CyberWorld

Chapter Four: The Resistance

It almost feels melancholic when we prepare to leave at half past 4. It may be a quaint room, but it's kept me relatively safe from that mindless cult that's terrorized the game's players for two weeks now.

"Where are we going?" Yoona's hand stays put on the door handle while I stare at the window blinds with unease. Upon hearing my question, she fidgets with the silver bar and purses her lips.

"I'm bringing you to meet some allies."

We trek through the alley from the previous night, feeling our hearts being dragged across the pavement. I was opposed to going back to the "crime scene" from the previous night, but Yoona insisted we'd only get to our destination before sunrise if we headed away from the Town Square through the alley where we'd almost died the previous night. Other than a minor mishap with one of those mechanical crows that I'd now grown to despise, our trip out of Yunon went rather smoothly.

"I never asked for your name," She shoves another red velvet cake into her mouth, tearing into the creamy confection as we trudge along the dirt path where the brick walls I've become accustomed to transform into rows of trees with red leaves. A crinkle forms above the bridge of my nose as some crumbs plunge into the creases of her clothes, never to be seen again. Since my whole CyberWorld experience hasn't proven otherwise, I wouldn't be surprised to see ants holding a feast on her clothes.

"Oh," I say. "I'm Michael Leong." Yoona lets out a low whistle.

"A Leong, huh? This should be interesting."

"Mmm," I murmur, somewhat disappointed with her lacklustre response. "There's a crumb on your face, by the way."

Yoona pats her cheeks quizzically. "Really? Where?"

"A little to the right—no, no, too right," My instructions fall on deaf ears as her fingers graze every part, every pore but that spot.

"Argh. Let me just—" I reach out for her face and scrape at the crimson bit with a flick.

"There," I say, wiping my hands on my pants. "Now how long before we get to."

I practically jump backwards. "Sorry. I'm used to swiping the eraser dust from my desk while I study. It's to, uh—keep it clean."

She doesn't reply. Her cravings seemed to have been satiated since she's no longer munching on the cake with the same ferocity from earlier. Did I make her lose her appetite? We plough on through the mud, leaving muddy footprints behind as the forest grows less dense, the first sun rays of the morning poking through the branches crisscrossed above. My eyes skim over the tracks we leave behind, checking for any hint of radiance in the dirt–nothing. I haven't been this paranoid since Dad invited his war buddies over for dinner.

"There," She gestures to mountains in the distance as the forest breaks into a fractured stone terrain only broken up by loose bunches of grass that reach for the picture-perfect cloud wisps in the twilight, shrouded by the shadows cast by the mountains' looming presence.

"It's just up ahead," Yoona says. "Watch your step."

After we cross the landscape, being sure to avoid all the potholes along the way, we end up in front of the strangely smooth rock wall in the shape of a semicircle.

"What's this?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" Yoona says. "It's our hidden base."

I scoff.

"A hidden base?"

Yoona scowls. "Yeah. So?"

"You're saying that this mountain is completely hollow?" I say. "There's no way there's a whole base inside."