4. The Replay

usually just for public drunkenness. The corps always went soft on Michael because it was a fair it's of the country, it's time. It was worse. He was charged with gross negligence and discharging a firearm in public. Luckily came to his senses and dropped the gun before the corps took him out. I felt helpless and I felt exhausted. The feeding that time was running now and the next school would be from from the Morgue. I couldn't bail him out anymore. Something got to change. He stepped out of

the cinder block jail house and looked around sheepishly. I couldn't stand the siph him. Michael over it now, fuck me let's say, man, I'd never get out of here. You know, this guy kept telling me. Why couldn't look? Look. This guy walks into a bar right orders to drinks Michael decision. So the boston says, why the two beers? Am I right? The guy says, I've got a brother that's stationed in Damascus, and each night we ordered two

drinks so that we can still drink together. About me, it's a joke, bro, I promise you you love it. Just I don't want to hear each night to drinks one for him, went for his brother until not right now. Until one night the guy walks in and he only orders one beer, all right. So the bartender gets quiet and he says, oh, man, bro, I'm sorry, I feel lost. Drinks from the house. So the guy says, no, no, no, my my brother's fine. I just quit drinking. That's fine, okay, No,

no, no no, I've got one. I've got one. I've got one. Guy gets a call from his brother if he's locked up in jail and his brother has to borrow twenty five k to baby's ass out at three in the morning. Are you silent now? Yeah, it's not funny. It's not a joke man, Okay, Mine, all right, all right, I messed up. I was just you know, I was just were you doing? I was just killing rats, right, I was just killing rats, but with a gun, bro, I wasn't hurting anybody, all right. I used to do it

all the time in the desert, talking practice on the rest. Okay, Man, I know what stupid with God? Man? Sometimes I I can't do ship it here? Man? Are you still going to those v amiens? Jack? Come on, man, that place is juiceless? Michael, Michael, what are you talking about? What? Obviously need help. They have programs to help you readjust they have doctors. You should be coming. You should go down. Man. There's no appointments Jack, none. But we're you talking about.

We're talking about the h They can't they can't help me. What What the hell are you gonna do? Where are you gonna go? H? What about mom? I can't go back home for a while. Look, I was I was thinking, all right, just hear me out, man, just just hear me out. All right. This is this guy I know, buddy of mine named David. You're telling me about this, this this thing, this this this this program. I don't know prom so it pays like two K a week for like six weeks. All right, free food, nice room

to some doctors. Medical evails. And they even have a strength and and and they're specifically looking for combat trained veterans. So like a program for treating PTSD. No, it's a it's a clinical trial, right for some for some research or some new drug. I don't know who drunk? Look here next, corp FDA approved Phase two protocol designs after a rigorous special assessment. I mean, where is this medal? I don't know? It could be good. Get me off the street for a while. Look look look at this

part right here. Goal is to developing mind application using thought ware based nano technology to regulate hormones and reverse the effects of mental fatigue and stress related sleep deprivation. Um, it's a controlled environment, right, Maybe help me stabilize my thoughts. Phase two includes human trials with specific sample groups such as patient stide it was with PTSD or suffering from psychological and emotional damage caused by sexual soul, warm dan, crime,

and and other tumors. What what do you think? Why are you asking me? Man? Come on, Jack, you know this stuff right, You're you're a bio engineer, didn't you, So, so what do you think. Look, I think it's great. What Yeah, it's like you said that this could be good. It's a controlled environment. This is great for you. Man. It was a lie. I knew the next core clinical trials were a bad idea. I knew they were going

to use Michael as a guinea pig. So under normal circumstances, I would have told Michael to stay the hell away. I would have told him that the only thing crazy doing target practice on rats in an Earlley Way in downtown Oakland and broad daylight was volunteering his brain to some Silicon Valley startup so they could load it up with nan nights and keep him awaken. Definitely, But right then I couldn't think of anything better for me than

