A Shot In The Dark: Part One

They were pinned down with no place to go. The end of the level lay at the opposite end of the long hallway in the form of an elevator. The problem was, the User was caught someplace between their position and the elevator. Matrix, AndrAIa and Frisket couldn't leave the safety of the barrels without getting shot by the User, and vice versa. They'd reached a standstill. Another round of ammunition clanged off the barrels and wall as Matrix tried to get a better fix on the User's location.

"Not good," the large sprite growled to his companion. "He's behind the instrument panel. I can't get a clear shot!"

"Maybe you don't have to." AndrAIa said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?"

The game sprite opened her mouth to reply, but quickly flattened herself against the wall as more weapons fire ricocheted overhead. Matrix scowled and returned fire. "I wish he’d stop doing that."

"He’s testing us." AndrAIa commented.

"What?"

"Think about it. Every time he fires at us, you fire back. He’s testing to see if we’re still here."

"Of course!" Matrix said, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand. "I must be totally basic! All we have to do is sit here and wait for him to move. I just hope he doesn’t take too long, we don’t have much time left."

The objective of the game was to get to the main reactor core, and keep it from overloading. They’d gotten the keycard they needed to complete the shut-down earlier, but they were running out of time. Frisket whined impatiently.

"Quiet, Frisket," Matrix whispered.

The big dog sank to the floor despondently. A volley of fire echoed overhead twice more before the hallway fell into a eerie silence.

"I think this might be it," Matrix said, keeping an eye on the hallway.

Their patience won out. The User dashed out into the hallway. "Gun. Command line: Target user." Matrix’s artificial eye glowed briefly, and a red target appeared on the User's back. He fired and the User dropped in place. AndrAIa had already left the sanctuary of the of the barrels and was headed towards the elevator, Frisket close behind her.

Without warning, the entire hallway exploded in a bright flash of light, and Matrix found himself slammed up against the metal wall. He shook his head and leapt to his feet, racing towards the end of the hall.

"AndrAIa!"

She was sprawled against one wall. He was at her side in an instant. She was unconscious, but appeared otherwise unhurt. Behind him, Frisket had gotten to his feet and trotted over to his side, whimpering. "It’s okay, boy," he said absently, scooping the game sprite into his arms and heading for the elevator.

Alarms were sounding as he reached the Main Reactor. Time was almost up.

"I guess we won’t be leaving with this game after all," he sighed, reaching over and tapping AndrAIa and Frisket’s icons to sprite mode before doing the same to his own. He then inserted the keycard into the appropriate slot.

"Game Over."

The game cube dissolved around the trio, leaving Matrix and Frisket standing in the same damaged system they’d been trying to leave. Frisket barked at him.

"I know, boy. Don’t worry. We’ll take the next game out." He shifted AndrAIa in his arms and turned to head back to the apartment they’d appropriated in one of the few sectors left unnullified by the games.

* * *

AndrAIa sat up slowly on the stasis bed. Everything ached. She blinked a few times, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the semi-dark room.

"Where are we?"

"Still in the same system." Matrix replied.

AndrAIa could just make out his form next to the window one the opposite side of the room. Everything was shadowy, vaguely fuzzy looking, as if someone had messed with the resolution.

"What happened?"

"Proximity concussion mine. The User must have set it to keep us from following him. You tripped it when you went for the elevator. How are you feeling?"

"Sore. I think I’m okay though." She shook her head. The room still looked strange, but she was sure it would pass.

"You’re sure?" He still sounded concerned.

"I’m fine, Enzo," she replied, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up slowly, assessing the various aches and pains the motion presented. "Ouch. That must have been some mine," she winced, walking over to where Matrix was sitting.

"You’re sure you’re okay?" he said again.

"Yes! Don’t worry about me, Lover..." Her voice trailed off as she looked out the window.

"What?" Matrix asked, following her gaze.

"Nothing," AndrAIa replied softly. The world outside the window was a dim, multicolored blur before her eyes. "Nothing at all."

* * *

They were wandering the abandoned streets of the sector, waiting for the next game to come. They hadn’t seen a single other sprite since they’d entered the system and the few binomes who were lurking around hid from them.

"I think this system is as good as crashed," AndrAIa commented, and stumbled over a piece of rubble in her path, catching herself on the side of the building. Matrix looked askance at her, his customary frown deepening for a nanosecond. "What?"

"That’s the third time you’ve done that."

AndrAIa shrugged. "I guess I’m just not watching where I’m walking."

"You’re sure you’re okay?" he said, a hint of doubt in his voice.

"Will you stop asking me that?" she cried in an exasperated voice, stopping in her tracks. "Don’t you trust me?"

