WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.960 These winters are getting worse  every year. That’s for sure. 00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:08.760 The Old Cattle Rancher doesn’t know if it’s  the climate changing, God’s judgment arriving,   00:00:08.760 --> 00:00:14.460 or if he’s just getting older and struggling  to keep up. Probably a strong mix of all of it.   00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:21.240 Whatever the cause, it doesn’t change the facts.  It’s deathly cold out there. His ailing, elderly   00:00:21.240 --> 00:00:26.280 Ma’s health continues to deteriorate. He hasn’t  heard from his delivery driver, Jorge, in days.   00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:31.800 And on top of it all, his loyal dog, Marybell, is  out there, barking into the darkness of the barn. 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:36.420 The Rancher heads out to fetch her. He  doesn’t know what he’d do if she froze. 00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:41.700 He whistles, but she doesn’t look back at him.  She just carries on barking up that road into   00:00:41.700 --> 00:00:46.320 the snowy night. The Rancher wades through the  snow and peers in the direction she’s looking. 00:00:47.160 --> 00:00:48.600 “There’s nothing there girl, get inside.” 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:52.140 But Marybell keeps barking. She’s insisting. 00:00:52.140 --> 00:00:55.200 He looks again. Is that…? 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:59.760 The Rancher takes off running up the road. All  thoughts of cold immediately gone from his mind,   00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:04.740 he races towards the figure as fast as he can.  His frozen fingers fumble at the zipper on his   00:01:04.740 --> 00:01:09.600 parka. Icy wind stabs the insides of his  lungs. Marybell shoots off ahead of him. 00:01:09.600 --> 00:01:14.580 There, he pulls the zipper down and wrestles  the thick coat off of his shoulders just as he   00:01:14.580 --> 00:01:18.780 reaches the tiny figure. He drops to his knees  and throws the coat over the shoulders of the   00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:24.120 little girl standing alone in the snow. Quick as  he can, he wraps it tightly around her, pulling   00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:28.740 the hood up and over her head. He takes her tiny  shoulders in his hands and gives her a shake. 00:01:28.740 --> 00:01:31.560 “Are you okay? Hello? Can you hear me?” 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:38.220 The girl sways for a moment, then collapses. He  catches her and, in one deft motion, scoops her   00:01:38.220 --> 00:01:42.660 into his arms and takes off back down the road  in the direction of his farm. Where the hell had   00:01:42.660 --> 00:01:48.480 she come from? There are no buildings around here  for miles. No one uses that road except Jorge. And   00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:52.620 in this weather, she couldn’t have walked all the  way over those mountains, she’d have frozen solid. 00:01:53.160 --> 00:01:58.740 He bites the finger of a glove and pulls it off.  With his bare hand, he clasps one of hers. By   00:01:58.740 --> 00:02:03.960 the feel of her skin, she pretty much is frozen  solid already. He needs to get her warmed up. Now. 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:07.500 He kicks open the front door and  bundles inside with a flurry of   00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:11.520 snowflakes and an anxious dog at his  heels. The fire’s not quite dead yet,   00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:14.760 so he rushes over to the hearth and  lays the little girl down next to it.   00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:19.560 He can barely see her at all wrapped up in his  enormous coat. She doesn’t seem to be moving. 00:02:20.220 --> 00:02:23.100 “Ma! I’m home! I… I found someone.” 00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:27.600 The Rancher grabs two dry logs from  the side and throws them onto the fire.   00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:31.500 He piles kindling high on top of them  and blows steadily into the embers at   00:02:31.500 --> 00:02:37.680 the bottom. They glow and swell in size. No  taking yet. He blows again for longer. And   00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:44.160 again. He feels his head starting to swim.  A crackle. A lick of flame. It’s taken! 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:47.640 Panting, he turns back to the bundled-up  coat on the floor with the child inside.   00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:52.620 Still no movement. A sickening knot  tightens his stomach. What if she’s…? 