Michael being someone else's problem. What don't you stay at my place tonight? I'm driving to the trial in the morning. Michael. Huh A place tonight? Michael? Yeah? Yeah, no, Um yeah, man, that's yeah, that's cool. All right, good. Next morning I drove Michael to the trial. Who was the last time I swear in my life? M h I'm still on the road, still somewhere in Nebraska. Outside my window of

the American Midwest tress by continuously. The stream of energy feels and dust at neither horizon glows with a light spilling from distant cities. It feels like I'm frozen inside of a massive machine clockwork in constant motion around me. Other times, it feels like my brother is here too. You want to tell your joke, like his ghost is along for the ride on this journey across America. I imagine him in the back seat telling one of his

bad drugs. Her grief is like a curse. Your brain glitches against the cognitive absence, the missing information that loved one no longer present, and your brain compensates, fills the void with patterns. I know these are a music nations, but he's getting harder to dismissed him as such. When I was a kid, I split my time between England and the States. I'm wanted to keep me in secondary school back in the UK, so I lived with my grandparents and I would visit Mom and Michael on holiday.

Michael and I had different fathers. Both of them were mostly absent from our lives, but my father would at least keep in touch and making appearance a few times a year. That's not much, but it's not nothing. I see, I knew my father loved me, even if he was ill equipped to be a full time parent or Michael's father was different at a series of ship jobs that

he lose with an almost comical regularity. Guessing that way, he was dependable when he lived with us for a few years before my mother divorced him, which took far too long. Michael was only three. After that, he would take Michael every other weekend for a few more years, until Michael turned six. His dad took him camping for his birthday, and on the morning of their second day in the woods, Michael woke up alone. In this ten he waited for his dad to come back. Waited all

day and all night. His dad never came. Eventually, Michael hyped back to the road, scared and alone. His dad's car was gone. Michael never saw his father again. You know, I think it's quite clear that Michael blamed himself. I think he grew up thinking something was wrong with him, that he was on lovable. Unfortunately for Michael, I was the next best option for a male role model. But you know what, I'm trash I couldn't help but explay his weaknesses. It was a lifelong time and then it

made for a dangerous relationship. You know, my mom used to scream at me, are you trying to kill your brother? Maybe I was. This is one of the last recordings of him. Michael, how are you feeling all right? Sleep? All right? Man? Definitely whatever you gave me knocked me out at these cots. They remind me of the Army um in base camp. I learned how to turn it all off over there, so you know, I'm going to

administer your first stances from the trial. Doesn't hurt. It's a video of Michael getting these first throws of shines three months later. Ready, yeah, let's do it. He was dead Friday, March hours. Test subject oh five A Michael Corbyn. The other person that you hear in this video is dr Abby Reynolds. Here's exposure number one sixty two five p r F five seconds. Yes, forward, deep breath. I went to see you four days ago and three two and it's January four ten am. I just arrived at

this Meryton House free clinic North for the Sea. The interress was on the envelope. Max gave me the one that he instructed me to deliver to dr Abby Reynolds when they had a check inside for two hundred thousand less made after her. Maybe I can get some answers out of her, and I see how this classes. Yeah, I'm looking for a dr Abby raynams Regni. He was personal, have a seat, I'll I don't know. I took a seat and crowded way around the room was packed mothers

with six children, and people sniffling and bleeding. And afterwardmit through the way, my head was pounding. I feel around. I tried to focus on the window, the world outside, and that's the first time I saw it, the gray van and all the gas powered forward tinted windows. Maybe he used to be blue or green, but he's got of pain and faded to a dull grade. This van keeps circling the parking lot outside the clinic. It slowed down each time it passed by. That's how I knew

that my grain was coming next. I've suffered severe migraines since I was a boy. That the triggers are all different, lack of sleep, poor diet, staring at the screen for too long because I and I saw multiple doctors but none of them had any clue, and I realized that if I wanted to find out what what's wrong with my head, I would have to diagnose myself. I had my own brain. That's what led me to buy an

engineering and neuroscience. Eventually I discovered there were others like me that I have a rare neurological syndrome that causes hallucinations, sense redistortion, and panic attacks. Every time it's different except for one symptom. I call it the replay. And when this replay happens, I experienced repeating patterns. It's not deja It's more like a fever dream, like I'm stuck in

a loop, suspended in the moment of time. Perhaps I see a dog almost getting run over by the same all three times in a row, while distinctly recall finding my lost keys in the launch room right before I find my lost keys in the launitary room. In this case, it was a great van that just kept passing by outside of the window next to where I we're seeing.

