The First Automatons

Lloyd sat in silence for a while, thinking about how happy Kennedy seemed. The whole operation still felt off to him. Mostly because of training. Watching them pretend to inject a dummy and putting its body in a cryogenic chamber. They took them on a tour of the facility, showing them the hundreds of massive tanks they had prepped. They didn't need nowhere near that many, the majority of the city either went to bigger and better transfer centers or moved to cities that had slightly less smog than this one. His computer beeped, signaling and incoming call from Marcy. He answered it and grabbed Kennedy's files.

"What's up?" he responded.

"Everyone's done. We're waiting for you in the rec room."

"On my way."

Lloyd swiftly got up and left his office, the lights dimming as he approached the door. He looked to the left and still saw people sitting and waiting, with some in line with a clipboard full of paperwork.  He found it creepy that they couldn't see him on the other side. They didn't even see a door. He shook off the feeling it gave him and took the right path to the break room. Inside was a wide room with the same glass black floor as the waiting room, but with comfortable white furniture and black marble counter tops. Everything in the break-room had black and white accents, from the art to the dishes. Greeting him was Beth, who still looked bothered, Marcy, a dark skinned woman in her thirties wearing a grey pantsuit without the blazer, Arthur, a younger guy with caramel skin and a full beard, and William, a man in his sixties who currently looked extremely mad.

"What's the deal with the meeting?" Lloyd asked the crew. "We just need better security next time."

"The meetings about a little more than that." said a voice behind him. Lloyd turned around to see Frederick Murray, the man who owned this franchise of Manifest Digital.

"First, I would like to check on each of your commitment to this job. Who's here till the end?!" he said enthusiastically, as if to rouse them. Lloyd, Arthur, and Will put their hands up slowly, as if they didn't have a choice. Beth started to, but kept it down. Marcy didn't budge. Frederick frowned at them.

"Are you serious? We can't be this understaffed." 

"Why the hell would we stay?" Marcy demanded. "I got family in the new world already. You know damn well 84% of the population is already inside."

"Yes, I know but we need people on the outside until after the new year. It's already bad enough with their new implementation."

"What implementation?" asked Beth.

"Because of the riots. Too many centers are being attacked by protesters. Not only have they enacted martial law, but they are sending people back out as militia men."

Lloyd laughed. "What are a couple random citizens with guns going to do against mobs?Wouldn't that just put them in harms way?"

Frederick stared at him in silence until Lloyd's smirk disappeared. 

"They aren't putting them back in their bodies, Lloyd." He walked up to the table and sat his phone down, tapping something that turned the whole surface into a screen mirror of his phone. He displayed an image of a tall black mannequin looking thing in dark military garb.

"These things have no faces, but once the army uploads a person into it, they can see you." he explained. "The National Guard just started deploying them, and they're seven feet tall, for no fucking reason."

"That's scary as hell." murmured Arthur. 

"Yeah, no shit." Frederick retorted. "Ours arrive tomorrow."

"They just guard right? We don't have to fear them." Beth suggested. "It could be a mother with kids."

"Yeah. A mother with kids who's going to escort you home in a seven foot killing machine." Franklin added.

"Hold the hell up, you didn't even say that!" said Will. I don't want that shit following me."

"Who would?" Frederick asked. "I don't know if they'll talk, but I do know more are being engineered to help clean up the real world, doing the tasks we're supposed to for the time we're in the new world."

"And when are we leaving the new world?" Lloyd asked Frederick. 

"Whenever the real world is clean enough for us to come back to." he replied earnestly.

Lloyd turned away so Frederick wouldn't notice he was staring daggers engraved with the word bullshit on them.

"Okay, enough paranoia, we have a teachable moment to discuss." Frederick sat on a stool and looked at Will, who turned his back on the rest of the group.

"Will, your patient rejected the transfer. Why do you think that is?"

The room went completely silent as everyone waited for Will to speak.

"He lamented the loss of other things that died outside of the new world." Will replied.

"Like his dog, Juniper."

"Right. And he wanted his dog back. That same exact dog. But obviously, that's impossible.

"But it shouldn't be." said Lloyd.

Frederick looked at him. "Why shouldn't it?"

"Because the new world is digital. Anything is possible in the digital world, the president even says so. But they put limitations on everything-"

"Because they don't want people hacking the new world and literally becoming omnipotent gods within it." Frederick explained. "How would you like it if someone could summon tornadoes around you at will?"

"That doesn't explain why people have to work in a world where everything can be fabricated instantly." Lloyd replied intensely, glaring at his boss. "It's full of shit and I'm not going, simple as that."

"Fine by me. I need you here until the new year anyways. But back to Will, your patient was so distressed we had to pause him."

"Pause?" Beth echoed.

"Yes. We stopped his initiation partway and ejected him from local. The next time you try, we might use the blackout method."

Will nodded. "Yes sir."

"We can end it here. Remember, the automatons will be here tomorrow, but try not to act weirded out by them. If they start to question their sense of self those machines could malfunction."

