Friday – Midday, Carter University Courtyard
The campus buzzed with weekend energy.
Events. Music. Laughter. Flyers flapping on bulletin boards like butterflies losing their wings.
Rick stood off to the side, phone in hand, earbuds in — but no music playing. He was scanning. Observing.
He hadn't told Ava, but he'd looked into the accident earlier in the week. Talked to one of the security guards off-record. Even found a student forum post about someone else claiming to lose control of their bike the same way. No brakes. No resistance. Just... like the world glitched.
That's when he heard it.
SCREECH.
A metallic grinding that didn't belong in this sunny afternoon.
He whipped his head toward the noise.
A delivery drone — one of the big ones the university used for tech shipments — spiraled out of the sky like it had been shot.
Students screamed. The crowd scattered.
Rick's instincts kicked in before thought.
He sprinted toward the trajectory.
Impact point– Near the south wing
The drone hit the edge of a stair rail, sparks flying, metal snapping. One of the propellers shot off like a blade — heading straight toward two underclassmen frozen in panic.
Rick dove. Not metaphorically. Literally.
He shoved both of them out of the way, just in time to see the propeller slice into the ground where they'd been standing.
Students cheered. Security ran over. Phones were already recording.
But Rick didn't hear any of it.
His eyes were on the wreckage. His thoughts racing.
That was no random mechanical failure. The trajectory, the sudden drop, the surge of static he felt in the air…
It was like something pushed it.
Like something wanted it to fall.
Security office– Later
Rick sat across from Officer Malone, who was writing up the report.
"You said the drone just veered off on its own?" she asked.
"Fell. Like something hijacked it."
"You a tech guy?"
"No. But I know control when I see it. And I know when something's been taken."
Malone raised an eyebrow.
"You think it was hacked?"
"I think it was deliberate."
She leaned back in her chair.
"Well, if it was, that's going to stir some trouble. Those drones carry thousands in gear."
Rick didn't reply. His mind was already spinning ahead.
That night– Rooftop of the Arts Building
Ava was waiting when he got there.
She didn't say anything at first. Just handed him a coffee and let him sit beside her on the ledge.
Finally, she said:
"You saved two people today."
"Yeah."
"And you're still frowning like the world owes you an explanation."
Rick looked at her, eyes heavy.
"Because it does."
He told her everything. The brakes. The forum post. The drone. The way the guy at the crash scene seemed out of sync with reality.
"Something's wrong, Ava."
She didn't doubt him.
Instead, she asked the kind of question that changed everything.
"What if it's not just a glitch?"
Rick blinked.
"What do you mean?"
Ava pulled a notebook from her backpack — the same one where she wrote her character sketches. But this time, she flipped to a marked page.
Diagrams. Red circles. Crossed out names.
She pointed.
"I've been hearing whispers on forums too. People blacking out for minutes. Losing time. Remembering things that didn't happen. One guy woke up in the library thinking it was 2022."
Rick leaned in.
"And you believe them?"
"I didn't. Not until this week."
The silence between them wasn't fear.
It was confirmation.
Something big was starting. And they were both already in the middle of it.
Final Scene – Unknown Location
A flickering monitor buzzed in a dark room.
On-screen: surveillance footage of Rick pushing the students to safety.
A gloved hand tapped a pencil against a table, rhythmically.
Another screen showed Ava — reading on the rooftop.
A voice in the shadows whispered:
"Subject 7 has made contact with Trigger Point. Observation phase complete. Initiating Phase Two."
The monitor cut to black.