At 4:07 p.m. the sky stuttered. For one second the sunset froze, then rewound, and the same orange cloud slid back over the same rooftop twice. Milo blinked. He'd seen the seam. Then pale words scrolled up along the horizon: WORLD_07 - scheduled for deletion in 71 hours. His phone buzzed. The screen showed the exact same words.

Milo figures the words came from somewhere, so he chases them. The text was scrolling toward the old radio tower on Hartley Hill. He grabs his bike and pedals hard, the sky flickering above him every few minutes like a video stuck on a bad loop.