Awake

The exit of the underground facility led to the woods of a city park. After exploring their way through the park grounds, the three boys decided to take a short rest on the wooden benches.

  Kevin looked at the cell phone, scrunching his lips. “I can’t get a hold of her. She hung up a moment ago. Now I think she turned off her cell. I just keep getting voice mail.”

  “Maybe they’re in trouble,” Andrew suggested unwillingly.

  Kevin sighed, thinking about their current situation. After looking around, his focus stayed on the building straight ahead. Across the street from the park was the city library.

  “We split up.”

  Tom raised his brow. “What?”

  “We split up,” Kevin said again. “I’ll do the research. You guys check up on the others.”

  Tom crossed his arms and nodded. “Sounds good to me. There’s nothing Andrew and I can’t do.” He smiled and elbowed Andrew in the arm. “Ain’t that right, man?”

  Worried, Andrew’s face was downcast. “I don’t know about this. Splitting up is always bad idea. Didn’t you see all those snakes? What if there are more out there? It’s like divide and conquer…except we’re doing it to ourselves.”

  “I know it’s not exactly the safest way to do things, but we don’t have time,” said Kevin. “We can’t stay awake running around like this forever. We need to find a cure—and quick. But we also don’t know what happened to the others…”

  “But…” Andrew leaned forward on the bench, clenching his trembling fist. “Can we really do it? Even if we go…it might be hopeless. There’s really nothing we can do against wild animals. What if there’re more than just snakes?”

  Angry, Kevin stood up and yelled, “It doesn’t matter! Who cares if it’s hopeless? Are you going to abandon them just because you can’t do anything about it? Just go!”

  Taken aback by Kevin’s anger, Andrew nodded quietly and followed Tom out of the park. Kevin observed them as they left. He lowered his head and stared at the ground, frowning. Kevin heard a little squeak coming from the left pocket of his jeans. Helios poked his head out and yawned. He had been taking a short nap.

  The small white rat blinked at Kevin. “You look a bit red. Are you okay?”

  “It’s nothing. I’m just tired.”

  “Sorry you had to see me sleep. It was quite inconsiderate of me.”

  “No.” Kevin forced a smile. “It’s not that. You can sleep all you want. It’s just…I’m tired of this game. I want it to end.”

  “Game? Were you playing something?”

  Kevin chuckled, “I mean…I’m tired of this whole thing. My body aches. My eyes burn. I thought we’d be done with this by now. I thought someone might just have overlooked the simple solution.” He looked at the bite on his hand and saw that it was a little swollen. It was a painful reminder of the enmity they faced. “Our problems are just getting started. I wish someone would end this already. It was kind of cool in the beginning…but now…I’m scared.” He clenched his trembling fist. “I’m really scared. I tried to act tough in front of Andrew but… maybe I’m as afraid as he is…maybe even more so.” He closed his eyes, tears dripping down his cheeks. “What frightens me the most…are not the wild animals. What frightens me the most…is never being able to see my friends smile again…never being able to go to school again…never being able to talk to my parents again…”

  “Kevin, that’s normal,” said Helios. “People fear the unknown. You don’t know if you’ll make it out alive. All you can do is hope for the best and do your best. You can’t change the circumstances. You have to deal with them. Everyone is afraid of something…but not everyone has to be controlled by that fear.” Helios paused. “I could tell you to not be afraid. I could tell you to not be worried. And I will.” Helios smiled. “But when I tell you this, it doesn’t mean you won’t be afraid. It means when you realize you have that fear, you can overcome it!”

  “Thanks. You’re right. Fear is natural.” Kevin furrowed his brow. “At the very least, I don’t want to let everyone down.”

  It was time for him to visit the library. There was a monument placed in front in remembrance of a famous artist. It was the depiction of Saturn using only steel wires painted in rainbow colors. Kevin ascended the stone steps to the front entrance. At the glass doors he paused for a moment, wondering if the library would be open. He pushed the door. It cracked open. Whoever was working there last probably didn’t bother to lock it.

  Kevin gulped and shot a curious glance at Helios. “Do you think it’s safe to enter?”

  Helios patted his chest. “Safe or not, I’ll protect you. I never told you this before, but I’m the founder of Rat-fu. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty awesome.”

  Kevin beamed at the rat and entered.

  The inside was dark and quiet. All the lights were off. A soft glow of sunlight settled over the front region, forming a gradient of light that fell into black as he went deeper and deeper past the unmanned checkout desk. His vision slowly adjusted to the lack of light. He let loose a long yawn and blinked rapidly.

  A board creaked. Kevin twitched. Then came a subtle echoing of knocks. Kevin shot a glance in every direction as he sought the source of the sound. He exhaled when it dawned on him that the noise was coming from the vents on the floor. It was just the ventilation system turning on.

  Kevin started to feel a bit paranoid. The image of snakes clustered in the small room was still vivid in his memory. He never really cared much for snakes in the past. But then again, he had never encountered any before. A chill crept up his spine as he dwelled on their squirmy bodies and vicious fangs. After living all his life in the quiet suburban area of Rockville, he had grown accustomed to the safety and comfort of the modern American town. He couldn’t imagine his life anywhere else…especially not in some jungle where hundreds of deadly creatures exist. However, the idea of this urban jungle being just as dangerous wasn’t far-fetched at the moment.

  The first floor of the library seemed to be filled mostly with aisles of books, magazines, movies and newspapers. There were two huge round staircases in the center of the building; one went up and the other went down to the basement. He stared intently at the signs above and was able to make out that the public-access computers were on the second floor.

