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Source: collected/045-fractality-episode-1.mp3
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00:00:01.320 Speaker 1 Fractality, Chapter One, Splitter. Outside Ravencliff
00:00:06.880 Speaker 1 Hospital, Layer Zero.
00:00:20.940 Speaker 1 Faize looked up at the looming abandoned hospital and knew it would be the perfect
00:00:25.280 Speaker 1 playground. He'd seen it in the distance from the back of a truck a few weeks ago
00:00:29.600 Speaker 1 doing mun work. He'd spent the day with a dozen muns clearing a field that had been
00:00:34.980 Speaker 1 covered in debris so some idiot could try and grow something there. Good luck with
00:00:39.360 Speaker 1 that. It was basically a perfect waste of a day, at least until he'd seen this
00:00:45.080 Speaker 1 place peeking out over the trees like a concrete corpse. He'd thought about sneaking
00:00:50.100 Speaker 1 away from the muns and the overseer to get a look, but that was stupid.
00:00:55.220 Speaker 1 Didn't matter because now he was here. He pulled at the chain link fence in front of
00:01:00.540 Speaker 1 him, brand new. He pressed his face to the links and looked at the courtyard before
00:01:05.940 Speaker 1 the building. Trash blew around in the overgrown garden area. The
00:01:11.600 Speaker 1 concrete walkway was cracked, letting plants as big as saplings grow through. He
00:01:16.620 Speaker 1 started climbing the fence. "Stop!" The girl behind him walked up to the fence
00:01:22.660 Speaker 1 and after fishing a tool out of her pocket, started snipping away at the fence
00:01:26.960 Speaker 1 instead. "Splitters, always thinking with your feet" "You mean
00:01:33.520 Speaker 1 thinking on our feet" "No, I don't" Faize hopped off the
00:01:39.400 Speaker 1 fence, landing lightly on the ground, and watched Ambrosia work.
00:01:45.100 Speaker 1 Faize took the opportunity to swipe a protein bar that was peeking out of her pack.
00:01:48.880 Speaker 1 "Mm, that's good. You can stop. I want it to look like no one came through."
00:01:56.400 Speaker 1 Amber looked at the tiny door she'd cut in the chain link fence skeptically, perhaps
00:02:00.760 Speaker 1 measuring it against herself in her mind. "You're eating now?" "Yeah. Why?
00:02:07.520 Speaker 1 It's always a good time to eat."
00:02:10.320 Speaker 1 Faize shoved the rest of the protein bar into his mouth, then got down on all fours
00:02:14.160 Speaker 1 to push through the little door she'd made. When he was through, he stood up and
00:02:18.380 Speaker 1 started walking. "Wait! That sign says mines." He
00:02:24.120 Speaker 1 paused and briefly stopped chewing, looking down at his feet.
00:02:30.700 Speaker 1 Then he kept walking until he reached the front doors, or where the front doors used
00:02:35.680 Speaker 1 to be anyway. "Guess there's no mines." Mines were expensive.
00:02:41.980 Speaker 1 Plus, he realized after the fact that the overgrown grass hadn't been disturbed at
00:02:46.400 Speaker 1 all. If the fence was new and someone was laying mines, it would be muns,
00:02:52.580 Speaker 1 and muns were lazy. Lazy work leaves clues.
00:02:58.680 Speaker 1 Ambrosia pushed through the little chain link flap with effort. When her pack caught
00:03:03.580 Speaker 1 the second time, Faize walked over to help pull her through. She already looked
00:03:08.880 Speaker 1 tired. "You came back?" In reply, Faize tried to swipe another
00:03:14.700 Speaker 1 protein bar. She snipped at him with the wire cutters, and he backed off. [laughs]
00:03:20.360 Speaker 1 Faize motioned for her to follow. Despite his apparent carelessness, he was actually
00:03:25.600 Speaker 1 careful to follow the same path back through the grass just in case there actually
00:03:30.020 Speaker 1 were mines. "Ready to get rich?" Amber rolled her eyes, but
00:03:36.060 Speaker 1 she was smiling too. Of course she was. This was her playground too.
00:03:44.780 Speaker 1 Amber and Faize walked around the abandoned hospital for a few minutes, scoping out
00:03:49.000 Speaker 1 the place for security, signs of other splitters. To Faize, everything about the
00:03:54.200 Speaker 1 place said it was untouched. "You ready?"
00:03:59.040 Speaker 1 He could hear the nerves in her voice. He looked around, spinning slowly. The
00:04:04.860 Speaker 1 hospital atrium had grimy concrete walls that climbed to a high ceiling where glass
00:04:10.180 Speaker 1 plates once formed a dome. Now only a rusting metal skeleton hung here,
00:04:15.860 Speaker 1 threatening to fall at any moment. Sitting furniture lay in dusty ruins about the
00:04:20.920 Speaker 1 room. "Yeah, this is the place." Choosing the place for
00:04:26.900 Speaker 1 the first rift was more art than science. It had downstream effects on the shape of
00:04:31.740 Speaker 1 the fractality he would enter. "Give me a sec to set up."
