"Finish the brownies if you like, I need to check on something." Lloyd told Connor as he got up to leave. He opened the door and walked out, immediately greeted with three automatons and Frederick.

"Why the hell are you all out here?" Lloyd asked as he closed the door.

"You turned off the computer," Frederick replied. "I thought something happened."

""Yeah, you were listening in, that's what happened!" Lloyd answered, furious. "Disable it."

"It's for your safety." said Frederick.

"Does it look like I care?" Lloyd grabbed Frederick's shoulder. "Let's step outside, away from the automatons."

Frederick looked at the faceless machines for a second and nodded. "Fine."

Lloyd started to go to the secret door but Frederick pulled his arm, practically yanking him back.

"Whoa, why are you going to the waiting area?" he asked him. "Let's go to the cryochambers."

Frederick looked at Lloyd intensely and blinked twice with his right eye. Lloyd caught on quickly and followed him down the hall, leaving the automatons standing next to his door. Frederick raised his ID to the scanner and murmured quietly, "Are they still looking?"

Lloyd glanced back at the sleek dark figures standing down the hall, looking menacing without any effort.

"Yeah."

"They irk my goddamn soul. Get in."

They got into the elevator and waited till it closed before speaking.

"I want you to upload Miguel into local."

"I need the equipment for the, wait what?"

"Miguel. I didn't know what to do with him, after calling the guard, they told me to put him in the chamber, but not to upload him to digital. They wanted me to let him die for real."

"And you disagree?"

"Obviously. He went about it in a weird way, but he wanted the truth, and he clearly wasn't entirely wrong in his theory."

"So you're starting to believe they're doing suspicious crap and you still put a microphone in my room?" Lloyd questioned him.

"I was worried about your safety, that's why I gave you the gun." Frederick replied as the door opened.

The old man and a younger guy were in two chambers, while ten were not on standby, but fully active. Frederick led Lloyd over to the end of the second row on the right side. The last chamber was active but the water was dark and murky, almost too difficult to see who was inside.

"Oh my god..." Lloyd said in disgust. "Is that.."

"Miguel, yes. I had to put him here. The files show he has no next of kin, so nobody I could alert to his condition. The national guard is coming to get him and the other clients on Friday. I got them to hold off from taking the clients until then."

"Then what?" Lloyd asked him. "The world census is Saturday. After that, everybody is expected to be in digital, so who will bring the cryochambers back here?"

"The automatons." Frederick responded.

"And they also will deal with all of the stragglers that stayed, if they become disruptive. Do you think they'll actually bring them back here when you leave?"

Frederick tapped the glass on Miguel's chamber. "That's why I need him to find out. Promise me you'll upload him to local at the end of the day."

"Done. But right now I need the operator equipment to upload Connor. And the microphone needs to be disabled."

"Got it."

They quickly walked back to the elevator, eager to get away from the bodies. Miguel was dead completely, he could never return to his body. How would he feel knowing that when he wakes up in local?

"Lloyd." said Frederick as the elevator went up. "We've gotta be faster. If we aren't finished by Friday... we gotta step it up."
Lloyd nodded. "We got this."
The door opened and standing in front of them were two of the automatons from earlier. One's hand was still broken, so Lloyd easily recognized him.

"Got bored?" Frederick said with a small laugh, trying to hide how creepy this was.
"Go back to guarding the entrance, everything's fine here."
The one on the next nodded.
"I will alert you when everything is ready." She spoke as she marched off, James in tow.

"When what's ready?" Lloyd asked Frederick, who looked down at his watch.
"You'll see." He replied stiffly. "I'll send the table down with the equipment."

He patted Lloyd's shoulder and walked down the Operations hall. Lloyd walked back to his office, where Ben stood, as still as a statue.

"Everything alright?" Ben asked.

"So far." Lloyd replied as he pushed the door open. "The doctor and nurses are coming with an operating table. You see anyone other than them, stop them."

