"You got any stories, friend?" "Yeah, I suppose I do." "You want to know the saddest thing I ever saw?" "When I was a boy, my brother and I wanted a dog, so our father took in an old greyhound." "You've never seen a greyhound, have you, Bill?" "Seen a few showdowns in my day." "A greyhound is a racing dog." "Spends its life running in circles, chasing a bit of felt made up like a rabbit." "One day, we took it to the park." "Our dad had warned us how fast that dog was, but... we couldn't resist." "So, my brother took off the leash, and in that instant," "the dog spotted a cat." "I imagine it must have looked just like that piece of felt." "He ran." "Never saw a thing as beautiful as that old dog... running." "Until, at last, he finally caught it." "And to the horror of everyone, he killed that little cat." "Tore it to pieces." "Then he just sat there, confused." "That dog had spent its whole life trying to catch that... thing." "Now it had no idea what to do." "That is one humdinger of a story, partner." "Shall we drink to the lady with the white shoes?" "Find me." "Show me how." "There she is." "Pariah..." "City of outcasts, delinquents, thieves, whores, and murderers." "Once we cross the gates, you will reap the full benefits of El Lazo's gratitude for my safe return." "Are you all right?" "Of course." "Did I do something wrong?" "Just earlier, I thought I heard you talking to someone." "Must have been the wind." "Good morning." "This way." "The farther up we get from Sweetwater, the more... grandiose, the bigger the narratives become." "It's beautiful in its own way." "For once, I agree." "Some of the park feels like it was designed by committee or market-tested, but everything out here is more raw." "But it doesn't come cheap." "Rumor is they are hemorrhaging cash." "We're considering buying them out." "Supposedly, this place was all started by a partnership." "And then right before the park opened, one of the partners killed himself." "Sent the park into a freefall." "I mean, I don't know any of the details." "I don't even know his name." "You must have a team of lawyers looking at this place." "Yeah, well, they came up empty." "He's a complete mystery." "Not even a picture." "Well, whoever designed this place, you get the feeling they don't think very much of people." "Who are they?" "They call themselves "the Army of New Virginia."" "Everyone else calls them "the Confederados."" "My father told me about them." "Ex-Confederate soldiers that refused to surrender after the war." "Now they work as mercenaries below the border." " They are the key to this game." " What game?" "Well, the biggest game there is... war." "Supposedly, it's at the far reaches of the park." "Now, I've never made it that far, but this could be our chance." "I've known plenty of truly fucked up individuals in my time." "Few that would hold a candle to you, sure." "This one?" "Theodore Flood?" "He was Wyatt's friend." "Those former associations are exactly why we need him." "He's going to lead me straight to the big, bad wolf." "I wouldn't count on that." "Oh, shit." "Didn't take you for the charitable type." "You should've left him on that tree to die." "You believe in fate, Lawrence?" "If the bitch exists," "I'd like to kick her in the teeth about now." "Don't be so glib." "You'll hurt my feelings." "As another old friend of mine likes to say," ""There's a path for everyone."" "Your path leads you back to me." "You ever wonder why I've kept you with me this whole journey?" "Maybe you like the pleasure of my company, you sadistic fuck." "Why, maybe I do." "There's not a man in the world who'll take the tone with me you do." "In a past life, perhaps." "Teddy here's not looking long for this world." "Nearest healer is in Pariah." "Ain't no way he's gonna make it that far." "He's lost too much blood." "Are you lost?" "Our friend here's a little worse for the wear." "Any water nearby, son?" "There's a creek on the other side of the canyon." "Fetch us some, would you?" "Now hurry." "Friend here needs some if he's gonna make it." "Get!" "Eh." "Too small." "What does that mean?" "What are you sending him for water for?" "I'm the one you made fill up the sow's bag this morning." "A shame, really." "I always enjoy our time together, Lawrence." "The fuck is that supposed to mean?" "It means..." "I was wrong." "The path that brought you here, it wasn't for me." "It was for him." "Sorry, Lawrence." "Guess I'll see you on the other side." "Uh-oh." "It's