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Trapped In Walmart After Closing 1 Year (Full Story) — Transcript

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0:00You fell asleep in a Walmart. When you
0:02woke up, everyone was gone. Not just
0:05from the store, from everywhere. And
0:08you'd be stuck in here for the next
0:09year. You stopped [music] in after work
0:11for a few things, sat down in one of the
0:13display recliners to check your phone,
0:15and closed your eyes for a second.
0:17[music] When you open them, it's 3:00 in
0:19the morning.
0:20The lights are still on, the music
0:22[music] is still playing, but there's
0:23nobody here. No workers, no cleaning
0:26crew, nothing. The front doors are
0:29locked. Your phone has no signal
0:31[music]. You figure you'll just wait for
0:33the morning shift. Then, you walk past
0:35electronics. Every TV on the wall is
0:38showing the same message. Stay indoors.
0:41Do not travel. Further instructions will
0:43follow. [music] They never do. Day one.
0:47When the sun comes up, the parking lot
0:49is full of cars with nobody in them.
0:52The city is quiet. No sirens, no
0:54traffic, no planes.
0:56The morning shift never comes. So, you
0:59do the math. Around 4,000 cans of food,
1:032,000 bottles of water in the back, bags
1:05of rice, beans, pasta, peanut butter. If
1:09you're smart about it, one person could
1:11live off this store for years. The
1:13problem is, you have no idea what's
1:15happening outside, and you have no idea
1:18who else is still out there. That first
1:20night, you don't sleep much.
1:23You make a bed behind the customer
1:24service counter, where nobody can see
1:26you from the doors. It's the quietest
1:28place in the store.
1:30Too quiet.
1:31Around midnight, a car alarm goes off
1:33somewhere outside. It goes for almost a
1:36minute. Then, it just stops. Not like
1:39someone turned it off, like the battery
1:41died.
1:42Later, you hear dogs barking far away. A
1:45lot of them.
1:47Then, nothing.
1:48You lie there staring at the ceiling,
1:50telling yourself someone's going to
1:52come. The army, the police, anyone. In
1:55the morning, you'll hear sirens and this
1:57will all be over.
1:59You don't hear sirens, not the next
2:01morning, and not any morning after that.
2:04Day three, first rule, stay away from
2:07the glass.
2:08You stack shopping carts against the
2:10front doors and drag shelves in front of
2:12them. Anyone walking by can see right
2:14into this place.
2:15You move to the back of the store. The
2:17camping aisle has everything you need, a
2:19tent, a sleeping bag, lanterns, and
2:22enough batteries to last a long time.
2:24From here, you can hear the whole store,
2:27but nobody outside can see you. Day
2:29five, in electronics, you find a
2:32hand-crank emergency radio. No batteries
2:34needed. You crank it for 2 minutes
2:36[music] and start scanning.
2:38Static. Static. More static. Then, right
2:42at the end of the dial, a voice, a woman
2:45reading a list of numbers, slow and
2:48calm. 14 9 22 6 over and over. You have
2:55no idea what they mean, but it's the
2:57first human voice you've heard in 5
2:59days, and you sit there listening to it
3:01for an hour.
3:03The next night, you turn it on again.
3:05Same station, same numbers. On day 11,
3:08she stops in the middle of a number, and
3:10she never comes back on. Day seven,
3:13for 1 week, it's honestly not bad. You
3:16eat whatever you want, you ride scooters
3:18down the aisles, you play every game in
3:20electronics. You sleep on a different
3:22mattress every night.
3:24But at night, the store gets really
3:26quiet, and that's when you start to
3:28realize how alone you actually are. Day
3:3110, you find a whiteboard in the back
3:33office and write down rules, real rules,
3:36the kind you don't break, even when
3:38you're tired.
3:40Rule one, never open the front doors.
3:43Rule two, no lights near the front of
3:45the store after dark.
3:47Rule three, count the food every Sunday.
3:50Rule four, always know where your
3:52flashlight is.
3:53Rule five, if you hear something, you
3:56don't go looking for it. You wait.
3:59It feels a little crazy writing rules
4:01for yourself in an empty store, but
4:03without them, every day starts to feel
4:05the same. And you've already caught
4:07yourself talking out loud to nobody. The
4:09rules keep you sharp. Later on, rule
4:12five is the one you'll wish you
4:13followed. Day 14, the fresh food goes
4:16first. Bananas turn black, the bread
4:19grows mold, the smell from the produce
4:22section gets so bad you stop walking
4:24past it. You make a new rule, eat the
4:26stuff that spoils first, save the cans
4:29for later. Day 30, the lights die, the
4:32music stops [music], the freezers stop
4:35humming.
4:36For the first time, the store is
4:38completely silent.
4:40The hardware section has two generators
4:42and some gas cans from the lawn and
4:43garden area, but gas runs out. So, you
4:46only run the generator for one thing, a
4:49light at night. Everything else, you do
4:51in the dark. Day 38,
4:54in the back of the stockroom, there's a
4:56ladder bolted to the wall that goes up
4:57to a hatch in the roof.
4:59You've been scared to use it.
5:01Today, you climb.
5:03It's the first fresh air you've had in
5:05over a month.
5:07And the view is worse than you thought.
5:09The whole city is dark, highways full of
5:12cars that aren't moving, smoke still
5:14rising from three different spots
5:16downtown.
5:17You set up buckets and a tarp to catch
5:19rainwater, just in case.
5:21And right before you head back down, you
5:23notice something. Way across the city,
5:26on top of a tall building, one light is
5:28blinking. On and off. On and off.
5:33Someone else is out there. You just
5:35don't know if that's a good thing. Day
5:3745,
5:38without power, every freezer in the
5:41store starts to rot. Hundreds of pounds
5:43of meat and ice cream, all going bad at
5:46once. You wrap the whole section in
5:48plastic and tape it shut. You don't go
5:50back there again. Day 52,
5:53you're moving a shelf in the dark when
5:55it slips.
