[By the time Johnson's voice crackles over the radio, most of you have probably already evacuated your homes. Outside, the town appears to have gone to hell, with hazmats both glitched and "normal" ransacking the place and attacking anything that moves. Glitch holes litter the sky, buzzing and stretching, contorting the world into a nightmare horizon.
Johnson's voice doesn't sound angry anymore: it sounds afraid, and sad.]
You can't leave. I won't allow it... I control this place, I control you! I control everything! I... I get to be the one running the experiments, this time, not...
[There's a quiet sound that could be any number of things. Weeping? Laughing? It's hard to say.] Come back. Please come back. I won't hurt you, just- stay. You have to stay. Mayfield is perfect, I can fix this, I can... I can...
[her voice fades out; Annie's fades in.]
I don't know who's left, but whoever can hear this, don't listen to her. She's sorry now, but it won't be long before she's at your throats again.
This place, Mayfield, it's going under. The simulation won't last much longer at this rate. The one I'm sending you to should last for a while, a few years at least, but I don't know if it'll last forever. That's something for you to figure out, I suppose... [she coughs again- and it doesn't sound healthy.]
I'm sorry. I wish I could go with you, to show you how to work things, but I... I want to stay here, with her. I don't have much longer anyway, and I think it's best if the two of us are here, when Mayfield goes down. We're the last two left, so... it's kind of fitting, don't you think?
[silence for a moment, and then:] I know you probably won't believe me, but there was a time when we were actually happy here. Some of my best memories are from Mayfield, when things were good, before Zemekis went mad. I know a lot of you can't forgive him, and I don't blame you. But I really do believe that in the beginning, all he wanted was to save us from the wasteland. To give us a place we could call home.
I know that what he said... about you being copies... I know that it upset you. But if it means anything at all, I never knew the people you were copied from. But even before you saved me, I was watching you from the Library. I watched you live here, I watched you fight, I watched you laugh. So... to me, you're not copies. You're more real than any of us ever were. [you can only hear the words, but somehow you know: Annie smiles.] Good luck out there. Don't you forget about me! And... thank you, for everything.
...I'll miss you guys.
[And that's when the radio cuts out- for the last time.]
Johnson's voice doesn't sound angry anymore: it sounds afraid, and sad.]
You can't leave. I won't allow it... I control this place, I control you! I control everything! I... I get to be the one running the experiments, this time, not...
[There's a quiet sound that could be any number of things. Weeping? Laughing? It's hard to say.] Come back. Please come back. I won't hurt you, just- stay. You have to stay. Mayfield is perfect, I can fix this, I can... I can...
[her voice fades out; Annie's fades in.]
I don't know who's left, but whoever can hear this, don't listen to her. She's sorry now, but it won't be long before she's at your throats again.
This place, Mayfield, it's going under. The simulation won't last much longer at this rate. The one I'm sending you to should last for a while, a few years at least, but I don't know if it'll last forever. That's something for you to figure out, I suppose... [she coughs again- and it doesn't sound healthy.]
I'm sorry. I wish I could go with you, to show you how to work things, but I... I want to stay here, with her. I don't have much longer anyway, and I think it's best if the two of us are here, when Mayfield goes down. We're the last two left, so... it's kind of fitting, don't you think?
[silence for a moment, and then:] I know you probably won't believe me, but there was a time when we were actually happy here. Some of my best memories are from Mayfield, when things were good, before Zemekis went mad. I know a lot of you can't forgive him, and I don't blame you. But I really do believe that in the beginning, all he wanted was to save us from the wasteland. To give us a place we could call home.
I know that what he said... about you being copies... I know that it upset you. But if it means anything at all, I never knew the people you were copied from. But even before you saved me, I was watching you from the Library. I watched you live here, I watched you fight, I watched you laugh. So... to me, you're not copies. You're more real than any of us ever were. [you can only hear the words, but somehow you know: Annie smiles.] Good luck out there. Don't you forget about me! And... thank you, for everything.
...I'll miss you guys.
[And that's when the radio cuts out- for the last time.]
Leave a comment