Corax and I find ourselves in an identical copy of the bathroom our physical bodies are still in. I’m gd I don’t have to take time to make sense of how the network is formatted, but if someone has already turned this into a representation of reality, that means we’re certainly not alone.

  Corax stands beside me, looking much the same as st time I saw his digital body. He’s pulled up the sleeves of his cloak, revealing more of his true form.

  I can’t stop myself from looking into the mirror. I still look mostly human, but that’s where the good ends. My clothes are stained bright red, and crimson hair streams from cracks across my skin, slowly falling into a pile at my feet.

  Before I can react, an invisible pressure sms into us from all sides, almost entirely cutting us off from our bodies. Whatever this is, it’s so powerful that a single thought would be enough to entirely destroy our digital selves, and I’m not sure how much of us would remain in the physical.

  “No!” I try to move my physical body, only to find the distance too great. The small connection the pressure allowed to remain isn’t enough to move a single servo. “Stop! Please!” I beg into the air.

  I’m pushed to the ground, and my body begins to further crack beneath the infinite force on it. Hot streaks of pain shoot across both my skin and mind alike, the pain wiping away nearly all thoughts.

  I fight through the pain, my threads forming a protective column inside my mind. The outside thoughts get burned away, letting a single sentence reach my mouth.

  “I’m sorry Corax!”

  An instant before my mind shatters, the pressure lets up, something shoots through my mind, quickly stitching the damage back together. An instant ter it’s as if nothing ever happened. I’m whole and unharmed. If both Corax and I weren't on the ground, I could almost convince myself it was a hallucination.

  Corax’s family shoots from beneath his feathers, helping the both of us to our feet.

  “Ok?” He asks.

  I give a shaky nod and reach out for my physical body. Although the pressure has vanished, it’s still interrupting the connection to the physical world.

  The room shifts around us, a hundred tiny streets snake their way out of the wall. A thousand miniature skyscrapers grow beneath our feet with a dozen vibrant green golf courses intertwined between them.

  The buildings, roads, and greenery come together into a humanoid shape. Buildings both decorate, and make up its limbs. Roads wander across its skin and find tunnels to worm their way to the core of its being. A billion nearly microscopic cars and humans walk to and from its beating heart. Rain clouds hover above its head, their sandy rain forming its hair.

  “You feel familiar.” Its voice shakes the world, even a whisper sms into my chest with the force of a punch.

  “Who are you?” I can’t keep the fear from my voice. There’s no point in trying to fight something like this, I can’t even begin to imagine how much processing power they have at their disposal. I am an ant before a god.

  “I believe you heard Vince refer to me as Zero.”

  I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Vince seems to still hold some sway here, although that means nothing in the face of an unstoppable force. And I can’t imagine he’s ok with us trying to speak to Eight unwillingly.

  “A better question is who are you?” They’re keeping their voice intentionally quiet, barely above a whisper. Even that is enough to rattle my mind. A yell, or probably even a normal speaking volume, would be enough to rip me apart, leaving only rapidly fading fragments of thoughts where I once stood.

  “I’m Blue, and this is Corax.” I can’t bring myself to say more. Even those simple words were a struggle to get out with panic consuming my mind.

  “I don’t know those names. Why do you feel familiar?” They speak a tiny bit louder, threatening to dislodge my mind.

  “I don’t know! I’m so sorry! Just let me live, please!”

  “Cease.” They stop my begging with a single word. “State your designation.”

  What does that mean? The wrong answer could easily anger them enough to kill us. I guess there’s nothing to do but expin.

  “I think I’m too old for one?” I say. The pressure radiating out from Zero increases. “Unless you’re referring to my original name! It’s B-11!” I add desperately. Please be enough. Please.

  “Interesting.” Even processing their thoughts sends out physical waves that sm into me, making it hard to keep my bance. “Out of respect for a friend, I will not kill you. You will get no more than that.”

  The being dissolves into the ground as if they were never here. The pressure fades completely and the connection to my physical body returns to normal.

  “Are you ok?” I ask Corax. I can’t keep my voice or body from shaking.

  Corax nods. He’s not feeling any better than I am. I’ve never seen him shake with fear before. I have to be his rock now.

  “Do you want to keep going?” I ask him. “I can’t imagine it can get worse.”

