Chapter 01-01

Alex “The Frost” stood on the top floor of the tallest skyscraper in the exact center of Axiscore. Looking out across the city he stood before a twenty-foot-tall window with his arms folded behind his back. His avatar was peak physical condition, Alex’s vision of a perfect creation. With a simple wave of his hand the glass vanished. He walked out into the sky above the city the air as solid to him as the ground.

Something flickered in his attention to his left. His focus snapped to whatever it was, but as quickly as it had appeared it vanished. Like a blowing wind he began to fly in the direction of the disturbance. He activated an admin ability that shifted the world so that, in his eyes, he could observe the raw data. Edges that created the objects and gizmos used to modify the items within the world appeared attached to everything.

Most of the data was common, exactly as it should be. This was how Alex preferred to view the world. In watching the data, he found something different. The objects and their code seemed to be shifting. As he looked upon the code it seemed to be ever shifting.

“What are you?” He asked quietly as he curiously flew towards the disturbance.  

The anomaly that Alex could only label as corruption began to spread out from where it was localized. He watched as the corruption infected items and objects around the world. He flicked his hand upward, a gesture used to open his admin commands.

The first tool that he opened was designed to identify the internet address in case they needed to track down and block attackers. He executed the command with the core of the corruption as the target. For a moment he thought that a virus might have made its way in through the firewalls.

-Error – E09981Cxxxxxxuui

“Well that is complete gibberish.” Alex said as he shook his head and looked down at the window that hovered in front of him. Errors were usually coded in a way that could help identify and isolate the problem, but this message meant nothing.

The next admin command tool that he activated was an isolation barrier. With a wave of his hand he projected the barrier around everything that the corruption had touched. In a flash of bright blue light, the barrier materialized unfolding around the invader like a strong box. The corruption entity pressed against the barrier, but it held.

It lasted only a moment, until the corruption began to merge with the wall. The random lines of unreadable code and distortion broke through and began to spread just as fast, if not faster. It seemed to be using the energy from the barrier to grow.

“What kind of monster are you?” Alex floated back away from the entity putting a safe distance between them.

The white wheel of admin command tools spun as he moved his way to a tool that was considered a last-ditch effort. The admin deletion command. A wrench appeared hovering in the sky in front of him. He grabbed ahold of the tool and targeted the nearest item that had been tainted. It was an item in a player’s inventory. He executed the delete command. The item blinked out of existence taking its portion of the corruption with it.

Seeing it as the only option as the corruption continued to spread Alex selected all of the items and executed a massive wipe of everything corrupted. Holes in the game world appeared as the items that he had targeted vanished leaving behind a void.

Instantaneously his inbox became packed full of complaints from players who had lost their items. As the cluster admin it was his responsibility to take care of these problems. His cluster center over Axiscore making him responsible for the city and a hundred-mile radius. He began sending a reply that stated that they were looking into the problem, but the messages just kept coming. They grew angrier and angrier.

Twelve flashes of different colored light surrounded him. The counsel appeared in their glory. Each of their avatars represented what they all considered to be perfection. Their images seemed, to Alex, to be almost alien. Smooth elongated bodies with bright white coloring.

The twelve lifted their left hands in unison. Searing pain filled Alex’s body as his arms and legs were pulled taut. He couldn’t move a muscle as spike were driven through his hands and feet into the air. It may have just been air, but it was as solid as stone.  

“You are bound for judgement.” They said lowering their hands. Their mouths move so perfectly in unison that it was like they were all of one mind.

“Why are you doing this?” Alex asked struggling in futility against the bindings.

“You have used a deletion tool. Our directives require that counsel approval be sought before the use of a deletion tool.” Their voices echoed around. Alex suspected that the voices were being hear all around the servers.

“I’ve been an admin for half a decade, and this is the first that I am hearing of this absurd rule.” Alex said in his defense, “I acted in haste to protect the people of the world.”

“Protect the people of the world from what?” The voices said with a resounding echo.

“A corruption that threatened the players and their items.” Alex said.

