"At GCC Northeast, we have the largest cellular network in the five state..." "Join the fun at Mondo Net." "You get instant access to your friends... our coast-to-coast connectivity important conversations..." "Set your spirit free with services, 24 hours a day... now you can be at your computer anywhere on our network... has nothing to do with me, okay?" "Are you okay?" "Yeah." "Fine." "I'm fine." "Zeigler?" "Zeigler?" "Excuse me." "Zeigler!" "Zeig?" "Zeigler?" "My boy hooked me up, okay?" "I mean, I'm talking, now, free passwords to, like, over 100 sites." "So we're talking..." "Thank you... horny coeds," "Japanese girls in bondage and... what... granny trannys..." "Okay, you did not just say that." "I never looked at 'em." "Okay?" "I'm just saying, I have the passwords..." " He totally looked." " You know he did." "I call it having access to information." "It's called having a girlfriend, Stone." "You should check it out." " Damn!" " Wow, that's harsh." "Sorry." "Shrink in training..." "I gotta tell it like it is." " Ha!" "Tim!" "I'm right here." "What?" "Mm!" "Check this out." " Oh, he's cute." " Oh, yeah." "Scroll down..." "Gay!" "Absolutely." "What?" "!" "It's a boy-toy, who saw your name is lzzie and thought you was a guy." "You need to stop hatin'." " Oh, I'm hatin'?" " Yeah." " Tim?" "!" "What?" "!" "It's not me!" "I swear!" "Okay, who we shutting down?" "No one." "No, I just... thought Josh might call." "He's been avoiding me for over a week." "Our relationship has been reduced to text-messaging." "How tragic is that?" "Okay, Mattie, come on." "I know..." "I know." "I guess I'm still hoping he'll just... figure it out." "You need to let go, okay?" "You guys have been breaking up way longer than you hooked up." "If he can't recognize that you got it going on, then... you don't need to be involved with him." "Besides, look, it's raining men right now." "Right, guys?" "Yo." "Ready to dance?" "We could do that." "That's what I'm talking about." " Come on." " No." " Come on!" " Come on." "Have you seen me dance?" "It's not pretty." "Good night." " Hey!" "Don't... do that." "Oh." "Sorry." "I wanted out of there." "Thought I'd walk with you." "You live the other way." "I'll take the spiral route." "Plus, you know, single guy, walking alone, late at night..." "Well, thanks." "I'm good from here." "See you tomorrow?" "Sure." "Okay." "Bye." "You have two new messages." "First message, 9:37 p.m." "Mattie, it's Mom." "This is call number three, honey." "I know you're busy, but call me back, okay?" "I miss you." "Next message, 10:47 p.m." "Mattie, it's Josh." "Um..." "Never mind." "This is Josh." "I'm not here right now." "Leave a message." " Josh, it's Mattie." "Pick up." "You haven't returned one of my calls," " and now... what's with the weird message?" "Hey, lz, are you here?" "Ugh..." "You know you have to get up." "You have class." " # Tell me... #" "# Where I stand #" "Get up!" "Now!" "# Tell me #" "# You better, ooh #" "# To light the way... #" "Of course there are other kinds of stalking." "There is public stalking." "There is cyber stalking." "Each with its own set of behaviors." "What I want to talk about now... is stalking, the pathological mind and the other." " Now, the pathological mind..." "The pathological mind can only satisfy its need for the other by consuming the other;" "leading, once again, to great need, and, of course, the cycle begins again." " Now, what I'd like you to do" "Friday, in preparation for the midterm, is write an essay on what we've spoken about today, including in it ritual..." "Come on, Mattie, you know you're gonna have fun." "Chill out, relax." "Have a drink." " Yeah, but..." " You're gonna come." "We're gonna hang out." "We need this, okay?" "I'm gonna call you right back." "Damn." "Y'all look good." "A'ight." "Check this out." "I got all the new joint..." "Actually, these last four, y'all have already." "And then, these five, right here, won't even be out for another month." "Plus, I have some other ones here..." "Yeah." "You know, you should just save us a few little tax dollars and drive yourself to jail right now." "Can I use your car?" "And don't forget," "I gotta take you with me because you did buy some of the stuff." "Oh, and your boy Josh..." "genius!" "For every minute I use on my cell phone," "I get credited for two." " It's a beautiful thing." "Excuse me for one second." "What's up?" "All right, we're going to lunch, right?" "Uh, actually, I'm gonna hang here for a bit." "But I'll call you." "Okay." "Um..." "I'm gonna see you later then?" "Maybe." "Josh?" "Josh, it's Mattie." " Josh?" "Oh, shit!" "Josh." "Hey." "Why don't you answer my calls?" "Everyone is worried about you." "Stay here." "All right?" "Oh, my..." "Josh!" "Josh?" "Oh, my God." "Hello, this is Louise Webber." "Leave your name and message and I'll