"You have to go, right? Has he given you a reason not to trust him before?" Bethany asked him.

Lloyd suddenly pictured Peter unconscious, and them lying to a group of patients about a gas leak. Lloyd clicked his tongue and sucked in a breath.

"That's a little... Complicated." He said dryly.

"It could be a trap, you know." Phoebe suspected. "Now that he thinks you've completed your mission, he could be trying to take you out too."

"Frederick isn't like that." Bethany responded. "Right, Lloyd?"
He sat down next to her and slid the laptop over.

"I wouldn't know. You tell me. Somehow, there's a digital model of you in local. Or in the black box, I'm not really sure. And it's just a model, it doesn't have your personality... you're..."

Lloyd refrained from saying the word soul as he booted up Miguel. For this simulation he created a swanky five star hotel in Paris, qeued up room service for ten minutes from now, which would auto generate whatever Miguel's favorite food was.

"It just wasn't you." He said finally as he hit Run Exercise.

"Oh. That. It was either me or Marcy. Frederick needed a friendly face model for local, kind of like a live in concierge for the people who get too stressed out. We were both hesitant, but when he offered a bonus and glimpses at some of the new tech, I couldn't turn it down. I figured during the new year I'd gather our group and raid the facility, taking all the new tech he showed me. That's how I learned about the vizors."

The concierge had your looks, but it didn't speak.

"I haven't recorded the voice lines yet. For some mysterious reason, bad things keep happening that shut us down early." She hinted with faux concern.

"Yeah well, it is the end isn't it?" Lloyd smiled at her while calling Miguel from his phone.

"I don't need the black box for this. I'll contact them separately. You can watch them on my laptop, if you want."

"What if he gets naked?" Phoebe giggled. Bethany playfully shoved her, though she was smiling too.

"Automatic privacy feature. The screen would just blur." Lloyd responded, putting the phone up to his ear. He pressed F5 and the simulation went full screen. Miguel emerged from the bathroom, first looking puzzled, then excited. The hotel phone rang and he walked over to it as Lloyd pushed the mute button.

"Shhh." He told them. "Don't be weird. Hey Miguel, what's up? It's time my guy. I need you to join asap."

"I feel like time hasn't passed at all. Like I closed my eyes for a second and woke up in a bathroom. Why would you give me this nice ass hotel and immediately tell me to leave?!" Miguel complained.

"You have an hour. Room service will be there any minute, and I'll leave the sim running so you can go back here any time you like." Lloyd persuaded.

"Now that, I like. You're a good guy man. And this view!" Miguel exclaimed, walking over to the windows. "It's absolutely gorgeous. I can't imagine how shitty it looks out there now. I bet half these buildings are rusted as shit."

Lloyd's smile faded. "They probably are."

"So what did you cook up for me? Or do I have to call or something?"

"This time, you don't have to call, but if I'm not around, the sim will act like an actual hotel and generate someone to answer your request. As for what you're about to eat, just imagine your favorites and they'll appear. I have to tell the others, so I'm gonna go, alright?"

"See you later." Miguel answered. "Maybe in person next time."

Lloyd minimized the screen and selected Phoebe Deux.

"Ooh, Ooh!" Phoebe chirped.

"Let me do this one. A nice art gallery in LA, with a figure drawing class taking place. One big muscular guy in the buff, while women sit in a circle drawing him and testing wine. And I want to be the one to tell her too." She declared as she grabbed his phone again.

He typed out her request and hit Run Exercise.

"You certainly have an interesting taste." Lloyd chimed. Bethany had a mischievous grin on her face.

"Lemme just scoot this over here so I can get a better view." Bethany moved the laptop over to her and Phoebe, while Lloyd yawned and looked at his bottle of vodka.

It's too late for this. I need a clear head. To be honest, I probably should've stopped long ago. It might've made the last few months a lot easier.

"Hello, hey girl, it's me, old Phoebe. No I know I'm not old old, we're the same age, but y'know right? So yeah, the reason I called was- you love it? Yeah no shit, I know you girl!" Phoebe started laughing.

Lloyd tried to wait patiently for her to get to the point. He looked at his watch. 2:12am. In the last twenty four hours, they had been through alot. And the worst was yet to come.

"I wish I could taste it right now. YES I'm talking about the wine!"

Lloyd coughed on purpose, Bethany was holding back a laugh while watching the feed.

"Ok I gotta make this quick. You have one hour to draw that hunk of meat the best way you can, but then you have to join the real digital world and sign up for the automaton program. Once in, let us know and we'll give you coordinates. Bethany's helping us now, just like she said she would. Oh and we'll leave your sim open so you can return and do whatever you want, at any time. Sound good. That's good. Okay. Bye."

She hung up and handed the phone back to Lloyd, who had an exasperated look on his face.

"Sorry." She lied half-heartedly, still cheesing from the convo with herself.