00:04:36.820 Speaker 1 Amber sat down cross-legged on the floor and started pulling out gear from her pack.
00:04:42.060 Speaker 1 Her nervousness seemed to melt away as she silently set up the equipment. She fixed
00:04:47.080 Speaker 1 two crystals to their tripod stands and attached various wires to them. Then she
00:04:52.000 Speaker 1 attached more equipment that Faize couldn't identify. Everything ran back to her
00:04:57.280 Speaker 1 laptop in an indecipherable tangle of cables. "Approximating the seed now.
00:05:03.940 Speaker 1 It'll be more accurate if you'd rather stay the night here first, though"
00:05:09.000 Speaker 1 Faize was looking at a dark stain that ran down the wall in front of him. It looked
00:05:14.180 Speaker 1 like rust. Yeah, definitely rust. "No,
00:05:20.080 Speaker 1 thanks. Good is good enough" "If you say so." She
00:05:25.880 Speaker 1 tapped away at the keys of her laptop, then looked up at him expectantly. "
00:05:31.100 Speaker 1 [clears throat] It's time" She nodded.
00:05:36.880 Speaker 1 [exhales] Now it was his turn to be nervous.
00:05:43.900 Speaker 1 You could free run anywhere, but you only came to a place like this for one reason:
00:05:49.300 Speaker 1 shard runs, the Mack Daddy, real splitter work. He closed his
00:05:55.320 Speaker 1 eyes and reached out in front of him, feeling around in the air, feeling for the
00:05:59.460 Speaker 1 place that felt right When he found it, he pulled. There was a tension there,
00:06:05.700 Speaker 1 not quite physical. He kept pulling until he felt reality itself tear.
00:06:12.380 Speaker 1 Some splitters treated that moment with reverence, the moment when entire universes
00:06:17.180 Speaker 1 were created in a simple motion. All Faize could think about was shards, shards
00:06:23.120 Speaker 1 and money, because money was power, and if you had enough, you could disappear. He
00:06:28.640 Speaker 1 could disappear, stop doing mund work, be a real splitter.
00:06:34.260 Speaker 1 When he opened his eyes, he saw the rift in the fractality beyond. It was a
00:06:38.680 Speaker 1 shimmering line in the air, just wide enough for him to squeeze through. He could
00:06:43.520 Speaker 1 just make out the world through the rift. It was like looking through shallow water
00:06:48.380 Speaker 1 at just another room in the hospital. "Looks stable." Ambrosia smiled
00:06:54.340 Speaker 1 innocently and shrugged. "If you say so."
00:06:59.920 Speaker 1 Faize took another deep breath, then slipped through before he could lose his nerve.
00:07:06.000 Speaker 1 He felt the shift as a cool wave that ran through his body. There was a brief moment
00:07:10.700 Speaker 1 when everything sounded muffled, but then he was through. The shift disoriented him
00:07:15.500 Speaker 1 for a moment, and he quickly fell to a crouch, letting the nausea subside. He shook
00:07:20.360 Speaker 1 off the dizziness and stood. He was standing in a patient room, but a patient room
00:07:26.380 Speaker 1 that had never seen patients. It had never seen anyone. If he believed what the
00:07:30.920 Speaker 1 collective priests said, it hadn't even existed until he'd created it just now.
00:07:37.160 Speaker 1 He fished the wired earpiece out of his pocket and turned his body cam on.
00:07:40.840 Speaker 1 [electronic beeping] "Got all your fingers?" He adjusted his earpiece. "Seems
00:07:46.500 Speaker 1 like. I've got eight fingers, right?" "Good enough."
00:07:52.480 Speaker 1 "On each hand, I mean." "Let me see." Faize moved his hands in front of the
00:07:58.500 Speaker 1 body cam pinned to his chest. "Connection's loose. Can you fix it?"
00:08:03.860 Speaker 1 He pulled the other end of the camera's wire out of his pants pocket. The little
00:08:07.560 Speaker 1 white crystal that was supposed to be attached to the other end was loose. He
00:08:11.840 Speaker 1 tightened the nut around the connection and put it back in his pocket. "How's that?"
00:08:17.060 Speaker 1 He put just his middle finger in front of the body cam. "Oh, no, it's worse than we
00:08:22.740 Speaker 1 thought. There's only one left." "Only one I need." "So you gonna get to
00:08:28.660 Speaker 1 work, or are you just gonna wait around until the slicers get you?" "Yeah, yeah, let
00:08:33.860 Speaker 1 me get my bearings." Faize closed his eyes again.
