Stairway to Somewhere

Phoebe's Visit

Lloyd grabbed the gun and shoved it into his pants before he set out, hoping he'd only have to use it on another bot. Maybe, if he's lucky, they can both hide. But getting off the grid wouldn't be as simple as ditching his phone.

The car pulled up shortly. And her home was only fifteen minutes away. He opened the door and held his breath, just to gaze at the sepia toned sky. There was a big bright light in the distance. His eyes teared up as they started to burn, so he put on the mask, turned it on, and get blasted with the cool breeze of the inner fans as they cleaned the air inside.

He got in the back of the car and it slowly pulled off, a soothing piano melody playing from the stereo as background noise. The hum of the car's air conditioning sounding much softer than the ventilators in his house. Taking off the mask, he opened up his messages and texted Frederick: 'On my way now.'
Almost instantly, it was marked as read and bubbles appeared. 'Good.' Frederick was reply.

Lloyd closed his eyes, exhausted. Suddenly, the car came to a stop.

Huh? He thought as he opened his eyes. The big screen monitor in the car said Obstacle: Moving Around Now. And Lloyd looked up at the automaton standing in the middle of the road. The car tried to go around it but it stepped in the way again.
Lloyd paused the ride and clutched the gun as it approached.

Please be Ben. He thought. Please be Ben.
The automaton gave a rhythmic knock on the glass. Lloyd quickly put the mask back on as before he rolled down the window.

"Where are you going?" Ben asked him. "Aren't you off work?"

"Are you psychotic?!" Lloyd snapped. "Do you know how creepy you look, standing in the middle of the road?"

"Oh. Uh... whoops." He laughed nervously. "I didn't mean to scare you. And they told us not to think about how we look, forbid us from even looking at mirrors, when we're in these. I obviously have seen others but, there's a certain disassociation that happens when you're in one of these. It might even be part of our code."

"Well, I'm going to go talk to my last client."
"The one that got away. You're just gonna talk to her?" Ben asked curiously.

"That's the plan."

"Why do I feel like that's not what you've been told to do?" He responded cautiously.
A realization dawned upon Lloyd.

"Frederick sent you, didn't he?"

"Bingo. Not only that, he spoke to me privately. Said I had to assist you in any way possible. And that you could help me get out."

"Get out? Out of what? I thought you were happy in there."

"I am, or at least, I was until I spoke to him. He seemed stressed as hell. Talking about what might happen to the us, the people inside, after midnight. He wants you to put me in the blackbox, just until the new year is over."

Lloyd called pulled out his phone and called Frederick. No response. Then bubbles appeared in messages and a single message arrived: 'Finish Your Task. Ask Nothing Else.'

"What do you think he's doing?" Ben asked Lloyd.

"I don't know. But you can't follow me to her place, she's scared of ya- the automatons, and rightfully so. Wait at my place. I'll bring her there, and then we'll go somewhere they won't track us."

"But they can always track me." said Ben. "I don't even know if I could find the tracker and take it out."

"We'll figure it out later. Just trust me." Lloyd responded, rolling up the window. Ben gave him a two finger salute and ran off. Lloyd unpaused the ride and took off the mask, humming along to the piano melody as the ride continued.