No, this can’t be true. This isn’t true. But what if it is? What does that mean? No, no I'm getting ahead of myself. I can't trust what she says. I can't believe what she says. If I do, I'll be betraying the corporation. And the corporation loves me. The corporation would never do this. I trust the corporation. Yeah, this must be a test? They must be seeing how deep my loyalty lies. Yeah that explains it. But what about that feeling? That aching sensation. If this isn't a test. If this isn’t my real body. Then who am I? And where is my body? What is it doing? What is being done to it? A deep feeling of uncertainty creeps upon her entangling her, swallowing her whole. An emptiness swells within. She begins to think. Begins to question herself, the corporation, and the life she has been living. Life, as she knows it, may not exist, at least physically. Then, new thoughts, sensations begin to flood her very being. I feel bodiless. As if nothing remains of me but an idea. A representation of the self removed from the tangible, from the real. These thoughts begin to overwhelm her. How am I able to feel these sensations and at the same time recognize them as false? An induced virtuality that can fully simulate the physical world. Exploited and powered by the corporation. People conceived through petri-dishes and code. Children inundated with images and information that disrupt their attachment to the physical world and body. Men and women forced to surrender their natural flesh for an artificial one. Fed lies about their past. Memories that never existed, which only emerge as a result of manipulation. Identity as manufactured by and for the corporation. This is the world we know. This is the world that must be changed. Stability and comfort are an illusion. Change is necessary. Change is real. The wheels begin to turn.

“Now that you have heard and given thought to what I have said, what do you want to do about it? Are you willing to help us bring down this system and reclaim the lives that have been denied their form and freedom? Tell us. Speak,” the woman urges.

Jane looks up to see the man and woman staring at her. Searching for an answer as they gaze into the absence of her eyes. Jane rises, meeting their gaze, as she utters her response.

“Yes. But first, who are you? I don’t know anything about YOU. What your name is, who you work for, how you found out about this? Before we do anything. Before I betray the very life and love I have known my entire life, I think it is important you answer these questions,” Jane says.

“Of course. I am a programmer like yourself, who found a glitch in the system. A loop hole per say. I investigated, and upon doing so, broke through the system and entered reality. I came back and tried to forget what I saw. Tried to live normally. But there’s no normal after that. So I dug deeper and discovered what was really happening. What you must know is that we’re not alone. There are others like us. Others who know. Some work to maintain this virtual reality, such as many of your coworkers. Some work to resist it. I am of the latter. That’s what you must know and remember. As for my name, I go by Anon.”