00:08:40.060 Speaker 1 He always located better with his eyes closed. There were two tugs on reality here,
00:08:45.700 Speaker 1 like weights sagging into a soft mattress. He could feel roughly where they were in
00:08:50.540 Speaker 1 relation to him. One small, softball-sized, definitely worth something.
00:08:57.080 Speaker 1 One big. Not big, big, but pretty big. Bowling ball-sized.
00:09:03.260 Speaker 1 Payday-sized. Not never-work-again payday, but maybe big enough to take a
00:09:09.120 Speaker 1 few years off. Time enough to build a crew. "There's two
00:09:15.040 Speaker 1 shards here. One small, one pretty big. Big one's in deep, though. I'm gonna check
00:09:19.820 Speaker 1 out the little one first, 'cause it's on the way."
00:09:24.480 Speaker 1 He started in what felt like the right direction.
00:09:27.980 Speaker 1 "Okay, be smart. I don't get paid if you don't come back." "I hear you."
00:09:34.380 Speaker 1 Faize looked back at the rift, knowing it would still be there, but finding an ounce
00:09:38.820 Speaker 1 of relief in seeing it again, as if it might disappear if he were away for too long.
00:09:44.560 Speaker 1 It wouldn't.
00:09:46.700 Speaker 1 It would be stable as long as he was inside the Fractality to stabilize it. With the
00:09:52.000 Speaker 1 thrill of a fresh run in his heart, he took one last look at the easy way out. Then
00:09:57.320 Speaker 1 he turned away and started running.
00:10:12.700 Speaker 1 Faize vaulted over a rusty file cabinet, belatedly hoping his hands wouldn't sink
00:10:17.440 Speaker 1 through the flimsy metal. It didn't, and he kept running. He jogged through a series
00:10:22.660 Speaker 1 of offices connected by closet-sized hallways. The furniture was dilapidated, as the
00:10:27.960 Speaker 1 furniture in the source building had been. Pictures of people that didn't exist hung
00:10:32.880 Speaker 1 on the walls. There were dozens of them. Portraits of people with still-gleaming
00:10:38.440 Speaker 1 brass nameplates beneath them. He slowed only slightly to read some of the names.
00:10:44.540 Speaker 1 Frantilda Mossmer, a wrinkly woman with a too-long neck that peered over thin
00:10:50.280 Speaker 1 glasses at him. Another plate beneath the name read, "Employee of the Year."
00:10:56.860 Speaker 1 Great job, Frantilda.
00:10:59.740 Speaker 1 The next picture was a man with pale skin and very sunken eyes. Faize looked away
00:11:04.780 Speaker 1 after only a moment. Something about the gaze of its beady eyes made his skin crawl.
00:11:10.680 Speaker 1 The nameplate read, "Birkus Yarfned, Tool Man". Faize smiled to
00:11:16.720 Speaker 1 himself.
00:11:18.940 Speaker 1 Tough luck, Birkus. There's always next year.
00:11:24.360 Speaker 1 He picked up the pace to make up for his sightseeing. It was hard not to want to
00:11:28.520 Speaker 1 stop, even on a shard run. No one else had ever seen this place, and if he did his
00:11:34.600 Speaker 1 job right today, no one would ever see it again. Eh, not great news for Birkus,
00:11:40.560 Speaker 1 actually. His hopes of ever making Employee of the Year would be dashed.
00:11:46.240 Speaker 1 After a long string of offices, he came to his first real obstacle, a set of
00:11:50.700 Speaker 1 concrete stairs that rose to the ceiling, leaving only a tiny gap into a room above.
00:11:56.180 Speaker 1 Faize climbed up the stairs and shoved his head through the gap. There was a hallway
00:12:00.580 Speaker 1 beyond, but the gap was too narrow to squeeze through. Well, no one said it would be
00:12:05.020 Speaker 1 easy.
00:12:07.488 Speaker 1 You see this?
00:12:08.988 Speaker 2 Already working on another route. I've been watching. Seed looks good. If you're
00:12:13.648 Speaker 2 going for that first shard, I think I've got a decent map there. The second one,
00:12:17.828 Speaker 2 though...
00:12:19.608 Speaker 1 One thing at a time. He wanted that second shard, though. There was no way he was
00:12:25.348 Speaker 1 pulling the plug at the first shard. Given more data and more time, Ambrosia's
00:12:30.068 Speaker 1 algorithms would draw some more accurate maps.
00:12:34.108 Speaker 2 Right. Okay. If you go back about 40 yards, you'll see a door. It leads to a
00:12:40.028 Speaker 2 bathroom, which leads to another bathroom.
00:12:44.228 Speaker 1 Hmm. Which leads to another bathroom?
00:12:47.688 Speaker 2 You got it. Get moving.