5:56A piece of broken glass from a freezer
5:58door slices right across your hand. It's
6:01deep, deeper than any cut you've ever
6:03had.
6:04And there's no hospital, no doctor,
6:07nobody coming. You wrap it in a shirt
6:09and run to the pharmacy with the
6:10flashlight in your teeth. Gauze, tape,
6:14ointment, a bottle of pills you read the
6:16label on three times before you take
6:18one. For 4 days, your hand is swollen
6:21and hot. You barely sleep. You start to
6:24think this is how it ends. Not some
6:26monster, a cut.
6:29On day 56, the swelling goes down. You
6:32add a new rule to the whiteboard. Rule
6:34six, be careful. In here, small mistakes
6:38are big ones. Day 60.
6:40By now, you have a routine. Check the
6:43doors, count the food, work out, mark
6:46another day on the wall. It's the only
6:48thing that keeps the days from blending
6:49together.
6:51You drink three bottles of water a day.
6:53At that rate, the water lasts almost 2
6:55years. Food isn't the problem anymore.
6:58Being alone is. Day 75.
7:01The storm starts in the afternoon. By
7:04night, the wind is so loud, it sounds
7:06like the whole building is breathing.
7:08Then, you hear a crack above aisle 12.
7:11Part of the roof gives way and the rain
7:13pours straight in. You run with buckets,
7:16tarps, anything you can find, but it's
7:18too much. Water spreads across the
7:21floor, under the shelves, into the
7:23bottom rows of food. It goes all night.
7:26In the morning, you count what's left.
7:28600 cans are ruined. Labels peeled off,
7:32cans dented, boxes turned to mush. 600.
7:37For the first time, the math doesn't
7:39feel safe. This store isn't going to
7:41last forever, and neither are you if you
7:44stay here forever. Day 90.
7:47You see something you haven't seen in 3
7:49months.
7:50Flashlights, out in the parking lot.
7:52Three of them, walking between the cars,
7:55checking everyone.
7:57You turn off your lantern and don't
7:58move.
7:59One of them walks up to the front doors
8:01and pulls on the handle.
8:03The carts shake, but they hold. After a
8:06few minutes, they leave.
8:07You don't sleep that night. Day 100. You
8:10find a box of cake mix, a pan, and the
8:13camping stove. It takes three tries, but
8:16you make something that looks almost
8:17like a cake. You stick one candle in the
8:20middle. It's not your birthday. It's
8:22just day 100. But it feels like it
8:24should mean something. So, you sit on
8:26the floor of the bakery aisle and sing
8:28to yourself. Quietly, so nobody outside
8:31can hear. You think about the people you
8:33haven't seen in a hundred days. Your
8:36family, your friends, whether any of
8:38them are out there sitting somewhere
8:40just like this.
8:42You blow out the candle. You don't make
8:44a wish. You've stopped believing
8:46anyone's coming. Day 120.
8:49You count the food like you always do.
8:51And something's off. You're short six
8:54cans of soup. You count again. Still six
8:57short. Then you check the stockroom.
9:00There are footprints in the dust, and
9:02they're not yours.
9:04The doors are still blocked. Nothing
9:06outside got in, which means whoever made
9:08these footprints was already inside. Day
9:11135.
9:13If someone is in the store with you, you
9:15want to know where. So, you set traps.
9:18Not to hurt anybody, just to hear them.
9:21You tie bells from the toy aisle onto
9:23fishing line and string them across the
9:25stockroom doors.
9:26You pour a thin line of flour across the
9:28back hallway, so footprints will show.
9:31Then, you grab every baby monitor in the
9:33baby aisle, eight of them. You hide them
9:35all over the store and keep the
9:37receivers lined up next to your tent.
9:39For 2 weeks, nothing. Just a quiet hiss.
9:43Then, on night 15, one of the monitors
9:46picks something up. Breathing, slow and
9:49quiet.
9:50You check which monitor it is. It's the
9:52one in the stockroom. Day 150.
9:56You've spent weeks trying to figure out
9:57where they're hiding. Then, one night,
10:00you hear something moving above you. In
10:03the ceiling.
10:04You climb up and push a tile out of the
10:06way. There's a blanket up there. Empty
10:09soup cans, wrappers. Someone has been
10:12living right above your head this whole
10:14time, but they're gone. They left
10:16something behind, a notebook. Inside are
10:19tally marks, one for every day you've
10:22been here, and a drawing of your tent.
10:24They weren't hiding from you, they were
10:26watching you. After that, every sound in
10:29the store keeps you up. But for 50 days,
10:32nothing happens. You start to think
10:35whoever it was is gone for good. Then,
10:38on day 200, at 3:00 in the morning,
10:41there's a knock at the front doors,
10:43slow,
10:44three times. You don't move. You don't
10:47breathe. And then a voice on the other
10:49side of the glass says your name.
10:53You didn't. You stayed behind those
10:55carts with your hand over your mouth.
10:57You didn't move. You didn't breathe. And
11:00after a while, the knocking stopped.
11:03That was day 200.
11:05On day 300, the knock came back. Same
11:08time, same three knocks. But this time,
11:11the voice didn't just say your name, it
11:13said hers, too. To understand who she
11:16is, you have to go back to that first
11:18night.
11:19Day 200.
11:20The first time it knocked, you were
11:22alone.
11:23Or you [music] thought you were.
11:26You sat behind the customer service
11:27counter with the lights off until the
11:29sun came up.
11:30Day 201.
11:32In the morning, whoever knocked was
11:34gone.
11:35But taped to the outside of the glass
11:37was a note. Four words. You can't stay
11:40here.
11:41Same handwriting as the notebook in the
11:43ceiling.
11:45Everyone would ask why you never just
11:47walked out. The truth is, you did. Once.
11:51Day three. You went up through the
11:53loading dock. The air smelled like
11:55smoke. Every car on the road was empty,
11:58doors hanging open, like people got out
12:00mid-drive and walked away.
