***
Chapter 8
Don't lay down and die
***
It was red.
A dark red.
Some brown.
A crusty red and brown.
Andraia stared in shock and horror at the world around her. It was
happening again. The world had changed. It was dark except for the small
amount of light her flashlight gave.
Something in the distance, a white light in the form of a sprite, but not
really, was just barely visible. She ran toward it.
The sprite turned toward her. She was pure white. Hair, eyes, everything
was white. Her outfit, a toga, made her look like a roman statue. A crown
of flowers was on her head. Around her neck was a geometric symbol of some
kind that Andraia didn't recognize. An icon of some type, perhaps?
The sprite had an air of divinity about her. She radiated with white
light and hovered slightly above the ground, her face showing that of
pure content. She looked peaceful enough, but something about her was
completely............wrong.
"Are you Claudia?" Andraia asked?
"No," said the sprite. A simple no.
"Then what are you?"
"I am the future of the 'net. I require this system to build up my
resources. Once I have established base here, I will send Claudia ahead of
me to the next one."
"What have you done here? What did you do with all the people?"
"That was not me, that was Claudia. She prepares a system for my arrival.
Once I have gained complete control, I will give them more beautiful
forms than they could possibly imagine. They will willingly help me in
return. And I need you and your friend to help me."
"I won't help you. Whatever you've done to this system can't be good."
"I can help him......"
"What?"
"I can help your friend. Make him better. He will never know pain again."
"Yeah right."
"You don't believe I have such power?"
"You were trying to kill him!"
"Certainly not! Claudia was preparing him for my arrival. Once I have
control, I can manipulate it as I wish."
"You're disgusting, you're evil, you're insulting my intelligence, and
you're a terrible actress!" Andraia screamed as she drew her sword and
slashed the virus right in half.
Then she woke up.
She was still sitting on the couch. The room was mostly dark, but it was
lit by a dim light source from the center of the room. Carrot was asleep
at her desk with only a glow stick for light. She was snoring
lightly, and drooling on a vidwindow that seemed to be monitoring the
system status. James was nowhere to be seen.
"Andraia?"
Enzo was slill laying across her lap like he had been when she fell asleep.
He was awake, and looking right up at her.
"Hi, how are you feeling?"
"Everything hurts, my back's itchy, and I'd sell my soul for a
cheeseburger about now."
"Ugh, don't say that. Especially with these viruses around. I think
that's exactly what they want from us. Are you hungry?"
"Yeah. I don't think I've eaten anything since we left Mainframe."
Now that Andraia thought about it, she hadn't either. Maybe she hadn't
noticed her hunger since she'd dealt with some pretty unappetizing stuff
this past second. Now she WAS noticing it. Her stomach grumbled.
"I think I'll go find something to eat. Stay here."
"Like I'm going anywhere......." Enzo said sarcastically. Andraia figured
he was right though. He was probably too weak to move around much at this
point.
The halls of the PO were dark and lonely. Andraia's flashlight provided
little comfort. There were a few refridgerators in the building, but
everything inside was spoiled. She found a few nonperishable foods: Chef
Grease-aredee Canned Pasta, some canned vegetables, condensed soup, etc.
She noted that the food was in some kind of food drive storage room, for
the homeless or something. Well, other than her and Enzo, there wasn't
anybody left to give the food to. She grabbed some bottled juice and left
the room.
Going back to one of the rooms with the refridgerator, she found some
plastic forks. She went back to Carrot's office. Enzo was quietly talking
to Glitch, but stopped when she came through the door. She didn't bother
asking questions.
After helping Enzo into a sitting position and using her fingernails to
pry the cans open, she and Enzo ate silently right out of the cans. She
kinda wished she was back in Mainframe, where she at least had a working
microwave to heat the food, even when trapped inside the Principal office.
Of course, there was no such luxury here in the dead system. How many
other systems on the net were like this?
She had no idea what Enzo was thinking at the time, but she knew it
couldn't be good. But to her surprise, he started giggling at something.
