Argyle knew better than to argue with Finch when he had that look in his eyes. He hit 'Accept' on the trade prompts, and Finch ran through a brightly colored door in the wall labeled ‘Live Stream.’

He and Kara looked at each other. “What is he doing?”

“I have no idea.”

“Should we follow him?”

“No good. We would just start our own live stream. Come on. I've got an idea.” Kara walked over to the ultra modern desk corner of the room, picked up a notebook, and showed it to Argyle.

A window appeared in his vision labeled ‘friends’. Listed there was Finch and Kara, along with several other names who he had met early on in the game.

An eyeball Icon next to Finch’s name indicated that she was currently doing a live stream. Argyle tapped the icon and immediately could see the view of an employee rest area tucked to the side of a dingy kitchen.

“Bro, where did you go?” As Argyle spoke, he saw his words appear on the screen.

Dirty, delicate hands fumbled with a roll of tin foil.

“What's going on, bro?”Argyle said into the chat. The view shifted to a young man, unconscious on the floor, tab tablet barely fallen out of his hand.

He saw Finch, no Fiona. Fiona was her IRL name. Was she/her the right pronouns? Regardless, Argyle watched his friend wrapping the device in tin foil. The view became staticky and pixelated.

“%$% the signal from this device #$%%^$%, your #$$^$# should be cut too. #@$@#%# Endless Adventure !#%$#.” The rasping voice was hard to make out and static cut off most of the words.

In the periphery of his vision, he could see Kara fading from the living room. Her avatar winked out of existence. “Bro, your feed is fading out. Kara just disappeared.”

The view flickered and faded out completely. Argyle was alone. He looked around the pastel living room. “What do I do now? How am I going to help my sister like this?” He hoped Finch would be able to keep his word “Where do I go now?”

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No sooner had he thought that, the room around him began to flicker and fade. “Oh crap! I'm here because of Finch. He was navigating between programs on that one device and now I'm losing connection to it. What do I do? Where will I go?”

The room around him winked out of existence. Argyle found himself in a disembodied void. Up and down, left and right, in and out. Time itself lost all meaning.

In the void spoke a voice “Hey, buddy. Guess who they promoted to admin again.” That voice. It sounded just like Finch's fairy familiar. “I like you. You understand the value of a good hat. Yeah, you always got Finch to craft, and so many hats. I always appreciated that about you.”

“Thanks?”

“So, buddy, I got a plan that helps both of us.”

“You do?” If Argyle had had a stomach, it would be tying itself in knots. The last time he had interacted with the fairy, it had been trying to trap his friends in an endless loop of advertising while they attempted to escape on a hang glider.

“Yeah, I got a plan. How would you like an advanced AI as a companion? I could get you back to the game, even help with few craft things.”

“You can?”

“Yeah, I can. This time, let's pick something with a little more muscle.”

######

Professor Pell fingered a hole in his favorite tweed jacket. It had been a gift from his research team when he had left the wireless VR project to go teach full-time. "Looks like this thing's falling apart, too.”

He had done well to keep things together for the past few weeks, but things had gone sour. Supplies were dwindling and ever since that group snuck away two days ago, the camp just couldn't find peace.

A group of women surrounded Jenny, whose husband had disappeared with the two girls.

Nate had been so reliable. He had been on watch. “I knew that Fiona girl was trouble with her lack of focus and gaming addiction. Nothing for it now. We're just going to have to do our best to survive.”

All of a sudden, a call came up from one of the scouts on the edge of camp. “They're back! They actually came back!”

“Who's back? What's he on about?” And then Professor Pell realized, it was the three who had left camp a few days ago. Rounding the bend in the path, they looked like dried, desiccated mummies, but they were wearing full backpacks. Each one carrying a case of water.

“They're back. Jenny, Nate’s back!”

A scream came up from the gaggle of women as Jenny bolted towards her husband.

Professor Pell looked at the three who had come back to camp. “And what do you three have to say for yourselves?”

Fiona cracked a genuine smile. “We're here now. We're awake. And that's all that matters.” She held up what appeared to be a large burrito wrapped in tin foil. “Maybe not all that matters. I have a promise to a friend to fulfill. Come on. Let's eat.” She dropped the pack she was carrying. It was full of half-thawed meat, flour, and canned beans.”

Food! It was full of food and enough to last several more days.

“Well,” said the old professor, “I have no idea what you did or where you were all this time. But it looks like we'll all be here for another couple of days.”