Young Writers Society

"It's okay," He replied quietly. As they sat there, the door swung open and Melody entered the room, followed by Jamie.
"All right," she said. "Since the headmistress isn't going to help us, we need to come up with a plan of our own. Let's go to my dorm--we can discuss there. Make sure to bring your laptop, Ethan."

she just nodded and stood up, her eyes were swollen from crying but she kept her gaze lowered and stayed silent, walking over to melody and wrapped her arms arond melody from behind, closing her eyes and leaning head on her shoulder

Melody twisted around, concerned. "Are you okay?"
Ai just sniffed and stared at the ground, silent. Melody pulled at the hem of her hoodie, a worried furrow appearing on her forehead. But she decided not to ask.
"My dorm's this way..."
The girls walked down the corridor, Ethan and Jamie following behind. Ethan's Rubix cube clicked furiously as he turned it with his long, red-tipped fingers.
"Are you ok?" Jamie asked.
"Yes," Ethan replied simply.
"You don't look like it. Your face is all red."
"I-I'd better catch up with Melody," Ethan muttered, quickening his stride. Jamie watched him go, an odd feeling in his chest.
Something weird is going on here... He thought.

"yes..i'm fine.." it was clearly a lie but she held onto melodys hand and followed her to her dorm "can i..stay at your dorm tonight?" she looked at melody, her eyes seemed empty but there was a spark of hope behind them, she didn't push it back, she just hoped she could save melody in time..

"Sure," Melody replied. She hated to see her friend like this. "I can set something up for you."
"Thanks," Ai muttered quietly. They had reached the dorm; Melody pushed open the door. It was just as bare as she had left it, with the bed on one side and empty space on the other. The only difference was the spidery cracks that had grown on the wall.
"I, uh...don't have many places for you guys to sit..."
"The floor is fine," Jamie said, seating himself against the wall. "You weren't joking--these cracks are huge."
"Yeah, the earthquake was intense," Melody replied, sitting on the bed. Ai sat down beside her. The glitch glanced at Ethan. "Can you show Jamie the error code from the Warped material?"
Ethan made an odd choking sound, followed by clearing his throat, and ending in a squeak that sounded vaguely like a 'yes.'
"My God, you look like you're about to have a heart attack. Do we need to take you back to the nurse?"
"No," Ethan said more clearly, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "I'm fine."
He pulled out the computer and began typing furiously.
"Okay, this is what I found." He held the computer out to Jamie, hands trembling slightly.
"Error code 0x000314CE?" Melody's brother asked. "What's that?"
"It's the virus," Ethan answered. "The Warped material."
"I see," Jamie took the laptop, scrolling through the page. "And this is from the cracks in the wall, correct?"
"We were only able to get a trace amount, but yes. The signature is unmistakable."
"What do we do about it, then?" Jamie asked, handing the computer back to a still very red-faced Ethan.
"I don't know," the boy replied. "Melody? Ai? Do you have any ideas?"

she was silent, everything seemed to be silent around her, she couldn't hear anything, all she could concentrate on was what she saw, it terrified her in ways no one can imagine, her hands were trembling, her mouth tightly shut, she fought back tears, she felt guilty as if it was her fault that this will soon be melodys fate..

"Ai?" Melody looked at her friend, who had gone tense. "Oh my--Ai? Can you hear me? You're okay, we're here. Are you having another vision? Ai?"

she jumped and looked at melody quickly "n-no, not another vision..just..thinking.." she looked at ethan with a look that said 'please don't tell her'

Ethan blinked back, keeping his mouth shut. Melody tilted her head.
"Is there something you're not telling me?" She asked.

"no, everythings fine" she looked at melody and smiled slightly, letting her hand go and putting her hands in her hoodie pocket

Melody rubbed her fingers together, suddenly cold. "You guys really shouldn't be keeping secrets from me. We're gonna need to trust each other if this is going to work."
"We're not keeping any secrets," Ethan muttered, staring at his cube. Melody looked at Jamie. He shrugged.
"Ugh, fine," She sighed. "Back to the Warped. I think we need to spread awareness--make posters and stuff, y'know? Tell everyone about the earthquake."
"They might not believe us, though," Ethan said. "You heard the headmistress--she's completely in denial. It's likely many others will be, too."
"Well, we have to do something. Get the word out. It doesn't matter if they believe us, they just need to know. That's the first step to getting everyone out of here. We can work from there."

she stayed silent, listening to the conversation and trapped in her own thoughts, she can't seem to forget about what she saw, she knows she won't be getting any sleep, her hands trembled in her hoodie pocket, barely visible, she tried to keep a calm look on her face

"Where do we get the materials?" Jamie asked.
"There's a printer in the teacher's lounge," Ethan replied. "If we could sneak in there, we could print as many posters as we want."
"How are we going to get in there?" Melody asked.

she never thought she would see those images again, but 3 years later, look where were at now, she then snapped out of it "i might know a way in, everything here is made of code right?"

"Yes," Ethan said. "Aside from a few biological elements--plants, animals, water--this place is entirely computer-generated.