"What is it?" She asked.
He held up one of the cans. Alphabet soup.
"Yeah?"
"Remember when you first saw a can of alphabet soup? You went crazy with
the letters. Later on you found one of Dot's financial reports and started
lining up the letters right on top of the ones on the paper. Then Dot came
in and found her papers covered in tomato soup. I swear she turned
purple!"
He burst out laughing. Andraia stared at him, almost ready to cry. She
hadn't seen him laugh since leaving Mainframe. The laughter didn't last
long, he winced, wrapping his arms around his chest, as if in great pain,
but that didn't stop a few more giggles from escaping. Andraia put her
arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug as he sat there, panting.
"Shh, calm down. You're still hurt," Andraia said.
"Oww........yeah, but I feel great," he said, smiling weakly at her.
"Andraia, I promise that someday we'll get home. I don't know how, but we
have to."
Carrot stirred, then sat up, stretching. Realizing something, she quickly
turned around and wiped the small amount of drool off her face. The two
small sprites both started laughing.
"Oh sure, go ahead and laugh! That's what I get for helping you!" she said
humorously.
"Well, I might as well say this since you're up," Enzo said, looking at
Glitch. "I was talking to Glitch, and I remembered that one time a
codemaster was attacking Mainframe. Bob went into the game with the
codemaster, and tried to use it to nullify him......well........until he
found out I was there."
"Yes, go on?" Carrot said.
"Well, there's one thing we have that Bob didn't," Enzo said, grinning.
"And what's that?"
"This," Enzo said, tapping his icon as it went into Game Sprite mode.
"Makes us 100% game-proof. We both know that too well," he said, looking
at Andraia sadly.
"Interesting. Nullify the virus. But a game would have to drop on both
Claudia and the client virus to destroy them completely. Even then, we
don't really know if it'll work."
"Yeah, I haven't figured that part out yet, but I think to do that, we
have to let the virus take over. I don't know if you want to risk that.
It's your system."
"Not like there's much left of it," Carrot said grimly. "Without sprites
and binomes the system cannot function for long. We may barely be able to
support a game. But I don't think letting the virus take over is the
answer. Who would lure the virus to the game?"
"Wait," Andraia said. "When I was in that alternate world or whatever,
that's when Enzo was infected. She may only need one more sprite."
Everyone exchanged nervous glances, as James walked in the room.
"She's right," He said. "Claudia only needs one more sprite to allow the
client virus access to the system. But there's more. The virus does in
fact feed off nightmares, but also aids in creating that nightmare with
the hallucinogenic properties of the infection. The infected sprites
then become the nightmare and are irreperable once they change into a
monster. Claudia controls the monsters directly, and the client virus
controls Claudia. Once enough sprites are infected, the system they're
running is opened to the client's control."
"So this system is as good as dead anyway," Carrot sighed. "Maybe we
should all leave with the game." She walked to the window. "I'll miss this
place, I've been here my whole life, but what can I do? Besides, I've
always been curious about other systems." She sighed. "Alright, here's the
deal. Game comes down, we make a break for it. James, the core control
chamber should still be online. See if you can get some power so we can
have some kind of vehicle to make a break for the game when it comes."
"Alright."
"I'll see if I can get out there and find the remaining sprites."
"How will you find them?" Enzo asked.
"I'm not sure, really, but what else can I do?" she said, opening one of
her cupboards and pulling out a rifle, which she casually cleaned while
talking, as if she did this all the time. "Andraia, you and Enzo know the
most about this virus. See if you can devise some sort of bait to get the
virus to follow us into the game. I'll give everybody a disinfecting
program just in case Claudia shows up and leaves you a surprise. If that
happense use it as soon as possible. I'm outta here." She picked up the
rifle and a bag of ammo, and walked quickly out the door.
Would she be seen again?
***
She didn't know how long she'd been asleep. Something was nudging her face
gently. Something wet........
Her eyes opened slowly, groggily. Frisket was on top of her. He whined.
