0 & 1

print("Twenty Six")

Arya

I was woken up by rapping on my door. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, my eyes blinded by the dim lights in the room.

"...muh?" I mumbled.

It was John.

"Everyone's gathering in the living room," he said. "You should join us. Summer says it's pretty important."

I groan but step out of my bed and onto the floor. I had pins and needles in my toes, but I managed to follow John and limp to the living room.

I smelled awful. It was embarrassing, really; of course, no one smelled particularly nice - we were surviving in a stone base, so it obviously wasn't expected. However, I hadn't taken a shower since I got here, and it was amazing what the human body could whip up in that time.

I plopped onto the surprisingly cushioned couch next to Raven, who furrowed her eyebrows and wrinkled her nose as soon as I sat.

"You smell like shit," she said, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I was just thinking that," I replied. "Is there a shower in this place?"

She shrugged. "Sort of. You put a bucket of water in a pipe and it trickles down through a drainer kind of thing. A bunch of plant-based soap was left for us by our ancestors, which is super convenient. So much that it never runs out. Water is scarce, though, so use that sparingly."

I was pleasantly surprised. "Is there deodorant?"

Raven gave me a what-do-you-think look. I gave her a side-ways glance.

Soon, Lena and Paris joined us. Summer stood and faced everyone that was sitting.

"We need to talk," she said, "about the robots."

I raised my eyebrows and nodded.

"It has been way too long that they've been here," she said, "and with the help of Lena and Arya, we might just be able to pull it off."

"Pull what off?" asked Lena.

"Killing them," I said. "Disintegrating them. Rampaging them. Doing what they did to us back to them."

Raven nodded. "Basically."

Summer picked up a bumpy, rectangular gray board and some kind of mineral.

"How the hell are you getting these things?" said Lena.

Summer scratched the word "plan" on the board and underlined it. "Stone," she said, tapping on the board, "and talc." She held up the mineral.

"Unfortunately for us, the robots don't have many weaknesses. Sure, in the Phantasm, they can be killed with guns and knives, but we discovered that they are simply weaker in the Phantasm. They have to pour their entire code into one program. That, in itself, takes a lot of effort. To maintain that presence in the program is just as difficult."

"They were pretty strong in the Phantasm," I said. "I can't imagine how much stronger they're going to be here. Why don't we just fight them in the Phantasm?"

John answered for her. "In the Phantasm, it appears that they hook their entire hive to the program. As soon as one disappears, another one reappears. It would be endless, and we would probably die before we finish them all off."

Lena raised an eyebrow. "And we wouldn't die in real life when we fight them?"

"In the real world," said Paris, "they are more individual. Their minds are all connected, but their physical bodies are not. It would be easier to take them down one by one."
Lena shook her head. "We'd still die. Whether we're in the Phantasm or the real world, we can't fight all of them."

"Which is why we need to get to the core," said Summer. She wrote on the board, "1. Wreck the plant."

I blinked a few times. "I'm sorry, what?"

"The core," repeated Summer, "or the plant. All computers have some sort of central system where the key parts to it are stored. We destroy that, it'll all be done. Everyone's minds will be freed, the robots will break down, just like that."

I scrunched my eyebrows together. "Then why would we need to fight them individually?"

Raven pointed to the window. "Once we go out of that shield, every single Symbiont will be locked on us with only one intention. We can't run from them. We can only hold them off until the plant is being found and destroyed."
Everyone turned to look at Lena and I.

Lena shot to her feet. "Seriously? We have to go destroy it? Why?"

Summer looked wide-eyed at Raven, as though she didn't know either. Raven rolled her eyes.

"We've found that the robots won't kill you. We're not sure as to why, but we believe it's because some part of you is still attached to the Phantasm. I'm sure you didn't see random Symbionts killing people while you were in the Phantasm."

Lena gaped at her. "Won't kill us? I'm not sure if you were watching or not, but we both almost died when we first got here."

Raven gave her a small smile. "You would've died, if you didn't have that protection. Believe it or not, that wasn't all you and your stunts. You were protected by your attachment."

Lena was too stunned to speak.

Raven continued. "Blowing up the plant is the primary part of this mission. We need people that are nearly guaranteed to make it to the core to blow it up. It doesn't matter what happens to us."
I frowned. "But you'll die."

Paris cut in. "It would be okay, if it would free the rest of the human race. I'm sure you'd agree, if you were in our shoes."

I agreed, and sighed.

"There's really no easier way to go about this?" I asked. "Can't we fly a drone or something to bomb it?"

"The Symbionts are big," answered John, "but they aren't stupid. They'd know it was us."

I rubbed my eyes and slunk down in my seat. "Great."