00:02:52.620 --> 00:02:55.440 No. Don’t let yourself think that. Not yet. 00:02:56.040 --> 00:02:58.320 He reaches down and gently undoes the zipper   00:02:58.320 --> 00:03:01.080 on the parka. His trembling  fingers push back the hood. 00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:07.680 She’s pale. Deathly pale. Her dark brown  hair is wet and clings to her scalp. The   00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:13.380 tips are frozen. At a guess, she must  only be 9 years old. Eyes closed, lips   00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:19.140 a sickening blue. But that’s not the color that  scares him the most. On her neck, there’s red. 00:03:19.140 --> 00:03:24.120 Delicately as he can, the Rancher takes the coat  off her shoulders and hangs it up by the fire.   00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:29.220 She’s dressed only in a plaid shirt, way too  big for her. It looks like an adult’s shirt,   00:03:29.220 --> 00:03:33.120 similar to an old one he used to  have years ago. But on her neck,   00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:38.820 her hands, her feet, is that same deep  red. Layers of blood, frozen to her skin. 00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:45.420 He sits back, his mind blank. He’s seen that much  blood before. Sure he has. When you work with   00:03:45.420 --> 00:03:50.820 cattle, it’s an unfortunate part of the job. He’s  seen cows bleed out during childbirth. The girl   00:03:50.820 --> 00:03:55.620 in front of him? She’s the same color as those  orphaned calves that lie crying on the floor. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:59.160 A groaning sound fills the room. The Rancher looks   00:03:59.160 --> 00:04:02.400 across at the armchair where his  Ma sits. She doesn’t look at him,   00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:07.260 doesn’t look at the girl on the floor. She just  stares into the fire, same way she always does. 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:11.040 Ma groans again. Trying to express something she   00:04:11.040 --> 00:04:13.860 doesn’t understand. Being in  a world without living in it. 00:04:13.860 --> 00:04:19.860 “Ma, it’s okay. Sorry if I startled you.  We have a um… we have a guest with us.” 00:04:20.700 --> 00:04:25.680 But she just keeps on groaning and staring into  the fire. The Rancher buries his head in his hands   00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:31.920 and lets out a deep breath. Only, the sound of  his breath is joined by another. A tiny breath,   00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:36.960 rattling and rasping through a damaged child’s  throat. Trying its best to keep its host alive. 00:04:36.960 --> 00:04:41.160 The Rancher opens his eyes and stares  at the child. She isn’t conscious,   00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:46.080 not by a long shot, but she’s breathing.  A little at a time. The icicles in her   00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:49.440 hair have turned into rounded droplets of  water that glow by the heat of the fire. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:54.660 He snaps back to his senses. He’s not doing  her much if she’s just lying there soaking wet.   00:04:55.200 --> 00:04:58.860 He runs off upstairs and grabs some  towels and a fresh flannel shirt to   00:04:58.860 --> 00:05:02.640 wear. After several minutes of drying  her off, he’s confident enough that   00:05:02.640 --> 00:05:06.420 he’s got most of the water off. There’s  still a lot of blood caked to her skin,   00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:09.960 but as far as he can tell, there’s no wound  anywhere that it could have come from. 00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:14.640 Brow furrowed, he leaves her under a bundle of  blankets and fills up the kettle with water.   00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:19.620 Hanging it carefully over the fire, he walks  over to the cabinet and fishes out a tin of   00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:24.600 coco from the top shelf. Hasn’t been used in  years but should still be fine. He would make   00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:28.980 it with milk, but she’s probably dehydrated.  Lifting the kettle’s lid with the poker,   00:05:28.980 --> 00:05:32.880 the Rancher pours the brown powder  inside and waits for it to boil. 00:05:32.880 --> 00:05:37.380 The little girl’s eyes are open now.  She’s staring into the flames. Her lips   00:05:37.380 --> 00:05:40.080 are looking a little more pink,  her skin a little more blotchy. 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:45.060 “You’re safe here. Just stay by the  fire and warm up a bit. You like cocoa?” 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:49.320 The little girl drags her eyes away  from the flames. Her expression is   00:05:49.320 --> 00:05:51.960 mostly blank. She looks too tired to be confused. 00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:53.280 “I don’t know.” 00:05:53.880 --> 00:05:56.460 “I think you will. Ma always gave me cocoa.” 