EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY

[SCENE — MULTIPLE GAS STATIONS, CUT TOGETHER LIKE STATIC RADIO SEGMENTS] [sound design: overlapping intercoms, vending machines, rain, distant thunder stitched together] [Cashier A - tired] You hear it from the last place too? [Cashier B - static bleed] Yeah. Same story. Different voice. [VERSE 1: FEMALE LEAD] Every station got a version of it Different names but the same damn fit Exit 9 or Mile Marker Four Everybody’s heard it before Catnado Energy on the shelf Nobody trusts it, not even the self One can open, lights go thin Then the wind starts circling in [PRE-CHORUS: FEMALE LEAD] Truth don’t travel clean or straight It leaks through storms and broken gates [CHORUS: ALL] EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY Storm outside and the sky looks moody EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY Something big in the weather moving through me EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY Cats in the clouds, no authority Just rumor wrapped in catastrophe [VERSE 2: FORKLIFT OPERATOR] Truck stop west of County Line Said he saw it one more time Same black shape, same glowing eyes Same silence right before it flies Said the radio all cut out When the storm started circling the route And every place he ever went Had the same exact incident [PRE-CHORUS: AI + FEMALE LEAD] [AI - fragmented] DATA CONSISTENCY HIGH [FEMALE LEAD] That don’t sound like a lie [AI] THAT SOUNDS LIKE SYNCHRONIZATION [CHORUS: ALL] EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY Wind got teeth and it moves toward me EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY Cats in the sky but no warning authority EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY And the storm keeps rewriting history In real time [BRIDGE] [sound cue: overlapping radio stations bleeding into each other] [Voice 1 - faint] It landed on the roof— [Voice 2 - overlapping] —no it didn’t, it looked at me— [Voice 3 - static] —don’t open the cans— [pause] [sound cue: all voices cut at once] [FINAL CHORUS: ALL] EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY Same storm, same claws, same worry EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY And nobody gets a jury EVERY GAS STATION HAS THE SAME STORY So if you hear it, don’t ignore it It’s already here before you notice [OUTRO] [sound cue: vending machine hum fading into storm purring] [Cashier A - whisper] So… which version is true? [pause] [Cashier B] All of them. That’s the problem. [sound cue: distant synchronized meows under wind]