Back at the hideout, they had the guys standing guard assist with getting Tony to his medical room, opting to take the long way around so Lucy didn't have to see his brother. While the guards reorganized his medical room, Bethany went around the warehouse, asking if anyone worked in a hospital before. Lloyd and Phoebe stayed by Tony's side until she re-entered with a former emt. The woman quickly washed her hands, putting on gloves and examining his wound.

"Thankfully, neither the wounds at the back or front of his head will require surgery. You said he got hit by a what? I couldn't hear you over the noise in there."

"An automaton." Bethany explained, her eyes red and watery. "It deactivated and fell on him."

The lady looked at her in disbelief. "How the hell did that happen?"

"He made a machine that can deactivate them." Phoebe answered, moving out of the way of a guard carrying Bethany's bloody shirt. He tried to throw it in a trash bin but Beth snapped her fingers.

"Chris, that's a biohazard, it doesn't go in the normal trash can. He has a bin for it over there."

"Sorry," Chris replied, turning around to dispose of it properly. Phoebe moved out of his way again, and then he bumped into the other guard still moving tables.

"There's too many people in here. Can you all-"

"Sure." Lloyd said quickly. "Phoebe, Beth, let's go."

They moved out the door, with Beth being the last to leave. She turned back to look at the guards before closing.

"I need one of you to stand outside and make sure Lucy doesn't come in. Tell him to go play on the trampoline, that will distract him for a while."

Outside, it had begun to rain, making it a bit easier for Lloyd to breathe. Lloyd looked at Beth, and Phoebe, their clothes stained with blood. Bethany tried to rub it off but Phoebe stopped her.

"He'll be fine. Do you guys have showers nearby? If not, we can go back to Lloyd's place."

"We have showers, but it's past the medical room. And it's not important right now. Phoebe, Lloyd, I have a confession to make, and I need to tell it to everyone."

Lloyd watched her walked past him, towards the rave. Phoebe looked at him expectantly.

"What do you think she's going to say?" She asked him.

"I don't know, and I'm not sure if I want to." Lloyd replied as they followed her back to the building.

Is she going to lead the automatons here? Lloyd thought. Was she just a spy this whole time?

Maybe Tony's injury made her give up. Seeing someone she cared about get hurt might've made her switch sides. But what danger has she put us in?

They followed her into the warehouse as she stopped by the tattoo line. Today, a goth looking lady with red hair was tattooing a goat on the forearm of the big guy they met before.

"Stop." She demanded. "I have something to tell everyone.

Everyone looked at her bloody clothes and followed her, whispering in each other's ears about her clothes and what she was going to say. Lloyd and Phoebe hung back as she slowly began to gather her crowd of acolytes. The guard next to Lucero noticed the commotion while she walked over to him, stopping the music. He turned on a microphone and threw it into the air, giving her time to catch it while he stopped the mobile purifiers from moving.

"There's alot of you all, so I'm going to need someone to do a headcount." She stated, causing a few extremely eager people to start running around, tapping people as they counted.

"There's so many of you now. I doubt most of y'all can see me, but you've definitely heard my voice before. I'm Bean."

The big guy getting a tattoo brought a three crates for her to stand on. Lloyd and Phoebe weren't close enough to see her anymore either, until the big dude picked her up and put her on top of them. She wobbled a little, but he kept his hands up to catch her.

"Thanks, Chili." She laughed nervously. "Don't let me fall."

Chili? Lloyd thought. Beans and Chili. Does everybody have a stupid codename?

"I got you!" Chili's deep voice boomed. "We ALL got you!"

The crowd roared in agreement, chanting Bean repeatedly.

"This is like a fever dream, except were the only ones that's not high." said Phoebe.

"Remind me to ask Tony if his code name has chicken wings." Lloyd replied.

Phoebe laughed and Lloyd felt better. They were getting closer to the truth, he was sure of it. He didn't expect to feel happy at all this week, but sometimes the smallest things can bring people joy. Bethany raised her hand to quiet down the crowd, while a few people continued to keep counting.

