Sherman Chex sits down in a chair and begins to read the book labelled 2521. It’s a very comfortable chair, as Jenny loves comfortable chairs. This chair is orange, and features two very comfortable cushions featuring intricate designs made of beads and sequins. The one for the back is a slightly darker orange, and is much larger, taking up most of the chair’s space. It’s so comfortable that one could just fall asleep while sitting down in it. As are the rest of the chairs in Jenny’s home.

  The one Jenny sits in is a stool which wobbles. It’s green, similar to the real town that lies outside of the fake town. Of course, this distinction is strange to make, as the town outside isn’t quite “real” either.

  Samuel Walker, after his brief cameo as a pair of hands to give Suzanne the letter, has left the fake town and has entered the real NeverGreen Cell. Unfortunately, something about the town just doesn’t make sense to him anymore.

  The concrete buildings and green signs seem lifeless, now that he’s seen a “real”, living town. He walks towards the people on the street. They seem underdetailed, and fade away as he walks closer.

  The people aren’t real. This confuses him, as he distinctly recalls speaking to these people many times in his life. He’s lived in the cell for a long time, after all.

  He quickly rushes to his apartment complex, where he notices the green light on his mailbox.

  He has some mail!

  He quickly opens his mailbox and rips open the letter excitedly.

  He slows down as he notices something.

  Nobody else has any mail.

  The mailman just delivered the mail during the episode, he knows as there wasn’t any before it, and there is some now.

  He realizes something.

  Nobody else in his apartment complex has ever had any mail delivered to them.

  He still doesn’t want to admit that what he’s thinking is the case, so he looks for another sign of life.

  Anything.

  He’s just looking for anything.

  He runs throughout the town, throughout every building. There’s nobody here.

  He decides to test something. He runs back to his apartment and finds the lead spike that used to be in his leg [1]. He stabs it back into his leg, much to the protest of his Idea, and walks back down the stairs at normal speed.

  Everyone’s there! He waves to someone on the other side of the street. They wave back! He sees the mailboxes are filled, he sees his neighbors going in and out of their apartments, it’s all so wonderful.

  But it’s all a Lie.

  Why is this place called the Nevergreen Cell?

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Where is a cell located?

  Of course, in a prison.

  One could say this is a prison for the giant snake, and they’d be entirely correct.

  Though, they’d also be wrong.

  Samuel Walker is required to give people tours around the city.

  Samuel Walker is the successor to the previous tour guide, Lu.

  It’s quite simple to figure out.

  Sherman Chex continues to sit in his chair. Jenny Watcher, sitting across from him, stares directly into his face, as if she wants to figure out what each individual atom of the dirt in his face is doing.

  She blinks sideways. Sherman Chex remembers that she’s really a giant snake.

  “If you’re a giant snake, why do you look like a random lady?”

  “It’s the Lie. Keep reading...”

  The book is incredibly lousy. It’s a far-fetched tale about a man named Rocko living in Columbia. Even the nonsense that actually occurs doesn’t match up to the book. The man named Rocko seems to be too powerful for the rest of the setting, and his presence in the story makes little to no sense.

  On page 30, he reads the following passage.

  [ Several years prior, in the second capital, something quite peculiar happened.

  That isn’t exactly right to say. Several years is an understatement, and at that time there wasn’t a second capital.

  In fact, there still isn’t.

  Many Columbians would say that it’s weird, as they’ve always remembered a second capital.

  Notably, they live where they think a second capital would be.

  The Hell in Red they are within simply enforces the idea that there is a second capital. They’d have no reason to doubt it, as Success Road has always been there.

  They’re simply falling into the Lie of progress. No progress could ever occur in this country, but the Lie tells them so, and the world catches up with them to make it so. ]

  It’s not a very good story. As Chex reads through it, he feels as though he knows what the next page will be about before he even gets there. Quite a lot of it is about Rocko’s backstory.

  Rocko’s a very unlikeable person. He is a soldier, which is weird as the country doesn’t have an army. He kills people for seemingly no reason, he destroys entire organizations just because they exist inconveniently to him.

  Worst of all, he founds The Orange.

  Over in the Orange, Alexander Dars and Virgil Harper are in the meeting room, not having a meeting.

  They’re watching the most recent episodes of a certain situational comedy show. Alexander speaks first.

  “Wow, if my wife wasn’t in these episodes, this would be a drag to watch.”

  “If the director wasn’t her subordinate she’d have ended it herself.”

  Alexander spins in his chair.

  “Well, I don’t doubt it. Remember that time she nearly eradicated Rodder when he found out he was a reaper?”

  “That was me. I was the one who would’ve done that.”

  “Really? I don’t remember it that way.”

  “You don’t remember anything the right way, Alexander.”

  Alexander falls out of his chair, breaking every single bone in his body. He has fragile bones.

  He gets up quickly and wipes the dust from his clothes. He is very much not someone who dies.

  “Aw, I just got this one cleaned...”

  He walks out of the room.

  [1] For some reason I said it was still in his leg in the previous chapter, that’s since been fixed.