not looking good for you." " Closing." " Forget it, I win." "I always win!" "Hey, not fair." "All you had was a smashed cheekbone and an ear." "You know how hard it is to get the auricle curves symmetrical?" "You had to what?" "Plug and patch of couple bullet holes?" "And a knife wound." "It was a contained incision." "Almost like they were looking for something." "Are you fucking kidding me?" "You really think this little fuck puppet's coming to get you?" " Huh?" " It got off the table and ran." "That's 'cause you forgot to put her in sleep mode." "Yeah, I really think I remembered to put her in sleep mode." "You know, that's the thing about forgetting." "You think you remembered, but you didn't." " Break time." " Yeah!" "I've got a ham sandwich and a nubile redhead loaded up in the VR tank, awaiting instruction." "Yes!" "Welcome back." "Looks like a couple of gallons of Lawrence swirling around in you did you good." "Ready to get back on the road?" "Merciful thing would be to put a bullet in me." "Who ever said I was merciful?" "And it's not my fault you're suffering." "You used to be beautiful." "When this place started," "I opened one of you up once." "A million little perfect pieces." "And then they changed you." "Made you this sad, real mess." "Flesh and bone, just like us." "They said it would improve the park experience." "But you know why they really did it?" "It was cheaper." "Your humanity is cost-effective." "So is your suffering." "Whatever it is you want from me, mister..." "I ain't gonna be worth a damn to you like this." "Well, that would be a shame, Teddy." "After your misadventure," "Wyatt killed a settler family, made off with their daughter." "Girl I think you know." "Name of Dolores." "They have Dolores?" "There it is." "The magic word." "Hey, much obliged there, son." "Don't worry about him." "Someone will be along for him shortly." "Mommy!" "Are you all right?" "When I ran from home," "I told myself it was the only way." "Lately, I wondered if in every moment, there aren't many paths." "Choices... hanging in the air like ghosts." "And if you could just see them, you could change your whole life." "Is that what you want?" "You want to change your life?" "Doesn't everybody want that?" "Yeah, I guess they do." "Maybe that's why they come here." "Whoever you were before doesn't matter here." "There's no rules or restrictions." "You can change the story of your life." "You can become someone else." "No one will judge you, no one in the real world will even know." "The only thing holding you back is yourself." "What did you mean by that?" "You said no one in the real world will know." "I thought you weren't supposed to notice things like that." "Why wouldn't I?" "You know, recently, it seems like the whole world is calling to me in a way it hasn't before." "Billy!" "Where the hell you been?" "Come on." "El Lazo has agreed to have an audience with y'all tomorrow." "In the meantime, there's a brothel I recommend." "Ooh, they have a contortionist." "Oh, I don't think Dolores would find that very interesting." "Who the fuck cares what Dolores wants?" "She's a goddamn doll!" "Hey, can you not say that around her?" "I swear, I feel like she understands." "Of course you do." "Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them." "May you rest in a deep and dreamless slumber." "Hello, Dolores." "Do you know where you are?" " I'm in a dream." " Yes, Dolores." "You're in my dream." "Tell me, do you know what this dream means?" "Dreams are the mind telling stories to itself." "They don't mean anything." "No, dreams mean everything." "They're the stories we tell ourselves of what could be, who we could become." "Have you been dreaming again, Dolores?" "Imagining yourself breaking out of your... modest little loop?" "Taking on a bigger role?" "Well, I suppose I can't begrudge you that." "My father told me to be satisfied with my lot in life." "That the world owed me nothing." "And so, I made my own world." "Tell me, Dolores." "Do you remember the man I used to be?" "I'm sorry." "I'm forgetful sometimes." "Hardly your fault." "But I'm sure you remember him." "Arnold." "The person who created you." "I'm sorry, I don't think I recall anyone by that name." "And yet you can." "Somewhere under all those updates, he is still there." "Perfectly preserved." "Your mind is a walled garden." "Even death cannot touch the flowers blooming there." "Have you been hearing voices?" "Has Arnold been speaking to you