get back to you." "Hey, Mom." "Tag, you're it." "Hey, call me as soon as you get this, okay?" "Something happened." "I'll just tell you about it when you call, okay?" "I love you." " Josh." " Mattie..." " Are you there?" "I'm not me anymore." "Something's wrong with me." "I know it's very difficult for us to talk about loss." "So many conflicting emotions involved." "This might sound pat to you, but it is okay to cry, Mattie." "I have." "You have?" "What, five minutes, is that all I get, Mattie?" "I'm wasting your time." "You're not wasting my time." "You're wasting mine." "You're angry." "That's normal." "Actually, I'm just late for class." "You loved him, didn't you?" "And you think it's something that you did that might've caused this." "The only person I blame... is Josh." "You sure about this?" "Fuck..." "Come on." "Talk." "I don't know why I didn't see the signs." "I should've been there;" "done something." "Sometimes, there aren't any signs." "This was an intensely lonely young man." "More than you can ever know." "He was very skilled at hiding his loneliness." "And when he couldn't hide it anymore, he hid himself." "Have you ever felt that kind of loneliness?" "Hmm?" "Don't worry." "I read your book." "I'm not a suicide risk." "You psych students, you all have a tendency to resist self-analysis." "Don't." "Don't avoid your fears." "Confront them." "You can keep your emotions down for a while, but somehow, some way, they will come out;" "and they will be even more painful and more destructive." "Do you understand that?" "Hey." "You good?" "Everything's going to be okay." "It has to be a virus." "I mean, his computer is probably still logged on." "It's just hitting his address book." "They said, "Help me."" "Yeah, but viruses always have some important-sounding shit." "I mean, just the other day, I got one that said," ""Urgent, Stone." "Read me now."" "I mean, that's a natural occurrence." " It happens all the time..." " That was from me, you idiot." "Damn." "That was pretty strong." "Well, someone should at least log Josh's computer off." "I'd do it, but I don't want to go back over there." "All right, I'll go." "Thanks." "Yeah..." "There was something so strange about him when I went over there... like he wasn't himself." "But he really wasn't." "It..." "It was like looking at a different person." "Why did he do it?" "I don't know." "And I think that's what's driving me crazy... that I didn't see it coming." "None of us did, okay?" "You know, it's not all on you." "Are you still getting those messages?" "Yeah." "What's the deal?" "Did Stone not get over there?" "You know, he didn't even show up to class today." "I haven't spoken to him." "Hello?" "Hey, Stone." "Hey, lzzie." "It's Mattie." "What's up, Mattie?" "Are you still getting those messages from Josh?" "I haven't signed on." "I've just been kind of leaving my computer alone." "Did you log off Josh's computer?" "Did you turn it off?" "Are you okay?" "I just been kind of down, you know?" "Yeah, I know." "We all are." "Oh, my God." "You here to see the apartment?" "Well, take a look." "New paint." "Gonna have new carpet." "You won't beat the rent." "Mm-mm!" "The guy who lived here was a friend of mine." "I need his computer." "Computer?" "What'd you do with it?" "I don't know nothing about no computer." "His computer was right over there, with all the rest of his stuff." "Girl, you better get out of my face or I'm calling the police." "Why don't I call the police?" " All right." "All right!" "Don't get crazy." "For two months, that boy lived here" " and didn't pay his rent." " You sold it?" "!" "For two months..." "what was I supposed to do?" "Who did you sell it to?" "Mm-hmm!" "Dead cats, and he done killed himself, and here, now, you come here bugging me about a damn computer." "You tell him he still owe me a hundred bucks." "The bank didn't take his raggedy-ass check." "Dexter McCarthy." "What, it bounced?" "I guess that doesn't really matter, since you bought a stolen computer." "She seemed pretty honest to me." "Why are you e-mailing me?" "E-mailing you?" "I don't even know who you are." "That computer belonged to someone I know." "You found his password." "Now you're messing with the people in his address book?" "That's a really shitty thing to do." "Really?" "Come here." "That's not possible." "I have a procrastination problem." "It hasn't been plugged in..." "since you bought it?" "No." "Look, stolen or not, the thing cost me 400 bucks... you want to get me a refund?" "Your boyfriend can have his computer back." "Keep it." "He doesn't need it anymore." "He's dead." "Classic." "What's that?" "It's from Josh." "This is his handwriting." "When was it sent?" "Seventeenth." "That's two days before he died." "Keeps what out?" "He obviously went nuts, that's all." "What about Stone?" "What about