Syetem 32
System 32
So it started out like any other story, I was living my own life working at an office not just an ordinary office but a office above a science lab. we pretty much just handled the paperwork for them and make sure that the "Experiments" they do arent illigal. My boss walked into my cubical and asked me "Run these doccuments downstairs for me would ya". Me and no one else wanted to go downstairs due to the fact that all of the scientists arent far from insanity. But because its my job i left to go downstairs. My boss who's name I still cant remember (Im bad with names) did'nt remember to tell me the room number so i had to check the file and see where to bring it. I opened the file to see it went to room B17 which was the virtual psycological testing room, what it was for I had no clue. I went to the elevator and realized that it was out of order so i took the stairs. I went down 16 flights of stairs so i was pretty worn out when I got to the correct floor. I entered hallway B and went down 17 rooms arriving at room B17, I entered.
It was dark in the lab so i tried to find a light switch, I felt the wall for a while finding a rather large switch I flipped it because the labs were weird and over complicated while doing simple tasks so I thought that the light switch would be weird and overly complicated as well. as I flip it I start to hear a humming and a few smaller lights turn on I see different colors such as yellow and blue. I find another switch and it turns on an overhead light and I can see the room. There is a large reclining chair in the center of the room with big machines along the walls all beeping and buzzing and flashing. I put the papers on top of one of the machines. I felt tired from climbing all 16 flights of stairs so I decided to sit... and relax... in the chair... that was in the center of the room... and fall asleep...
Zzzzzzzzz. SMACK! I was asleep when awoken by a hard smack to the face. "Hey man are you dead and what brings you to this fine establishment." I wake up and see what seems to be a super sayan from Dragonball. I was VERY Confused, I had only seen ads on streaming services for Dragonball but I still knew what I was looking at. "uhhhhh what happened." I reply, thinking I was still asleep and acting along with the senario. "Soooooooo who are you?" He replied with"My name is A.R.C-27B or you can just call me Arc" I was thinking I was having a realy weird dream so I thought I would continue the conversation. "Oh hey sorry im still a bit groggy, you said your name is Arc?"
ARC-"Yeah and you have just woken up in the 'spawn room', its where we all start from"
ZACHARIA-"Oh by the way im Zacharia but you can call me Zach or Z"
ARC-"Oh yeah I need to show you how everything works here, follow me!"
I followed him not knowing what lies on the road ahead.
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???-Hey, I thought I told you to bring down the files not to go exploring.
???-"..."
???-"Oh no, SOMEONE GET THE LEAD PSYCOSCIENTIST NOW!!!"
???-"WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK IN THIS ONE!!!"
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As soon as I left the room i entered a whole new world. I was in a desert but it wasnt full of sand but particles of something, I didnt quite know what the sky was not... there it just wasnt sky not even space it was just empty I couldnt explain. Suddenly I bumped into something, I looked but nothing was there except a seemingly floating handle which looked as if it could go on one of those push doors but there was no door."HERE WE ARE!!!My house!" I look around the place and it looked like a cabin lodge with training equipment lining the walls. there was a dummy in the middle of the room which was missing an arm(which was lying in peices across the room) and the rest of it was pretty banged up. there was a door straight across from the invisible one that we entered in from Arc proceeded to take me through. I see a tall man with white hair we walk up to him and he greets me.
IVORY-"Oh a new one, sup"
ZACHARIA-"Hey I kinda need to hurry this dream up I need to head off to work in the morning and im not sure when my alarm is going to go off but I assume it is gonna be soon."
ARC-"Dude you do know your not dreaming right, your in a computer?"
IVORY-"Dont worry the writer has people helping to get you out"
ZACHARIA-"Wait this is probably my brian telling me something important like climate change is important or something else dumb"
IVORY-"First of all climate change is meh, and second have you seen the Matrix?"
ZACHARIA-"Uh yeah, what does that have to do with annything?"
ARC-"Your inside what we call 'System 32' because were litteraly in the files of a computer that was made in the lab that your in right now, so your brain is here but your body is still in that chair."
ZACHARIA-"Ok this dream is frickin TRIPPY this is soooo cool!"
IVORY/ARC-"WE ARE SERIOUS!!!"
ZACHARIA-"Like Legit?"
IVORY/ARC-"YES!!!"
ZACHARIA-"...Oh ... welp ...ok so my brain is where exactly?