“There is no record of anything of the kind.” The counsel said. A window opened that played a recording of the area. It had an image of the same thing that Alex had been seeing, but as it played, he noticed that there was no corruption. Alex opened tools and reacted exactly how he remembered, but when he deleted everything it looked as if he had just randomly deleted a bunch of player’s items, and random objects from the world.

“How do you explain your actions. You’ve destroyed the work of many players.” The counsel demanded. Their judgmental eye bore holes through him.

“I swear that there was a corrupted data stream that was infecting all of the items that I deleted. I used a barrier, but whatever it was broke through the barrier and grew faster.” Alex said shaking his head. Pain coursed through his body if he tried, even in the slightest, to fight the bindings.

“For your actions against the players and for your actions against the world of NuValla you have been sentenced to liquidation. Your character shall be wiped, and you will be relieved of your job.” The counsel said.

“Please, I have nothing else!” Alex pleaded. He would have clasped his hands together, but he still had no control.

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“Our minds have been made and cannot be swayed. Someone must pay for the suffering of the players.” The counsel said. They raised their hands pointing their palms at Alex. A swarmed blast of countless balls of energy fired at him from all directions. His avatar was torn to shreds as he attempted to log out from the game. His command system was not responding.

It wasn’t until his death had completed did his headset go black and he was able to reach up and remove it from blocking his eyes. Alex yelled at the top of his lungs and he threw the head set across the room. The bulky chunk of technology smashed into the wall and exploded into a cloud of plastic shards that rained down to the floor.

Slumping forward he sobbed into his hands. He lazily reached over and pulled the lever that lowered him down into his wheelchair. The chair rolled slowly away from the log station and Alex ended up sitting in front of his computer. The light from the screen bathed him while he did nothing but stare at the screen and avoid all types of communication to spare himself from the hate.

~//~

It was hard to breathe. It was a gamble to go outside on any day. After what had happened mankind was lucky to have their home back. Earth was still here after seventy years in shambles. With Regan’s death and Watcher’s change of heart, if a machine could have such a thing, man still had something. The Earth though, there was a chance that the war’s damage could never be repaired. That was why everyone thought the machines left. They didn’t want a spoiled home. Instead they had a home they could build anew on Mars. 

Alex rolled into the third building of the day where he had an interview. His chair stopped in front of the receptionist’s desk. She ignored him at first until he cleared his throat loudly to get her attention.

“Can I help you?” She asked. Her voice was filled with disgust and distraction. He clearly was not worth her time.

“Yes, I have a job interview at four at Tech Horizons.” Alex said as pleasantly as he could muster after being hit with her attitude. It was funny, he thought, he’d never met a receptionist or secretary that had been in a good mood.

“Sign in and take the elevator to the thirty eighth floor.” She said without bothering to look up from her computer screen. She wasn’t doing anything that Alex could see, but she used it as an excuse to avert her eyes from him.

“Yes ma’am, thank you.” Alex half hissed half said.

The tablet took his thumb print as his signature. He laid it back down on the counter and rolled to the bank of elevators. The down button was already glowing because there was a tall beautiful woman waiting.  

“Hi.” Alex smiled up at her.

“Never in a million years.” She scoffed and took a few steps away from him.

“Dude I was just being nice.” Alex said and looked at her like she was insane. That was what things were like for him though, a man in a wheelchair in a time after the world had almost ended. It he never felt that he could pull his weight. It wasn’t until the machine’s virtual world systems were reactivated and were proven to be safe, did he feel worth anything. He was back to having nothing.

The trip up to the thirty eighth floor was a silent one. No one spoke a single word as they filed off the elevator level by level until it was just Alex sitting patiently by himself. When the door opened for him to get off the elevator, he couldn’t be happier to be out of the tiny metal box.

The job that he was interviewing for was Tech advisor for Virtual Reality Advancements. Tech Horizons was a relatively small, new, company but according to the internet was making waves. He rolled into the lobby which he quickly realized that there was only one office on the entire floor. A woman stood next to the door to the office with her hand properly folded in front of her. She wore a long blue skirt and a light white blouse. Her dyed silver hair was perfectly arranged in a bun on the top of her head.

