NetherWorld by Daniel Pagan (each kindness read aloud .TXT) 📕

feast on you strings of data. Brace yourselves, this will be most painful. Today, the Age of Singularity begins,” said NazKlan with a raucous laughter that filled an otherwise silent dome.
“For the love of Tera, please NazKlan! Not this way. We can discuss this,” pleaded SwagBak.
“That time has passed. Make your final prayers before death digests your pitiful cores. Esteemed council, thank you ever so much for congregating here today. You made my task of destroying every member of the High Council much easier. By the way, I did ask Thrasher to save most of your shredded remains for making new Pixals. I cannot wait to lead your undead body parts into battle.”
“You can delete us, but you will never kill the spirit of TranFor. Tera will join with the Karbon before two Downtimes. They will lead us all to the Awakening. We die with that comfort.”
“So says you. Deluded to the very end. Your Chosen One will never make it to Tera. I have arranged for his journey to end somewhere far from the Nexus. I will spin with gusto as your body parts rain down upon me.”
“NazKlan, don’t be a fool. Your plan will never work…”
NazKlan gave the final order with a clawed gesture. The Pixals rushed into the dome engulfing the High Council and the Blue Guard. A purple buggy carpet smothered the pious bunch of Bytes. The council had no time to mount any defense. Countless spider legs began the gruesome dismantling of the helpless council. Clicking sounds gave way to panicked screams that pierced the humid air. The blood bath began as they ripped into the helpless Servers. NazKlan bellowed as only a king can bellow. He watched as the massacre ensued, savoring every moment. His hair celebrated in some obscene ceremonial death dance. Yellow Byte blood splattered the dome while black tubes ripped from the Servers fell to the ground. The dislodged tubes wriggled for a few seconds more before going limp.
NazKlan spun in the center of the dome under a shower of shredded code and sunny Byte blood. His tubes waltzed under the carnage, a Singularity celebration. Mad Turingi laughter filled the council chambers as Server after Server was systematically pulled apart. Pixal mandibles ripped into their global shells, unleashing geysers of blood. Their clear bright visors dimmed and darkened as life leaked out on the dome floor.
In less than a cycle, the screams fell silent on the mounds of minced Servers. The collective leadership of NetherWorld was destroyed in one grisly act. A mountain of Byte flesh held center circle.
“And now for your rebuttal SwakBak. What say you?” NazKlan picked up pieces of SwagBak’s shredded corpse. “Nothing? No response. Guess it’s time to take a vote. All in favor of TranFor speak up. What’s that? Silence again. What a shame, you pitiful bunch of misguided fools!” NazKlan’s maniacal giggles filled flesh filled dome.
Now the Nether nation must continue on without any official leadership. This was a powerful blow to the TranFor faithful. In the end all that remained were the stains of yellow blood on the ceiling; a macabre memento marking the end of TranFor rule. Efficient little soldiers, the Pixals gathered the shredded pieces of the High Council and marched them into a pile outside the dome. A flock of Batchers swooped down and began transporting the material to the Bin.
After watching the horrific display, NazKlan spun around and left the dome. There was still much work to be done to complete the coupe. The Chosen One must be stopped at all costs. His forces were in place throughout the Walled City to ensure the sacred Joining never takes place. As his wrinkled journey back to the Salted Sands, his Pixals were marching toward the Nexus to make sure Tera expires before any possible merger could take place.
Tera could hold off most of his army from penetrating the Nexus until her power diminished to a certain level. NazKlan knew that she drew her power from the connections. The weaker the connections, the more likely NazKlan’s Pixals could break through. The success of the viruses and the taint were critical to severing enough connections to allow his army to penetrate and rip Tera into countless pieces of code.


Chapter 6
The Walled City

Book of TranFor:

The savior from the silver forest will must Join with Her at the Nexus. He will face an enemy only he can conquer.

