Latest / Martin Animations / While Boarding The Plane_ The Flight Attendant Asked_ _Did You Say Goodbye To Everyone Important

Transcript

While Boarding The Plane_ The Flight Attendant Asked_ _Did You Say Goodbye To Everyone Important · Martin Animations

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: While boarding the plane, the flight attendant asked, Did you
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: say goodbye to everyone important? I was fumbling with my phone,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: trying to text my brother about picking me up from SeaTac,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: when the flight attendant grabbed my wrist, not gently, but
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with enough force to make me look up from the screen.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Did you say goodbye to everyone important? She asked, her
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: grip tightening when I tried to pull away. Her name
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: tag said, Patricia, and her eyes had this haunted quality
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: that made my skin crawl. It's just a three-hour flight
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to Seattle, I said, confused and slightly annoyed. There were
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: people backing up behind me in the jet bridge, starting
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to grumble about the holdup. Patricia didn't let go. Instead,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: she leaned in closer, and I could smell coffee and
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: something medicinal on her breath.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: That's not what I asked. Did you say goodbye? Really
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: say it?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: The kind where you tell them things you've been meaning
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to say? Lady, you're hurting my arm, I said. And
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: finally she released me, but not before pressing something into
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: my palm, a folded piece of paper. Seat 23F, she whispered.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Watch the man in 23F, and whatever you do, don't
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: volunteer for anything. She plastered on a fake smile and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: greeted the next passenger like nothing had happened, leaving me
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to stumble into the plane with my heart racing. My
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: seat was 14A, a window in economy. I shoved my
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: carry-on into the overhead bin and sat down, unfolding the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: paper Patricia had given me. It was a photocopy of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a news article from 1987. Seven missing after flight 447
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: emergency landing. Investigators baffled. The details were sparse, but apparently
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: seven passengers had vanished during what the airline called severe
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: turbulence over Montana. No bodies were ever found. Heavy reading
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: for a flight, said the woman settling into 14B. She
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: was probably mid-60s, wearing a University of Washington sweatshirt. I'm Ruth,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: she offered, extending her hand. I shook it, introducing myself
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: as David. while trying to discreetly look back at row 23.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: A heavyset man in a wrinkled business suit was wedging
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: himself into seat F, already sweating despite the cold air
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: blasting from the vents. As more passengers boarded, I noticed
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Patricia having intense conversations with specific people. She'd check their
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: boarding pass, ask them something that made them look disturbed.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Then move on.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: A young woman in military fatigues got the same treatment,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: as did an elderly priest, a teenager with a skateboard,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and several others. Each one looked shaken after talking to her.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: The captain's voice came over the intercom, but it wasn't
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the usual cheerful welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Morrison.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome aboard Flight 447 to Seattle. We're aware of the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: unique conditions today. Crew, please prepare for Protocol 7. The
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: flight attendants exchanged glances that looked like barely controlled panic.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Ruth nudged me.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Protocol 7? I've been flying for 40 years and never
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: heard of that. I was about to respond when the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: plane lurched forward, pushing back from the gate with unusual urgency.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Through my window, I I could see ground crew members
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: stepping back quickly, some of them crossing themselves. Twenty minutes
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: after takeoff, cruising at 35,000 feet, everything seemed normal. The
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: drink cart was making its way down the aisle, people
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: were reading or sleeping, and I'd almost convinced myself that
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Patricia was just having a mental breakdown. Then the temperature dropped.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Not gradually, but instantly, like we'd flown into a freezer.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Frost started forming on the inside of my window. The
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: plane shuddered, not turbulence but something else, like we'd hit
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: an invisible wall. The lights flickered and died, emergency lighting
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: casting everything in a sick green glow. People started screaming.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: The man in 23F stood up, shouting, Not again! I
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: won't do it again! Patricia rushed to him, pushing him
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: back into his seat, but he was sobbing now, repeating,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: not again, over and over. Captain Morrison's voice cut through
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the chaos, steady but strained. Ladies and gentlemen, we've entered
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: what we call a temporal pocket. This is the 847th
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: time Flight 447 has encountered this anomaly. We need seven volunteers,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: or we all repeat this loop forever. The cabin went silent,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: except for the sound of the engines, which had taken
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: on a weird harmonic that hurt my teeth. A man
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: in first class stood up, This is insane. You can't
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: be serious. But Patricia pulled out an iPad and started
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: showing him something. Whatever was on that screen made him
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: sink back into his seat, face white. She moved through
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the cabin, showing select passengers something on her screen. Each
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: one who looked had the same reaction. Horror, then resignation.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: What happens if no one volunteers?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Ruth asked loudly.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Patricia turned to address the whole cabin. Then we crash,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: over and over. We've been through this loop 846 times.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Each time- If seven don't sacrifice themselves, we reset to
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: take off and do it again. Everyone on board retains
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: their memories of the previous loops after about the 20th repetition.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: My mind was reeling. This couldn't be real. But the
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: man in 23F stood up again, more composed now. I'm
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Marcus Henderson. I've been on this flight 17 times trying
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to work up the courage. I embezzled $ 8 million from
