The Neosun was obscured by the towering height of the hangar. John and Gary sat alone with each other by the chain link fence; near the tall metallic husks of the pine trees.

  John sat within his heated coat. Brown, cushy, synthetic. Gary’s skin felt like crystal against the nippy air, his arms exposed without onlookers.

  The shade of the foe-leaves sheltered them from most of the rain. They spoke, looking far into the resistance. Most of it, contained within that ultimately-small hangar.

  “How did you do it for so long?” John asked Gary. Gary replies rather honestly. “I don't know.”

  He grabs his canteen of warm coffee off the ground and takes a sip. “Ahh… I've been hanging out for some good shit like this.”

  “I'd bet.” John replies. “So where have you been the last couple days?”

  Gary takes another sip before he answers. The thunder, lightning, wind, rain, it's all getting old at this point. It is as notable as the ground being wet. “Contemplating. Wondering. Y’know, I wasn't planning on coming back.”

  “So why are you here?” John asks. Gary takes another sip, then puts his drink down. He looks at John to get John's attention.

  “Son... probably for moments like this.”

  John nods but Gary looks away as he continues.

  “And besides, look at all of this. I could never have imagined this shit in my wildest dreams not so long ago. Something is... finally happening.”

  John looks to where Gary looks. Yet John doesn't see what Gary sees. “Doesn't feel like anything is happening man. I can go out and perform the most risky crap you've ever seen. I'll feel great— alive in the moment. But then it ends. And I come back here. And then it doesn't feel like anything.”

  “Will anything make you happy?” Gary asks with a quick glance.

  John doesn't return the look. His sight is fixed as he replies. “No… I don't think anything will make me happy. Happiness has to be fought for.”

  “You reckon?” Gary asks as he looks again at John. His eyes stay on John just as John's stay on the hangar. “And what the fuck have you been doing since before I even met you John?”

  “Surviving.” John answers. Gary looks away from the young man.

  He shakes his head, not that it matters as he replies.

  “I'm not a therapist. Hell, I don't even know if therapists still exist at this point. But you're wrong John, you might feel like whatever the fuck, but reality would beg to differ.”

  “What difference does it make?” John asks.

  Gary grows frustrated by his refusal to look. And so he gets up and walks in front of John, his body getting wet from the rainfall.

  “John. So you want to know what I was doing while I was gone? I was planning to drive myself into a wall to go see her again. I almost did. Twice. And yet every time, I would pussy out last minute. And do you want to know why?”

  John finally looks up to Gary. John's body, a cavernous pit as he asked.

  “Why?”

  Gary answered. “Because I realized I was being selfish. I wasn't put on this Earth to feel good. Imagine if you died, and then Amy killed herself to join you. Wouldn't that piss you off?”

  John doesn't reply as the outside fills in the air. Nor does he reply as he stands. He only speaks at his full height. The taller, younger John looked down on the veteran Gary. The words he spoke were more of a mutter.

  “Amy doesn't matter that much to me anymore.”

  “Pfttt, bullshit.” Gary says as he sits back down. Looks like he has John's full attention now. “You're denying something bud. Not just you, but her too. And it's causing both of you trouble I can tell.”

  “There are more important things to worry about!” John raises his voice with.

  Gary scoffs and gets back up, threateningly close to John. “Yeah. You're right John. So get the fuck out of your head and be a leader.”

  “I didn't ask for this!” John protested. Gary replies.

  “You think that happiness has to be fought for, asshole? Then start fucking fighting for it instead of getting stuck in your own head like a bitch!”

  John rips himself away from the shade into the rain. He's clearly losing it, though Gary stays out. John took a few fuming steps away, then returned with similar haste and vehemence.

  “You're the only fucking person who knows about this! Only you know what this is like! You think I can just waltz in there and become something I'm not?! Everyone can like me as much as they want, I'm not some fucking leader!” John calmed down slightly and looked down into the tarry dirt.

  At that moment, it seemed his jacket died as its subtle yellow accents turned off.

  “All I wanted was some peace. To figure out what has been gnawing at me this whole time. All leaving the system as brought me is more fucking confusion. I've had a taste of what a… a free world is like. This is not it.”

  There is another pause. Though it is a more understanding one. Gary comes forward into the rain to comfort John. His hand on his shoulder, and his head held as low as John's.

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  “Then maybe you aren't fighting for happiness John. That shit is fleeting— you're never gonna have it. Maybe what you're fighting for is freedom.”

  Gary tells him. Gary gives him a tap on the shoulder and leaves towards the hangar. Though, John stays put. Staring at the ground. Gary looks back and pauses.

  “Are you coming or what?” He asks John.

  John looked back and failed to move.

  “No. Not yet. Come back here and sit with me.” John demanded.

  Gary complied, and so the two took a seat yet again. Now it's just soggier and colder.

