How High We Go in the Dark

Content Warning: This section contains graphic descriptions of illness and bodily decomposition.

Aubrey discusses her work at a forensic body farm, where she studies how the Artic plague affects the body postmortem. In addition, she reflects on Laird, a man with the plague who has donated his body to science. The two of them listen to music while they wait to see if experimental drugs work to beat the virus. On one such night, her husband, Tatsu, texts her about ordering dinner, but she’s dismissive. Their marriage has struggled in the wake of the Artic plague, highlighting their differences, which Aubrey once loved. As an EMT, Tatsu sees a different version of the plague, straining their shared worldviews and motivations.

Aubrey visits with Laird and his sister, Orli, who doesn’t understand why Laird has chosen to donate his body. Laird and Aubrey first met when he asked to do a documentary about her work, wanting to understand his own mother’s death from the plague. Aubrey and Laird listen to music by bands arranged in alphabetical order. After he falls asleep, Aubrey invites Orli to her lab so that she can understand their procedures. At home, she and Tatsu have a brief conversation, but their jobs are increasingly controlling them and pulling them apart.

Aubrey takes Orli to the body farm, where corpses are examined during the decomposition process. Orli tells her that Laird requested that she write letters to him after he dies describing what’s being done to his body. Aubrey reflects on her friendship with Laird and how she was with him when he received his diagnosis. He spent time helping at the body farm before he grew too sick. Over the last year of their friendship, Aubrey has been lying to Tatsu about staying late at work, when often she was spending time with Laird.

Two weeks pass, and Laird goes off his medication. He, Aubrey, and Orli take a day trip to a state park. That night, Tatsu invites her out for drinks with his work friends, and she joins them, feeling guilty for not putting time into their relationship. Afterward, she goes to the hospital to visit Laird. She takes him outside, trying to get him to eat. He implies that he has romantic feelings for her as he muses about what he’ll miss, and she kisses him. Three days later, Orli comes to Aubrey’s lab with a box from Laird, saying that he has died. Aubrey is given the rest of the day off work and returns home, opening the box in private. Among other items, she finds a series of letters to be opened on specific days.

Laird’s memorial is small, but Aubrey is too conflicted to join the list of speakers. She reads another letter in the bathroom before Orli invites her back to her childhood home. There, Orli takes her to Laird’s room, where Aubrey finds printed articles and research studies about the plague. At work, Aubrey writes a letter to Laird explaining that his body is being used for plague research and in an exam for forensics students. Over the next two weeks, Tatsu tries to be supportive of her. Orli visits the laboratory the day before the forensic exam and goes to Laird’s grave. Aubrey writes another letter to Laird, describing her conflicted feelings. She stays late at work, arriving home to a frustrated Tatsu.

In Aubrey’s next letter to Laird, she describes both the biological decay events happening to him and her collapsing marriage. She almost meets Tatsu for dinner to have a conversation about their relationship but instead returns to the lab to continue studying Laird’s body.