Grace slid down the channel of sludge. She felt as if she was on a water slide except it was dark and she could not see a thing; sloshing downwards into the depths at speed. The acceleration of movement and lack of control overwhelmed her. She dissociated and disconnected, so anxious, she could not think a single thought.
And then her body fell off the edge, her body launched into the air in the darkness. Into the abyss. Apart from the sensation of moving in the air, her senses were deprived- a moment of free floating that felt like an age.
But then came the descent. Although she was in a computer system, the world experience was a function of Yi's mental representation, and the concept of gravity existed in that representation. She fell fast and at speed.
She managed a few thoughts.
'Do the laws of physics apply here? Am I going to die? I'm going to die.'
Splash! She fell into muddy, swampy water. Grace swallowed a small amount of it. After she orientated herself following the initial panic she rose out of the water to the surface. She coughed and sputtered out fluid that had tried to enter her lungs. She had to move her arms and legs to tread the river, lake or whatever this was. She panted for several seconds. Water sloshed several feet away from her.
"Grace!" said another voice. It was Pixel.
"Pixel," Grace shouted back. "You made it!"
The darkness remained. Grace could not see a thing. Their voices resonated in the environment. It sounded like they were in a cave. Grace suddenly panicked.
"What about Yi!?"
"I'm here," he replied.
"Yi helped me get through the burrows by using his mind to make it seem wider. I got down before Knightmare-Grimm got to me, in the nick of time."
"Phew," Grace replied. "Well at least we can all swim."
"I can't see a thing and it stinks," said Pixel.
They heard a slamming sound from above and pieces of debris fell into the water, making plopping sounds. It must have been Knightmare-Grimm trying to get through the burrows.
"Where are we Qwerty?" said Grace.
"Hold on I'm working through the code."
"We can't swim here forever," said Grace. "We've got to move."
"Maybe I can do something," said Yi. "If I just concentrate…"
In the next breath, Yi's head lit up at the point of his forehead mark.
"Wow," said Grace, bobbing in the water. "Yi do your talents ever end?"
"I'll second that," said Pixel. "It's like surprise after surprise. Snow Globe never told me you could do all of these things."
The light illuminated the space and revealed the innards of what looked like a cave. It revealed a bankside to the water.
"Hold on guys," Qwerty said to them in their heads. "I'm working through this code."
"Yi has given us some light down here," said Grace. "But yeah work on the code."
"Grace, let's get to shore," said Pixel. She and Yi were swimming towards shore ahead.
They climbed out onto the bank, their clothes wet through and stuck to their skin. Out of the water Grace looked back to realise it was a lagoon. She noticed the bashing sound above has stopped. She had never felt so dirty but she had a strange sensation circulating in her She had never felt so alive; the adrenaline of the run, the immediacy of danger and surviving parts of the journey. In the past few minutes she had lost her sense of self and totally surrendered to the moment to moment of what life offered.
"It's weird having experiences like this when we're in a machine," Pixel said. Her utterance like she had read Grace's mind except that Pixel seemed annoyed about being soaked by dirty water.
"It really tastes like the dirt water that the marmots near my temple in bhutan like to drink," said Yi.
"Eurgh," said Pixel. "And damn, that light your head is too bright." She covered her face with a hand.
"Oh, sorry," siad Yi as he directed his head away, pointing it in the other direction.
"Look at the ceiling," said Grace.
Her eyes stared at the patterns with wonder. "It looks like a network of connections, and it follows...it follows these tunnels."
What Grace saw were dotted lines in an interconnecting map like a web; transversing like the grid of a circuit board.
"Yeah it's the first piece of code that looks significantly different from all the rest," said Qwerty. "But I can't read it."
"That is because it is Avatara code," said Grace. "To be underneath like this in Yi's representation is a reflection of his intent to make it harder for Knightmare-Grimm to find the kernel."
"Indeed that was my objective," said Yi
"Are you ok Yi?" said Pixel. Yi looked forlorn. Although light shone from him, his posture was hunched and he looked sullen.
"He's been putting on a brave face, just so we can get through this," said Grace.
"My friends and my family are all dead," said Yi. "I have tried to accept their passing without resistance but the pain is so severe, I cannot rise above it."
"You don't have to," said Grace. "It's ok to grieve when you have lost important relationships." She held Yi at his right shoulder. He was incredibly small and slight, being significantly less than five feet tall. Truly, he was just a boy. Her touch seemed to warm him a little and he looked back at her.
"Oh gosh, too bright," said Grace, putting a hand in front of her face to block out the blazing light. Yi directed the light ahead of them. There were several tunnels.
"You guys can't be waiting around like that," Qwerty interjected. "You've got to get moving."
"Which way though?" said Pixel.
"Those lines represent the basic operating system each leading to a different tunnel but I don't know which of the lines you should follow," he said. "Grace, there are several tunnels here, and different lines going down each of them. I mean it's your code, do you know which one is likely the best?"
"Yi can you direct that light to the upper left please?" said Grace. Yi did as asked. There were ten tunnels in total.
"Just move it to the right a little," she said. "And then down," she said a moment later.
Grace paused. She wasn't sure on the basis of what she saw. Her code it was in some shape or form, although altered by Yi's representation modulating it.
"Grace what are you thinking?" said Pixel.
"All roads lead to Rome," said Grace.
"Huh?" said Pixel.
"All roads lead to Rome," Grace replied. "These are basic operating system code networks. Hard processing that all came from one source, the central processing unit. It does not matter which tunnel we take, all of these lines will lead to the CPU and intertwined with that is the kernel. The kernel contains the Avatara kernel in this system."
"That's a very good outcome," said Yi.
"Guys, you better get going, something is happening here!" said Qwerty.
"Qwerty what's going on?" said Pixel.
But Qwerty did not respond.
"What's going on?" said Pixel. "You know our real bodies are out there?"
"We have to trust the guys can handle it," said Yi calmly.
"Yi's right," said Grace. "We've got to focus on the task in the 'here and now' and destroy the kernel."