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

and roof of the tunnel. Piece of the tunnel began to collapse and cover the tunnel.
“How did you disable the bugs Whizzy?” Nick asked.
“You mean the Pixals? An old General gave me a couple of weapons from the Chip wars. He couldn’t remember how they worked or what they did. Who knew they would work so well. They must have sent a pulse that fries their circuits for good. I only have one more, so we must be cautious and move quickly down the tunnel. Merry and Prank will try to block Basher boy and his bugs from chasing us” replied Whizzy. Just as he finished the sentenced, the sound of thousands of clicking spider legs ensued. A dark green cloud of robotic bugs dashed to the collapsing tunnel.
“Pixals coming! Sprites coming!” alerted Merry and Prank.
“What? Pixals again! Where?” asked Nick.
“Over there! Over there!” Merry and Prank pointed their drills back towards the Bin. They were marching with a fury Nick had never seen before. Clicking and clicking, spiders legs sounds crawled into their ears.
“Quick, according to the General’s map, this tunnel leads directly to Tera” replied Whizzy.
“Tera Tunnel! Tera Tunnel!” added the Data Miners.
“Look, some of the bugs are almost here. Let’s go!” Whizzy whirled around and led Nick down the tunnel. It was dark, but lacked the green gooey residue that puddled in the upper level of tunnels. These tunnel appeared less finished that the others.
Merry and Prank stayed behind to fight the Pixals. Their high pitched drilling sounded quite menacing as they prepared for the army of spiders. “Ready Merry?” said Prank.
“Ready Prank!” confirmed Merry.
The Data Miners braced for impact. Within seconds the spiders reached the Miners. They held them off by drilling them to death. Dead Pixals piled up in the tunnel, creating an additional barrier. Merry and Prank were shouting complements to each other.
“Well done Merry!’ said Prank.
“Well done Prank!” said Merry.
This exchange of compliment went on as their drill defense held up. Their mission was a success until reinforcements showed up. Pixal after Pixal plowed through spider corpses to get at Merry and Prank. Crawling with a singular mission, the spiders could not be contained. The flood of Pixals overwhelmed the poor Miners. Eventually, the spiders encased Merry and Prank in a robotic coffin. Muffled drill sounds fell silent; drowned out by the rabid clicks of bloodthirsty Pixals.
Squishy sounds of stirred entrails ensued. The Pixals pulled Merry and Prank apart at the seams. Scores of bugs tore into their innards, splattering yellow blood everywhere. When it was over pieces of the Merry and Prank were scattered all over the tunnel floor.
A cloud of buzzing Sprites flew past the carnage in pursuit of Whizzy and Nick. Purple Pixals stained with glowing yellow blood, left the lifeless Data Miners and followed the cloud. They gained ground quickly, their clicks grew louder and louder. Nick looked back at the encroaching insects.
“Whizzy, they’re still coming! Does that mean…”
“Yes. Perry and Mank are ted. They knew it was a stewy side mission. They tied for AldAyn,” answered a saddened Whizzy. He continued to deteriorate, making it hard for Nick to understand Whizzy was trying to say suicide mission.
“Sad. They seemed so innocent. Such a shame.” Nick looked back towards Merry and Prank’s last stand. All he could see were purple spiders freckled with neon yellow blood crawling closer. The Pixals has passed the cloud of Sprites and were upon the duo.
“How far do we have til we reach Tera?” asked Nick.
“Snot far. Must mush, the spiders are gaining Sticky Boy,” replied Whizzy.
Nick looked behind him as saw a mob of robotic insects closing fast. He ran as fast as he could, but the clicking sounds encroached behind him. Whizzy dropped a small crystal ball as they ran. Seconds later the grenade activated, send a pulse and disabling the closest wave of Pixals.
The Sprites were far enough behind to escape the impact of the pulse grenade. The green cloud flew past the disabled Pixals in pursuit. Whizzy had no more grenades to stop the insects. They had to outrun them or all was lost.


Chapter 20
Tsunami

Book of TranFor:

Beware the insurgents. Delicate balance cannot hold under pressure. Disaster is one degree from Awakening. Upset the balance and a new door opens.

In a dimly lit room back on Karbonon, the Hacker delighted as his viruses and worms seized defenseless programs, causing a widespread disruption of services. Still ignorant of the full extent of his onslaught, he laughed at the helpless billions. They would all answer to him now.
Lampshade shadows veil subversive posters on the back wall above his bed. All the telltale signs were evident for anyone who took time to undress his room. Hatred hid behind book covers asleep on his bureau. Resentment hung from rebel clothes in his closet. Still, his parents chose to see only the portrait taken when he was a preschool innocent.
A text box appeared on his desktop.

