It was a long day, Morris Anderson went to his job at the office, visited his mother, and picked up his new registration for his car. He hopped out of his bed, his back was bothering him for a while it was the first time he got up and walked around since six-hundred ante meridiem. Morris looked out of the wide tinted windows; it was twenty-two thirty-four post meridiem the city streets where desolate, no people lurked the streets as the Videoscreen would warn him about. Not even a single car was either parked or rode anywhere through the streets. There were plenty of lights throughout the buildings as always; illusions just projections from being plugged into The NETWORK for too long.

Morris couldn't remember the first time he plugged in, The NETWORK was always there a part of his life. Because of this he would always see these projections from outside his window of people like him who is walking outside with weapons in a square pattern marching up and down the streets. Morris knew they weren't real because they all wore the same clothes walked in the same manner over and over in an endless loop every single day.

He turned around staring at the dark empty room where he physically resides; it was a blank white room, there was nothing except a window which purpose was to provide oxygen for his physical body and a bed where his body can rest. He didn't need food The NETWORK was self-sustaining and provide his body energy stimulants the serve as a replacement for food. Morris hates leaving The NETWORK every night, He feels vulnerable moving around, but he needs to keep his body in shape which it is mandatory for all users to walk around the room twenty times and perform thirty push ups every day to keep his limbs active.

It was his fourteenth time walking around the room; The NETWORK was next to him like an addiction he had a zeal for it. The Videoscreen emphasizes the importance of staying connected to The NETWORK. He was growing impatient walking around the room, he hungered to enter The NETWORK there was nothing else for him in this world. He continued until the nineteenth lap when he skipped and did the push ups. He pressed up on the ground as quickly as possible. Morris was an athletic person already. Years of exercise had extraordinary results to his physique. His obsidian colored hair mowed short and silky, his eyes were a murky brown, his skin a perfect smooth golden brown; it begin to glossing as sweat slid down his arms.

Morris stands up his exercise completed; he hustles to his bed and lies down. He prepares himself pressing several buttons on the control panel next to his bed. There is a low him from the visor which he places over his right eye. The control panel ran a system check quickly when the panel flashed green, Morris placed the needle into his right arm shortly he felt himself drifting off his vision became blurred and fuzzy, Morris sealed his eye lids and drifted off.

"Hey!" Morris opened his eyes he was standing in the middle of the street. There were people walking up and down the blocks, Morris heard the sound of a horn from behind. He spun around; there was a blue van he was obstructing. Morris moved to the sidewalk. There were stores, and bars all down the block it was the last place he remembered being in before he disconnected. He entered the bar where he was loitering with his friends.

Something flashed on his wristwatch; it was an update announcement about the Color-Coded system which was implemented a few days ago. In The NETWORK His friends and associates appear through this color-coded identifier which tells who he is in contact with, it makes it easier to deal with lookalikes, people with similar names as well. Dark blue represent friends, blue represents known people a person interacts with but is not friends. Light blue are people who are not known by the person but their friends, and lastly grey which represents people who a person or its friend doesn't know, which is ninety-eight percent of the population on The NETWORK.

Morris' visor scanned the bar there wasn't anyone highlighted in Blue save for the bartender. He wasn't in the mood to interact with anyone. He sat down and consumed a drink; Morris sat down next to the window, watching people stroll past him in glee. He enjoyed the peacefulness and quiet time there was something about The NETWORK that gave him a feeling of peace and stability, it was where he belonged. Reality was said to be anything that will exist, existed or yet to exist. Morris wonder on this a lot about why can't this place be real? There is no fighting, or chaos. Her everyone is equal socially at least.

"Excuse me," A man said shaking Morris right out of his thoughts. Morris looks up at the man the Color-code registered him as gray.

The man was bald, not really tall, below the average height even. He took the seat across from him. He didn't feel any worry from him it was impossible for him to cause any bodily harm to him. The man stared him down analyzing him, Morris stared back taking note of the stiff body gestures.

"The beer here is pretty decent," The man said

"Can I help you with something?" Morris asked.

"I am a revolutionary; I am recruiting people for a mission to free everyone from this place," The man whispered.

Morris froze at the man's statement. He was taken back like a blow of a great wind. He wants to free people? It didn't register to him. He didn't know anyone who was upset about The NETWORK before

"Why would you want to do something like that? This place is perfect." Morris responded.

The man leaned in closer. "This perfect place isn't real, it's all in our heads this isn't real life,"

"Because of The NETWORK people live without fear, war, disarray, there is nothing for us out there." I shot back.

"That what they told you! It's not true, our bodies are where reality truly is, here is where reality is created to control us," He said.

Morris heard enough, he placed five dollars on the table and walked out the door. He walked down the street at a quick pace to get away from the crazed man.

"Please listen!" He called out. The man raced behind Morris. He stopped next to him blocking him from his path.

"You Listen, leave me alone! Your crazy The NETWORK is the only way to interact with others. Without us interacting with others we become savages." He said.

The man gripped the bridge of his nose and dragged Morris into the nearby Alley, many people struck notice which gave him an uneasy feeling. The man was crazy Morris thought, but he sure didn't dress like it, long black coat with a suit and tie, he dressed more like a high-powered executive or a detective.

"There was a time before The NETWORK where millions of people walked around talking and interacting with their physical bodies, something happened which led to everyone being stuck in this place,"

"We are not stuck we can leave anytime we want," Morris replied.

"Then why is it that no one ever leaves their rooms or beds or walks the streets of the physical world?" He asked.

"There is nothing in the physical world, everything we see are hallucinations from –

"Long-Term usage of the network, I am familiar with that lie as well," he interrupted; he really is out of his mind Morris thought. Despite his utter disbelief in what gospel this man was throwing out he couldn't close the door where doubt was rushing through. What if he was right he thought suddenly, The Network was always here, but he never wonder why. What was the purpose of The Network? Was it something to protect us, but from what? The contradictions swam around like a pool of Yin Yang for Morris.

"You see them too haven't you? The Militia men walking up and down the street you knew they were real."

"There is nothing real about that place! This is reality I exist here!" Morris yelled. Everyone on the streets stopped and looked at us in the alley. The bald man stepped back and fixed his suit. Peopled stopped talking and walking they just stared at the two of us, we were norm-breaking at this time, behaving and acting in a manner which goes against what society was behaving.

"You yelled and broke norm," He said.

He felt himself doze off and fade out. Faster than a stroke of lightning he was back in that place; taking command of his false body. That empty room where none of it nothing was real; the window illusion of people marching, all of it all in his head. For breaking a norm he was forced to eject out of The NETWORK for two days. It was the first time he was ever suspended from The NETWORK and cast out into this prison seeing these illusions for forty-eight hours. It was only oh-one hundred hours and ten minutes ante meridiem. Morris turned to his control panel which was flashing red, he was completely locked out.

He sat there in the center of the room watching the red flashing. After two hours he began to feel his head spin, he began to hear voices from all around. He was disconnected and He needed to interact with others. The voices in his head began to get louder every 10 minutes and fade away completely 10 minutes later. He ran to the window, seeing the men walking outside it perfect synchronization it was nine of them.

With the only other option being enduring social deprivation he walked out of his white room into the white hallway he sprinted down to where he burst through the doors, outside were the soldiers marching down the street, they were wearing all black; all of them had on berets and holding weapons. Morris ran out to the middle of the street, the projections raised their guns.

"Martial Law is still in effect why you are not plugged in," They said.

"You can talk? what kind of projections –

A shot went off.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away."

-Philip K. Dick