00:05:57.200 --> 00:05:58.200 “Okay.” 00:05:58.200 --> 00:06:03.600 And with that, the farmhouse falls silent.  The little girl stares into the fire. The   00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:08.400 Rancher watches her, finally feeling the wave  of exhaustion crashing over him. His Ma has   00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:13.560 fallen asleep in her armchair. Only Marybel stays  awake through the whole night, staying close to   00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:17.540 the little girl by the fire. Occasionally  licking her toes to try and warm them up. 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:18.540 ** 00:06:18.540 --> 00:06:23.100 By the morning, the snow’s stopped, but  the huge drifts remain. As the Rancher   00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:27.420 walks across to the barn, he finds it hard  to believe that just a few hours ago, the   00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:31.920 winds were whipping at his face as hard as they  were. The world this morning is totally still. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:36.960 What the Rancher finds even harder to believe is  that there’s a little girl in his house right now,   00:06:36.960 --> 00:06:40.860 fast asleep by the fire. He checked her  forehead when he woke up this morning,   00:06:40.860 --> 00:06:45.480 and she miraculously hasn’t caught a fever. She  can’t have been out in that weather for too long,   00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:49.380 but it only makes the question more  mysterious. Where did she come from? 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:53.220 Marybell didn’t get up this morning.  From all of the excitement last night,   00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:57.060 she must have been too tired for today.  Walking through the crisp morning air,   00:06:57.060 --> 00:07:02.280 he can’t really blame her. He shoulders the  barn door open. A column of steam curls out   00:07:02.280 --> 00:07:07.140 of the opening. All of that warmth, humidity, and  cattle smell is strangely comforting this morning. 00:07:07.740 --> 00:07:12.720 But as the Rancher goes around checking on all the  cows inside, he very quickly discovers a problem.   00:07:13.380 --> 00:07:19.560 They’re thin, way too thin. Some of them look to  be on the verge of starvation. He’d missed it last   00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:24.420 night as he drove them down in the dark but in the  warm glow of the barn’s lights it’s unmistakable.   00:07:25.020 --> 00:07:27.540 These cows haven’t been eating properly. 00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:31.080 He pours out several sacks of  grain for them into the troughs,   00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:34.500 and they all gather round hungrily,  filling both their stomachs as fast as   00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:39.300 they can. The Rancher leans on the railing  for a moment confused. Even in this cold,   00:07:39.300 --> 00:07:43.500 there was still plenty of green grass for them  up on the ridge. That’s why he’d taken them   00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:47.520 up there. They should have had no trouble  eating until the snow came in last night. 00:07:47.520 --> 00:07:51.960 He doesn’t like this one bit. Last time Jorge  had driven down and collected some of the meat,   00:07:51.960 --> 00:07:56.280 he’d had a few questions about the quantity  being smaller than usual. Were the cows sick   00:07:56.280 --> 00:08:02.340 at all? Not that the Rancher could tell. But now  looking at them it’s clear as day. Something’s up. 00:08:02.340 --> 00:08:03.000 ** 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:03.900 “You hungry?” 00:08:03.900 --> 00:08:07.860 The little girl nods. They sit across  the table from one another eating   00:08:07.860 --> 00:08:11.940 homemade bread and soup. Ma stays  over by the fire. Marybel slowly   00:08:11.940 --> 00:08:15.420 wanders over to the kitchenette and  flops down on the floor, exhausted. 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:16.080 “Where you from?” 00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:17.820 The girl shrugs her shoulders. 00:08:18.420 --> 00:08:21.480 “You know how you got out here?  Remember anything from last night?” 00:08:22.140 --> 00:08:25.140 The little girl just eats her  soup and shakes her head. She   00:08:25.140 --> 00:08:28.560 doesn’t look particularly scared  or worried. Just a little confused. 00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:32.820 “Where are your parents? Do you have parents?” 00:08:32.820 --> 00:08:37.980 Again the little girl shrugs. The Rancher  sits back and folds his arms. He’s tried to   00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:41.760 call into town, but his phoneline’s gone  out in the blizzard. Not much to be done   00:08:41.760 --> 00:08:45.300 until this snow clears. He’s got a good  relationship with the police around here,   00:08:45.300 --> 00:08:48.120 if he explains the situation,  then it will all be okay. 