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Michael tried to speak but realized he didn’t know how to do it in this strange place. He<br />
was utterly lost. Yet his friends seemed to have no problem.<br />
“How do we destroy it?” Sarah asked. “What do we do?”<br />
“Just pull,” Helga instructed. “Like this.”<br />
A sudden wind hit Michael with a fierce bite, and a horrendous roar ripped into his<br />
unstable mind. The odd world in which he floated shook violently. Space seemed to both<br />
shudder and expand, then contract, then expand again. Everything erupted around him.<br />
And then there was pain. Pain so terrible that he would’ve thought it impossible if it<br />
weren’t tearing him apart.<br />
2<br />
Michael didn’t understand what was happening to him. He couldn’t see shapes, but the<br />
pain that tore through him appeared as color—the deep ache of blue mixed with a sheer<br />
orange that was complete agony, then escalated to a bloody red that was almost<br />
unbearable. He screamed without screaming, spun within this world of madness, and<br />
reached out with arms he didn’t have, utterly lost and confused.<br />
“Michael!” someone yelled. The voice was unidentifiable, but it manifested as another<br />
stab of pain. He could barely form coherent thoughts, much less call out to someone.<br />
How were Sarah and Bryson faring well enough to form a word?<br />
He focused on Helga. On what she’d said. Reach out and destroy. He would do anything<br />
to make this stop, but how? He tried. He focused on imagining his body again and<br />
pictured himself as a giant. He motioned with arms he couldn’t feel, kicked with legs<br />
miles away.<br />
Nothing.<br />
Only pain.<br />
He’d thought he was one of the best coders ever. But this made no sense to him.<br />
He was lost.<br />
Instead of fighting, he embraced the pain and tried to sweep himself away into the<br />
black oblivion. But he was still there, the agony stretching out before him, forever.<br />
3<br />
Suddenly Michael noticed that something felt different. There was still pain, but could it<br />
be…receding?<br />
Then, in a flash, it ended. The agony stopped abruptly, like an anesthetic hitting his<br />
bloodstream. He was instantly pain-free, the bliss of it euphoric.<br />
He opened his eyes. His virtual eyes. Then realized, with a shock, that he had eyes<br />
again.
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