00:12:49.968 Speaker 1 But he was already moving. He was always moving. Never quite frantic, but never
00:12:55.608 Speaker 1 quite comfortable either. He moved with urgency. Whether he realized it or not, a
00:13:01.688 Speaker 1 silent clock was always ticking down inside a fractality. The slicers couldn't open
00:13:06.828 Speaker 1 their own fractalities, but they would gladly enter his. When he stepped through
00:13:11.368 Speaker 1 that rift, he rang the dinner bell. If he stayed too long, they would find him
00:13:15.988 Speaker 1 before he pulled the shard. That encounter only ended one way: another dead
00:13:21.588 Speaker 1 splitter.
00:13:34.008 Speaker 1 Chapter Two: Momentum. Raven Cliff Hospital Fractality, Layer
00:13:40.308 Speaker 1 1.
00:13:42.888 Speaker 1 Phase slid under a support pillar that grew from one wall to another, almost
00:13:46.908 Speaker 1 horizontal. He vaulted a rusty hospital bed frame. He heard it clatter to pieces
00:13:51.768 Speaker 1 behind him as he passed. The hallway ahead of him stretched far into the distance.
00:13:57.368 Speaker 1 There was enough scattered furniture to make it difficult to see how far, but it
00:14:01.708 Speaker 1 went far enough to give him vertigo. It went straight for a mile, maybe more. He'd
00:14:07.248 Speaker 1 been running down it for a good 10 minutes already. The fractality was starting to
00:14:11.428 Speaker 1 diverge from its source. Good. That meant things were about to get interesting.
00:14:17.688 Speaker 1 Seeing no immediate obstacles, he slowed to a walk and closed his eyes to sense. He
00:14:22.588 Speaker 1 felt a strong tug on his soul nearby.
00:14:27.028 Speaker 1 I'm close.
00:14:28.528 Speaker 2 Okay. I'll keep comms quiet just in case.
00:14:31.848 Speaker 1 Just in case there was something else nearby.
00:14:36.608 Speaker 1 The comm shards in his pocket were quiet, but they weren't silent. They had
00:14:40.408 Speaker 1 potentials of their own. Since they didn't belong to this fractality, they would be
00:14:44.728 Speaker 1 much quieter than the native shards he was hunting. Still, using the shards to
00:14:49.848 Speaker 1 communicate made him louder. He considered turning his body cam off to go quiet, at
00:14:55.368 Speaker 1 least as quiet as he could anyway, but decided against it. The nearby shard would
00:15:00.068 Speaker 1 mask him a little bit.
00:15:05.088 Speaker 1 Phase stepped into the adjacent room, happy to be out of that endless hallway. There
00:15:09.768 Speaker 1 was definitely something here. It was an ambient tinkling sound, like wind chimes
00:15:15.088 Speaker 1 blowing in a faint breeze.
00:15:18.568 Speaker 1 Jackpot. Phase walked past a row of desks with chairs so small that they surely
00:15:24.088 Speaker 1 would have collapsed if anyone sat in them. In the room beyond, he saw a soft white
00:15:28.668 Speaker 1 light pulsing rhythmically. The sound of chimes grew louder. He stepped into the
00:15:33.928 Speaker 1 room. Hanging in the center of the room, frozen in midair, was the shard, a bright
00:15:39.768 Speaker 1 white crystal about the size of his pinky, like its own little rift in space.
00:15:46.168 Speaker 1 You seeing this? Looks like a comm shard, maybe.
00:15:50.128 Speaker 2 Yeah. You gonna pull it? Easy money.
00:15:54.148 Speaker 1 Ambrosia was right. It was easy money. He knew a splitter could make careers pulling
00:15:59.668 Speaker 1 shards like this and never do a day of mun work. It was the reliable path to
00:16:04.668 Speaker 1 freedom, the path that most splitters took. Grab the first shard you could find,
00:16:08.988 Speaker 1 then get out. But you'd never be a legend that way. You'd always be just a step
00:16:14.648 Speaker 1 above the muns. There was no real freedom there. A gilded cage was still a cage.
00:16:22.088 Speaker 1 Fuse had tried to become a legend that way, too. He pushed the thought away.
00:16:27.388 Speaker 1 Besides, his sister was a legend. She'd accomplished that much. And who was
00:16:33.408 Speaker 1 he?
00:16:35.328 Speaker 1 Nah, I'm gonna push for the second one. I made good time getting here.
00:16:40.208 Speaker 2 Phase...
00:16:43.368 Speaker 1 I'll be careful. First sign of trouble, I'll double back here or head straight back
00:16:48.008 Speaker 1 to the rift.
00:16:50.868 Speaker 2 You promise?
00:16:52.428 Speaker 1 Promise.
00:16:54.308 Speaker 2 Fine. Where is this other shard?
