Cytronica

Forty-five

"Whoa," Diego said, in a state of shock. "Have you seen your comm lately? The 4PM Club is down to 16 people."

"What!" Priya gasped, looking at her wrist to confirm it for herself. "Incredible."

"Yeah. I don't get what this malignance mode is meant to do, but unfortunately it sounds like it's working."

Priya saw a sign pointing toward the archive room. "Well, I'm assuming it means the bots become malignant."

"Hopefully we won't encounter—"

Diego spoke too soon. Before he could even finish his sentence, a man burst out from behind a closed door. He snapped his head right, staring at the two students.

"Uh oh," Priya said, taking a step backwards.

The man wasted no time. He began bounding down the hallway toward them.

Diego screamed. "Hit him!"

"What?"

"The bat," he said. "Hit him!"

Priya had only a second to react. She gripped the bat and swung it outwards, hitting the man in the abdomen, causing him to fall at their feet.

Diego shrieked again. Despite being on the floor, the man wrapped his hand around Diego's ankle and pulled him down. "Get off me!"

Priya swung the bat again, reluctant to strike the innocent man. It wasn't his fault he'd been possessed by Hunter and his ridiculous code. The wooden bat smacked into his skin. It was effective, but the man made no sound.

"I said get off!" Diego shouted, kicking his feet wildly, somehow managing to free himself from the man's grasp.

"Come on," Priya said, helping her friend, "time to run."

They weren't the only ones. The man climbed to his feet too, his face full of hate, and started chasing after them.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Diego whimpered.

"Faster," Priya instructed. "Keep moving."

"I'm running as fast as I can!" Diego protested, looking behind them to see the bot gaining on them.

Priya saw it too. "He's fast. We can't outrun him. Quick, in here," she said, taking a sudden left turn through an empty door, landing in what looked to be an office.

Diego followed her inside and slammed the door shut, locking it tightly behind them.

The man arrived outside and started banging against it.

"We're trapped," the boy complained. "I hope this was a smart idea."

"I had to think of something. He would've caught us." She made her way to the window and peered outside into the dark world.

"No way," he said. "Don't even think about it. One slip and we're done."

"And if he gets in here, we're done. I hit him three times with the bat and he didn't even react."

Diego slammed a fist on the desk. "I guess that means the bots don't have their pain threshold turned down. It's like Hunter is giving them an advantage over us."

Priya slid the window up. "What do you expect? It's all a giant game. He wants it to be a challenge. Otherwise we'll be logged in here all weekend."

"Please don't go out there. We're four floors up. And these floors are like twice the size of normal—"

"Okay, okay. Just relax. I'm trying to think." She looked left and right, up and down, searching for an escape solution. The pounding on the door intensified. The hinges started to shake. "There," she said, pointing to her left.

He poked his head out with her. "What is it?"

"There's a balcony. We can climb along this ledge and drop down to it."

"What!" he retorted. "Are you crazy?"

"It'll be easy. This ledge is wide enough to walk across ... just. And then we can lower ourselves to that balcony. Simple."

"That balcony is a floor below us. And as I just said, these are tall floors. That drop might kill us."

"It's like three metres," she scoffed. "Four max. Obviously, I wouldn't do this in real life, but we don't have a choice right now. If he gets through that door, it's game over."

Diego let out a low roar. "Why did we come into this room!"

The door began to splinter around the hinges. They didn't have much longer.

"Man, this guy's strong."

"I guess that's part of the malignance or something," Priya said as she climbed out onto the ledge. "Hunter must have increased their speed and strength. It makes sense."

"Be careful," he pleaded.

She looked down at the dizzying drop. "Creepy." She snapped out of it and kept her attention on her immediate surroundings, hugging the wall with bat in hand, shifting herself to her left. It wasn't far for her to manoeuvre.

Diego swung his legs over the ledge and sat on the windowsill. "I don't know if I can do this."

"We have to. Come on. You've got this." She carefully crouched down in her position and then nimbly jumped down, landing on the balcony below, her fall soft. She turned and held her hands up triumphantly. "See? Easy!"

Diego cracked his jaw. "Fine. You win."

"Come on," Priya called up. "We're running out of time."

He looked down at the drop below. "Shit. I really don't want to do this. I'm scared of heights."

"In the real world," she corrected. "This isn't real."

"Yeah, but it feels real."

"Diego, please," she begged. "That door is going to open any second. You can do this. I promise it'll be fine."

He looked down at her and took a deep breath. "Alright," he sighed. "Let's just do this." He lifted himself up to a standing position and held onto the wall for balance.

"That's it," she said. "Just one step at a time."

A sudden explosion rocked the room. Diego gasped and turned around.

"Diego!" Priya cried. "Move! Now!"

But it was too late. The bot leapt through the open window, wrapping his arms around Diego, tackling the teenager, sending them both hurtling down to the earth below.

"Diego!" Priya screamed as she watched her friend fall. She raced forward and stared over the ledge of the balcony.

He was nowhere to be seen. His body was gone.

Eliminated from the realm.

Priya's mouth hung open. The sight was a terrifying one to behold.

The man picked himself up from the ground, somehow surviving the fall. He tilted his gaze and stared at Priya for a brief second, then started running toward the front entrance of the centre to get back inside.

She placed a hand over her mouth and lowered herself to the floor of the balcony, her eyes unable to forget what she had just witnessed. "He's ... gone," she choked.

She took a moment to calm herself. She brought her breathing back under control.

I have to keep moving.

Priya climbed to her feet and walked across the balcony, grabbing hold of the door and sliding it open. She stepped back inside the building, her whereabouts unknown.

A wave of sadness flooded over her. She knew it was all nothing more than a game in a virtual world, but seeing Diego's life taken right before her eyes was unforgivable.

Hunter could not be allowed to win. He wasn't worthy of such glory.

She had to win at all costs.

For Diego.