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:51.900 “What do you know? Can you  remember anything from last night?” 00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:56.940 “It was dark,” the girl slurps her  soup. “I was hungry, so hungry.   00:08:57.660 --> 00:08:59.520 Then I saw the light and I went towards that.” 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:00.720 “My car.” 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:05.220 “No. Well, yes. Later on, it was  your car. But before, it wasn’t.” 00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:08.220 “What was the light then? And where were you?” 00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:11.700 “I don’t know. It was just… the light.” 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:17.700 Now he’s even more confused. But, try as he  might, the Rancher can’t figure any of it out and,   00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:21.600 try as she might, the little girl can’t  remember anything more precise than that. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:22.140 ** 00:09:22.140 --> 00:09:25.200 The pair of them hop into the car  and drive back out up the road that   00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:28.380 afternoon. The snow is piled so  high that the Rancher is having   00:09:28.380 --> 00:09:31.560 to get out twice as often as he did the  previous night to clear a track for them. 00:09:32.160 --> 00:09:35.760 He isn’t actually sure what he’s brought  her out here looking for. Clues maybe?   00:09:35.760 --> 00:09:41.100 He almost laughs at himself at the thought, but  that’s probably the best word for it. If he can   00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:45.600 figure out how she got here, then he can work on  understanding who she is and how to get her home. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.860 There’s the damage to the phone  line. One of the masts has collapsed,   00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:54.600 sagging heavily on the lines. That’s not  something he can fix on his own. No sir.   00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:58.140 Looks like he’ll have to wait for the snow  to melt before making any phone calls again.   00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:03.720 That could be in one week, that could be  in three months. He glances at the child   00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:07.680 sitting in the passenger seat. She’s just  staring out of the window in amazement,   00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:11.880 wrapped up in as many layers as he could put  on her. They may be stuck together for a while. 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:17.460 A lurch! The pickup plunges dangerously to  the left. The Rancher slams on the breaks,   00:10:17.460 --> 00:10:21.900 and it comes to a stop just in time. A large  chunk of snow in front of them comes loose   00:10:21.900 --> 00:10:26.700 and slips off the side of the road. It tumbles  down into a gully that he hadn’t even spotted. 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:32.280 With all this snow on the ground, he has no  frame of reference. Everything is just white. 00:10:33.060 --> 00:10:33.840 “Stay here.” 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:37.740 The Rancher opens the door and climbs  out. He wishes Marybel was with him,   00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:40.260 but she’d wanted to stay home again. Poor dog,   00:10:40.260 --> 00:10:43.440 she must really be going through it if she  wasn’t even up for a ride in the pickup. 00:10:44.460 --> 00:10:48.420 Carefully as he can, testing every step  before making it, the Rancher creeps over   00:10:48.420 --> 00:10:53.340 to the edge of the gully. It’s bigger than  he thought, much bigger. It continues down,   00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:56.977 more and more sharply, for a few  hundred feet. All the way down into a… 00:10:56.977 --> 00:10:56.990 “Ah, no.” 00:10:56.990 --> 00:11:05.040 There’s a semi down there. A big rig, warped and  bent, lying on the rocks. Just a glance is enough   00:11:05.040 --> 00:11:10.980 to tell the Rancher it’s Jorge’s, but he just  keeps staring at it in disbelief. It can’t be. It… 00:11:10.980 --> 00:11:12.360 But it is. 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:13.740 “Stay in the car.” 00:11:13.740 --> 00:11:17.640 The Rancher reaches past the little  girl and into the backseat. Grabbing   00:11:17.640 --> 00:11:20.520 a pair of crampons and some rope,  he straightens up and looks at the   00:11:20.520 --> 00:11:23.940 girl. She knows it’s serious, he  can see the concern on her face. 00:11:25.020 --> 00:11:27.540 “Stay in the car,” he repeats. 