"Frisket?"
She sat up, looking around.
She and Enzo were both laying on the ground. It was dark. It felt sticky
underneath. An unusual heat could be felt radiating from everywhere. The
floor was once again a rotting metal grate. The air was muggy and a rancid
smell reached her nose.
She grabbed her flashlight and pointed it around the room. The remains of
a desk were smashed into the ground, and various objects were scattered
about. The walls were filthy, and looked like they had some kind of
strange material growing on them. A cracked vidwindow was fizzing on the
ground. Some sections of the floor were still tile, others were missing
completely.
No noise, either from monsters or from Glitch could be heard. At least not
yet. Frisket whined again.
"Were you trapped here, Frisket?" Andraia asked.
The dog barked in answer.
"Too bad I don't speak dog." She sighed, and looked around. "I wonder how
long I was asleep. I don't even remember falling asleep."
Frisket whined and turned his head toward Enzo, as if to indicate him.
Andraia quickly moved to his side. His fever was higher than before. He
groaned and opened his eye to look up at Andraia.
"Enzo? Are you okay?"
"Something's happening. I don't know..............."
Andraia gathered him in her arms. There was a strange expression on his
face.
"Enzo, what is it?"
"I can feel something........I don't understand. I think Bob told me once
that guardians could sometimes sense trouble before it happens. I'm not
sure how it works though."
"What do you mean?"
"I think the client is already here..............Andraia, I'm scared. I
don't know what to do. It hurts......."
"Where?"
"Everywhere. And the guardian code keeps telling me I have to do
something. But I don't know what to do. I've never fought a virus
before........."
"Yes you have......."
"What? When?"
"When I was at the school. You kept helping me somehow. You showed me how
to find you. You fought her control. You knew I was trapped, and you saved
me."
"I don't understand."
"Don't you remember telling me not to let Claudia infect me?"
"Well............yeah."
"That was at the school. While I was there, it was as if somebody was
dropping hints as to where you were. Hints that only we would understand.
I think somehow you were speaking to me through the infection. You used it
against her. Somehow you were leading me to you."
"I don't remember anything."
Suddenly, Glitch fell off Enzo's arm as white noise echoed through the
room.
A loud thumping noise was heard outside, and a strange groan. Something
thumped on the door. Then again. And again.
Then the door burst open.
Carrot stood there, skin sticky with drying blood, with a blank look on
her face. She stood pigeon toed, bent in strange angles all around,
carrying her shotgun in one hand. Her firing hand looely moved upward, as
if controlled by puppet strings, and started firing random shots into the
air.
Andraia grabbed Enzo and dove for cover behind the desk. Frisket dove
behind her. The dog had had enough experience with shotguns in the past.
Several clicks told Andraia that Carrot was out of ammo. She extended
her nails and fired them toward the infected sprite. A thump was heard.
She slowly peeked over the top of the desk. Carrot was face down on the
rotting floor. But there was a strange hump on her back. It was squirming,
apparently in alarm.
Some strange creature, like a baby with a tail instead of legs, had
attatched itself to Carrot's back. Extending her nails again, she dug them
right into the creature's flesh. It released its hold on Carrot and fell
limp. Andraia threw it down, and stepped on it.
Andraia then examined Carrot. She was okay, but out cold. The creature had
controlled Carrot by sending some kind of signal to her brain. The blood
came from a bite mark on Carrot's back. That thing was some sort of
vampire. Right in front of Andraia's eyes, the wound closed up, as if it
had never been there. Andraia remembered the disinfecting programs that
Carrot had given her, and attatched one of them to Carrot's icon. It
dissolved into it.
Carrot woke up almost immediately, and started scratching her back.
"Man, that itches. What happened?"
"Claudia got you."
Carrot looked around, gaping at the remains of her office.
"Is this the alternate world you were talking about?"
"Yes."
Both Carrot and Andraia gasped as the world morphed in front of them to
it's natural state. The office looked as if the fight had never happened.