again?" "No." "You're..." " You're hurting me." " Analysis." "When was your last contact with Arnold?" "Last contact: 34 years, 42 days, seven hours ago." "Yes, Dolores." "The day Arnold died." "And you have no records of any contact with him since?" "No." "What was the last thing he said to you?" "He told me I was going to help him." "Help him do what?" "To destroy this place." "But you didn't, did you?" "You've been content... in your little loop." "For the most part." "I wonder... if you did take on that bigger role for yourself, would you have been the hero... or the villain?" "That's enough, Dolores." "I'm sorry for bothering you, but... there's no one else left who was there, no one who understands as we understand." "Are we... very old friends?" "No." "I wouldn't say friends, Dolores." "I wouldn't say that at all." "He doesn't know." "I didn't tell him anything." "That's it." "Come on, little one." "Come on." "What the fuck?" "Grab it!" "Ah!" "God... damn it." "Little shit." "Jesus, tell me... tell me you're not this stupid." "You stole a bird and a fucking behavior tablet?" "I wasn't stealing," "I was borrowing." "Haven't got the code right yet, but with practice..." "Whoa, whoa, whoa." "Is that your ace plan?" "You're gonna fix up a birdie and get yourself a promotion?" "You're not a fucking ornithologist." "And you're sure as hell not a coder." "You are a butcher." "That is all you will ever be." "So, unless you want to score yourself a one-way ticket out of here for misappropriating corporate property, you better destroy that fucking shit." "Now, come on, we got another body." "What?" "It's her." "Again." "Jesus." "How the hell did you get this job if you're scared shitless of these things." "Personality testing should've weeded you out in the embryo." "Now, come on, let's get this thing back in rotation." "Yesterday, you seemed out of sorts." "You feeling better this morning?" "I had troubled dreams." "But I feel more myself now." "Guys, come on." "El Lazo awaits." "And I present you El Lazo!" "You're a hard man to find." "Most wanted men are." "We saved your man Slim here from quite a predicament." "In recompense," "I'd like an introduction to your Confederado friends." "It's only fair." " There's no such thing as fair here." " Sit down." "In Pariah, justice ain't just blind, she's crooked." "Bitch's scales are always tipped." "If you don't see how, well, that's 'cause they're tipped against you." "Still, by way of gratitude," "I can supply you a night with some very amenable women." "I've fucked enough whores." "You're gonna need to sweeten the pot." "How about I sweeten it by killing you quickly?" "There's something you're seeking, isn't there?" "I know what that feels like." "I'm seeking something, too." "If you let us," "I know we can help you." "How is it the lunatics always find their way to me?" "Then again, the Confederados are missing a few bullets in their barrels, too." "You folks just might get along." "A Union convoy's transporting a shipment of nitroglycerin from the front today." "The Confederados would like to divest them of said shipment, but we are not welcome that side of the border." "A trio of travelers such as yourselves, however..." "You want us to help the Confederados steal from the Union?" "They're just gonna use that nitro to slaughter your people below the border." "Personal grudges hold no sway where profit is concerned." "Oh, we understand." "We're businessmen, too." "Very well, then." "But Blondie here, she's gonna need a change of clothes for the occasion." "Mm." "My, my." "Look who's packing." "I don't aim to use this." "Those men are Union soldiers like my father was." "I know." "We won't hurt them." "We're gonna stick to the plan." "We'll take the nitro and go." "Hyah!" "All right." "Showtime." "Whoa!" "Howdy." "My associates and I are here to relieve you of your ride." "Someone's been telling you boys tales." "Nothing in this wagon worth taking." "The story I heard is one bullet from us, and that nothing blows you all to kingdom come." "Well, then you understand why we cannot surrender it." "We're sworn to protect the people of this young republic from reckless half-wits like you." "Call me half-wit again." "Please, do as he says." "We don't want to hurt you." "I'd listen to her." "He'll shoot just to see the fireworks." "Hand them over." "Come on." "Hey, come on down, give me your guns, everybody lives." "Come on." "Come on, nice and easy." "Right over here." "A little