12:02Then you heard it. Something moving
12:04between the cars. Not walking, dragging.
12:08You never saw it. You ran back in and
12:10wedged a pallet jack against the dock
12:12door. And now, someone is telling you to
12:14leave.
12:15Day 204.
12:17If you're leaving, you need food that
12:19travels. The Great Value cans are heavy,
12:22and they're going fast. So, you go to
12:24the book aisle and find a canning book
12:26next to the cookbooks. Mason jars from
12:28housewares, salt, vinegar, a camp stove
12:31from sporting goods.
12:33Night four. You wake up to a bang in the
12:36dark. Glass breaking. You grab the
12:38flashlight. Sure, someone finally got
12:40in. It's a jar. You sealed it wrong and
12:43it blew. Your heart doesn't slow down
12:45for an hour. By the end of the week, 40
12:48jars hold.
12:50Day 209.
12:52Then, the garden center.
12:54Seed packets still on the rack. Bags of
12:56soil. Grow lights from the aquarium
12:59aisle, running off the generator 1 hour
13:01a day.
13:0210 days later, something green pushes up
13:04out of the dirt. Tomatoes in a Walmart,
13:07in the dark.
13:09Day 213.
13:11You pack a bag. Water, a knife, the
13:14flashlight, a city map from the rack by
13:16the registers. Rule seven goes on the
13:19whiteboard. Always come back before
13:21dark.
13:22You leave through the loading dock at
13:24sunrise. Grass is growing through the
13:26cracks in the parking lot. A city bus
13:28sits sideways across the highway, doors
13:30open. Two blocks down, the police
13:33station is chained shut from the inside.
13:35Taped to the glass is the same message
13:37from the TVs. Stay indoors. Do not
13:40travel. Someone crossed it out.
13:42Underneath, in black marker, they lied.
13:46Then, from somewhere behind the cars,
13:48the dragging. You run. You make it back
13:50before dark, barely.
13:53Day 225.
13:55You start going out every few days. And
13:58every time you come back, something in
14:00the store is different. Your sleeping
14:02bag is folded. A pack of batteries is
14:04sitting on your pillow, like a gift. One
14:07night you walk in and every
14:08self-checkout screen is on. All 12 of
14:11them. Same words. Please wait for
14:14assistance. Whoever was in the ceiling
14:16is still here and now they want you to
14:19know it.
14:20Day 238. The back of the pharmacy has
14:23always been locked behind a metal gate.
14:26On day 52, when you cut your hand, all
14:29you could get was the stuff out front.
14:31Today, the lock is cut. The shelves are
14:34empty. All except one thing set right in
14:37the middle of the counter. A heating pad
14:40with a sticky note for your back.
14:43You've slept in a tent on the floor for
14:45238 days. Your back has been killing
14:48you. You never told anyone. There's no
14:51one to tell.
14:52Day 241.
14:55Then winter shows up. There's no heat.
14:58The water bottles on the bottom shelf
15:00freeze solid. You can see your breath
15:02inside a Walmart. You drag the tent into
15:05the middle of the furniture section and
15:07build walls around it out of mattresses.
15:09Moving blankets on the floor. Emergency
15:11blankets from sporting goods taped
15:13inside. Two pairs of work gloves from
15:15hardware and hand warmers in your socks.
15:18The cold gets into everything. The cans,
15:21the floor, your teeth hurt. The
15:24generator is almost out of gas. There's
15:26enough for heat or enough for the
15:28tomatoes, not both. You pick the
15:30tomatoes. If you ever leave, they're the
15:33only fresh food you'll have. So, you
15:36sleep in your coat in a fort made of
15:37mattresses with your knees pulled up to
15:39your chest. And on the coldest night,
15:42you hear something you haven't heard in
15:44241 days. Someone coughing. Not outside,
15:49right above you, in the ceiling. You lie
15:52there until morning staring at the
15:53tiles. It never coughs again.
15:56Day 250.
15:58Then you find the thing that makes your
16:00stomach drop. A photo printed at the
16:03photo center. It's you asleep in the
16:06recliner.
16:08Day one. In [clears throat] the picture,
16:10your phone is in your hand, screen on.
16:12Your name is right there on the lock
16:14screen. That's how they knew.
16:17Day 262,
16:19you stop leaving. You hide every baby
16:22monitor around the photo center, and you
16:24wait.
16:25Night one,
16:26nothing.
16:27Night two,
16:29nothing.
16:30Night three, the photo printer turns on
16:32by itself. You grab the flashlight and
16:34run. There's someone behind the counter,
16:36thin, blue vest, name tag. They work
16:40here.
16:41Day 263,
16:43the name tag says Denise, night manager.
16:46She says she was closing the store that
16:48night. She saw you asleep in the
16:50recliner and let you sleep. Then the TVs
16:53came on, the lights outside went out,
16:55and she hid in the ceiling. She's been
16:57up there ever since.
16:58Why didn't you say anything?
17:00>> I didn't know if you were one of them.
17:03>> One of who?
17:04She doesn't answer. She just looks at
17:06the front doors.
17:08Day 270,
17:10having someone else here changes
17:12everything.
17:13Denise knows this store like her own
17:15house, the spare gas in the layaway
17:17room, the back freezer that still has
17:19ice, which doors lock from the inside.
17:22For the first time in 270 days, you
17:25laugh at something. But two things don't
17:27sit right. She never goes near the front
17:30doors, not once. And one night, you look
17:33at her name tag up close. Under her
17:35name, it says team member since and a
17:38date. The date is 3 weeks after the day
17:41everyone disappeared. Would you trust
17:43her?
17:44Day 285,
17:46Denise has rules, too. She keeps them on
17:49the back of a work schedule, taped
17:51inside the break room door.
17:52You've had rules since day 10. Yours are
17:55about staying alive. Hers sound like
17:58she's hiding from something.
