ISLE CALIGO – VILLAGE TELECOM STATION [12:12 PM]
(The village's only telecom station sat atop a rusting cliff-side bunker — built decades ago, barely maintained. Inside, a wiry teenager in a blue hoodie, GOIGI, sat cross-legged on the floor, rewiring a dusty terminal.)
GOIGI - (muttering) If I can just route this port into the old gridline, maybe we'll actually get stable data for once…
(A flicker. The screen crackled to life—grainy black and white static first, then a beep.)
GOIGI - (confused) Huh?
(The signal on the screen began forming lines. Then letters. Foreign at first… then unmistakable.)
77EH/CORE/RESTORE...
GOIGI - (alarmed) Wait, what? What's "restore"? What's this coming through?
(He reached for his phone to snap a picture—his phone screen glitched. The battery bar dropped to zero. Dead.)
GOIGI - (whispers) Not again…
ISLE CALIGO – NEARBY CAFE [12:30 PM]
(LAYLA, 18, sat at the village café, tapping her foot impatiently. She checked her watch. Lucas was late.)
LAYLA - (to herself) He said five minutes… It's been twenty.
(She stood to leave just as Lucas arrived, breathless and pale.)
LAYLA - (startled) Lucas?! You look like you've seen a ghost.
LUCAS - (panting) Worse. Gerrard's dead. Chest… crushed inward. Clean. There was no blood.
LAYLA - (going cold) Wait… crushed? How?
LUCAS - (serious) I don't know. But it happened after I sold the key. Whatever that vault was hiding… it's waking up.
LAYLA - (softly) You think it's your grandfather's fault?
LUCAS - (quietly) I think it's mine now.
ISLE CALIGO – VILLAGE TELECOM STATION [12:40 PM]
(Goigi ran down the path from the telecom station, nearly tripping on gravel. He held a half-burnt circuit board in one hand, panic on his face.)
GOIGI - (yelling) Lucas! Layla!
(The two turned as he ran up.)
GOIGI - (panting) You guys need to see this—like, now.
ISLE CALIGO – TELECOM STATION INTERIOR [12:55 PM]
(They huddled around the half-working screen. Goigi pointed at the glitching log.)
77EH/CORE RESTORE INITIALIZED…PRELIMINARY SYNC: SIGNAL DETECTEDTRACKING COORDINATES...MOUNT VELIS CORE
LUCAS - (grim) It's coming from inside the mountain.
LAYLA - (shaken) But there's nothing in Mount Velis except rocks and caves...
GOIGI - (quietly) That's what they always said.
ISLE CALIGO – RIDGE OVERLOOK [1:30 PM]
(The trio climbed to a ridge overlooking the base of Mount Velis. The wind howled, colder than usual for the season. Down below: mist, thick and strange, rolled across the lower valley.)
LUCAS - (staring ahead) I remember Dad used to say this place "keeps secrets under pressure."
LAYLA - (watching the clouds) Lucas… you said the key opened a vault. Where is it?
LUCAS - (hesitating) It's not just a vault. It's… a lab. My great-grandfather built it after the experiment.
GOIGI - (sarcastic) Built a lab inside a mountain. Of course he did.
LUCAS - (nodding slowly) But the key doesn't just open the vault. It activates it.
(A long silence.)
LAYLA - (nervous) So... you're saying we didn't just wake it. We invited it.
ISLE CALIGO – VILLAGE OUTSKIRTS [2:00 PM]
(Somewhere deeper in the village, in a forgotten shack, an old CRT monitor came to life by itself. No power cord. No satellite dish. Just a blank screen… and a blinking line.)
AUTHORITY BYPASSED.DEVICE SYNC INITIATED.THEY ARE COMING.
(The camera zoomed in on the screen as the signal distorted into static… and a distorted voice whispered across the frequency.)
"We remember what was done. And who did it."