00:16:57.528 Speaker 1 Phase closed his eyes and with deliberate effort ignored the pull of the smaller
00:17:01.748 Speaker 1 shard near him. He could feel the bigger one farther out. He opened his eyes and
00:17:07.008 Speaker 1 pointed at a wall. About half a mile that way, maybe a little more.
00:17:13.228 Speaker 2 Hmm. Give me a sec to find a path. [keyboard clicking] Seed's gonna start diverging
00:17:16.488 Speaker 2 that far out. I'm gonna try Script Kid's algo instead. He talked it up for these
00:17:21.268 Speaker 2 low-layer distant shards.
00:17:24.248 Speaker 1 She said something else, but he wasn't listening anymore. Something else about this
00:17:29.468 Speaker 1 room nagged at him. Phase scanned the room until he found it, a mark on the
00:17:34.368 Speaker 1 doorframe, the only other exit from this room. He stepped closer to examine. It
00:17:39.928 Speaker 1 wasn't obvious. If he'd been running, he probably would have missed it. A gash in
00:17:44.488 Speaker 1 the steel doorframe, almost a half-inch deep. He stepped into the hallway beyond the
00:17:49.728 Speaker 1 door. There were faint scratches along the wall trailing up to the ceiling. They led
00:17:55.028 Speaker 1 away from him, exactly in the direction he was going.
00:17:59.528 Speaker 2 I've got a route. I'll get you close, but the last part will be on you. You still
00:18:03.728 Speaker 2 wanna do this?
00:18:06.848 Speaker 1 Phase was silent... He felt pulled back, a desire to honor his promise to
00:18:12.440 Speaker 1 Ambrosia and just take this easy shard. He felt pulled forward by the promise of
00:18:18.500 Speaker 1 a real treasure. The second pull was stronger for now.
00:18:25.180 Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm in.
00:18:37.380 Speaker 1 The Fractality diverged from Ravencliff Hospital with each passing step. Twice Phase
00:18:42.360 Speaker 1 had found dead ends that Amber hadn't seen coming. He was moving mostly on instinct
00:18:46.700 Speaker 1 now, receiving only occasional suggestions from his earpiece. Although he would
00:18:51.120 Speaker 1 never tell her, he liked it better this way. There was something right about moving
00:18:55.580 Speaker 1 through the world this way. This must be how the free-running splitters felt. His
00:19:00.760 Speaker 1 thoughts melted away. There were only obstacles and his body. He jumped onto a desk,
00:19:06.760 Speaker 1 swung from a light fixture, then landed on the other side of the room, rolled to
00:19:10.800 Speaker 1 keep his momentum, then he was up and running again. The wind licked at his face and
00:19:16.560 Speaker 1 he couldn't keep a smile from forming there. The first chasm he'd seen shot through
00:19:21.580 Speaker 1 the hallway ahead of him. It was only a few feet wide and he leapt it without
00:19:26.060 Speaker 1 slowing. In the moment he had to look down, he saw that the chasm opened up into a
00:19:31.460 Speaker 1 tiny room with no doors. The light was dim down there. He felt a tight moment of
00:19:36.980 Speaker 1 panic, imagining what it would be like to slip and fall down there.
00:19:42.380 Speaker 1 Trapped in a concrete room with no way out, waiting for something to find him.
00:19:48.620 Speaker 1 Phase shook the dark vision and narrowly avoided slamming his head into a set of
00:19:52.440 Speaker 1 stairs that spiraled down from the ceiling.
00:19:56.560 Speaker 1 The hallway ahead rose in a shallow incline, bending up and out of view a hundred
00:20:01.480 Speaker 1 yards away.
00:20:03.820 Speaker 1 The potential was strong enough now to guide him without even trying to sense it. So
00:20:11.540 Speaker 1 Is there some reason you're in there alone today?
00:20:15.300 Speaker 1 Phase felt a pang of irritation at being pulled out of his trance of movement.
00:20:20.980 Speaker 1 Why, you wanted to split the pot three ways? No, but I figured you'd at least ask.
00:20:28.160 Speaker 1 Wait. You told her? You told Spineless about this?
00:20:34.140 Speaker 1 He started walking again. I just mentioned it to her. I didn't know it was a secret.
00:20:40.440 Speaker 1 It's not. He still sounded defensive. Whiny. He hated
00:20:46.420 Speaker 1 that. Why couldn't he control himself? He sounded like a little kid.
00:20:53.500 Speaker 1 It's just She doesn't do shard runs anymore. She might. For
00:20:59.380 Speaker 1 you. Phase fought the urge to snap at Ambrosia. Hey, I'm gonna go
00:21:04.980 Speaker 1 quiet. Getting close to the shard. We're almost there. Talk soon. Then he completely
00:21:10.700 Speaker 1 disconnected the comm shard. He left the body cam on, though.