Lloyd ignored her apology.
"Connor's the last one, but he's already in the program. We don't need to summon him, but I need to sleep. I'll go to work later today, maybe noon, with Ben as my backup, I should be fine."

"I should get back to Tony and the girls, now that we know it works. And I'll ask him if he thinks he can reprogram an automation. He's humble, but he's actually a bit of a genius, I'm sure he can." Bethany added as she got to her feet.

"I'll sleep too, right here on the couch." Phoebe mumbled, fixated on the screen.

"You can take a bedroom if you want." Lloyd suggested.

"No I'm good, the laptops all hooked up here." She answered.

Lloyd wondered what other fantasy she might use the black box for, but he had no energy to scold her.

"Goodnight everyone. See you in the morning."

************

Nine hours later, Lloyd woke up from the best sleep he had in a very long time. He groggily made his way to the living room, where Phoebe was sleeping with Eric's fuzzy orange blanket draped over her. The midday sun was diminished by a dense toxic fog, creating an ever so slight orange glow that barely illuminated the room.
He lightly tapped her shoulder, and she groaned without opening her eyes.

"I'm about to go pick up the gift. You could keep resting if you want, this should be quick."

Phoebe rubbed her eyes and yawned.

"Don't go yet, Bethany brought these while you were sleeping."

Pulling out two little silver cases, she handed one to Lloyd. There were two buttons on the side and two indicator lights above each one. He opened it, seeing two earbuds inside.

"Tony apparently turned these earbuds into walkie talkies. They use a private channel so no one can hear our conversations. She said it's like a secret ham radio. You might want to put the case in your shirt pocket though, to make sure the connection is as clear as possible."

Lloyd put them in his ears before putting on his mask. His phone beeped; the car had arrived.

"Time to go."

The air outside was hot and thick, and even with his mask, the smell of putrid rotten eggs seeped through. He quickly entered the car and called up Ben.

"Need my help again?" Ben inquired.

"Security, as usual." Lloyd told him. "I'm going into work today."

"Are you insane?"

"Frederick actually told me to go in." He replied, watching three automatons walking in unison, down the street. One turned its head to look at his car, but the rest of its body kept in step with the other two soldiers.

"What's up with these patrols?" Lloyd asked Ben.

"They're deploying more units in this city. Not all of them are manually operated though, because of raids. When an automaton gets destroyed, the person inside actually feels like they're dying. It's been... traumatic for quite a few people, so I've heard."

"We've made progress." Lloyd said carefully. "My friends and I."

Ben didn't fully understand, but he knew Lloyd couldn't say much to him.

"That's good. Tomorrow night's the new year. The hard parts almost over."

The hard part hasn't even begun. Lloyd thought. The factory might be our biggest obstacle yet.

The car slowed to a stop right in front of the Manifest Digital building. Today there was no line, but a group of people were huddled together down the street. As Lloyd got out of the car, they started walking in his direction.

"Let me know when you arrive. I have to go." Lloyd hung up abruptly and quickly tapped a button on the case.

"Phoebe? Beth?"

"What's up?" said Phoebe.

"I'm here." Bethany replied.

"I am too." Tony chimed. "Stealing an automaton is fucking crazy. And I've been working all night on something to help us pull it off."

Lloyd thought of the robot hand he controlled at the party and imagined it attached to a pickup truck, holding an assault rifle and shooting the robots.

"I hope it isn't destructive." Lloyd told him as he walked to the door. Looking back, The group was still walking towards him.

"Do y'all know anything about a group of people loitering near the facility? They saw me and started walking over."

"Hmm. Can't be one of ours, nobody here is that stupid." Tony pondered. "We'll send some people over, try to talk them out of getting killed."

Relieved, Lloyd opened the door to the decontamination area, only to be pushed back by an automaton, crouching low to get through.

"Excuse me." said James. "I have to defuse some more idiots."

Lloyd recognized his voice and looked at his hands. They were completely fine. The square white light started blinking in the small area.
"Please stand still with your feet on the marked area." said the voice. Lloyd didn't move out of James' way, examining him intently.

"You're James, right? Do you remember me?"

James stopped moving. "I've been told not to speak about that. It's not good for mental stability."

"So you are James." Lloyd confirmed. "Is that a new unit, or did they replace your arm?"

"New. That unit was destroyed. And like I said, I can't speak-"

"I know, I know." Lloyd cut him off. "But, you heard that guy back then. You hesitated. If you have any doubts about your position, if you have any decency as a human being, try not to hurt those people. Someone's coming by to stop them."

James moved past Lloyd to look at the group, only about fifteen feet away.

"How do you know that?" James asked.

But Lloyd had already walked through the decontamination area, pushing the blue button on the wall that said Stop Cleanse.

Four clients were sitting in the lobby, and Peter's face dropped when he saw Lloyd enter.

"Psst! Hey!" He whispered, ushering Lloyd over.