"No problem." said Ben.

Lloyd walked in and noticed Connor passed out on the couch, the last brownie had fallen on the floor. He went behind his desk and turned the monitors on. Connor snored softly in his sleep as Lloyd picked up the gun he left on the floor. He felt like he'd probably need the gun against the automatons than his own patients. He put it in a drawer as one monitor dinged.

Entrance Permitted: Staff

A doctor dressed in mostly black besides a white coat entered the room, followed by two nurses wearing dark black scrubs wheeling in a gurney. The gurney had multiple thick black straps on it, with a big metal briefcase hanging on the side. Carefully, the two nurses lifted Connor off the couch and onto the gurney,and then one took off his shirt as the other opened the case. He pulled out a portable heart monitor and began sticking the electrodes on Connor's chest. He turned on the monitor and it instantly began to emit a low and somewhat slow beeping noise.

"This is very interesting," said the doctor, whose ID on his hip said Meyer. "The privilege you have."

"What do you mean?" asked Lloyd, watching Connor's body intently as the nurses left the room.

"None of the other therapists requested this. Just you. It's bad enough you aren't even qualified."

"I'm professionally trained to handle this matter, and any others that arise should any of you decide to leave early. We all are." Lloyd replied, walking over to Connor's side and raising the upper half of the gurney.

"This won't continue forever. Especially not later on." Dr. Meyer replied, pulling two plastic bags from the case, one containing three vials and the other containing an iv bolus and two syringes.

"What do you mean?"

"We have a deadline. This is tedious and slow. We're going to have to ramp up the pace, and soon." Dr.Meyer checked the words on the vials before resting them back in the case.

"You know the order. Make it quick."

The monitor dinged and the nurses came in again, this time wheeling in a mobile computer stand with a vertical monitor. Attached to the computers were a bunch of wires connected to an EEG cap. One guy turned on the computer while the other put the cap on Connor's head.

"You thinking about doing the freezing process too?" said Dr. Meyer as he walked towards the door.

"No." Lloyd replied.

"Good. Don't." and he walked out the room, the nurses at his heels. Ben closed the door behind them, and Lloyd was virtually alone, except for Connor. The soft sound of the heart monitor seemed much louder now, compared to the stillness of the room. Lloyd looked at the delta waves on the monitor and sighed. It was time. He went to his desk and got a handful of sanitizers before slipping on gloves. Walking over to the case, he pulled out alcohol pads and a tourniquet, swabbing Connor's arm after tightening the tourniquet around it. Slowly but surely, Lloyd put the peripheral IV catheter in his arm, pausing half a second at a small twitch in Connor's cheekbone. It was nothing. Nothing. He couldn't feel anything right now. He was sleeping way too deeply. Lloyd shook off his jitters and continued, the rhythmic sound of Connor's heart monitor going a thousand times slower than the beat of his own.

He took the saline syringe and flushed the PIV line before grabbing the regular syringe and putting a new needle on its tip. He looked down at the three vials; sodium thiopental, vecuronium bromide, and finally, potassium chloride. The beeping heart monitor skips to a halt right before Lloyd cuts it off. The vertical monitor displays an EEG flat-line. Zero Brain Activity.

The implant had no more data to collect. Lloyd pulled off the EEG cap and heart monitor, placing them on the computer stand. Reaching into the back of the monitor, he pulled out a special black flash drive that was as long as a stick of gum and held it up to the left side of Connor's skull. After a few seconds a light on the end began to blink blue, showing that it had begun to transfer the files over. Once it stopped blinking he put it back into the monitor, and as he waited for it to pop up he felt like his heartbeat was banging in his eardrums. The screen now showed a black and white Manifest Digital logo against a red backdrop, with a big popup of Connor's smiling face appearing in the corner. Only two other icons were onscreen; a flag labeled New America, and a red folder labeled Repository.

Backup to Local Completed!