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a children's cancer charity. Three kids died because they couldn't
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: afford experimental treatments. He walked toward the front of the plane.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: The elderly priest followed. Father Timothy O'Brien, I protected pedophile
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: priests for 37 years, moved them to new parishes, silenced families.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: His voice was steady. Resigned.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I've been riding this flight for six months, knowing eventually
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I'd be chosen. One by one, People started standing up,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: not randomly, but specific passengers, like they'd been marked somehow.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: The teenager with the skateboard couldn't have been more than sixteen.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I set the fire, he said, voice cracking. The apartment
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: building fire in Portland. I was high, thought it would
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: be funny to light some trash on fire. Eleven people died.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Ruth grabbed my arm so hard her nails dug in.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: This can't be happening. This is mass hysteria or something.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: But I could feel it too. The wrongness in the air.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: The way reality seemed thin and brittle around us. The
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: frost on my window was spreading, forming patterns that looked
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: almost like faces. Patricia was standing by what looked like
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: a service door. But when she opened it, instead of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: explosive decompression, there was just nothing.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Not sky. Not ground.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Just an absolute void that hurt to look at. The
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: anomaly requires payment, she announced. Seven souls with sufficient weight
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: of guilt. It's the only way to break through. A
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: woman in a business suit stood up. Miranda Chen. I
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: knowingly sold contaminated baby formula in Southeast Asia.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Hundreds of infants got sick. Dozens died.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: She walked toward the void without hesitation. I've been running
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: from this for three years. I'm tired of running. Four down.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Three to go.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: The cabin was deathly silent. Except for some quiet sobbing.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I found myself mentally cataloging my own sins. The hit
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and run in college where I'd clipped a cyclist and
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: drove off. The time I'd stolen money from my grandmother
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: with dementia. The affair that destroyed my best friend's marriage.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Were any of them enough? Did I want them to be?
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: A young woman, maybe mid-twenties, stood up shakily.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: I'm Jennifer. I was texting and driving. Hit a family
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: of four. The kids. The kids were twins. Three years old.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: She was crying so hard she could barely walk. But
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: she made it to the void. Their names were Emma
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and Ethan. I think about them every day. Patricia checked
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: her iPad.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Two more.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: The anomaly is very specific about the number. She started
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: walking down the aisle, that device in her hand seeming
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: to pulse with a light that shouldn't exist. When she
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: passed certain passengers, it glowed brighter. She stopped at row 31,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: showing the screen to a man in a doctor's coat.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: He stood up immediately.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Paul Reeves, I've been selling organs, taking them from patients
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: who aren't quite dead yet, saying they died on the table.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Fifteen people over five years. He laughed bitterly.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I bought a yacht with the money, named it Second Chance.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Ironic, right?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: He walked to the void and stepped through without looking back.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: one more patricia's device was going crazy now lighting up
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: like a christmas tree she stopped at row 8 where
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the woman in military fatigue sat but the soldier shook
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: her head i killed in war under orders that's not
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the same patricia moved on her device leading her through
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the cabin like a dowsing rod she stopped at my
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: row the device was pointed not at me but at
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: ruth ruth's face crumbled No, I'm a grandmother. I have
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: grandchildren who need me. But Patricia turned the iPad toward her,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and I caught a glimpse of the screen. It showed Ruth, younger,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: in a nurse's uniform, injecting something into an IV. Then
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: another image, and another. Dozens of them. Ruth Morrison, Patricia
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: said quietly. 37 counts of medical murder over 12 years.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: You called yourself an angel of mercy, but you just.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Liked the power. Ruth was shaking her head, but tears
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: were streaming down her face. They were suffering. she whispered.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: They wanted to go. Some of them, Patricia agreed. But
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: not all. The device doesn't lie. It reads guilt. Actual guilt.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Not rationalization. Ruth looked at me, and for a moment
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: I saw the real her. Not the grandmother in the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: university sweatshirt, but someone capable of playing God with other
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: people's lives.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: She stood up slowly, joints creaking. Will it hurt?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: She asked Patricia. No, Patricia replied. It's like stepping through
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: a door. On the other side is … nothing.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Or everything. The reports vary.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Ruth laughed, a sound like breaking glass. I always wondered
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: what came next. Guess I'll find out. She walked to
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: the void, paused at the threshold, then turned back to
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the cabin. For what it's worth, I really did think
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I was helping them.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Most of them.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Then she stepped through and was gone. The moment the
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: seventh person disappeared, the void snapped shut with a sound
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: like thunder. The plane lurched, the lights came back on,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and suddenly we were flying through clear blue sky like
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: nothing had happened. The captain came on the intercom, his
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: voice normal now, cheerful even. Ladies and gentlemen, we're beginning
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: our descent into Seattle. Weather looks perfect for landing, but
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: we all remembered. Every passenger sat in stunned silence, processing
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: what we'd just witnessed. Seven people had walked into nothingness
