Fate worse than death *SPOILERS*

[Dundle]

They're not suffering. If you listen to some of their telepathic-whatever sayings whenever you're near them, they're in quite happy virtual situations with no awareness to their real physical situation. We're given a glimpse of this virtual world the WAU makes when you get stuck in the stuff yourself.

One thing I was wondering about is, what actually IS the fleshy stuff growing on the walls? It's not regular WAU growth. It looks more like the "cell mutations" on the examination bed in the labs. Are they proxies who merged with the walls?

EDIT: To answer the other question... assuming Simon-3 kills himself at some point, and you've also chosen to destroy the WAU, the WAU should "disconnect" them. Although I'm not sure I'd want to be woken up in the physical condition they're in...

EDIT2: Discount part of this. Misread the OP as people who are stuck in the WAU's virtual reality.