"Of course I trust you. You know that." He took her hand in his own. "You’re the only one I trust."

"Oh, Enzo," AndrAIa sighed.

She felt horrible about lying to him. In truth, her sight hadn’t returned. If anything, it had gotten worse. Just walking down the street was becoming a hazard. But she wasn’t about to tell Enzo that. He’d insist on staying in the system and trying to hunt down a Diagnostic Program. She doubted the ravaged system still had one, and even if it did, there was always a chance her blindness was permanent...

She shoved that thought to the farthest reaches of her mind. She didn’t want to process that possibility at the moment. With any luck, her sight would come back on its own, and Matrix would be none the wiser.

"Warning: Incoming Game."

"Finally," Matrix muttered, looking up at the descending game cube. He, AndrAIa, and Frisket got into position and waited for the game to stabilize around them.

Matrix looked around at the game spread out before him. "Oh no," he groaned. "I hate this game!"

"What?" AndrAIa squinted, trying to make out the scenery. All she could see was a dark greenish blur. But from the sound of things, they were in a jungle of some sort. She could hear birds and other wildlife rustling around in the foliage.

"It’s the one with the big rock," Matrix sulked. He tapped his icon into game sprite mode. "Reboot!"

He glanced down at his new wardrobe. He was dressed in all khakis, with a whip on one side of his belt and Gun in its holster on the other side. There was a brown leather Fedora perched on top of his head.

"I don’t think I’ve played this one," AndrAIa replied, tapping her icon and then reaching down to do the same to Frisket’s. She rebooted into an amazon guide of some sort, with a short leather skirt and a halter top. She had a machete tucked into her belt. Frisket’s colors changed to dark browns.

"I played it with Bob," Matrix said, and AndrAIa couldn’t miss the pain in his voice at the mention of the lost Guardian. "Well," he sighed, "let’s get this over with and get out of this system. The entrance to the temple is someplace over here, if I recall correctly. Hand me that machete, will you?"

AndrAIa handed him the knife and he began to hack his way through the undergrowth. AndrAIa followed cautiously, trying not to stumble as she walked down the rough passage Matrix was cutting through the jungle.

"So what exactly is the point of this game?"

"Get the idol before the user does. Without getting deleted."

"Gee... how original." She almost smacked into Matrix as he stopped walking.

"There it is," he said, pointing to a grayish patch in her field of vision.

"Well, that was easy enough."

"The real challenge is in the temple," he replied gruffly. "It's booby-trapped." That said, the trio marched across the clearing and into the temple's entrance. Matrix had to bend over to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling. "Funny, I don’t remember it being this cramped," he said dryly.

"Was that a joke?" AndrAIa kidded, running a hand along the wall to keep her bearings. She couldn’t see anything at all now in the dimly lit passage.

"It opens up again a little ways ahead. There should be some torches there too." He tried to look over his shoulder at AndrAIa and Frisket, and smacked his head on the stone ceiling. "Ow!"

"Be careful," the game sprite chided from behind him.

"Here we go."

Matrix's voice now echoed hollowly off the stone walls. They'd reached the main passage. He reached over and grabbed one of the flickering torches off the wall. "This way. You and Frisket go ahead of me."

They continued down the long corridor. "I don’t like this." Matrix murmured. "It’s too easy. We should have run into one of the traps by now."

"Maybe we’re just lucky, Lover."

AndrAIa shoved some cobwebs away from her face and took another step forward. Her ankle hit a tripwire strung across the passage and she toppled forward as round steel blades swung out from the wall, viciously sharp. She felt one whizz past her face as she fell, neatly slicing off a lock of her hair. Behind her, Matrix jumped backwards to avoid the razor edged metal. The blades retracted with a whirr and a click. AndrAIa pushed herself up onto her elbows from her prone position on the floor.

"Are you okay?" Matrix asked worriedly, helping her to her feet.

"I’m fine," she said, struggling to keep her voice from trembling.

"It’s a good thing you dove out of the way." The large sprite touched the end of her hair where it had been cut. "You could have been deleted!"

"I had it under control, Enzo," she replied with a calm she didn’t feel. Her mind was lingering on how close she’d just come to total deletion. "Come on, we have a User to beat!"

* * *

One of the more sinister aspects of this particular game was that they really couldn’t tell if they were beating the User or not. There were so many different side passages and turnoffs that the chances of anyone choosing the same path were infinitesimal.