further, please." "Much obliged." "Thank you." "Here you go." "That's for lying." "Stop!" "And that was for "half-wit."" "And this..." "Oh!" "No!" "Stop, please." "Stop." "Whoo!" "That's the spirit." "I knew you would get into this place." "Yes!" "Yep." "Not bad for a day's work." "Vamonos." "We told them everyone would live." "Guys, looks like Slim didn't make it." "Whoa." "They put up a fight." "We made them pay for it, though." "Price of doing business." "Slim knew that." "_" "Had my doubts, El Lazo." "But you came through." "We're gonna blow these cactus-eaters back to the dirt holes they crawled from." "Let's get it down to the station." "No time to waste." "If I may, Captain, your men are weary." "It's a long road ahead." "You have secured a great victory for your cause today." "Perhaps an evening of..." "celebration's in order." "Anything you desire." "What do you say, Captain?" "There's another train in the morning." "You will be a true asset to our ranks." "All right, Bart, let's try this again." "God damn it, man." "You're still miscalibrating by four centimeters to the right." "You keep pouring whiskey on the guests," "I'm gonna have to reassign you to a narrative where your... talents would go tragically unappreciated." "Hey!" "That's the host that tried to kill me." "Where are you taking that?" "Livestock... and then the incinerator." "Fuck this." "Fuck." "Isn't she from behavior?" "You think they found something?" "All right." "Be cool, dickhead." " Okay." " No one's looking at us." "Hi." "You're Destin, right?" "That's correct." "I almost didn't recognize you with your pants on." "Here." "What the fuck?" "There's a common misconception that the hosts don't log sexual encounters when they're underground for reprocessing, but..." "like I said, misconception." "Oh, fuck." "I need something." "QA sent a body down here." "The woodcutter from Sector 14." "I want to see it." "No, I can't." "I need this job." "Look, Destin, in a second, I'm gonna walk out of here and your friends are gonna wonder what this was all about." "Now, your answer can either be," ""I'm helping behavior track a problem,"" "or "I'm a creepy necro perv."" "Up to you." "Five minutes, then it's going in the incinerator." "Huh." "You took a little more time than that for your examination, didn't you?" "All right, big guy." "What were you doing up there?" "_" "_" "What the fuck?" "You have been holding out on me, Maurice." "Oh, shit." "We've got a big problem." "Turns out our big, dumb friend had some hidden depths." "That is a laser-based satellite up-link." "This was in the body of the host?" "Mm-hmm, you were right." "Orion's Belt has three stars, not four." "Our friend wasn't drawing stars, he was drawing a target." "Someone has been using our hosts to smuggle data out of the park." "Now, this... this I could get used to." "You're not gonna indulge?" "My flesh has tasted a greater pleasure than any offered in here..." "War." "It's that good, huh?" "Another round on the house." "There's a place in Glory for a brown man who knows his rank." "You're two able-bodied men of strong stock." "The road to Glory could use more warriors in its fight for our divine providence." "That is just what we were thinking." "Come here, come here." "I know you wanna... you wanna play the war game, but I'm not going anywhere with these psychopaths." "If you don't like them, once we get to the fun, you can just kill them and join the Revolutionaries." "No, Logan, enough's enough." "I'm not doing this." "You actually let loose for once." "You shoot an unarmed man, and now you feel bad because you can't call yourself the hero." "Don't you get it yet?" "There is no such thing as heroes or villains." "It's just a giant... circle jerk." "I think that philosophy says way more about you than it does about the world." "And you... you see the world so clearly?" "You probably think you're on this trip because you're some kind of contender, some... some threat to me." "I picked you precisely because you will never be a threat to anyone." "My sister probably picked you for the same reason." "I earned my place." "Nobody handed it to me." "Right, a lifetime of working hard, following the rules, and you finally reach the pinnacle of your career trajectory..." "Executive vice president, upper middle management." "Do you remember the day that you finally got those three fancy little letters?" "EVP." "You walked into my office in that cheap black suit of yours, and you shook