ARC-"Ivory can i get this one?"
IVORY-"Sure i guess"
ARC-"So Ivory and me could'nt get out in time and we were uploaded to the cloud which you currently are too so you need to either depend on the dingus scientists to get you out manually, OR you could get to 'The Console' and code yourself out."
ZACHARIA-"What is the coding language ?"
IVORY-"BASIC for some reason or another."
ZACHARIA-"Well I took a 10 min course on BASIC so I kinda know some stuf I think..."
IVORY-"Then you should be fine the writer's got your back."
ARC-"Yeah your gonna do just fine"
ZACHARIA-"Wait writ-"
IVORY-"On we go!"
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???-"He's been in for over an hour... I hope he makes it"
SCIENTIST-"Sorry I dont know if we can get him out in time he has met two of the other subjects and they seem to be helping him cross the desert of drive and they are headed towards the forest of files."
???-"Is he trying to get out himself?"
SCIENTIST-"I think he is, we still need to try"
???-"Agreed, hurry continue your work, we dont want a missing persons file on our booties."
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ZACHARIA-"Wait is that a forest up ahead?"
IVORY-"Yeah thats the 'forest of files' the scientist just said where we were going."
ZACHARIA/ARC-"What scientist?"
IVORY-"Dont worry about it"
We made our way to what looked like a forest but there wernt trees, well there were trees but they were made out of files. The trunks of the trees were zip files, the branches were regular folders, and the leaves were text doccuments. there was grass now and what seemed to be dirt but the dirt was a harder version of the sand and the grass was just different types of font files.
IVORY-"By the way dot unzip the zip files they- just dont..."
ARC-"Yeah dont do it, if you want to get home safe."
ZACHARIA-"Alright i didnt plan on it but ok."
IVORY-"*sigh* Its gonna happen annyway writer right."
Yes
IVORY-"I thought so."
ZACHARIA-"Who are you talking to?"
ARC-"Dont question it."
So we were walking through the forest when Arc got hungry and pulled an apple from seemingly nowhere and ate it. I then realized that i too was hungry, I saw an apple way high up in the file tree and decided to climb it. I realized that the files wernt even connected they were just floating there, near eachother. so I had the idea to place my foot between the files to climb for the apple. I climbed about half way up and my foot got stuck on something. I tried to jiggle my foot loose but the thing my foot was stuck on moved slightly i then realized my foot was stuck on a zipper, I looked down and confirmed that was the case.
ARC-"WHERE ARE YO-oh crap, whatever you do dont move!"
IVORY-"As i figured, yeah dont move."
I didnt know what to do I was scared not knowing what would happen if I did move, I started to shake my hands were trembling I lost grip and my hands let go of the tree and I fell.
IVORY-"WELP!"
ARC-"AAAAAHHHH!!!"
As I Hit the ground I saw the zipper had broken on the ground. the world began to rumble and then I saw it. the zip file I had so carelesly unzipped was spewing out files at lightspeed cutting open all of the other zip files and they too were shooting out files just as fast and just as dangerously.
ARC-"RUN!!!"
IVORY/ZACHARY-"SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA!!!"
We ran as fast as we could to escape the recently renamed forest of self destruction. we ran for a good half mile before we saw a door handle similar to the one to Arc's home but this one had a rusty turn knob. We saw no reason to pass this off as we dove straight in to the door not even knowing where it went but knowing it will certianly be better than the forest.
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???-"Where is he now?"
SCIENTIST-"Megabyte Maze."
???-"What is that, I cant remember?"
SCIENTIST-"The central transfer point of all of the information in System 32."
???-"What does that mean for Zach?"
SCIENTIST-"He can now go annywhere in the entire system."
???-"Sooo thats good right?"
SCIENTIST-"It is if he can navigate his way through it."
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IVORY-"Hey..."
SMACK!!!
IVORY-"WAKE UP!!!"
ZACHARY-OW! Hey that hurt."
IVORY-"You hit your head pretty hard going through the door like a dingus."
ZACHARY-"Anyways where are we?"
IVORY-"According to the scientists we are in 'Megabyte Maze' which is an frickin AMAZING thing because we can travel to any point in System 32 from here."
ARC-"Yes thats PHENOMINAL that you saw that door cuz we could have died in that forest otherwise."
IVORY-"But there is a slight issue, its called Megabyte MAZE for a reason, it is the biggest maze ever created and we only have about... how long?"
