Overcharge

With two miles of the amalgamation city covered Warren cannot seem to take his eyes off the only thing that is of interest ahead. It is not the city itself as in the buildings or any kind of person or vehicle. Instead, what Warren is gazing at is a shimmering pixelated glitch wall. He can think of no better description and so that is what he has termed it. It came into view a half mile back. Dana and Sanjiv are both aware of it. He informed them of its presence quite bluntly. In response, they said he should avoid it. As it turns out he is heading right for it and has to if he wishes to reach whatever is the cause of the constructs data spike. Neither of the Datastars serving as Warren’s overwatch welcome the prospect of the sole admin in the simulation attempting such a meeting, but it’s not like they have much choice.

The glitch wall stretches as high as Warren is able to see and no matter how far he turns his neck left or right it seems to continue as a single unbroken slab. That ruled out circumventing it, which might have been possible. But as it is there is no surety of that and with time inevitably ticking away the only option around it is through.

“Any further developments?” Warren queries as he grows ever closer to the pixelated glitch wall. It isn’t a uniform colour like he had first thought. Rather it truly is made up of pixels of what should be the colour pallet of what surrounds it. There is no pattern or similarities between the position of the pixels and where the colours stand in the simulated mash-up city.

“None. We can get nothing from any part of the construct. We’re locked out; nothing more than passengers now. Not even sure we’d be able to pull you out until whatever this is ends.” Sanjiv admits. His honesty is rewarded with a glare from Dana. He shrugs and mouths, what? The auburn haired woman says nothing in response. What she does do is shake her head from side to side. It could not be clearer that she is judging the round faced Sanjiv for his words. Not long after he realises why. He winces, contemplates apologising but settles on moving on. It could be that Dana is the only one, until Sanjiv just now, that took his words that way. He hopes that’s true but can’t know for sure unless he asks and that would defeat the object of moving on. Instead it would draw attention to a way that Sanjiv’s words could be taken.

“Well, I’m at the glitch wall.” Warren admits. He is no longer at full sprint. He isn’t even at a jog. Rather, he is closing carefully on the wall, the pixels of which flex back and forth away from him. He wouldn’t go so far as to say they aren’t moving, just adjusting. Ultimately he concludes that the movement would best be related to if the glitch were breathing. Warren really doesn’t like that idea, it unsettles him more than perhaps he thinks it should.

“Be careful Ren.” Dana mutters without thinking. Her words reach Warren’s ears, barely, right when his outstretched fingertips were going to touch the glitch walls surface. Upon hearing them he hesitates and holds steady. That hesitation leads to a discovery just not from the man in the virtual world. Instead the revelation has been made by Sanjiv who blurts with an excited voice. “Warren, the data has changed. What did you do? Are you through?”

“No. Not yet.” The blue eyed man who in the virtual world has orange cat shaped eyes replies feeling no need to elaborate. After all, Sanjiv didn’t ask for details, he simply asked a couple questions. Both of which Warren has answered quite sufficiently he feels.

“Curious. Dana, look at this.” Sanjiv can be heard to say. A few quiet seconds after Warren can hear Dana humming the way she always does when she is in deep concentration and studiously focused on something that is new and interesting to her.

“But that would mean… Warren, are you still alone?” Dana begins only to trail off her statement and ask a question of the Datastar instead.

Warren looks around. He knows full well he’s alone but instinct dictates he check. Once he’s satisfied he announces, “Yeah I am.”

“Not according to what we’re seeing you’re not. Data from the construct is showing you’re surrounded.”

“What?” Warren feels a massive unease run down his spine. His head snaps left, right and left again while his mind conjures the image of a long spindly finger made from wrinkled white almost translucent skin that runs its fingertip down the length of his back. He rolls his shoulders but keeps his outstretched hand in place. His hand bobs up and then down as a result of the rolls of shoulders before returning to roughly its previous point.

“Well the logs are showing there are people all around you, or at least traces of them.” Dana explains giving a modicum of new information to the man poised ready to touch the glitch wall.

“How can there be traces?” Warren wishes to know.