00:21:15.780 Speaker 1 The light inside this area of the Fractality was unreliable. They'd come to
00:21:20.120 Speaker 1 Ravencliff during the day so that most of the rooms would be illuminated by
00:21:23.840 Speaker 1 daylight. Those illuminated rooms would get copied more often than the relatively
00:21:28.320 Speaker 1 rare dark rooms. But now that he was getting farther and farther from the epicenter
00:21:32.900 Speaker 1 where his rift was, the Fractality was spiraling into surrealism. It was nowhere
00:21:38.880 Speaker 1 near as crazy as some of the stories he'd heard from veteran splitters. Places
00:21:43.140 Speaker 1 without air, without light. Escher-like mazes that started to treat basic laws of
00:21:48.800 Speaker 1 physics as mere suggestions. Phase remembered the claw marks he'd seen earlier.
00:21:54.740 Speaker 1 He slowed and listened to the world around him, looking for anything out of place.
00:22:00.400 Speaker 1 The world was still and quiet. The air stagnant.
00:22:06.360 Speaker 1 Sounds would carry a long way in this silence. Suddenly, he felt
00:22:12.120 Speaker 1 very alone in here.
00:22:16.860 Speaker 1 Caution would be more important than speed now. He looked into every doorway, peeked
00:22:21.960 Speaker 1 around every corner before stepping past. His heart pounded. This was stupid.
00:22:28.080 Speaker 1 He should have taken the first shard. Something moved in the shadows of a darkened
00:22:32.000 Speaker 1 room to his left. He froze. Phase peered through the doorway,
00:22:38.240 Speaker 1 waiting for his eyes to adjust. All he saw was darkness. All he heard was silence.
00:22:44.720 Speaker 1 He kept moving.
00:22:47.380 Speaker 1 Stupid, stupid, stupid. The pull of the shard was so strong it could have been in
00:22:51.940 Speaker 1 any of these rooms. Something crashed to the floor of a room nearby. He started
00:22:56.900 Speaker 1 running. It was just debris. Just debris. This place was getting unstable. Things
00:23:02.340 Speaker 1 fell apart here. And yet, he kept running. Nowhere in particular, just
00:23:08.620 Speaker 1 closer. He hoped. He hoped. Phase tried to convince himself that there was
00:23:14.680 Speaker 1 nothing wrong. That at any moment now he'd see the shard. He would pull it
00:23:18.680 Speaker 1 immediately. His way out. He Something slammed into his shins. Pain shot
00:23:24.680 Speaker 1 up his legs and he skidded across the floor, scraping and bruising his side. Stunned
00:23:29.740 Speaker 1 from the fall, he looked back at the cinder block he somehow missed. He rolled onto
00:23:34.360 Speaker 1 his back and looked down the hallway ahead of him. He realized then the fall had
00:23:39.640 Speaker 1 saved his life. The first thing he noticed was that a red glow illuminated an
00:23:45.020 Speaker 1 otherwise dark room three doors down. The sound of chimes echoed into the hallway,
00:23:50.920 Speaker 1 calling him closer. The second thing he noticed was claw marks. So
00:23:56.940 Speaker 1 many claw marks on the doorframe. There was a sound nearby. Not in the red room, but
00:24:02.660 Speaker 1 behind him, in one of the other dark rooms. Another sound, like the clicking of a
00:24:07.820 Speaker 1 pencil against stone, came from a room on the other side.
00:24:12.636 Speaker 1 He craned his head around, trying to determine the source of the sounds, heart
00:24:16.456 Speaker 1 beating faster. "Time to go, Phase." He gritted his teeth, jumped up, and ran
00:24:22.476 Speaker 1 for the red room. If he could just get inside, if he could just pull the shard...
00:24:28.976 Speaker 1 At the last moment, he spun away from the illuminated room, changing direction to
00:24:33.196 Speaker 1 keep running down the hallway instead. As he turned, he saw inside the shard room.
00:24:38.276 Speaker 1 He saw the walls moving. The walls hadn't been moving, he
00:24:43.856 Speaker 1 realized, his brain finally catching up. The things covering the walls were moving.
00:24:50.076 Speaker 1 That meant... "Amber!" No response. He climbed over a small tower of
00:24:56.116 Speaker 1 file cabinets, falling awkwardly down the other side and bruising his legs even
00:25:00.236 Speaker 1 more. The connection, the connection. Phase plugged the comm shard back in.
00:25:05.536 Speaker 2 You idiot. Where are you going?
00:25:09.096 Speaker 1 I don't know.
00:25:11.476 Speaker 1 There was a reverberating cry from somewhere behind him. The shriek set his nerves
00:25:16.496 Speaker 1 on end. It made his limbs want to freeze up. It made him want to crawl into a corner
00:25:21.976 Speaker 1 and hide.
