Twenty Twenty-Four

1

Where's Arthur?

Fine, what do you want?

I completely forgot.

Thanks for reminding me.

What is it?

I'm in the middle of something.

What's the problem?

Is it serious or can it wait

till I am finished here.

Fail?

F***!

F***!

No, don't do that.

I said no!

You.

A bat.

You ask me why I'm wasting my

time on these stupid questions.

Why, I spent months doing this sh*t.

What's the point?

Things up top are worse

than ever, Roy.

Negotiations have failed.

The clock now stands

at one minute to midnight.

I'm ordering you to move

Plethura into its final stage.

Licorice.

Yes.

The time is now.

You got 24 hours to adapt

the bunker accordingly.

At that point,

Priority 1 will be with you

in less than two hours.

The moment they arrive,

you are to enter the elevator,

and ride it back to the surface.

Understand?

Yeah, I know the protocol.

Good.

Because there won't be

a moment to waste.

Why leave it so late?

We've got one chance

of getting this right.

There is no room

for premature mistakes.

There won't be any.

Plethura will be ready in time.

What's happened to your hand?

Nah.

Nothing, just a mishap.

Why wasn't this reported up top?

It's no big deal,

I didn't think it was important.

Every thing is important, Roy!

This is a deliberate

breach of protocol,

and not for

the first time either.

Do you have a problem

with authority, Roy?

Is that it?

I just want to be trusted

to do my job.

I've got everything

under control down here.

Let's get one thing

straight, Roy.

You are not in control

of this situation.

As a man, you are expendable.

It's what you do which serves

a higher purpose.

You know that.

Yeah, I do.

No, I know

the responsibilities, okay?

Good.

Because this isn't

just about PlethurRoy.

Future generations

will live or die

by the decisions

that we make today.

This is much bigger

than you or I.

It won't happen again.

Have you got anybody on top?

No.

How very lucky you are.

Isn't that respect

too much to ask?

I am a scientist,

for Christ's sake!

And you really expect me

to go running off to mummy

just 'cause I cut my hand!

I'm not a f***ing child.

F*** Priority One!

If it weren't for me,

then we'd all be dead.

No Plethura,

no safe haven, nothing.

What I'm doing is selfless.

I mean, I'm just a pencil

mark in the pages of history.

Someone's always watching.

I just wanted to know I made

a difference, that's all.

Look, Arthur, I'm sorry

if I was a bit...

Ratty earlier.

I'm just... A little

out of sorts lately.

Well, to tell the truth,

I'm feeling a bit nervous

about heading back up top.

Well,

I know I was never meant

to survive down here.

I had a job to do.

A duty.

I did the best I could.

I guess I'm just finding it

harder to leave this place

than I thought I would.

Yeah.

Right outside,

I'd be afraid of surviving.

Well, that's the duality

of man, Arthur.

See, it doesn't matter

what happens up top.

And it won't matter what

happens down below either.

We're never

gonna change, Arthur.

That's the reality.

As a child, I was raised

in a Catholic orphanage.

Once when I was

around nine or ten,

one of the priests caught me

pulling the wings of a fly.

Not in a sadistic way.

I was just a kid.

And innocent.

But the priest took it upon

himself to discipline me.

Privately.

Away from judging eyes.

He told me we mustn't harm

any of God's creatures,

no matter how small or

insignificant they may seem.

And he tried

to exercise his point

by whipping me with a cane

as thick as a man's thumb.

Enough times to draw blood.

A lesson, he told me.

So I feel the same pain

as the fly.

And that's when I realized,

it wasn't God that made

the world this way.

The darkness,

it lives in each of our souls.

That's why we deserve

what we get.

I don't know.

I always found it difficult

to connect with people up top,

so I just,

gave up and...

Ah, you know, talk.

Relate.

Care.

No, I am talking to wires

and programming,

designed to make me think

that I am talking to a person,

but I am not.

Well, I guess, pride goes

before destruction.

It's a proverb.

I supposed we did it to

ourselves because we could.

And we deny it.

Choose not to acknowledge the

knife-edge we are living on.

In a way, yeah.

To spare ourselves pain?

Make life seem worth living?

I don't know anymore.

No, no, no. This can't be happening.

This can't...

Well, are there any

communications from up top?

What about Priority One?

I didn't make it.

I want all the data

collected from the surface.

We need to work out

the blast radius.

What are you talking about?

The clock's running.

What the hell

happened out there?

What is it?

Of course, I am.

I shouldn't be alive.

A lot of people died, Arthur.

I'm now a relic

of an endangered species.

Wouldn't you be sad?

This conversation's over.

Stop asking me that.

How do you think I'm feeling?

All right.

Of course, you can.

What is it?

Yeah.

That's what you are.

Yeah, but...

What are you talking about?

I'm not sure.

Perhaps, but it's rare

for me to remember.

It's most likely

just the surveillance feeds.

Every 24 hours,

the protocol states that

the surveillance feed must be

backed up to the hard drive.

They're not dream, Arthur.

They're duplicates.

You're seeing the past and present

simultaneously. That's all.

I'm kind of busy right now.

Where's it coming from?

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