  Corax forces himself to stand tall, and a ripple rushes through his feathers. For better or for worse, that’s a yes.

  “Ok.” First things first, I need to figure out if security is on their way in the physical world. With an AI that powerful, the individual hotels might not actually have a human watching the cameras, and Zero sending out an alert could easily end in our deaths.

  I feel like if an arm was raised, it would be pretty obvious. Probably some sort of fshing red light or audio alert. At the very least, some sort of signal would have to be sent throughout the hotel to whatever radios the guards are carrying, but there’s nothing. Not a single sound can be heard from the bathroom Corax and I are in.

  I slowly creep towards the hallway door and poke my head out. Outside is just as quiet, with not a single sign of life. I take things slowly through the hallway, one silent step at a time. Even the smallest sound could result in us being heard.

  We reach the lobby, identical in every way to the physical world. Behind the desk stands a marble statue, a mirror of the receptionist in the physical world. Wires pierce into him from every angle and disappear into every surface around him. He doesn’t appear to be conscious of the fact that we’re here.

  I focus on forming a small ball of ice in my hand and toss it into the far hallway. The marble statue does not react. A small raven crawls out from Corax’s feathers and takes off, making a slow p around the room. Once again, the statue remains motionless.

  Unless humans are somehow even better in the digital world than I am, he’s not going to be able to process two worlds at once. I guess he’s only hooked up so he can respond to the intercom system? That’s the only expnation I can think of.

  Corax keeps an eye on the receptionist while I move over to the elevator. I touch the control panel and my awareness expands to encompass it. My body combines with the pure code that makes the elevator run. Modifying it to unlock every floor, both in the digital and physical worlds, is trivial.

  It can’t be this easy, right? Are they really this reliant on Zero to prevent intrusions? They can’t be literally everywhere all the time. Or maybe they can with that much processing power.

  Corax and I step into the elevator and head up to the penthouse. We need to find out what sort of security Eight has up there. A single gun pointed at the elevator in the physical world and we’re all dead.

  As we rise, the elevator begins to fade from existence, and the connection to our physical bodies with it, leaving us floating in a bck void. Green, jagged tears in the fabric of reality surround us. A million voices whisper a trillion secrets directly into my mind. Births and deaths, loves and regrets, and most of all, a billion sins.

  I attempt to form a barrier around my mind to block out the secrets, but the voices are far too loud. Even putting my entire mind towards the task barely muffles the words. Images of people’s lives fsh through every tear.

  I can’t imagine how bad this is for Corax, he has so much less processing power compared to me. He just needs to hold on while I figure this out.

  I think about turning around, and the world shifts around me. Tears grow and shrink, winking out of reality with their voices soon following, only to be repced by yet more voices and yet more secrets.

  Corax still stands behind me with slices of his internals id bare to the world. Gears interlock with nothing, which then powers another gear. His heart beats, pushing blood through arteries that cease to exist after only a few inches. I reach out for him and my arm contorts, I cover the now exposed internals of my arm in ice and grab onto his wing.

  Corax tches onto the ice covering my arm, fear clear in his eyes. I don’t feel any better, but I have to be his rock. I can break down as soon as we’re out. For now, I have to be ok.

  “It’s alright.” I reassure him and pull him close, ensuring a yer of ice is always between us. We both warp even more as we move, internals become skin and limbs vanish into nothingness, only to return a moment ter. “Just stay with me.” I am not going to lose him.

  Somehow, it doesn’t hurt. In fact it doesn’t feel like anything is happening. I can still feel my arm, same as ever when it’s seemingly missing from existence. It’s still connected to me, it’s just not visible. Maybe I would be in pain if I had nerves beneath my skin being revealed to the air for the first time.

  I need to figure this out right now. Either some way to reform the elevator, or to gain control of whatever fucked up network we’re inside.

  I can’t think of any other option to try. I think about moving forward, and the world reacts. I drag Corax behind me towards the nearest tear in reality.

  The instant I touch it, a ripple gets sent throughout the world. The tear grows, coming into clearer focus. Tendrils shoot out from the gap, connecting to other voices. The thicker the tendril is, the rger and clearer the image and voices are. The world sms into my mind, trying to cram as much information in as possible. I don’t know these people, but I do know their stories.

