"Don't play with me Frederick."

"I'm not joking," Frederick insisted. "I know you got people in there. I got people too. Remember, every locale is a construct, a bridge we use to safely send people out into the digital world, but also to protect the people within digital from people who can't handle it. If they don't adjust after they walk out your office door, their ejected back into local. There can't be any panic, any discord-"

"Get to the point."

"My point is every locale is a fixed point in the internet, but the digital world isn't. It's everywhere. And the same way the system allows us to manifest ourselves digitally for our clients in local, we can do in the digital world, if we can manage to break through the firewall."

They finally stopped walking at the room labeled 21. Ben was standing in the corner of the room while a male nurse attended to Peter. There was no one else inside.

"Where's a doctor?" Lloyd demanded.

"Busy. They're all busy. Uploading the clients all at once. Peter will be more than fine, and he will be compensated."

"You're damn right he will. And he won't come in tomorrow."

"Lloyd you are in no position to be making demands." Frederick said sternly. "You don't want part of this. You want to leave, but you can't because you believe there's a chance you could see your family again, even if its one last time. I can give you that, if you just stick with the program!"

Lloyd bit his lip and looked at the operating rooms.

"These people,"

"Lloyd."

"Their lives matter."

"I know, Lloyd."

"You can't treat them like this."

"How else am I supposed to do it?" Frederick argued. "You're too empathetic and it... it takes too damn long. There are at least a thousand people left in this city that need to join the digital world. If they aren't in there by the new year, I have a problem. If they aren't in there by the census, we're fucked, do you hear me?!"

Lloyd stared silently for a few seconds before responded.

"What's going to happen if we fail?"

The door opened and Ben came outside.

"Go back to the break room, or your office, and wait for more instructions. They'll be done soon."

"Connor's still in my office."

"Well go to the break room and stay there. Just give us ten minutes, please."

Ben nudged Lloyd's shoulder. "We should go."

They walked past Frederick and continued down the hall. Lloyd looked back once and saw Frederick staring into one of the rooms.

"He's been looking extremely nervous lately." Ben spoke in a hushed voice. "I think his hands are tied."

"By who though?" Lloyd asked.

"I can think of a few things." Ben replied as they came to the main clearing. To their right the other automatons stood together at the end of the hall, possibly saying something. When they noticed Ben and Lloyd they turned around and assumed a guarding stance, like there was still a reason for them to guard the door. Lloyd and Ben continued to the break room, where Will was sleeping, Marcy was reading a magazine, and Arthur was still eating food.

"Find anything out?" asked Marcy without looking up.

Lloyd sat on the couch next to Arthur while Ben walked over to the counter.

"Frederick's gassing the clients with carbon monoxide. He's knocking them all out to put them in the system at the same time."

"Hm." Marcy responded nonchalantly. She said nothing else, and neither did Arthur.

"Y'all aren't upset by this?"

"Upset?" Arthur scoffed. "I had a bet with Will that he'd probably mow them down with a gun. I'm glad he's asleep right now."

Lloyd looked over at Ben who had inexplicably prepared a plate of food. He even poured himself a drink, and when he finished he stood there quietly, staring from the plate to his hands.

"Ben," Lloyd called out to him. "You okay?"

Instead of responding he picked up a chip, scooped up some spinach dip, and raised it to his face.

"Ben you know you don't have mouth, right?" Lloyd chuckled nervously.

The chip hit his smooth, metallic head and broke, hitting first his shirt before dropping to the floor. He stared at his hands and flexed them slowly, reaching up to touch his face before immediately jerking away.

"They made us capable of feeling in these suits...but won't let us eat." Ben muttered. "Won't let us taste. Do I, do I eat at home?" he asked aloud.

Marcy, Arthur and Lloyd stared at him.

"I don't know." Lloyd answered cautiously. "Do you?"

Ben seemed to snap back into focus, and his dark, faceless head turned to the others.

"I'm going to step outside for a bit." he said quietly as he swiftly walked out of the room.

Marcy breathed a sigh of relief. "Shit I thought we were dead."

Arthur laughed, "Me too. We need to start keeping all of them in the hallways."

Lloyd said nothing, thinking about what Frederick had told them the other day. If they lose their sense of self they could malfunction. But in what way? Ben seemed like a nice guy, Lloyd couldn't picture him attacking them. Would they collapse? Lose control? Explode?

"All Transfer Therapists are needed to return to their rooms and retrieve their virtual reality headsets before proceeding to the Waiting Room. The area has been sufficiently cleaned and is free of any toxic substances."

Arthur and Lloyd looked up at the intercom as if Frederick was floating above them.

"Do you believe him?" Arthur asked Lloyd.

"I'm glad I don't have to," Marcy gloated. She gave Will a slight kick to wake him up and scooted past him.

"What does she do?"

"Something with the servers, I don't know. She and Beth are both listed as 'Other' but Beth acts like an assistant, and Marcy acts like she owns the place."

