Twenty-Two is Online

Sammy hopped and jerked the bag on her back higher. She was the last of them carrying her bag. Atlas was looking after their camping equipment, but Sammy carried the things she thought they needed; a map of the forest they were once in, a compass that no longer worked, a watch that had stopped, some books on flora and fauna, the jar of locusts, the Rulebook, some matches, their wallets, the last of their food and some other light objects. It sounded like it was full, but it barely was half filled, and she could jump with it. No one agreed with the choices she made, but they all thought they didn't need a single item.

But then Mr Spanners found that he needed a few things that weren't commonly available.

Eloise returned with Graison and Bo, after Dean and Sammy claimed they were going to check with Atlas about something. Before they split paths, Eloise muttered for them to:

'Meet at the airstrip.'

After that, they trekked back to the Marble City, as if it was a normal journey to school. Atlas was surprised to see them nonetheless, but welcomed Dean's request.

'The man in the top hat can see everything, right?'

'Within reason. He can't see Noah,' answered Atlas.

'So is there a way we can talk to him?' asked Dean.

'You're not suggesting phoning him are you?' chuckled Atlas.

'Well, can we talk to him or something?' asked Sammy, backing up Dean.

She had her arms folded, leaning against the wall behind Dean. She looked a lot more emo, with her hair hanging in front of her face and continuously pouting. Her eyes were dark and glazed with sadness, but on the outside she was a boisterous and flamboyant as before.

'Why ask me? There's someone here who has actually spoken to him before,' said Atlas.

Sammy's and Dean's eyes turned. Inside the large cage was the white rabbit, gnawing on a carrot, struggling to stifle his giggles as they looked at him.

'He came to me,' he said, retracting his teeth for a moment, covered with bits of orange.

'Was it like telepathy or something?' asked Sammy.

'Quite, quite my dear! Another time he spoke through my dreams. He's quite the flexible man!'

'Can you send him a message for me?' asked Dean.

The white rabbit burst into laughter, he pounded the bars of his cage and rattled on in wheezing chuckles. Dean grew frustrated with his mockery, but he instead walked away from the mad rabbit.

'It's sad,' said Sammy, 'in a way, I mean.'

'Take a walk and calm down. Have some fresh air,' suggested Atlas, 'I don't see why you want to speak with the man in the top hat anyway.'

'Because he knows more than anyone about everything. Maybe he'd talk,' said Dean.

With no response from his audience, he went outside. Sammy followed, concerned for him, feeling his frustration as he walked down the parapets and bridges. He wasn't going anywhere in particular, but he wanted to go somewhere.

'You wanna talk?' she finally asked.

Dean stopped. They hadn't said a word since he stormed outside. He'd forgotten Sammy had followed him.

'Sorry, I don't really have anything to say,' said Dean.

'Why do you want to talk to him?' she asked.

'Why do you think? I wanna get to know who this dickhole is!' he replied, sharply,' I wanna know what he's like, if he was forced, has his reasons, or is just one big dick.'

'Well, Dean,' said Sammy, sympathetically, 'maybe we're just overthinking this. Maybe instead of chasing after the man in the top hat, we should work on a way to get home instead.'

'How can you say that?'

'Maybe you're overreacting, I think you're taking this idea of revenge too seriously, and something's going to go wrong.'

'He killed Raymond!'

'Yeah, but he's gone now! What can we do, we can't bring him back!'

'Sammy, just shut up. I'm getting angry and I don't want to be angry with you.'

He stormed into the next tower.

'Dean wait, I'm not saying we don't do anything, just…not anything that'll get us killed.'

Dean looked at her fully. She had been distraught over Raymond; he thought she had been more distraught than him. But really, she was much more pragmatic than he thought. She hadn't been sad about Raymond essentially, she had been scared of the future. She had been scared for all of them, especially him. She had been clinging on all this time not for protection…no for HIS protection.

'Sam-' he began.

Now what? She was over it, that's what. She'd realised she couldn't worry, she had to do something. Well, alright, a little bit of sadness was acceptable, but pragmatically she needed to stop crying and stand up. It was better than Eloise, better than Graison, even better than himself.

'I-'

But he wasn't man to follow someone else' leading example.

'I need to do this.'

Between them, the computer monitor on a desk was placed. Regardless if it was there before or after they arrived, they suddenly noticed that it was booting up. Text scrolled along as the monitor ran the boot process, before it finished up with the Windows 98 splash screen.

'How is that on, it's not plugged in!' said Sammy.

'It's not even connected to a computer,' said Dean and knelt down in front of it.

The monitor loaded and was replaced by a terminal. The matrix appeared for a split second, warping the screen, before words began to type themselves on-screen.

'HELLO WORLD'

'Someone's running a program,' said Dean.

'How!?'  exclaimed Sammy.

'COMPUTER MONITORS WERE MADE FOR SIMPLE COMMUNICATION, FRIENDS'

'Why is it running,' wondered Sammy aloud.

'There must be a keyboard somewhere…' said Dean, looking underneath the desk.

'I REMEMBER THE NIGHT I KILLED RAYMOND LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY'

Dean froze when he saw those words. His hands bunched into fists, clenching hard.

'DID I HIT A NERVE? DEATH WAS A GOOD MINION OF MINE, I WASN'T HAPPY WHEN HE BROKE MY RULES. NOT HAPPY INDEED.'

'Is that the man in the top hat?' asked Sammy.

'I'M WILLING TO CUT YOU ON A DEAL FRIENDS.'

'IF YOU CAN FIND ME, BEFORE I FIND YOU, I'LL GIVE YOU BACK YOUR RAYMOND, HOW DOES THAT SOUND? AND THEN YOU MAY LEAVE OF YOUR OWN FREE WILL.'

'ELSE YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE. TRUST ME. ASK THOSE WHO TRIED.'

'THEY'RE LYING ABOUT FOUR FEET BELOW THE GRAVEYARD.'

'OFF YOU POP NOW TO THE JUNGLES. I'LL MEET YOU THERE, SHALL I?'

The monitor didn't respond again; not to any cry or protest from Dean. Not a single question was answered. The cursor flashed, on and off, at the next line down. It ticked for some time before Dean gave up. Sammy looked at him. She was much more worried now, her face curbed by panic. He wanted to say something comforting, but after her protests from earlier she didn't deserve it. She was meant to be pragmatic about it like she had been for Raymond.

'We have no choice,' said Dean.