~*~
Gavin and Michael exchanged a frightened look.
"How small of a problem?" Michael questioned his friend who was filling in for the missing Geoff.
"Well.. It's not really small. More of a big problem." Ray fumbled his words worriedly. "I mean.. We're fixing it right now. A small setback."
Gavin felt anxiety knot in his stomach.
"Ray, what's going on?"
The pixelated man fell silent for a moment at Gavin's words. Ray's voice soon returned, soft and choked with sadness.
"There's something wrong.. With the program, I mean."
"What do you mean?" Michael hissed, dread over-taking him. Did something happen? Did Fall-back get damaged?
"There's a virus in the Program. It's keeping us from unhooking you guys safely."
"A virus?"
"An old A.I. that was placed in the game." Ray answered Gavin's question without a second of thought. He must have just been fed the information from Geoff or Ryan, depending on who was tending to them. Gavin heard the tell-tale blips of a heart monitor leaking from Ray's background noise.
"Ray.. Bring Geoff back." Gavin's voice held a note of seriousness that both Michael and Ray had rarely heard. Shuffling came from the blocky host before the original voice returned.
"Yeah Gavin?"
"What's the AI called?"
A nervous chuckle.
"I don't know what-"
"Geoff." Gavin cut him off, silently demanding an answer.
A sigh.
"You've heard of Herobrine, right?"
Both Gavin and Michael nodded.
"Well, despite Mojang's several attempts to remove the bugged AI, it still exists in the game. It corrupts files, and apparently can shut you guys off from the real world."
Gavin shook his head.
"No.. No, no, no.."
He began shaking. One of his first responses to fear.
Michael watched Gavin with saddened eyes.
"Hey.. Gavin, we'll be okay."
Gavin looked to the shorter red-headed boy. Michael's smile was weak, but it was genuine. His dimple was just slightly present, but it was enough to make the brit's nerves ease.
"So, Geoff. You said the automatic eject would pull us out if we died, right? Is that still functioning?"
Geoff audibly grunted in disagreement.
"Hmph.. I don't know, but the only way to test it is for one of you two to die.. And we don't want that in case it fails."
Michael sighed. He wanted to go home already. He spent enough of his life on this game, he didn't want to waste the last of his time-.
His thoughts were cut short by the darkening sky. Had they been in that long? Then he remembered they were on Minecraft's rules.
"You guys need to get inside. Put up some extra torches while you're at it. And once it's day time, I'll come back."
With that, he disappeared into thin air.
Michael and Gavin shared a glance before heading off to their houses. Gavin was mindful of his art as Michael placed more torches around his house. He soon went inside and barred himself in with a (surprisingly light) cobblestone block that was in front of his chest.