00:25:23.776 Speaker 2 Phase, where are you going?
00:25:26.156 Speaker 1 He couldn't die here. No, no, no. They couldn't get him. He-
00:25:29.796 Speaker 2 Phase.
00:25:32.196 Speaker 1 A memory drifted into Phase's mind. Another Fractality run, long ago.
00:25:37.636 Speaker 1 "You'll see things in here, Teddy, things you aren't ready to
00:25:43.716 Speaker 1 see." His sister, Fuse, walked, holding her hand on his shoulder.
00:25:50.336 Speaker 1 Phase hated his real name. "You're supposed to call me Phase." Fuse
00:25:56.316 Speaker 1 just laughed.
00:25:58.556 Speaker 1 "You're not Phase, not yet." She stopped walking and motioned for him to sit down
00:26:04.136 Speaker 1 next to her. She tucked the hair dangling in her face back behind one ear and handed
00:26:09.096 Speaker 1 him a water bottle. He hadn't even realized he was thirsty until he took a drink.
00:26:13.396 Speaker 1 "One day you're gonna open your own rifts, Teddy, and I won't be here to help you."
00:26:19.916 Speaker 1 Phase didn't know what to say to that. Where was she going? Fuse looked out at the
00:26:24.856 Speaker 1 trees of a forest that wasn't real. He still couldn't believe he was here, actually
00:26:30.156 Speaker 1 inside a Fractality. "Do you know what makes the Splitters strong? Why
00:26:36.196 Speaker 1 we're not all dead or locked up?"
00:26:39.836 Speaker 1 He thought for a moment, not wanting to be wrong. "Shards." She
00:26:45.616 Speaker 1 smiled, but then shook her head. She fixed an unexpectedly serious stare to him,
00:26:51.976 Speaker 1 her green eyes piercing him. He stopped drinking. "No, not
00:26:57.856 Speaker 1 shards." "Freedom?"
00:27:01.956 Speaker 1 She seemed to consider this, but shook her head again. Phase felt a pang of
00:27:06.736 Speaker 1 frustration. "Sometimes, but that's more likely to get you into trouble than out of
00:27:12.336 Speaker 1 it. Slicers are fast, faster than you, but they're dumb.
00:27:19.296 Speaker 1 Tesserati are smart, smarter than you, but they take orders,
00:27:25.216 Speaker 1 move as a group." Phase didn't speak, afraid to get it wrong again.
00:27:29.896 Speaker 1 "What makes us strong?" "Momentum.
00:27:36.156 Speaker 1 Act fast, but think. Anyone can go fast. You have to keep moving, but always
00:27:42.076 Speaker 1 make the smarter move. Be bold. Keep them on their toes. But don't be stupid
00:27:47.476 Speaker 1 either." When Phase didn't respond, she lifted two fists into the air apart.
00:27:52.836 Speaker 1 "Mind and body." She brought the two fists together. "Momentum."
00:28:00.956 Speaker 1 Phase rounded the corner at full speed, knowing he could be brained by anything
00:28:05.076 Speaker 1 sticking out, but also knowing he was dead if he slowed down. Something big slammed
00:28:10.396 Speaker 1 into a pile of file cabinets he passed. He was in a cafeteria now, or something like
00:28:15.896 Speaker 1 one anyway. He closed his eyes and felt for the rift, felt for his way out. He
00:28:21.496 Speaker 1 couldn't feel it, and he had to fight the rising panic. He had to be smart, had to
00:28:27.016 Speaker 1 keep moving. He felt himself tiring, but the scratching on the walls kept him going.
00:28:32.796 Speaker 1 Momentum.
00:28:35.116 Speaker 1 "Find me a route to the rift."
00:28:39.156 Speaker 1 He heard something clatter in his earpiece as if Ambrosia had been shaken awake.
00:28:45.256 Speaker 2 I'll try.
00:28:47.336 Speaker 1 "Just give me the rough direction, shortest path." He had an idea. An extended
00:28:53.336 Speaker 1 chase wouldn't favor him. Splitters might look graceful compared to the average
00:28:57.656 Speaker 1 person, but the Slicers, the Slicers lived in Fractalities.
00:29:03.676 Speaker 2 Okay. Take a left out of this room, then the next right. You should see a long
00:29:07.156 Speaker 2 hallway.
00:29:08.896 Speaker 1 He took a left out of the cafeteria and glanced to the right. Something large and
00:29:13.736 Speaker 1 flat rounded that corner on a hundred chitinous legs. The segmented body shimmered
00:29:18.956 Speaker 1 like asphalt on a hot day. Crap, crap. He took the next right and
00:29:24.696 Speaker 1 almost ran straight into a wall. Dead end. "Amber!"
00:29:29.416 Speaker 2 It's going, it's going. Stupid script kid.