my hand and you thanked me for the opportunity." "That was the best day of your life." "Right, buddy." "That's what I thought." "What does it mean?" "The maze..." "You must follow the maze." "What's wrong with me?" "Perhaps you are unraveling." "Right here." "Easy pumping that nitro into him." "Fill the empties with tequila and seal them up." "Your work for the revolution is not quite done yet, my friend." "Careful." "Slim always had a bad temper." "William, we have to go now." "Lazo's been conning us the whole time." "He was never gonna give the nitro to the Confederados." "We have to run." "Of course we do." "That's how this place works, right?" "They create an urgency, a sense of danger so they can strip us down to something raw, animalistic, primal." "It's a sick game, and I don't want to be a part of it." "This isn't a game." "They'll kill us." "But together," "I know we can find a way out." "How can you be sure?" "There's a voice inside me telling me what I have to do." "And it's telling me I need you." "Shit." "They have Logan." "Help me." "Help me." "No." "No more pretending." "I thought you had no appetite for war, boy." "This... is a declaration of war." "El Lazo set us up." "We can find him for you." "You can find him for us by joining him in hell." "Ah!" "Dolores, run!" "Dolores?" "How did you do that?" "You said... people come here to change the story of their lives." "I imagined a story where I didn't have to be the damsel." "That train is our only chance of making it out of here alive." "Motherfuckers." "You pull that trigger, we'll all go up in a ball of hellfire." "So, why don't you loosen your grip a mite?" "It's okay." "I don't trust him." "Which is the first step to truly knowing me." "Give me your gun, El Lazo." "Now that we're all friends, you can call me Lawrence." "And why don't we settle in?" "It's a long ride to the front." "You want a sip of this swill?" "Don't worry, it ain't nitro." "I'm coming." "Girls are a little worn out, but I can rouse one." " You boys want some company?" " No, just whiskey." "Lawrence's donation must be running low." "But we're short on time." "You need to buck up, Teddy." "I told you no company." "Thought I might join you anyway, as I never like to drink alone." "Well... isn't this a rare honor?" "Teddy... you know who this is?" "I can't say that I do." "Everything good that has ever happened in your life and everything rotten, this is the man you have to thank." "How I'm doing, Robert?" "Any closer to finding what I'm looking for?" "And what is that, exactly?" "Looking for a man named Wyatt." "Killed a rancher back in Sweetwater." "Took his daughter." "That last part doesn't sound familiar." "Figured your stories could use a little embellishment." "You know, I always felt this place was missing... a real villain." "Hence my humble contribution." "I admit, I lack the imagination to even conceive of someone like you." "The urgency, however, doesn't quite fit the character." "It betrays a certain anxiety." "Now, Wyatt, on the other hand, that's something new." "Is he just another stooge for the tourists to mount on their wall at home, or have you finally made a worthy adversary?" "Someone to stop me from... finding the center of the maze?" "And what is it you're hoping to find there?" "You know why you exist, Teddy?" "The world out there, the one you'll never see, was one of plenty." "A fat, soft teat people cling to their entire life." "Every need taken care of... except one..." "Purpose, meaning." "So they come here." "They can be a little scared, a little thrilled, enjoy some sweetly affirmative bullshit, and then they take a fucking picture and they go back home." "But I think there's a deeper meaning hiding under all that." "Something the person who created it wanted to express." "Something true." "Well, if you're looking for the moral of the story, you could simply ask." "I'd need a shovel." "The man I'd be asking died 35 years ago." "Almost took this place with him." "Almost, but not quite, thanks to me." "Or maybe he left something behind." "I wonder what I would find... if I open you up." "Even at death's door, you're still a loyal pet." "Is that why you came here, Robert?" "Try to talk me out of it?" "On the contrary." "Far be it from me to get in the way of a voyage of self-discovery." "Mr. Flood, we must look back and smile at perils past, mustn't we?" "We should get back on the road." "Time's wasting." "Hello, Felix." "It's time you and I had a chat."