"GO HOME EVERYONE! GO HOME." said Peter as he tried to shoo away the shocked clientele. "We are officially closed as of right now." The lady whose cane was used by the hoodie man walked up to Peter.

"But what about the transfer? We're running out of time."

"You can't seriously still want to go after what that girl said." said a younger guy, who was taking off his gloves to give to the woman. "Oh, thank you so much. But yes I am. See this?" she pointed towards the sky. "That's death. A man-made blanket of death, sweeping across the planet. I remember watching the live feed of astronauts saying the clouds were becoming yellow, the very first image they took. The world's dying and I'm outta time, so what's the difference?" They stand in silence for a moment, most of the crowd gone. The old woman noticed Lloyd was still fiercely gripping the gun, his eyes fixed off into the distance.

She fled on foot...with no mask.

"Thank you young man, for saving us and that poor girl.

She probably didn't get that far.

Frederick comes bursting outside, "What the hell happened?! He shouts, "What did you do?!"

Lloyd looked over at the corpse of the automaton, the windshield glass from the car, and the puddle of piss from the guy that got smacked into the wall.

"M-my... my patient." he stammered before leaning forward.

"Whoa I got you, I got you" said Peter as he grabbed him. Frederick, on the other hand, quickly snatched away the gun.

"Head injury." Peter informed Frederick.

"Yeah no shit, I see the blood." he retorted as they both clumsily tried to help Lloyd back inside. "My question is how?'

"Issues with his patient. He came down for a break and Ms. Caulley came running almost as fast as he left."

Lloyd lightly nudged them off and rubbed his eyes. "I'm fine. If anything, being outside caused more damage."

"Great. Just great." Frederick clasped his hands and bowed his head, murmuring to something Lloyd was sure didn't exist.

"Lloyd, you'll come with me and tell me everything. Peter, you'll switch with Marcy in Security. And let her know we won't have any more patients today. I do not want her complaining about her little anxiety."

He grabbed a couple tissues and handed them to Lloyd. "Can't have you bleeding everywhere. Let's go."

They started walking down the hall seeing way more automatons than Lloyd would've liked. Coming past his door they both noticed it was still ajar.

"I got it." said Frederick since he was already closer. He walked up to the door and paused when he saw the black box on the carpet.

"She hit you with that? he asked.

Lloyd touched his head gingerly. "Yep."

"Yikes."

He locked the door and they continued down the hall not raising the awareness of a single automaton at all. Then he looked at their movements, the synchronicity in their strides. Lloyd was certain there was no people in these at all.

As they reached the room, Marcy Foster appeared walking down the hall. She was wearing an orange button down with a long brown skirt. She gave them a quick smile that quickly turned to shock as she got close. Frederick pushed Lloyd in before he could utter a word.

"Lock up the front and go home, we had a little issue today."

"How bad was it this time?" Lloyd had closed his eyes, listening intently to her soft voice.

"On a scale of 1-10, Its shit. But we can pull through tomorrow. Find Bethany so she can tell the others to leave on your way out. "

"I'll have to do it myself; she's already gone."

"Since when?" Frederick demanded.

"About a couple minutes ago? She and a few others got sick. It might've been the food."

Frederick closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Have a good day."

He closed the door and tapped Lloyd on the shoulder, thinking he was sleep.

"We gotta get one of the doctors to take a look at you."

"I'll be damned." Lloyd replied, popping his neck. "Can I get a water bottle?"

"Sure." Frederick Reached into his mini fridge, slid a bottle of gin out the way, and passed him a mini water bottle. "Now tell me what happened."

"I forgot to set the scene for the patient, so I paused the exercise and started to generate it . Because that took too long, and my conversation with you, the patient woke up, but because of the projection I thought I forgot to pause the exercise so I pressed the button again, and they both spoke at the same time."

Frederick listened quietly, his hand on his chin. "Same time?"

"And she freaked out. I tried to calm her down, got hit with the box, you saw the rest outside."

"We need to get her, make sure she doesn't get killed ranting about being cloned. Lloyd this may seem sketchy but you remember orientation right? The memory transfer does go both ways, we've seen it. You have got to track her down."

"Me? Are you serious?" Lloyd asked, dumbfounded.

"Who else? She's your client. Can't send an automaton like Ben. If he gets provoked into defense mode, he'll-"

"I get it." Lloyd cut him off. "Could've caught her if we tried in the moment, she ran off without a mask. She could be further away now."

Frederick started typing on his computer. "You have her files. Better yet, ask her yourself with the black box tonight, knock out two birds with one stone. I'll speak with the automatons about the one out front but its best if you don't come in tomorrow."

Lloyd nodded, balling up the bloody tissue in his hand, "They wouldn't care if I said it was self-defense, would they?"

"I think the government values those machines a lot more than they value you, let's just leave it at that."