Lloyd was the first to leave. A seven foot robot, walking beside him, protecting him. The mind of a person who had left their mortal life behind for this stupid grand illusion of immortality. He knew  they'd ask him why he hadn't left, if he was coming, etc. He knew they'd brag about the experience. He didn't give a damn, either. 

Coming home was different for him now. No one was there, and no one would be there but him. The hum of the ventilators was the only sound around. He grabbed a bottle of vodka from his fridge and sat in the living room. Turning on the tv and it was showing a special broadcast of the president, explaining his new mandate to the public. That jackass was 80. he didn't have to join the new world. Lloyd kept flipping channels until he found some random scifi movie about snakes. During the commercial breaks, he decided to play a game. For every advertisement he saw about the new world, he would take a sip. The bottle was near empty and he was unconscious by nightfall.

Some time later, Lloyd woke up to loud banging at his door. Groggy, confused and annoyed, he stood up to walk towards the door, only raising one foot before the blood rushed to his head and he fell flat on his face.

"Shit!" he swore angrily, clutching his face. He'd bitten his lip pretty badly. The loud banging continued, as if someone was hitting his door with a battering ram.

"I'm coming!" he shouted, making his way to the door.His head ached and his ears were ringing. He looked through the peephole and couldn't see a person, something dark was blocking the way. He thought about grabbing his gun but changed his mind and opened the door. Towering in front of him was a seven foot tall black robot in a dark grey uniform, taller than his doorway.

"You're Lloyd Hall, right?" said a male voice emanating from... somewhere within the robot.It had indents for eyes and the form of a nose and mouth, but nothing moved. Lloyd backed up a little, and the robot tilted its head in response..

"I... I am." he hesitated. "Why are you here?"

"You're an hour late. I was sent to come get you." The bot motioned behind him to an automated car.

"You came in that?" Lloyd asked the robot.

"Dude, no." the robot chuckled. "I ran. these automatons are fucking amazing."

"How does it feel to be inside one?" Lloyd asked, getting a little closer to the machine.

"Like the coolest game you've ever played." said the bot. "I jump so high I damn near fly. I run fast enough to make a cyclone of smog. These things are going to clean up the world,I have no doubt about it. But we're wasting time. hop in the ride. Unless you wanna ride piggyback."

The machine laughed again but Lloyd was still too unnerved to have a similar response.

"What's your name?" he asked as he put on his ventilator.

"You can call me Ben." Ben responded. "Short for Benjamin, obviously."

Ben was a real person. Lloyd knew this. He sounded real enough. But these bots...

The car cruised along while Lloyd sat inside, watching Ben jog next to him. He tried to picture hundreds, thousands of robots just like him, wandering through abandoned cities, trying to clean up the world. He shook the thought before it became tonight's nightmare. The car finally pulled up to Manifest Destiny and the scene was slightly different than it was yesterday. Two more were standing outside the entrance, one paying attention to the line of clients, the other was warding off a small group of dissenters.

The bystanders ogled him as he approached the entrance, all of their masks tilted in his direction, following his movements as he continued toward the building.

"I'll go in after you." Ben told him. He turned around to see the gigantic machine trying to give him a fist bump. He  reluctantly obliged and stepped through, going through the same process as before. At least six people turned around to see him, with some looking a little irritated.

"About time." said Peter, who was getting up from his desk. He motioned for someone sitting down and a Hispanic guy stood up, walking over to the two of them. 

"This is Miguel, he's been waiting for over an hour so uh, hop to it." Peter shoved the file in his hand and went back to his desk. Lloyd gave a feeble smile and apologized."

"Lazy piece of shit, I had better things to do with my time." he snapped, ignoring Lloyd's gesture for a handshake. Lloyd glared back at him before leading him towards the secret door. As soon as the secret door opened the entrance the entrance did too, revealing Ben, or one of the other automatons. They all looked the same. Ben crouched to walk through the doorway and walked up on Lloyd and Miguel, who looked at it with apprehension.

"Alright Lloyd, I'm back."

"Where do you think you're going?" Lloyd asked Ben, raising his hand. "I don't need you to follow me to the office.

"My job is to escort and protect-"

"Actually," said Peter. "You're is disturbing the other clients. The last thing they need is unnecessary anxiety before the transfer, right?"

Ben looked around the room, seeing the discomfort on everyone's faces. They definitely didn't look happy to see him. 

"You're right. I'll wait outside. Trust me though, when you guys join you'll love it!" he reassured the clients as he turned around and left. The mood in the room was less heavy without his presence. Lloyd and Miguel continued past the secret door, making it to his office door before Miguel asked him a question,

"Where do they keep people's bodies?"

"In cryogenic chambers." he answered as he opened the door. The lights slowly got brighter as they entered the room.

"That's not what I meant." said Miguel, looking around Lloyd's office in surprise. "Why is this so damn comfy?"

"It's supposed to be relaxing." Lloyd replied, still jilted by Miguel's earlier remark.

"Or to lull people into a false sense of security." he looked around the room. "Where are the cameras?"

"There are none." Lloyd replied as he tossed the files onto the desk. "We care about our client's pri-"

"Good." Miguel snarled as he slammed Lloyd up against his bookshelf, holding a wooden knife to his throat.