“We don’t know but…” Dana admits. Sanjiv shrugs. He’s as lost as to how as Dana is. Neither of them likes the idea but that is the reality of what they’re seeing. It breeds so many questions and not a single answer for them.

“…I have to cross to find out.” Warren finishes Dana’s statement. It wasn’t what she was going to say. Or at least she doesn’t think that it was. To be honest the dark blue haired woman wasn’t sure where she was going with her statement as she stands about a metre to Sanjiv’s left without managing to stand taller than he does while in his seated position.

Dana is diminutive at five foot but she’s got muscle on her. Not visible beneath the loose fitting clothes she insists on adorning herself with. Yet, to mess with her if you’re not a Datastar would be detrimental to your health. Not that Dana has a short temper, she doesn’t. However, she does know how to turn on her aggression when needs must.

By comparison Sanjiv is six foot two and Warren is six foot. Sanjiv is thin and lithe, while Warren is muscular and as a result looks more suited to his height than his lanky round faced friend.

“I’m going in.” Warren declares following a short pause. He didn’t expect Dana or Sanjiv to answer his previous statement one way or the other. Hence that is why he didn’t make his statement a question. So he reaches for the glitch wall. His fingers probe it, disappearing beneath the surface. He feels nothing. He marks that as a good sign. He is well aware that his fortune may not extend to the rest of his body. It’s why he takes a deep breath and then… he pushes through.

Instinctively his eyes close as his face nears the pixelated surface. For some reason he expected it to be sharp. His only conclusion, not a very logical one, is that he believed that because the wall is formed of relatively small cubes stacked atop and aside one another.

Warren opens his eyes. He’s completely through the glitch wall. However, the sight he is met with is equal parts familiar and sickening.

Without a doubt he is still in the city. Yet it is clearly Paradise Hills and not Karact. On top of that there is no overlap, no amalgamation. It is one and definitely not the other. In fact there are no traces of the other. If that were the sum of the sight he has been met with perhaps he would mark out that the cause of the simulations issues is the glitch wall, but with the frozen forms of people mid-activity it is clear the glitch wall must only be a symptom and not the cause.

“…are you through? We lost you. Warren, come in.” Sanjiv’s voice bleeds back into Warren’s ears. It takes him a few seconds to realise the presence his friend is speaking but when he does it shakes him from his despair.

“Yeah, I’m here. I’m through but you’re not going to believe what I’m seeing.” The tone of Warren’s voice is distant.

“What are you seeing?” Dana’s voice is fearful. She is gripping the edge of the desk Sanjiv is sat at too hard. Her nails as a result are ready to tear from the force being exerted.

“I’ve found people.”

“That’s great!” Sanjiv exclaims misreading Warren’s tone. Dana hasn’t made the same mistake and waits on tenterhooks for whatever revelation is soon to be delivered. She doesn’t believe she’ll be ready whatever it is and that is without a single thought as to what it might be Warren is seeing.

“San they’re frozen. It’s like time’s stopped. I can still move. But they’re trapped.” Warren explains.

“Oh.” Sanjiv’s voice turns hollow with his hope collapsing inwards into an abyss within him.

Warren wastes no time. He crosses the short distance to the nearest paralysed user. They show no signs of movement. Not only is there body paralysed, their virtual one, but their eyes remain in place staring as well. Warren gulps. He doesn’t like the look of this.

“Peter Anchorage.” Warren says having gathered the datatag that details each and every person within the construct for easy identification. Warren hopes it was never intended for something like this and makes no attempt to communicate with the man. Instead, he’s relaying the name back to Dana and Sanjiv for…

“Huh.” Warren hears Dana sigh hard. It confirms what he suspected. Still, he waits for her to inform, “Bio signs show he’s gone. His bodies brain dead in his apartment.” It takes nearly a minute for her to deliver the diagnosis. She had to trace his link back and then permission force his apartments system to give her access and learn of the man’s physical fate.

“Fuck.” Sanjiv murmurs feeling defeated. He really thought they’d turned a corner.

“How many more are there Ren?”

