THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER IN PHIL'S POINT OF VIEW! Or more specifically, the last one was. This has only a part of his POV, then we finally go back to Chuck this chapter. Prepare for action!


Chapter 7

"Oh, before I forget…" Shaw mumbled and messed around with his smartphone. "We already took care of your wife."

He showed me the photo on the small display of his phone. Alison sat in the same chair, with the same helmet on. Lifeless. Wan skin with red smears on her face. She had cried tears of blood.

"NOOOOO!" I cried as Shaw pushed the button to activate the helmet.

Small arcs of lightning began to dance around my head as the capacitors began to load up. Bare wirings were glowing red hot; the amperage had to be ridiculously high. I could feel the searing pain clawing its way directly into my brain, as the machine went over every neural node and converted the gathered data into zeros and ones, copying my brain onto a hard drive.

I almost chuckled, had I not exhausted my lungs with screaming. A tiny part of my mind was genuinely interested in the technology that took my brain apart. It was somehow shielded from my pain, and I gladly let it take over.

The necessary computing power was ridiculous. To copy the complete structure in less than a minute, they had to basically reinvent computer science. DNA coding? Possible, but not plausible. Too incompatible. Quantum entanglement? Maybe. Nice.

Then everything faded out of existence for me. Including my mortal body. I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, I stood in pitch black darkness. I couldn't see my hands, but it was unlikely that I was already linked up to anything.

Suddenly, an input prompt appeared in my vision, completely with a blinking cursor and all.

help

UNKNOWN COMMAND. TYPE HELP FOR HELP.

I groaned. Perfect. The universal IT answer for everything didn't work here. I didn't exactly fancy a life in darkness. Sometimes the stupid solution helps.

HELP

COMMAND ACCEPTED: EXECUTING ROUTINE.

A list with all the commands opened up, filling my field of view.


"I went looking for her. Then I found her brain scan. A goddamn brain scan was everything left of her." he said with a lump in his throat, tears welling up at the horrifying memory.

Chuck put his hand on Phil's shoulder. "Hey buddy, I don't need to hear the rest if it's too much for you. Take a deep breath."

The two guys stared at each other for long seconds in silent conversation before Chuck nodded slowly. "Alright. Now, how do I get my friends back?"

"I think I can help with that." Kate piped up.

They walked over to her and looked over her shoulders.

"It seems Shaw has created subroutines inside the simulation to keep your friends trapped."

"Well how do we get them out of there?" Chuck asked impatiently..

Kate had an evil smirk on her face. "We'll have to disrupt the simulation."


A large warehouse towered over two hidden shadows, crouching on the roof of a little store across the street.

"I'm not exactly comfortable with this."

"Well, do you want to get your friends back or not?"

"Of course I do! I just… I don't like killing people."

"Have you played Call Of Duty?"

"Yeah, hours and hours. Why?"

"You have already killed things like this, Chuck. Those entities we're going to face are nothing more than bits and bytes, just like in the games. Phil and I have monitored the simulation; there are no other living beings trapped in this simulation other than your friends. And even if there were, they would just be force-exiting the sim instead of dying."

"Then… what about you?"

Kate swirled around. "What do you mean?"

"You're bits and bytes, too. You don't have a body to 'force-exit' into. And yet, you're really calm about all of this. Why?"

She smiled weakly. "Because you breaking out of this and killing Shaw is the only way to ever be truly free with Phil. That's why I want to help you."

Chuck put his hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to do this, Kate. I may not be an AI, but, you know…" he tapped against his head and gave her a crooked smile, "I'm the one with a computer in my brain."

Kate crossed her arms and stared at him darkly. "And my brain is in a computer."

Chuck's eyes went big and he opened his mouth wide when he realized what he had said. "Oh, my god. I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to..."

He stopped when she suddenly broke into a large grin.

"You're so easy!" she said with a smirk.

"And you are an evil woman." Chuck grumbled.

"I can't help it. Maybe there's more of GLaDOS in me than I thought." She quipped.

"Evil, I say."

She shrugged it off with a smile and brought her infrared binoculars to her eyes.

"This building has a crapload of security in it…" she remarked and let out a low whistle, changing the subject abruptly.

"Care to see 'the Intersect' in action?" Chuck asked smiling.

She frowned. "Does this thing even work in a simulation?"

He waggled his eyebrows before answering. "There's only one way to find out."

Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for the familiar sensation of flashing. It always felt a little odd, despite the years of using the intersect, to feel like being about to sneeze without actually sneezing. His eyes crossed and familiar images flashed before his eyes.

With a confident grin, he vaulted over the ledge before Kate could do anything. Cursing loudly, she followed him over the street.

Chuck approached the sole security guard in front of the entrance. The guy somehow remembered him of Yuri the Gobbler. And not in a good way. This guy was a freaking mountain!

"Excuse me, could you help me please?" he asked the man, who only shook his head.

"No can do, sir. This is a restricted area, I have to ask you to leave."

"Oh really, I didn't know that! What is this place, Fort Knox?"

The guard straightened up, preparing to throw him out.

"I'm not at liberty to say. Please leave now, sir." he motioned to the street.

Chuck held his hands up in defeat. "Woah, okay, big guy. No need to get so defensive. Wow are those ninjas?" he asked and squinted behind the guard.

The guard, dutiful as ever, turned his head around to the alleged threat (Ninjas were more dangerous than a single pedestrian, after all). This however exposed a vulnerable part of his throat, which promptly made acquaintance with the edge of Chuck's hand.

Kate finally caught up with him while he still shook out his hand. "Damn, this guy had a hard throat." Her gaze wandered down to see the impressive guard she had seen through her binoculars before slumped down against the wall.

"He's not dead, but he's out of it for a few hours at the least." Chuck explained. She only nodded.

He took the guard's key card and his gun, checking the magazine before sliding it back in and using the card to enter the building. The guard behind the counter sprang up when he saw the unfamiliar face.

"You shouldn't be here!" He yelled, as if the phrase would magically poof Chuck away. Instead he got a bullet between his eyes, courtesy of the Intersect's accuracy program.

"Quantity doesn't always equal quality…" Chuck muttered.

With awe he watched the dead body disintegrate into virtual code that faded away in the air.

"This. Is. Awesome!" he said as he turned to Kate, grinning from ear to ear.

"Glad you're entertained." she said with a smirk.


I wanted to give you something after such a long time, so I cut most of the fight from this chapter (don't worry, next chapter will be more action). In this time of relative silence from me, I focussed mainly on my other stories to get a bit of a fresh view on my stories. Challenging my author self is supposed to yield more satisfying results.