“Freeze it!” she said behind me. “There. The square that is this sim.”
“That is this forest,” I dutifully completed.
“TOM shows us this,” she tacitly agrees.
Tom again, I think. All caps, like she said before when the name was first brought up in an emphasized way. Tom is after us. Tom thinks we know too much. Us — why did she call us sisters? Green and blue green and blue she also emphasized. Also: something about AI. TOM is the name of the file we’re viewing. Too much.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0052, 0207, Blue Mountain, City Park, County Park, Forest, Jeogeot, Rodentia 02
“I’ll help.”
“W-what?” She spins away from the vintage computer and its monitor to face the speaker. Green! Like the forest, these woods. “W-who *are* you?” she managed in her shock.
“Not another assailant, don’t worry,” spoke the shadowy green stranger in a human enough voice, back still glued to a computer server about 10 feet away. “We know about the triple numbers. We were expecting you. We knew exactly where you’d show up. The bunker is for your protection. As well as mine.”
Shelley tried to absorb this new information. The green being needed protection too? But from what? So she asked her this.
“Someone ancient. You should boot up your computer now. Check those files. But first–”
“Barricade,” Shelley guessed about what the other was going to say. They become in sync here. Funny how she adapted to the presence of this alien figure so quickly.
“I think we should start with these servers I’m leaning against. They’re useless now anyway. Anything left to know is on that hard drive…” Sister, should she call her sister? She decided against it. tbc
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0052, 0206, Jeogeot, Rodentia 02