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: to save the rest of us. Their seats sat empty,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: their belongings still in place. Marcus's coffee was still steaming.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Ruth's crossword puzzle was half finished, her reading glasses folded
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: on the tray table. Patricia walked down the aisle with
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: a cart full of documents. The airline requires all passengers
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: to sign these NDAs. Refusal will result in placement on
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: a permanent no-fly list. You'll also receive compensation of $ 50, 000
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: for your discretion. She said it like she was offering
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: peanuts or pretzels, routine and practiced. How long has this
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: been happening? I asked her when she reached my row.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: She paused, considering whether to answer. Every flight 447 since 1987.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Same route, same requirement. Seven souls with sufficient guilt to
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: pay the toll. She handed me the papers. Sign or
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: don't sign. Either way, you can never speak of this publicly.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Why warn people? Why ask about goodbyes?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I pressed.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: She looked exhausted suddenly. every one of those 847 flights
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: showing in her eyes. Because sometimes the chosen ones have
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: young children, dying parents, people who need them despite what
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: they've done. The goodbye question helps identify those with strong
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: anchors to this world. Sometimes that's enough to shift the selection.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I signed the papers. What else could I do? But
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I couldn't stop thinking about Ruth, about how normal she'd seemed.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: How many killers were walking around looking like grandmothers? How
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: many of us carried enough guilt to feed an anomaly's hunger?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: The landing was smooth, typical Seattle drizzle greeting us as
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: we taxied to the gate. As we filed off the plane,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I passed the empty seats of the seven. Each one
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: had been marked with a small placard. Passenger to plane
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: during service. Like they'd just gotten off early somehow. In
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the terminal, men in suits were waiting to escort us
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to a private room. The lead attorney- a woman who
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: introduced herself as Ms. Crawford, explained the situation with clinical detachment.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: What you experienced was a localized temporal anomaly that requires
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: biological payment to traverse. Think of it as a toll
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: booth between dimensions. The seven who volunteered allowed the rest
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: of you to pass through safely.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Volunteered? Someone scoffed. They were coerced. Ms.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Crawford shook her head. They were selected based on their
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: guilt signatures, but the final choice was theirs.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: They could have refused.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Then seven others would have been selected and so on,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: until we had the required payment, or until the plane crashed,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: triggering another loop. She pulled up a presentation on the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: wall screen, showing a map with various flight routes marked
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: in red flight 447 is not unique there are 17
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: known anomaly routes worldwide each has its own requirements flight
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: 923 to denver requires three flight 666 to vegas requires 13.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: we've been managing these passages for decades Why not just
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: stop flying these routes?
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: A passenger asked.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Ms. Crawford clicked to the next slide, showing a graph.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: The anomalies are growing. If we don't feed them regularly,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: they expand. The last time we tried to abandon a route,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: in 2003, the anomaly consumed the entire airport. 1,147 casualties.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Now we maintain the schedule and manage the cost. She
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: explained that passengers were selected using an algorithm that measured
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: what they called karmic debt. actions that had caused suffering
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to others, weighted by intentionality and harm caused. The flight
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: attendant's devices could read these signatures, identifying potential candidates. It's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: not perfect, she admitted, but it's better than random selection.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: What about the families of the seven, I asked. Standard
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: aviation insurance policies, mechanical failure over mountainous terrain, bodies unrecoverable.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Their families are compensated well above standard rates. She pulled
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: out seven files.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Henderson's embezzlement victims will receive anonymous donations totaling his entire estate.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Father O'Brien's victims are being contacted for settlement offers. We
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: try to create some balance. After three hours of briefing
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: and paperwork, they released us with our NDAs and our
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: guilt money. My brother was waiting at pickup, complaining about
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the delay. I told him the flight was fine, just
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: some weather. He didn't notice my hands shaking as I
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: loaded my bag into his car. That night, I couldn't sleep.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I kept thinking about the void, about the way reality
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: had bent around it. I started researching, finding breadcrumbs of
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: truth among conspiracy theories, reports of missing passengers that didn't
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: quite add up, statistical anomalies in aviation casualties, always in
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: groups of seven, three, or thirteen, depending on the route.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: A week later, Patricia called me. I don't know how
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: she got my number. You're looking into things you shouldn't,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: she said without preamble. I'm trying to understand, I replied.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: She sighed. Meet me at the Pike Place Market. Noon tomorrow.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Come alone.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I found her at a coffee shop overlooking the sound,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: looking older in civilian clothes. I've been flying that route
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: for twelve years, she said. I've selected 1,428 people for
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the void. I remember every one of their names, their confessions,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the look in their eyes when they realized they'd been chosen.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: How do you live with it? I asked. She laughed bitterly.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I don't. I exist with it.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I tell myself I'm saving 180 people each flight. That
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the seven I choose are guilty of terrible things but
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: guilt is complicated isn't it? Some of them were broken
