Chapter 31: Behind the Simulation

"Hey... why are you guys just standing there frozen? Come on, hurry and follow me,"

Hearing Selma’s shouted voice from a short distance ahead, Clyde, Casca, and Corie snapped out of it, turning to look at her before running in her direction while carrying the still-unconscious Mary. As soon as the three reached her, Selma turned back and walked deeper into the underground station building. Along the way, Clyde, Casca, and Corie saw people sitting slumped against the walls, heads bowed and arms wrapped around themselves.

Their faces showed pure terror, some were weeping as if grieving a lost loved one, others looked consumed by remorse to the point of pressing their fists or foreheads against the floor, and so many more; nearly everyone appeared broken and depressed. Seeing this, Clyde, Casca, and Corie could feel the pain those people were enduring.

"They were freed from the farm not long ago and escaped from the rehab center, so I’m sheltering them here," Selma said, looking back over her shoulder as she walked after noticing how strangely Clyde, Casca, and Corie were taking in their surroundings.

"How long ago were they freed, sis?" Clyde asked.

"Hmmm, depends. Some have been like this for three months, some just since last month, and some only a week. They woke up because they died inside the simulation, and... they died in horrific ways," Selma answered gravely.

"Horrific... ways?" Casca asked, confused.

"Yeah... how do you think the military wakes up the humans inside those pods at the farm? Kill them one by one? Nah, they don’t have time for that, nor do they care enough to consider it, because deep down they couldn’t care less about the state of the human beings you see all around us," Selma said furiously.

Hearing Selma’s voice rise slightly, Clyde, Casca, and Corie instantly fell silent for a moment, looking back at the mentally shattered people around them, before Clyde turned to look at Selma again.

"Then... how do they do it?" Clyde asked, bewildered, even though he knew the answer would be agonizing.

Selma paused for a moment as they reached a large tent set up in front of a staircase leading up to the surface, which was blocked off by rubble and destroyed. Selma stepped inside and motioned for everyone to enter, then asked Clyde to lay Mary down on a sleeping bag on the floor. After Clyde laid Mary down, a damaged tablet suddenly appeared next to her head; looking up, he saw that Selma had handed her tablet to him.

Clyde stood up, took the tablet, and looked at it, immediately recognizing that it was a classified military device.

"You asked earlier how the military wakes those people up, right? The answer is on that tablet, just hit play," Selma said.

Clyde, Casca, and Corie gathered around the tablet screen together, and Clyde pressed play. The footage displayed everyday life inside the simulation, initially showing mundane routines that hit Clyde, Casca, and Corie with a wave of nostalgia, but suddenly, the sky turned pitch-black as clouds whirled above, forming a dark, lightning-laced vortex.

A black cube lined with lights emerged from the center of the vortex. Naturally, the people inside the simulation watched the cube, sensing a strange phenomenon, but they didn’t feel threatened yet; in fact, many were thrilled to witness it, pulling out their smartphones to snap photos and record videos of the anomaly.

The cube remained stationary, its lights merely flashing across its jet-black metallic body. Then, a civilian helicopter, seemingly belonging to a news network, approached the cube. The helicopter hovered in front of the cube for quite a while as countless people across the city watched the scene unfold. Shortly after, however, the cube began to rotate slowly before its side panels burst open "blam!" and two massive, tentacle-like cables slammed directly into the helicopter, causing it to explode.

Instantly, everyone below gasped in shock and panic; screams echoed everywhere, car horns blared endlessly, and crowds stampeded down the streets as the giant cables, twisting through the air from the cube’s rotation, split apart into thousands, maybe millions, of human-sized, incredibly long cables that wriggled like tentacles and spread in every direction. As the cube opened wider, more giant cables emerged, splitting and birthing millions of smaller cables that fanned out everywhere.

"Gyaaaaa!"

The footage showed the cables ensnaring fleeing humans everywhere, inside their homes, inside their offices, on rooftops, in basements, and in every possible corner until there was nowhere left to hide. Once caught, a cable would plunge into the victim’s body and gruesomely force a transformation, turning them into a half-machine zombie before unleashing them onto the streets. The video cut out just as the last human in the city was turned into a machine zombie.

