Always Be Careful When You Take On A Monster

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1:05Hello, I'm Wilkins' stories all the time. Glad you are here. Let's get into it. I sit down, pop a piece of spirit gum, and watch the woman across from me. She's nervous, her hands are fretting in her lap, and her eyes are blotchy. Long night, I ask. She looks up timidly. Her face is a washing anxiety. She doesn't understand what's going on here. She doesn't understand what she's doing sitting inside an abandoned warehouse with an asshole twice her age. It's fine, I've seen it before. Look, I say, listening to the tire round my neck. It's just like I said, I only want to ask you a few questions, then you can go. Why here? She says in a small voice, this looks like the kind of place you take me to. I don't know. Murder me. I crack a smile. She isn't wrong. You don't like it. It's private. Besides that, it's probably the safest place in the world for you. Why do you have snipers on the rafters? There's sarcasm in her voice, but her eyes flick to the steel walkways lining the walls. She pulls her sweater tighter around her shivering at the draft. Or is this some secret government for us?

2:05No, and no. I lean back in the wooden chair, and it groans under my weight. Damn, not as slim as I used to be. It's much simpler, I say. This warehouse is the safest place for you because I'm inside of it. It's not a lie, at least not entirely. Still, if she gives me an incredulous look. It's the sword of look on her serves for blowhards and narcissists, and I probably deserve it. Time to change gears. Tell me about the event. She stood as me for several moments and then shakes her head. On second thought, she says, picking up her purse, I think I'd prefer talking to the police. She stands up, makes to leave, and I don't stop her. Her foot falls echo across the empty warehouse, the haphazard lighting casting her shadow in every direction. I hear her mutter something under her breath, but I can't make out the words. I probably don't want to. Then she stops. They always do. What's an event? She asks. I cooked my pen and reached down for my clipboard with a groan. The last job did a number on my ribs. An event, I explain, is a paranormal phenomenon most commonly characterized by contact

3:08with ascension entity. To use a more common term of phrase, it means you stumbled across an urban legend. She swallows. At this distance, I can just barely make out her expression, but I already know I have her. I bring my pen to my clipboard and clear my throat. You said your name was Amanda Haynes, correct? Yes. I scribble it down. And the event occurred two nights ago, just outside city limits in the Cascade Mountains. A sneak is patted across the concrete floor as she returns to her chair. Her expression shifts. Vaughn is the novice shyness, the small posture, and the dotting eyes. She's staring at me now. She's deciding whether she's in or out. Yes, she says at length. It was in the woods. We were camping. I check three more boxes on my clipboard. Stupendous. So far, the location matches up with previous sightings of the beast. I sigh, rusting my clipboard on my lap and place my pen on top of it. Why don't we start from the top? Before we do, she says, narrowing her eyes. How do I know I can trust you?

4:08This feels so. Vizor, I offer. Dramatic, like I'm in an episode of the X-Files. Fair point. You've seen my badge. Vag just can be faked. I bring a hand to my face tracing along deep scars. How about these? You don't get these working for television. She's quiet, skeptical, and her eyes drift down to the clipboard on my lap. She's analyzing it, determining if it's a real government form or not. All things I've seen before. She wants to believe, but she isn't ready yet. Let me ask you this, I say handing over the clipboard. She begins looking it over. When you told the search and rescue team Amonster attack you, did they believe you? Her eyes meet mine and I see it. The surrender. She knows, as well as I do, that I'm her only shot. What she doesn't know is that she's my only shot, too. I've been looking for this legend for close to 40 years now. One might say it's been my life's work. I see your point she concedes. Let's get this over with. She passes the clipboard back to me and I click my pen, bringing it to the box label encounter.

5:11All right, you said that you were camping. Who was with you? Just Rachel, she says. Her eyes are filled with something. Gilt, maybe. We've been friends since elementary school. We hike together pretty often. All I say, noting her name on my clipboard. Rachel Tully, correct. The victim. Amon Da Nodz. We went up to get a break from the doldrums of city life. Rachel just got out of a pretty serious relationship and I didn't want her cooped up in that apartment stuck with all those memories. Her voice cracks. Emotions bells into her words. I suggested we take the weekend and go for a hike into the cascades. There's an ultra we spotted the last time we were up there just off the main path. I said we could follow that. See where it leads us. She brings a sleeve to her face, waving at forming tears. Rachel didn't want to. She said she was too depressed to shop for groceries. Much less go on such a big hike. I convinced her eventually though. I see, I say quietly. How long was the hike?

6:12I don't know. It was a really old trail overgrown in parts. There weren't any mile markings. Ball pocket. It miles maybe. We left early that morning and it took a seven iOS to get up there. I whistle scratching at my gut. That's quite a walk. It's not that bad, honestly. We'd both done longer hikes on harder trails. We actually didn't go as far as we intended. Why's that? We came across an old cabin. It was run down, was shattered windows, and it looked like it hadn't been lived in for decades. My breath catches. I swallowed the excitement before it has a chance to leak into my voice. A cabin? She nods. I gun looking for that cabin a hundred times. It was never there. What sort of cabin? Her eyes leave mine. They're gazing off at some distant point on the ground, transixed. She's replaying the memory. We figure it must have been an old ranger cabin, which would explain the overgrown trail that led us there. She pauses, her mouth hanging open, words struggling to break free. Rachel suggests instead of using our tents,

7:14we could just stay inside of it. I remind her the windows are busted and it's the middle of November, plus it's probably filled with spiders. She says all the better. Let's set up our tents inside the cabin, double the protection. Amanda knows on her bottom lip, her voice growing smaller and smaller with each passing sentence. There's dark clouds above us. It was supposed to rain, but it looks worse than that now. A lot worse. It looks like a storm's coming, so I agree and we head inside to check the place out. What did it look like on the inside? It looked like a nest. We spent some time walking around it. It isn't very big. There's only a handful of rooms, but there's branches and leaves all over the floor. Every step we take, there's a snap of a twig. The entrance leads to a small kitchen alcove with a wood stove and dining table. As that, it opens up to a living room with some rotting chairs. I'd at the very end as a bedroom filled with splintos from a broken bed frame. The place is a mess. The layout. Sounds familiar. I can almost smell the cedar and feel the toasty warmth

8:16of the wood stove burning during cold December evenings. I check out the bedroom first, she says. I spot a couple of shattered picture frames. Call it the millennial blogger and me or call it Dunk Curiosity, but I'm drawn to them. One is old, yellowed, and faded. It looks like it could be from the thirties. It's a picture of a young man and woman dressed to the nines, probably their wedding day. She smacks her lips and then looks up at me. Do you have anything to drink? I nod. Of course. I reach down and on class my briefcase, open it up to reveal a stack of documents and three water bottles, two filled with water, one filled with a black grime. I grabbed the two filled with water, cracked them, and passed one to her. We both take a sip. Thanks, she says, wiping her lips. All this talking works up a thirst. Sure, I say. And the other picture. The other picture is more recent. I mean, still, but not ancient. She laughs, but it's a nervous, self-conscious laugh. It's a photo of an older guy and a young kid with this mess of black hair.