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: people who made horrible mistakes. Others were genuine monsters. The
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: device doesn't distinguish. She told me about the other flight
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: attendants who'd quit. unable to handle the selection process. Several
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: had committed suicide. Others had disappeared, possibly taking international flights
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: to escape, possibly selected themselves on other anomaly routes. We're
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: marked by what we've done, she said. The devices can
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: read it on us too. Eventually we all pay the toll.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Why tell me this?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I asked. She pulled out a business card. Because you're
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: going to be recruited.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Passengers who survive flight 447 and show curiosity rather than
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: trauma- are flagged as potential employees. The airline needs people
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: who can handle the truth, who can make the hard choices.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: She stood to leave.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: When they call, and they will, remember that saying no
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: is also a choice, just not one without consequences. Two
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: weeks later, the call came. A job offer with American Airlines,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: specifically for their Special Routes Division. The salary was three
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: times what I made as a software developer. The benefits
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: were unbelievable. The job description was deliberately vague, talking about
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: passenger safety assessment and route anomaly management.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I turned it down.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: They called again, increasing the offer. I turned it down again.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Then my brother called me, panicked. He'd been bumped to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: flight 447 for his business trip next month. Weird thing,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: he said. They upgraded me to first class for free.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Said I was a valued customer but I've only flown
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: with them twice. The message was clear. I called the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: airline back and accepted the position. My training took place
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: in a facility outside Amarillo, hidden in plain sight as
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: a corporate retreat center. There were 12 of us in
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the program, all survivors of various anomaly flights. We learned
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: about the history of the rifts. the theory behind their existence,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the moral frameworks used to justify the selection process.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Kane, the lead researcher, explained that the anomalies were
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: tears in space-time caused by humanity's collective guilt. Think of
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: it as karmic pollution, she said. The weight of unpunished crimes,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: unconfessed sins, unresolved guilt, it accumulates until reality itself cracks.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: The anomalies are both symptom and cure, demanding payment for
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: passage while preventing larger ruptures. We learned to read the devices,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: which weren't actually reading guilt, but rather what they called
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: causal shadows, the ripple effects of harmful actions on the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: fabric of reality. A murdered person left a void that
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: pulled at their killer. Stolen money created an imbalance that
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: registered as heat. The devices translated these distortions into readable data.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: But it's not justice, one trainee protested. We're not judges, Dr.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Kane nodded. No, we're not. We're garbage collectors.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: We identify and remove the worst of the karmic pollution
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: to keep the system functioning.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: It's ugly.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Necessary work. If you want justice, become a lawyer. If
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you want to keep planes from disappearing into temporal loops,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: stay here. My first assignment wasn't flight 447 but flight
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: 923 to Denver, which only required three sacrifices. The anomaly
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: was smaller, newer, less stable. I shadowed a veteran attendant
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: named Michael, who'd been doing this for eight years. The trick,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: he said, is to not look at them as people.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Look at them as problems to be solved. This one
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: murdered his wife. That one ran a child trafficking ring.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: This one poisoned a town's water supply for profit. But
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: they were people. I could see their humanity even through
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: their guilt. The murderer was also a father who'd snapped
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: after years of abuse. The trafficker had been trafficked herself
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: as a child. The poisoner was trying to save his
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: failing company and the hundreds of jobs it provided. The
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: device didn't care about context, but I did. The first
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: time I had to make a selection, My hands shook
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: so badly, I nearly dropped the device. It was pointing
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: at a young mother traveling with her infant. The readings
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: were off the charts. Michael took the device from me
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and did a deep scan. She killed her first baby,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: he said quietly. Postpartum psychosis. Drowned him in the bath.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: This one's a replacement. I watched her cooing at her infant,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: seeming so normal, so loving. but the device didn't lie.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: When I approached her with the selection notice, she didn't
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: deny it. I knew this day would come, she said simply.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I've been waiting for judgment. She kissed her baby goodbye,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: handed him to another passenger, and walked to the anomaly
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: door without being asked. Three months into the job, I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: started seeing patterns the devices couldn't read, connections between passengers
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: that suggested orchestration, the same names appearing on different flights,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: always just below the guilt threshold for selection. I brought
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: it to Dr. Kane, who seemed unsurprised. There's a group,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: she admitted. People who know about the anomalies and use
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: them for disposal. They identify targets with high guilt signatures
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and manipulate them onto anomaly flights. Think of them as
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: vigilantes using our system as an execution method. She showed
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: me files, dozens of cases of suspected manipulation. We allow it,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: she continued. because they're doing us a service. They're sending
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: us people who need to be removed anyway. The alternative
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: is random selection, which could take doctors, teachers, parents of
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: young children. The vigilantes ensure we get the worst of
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the worst. But who decides who's worst?
