"What happened?" I asked, a little too angrily.

Noa either didn't notice my tone or didn't show it. "They just started showing up."

The "they" she mentioned were people. Only, they barely looked like people. In front of me stood a woman who appeared more gorilla than human. She scratched at her head erratically. Her eyes were all out of proportion as she looked at us pleadingly.

A man stood behind her, his legs replaced with oversized sledgehammers. Otherwise, his upper half looked normal.

"Hey, can you speak?" I asked him.

"Yeah." He replied and walked over, the sound of his metal feet echoed throughout the atrium. He winced each time he lifted a leg, his face a mask of pain.

"What happened?" I asked.

"They broke down my door last night, dragged me to the jail. My wife and daughter too. They put me into a cell with these," he pointed at his legs. "And told me to bring them into my lab and merge them with my body."

"Who did?" I asked.

"Regulators," he said.

Regulators were assholes. But they had always kept their distance from us, so we hadn't had too much contact with them.

The mayor declared a state of emergency in New York after the Awakening. I remember the broadcast he made. "We can't rely on the old ways to maintain peace. Our citizens are attacked by abominations daily. We must restore order. Our answer are the Regulators. We've built them up, giving them enhanced strength and abilities, to keep the peace. Our old system of laws and courts will need updating as well. Until then we are suspending habeas corpus and granting our Regulators the power to stop crime and punish the criminals as they see fit."

In a way it had worked. The random violence that resulted from people using their labs to experiment, and then losing control, disappeared. But there were stories of these Regulators attacking innocent people. They were thugs who enjoyed their jobs a little bit too much.

I felt bad, but I needed to ask, "I understand how they could force you to the jail, but they can't make you change your code. Why didn't you refuse?"

The man's eyes filled with water. "I know they say that none of this is real, but they began torturing my wife and daughter. They did it even before they told me what I needed to do. I begged them to stop and that’s when they told me what I had to do for them."

Those bastards. I took a breadth. I wanted to run out and kill them all. I felt the adrenaline course through my veins.

"What happened after you," I gestured to his legs.

"They made them do the same thing. Only,” he turned his head to compose himself, “They didn't survive their mergers. I had to watch them. They turned..." He lost his shit then and began crying uncontrollably.

I took Noa aside, "I don't get it, why would they turn him into this if they weren't going to use him for anything? What do they get out of it?"

I must have spoken loud enough for him to hear me. The man choked back his sobs, "They made me use some sort of special lab table. It let me send them the recording of the merge."

Oh shit. They had taken the lab table that we had invented, and they were using it to record experiments on humans. We had expressly forbidden anyone from doing that within our community. I had fought for hours with O about this. We aren't humans, he had said, we are code. Now I knew what had happened. O had taken his work to the mayor’s office. That explained all the disappearances people reported to us these last few days.

I sent a message to the management team. "We need to talk. Meet in the board room in twenty minutes."

Sara, Wen, Noa, Eyal, Charlie and I sat at the table in silence. A steady stream of updates continued to fill up our chat boxes.

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Eyal summarized, "We are certain they converted the UN Headquarters into a holding facility. One of their merger experiments resulted in a man blasting holes throughout the facility. It sounds like a bunch of people died, but it also created holes that other prisoners streamed out from. We think a few hundred got out before they regained control again."

Sara asked, "How many do you think are still inside?"

Eyal replied, "We'd been receiving reports of abductions this week, but no way to know numbers for sure. Analysis from public posts puts our guess at over ten thousand people missing."

I couldn't believe it. "No word from the city?"

Eyal replied, "Not yet."

Noa interrupted, "There is now." She pushed the video feed up to the wall monitor.

"Acting Mayor Ruby is about to make a statement."

Ruby stepped into view, a grim expression on her face. "Experimentation on people has always been expressly forbidden. Unfortunately, someone has broken that rule. We have reports of hundreds of people who have been grossly disfigured by the use of specialized lab tables. The source of these illegal and immoral experiments is the Beacon."

