step step step

Nothing could be heard within the cool misty forest besides the sound of my feet gently taping the moistened dirt. There was no breeze, no crickets, no leaves rustling. It was as if there was no longer any life left in the forest. Slowly the path gets brighter as the tall thick trees become sparse and the sound of gentle flowing water became clearer.

I stood at the edge of the river, looking down at my reflection. Just looking. It felt like I was thinking but I know for a fact not a single word came to mind. A faint pink ripple broke my reflection and snapped me out of my daze. I began to wade into the river, the biting cold seeped into my bones. Eventually when I was neck deep, all I felt was numbness. I looked towards the direction the river flowed and watched as the red slowly become pink and then back to nothing. I looked up at the supermoon just above my head. Once again dazed, I let myself drift with the soft current until I slammed into a giant boulder in the middle of the river. Sighing, I crawled back to land.

The moment I popped myself out of the water, I once again felt a bone rattle cold. I plopped myself down by the edge and just continued to stare at the supermoon. I shivered but I did little to attempt to get warm. I have become so accustomed to the cold that I now welcome it.

Suddenly, two big pale hands pulled me up and I was immediately wrapped in 3 layers of warm soft towels. I was then lifted like a sack of potatoes, thrown over a shoulder, and hoisted off into what seemed like a little cozy cottage in the middle of the forest.

As soon as I was dragged in the door, the towel burrito became unbearably warm to be in. I was struggling like an emerging caterpillar when I was suddenly thrown to the ground.

“HEY!” I looked up at the one who threw me. “Is this any way to treat your captain?! I –”

“How did it go?” I was interrupted with a dark serious voice.

“…”

“How did it go?” he asked again, dragging me out of my daze once again.

“As expected,” I answered, staring off into the distance. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him slightly flinch from the coldness of my voice but I was in no mood to care. “What about your end?” I asked.

“As expected,” he answered; his voice serious, gentle, and sad.

Sighing, I fluently crawled out of the towel burrito; no longer in the mood to fake a struggle for a laugh. I walked down the hallway of the warmly lit cottage, stopping at the stairway. I waited as he pulled out a card and slid it through what looked like a crack on the stairway hand rail. Slowly, the stairs inverted, descending downwards into a brightly lit hallway.

Compared to the simple cozy wooden style cottage, the high tech modern metal hallway made the whole scene look disjointed. The once cozy cottage now felt fake. We walked through the hallway, the stairs reinverting and returning to its original position as soon as we left the last step.

We arrived in what looks like a modern living room of a multi-million dollar house. Except instead of all the furniture facing a big flat screen TV, it faced a touch screen wall named HAI – High-definition Artificial Intelligence.

The moment we stepped in the room, everyone present turned to look at us; all presenting a somber face. I took my seat at my usual white high back winged armchair directly facing HAI. I leaned back, closed my eyes and sighed. “Damage?” I asked in a tired voice.

Rylan took a seat right beside me, the first of twelve pitch black armchairs to my right. He then answered, “$10 million. We’ve lost Mu. Lambda was also hit pretty hard but he’ll survive. Kappa is in a coma. The rest are fine as you can see here.”

Looking to my right, I saw Rylan, Holi, Zex, Ilo, Irene, Clenver, Lena, Sen, and Kelk all in their respective seats. The last three chairs were empty. I stared at the very last chair while the white symbol for mu stared back at me. I took another deep breath.

“Ingline’s body?”

“Unsalvageable.”

“Certainty?”

“100% confirmed dead.”

I took another deep breath and looked to my left. “Damage?” I asked Ryker, the guy sitting right beside me in the first of twelve dark red armchairs. Ryker had dark and heavy under eye bags. He slowly sat up straight, fully covering up the white symbol for omega on the back of his chair.

“All accounted for. All extremely tired. Chi and Upsilon will have to be out of commission for the next week. Our network is currently stabilized. Nothing is wrong data wise but we are currently in a vulnerable position as we are currently updating and changing up to a new firewall security.”

I took my time to look at each of them. Ryker, Toric, Noir, Syren, Nota, Nymous, Edwin, Milvic, Jun, Xulin, Peck, and Isa were all in their respective chairs. Though Edwin was pretty much nodding off, his sigma symbol peeking out from behind him.

I took another deep breath.

“HAI, recount events.”