:17
  What they decide because she wasn't there on time.
• 28:21
  How that would change their next decisions, their next meetings,
• 28:25
  The people they'd call. My voice was getting quieter.
• 28:30
  I always talked quieter when I remembered this part.
• 28:34
  It cascades. One person leads to 10/10, leads
• 28:38
  to 100. A hundred leads to 10,000.
• 28:42
  Bradley wanted me to predict one hour across the entire city of
• 28:46
  Chicago. That's 2 million people making
• 28:49
  choices that affect other people making choices.
• 28:53
  I looked at the clock. 16 minutes.
• 28:58
  My mind tried to process all of it at once.
• 29:01
  Every possible future for every person in range.
• 29:05
  The guy in the brown coat and his coffee and the ripple
• 29:08
  effects of that coffee threw 60 more interactions.
• 29:11
  The woman with the latte and her delayed meeting and how that
• 29:15
  would change. Six companies.
• 29:16
  Quarterly reports Burke had stopped writing.
• 29:20
  Her pen was just hovering over the page.
• 29:23
  That's when it happened. The overload.
• 29:26
  My brain couldn't contain all those future pathways.
• 29:29
  So it did what brains do when they're overwhelmed.
• 29:33
  It discharged. The room felt smaller suddenly,
• 29:37
  like the walls were moving in psychic shockwave.
• 29:42
  That's what Bradley called it later in his reports.
• 29:46
  My enhanced precognitive ability erupted outward from the Willis
• 29:49
  Tower and infected every person within approximately a 12 mile
• 29:53
  radius. Burke's face had gone pale.
• 29:58
  She was starting to understand. But here's what Bradley got
• 30:03
  wrong in those reports, what everyone got wrong.
• 30:07
  The victims didn't experience mass psychosis.
• 30:11
  They didn't start hallucinating or lose touch with reality.
• 30:16
  I leaned forward as much as the restraints would let me.
• 30:20
  They experienced exactly what I've been experiencing.
• 30:24
  Simultaneous precognitive overload.
• 30:28
  Every single one of them. 14 minutes.
• 30:33
  Jordan Gardner was operating a Red Line train when it hit him.
• 30:36
  Suddenly he could see every possible future for the next
• 30:40
  hour, his train crashing into the station, his train stopping
• 30:44
  perfectly at the platform, his train derailing on the curve
• 30:48
  before Fullerton, thousands of variations playing out in his
• 30:52
  head all at once. Burke was gripping her pen so
• 30:55
  tight her knuckles were white. He saw himself pulling the
• 31:00
  emergency brake, saw himself not pulling it, saw passengers
• 31:05
  screaming, saw passengers reading newspapers like nothing
• 31:09
  was wrong. Every choice branching into more
• 31:12
  choices, all of them equally real until one actually
• 31:16
  happened. I paused, let that sink in.
• 31:22
  The only thing that ended the visions for Jordan was making
• 31:25
  one real choice. He pulled the brake hard stop,
• 31:29
  threw half the passengers out of their seats, but the train
• 31:32
  didn't crash. That single definitive action
• 31:35
  collapsed all the other possibilities.
• 31:38
  The fluorescent light above us was buzzing, Probably needed to
• 31:42
  be replaced. Rita Dean was dropping her four
• 31:46
  year old daughter off at daycare.
• 31:49
  The precognitive wave hit her right as she was walking up the
• 31:52
  front steps. Suddenly she could see every way
• 31:55
  her daughter might die in the next hour.
• 31:58
  Burke made a small sound. Might have been a gasp.
• 32:02
  Choking on a toy, falling down the stairs.
• 32:06
  Getting hit by a car that jumped the curb.
• 32:09
  Allergic reaction to something in her lunch. 47 different death
• 32:14
  scenarios playing simultaneously in Rita's mind, all of them
• 32:18
  vivid and immediate and absolutely certain.
• 32:22
  I could see Burke's hands shaking now.
• 32:26
  Rita broke completely, started screaming about all the dangers,
• 32:31
  tried to grab her daughter and run, but everywhere she looked
• 32:35
  she saw more death. Every choice led to catastrophe.