"Frederick told me to divvy up your clients between the others. We all thought you got fired. What are you doing here?"

Lloyd looked at the patients, some looked sleepy, others looked bored.

"I left something in my office, I'll just be in and out."

"So you did get fired!" He gasped. "I hope they catch that chick, that wasn't your fault."

"I hope they don't." Lloyd told him. "Remember what happened earlier this week?"

"You mean when you left early covered in blood? I'm still trying to forget." Peter reached under his desk and pulled out a fob.

"I'll tell him you came."

"Thanks, Pete."

Lloyd walked through the doors, into the open hallway. As usual, it was empty, but he could see the elevator at the end of the hallway beginning to open. He hastily put his fob near the touchpad and quickly went inside. Nearly everything was as he left it, even the gurney was still there. A silver package with a note taped to it laid on his desk.
He took off the note and put the package up to his ear. He heard no sound.

"Are you done yet?" Phoebe asked in his ear. Lloyd jumped and looked at the door as if someone had entered.

"I just got the package." Refusing to reveal she jumpscared him. "It came with a note."

Lloyd opened it, and inside was only a single sentence.

"To see your family again." He whispered.

Lloyd opened the package and inside was a pair of navy blue sunglasses, a long flashdrive like the one that was currently stuck in Lloyd's computer, and a charging cord. He looked on the inside of the frame, which was a sleek black glass. The lenses looked red from the light, but after pushing a button on the side, they looked completely clear on the back lenses.

"What is it?" asked Tony. Lloyd almost forgot he was listening in.

"It's what Bethany told us about." Lloyd stated, allowing her to explain it to him better later.

"It's just a vizor."

"Are you gonna put them on now?" Phoebe asked. "Is it even charged up?"

"Lloyd we have a situation!" Bethany shouted in his ear drum.

"Stop it! You idiots! NO!"

Lloyd heard multiple shots of gunfire, both through his earbuds, and in the building.

Fuck. He thought, sliding the note and glasses into his pocket. Inevitable as it was, this couldn't have happened at a worse time.

Lloyd opened his door and sprinted forward, only to be knocked over by one of three automatons bolting down the hallway.

"Watch out!" A female automaton snapped as she kept running past him. The other two made simply jumped over him, all heading towards the front door.

"It's Lloyd!" Marcy called out from behind him.

She bent down to help him up, grabbing his left arm. He gasped out in pain and she quickly let go.

"I'm sorry!" She apologized. "His arm is dislocated. Arthur? Will?"

Both men helped Lloyd get to his feet, his left arm dangling lifelessly.

"I got it. On the count of three, Lloyd. One-"

Will shoved it back in extremely fast, with a sickening crack.

"OW!" Lloyd screamed. He rubbed his shoulder gingerly, rotating it slowly.

"Thanks." He said bitterly.

"Let's go." said Will. "Sounds like shit just got bad."

They ran through the waiting room, Peter was not at his desk. Going through decontamination, they went outside, completely forgetting their masks.

"Stop! STOP!" Bethany screamed, covered in blood.

Seven bodies were scattered in street, some faces smashed, others with limbs ripped off,  and strewn about. There were multiple guns in puddles of blood, one of which was a rifle. One automaton riddled with bullet holes was still clutching a human by the throat. It's own face had been blown almost completely off, it's head and chest leaking oil and smoke. It's grip, so strong and tight, completely severed the human's head from its body, it's face stricken with pain and shock as its body dropped to the ground.

The other automatons stood over the bodies, their hands feet and chest covered in the blood of their victims. Arthur and Lloyd started coughing, gagging from the smoke. Will and Marcy both vomited. Bethany had her hands up, she was bloody and trembling, but unharmed. She pulled off her mask, showing her face to the machines.

"I work here! I work here! Scan me." She pleaded.

One walked up to her, while another walked up to the damaged one and touched their finger to it's back. A red light scanned Bethany while the damaged one changed its posture.

"Deactivating defense mode." said the damaged bot. It dropped the head, it's hands trembling. It looked at all the bodies on the ground, and then at the others until it rested on Lloyd.

"I...I tried." James voice quivered. "I warned then, they didn't listen. I didn't even touch them before... before.... AHHHHH!" James buried his broken face in his hands. Seconds later, his body dropped to the ground, lifeless.

"There goes another one." said the voice that scanned Bethany. She was the same one that dislocated Lloyd's shoulder.

"Bet he ain't coming back."

She looked back at the remaining humans, who were had burning tears streaming their faces, still in shock.

"What are you for? Go back inside."

Will began to walk away from the building, putting on his mask and pulling out his phone. Marcy, Lloyd, Peter, Arthur all began to do the same."

"Where are you going?" The female automaton demanded.

"Home." Peter answered, stopping to look at them. Bethany was slowly walking towards the building, looking down to carefully walk around the bodies.

"We quit."