MANDELA97.EXE - A Mandela Catalogue AU

2

I blink my eyes open to a boy staring down at me, looking a bit concerned. He gasped at me stirring and called out to someone about it... Something about an error?

I immediately sat up, glancing at the almost oversaturated green grassy hills surrounding us in pure confusion. Almost like I've seen this place before...

I grunt as I begin to stand up, the boy coming back to help me up, yanking my hand. He had a purple suit and monkey features.

Wait.

I felt my mind buffer as it began to sink in, staring off to god knows where at this point. Is this a huge hallucination? If so, Sarah should peek in at any second and immediately send me to bed. Right about now, actually.

A boy with an error message on his face peeked his head from a bit below us, jogging up to meet me. He yelped a bit as the monkey boy giggled, lifting him and spinning around and round. The censored boy seemed to talk like one of those bots that go on voicemail, except... weirdly inhuman in a certain way?

Whatever. They're staring at me. Waiting for something to happen. Maybe for me to speak? I feel the censored boy staring into my soul. The pressure feels a bit suffocating. I gulp nervously, sweating bullets. He waves his hand over my face, snapping me out of my nervous trance. He then waved at me, text appearing on the error censor on his face as he spoke. Like real-time subtitles.

"You must be the newbie." The boy let out his hand, and we shook hands. "I'm Error, the computer database and internal system. Or, at least, I control it. You must've bumped into my friend SaladBuddy here," Error nodded to the purple-suited monkey boy, "Don't worry, he's harmless and pretty childish." Error giggled, sounding abnormally human for once.

SaladBuddy gasped and stamped his foot onto the grassy hill, his cheeks puffing up as he caught a bubble in his mouth. He turned his back, ears flat and tail swishing from side to side like a cat as he muttered, "I'm not childish, Error..." under his breath.

We both laugh at SaladBuddy, and I look around, noticing it looks exactly like my computer setup. Files spread out all across the grassy area, the sky an oversaturated blue (pairing well with the very neon and oversaturated grass), SaladBuddy summoning a vine to swing around and tell random facts to Error while hanging upside down with his tail...

I walk up to the MS Paint, grab the paintbrush and bucket tools, and draw some paint bombs, as well as a vest to hook them onto. They act like grenades but... paint. Some of the pixels stick onto my face. I try to draw a glass of water to splash it off to no avail. It's stuck for now, I guess.

I draw some stairs and stand on top of the pop-up, accidentally stumbling onto the red X button and beginning to fall. The other 2 take notice and reach out to catch me, but I immediately draw a parachute for myself and float down seamlessly.

I probably looked pretty giddy, because SaladBuddy's eyes lit up, gasping over my quick thinking and wanting to learn to draw, too. It's been a while, but I gave him the crayon tool and we drew some animals to walk around and be our sidekicks.

Error watched over us like a parent keeping an eye out for their children, which I didn't mind; I liked going back to the days when I didn't have a huge bounty over my head, anyway.

I turned to face where the screen was, which looked like a huge mirror. I walked over and examined myself. The paint I couldn't wash off was dripping off onto my hoodie and jacket but didn't stain it. Weird.

Error and SaladBuddy caught up with me, with SaladBuddy bringing a drawn Polaroid with him. "Come on, guys, pose for the camera!" I grinned as we snapped a photo (with my help), and I allowed SaladBuddy to shake the photo until it came into full view.

In the meantime - while SaladBuddy was occupied - I got to chat with Error and know what the hell happened. Error sighed.

"Y'know... We haven't really... had much company recently." Error began. I cut him off by stating, "Someone told me my friend was in a link, and I got here. I... I just wanna find him and leave." I stated in a low voice, low enough just for Error to hear. The problem was, though, I already fell in love with this digital playground. Both of them were charming, but I had a nagging feeling Adam was just somewhere here. "Me and Ce- I mean," Error paused for a moment, "SaladBuddy and I used to be... outside of this computer. He got sucked into the internet while I examined the code and sorta... merged with it. That's how we both ended up in this computer." He sighed, a pixelated gas coming from where his mouth should be faded out as he continued, "Barely anyone uses computers now. SaladBuddy... is a virus of sorts. You know how he spouts random facts?" I nod. "Well, some of them are locations. Even down to the coordinates." My eyebrows raise as he goes silent. We both went silent, actually.

Just sitting there on the grass as the wind from nowhere gently blew, making both of our hair sway softly, staring off where the screen should be.

SaladBuddy ran up, looking a bit alarmed and making squeaks close to what a rubber duck sounds like, alerting both of us and snapping us out of our trance.

He handed Error the photo and he physically stomped his foot, made a weird snorting sound, and crossed his arms, and his error censor made a bunch of pop-ups with angry emojis on it, as well as multiple swears. He must be pretty caught up in what he's thinking because he dropped the picture.

I picked it up and my eyes widened, in a moment of shock. I felt the color leaving my face as I, too, dropped the photo.

Adam was in the background.

But why did he have so many pop-ups around him..?