Lloyd clicked Connor's pop up and it showed all of his information, everything he had in the folder by page. Lloyd clicked through it all until he got to the last page, but at the bottom there was still a hyperlink saying 'show more'. Curious, he clicked it and a warning image popped up.

The following personal data should only be accessed with or on behalf of Connor Hatfield. Each individual has the right to privacy, which includes everything one would consider a part of them, such as their body, home, property, thoughts, feelings, secrets, and identity. This right gives them the ability to choose which parts of their life can be accessed by others and complete control of the manner, and timing of the use of those parts they choose to disclose to others.

He clicked continue and for a few seconds, nothing appeared. Then, slowly, links began to pop up. Memories. Family. Partners. Friends. Pets. Places. Failures. Successes. Guilt.

Lloyd clicked off the page before it continued. He wasn't even sure if it would continue after that, but he knew he would never click one of those links. He dragged the file over to New America and clicked 'move', then as soon as it disappeared he opened the repository and clicked on his file, making it reappear on the desktop. His mouse hovered over the file. Run Exercise(Virtual Reality Required.)

He grabbed his headset and turned it on, connecting it to the computer. After running his program Connor would be set back to a minute or two before he lost consciousness, whenever that was. Everything would most likely look normal to him, even if Lloyd didn't move correctly, or at least it was supposed to. He clicked run then stood by the door with the dark headset on as it generated a digital version of his office. He couldn't just pop up in front of him out of thin air, that would be stupid. Suddenly, the office appeared in full screen, with Connor on the couch and the gurney gone.

"Hey, I'm back." Lloyd said with enthusiasm, painting a small smile on his uncooperative face. He took a small step forward and a red warning started blinking in his face. OBSTACLE!! OBSTACLE!! OBSTACLE!!

Crap! He thought. I should've moved the gurney and computer stand out of the way.

"Well that was quick." Connor replied as He reached for another brownie. Lloyd moved forward, bumped into the computer stand, then moved out of its way and sat down without Connor noticing.

"Wait a second..." Connor spoke, staring at the brownie. "Didn't I...?"

"Yep," said Lloyd quietly. "You already ate that one. You are now in the digital world Connor. How does it feel?"

Connor stopped staring at the brownie and looked at Lloyd. "It... besides the deja vu, it feels too easy. Too sneaky. How did I fall... did you drug these fucking brownies?!"

"The clinic includes a small sedative solution to ensure a peaceful transfer-"

"Don't give me that shit! I knew I shouldn't have come here!" Connor snapped.

Another sign flashed on Lloyd's screen. PATIENT IRATE. PATIENT IRATE.

"Calm down, Connor." Lloyd advised.

"Shut that hell up!" Connor barked at him, now pacing the floor.

"Remember why you're here." Lloyd tried again.

"Kiss my ass!" he shouted. "This shit ain't safe, nothing's safe, You can't trust shit anymore. My brother's fucking gone. If this is how you join this digital crap what's the punishment when you break the rules? I bet he doesn't even exist anymore."

Just then, the door opened, in the digital world, not the real one. Bethany walked in, wearing the same white dress as earlier. She gave Connor a stunning, glowing smile and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug.

"It's okay." she whispered. "I know you're angry and scared. The process is confusing but once you step outside and see that blue sky, it'll all be worth it. Trust me." Connor's face was flushed, whether from anger or embarrassment, Lloyd wasn't sure.

She stopped embracing him and stepped back bit by bit, towards the door.

"I'm on my way now. Do you want to join me?" she called after him,lulling him to the door. He looked at her and then Lloyd, who was almost as confused as he was.

"I believe your brother is out there Connor. I know you'll find him.I have family in here too. If you find anything else, or just need to talk, you can always come back here."

Connor, now mostly composed, looked down at the floor for a second.

"I'm sorry I went off." Connor replied. "I guess, like my brother, you're just a cog in this machine too."

"Yeah," Lloyd smiled bitterly. "I don't know anyone that isn't."