Chapter 3: The Dark Web
Steve
My stomach churned from the internet transit, and it was taking everything in me not to hurl all over the place. How is Alex never affected by this? I may never know.
The sickening colors and deafening noise died down, and we found ourselves in the center of an abandoned city. The scene was very post-apocalyptic, with a greenish-yellow sky, crumbling buildings, and the faint scent of sulfur in the air. Vines grew all over the buildings and the blacktop of the road we stood on was cracked and full of potholes. It seemed like we were the only ones in the whole world.
"Where are we?" Alex asked.
I shot her an alarmed look. "What do you mean, 'where are we'?! You should know! You're the one that brought us here!"
"I wasn't paying attention to which button I pressed! I was panicking!" She shouted back.
"You may want to keep your voice down, princess, or you're going to attract some… undesirables, like me," a new voice said. A shiver went down both of our spines.
We slowly turned around. A Glitch that looked somewhat like Nightmare was standing a little ways behind us, but beyond basic anatomy, there were few other comparisons that could be drawn. The Glitch had sickly green skin and yellow eyes that almost seemed to glow in our dim environment. He was missing his right arm from the elbow down, and the hungry look in his eyes was off-putting.
"Well, Steve, looks like we need to get going," Alex said. She turned around and began briskly walking away, and I didn't hesitate to follow her. The Glitch, however, teleported in front of us.
"Wait, don't go. You see, you two look like you could use some directions. You're in luck, because I know this area like the back of my hand." He slowly ran one of his claws down Alex's cheek.
I shoved myself between them. "No thank you, we're good." I glanced back at Alex and mouthed, "get us out of here." When I glanced back, I saw another Glitch walking up behind us. This one had the same starving look in its eyes. Alex saw my expression of terror, and the color drained from her face.
More Glitches were beginning to step out of the shadows. Each one was more grotesque than the last, and they all had the same starving look. Alex and I took one look at this scene and started running.
"Kill them," The first Glitch ordered.
We didn't get very far. We veered down another decimated street to escape the screeching and hissing behind us just to come face-to-face with a wall of rubble. One of the buildings had apparently collapsed on the street a long time ago. The ten-foot-tall wall of concrete and rebar was impossible to climb. We were trapped. The Glitches looked delighted at our predicament. Alex pulled out two swords and tossed one to me. "Looks like we're fighting our way out," she said.
A Glitch that looked like an insect the size of an iron golem leaped at us first, but before we could kill it, a blur of blue left a deep gash in one of its eyes. It screeched as greenish, putrid fluid poured out. The first Glitch that we met hissed angrily. "You."
The blue blur was Memory. She wore a backpack, and her claws were soaked in the greenish fluid. She snarled. "Yeah, it's me. Now, why don't you go back to the hole you crawled out of before I make your arms match?"
The Glitch hissed in fury. "Kill her, too."
The Glitches began approaching again, and we all readied our weapons. Suddenly, a rumbling caused the Glitches to freeze. They all instantly started fleeing for the nearest hiding spots and shadows. The first Glitch snarled at Memory. "I hope CleanCode tears you apart!" he hissed, before also running off. Memory pulled us behind a large chunk of rubble just as an army of about twenty CleanCode agents marched past. We waited until they were out of view and we couldn't hear their marching boots before Memory stood off and wiped the fluid off her claws.
"So," She started. "What do we have here?" she glanced down at us and froze. "Wait. Alex? Steve? What are you two doing here?"
"Hi, Memory," Alex said with a wave.
"Entity attacked and took our home," I said simply. "We have nowhere else to go."
"Oh. Well, we better get out of here. I don't know when Collide and his little posey will rear their hideous heads again, but I don't want to be here when they do."
The thought of seeing that one-armed Glitch again was more than enough encouragement to follow Memory. We walked through the desolate streets, and Memory kept flinching at the smallest noise.
"So, you live here?" Alex asked.
"Most Glitches do. You probably would have grown up here if it wasn't for your… special circumstances," Memory said. Was that a hint of jealousy? It was hard to tell from her stony expression. "My dad and I have lived in this part of Neo City since I was a kid. There are a lot of CleanCode people, but that also means that there aren't very many other Glitches here. Collide and his group are the only ones here. It's nowhere near safe, but it's home."
I glanced around at our crumbling and deserted surroundings. I couldn't imagine calling this dump home.
We walked for about two more blocks until Memory stopped at the base of a skyscraper. It was one of the tallest and least deteriorated buildings for miles. Memory glanced up at the windows of the top floor, put her hands on our shoulders, and in a flash she teleported us inside. The sudden change in setting violently upset my stomach, and I groaned.
"I hate teleporting," I muttered.
"You're fine with ender pearls," Alex noticed.
"That's… different."
The inside of the building was vastly different from the outside. Instead of the destroyed, abandoned interior that would have definitely matched the exterior, we found ourselves in a small condo. The furniture had countertops in the kitchen had rips and cracks to signify their age, but other than that you would have never known that this was in an apocalyptic world. Memory walked over to the kitchen and flopped the backpack on the counter. She unzipped it and began putting cans of food away into the cupboards.
"This is your house?" Alex asked.
"Yeah. It's modest, but comfortable." She took out two bottles of water and handed them to us. "So, Entity took over the game, huh?" I nodded and drank some water. Memory frowned. "What about my dad? Is he okay?"
"He's a little beat-up, but he's okay. He's the only reason we're still alive. He warned us that Entity was coming, and we managed to get out before he found us," Alex said.
Memory looked at the backpack as she thought. "I always hoped that it would be my dad and Herobrine who would take the game. Not some halfling." She shook her head. "But I guess it doesn't matter. You two are safe here. I'll get some blankets, and you two are welcome to stay here as long as you need to."
"Thank you so much, Memory. We appreciate it," I said.
"No problem."