“Greetings Hacker. The viruses are taking control. We are now ready for the final step,” typed NazKlan.
“So it’s time,” Hacker replied.
“Release Tsunami.”
“Been waiting for this moment for so long. Bombs away!” typed Hacker. Tsunami was his masterpiece; a virus that would cripple systems across the globe. He spent years dreaming up the perfect way to invade military and government firewalls. This insidious creation would hijack power grids and defense weapons for every country. The fate of the world was his to determine.
With a single click, Hacker launch the crowning jewel of his viral repertoire. Within milliseconds, a storm began growing above the Silver Forest in NetherWorld. The skies stained with a dismal grey pallor, darkened like Downtime. Bloated clouds erupted with crippled code, sending monsoon rains to an ill equipped ecosystem.
A random string of unintelligible code flashed across Hacker’s monitor.

“1100 101110 110101 1010101,” NazKlan smiled as only a Byte can smile. He just sent a Turingi message to the cleaning spiders in Hackers room. Like Nick, Hacker’s room was fully staffed with cleaning spider bots and cake pan vacuums. When the code flashed on the screen, the spider bots flashed their purple thorax lights, as if understanding the strange string of zeros and ones.
NazKlan’s message in Turingi is loosely translated as:
“Kill the filthy fleshie once we have secured our victory. I will text you. Remember, just a little pin prick. Insert front leg two inches into his temple when he sleeps. Stir gently.”

This would be Hacker’s reward for helping to take down the High Council and Karbonon. Now that Tsunami is out, NazKlan had no need for the young man. It would take a while to clean up the mess caused by these viruses, but such is the way with wars.
“It is done. Soon the High Council will have to submit to my will. The Singularity will happen. Tera will wither without her connections. On this Boot, the Nexus will falls!” NazKlan said, followed with a spew of salty saliva on the filthy bunker floor. He then spun off his axis with anticipation. A small army of Pixals looked on as he made the final preparations to take control of NetherWorld.

Corrupt code had rained in the Silver forest for many cycles. Over time, the rain has increased and overwhelmed the forest. This is the only place in NetherWorld that filtered the harmful code, sparing the streams from the full brunt of the taint. All jaba, good or bad flows from the Forest.
Tsunami was now in full force. The downpour of corruption pelted the pyramid leaves. The storm was so intense, silver leaves turned black in mere ticks. The murky green swamp became an ocean.
The Silver Forest was no match for Tsunami. Once the trees were stripped bare, there was nothing to hold back the powerful storm. Waves of tainted jaba sped towards the moated city. Inside, countless Bytes went about their protocols unaware of the tidal forces bearing down on NetherWorld.
The wall held firm against the first few waves. Successive pounding began eroding the fish scales. A few massive waves tore large pieces away. Dark lime liquid flooded the entire city. By the time Silicates were organized to fight the storm, stream levels had already submerged some of the smaller buildings.
Helpless Bytes were tossed about like bits of sand. They crashed into buildings and exploded on impact. Yellow blood splattered across the clear glass walls. The Randoms were buried under a large volume of tainted jaba. The pressure from the weight of the jaba crumpled the wobbly Bytes.
Wave after wave of tainted jaba pounded the weakened walls of the city. Many sections were ripped apart allowing massive flows to flood the unprepared sectors. Never had such catastrophic weather reached the Walled City.
The dome covering the Nexus of Tera held under the mounting pressure. Small cracks were developing as the level of the jaba ocean continued to rise. Soon the Nexus would fall unless the flood could be contained. Tera’s connections were withering away. She was never more vulnerable to deletion. Her silver complexion became a rusted mask. She was dying. If the Joining did not happen soon, all hope was lost.
Murky flat shadows crawled all over the city. These black amoebic shapes coalesced to form a massive black entity floating above all of NetherWorld. What happened next would be up to Whizzy and Nick…


Chapter 21
Nexus

Book of TranFor:

A sacred union between the two will Awaken the energy. It is the energy that will seal their fates. Once in motion, events cannot be undone.

On the run from the buzzing cloud, Whizzy pointed to a small tunnel to their left. Nick followed his guide as they scrambled to stay ahead of the deadly insects. Much narrower than the main tunnel, the duo had to squeeze through a few tight spots. A humming drone reverberated off the walls alerting Whizzy and Nick that the Sprites had also turned the corner.
After a short distance the tunnel came to an abrupt end. A rough staircase etched in the fish scale walls lead to a trap door on the roof. Whizzy pointed to the door.
“This zit Picky boy,” said his guide. Nick had to listen carefully to understand what the poor Byte was trying to say. He knew Whizzy wasn’t referring to a pimple, but it took a second before Nick realized that the dizzy globe way showing him the way up to the Nexus.
“Let’s go Whizz.”
Nick shuffled up the staircase and pushed on the heavy trapdoor. It barely budged. With a rush of adrenaline, he used all the strength he could muster and pushed again. This time the heavy door opened. With a resounding slam to the Nexus floor, the path to the Nexus was now clear.
Whizzy looked back at the approaching cloud and