A silent, desolate space. Footsteps approach. Dust and detritus scatters from the pavement as JOANNA - an attractive middle-aged woman with gushing red hair whose face bears the marks of a life well lived - strides purposefully to the chained and padlocked doors of the warehouse. On the door has been spray painted a large yellow circle with the number 4 inside. She carries a LARGE LEATHER CARRY-ALL.

She pulls a PDA from her coat. The screen reads: "765 Terrace Road, Camden Town - suspected location of operational network equipment. GPS match confirmed"

Joanna places the bag on the ground, unzips it, then takes out a large set of BOLTCUTTERS. She cleanly cuts through the chain. The door swings open with a push.

She places the PDA on the ground before entering the building.

Tall columns of dust sparkle with god-light; sunlight beaming through holes in the ceiling. Joanna heads for an office on the far side of the structure. Its all clear.

A short bank of servers blink in a glass fronted case. On closer inspection only two of the four servers appear to be in working order. Joanna opens her bag and pulls out two similar looking boxes. She swaps these for those in the case and then zips up her bag. She then traces her way back outside.

Joanna picks up the PDA.

Joanna taps the screen purposefully. A message is displayed: "Visual and Geographical recording of Network Equipment down grade operational."

We retrace Joanna's steps through the grainy image of the recording PDA.

We stop in front of the inactive servers.

A strange device is pulled from the leather bag. Joanna activates it causing obvious damage to the units.

The new unit is installed with little fuss.

The PDA's screen flashes then goes dark.

Joanna leaves the building pleased with a job well faked. She allows herself a little congratulatory mamba as she goes - anticipating the fun of the gathering.

The floors are old and scratched, the walls need a new coat of paint. The ceiling in surprisingly good order though. There are Luddite posters and propaganda on the walls. Ironic, given the late night events that take place here. Joanna enters with her new toys.

Joanna moves through the hall into the old canteen and storage room. She checks over her shoulder for spying eyes before pulling down hard on the tap of the disused urn. A panel slides back to reveal a ladder into the roof.

Server boxes - like those Joanna has recently acquired - line the floor in even rows. There are poles either side of each machine. Long cables connected to masks hang from each. There are six empty racks at one end of the floor - Joanna proceeds to fill two of them.

Joanna walks to the middle of the hall. She sits down cross legged. There is a mischievous glint in her eyes as she looks up to the ceiling. She holds a small keyring in her hand. She pushes the button - a quiet spring loaded CLICK. The entire ceiling becomes a cascade of white wires and masks. Above Joanna they fall a few short inches short of her head. (Does she give it a quick test now or not?)

A click of her keyring and all the masks shoot straight back into the ceiling without a trace.

A fine old BENTLEY pulls up by the curb - one of the few working vehicles left since the Ravages. A well dressed man steps from the car. His name is AUGUST and he appears well aware of his own importance. He is smoking a Schwarzenegger sized CIGAR. He steps around the vehicle opening the passenger door for his wife CASS - blond pretty and 26. He does this for pomp and ceremony; as his wife gets out he is scanning the crowd for other important and powerful colleagues. Cass is young and attractive but appears downtrodden.

August takes off purposefully into the throng. Leaving Cass standing hopelessly.

Cass, wanders into the crowd, sad, dispirited.

CASS stands at the edge of the throng of neo-luddites, looking bored, depressed and lonely. AUGUST is on stage. His voice can be heard booming over the PA system.

More cheers and clapping from the audience.

The chanting from the audience peaks in a fit of fanaticism.

AUGUST continues to rant to a crowd in frenzy. CASS turns and walks away.

CASS walks through the deserted streets. She does not appear to have an intended destination, making decisions to turn at the last minute, on a whim.

CASS walks half way over a railway bridge. She looks off the side to see the afternoon sun sparkle off the tracks. As she does this she spies a shabbily dressed man standing near a door. He looks around cautiously, then quickly slips inside. CASS, bolstered by intense curiosity, heads for a service ladder that will take her down beneath the bridge.

