System Reboot (Sequel to System Failure)

Chapter 14

Well she got that bit right. I tried to remember what it had been like when the roles were reversed and I was the Glitch bringing the virus into my home, but the memories were fuzzy and they slipped through my hands as I tried to grab them. I frustratedly flopped onto the couch, putting my head into my hands as I tried to sort through what I knew and what I didn't. What was me and what was the virus.

I tried to start back when I first became a Glitch. I tried to remember where I was and who was around me. I vaguely remembered something about Ty being there.... We had been friends in high school and decided to be Glitches together, that was why he was there. We both became Glitches on the same day. And we spent a few years doing that, fighting viruses and everything, and then... late last year? I think that was when I met Alesa in the mainframes, and-

My train of thought was lost as my memories instantly leapt forward to falling into cyberspace and hearing the voice of Herobrine for the first time, then the rush of light and then waking up as a virus without ever realising that I had been something else. I remembered getting my first few assignments, leaping into the mainframes of different cities and destroying the servers with other viruses, and then later - not too long ago - I remembered pausing in cyberspace like every other virus as Herobrine spoke to all of us at once, giving us his orders for the attack.

"The world is dying," the echo of the voice spoke in my head. "After this attack, our goal will be achieved. We will save the world."

I knew what goal he had been referring to, the thing that was the goal of all viruses. And even though I was back to myself (more or less), and back in the real world...

I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe Herobrine was right.

Alesa's POV
I glanced over from my cooking and saw that Adam was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. He was completely still, probably lost in his own thoughts. The ghost of a smile reached my lips as I turned back to the cooking pasta. I remembered that on my first night in the real world after becoming a virus, I had stayed up for half the night just processing everything. But Adam had it harder than I did.

"Are you okay Adam?" I asked, leaving the pasta to simmer for a few minutes as I came and sat down on the couch.

He started and turned towards me, a smile flickering across his face and then disappearing just as quickly. "Yeah, fine," he mumbled, looking away.

"Liar," I whispered with a smile, putting a hand on his arm. "You know that you can talk to me, right? I'm a virus too."

He glanced up at me, codes flickering in his eye as he weighed up his decision. "Have you ever thought that the Glitches were wrong?" he asked finally.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

He waved a hand around the apartment. "This. All of this. That." He pointed to the study, and his computer that I could see from where I sat on the couch. I looked back to him and was a little surprised at the urgent look he was giving me, his hand fiddling with his bracelet. "Don't you think that... that all this, all the technology... is ruining the world?"

I shook my head, hesitantly at first, then with more conviction. "No, why would I? Look where it's gotten us, Adam. We're more medically advanced than we ever were, we've nearly completely eradicated most diseases and poverty is virtually non-existent. We've connected people from different sides of the world, we've shown how everyone is equal despite how we look or act, we haven't had a proper war for over a century, we've removed crime and increased our security- Adam, technology has enabled us to do all of that."

He looked away from me and studied the carpeted floor. "So you didn't have any of the thoughts of a virus?" he asked flatly.

I hesitated for a moment. "Not really," I answered quietly, shaking my head. "There were a few whispers in the back of my mind but... I didn't think about them. They were easy to ignore."

He nodded in a detached way and I gently wrapped my arm around his, trying to give him some form of comfort. His time as a virus must have affected him more than I thought. He needed to get his mind off it, to do something else, make him remember why he decided to protect the world as a Glitch. An idea nearly instantly sprung to mind.

"Let's go out tomorrow," I said. "See a movie, walk in the park, have lunch in the Sky Tower, things like that."

He glanced at me with a small smile and a faint nod. His eyes shifted to something over my shoulder and the skin around them tightened a little.

"Your pasta is overboiling."

I spun around. "Crap!" I nearly fell to the ground in my haste to get up off the couch and my cheeks burned red at Adam's laughter as I quickly fixed my pasta situation, but the mere fact that he was laughing made me feel so much lighter.