Stairway to Somewhere

A Sudden Presentation

"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.