I'm having a dream, as per usual.
As always, it's a bad thing, not something I look forward to when closing my eyes at night. Good dreams happen, but not too often.
In this one it's the same as always, watching my parents die. I never quite understood why that was the dream I had, as both of my parents are alive and well.
It's a shitty feeling, and all the while I begin to dread the notion of being…
Awake.
My phone alarm blares, thrusting me from my deep sleep. Such is the worst part of my day, the thought of getting up in the morning.
I slide out of bed, turn off my alarm, and turn to get some clothes out of my closet. After changing I walk over to a table and sit down, picking up some cereal before realizing I have no reason to eat.
I brush my teeth as a courtesy and leave my kind of cruddy apartment, knowing it might be a while before I see it next.
I check my phone to see if I'm on pace to get to where I need to be on time.
2:28… Not too shabby.
As I exit my apartment, though, I see a familiar face waiting outside. I look to the person before me in slight disbelief, but understanding.
"Morning," I gesture.
The girl turns her head to face me. "Hey."
…
Backing out of the parking complex, I head off to the coordinates inscribed into the crumpled wad of paper. As we leave the roofed area the radio suddenly fires on.
"-And we've got some breaking news from the studio, at midnight tonight the autopsy report of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been officially released to the public, the report confirming that his death was indeed a suicide. Bezos was found dead in his Washington estate in early March, just days after Amazon declared bankruptcy after several top investors cut ties with the company due to what was reportedly a project related to artificial intelligence. Next we'll take you to the weather, and it seems we're looking at a nice day today with a high of-"
I switch the radio off.
"So, what made you decide to come along after all?" I question.
Natsuki answers after a short pause. "I'm not too sure. I guess I just knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you didn't come back."
I nod, allowing her to elaborate if she so pleases.
"I also realized that I've still got… things to settle over there." I can see her tensing up from the corner of my eye.
"Oh yeah? Like what?" I ask her, intrigued at her statement.
"It doesn't matter, okay? I've just got loose ends to tie or whatever."
"All right, I won't pry any further."
The rest of the drive is rather silent, save some small talk here and there.
After around an hour and a half we reach our destination, a seemingly desolate location in the middle of the woods. I pull my phone out to check that I'm in the right place to find that I don't have any bars of service.
Obviously, this is supposed to be top-secret. We can't have whoever's in charge find out about this.
I look around for a small bit using my phone's flashlight for illumination before I spot a shadow walking towards us. I wave to greet her and let Natsuki know that I found PG.
"I'm glad you two made it," she says, seemingly unsurprised by Natsuki's presence. She really does seem to know everything. Before we can respond she gestures for us to follow her.
The three of us trudge through the dark woods for quite some time, our paths only apparent due to the bright flashlights we brought with us.
After what seems like forever, PG stops. It seems we're at our destination, despite the fact that there's nothing in sight still.
Phone Girl uses her boot-clad feet to sweep some dirt off of what seems to be some sort of manhole cover. She squats down and pulls the cover up with a handle.
Natsuki and I look down at the deep hole beneath us as our other ally begins to climb down and motions for us to do the same. We follow suit.
One by one, we make our way down the ladder and find solid ground again in what seems to be a small bunker-like area. The room is filled with computers and displays, as well as a cabinet full of various weapons. Just as I begin trying to find the AI bullets that will be in my head pretty soon, my eyes avert to a different presence in the room.
There's another door in the bunker outside of the manhole cover we used to enter the bunker. I approach it, and just as I'm about to open it PG puts her hand over mine to stop me.
"Curious, huh?" She looks at me and grins.
"Yeah, sorta," I reply bluntly.
"Well…" She says while turning the doorknob to open it, "This is your new home."
PG opens the door and a gust of freezing air instantly crashes over me. Before me is a huge room full of long aisles of shelves. I look closer and gag as I realize what the shelves are holding.
Shelf after shelf lined with frozen human bodies, each one stuffed into an airtight body bag. Frost lines every surface of the room, and despite the setting the scent is rather crisp.
"This is more or less my go-to body storage place, it's run by an organized crime syndicate I did a few jobs for and they let me use it whenever." Phone Girl says with a completely straight face, staring into the distance. "It's apparently been around since the 1960s. Really handy."
"Wait, didn't the AI bullets pilot the bodies of people that got shot to cover up the fact that they were ever killed at all?" I ask, confusedly.
"The problem with that is that those clones are programmed to try and throw more people into the simulation, like what happened with your friends the first time around."
I shudder as I remember the sound of the bullet going through Tyler's head. Both times, that is.
PG continues without taking notice of my slight demeanor change. "So anyway, the people behind the sim would find out about it pretty quick if that's what we did. It's way less of a risk to just keep your bodies buried down here."
"Okay…" I say, unsure how to continue the conversation. "Anyways, uh."
Natsuki interjects and saves the day. "So, when are you shooting us?'
"Ah, right." PG turns around and begins to shuffle through the weapons drawers. "So before I do this I'm gonna do one last debrief for the two of you."
The two of us nod in sequence and she continues.
"I'm going to fire at the back of your heads at the same time so that the disturbance to the simulation is negligible enough that they'll blame it on a run-of-the-mill network issue or something. I cannot stress enough that our top priority is to stay undercover and not let them find out that we're here."
I sigh and voice my concerns once more. "Again, I'm not too sure how we're supposed to save Tyler and Elizabeth and get out if we're not supposed to attract attention, it just seems-"
"I've got an idea."
Both of us turn around to see Natsuki, standing awkwardly. After a short pause she leans against the nearby wall.
"Monika will probably understand, right? You know, since she knows she's in a simulation or whatever…" She trails off for a moment.
"Never mind, it's a dumb idea, we don't even know if-"
"Go on." I say firmly.
Natsuki looks at me for a second before finishing her thought. "Anyways, what I mean is that if we can drop a hint or something that Monika would understand but the people watching the simulation wouldn't, she can probably help us with her cool coding powers or whatever, right?"
Phone Girl strokes her chin with her hand. "It is true that I won't be able to bestow either of you with the same abilities you had last time," She remarks, looking towards me, "She could be a useful ally, and she could potentially cover some of our tracks as well regarding keeping the sim supervisors at bay."
"I can handle it." I say. "I think I know how to get through to her."
"Yeah, duh." Natsuki shrugs. "Anyways, I'm starting to get second thoughts about this whole thing, mind just shooting us already and getting it over with?"
"Sure." PG takes two shining, blue bullets out of her back pocket. They almost look like they're made out of finely polished opal in their slickness and shine. She takes two pistols out of the weapons drawer and slowly loads each with a bullet.
"Turn around."
Natsuki and I follow her direction, and I soon feel a firm weight resting against the back of my head. A familiar feeling that I'd feel much better forgetting.
And what I knew would follow soon would be even more so.
"You two better not get found out," PG states as her final farewell.
Natsuki chuckles to herself. "Yeah, I'll miss you too, phone slut."
Right before the fateful gunshot, I have a stunning realization.
"Wait, don't these bullets have a 10% chance to fail and kill us-"
Gunshot.
Pain.
Noise.
Static.
Smoke.
An all-too-familiar sensation.
Into the abyss I go once more.
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