00:11:27.540 --> 00:11:32.280 By the time the Rancher makes it down to the  truck, his legs and back are killing him. All   00:11:32.280 --> 00:11:35.820 this work over the last 24 hours is going  to start taking its toll sooner or later,   00:11:35.820 --> 00:11:40.440 but some things have to be done. He  pauses by the semi. It’s on its side,   00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:42.960 he’ll have to climb up onto  it and try to open the door. 00:11:43.740 --> 00:11:45.240 Some things have to be done. 00:11:45.900 --> 00:11:50.460 He hoists himself up and manages to clamber  onto the metal door. It’s badly crumpled,   00:11:50.460 --> 00:11:54.240 and the window is smashed in. He doesn’t  fancy his chances of being able to get   00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:58.020 it open. One look through the window shows  him that he won’t want to do that anyway. 00:11:59.280 --> 00:12:04.440 Blood coats every inch of the inside of Jorge’s  truck. The cabin that the Rancher is so used to   00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:10.320 seeing and sitting in is almost unrecognizable.  Smashed glass is sprinkled across every surface,   00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:13.620 with a dark brownish red layer of  gore frozen into everything else. 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:20.400 There, in the midst of it all, still wearing  a seatbelt, is Jorge’s body. It dangles like a   00:12:20.400 --> 00:12:25.380 limp carcass at a butcher shop. Like the cows he  hangs in the slaughterhouse. And like those cows,   00:12:25.380 --> 00:12:31.200 a large chunk of Jorge is missing. His  fat stomach is gone, not just cut open   00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:37.740 but gone. The tops of his thighs too and much  of his chest. So much of him is just missing,   00:12:37.740 --> 00:12:42.660 open arteries and lifeless nerves dangle in  place. That must have been a hell of a crash. 00:12:43.260 --> 00:12:47.520 The Rancher reaches over and pulls  Jorge’s cap down over his eyes. Not   00:12:47.520 --> 00:12:51.060 much else to be done right now. Ain’t no  way he can clean this mess up by himself. 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:56.280 But as the Rancher climbs up the valley,  his mind starts to connect some dots. Dots   00:12:56.280 --> 00:13:00.120 that leave a sick feeling in his stomach.  He’s seen that much blood somewhere else,   00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:03.180 or rather on someone else, just last night. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:08.040 He slams the door to the pickup shut and  starts to drive back down the track. Since   00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:12.000 the snow’s stopped, all of the drifts that  he’d cleared earlier remain clear. It’s   00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:16.020 only a few minutes drive back down to the  farm. He doesn’t say a word the whole way,   00:13:16.020 --> 00:13:19.740 and neither does the little girl.  She clearly senses something’s up. 00:13:20.400 --> 00:13:23.280 The sick feeling in his stomach remains. He pulls   00:13:23.280 --> 00:13:26.280 up the handbrake and the two of them  sit in silence outside the farmhouse. 00:13:26.940 --> 00:13:29.280 “There was a truck in that  valley. Did you know that?” 00:13:29.880 --> 00:13:30.900 “Yes.” 00:13:30.900 --> 00:13:32.760 “Is that where you came from last night?” 00:13:33.420 --> 00:13:34.020 “I don’t remember.” 00:13:34.860 --> 00:13:40.320 “Was he…” the Rancher stops. “Jorge didn’t have  any kids. What were you doing in his truck?” 00:13:40.920 --> 00:13:41.520 “I don’t know.” 00:13:42.180 --> 00:13:44.100 “Did he… was he…” 00:13:44.640 --> 00:13:49.200 The Rancher can’t bring himself to accuse his best  friend of the words that almost left his mouth. 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:53.400 “Do you think you might now remember  because something bad happened to you?” 00:13:54.060 --> 00:13:55.140 “I don’t know.” 00:13:55.140 --> 00:13:59.280 The Rancher closes his eyes for a  long moment. Silence fills the pickup. 00:13:59.880 --> 00:14:01.020 “Come on. Let’s get inside.” 00:14:01.800 --> 00:14:07.140 But inside wasn’t the safe haven he’d been  hoping for. Ma’s been throwing up. Not just   00:14:07.140 --> 00:14:11.700 once but a few times. She’s distressed, groaning  aimlessly for someone to come and save her.   00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:15.900 Marybel is pacing around the  room yelping and whining. The   00:14:15.900 --> 00:14:18.780 Rancher immediately goes upstairs  to get some rags to clean up with. 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:20.880 Perfect timing. As usual. 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:26.520 But he stops in his tracks when he comes back  down. His Ma’s stopped moaning. The little girl   00:14:26.520 --> 00:14:31.680 is kneeling by the armchair, holding the old  lady’s hand. The room is calm. The little girl   00:14:31.680 --> 00:14:36.180 gently places the frail hand back on the armrest  and comes over to take the rags from the Rancher.   