[I arrive in an archaic place.]

> REESE: All of this that's happening to you? It happened to me, too. Many years ago, now. I know what you're going through.

[Reese rotates his notebook so the page is horizontal in front of him. Starting at the left edge, he draws a long, straight line that ends right in the middle of the page. He points to the left end of the line, and follows it right as he speaks.]

> REESE: In 1935, I was born in Atlantic City. I had a fine childhood, from everything that I could find. I did my undergraduate work at Rutgers, then went on to study physics at Princeton. Aside from the fact that I don't remember most of that; all normal, right?

> HALLEY: 1935? That would make you... You don't look like you're in your 60s.

[He nods, and draws what looks like a bullet point at the end of the line, then surrounding it slowly in a steady, hypnotizing circle as he continues.]

> REESE: In the summer of 1969, I was selected by the Department of Defense to lead a team of researchers. They called it Project SOMA.

> HALLEY: What were you researching?

> REESE: The short answer? I don’t really know what it was.

[She tilts her head toward the side, indicating her disappointment in his answer.]

> REESE: I can only tell you what I've been able to piece together. It was an object.

> HALLEY: An object... a bowling ball? An air freshener? What do you mean, an object?

> REESE: No. It was nothing you, or anyone else for that matter, has ever seen before. It was an object with incredible capabilities.

[He looks back down at his notebook, and hovers his pen right above the bullet point.]

> REESE: It was the night of New Year's Eve. Something happened to me that night. What I'm about to tell you sounds impossible.

[He takes a deep breath. And then draws a large "X" over the bullet point.]

> REESE: It is impossible.

> REESE: I died that night.

[Halley stares at Reese, expressionless. He moves his pen to the right a few inches and begins a new line. He writes "1986" at its left edge, leaving a very significant and representative gap in the middle of his timeline.]

> REESE: My body was found in the same building where we were studying the object. Yet, somehow, sixteen years later I woke up in the middle of a high school baseball field in Indiana with no recollection of who I was. I found the first person I could find to try and figure out... anything. Who I was. Where I was. When I was. But no matter what anyone told me... sometimes you just know...

> HALLEY: That you don't belong?

[Reese nods, looking down at his notebook.]

> REESE: Some things have come back to me, over time. Different things trigger my memory. It might be a smell. A voice. A photograph. But it's taken years.

> HALLEY: I'm... I'm sorry, Reese.

> REESE: There's more. The night they found me?

[He looks up and stares right into her eyes.]

> REESE: They found someone else, too.

[She pauses breathing, and it's as if every single cell in her body is motionless.]

> HALLEY: Who? Who did they find?

[But before he can explain, my audio sensors detect another presence in the facility.]

> CLAUDE: Reese?

> REESE: I hear it. We need to leave.

> CDOT: WARNING. YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. EXIT THE BUILDING NOW. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING.

[The warnings are thick, heavily synthesized voices that are nearly impossible to understand.]

> HALLEY: What the hell is that?

> REESE: It's a Wirewalker. CLAUDE?

> HALLEY: A what?

> CLAUDE: Yes?

> REESE: Not now, Halley. CLAUDE, find us a way out.

> HALLEY: CLAUDE? A little help, here? What is that thing?

> CLAUDE: They are the Center for the Decommissioning of Off-Earth Technology's synthetic patrol force.

> HALLEY: Like... space police?

> REESE: More like no-space police. I'll explain later but right now, we need to get away from here.

> CLAUDE: There is an emergency exit at the end of the corridor that led us here.

> REESE: Halley, do you see it?

[He points to the end of the hallway, where a brightly lit "EXIT" sign is emplaced above a door.]

> HALLEY: Yes. I see it.

> REESE: Okay. Stick with me. Three. Two. One. RUN!

[They both sprint towards the door, and just as they're exposed in the wide corridor, a Wirewalker makes the turn around the corner behind them.]

> CDOT: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. YOU ARE TO BE DETAINED BY ORDER OF U.S. FEDERAL CODE ONE-NINE-NINE-FOUR. TITLE SEVEN-SEVEN. SUBTITLE FOUR-ONE. LINE TW-

[Before the Wirewalker can finish its warning, Reese and Halley burst through the door and out into the rain. The weather hasn't let up a bit. Enormous globules of water splash down on both of them, and the wide open space around the facility provides no cover. A train horn pushes air in the distance.]

