A Fault in the Code

Chapter 16

I look over at Jeff, who has been chilling under a tree and whose skin is white because of the invert colors, and the weird floating characters follow my vision. He looks up at me, and I motion him to come. He teleports to me and shrugs.

"Do you think we should follow these things?" I ask him.

A second later he hands me the book.
What things?

Of course. He can't see them. He hasn't taken the potion. But I assume that following the floating characters is the reason why I can see them. I tell Jeff to follow, and when I start to walk forward, the letters lead, just far enough away not to be able to touch.

We walk a little while, and then we come to an ocean. I look at Jeff, who looks scared to death.

"What's wrong?" I ask him.

Water is deadly to me, he writes. I can't touch it at all.

This is a problem. If we have to travel this ocean in hopes of finding this code dimension, then Jeff will die in seconds. I tell Jeff to stay put until I figure out the situation. I start to put a foot in the water, but just as my toe, well the right corner of my square foot, touches the surface, it hits something solid. I stop, as do the letters in front of me, waiting for me to start walking again.

I look beneath my foot where I touched the mysterious solid water, and a faint block of solid white starts to appear. I am confused, but I start to follow the path, the floating letters leading me. The path starts spiraling upward into the clouds. After going up a few blocks, I look back at Jeff, who is obviously confused about how I am walking on the air, but I just tell him to teleport to me when I get to the destination, wherever it may be. Then his expression turns back to fear. He is scared he won't be able to find me.

I turn my back to the path ahead and walk toward Jeff. "If we don't meet again, just know that you have been a wonderful friend to me. You've helped me through so much. I will never forget you." And I throw my arms around him in a hug.

When I pull away, he grabs the book, scribbles something, and hands it to me.

I have never been friends with a human. And now that I've been friends with you, feel alive and less limited. And thank you for that. When you get up there, holler at me. If I don't come, holler again. If I don't come after 5 tries, leave without me. Got it?

I agree, even though I don't want to leave him behind. I don't say goodbye, I just wave. Saying goodbye is a definite "we will never see each other again" word.

I turn back around and start to walk up the path. It makes me feel better to pretend that he is right next to me. Up and up I go, above the one, flat layer of clouds, above the point where I can still see the ocean below me. And finally, after what seems like a thousand blocks, the path flattens out, and after a couple faint, white blocks, the path ends with a single, real cobblestone block, then a fall to your death. I stand on the cobblestone block and look behind me. The white blocks disappeared. I guess there's no going back now, unless I'd like to die. But judging on my surroundings, I don't really see any other option than death.

"JEFF!" I scream from the top of my lungs.

Nothing. I wait a couple seconds. 5 seconds, 10, seconds, then a minute. I holler again, louder this time.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

The letters still float in front of me, waiting for me to take a step forward.

I call out his name 3 more times, but he doesn't come. I feel a lump in my throat, wanting to escape in a sob, but I swallow it. I can't break now. I have to figure out what to do up here.

The letters start to float forward, then disappear. Then I panic. Where do I go? I walk around the small space I have, careful not to walk off the edges. And as I walk on one side, something brushes against my arm. It throws me off guard, and I lose my balance and fall. But only one block down, I hit the ground. No, not the ground. The ground is hundreds of blocks below me, and I wasn't even above the ground. I was above water.

I sit up and look below me. Nothing is there, though I can feel something under me. I feel around and find a wall. An invisible wall. How is this even possible? I hug the wall and walk sideways, not sure what I am looking for. But then, my hand touches what feels like a door handle. I pull down on it and push. The invisible door swings open, and beyond it is whiteness.

As I step into this room before me, I stick my head out of the door and yell as loud as I can, louder than the other times, "JEFF!"

But he doesn't come.

So I continue onward.