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: I asked. She had no answer for that.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I met one of them six months later, an older
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: man named Victor, who'd lost his daughter to a drunk driver.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: The driver had gotten off on a technicality. Victor had
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: spent years researching the anomalies, learning their schedules, their requirements.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: He'd manipulated the driver onto Flight 66, knowing the man's
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: guilt would make him a certain selection. I've sent 37
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: people through various anomalies, Victor told me over coffee. All
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: of them deserved it. All of them had escaped conventional justice.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: He showed me his list. Names crossed off one by one.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not a killer, he insisted. I just ensure karma
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: finds its targets. I should have reported him, but I didn't.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Because part of me understood. Part of me was grateful
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: that people like Ruth ended up on these flights instead
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: of innocents. The system was horrible, but it was better
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: than chaos.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Better than letting the anomalies.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Grow until they consumed airports, cities, maybe more. A year
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: into the job, I was assigned to flight 447 permanently.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Patricia had finally quit, or been selected, no one would
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: say which. I took over her role as lead attendant
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: for anomaly management. My first flight in charge, I had
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: to select seven from a manifest of 187. The device
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: made it easy, highlighting the worst offenders, but the weight
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: of choice was crushing. Among them was a teenager who'd
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: cyberbullied three classmates into suicide. A CEO who'd knowingly sold
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: defective medical devices that killed dozens. A nurse who'd been
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: euthanizing patients for inheritance money. a gang member who'd executed
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a family of witnesses, a contractor who'd used substandard materials
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: in a school that later collapsed, a drunk driver who'd
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: killed multiple people in separate incidents, a therapist who'd been
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: deliberately driving patients to suicide. I made the selections, watched
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: them walk to the void, listened to their confessions. Some
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: went proudly, refusing to apologize. Others wept, begged, tried to bargain.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: One fought, had to be sedated and carried. But they
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: all went through. The anomaly took them all. After that flight,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I understood why Patricia had looked so haunted. Each selection
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: took a piece of you. Each confession added to your
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: own guilt burden. I was saving 180 people, but I
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: was also sending seven to their deaths.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: The math said it was worth it. My conscience wasn't convinced.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: I started drinking.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Not enough to affect my job, but enough to sleep
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: without dreams. Enough to forget the faces of the selected.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Enough to pretend I was just a flight attendant, not
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: an arbiter of life and death. Two years in, I
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: made a mistake. I let personal feelings affect a selection.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: There was a passenger. an old man who reminded me
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: of my grandfather. The device marked him clearly. He'd been
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a guard at a concentration camp, had actively participated in executions,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: but he was 93, traveling to see his great-grandchildren for
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the first time. I skipped him, selected someone with a
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: lower guilt reading instead. The anomaly rejected the substitution. The
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: plane lurched, reality fractured, and suddenly, we were back at takeoff.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: The loop had begun.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: The old man remembered immediately, understood what had happened. You
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: have to choose me, he said. I've been running from
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: this judgment for seventy years. It took three loops before
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I could do it. Three times taking off, reaching the anomaly,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: failing to pass through. Each loop, more passengers retained their memories.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: By the third loop, Everyone knew what was happening. They
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: were looking at each other, trying to figure out who
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the seven would be, some actually volunteering their own confessions
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to save others. Finally, I selected correctly. The old man
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: walked to the void with dignity. I was eighteen, he
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: said to the cabin. I thought I was serving my country.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: I was wrong. I've lived with it every day since.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: He stepped through, and the anomaly accepted him. That was
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: when I.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Realized the true horror of the system. It wasn't just
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: about removing guilt. It was about confession, acknowledgement. The anomaly
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: fed on admission and as much as action. Those who
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: went denying their crimes took longer to process, made the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: passage rougher. Those who confessed, who owned their guilt, smoothed
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the way. I started requiring confessions before selection, making the
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: chosen ones state their crimes to the cabin. It was cruel,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: but it made the passages easier. It also served as
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: a warning to the other passengers. Many would leave the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: plane and turn themselves in for lesser crimes, terrified of
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: ending up on another anomaly flight.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Three years into the job, I met someone who changed everything. Dr.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Sarah Kim, a physicist who'd been studying the anomalies from
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the outside. She'd lost her husband on Flight 923, one
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: of the selected three. But instead of anger, she'd turn
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: to research, trying to understand what had taken him. The
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: anomalies aren't natural, she told me over dinner. They're not
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: tears in space-time or karmic pollution. They're harvesting operations. She
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: showed me her research, equations I couldn't understand but patterns
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I could see. Something is feeding on human guilt. Not metaphorically, literally.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: The anomalies are mouths, and we're feeding them. What's on
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: the other side? I asked, though I wasn't sure I
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: wanted to know. I think it's a prison.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: She said. Or a zoo.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Something is collecting humans with specific emotional signatures. Guilt is
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: just the easiest to.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Measure and harvest.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: There are probably other anomalies we haven't found yet, feeding
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: on different emotions. The implications were staggering. We weren't managing
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: natural phenomena. We were participating in something's feeding schedule.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: The airline knew. The government knew.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: They'd decided that sacrificing a few to save many was acceptable,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: but they'd never asked what we were sacrificing them to.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Kim and I started working together, secretly documenting everything. She
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: installed sensors on my device, collecting data during flights. We
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: mapped the anomalies, tracked their growth patterns, tried to understand
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: their purpose. What we found was terrifying. The anomalies were growing,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: but not randomly. They were spreading in specific directions, converging
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: on population centers.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: By Dr.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Kim's calculations, within 50 years, they'd merge into a single