00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:40.680 Returning to the old lady, the girl goes  about mopping her up as best she can. 00:14:40.680 --> 00:14:43.080 Marybel slumps back down on the floor. 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:43.800 ** 00:14:43.800 --> 00:14:48.780 And that is how the four of them exist for the  next few days. Ma gets sicker steadily, but   00:14:48.780 --> 00:14:54.120 the little girl stays by her side all day long,  caring for her in every way. The Rancher’s glad of   00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:58.560 that. It gives him the time he needs to help his  cows outside. None of them are in a good shape. 00:14:59.220 --> 00:15:04.140 Whatever it is, they’re still getting thinner.  He feeds them all the grain they’d normally need,   00:15:04.140 --> 00:15:08.940 and then some, and they always finish it  off. Yet none of them are getting any fatter. 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:13.260 The Rancher leans on the railing,  trusty dog by his side. His energy   00:15:13.260 --> 00:15:16.800 is starting to really lag behind what  he needs. The last couple of days,   00:15:16.800 --> 00:15:19.920 even though he hasn’t done all that  much, have totally taken it out of him. 00:15:20.640 --> 00:15:21.960 “What do you think it is, Marybel?” 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:25.260 He looks down at his little  friend. She’s looking thinner,   00:15:25.260 --> 00:15:27.900 too, actually. But she’s been eating just fine… 00:15:28.620 --> 00:15:29.520 It hits him. 00:15:30.180 --> 00:15:35.340 Tapeworms. As soon as the word comes into  his head, it makes total sense. His cows,   00:15:35.340 --> 00:15:39.000 his entire herd by the looks of things,  have been riddled with tapeworms. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:40.320 “Ah hell.” 00:15:40.860 --> 00:15:44.160 He hasn’t got anywhere near the amount  of medicine needed to give some to all   00:15:44.160 --> 00:15:46.980 of them. Even if he did, a lot  of them are looking pretty far   00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:51.900 gone. The chance of reinfection would be  high. He needs supplies. He needs Jorge. 00:15:52.680 --> 00:15:56.220 Marybel whines softly next to him.  He knows what they have to do. 00:15:56.220 --> 00:15:57.180 ** 00:15:57.180 --> 00:16:01.380 Laying Marybel down carefully by the fire,  the Rancher administers the tapeworm medicine.   00:16:01.380 --> 00:16:06.360 For a few hours, they lie there together. He  strokes her side waiting for her to pass it.   00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:11.220 The little girl watches over his shoulder. His  Ma sits back in her chair, mumbling to herself. 00:16:11.880 --> 00:16:15.240 He hasn’t talked to the little  girl anymore about Jorge yet. He   00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:19.800 isn’t sure what there is to say. Maybe he  should ask if Jorge was sick. After all,   00:16:19.800 --> 00:16:23.760 the cows clearly have had these tapeworms  since before the other night. Jorge may   00:16:23.760 --> 00:16:27.000 have picked up contaminated meat  from him last time he came. Maybe… 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:31.560 Marybel passes the worm on the rug. The smell…! 00:16:31.560 --> 00:16:37.920 The Rancher uses the tongs next to the fire  to pick the worm up. It’s long and pale. And   00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:43.080 dead. He tosses it into the fire and puts the  tongs in the flames for a bit to sterilize them.   00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:48.000 The worm sizzles and pops in the flames.  The sound makes his stomach crawl. 00:16:48.540 --> 00:16:51.600 The Rancher glances around and  sees the little girl staring   00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:56.340 at the tapeworm. He looks past the girl to  his Ma sitting in the chair. Her turn next. 00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:57.060 ** 00:16:57.060 --> 00:17:02.340 But as that night and the following morning  reveal, it’s too late. His Ma’s groans turn   00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:06.420 into cries of pain. She openly sobs  by the fire, clutching at her stomach.   00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.060 Every time the Rancher tries  to give her the medicine,   00:17:09.060 --> 00:17:14.220 she just vomits it back up. Each time she  vomits, there’s more and more blood mixed in. 