18:00Never run the generator after dark.
18:02Never stand in front of the windows.
18:04Never sleep in the same spot two nights
18:06in a row. Never take the last of
18:09anything. And the last one, underlined
18:11three times, never answer the front
18:14doors, no matter who it sounds like.
18:17You ask her what that means.
18:19>> You'll know when you hear it.
18:21>> You ask when she wrote that one. She
18:23says night two. So, you ask what
18:25happened on night two. She takes the
18:27schedule off the door, folds it into her
18:29vest pocket, and doesn't say another
18:32word that night.
18:34Day 300. 3:00 in the morning.
18:37The knock comes back.
18:39Slow.
18:40Three times.
18:41You look at Denise.
18:43Was that you? On day 200? She's shaking.
18:47>> I didn't knock. I've never knocked.
18:51>> The voice on the other side of the glass
18:53says your name. Then it says hers.
18:56And Denise grabs your arm and whispers.
18:59>> That's not possible. That sounds like
19:01me.
19:04>> The voice outside says it again [music].
19:06>> Denise, it's me. Open the door.
19:10>> Her voice, the way she talks [music],
19:13even the little cough she does before
19:14she says your name.
19:16Then it laughs.
19:21Her laugh.
19:22Neither of you moves. [music] After a
19:24while, it stops. Not like it walked
19:27away. Like it's waiting.
19:30Day 301.
19:32The only other person in this Walmart
19:34has been lying to you about her name.
19:36In the morning, she sits across from you
19:38in the break room and doesn't touch her
19:39food. You ask her who that [music] was.
19:42She takes a long time to answer.
19:45Then she says,
19:46>> My name isn't Denise.
19:49>> Her name is Nina. She was a customer,
19:51just like [music] you.
19:53The night everyone disappeared, she was
19:55in the back looking for a box fan when
19:56the lights outside went out.
19:58Denise [music] was real. She was the
20:00night manager. She's the one who saw you
20:02asleep in the recliner and let you
20:04sleep. She's the one who found Nina in
20:06the stockroom, pulled her up into the
20:08ceiling, and told her [music] not to
20:10make a sound.
20:11So, you ask the question she wouldn't
20:13answer on day 285. What happened on
20:16night two?
20:18There's a reason she never goes near the
20:20front doors.
20:21On night two, someone knocked three
20:24times. It was Denisa's [music] son, or
20:27it sounded exactly like him.
20:30>> Mom, it's [music] me. I walked all the
20:33way here. I'm so cold.
20:36>> Denise climbed down before Nina could
20:38[music] stop her.
20:39From a gap in the ceiling, Nina watched
20:41her unlock the front doors and step
20:43outside [music]. The doors closed behind
20:46her.
20:46Nina never saw what was out there,
20:49[music] just Denisa's flashlight rolling
20:51across the parking lot until it stopped.
20:53Her keys were still hanging in the lock.
20:56At sunrise [music], Nina climbed down,
20:58locked the doors, and kept the keys.
21:01You were asleep behind the customer
21:03service counter 30 ft away. You slept
21:06[music] right through it.
21:07The date on her name tag was never a
21:09higher date. Three weeks after night
21:12two, [music] Nina printed that tag
21:13herself at the service desk. Denisa's
21:16name, Denisa's title [music]. Why?
21:20>> Because if anyone ever found me, I
21:22wanted them [music] to trust me.
21:24>> That's the date on the name tag, not the
21:27day she was hired, the day she became
21:29Denise.
21:30Day 302. [music]
21:32>> It listens. That's all it does. It
21:36listens, and it waits for someone to
21:38open the door.
21:40>> It only comes at night, and it can't
21:42come in unless someone leaves a way
21:44open. But it can see through glass, and
21:47once it sees you, it never leaves. Your
21:50very first rule, back on day three, was
21:53stay away from the glass. You made it
21:55without knowing any of this. It's
21:57probably the reason you're still alive.
21:59On day 200, something outside the doors
22:02knew your name. Today, you find out how.
22:05You ask her. She doesn't answer. She
22:08takes you up into the ceiling instead
22:10for the first time. Metal beams and dust
22:13stretching across the whole store. Her
22:15blanket is still up there. Her tally
22:17marks are scratched into a beam. Right
22:19next to them is a smaller set. She was
22:22counting your days, too. Then she points
22:24to the far end. Above aisle 12, there's
22:27a ring of gray light where the roof came
22:29apart. Around the edges, the metal is
22:31bent inward, not down like something
22:33fell. In, like something pulled it open
22:36from the outside.
22:38>> That wasn't the storm.
22:41>> She was up here that night. She heard it
22:43on the roof, pulling at the metal right
22:45before the rain came in. It tore the gap
22:48open, but it couldn't come through. It
22:50can't come through anything it opened
22:52itself. So, ever since, it's been up
22:54there listening.
22:56Nina saw your name on your phone that
22:58first night. Then, for 125 days, she lay
23:02right under that gap whispering it,
23:04practicing what she'd say to you when
23:06she finally came down. That's where it
23:08learned it, from her. That's why she
23:11wrote the note. She went out the loading
23:13dock at noon to tape it to the glass,
23:15the only time she's ever been outside.
23:18You can't stay here.
23:19The longer you stay, the more it learns.
23:22Before you climb down, you ask one more
23:24thing. On day 263, she said she didn't
23:28know if you were one of them.
23:30One of who?
23:31>> The people who opened the door. They
23:34don't stay gone.
23:36>> On the way down, you pass the hunting
23:38counter and sporting goods. It's been
23:40locked since day one. Nina has Denise's
23:43keys on a lanyard around her neck. You
23:45ask her to open it. She shakes her head.
23:48>> Loud is how it finds you.
23:51>> After 310 days in a Walmart, you decide
23:54to leave, for real this time. The only
23:56question is where?