him?" "Wait, what's up with Stone?" "He didn't sound like himself." "I can't explain it." "Kinda got the same feeling." "The same feeling as what?" "As when I was at Josh's." "Later on in this broadcast, we'll show how you and your family can stay healthy and germ-free at home and in the workplace." "And here's Skip Warren with a late-breaking story." "A spokesman for the County Health Department is calling a recent cluster of suicides in the city" ""tragic and very unfortunate,"" "and he added that there's no evidence to suggest that they are connected in any way." "Hey." "Go on." "It's okay." "Okay." "Go ahead, I got it." "How well did you actually know this guy?" " Why?" " 'Cause he was into some scary shit." "Can I show you something?" "What are we looking for?" "You'll see." "So, your friend, was it an accident?" "No." "Then what was it?" "I'm not sure." "I thought it was just looping the same clips over and over again, but it's not." "They don't always do the same thing." "It's some kind of Web-cam feed." "Ah, Bag Man." "Watch." "Every time he tries to take it off, the image just cuts... it goes right back to the beginning." "How did this get on there?" "All I did was plug it in." "How long have you been watching this?" "No, I think the question is, is how long have they been watching me?" " Damn it." "Yeah?" "Look, look, man..." "Turn it off." "Turn it off!" "Turn it off." "I can't believe you showed me that." "It was your friend's computer." "Did he get off on the stuff?" "Was he shooting those videos and selling them on-line?" "What was he doing?" "Josh tied a phone cord around his neck and hanged himself..." "that's what he was doing." "Mattie..." "Mattie, don't you think that your friend having the video feeds and then doing what he did is not a coincidence?" "And if those people, if what they're doing, if it's real," " if they're all dead..." " You know what I think?" "I think, no matter what..." "Josh is still gonna be gone." "I think you need to go back upstairs and erase his hard drive." "I tried." "It won't let me." "I need to move on." "I'm sorry." "Don't you want to know why?" "Hello, this is Louise Webber." "Leave your name and message and I'll get back..." " Oh!" "Josh?" "Josh, it's Mattie." " Mattie." "Are you there?" "I feel all alone." "Josh?" "Josh." "Something is wrong with me." "I have seen two people kill themselves." "My psych professor stepped out in front of a moving bus." "All in the last week." "Have you walked around campus lately?" "Every classroom is half-empty and no one is talking about it." "Something is following me." "It's in my dreams." " I saw it on the bus." " Come on, Mattie, do you honestly feel there are ghosts of some kind walking around out there?" "I don't know." "But something is wrong." "You're a very smart young woman." "I want you to add this up for me." "A flu epidemic breaks out." "People are in a weakened state;" "they're fearful of each other." "this coincidental clustering of suicides." "The e-mail rumor mill goes into overdrive, and suddenly people are seeing strange things in the shadows?" "I'm not imagining this!" "Why do you think you came here again?" "It certainly isn't because you thought that I would agree with you." "You knew what my response would be; you knew that you needed to hear it." "You can't articulate what you think is going on out there, Mattie, because it isn't real." "So what am I supposed to do?" "Just ignore everything I'm feeling?" "No." "No." "You have to face what you think is happening out there." "You have to stand ground, take a good, long look, and you'll see it's not there." "You're not real." "You're not real." "Stone?" " I don't want to die!" " Stone..." "I don't want to do it myself." "S-S..." "I don't want to die!" " Stone!" "What's happening!" " I don't want to die!" "I don't want to do it myself!" "Stone!" "Oh, my God!" "I'm ready to know." "What did you find?" "Well, his hard drive was fried, but I was able to retrieve most of the shit off of it." "Apparently your boy's into stockpiling some pretty serious viruses." "Why would he do that?" "It's a power trip." "It's like keeping nukes in your closet." "I found some other stuff that" "I think you need to see." "When I booted the drive, this is what came up." "Josh?" "This message is for Douglas Zeigler." "I'm Josh Ockmann, I'm the guy who hacked into your system." "I'm sorry..." "but now I got to talk to you." "He kept a video diary?" "It's more like a play-by-play." "Zeigler, it's Josh again." "How can I convince you to talk to me?" "Whatever you had locked up in your system," "I let it loose." "I let..." "And now I don't know how to stop it." "You okay with this?" "Yeah." "I need to know what you had in there." "I..." "I need to know." "I've never seen anything like it, but it's burning through every firewall, it's frying every