The screen didn’t flicker or turn blue. Instead, a window expanded to fill his vision, displaying a live satellite feed. The resolution was impossible—sharper than anything commercially available. It was a top-down view of a suburban street. As he squinted, he realized the pavement looked familiar. The cracked driveway, the rusted mailbox, the blue sedan... it was his house.
Elias didn't wait to see what happened at minute thirteen. He grabbed his keys and ran for the back door, leaving the computer humming. As he sprinted into the woods behind his home, he heard the screech of tires and the heavy thud of boots on his porch.
Elias, a man whose curiosity had always been his loudest trait, hovered his cursor over the icon. His logical mind screamed malware , but his gut felt a strange, magnetic pull. He clicked "Open."