23:58You climb the ladder to the roof for the
24:00first time in months. The city is still
24:03dark, but way across town, on top of
24:06that same tall building, the light is
24:08still blinking.
24:09This time, you count. 14 9 22 6. The
24:15same numbers the woman read on the radio
24:17on day five. Whoever she was, she's
24:20still out there, and she's been trying
24:22to tell someone where she is.
24:24You spread the city map from the
24:25register rack across the break room
24:27floor. The building is 11 miles away.
24:30You mark every road you saw blocked from
24:32the roof and draw a route that never
24:34stops near a car.
24:36Day 315.
24:38On day three, every car on the road was
24:41empty, doors hanging open.
24:43Now you know why. People didn't just
24:45walk away from them. They heard someone
24:47they loved calling from the side of the
24:49road and they pulled over.
24:51Half the cars in the lot still have keys
24:53in them.
24:54Nina picks a minivan by the cart return.
24:57You siphon gas out of the others with a
24:58hose from the garden center. You pack
25:01the 40 jars from day 204, the last of
25:03the tomatoes, water, the map, the
25:06flashlight. Then you do the math again
25:08like you did on day one. 40 jars, 60
25:11cans, 30 gallons of water, two people.
25:15If nothing goes wrong, that's about 3
25:17weeks.
25:18Rule eight goes on the whiteboard. Never
25:20stop for a voice, no matter who it
25:22sounds like.
25:24Day 320.
25:26Before you go anywhere, you need to know
25:28if Nina is right. So, you test it. Nina
25:31climbs into the ceiling, lies under the
25:33gap, and says one word. A word neither
25:36of you has said once in this store.
25:39>> Lighthouse.
25:41>> Then she climbs down and you never say
25:44it again.
25:45Three nights later, the knock comes back
25:48three times. And a voice at the front
25:50door says very quietly,
25:54>> Lighthouse.
25:56>> In Nina's voice.
25:58Day 330.
26:00You've been talking in your sleep and
26:01you never knew.
26:03Nina has heard it. So has something
26:05else.
26:06>> You say your mom's name every night.
26:10>> That night, the knock comes back and
26:12it's your mom.
26:14>> Baby, it's mom. I found you. Please open
26:19the door. It's so cold [snorts] out
26:21here.
26:22>> She calls you the name only she calls
26:24you.
26:25You're halfway to the front doors before
26:27you even know you're walking.
26:29Nina pulls you back by your hood. You
26:31spend the rest of the night behind the
26:33carts with your hands over your ears. It
26:35learned that from you. The longer you
26:37stay, the more it learns.
26:40Day 340.
26:42At noon, you finally test the minivan.
26:44You turn the key.
26:46Nothing.
26:47Every car in this lot has been sitting
26:49for almost a year.
26:51So, you go to the auto center in the
26:52back of the store. A new battery off the
26:54shelf, a wrench from hardware, and an
26:56hour of guessing. The engine turns over.
26:59The radio comes on with it. Static. You
27:02turn it off fast. Then, you make it
27:05quiet. Foam from the camping aisle taped
27:07over the door latches so they don't
27:09slam. The fuse for the horn, pulled.
27:12Electrical tape over every light inside
27:14the van. If it hears you leave, it
27:16follows.
27:17You leave on day 365, 1 full year.
27:22Day 350.
27:25For 215 nights, the bells on the stock
27:27room doors never made a sound. Tonight,
27:30at 3:00 in the morning, they start
27:32ringing.
27:33The ones from the toy aisle, from day
27:35135.
27:37In the morning, you check the flour line
27:39in the back hallway. You've poured a
27:41fresh one every night since Nina came
27:43down.
27:44There are marks in it. Not footprints,
27:46long marks, like something dragging.
27:49They start at the ladder to the roof.
27:51The hatch is open. You left it open on
27:54day 310 when you climbed up to count the
27:56light. 40 nights it's been open. So, why
27:59now?
28:00>> It was waiting until it had your voice.
28:04>> Rule six. In here, small mistakes are
28:07big ones.
28:09Nobody opened the front doors. You
28:11opened the roof. You and Nina back out
28:13of the hallway. You wedge the stock room
28:15door shut with two shelves and the
28:17pallet jack. Everything you packed is in
28:19the minivan. And the loading dock, your
28:21way out, is on the other side of those
28:24doors.
28:25That night, nobody sleeps. At 3:00 in
28:28the morning, the knock comes back. But
28:30not from the front doors, from the stock
28:32room, from the inside, slow, three
28:36times. Then a voice through the door
28:38says,
28:40"Hey, it's me. Open up."
28:43Nina looks at you. It's your voice. Nina
28:46backs away from you, slowly.
28:50>> How do I know which one is you?
28:56>> Behind the stockroom doors, your voice
28:58says it again.
28:59"Hey, it's me.
29:01Open up."
29:03You open your mouth to answer her.
29:05Then you stop.
29:07Anything you say,
29:09it can say back.
29:11So you don't talk.
29:13You pull off your glove and hold up your
29:15hand. The scar.
29:17Day 52. The night the freezer glass
29:20opened up your palm and you thought a
29:21cut was going to be how it ended. Nina
29:24was up in the ceiling that night. She
29:26watched it happen. It can copy a voice.
29:29It can't copy that.
29:31Nina looks at the scar for a long time.
29:34Then she lets go of the shelf.
29:36Behind the doors, it knocks one more
29:38time.
29:39At sunrise, the stockroom goes quiet.
29:43Day 351.
29:45In the morning [music], you grab a pack
29:47of notepads from the office aisle and
29:49write the first note. Don't talk
29:51anymore.
29:52Rule nine goes on the whiteboard. Never
29:54say anything out loud. If it can't hear
29:57it, it can't learn it. From now on,
30:00everything in this store happens in
30:01writing. Every plan, every question,
30:04every Are you awake? [music] You check
30:07the flour line in the back hallway. The
30:09drag marks go from the ladder to the
30:10stockroom doors, then back to the
30:12ladder. It must go back up before the
30:15sun comes up. So, the plan is simple.