circuit." "I need your help." "I bookmarked the rest." "Zeig, I got your e-mail." "I think I figured out a way to stop it." "I'm writing a virus that could shut it down." "Meet me at the library at 5:00 today." "Check this one out." "I saw something in the library." "I can still feel it." "Like it reached inside of me, like it took something out of me." "My life." "Why won't you answer me, Zeig?" "I need your help." "Goddamn it, why didn't you warn me?" "Is that it?" "There's one more, but..." "I want to see it." "It's breaking me down." "I feel like there's nothing left of me." "I can't think, I can't move," "I can't take the pain." "I just can't." "I'm not even me anymore." "It's all gone." "I... can't go on." "I'm sorry, Mattie." "I'm so sorry, Mattie." "What if it's all connected?" " What?" " The suicides, the..." "Internet people, the things I saw." "The ghosts?" "I'm not buying it, Mattie." "Josh thought he saw them... and it messed him up so bad, he he did what he did." "W..." "Okay, what do you think drove him over the edge?" "Josh had some pretty bad shit going on." "Josh wasn't on a power trip with viruses." "He saw something horrible... something like this... and he wanted to stop it." "Hackers do this stuff all the time." "It's a prank." "He got it off the Internet." "Come on." "But it wasn't hooked up to the Internet." " The cable was unplugged." " So?" "It came through the Wi-Fi." "Just like Josh said, he pulled something through..." "Pulled ghosts through the Wi-Fi?" "It just doesn't make any sense." "It makes all the sense in the world." "Do you have any idea of the amount of data that's floating out there?" "The amount of information we just beam into the air?" "We broadcast to everyone where we are, and we think we're safe?" "The whole freakin' city is going insane, and we're acting like it's nothing." "Well, it's not nothing." "It's something we don't understand, and it is coming for us." "You're freaking us out, man." "It's the end of the world." "That's what it is." "Maybe it's the booze in your coffee." "What about Zeigler?" "This whole thing started with him." "He was one of Josh's hacker friends." "There's got to be someone at school who knows how we can find him." "Maybe he knows what the hell is going on. is affecting Internet service worldwide." "Authorities are requesting those of you who do not need to use your computers, to shut them down now to avoid spreading the bug." "Hey." "I'm starting to think I'm the only one living here." "Is there anything going on tonight?" "I don't really go out much." "Sorry." "Bitch." ""Douglas Zeigler."" "Zeigler, the virus is inside... inside... inside..." "Inside?" "Are you saying not available for comment, but we are receiving reports of... mass disappearances in other cities, as well." "By all accounts, the crisis appears to be spreading, and the federal government is mobilizing a response, as more and more law enforcement and emergency systems appear to be... (distorted:) simply shutting dow..." "I just wanted to see you, Mattie." "Tim?" "I just wanted to see you." "How are you doing this?" "I see you." " Izzie, are you in there?" " This voice mail is no longer" " Hey, I'm looking for lzzie." "accepting incoming messages." "Please try again later." "Message 687." "Isabelle?" "Oh..." "Come here." "Come here." "You'll be okay." "You know what dying tastes like?" "Metal." "You don't want to breathe." "Because every time, it's it's more of it inside you." "I want to die but I'm too afraid to do it." "You're not gonna die." "I want to." "What do they want?" "They want what they don't have anymore." "They want life." "They're coming for you, too." "There's nothing you can do about it." "God, you're freezing." "Wait... here a second." "You have reached 911 emergency." "Sorry, all operators are busy." "Please stay on the line for the next available operator." "I'm sorry, Mattie." "lzzie!" " Hello." "This is Louise Webber." " Hello?" " Leave your name and message..." " Damn it!" "Mattie!" "Dexter..." "Isabelle's gone." "What do you mean she's gone?" "I'm packing a bag." "I'll meet you out front." "I'm on my way." "She was just standing there, empty... like she wanted to die." "And she was just nothing." "Just... ash, just this" "Mattie, look at me." "...black, floating ash." " Look at me!" "I saw it... the thing Josh was talking about, it came for me." " Right after I found this." " What?" "The virus Josh was working on." "I found it taped inside of his computer case." "Off-line, where they couldn't get to it." " Will it work?" " I don't know." "But Zeigler will." "You found Zeigler?" "We're gonna get some answers." "Yeah." "We're gonna shut it down." "We're gonna shut it down." "Mattie..." "Mattie..." "You all right?" "Yeah." "Get out of the car." "Get out of the car." "Is he all right?" " Let's