"Whatever, Arthur. Let's get this done." Lloyd helped Will off his feet and together the three walked out of the break room. Back on their hallway, the automatons were gone and the far wall was illuminated again, subtly showing how empty the break room was. The three men split and walked into their separate offices, with Lloyd being extremely grateful that Connor's body was finally gone. He grabbed the headset and walked out the door. Will came out almost at the same time as he did and Arthur was already standing at his door, waiting on them. The automatons stood against the wall and as they walked past them, still seemingly as lifeless as mannequins in a store, but they knew better.

They entered the room and noticed the screening door was open, with steam quickly filling up the area. Frederick was leaning against the counter of the receptionist's desk, and a woman was standing in Peter's spot  with a laptop, preparing the scene.

"Where do we stand?" asked Will.

"Just line up on that wall."  Frederick replied, halfheartedly gesturing to where they were already standing. They spaced themselves out as the automatons passed through the room, leaving through the decontamination chamber.

"Ready when you are." said the girl behind the desk.

"Headsets on everyone. It's just like how you do it in your office, only now you're explaining to multiple people at once what happened." Frederick told them.

Red lights lit up behind the dark glass on the ceiling and floor as they fastened the headsets on. Lloyd paused to look the others.

"What do we tell them?" Lloyd asked. "There's no way in hell they'll like the truth."

"Improvise. Embellish. Lie. The digital world looks goddamn magical, as soon as we get them out the door they'll forget about it. Lead them outside."

"Shouldn't we walk in as the construct starts? Otherwise we'd pop up in front of their faces like magic." Lloyd stared at Frederick, who closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.
"Doesn't matter now. Let Will do most of the talking. Headsets on."

Lloyd caught Will's devilish smile before slipping his headset on. This wasn't going to go down easy.
They had a few moments of darkness before the headsets turned on, the Manifest Digital logo fading in and out as a progress bar loaded. The scene abruptly came into view, with all the chairs set up properly. Seconds later the clients appeared in their seats, all slumped over in various positions.

"Running in five, four, three, two..." The ladies voice came to a stop and the clients all snapped awake, groggily sitting up properly. A coupled flinched at the sight of the therapists standing in front of them, but most just looked on in confusion.

"Good morning everyone!" Will began with fake enthusiasm. "My name is Will Brown, this is Dr. Arthur Newsome and Dr. Lloyd Hall. Unfortunately, we've had a little hiccup today."

"What's going on?" asked what client.

"What kind of accident?" asked another.

"We had another attack," he began.

"Attack?! What happened?!"

"So this.. this is.."

"This is the new world, yes." Arthur interceded, trying to calm them down. "Your physical bodies are fine, completely unharmed. And you are safe here."

"What happened, exactly?" An older man inquired.

Arthur swallowed. "Well-"

"There was a gas leak." said Will. "We heard shooting at the front entrance and when we came to the waiting room, you all were unconscious, but unharmed."

"I don't like this," said one woman. "I've changed my mind. I want to go home."

"And you can," Will replied irritably. "Right through that door."

"No, I want to go to my real house, away from all this crap!" the woman snapped.

"I never trusted this anyways." the old guy grumbled pinching his arm. "It feels real... but it ain't. And I know it ain't. I wanna be back in my real body, with that garbage ass air outside."

Lloyd looked over at Arthur and Will. Arthur looked like he'd been caught in a lie; Will looked like he wanted to hit someone else's kid.

"We are not permitted to put clients back in their bodies at this time. The world is entirely too toxic-"

"Because of rotten ass hats like you living in it." The old man spat at Will.

"Do you have a problem with me sir?" Will sneered at him. "Because you can't do shit now."

The man jumped up and lunged at Will, who smugly smiled at him. Some of the other clients got up to hold him back but he fell completely through Will, making no contact at all. Will laughed and turned towards the desk, where no one, neither Peter nor the woman from earlier was sitting.

"Black him out Fred, he ain't ready." said Will.

The clients turned and looked at the corner in confusion, then suddenly the old man vanished.

"Where did he go?!" one woman asked in horror.

"He couldn't handle it, so we had to black him out for a while. Can't allow him to destabilize the community in the new world, so we let him rest and calm down for a while."

"Calm down where?" one client asked.

"Want to find out?" Will replied bluntly.

The guy shook his head no. Arthur raised his hand, stopping Will from saying something else.

"I think that's enough for today. If everyone is ready, i would like to ask that you stand and form a single file line towards the door. The moment you leave these walls you will be greeted with the beauty and glamour that is the new world. Your homes will be just as you left them, but your future is forever, and life is what you make of it. Should you ever experience problems adjusting or need someone to talk to, we will be at your service."

Judging by their glances at the end of Arthur's statement, Lloyd didn't think they would be coming back here for help. The door opened and the decontamination area was disabled because no contaminants existed. The front door passed that small area was also open, but from their view all they saw was a bright white light with nothing beyond it. As the last person left, the construct ended and everyone took off their headsets. Frederick was still there, solemnly nodding to them as he looked at his phone.

"Good job everyone. We'll keep modifying our approach to get our clients in digital the safest, and nicest way possible." He looked at Will as he ended the sentence.

"We're done for today."