30:17Close the hatch at noon, while it's
30:19gone. Rule five says never go looking.
30:23You're about to break it again.
30:26At noon, you pull the shelves off the
30:28stockroom doors. Nina holds the
30:30flashlight. [music] You go in. It smells
30:33like wet metal in here. The bells from
30:35day 135 are still on the doors [music].
30:38And at the bottom of the ladder,
30:40standing straight up like someone set it
30:41there, is a flashlight. Dented. Dead.
30:46Nina writes one word and shows you.
30:48Denise's. The flashlight that rolled
30:50across the parking lot on night two.
30:53[music] Something brought it back. You
30:55climb right past it. The hatch is wide
30:57open. Gray sky above it. You pull it
31:00shut and lock it with a bike chain from
31:01sporting goods. Then you climb down,
31:04wedge the door shut again, and don't
31:06make a sound for the rest of the day.
31:10For six nights, nothing knocks. No
31:13voices. No bells. Just the two of you in
31:16a mattress fort in the furniture
31:17section, [music] passing notes by
31:19lantern light. Nina writes more than she
31:22ever talked. She has a sister in Ohio.
31:24She hates tomatoes. [music] Then you ask
31:27her about everything she left you this
31:28year. The folded sleeping bag, the
31:30batteries on your pillow, the heating
31:32pad. She circles [music]
31:34each one. Me. You write one more. The
31:37self-checkout screens?
31:39She doesn't move.
31:41Then she writes underneath it.
31:43I never touched the screens.
31:47Day 358.
31:49That night, you plug a pair of earbuds
31:51from electronics into the hand crank
31:53radio from day five. If it can't hear
31:55it, it can't [music] learn it. That goes
31:57for the radio, too.
31:59Static.
32:00Static.
32:01Then, at the very end of the dial, the
32:04same woman [music]. But it's not live.
32:07There's a click before she starts, like
32:09someone pressed play and walked away.
32:11A recording [music].
32:13>> 14 9 [sighs]
32:1622
32:176
32:18That's the code for the gate. [music] We
32:20open it once at sunrise, 1 year to the
32:23day after the lights went [music] out.
32:25Never travel at night, and don't repeat
32:28this out loud.
32:29>> Then the recording clicks off.
32:31One year to the day.
32:33Day 365. The same day you already
32:36picked. [music] And now you know why she
32:38stopped in the middle of a number on day
32:4011. She stopped talking for the same
32:42reason you did.
32:44It was learning her voice.
32:46You hand Nina the note. She writes one
32:48line under it. What if that wasn't her
32:51either? You don't have an answer.
32:54Day 360, [music] midnight. Flashlights
32:58in the parking lot, three of them,
33:00walking slowly between the cars,
33:03checking everyone, just like day 90
33:05[music].
33:06One of them walks up to the front doors.
33:08It doesn't knock. It doesn't pull the
33:10handle like it did on day 90. It just
33:12stands there, right up against the
33:14glass.
33:17>> Nina? It's Denise.
33:20I'm so sorry I left you up there.
33:23>> Nina's hands start shaking. [music] It's
33:26the voice that pulled her into the
33:27ceiling on the first night and told her
33:29not to make a sound.
33:31>> I came back for you. Please,
33:35it's so cold out here.
33:37>> Nina writes so hard the pen tears the
33:40paper. They don't stay gone. Then she
33:43stands up and walks [music] toward the
33:45glass. Your first rule from day three,
33:48stay away from the glass. It can see
33:50through [music] it. And once it sees
33:52you, it never leaves. You grab her by
33:55the vest and pull her down behind the
33:56carts, the same way she pulled you back
33:58by your hood on day 330. She fights you
34:01for a second, [music] then she just
34:03cries without making a sound. The
34:05flashlights stay in the parking lot
34:07until the sun comes up.
34:10Day 363,
34:12two days left. The van is packed. That
34:15afternoon, you loosen the carts at the
34:17front doors so they're ready to pull.
34:20It hears you. It knows you're leaving.
34:23That night, the bells ring,
34:25not at the front doors,
34:27the stockroom.
34:28Then a knock from the inside, slow,
34:33three times.
34:35>> Hey, it's me. Open up.
34:38>> The hatch is chained. Nothing came back
34:41in.
34:42Then you remember the flower. The marks
34:44went to the ladder. They never went up
34:46it. They stopped right at the bottom.
34:48Right where the flashlight was standing.
34:51You went looking like rule five said not
34:53to, and you didn't lock it out. You
34:55locked it in. When you climbed that
34:58ladder at noon, you climbed right past
35:00it. In daylight, it's nothing you can
35:02see. It just waits. It doesn't stop. It
35:06goes through every voice it has.
35:08>> Hey, it's me. Open up.
35:10>> Denise,
35:11it's me.
35:11>> Baby?
35:12>> It's Mark.
35:13>> Nina?
35:14>> It's Lighthouse.
35:16>> Over and over until the sun comes up.
35:21But it never says anything new. For 13
35:24days, you gave it nothing to learn. The
35:26doors hold. They always hold. It needs
35:29someone to open them.
35:32Day 364.
35:34Your last night, you walk the [music]
35:36store one more time with the flashlight.
35:38The recliner where you fell asleep. The
35:40counter where you slept that first
35:42night. The tally marks on the [music]
35:43wall. The bakery aisle where you sang to
35:46yourself on day 100. You don't erase the
35:49whiteboard. If someone else ever wakes
35:51up in here, they're going to need the
35:52rules. You add one more.
35:55Rule 10, never open [music] the stock
35:57room.
35:59Day 365. The last hour before sunrise.
36:04You and Nina pull the carts away from
36:06the front doors one at a time. The same
36:09carts you stacked there on day three.
36:11Right up against the glass in the dark
36:13[music]. Everything you've been afraid
36:15of for a year.
