Glitched

16 - Binary Code

"Vector?" She took a small step towards him.

"What..." He shook his head, still staring at his paw. "What has happened to me?"

"I don't know," she said. "But those things can't hurt you. Can they?" Her question was shrouded with doubt as she looked over the remaining cracks.

Vector shuddered from ear to toe. "Why me? Why can I do this?"

"Listen, man." Switch strutted over to him, stretching his wings out gratefully in the newly opened space. "You've got a gift that can probably save this world! If you can get rid of these cracks... wow! I want to see what would happen if you touched someone with the virus!"

Vector narrowed his eyes on him, letting his paws drop down at his sides. His lips turned up into a sneer, revealing his sharp canines.

"Wouldn't that be willingly offering myself a death sentence?!"

Switch raised his wings in a shrug. "Not if it has the same effect as it does on these cracks."

Vector deflated and waved a paw at him. "Anyway. What does it matter? Haven't I already had the virus?" He paused and looked down at his paws again. "Maybe that's why..." His eyes drifted up to the web of black and violet. They were barely visible against the quickly darkening sky.

"You think the virus destroys these cracks?" Switch asked.

Vector shook his head. "I don't know. If it does... then it doesn't make sense."

"They don't make sense in the first place! They just came out of nowhere, along with that virus."

"No. They came out of the Fracture," said Vector. "I saw them. It looked like the world was breaking."

Pixel blinked in confusion. "What do you mean? You saw them?"

"Yes." Vector met her eyes. "They swallowed up anything that fell into them."

"Like the vulpix..." Her voice trailed off and she looked away from him. Swallowing up the world... stretching out like a spider's web, destroying everything they touched. He'd seen it. Hax hadn't lied when he said that vulpix didn't come out of the cracks. Had the other missing children wandered in out of curiosity? Stumbled and fallen inside? Maybe been forced in as one of the cracks appeared right through them?

She cringed at the last thought and gave her head a sharp shake to clear it away. It didn't bare thinking about. It was too awful.

"Are you okay?" Switch placed a wing on her shoulder and she came back to reality.

She gave him a small smile and nodded. "I'm fine. Let's find somewhere to rest."

Vector's eyes lingered on her for a moment. The expression of concern in his eyes was enough to make her wonder if he'd asked the question and not Switch. He tore himself away and cleared his throat.

"Yeh. I'll be surprised if we don't at least find a cave we can hide in."

...

It wasn't a cave, but it was certainly shelter. Pixel trailed her eyes up and down the wooden structure – a little hut up in the mountains, most likely used as a quiet retreat by someone at sometime in its existence, although she couldn't quite fathom why. It didn't look out at a spectacular view. It perched on a flat, sturdy outcrop facing a shallow, rocky drop down towards a scattering of stray trees and a river which was peppered with fallen boulders. The hut itself had seen better days. Right now, in the dark of the early morning, it had a sad and lonely feeling about it. A derelict little hut that at some point suffered a blow from an avalanche which had taken out a chunk of its roof. Its state of disrepair spoke loud and clear about its current abandonment.