"As you know, because I recruited most of you, I don't like the digital world. A fictional land with made up rules, enforced by the government. While our bodies lay stiff and lifeless, living in a world that restricted, even though it's capable of so much more, is terrifying. I have been holding in a secret, until the time was right, until I had enough information. And now I do."

Confusion and chatter filled the room. Lloyd felt something tug on his jacket and looked down to see Lucero, holding two cups.

"This is actual juice. No nasty stuff." He said passing them the cups.

They thanked the little kid and he pushed his way back through the crowd, going back to the table.

"With the way it's been coding the digital world is everything this world is, before the pollution overtook the planet. Everything has been perfectly replicated, even the people. Once inside, you are nothing but code. Code that the government can manipulate as it pleases. I know enough now that the automatons being built, the purifier, all of it is a bluff, even if it works. Every automaton switches off from the human in the digital world when it attacks. They don't need us in them, so why put people in them?"

She looked around as if she expected an answering, but it only conjured confusing looks and questions from the crowd.

"To reassure us, on the inside and out, that they actually care about the planet. But they don't. They're planning to leave."

What? No rocket can get into space now. Lloyd was sure they didn't have tech advanced enough to colonize another planet either.

"On midnight tomorrow, everyone in the digital world, in each domicile, in each country, is going to have their minds wiped. They will have no memory of being outside of the system, of the pollution, the automatons. They'll simply go on living as if none of this happened."

Multiple gasps came from the crowd. Lloyd could hear random people saying that's bullshit, others were saying she's going crazy, but Bethany looked deadly serious.

"I would not have gathered this many people, I would not have tried to save this many people, if I was lying. There is more to this than even I know. Which is why we have to protect us. The real us. We have to free people from the cryogenic chambers. Because we don't know what their next move is. Tomorrow, at midnight, we fight them head on at a cryochamber facility, freeing as many as we can. If you're with me, say aye."

"AYE!" The crowd roared. "AYE AYE AYE!!!! AYE AYE AYE!!!"

Lloyd looked at the ring on his finger, his heart pounding in his chest.

They'll forget this world? His head was spinning. Would they forget me?

Lloyd had no way of getting to their real bodies, he didn't even know what facility they would have chosen. Their real bodies were possibly cut off from him, forever. Phoebe tried to comfort him but he pulled away, pushing through the crowd to get to Bethany.

"Turn the music back on, and lower your voices, there's more robots walking around out there now." Bethany bent down and Chili helped her off his crate pedestal.

"Beth!" Lloyd shouted. "Bethany!" She turned around, the smile of confidence replaced by sadness. Chili stepped in front of her but she nudged him aside.

"He's not going to hurt me, it's fine."

"Are you serious? Are you sure?" Lloyd demanded. "One of Frederick's secrets isn't it? Why didn't he tell me? Are you a key member too?"

Bethany was taken aback. "I don't know what that is. But yes, he told me that Wednesday. I know it seems like I have a direct pipeline to him, but I don't, at least, not as much as you do. He hasn't texted me at all, about anything. He told you were the cryochambers were located, not me."

Lloyd remembered what Frederick had said about putting Miguel in after the new year. This was the reason, so his memories wouldn't get wiped, so he would know that world is fake. "Why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Phoebe asked, appearing at Lloyd's side.

"Before knowing what we know now, what would it have accomplished? Before we knew how to disrupt the locators, before we knew how to disable the automatons. I wasn't even sure if Lloyd could be trusted until you showed up with him, and now we have a black box!" Bethany explained.

"I've lost my older sister, my parents, my cousins, way before they even started putting people in digital. I wasn't saving people to start some type of revolution. I was saving people so I didn't have to be alone." Bethany confessed. She was about to wipe tears from her eyes until she noticed her hands covered in blood.

Phoebe did it for her and embraced her as she cried. Lloyd was too stunned to speak.

Three people with extremely dilated pupils walked over to them.

"Bean, I counted seventy two people." said one short guy.

"The fuck? I counted seventy four."

"I counted seventy seven, y'all are both wrong said the last.

"Are you sure you didn't count the robots, you idiot?"

"Enough." said Bethany, letting go of Phoebe.

"New plan, make a list of everyone. Whichever one of you has the best handwriting, go for it."

