What the hell are you talking about?

John thought for a moment then answered angrily, "What on earth are you talking about? How do you define reality? Who made you god that you should change anyone's point of view. How do you know what is real and what is not. Over 75% of the City's citizens are digital. They are real, but they exist only in the Mainframe."

The man answered quickly, "Reality is living in the real world that God created, breathing real air, eating real food and living under the sun."

John thought quickly, "How do you even know these people you returned to reality had any bodies to go back to. Most of the people who come here do so when their physical body dies, or is damaged beyond repair. What about them? Besides I can just restore their backups and no one will really be the worse for wear."

"We have also erased their backups. No one will be coming back. If they were digital then they are not real and cannot really be killed; only turned off. If their body has died then they should die to keep the natural order. The City has become wicked, sex and sin everywhere. Women and men fornicate whenever and with whoever they want. The bounds of family and marriage have been broken. Men take sex with unwilling women with very little punishment. Women have sex with other women and animals and still there is not punishment. Oral sex and sodomy are common and accepted. RIB is now ready to deliver punishment, to bring the City and the society of the Mainframe back to reality."

John was stunned by the depth of the man's accusations and his zealous appeals to basically **** everyone in the City and destroy the mainframe. He had checked out the most recent backups and Kinson was correct, the backups had been deleted as well. How could RIB have done that? No one could get into the Backup who did not work for the Department, and there were only a handful of people at the Department who had access to the Backup. A chill ran through his mind as he thought about actually dying. That someone could erase his backup terrified him.

He had always believed that life was sacred whether it was digital or originally organic, and everyone who lived in the City was equal in his eyes. He did have a nagging feeling that there was truth in what Kinson was saying; there seemed to be an overall moral decay in the City. It was almost as if the endless life was leading to a sick boredom that lead people to try ever wilder and crazier things. He felt weariness in his bones that had been growing for some time.

He looked at the gaunt acerbic face of Richard Kinson and said, "We are not going to get anywhere like this. Contact me again tomorrow and I will let you know how what my feelings are on your group. I can't imagine how what you are doing could ever seem right to me, but I will think on it."

Kinson answered him back, "That is all I could ask for at this point. Please e-mail at this address," the address scrolled across the screen as Kinson spoke, "And I will answer you within an hour."

The screen went black and John thought back on what had just happened. He could not believe he was actually listening to such a crack pot. I guess I will go out on the town tonight and try to forget about what happened, he thought. Maybe Andrea will want to go with me and I can shake this feeling of melancholy that has been dogging me.