• 32:40
  Pick up the child and slip on the wet steps.
• 32:43
  Don't pick up the child and watch her wander into traffic.
• 32:48
  12 minutes. The daycare workers thought Rita
• 32:52
  had snapped, Called security, called the police, called an
• 32:56
  ambulance. But Rita wasn't crazy.
• 33:00
  She was experiencing the same precognitive feedback loop that
• 33:03
  it consumed me. She could see everything that
• 33:07
  might happen and couldn't make any choice because every choice
• 33:11
  led to disaster. I closed my eyes again.
• 33:16
  This part always made me tired. 200,000 people across Chicago
• 33:22
  experience the same thing. Bus drivers seeing every
• 33:25
  possible accident. Doctors seeing every way their
• 33:29
  patients could die. Parents seeing infinite dangers
• 33:32
  to their children. Construction workers seeing
• 33:35
  buildings collapse in 1000 different ways.
• 33:39
  The room was completely quiet except for the clock ticking and
• 33:42
  that buzzing light. Most of them couldn't handle it.
• 33:47
  The human mind isn't designed to process unlimited possibility.
• 33:52
  Some had complete psychological breaks.
• 33:55
  Others just shut down, went catatonic.
• 33:59
  The lucky ones found ways to make definitive choices that
• 34:02
  collapse the visions. I opened my eyes and looked
• 34:06
  straight at Burke, but the damage was done. 200,000 people
• 34:12
  traumatized by experiencing the same precognitive overload I've
• 34:17
  been subjected to for months. Except they got it all at once
• 34:22
  with no preparation, no gradual conditioning.
• 34:27
  Burke was staring at me like she was seeing me for the first
• 34:30
  time. The suicide started that night.
• 34:34
  People who couldn't stop seeing every terrible future.
• 34:38
  The hospitalizations continued for weeks.
• 34:41
  Mass psychological trauma on a scale nobody had ever
• 34:44
  documented. 10 minutes. Bradley covered it up, blamed it
• 34:51
  on a gas leak that caused mass hallucinations.
• 34:53
  Paid off. The right people buried the real
• 34:56
  reports. But I knew what really happened
• 34:59
  because I caused it. I looked at the clock again.
• 35:04
  Burke followed my gaze. 7 minutes left, Doctor Burke.
• 35:09
  Time for the crucial part. She was completely still now,
• 35:15
  waiting. That compound you just injected
• 35:19
  me with, the one that's supposed to neutralize my abilities
• 35:22
  before the execution. Burke's eyes widened.
• 35:28
  It's identical to the enhancement compound they used
• 35:31
  in Chicago. Same chemical structure, same
• 35:34
  neural pathways, same exponential amplification
• 35:37
  effect. Burke's face went completely
• 35:41
  white. The pen fell out of her hand as
• 35:44
  clattered on the floor. You didn't give me a
• 35:47
  neutralizer, Dr. Burke. You just gave me the biggest
• 35:51
  dose of enhancement serum I've ever received. 7 minutes on the
• 35:57
  clock. The thing about visions is they
• 36:00
  don't come with instruction manuals. 3 years ago when this
• 36:04
  exact moment happened, the first time I've been screaming and
• 36:08
  convulsing on the same table while Burke pumped me full of
• 36:11
  whatever cocktail they'd cooked up that week.
• 36:14
  The geometric patterns had exploded behind my eyes like
• 36:18
  broken glass, each fragment showing me a different death, a
• 36:22
  different way the world could end in the next few minutes.
• 36:27
  I've been drowning in it back then, couldn't tell which
• 36:31
  timeline was real, couldn't focus on anything except the
• 36:34
  overwhelming flood of possibilities crashing through
• 36:37
  my skull. Burke had been taking notes
• 36:41
  while I bled from my nose and begged them to make it stop.
• 36:45
  Now I understood the difference. The visions weren't happening to
• 36:48
  me anymore. I was directing them.
• 36:53
  Burke's voice cut through the lab noise.