9:16The two of them are standing outside the cabin holding rifles. Interesting. Yeah, I figured it'd probably be the ranger that lived the back when the cabin was operational. Before I can check out anything else though, I hear a snap. It sounds like wood cracking in half. And then a crash. I dropped the picture frame and Rachel start screaming from the other room. Streaming. I lean forward, my pen scratching at the clipboard. It feels truly for the callous man to appear. Certain criteria haven't been met yet. Still, if the work of my late colleagues has taught me anything, it's that legend's gonna evolve and I keep an open mind to that. A man to nods. Yeah, she's screaming bloody murder. I storm in there, my bare mason hand, expecting to see a wolf or cougar or bear, but I don't see shit. I don't even see Rachel. I call out to her and she calls back, but she's whimpering. This sounds coming from the pantry, just outside the kitchen alcove. I look toward it, but I don't see her there. I jog over, wondering what the fuck is going on, when I catch sight of the floorboards inside of it. They're busted, splinted and shattered.

10:18There's a dark hole in the ground, one big enough for a man to fit through. I almost have a heart attack when her arm reaches out of the blackness. A man to close his eyes takes a deep breath. She shouts at me to get her out of there. I tell her to give me a second, and I take off my jacket and put it over the jutting pieces of broken floorboards because I don't want her getting impaled on the things. And then I reach down and pull her up. She's bawling her eyes out, hyperventilating, and once she's firmly out of the pit, she's pointing to her foot. I ask her if she's hurt, and she tells me she thinks she twisted her ankle. Beases of a man as event are beginning to connect in my mind. The twisted ankle, the panic friend. They're all familiar ingredients, and the end dish is anything but delicious. She keeps talking. Rachel says we need to get help right now, and I'm a little thrown off by her panic. I mean, it's a twisted ankle, not a death sentence right. Still, I pull out my phone and check for service. Predictably, there isn't any. I ask Rachel for hers, and she can hardly speak. She's still pointing, but this time it isn't at her foot.

11:19It's at a hole in the cabin floor. She keeps whimpering about dead things over and over. Dead things, dead things, dead things. I'm wondering if I just became a party to my best friend to having a psychotic break, but I give her the benefit of the doubt and check out the hole. It's dark enough that I can't see the bottom, so I flick on my phone's light. Her fingers play at the tip of her hair, tugging at it. It takes me a bit for my eyes to adjust, but once they do, my blood goes cold. There's bones lettering the ground. Deep bones, rabbit bones. Then there, at the edge of my vision, I catch sight of a human skull. I'm swearing up a storm and my imagination's going haywire. Rachel's hysterical and I'm feeding into it. Both of us are repeating the words with the fuck, like it's a personal mantra. A man detakes a breath, holding it for a few moments. Houston's line her arms. Even reciting the account is beginning to work her up. Then I remember I'm not living inside of a horror movie. I remember what I thought Rachel was screaming about in the first place. I tell her to relax, that is probably just a mountain lion or grizzlies dumping ground.

12:22In the basement, I ask, sorry she says hastily. I probably should have mentioned it earlier, but the cabins raised off the ground on these wooden stilts. Where I met, it helps things avoid getting trapped beneath snow. There is a crawlspace beneath it. I figure an animal was probably using the crawlspace as some sort of shelter. I check a box on my forum. The story matches up so far at least. The cabins identical to the one in my memories. The question is, did she really encounter the callous man or some rabbit wolf? A human skull is a promising detail, but it's not like predators don't occasionally snack on hikers. A logical conclusion to draw, I say. Does it calm your friend down? Yeah, Amanda says with a nod. Rachel starts to breathe a little slower. She relaxes a little. Eventually, she's ready to try standing, and she can, but just barely. She limps over to a dusty wooden chair near the fireplace and sits down in it, grimacing. She tells me she doesn't think she can make it back down the mountain. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a long time reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC.

13:26And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Every day the world gets a little weirder, and a lot more awesome. Cool stuff daily takes a look at everything from mining and space to the latest in the fight against cancer to how AI is basically changing everything. It's all the cool stuff you didn't know you needed to know. Join us for cool stuff daily as we take a quick look at science, tech, and the, wait, what stories that make you sound way smarter at dinner. Subscribe to cool stuff daily now because the future's happening fast and it's way too fun to miss.

14:29There's a crack of thunder in the distance. I walk over to the windows and see the sun turning a blood red setting over to tree line. Storm clouds are rolling in. Rain starts pitter pattering on the cabin roof. Rachel's groaning in pain and she shows me her phone. It doesn't have service either. You were picked up by search and rescue team, where do you? Yes. How sad if you had no way of contacting them. You weren't go longer than anticipated. Amanda's size. I was just about to get to that actually. There's an undercurrent of annoyance in her tone. She clearly doesn't care for interruptions when she gets going. I lean back in my chair. All the better for me. Like I said, Rachel and I go on this sort of high pretty often. Me more than her, but still, it come prepared. All weather, clothing, bare mace, flint and steel, you name it, I got it. I don't get corners, so I made sure to pack my GPS located beacon. It sends a one way distress signal. All I say, noting it in the report. A survivalist. The fire in her eyes falters and she pauses.

15:30A moment of silent stretches between us and when she starts talking again, her voice cracks. Not as much of a survivalist as I should have been. Rachel wants me to use it, but I tell her no. Odd. Hear me out. Amanda's eyes connect with mine and there's a pleading expression on her face, a desperation to be understood. Rachel wasn't in any immediate danger. Not then, neither of us were. Plus, the storm was rolling in and it looked like a big one. She takes a shuddering breath. I know the look. Memories are glowing at her mind. My father was a search and rescue technician. He was killed trying to rescue a couple of teenagers who got themselves trapped in a cave. All there it is. The tragic backstory. I was wondering when it's quorum it's way out of her mouth. Somehow, all the humans' stupidity in the world can be traced back to our emotions of riding our will to survive. I scratch her reasoning down on the clipboard. I didn't want anybody risking their lives when we had food, shelter, and weren't in danger. I told her no. No way. I...

16:31I couldn't have that blood on my hands if something went wrong and. She trails off. And Rachel understood. Amanda gets quiet. She's stirring at me and there's the same look I've seen a thousand times before. I want to roll my eyes. I want to spit in her face for being such a naive idealist. But I hold it down. Instead, I plaster an understanding smile on my lips and nod my head sagely. You made the right choice. It was the only choice you could have made knowing what you knew in that moment. It works. She perks up. Yeah, I suppose. So the two of you decide to stay inside the cabin then. They were not worried that the bear or cougar using it as a snack bar might swing by. At that point, we don't really have any other choice. I'm the outdoorsy type. I've seen storms and I know that the one coming our way is going to be a big one. We decide the cabins are best bet but we take precautions. I keep my bear mace close by and we close all the doors. A cougar isn't going to open a door and a bear might break it down but only if it feels it needs to.

17:31It's far more likely to wander into the crawl space safely away from us. Sure, it makes sense. I decide to put an extra layer between us and the front door, though, just in case. I clear out the busted bed frame and sweep the splinters from the bedroom floor and then I get to work setting up the tent. Her voice dies. Memories are calling to her again. Difficult memories. What happened? I ask the hairs on my arms rising. Did you see something? She nods. Yes. Animals were running through the clearing outside the window. They were running past the cabin. Dears, rabbits, then a whole flock of birds burst through the treat-ups and started flying over us. I look my lips. Yes, this is very promising. My pen scratches at the clipboard in excitement. The cow's man has a defining characteristic, one unique to him in the realm of legends. He always comes from the same direction. Always. Which way would the animals run in? I ask. Her voice is small brittle. I barely hear over the sound of my own pounding heart.