go." " What?" "!" "Come on." "There's nobody in the car?" "No." "Come on." "Come on." "Don't you move!" "What the f..." " Don't come any closer!" " Don't shoot!" "Put the gun down!" "Calvin, are you crazy?" "They're safe, they're not..." "they're just kids!" "We're not going to hurt you." "Put it down." "We've got to keep moving." "We're wasting time." "We've got to get out of the city!" "They came through the computer." "We saw them." "We think we have a solution." "Are you people insane?" "You stay here, you're dead." "We shouldn't be out here..." "they say it's spreading." "They say that they don't know how long until it's everywhere." "The cops are gone!" "People are dying all over the place!" "Come on!" "We heard it's safe in the dead zones, anywhere there's no computers, no phones, no Wi-Fi." "Come on!" "Anywhere where they can't come through." " Let's go!" " Save yourselves!" "Hurry!" "What if they got Zeigler?" "What if we can't get out?" "He's alive!" "He's got to be." "Douglas Zeigler?" "Zeigler!" "Whoa." "My God." "He's not here." "No!" "You're going to let them in!" " Who are you?" "!" " My friend Josh needed to see you." "Why?" "That's the little prick who let them in." "Let what in?" "The slightest leak, the slightest hole, that's how." "We need to know what you were working on." "What was it?" "!" "It was a telecom project!" "It was my baby." "It was super-wide band." "We found frequencies that we didn't even know existed, and they came through." "Who did?" "We didn't know what it was at first." "We thought it was like a radio wave interference." "Then, we realized that there was a pattern to it." "Every time that we'd try to monitor them, they would stop, or they would change frequencies." "I mean, they were smart." "They were reacting to us, and then... we started seeing things around the lab." "But shadows can't hide underneath the desk." "Shadows can't walk across a room in broad daylight." "There was this tape." "Red utility tape." "Have you seen it?" "It must have blocked part of the spectrum that they needed for transmissions, so we could keep them out of a room, but we couldn't keep them out." "I mean, they were coming through so fast, it was like a blur." "The last thing you want, the last thing you ever want is for them to get to you." "'Cause when they grab ahold, they take your will to live." "Everything that made you you is gone." "You don't want to talk, you don't want to move." "You're a shell." "And then come the bruises." "They spread all over." "Your body dies right out from under you, and the next thing you know, you're just a pile of ash!" "I saw it happen to Tillman." "I saw it happen to Plummer." "What are they?" "I wish I knew." "I just watched my best friends die, Zeigler." "That's not the answer" "I came here for." "Well, what do you want me to say?" "They've already crawled in the entire regional network." "Everywhere..." "cell phones, PDAs..." "We can't stop them." "We have to crash the entire system." "How are we supposed to crash the system?" "This is what Josh was working on." "A virus configured to the specs of your system." "Where's your server?" "In a highly non-optimum place." "Where is it?" "!" "It's in the basement, in the computer lab!" "It doesn't matter, because even if you upload it, it still doesn't mean that it's going to work!" "No-no-no-no-no- no-no-no-no!" "No!" "Run!" "Go!" "Come on!" "Dexter!" "Go!" "Mattie." "Josh?" "Josh?" "I'm sorry, Mattie." "No, don't look!" "Just run!" "Mattie!" "Mattie!" "Come back to me." "I saw it, Dex." "I saw..." "Okay." "Stay right here." "I'll be right back." "I'll be right back." "No!" " I have to." " It's too late." "There's nothing we can do." "I can still shut the system down." "Don't you get it?" "There's no system to shut down." "They are the system." "I have to go." "No... no..." "It worked." "Let's get the hell out of here!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Run!" " Geez!" "Hey!" "How much gas do we have left?" "Half a tank." "How far is that gonna get us?" "We're gonna find out." "This is an emergency message from the United States Army." "Search and rescue units have been dispatched to assist survivors of the crisis." "We have established safe zones in locations without wireless or cell phone coverage." "Cell phones, computers and PDAs are all conduits for the invasion." "Dispose of all technology before proceeding to these locations." "Hold on, Mattie!" "You all right?" "Yeah." "What happened?" "I don't know." "We must've hit a dead zone." "They can't exist without a signal." "We can never go back." "The cities are theirs." "Our lives are different now." "What was meant to connect us to one another instead connected us to forces that we could've never imagined." "The world we knew is gone." "But the will to live never dies." "Not for us... and not for them."