> HALLEY: Holy shit. Now where do we go?

> REESE: Just keep moving. See that wooded area ahead of us? We need to get there.

[They get to the tree line, and the tall canopy of pines above them thins out the thick rain droplets into a fine spray. The Wirewalker's audio system plays another scripted warning, but outside, without the aid of the reverberation of the walls, it sounds like it's coming from a tin can. But there's many of them, and despite their substandard sound quality, a chorus of them is still quite startling to Halley and Reese.]

> CDOT: WARNING. WE WILL FIND YOU. DO NOT RESIST.

> REESE: Stay down, and do not move. They're not that smart. Maybe we can hide from them in here.

> HALLEY: Do you hear that?

> REESE: Hear what?

> CLAUDE: It's a train.

[I search my local databank for further information; it's a train belonging to the Cascade Railway Company. Based on its direction, it's heading south, but I cannot determine much more than that without being connected to a network.]

> HALLEY: Yes. A train. We need to get on that train and get the hell out of here.

> REESE: No chance. Are you serious? How are we going to get on that train? We don't even know where it's going.

> HALLEY: We jump it. And right now, isn't "away from here" a perfectly suitable destination?

[Reese rubs his temples with his thumb and middle finger.]

> REESE: Fine. I crossed the tracks on my way in. They're this way. If we're doing this, we need to go now.

[Reese starts a slow jog towards the rail line, carefully calculating his approach angle to intercept the train. Halley follows closely behind him. They weave their way through the thick forest, each of their feet making a distinct "squish" as tiny droplets of water are squeezed out of their saturated socks with each step.]

> REESE: Hurry! We're getting closer.

[Reese picks up speed as he recalculates the optimal angle and speed with each bound. The train horn blows again, this time it's close and loud and terrifying. Reese yells back, out of breath.]

> REESE: Are you sure you're good to do this?!

[Halley picks up speed and moves past him, positions herself parallel to the moving train, and jumps on. She yells back at him.]

> HALLEY: I'm sure!

[Reese is only a step behind, mirroring her entrance onto the train. He makes it, but he's completely out of breath now, and gulps in air as deep and as fast as he can.]

[And then hours pass. Outside of the massive piece of metal hurtling down the railway, it's silent. The sun begins to rise to our left. I try to understand why we haven't yet discussed the music playing on an old space communications frequency, but it appears more pressing matters have arisen. We will get back to it eventually, I presume.]

[Finally, she speaks.]

> HALLEY: So you're dead. Yet you're sitting here in front of me. What are you, then... a ghost?

> REESE: A ghost?

[Reese rubs his unshaven face and scratches at his beard.]

> REESE: I don't believe in ghosts.

> HALLEY: So then what are you?

> REESE: I don't know what I am, just as much as you don't know what you are.

> HALLEY: But you died.

[This is the most stressed I've seen her. Her face is buried in her hands as she pulls down on the skin between her nose and her eyes and takes deep, labored breaths.]

> HALLEY: How does that make sense?

> REESE: I've been trying to figure that out, Halley.

> HALLEY: And why me? Why have you been looking for me? I don't even belong here. I don't understand how I got here, or how I fit into any of this.

[He stares out past the confines of the train. The sun rises further, gently illuminating the world around him in a faint yellow hue.]

> REESE: I know. Listen... the night that I died... When they found me, they found someone with me. A girl. I've dug down into some deep, dark places over the last ten years to figure out who she was. And I found a name.

> HALLEY: Oh my god.

[He knows she knows, and all he can do is nod along as she pieces this impossible scenario together in her head.]

> REESE: Her name was Halley.

[She doesn't respond. Sixteen seconds pass before she says another word.]

> HALLEY: So I'm like you, then.

[He looks down at the ground passing below his feet; a mix of gravel and steel and wood.]

> REESE: No. That's what I thought too. But no.

[His eyes lock to hers.]

> REESE: You're different.