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"Staying Behind is a science fiction short story by Ken Liu. It was originally published by Clarkesworld on October 1, 2011.

Plot
This story is told by the point of view of an unnamed narrator, who begins by explaining how the new race of the future have created new technology to upload the human conscious into a never-ending simulation. The narrators Father agrees with the new invention since their own reality has fallen into chaos. While his Mother sees it as a means to cheat death.

The story jumps to the narrator and his wife, Carol, searching their daughter Lucy's room while she is away at school. This is done in an attempt to find if Lucy has had any contact with the "dead". This term is used to refer to those who have been uploaded into the machine. The dead are known to be dexterous with their propaganda; sending drones over their towns that dropped messages from loved ones who have been uploaded. With this in mind, the narrator searches through schoolwork, emails, and messages in order to debunk any possible contact with the dead. Nothing is found, Carol is not fond of going through their daughters belongings, but the narrator explains to her that they must protect their daughter from the false promises.

As the story goes on, it divides into many side anecdotes, describing how life is where they live and times of when the narrators parents would argue about the importance of life. Many times Laura, the sister of the narrator, would try to put out these arguments.

Laura and the narrator's mother is overcome by a sickness for months. With not many doctors left, she was bedridden and pumped with drugs causing her to come in and out of consciousness. She makes it known that she wants to die a real death and not be uploaded but the Father tries to convince her that she should upload and if she doesn't like it, it could be suspended or erased. It becomes a back and forth argument, and Laura acts as the mediator telling her Father to leave her Mother alone. Later that night, the narrator is awoken by shuttle with the words, EVERLASTING, INC, printed on the sides, which is the company that does the uploads to the simulation. The Father has made the decision to have the Mother upload since she is getting worse. This leads to the narrator yelling at his father for making this decision for his mother stating that he's killing her. The father doesn't take his son's efforts into account and explains that he will be uploaded as well.

The narrator and his wife Carol, help their daughter Lucy prepare for her prom that she is going to with a boy name Jack. Later on in that week, they receive a letter from their Mom explaining how she misses them and she was wrong for limiting herself from life as she knew it. She describes that she has a feeling of hyperreality in the simulation and tries to convince them into coming along to be with her. The narrator is not convinced that it is really his mother, just merely a temptation of propaganda.

The night of Jack and Lucy's prom arrives. Lucy cries and she kisses her Dad goodbye before heading off. Another side story takes place where Laura makes her decision that she is going to be uploaded to be with her parents, leaving the narrator feeling betrayed. The story goes back to their reality, the narrator begins to realize that something feels off and that if feels later than what the time says it is. He goes to check his watch where it is showing the actual time as a lot later. This is the work of Carol, who did this so Lucy will have time to escape to be uploaded. He goes to find his daughter and pleads with her to not have her life taken away, when Lucy explains that it is ultimately her own decision

The story ends with the narrator and Carol all alone. They are left with nothing but their lonliness and those who were left behind to keep up the sacrifices they made to keep their humanity.