• 36:55
  Emergency sedation protocol. Patrick prep the She stopped mid
• 37:00
  sentence. Patrick Park had been reaching
• 37:03
  for the sedation cart when his hands started shaking.
• 37:07
  Not the normal kind of shaking you get when you're nervous.
• 37:11
  The kind where your whole nervous system decides to quit
• 37:13
  working. Patrick.
• 37:17
  Lillian called from across the room.
• 37:19
  She'd been monitoring my vitals on her tablet, probably
• 37:22
  wondering why my heart rate had dropped to something close to
• 37:25
  meditation levels instead of spiking like it usually did
• 37:28
  during enhancement procedures. Patrick's tablet clattered to
• 37:32
  the floor. His knees buckled and he grabbed
• 37:35
  the edge of the medical cart, but his fingers wouldn't grip
• 37:38
  properly, just slid right off the metal rail.
• 37:43
  Sir. That was Frederick Warren's
• 37:46
  voice from the observation window above us.
• 37:50
  The security chief sounded confused, which was new for him.
• 37:55
  Guy normally had two modes, following orders and giving
• 37:58
  orders. Confusion wasn't in his
• 38:01
  vocabulary. I felt the compound hitting my
• 38:04
  bloodstream like liquid fire, but this time I knew what to do
• 38:07
  with it. Instead of letting the vision
• 38:10
  scatter in every direction, I gathered them up, focus them,
• 38:15
  aim them like a weapon. Three years of practice had
• 38:20
  taught me something Burke and her team never figured out.
• 38:23
  The precognitive ability wasn't just about seeing the future, it
• 38:28
  was about broadcasting it. Lillian dropped her tablet.
• 38:33
  The screen cracked when it hit the concrete floor, but she
• 38:36
  didn't seem to notice. She was staring at something I
• 38:40
  couldn't see, something that was making her face go white.
• 38:45
  What did you do? Burke whispered.
• 38:49
  She was still standing next to my table, but her hands had
• 38:52
  started trembling. The confidence she'd worn like
• 38:55
  armor for the past four years was cracking.
• 38:59
  I looked up at her. I'm showing everyone their next
• 39:03
  60 seconds. That was when Frederick Warren
• 39:07
  fell out of his chair in the observation deck.
• 39:11
  I heard the crash through the speakers, followed by what
• 39:13
  sounded like him trying to crawl away from something.
• 39:17
  His breathing was coming in short gasps, the kind you make
• 39:21
  when you're trying not to scream.
• 39:24
  The thing about the self destruct sequence I triggered
• 39:26
  during the injection was that it existed.
• 39:30
  Not in this timeline, not yet, but it was there in the
• 39:34
  branching possibilities. One decision away, 1 system
• 39:40
  failure away, 1 keystroke away from becoming real.
• 39:45
  I'd seen it happen dozens of times during my training
• 39:48
  sessions. The facility's fail safe
• 39:51
  protocols were designed to contain any kind of psychic
• 39:54
  outbreak by eliminating everything within a five mile
• 39:57
  radius. Nerve gas through the
• 40:00
  ventilation system. Thermite charges in the
• 40:03
  structural supports a final electromagnetic pulse to fry any
• 40:08
  electronics that might contain traces of the experiments.
• 40:13
  Burke and her team had built their own death trap, and now I
• 40:17
  was making them experience it as if it had already happened.
• 40:21
  Patrick was on his knees next to the medical cart, clutching his
• 40:24
  throat. His eyes were bulging like he
• 40:27
  couldn't breathe, even though the air in the lab was fine.
• 40:32
  His body was responding to the nerve gas he was experiencing in
• 40:35
  the vision, the chemical that would flood his lungs in exactly
• 40:39
  43 seconds if that particular timeline came to pass.
• 40:44
  Lillian had collapsed against the wall.
• 40:47
  She was holding her stomach and dry heaving, her face twisted in
• 40:51
  pain. The thermite charge that would
• 40:54
  gut this section of the facility was burning through her abdomen.
• 40:58
  In the vision I was feeding her, the heat was so real to her
• 41:03
  nervous system that her skin was actually turning red.