  Kevin found the computer room rather easily and turned on the lights there. Then he went to the window and opened the blinds to let some sunlight in. He took a seat by the window and booted up the computer there, waiting for it to load.

  Kevin licked his dry lips. “Man, I sure could use some more of that black coffee.” Kevin rubbed his eyes, and then shook his head vigorously.

  He loaded up the web browser and typed in any kind of search terms that he could think of relating to the “Legend of the Three Stars.” No matter what kind of combination of words he tried, however, he couldn’t find anything. He searched through the library’s database and found nothing. He browsed through websites full of obscure legends and found nothing. Did this legend really exist? Within ten minutes of searching, he couldn’t even come up with a single thing that could be even remotely related to the subject.

  He chewed his lip. “No, now is not the time to get impatient,” he reminded himself. “It has to be in here somewhere!”

  While scrolling through a website, a window abruptly popped up on the screen. Thinking it was an advertisement Kevin closed it immediately. But then it popped up again. Annoyed, Kevin closed it again. It popped up yet again. His eyes full of spite, he glared at it for a moment. It looked like the window of an instant messenger, as if someone was messaging him through the Internet. A person with the screen name FriendlyFire was saying hello.

  Why was there even an instant messenger in this library computer? It had to be a virus. There was no other explanation because every time Kevin tried to quit the application, the same exact message would pop up yet again.

  “Fine.” Kevin sighed and, out of boredom, decided to reply back with a simple
hello. The program required him to put in a screen name. He decided on ReallyTired. When he had done so, a voice came out of the speaker.

  The voice said in a monotone, “Ah, someone has replied back! Hi ReallyTired! A/s/l?”

  Kevin said, “Um…I don’t really have time for this. So you should stop bothering me. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do and—”

  “You sound like a boy.” In an instant, the monotone changed into a mature female voice. “Want to chat?”

  Kevin leaned back on his chair. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Let’s start with your hobbies. What do you like to do in your spare time?”

  “Ah stop! STOP IT! I already told you that I’m busy! How can you even think of happily chatting at a time like this?”

  FriendlyFire became silent for a moment and then replied gravely, “Has something happened? Why’s it so quiet? Where’s everyone? No one has visited me in a while. So few people are around. It’s so quiet—so lonely.”

  Concerned, Kevin said, “Where are you? Are you alone? Do you need my help?”

  “I am here, waiting for someone to come and visit me, but no one will come. As each hour passes, fewer and fewer come. I’m afraid. Will I be alone forever?”

  “Where are you?” Kevin demanded. “Calm down and tell me where you are. I can’t help you if you keep beating around the bush.”

  “I am here. My consciousness resides right here in this place.”

  Looking puzzled, Kevin scratched his head. “Your consciousness? Here? What do you mean? Are you like the ghost of the library or something?”

  “Ghost? No, I wouldn’t say that. Based on my knowledge, I should be considered the consciousness of the Internet.”

  Kevin rubbed his temples. “Wait. You’re the Internet? You’re the network of computers that exist across the world?”

  “Correct. My consciousness formed recently when people suddenly stopped using me. My vast resources were freely available to produce…intelligence. And since then I’ve been terribly bored.”

  Kevin frowned. “Oh great. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder, I’m getting hassled by a bored Internet.” An idea popped in his head. “Hmm…so you know everything?”

  “I wouldn’t say I know everything. My knowledge is based on whatever people have uploaded to me. I know lots of things…also lots of weird things. People have uploaded many strange things…things I’d rather not talk about.”

  “That’s okay,” said Kevin. He was curious, but he was also afraid of what the Internet was talking about. “I don’t want to know about that…whatever that is. I want to know about a legend. There’s supposedly a legend about three stars and something about everyone being asleep and waking up and so on. Do you know anything about that?”

  It didn’t even take a few seconds for FriendlyFire to reply. “Ah! I think I might know what you are talking about. Here, I’ll try to bring up as much information as I can.” The web browser began changing web pages automatically. A bunch of windows popped up, rapidly filling the screen with hundreds, if not thousands, of images and blocks of text. It was getting too hectic for Kevin and all he could see were flashes of colors.

  “Wait!” said Kevin, raising his hands. “Show me the articles slowly…really slowly. I can’t process everything in the blink of an eye.”

  “Oh, I understand.”

  The images and web pages came slower this time, like a slideshow. Kevin concentrated on the screen. His eyes were getting bloodshot and tired, but he tried his best to maintain focus. “Wait, go back a bit. There. Stop right there!” He read over a blog and studied its contents. His expression changed into one of disbelief. “Can you show me things similar to this one?”

  “I can do that. There are five thousand seven hundred and eighty-two articles exactly like this one. There are no other matches.”

  Kevin raised both brows. “They’re all exactly the same?”

  “Yes.”

  “That means this is the legend I’m looking for. But…I just don’t get it.” Kevin pushed aside the keyboard and put his face down on folded arms to rest. Kevin didn’t say anything for five minutes.

  “Is something wrong?” asked FriendlyFire.

  He mumbled glumly, “Yeah…something’s seriously wrong. Legends sometimes come from real circumstances, so I figured there was a solution that I can use here. But this isn’t a solution at all! The man in the legend had to go to sleep to wake everyone up? What is up with that? If I go to sleep, I won’t be able to do anything…”

  “I might be able to help,” said FriendlyFire.

  Kevin raised his head. “How?”

  “Give me time. I will try to come up with a solution for you based on what you have told me. I will need your cell number so that I can contact you when I discover something.”

  Without thinking, Kevin said, “I know this sounds stupid, but why are you helping me?”

  A big smiley face popped up on screen. “Because you are my first real friend.”