System Reboot (Sequel to System Failure)

Chapter 12

We stared at him for a little longer, then Jason clicked his phone off. "I can't believe I'm saying this, and it's probably just because I'm really tired, but that might actually work."

"Yeah, let's try it," Ian said with a nod.

"Now? Might as well," Barney shrugged.

We looked around at each other. Shrugged. Then stood up and headed to the locked vault room.

The door was still locked and the room beyond was silent, as usual. I peeked through the glass as I passed it but due to the split second I got to look, I couldn't see Adam. Mitch was rubbing his knuckles, no doubt ready to once again hit Adam, and Ty was giving him a highly concerned look. "Don't hit him too hard, cause the last thing we need is for him to get brain damage," he said warily.

Mitch puts his hands in the air. "I'll be careful, promise. Just tackle him and I'll sort it out."

Jerome turned the handle of the door, Barney helped pull it open-

Something burst out of the room, springing off the door and barging through us like a human cannon ball, missing me only because I was standing to the side and I spun around in time to see Adam disappearing down the hallway, sprinting for his freedom.

"Don't let him get to the elevator!" Jason yelled and we gave chase, splitting up along the hallway to catch him.

Barney, Jerome and I chased after Adam, trying to keep him in sight as he twisted around the corners, often pausing in the doorway of a room only to see that it was a deadend and running on, allowing us to slowly get closer and closer. Ty and Ian ran out of a corridor just in front of Adam but he didn't hesitate and with inhuman strength, jumped up and sprung off one of the walls, easily landing on the other side of the two and continuing to sprint.

How the heck can he do that? I asked myself as the five of us gave chase. Must be the virus code altering his body in the real world.

Oh wait.

I was a virus too.

I poured on the speed and the gap between me and Adam closed rapidly as I overtook the others and I came up beside him, sticking my leg out to trip him. His legs hit my shin and he stumbled, but unfortunately I did the same, and in the moment that I was recovering, I didn't see his foot flick out and kick me in the chest, just below the ribs. Even though the impact was reduced so that it didn't break my ribs, it was still enough to knock the wind out of me.

Wheezing, I fell behind the others, but I knew that Adam was close to the elevator and the stairs that ran beside it. I started trotting after them, a hand on my bruised chest, taking deep breaths and hoping that they-

Clang!

Something heavy hit the ground and I picked up the pace to turn the corner and reach the elevator hallway. Through the others, I could see that Adam was lying on the floor and Ross was lowering a stainless steel frypan that he had been holding up.

"Why do you have a frypan?" Ty asked, puffing. "We don't even have a stove in the kitchen!"

"I've been saving it for a moment like this!" Ross said.

Barney raised an eyebrow. "You've been savings it for when your Glitch friend turns into a virus and we captures him and he nearly escapes?"

Ross paused for a moment, then gave a resolute nod of his head. "Yes."

Mitch, Quentin, Jin and Jason turned the corner ahead of us and slowed down when they saw that Adam had been dealt with.

"You're late," Jerome called.

Jin waved a hand and bent over his knees. "Just go put him back in the room."

Ian and Ty obliged and Adam was propped up against the back corner of the empty space. While the others left to get some well-earned sleep, I stayed in the room, intending on waiting for Adam to wake up. Ty paused in the doorway after the others had gone.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked, probably guessing what I was planning on doing. "It might not have worked..."

I shrugged a little. "I'll be fine," I promised.

He nodded a little, then waved his phone. "Call me if you need me. And when he wakes up."

I nodded and he left, shutting the door behind him but not locking it. So that I could get out if Adam attacked me. If this whole thing didn't work.

What if we couldn't save Adam? What if whatever rebooting did to you was irreversible. I mean, I knew that I couldn't get rid of the virus side to me, and I'm starting to suspect that I just got lucky when I was rebooted to be able to keep my emotions. But Adam didn't get lucky so if- if we couldn't reverse the virus side, if we couldn't fix him so that he could feel again... then what?

The thought that we might have to kill Adam wasn't a nice one to sleep on, but I drifted off before I had realised. Whatever sleep I did get was fitful and restless, and I woke up several times with my heart racing, only to realise that the room was dark and that Adam hadn't moved. I gave up on sleep at about four in the morning, and alternated between fiddling on my phone and pacing around the room, doing anything to keep me distracted from worrying over what would happen if we were wrong and Adam couldn't be fixed.

It was about two hours later that I was sitting beside Adam again, staring out the door in a half-asleep daze, feeling just about ready to try that whole sleep thing again when Adam stirred beside me. I was instantly alert, watching and not daring to hope as he sat up with a stifled groan, wincing and holding his head in his hand as he blinked blearily around the room.

I was frozen, I wasn't even sure if I was breathing when his head finally turned to me and he blinked, his eyes unfocused until they slowly, slowly cleared.

"Alesa?" he muttered.

I let go of a sob that I had been holding and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, my eyes squeezed shut, feeling lighter than I had for weeks when his arm hesitantly returned the hug.

"Welcome back," I whispered in his ear.