As CASS approaches the door, she looks around, and pauses uncertainly before stepping inside. As she steps towards the door UNKNOWN MAN #1 runs around the corner of the alleyway, straight towards her and the door.

UNKNOWN MAN #1 hurries her through the door, shutting the door behind them

The repair shop is poorly lit despite it still being light. The windows are solidly boarded up. VR masks hang from the ceiling, some with unconscious bodies connected to them. CASS and UNKNOWN MAN #1 stand next to the door. UNKNOWN MAN #1 puts his finger in front of his lips and looks pointedly at CASS

CASS and UNKNOWN MAN #1 stay still and silent as the footsteps recede.

Cass turns away and takes a couple of steps towards the door. She stops and turns part way back, with a curious look on her face.

CASS turns back towards the door and walks through it

CASS walks down the alley towards the sound of a marketplace

A scruff of hair balanced on thin shoulders - VR idol guru ALEX NEUMANN - is dwarfed by a digital leviathan. Cables and servers and racks of drives sprawl from a four glowing eyes at the centre. Alex stares intently into the eyes. A left view, a right view, a down view and an idol in three dimensional glory.

A pretty blond moves naturally in 3d space. She looks around 16.

Alex breaks his gaze from VR-Cass. He begins to clack away again on his keyboard.

Alex still typing. VR-Cass begins to age slowly on the screen.

The aged VR idol looks exceptionally like Cass - perhaps with slightly bigger boobs and shorter skirt. Did I mention the retro poster of 1980s film "Weird Science" on the wall? That should explain it.

We are in a narrow, crowded street, in what appears to have been a chic fashion district. Now the shops are all closed and boarded up. Street vendors have set up their stalls along the pavements and in the shop doorways, selling everything from dumplings to counterfeit watches. The street is lit by strings of bulbs that criss cross above the crowds. There seem to be people of all nationalities here and there is a constant stream of shouts in a host of different languages. The air is thick with cooking smoke. We see CASS moving through the crowds. In contrast to the rest of the street's inhabitants, she is clearly expensively dressed and this is drawing attention. Some of the vendors follow her and try to sell her various unidentifiable things. Cass ignores them and most of them give up. As the crowd thins, one of the vendors moves to block her way. He is trying to sell her a hat made of what could easily be cat fur.

Cass ignores him and tries to go around. The man moves again to block her path.

The man reaches for Cass's hat. She backs away. We can see she is getting a little annoyed. She tries to move around the man again.

The man makes another grab for Cass's hat. This time he succeeds in pulling it off. He is trying to put his own hat on her head when Cass ducks around him and starts to walk quickly away. The man follows and they begin an odd sort of chase, Cass almost running and the man trying to put his hat on her head and scuttling to keep up. This continues until Cass takes a sudden turn into a narrow alleyway between two buildings. The man stands at the entrance to the alley for a second then turns back.

The scene has changed quite dramatically. We are in an empty alleyway that appears to link to another street like the one we have come from. The alley is quite dark - lit only by the light from the streets at either end and the occasional red paper lantern. Cass hesitates briefly before moving down the alley. She is about half way down when someone appears at the far end. They are silhouetted by the light from the street and all we can really see is that they are big and menacing. They notice Cass and start moving towards her. Cass looks quickly behind her, decides it is to far to run and ducks into one of the open doorways.

Cass stumbles through the door and finds herself in a busy Chinese restaurant. The place is brightly lit and there appears to be a party going on. A matronly Chinese woman bustles up to Cass.

The woman moves off. Cass looks back towards the door quickly, then follows her. She is seated at a small table at the back of the room. Cass is handed a menu which she doesn't look at. The party guests are singing in what could be Chinese, but they are so drunk it is hard to tell. After a few moments, Cass slips out of her seat and walks out of the back of the restaurant.