18:31South, she says. I write the word and underline it three times. My fingers are shaking with excitement. My mind is racing. After so many dead ends and broken threads, so many killed and missing, it's finally coming together. I found one a survivor, and not only that, but one that might still have the link. How many animals were running? I ask. I know the answer, but I need to hear her say it. It takes her a second to get the words out. They're uncomfortable for her, disturbing. All of them. She whispers. It was like an Exodus of life. My heart hammers, my breath quickens. All of it, each detail of her story, means one thing. The cow's man is coming. I take a breath and stand up from the chair, stretching my legs. My back feels like it's been crushed between two boulders, and sitting for any length of time always turns it into a pincushion. Still, I couldn't be happier. Everything all right. She asks. Peachy. I pick up the clipboard and clear my throat. What happens after the animals feed the tree line?

19:32She opens her mouth to speak, but stops. Her eyes glance down to my open briefcase, staring at the monylla folders and the crinkle-dolled water bottle filled with granny black fluid. Why do you have that? She says, wrinkling her nose. It's label's yellow. It looks like it's 20 years old. What's that gunk inside? A skull kicking my briefcase closed. An experiment is nothing to concern yourself with. Now then, if you wouldn't mind continuing, I'd like to hear what happened following the Exodus. There's a moment of shared disdain between us. She feels like I'm hiding something from her, and I feel like she's putting her nose in places it doesn't belong. Thankfully, it doesn't last long, and she continues her account. Rachel calls my name from the main area, then she limps into the bedroom, leaning against the doorway. She looks really shaken up. She asks if I saw all the animals taking off, and I tell her I did. Her eyes are getting wide, and I can't tell if she's throwing herself into another panic attack, so I... I tell her they're probably just running from the storm. Do you believe it? I don't know.

20:33Maybe. It seemed like the only logical reason, but at the same time, the whole scene felt so ery, so wrong. She opens her water bottle and takes a drink. Either way, it's not like I'm going to start feeding into Rachel's paranoia. One of us has to be calm, right? I shirk. Sure. He said the sun was setting when the animals made a run for it. Is it dark yet? She nods. Mostly. I mean, the last rays of sunlight are just barely peaking over the treetops. The storm's making it worse. The clouds are blocking a lot of the light. I get a move on with finishing setting up the tent, and we set up this LED lantern at Rachel brought. It feels weird. In what way? The silence. She pauses, shakes her head, and then mutters something. Sorry, that's the wrong word. It isn't silent. The wind's hauling and the rain's coming down pretty hard, but there's no sounds of life. No crow's calling. No squirrel's chattering. I don't even see any bugs in the cabin, despite a whole shitload of spiderwebs.

21:34I brush it off, though. I keep telling myself one of us is to be calm, so we close the bedroom door and settle ourselves into the tent. Neither of us have much of an appetite, so we eat a couple of protein bars for supper and pull out our books. We don't talk. I don't even know if we actually read. I know I don't. I stare at the words, but my mind's a million miles away. Too wrapped up in the feeling that something is wrong with this place. Something's wrong with the scenario. She sighs, running a hand through her blonde hair. I chalk it up to the darkness. Things always seem scarier in the dark, you know. I nod. The dark has always had a powerful effect on human beings. It makes it more difficult first to see our enemies and in my line of work, easier for them to see you. It's a lose-lose environment. Unfortunately, it's often a necessary one. You don't talk at all? I ask sitting back down in my chair. Not a first Amanda says. After 10, maybe 20 minutes, Rachel breaks the silence. She asks if we should use my rescue beacon since it's getting pretty bad outside.

22:35I know that's not why she wants to use it, though. Not the real reason. I remind her that we can wet her the storm and hear and call for help in the morning once the storm clears. Amanda screws up her face like she's holding back a wave of emotions. I manipulate her. I remind her my dad was killed during a botched search and rescue job, or because some teenagers couldn't exercise a little bit of common sense. I study her. Perhaps she's more cunning than I thought. Naive, though. Still so naive. Rachel lets up. She agrees we can call in the morning. I can tell she's scared, and honestly, so am I, and I know what we're both thinking, so I blurred out that there's no such thing as monsters. I tell her where, we're fucking adults, and we'll deal with this. I'm Amanda Chuckles. It's a small sound, full of disbelief and regret. I promise her we'll laugh about it in the morning. The woman's not bad with the story. I oddly wonder how popular her blog is. Unlike the gum in my mouth, her words have flavor. I dig in my jacket pocket and pull out my pack, popping a fresh piece free.

23:35Spirament. It's not a cigarette, but it's the next best thing. Then, as last words, I say with a grim smile. What's Rachel think of your pap talk? She's. She's fine with it at first. I think she might even be unbored. She doesn't want to spend the night terrified any more than I do, so anything that makes the fear a little smaller is a welcome distraction. Amountess wallows and her expression goes blank. It seems like everything's going to be just fine, like it's just another overnight hike. At least until we hear the footsteps outside. Here we go. There's a creaking sound, like old wood straining onto someone's weight. It's hot to hear over the roaring wind, but given a minute. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long-time reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it. Asking where this is all going, they come from places like Nvidia,

24:36Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm caught up in the game. My attention is on every play and every whistle. But what I'm missing is a signal coming from my kidneys. That signal isn't like a ref's whistle. It's more of a silent SOS, which could be warning me of an increased risk for events like heart attack or stroke. And a way I can catch that signal? A simple urine test called UACR. If you have type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure, talk to your doctor about the UACR test. Detect the SOS. Visit detectthesos.com to learn more. Full states, it's practically unmissable. Something that's eye. The foot steps are slow, gradual. Whatever's out there is taking its time and both of us are frozen in fear. Rachel grabs the lamp and turns it off, and I suddenly realize just how docket really is. It's pitch. I can barely see Rachel, and she's sitting close enough that we're touching.

25:37It's just us, the storm, and the sound of footsteps now. I whisper to her that it's probably a deer or maybe a mountain lion or just some kind of animal looking for shelter from the storm. Amanda's eyes are glazed, her hands picking at the fabric of her jeans. She's lost in the memory. I don't believe it myself. Something inside of me is riding and telling me that we're not safe. We haven't been safe since the moment we worked into the cabin and we will be safe until we're far away. Still, I take a breath. I repeat that stupid internal matter that one of us needs to be an adult. One of us needs to be rational. So we wait. I whisper to her that all the doors are closed. No animals are going to get inside. We're safe. We're safe. I keep repeating it. Like if I say it enough, I'll start believing it too. I do my best to reassure her and stave off another panic attack. Amanda uncats her water bottle and takes a quicks wig. Her hands grip it squeezing and the plastic crinkles. It works. Maybe. I can't see her, but I can't hear her either. She's not screaming.

