Epilogue

By the time the sun was climbing up from afar, the city started to calm down as hackers escaped when a vague of armored vehicles and drones swarmed the city, ran by a system that Owinson had designed once the night was over. The protesters were suppressed, sent back to their homes. Half of the gangsters were shot to the ground and put on trucks to be taken outside the city. The remnants of the civilians remained inside their homes, watching the world turn darker despite the rising sun. It was true, the city was left with the dancing smoke even after the whole chaos, ashes wandering up in the air. By the afternoon, the president issued a speech at the capital, insisting on keeping a private security company in charge of the city.

The doctor stood in between the stiff bodies of his brother and Roger, both stiff with their eyes permanently turning into mirroring glass. The doctor put his hands on the pad, watching his brother's eyes fully glassy when they were supposed to be closed. He wondered whether he returned to his body and suffered death. Still, whether his consciousness remained or Roger splattered its data, the doctor would never know. A few more seconds and he would fall to the ground after his heart had stopped beating. Jeremy walked down the stairs, finding Roger on the floor. It was too late to say anything else; he put his friend in his arms while he walked out of the hideout. Roger's hair floated, some of the ash nested in his cheeks.

From the news about Garlem, it switched to give updates on the current nation conflict, especially with a malfunction in a nuclear reactor in Europe. Apart from that, there had been a growing trend around the country and among the community at Silicon Valley to adopt Garlem's style and consider the production of hovering cars and service bots with a single system to keep the whole of it intact. Jeremy ignored it all, placing his friend in his car before he took the road outside the city, noticing a rippling pin in the map.

Outside the city, Lorenzo stood next to Catherine by the side of the road before a rushing car arrived. The father jumped and went on his knees when the little Catherine held him with embrace. He kissed his little girl on the cheek, holding her tight.

"I'm sorry I've put you through all that, honey. I promise I'll fix you, no matter what," the old man said, surrounding his daughter with embracing arms. She wouldn't let him ago as tears descended down her eyes to his shoulders. A couple of government officials stood away, looking at Catherine and her father.

"We got him, sir, all of them. They'll pay," an agent said to Lorenzo.

"Hey, did you arrange the transfer? Things are calming down, it's time to take them back to the city," Patrick said.

"Don't worry, we got four armored trucks coming to the spot. We'll take 'em shortly, we're gonna be escorted with special forces. They ain't getting out of I,t I'm telling you," the agent said, looking at the left. He saw Tamara sitting by herself on the hill, the wind playing with her hair.

"What are we gonna do with her?"

"Nothing, we kept her with us until things calm down. We'll call a vehicle and get her home," Lorenzo said, walking away from the agent to his own car. He closed his eyes and placed both of his feet on the steering wheel. He gasped, picking up his lighter and his box of cigarettes. As he put the thing in between his lips with the lighter just under its end, he saw the reflection of his father about to start smoking in the window. He hesitated, putting them away from him.

Tamara kept wondering about a recorded message she heard earlier, about an hour before dusk.

"Tam, this is probably the last thing you'll hear of me. And if you do, it means I'm not existing anymore, neither in reality or in simulation. I threw all of my data across the network in hope of fully erasing Owinson off the world. I just wanted to tell you that I did want to come back to you. I guess you just can't go through all that and expect a merry ride to the sunset, but I hope I'll make a difference to know that I did want the merry ride to the sunset. Around one, if my calculations are right, the one who's gonna bury my body will bring it near your location down the hill. I'm… I don't know what to say really, I've never known what to say. I just want you to forget about the last two months, to move on and live. With the way things are going, Garlem won't be safe anymore. I love you, Tamara, I always did. Maybe the chip put a damper on my mind, stopped me, but now even though I have become a numerical being, I still feel for you in a realm beyond this one."

Tamara stopped the message with only a blink as it was directly sent to her mind with Roger's vanishing into bits. She wept, stretching her hand to pick up the tears in despair. She spotted a movement down the hill. She moved off the road, sliding down the hill at the exact time when her transportation arrived. With every stumble and fall, she'd remember him speaking to her, laughing, drilled with shyness, the moment he left for space and the moment he wiped the tear off her face. She stood from afar, watching Jeremy digging into the soil. He dug into the soil, wiping the sweat off his forehead as Roger remained in the car. He then threw Roger's body into the heart of the soil, covering the hole with the soil. Jeremy's face could not be explained, stiff and cold. He then grabbed a little rock from the side, placing it near Roger's head.

He then stood in abeyance, the shovel in his hand.

"Jeremy," Tamara said, standing beside him.

"Hey," he said, panting. "I tried, I tried to come back for him in time, it's just that…" Jeremy said, unable to keep a tear inside.

"Sh, please, I don't want to hear any of it. I don't want to think about anything," Tamara said. She remembered the last part of the recording, looking up at the city with the smoke surrounding its sky, civilian cars fleeing it while more security trucks drove in.

You know, I could have done something to maybe lessen the damage. But I would just be like Owinson then, I wouldn't trust how far my ambition will go. So I released myself, hoping that'll redeem me and the human race. Now, a probable war is coming and the way of life will change, maybe not tomorrow or next year, but soon, soon enough. Take care of yourself.

She looked back, Uncle was there behind her. A hot tear fell. Something tingled in her mind. She wondered what her chip sought to tell her.