There is a toilet door off the waiting area on one side and from the adjacent wall, a well lit corridor leads. Cass tries the door but it is locked. She looks at herself in the mirror and reapplies her lipstick. The corridor is directly behind her in the mirror and as she does her makeup we see something moving across it behind her. Cass turns around but the corridor is empty. She walks down the corridor.

We can see more clearly now that the corridor is intersected at right angles by another. As she approaches it three NEOLUDDITE MILITA run past in full riot gear, followed by two more a second later. The last one stops in the intersection and looks at Cass. From Cass's POV we cannot see his face under his visor. He says something but it is muffled by his visor. As he stands there the intensity of cries and screams coming from the end of the intersection builds. The militiaman turns back into the corridor and disappears. Cass follows, drawn by morbid curiosity to sounds she has never in her life encountered.

Cass enters through the open door. The screams are louder now. The scene inside is carnage. There are roughly 15 militia in the room and they are attacking a group of FIESTA GOERS. Some of the fiesta goers are lying on the floor while the militia kick and stamp on them, others sprawled bleeding over broken tables and chairs. Some are trying to escape, blind inside their masks and tethered to the ceiling by the wires that run from their faces, only to be beaten down by the militia. Cass is crouched by the door, watching the whole scene. She is shaking and pulling her coat tight around her. The militia begin to clear out the room, dragging the prostrate bodies out through a back door that leads onto the street.

The millitia strip the Fiesta goers and dump their bodies into the gutter. We can see that they are alive, some if only barely. A large van is parked outside the building, filled with confiscated VR gear. The militiamen climb inside. The van drives off.

Cass enters the scene - obviously shocked. Overcoming the horror she tries to help some of the unfortunate fiesta goers. She goes to a conscious but severely injured woman - MI-LING. She takes off her coat and wraps it around the woman.

Cass steps back struck dumb by this revelation.

Cass snaps out of her trance long enough to retrieve her phone and dial. At the far end of the alley we see the silhouette of a woman. The woman appears to approach the scene cautiously. As she does we can see that Cass is speaking to the emergency service over the phone. We cannot hear her. Instead we hear ambulance SIRENS and the sounds of the injured and dying. The silhoutted woman steps under a street lamp. We see that it is JOANNA. She waves to Cass.

Cass looks around. She drops the call and walks over to Joanna.

Joanna slips her arm through Cass's and leads her away.

ALEX is still in the tangle of the beast. As if he never moves.

Alex pulls across the VR rig hanging to his right. He takes hold of the mass of cables, takes the mask and straps it to his face.

A forested glade with cascading waterfall bursts into vibrant VR glory. CASS VR stands by the pool of water - and she is stunning.

The VR glade snaps out of existence.

Alex removes the mask from his face. He is looking miserable.

Alex growing in fury sweeps keyboard, mouse and DVDs off his desk.

More electronic equipment feels the wrath of Alex Neumann in his spiraling rage.

Chronically unfit an exhausted Alex slumps back in his chair. Sadder and more helpless than a PETA convention at a puppy funeral.

The Cass VR idol turns slowly on the flat-screens. Alex hauls up his keyboard by the cord. He types something. A message flashes up on the screen: "Posting VR Idol to Creative Commons Forum".

JOANNA and CASS enter the empty scout hall.

Joanna heads for the kitchen.

Cass approaches the large unwashed pile with a wrinkle in her nose. Not her usual accommodation, but still shell shocked she drops herself in none-the-less.

Cass sits in BEANBAG still thoroughly bemused by her situation.

Joanna re-enters the room with TWO LARGE MUGS.

Joanna hands Cass the mug, then slumps into a bean bag opposite her.

Joanna moves away to a pile of shelves in the corner, where there is a small STEREO SYSTEM. She puts on some music. She walks back towards Cass, who is staring into her tea.

Cass trails off and looks down again. Joanna moves closer, squats down and looks into Cass's face.