Chapter 8
Don't lay down and die
***
It was red.
A dark red.
Some brown.
A crusty red and brown.
Andraia stared in shock and horror at the world around her. It was
happening again. The world had changed. It was dark except for the small
amount of light her flashlight gave.
Something in the distance, a white light in the form of a sprite, but not
really, was just barely visible. She ran toward it.
The sprite turned toward her. She was pure white. Hair, eyes, everything
was white. Her outfit, a toga, made her look like a roman statue. A crown
of flowers was on her head. Around her neck was a geometric symbol of some
kind that Andraia didn't recognize. An icon of some type, perhaps?
The sprite had an air of divinity about her. She radiated with white
light and hovered slightly above the ground, her face showing that of
pure content. She looked peaceful enough, but something about her was
completely............wrong.
"Are you Claudia?" Andraia asked?
"No," said the sprite. A simple no.
"Then what are you?"
"I am the future of the 'net. I require this system to build up my
resources. Once I have established base here, I will send Claudia ahead of
me to the next one."
"What have you done here? What did you do with all the people?"
"That was not me, that was Claudia. She prepares a system for my arrival.
Once I have gained complete control, I will give them more beautiful
forms than they could possibly imagine. They will willingly help me in
return. And I need you and your friend to help me."
"I won't help you. Whatever you've done to this system can't be good."
"I can help him......"
"What?"
"I can help your friend. Make him better. He will never know pain again."
"Yeah right."
"You don't believe I have such power?"
"You were trying to kill him!"
"Certainly not! Claudia was preparing him for my arrival. Once I have
control, I can manipulate it as I wish."
"You're disgusting, you're evil, you're insulting my intelligence, and
you're a terrible actress!" Andraia screamed as she drew her sword and
slashed the virus right in half.
Then she woke up.
She was still sitting on the couch. The room was mostly dark, but it was
lit by a dim light source from the center of the room. Carrot was asleep
at her desk with only a glow stick for light. She was snoring
lightly, and drooling on a vidwindow that seemed to be monitoring the
system status. James was nowhere to be seen.
"Andraia?"
Enzo was slill laying across her lap like he had been when she fell asleep.
He was awake, and looking right up at her.
"Hi, how are you feeling?"
"Everything hurts, my back's itchy, and I'd sell my soul for a
cheeseburger about now."
"Ugh, don't say that. Especially with these viruses around. I think
that's exactly what they want from us. Are you hungry?"
"Yeah. I don't think I've eaten anything since we left Mainframe."
Now that Andraia thought about it, she hadn't either. Maybe she hadn't
noticed her hunger since she'd dealt with some pretty unappetizing stuff
this past second. Now she WAS noticing it. Her stomach grumbled.
"I think I'll go find something to eat. Stay here."
"Like I'm going anywhere......." Enzo said sarcastically. Andraia figured
he was right though. He was probably too weak to move around much at this
point.
The halls of the PO were dark and lonely. Andraia's flashlight provided
little comfort. There were a few refridgerators in the building, but
everything inside was spoiled. She found a few nonperishable foods: Chef
Grease-aredee Canned Pasta, some canned vegetables, condensed soup, etc.
She noted that the food was in some kind of food drive storage room, for
the homeless or something. Well, other than her and Enzo, there wasn't
anybody left to give the food to. She grabbed some bottled juice and left
the room.
Going back to one of the rooms with the refridgerator, she found some
plastic forks. She went back to Carrot's office. Enzo was quietly talking
to Glitch, but stopped when she came through the door. She didn't bother
asking questions.
After helping Enzo into a sitting position and using her fingernails to
pry the cans open, she and Enzo ate silently right out of the cans. She
kinda wished she was back in Mainframe, where she at least had a working
microwave to heat the food, even when trapped inside the Principal office.
Of course, there was no such luxury here in the dead system. How many
other systems on the net were like this?
She had no idea what Enzo was thinking at the time, but she knew it
couldn't be good. But to her surprise, he started giggling at something.