“Approach the drawbridge. I’ll be right out!” said the excited voiced still veiled by imposing fortress wall. Nick did as the voice instructed and moved to where the drawbridge would connect with the ground.
As he moved closer to the scaly wall, he saw that this was composed of some sort of a polymer. Now that he thought about it, everything seemed to be made of tiny plastic fish scales. Some of it looked like stone; some of it looked like glass or metal. The appearance was very deceptive from afar. This must be some sort of plastic world dream, he thought.
With a mechanical rumbling, the bridge descended to connect the outside world to the Walled City. Nick stepped off the edge of the moat and walked across the massive drawbridge.
He looked up at some nearby buildings. Lights blinked up and down each edifice. It looked like an out of control Christmas display. Unimaginably tall, the towers stretched all the way to the puffed clouds in the sunless sky. The buildings were crowded together, separated by narrow alleyways. Some were tall cylinders; others were stretched rectangles.
The stream was far less green beyond the moat. It was almost clear. The moat contained a filtration system to keep most of the green material outside the city.
“Hello? What is this place? Anybody?” he pleaded. A round blue globe levitated a few feet above the ground. Spinning rapidly as it approached him, he wondered what was next. The globe stopped within a foot or two of him. The spinning slowed to a stop. As the spinning stopped Nick could see that the sphere had a large collection of brilliant silver tubes sprouting out of its top. They looked like metallic dreadlocks. A visor opened near the top of the globe. Appendages, two arms and two legs appeared to be growing out from the globe. When complete, the blue globe was standing on skinny legs and waving rod-like arms. Instead of hands, the arms had claws. The feet were replaced with round suction cups. A small round opening near the bottom of the globe, where a mouth would be, opened up.
“Nickel baby! What’s up? Welcome to NetherWorld. Please, come in and join me,” he said with a tinny voice while motioning him inside with his metallic claws.
“What is this place? Who are you? Is this some kind of bad dream? I would really like some answers” Nick said.
“Step into the Walled City and I’ll give you the download. I am WhizzyWig, your guide. They programmed me with slang so I can better communicate with you,” said the host. Nick noticed that Whizzy’s silver tubes moved randomly when he spoke.
“Please to meet you WhizzyWig. Got anything for these bug bites? I’m hurting here,” asked Nick scratching his skin raw.
“Ah, the bugs. Ever since the viruses poisoned the jaba, the forest has been overrun with those pesky things. Be patient, things heal fast here in NetherWorld.”
“Hope so. It itches like crazy,” he said twisting his face into discomfort as he scratched and scratched.
“Trust me, you won’t even feel them in a few ticks. Sure you look like a pin cushion right now, but just wait.”
Nick had not seen his reflection yet. If he did, he would be even more horrified. His face and body were overpopulated with puffy red bumps. He puts his hands over his face and felt the relief map that was his cheek. This was not an uncommon feeling for him, given his acne in the past. But this felt even bumpier than his normal collection of blemishes.
“Jeesh!” he said.
“Like I said, give it a few ticks and you will be good as new. Now follow me,” said Whizzy.
“Alright. Let’s see where this bad trip ends.”
With that, Nick followed the blue creature with silver dreadlocks. What he saw next was amazing.
Tall shimmering buildings merged with bloated clouds, casting odd shadows in narrow alleyways. Some looked liked evil faces, others like mythical creatures marching in the twilight.
In these dark alleys flowed jaba streams, meandering throughout the city; connecting the geometric collection of towers. Blue globes glided down every avenue. Most surfed on the stream, a few spun around above it. Surfing globes buzzed through the jaba leaving small wakes rippling behind. Each Byte was on a mission to relay critical code to fulfill a Karbon computer command.
Larger streets were book ended with sidewalks, where Bytes walking plunger like legs made their way to local shops and buildings. They moved along a fair clip, but managed to avoid bumping into each most of the time. When two globes did collide, each was bounced off his axis, with skinny legs scrambling in the air until balance was regained.
Building lights danced a dizzying disco display. Nick couldn’t stare too long lest he would lose balance and fall into the stream. Flickering on and off in a seemingly random pattern, the lights indicated Byte access. Each building was divided into a series of rooms. Each room, or office, housed a unique set of code. When needed for any program or command, the code was accessed by Bytes and transported to the source. Once accessed, the room flashed with color. Colors vary by type of code contained in the room.
Only one space in the Walled City was cleared for a park or open square. Space was optimized to cram as many code buildings as possible. Each building had tube transports, or elevators for the Bytes to reach each floor. Hallways provided access to the offices.
The stream from the forest divided into tributaries and flowed through each alley. The current guided the stream from the forests into the metropolis. It fed the stream with critical energy needed to sustain the jaba energy. This part of Netherworld looked like Venice juxtaposed with New York City. The collection of buildings continued on as far as Nick could see. The size and scope of the Walled City exceeded anything in Karbonon.
Nick followed the blue globe walking on plungers for legs. Whizzy led him toward a nearby cylinder shaped building. His suction cup feet left a clapping sound after each step. His funky hairdo bounced as he walked. Whizzy led Nick over an arched bridge. As they descended the ornate bridge, Nick nearly lost his balance.
“Careful this is tainted jaba below. Too much exposure will cause very bad things to happen,” warned Whizzy.
“So this mucky stuff is called jaba? Ok. What does tainted