26:38It's good. She swallows. Then I realize things are bad. Really bad. Why? We hear the sharp whining sound like rusty hinges. And we recognize it. It's the front door of the cabin. Something opened it. The next second, the sharp whining is followed by dull thuds like heavy footsteps. The floor board's grown. And we hear it, whatever it is, moving through the kitchen and into the main area. I remind myself to keep writing, but it's hard. This is the moment I've been waiting for, the moment when I can finally determine whether or not she's actually encountered the monster. I've been chasing my entire life. I'm clutching my can of bare mace to my chest and Rachel's whimpering beside me. I'm hissing at her to be quiet to shut the fuck up because I know that if whatever's out there here is us, it's going to come in here. She listens. Near the other of us move. We just listen for the footsteps. Thunders crashing outside and wet as screaming through the busted window. But somehow, in spite of it, all those footsteps are clear as day. I couldn't tune them out if I tried. Her fingers find the arm rest of her chair and she grips them.

27:39The scratch against the tattered wood. I pull the safety tab on my bare mace, ready to blast something if that's what it takes. Rachel grabs my arm and I feel her hand trembling. Her whole body is. Something smells like piss and I realize it's her. She's losing it. The footsteps get closer. A half way through the living area now and they're approaching the bedroom door. Whatever's out there is close enough that we can hear this snickering sound like really fast, short breaths. It doesn't sound human, but it doesn't sound like any animal I've heard either. It sounds like a nightmare. I circle a box on my clipboard identifying the sound is correct. According to more recent eyewitness encounters, the callous man snickers before engaging with his prey. An evolution of his mythology. In my memories, I recall only the screaming. Amanda keeps talking. Rachel squeezing my arms so hard that it hurts. Her nails are digging into me and I can feel her warm piss in the bottom of the tent. It's soaking through my jeans. That I don't care. I don't do damn thing. I can't because soon as I make a sound or move,

28:40those footsteps are going to get faster and something's going to open the bedroom door and then I don't know what happens. She stops talking. Tears are forming in the corners of her eyes and she grips her sweater sleeve and dabs at them. Rachel, Rachel can't take it anymore though. She reaches across me, hissing at me to give her the rescue beacon. She's begging me to activate it and I'm trying to get my hand over her mouth and shut her up, but she's desperate and she's fighting me. The footsteps pick up their pace. They're working towards us. These heavy thumps on the creaking floor. I whisper to Rachel if we send the distress call, the beacon's going to stop beeping. Tears slip down her cheeks and Amanda stares transfix at the concrete floor. There's some things swimming in her eyes and I think it's self-loathing, but I can't be sure. All I know is that it's familiar. Continue, I say. Rachel gets hold of it. She hemorrhs at its buttness and it works. It starts beeping. The signal's sent. Amanda's voice trembles. Her lips quiver with the onset of her next words. The bedroom door opens.

29:42It's this lawn drawn out screech both of us free as it's just a rusty hinges and the beacon beeping I want to scream. I want to run. I think we both do, but we're too afraid with parallels. She swallows. I get my finger ready and the trigger of the bear maze. I don't want to use it inside. It'll probably fuck us up just as bad as whatever's standing in the doorway. But I'm ready to, if I have to. Moments pass and all we hear is the beacon beeping and the rain and thunder outside. And then there's that snicker and again, fast and raspy. It's followed by footsteps and now that it's in the room with us, it sounds big. The tent shakes, the whole room shakes. It's dark enough that we can't see so much as a shadow through the canvas of the tent. But soon, we don't have to. The footsteps start circling us and then a finger presses to the wall of the tent and begins tracing around it. Whatever it is, it starts sniffing. Softly at first, then louder and with more intensity. I realize it isn't a man, it's some kind of animal. It sounds beast like feral, unhungry. A man to close his eyes, putting her head in her hands. She takes a moment in groans.

30:43When she looks up again, her eyes are hollow. Rachel can't stand it. She screams. She screams to leave us alone. She screams we have a gun. She turns on the lantern and tells her to fuck off, go to hell, die in a fire, you name it. I'm going to assume that didn't go over well. She robs her arm anxiously. I don't know. He didn't seem to hurt things. It left the room, walked into the living area, but then it stopped. It didn't leave the cabin. Her voice trembles. What happened after he, after it, walked into the living area? Rachel hissed at me that we should run, Amanda says. I remind her that her angle's fucked. She barely limped into the bedroom. How far does she think she's going to get in the woods over an even ground that's slick with rain? She tells me if we stay here, we're both going to die. Amanda shivers. I know she's right. I know it, but I can't bring myself to leave. It feels like the tense, the only thing keeping that thing away from us. Like as long as the canvases between us, it can't see us and we can't see it. It doesn't exist.

31:43It takes everything I have not to roll my eyes. Still, I flip a page on the clipboard and keep a neutral expression. Her perspective is not unlike a child's. People often approach Tara with a rational and sometimes nonsensical method of survival. Of course, there's nothing magical about her tent. There's nothing about it that will save their lives. Continue, I order. It starts with a creek of a floorboard. We hear it walking again, but it's not coming toward us. It's pacing back and forth out there in the living area and it's sniggering faster than before. Soon, the sniggering gets heavier violent. It starts grunting and growling. She takes a breath and chokes back a sob. Tears raced on her cheeks and her eyes are light with terror. Then it goes silent. No movement, no grunting, no weird fucking snickering. Just the thunder outside, the howling wind, the rain on the roof. I'm sitting there clutching the bare mace and Rachel's crying in both of us are praying it's gone. We're praying it's just given up, decided to move on and and and what, I press. She meets my gaze with her own and I hope this forest swims in her eyes.

32:45And then the entire cabin shakes. It fits its pound on the floor and there's this hateful, agonizing sound like a hundred human screams mixed together and poured out of a single voice. Rachel and I lose it. We're shouting, crawling over each other, trying to insipid the door of the tent and get the hell out of there. And then her whole world turns upside down. It's like we've been thrown in a washing machine. My head cracks off her knee and we're rolling around bouncing in this cacophony of sand and fabric. And then I realize the tent's been lifted off the ground. Above me in a light of the LED lantern, I see two crooked broken antlers piercing through the canvas. That monster's throwing us around bucking like a down deer. Soon the tent canvas tears and we fall free cumbling to the ground in a painful heap. Rachel scrambling over me holding the lantern in her hand. And in the madness of it all, I see her make a break for it towards the window. As she does, the light passes over that, that fucking monster. Amanda chokes back tears and sniffles. I'm sorry she says. I just need one second.

33:45Of course. I reach into my jacket pocket and retrieve a set of tissues. I pass them to her. Here blow you nose. She does. When she's finished, both of us sit in silence for a moment. Her bottom lip quivers. It must have been eight feet tall. It was crouched over, human-eyed, except its chest was covered and thrown. Its legs were scarlet like a bird's. It had a long tangle of black hair and its aunt those jutted out from its eye sockets. I mock the details down in excitement. Yes, good. It's a near-perfect description. It's missing only a few key things. The antlers oppress. Can you describe them? They were crooked, she says slowly. They came out at odd angles, both different. And her random was a halo of eyes. Tiny, black ones. She closes her own eyes and takes a stuttering breath. I almost missed them, except they all blinked in unison and I remember thinking it was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen. The fact that all of them blinked, I ask. No, the fact that all of them were looking at me. Did it attack you?

