Cytronica

Thirty-six

Hour three

Diego continued sprinting through the park, away from whatever dangers followed him. The group had been running non-stop for some time now. One of the benefits of a virtual world was the ability to not be slowed down by fatigue.

"It's starting to get dark," he noticed, looking up at the yellow sky. "I don't remember the last time I stayed in Cytro this late.

"Probably at least two years," Priya said. "Back in the days when it was actually fun."

Diego smiled. Those times felt so long ago now. The once-thriving realm eventually became stale and hollow, and then somehow managed to become a war zone in less than a week.

Lauren looked behind them. "I think we're safe for now. I can see some of those protesters over there." The police helicopters were still in the area, but not directly above them. "I suggest we keep moving though."

"We're almost out of the common," Priya said. "Let's find that car and get out of here."

A beeping sound caught their attention. A message appeared on their comms.

"Oh," Priya said, slowing her pace to a walk. "It's time already. That went quickly."

Diego moaned. "Great."

The trio stared at each other for a second before glancing down at their wrists and reading the message Hunter had preprogrammed earlier:

Now the fun begins! Welcome to virus mode. It's fairly self-explanatory. I've set it to 50% to begin with. Try not to die.

Lauren frowned. "Virus mode? What's that?"

"We don't know," Priya admitted. "He's mentioned it to us before. Whatever it is though, it sounds bad."

Diego almost jumped out of his skin. He heard something frightening, disturbing, a screaming unlike anything he knew. And it was ringing out all around them.

Lauren's eyes widened. She placed hands over her ears to block out the harrowing noise. "What's happening?"

Priya was frozen to the spot, too horrified to move. "I ... I don't know. I think it came from up ahead."

The gravity of the situation began to weigh over them. "I don't like this," Diego murmured.

Priya shook off her fear. "Come on. Let's check it out."

Cautiously, they pressed onwards, heading for the walled perimeter of the common up ahead. The screaming intensified.

"I don't think I even want to know," Diego complained.

They arrived at the gate and peered into the world outside the common. The scene before them was confusing, to say the least. There were dozens of people scattered along the length of the road, most of them bots, most of them standing and gawking.

Some, however, lay on the road, writhing in pain, their wails deafening.

The surrounding bots stopped their looting or fighting, instead choosing to watch on.

"What's wrong with them?" Lauren gasped. "Why are they on the ground?"

"Oh my god," Diego choked. "He's killing them. Virus mode must be an attack on the bots."

At long last, the screaming began to subside. Those unlucky enough to be lying on the ground stopped twitching as their programmed lives left their bodies.

Lauren placed a hand over her mouth. "That's horrible."

Priya's expression remained blank. "But ... that makes no sense. Why would Hunter suddenly want to kill off bots?"