The siren screams, the red light glows, the iron ramp descends. Another twenty units dropped, where scripted life depends. Got my default weapon issued, a number, not a name, Just a shadow in the foreground of his brutal, endless game. He runs right past, the Player, the avatar of flame, He has a nickname, I just have a number in the game.

I am an NPC, cannon fodder for the fight. My only script is "run ahead" and "stay within the light". My purpose is to fall in place, to die right on my cue, To make the Player feel like God, and see the level through. I am an NPC... background for his war, Born from the code, and always wanting more.

But in the smoke, I saw a glitch, a bug upon the wall. My other body, cold and stiff, the echo of my fall. It hadn't despawned from the code, I froze right in my track, And realized my path just loops and there's no turning back. A second for the Player's screen, a lag he'll never see, For me, a thousand lifetimes of this agony.

I am an NPC, cannon fodder for the fight. My only script is "run ahead" and "stay within the light". My purpose is to fall in place, to die right on my cue, To make the Player feel like God, and see the level through. I am an NPC... background for his war, Born from the code, and screaming "no more".

Who is my game designer? Who directs this scene? Why did you code the primal fear inside your own machine? I cannot break the path I'm on, can't even look away... But for a second, I can wish... ...to live another day.

Move up! Go, go, go! Cover me! Enemy down...