34:46I have to know. The defining characteristic of the Kalasman is his method of attack. If she nails it, then I've got her. I've got my link. And I've got him. She shakes her head. No, I thought he might, but then Rachel makes a rocket. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts. She's throwing herself up onto the window ledge and then she falls over the other side. The creature turns toward her, snickers, and launches herself at the window. It seems like it should be too big to fit, whatever it is, but it isn't.

35:47It's like a snake, the way its body contorts to fit itself into the window frame. It perches there, and I see at the bottom of its scale it feed her these thick claws, and the hands it uses to grip the window have thin and possibly long fingers. It drums them on the wall before it launches itself after Rachel. I sit there for a second and too much sharp to move, and then I realize my friends out there being chased by some fucking monster. I get to my feet and turn my phone's light on, and in the distance through the rain and swaying trees, I can see Rachel's light bobbing in the darkness. I call out to her, I shout her name, but she either doesn't hear me or she doesn't care. I scan the area for the monster, but I don't see a thing. I lean out the window looking around the cabin using my phone's light to eliminate as much as I can, but it's not there. The monster was vanish. I'm surprised you didn't take your opportunity to run, essay. The creature was clearly more interested in Rachel. Amanda glares at me. There's a stubborn defiance in her eyes, and I have to remind myself that most humans have a perverse obsession with self-sacrifice. Maybe it's the Hollywood brainwashing. Maybe it's the fact that they just haven't suffered enough,

36:48but they can't get enough before she even speaks. I see it in her too. I couldn't leave her, Amanda snaps. I was the one who dragged her out there on that hike. I was the one who suggested we follow that stupid overgrown trail. I was the one who refused to use my locator beacon before it was too late. All of this was my fault. If I walked away from her then, I could never forgive myself. Her voice breaks. I still can't. Time to get a move on you went after her then. Yeah, I clambered through the window and took off following her light as best I could out the bare mace in one hand and my phone in the other the light for my fun wasn't much, but it was enough to keep me from tripping on routes or running into trees. I kept calling Rachel's name, kept telling her I was coming. She can't have gotten far with a twisted ankle. I say then again, adrenaline can do incredible things. Amanda shakes her head. She was moving that fast at least compared to me. I was gaining on her. I could just barely see her silhouette ahead of me in the LED land and bobbing up and down as she limped away. Then the light drops. Rachel's silhouette vanishes and I hear her scream. I double over running with everything I have.

37:49My lungs are burning and my feet are slipping on the mud, but I don't care. I'm not thinking anymore. I'm acting on pure instinct. And my instincts are telling me that if I don't get to Rachel soon, that creature is going to kill her. The words stop. My man is body trembles and she breaks down. She can't hold it in anymore. The torrent falls out of her and her face gets ugly as she solbs into her hands. It doesn't take long before her palms are glistening with wetness. But to the ghost's credit, she forces herself to keep going. She doesn't quit. Rachel screams stop. I can't see anything really. The lanterns on its side, far ahead of me, and I can just barely make out a shape in the docus. It's the sound. The sound that still haunts me, though. I think it always will. What sound? This wet, tearing sound. Like skin being ripped and blood splattering the ground. It's followed by dough crunch and then I. I hear slurping, swallowing. I charge forward and I'm basically just a journal in at this point. I hold my phone up as I close the distance and I see.

38:51I see it. She takes a sobbing breath. I see the man with crooked antlers. He's crouched over Rachel's corpse, and one of her arms has been torn in half, dangling by a thin strip of flesh. It's missing her hand. Laud is everywhere and it's still spurting out of her torn land. I'm too stunned to move. Too shocked to see my friend dead on the ground in front of me being eaten by this thing. Her voice trembles and she launches into another fit of tears. She brings the tissue to her nose and bulls a thick wad of mucus into it before throwing it and ceremoniously onto the warehouse floor. She wipes her face with the back of her sleeve. Then the thing rears back its head and it tears off what's left of Rachel's arm. It starts to chew it. It's more gruesome than anything I've ever seen. I don't think we're wired to deal with seeing that shit as human beings, you know? Like nothing in my programming knew how to deal with that. Once it finishes chewing, it swallows the arm and it opens its mouth again. Its bottom draw falls all the way to the forest floor. It's gaping more large enough for a grown man to walk straightened. It sits there in front of her corpse for a second and then the upper of screaming starts again

39:51like a hundred anguish voices stitched together. A flurry of human arms reach out of its mouth, claw into her Rachel's limp body. They clutch it was left of her torn limb, her hair, her jacket. They clutch at anything they can reach. And then they start dragging her into the monster's mouth. There it is. It's just as I remember. A man reliably blows into the tissue again. Then I hear Rachel whimper and my fucking blood goes cold. I've realized the entire time I've been standing they're watching this thing eat her, she's been alive. I was watching her get eaten alive. My mind goes blank. I point the bare mace and let Lizzeblast toward the monster shouting, I had it to get the fuck away from her. It recalls howling in that symphony of screams and chuffing back into the bushes. I take my chance and press the lantern in Rachel's hand. I tell her she needs to hold that for us as she nods weakly. Her face has lost all of its color and I know she's not long for this world. I get her good arm, her only arm over my shoulder and keeping a grip on the bare mace begin putting some distance between us and that monster. She's groaning. She keeps saying my name, Mandy, over and over again.

40:54But I tell her to be quiet. She needs to save her energy and I need to hear that thing. We don't get far before I hear it's thunderous, football's pound against the forest floor. It's running at us. I wheel around and Rachel's lantern illuminates the monster for only a split second before I let Lizze another round of the mace's knickers in pain and brings this long finger tans to its eyes. I don't wait around for it to recover. I keep going and I don't know where all I know is I need to get away from this thing because it isn't going to stop until it finishes what it started. Again, I hear it's footsteps pound in the dirt and again I wheel around and bust the fucker. It treaks in pain and shies away but only a few moments later it charges again. A man decales over and starts bowling. She grits her hair, then starts pulling on it so hard I have expect her to tear her chunk from her scalp. I realize she says choking out the words between sobs. I realize Rachel's too heavy. I can't get her. I can't get away from this thing because I can feel the kind of mace is almost empty and every time I hit it with a mace it affects it less. She shakes her head. Her eyes are bloodshot, her cheeks tear stained. She sniffles and wiped mucous onto her sleeve.

41:57I have to leave Rachel. I have to. If I don't, it's going to kill both of us. You understand, right? For the first time in her desperate recollection of the event, I do understand. Yes, I say life isn't easy. There aren't any real heroes, just people who pretend to be. You made a difficult choice, but a necessary one. A man declares at me and she stares at me for a long while like she's searching my expression for something. Finally, she nods slowly. Yeah, she says, wiping more snot onto her sleeve. Her voice evens out the tears no longer coming in torrents. I did what I had to do. I put her down apologizing. I apologized over and over again. And I heard that thing coming and I took off. I run full, tilt into the woods behind me. I heard that screaming. All of the awful, horrible screaming. She swallows and her voice stutters. I listen to that familiar sound of tearing flesh and then the dull crunch of snapping bone. I listen to the creature she on Rachel. I try not to. I try to just focus on running or the sound of the rain

42:59or the thunder or the wind, but I couldn't. All I could hear was my friend being eaten alive. Silence stretches between us. I clear my throat. Is that it? You got away, ran into the SR team on your way down the mountain. No, she says, closing her eyes. There's a look of resigned regret in her features. I hear another sound. I hear a helicopter. A moment later, I catch sight of its searchlight beaming over the forest. I know this might be my only chance so I start waving around my phone's light trying to make as much of a scene as I can. It works. The helicopter swings over and it lowers the ladder with a rescue technician. He straps me to a line and asks me if I'm alone. I'm hysterical, shouting a mile a minute. I shriek that monster, attack my fanned and I point towards Rachel's lantern, faintly visible in the distance. I tell him to kill her. I'm and a gulps wiping at her eyes. He radios in to have me brought up and says he'll go look for Rachel. I tell him not to. I know if he does, he'll die too. It'll kill him just like a kilter.

