A plug lay in Liam's hand.
A plug that was suspiciously blurry.
He squinted, conflicted at the mirage he was seeing. He'd observed something similar before... but not up this close. And whenever he looked at anything else, it appeared crystal clear - but as soon as his eyes landed on this particular plug, it seemed like it wanted to hide from him, erase its image from his mind.
"You're sure this is the one, Bryce?"
"Just check it," the soda bottle insisted. He had found the plug among the tangled cables, where Liam's sight couldn't reach.
After a minute of fruitless observation, the backpack concluded that he, in fact, had no answer to this weird phenomenon. Therefore, following the suggestion, he simply went on to check if it was the right plug. He slid it into the USB port, hope flickering in his heart.
'Click!'
A loading icon appeared on the screen. Gathered on the desk in front of the laptop, the contestants held their breath.
"It's working," Liam whispered excitedly. "Good job, Bryce."
His friend smiled confidently at him. "I knew we could bring Texty back."
Liam smiled back, feeling reassured. He turned the laptop on. After several seconds, the screen lit up, greeting them with Bradley's wallpaper: himself and a fish.
Tray gasped with amazement. "It's so pretty! I love fish. The kids were always happy on days they were served. Man... I miss having food on me."
Whippy Creamy glanced at her. "You know... you could have just asked."
On the screen, a notebook window popped up. The contestants stopped chatting to look.
[ hello? liam? ]
His friends were quicker to react than him. Cheering arose from the desk.
"TEXTY!"
[ hii :3 ]
"Texty, can you hear me?" Liam asked, grinning at the enthusiasm.
[ yes!!! oh my goodness. i was so worried when you closed the pc ]
"Yeah... sorry about that..." he said shamefully. "I lost the charger and I was afraid to tell you. But I know I should have."
[ its ok. im happy to see you guys again. what did i miss? ]
...
Over the next few hours, Liam lost his sense of hearing.
It started out as a quiet hum in his ears. Then it changed into uncomfortable ringing. Words became more and more hard to understand as they mixed into an incoherent babble, every sound got muffled... and then it all fell quiet.
Liam had to switch to typing on the computer to communicate.
Thankfully, things seemed to go faster with Texty. After he had explained the outside situation and his current knowledge about the code, Texty dived into Airy's computer to investigate. And they both started working on it - more efficiently than Liam had ever done alone.
In the moments of rest - typically when Texty was doing something he couldn't - Liam would wonder about what his friends had said: that maybe him playing along with the universe would result in less attacks from it. But at the same time, he couldn't give in to hysteria and stop working on the code, that would get them nowhere. He needed to focus on finding the solution of the problem, work as quickly and efficiently as possible... and he could deal with the vines later, once he had sent his friends safely back home.
This was going to annoy them, but he considered it the most reasonable way.
The contestants were now back on the Plane. Texty suggested putting them there so they could get ready to be rescued soon.
Liam squinted at the screen, reading what the textbox wrote.
[ see that command on the notebook? i think thats for bringing a person in. can you check if it teleports them to the spawn point? ]
The backpack blinked, trying to register the words. They had been decoding all night. His eyes strained and he was starting to feel tired.
sure, he slowly typed in.
[ you know what
you look like a beaten dog, get some sleep ]
hey, it's not that bad... i can work longer, he assured her.
[ nope. you definitely cannot -_-
besides, i have to see if i can operate this computer myself in case you go blind on me ]
That reminded Liam of something. He rubbed his eyes to appear more conscious and began typing again.
texty, you have to promise me something.
[ yeah what is it ]
Words, heavy and uncomfortable, piled up in the back of Liam's head. He wished he could say them out loud. He wished he could let them free.
no matter what happens to me, promise you'll send them all back.
There was a moment of hesitation on Texty's side. Liam frowned. Texty, please, he thought.
The cursor moved.
[ i will ]
Liam's gaze filled with relief and gratitude, and he mouthed the words 'thank you'.
[ its gonna be ok <3
hopefully we figure it out before anything happens. youve filtered out a lot of useless stuff already, so it should be easier for me to find the commands that actually matter.
but please, go to sleep, ok? i'll take care of it.
*pats u on the head* ]
A small smile formed on Liam's face. He reciprocated her symbolic gesture, giving the screen a pat. Texty typed out a grinning emoji, then jumped down onto a new paragraph.
[ oh and one more thing. place bradleys laptop on the computer tower and tilt it towards the plane, so that whenever i need to, i can switch between the devices and see whats going on with the contestants. it'll help me test the commands when you sleep ]
He did as she requested. Then, turning over to the Plane, he looked at the contestants one last time.
Liam hoped, with all his heart, that everyone would make it out alive and well. Providing his friends safety was the main thing he wished for. They were his priority, his top mission, and being near them filled him with love and faith that his efforts would succeed.
He yawned, moving the keyboard away, making space for himself on the desk. On his crossed arms to suffice for a pillow, he lay down his head and closed his eyes, quickly drifting off.
Soundly asleep, he dreamed. Of a time and place where he could be at peace. Where he could forever be with those he loved.
On the computer screen, Texty wrote a few frustrated remarks about Liam's awful sleeping position, before she realised he had already dozed off. She typed out a 'sigh' and lowered the brightness of the screen, making sure it wouldn't disturb Liam while he slept.
----
A/N
Welcome everybody that I haven't already seen in the announcement! I'm excited for the rest of this fanfiction and I hope you are too :)
Off-topic, but I have tumblr now! Come say hi if you want: @sunset-puzzle
Till the next one ∠(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ )
YOU ARE READING
Against the Universe - After ONE 18
FanfictionSomething's lurking behind Liam's back. Something's waiting until he lets his guard down. And though Liam is determined to learn the code and free his friends, he's left all by himself in an unfamiliar world... and he feels like he's being observed...