Can I help you, Dr Reynolds? Yes? If Dr Reynolds had my braceh accent, if she knew who I really was, there's no way in hell she'd ever taught to me, you work for Max Fuller, correct, So I had to convince her that I was someone else, not anymore. Some moving more Three were you're still receiving payments from X corp? Or is that hush money? Who are you? We're investigating the next corps of the code of Conduct? And for

other safety concerns. What concerns the human trials, Dr Reynolds, specifically the you to deeper instants, lack of post trial therapies awards those were offered to the subjects. Look, I need to see some I need to see some ideas reporting the admission of critical data from the previous round animal testing PRESUMA will be so that Max Floyd could green light human trials in the first place. And that would be where you come in, Dr Reynolds. I need

to see credentials. Martin Bowman h A. I work with Nick Batty and we know about the rats. Dr Reynolds. People are always more compliant in person. It's also useful to draw for real names. Martin Bowman and Nick Bay were real. Bey was the head of the h e A, the Human Enhancement Administration. I had that these undivided attention. I a lie to do was offer her a way out. Dr Reynolds. This doesn't have to get ugly now. You

wanted to do the right thing. We know that. But I definitely need your compliance if and to continue with you in good faith, and we need you to help piece some things together, put an end to all this before anyone else gets hurt. Give me an hour, my lunch break. There's a diner a mile up the road. We can talk there. M h okay. January four, dr Abbey Reynolds has agreed to meet me at this dinner down the street from the clinic where she works. She's

twenty five minutes late. And that's weird. Fan pass the same gray fan with the tending wind a sweet it's the same one I saw it. Okay, I think I'm being followed. I know I'm being paranoiable. Why wouldn't that be? And here constant time, your knowledge, good timing. I was about to leave a nice place. Can I get you anything? This golfee? You should try the strawberry rubar pie. It's great. No, no,

thank you? Okay, what specifically do you want to know? Well, we need to know what happened with the shut eye product between the animal testing and the human trials. It it had been the most promising advance any of us had seen up to that point. After a shitty a few months, we couldn't find the right mix to make it do what we needed it to do, and what did you need it to do? Work? We needed for shut Eye to keep its subjects awake and alert without

any notable effects. The first couple of rounds of trials nothing, I mean nothing except a bunch of lab rats with heart palpitations. Finn and Max were beside themselves. We argued about whether even bother with a fourth trial, but Finn insisted calmly yes, he's next corpse lead engineer. And it worked. Max and Finn made an upgrade to the nanite sequencing, and it worked like a charm at first. What happened next it was disturbing. I'm listening. The rats became agitated.

They began repeating these odd behavior patterns, some running in circles, others moving incessantly from one side of the cage to the other. Some nod at the cage lining until their teeth broke. Then one of the rats, the one we called Algernon, he was the alpha. He just sat there, staring into space for hours until he snapped. Snapped. I came in that morning and realized some of the animals had showed their own paws and tails off blood everywhere,

and then Algernon. He was still sitting there, motionless, staring at his own reflection, and I opened the blinds. As soon as the daylight hit the cage. Algernon started charging the glass, slamming his head into it, repeatedly attacking his own reflection. Everything a rooted quickly after that. They began attacking each other. IM terminated this rounder testing eating each other. This is alive. I've never seen anything like this. That was at two forty hours without sleep. Oh my god.

We euthanized them, discarded the remains, and then we had the meeting. Finn was pretty horrified too, but it wasn't as concerned about the broader implications. He thought that there was enough there to continue on, maybe tweak the product and begin new trials by new rats. I think he was under extreme pressure. I think Max and Finn had been funneling their own money into this phase and they were underwater, so Finn was optimistic by default. Maybe move

on to chimpanzee. Something closer to humans anatomically. He said, what about Dr Berkley, What does she have to say about all this cass She agreed that we needed a more complex subject, something about a cognitive line that rodents couldn't cross, but that humans could. So sleep disruption caused different issues and rodents than it did in humans. Everyone had their theories. I was against it, I told them so.

