Outside, beneath the permafrost, a heavy hydraulic hiss echoed through the mountainside. The file vanished from his screen, replaced by a countdown timer.
His monitors flickered. The hum of the server rack dropped into a hauntingly melodic vibration. On the screen, a wireframe globe appeared, glowing with billions of tiny, pulsing white dots. "What are you?" Leo whispered.
The file wasn't a backup. It was a wake-up call for a world that had forgotten it was supposed to end.