***
Chapter 7
And the sun goes down.....
***

The city was quiet, but the fog wasn't as thick as before. The snow had
been replaced by a gentle rain and an occasional rumble of distant
thunder. In this city with more trees than she had ever seen in her
life, the rain had a peaceful feel to Andraia, as well as a curious feel.
Her AI programming was working at a level she hadn't remembered since her
first day in Mainframe. In any other situation, Andraia would have
enjoyed the rain. But not today.

She wondered what the system was like before the viral takeover. Did
people enjoy trees and rain? Or were they considered everyday and
commonplace?

The monsters appeared to be gone.....for now. But the lack of people
still frightened her. Maybe at the principal office, there would be
somebody who knew something.

She jumped at the sudden noise of a null dashing out of a trash can. It
slid down a sewer drain.

Hmm........thats right. She hadn't seen many nulls here either. Maybe the
virus could infect nulls as well?

She heard what sounded like a fight, and readied her sword. She ran toward
the noise, dashing around a corner, to find............

A police officer was angrily kicking at his CPU patrol car.

"Stupid thing! OPEN ALREADY!"

Some of the kicks had left small dents in the fiberglass. Andraia couldn't
help laughing at the cop's little tantrum. The cop turned toward her.

"What's so funny?"

"You!"

The cop sighed, gave his car another kick for good measure, then turned to
Andraia.

"Nothing works since the infection. All electronics are dead and there's
no sign of anything living except nulls, a few animals, and the
occasional monster. I guess I needed a little stress relief. Glad to see
somebody else made it."

"Actually, another lady is still alive. She said that if I saw anybody, to
send them to the principal office."

"Really? And what lady would that be?"

"I don't know. But she was yellow, with orange hair with blue eyes."

"Heh, that would be Carrot. At least I'm hoping it's Carrot."

"Carrot?"

"She's the command.com. Don't you know?"

"Um, no. I'm not from this system."

The policeman looked at her seriously. "If you're not from here, then
where are you from? We don't know of any other systems."

"I'm an AI game sprite. I hacked myself out by placing my icon on that of
a system sprite. I guess they made me too smart for the game." Andraia
grinned. "But that didn't happen here. It happened in Mainframe. There a
way was discovered to leave with the game so that we wouldn't be nullified
if we lost...........and well, we lost." Andraia's tone changed. "I wish I
knew where Enzo was. After we got out of the game, we were
attacked..........but he was hurt so bad from the game.............."

The cop looked at her with a puzzled expression, and Andraia sighed.

"Sorry, I'm rambling........."

"No, that's okay. I'm just trying to piece it all together. I mean, first
a virus takes over completely, and now this.............There are
things I never would have considered happening until a couple seconds
ago. It's been strange." He paused. "By the way, my name's James. And you
are?"

"Andraia. Nice to meet you."

"Well, we should probably head towards the PO as you said."

"It's still a long walk, isn't it?"

"Well, we don't really have to walk. That's why I'm trying to get my car
open, but even the locks aren't working."

"Stand back.........."

"Say WHAT?"

Andraia drew her sword and slashed through the lock before the cop could
even blink. The trunk of the car slowly opened while the cop gaped.

"Err........what kind of game did you come from anyway?"

"This wasn't from the game. I just used to know somebody who had a thing
for swords."

"Oy. Remind me never to get you angry."

The cop reached inside the trunk and pulled out two compressed files
while muttering something about "crazy sword kid". After he tapped both of
the files, they expanded into two ordinary bicycles.

"Primitive, but it's the best thing we got without power. I just hope the
enviornment stays stable or we're dead meat."

Andraia followed the cop on the bike. They were headed in the direction of
a bridge. Across the bridge was the business sector of the town. From
there, it was only several blocks to the principal office.

The building was an office building style setup. A glass and metal
building that was relatively close to the ground, maybe not even three
stories high. Andraia guessed that this city had some kind of strict
building code, as none of the buildings here were very tall, especially
since the buildings in Mainframe were huge.

She dismounted her bike and looked around. Trees were placed all around
the building in an orderly fashion. A park with fountains (which were not
running) was just in front of the building. A soccer field was to the
side, with an adjoining playground.

"Okay, I'm going in first, in case there's anything in there. Stay close!"
James said, pulling out his gun.

