Where is everybody?
by Joshua Falken
based in the pilot of the Original "The Twilight Zone" Series
"Game Over", the system's voice announced. The game cube departed of the system leaving somebody behind. A sprite.
He didn't remember his name, but he got to remind the name of the device in the arm.
"Glitch, scan."
The answer surprised him.
"Is no one in the system!?!"
He thought that Glitch was with some defect. He raised his eyes and saw that he was in the surroundings of a medium capacity system. He began to walk in direction of the city.
In the way, there was a highway diner. He heard something that seemed music. He entered in the place.
There was no one, but everything indicated that were people there recently. A machine similar to an coffee machine was turn on, making energy shakes. In an ashtray there was a lit cigarette. The active tape recorder itself was an evidence. Somebody had been in the diner, some time ago. The sprite turned the diner, but he didn't find anyone.
"But, what did happen?", he thought stunned.
He shook the head and left the diner, in direction to the city.
When he get close to the town, he noticed that this was a late, MS-DOS-type system. In the town limits, there was a signboard: System Twilight. "Then that is the name of this system", he thought. Then with anger, "But that doesn't help me in anything! I don't know where this system is in the Net!"
He walked in direction to the downtown.
The system Twilight was not a centralized system, that is, the Principal Office was not in the center of the system, but close of the harbor.
The sprite went up to that point, through the city, and at same time, observing that strange system. The town seemed lonely as that diner. He felt a chill, but he continued walking. The stores, he noticed, were open as if it was a normal second, but didn't have anybody there!
Suddenly, he heard a factory whistle. He ran in direction to a factory, that seemed to be a steel plant. He went by the gates, and he noticed that was no guard in the hut. He entered in the building and he didn't see anybody. No sprite, no binome, no virus, nothing! But the machines were still hot, what wanted say that was somebody there some time ago!
The sprite left the factory, very scared.
He walked in direction of a van, that was parked in front of a store. There was somebody inside of the car. The woman was seated in the passenger side. She had gray skin and red hair. The sprite opened the vehicle door. The woman dropped; she was a mannequin. He was turned for the store, that was full of mannequins but without any life form.
"What is happening here?!", he spoke shocked, noticing that, in some way, had he entered in a very bizarre experience.
In that instant, a vidwindow appeared in the other end of the street, emitting a calling signal. The sprite came out running in direction of the vidwindow. He tripped twice and he knocked down three garbage cans, in an attempt of attending to the call. But he arrived late too much. The vidwindow was turned off when he attended to. He tried frantically call the operator (in those old systems, the vidwindows was connected for operators, and not automatically, as it was normal). Instead of that, he discovered the "special" operator:
"Sorry, but the system is off-line in the moment. Try again later!", a recording.
He turned off the vidwindow amazed.
"Just an instant! If somebody called for here, it means that there is somebody in this system!", he said for himself.
He was convinced that somebody or something was watching him. He ran in direction to the Principal Office.
The building of the Principal Office was tall, similar to a commercial tower. The sprite cross the gate, and he noticed that was no one in the reception. He sought for the building the System Archive, where they would be related all the PIDs of the inhabitants of this city, and perhaps they told who he was.
He found the Archive and he read all the documents of the system. No track about his identity or what had happened with who lived in that place. He had given up when he noticed something in that didn't believe. In agreement with the system's log, the last record was of three miliseconds before him arrive!
Stunned, he went to the Archive door. It was locked! He tried, desperate, open the door, but it didn't release. In a peak of desperation and anger, he shot in the door lock with the weapon that carried. It opened. He ran outside of the room.
He ran for the corridors of the building trying to find anybody, any person! He arrived in the CPU's command room. Empty. Nobody. Just a cigarette lit in an ashtray and a cup of coffee by the middle.
He give a hysterical laugh and he said: "Attention all the CPUs! Strange fellow in the command room! Attention all the CPUs!" He would continue in that state if he had not heard a noise.
The noise came from the prison and he went to there, try find anyone. The cells were all empty ones. One was even open. He entered and he found a razor and shaving cream. When he was turned for the cell door, he saw that was closing! He ran as a lightning for the door, and he escaped for a nick of time from being arrested.
But his desperation and his paranoia arrived to a pick. He left running of the Principal Office and, in the middle of the main avenue of the system Twilight, screamed:
"Hey! HEY! WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!"
Nobody attended to his call.
"If that is a nightmare, I want wake up now!", the sprite begged.
He had gone to a TXT files' store, but there was only an available title: "The Last Sprite in the Net".
"Like you see, there is a certain question about my identity. I will put this way, I am not sure of who I am!"
The sprite talked with his reflection in the mirror, in an attempt not very well succeeded of not driving insane. That would continue for a long time, if he had not seen the lights of the street be lit. He ran to the street, and he saw that a movie theater called Algorithm Theater, had lit the display lights. The title of the film was "The Viral Wars". That caused a memory blink: he was a Guardian! He screamed that several times, but there was no one to listen. The film began. He went up to the projection room to know who was projecting the film, but he didn't find anybody.
His nervousness reached the climax. He left running of the movie theater. He ran for the whole city.
He fell close to an emergency button. He began to press the button repeating the command "Help me! Help me!"
"Remove him of there!", AndrAIa commanded. She was dressed as an Air Force general. "Now!"
Matrix was pressing the panic button of the isolation room in that he was. The binomes removed Matrix of the room. He was as an Air Force pilot. He had been 497 hours and 34 minutes totally alone, according to the status log of the game in that they were.
AndrAIa approached of Matrix. She said gently, noticing that he was very scared:
"It's all right, Enzo."
Matrix, calmer, noticed that all, the city, was just an illusion. They were inside of a game.
Matrix's answer went hug her, noticing the when he needed her.
She was surprised, but not very later she retributed the hug.
"Game over."
Yes. Everything was only a game. But the worst enemy than anybody can face calls himself isolation. And a thing that no technology or simulation can substitute is the human (or sprite) necessity for companionship. A case to be filed under "H" for "Human Instincts"... in the Interface Limits.
Author's Note: This was my first fic even wrote, and it was inspired by the discussions in the ReBoot Mailing List about Matrix's character and how he depend on AndrAIa to keep his sanity in the game-hopping period. This fic shows my opinion in the subject :-)