Bill would wake up and get ready. There wasn’t much to get ready for, he did the same thing every day. The same thing everyone else did. Cycle for merits, and then cycle some more.

Bill was good at it. He had more than eight million saved. Others in his station could barely keep together anything more than a few thousand credits week to week. They were watching porn while they were cycling, or skipping through the ads before bed. Everything you did cost something. Bill sometimes saw jealousy in their looks. To them he had everything. But he knew that he had nothing.

Bill wasn’t sure when he first noticed that feeling. Maybe it was always there. A space inside him as soon as he was awake, whispering silence to him. It was the only real thing that he could remember being there and Bill knew that it would always be with him, filling him up with emptiness. Bill got in his elevator, arrived at his station, wrapped his legs around his bike, and began to pedal.

* * *

Bill liked a simple wallpaper on his screen as he rode, usually a nice green field. Of course he had never actually seen a nice green field, so he had to use his imagination a little bit. Bill began to think about the time-WRAITH BABES!

The ad broke his train of thought, the Wraith Babes logo dominating his screen. Skipping would incur a penalty of over a thousand merits, so Bill watched. It would only be about a minute long. The voice began to boom through his earphones.

‘Hot shots special! Meet Carinda (A pretty blonde girl was shown on screen), she was brought to us after her sensational Hot Shots audition, but the singing wasn’t what was sensational about her! (The camera panned up and down her body) The judges decided that Wraith Babes was where she belonged, but understood that anyone’s first time might be a little daunting… So they decided to bring in an experienced Babe to help ease her transition! (A middle aged woman was now on screen. She looked about as empty as Bill felt.) Abi Khan!! Watch Abi show Carinda the ropes. You can watch every rope right here starting from next week!’

Some final snippets and quick POV shots of the two women being fucked by… Bill couldn’t really tell, he thought maybe it was at least six men. It was all over, and his field had returned. Bill pedalled.

He got bored later in the day, and decided to see what was available for him to watch. He roamed the streams and eventually saw a man talking about dopple customisation options, all while holding a piece of glass to his throat. Bill wasn’t sure if this was for comic effect, or if this man was being serious. Bill asked Simon, who had been riding on his left for the past year.

‘That’s Bing. He’s been rambling like that for years now. I’m surprised he can come up with new stuff to say really.’

‘It’s always the same shit, just new options for your dopple,’ said the man on a bike to Bill’s right. Bill didn’t know his name.

‘Good point,’ said Simon. ‘Anyway, people seem to like his whole satirical take on things.’

Bill watched as Bing talked about new avatar options. The shard to his throat skimmed his beard, which was beginning to turn grey.

‘Have you ever felt like just burning this whole place down? Your cell, your bike, all of it? Well now you can. With the new option to change what your avatar looks like, you can customise yourself completely and become a dragon. Dragons breathe fire, if you didn’t already know. Imagine sitting in your room, flying and burning entire towns! Just the thought of being so destructive makes me glad. And that’s all the fire from me today. You might see me next week, maybe. I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to lodge this piece of glass down my throat. But if I do, I’d have to host this show with just gargling noises, and you wouldn’t be able to understand a word I was saying. Not that you’re really listening anyway. Ciao for now.’

The stream ended, and still Bill pedalled.

* * *

The next few days blurred for Bill, they all did after a while. He had reached a new milestone, nine million credits saved. He was even on the local leaderboard now. Bill never felt emptier. There were more ads for Wraith Babes, it seemed they were showing all of Abi’s videos running up to the new special. Bill couldn’t count how many films she had starred in. He sometimes switched over to Bing’s stream to see what he was up to, but mostly he stuck to his green field.

The next week, Bill was riding in his nice field when he noticed that Simon next to him was watching Bing, with his customary glass to his throat. Bill looked over to his right and saw that the man whose name he didn’t know watching the same stream. Bill slowed down his cycle, and looked around. Everyone in his station was watching Bing speak. The shard of glass was beginning to draw blood. It dripped down his beard. Everyone had stopped cycling.

Bing seemed very distraught, and it seemed that Bill had missed most of the program. Bill finally got onto the stream, and could hear what was being said.

‘…All I ever wanted was something real. You fuckers took that away from me. I’ve been playing good for years. I’ll admit, you nearly broke me. But after what I found out about this place, I couldn’t do it anymore.’

What did he find out? Bill must have missed that part. He focused back on the stream, and it was almost as if Bing was now talking directly to him.

‘That feeling of pure fucking emptiness, we all feel it. We just don’t want to admit it. You cycle along all day, every day, and hope that the next one will be better. I’ll tell you how to make it better. You punch the glass in your cubicle. You break it. You take a piece of it and you cut your throat. It’s the only way to end it. You’ve all got to do it tonight. All of you. To end it for them, for all of them.’

Bing then looked off camera and spoke to someone who seemed to be in the room with him.

‘No! You can’t fucking do this anymore. I’ll show them how to beat you.’

He turned back to the camera. A tear was running down each cheek.

‘Abi, I love you. I’ve always loved you. It was the realest thing I ever felt. And I’m sorry.’

And with that, Bing took the shard he put to his throat every day for years, placed it there for the last time, and sliced.

The room watched as blood spurt out of Bing’s throat and onto the camera. The screen was blurred red and dripping. Bill saw the outline of two men come into frame and they dragged Bing’s body out of the room. The channel went dark.

Every screen in the room was black and everybody had stopped to process what they had just seen. Even the lemons had stopped cleaning. Bill knew he had just witnessed an attempt at martyrdom. He also maybe had just seen a way out. He looked around to Simon, and to the others on the bikes near him. It was hard to tell whether they were thinking the same thing.

* * *

Bill got off his bike, left his station, and entered the elevator to go back to his quarters. He was standing at the back of the small moving room, and took time to look at the others in with him. It was difficult to see what they were thinking about when they were mostly backs of heads, but the atmosphere felt different. They had all witnessed a man telling them to kill themselves and then lead by example. Still, Bill couldn’t measure the mood. Bing said it had to be done tonight, all together. Bill asked some others afterwards what he had missed before he turned over to Bing’s stream, but he didn’t get any straight answers. Everyone seemed in a bit of a daze. Bill surmised that Bing had found out something about the whole place, about why they were all here. He supposed that it was something bad enough to spur Bing to open his neck. He was curious to know what it was. Maybe he didn’t need to know.

Bill fell onto his bed, his screened walls surrounding him. He looked at his Avatar, who was wearing basic clothes. Bill never spent many merits on luxuries like fashion. He looked around at the virtual field he was in, and saw an animal in the grass. Bill got out of his bed and walked over to it. He wanted to touch it. When he did, he felt his hand stop at the glass screen where the animal was sitting. Bill made his choice.

He would sleep on it, and see how he felt about killing himself tomorrow. One more day on the bikes wouldn’t kill him, unless he decided that it should.

The next morning, Bill arrived at his station and noticed something he hadn’t in the elevator. Emptiness. His entire station was empty. Bill walked to the viewport, a large window where one could see hundreds of other rooms, with thousands of bicycles. None were being ridden. Bill stood there for a long time. Bill left to go back to his station, and looked around. They all did it. The worst part was that they all seemed to do it without him. Maybe he would kill himself tonight. He hadn’t decided yet.

Bill looked around to all of the empty rooms, and saw someone else at a far away viewport also noticing the emptiness. The person waved to Bill, and Bill waved back. After a moment, they left, and so did Bill. He got on his bike, and began to cycle.