Stairway to Somewhere

The First Informant

Lloyd decided not to drink that night. After talking with Ben at the front door, he immediately took a long shower. Ben was from Texas, and he requested to be sent to Texas, but they refused. James also seemed to be from somewhere else, otherwise he wouldn't have lowered Miguel. The cut on Lloyd's neck wasn't too deep, but it continued to sting so he put an ointment on it and made a makeshift bandage. Two days in, and the job was already harder than the training. Not to mention the speed at which they were transferring people.They probably wouldn't finish before the new year, or before the digital census. Lloyd didn't know who would face repercussions for that, but he wasn't going to be around to find out. Lloyd looked at his bed, perfectly made up. He hadn't slept in it since Sunday night. Lloyd laid down on his side of the bed, reaching out to set the alarm clock before realizing it was on Jenna's side of the bed. He rolled over and stretched out to turn on the alarm when he noticed his ring finger was missing the ring.

Where the hell did I put it? he thought as he sat up. He walked to the laundry room and checked his pants. Thankfully, it was there. He wasn't sure why he kept it, it wasn't like they'd ever come back. It was even less likely he'd ever join them. All of the arguments, all of the fighting. they should've just divorced before she left. But they didn't. For as long as he lived this ring would be a reminder. A bittersweet one, but a familiar one. He went back to bed, setting the alarm and putting the ring on his bedside table. Lloyd had a plan, and it didn't involve any government conspiracy.

The next day, he got up and got dressed as he normally would, even though the absence of his family make the house feel different. Quieter, definitely, but also an eerie type of loneliness. He could almost hear and imagine them walking around, but they weren't here. Lloyd was sitting in his living room drinking coffee when the doorbell rang. He got up to answer it and wasn't surprised at all to see a jet black automaton dressed in gray military garb.

"Are you Ben or a government agent sent to kill me?" Lloyd halfheartedly joked as he took a sip.

"Why not both?" Ben said with a laugh, his smooth face expressionless.

"Don't... don't do that. You have no face, I can't tell if your serious or not."

Ben chuckled. "I guess these automatons are kinda scary from the outside.

"Come in," said Lloyd, walking away from the door. "Smog burns my nostrils."

Ben glanced down at the threshold, like an ancient vampire waiting to be let in.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah. I got a call to make before I go in anyway." Lloyd pulled out his phone and began dialing a number. Ben came in and closed the door, observing the room.

"You've got a nice home." he told Lloyd as he set down next to him. "I kinda forgot what the constant hum of ventilators sounded like."

"Good for you." Lloyd responded bluntly. "Hello?"

"Hello. Lloyd, why are you calling me?" said Frederick on the line.

"I'm not coming in today." he told him as he took another sip.

"What?!" Frederick and Ben said in unison. Lloyd looked at Ben and shook his head.

"Who was that?' Frederick asked him.

"Ben. Who else would it be? My computers are smashed, I can't do the transfer."

"Your monitors were destroyed, not the computer. The entire damn desk is the computer. Lloyd, I know yesterday was scary,"

"No, scary isn't the word you're looking for. Yesterday was fucked up. You had to learn from a homicidal conspiracy theorist that the government was taking patient bodies from right under your nose. And to make his paranoia even more valid, a fucking automaton killed him on the spot to shut him up."