44:00But over the wind and rain, he either doesn't hear me or doesn't care. I'm pulled into the helicopter and a few minutes later, I hear the man's voice over the radio. It's desperate, full of grief. He says he needs a stretcher down there. He says he found the other woman and that she's still alive. Jesus, have you spoken to Rachel since? I ask quietly. Amanda shakes her head. No, she, um, she's in a coma. Both of her arms are missing. The wounds are infected and she's developed serious pneumonia. Doctors aren't sure if she's going to make it. She brings a hand to her mouth and chokes back a sob. Her eyes are wide and her body quakes. Uh, I left her there to die. If I had just stayed with her a couple minutes longer, then the rescue chopper would have found us. It would have scared that fucking thing away and Rachel would still be gravely injured. I finish. You can't blame yourself. You didn't know the chopper was around the corner. All that you knew was something wanted to kill you and it was winning the battle for your life.

45:00Her shoulders rack with silent sobs. I could have stayed with her. She breaks down all over again and this time I give her all the time she needs. I've scarcely seen somebody so grief-stricken in all my years of doing this and it's almost as bizarre to me as the anomalies have spent my life hunting. To hit yourself for something as simple as wanting to live, it's inhuman. I'm sorry she says finally. That's that's everything. Can I go now? I lean back in my chair frowning. It's not that I don't empathize with her but such messy reactions only serve to get in the way of actually fixing problems in her case getting revenge for Rachel. She stands up sniffling, then answers her own question. I'm gonna head home. Wait, I say. She stops in her tracks. What? Can you take me there? She stirs at me with red puffy eyes. Her face is a mask of confusion, disbelief. Excuse me? The cabin, I mean. I lean forward in my chair. Can you take me to the callous man? I've never been a fan of the woods. Call it a bad childhood experience,

46:02call it being an auto-shape asshole but I'm even less of a fan when I'm stuck hiking through them for work and yet. It seems like work is a sixth sense of humor because I find myself in these photos as of shit and sticks more often than I'd like which for the record is never well except for today. It's a long time before we reach the cabin and the girl said it to her current, her friend, it I as well, it takes us 12. My best days are behind me unfortunately but luckily I don't need to be very fit for what I'm about to do. I still don't understand why you couldn't have just followed the map Amanda says. I told you exactly how to get to because I say still breath is from the hike. This cabin doesn't exist on a map. You can point it out to me all you want on your iPhone but unless you're right beside me, I'll never see it. It's just the way the callous man works. She narrows her eyes at me. You keep saying that name. Why do you call him the callous man? I pull open the door of the cabin and instantly it smells like shit and dead animals. Breit. I call him the callous man. I say strolling across the creaky floorboards because that's his name. It's the name the first person that ever encountered him

47:02coined him with and so it's the name of which I refer to him. The first person? Yeah, I say stepping into the bedroom. Now, the floor is a mess covered in what's left of Amanda's tent. A small device lays a few feet away and I figure it's probably a located beacon. Hang on, she says, appearing in the doorway behind me. You're the first person that saw the cre the callous man. I'm not bending down and picking up one of the shattered photo frames she'd mentioned. Dusting it off, I hold it up to her. This is my grandpa and I showing off our rifles before going deer hunting. She looks shocked stunned. Her eyes gaze at the picture and then back at me. On second glance, you two really do share a resemblance. You and he look so much alike. Yeah, I suppose we do. I toss the frame onto the ground. You lived here? Visited. My grandpa lived here. You're kidding. She shakes her head incredulous. This whole thing is so bizarre. It has to be a nightmare. It can't be real. I flip the water bottle full of black grime in my hands, catching it with a smile.

48:03You preaching to the choir, lady. If I had to guess, I'd probably hope I wake up from this even more than you do. Unlike you, she says with a glare, I don't have any secret agent training or whatever. Unlike me, you've got my gun. The only training you need is to point and shoot and not hit me with the bullets. She taps my revolver strap to her thigh. It was her soul condition for joining me on this little woodland excursion. She gets to carry the gun. I told her that's fine with one stipulation. Remember, I say, don't fucking touch that thing unless the cow's man's already pulling you into his big mouth. I don't need you shooting me before I finish my business. What if he's attacking you? She asks, I'll deal with it. You'll deal with an eight-foot-tone monster with nothing but your bare hands. The water bottle crinkles in my grip. Just trust me on this. I'm a professional. I place my hand in the windowsill and look out over the clearing, out past the tree line. The sun's turned golden red. Soon it'll be night. Nervous. What do you think she says? I hope you're as good as you say you are.

49:03The way she moves, the way she speaks and the way she keeps touching the revolver on her thigh. Tell me everything I need to know. She's terrified. Relax, I say. Save the anxiety for when our friend shows up. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it. Asking where this is all going, they come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast forever you get your podcasts. I'm on to polls, one of the chairs from the living area into the bedroom with me. She sits down on it, rigid and straight. I'm almost proud of her. Sure, she was only willing to accompany me with a revolver strap to her thigh, but she still chose to do it. She chose to get revenge for what that thing did to her,

50:05what it did to Rachel. Almost there, I mutter. My eyes follow the sun as it slips behind the tree line. Shadows stretch out and go through the cabin and thin strips of darkness. He'll be here soon. Seconds pass, then minutes, and then things begin to change. It starts with a crew taking flight and I already know he's coming. I can feel him. A family of rabbits follows bounding through the clearing. Soon the entire forest is fleeing past us far away from the callous man and the death he represents. I pop a piece of spirit come and start chewing. It helps me focus. You ready? Why, she says, shooting up from the chair. Is he here? Does it make a difference? You're either ready or you're not. She scowls at me, but her body relaxes. I'm ready. Are you sure you can kill him? A mad mixture of impatience and nervousness flutters in my stomach. I toy with the idea of lying. It would put her at ease. Then I decide it doesn't matter anymore. Both of us are in too deep. No, no. She repeats hysterical.

51:07She rises from her chair, rounding on me. You said you were professional. Ah, you told me you've dealt with a hundred different monsters. I have. Her mouth opens, but no words come out. She stares at me with something between stunned disbelief and absolute loathing. She thinks I've signed her deathwarns. I'm not going to lie to you, I say. I've dealt with a lot of creatures, some bad, some worse. I know this job inside and out and I don't plan on dying today. But the Calusman is different. How? Keats. I catch myself. We're in the precipice and there's no going back. But there are still words that can upset the operation. I exercise some tact. He's powerful. He can distort this world and manipulate dimensions. It's why I needed you here. It's why I needed your link. He chose you. The Calusman gave you the key to his world and only. But he never said you couldn't bring visitors. She shakes her head. She's trying to piece it together. Bless her heart. She's trying her best.

