Victim continued to walk through the icy, snowy, and barren land while he continued to shiver.
He exhaled his cold breath.
He'd been covering his body with his arms for so long that he wanted to let his arms rest, but he can't.
He was so, so cold.
"Will I ever get out of here?", his cracking voice said.
He walked... and walked... and walked.
He can't find a place to rest.
Even the snow was too cold for him to lay down.
The wind was strong. It was howling in Victim's ears.
It was like an endless, but gentle snowstorm.
He'd lost hope in finding even a small cave for refuge.
There were no trees, no grass, nothing.
Just snow. All around him. Endlessly.
"I might be here forever."
Gradually, a bright light began to shine on him.
He began to float.
"Wait, what is this?", Victim said anxiously.
He was taken to... a computer?
"Where am I?"
His surroundings were warm. He can finally let his arms rest.
While observing the place, he saw an orange stick figure with a few others: a red one, a green one, a yellow one, and a blue one.
"Wh..."
He flew around the computer, still curious about what the place was.
Victim saw someone, on the other side of the monitor, sit in a chair.
A big one.
He heard the orange stick figure speak. "Oh hey! It's Alan!"
That name... Alan...
That name rang so many bells in his head.
A memory played out.
He was frozen in place. He couldn't move.
He couldn't turn, couldn't move his arms, anything.
Only his eyes moved.
He saw the cursor move towards a save dialog pop-up.
"Save changes to Untitled-1? Yes or No?"
The cursor moved towards the 'No' text.
"Wait, no-no-no-no-no!" He was filled with dread, knowing what would happen if the cursor clicked on 'No'.
And sure enough, it did.
He began to see a bright light shine on his face until he could see nothing but white.
He later woke up in a cold, dark, and snowy place.
A tear fell from his eye.
"He... killed me..." He was timid and appalled. He exhaled a shaky breath and put his right arm on his left arm's shoulder.
"Hey, need some help?", the orange one asked.
"No, no, no, no, no!", Victim said, panicking.
He flew fast towards the stick figure.
"Show me.", the orange one suddenly said.
Victim stopped in his tracks. "Wait... what?" He was confused.
Victim slowly moved towards the screen, curious yet still dreading what might happen to any one of them.
An animation of a flower was playing out. It was walking.
The orange one put his hands on his hips. "Can do.", he said, raising his arm confidently.
He jumped towards the pencil tool and drew more stick figures.
Victim became even more confused, to the point that his mind was full of so many questions that he can't think anymore.
"What is happening? Why are they happy with him around? Have they befriended him?" He put his hands on his head, bewildered.
The computer gradually became warm. Warmer than usual. Even Victim doesn't remember it being this warm.
The computer fan was whirring loudly.
The alarmed orange stick figure touched the thermometer icon.
"92 degrees?!", he shouted in shock.
Concerned, Alan immediately opened up Task Manager.
Victim was behind the window. An icon appeared next to him.
"ViraBot? What's this?"
Victim curiously approached the icon. He poked it several times.
The Task Manager closed. Light instantly hit Victim's eyes. He raised his arm, trying to protect his eyes from the bright light.
"Draw me a hammer.", the orange stick said.
The cursor began to move to draw a large hammer.
"Wait, what? They're... working together now?", Victim asked in his mind.
As the orange figure raised the hammer, Victim backed away from the icon cautiously.
"Why! Won't! You! Go!", the orange stick said as he hammered the icon.
Victim approached the icon and poked it once more.
It cracked open. Anxious, Victim backed away.
~
Every punch Victim threw at the red spider was pointless. His punches dealt no damage nor force. He felt helpless.
He tried pulling the orange stick figure free out of the web. None. No progress.
A portal blew open in the middle of the screen.
Out came a black stick figure.
The black one fought the spider. Once again, from Victim's point of view, was considered helping Alan, the very person who killed him.
Victim's mind began to fog up again.
"Why would they... surely they've known..." Victim was speechless.
~
He was amazed at how all this played out to him.
Alan seemed to be happy with those stick figures as well.
Victim looked down at his hands. "Could... could my life have turned out differently?"