Bethany led Lloyd and Phoebe away as the three counters began to argue over who has the best handwriting.

"They'll figure it out eventually. For now, let's clean up and get ready. We have another warehouse to visit."

***********

An hour later, everyone was cleaned up and new clothes. Tony had a secret door at the back of his medical room that led to a larger part of the second warehouse, where multiple vehicles, weapons, clothes and food were stored in separate sections. The showering area was partitioned away at the back, but they had multiple shower sprinklers set up, each with their own drain and privacy curtains. More importantly, the water was hot, so neither Lloyd nor Phoebe had any complaints. Bethany, who's clothes were the bloodiest, took her shower first.

After Lloyd was done he found Phoebe and Beth lying on top of a sparkly purple car in opposite directions. Music played from a speaker while they looked at stars projected on a white tarp overhead.

"The other me in the digital world, she was able to make anything she wanted, go anywhere she wanted." Lloyd heard Phoebe as he approached.

"What does the government gain by limiting what could be a potential paradise?"

"Control." Bethany responded. "There are so many religions in the world, religions that have talked end of days for centuries. How could they convince the population to go along with it otherwise? They reached out to the church's, mosques, and synagogues. Dissuaded people from talking about the mark of the beast. In the end, religious leaders bowed. Major companies bowed. And the government presented the digital world as humanity's only hope."

Lloyd tapped Phoebe's leg.

"Y'all ready?" He asked as she paused the music. Bethany slid down and disconnected a cord from the car's charging port.

"Ready. This car has a built in faraday cage, it won't malfunction due to Tony's EMP machine. It's Chili's car, but Tony had him make some improvements after our last mission. Also, Tony's awake and doing better. "

"That's good. He's too smart to lose. We're going to be more careful this time, okay?"

Phoebe nodded while Bethany walked over to a wall and pressed a button. The garage door in front of the car opened, and the toxic fog quickly made its way in. Lloyd held the passenger door open for Phoebe while Bethany took the driver's seat. A masked figure wearing a only bullet proof vest and cargo shorts came in, standing next to the button, waiting for them to leave.

"Why are so many people here weird?" Lloyd asked as she pulled out of the warehouse. "Why do some of y'all have food codenames?"

"Who we are is who we want to be." said Bethany as she drove down the road.
"Everyone was skeptical at first. You didn't know whether or not the person next to you would report you, and considering alot of people out there, even besides our group, have planned protests and attacks, we didn't want to be identified. Imagine if they found out Bethany Williams was freeing people. I'd be dead."

Bethany's voice trailed off as they drove past a hooded man riding a bike, a bat strapped to his back by chains made from key rings.

"Before my older sister died from lung cancer, she used to call me string bean, because I was very skinny. In fact I only weighed three pounds when I was born. I chose the nickname Bean, and told the others to rename themselves something that makes them happy. For some reason, alot of people resonated with food, and we would share stories about why we chose the name. Phoebe, I think it's time you picked one."

Phoebe, teary eyed, had been listening intently.

"Oh, um..." Phoebe hesitated. "Lloyd, you go first."

"Well... I don't want to seem like I'm piggybacking off of you Bethany."

"Go ahead, just pick anything." She coaxed him, stopping at a red light.

"What am I doing?" She mumbled. "There's no cars."

Driving past the red light, she used her middle finger to block her face as the street camera took a picture.

"When my son was born, he was kinda plump. Nine pounds, not too large, but his chubby cheeks were so cute. Me and Jenna used to call him our little potato all the time."

"Aww!" Bethany cooed. "Welcome to the team, Potato."

"Hell no, I'm picking something else." Lloyd retorted playfully. Phoebe giggled.

"Wait, Lloyd are you sure you gave me the right address? I've been down this road before."

The road narrowed, with dead forests on each side. The few trees with leaves had moldy patches all over them, with yellowed leaves riddled with holes.

Lloyd checked his phone, putting the address into a map app.

"Yep, it's the right one."

Past the dying forest, the streets opened up into more lanes. White streetlights looked yellow in the misty fog. Bethany made a sharp right, leading down towards a long white building with a massive parking lot. There were a few automatons outside, but they were at least a hundred feet from the gate. Next to them, a single car in the middle of the whole lot.