4 days
IVORY-"Thanks, 4 days to get to that console and code you back into the real world."
ZACHARY-"Oh, why 4?"
IVORY-"Because we have already wasted 1, it was 5."
ARC-"Ivory i have a question, why do all the areas we go to have titles with alliteration?"
ZACHARY-"Then what was the name of the desert we were in then?"
ARC-"Delete Doccument Desert..."
ZACHARY-"So we have, Delete Doccument Desert, File Forrest, and Megabyte Maze right?"
ARC-" Yeah why do they all have alleteration in their names?"
IVORY-"Dont worry about it."
ZACHARY-"Ooook I guess il trust that..."
We looked along the wall of the maze to find signs that had arrows pointing towards other pathways. The signs had labels but they were written in some sort of computer language none of the three of you had ever seen so your best bet was to take some educated guesses and hope you get to the console.
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???-"Is there annyway we can help him?"
SCIENTIST-"There should be signs in the maze telling him where to go."
???-"That sounds good."
SCIENTIST-"He cant read it because it is in a coding language that isnt used very comonly"
???-"AAGH!!!"
SCIENTIST-"If we can change the coding language he can read it"
???-"Dont just talk about it, DO IT!!!"
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I was looking at the walls one last time before leaving to wander the maze and suddenly the text was gone.
ARC-"Ready to wander aimlesly through the maze?"
IVORY-"Hey Z Noitce it yet?"
ZACHARY-"Yeah the text is just... gone!"
IVORY-"Also..."
ZACHARY-"Now text is just appearing... its still code but I can read it its BASIC!!!"
ARC-"Well read it dang it!"
ZACHARY-"It says left!"
We go left and follow the signs and eventually end up in a dead end with invisible sliding door with a black handle. All looking towards the door we ran and entered.
ZACHARY-"Wha- is this..."
IVORY-"Yyyyyyyyyeah were at the console and have 6 muinits left cuz time runs weird here."
ARC/ZACHARY-"WHAT!!!"
ARC-"When did this happen!"
IVORY-"When the writer made it happen."
ZACHARY-"WHO IS THE WRITER!!!"
IVORY-"WHAT ARE WE DOING TALKING ABOUT THE WRITER WHEN WE SHOULD BE GETTING YOU OUT OF HERE!!!"
ZACHARY-"Frickin heck why are you YELLING!!!"
ARC-STOP YELLING AND TYPE!!! We only have 5 minutes!!!"
ZACHARY-"WHAT!!!"
ARC/IVORY-"GO!!!
I approached the console. It looked like an old crt monitor connected to the oldest tower known to man. I started typing, I needed to be fast AND acurate so I was completly covered in sweat Ivory and Arc were trying to talk to this 'Writer' guy asking him to help me and it seemed that only Ivory was the only one who was successfull. I finished typing the correct code with about 30 seconds left (there was a counter on my physical upload). Seeing that this was the end I decided to say one final goodbye to my newfound friends.
ZACHARY-"So... this is the end i guess..."
ARC-"Yeah this was fun I guess."
IVORY-"I told you the writer had your back, but I didnt tell you we did too."
ZACHARY-"Yeah I hope you are able to get out of here one day as well."
ARC-"That would be nice"
IVORY-"Well you never know."
ZACHARY-"Bye guys."
I push enter on the prehistoric keyboard and im blinded with a flash of light but then all I saw was darkness... I opened my eyes and I was sitting in the reclining chair surrounded by scientists. They were all quiet but then they started to rejoyce at the fact that I was now back in the world of the living. After making sure I was truly ok and fine they sent me home for a month on 'medical leave' when they were trying to be nice and make sure I wouldnt sue them. But before leaving I made sure that they didnt ever delete the data for Arc or Ivory, I even paid for a backup generator system for that particular room in case the power ever died. I never did find out who this 'Writer' guy was but I had a feeling that I would know one day. Also I learned BASIC in full and got a degree in advanced psycoscience so that means I work down in room B17 so I never realy left my friends.
1 Year Later
I was at home. I had just woken up, I walk to the mirror and see my pale face, shaggy brown hair, and brown eyes. I walk to get dressed in my lab coat and go into the second bedroom which I turned to a personal lab. I open the door, walk past all of my computer systems, pushed a button and sit in a reclining chair.