00:29:34.216 Speaker 1 He heard the sound of a hundred clicking legs on concrete walls. "Amber!" Phase
00:29:40.316 Speaker 1 pressed his back to the dead end, eyes wide. They'd tear him apart, cut him up,
00:29:46.356 Speaker 1 take as many pieces as they could until he passed out, until he died and the
00:29:50.476 Speaker 1 Fractality fell apart, sending the monsters back to wherever they came from.
00:29:55.976 Speaker 1 The very first Slicer came around the corner, then shivered and fell off the wall
00:30:00.196 Speaker 1 with a thud. It unfurled its segmented body and its front half rose into the air,
00:30:05.716 Speaker 1 almost as tall as him. Dozens of razor-sharp limbs unfolded. "No,
00:30:11.776 Speaker 1 no, no, no, no, no."
00:30:12.856 Speaker 2 Take the next right.
00:30:14.480 Speaker 1 His legs moved without his mind. He ducked as he slipped past the creature. The
00:30:19.040 Speaker 1 slicer swiped it where his head had been moments before.
00:30:23.600 Speaker 1 The next right brought him down a hallway with few obstacles. He sprinted down it.
00:30:28.940 Speaker 1 It's this way, right? Roughly, but you're so far. Don't
00:30:34.900 Speaker 1 worry about that. When I disconnect my body cam, I want you to pour as much power as
00:30:39.860 Speaker 1 you can into the signal, okay? Okay. Phase ripped the cable off his body cam and
00:30:45.920 Speaker 1 chucked the rest of the device, shard and all, as far down the hallway as he could.
00:30:51.040 Speaker 1 Then he ducked into a dark room
00:30:54.520 Speaker 1 and waited.
00:30:56.800 Speaker 1 He heard scuttling sounds and moved down the hallway past him. He ignored them,
00:31:01.560 Speaker 1 closing his eyes and sensing.
00:31:04.580 Speaker 1 He still couldn't feel the rift he'd enter through, but he guessed the slicers
00:31:08.820 Speaker 1 could. Fuse had called them dumb, but they were only dumb in a can't-do-math or a
00:31:14.900 Speaker 1 can't-tie-shoelaces kind of way. They had sharp senses and an instinct for finding
00:31:20.080 Speaker 1 prey.
00:31:22.340 Speaker 1 He focused, trying to ignore the stronger pull of the bigger shard nearby.
00:31:28.820 Speaker 1 There, he felt the first shard.
00:31:32.600 Speaker 1 Phase?
00:31:34.680 Speaker 1 I'm fine. Calm silence. Trust me.
00:31:40.100 Speaker 1 It must have been terrifying for her now that he'd gone dark. She wouldn't know for
00:31:44.200 Speaker 1 sure he was dead until the rift closed in the real world. But it could take a long
00:31:49.400 Speaker 1 time for someone to die. Too long.
00:31:54.340 Speaker 1 He moved on instinct from there. A few times he stopped and ducked into a closet or
00:31:59.560 Speaker 1 an open door, not knowing why he'd done so until he heard the scuttling sound of
00:32:03.840 Speaker 1 slicers in the distance. At first he'd been tempted to go back for the second,
00:32:09.120 Speaker 1 bigger shard. Once the creatures realized he wasn't going for the rift, they might
00:32:14.120 Speaker 1 go back to the red one, thinking he would seek out the largest potential. Or
00:32:18.860 Speaker 1 whatever passed for thinking in their alien minds anyway.
00:32:23.580 Speaker 1 Instead, he moved quickly but quietly on instinct back to the first shard.
00:32:29.760 Speaker 1 When he heard the tinkling chime, he finally released some of the gut-wrenching
00:32:33.940 Speaker 1 tension he'd been holding. Phase jogged up to the brilliant white crystal and
00:32:38.260 Speaker 1 without hesitation yanked it out of the air where it hung suspended by invisible
00:32:42.400 Speaker 1 threads.
00:32:44.740 Speaker 1 He felt those threads pull, then snap, and with it all of
00:32:50.200 Speaker 1 reality unraveled. Somewhere far away he heard the frustrated yowls of the creatures
00:32:56.000 Speaker 1 who had hunted him. When he opened his eyes again, he was on his hands and knees,
00:33:01.340 Speaker 1 breathing deeply. Someone grabbed him and pulled him into a squatting position. He
00:33:06.400 Speaker 1 grinned at Ambrosia and held out the shard. His first shard.
00:33:12.260 Speaker 1 See? No problem. She snatched it out of his hands, scowling. You
00:33:18.300 Speaker 1 idiot! She pushed him and he fell backward onto his butt. He rolled all the way back
00:33:24.280 Speaker 1 and laid down, looking at the ceiling of the dilapidated hospital. It was a sight he
00:33:29.820 Speaker 1 wouldn't miss anytime soon.