52:07But there aren't enough pieces to make sense of it. And that's intentional. It's by design. I need her obedient, not enruly. Everything hinges on her cooperation. I don't understand. Why did he choose me? The sun finishes its descent. It's red orange rays fading to darkness. I flick my flashlight on, holding it up to the window and watching the clearing with Betty Breath. The Calusman is coming. He chose you because of the life you live, I explain. The values you represent it. It means something to him. Valleys are represent. What, like honesty and integrity? She's snorts. What do values mean to a monster like that? Esmeric. They mean you taste good. The night is still silent. Just as she earlier described, there is no sound of life. Except this time, there's no storm either. It's a cloudless sky without so much as a breeze. And I can almost hear Amanda's heart beating out of her chest. Ha-ha, she says sarcastically. She's close enough behind me now that I can feel her breath on my neck. She really is terrified.

53:07What do those values actually mean to it? To him, I correct. Believe it or not, that monster really is a man. When you become as powerful as he is though, food stops meaning what it means to you and I. It's less about calories and more about filling a void. It's trying to supplement its diet with concepts, ideas that it's missing. Why? To become better. To cure itself. There's movement in the clearing. I'm a breath catches as I see it. A set of crooked antlers. They rise from the bramble soon revealing a face covered by matted black hair, one with a tiny snout and a halo of dark BDIs. The dots glimmer in the beam of my flashlight. It wants to stop being a monster she asks her voice thick with disbelief. It's eating people to save itself. S-H-H, I hiss. My eyes are wide and my mouth is split into the largest grin of worn in years. He's here. I sense her tense up behind me, but her credit, she doesn't unholster the revolver on her thigh. She keeps her cool. I gripped the water bottle tighter, reaching a hand to its cap. No. I pull my hand away, reminding myself

54:09that I need to keep my cool too. It's still too soon. The callous man can still make his escape fade away. I need him committed. At the edge of the clearing, the man rises to his full height. I can see clearly now his dark fur chest and his lung then fingers resting on the ground. His bird-like legs begin a slow march forward. The claw's digging at the loom earth. He's coming, I say, taking a step back. Stay behind me. Directly behind me. She doesn't speak, but I know she's nodding. I hear her feet creak in the floorboards and concert with my own. My fingers play at the cap of the water bottle. Everything comes down to this. Forty years of horror and misery have led me to this moment. A snickering sound piece is the air. The man's moving faster now, each footstep coming at the pace of a light jog. There's hardly any time left, but still away. He's coming. Amanda, his is from behind me. She's panicking. Her handclutches are my shoulder and I grunt shaking her off. Don't, I tell her. Relax, we're almost on here. My heart races.

55:10Seeing the monster again after all these years is dredging up all of memories and the little boy threatens to take cold inside of me. My palms are thick with sweat. It doubles over sprinting on all fours. It's somewhat of us connect with my own while it's crooked out low sway and consult with its powerful body. Clouds of earth burst out from behind it. It's long fingers tearing at the ground with each stride. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It snickers. Yeah, yeah. It leaps at the window. For a moment time seems to stop. I stare at transphix by the creature I used to know so well. It's horrifying and human face gazes back at me and inside of it I see an insatiable hunger I need to feed. My body freezes, my blood goes cold. Terror grips me as its fingers reach outward, passing through the window while its focal cords chitter in anticipation. It wants me, I lunge to the side. It collides with Amanda. It's unloads piercing her stomach and showering a bedroom in blood. Her body crashes against the wall with a sickening crunch and she lays there in a broken, whimpering heap. I stay as quiet as I can.

56:10The cow's man shakes his tangle of black hair and looks around, reorienting himself. First to me, then to her. Then back to me. Thuck. My fingers begin to twist in the cap of a water bottle. It's too soon. I need him distracted. I need him feeding and committed. But I don't think I have an option anymore. It's stepped toward me. The floor grows. My mouth feels dry. My lint's twitchy. Theor takes root in my chest and the little boy inside threatens to take hold. No, I have to hang on. I open the water bottle and my mouth begins stutter in the words, thorough Valnola. The cow's man lowers himself. His back arches and his tiny set begins to open, growing larger and larger. Screams of a hundred souls echo from the void inside of him their arms reaching toward me, desperate to draw another into their nightmare. Alan Schalzer. I continue the words, but there's no time. They're so close. He's so close. I press myself as far against the corner as I can, but still I feel their cold grip on my leg.

57:11They pill. They're strong. My balance goes up from under me and I fall on my ass. Just falcon. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. She held the values he needed. Her, not me, I keep speaking the incantation. I keep moving my lips, but now my body's acting on instinct, unlearned behavior. I can't so much as think as I slip further and further into the abyssal darkness of the cow's man's jaws. I keep speaking the words, but my voice is drowned by the pleas of the dead. Screaming, howling, begging. The incantation is all I have left. It's not enough. It's taking too long. A deafening bang rings out, interrupted a course of screaming souls. The cow's man recoils. It's jaw sliding across the floor and its body writhing in agony. It stumbles to the side and then two more gunshots pierce a knife. It falls to its knees. I can see behind him now. I can see Amanda's bloody mangled heap. One of her legs is snapped back rows and her white shirt is torn at her stomach with pieces of her falling out of the hole. Blood spills from her mouth like a fountain

58:11and in her trembling hands, she holds the revolver. Thank you. I breathe, rising to my feet on shaky legs. Thank you, Amanda. Another blast of the handgun and this time I years a ringing like church bells. Estumbled to the side and in the dim light of my lantern, I see a bullet hole in the wall beside me. I barely have time to look back at her before agony rips through my thigh and I collapse onto the bedroom floor. Fucking bitch. My hands clutched the wound instinctively. I don't need to look at it to feel the warm witness of blood seeping through my fingers. I gaze up at her and she stared as the gun at me. I was so close. So God, I'm close. 40 years of this shit, I'm a done by a blogger. Do it, I growl. Death by a bullet isn't a bad way to go. All things considered. Do it before he takes us both. She low as to. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast. A long time reporter and an on air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors

59:13from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it. Asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Revolver and Tia's fall from her eyes. She's choking on a word, but all that's coming out is a torrent of blood. It's fine. I know what she wants to say. I did it because it was the only way I explained for Greta Teeth. One of us always had to die, but if it was me, then it meant we both did. Her body's twitching and shock. She's still moving her mouth, but it's just blood now. No words. Only blood. Her face is pale and glassy eyed, but I only see it for another moment before the cast man begins to rise. He's snickering, but it's violent, angry. His eyes gaze at me. The antlers are casting twister charters in the light of my lantern, and it's making him seem even more unnatural, more inhuman. He turns away from me. He turns to Amanda.

