I.1 - IX.6 [video]
[comes over the network delayed, all at once. Signature stamps read out the timeline.]
[ Day 1, broadcast 1, accidental video: ]
[The term was reserved for this arrival. Anatole has never been given one more literally scorched.
The burned man is sitting upright on the ground, his back propped against the Door. He's holding his chest. He looks up at the scouts of the Door Watch. His hands are covered with ash. Meeting their eyes is the last thing he had strength for. He topples sideways and would crack his head on the ground except they catch him. The forge is picked up with him and turned off.]
[ Day 4, broadcast 2, accidental voice: ]
[A voice like a cracked desert, not lucid:]
No… no one can leave. They are not them. I can't let you leave
[ Day 5, broadcast 3, accidental video: ]
[it's not the outlander block but the clinic. One of the secure rooms. The forge switches on and off in a time lag, as if motion or heat activated. There is no window to indicate passage of time.
The man lying motionless in bed. For hours on end. Not in a coma; curled on his side.]
[ Day 5, broadcast 4, accidental video: ]
[The bed is scattered and empty. So is the viewscreen. The man suddenly in frame. Out again. Running, crashing, tearing back and forth. Throws himself again against the door.
He is no longer covered in ash and burns, skin miraculously healed. This makes his red-rimmed eyes seem more wild. He never says words. He will scream.]
[ Day 5, broadcast 5, video: ]
[the screen is empty, showing a blank wall of the room, but from a different angle than previously. Some jarring motion as the placement of the forge is adjusted.
The man's face abruptly fills the screen. He seems to be looking straight into you with those magnetic, penetrating, unnerving wild eyes]
Can you see?
This is all you get.
[ Day 9, broadcast 6, video: ]
[a similar angle. But lower, showing more of the room. Showing that the door to the room now stands open.
The man in frame, sitting on the bed, attitude new. Hands clasped, head bowed, quiet and still.
Raises his head after a moment, addressing the forge, not looking into it]
I understand that… I am not being held by… any government or organization… that I can discern.
I understand that I am alive, which fits certain criteria to say I have been "saved".
I do not understand where, how or why…
A quest for common reference:
Daniel Trepkos. Madison, Wisconsin. University of Alaska Fairbanks; Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California at Berkeley; University of Oregon; United States; University of Waikato, New Zealand; Mount Avalon, Oregon. …if any of these names mean anything to you…
[stops. Looks at forge. Inhales through his mouth. Moves a hand over his face. Inhales again through his nose. Puts the hand on his knee.
Almost inaudibly, exhaled,]
It is not new to not trust senses.
[He reaches toward the forge to turn it off.
Pauses as it does something new.]