“Mr. Hayton will see you now.” She said as she motioned with her hand. In the same moment the door began to swing inward. Alex rolled in slightly in awe. The room was filled with numerous pieces of ancient technology. He thought out of the corner of his eye he spotted one of the original iPhones. It would have been hundreds of years old.

“Ah, Alex is it?” Mr. Hayton asked. The middle-aged man with a sun aged face and salt and pepper hair walked around from behind a giant desk. He wore a crushed velvet maroon vest over his pressed white button-down shirt. The man wore a smile, but something didn’t feel right.

“Yes sir.” Alex nodded.

“The Frost?” Mr. Hayton asked. His stride took found him standing directly in front of Alex’s chair.  

“Yes…” Alex uncomfortably shifted in his seat.

Without any warning or another word at all Mr. Hayton punched Alex hard in the nose. Blood instantly began to pour down his face. Alex yelled in agony. Mr. Hayton grabbed the neck of Alex’s shirt and pulled him out of the chair. He slammed his head against the desk as hard as he could.

“No one will hire you. Not after what you did. Do you know how much money you cost me?” Mr. Hayton growled into Alex’s ear while holding onto the back of his neck and pushing his face into the wood.

“I didn’t do anything. It wasn’t me.” Alex pleaded as he gasped for breath.

“I’ve seen the video. Don’t lie to me. You’re lucky I don’t kill you where you lay you worthless excuses for a pile of shit.” Mr. Hayton reared back his leg and kicked Alex in the chest. He dragged Alex across the floor and tossed him towards his chair. His back hit the frame of his wheelchair and bent awkwardly sending pain through his neck.

My. Hayton walked to the front of his desk and picked up a glass of brown liquor. While he took a sip, he pressed a button behind him. The doors at the back of the office opened. Two police officers walked in and silently waited for orders.

“Get him out of here.” Mr. Payton grumbled. He walked over to stand above Alex’s injured form and handed each of the police officers a stack of cash. Alex couldn’t see exactly how much was there, but the bottom bill of each stack was a one-hundred-dollar bill.

Without words the two officers picked Alex up off the ground. He waivered back and forth into unconsciousness until he finally blacked out.

~//~

The glow of the computer screen bathed Alex’s face once again. He had an ice pack over his eye and two pieces of rag shoved up his nose to stop the bleeding. Hatred for people and generally for the world welled up inside of him. Against his better judgement he decided to check his email.

His email inbox was still blowing up. Message after message spammed in rapidly. He opened the mail app and began to scroll through the messages. Almost every single message was some kind of hate mail from someone who had been affected by the wipe. Until he found one from someone that he actually considered a friend.

Mad Mind Melana: Is it true?

The Frost: I swear there was a corruption. Something was entering the game.

Mad Mind Melana: I’ve seen the video a dozen times. I have run it through every filter that I can get my hands on. It’s not doctored or modified in any way.

The Frost: I swear! I love the game! I’ve given years of my life to that world. Why would I do something that could jeopardize that?

Mad Mind Melana: Your story makes sense, but with no evidence…

The Frost: And what is with that bullshit rule about needing approval for the deletion tool. I’ve used it a dozen times in the past when we’ve had viruses and they’ve never said a thing. I know the charter back and front.

Mad Mind Melana: What are you going to do?

The Frost: My life is that game. I don’t know anything else. I’m obviously not getting a job anywhere else. I have no other choice. I’ll have to play.

Mad Mind Melana: Will the payouts be high enough?

The Frost: If I go to sleep it should be. I think I’ve got enough to have a couple weeks play time. Maybe in that time I can build up enough assets to extend the time.

Mad Mind Melana: The sleep centers sceeve me out…

The Frost: I don’t have a ton of options. At least this way I only have to worry about one expense.

Mad Mind Melana: I guess that’s true. You could sell your set for a few extra bucks too.

The Frost: I kind of broke it when I came out. I was a little upset.

Mad Mind Melana: That sucks… I’ve got to start my shift. Message me in game when you get set back up.

The Frost: I will. Thanks for talking to me.

Alex logged off of the chat application and blew out a long breath through his nose. He rolled back away from the computer and picked up his wallet. His apartment never felt like a place that he considered home. He always felt like home was inside of the game, he wouldn’t miss the cramped box once he left.