"How are we going to get close enough to see anything?" Phoebe asked Bethany. "Look, they even have drones flying over there!"

Lloyd looked at Bethany, who was smiling evilly.

"This right here, this our last base. I know this place like the back of my hand. We'll park here and go around the left side, it's easier to sneak from the back."

Everyone got out the car with their masks on, making their way to the trunk to get the backpacks. Lloyd grabbed the one with the battery and Bethany grabbed the one with the switch.

"I forgot to call Ben back!" Lloyd realized. "Don't flip it yet."

Lloyd quickly tapped through his phone, coughing slightly. It barely rang once before Ben responded.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Ben demanded. "The call dropped, I tried to call back twice, but nothing happened. You can't scare me like that!"

"My fault." Lloyd admitted. "I'm sorry. One of my friends got hurt, we lost track of time."

"Frederick's about to get hurt too." Ben warned him.

"Boss lady didn't like how he was speaking to her or her subordinates. They headed to the cryochamber warehouse, and that's what he was asking about."

Lloyd looked at the car in the distance, zooming in with his vizor.

"That's his car. We need to find a way inside quick."

"I know the way," Bethany reminded him. "But you need to hang up quick."

"I'll call you in an hour, alright?" Lloyd told Ben.

"Fine. Don't. Die." He intoned before Lloyd ended the call.

Bethany flipped the switch, Lloyd's phone went dark, and together, the three of them ran along the side of the building. A drone overhead caused them to freeze momentarily, until it's propellers stopped moving. It dropped like a rock a few feet in front of them, smoke coming from the inside.

"Even that could be a signal." said Bethany. "Phoebe-"

Was already moving forward, picking up the drone and carrying it to the dumpster near the wall.

"There's a bit of a drop here, take my backpack Lloyd."

Lloyd complied and Bethany carefully hopped down a four foot drop. Phoebe returned and Lloyd motioned for her to go next. Putting the other backpack on the front of himself, he jumped down as well, feeling his knees buckle.

Why is it so high? He wondered, before noticing the rows of 18 wheeler trucks.

"Follow me," motioned Bethany, already moving ahead.
Lloyd was about to say something until Phoebe held out her hand.

"I can wear the other backpack, if you want me too."

Lloyd blinked. "Sure." He passed it over. "Stay close to me."

"When was the last time I left your side?" She asked sincerely.

Lloyd felt like he was blushing, but his cloth mask hid it.

"Fair point." he admitted as they caught up to Bethany. She was crouching low under an open loading dock, a troubled expression on her face.

"Lloyd," she said in a hushed voice. "They're beating him."

Lloyd took jumped up to hold onto the platform, barely having the strength to pull himself up.

"Don't get caught!" Phoebe whispered as she helped push up him enough for him to hold his own weight.

"-Storm into the my goddamn facilities. TWICE!" The woman in the black metal automaton slapped Frederick, who was on his knees. His face already bruised and bloody, the hit caused a bunch of blood and a few teeth to streak across the floor. Four automatons had their backs turned to Lloyd. Like the last warehouse, coil pads were on the floor, but this time, most of them had cryochambers on top of them, with people inside.

"Key member." She mocked, punting him like a football. He screamed in pain as he went flying, but one of the four automatons ran swiftly to caught him before he landed, placing him back in front of his commander. Lloyd dropped back down as they turned around, waiting a few seconds before trying to go back up.

"They're going to kill him." Lloyd told them. "What can we do?"

"Nothing!" Bethany hissed. "Tony said the emp wouldn't work on the black metals, remember? It doesn't even work on your vizor. They're too high tech!"

"Can we see?" asked Phoebe.

Lloyd lifted her up without hesitation, forgoing the warning they had given him.

"Give me your backpack." said Bethany. "I'll help you up, and crawl up on your back, if you think you can hold on."

Lloyd was uncertain, but decided to try it anyway. She helped him up and when he said he had a good grip, she leapt onto him, managing to reach the docking bay and scooted off. They continued to watch the scene.