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:19.980 The little girl gets more and more upset. It’s  not fair on her to have to witness something   00:17:19.980 --> 00:17:24.120 this traumatic and disgusting, but there’s  nowhere else for her to go. She shouldn’t   00:17:24.120 --> 00:17:28.080 even be here at all. The fact that she is means  she has to help. That’s all there is to it. 00:17:28.620 --> 00:17:34.500 By sunrise, his Ma has passed away. There is  nasty red bruising all across her abdomen,   00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:39.420 which tells him she must have bled out internally  from this worm. He’d been too late to realize what   00:17:39.420 --> 00:17:44.700 was wrong. Too late with the cows and too late  with his Ma. He covers his Ma with a blanket   00:17:44.700 --> 00:17:49.260 and tells the little girl not to go and wash  her hands. He needs to check on the cattle. 00:17:49.260 --> 00:17:54.720 Sure enough, during the night, a handful  of them died too. The calves. They were the   00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:58.860 ones to go first whenever something like this  happened. Mother cows stood over their calves,   00:17:58.860 --> 00:18:01.080 licking their heads. Willing them to wake up. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:05.160 The Rancher drags each body out  to the back and burns them. He   00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:10.280 can’t risk any more contamination. As the  carcasses burn, he allows himself to cry. 00:18:10.280 --> 00:18:11.280 ** 00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:15.480 But when the Rancher comes back into the  house, it’s full of noise. A noise that takes   00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:21.480 his brain a long time to comprehend. Crying.  But his own. Not the little girl either. No,   00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:26.880 it was a new sound: it was a baby. A newborn  child screaming at the top of its lungs. 00:18:27.540 --> 00:18:29.400 The Rancher can’t believe what he’s looking at.   00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:33.600 The little girl is sitting by the hearth  with Marybel at her feet. In her arms,   00:18:33.600 --> 00:18:38.640 drenched in blood, is a baby. The girl  looks up at him and smiles sweetly. 00:18:39.600 --> 00:18:40.100 “It’s a boy.” 00:18:40.740 --> 00:18:45.480 Then she turns around to his Ma's body  under the blanket. A sickening red patch   00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:48.780 soaks through the fabric, right  over where her stomach would be. 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:50.580 “What the hell happened here?” 00:18:51.420 --> 00:18:52.260 “I’ve got a little brother.” 00:18:52.980 --> 00:18:59.220 Securing and containing SCP-1003 has  proven… challenging. This is largely   00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:03.540 because the tapeworm that causes all of this  damage is virtually indistinguishable from   00:19:03.540 --> 00:19:07.980 echinococcus granulosus, the common variety  of tapeworm that causes hydatid disease. 00:19:08.700 --> 00:19:15.480 The tapeworm, designated SPC-1003-1, follows  the same lifecycle as other regular worms.   00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:20.880 Its eggs come into contact with an animal through  contaminated meat, saliva, or unclean surfaces and   00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:26.460 are ingested. Once inside the gut they grow and  latch onto the inside of the digestive tract where   00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:31.020 they feed on the nutrients of the food traveling  past them, steadily growing bigger and stronger.   00:19:31.620 --> 00:19:36.480 Once mature, they lay eggs which pass out in  the animal’s excrement to continue the process. 00:19:37.260 --> 00:19:41.880 Infections spread quickly, particularly in  unsanitary conditions amongst livestock,   00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:46.200 and can often be difficult to contain  as, by the time the symptoms - nausea,   00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:50.700 weight loss, fever - start to manifest in  the infected, the worms have likely already   00:19:50.700 --> 00:19:54.420 reproduced and have a new generation  growing in the guts of other animals. 00:19:54.420 --> 00:20:00.360 As far as the foundation is aware, SCP-1003  follows this normal pattern in all observed   00:20:00.360 --> 00:20:03.960 animals, except humans. When a human  ingests an egg from this tapeworm,   00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:06.600 a very different creature  starts to grow in their gut.   00:20:07.140 --> 00:20:13.200 Human embryos, with the same genetic code as the  tapeworm, begin to form. The rate of their growth   00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:18.480 is greatly accelerated, however. By just 8 weeks,  they are as mature as the typical 3-week-old   00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:23.760 neonate - or newborn child - although similar  in size to an 8-week-old embryo at 13-16cm. 00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:29.640 Many eggs usually enter this ‘fertilization’  period, but almost all of them die before   00:20:29.640 --> 00:20:33.900 having a chance to develop much beyond the  early stages. They stand the best chance of   