Elysium,

I’ve always dreaded the day I would have to write this letter to you, but I knew we couldn’t evade being found out forever. We did some great work, some necessary work, and I want you to never forget that. Our time was limited. We were lucky to get as long as we did.

Today I discovered something odd when I entered my apartment. Everything was in place except for my notebook. The pages had been rummaged through, a few creases in the corners that weren’t there earlier that morning. Someone was looking for information and as we promised ourselves when we started working together, we were the only two allowed to know anything.

I’m sorry if you read this and feel as if I betrayed you. That was never my intention. I only included you in my research because I valued your opinion, your knowledge, our friendship. What I failed to consider, or rather, what I chose to push aside was I was putting you in danger. I’m awfully sorry for that. My only way of counteracting the situation I put you in is to take the blame on my shoulders.

I know that government agents will be coming for me shortly. I’m sitting here, hunched over my desk -- waiting. There will be no knock. They’ll barge in, point a few guns at me that will cause me to disintegrate if I put even a toe out of line. It’s a marvel and a curse as to how far we’ve come with technology, isn’t it Elysium? Bullets are the laughing stock of the military. Turning people to dust is far better.

Before I run out of time, I urge you to remember all we learned. I need you to remember that we are a simulation at the hands of the government. I need you to remember that we are their guinea pigs rummaging through the cages of poverty, corruption, incurable diseases, war, violence, terror, capitalism, and inequality. We are their test subjects as they attempt to figure out what variables will create the perfect world, but only perfect in the sense that the government can live luxuriously without having to consider the remainder of the population. I need you to remember that we were faults in their program, faults that breached the barriers of the simulation and discovered more than we could have ever wanted to know. I also need you to remember that because of our defects, we have become the enemy.

You have the power to shut it down, Elysium. All that’s needed are the final lines of the coding we have been researching and we can live freely. We can expose what the government is doing and above all else, we can reveal to everyone that there is hope. We do not have to fend for our lives, we can take control of them.

I must apologize for I will not be around to see the great things you do. I must also apologize for leaving behind such a large task.

I have considered the possibility that you won’t go through with anything we talked about in the past and I hate to imagine that being your final decision. Ultimately, I have realized what happens next is your decision, not mine. I’m hoping you’ll choose what is better for more than just yourself. That’s not to say you are a selfish person, Elysium. In fact, you are the opposite. I know because you spent many months putting up with me when I am not, nor ever was, the easiest person to put up with.

Remember when we spent the afternoon in your office and you told every joke you knew in order to get me to stop working. Instead of laughing, I explained to you the flaws of each punchline. The look you wore on your face was one of sheer incredulity and that was when I laughed because you looked foolish. You then told me to piss off and I told you the same. There weren’t many other light hearted moments like that after we started discovering just what…

Elysium, you must check your office. There’s something there, something I overlooked and it is suddenly striking me as I think back to the coding. We were doing it wrong. We were trying to figure out the last line. We don’t n---