“Too many.” Warren admits in response. Yet, he’s moving again. He has a mile left to go before he reaches whatever is causing the data spike. He imagines whatever it is has to be the cause of all this.

Why does it not afflict me? No answer is forthcoming. The immediate possibility is that it is because he’s a Datastar, but then how is it that all the others perished. Sure, they can’t be a hundred percent on that because Datastars cannot have their home systems breached like users. If they could that would defeat the object of them being Datastars and staying real world unanimous. That anonymity is part of the reason none of their simulation avatars bear any resemblance to them in the physical world. They are the best disguises you could ever imagine. Not likely to fall off at an inopportune moment because the construct has no representation of their true selves in its systems or data stores. The same cannot be said of users. Not that any have ever suffered avatar fall off.

“How did you know?” Dana needs to know.

“His eyes weren’t moving. They were glazed over like…” His voice trails off. He doesn’t need to say it. Death is still a reality. Most people have had some kind of dealing with it, and those that haven’t will more likely sooner rather than later. It’s a fact of life. Not that it being a part of life makes it any easier to handle.

“And the others?” Sanjiv can’t accept defeat yet. He has to believe that not all who became trapped in the construct are lost. He doesn’t dare contemplate what happens if they are.

“So far they’re all the…” Warren stops mid-sentence. That worries both Dana and Sanjiv. They give it a few seconds. Sadly, waiting only makes it worse for them and is why Dana, who can delay no longer, demands, “What’s wrong Ren? What’s going on?” Her voice is tight, her knuckles are white, her nails are painful still.

“I’ve found someone. Their eyes are moving.” Warren relays to his friends while checking over and moving about in a bobbing motion to attempt to get into a position he thinks is in line with the man’s sight.

“Sir, can you hear me. I’m here to help. Tell me what is going on.”

Miraculously the man speaks. Warren had implored him too and yet shouldn’t have. There was no guaranteeing he would’ve been able to. He feels stupid for urging such even though doing so is a natural response and has paid off.

“You. You did this. Set me free. Please. I beg of you. Why are you doing this?” The man’s voice is strained. He’s unable to move his jaw. It’s locked but that makes more sense than his words.

“No, I’m here to help. I’m a Datastar.” Warren explains softly.

“Yes, you did this. You trapped us. Why?” Tears begin to run down the frozen man’s face. Warren steps away. He thinks the man mad, overcharged, and wonders if that is how mental deterioration manifests. It hasn’t been seen in so long that it’s impossible to rule it out as a possibility.

Unfortunately, while Warren backs away the man begins to scream. The Datastar wonders why but is convinced madness must have taken this man. Then Warren feels the glitch wall. He turns his head. It ripples over him. Then the street around him is different. It is once more the amalgamation his mind at one time had labelled Karadise. His brow furrows. He turns back toward the man. He’s gone. All the paralysed bodies that had been around him are.

“They’re gone. The amalgamation city…” Warren begins only to rapidly trail off.

“What is it Ren?” Dana questions.

“…the chunks are being rewritten. Something is altering the construct, rebuilding it. No, reformatting it.” The thought strikes him like a lightning bolt.

“That isn’t possible Warren, you know that.” Sanjiv interjects.

“Yeah, then tell that to the people who are no longer here.”

“But they’re all showing around you including Peter Anchorage.” Sanjiv informs.

Warren does a three sixty on the spot. There is no Peter Anchorage, at least not one he can see any more.

“He’s a fragment.” Dana offers as it dawns on her why she and Sanjiv can still see these people.

With that held in her mind she wastes no time, Sanjiv might not agree but it matters little right now, in urging, “Ren, get to that source now!”

Without hesitation Warren turns and within three steps is at full sprint. Thirty see him overtake the glitch wall. Again he is unaffected by it. There are countless more frozen in motion forms of men, women and children. He is forced to put them out of his head. He can’t save them. He’s tried accessing the system using his permissions. It won’t respond. He’s locked out, which makes sense. That means to have any hope of saving these people, or some subset of them; he has to stop whatever is causing all of this.