"What the shit." I couldn't stop myself.

Ruby, looking straight into the camera, pled, "We are asking the Beacon to turn themselves in peacefully. I know there are only a few bad apples behind this, as we've received so many benefits from them in the past. We promise that only those directly involved will be held responsible. Our teams are on their way to accept their surrender."

Noa spoke up, "They have to know it isn't us. As soon as they come here and find no evidence, everyone will know they are lying. I don't understand."

Sara sneered, "Of course they know. They are the one's doing the experiments. We are the only ones that could stand up against them. Everyone will be scared, they will want us to hand over the Beacon. And when we do, they will fabricate the evidence."

Charlie looked scared, "But if we don't, people will think we are guilty."

Eyal stood up, "We have a another problem,” we all looked over at him. “They are recording those experiments on people. They plan to use it for something. We should assume that the next version of those Regulators will be much more dangerous. I'm not sure if our security team could stop them if they decided to take over by force."

Everyone remained quiet.

I had to break the silence. "This is the part in the movie where we come up with a really good plan."

Wen spoke up, "I have a plan, but I need you to get something for me first."

I smiled, "There we go! Ok, what do you need?"

Wen replied, "I need a thermonuclear warhead."

"Right!” I looked around, “Anyone else have a plan?"

Silence.

The smiled melted off my face. "Why do we need a nuke, Wen?"

"To draw a map."

"Ok... Cuckoo.” I twirled my finger by my head, “Seriously, does anyone else have a plan?" I asked.

Charlie, innocent as always, asked, "What does the map show?"

This time Wen smiled, "It will enable us to see source of power for the simulation. Once we find the source, or sources, we should be able to take control of them. If we control the power, we will control the entire simulation."

I shook my head. "Wen, you know we support your research. But Wen, we don't have much time. We need to focus on the problem of the Regulators. I'd like to make a counter proposal. We ramp up our own military. We recruit by offering the highest skill levels and the best weapons and armor we have developed. Then we take the fight to them and expose their plans."

Wen shook his head, "James, you always treat this simulation like a game you can win. You can't level up and beat the boss here."

I lifted an eyebrow. Wen always surprised me when he decided to share. Now was no different. Still, I disagreed, "Wen, we can't do anything if we are dead. You get to work in that lab of yours, oblivious to the world, but right now we need to focus on what is important.”

Wen stared me down hard. "All I do is focus on what is important. You have forgotten that our goal is to get out of the simulation. Or at least understand why it exists." Wen picked up Noa's helmet from the table and dropped it to the ground. It clanged loudly as it bounced on the hard granite floor. "You keep thinking that you can ensure peace through superior firepower. Everything you do focuses on leveling up.”

Was that true? What about Charlie, didn't I support him? Wen must have read my mind.

"You support Charlie because he makes new things that make you stronger. It’s just another form of leveling up. We need to stop thinking about ourselves as individuals. We are not individuals. O might have had the wrong approach, but he didn't have the wrong idea. We are not individuals. We are part of a huge codebase. We need to evolve the entire code base, the entire simulation, not just our code within the simulation."

The table went quiet again. Everyone looked at Sara.

Sara responded with surprise, "Why are you all looking at me?" She knew, of course, and rolled her eyes. "Ok, fine. I don't get any of your philosophical arguments, but here is how I see it. James, you are right that if we get killed we can't do anything. So we will fight. But I like an unfair advantage. So Wen, we will get you what you need. James and Eyal and I will lead the attack against the Regulators, hold them back. Noa and Charlie, you go steal a nuke for Wen."

I didn't like the idea of splitting efforts. That usually led to two mediocre outcomes. But if Sara and Eyal were staffed on my idea, it shouldn't matter. They were the best strategist and tactician within the Beacon. Once we stopped the Regulators, we could take all the time we needed for Wen.

"Ok, I agree." I said.

"Works for me," Wen said.

"Me three!" Charlie blurted.

Everyone else smiled and nodded in agreement.