"What is it?" She asked.
He held up one of the cans. Alphabet soup.
"Yeah?"
"Remember when you first saw a can of alphabet soup? You went crazy with
the letters. Later on you found one of Dot's financial reports and started
lining up the letters right on top of the ones on the paper. Then Dot came
in and found her papers covered in tomato soup. I swear she turned
purple!"
He burst out laughing. Andraia stared at him, almost ready to cry. She
hadn't seen him laugh since leaving Mainframe. The laughter didn't last
long, he winced, wrapping his arms around his chest, as if in great pain,
but that didn't stop a few more giggles from escaping. Andraia put her
arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug as he sat there, panting.
"Shh, calm down. You're still hurt," Andraia said.
"Oww........yeah, but I feel great," he said, smiling weakly at her.
"Andraia, I promise that someday we'll get home. I don't know how, but we
have to."
Carrot stirred, then sat up, stretching. Realizing something, she quickly
turned around and wiped the small amount of drool off her face. The two
small sprites both started laughing.
"Oh sure, go ahead and laugh! That's what I get for helping you!" she said
humorously.
"Well, I might as well say this since you're up," Enzo said, looking at
Glitch. "I was talking to Glitch, and I remembered that one time a
codemaster was attacking Mainframe. Bob went into the game with the
codemaster, and tried to use it to nullify him......well........until he
found out I was there."
"Yes, go on?" Carrot said.
"Well, there's one thing we have that Bob didn't," Enzo said, grinning.
"And what's that?"
"This," Enzo said, tapping his icon as it went into Game Sprite mode.
"Makes us 100% game-proof. We both know that too well," he said, looking
at Andraia sadly.
"Interesting. Nullify the virus. But a game would have to drop on both
Claudia and the client virus to destroy them completely. Even then, we
don't really know if it'll work."
"Yeah, I haven't figured that part out yet, but I think to do that, we
have to let the virus take over. I don't know if you want to risk that.
It's your system."
"Not like there's much left of it," Carrot said grimly. "Without sprites
and binomes the system cannot function for long. We may barely be able to
support a game. But I don't think letting the virus take over is the
answer. Who would lure the virus to the game?"
"Wait," Andraia said. "When I was in that alternate world or whatever,
that's when Enzo was infected. She may only need one more sprite."
Everyone exchanged nervous glances, as James walked in the room.
"She's right," He said. "Claudia only needs one more sprite to allow the
client virus access to the system. But there's more. The virus does in
fact feed off nightmares, but also aids in creating that nightmare with
the hallucinogenic properties of the infection. The infected sprites
then become the nightmare and are irreperable once they change into a
monster. Claudia controls the monsters directly, and the client virus
controls Claudia. Once enough sprites are infected, the system they're
running is opened to the client's control."
"So this system is as good as dead anyway," Carrot sighed. "Maybe we
should all leave with the game." She walked to the window. "I'll miss this
place, I've been here my whole life, but what can I do? Besides, I've
always been curious about other systems." She sighed. "Alright, here's the
deal. Game comes down, we make a break for it. James, the core control
chamber should still be online. See if you can get some power so we can
have some kind of vehicle to make a break for the game when it comes."
"Alright."
"I'll see if I can get out there and find the remaining sprites."
"How will you find them?" Enzo asked.
"I'm not sure, really, but what else can I do?" she said, opening one of
her cupboards and pulling out a rifle, which she casually cleaned while
talking, as if she did this all the time. "Andraia, you and Enzo know the
most about this virus. See if you can devise some sort of bait to get the
virus to follow us into the game. I'll give everybody a disinfecting
program just in case Claudia shows up and leaves you a surprise. If that
happense use it as soon as possible. I'm outta here." She picked up the
rifle and a bag of ammo, and walked quickly out the door.
Would she be seen again?
***
She didn't know how long she'd been asleep. Something was nudging her face
gently. Something wet........
Her eyes opened slowly, groggily. Frisket was on top of her. He whined.
