Isolation

What defines this city

is the bustle and noise,

but now for the first time,

I hear only birds in the streets,

and it's barely spring.

Social distancing guidelines.

It felt like I was leaving my past behind.

Leaving the city where I'd grown up

and gotten married and raised a kid.

Leaving for a new reality.

I knew we had to get out of town.

We were lucky to have a place to go.

Sam and Karen, they weren't ready to leave.

But I knew it was time.

20 seconds washing your hands.

Two weeks for quarantine.

Ten days to break a fever.

Who comes up with these numbers?

I went through it over and over in my mind.

How did it catch me?

How'd I slip up?

Like a game of tag gone wrong.

I didn't wanna tell Karen and Sam.

Felt like admitting defeat.

Admitting I'd screwed up.

Let it get me.

I felt so alone.

Ashamed.

My world was getting smaller and smaller.

Once it was the whole city, and then the house.

Now the bedroom.

But mine was just one story among many.

In my isolation,

I thought about the city struggling

to contain the outbreak.

How many individuals were afflicted?

Every one of us now alone.

It came on fast,

taking over my mind like a malignant fog,

heating my body from the inside,

choking me and crushing me.

I was so weak, I was like a child again.

Time lost its meaning.

Had it been days or weeks, or only minutes?

It seemed my whole life up to this moment

had been a fleeting dream,

and now I was awake in a nightmare.

I had to stop them.

Maybe I wanted to protect them.

That's when I realized what I had to do

to keep them from getting infected.

The whole world turned upside down,

turning in on itself.

Things fall apart. The center cannot hold.

They say the darkest hour is before the dawn,

and the fever took me there like it brought a whole city

to its knees, but if you're lucky,

you can find the light.

Sometimes just a reminder

that you're not alone is enough,

and as for me,

I'll go out with a song.

And that's okay.

Hello.

This is day whatever of quarantine,

"lockdown" going on.

Been on house arrest for a while,

and thanks to my new best friend here,

I can't even go 50 feet outside my own front door anymore

without the gestapo nailing my ass.

Yeah, it's fucking fascism, dude.

That's what it is.

I mean, it's not like they can shut me up forever, though,

you know?

It's all out there.

People just gotta connect the goddamn dots.

Yeah, I know, right?

Hey, listen.

While I've got you on the phone,

I was wondering if maybe you could post my video.

I know that's a big ask,

but I just feel like right now would be a good time

to get my side of the story out there.

Give people an opportunity to figure out the truth

for themselves, you know?

Come on, man. Please do this for me.

I'm on house arrest.

Just put it on your page!

Why not?

Oh, dude, don't even give me that bullshit.

If you're really so scared of what other people think...

Never mind.

No, fuck you, too.

Because of that,

I decided to actually write a song about it.

Shut up, asshole.

As the death toll in urban areas continues

to spike,

New York City has again become

a hotbed for the virus,

causing many citizens to flee to their upstate homes.

You don't know shit.

And you wouldn't tell us if you did.

5g towers. They're all over the southland,

but should you be worried?

The virus has now mutated in Florida.

God is striking back at the sin.

The first casualty of the pandemic was freedom.

You're carrying the most dangerous virus of all.

The truth.

That's what you...

Oh.

Freedom.

I know that you can hear me.

Well, guess what?

Fuck you, big brother.

Fuck you!

Ow.

Chad.

What the fuck?

Can you hear me?

Who's talking?

Down here, Chad.

Down where?

Here.

Oh!

Who the fuck are you?

Who I am isn't important,

but that you can hear me, that could mean everything.

You disrupted the signal,

but I don't know how much time we have.

They're beaming it at you right now to infect you.

There's only one way to make it stop.

Make it sto...

We've gone to great lengths

to make contact with you,

because you've been asking the right questions.

Are you ready for the answers?

I must've hit my head really bad.

Chad. Chad.

I really wish you'd take this more seriously.

Yeah, well, I would if I could,

but I can't, because there's nobody there.

Chad, listen to me.

Listen, Chad.

This is important.

I can't hear you, because I'm not fucking crazy!

Of course you're not.

Your pulse and temperature are elevated, though.

Are you feeling all right, Chad?

No.

I mean, yes.

No, I'm fine.

Are you, though?

Actually, you're getting very sick,

exactly as they want you to.

I'm not getting sick.

It's not a fucking plague.

That's what they want you to believe.

You know what?

If you know so much about what's really going on,

then why don't you just go ahead and lay it on me?

Go ahead. Talk.

Connect the dots, Chad.

What if there really is a plague?

What if the 5g towers are frying our DNA to produce the virus?

That's fucking insane.

Why would they even wanna do that?

Simple. To weed out the weak

and crash the economy,

with everybody on lockdown

to make their cleanup easier.

And then like magic, there's a vaccine,

and everyone's so happy to get it,

they don't ask what's really in it.

What's in it?

The next stage of control.

Microchip receivers to relay the 5g signal straight

to our brains and control how we think,

what we say and do and buy.

Once all the other redundant,

useless bottom feeders are gone...

People like you, Chad.

I'm not useless.

That's right. You're not.

You can still save yourself.

That's it.

I'm over this.

Chad!

I'm trying to help you, Chad.

I'm trying to help you save people's lives.

I don't know, man.

Maybe you're right.

I need a minute to think.

You need to do this.

I tried.

But nobody cares.

Even if they did,

how do you get a bunch of people to get off

of their asses and actually do something?