Matrix and AndrAIa were going as fast as they could down the narrow halls of the temple, racing a User they couldn’t see to the goal at the end of the game. They’d just entered a series of particularly wide passages, much to AndrAIa’s dismay. She’d been guiding herself by means of the walls, but now she had to press ahead with only the vague blurred images her eyes were providing. Matrix and Frisket were plodding on behind her, untroubled by the dim illumination. The light from Matrix’s torch was enough for them to see clearly by. Unfortunately, the flickering shadows it cast on the floor, walls, and ceiling only served to disorient AndrAIa more. She heard something skitter off into the darkness, drawing her intense focus momentarily away from the floor.

Matrix opened his mouth to shout a warning, but it was too late. That moment was all it took for her to step forward into open air.

AndrAIa tried to scream as she toppled into the gaping pit in front of her, but all she could manage was a startled gasp as a strong arm wrapped itself around her waist, pulling her back to safety. He held her close for an instant, his heart still racing from her near miss. That was twice she’d almost been deleted now. What was wrong with her? AndrAIa forced herself to remain calm and slipped out of Matrix’s grasp.

"Thanks for the save," she said brightly.

"Yeah," Matrix murmured in reply. His instincts were screaming that there was something very wrong with AndrAIa, but his mind refused to process the possibility. She’d told him she was fine, and that was that. She wouldn’t lie to him. He trusted her.

"How are we going to get across?" AndrAIa felt around for a small rock on the floor and tossed it into the pit, waiting for it to hit bottom. It never did.

"I’m thinking." Matrix looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. There were decorative carvings projecting outward from either wall. His hand went to the whip at his waist. "We’ll use this." He pulled out the whip and flicked it out, wrapping the end securely around one of the carvings. "Who’s first?"

Frisket looked at the two of them, then at the whip in Matrix’s hand. Giving one more glance at the hole in the floor, the big dog took a running leap over the pit and landed safely on the other side. "I guess that answers that question," Matrix said with what passed for a chuckle with him. "Shall we?"

AndrAIa wrapped her arms tightly around his neck ad kissed him quickly on the cheek. "You bet."

"Here we go!" Matrix leapt off the edge of the floor and swung them both to safety on the other side. Once there, he unhooked the whip from the carving and looped it back through his belt. "I think we’re almost to the end."

"Let’s just hope we’re ahead of the User." AndrAIa replied.

* * *

The room they stepped into seemed more like a jungle than a temple. Large vines grew from cracks in the floor, creeping up the walls. The floor was made up of uneven stone cobbles.

"I think there's one last trap before we get to the idol," Matrix commented. "If only I could remember what it was..."

Suddenly, a low grinding noise filled the room.

"Um... I think I found it." AndrAIa lifted her foot off of the cobblestone that had sunk into the floor.

"I remember this now. Duck!"

The two sprites dove forward as a volley of arrows shot from the walls above them and embedded themselves in the opposite wall. They lay there for a few moments, making sure the barrage had ceased before getting back on their feet. Matrix dusted his clothes off with a sigh of disgust. "I'm getting sick of this."

"You and me both," AndrAIa commented wryly. "How much farther?"

"We're there," Matrix answered, looking into the room ahead of them. AndrAIa was hanging onto his arm now, an unusual gesture for her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing... just a little shaken up. Too many close calls for my comfort. Let's get the idol and get out of this game." She made no move to release his arm. She was starting to realize just how big of a mistake she'd made in lying to Matrix about her condition.

Matrix's brow furrowed in worry. The nagging little doubt he'd had earlier was now full-fledged suspicion. He resolved to get the truth out of AndrAIa as soon they got out of the game and into a new system. He, AndrAIa and Frisket walked into the room that held the idol.

The small gold statue was sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room, lit by a shaft of light flooding from a hole in the ceiling above.

"Looks like we got here first." He reached over and took the statue, placing it into a bag on his belt. "Now all we have to do is get out of the temple. We take this passage." He turned down a wide hallway with a worn dirt floor. There was plenty of light and he could see the end of the tunnel. "We won't need this anymore." Matrix stuck the torch into a wall mounted holder.

A low rumble began to emmanate from some place far behind them in the temple.

"That better not be what I think it is."

The rumbling increased and the passage began to vibrate. Matrix glanced over his shoulder.

"Better not be what?"

"That!" he said, pointing behind them. The rumble had become a loud roar.

"Enzo, I don't - oh!"

Even with her vision damaged as it was, AndrAIa was able to make out the large boulder hurtling towards them at a fantastic speed. Frisket dashed out in front of them and they followed his lead, running as fast as they could through the long hall.

"I don't think we're going to make it!" AndrAIa cried. Just then, the trio plunged into a deep rut in the floor. They flattened themselves into the dirt as the boulder rolled over top of then, just brushing their backs as it did so. It continued rolling towards the exit unabated until it hit the narrow entrance, where it stuck fast.