********

Lloyd went back to his office to pick up his mask and the black box. The gurney and computer stand were still inside. He expected those to be removed tomorrow. Then looking back at the monitor, he realized Phoebe was still here too. He pocketed the flash drive and left as the hallway lights began to dim. Walking down the darkened corridor actually felt soothing tohis tired eyes. As he approached the black door, he could hear the elevator moving inside. The touchpad glowed green and Lloyd stopped moving. It opened and a single automaton came out, its expressionless face sending a chill down Lloyd's spine. Suddenly, a white slit appeared on its forehead opening wider into a square that shone out an extremely bright light, like a bipedal lighthouse. Lloyd flinched at the intensity of the light, raising his hand to shield his eyes.

"Jesus Christ, what happened to you?" Ben spoke from the machine.

"Oh, its just you." Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief. "Turn that shit off."

Together, they walked through the breakroom and out the backdoor, into the parking lot. Frederick's car was the only one in the lot, because he was one of the few people to keep driving after the government made all transportation free. Lloyd told him about what happened and as they reached the ride Lloyd summoned, Ben stopped moving.

"That's... unsettling." He said quietly. "I don't know how to tell you this, but you're in trouble. There are cameras all over these automaton bodies. We obviously don't see from a 360 degree angle, we see through the front of the face like you normally would. But those extra cameras are for surveillance and combat. When they review those records, you'll be arrested."

"Just arrested? I'd imagined i would get torn in half."

"I don't know where they take criminals that damage government property, especially these things. It's definitely not just a slap on the wrist, so be careful Lloyd."

Lloyd put the box up front and laid down in the backseat. He listened to the hum of the engine and decided to enable music. Soothing jazz music played as Lloyd took off his mask and closed his eyes. He tried to clear his mind but couldn't. Even if he managed to console Miguel and Phoebe in local, Miguel's still dead and real Phoebe was still running around. He'd never see the real world again, not that it was much to look at, and she... Lloyd doubted she'd even go near the facility again, let alone agree to be cryogenically frozen. He felt the car slow down and got a chirp on his phone. Finally, home.

Lloyd looked around the living, trying to figure out where he'd set up the black box. It would be easier to move the small coffee table than the dining room table, so he sat the box on the couch, took off his jacket, and dragged it out of the way. Placing the black box on the center of the floor, he started to feel around the sides, looking for some type of switch or mechanism he could press.  Flipping it over returned the same result: nothing. He thought about calling Frederick until he had a better idea. Rummaging through his pocket, he pulled his thick ID card and set it on top of the box. It glowed green and the box hummed, all four sides jutting out at once.

Smiling as he picked one up, Lloyd looked at the sensors on the inside. There were two separate red lights behind the dark glass, with a very distinct line in between. He turned it like a Rubik's cube and sure enough, they separated, with one having a sticky side that said Place On Ceiling. After the sensors all turned green when they connected with each other, the rest of the box began to whir. He watched as a cylinder rose about five feet high; the camera on top spinning around in a slow circle. Lloyd grabbed his laptop for the next step.

Immediately after typing in his password, a popup appeared on the screen, showing a shimmering silver logo for Manifest Digital against the image of a dark globe, with tiny green lights twinkling overpopulated areas.

'Black Box Detected. Connect?' the screen read. Lloyd pressed confirm, getting up to get a bottle of whiskey as it initialized. He kicked his feet up on the couch and took a big gulp as he watched the machine boot up. After a couple more sips, Miguel's profile picture popped up on screen. Lloyd began to set the scene, including himself as an external asset before standing up for motion capture. Then he pressed Run Exercise, choosing to let Miguel ruminate in local for a bit before trying to talk to him.

The buzzing sound from the air filters started nagging at him, so he turned on the tv and channel surfed until he found a nature documentary about jellyfish. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

Ben? Lloyd wondered, getting up to look through the peephole. He pressed a doorknob like button near the handle, and a vent above the door on the outside began to blow air clearing the smog while a light shown on the figures outside. To his surprise, a human figure stood at the door, wearing a brown leather jacket and mask with glowing white eyes. Because of the lights shining from the door, the person dimmed his own.

"Lloyd cut that off, Christ." Frederick's muffled voice complained through the mask. "This'll be quick. Let me come inside." Lloyd started to unlock the door until he saw Frederick look behind him. Then he noticed him nervously tapping his foot.

"Who's with you?" Lloyd demanded. He wasn't sure if he imagined it, but Frederick froze for a few seconds.

"Just security. You forget how bad it is out here? Let me in, they'll wait outside."

Lloyd finally obliged, turning off the vent and lights. He opened the door and let him in. The moment the door closed the ventilators in room went into overdrive, roaring viciously as they tried to expunge the toxic, putrid air. Frederick ripped off his mask, which had a full cloth covering instead of a strap.

"We are FUCKED!!!" He whisper-shouted. "Manifest is investigating the automaton you destroyed."

"I was defending-"

"You think they give a shit?!" He snapped. "They are the fucking police."

The ventilators started quiet down, becoming a dull silent hum. The two men looked at each other quietly. Frederick, sweating, nervous and irate. Lloyd expressionless and pale.

"You gonna say anything?" said Frederick.

"You here to take me in?" Lloyd asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Hell no man, come on." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the gun he previously gave Lloyd. Handing it back to him, he took a brief glance at the black box Lloyd set up. "They want you to kill her."