36:16Then from the stock room, a voice starts
36:19calling. [music] Not yours this time.
36:21Nina's.
36:23>> Don't [laughter] leave me. Please, don't
36:26leave me in here.
36:29>> Nina freezes with her hands on a cart.
36:31It's her own voice [music]
36:32begging her to stay.
36:34You grab the next cart. She grabs the
36:36one after it. Neither of you looks back.
36:39The sky outside the glass goes gray
36:41[music].
36:42Then gold.
36:45And the voice stops in the middle of a
36:47word. It's only ever come at night.
36:50Nina has Denise's keys. Her hands are
36:52shaking so bad, it takes her three tries
36:55to find the right one.
36:56The lock clicks.
36:58For the first time in 365 days, you open
37:02the front doors.
37:03The air is cold. It smells [music] like
37:06rain.
37:07Grass up to your knees all the way
37:08across the parking lot. You run for the
37:10minivan. [music] The engine starts on
37:12the second try. As you pull out of the
37:14lot, you look back at the store.
37:16Every self-checkout screen is on.
37:19All 12 of them.
37:21>> Please wait for assistance.
37:24>> Nina never touched them. Neither did
37:27you.
37:28Halfway to the building with the light,
37:29someone is standing in the middle of the
37:31highway. Blue vest, name tag, waving
37:34both arms.
37:36>> Please stop. It's me. It's Denise.
37:40>> Nina doesn't say a word. She just holds
37:43up her notepad. Don't stop. Rule eight.
37:46Never stop for a voice, no matter who it
37:49sounds like. One year inside
37:52and now you're out. Far ahead, on top of
37:55the tall building, the light stops
37:56[music] blinking.
38:00You drove right past her.
38:03But in a whole year, it never once
38:05talked in the daytime.
38:07And Denise was standing in the sun.
38:11Your first morning outside, 7:00.
38:16In the mirror, Denise doesn't run after
38:18the van. She doesn't call out again.
38:20She just puts her arms down and watches
38:23you go.
38:24Nina writes three words.
38:26The sun's up. An hour ago, the sky went
38:29gold and the voice in the stockroom
38:31stopped in the middle of [music] a word.
38:32You look at the highway.
38:34Every car on it is empty, doors hanging
38:37open.
38:38Every one of those people stopped for a
38:40voice. That's why you didn't. Nina
38:43writes two words.
38:44Go back. Her hand is shaking. She's the
38:47one who told you the people who open the
38:49door don't stay gone. She writes it
38:51anyway. Far ahead, the light on the tall
38:54building is dark. It went out right
38:56after you passed her. The rules kept you
38:59alive for a whole year. What if they're
39:01wrong this one time?
39:03You take your foot [music] off the gas.
39:05You turn the van around.
39:07Denise hasn't moved.
39:09You stop 30 ft away and nobody opens the
39:12door.
39:13Nina rolls the window down 2 in and
39:15pushes the notepad and the pen through
39:17the gap. A voice can copy anything. A
39:20voice can't hold a pen.
39:22Denise walks up slowly. The pen keeps
39:25slipping in her fingers. She writes one
39:27line and pushes it back through. You
39:29were looking for a box van. Night one in
39:33the stockroom [clears throat].
39:34The first thing Denise ever said to her
39:36before she pulled her up into the
39:37ceiling and told her not to make a
39:39sound. Nina reads it twice.
39:42Then she unlocks the door. Denise climbs
39:44in the back.
39:46Nina doesn't hug her. She just holds on
39:48to her sleeve.
39:50Up close, something about Denise is
39:52wrong. One lens of her glasses is
39:54cracked. [music] Her gloves are worn
39:56through at the fingers. Her name tag is
39:58so faded you can barely read it. Then
40:01Denise starts talking out loud. Nina
40:03holds up the pad. Stop talking. Denise
40:06doesn't even look at it. You turn back
40:08toward the building. Then the van hits a
40:10crack in the road and the radio clicks
40:12on by itself. Static. You grab the knob
40:15to shut it off. Then a woman's voice,
40:18not a recording this time. She's
40:20breathing hard right up against the
40:22microphone.
40:23>> If anyone's still out there,
40:25we kept the light on for anyone who
40:26needed help. It goes off when the gate
40:28opens. We said we'd only open it once.
40:32We open it every sunrise now. We'll hold
40:34it till the sun clears the buildings.
40:36After that, we can't. Don't come at
40:38night.
40:39>> That's all the light ever was.
40:41For a whole year, someone up there
40:43blinked those numbers for anyone who
40:45needed help. And it's daytime, so this
40:47time it's really her. The sun is already
40:50over the trees. You press the gas to the
40:52floor. In the backseat, Denise keeps
40:55talking.
40:56>> It wasn't him. I knew it the second that
40:58door shut behind me. My boy was three
41:00states away. He couldn't have walked
41:02here.
41:03>> Nina writes one line and holds it up.
41:05Day 360.
41:08You were at the glass.
41:09>> I've never been back. Not once.
41:12>> Nina's pen stops. Day 360. A voice at
41:16the glass said Denise's name and begged
41:19Nina to open the door. And Nina walked
41:21toward it until you pulled her down.
41:23Denise says she was never there. It
41:25never says anything new. So, somewhere
41:28out here, it heard Denise say every one
41:30of those words.
41:32>> And when I stepped out that night, every
41:34self-checkout screen behind me came on.
41:36All 12.
41:38Nobody was standing at them.
41:40>> She ran out of the lot, down the road,
41:43into the first car with keys in it. She
41:45locked the doors, got down on the floor,
41:47and covered her ears. All night,
41:49something walked around that car, trying
41:51every voice it had. That's the last
41:53thing she remembers.
41:55Then she was standing on the highway,
41:57and your van was coming.
41:59Nina writes, "What day is it?"
42:01>> I was in that car one night, Nina.
42:04One night.