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: massive rift. When that happened, the selection wouldn't be seven
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: or thirteen or three.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: It would be millions.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: We're not preventing catastrophe, she explained. We're training for it,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: teaching humanity to accept selection, to walk voluntarily into the void.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: When the big one comes, they'll need us to choose
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: who lives and who dies on a massive scale. I
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: wanted to expose everything, but who would believe us? And
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: even if they did, what was the alternative? Stop feeding
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the anomalies and let them grow faster? Fight back against
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: something we didn't understand? Every option seemed worse than continuing
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the current system. Five years into the job, I was
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: promoted to Senior Anomaly Manager, overseeing all 17 known routes.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: I trained new attendants, refined selection protocols, managed the growing
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: vigilante network that helped identify targets. I became what Patricia
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: had warned me about, someone who could make the hard
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: choices without flinching, but the guilt accumulated. Not the kind
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the devices could read, but a deeper, more personal burden.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I'd sent over 3,000 people through various anomalies. I knew
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: their names, their crimes, their last words. Some haunted me
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: more than others. The young mother with postpartum psychosis. The
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: teenager who'd made a terrible mistake. The old man who'd
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: spent 70 years trying to atone. I started my own list,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: like Victor's, but in reverse. Not people to send through,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: but people I'd saved by sending others. Every passenger who
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: landed safely because 7 or 3 or 13 had paid
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the toll. The math said I'd saved over 50,000 lives.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: It didn't make me feel like a hero.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Dr. Kim made a breakthrough in year 6.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: She'd figured out how to communicate through the anomalies. Not
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: with whatever was on the other side, but with the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: people we'd sent through. They weren't dead, exactly. They existed
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: in some kind of suspended state, preserved like specimens. I
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: spoke to my husband. she told me, tears streaming down
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: her face. He's aware, they're all aware, they experience their
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: guilt on loop, over and over. It's not death, it's
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: eternal judgment. The discovery broke her. She quit her research,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: destroyed her notes, begged me to never tell anyone what
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: we'd found, but I couldn't unknow it. Every selection after that,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I knew I wasn't just sending people to death, but
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: to endless torment. The confessions took on new meaning. They
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: weren't just smoothing the passage. They were programming the loop
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the selected would experience forever. I tried to quit, but
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the airline wouldn't let me. I knew too much was
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: too valuable. They offered me more money, better benefits, threatened
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: my family indirectly. Finally, they played their trump card. If
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I quit, my brother would be selected on his next flight.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: My guilt signature had grown heavy enough that my whole
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: family was now vulnerable.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: So I continued.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Flight after flight, selection after selection. I refined the process,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: made it more humane where possible. I started warning people,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: like Patricia had warned me. Asking about goodbyes, giving them
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a chance to make peace. Small mercies in a system
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: without mercy. Seven years in, something changed. The anomaly on
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: flight 447 started rejecting selections. People with clear guilt signatures
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: would approach the void and be pushed back. The device
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: readings became erratic. The loops became more frequent, harder to break.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Something on the other side had grown full, or bored,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: or had developed new tastes. The airline brought in experts, specialists,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: who'd been studying anomalies since the beginning. They determined that
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: this specific anomaly had evolved now requiring not just guilt,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: but specific types of guilt. It wanted novelty, unique sins
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: it hadn't tasted before. The common murders and thefts no
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: longer satisfied it. This made selection even harder. I had
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: to look for unusual crimes, creative cruelties, the man who'd
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: invented a form of torture, the woman who'd created a
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: computer virus that destroyed medical records, the teenager who'd started
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a cult that ended in mass suicide. The anomaly had
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: become a connoisseur of human evil. Other routes started showing
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: similar changes. The anomalies were learning, adapting, becoming pickier about
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: their food. The vigilante network struggled to find appropriate targets.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: We started having more loops, more failed passages. The system
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: was breaking down.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Kane called an emergency meeting of all anomaly managers. We
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: need to consider alternatives, she said. The current model is unsustainable.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Someone suggested trying to close the anomalies, but we'd tried
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: that before with catastrophic results. Another proposed increasing the number
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: of flights, feeding them more frequently, but that would require
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: more selections, more guilt, more everything. Finally, someone said what
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: we were all thinking. What if we negotiated? The idea
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: was insane, but so was everything else about our situation.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: If the anomalies were mouths, maybe they had minds. If
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: they had minds, maybe they could be reasoned with. The
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: airline approved a test run, sending a team of negotiators
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: through Flight 66 with recording equipment and a promise to
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: return them if possible. They came back changed. Not physically,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: but mentally. They'd spoken to something that called itself a collector.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: It had been gathering humans for millennia, feeding on their emotions,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: studying them. Earth was just one of many worlds it
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: harvested from. The anomalies were its fishing lines, cast through dimensions.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: The collector offered a deal. Instead of random selection based
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: on guilt, we could offer volunteers. People who wanted to escape,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: who were dying anyway, who had nothing left. In exchange,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: it would stabilize the anomalies, prevent them from growing. It
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: might even close some of the smaller ones. The moral
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: implications were staggering. We'd go from executing the guilty to
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: euthanizing the desperate. but the volunteers would go willingly, without
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the trauma of selection. The passages would be smoother, the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: loops eliminated. It was a devil's bargain, but perhaps better
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: than what we had. I was part of the team
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: that implemented the volunteer program. We set up recruitment centers
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: in hospices, prisons, psychiatric facilities. We looked for people who
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: wanted to die anyway, offering them a purpose in death.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Save 180 lives, we told them. Your death will mean something.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: The response was overwhelming. Terminally ill patients signed up in droves.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Death row inmates volunteered for immediate passage. Depressed individuals saw