"-A little discretion. You aren't inducted until after the new year, which means you could be replaced at any time. That's her right? Yeah that's the one. Place it in front."

Two automatons carried a cryochamber to the front. Lloyd zoomed in with his vizor. Even though it was frosted over, he could still tell there was a woman inside.

"All that grandstanding," the woman sneered. "For an ex wife. No wonder she left you. Insufferable trash."

She hit him again, this time with her fist. Frederick crumpled to the ground and stopped moving.

"My sensors say he still has a pulse. Wake him up, I'm not done."

The same automaton that caught him walked forward with its hands flat at its sides. The ride hand sizzled with electricity as it knelt down beside Frederick, flipped him over with its left hand, then defibrillated him with its right. Frederick jolted awake, coughing blood.

"Hold him still. I want him to see what awaits everyone, since he dares to seek knowledge above his purview."

The automaton near him turned off its electric hand, putting Frederick back in position, holding his head and arms.

"Turn on coil sixty." The lady automaton ordered. "To max!"

Everyone watched as the frost began to quickly melt. The lights on the inside of the cryochamber switching from blue to orange. Steam began to hiss from the top, and soon, the woman was clearly visible.

"Okay! OKAY!" Frederick pleaded. "PLEASE!"

The woman didn't have the chance to wake up. Inside flames began to melt her flesh burning her while she was unconscious, but still alive.

"NOOOO!" Frederick wailed, blood, tears and snot streaming from his face. "WHY, YOU FUCKING MONSTERS!!"

The automaton turned slowly to him before sending a sharp kick into his abdomen, using so much force even the automaton holding him fell backwards.

"He's the last intruder." said a third automaton, breaking his position to walk forward.

"When the chamber cools down, put him with his ex wife." The lady automaton commanded as she walked away.

"So many idiots trying to sneak in. I'm sick of it. I have to oversee the new volunteers at the other factory. Stay on guard here."

Lloyd, Phoebe, and Bethany hopped back down, all in shock. Lloyd could hear them breathing heavily through their masks. He felt like he was having a panic attack.

"That's gonna happen... T-to everyone." Bethany struggled to get the words out.

"Not him." Lloyd stated through gritted teeth. "Get back up there Phoebe. Me and you, were gonna to run towards them."

"Are you crazy?!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"YES!" he growled, before realizing the automatons might hear him. "My wife. My son.... Yes, I'm crazy. Let's go."
He helped her up and Bethany helped him.

"I'll go back around and bring the car to the front. Be quick, so the guards don't catch me."

She ran back around the side while Phoebe helped Lloyd the rest of the way.

"He wasn't like the other assholes, he was polite. She went too far if you ask me." said a male automaton.

"Sounds like she had a personal problem with him. Oh well." said another.

Lloyd and Phoebe ran together, only one automaton turning to see them before it was too late.

"Fuck! There's mor-" him and the others froze before dropping to the ground like broken toys. The sound was a loud boom that shook the floor. Others would probably enter soon. Lloyd approached Frederick's body, seething with rage as he looked at cryochamber. Picking him up by the shoulders, he was about to tell Phoebe to grab his feet when Frederick's eyes opened.

"Who?" He asked in a hoarse voice.
Lloyd set him down gently, moving so he could face him. Despite being beaten to a pulp, his vizor was undamaged.

"Lloyd... I see you got my gift."

"And Phoebe. I... I lied about killing her. I'm sorry."

"I knew you wouldn't do it," Frederick said weakly. "You're too nice, Lloyd."

"We gotta move fast, we gotta get you outta here-"

"No. Let them do what she said. I want to die with my wife. I know I've been shady this past week, that's only because of outside forces I couldn't control. They offered both threats and opportunity, something no human would refuse. I knew you couldn't trust me Lloyd, so I kept you away. Promise me, when you die, when you enter the new world with all you know, that you'll just be happy. Go be with your family again, forget saving the world. It's over. It's done."

Lloyd and Phoebe began to cry. Lloyd nodded, gripping his hand tightly.

"And Lloyd... Just like you couldn't trust me..." Frederick's eyes slowly began to lose focus, staring right through Lloyd.

"Don't trust Bethany."