• 41:07
  Frederick Warren's voice came through the speakers again, but
• 41:11
  it wasn't words anymore, just animal sounds, terror and pain
• 41:17
  mixed together. In his timeline, the
• 41:20
  electromagnetic pulse had fried the observation deck's
• 41:23
  electrical systems and locked him inside while the structure
• 41:26
  collapsed. He was experiencing every second
• 41:30
  of being crushed under concrete and steel.
• 41:34
  Burke was the last one standing. She was gripping the edge of my
• 41:38
  table so hard her knuckles had gone white, trying to stay
• 41:42
  upright while her mind processed what it was seeing.
• 41:46
  The nerve gas timeline. The one where she'd be conscious
• 41:50
  for about 30 seconds after the first breath.
• 41:53
  Long enough to understand what was happening, but not long
• 41:57
  enough to do anything about it. This isn't real, she said.
• 42:04
  Her voice was shaking. These are just visions.
• 42:08
  Possibilities. I shifted on the table.
• 42:12
  The restraints were still locked, but I could feel the
• 42:15
  facilities biosign monitors starting to flatline as the
• 42:19
  staff experienced their deaths. The automatic systems would
• 42:23
  release all security protocols in about 15 seconds.
• 42:28
  You're right, I said. They're just possibilities, but
• 42:33
  your brain doesn't know the difference.
• 42:36
  The feedback loop was the beautiful part.
• 42:39
  Their minds experienced the deaths as absolute certainty,
• 42:42
  because that's how precognitive visions worked.
• 42:45
  No uncertainty, no doubt, just the cold knowledge of what was
• 42:49
  coming. And when your brain knows you're
• 42:52
  dead, your body starts shutting down to match.
• 42:56
  Burke's legs gave out. She slumped against the table,
• 43:00
  her breathing shallow and rapid. The vision was showing her the
• 43:05
  exact moment the nerve gas would reach her bloodstream, the
• 43:09
  specific way her nervous system would shut down.
• 43:12
  The sensation of her heart stopping her body was making it
• 43:17
  real. The restraint locks clicked open
• 43:21
  with a soft mechanical sound. All the bio signs in the
• 43:25
  facility had flat lined, triggering the emergency release
• 43:28
  protocols. I sat up slowly, working,
• 43:32
  feeling back into my wrists and ankles.
• 43:36
  Patrick was motionless on the floor next to the medical cart.
• 43:40
  Lillian had stopped moving against the wall, her hand still
• 43:44
  pressed to her stomach where the thermite burn felt real.
• 43:48
  Frederick Warren's voice had gone quiet over the speakers.
• 43:52
  Burke was still breathing, but barely.
• 43:56
  Her eyes were open and staring at something I couldn't see,
• 44:00
  something that was killing her, one cell at a time.
• 44:05
  I stood up from the table. My legs were shaky after being
• 44:09
  strapped down for four hours, but they held.
• 44:13
  I walked past Burke without looking at her, past Patrick and
• 44:17
  his scattered equipment, past Lillian and her crack tablet.
• 44:21
  The lab door was unlocked. Another automatic response to
• 44:24
  the facility wide bio sign failure.
• 44:27
  I stepped into the hallway and oriented myself.
• 44:30
  The main corridor stretched in both directions, lined with
• 44:33
  doors I'd memorized during my transfer walks. 37 other test
• 44:38
  subjects were locked somewhere in these wings.
• 44:41
  Wesley and Harper if they'd survived the past three years.
• 44:46
  Others I'd never met but heard screaming through the
• 44:48
  ventilation shafts. The facilities emergency
• 44:51
  lighting had kicked on, bathing everything in red.
• 44:55
  The hallway looked like the inside of a blood vessel to
• 45:00
  check the countdown timer on the wall display. 60 seconds before
• 45:04
  the actual fail safes triggered. 60 seconds before the self
• 45:08
  destruct sequence I'd shown everyone became real instead of
• 45:12
  just a vision. 60 seconds to find the others and get them
• 45:16
  out, or to make sure we all died together in the rubble.
• 45:22
  I started running toward the detention wing.