Cass looks directly into Joanna's eyes.

Joanna backs away quickly as she realises who Cass is. She stands up. She walks away a bit, then comes back.

Cass shrugs then shakes her head.

Cass shrugs again. She looks up. She is clearly upset.

JOANNA enters leading two others behind her. STEFAN is short, balding, but with intense energy in his eyes. CASS also enters with bright exuberance.

She stops close to the kitchen entrance.

Joanna sits down crosslegged, the others follow. She clicks on her little keyring. VR gear tumbles from the hatches. Stefan and Cass visibly jump in shock.

Joanna slides Cass a few inches to the right with a friendly push. Then smiles broadly to break any potential awkward pause.

Joanna pulls a couple of coins from her pocket. She hands one to Stefan, one to Cass.

CASS taps her coin on the floor with furrowed brow. A burst of inspiration and the tapping becomes concentrated scratching. A picture forms. It is an angel, wings outstretched.

Before Cass can answer the mask is on her face and strap over the back of her head. Cass squirms and brings up her hands. Joanna catches them, pulls them to her and holds them in a warm gesture.

The message is directed to Cass, but both Cass and Stefan nod in ascent.

POV Joanna. An outstretched hand draws cables and mask forward. As the molded latex envelops, sounds of breathing and a beating heart become audible. In complete darkness these sounds intensify... Then a blinding white.

A fine looking VR-JOANNA - younger, slimmer and with luminous redhair, a sexed up caricature of her real self - stands beside two identical ghostly outlines.

Stefan has already opened a wardrobe door in nothingness. He flicks through idols like suits on a rack. He seems to be focused on the He-man / Spartacus variety.

Joanna opens a wardrobe for CASS.

Cass flicks through petite blonds, much like herself.

Stefan has changed from ghostly figure to Kevin Sorbo in a loin cloth. He has pulled up a virtual mirror and is trying to check out his arse in the reflection.

An idol, with an uncanny resemblance to the real Cass (with slight juvenile tweaks), fills the wardrobe. There is such realism in this idol, the detail so intricate. Even VR-Joanna seems to pale by comparison.

A ghostly hand reaches out. Colour pours into the grey; paint filling an outline. VR-CASS holds her new manicured hands before her face. Stefan snaps a mirror into existence for CASS to use.

Joanna burns with jealousy, tinges with admiration, crawls with annoyance then fades into an uncertain confusion.

Confidence snaps back into place.

POV Joanna. An indicator light flashes at the bottom of her vision.

Joanna pulls off her mask. She pauses beside Cass, kneeling. She is attracted to her body, by the sensuality of the twitches and spasms, the erotic movement of breasts and hips.

Joanna stands, then moves to the door to let in her Fiesta regulars.

Bodies litter the room: kneeling, sitting on cushions, sprawled on beanbags, lying prone. The scene is lit by emergency exit signs, light from the kitchen and the eerie flicker that bleeds from the edge of the VR-masks. Cables tendril down like an underwater kelp forest.

Joanna steps between bodies, some still, some swaying, some convulsing. Her careful gaze scans everyone. When her inspection is complete she takes her own space - an old armchair front and centre. Her mask has twice the cabling and looks an order more impressive. She pulls it on.

Excited chatter fills the crowded nightclub. It is cutting edge London clubland, Chiba City futuristic, bound together with hard trance. It is second life come of age and pumped with steroids.

A huge cheer from an undeniably appreciative crowd.

A VR-Bouncer breaks from the crowd to talk to Joanna. He has the harsh, hard head of Vinnie Jones but on a solid body suited in a tuxedo with white bow tie like Pavarotti. Not someone with which you'd want to share a confined space.

Gauze moves back into the crowd. CASS falls out of the crowd as if pressed out by Gauze exceeding capacity.

VR-Cass takes VR-Joanna by the arm in a show of sympathy.

VR-Joanna puts a hand around VR-Cass's shoulder.