# Character State: ch-17

## Marcus Thorne
**Location:** The Riverbank, Cypress Bend, FL.  
**Physical:** Shaking with moderate hypothermia; adrenaline fading into deep muscular ache; forearms raw from cypress bark.  
**Emotional:** Stripped of corporate detachment. The "logic" of the bridge has surpassed the logic of the code; he feels a terrifying, grounding connection to David.  
**Active Obligations:** Owes David for the literal air in his lungs; must ensure the timber span holds against the rising current.  
**Arc:** 95% — Marcus has moved from "saving" his own conscience to physically risking his life for another human. The transition from digital architect to analog builder is complete.

## David
**Location:** The Muddy Bank, Cypress Bend.  
**Physical:** Chest heaving; suspected cracked ribs from the prying timber; hands stained with river silt and Marcus’s grip.  
**Emotional:** Shaken into a new reality. The bridge is no longer a project; it is a pact. His skepticism of "the suit" has died in the water.  
**Active Obligations:** Owes Marcus his life; must get the group across before the County drones or the Great Hunger catches them.  
**Arc:** 90% — Recongnizes that survival isn't a solo endurance test but a collective structural integrity.

## Sarah Jenkins
**Location:** The Construction Edge, Cypress Bend.  
**Physical:** Mud to the knees; voice hoarse from screaming directions; hands steadying the guide ropes.  
**Emotional:** Steely. The panic for Leo has forged into a logistical fury. She is the bridge’s anchor, refusing to let the river take another soul.  
**Arc:** 80% — She has ceased being a "case study" in Marcus's guilt and has become the foreman of the survival effort.

## Elena
**Location:** The Workshop / Perimeter.  
**Physical:** Wired on caffeine and diesel fumes; hands gripping a heavy wrench.  
**Emotional:** Vindicated. She sees the near-tragedy at the river as the "break-in" period for the group's cohesion.  
**Arc:** 65% — Her "siege" mentality is widening to include the others as essential components.

## Julian Avery (Remote/Antagonist)
**Status:** Tracking the "vibration" of the track hoe.  
**Emotional:** Impatently clinical. To him, Marcus is a lagging process that needs to be killed to save the system's memory.

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# World State: ch-17

## The Environment (Cypress Bend)
- **The River:** Swollen and predatory. The water level is rising 2 inches per hour, threatening the low-set timber span.
- **The Bridge:** The main sleeper is set but traumatized. It is a "living" structure, groaning under the tension of the saturated wood.
- **Atmosphere:** Thick with the "Great Dark." The lack of municipal light makes the Florida scrub an impenetrable wall of black.

## Technical / Infrastructure
- **The Alpha-7 "Phone Home":** The sequence is pulsing in Marcus’s pocketed device—a digital flare he hasn't yet extinguished.
- **The Track Hoe:** Idling and hot. It is the only thing keeping the span from slipping back into the muck.
- **County Status:** Still "blind" to the Bend, but the algorithmic "noise" produced by the construction is beginning to trigger Avery-Quinn's proprietary anomaly sensors.

## Timeline
- **Lockdown Day 6:** The window for a "clean" exit is closing. The physical exhaustion of the builders is the primary threat to the Day 14 milestone.