He awoke with a cough, sitting up in the bed and looking around. Where was he? how had he got here, he should be in front of the computer, testing... suddenly it dawned on him. The noise from the floor below, the extra run to figure out just what it could be. and with that he found himself back in the system, that fateful night the year before.
a tractor pulled out from between the trees, a single orange light flashing on top, as it roughly mowed the snow in front, pushing it partially forward, partially off to the side of the road, and leaving behind a smooth hard surface
the noise was getting stronger. So he definitely was on the right track, but it seemed to stay just around the corner from where he was. He had tried speeding up, but it hadn't helped, so he conceded that he was not following, as much as being lead - somewhere and by something inside the system, where there really should be nothing other than him and the other testers. and since this was officially a "freeze and fix" day, even the testers had the day more or less off. Pushing around another corner, he entered a big room. Too big to be allowed in the system without a doubt. It stretched onwards and upwards, walls filled with small alcoves, each holding a single red crystal. as he walked into the room, he thought he could see a pattern - the crystals were glowing ever so slightly, sending a message
...or perhaps
...no, it couldn't be...
...COMMUNICATING?
the testing system was simple, yet worked good enough with people like him steadily pushing the boundaries of automation and optimalization. What had taken a full day or more only a few years earlier, would now be completed be a full afternoon shift, thereby giving the coders more than enough to fill the night and early mornings hours. He enjoyed the set up more than the actual testing, mostly because at this stage he cared less about the scope or content of the reports he generated and the "features" he discovered, than the overall purpose of the system.
he was well aware of the official line, and the toned down marketing hype. He had also picked up more than enough of the gossip between the coders, but it was getting more and more obvious that there was something - or even several things - more going on in the back corners of the system. Never mind the extra runs on the border, and the breach, there was a whole different feeling when you left the main paths and started traversing some of the "off routes". He could almost smell it, figuratively speaking off course - thankfully the "immersive full sensory environment" pioneered some years earlier had been a major flop and pulled from production faster than you could say "I'll be back".
the girl
a meeting
darkness
voices - metallic and hollow sounding, discussing him and the border
finding a way, then darkness again
and he was sitting in the bed, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, looking out into the darkness that still surrounded him. Third time is the charm? He had to hope for it, so he slid gently out of the bed, tested his footing gently and set off straight away from the bed - into the darkness
...and he said there most be another way of doing this