Clyde, Casca, and Corie covered their mouths at the horrifying scene they had just witnessed. It was especially horrific when the footage showed a man getting caught by a cable plunging straight into his waist. The man’s body violently trembled, his eyes bulging so hard they popped out of their sockets, foam spewing from his mouth as his skin melted away, replaced by metallic fibers bursting from within his flesh. In place of his lost eyes, glowing red camera lenses materialized. Once the process finished, the cable detached, leaving him standing as a half-machine zombie.

"This is... insane," Clyde said, his face pale as if he were watching a real-life horror film.

"This was... inside the simulation? That’s... truly horrifying," Casca said, clutching Clyde’s arm as she trembled.

Corie couldn’t utter a single word; she remained silent, pressing herself against Clyde with her hand clamped over her mouth, her body shaking uncontrollably.

"You saw it for yourselves. That’s how the military wakes up an entire farm, and that recording was taken just five days ago," Selma replied.

"But... those people... did they go through the exact same thing?" Clyde asked.

"That’s right. Those who die during the apocalyptic onslaught via a frequency that penetrates the farm’s magical dome will wake up. And their mental state? Utterly ruined. Because when they wake up, they find themselves in a truly ruined world, completely alone," Selma answered.

"If those who die wake up... then what about... the ones turned into half-machine zombies?" Corie finally managed to speak up.

Selma fell silent. She walked over to a table behind her, picked up a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, and lit it. "Fuuuh," she exhaled a puff of smoke, leaving Corie’s question hanging in the air as her expression darkened.

"You’re better off not knowing," Selma said nonchalantly.

"Please tell us," Casca pressed.

Selma looked at Clyde, Casca, and Corie, noting that despite their tension, they desperately wanted to know. "Sigh." Selma let out a sigh, took a drag from her cigarette, and blew the smoke upward.

"Fine... I’ll tell you... The ones who become machine zombies... remain trapped inside the simulation forever. And if we forcibly shut down their pods, they’ll explode and destroy the entire farm. So the military just leaves them in their pods, letting their consciousness roam the city endlessly as machine zombies, hoping someone inside the simulation will kill them," Selma said in a heavy, cold voice.

Hearing Selma’s explanation, the three gasped in horror, looking in utter disbelief at what she had just said, unable to fathom what it felt like to wander endlessly without aim or purpose as a machine zombie inside the simulation. But after a brief silence, a realization seemed to strike them; the expressions on Clyde, Casca, and Corie’s faces shifted, not to fear or pity for those people, but to burning rage toward the military for orchestrating such a cruel apocalyptic scenario. It was abundantly clear that the military had no intention of saving the people in the pods, it was all just propaganda to maintain control. Seeing the change in Clyde, Casca, and Corie, Selma smiled.

"So, do you understand now why I formed this rebel force?" Selma asked.

"We understand, sis... very clearly," Clyde answered furiously.

"What if we just destroy them?" Corie said.

"Right... besides, they’re actively looking for us anyway," Casca added.

"Easy now... don’t be reckless. Even with all that, not every soldier is evil. Unfortunately, it’s the top brass who lack any humanity, so our targets as rebels aren’t the grunt soldiers who are just following orders, but the high-ranking officials. So don’t go targeting the wrong people... Hmm... by the way, why hasn’t the train arrived at this hour?" Selma muttered, glancing at her wristwatch.

Upon hearing Selma’s words, Clyde, Casca, and Corie were instantly reminded of their original goal and Celes’s warning. All three turned to look at the closed tent flap, but suddenly Clyde went rigid and tense, his lips trembling as his eyes rolled back until only the whites showed, though his body didn’t convulse. Right after, he looked back at Selma with sharp eyes and a dead serious expression.

"Sis... we’re going to the tunnel. Don’t let anyone go down there, and wait until the three of us come back out," Clyde said.

"Huh... what are you guys planning to do?" Selma asked.

"To pick up our brother... Come on, Casca... Corie, let’s go," Clyde answered.

Casca and Corie nodded, and without waiting for Selma to reply, the three of them stepped out of the tent. They walked straight toward the platform, Casca and Corie glancing over at Clyde.

"Brother... why do you look so panicked?" Casca asked.

"Yeah, brother... you’re creeping me out," Corie added.

"Just now, I saw a vision of the future, everyone was slaughtered, and we were forced to kill Craig. Before that happens, we have to meet him inside the tunnel. Come on," Clyde said.

Casca and Corie gasped at Clyde’s words, but they nodded and quickened their pace to match his. "Okay, brother, let’s go get Brother Craig," both of them said in unison, ready for whatever lay ahead.