The halls inside were quiet. Stone tile lined the floor, and the walls
were a warm brown color. Rooms and signs pointing whatever PO employees
to their jobs were around every corner. An occasional vending machine or
drinking fountain dotted the hallways.

Andraia heard a faint sound of somebody lightly stepping behind her, and
twirled around ready to attack, hissing and extending her nails.......

"WHOA! IT'S ME!"

Andraia's nails retracted as she found Carrot standing behind her, arms
raised as if to deflect a blow. James looked like he was about to have a
heart attack.

"Geez, Carrot, why do you always insist on sneaking up on people like
that?"

"Well, I had to find out who was snooping around, you goof!"

"You could have just yelled "Hello" or something," James said while
putting his gun in it's holster.

"Well, if you'd been a monster, the minute I'd yelled "Hello", I would
have a bit of a fight on my hands, wouldn't I? Besides, I've seen some
different mutants pop up. Ones taller than sprites."

"Goody," James replied sarcastically. Carrot turned to Andraia.

"Nice to know you made it out alive. I didn't know you had retractable
claws."

"You make me sound like a cat."

"She's not from this system," James explained. "She's a game sprite who
hacked herself out so that she could live as a system sprite."

"Really? That's interesting. Well, if we ever get out of this, you're
welcome to stay."

"Thanks, but I need to find Enzo and leave with the next game."

"Hey, wait a sec. I found another kid out there. Couldn't get much out of
him though, I think he was afraid of me. But I brought him back here. He's
pretty badly hurt. Couldn't do much without power except apply
disinfectant and bandage him up."

"Can I see him?"

"Sure, come on. And James, follow me. When we get there, we need to talk
and see about figuring out our situation."

Carrot led them to a room on the second floor, where her office was.
Enzo was inside, asleep on a couch, covered in a blanket. His head was
wrapped with gauze. Andraia ran up to him. He was'nt as bad as the
shape she'd found him in at the school. He was much cleaner, and dressed
in some fresh clothes. His fever was a bit lower, and he seemed more
peaceful in sleep than before. Carrot had obviosly done a lot of work on
him.

"Poor kid. Found him delirious in a ditch. He was infected by that Claudia
virus. I managed to disinfect him but he's still in pretty bad shape. I'm
guessing there's another infection from the cut. That's what's making him
sick."

"Claudia?" Andraia asked.

James responded to her question. "It's a virus that causes hallucinations.
Some people infect themselves willingly for the side effects. This town
has a strange history about it. I've been trying to figure it out for
literally days now. (Author's note: Yes, people. In ReBoot time.) What
I've found is that there are two parts to this virus, a host and a client
virus. The client virus can access an infected sprite's brain and mess
with it."

"Then the virus I saw in the school must have been Claudia!"

"Say what? You saw her?"

"Yes. She had these crazy tentacles and white eyes with no irises. That's
all I saw of her. She tried to infect me. It was at the
school..........sort of..........."

"Sort of?"

"It was the school, only it wasn't. It's like everything changed into this
twisted alternate version of itself. An alternate world or something."

Andraia told the other sprites everything she knew about this alternate
world, and about her idea that maybe the virus was feeding off nightmares.
The sprites looked at each other.

"You think maybe the client side virus is trying to acess the system
through the sprites?" James asked.

"I think it already has," Carrot replied. "Think about it. Nearly every
sprite in the system has dissappeared. I'm thinking that when Claudia, the
server virus, infects a sprite, the client side doesn't just change their
mental functions, it might change their entire biological makeup! The
client virus may literally be converting these sprites into other
viruses."

"If all this is true Carrot, and if these kids are really from an outer
system, then your theories are true!"

"Of course they're true!" Carrot snapped. "What I'm more worried about is
this alternate world that Andraia keeps describing. I think that once the
server side of the virus has converted enough sprites, the converted
sprites will completely change the system and allow the client side
complete access to the system through this alternate world Andraia
mentioned."

Andraia wasn't listening to the conversation anymore. The room was
getting darker. It was a more natural dark, as nighttime was
approaching. She sat on the couch, pulling Enzo's head into her lap. He
groaned softly and winced, but didn't give any other response. Leaning
against the back of the couch, she fell asleep.