Jonah found his father’s avatar inland, in the forest, close to where he had left him.
‘You found me,’ said Jason Delacroix. ‘I knew you’d find me.’
‘What are you still doing here, Dad?’
‘It’s so good to see you, son.’
‘We’ve got to get you out of here. The Island is collapsing and—’
‘I’ve been doing what I can. I’ve been spreading this story of yours.’
‘I know,’ said Jonah. ‘I know you have, Dad. And you did really well. But you have to stop now. I need you to follow the others out of here.’
‘I’ve been telling them to remember.’
‘I know. Please, Dad...’
‘But the earthquakes... It’s so hard to concentrate with all these earthquakes. I’ve been trying to remember... There was something I had to tell you.’
‘And there are things I need to ask you too, but they can wait.’
The sky had turned pitch-black. The Island had begun to shake constantly. Grey fault lines were spreading everywhere, disintegrating chunks of ground where they crisscrossed. Jonah had to be careful not to touch them, in case the damage spread to him. He saw a tree beginning to depixelate by his shoulder, and he leapt away from it.
Sam flew up behind Jonah. She eyed the red dragon avatar in front of him. ‘You found him,’ she said. ‘I’m glad. But, Jonah...’
‘I know,’ said Jonah. ‘Dad, I need you to do something for me. Something else.’
‘Of course, son. If I can.’
‘That white light in the sky. I need you to fly into it, Dad. Like the others. Follow the other avatars.’
‘Can’t I just stay here with you, Jonah?’
‘I’ll find you again, Dad, I promise. I’ll find you on the other side, where it’s safe and we can be together.’
‘Just like old times,’ said Jason Delacroix.
‘Just like old times,’ repeated Jonah, wishing it was true, wishing he didn’t have to lie. He knew that nothing would ever be like it was. But this version of his father, this confused Uploaded avatar, was better than having no dad at all. ‘Now go. Fly!’
Jason spread his dragon’s wings and flew off, towards the light. Towards the bridge. Jonah watched him go, until he felt Sam tugging at his arm with her teeth.
‘We have to go now too,’ she said.
‘Not yet,’ said Jonah. ‘I still have to find Nan.’ ‘There isn’t time!’
But Jonah was already flying headlong through the forest, towards the shore, towards the part of the Island he knew best. His grandmother’s beach.
‘She’ll have left already,’ insisted Sam, at his heels. ‘Almost everyone has left.’
‘But what if she hasn’t? What if she’s confused? What if Nan is still looking for people to help remember, like Dad was? What if...?’
The beach was just ahead of them. Jonah could hear the sea, lapping against the shore, but there was something odd about the sound. It was on a loop, he realised, repeating itself endlessly. He flew out from between the trees, but came up short.
There was no sea, and no shore. There was nothing at all in front of him. Nothing but the void. And he had almost flown right into it.
Sam screamed his name. She tackled Jonah, pushing him with her horn. Another section of the Island crumbled underneath him, and around him. The void had taken a great bite out of the forest now, too. Jonah saw grey pixels spreading up his arm, and cried out in alarm. Fortunately, his terminal, back in the Southern Corner, was able to refresh his avatar. This time.
‘We have to go,’ said Sam, and this time Jonah didn’t argue with her.
They flew straight up. The air was icy cold now. The sun had gone. Without the bright white light from the Chang Bridge opening, they would have been lost.
Jonah watched numbly as, bathed in that light, the Island of the Uploaded sank at last into the sea. Within seconds, it was gone completely, with barely a ripple to show where it had once stood. Then, the sea itself began to disintegrate.
Jonah spotted a final few avatars escaping the destruction, fleeing towards the light. He strained to make out their shapes, hoping to see an elephant among them.
Sam prodded him with her horn again, and ushered him away from there.
They flew as hard and as fast as they could. Jonah had never missed the red dragon avatar and its powerful wings more. Sam was faster than he was, but she kept slowing down for him, concerned about leaving him behind.