"Frisket?"
She sat up, looking around.
She and Enzo were both laying on the ground. It was dark. It felt sticky
underneath. An unusual heat could be felt radiating from everywhere. The
floor was once again a rotting metal grate. The air was muggy and a rancid
smell reached her nose.
She grabbed her flashlight and pointed it around the room. The remains of
a desk were smashed into the ground, and various objects were scattered
about. The walls were filthy, and looked like they had some kind of
strange material growing on them. A cracked vidwindow was fizzing on the
ground. Some sections of the floor were still tile, others were missing
completely.
No noise, either from monsters or from Glitch could be heard. At least not
yet. Frisket whined again.
"Were you trapped here, Frisket?" Andraia asked.
The dog barked in answer.
"Too bad I don't speak dog." She sighed, and looked around. "I wonder how
long I was asleep. I don't even remember falling asleep."
Frisket whined and turned his head toward Enzo, as if to indicate him.
Andraia quickly moved to his side. His fever was higher than before. He
groaned and opened his eye to look up at Andraia.
"Enzo? Are you okay?"
"Something's happening. I don't know..............."
Andraia gathered him in her arms. There was a strange expression on his
face.
"Enzo, what is it?"
"I can feel something........I don't understand. I think Bob told me once
that guardians could sometimes sense trouble before it happens. I'm not
sure how it works though."
"What do you mean?"
"I think the client is already here..............Andraia, I'm scared. I
don't know what to do. It hurts......."
"Where?"
"Everywhere. And the guardian code keeps telling me I have to do
something. But I don't know what to do. I've never fought a virus
before........."
"Yes you have......."
"What? When?"
"When I was at the school. You kept helping me somehow. You showed me how
to find you. You fought her control. You knew I was trapped, and you saved
me."
"I don't understand."
"Don't you remember telling me not to let Claudia infect me?"
"Well............yeah."
"That was at the school. While I was there, it was as if somebody was
dropping hints as to where you were. Hints that only we would understand.
I think somehow you were speaking to me through the infection. You used it
against her. Somehow you were leading me to you."
"I don't remember anything."
Suddenly, Glitch fell off Enzo's arm as white noise echoed through the
room.
A loud thumping noise was heard outside, and a strange groan. Something
thumped on the door. Then again. And again.
Then the door burst open.
Carrot stood there, skin sticky with drying blood, with a blank look on
her face. She stood pigeon toed, bent in strange angles all around,
carrying her shotgun in one hand. Her firing hand looely moved upward, as
if controlled by puppet strings, and started firing random shots into the
air.
Andraia grabbed Enzo and dove for cover behind the desk. Frisket dove
behind her. The dog had had enough experience with shotguns in the past.
Several clicks told Andraia that Carrot was out of ammo. She extended
her nails and fired them toward the infected sprite. A thump was heard.
She slowly peeked over the top of the desk. Carrot was face down on the
rotting floor. But there was a strange hump on her back. It was squirming,
apparently in alarm.
Some strange creature, like a baby with a tail instead of legs, had
attatched itself to Carrot's back. Extending her nails again, she dug them
right into the creature's flesh. It released its hold on Carrot and fell
limp. Andraia threw it down, and stepped on it.
Andraia then examined Carrot. She was okay, but out cold. The creature had
controlled Carrot by sending some kind of signal to her brain. The blood
came from a bite mark on Carrot's back. That thing was some sort of
vampire. Right in front of Andraia's eyes, the wound closed up, as if it
had never been there. Andraia remembered the disinfecting programs that
Carrot had given her, and attatched one of them to Carrot's icon. It
dissolved into it.
Carrot woke up almost immediately, and started scratching her back.
"Man, that itches. What happened?"
"Claudia got you."
Carrot looked around, gaping at the remains of her office.
"Is this the alternate world you were talking about?"
"Yes."
Both Carrot and Andraia gasped as the world morphed in front of them to
it's natural state. The office looked as if the fight had never happened.
