VcnV

Help Arrives

The bunch sat down on the grass surrounding the old man in awe of him deciding to help. He didn’t acknowledge them in any way as they arrived and sat down. Brutus sat beside his master and appeared relaxed about their being there.

Mike cleared his throat and looked at the bunch one at a time, “I believe your teacher may have been a virus that exploited her entry today through the door and took her appearance so that you would not notice anything wrong. It ran into trouble when it tried to execute though and that crashed your virtual classroom. Repair nay be impossible. Opening the door to a dysfunctional environment would be indeed difficult. Tell me, what room is it that you were in?” He stared at his display as if viewing something connected to their plight,

They all looked back and forth at each other until finally Josh spoke up, “We don’t know sir.”

Sheri chimed in, “I marked the door with one of my shoes though.”

Mike scratched the white stubble on his chin. Josh thought it funny that he displayed himself in the virtual without a clean shave. Was this just because he was unshaven when he created his image profile a day, a week or a year ago or was it a digital post-processed enhancement because he liked it that way. What difference did it make?

Mike, “Let’s go there now. I must have a look at it.” The kids got excited that there dilemma could be coming to an end.

Josh asked, “Will we be safe in the hallway with you?”

“Good question. I haven’t yet experienced everything that could be dangerous out there. With what I know, simple viruses like those that entered here a short while ago. Well, look around and see Brutus had fun with them. There parts were scattered all about. I have encountered some anti-viruses. There are many different types. They usually appear as a ball shaped object about two feet in diameter with suction cups emanating from it in all directions like the ends of trumpets. You don’t want those to latch onto you. They will suck the life out of you."

"I have my zapper, a small device in his hand shaped like a small disk.” He pointed it at a big rock just past the grass they sat on. A large lightning bolt appeared from its end and demolished the rock. He smiled. “I can only use it once until it recharges. It usually will fully recharge in ten minutes in a controlled air environment. Outside weather has an affect on its recharge time, especially humidity. The dryer the better.” Smoke was still ascending from the damage. “Let’s go. Show me the room.”

They all got up from being seated including Brutus. Mike followed the kids up the path to the exit. Out into the dangerous hallway again but this time with protection. Although Josh welcomed the help he wondered what would come from this. How could Mike fix their problem? Could he get the door open? Could he fix the failure that led to the frozen teacher and classmates? Could he clear the virus? That is what tinkers do according to Yancy’s explanation.

They walked along waiting to see Sheri’s shoe. Mike and Brutus were in front while Yancy followed at the tail end watching their rear flank. Josh felt his orientation shift as if he was walking on the wall in the square hallway dimensions. It was confusing his balance. The white walls, ceiling and floor all looked same. The were no distinctions or decorations between the opposite doorways. He expected there to be an echo, but there was not. The sound was being absorbed really well. It made him dizzy and it was hard to clear until he saw something heading toward them. “There,” he said pointing ahead.

Mike saw them as well and gave a command to Brutus and out he ran to greet what looked like three more viruses. They didn’t react to his approaching them until he bit off what could best be labeled as one of their heads and shook it back and forth. The main body collapsed to the floor. Brutus let fly the head from its jaws and jumped up the side wall grabbing a second virus the same way and it met a similar end. It also fell to the floor. The third one climbed to up the ceiling out of Brutus’s reach. That is when Mike pulled out his zapper and let a lightning bolt fly toward it decommissioning the third as it fell sounding like metal chains crashing to the floor in a heap. The whole episode took only a minute or two. Mike didn’t seem phased by any of it. He said, “My zapper will be inoperative for a bit.” He looked ahead. There was a lot of debris blocking the way. From standing position he jumped in the air forward flipping and landed on his feet on the other side of the junk. He mumbled something to Brutus who then dragged the remains to the side clearing passage for the group.

Josh told Mike, “Awesome,” barely believing what he just witnessed. The rest of the gang smiled with amazement.

Yancy said, “You are quite spry for your age Mike.”

Mike laughed, “In here maybe, but not outside of my pod. That is why I spend so much time in here. Shall we move on to our destination?”

They walked for quite a long time before Sheri said, “Something is wrong. I think we should have come to my shoe, I mean the room by now.”

Josh agreed. “We have no reference points without the marker you left.”

Mike stopped, “You say we may have passed the room because the marker might be gone?”

Sheri, “Yes, I’m sure we should have come across it by now.”

Pete chimed in, “Oh great.” Yancy and Molly frowned at the prospect.

Josh said, “Mike, you asked us what room we were in earlier. Do you have some way to see the room if it’s identification can be made?”

Mike replied, “Maybe. Do you have anything associated with the room?”

Molly pulled out the note, “I have this,” she said and showed it to him.

“Oh, yes this will help. The classroom credentials are printed here.” He scanned the document info with a handheld computer of some kind that he pulled from his pocket. He leaned up against the wall and slid down it to a sitting position all while manipulating the device. His concentration was locked on it. The rest joined him sitting on the floor.

About five minutes passed and Josh was keen on the fact that his zapper should be recharged by then. Brutus sat next to his master and then dropped to his belly.

Mike lifted his head with a satisfied facial expression. “I think you will be able to keep your shoes on your feet from now on,” he said. This drew puzzled looks on all their faces. Sheri looked down at her socks while still holding her second shoe and waiting for the two to be reunited.

“You see I have located your classroom from the info on your note and reconfigured the hallway through the network settings. The room id’s will now be seen on the windows of the door when touching the handles.

“Wow,” said Molly elated that she brought her game by keeping the note. It could have been sitting on her desk inside the room and of no help otherwise.

“Good thing, those shoes were stinking up the hallway,”said Pete.

Mike stood and touched the nearest door handle, looked at the room info displayed and pointed back the way they had come. “That way. I’m glad you noticed we had gone too far. It’s only a short distance now,” he said and they all stood and started back down the hall.

Josh grabbed the next door handle and looked at the displayed information, “What are we looking for?”

Mike, “Just look at the last four digits. That will make it easier. We want the room ending with XG22.”

Pete ran ahead and tested the next door, Molly the next and then Yancy said, “Bingo,” he had located the classroom. He looked through the glass and there they were the teacher and students still frozen. They all took a peek into the room and got excited at the idea that their nightmare could end soon.

Mike arrived taking his time, stopped next to the door and grabbed the handle to turn it. “It’s locked,” he said with a blank stare.

Pete couldn’t believe what he heard. He thought to himself, duh, while giving a sarcastic look to the others.

Yancy mentioned to Mike, “Yes sir, that is what we told you. We are locked out.”

“Quiet,” Mike said while his look went from blank stare to calculating. They all were still awaiting their hero’s plan. Mike paced back and forth while his calculating stare went to troubled.

An hour went by with no solution when Sheri said to Josh in a low voice, “I wonder were my shoe went.” He smiled at her and put his finger to his lips while pointing toward Mike still pacing. She returned his smile and made the same finger to lip motion. Pete was watching and he gave both of them a funny look pointing his index finger into his ear as if he was holding a gun. Molly grabbed his arm and pulled it down with an angry look.