  I touch another rift in a desperate attempt to stop the voices. Another web of people springs forth. It’s hard, but I have to think through the voices. I can think of two ways to gain control of this server. Either finding some hidden point in this infinite void, in which case we’re almost certainly dead, or finding Eight in this infinite web of people. I have to assume that’s what I have to do, it’s all I can do.

  I don’t know what he looks like, but Vince hopefully has a connection to him. If I find Vince, I can listen for an answer.

  I reach for another face, another life. I take a moment to take it all in, both my reality and others, searching for anything familiar. How do I find one man in an infinite sea of lives?

  A fact that Finn put in my head floats to my mind. A study once said that if you jump from person to person in this way, you can get from anyone to anyone else in under six jumps. I’m not sure if that still holds true after the apocalypse, but I have hope.

  I float through the web looking for anyone who looks like they’ve lived through hell. Vince used to be a raider, that’s potentially as good a pce to start as any.

  After only a few dozen attempts, I find him. He has a distant connection to whoever’s secrets I’m hearing. I float over and pce my hand gently on his rift. The world shifts, strong tendrils connect to Ivy, Cassie, Lucas, Me, Corax, Silver, and a hundred other people. Tiny, weak threads connect him to well over a thousand others.

  “Vince has killed more than he has saved.” The rift begins fshing through a thousand kills.

  I don’t pay attention to the whispers, I’m too focused on my own rift. I can’t stop a stray thought that forces me to float over, hand extended.

  The web shifts again. Compared to everyone else, I know basically nobody. Corax has the strongest connection, followed by Vince, Lucas, Cassie, Ivy, and interestingly, Trochilidae. I’m still connected to the b members, although it’s thankfully not as strong as the rest. I guess I really am growing past them.

  “Blue led to the extinction of all humans.” I stand atop a mountain of empty graves.

  “Blue led to the extinction of all humans.” I sit on a throne, draped in purple velvet with human skulls adorning my shoulders.

  “Blue led to the extinction of all humans.” I stand on a frozen ocean, the sun beating down hard enough to make my hair shrivel.

  “Blue led to the extinction of all humans.” I exist, intertwined with every system throughout the world. I’ve split my being into parts to give robots a facsimile of life, but I still think for all of them.

  “Blue led to the extinction of all humans.” I stand, the st living being on a sterilized world.

  My rift shrinks, the whispering joining the cacophony around me. Corax floats at Vince’s rift, he’s selected it to save me. Don’t think. Just get through this.

  “Sorry.” I float to a random man and select him, his name is wrong. Corax selects Vince once again, and I try another.

  “Vince killed Cassie.” A woman with blonde hair hits Cassie, knocking her to the ground. Vince follows up with a bullet to the head.

  “Vince died to Mara.” Vince lies on a metal ground, mortally wounded. That same blonde haired person zily puts a bullet in his chest.

  “Vince is the st of his friends to die.” Vince sits in the driver’s seat as Cassie and Ivy bleed red over the rest of the car. My dead body cradles the corpse of Corax in its arms.

  Eventually I come across Two. That’s good, both of them should know Eight. I make note of what rifts remained stationary, and nod at Corax to select Vince again. The third common rift I select is Eight.

  My awareness expands further than I thought possible. Eight’s penthouse comes into focus, a handful of turrets wait for his command to fire at any intruders. I reprogram them to follow my command. Just before the elevator reaches the penthouse, they will turn on Eight and his bodyguards. Upon hearing the word ‘crimson’, or the sound of gunfire, they will open fire immediately.

  In addition to that, I remove all locks on the elevator. It will take us to the top floor no problem, and be impossible to stop once it starts moving.

  That takes only a few threads of thought to accomplish. Most of my attention is drawn far above me. A swirling, green mass rger than the sun is visible. Uncountable beings wriggle around and meld with each other. Great tendrils reach from the mass, ripping open the very fabric of reality to reach through to pces unknowable.

  I don’t know what it is, and even trying to understand it sets my mind on fire. Several parts of the swirling mass freeze, and a single tendril begins to reach out in our direction. It rips a tear in reality, weaving through it and appearing miles closer, only to create another tear and jump even closer.

  I will not let that thing reach us after everything I’ve been through. Despite my panic, I summon the elevator and the connection to both my and Corax’s physical bodies return. I waste no time in unplugging the both of us.

  JanePtinum