001,200,000: 12:29:50 — The sound of a mouse clicking a Save button.
Elias felt a cold sweat prickle his neck. He looked at the clock on his wall. 12:29 PM. He looked back at the file and began to search. He didn't know what he was looking for until he saw the date at the top of the metadata: Today. 1.2MIL.txt
He realized then that the numbers on the left weren’t just IDs; they were a count. He dragged the scroll bar down, the text blurring into a grey haze. He stopped at random. 001,200,000: 12:29:50 — The sound of a mouse
Then, the monitor went black. Outside, the birds stopped singing. The hum of the refrigerator died. In the sudden, absolute silence, Elias realized he couldn't hear his own heart anymore. 12:29 PM
000,567,932: 19:22:55 — The precise moment a heart stops beating in Room 402.