Matrix sat up, coughing from the dust and brushing at his clothes with his hands. It took him at a moment to notice the new sound echoing off the walls. AndrAIa sat at a few feet away, her hands over her face. She was crying. Sobbing hysterically, to be more precise. Frisket gave Matrix at a quizzical look before trotting over to where the game sprite sat. He whined, trying to get her attention.

"It's okay, Frisket," she patted the big dog on the head, wiping at her tears with the other hand.

"AndrAIa?" Matrix put at a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm okay, Enzo. It's nothing."

"That's spam and you know it! You've been acting random this entire game. What's going on?" he barked.

"Enzo, please. Can we do this after we beat the game?" She stood up, shrugging off his assistance.

"Fine," he mumbled. "But I expect answers. Help me find the alternate exit. It's around here somewhere."

* * *

They exited the temple through a cave neatly concealed behind a waterfall. There was a carved niche in the wall where the idol was to be placed. Matrix checked over their icons to make sure they were all in game sprite mode before taking the gold statue out of the bag and placing it on the shelf.

"Game Over."

The game cube dissolved around them and they found themselves standing in a park at the center of a new system.

"Answers. Now. What was going on back there?"

AndrAIa looked away from him. She couldn't see his face, but she could hear the angry scowl in his voice.

"It's my eyes," she said softly. "I can't see anything, Enzo. It's all a blur, just color and shadow."

"You told me you were okay! Have you gone totally random? I never should have let you into that game. Why didn't you tell me?"

AndrAIa faced him defiantly. "Because I knew this is how you'd react! I was hoping it would get better before you noticed." Hot tears streamed down her face. "I didn't want to hold us up in that system."

"You're going to a Diagnostic program this nanosecond," he growled. "Come on." He took her by the arm and led her out of the park, Frisket tagging along behind.

* * *

AndrAIa sat nervously on the examination table while the doctor shone a light from one eye to the other.

"Well?" Matrix asked impatiently.

"Not good, I'm afraid," the doctor replied, looking at the two sprites. They'd been forced to leave Frisket outside, and he'd been none too happy about it. "What did you say happened again?"

"Concussion mine."

"I must have been looking right at it," AndrAIa continued. "Can you... is there anything you can do for me?"

The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Either your sight will return on its own, or it won't. All I can recommend is rest. Don't strain your eyes trying to see."

"Thank you, anyway," AndrAIa sighed. She put her hand on Matrix's shoulder and hopped down off the table. "We appreciate your help." They left the room in silence.

The doctor watched them leave and shook his head sadly. "What a shame."

* * *

They walked away from the building hand in hand, a tense silence hanging between them. Finally, AndrAIa spoke up.

"Guess we’d better find a place to stay. All in all, this seems like a pretty nice system. Not that I can see any of it," she laughed.

"How can you be so calm about this?" Matrix sounded angry and upset. "Your sight might not come back!"

Her eyebrows drew together in a pained expression. "I’m not calm, Enzo. I’m completely devastated." She paused. "But there isn’t anything I can do about it and you’re upset enough for the both of us."

Matrix clenched his free hand in a fist. If not for the comfort of AndrAIa's hand in his own, he might have punched it into the side of a building. He was frustrated and angry and there wasn't anything he could do. Before, there had always been a User or a virus to fight. But this wasn’t a tangible thing, and he was helpless.

Matrix hated feeling helpless. He looked back at AndrAIa, glad she couldn't see the rage on his face. Her own features were unreadable. What was she feeling? She’d been playing the calm to his storm for so long, he had to wonder, not for the first time, just what her carefree attitude had really cost her.

She could feel the frustration radiating from Matrix and sighed inwardly. All she really wanted to do was cry, but she kept up her stoic front. She knew there were things she had to discuss with Enzo, but she also knew that trying to talk to him when he was this angry was pointless.

Sometimes loving him was actually painful. He was so changed now, so different from the hyperactive sprite she'd first known that it was difficult to believe that they were the same person. How much had his quest cost him? He'd pushed himself to become better and stronger so that he'd never be beaten again. And so that he could protect her. But there was no protection from what had happened, and she could tell that that helplessness was tearing him apart. She didn't know how to even begin to reach him. His anger had become so all-encompassing and all-consuming that there was little left of the Enzo she'd known. Sometimes that frightened her a little.

There was no disputing the fact that she loved him, and he her. They depended entirely upon each other, and no one else. But she was crippled now. She couldn't fulfill her role of silver lining to Enzo's dark storm cloud. She wasn't sure what would happen to them now.

"Let’s go to the P.O." she said. "Maybe they can help us out."

End Part One

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