The greyness was spreading across the dark sky, like storm clouds gathering, only these storm clouds were without any depth or texture. They were clouds of nothingness, and they were closing in rapidly around Jonah and Sam.
Sam’s movements had become slow, jerky. She turned her head towards Jonah, and left a temporary frozen image of her forward-facing self behind. Her voice was time-delayed and slurred: ‘We arennnnn’t going to mmmmmake it-it-it-it-it!’
There were flecks of grey in Sam’s white hide and her red mane.
Jonah tried to shout to her, ‘Leave me behind. Save yourself!’ All that came out was the first syllable, stuttered over and over. It was too late, anyway.
They could see the pinprick lights of their exit halos, hovering in mid-air in the distance, too far away. They watched in horror as the grey clouds engulfed them.
They looked at each other helplessly. Their exit halos, their gateways back to the real world, were gone. They were trapped here now, trapped in this doomed quarter of the Metasphere. Unless...
Jonah commanded his inventory space to open. It took an age to respond, but at last it did. He reached in, frantically, felt for one particular item. Mr Peng’s cat statuette. It had snapped shut, and Jonah had to try to remember how his teacher had opened it. His questing fingers found tiny pressure plates in the cat’s neck and shoulders, and he prodded and pushed at these until the two-faced head popped open.
Sam looked at Jonah, quizzically. Jonah tried to explain, tried to tell Sam to hold on to the statuette with him, but he couldn’t speak at all now. He took hold of one of her hooves and dragged it slowly – maddeningly slowly – to the button in the cat’s neck. He just prayed this would work with two of them.
He placed his hand on top of Sam’s hoof, and they pressed the button together.
They appeared in the mountain temple. Jonah took a deep breath, closed his eyes and rode out the expected wave of nausea. It took Sam a little longer to pull herself together, which at least gave Jonah a moment to look over both himself and Sam and confirm that their avatars were intact.
‘Where are we?’ asked Sam.
‘I don’t know exactly,’ said Jonah. ‘This is where I met Mr Chang.’
‘Oh,’ said Sam. She seemed uncomfortable to be here.
‘Coming here, it was the only way I could think of to—’
‘I know.’ Sam smiled. ‘That was good thinking, Jonah. You saved our lives.’
‘Did you see, though?’ said Jonah. ‘Our exit halos...’
‘I saw. We’ll have to get a message to the control room at Ayers Rock. Someone there will have to hack into our terminals and create new halos for us. But, Jonah?’
‘Yeah?’
‘There’s no door,’ said Sam, starting to panic. ‘No exit from this room.’
Jonah nodded. ‘Behind that tapestry over there.’ ‘Right. You had me worried there.’
‘You, worried?’ laughed Jonah. ‘The girl who just took on the Millennials and won?’
Sam started towards the tapestry, but Jonah hung back.
‘You want to wait for Mr Chang?’ Sam guessed.
‘I thought we should at least explain to him what we’re doing in his temple.’
‘How did you contact him last time?’
‘I didn’t,’ said Jonah. ‘He just... I think the statuette must tell him when it brings someone here.’ He looked behind the bamboo screen from which Mr Chang’s coiled dragon avatar had appeared before. There was nothing there.
‘Perhaps he’s busy,’ said Jonah.
‘Could be,’ agreed Sam. ‘Or perhaps...’
‘What? Perhaps what?’
‘We did what Mr Chang wanted. We installed his device in the Southern Corner. There’s a permanent bridge now between the Metasphere and this new virtual world of his, the Changsphere. Mr Chang doesn’t need us any more.’
Jonah said nothing. He was weary of trying to second-guess people’s motives, of trying to work out who he could trust and who was lying to him.
He took one last look around the mountain temple, until he was satisfied that – for whatever reason – Mr Chang wasn’t coming. Then he turned and, with a sigh, he followed Sam through the tapestry and out of that place.