00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:37.680 survival when buried in the hepatic tissue,  where they can absorb plenty of nutrients   00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:43.200 from their host. The host at this point usually  starts to experience mild symptoms. Lethargy,   00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.800 the occasional stomach cramp,  nothing particularly severe… yet. 00:20:46.800 --> 00:20:52.680 The embryos that survive soon develop rows  of temporary razor sharp. At this point,   00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:55.740 passively absorbing nutrients  is no longer enough for them.   00:20:56.340 --> 00:21:01.380 They bury their teeth into the soft tissue  surrounding them and begin to eat. Once they   00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:05.760 enter this stage, their rate of growth increases  exponentially, the more flesh they consume. 00:21:06.300 --> 00:21:11.280 Eventually burrowing out into the world, the  Tapeworm Child is born drenched in blood. 00:21:12.060 --> 00:21:16.320 The size and apparent age of the child that  emerges from the corpse are determined by the   00:21:16.320 --> 00:21:20.760 size of the person they consume. For example  the child eating its way out of the Rancher’s   00:21:20.760 --> 00:21:24.960 Ma appeared to be only a 10-month-old  child as there was very little of the   00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:29.820 frail old woman for it to eat. By contrast  the little girl who emerged from Jorge’s gut   00:21:29.820 --> 00:21:34.080 had plenty of fat to feast on and so was  able to grow to the size of a 9-year-old. 00:21:34.080 --> 00:21:39.480 Once the child emerges, the teeth that they’d  used to eat their way out quickly come loose and   00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:44.220 are replaced by regular human teeth. The children  themselves have no memory at all of where they’ve   00:21:44.220 --> 00:21:48.840 come from or what they are. They have the same  motor and linguistic skills that a regular child   00:21:48.840 --> 00:21:53.880 would possess at their age. Nothing, aside from  their DNA, marks them out as being any different   00:21:53.880 --> 00:21:58.080 from the children around them. Blissfully  ignorant, just like the children around them. 00:21:58.080 --> 00:22:02.880 It is theorized that many of these children end  up in orphanages. With no birth certificates   00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:07.260 or identifiable parents, they fall through  the gaps in the system, quickly lost to the   00:22:07.260 --> 00:22:11.520 world. The only way to really track them at  all is to follow the infections they cause. 00:22:12.180 --> 00:22:17.400 You see, these Tapeworm Children have one final  curse they must live with. Their bodily fluids,   00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:21.960 their saliva, and sweat, contain the same  tapeworm protoscolex that will develop into   00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:28.680 SCP-1003-1 as soon as it is ingested by another  creature. Making the cycle start all over again.   00:22:29.520 --> 00:22:33.480 If you want to track down a Tapeworm  Child, and I highly advise that you don’t,   00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:38.400 all you have to do is follow the trail of  nasty stomach infections, internal bleeding,   00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:44.100 and freak pregnancies amongst the outcasts of  society. It, unfortunately, will not take long. 00:22:44.100 --> 00:22:49.260 There are currently ten instances  of SCP-1003-2 in containment. The   00:22:49.260 --> 00:22:53.820 children live in Bio-Research Area 13  under strict supervision. Researchers   00:22:53.820 --> 00:22:57.660 are only permitted to enter their cells  whilst wearing full-body biohazard suits,   00:22:57.660 --> 00:23:01.500 but first must have Level 4 security  clearance, and must have written permission,   00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:06.900 and can only enter with specific research goals  agreed. All staff are regularly tested for the   00:23:06.900 --> 00:23:11.340 presence of any kind of tapeworms in their system.  No other animals are permitted in this facility. 00:23:12.300 --> 00:23:16.440 If you want to support Dr. Bob, while also  getting influence over the anomalies we cover   00:23:16.440 --> 00:23:20.880 and an exclusive look behind the scenes, check  out the Dr. Bob patreon and become a junior   00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:28.140 researcher today Now go and watch another entry,  such as “SCP-2119 Transmitting Parasite”, for more   00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:32.940 perilous parasites. And make sure you subscribe  and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a   00:23:32.940 --> 00:23:37.620 single anomaly, as we delve further and further  into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.