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: it as a meaningful exit. We had waiting lists for
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: every anomaly route. But something felt wrong. These weren't guilty
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: people paying for crimes. They were vulnerable people being exploited.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: The anomalies accepted them but seemed unsatisfied, like eating junk
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: food instead of a proper meal. The passages became rougher,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the turbulence worse. Then volunteers started coming back. Not physically,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: but as voices through the communication system Dr. Kim had discovered,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: they weren't experiencing guilt loops like the selected had. They
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: were experiencing something worse, the absence of meaning. They'd volunteered
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: to save others, but without guilt to process, they just
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: existed in emptiness, aware, but purposeless. We made a mistake,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: one volunteer's voice crackled through during a Flight 447 passage.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: This isn't salvation. It's just nothing.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Forever nothing. The cabin heard it. Passengers screaming, demanding to
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: know what was happening. We couldn't hide it anymore. The
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: program collapsed overnight. Volunteers withdrew their applications. Families of those
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: who'd already gone through sued the airline. The media finally
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: got hold of the story, though they only understood fragments.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Conspiracy theories exploded online, some surprisingly close to the truth.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: We reverted to the old system, but it was too late.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: The anomalies had tasted willing sacrifice and found it lacking.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: They wanted guilt again, but more of it, deeper varieties.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: The selection threshold kept rising. Soon, Ordinary murders wouldn't qualify.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Only serial killers, genocidaires, the absolute worst of humanity met
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: the requirements. But there weren't enough of them. Not for
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: 17 routes running regular schedules. We started having more loops,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: more crashes, more failures. The anomalies were starving, and starving
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: predators become desperate. That's when the expansion began. Flight 447's
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: anomaly grew beyond its usual boundaries, manifesting earlier in the flight,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: lasting longer. Other passengers started feeling its pull, even those
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: without significant guilt. The devices could barely contain it, direct
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: it to appropriate targets. Sometimes it would take eight, nine,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: even ten people before being satisfied. I was on the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: flight when it first breached containment entirely. We were somewhere
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: over Montana, approaching the usual anomaly point, when reality just tore.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Not a clean rift like usual, but a ragged wound
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: in the air. The void wasn't confined to one door anymore.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: It was seeping through the walls, the floor, the ceiling.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Passengers were being pulled toward different rifts, seemingly at random.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: The devices went haywire, unable to get readings, unable to
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: identify selections. I watched a child get pulled toward the
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: void while a serial killer sat untouched. The anomaly wasn't
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: selecting anymore, it was just feeding. I grabbed the child,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: pushing her back to her seat, but felt the pull myself.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Not physical, but something deeper, tugging at whatever part of
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: me the devices usually read. Everyone hold on to something,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I shouted, but my voice was lost in the roar
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: of collapsing reality. The plane itself was coming apart, not mechanically,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: but conceptually. Rows of seats existed and didn't exist simultaneously.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Passengers flickered between being and not being. Then I heard it,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: not through my ears, but directly in my mind. The
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: collector's voice, vast and alien and amused. The contract is void,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: it said. You failed to feed us properly. Now we
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: feed ourselves. The plane shuddered. Reality snapped back, and suddenly
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: we were landing in seattle like nothing had happened but
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: something had.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: We'd all heard the voice we'd all felt the pull.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Every passenger on that flight was marked now traceable by
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the anomalies wherever they went within a week three passengers
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: from that flight disappeared from their homes no signs of
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: struggle just gone a week later five more the anomalies
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: weren't confined to planes anymore they were hunting the airline
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: tried to maintain normal operations but more routes started experiencing
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: breaches flight 923 to denver consumed an entire plane all
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: 147 passengers and crew gone in an instant.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Flight 666 to Vegas never took off.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: The anomaly manifested at the gate, creating a rift that
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: swallowed half the terminal. The government finally intervened, grounding all
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: anomaly routes, evacuating airports near known rifts.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: But it was too late.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: The anomalies had broken free from their patterns. They appeared
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: randomly now, in shopping malls, schools, hospitals. Always hungry, always hungry.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Hunting. Dr.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Kim came out of retirement with a desperate theory. We
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: trained them, she said. By feeding them regularly, we taught
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: them to expect food. Now they're foraging on their own.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: She proposed a solution that seemed insane. Stop all feeding immediately.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Starve them until they retreated or died. But how do
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: you starve something that exists outside normal space? How do
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you contain something that can appear anywhere? The military tried
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: conventional weapons, but bullets and bombs passed through the rifts
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: without effect. Nuclear options were discussed, and thankfully dismissed. That's
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: when Victor and his vigilante network proposed their solution. They'd
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: been tracking high-guilt individuals globally, creating a database of potential selections.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Give us resources, they said. We'll deliver them to the anomalies.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Enough to satisfy them.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Make them retreat.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: It was genocide disguised as justice. But what choice did
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: we have? The government secretly funded Victor's operation, giving them
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: access to criminal databases, surveillance networks, transportation. They became a
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: black ops feeding program, kidnapping the guilty and throwing them
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to the anomalies. I wanted no part of it, but
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I was conscripted anyway. My experience with selection made me valuable.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I helped identify targets, predict anomaly manifestations, coordinate deliveries. I
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: became complicit in state-sanctioned murder, even if the victims were
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: murderers themselves. The feeding program worked, to a degree. The
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: anomalies stopped random hunting, returning to semi-predictable patterns. But they
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: required more food now, having grown during their free feeding period.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: What once took 7, now took 70. What once took 3,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: now took 30. Cities built containment zones around permanent rifts.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Sacrificial areas where the guilty were sent. Modern-day coliseums where
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: people paid for their crimes by walking into oblivion. The
