SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 8

Delving deeper into the source code, the only thing keeping the scientists at bay is increased determinacy at making things right again. Anyone else would be suffering from a nervous breakdown, this is unlike anything they have encountered in their scientific careers. From Naoto's vantage point on the outside, it is better to let things run their course because tampering with unknown power will bring its consequences. Total immersion leaves a lot to be desired for Naoto who wants to protect the volunteers at all costs.

"I'd be damned if we can find anything wrong with it at all," one of the scientists says, still recapturing his normal balance inside virtual space. There's not much to see."

When the simulation code reveals itself, the scientists begin to examine all the repetitive patterns. The researchers also keep a social distance from one another, leaving ample room to examine layers of code embedded deep within the CCS hard drive. A few feet at a time, the group's monotonous walk from their starting point dissipates everything behind them into the background blur. An elongated box is extended in the direction they are moving and as they get closer, the volunteers are jarred from their composure for the first time.

"Hey, Ronny," someone calls. "What's going on over there? Looks like some distortion."

The broken line of researchers is split in two, where they have backs turned to one another in the great void. At the end of the simulation, the tunnel is only blackness within a white square of light framing the grid. The further down they go, the more the tunnel appears to be collapsing in on itself, shrinking. Their bodies are not the most vivid, sometimes coming in and out of focus due to a holographic disruption of the processing channels. But things are getting subtly more tangible to real-life acuity, and less blurry.

"I'm starting to feel my hands," Ronny responds.

With hair that extends to her waist, the stature of a short woman near gets his attention. Sarah's second from the front, just before Ronny whose hands are full of a complicated pattern that he is trying to decipher. He does and moves on. Sarah decides to walk up to him with a puzzled look, she is concerned about something ahead. Her Spanish accent rekindles a recent memory for Ronny from when he visited her Costa Rican family at a reunion, months previous. It is company culture to have a companion on vacations, especially for team researchers. It keeps bonds tight.

"Is that the end of the line?" Sarah asks.

"I doubt it, this is nothing compared to what's left. It's more likely an infinite band."

Sarah is more aware of her surroundings. The computer program may contain infinite replications of code, but what they have been subjected to seems more akin to what Delphi Corp. has been anticipating corrupted software. They are being taken somewhere else.

Naoto gets a text transmission.

"The tunnel is closing in on us."

Ronny is unresponsive, and Sarah's met with silence. In the closed chamber to the outside, Naoto's message from Sarah specifies the danger ahead. The message confirms Naoto's suspicions of something mysterious. He responds briefly, letting them know that the dreaded Wall is being reached. Something immensely wrong has indeed happened to the software, and there is little they can do to avert it, now.

"What in the world is this Wall everyone's talking about?" another researcher asks. This is a completely unexpected obstacle.

Frustrations push them forward in hopes of reaching an actual barrier, unaware that this is a Wall unlike what they have encountered before. As they reach it, subtle pixels of increased detail come closer into the frame and the volunteers' bodies are more like when they were not uploaded to a simulation but awake in the real world.