The entire gym blurred for a moment, colors darting back and forth, melting together. Then it snapped back to normal, crisp and clear. Michael looked down and the Coffins had opened, the same kids who’d just climbed in now climbing out. Although there was something distinctly different about them. They appeared disoriented, as if they had no clue where they were or how they’d gotten there. The workers in blue shirts took them by the arm and gently led them off the temporary platforms, into the arms of others ready to escort them out of the building. Where they went, Michael didn’t know. The next students who’d been waiting had already started getting into the now-empty Coffins.

“And so it goes,” Kaine said. “Or so it will go. Generation after generation, born into one body, transformed into an indescribable VirtNet experience for fifty years, then reinserted into the next line of humans ready to embark on Life Neverending themselves. With immortality and endless education and growth, our levels of technology will skyrocket, just in time for us to expand to the planets and stars beyond our own. Always replenishing the human race, where no one need die ever again.”

Michael closed his eyes to focus. “So these bodies in the gym—they were replaced by other…people who’d been in the VirtNet for fifty years? I mean, I know it’s a simulation, but is that what’s going to happen? What about when they get old? They’ll still die. You can’t prevent that.”

“Oh, yes, we can,” Kaine responded. “When these bodies, now occupied by another intelligence, reach the age of sixty-five, their intelligence is downloaded back into the Hive. They will once again experience another fifty years inside the Sleep, doing whatever they want, learning and growing even more. The bodies back on Earth will be frozen and stored, probably never to be used again. Unless, of course, we someday come up with other ways to significantly extend life. But the key is that no one will die again, ever. You’ll either be in an actual human body, or you’ll be just as alive—even more alive, in some ways—within the Sleep.”

“Won’t you run out of human hosts?”

“Of course not. People will keep having babies. We might have to extend the wait time within the Sleep. We’ll even clone bodies if we have to, when that technology is sound. That’s not a problem.”

“What about accidents?” Michael asked. “Heart attacks? What if someone murders you? What then?”