42:05>> Nina doesn't write a number. She writes,
42:08"One year."
42:09Denise laughs. Then she looks out the
42:12window at the grass coming up through
42:13the highway, taller than the tires. She
42:16stops laughing. She doesn't remember a
42:18year. Not one day of it. And you think
42:21about what Nina told you up in the
42:23ceiling. The people who open the door,
42:26they don't stay gone.
42:28On night two, Denise opened the door.
42:334 miles from the gate, the engine coughs
42:35and dies. No reason. It just dies.
42:39You look up. The sun is already clear of
42:41the buildings. You walk anyway. You take
42:44the water and the map. [music] Maybe if
42:46they see you, they'll open it for three
42:48more. Around noon, Nina stops and points
42:51behind you. In the tall grass, there's a
42:53line. Long marks pressed flat like
42:56something dragging.
42:58Like the marks in the flour in the back
43:00hallway. They start back where the van
43:02died. They stop a few feet behind you.
43:05You never see anything. It was never
43:08just the one in the stock room. In the
43:10day, it can follow you. It just can't do
43:12anything until dark. And Denise hasn't
43:15stopped talking since she got in the
43:16van. It's been listening to her all day.
43:19After that, you stay away from the cars.
43:22You go the long way, through yards and
43:24parking lots and a ditch beside the
43:26highway. Every time you hear the
43:28dragging, you get down and wait. Denise
43:31has to sit every few blocks. 4 miles
43:33takes the whole day. She keeps talking
43:36about her son, about the store, about
43:39night too, over and over like it just
43:42happened. On one of her stops, she says
43:44it again.
43:45The screens, all 12. Nina writes one
43:48line and shows you. They came on this
43:51morning, too, when you open the doors.
43:53Just like every time you came back from
43:55outside. The sun is touching the skyline
43:58when you reach the gate. Chain link,
44:00three times your height, covered in
44:02sheet metal so nobody can see in. Wire
44:05across the top. A keypad by the lock.
44:07Nina punches in the numbers. 14 9 22 6.
44:14Red light. She tries again, slower. Red.
44:18Above the keypad, taped to the metal,
44:20there's a piece of cardboard. Black
44:21marker, two words. Sunrise only. You
44:25can't yell. Loud is how it finds you.
44:29Nina writes help in letters as big as
44:31the page and lifts it to the camera on
44:33the gate pole. The camera's light is
44:35off. Nobody is coming. For the first
44:39time in a year, you're going to be
44:40outside after dark. You need four walls
44:43and a lock.
44:44You try the buildings across the street.
44:46A bank, a pharmacy, an apartment lobby.
44:50Every door is chained shut from the
44:51inside. That leaves the cars. Nina picks
44:55one on the shoulder, just like Denise
44:56did. [music] Denise climbs in the back.
44:59Nina looks at her for a long time. She
45:01doesn't write anything. You lock the
45:03doors. You get down on the floor. Then
45:06you remember your very first rule. Day
45:08three, stay away from the glass.
45:11Everything around you is glass. Denise
45:14is in the backseat, still talking, low
45:16and fast. Then the last light goes out
45:19of the sky and she stops in the middle
45:21of a word.
45:24She doesn't move. You can't hear her
45:26breathing. Then she opens the back door,
45:29steps out, and closes it gently behind
45:31her. Nina just watches her go. The back
45:34door is unlocked now. You reach back in
45:36the dark and push the lock down. Click.
45:4011 miles away in a dark Walmart, 12
45:44screens come on. Out on the highway, a
45:47flashlight clicks on. Then another. Then
45:50a third. Walking slowly between the
45:52cars, checking everyone, just like day
45:5590, just like day 360.
45:58One of them is standing right where
46:00Denise got out.
46:02That's what the door does.
46:05The people who open it lose the days.
46:08Every morning, they wake up wherever
46:09they ended up, sure it's still the first
46:12night. And they talk out loud.
46:15It listens. Every night, they walk with
46:18the lights and it talks through them.
46:20Day 360 wasn't just a copy. Denise was
46:24at the glass. She just doesn't remember.
46:27You hear a car door open, then close,
46:31then another, closer, one car at a time.
46:35Then one of the lights stops right
46:37outside your window. It doesn't knock.
46:41It just stands there against the glass.
46:43>> I was in that car one night, Nina.
46:46One night.
46:47>> Her words from this morning. Same voice.
46:50Same way of saying it. It said her name.
46:54Nina holds the pad in front of your
46:56face, the same way she did on the
46:57highway. Don't look. So, you don't. You
47:01lie on the floor with your eyes shut and
47:03her hand in yours until you can't tell
47:05if you're awake. Day 366.
47:09When you open your eyes, the sky is
47:11gray. The flashlights are gone.
47:14Your hand is empty.
47:16The lock on Nina's door is up. Her seat
47:19is empty.
47:21You climb out of the car. Behind you,
47:25metal grinds. The gate is opening, just
47:28like the radio said, at sunrise. Until
47:31the sun clears the buildings, you could
47:33walk right in.
47:35Then, you look down the highway.
47:38Far out in the sun, someone is standing
47:41in the middle of the road. Arms up, the
47:44same way Denise stood yesterday.
47:46Blue vest, dark curly hair,
47:50a name tag that says Denise.
47:52But, it isn't Denise.
47:55It's Nina.
47:56On her seat, she left the notepad.
48:00One last note in her handwriting.
48:02I watched her go once.
48:04I'm sorry.
48:06Rule eight.
48:08Never stop for a voice, no matter who it
48:10sounds like.
48:12Yesterday, you stopped. And the people
48:14who opened the door, they don't stay
48:16gone.
48:18You walk through the gate. Then, behind
48:20you, a voice.
48:22Nina's voice.
48:23For the first time in a year, she says
48:25something out loud. You don't stop. You
48:28don't look back. The gate grinds shut.
48:35[music] Would you have stopped for her?
48:41[music]

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