  John began to shiver as spoke, all while Gary got comfortable.

  “Gary. All of this talks about leadership and meaning. It reminded me of something from around when we first met.” John looks to Gary who he sees is listening intently. “When Amy and I were in your office and you only believed we were fine because of what I said. About the Arch—”

  “Hold on John. I'm going to have to stop you there. Tread carefully.”

  Gary warns in an interruption.

  John leans forward and gets out of his seat slightly, his eyes turning to warning lights, his body standing slightly as if he's about to pounce.

  “Gary. I don't give a fffffuck about having to tread lightly around you anymore. I have questions, and I think you have some answers for me.”

  Gary took it like a champ. He hides a small smirk on the right side of his face where John can't see.

  “Alrighty boss. What do you need to know?”

  John sits back down, maintaining his foreboding.

  “The Archliege. What is it?”

  “I told you that's for you to figure out.” Gary pivots.

  John doesn't buy it. “I'm not asking what— okay… let me rephrase. What do you believe the Archliege is?”

  Gary nods as he thinks of the question. His answer takes a couple seconds to arrive.

  “To me? Well… I don't really know to be real with you. I always imagine it being a sort of sacred prophet, or a concept, I suppose. The point was the fact it was revered. Or at least, that's my opinion.”

  “Sweet.” John says as he rises. He takes a deep breath out as if he just dropped a heavy weight. “Thanks man. That's all I needed to know for now.”

  John had extended his hand, which Gary gracefully took.

  They both stand with John taking initiative.

  “Let’s head back for the hangar. There's something you might want to see.” They both leave towards the compound through the soaking wet.

  A soggy walk across the range and into a side door, leaving them close to the virtual device bay not yet in use. Their talk lasted a few hours despite not having felt like a couple minutes.

  The hangar is sterile. Not because those who inhabit it are dead, but because it is part of a dying world. White, gray, black, it doesn't matter. It's the inside of the hanger. What matters is what John grabs.

  “You see this? This was the virtual device me and Amy first looked through when we saw the truth.”

  Gary looks at it. He gets closer and taps his index finger on the visor.

  “You brought this with you at Hastings?” He asks, his eyes hawking on to John.

  John replies. “Yes. Though we never used it.”

  Gary chews on nothing, something clearly happening in his head as the two stare at each other.

  Gary backs up. “You've got one part of that wrong son. There's no such thing as truth inside of one of those things.”

  “I know what you're saying. Just trust me.” John tells him, handing Gary the headset. Gary snatches it, walks into the treadmill and puts it on.

  John moves to boot up the very simulation that he and Amy experienced. He didn't dare look at the screen, as he wanted to savor enjoying it again for himself. Though John could tell when it began for Gary.

  He goes through the same motions he did. Looking at the ground, then the grass, then the trees, then the sky.

  Gary seemed a bit quicker than John was, making his way through the clearing. John figures that he reached the vista once he pauses in place and looks around.

  Gary's breathing grows deeper and almost… flustered? He continues to look around in place. A few people pass by and give John a wave which he sends back their way.

  He looks back to Gary, who is… shaking his head.

  Then slowly, he begins to take the headset off until he holds it under his arm. His breaths are deep. John can tell that whatever it is, he is full of emotion.

  John moves around to greet him as he steps back down. His face is a mess. He is clearly very, very angry at something.

  Gary shoves the headset into John, who takes it apprehensively. Gary speaks in a deadly tone. “That… you...” Gary struggles to get the world out, clearly holding back something.

  “I did— I didn't want to like that. I hate those fawkin machines with all my might.”

  “What are you getting at?” John asks, not having yet processed the words of the man who had seen it for himself. Gary was slow to reply, shaking his head again while grimacing strongly.

  “That was a fantasy like all the rest of the shit on these screens. An idealized version of what was.”

  Gary puts his hand on John’ shoulder as he prepares to leave.

  “But I will tell you something boy. I've seen the Sun before. And the sky. That? In there? That is what it used to look like. So fawk all of ‘dis happiness bullshit. That there is what you're fighting for. And fight for it, like it's the last hope in your life.”

  Gary went God knows where after his parting words. As John stands there holding the headset, a warmness arrives. Not from his looted coat, no, that remains turned off. The warmth he feels is as if his body was turned to face the sunlight.

  It came from within; the true promises of a new day, even if that promise is delivered through the veil.

  Of the sun or the sky or the birds among the clouds. Nothing can escape the grasps of corporate manufacturing.

  Not yet. Nothing may be authentic anymore, at least if it was created in the modern day. But something once was. A truth that is out there, yet only needs to be found.

  As he carefully lays the headset down by the treadmill, the voice of what seems to be reason comes on in his head.

  “The real world must be fought for.”

  He puts the headset down. He stands back up.

  He leaves to prepare for the next meeting.