I told them it was cruel. What about Max? I think I actually had Finn seeing my point of view before Max stepped in and he convinced a team to do another trial. Yes, he said that he thought we were ready for chimps, humans humans after what happened with the rats. He said that we would hedge our bets, play it safe, that that we wouldn't go anywhere near the threshold that we'd taken the rats. Three hours was too much. We all knew it was. We had made

a breakthrough. It was so big, and after we'd worked so hard hard, we were so close. But there was something else going on with Max. What he was different? His face, his voice, What do you mean like I said of him? You've never seen No, No, it was physical, primal. His pupils were dilated his His eyes were like black holes. The way he looked at me, he had this almost a smile, a hideous kind of smile on his face. It wasn't Max, I'm not following. Why did he do something?

But I was scared you know what he might do? Okay, he scares your applied him threat shirt. But that doesn't change the fact that you went along. No, I didn't look at human trials. No, what could happen? I made Finn swear that he wouldn't take things as far Finnce war to me news war news war two. Dr Reynalds hippocratic oath. Look, if you want answers, you need to talk to him, not me. Tomorrow, Jessa April night, Michael Corbin. These people were under your care in next corporate. Now

they are all dead. So what now? Let me settle up and then we can discuss next steps. You know, blackmail is a federal offense. Docs Reynalds, we can protect you. As I stepped to the register and forced myself to take a deep breath on the number one rule the corn is not to let emotions interfere. Nah. Never let him read you as a confidence game with his time. It was personal my brother was dead, and I almost cracked. Remember as I swiped the page, my handle was shaking

another piece of strawberry Rybard pie. The girl please, I made a bill and waited for the guy to put my slice of Pierre to go box. That was it. They are played back this recording and timed it out. I was gone from the table for exactly three minutes and thirty seven seconds. When I came back to the table, she was gone. The purse was lying on his side on the floor because metics and keys spitting out into the aisles. Her raincoats still there, dripped over her now

vacant chair. But she was gone, hard ship man. Then I saw it right. What the message was? Rearing a lipstick on a white blade? What's this box? First line box happy, next line abby n C, next line a LG for the advice of other indecipherable markings? How is this? Dr Reynolds was trying to tell me something before she ran off time ship Oh the vander vand Van de Van the great fan sitty h plea overrighte man, you areverrighte.

Get out of the way, Get the hell out my way. Go. Tomorrow's Monsters, starring John Boyega as Jack Locke, Darren Chris as Max Fuller, Marley Shelton as Cass Berkeley, Clark Gregg as Walter Fuller, saw and Guja as David Truesdale, Nicholas Takowski as Finn Connolly, Claire Bronson as dr Abbe Reynolds, David Chen as Michael Corbin, su Hila Eltar as Jenna, Victor Rivera as Eddie Binder, Robert Pralgo as Agent Batty, Steve Coulter as Senator Berkeley, wrote A. Griffiths as Rainy Webb,

with additional performances by Helen Abel, Jason Williams, Michael Anthony, Robin Bloodworth, and Teresa Davis. Our first assist and director is Michael Monty. Our second assistant director is Sarah Klein. Sound and music by Ben Lovett. Additional sound design and editing by Benjamin Belcolm, Justin Riboski and Mike Reagan. Casting by Jessica Fox thig Been. This episode features the song through the Eyes from the album Mirages by Michelle Nobler.

Our executive producers are Scott Sheldon, Shelby Thomas, Alexander Williams, and Matthew Frederick. Written by dan Bush and Nicholas Takowski. Created by dan Bush and Conald Byrne, Directed by Dan Bush, Produced by both Flint dan Bush and John Bleega. Tomorrow's Monsters is a production of Igheart Radio, Flynn Picture Company, Psychopia Pictures, and Upper Room Productions. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.