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: public was told these were maximum security prisons.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: In a way, they were. I visit one sometimes.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: The containment zone built where Gate C-17 at SeaTac used
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: to be. It's where Flight 447's anomaly finally settled. A
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: permanent tear in reality surrounded by electric fences and guard towers.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Every day, buses arrive with selections from around the country.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: They walk through in groups, processed like cattle, feeding the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: thing that once lived at 35,000 feet. Ruth would have
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: ended up here eventually, I think. Her guilt would have
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: drawn her like gravity. Maybe it's better she went when
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: she did.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: With dignity. With purpose.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Saving 180 people instead of just feeding a hungry void.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Or maybe that's just what I tell myself to sleep
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: at night. Patricia finally contacted me last month. She hadn't
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: quit or been selected. She'd found a way out somehow.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Living off the grid in Alaska. They're evolving again, she warned.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: The anomalies. They're not just feeding anymore. They're reproducing. She
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: was right. New rifts had started appearing. Small ones. In
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: places with high emotional concentration. Hospitals. Funeral homes. Wedding venues.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: They fed on different things. Grief. Joy. love.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: The collector wasn't just harvesting guilt anymore, it was harvesting
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the full spectrum of human experience. The government's response was predictable.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: More containment zones, more selection protocols, more feeding programs. But
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: how do you select for joy? How do you measure
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: love scientifically enough to sacrifice it? The devices could read guilt,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: but these new emotions required different tools, different choices. I
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: refused to help develop those tools. I'd sent enough people
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: through various voids. My own guilt signature had grown so
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: heavy that that devices screamed when I held them. I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: was one bad day away from being selected myself, and
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: part of me welcomed it. At least then I'd know
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: what was on the other side. Really know, not just
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: hear echoes through communication systems. But I had work to
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: do first.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Dr. Kim and I had been developing something in secret.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Not a weapon, but a message.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: If the anomalies were mouths, and the collector had a mind,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: maybe it had enemies too. Maybe somewhere in the universe,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: something opposed it, fought it, could help us fight it.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: We broadcast our message through every anomaly simultaneously, using the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: guilt and pain and fear of thousands of selections as fuel.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: It was simple. We are prisoners. We need help. Please.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: The response came three days later. Not through the anomalies,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: but through every radio, television, and computer on Earth simultaneously.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: A different voice. Still alien, but somehow warmer. We hear you.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: We have fought the Collectors before. Hold on. That was
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: six months ago. Since then, the anomalies have been quieter.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Almost cautious.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: They still feed. but less aggressively. Something has them spooked.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: The government thinks their feeding program is working, but those
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: of us who know better can feel it. A tension
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: in the air, like the moment before a thunderstorm. I
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: still fly sometimes, regular routes on normal planes, but I
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: can feel the thin places where reality might tear. I
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: see the guilt signatures on fellow passengers, the weight they carry.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I know that if an anomaly opened right now, who
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: would be selected? Who would be saved? It's a horrible
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: knowledge that never leaves. My brother asked me once if
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: I regretted taking the airline job, becoming part of the system.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I told him the truth. I regret everything and nothing.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Every selection haunts me, but every safe landing justifies it.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not a hero or a villain, just a man
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: who learned that reality has a price and someone has
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to collect the toll.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: The war is coming.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: The voice that answered our distress call wasn't offering rescue,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: but recruitment. Earth is about to become a battlefield between
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: cosmic forces that feed on consciousness itself. The anomalies were
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: just the beginning, fishing lines cast by one predator. Soon,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: others will arrive, with their own hungers, their own methods.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: When that happens, the selection protocols we developed, the guilt-reading devices,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the feeding programs, they'll seem quaint. We thought we were
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: managing a crisis, but we were actually being trained for
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: something worse. The Collector wasn't just feeding on us, it
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: was preparing us, teaching us to sacrifice, to choose who.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Lives and dies.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Because when the real war begins, those skills will be essential.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Someone will have to decide who boards the evacuation ships,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: and who stays behind. Someone will have to measure human
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: worth against alien appetites. Someone will have to ask the
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: question Patricia asked me all those years ago. Did you
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: say goodbye to everyone important? Now I ask it myself
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: every morning, because I know the truth. We're all on
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: flight 447 now. The whole planet is approaching an anomaly
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: we can't see, requiring a toll we can't calculate. And
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: when it arrives, when reality tears open completely, we'll all
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: have to decide. Do we volunteer? Do we get selected?
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: or do we fight? I've made my choice. I've sent
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: enough people through enough voids. When the moment comes, I
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: won't be selecting others. I'll be walking forward myself, using
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: my accumulated guilt as a weapon, feeding myself to whatever
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: horror awaits to buy others time to escape or fight
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: or find another way, because that's what Patricia was really
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: trying to tell me. The question isn't about saying goodbye.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: It's about being ready to go yourself, when the selection
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: finally comes for you. And it always comes, eventually, for everyone.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Flight 447 still flies, three times a week, Seattle to Chicago.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: The anomaly is smaller now, more manageable, only requiring seven again.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: New flight attendants make the selections, use the devices, ask
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: about goodbyes. They don't know about the war coming, about
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the voices through the void, about the thing that answered
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: our call for help. but they know what I learned
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: that first flight. Reality is thin, guilt is heavy, and
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: someone always has to pay the toll. The only question is,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: who holds the device when the selection comes? I held
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: it for seven years. Now I'm just waiting for it
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: to point at me. If you made it this far,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: you're a real one. Show some love with a like
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: and subscribe for more content like this.