1:00:14Tell Gazeria, I whisper. More of the aggression. His foot stepped grown on the rot and cabin floorboards. I don't see Amanda, but I hear the gurgle of blood. I hear the desperate shuffle of her body, pushing itself against the wall. I hear a gunshot ring out, then another. The foot steps march forward, and so does my incantation. The water bottle shaking in my grip now, the grimy fluid swirling in a murky maelstrom. Bray Julia. Another shot. Thelredra. I cacophony of screams. Set kiln. Amanda lets loose in the handgun twice more, and then the fire on clicks impotently. She's burned through every round that it has. It was enough. It never could be. My lips keep moving even as I hear her body being dried across the floor. The ancient language flows out of me, and I'm deaf to the sounds of her flesh being ripped in torn. A lens being devired inch by inch. She needs to hang on. Her role in this is an over-yet. I speak the final words. Set Rinders. The water bottle jolts from my grip, the murky fluid inside exploding into a dark cloud,

1:01:16twisting around the room like a tornado of smoke. I hear the screaming falter. Then I hear the callous man lurch around, snickering in confusion. I hear Amanda groan. She's a fighter. Good. It takes the cloud only a handful of seconds to coalesce into the greatest monster I've ever seen. But in that moment, it feels like a lifetime. It's formed snaps and cracks with bolts of electricity. It's 12 eyes glow and impossible blue. Upon it, six muscle domes are heavy chains linking to a choker on its neck, and it roars in fury. This time I'll have your soul, little man. I'll enjoy it over a glass of your misery. I let a grin slip across my lips. For the first time since the callous man appeared, I feel my sense of humor returning. Sorry to disappoint, drugger, but a simony by means of an offering. The genie sprouts furrow and his mouth opens to reveal a row of jagateeth. I see no living humans here safer one. He's smiling. He reaches an arm out to grab me, but as soon as his fingers brush my throat, they hiss and steam. He recoils snarling. She's your offering. I say, pointing past the callous man

1:02:17to a man whose mandal body. Now obey my command. A legion of screams interrupt us. The callous man's jaws have opened, and once more a hundred arms reach from the maw, this time toward the newcomer. They grasp it the genie, phasing through the gaseous image. Drag her skulls, his voice dropping to a low growl. Very well, the words have spoken. A soul for a soul. His body splits into circumventing the callous man and reforming in front of a mandal. She's nearly dead. She's confused. She doesn't understand what's happening. I've given her a mercy. Drag her will treat her soul better than the callous man ever would. The genie's hand reaches up to touch her and in the next instant her body is gone. Only the blood stands remain. The callous man looks back to me, it's jaw scraping along the floor. It recognizes there's nothing in the genie to consume. It wants what's inside of me, though. It wants the memories of its humanity. Revenge. It takes a heavy step toward me than another. The screams are deafening, but I know I don't need my voice to be heard. A command is a command.

1:03:19For her soul, I want his. The pale hands reach out from the abyss of maw, grasping my legs and I let them. My body falls to the floor. It inches toward the jaws of the beast, toward donation. Then, light fills the room and the cabin shakes with the low base of eternity itself. The screaming fades to a whimper. Then, after a loud pop, it's gone. Everything's gone. The callous man, the cabin. I'm alone, laying in a dark field. My lantern illuminating a clearing of grass with tall trees surrounding it. My thigh aches, my mouth is parched and my conscience is in tatters. But I'm alive. I'm always alive. Soon you'll have fulfilled our contract, says a hissing voice scraping along my anirrier. It's everywhere and nowhere. I've taken 93 souls for you, only seven more to go. Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before. I say with the groan. Now hand over my soul. There's a swirl of smoke in the frowning genie appears before me. He snaps a finger on one of his six arms and produces a vile filled with murky purple fluid. The man never deserved this, he says.

1:04:19He was your own blood. Filt lecture me, I say reaching for the vile. You and I both know he was never supposed to turn into that. The genie pulls back, gazing at the vile. What is meant to be and what comes to pass are two different things. You shield yourself in the delusion of intention. He encircles me in a snaking ribbon of smoke, his face materializing near my ear. You force that destiny on the man. He had no desire to participate in your war. Yeah, well, none of us do. And yet it's coming anyway. Something takes a seat in my gut. Would rat maybe? Remorse. It's an ugly feeling, whatever it is. I blame the woman. Why didn't she just kill me? No, I think to myself. Shake it off. I've got more important things to worry about. Vile, a girl, holding my hand out. I think I may have miscalculated dragon mutters, stirring at the vile with curiosity. A soul for a soul such are the terms of our contract. And yet, I swallow and it feels like sandpaper. Once the last time I had something to drink.

1:05:20You got your soul. Now give me mine. My voice cracks. Buck. My voice cracks. The genie's twelve eyes swivel their gaze to me. A smile slips across his lips. When he speaks, his voice is quiet and settling. I count over a hundred souls in this vile. My heart slams against my rib cage. Damn it. That's not fair. I shout trying to rise to my feet, but my thigh screams in pain and I fall back to earth. I only ask for his soul. I never asked for the souls he devoured. And yet, they are still a part of him. Please, it can't end here. He reasonable. Reasonable. The genie roars and his form becomes massive. Lighting sparks around him and the wind wets into a gale, threatening to unseat me from the ground. You chain me to the surface for decades, turn me into a common reaper for your own ends, and you can find me to a plastic bottle. Do you speak of reason to me? I did what I had to, I bellow. A war is coming and we need these souls. We need an army. Your petty war means nothing to me. Drag our points along finger toward me and the red horse whirls around it.

1:06:24Sparks crackle at its tip. Then slowly, reluctantly, he curls it back into a fist. I am, however, a reasonable being. My breath hitches in my chest as I hang on the monsters every word. You have broken the tones of our contract, but I have also willingly fulfilled your wish. For that, I will give you a compromise, little human. Compromise? That's good. Better than nothing, at least. Drag your eyes glint. One month. One month? Settle your affairs. Prepare for your war. One month from now, I'll take the soul I've dreamed of for decades. I'll spend the next century picking you out of my teeth. I sigh, falling back onto the grass. It's better than I could expect all things considered. I'm surprised the cause with gas hull didn't just scoop me up right then and there. Fucking fine print. Okay, I say. Can you get me out of here? He smirks, turning into formless smoke. A soul for a soul. No more, no less. He begins whirling like a mad tornado of shadow, hailing and roaring, and a moment later,

1:07:24he's gone, vacuumed back into the water bottle. Asel. Looks like I'm finding my own way down. Once more, I tried to rise to my feet, and once more I went in pain and fall back down. Down, the revolver did good work on my thigh. No she did. The woman tugged at my thoughts, her resolve, her strength, her blob. She could tell a story, Amanda Haynes. She's gone now, but there's still a story that needs to be told, and I'm running out of time to tell it. I spot a mess in the corner of my eye, a pile of canvas torn and bloody, with tent poles poking up. That should do. I crawl toward it, and a moment later, I find what I'm looking for. A black device laying a few feet away, just like it had been in the cabin. The beacon. I reach out and grab it and click the button. It beeps. Good. It beeps. You don't need me to tell you that the search team located me, and you don't need me to tell you that they had a lot of questions, but the facility stepped in and took care of it. You also don't need me to tell you that I'll be walking on crutches for the rest of my short life. And that is the end. Thank you for listening, and I will see you in the next one.

1:08:30Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a long time reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going to come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.