by Oli Smith
‘So you left them?’ Rory interrupted. ‘On their own?’
Daryl nodded. ‘I’m a tinkerer, my job was to interfere. But now I couldn’t interfere – it wouldn’t be fair. I wanted to let them make their own mistakes, and create their own rewards. So I left Parallife and found a way to download my mind into the body of a robot. Now I’m like them, trapped inside a body, in a world I don’t know anything about.’ The smiley face appeared. ‘It’s wonderful.’
‘So that’s why you’d never seen a human before – your only experience of them was in the game. You didn’t know what they might look like in the real world.’
‘Exactly,’ said Daryl. ‘When I left, the only things on the planet were robots. I thought they might be humans. For a while I thought I might be human.’
On the ceiling, the sun set one final time and the sky faded away to nothing. Daryl got to his feet.
‘You have to go back to Parallife,’ Amy said. ‘You have to save them. Stop the system wipe! You’re the only one of us who knows how.’
‘No.’ Daryl held up his large metal hands and backed away. ‘I can’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because of what I said. Once I’m inside the system I’m too powerful. If I start acting like a god then the characters will stop being free to create their own destinies – I’ll be like a human, directing my creations as I see fit. If they don’t have the imagination to save themselves, then I have failed.’
He looked away and strode over to the window.
Amy looked at Rory. He shrugged.
‘I will save the Doctor,’ Daryl said eventually, ‘because he is not my creation. I can create a save-point for him to escape through.’
‘But if you do that the Doctor’s efforts will be wasted. He’s risking his life to save your characters!’
Daryl said nothing.
‘Daryl, if you don’t do it, I’ll have to do it myself,’ Amy shouted. ‘And I don’t know what any of this stuff does. Who knows what I’ll blow up!’
Rory put his hand on Amy’s shoulder. ‘Let me try,’ he whispered. She looked at him in confusion, but hung back.
Slowly, Rory walked over to the window and stood beside Daryl. Neither of them looked at each other.
‘You’re thinking about this all wrong, Daryl,’ Rory said, gazing out over the landscape. ‘You think too much of yourself.’
Still Daryl didn’t reply.
‘Just because you created them doesn’t make you their god,’ he paused. ‘It makes you their father.’ He turned to look at the large screen of Daryl’s face. It was blank, and gave no clue as to what he was thinking. ‘They’re your children, Daryl. Save them, stop the wipe. Help them grow!’
CHAPTER 23
The Virtual War
The world was ending, and Blondie was having the time of her life.
She darted gracefully onto the top of a nearby building as a second wave of Defrags crashed through the city suburbs and over the remains of their fallen comrades. That had been Blondie’s doing.
She paused for a moment, taking in every detail of her surroundings. The neon-framed buildings around her lay empty. The violence of the Defrag’s attack and her relentless response had been enough to persuade any citizens that they had no choice but to run for their lives.
Blondie took a deep breath and plunged into the fray once more.
Her blade flashed and sliced through the ranks. All around her the twisted bodies splintered, spraying her with orange data. They tried to dodge, their broken faces howling in frustration, but she was fast. Faster than any of them.
The ranks fell and she sprinted on across the infected suburbs, smashing through the black-stained walls and corrupted gardens that stood in her way, in a white flurry of destruction.
A familiar static hiss sounded loud above her and she raised her sword. Without even looking, she spun the blade like a helicopter rotor, as a horde of Defrags plunged out of the sky towards her. They shattered on impact in a blistering Catherine wheel of pixels. Her blade glowed as more minds were absorbed.
Before the Defrag’s bodies had even fallen to the floor, she leapt high into the air once more, scattering fragments in all directions. Her eyes flashed, searching for another group to save.
Then the buildings went dark.
A shadow was cast across the city, deeper and darker than any that the Guild above could create. The angry smile on Blondie’s face vanished, and she looked out across the number-soaked battlefield to the wall of darkness that dwarfed the world.
A tidal wave of pixels was gathering at its base. Made from the torn-up remains of the outlying towns. The broken pieces mixed together, churning into a multicoloured flood. The wave collected itself as the darkness advanced ever closer, gathering itself up until it arced over Blondie’s head.
Then the wave broke and she was snatched from the sky.
The Doctor was running out of time.
He’d lost Blondie in the chaos of battle. Now he needed her more than ever. Looking round he spotted a spiralling staircase wrapped tightly around a sixty-metre tall golden statue of a muscle-bound man wearing a shirt and trousers. It took a moment for the Doctor to realise that it was supposed to be the Chief Architect.
He sprinted up the steps as fast as he could. At the top, he grasped the statue’s outstretched arm for balance as he paused to catch his breath.
The system wipe had arrived.
It crashed into the outskirts of the city, flooding the suburbs with pixels. The Doctor looked away, and then up.
Above him the Architects’ Guild was swaying on its pillar in the storm of fragmented computer code that raced across the sky. As he watched, the edge of the darkness hit its central rim, tearing up the base-codes that supported the structure. The glass flooring splintered and shattered, transforming into a hail of numbers as it fell towards the Doctor. The Guild lurched – swaying in the hurricane. Then finally the connecting pillar snapped.
‘Blondie!’ the Doctor shouted, desperately looking around. ‘Where are you?’
The Guild toppled, away from the void. To the Doctor it seemed to fall in slow motion, the far edge of the building crashing into the centre of the city over a mile away. Almost a minute before the rest of the spires hit. The explosions rippled towards him, throwing up blinding clouds of debris.
‘Blondie!’ the Doctor yelled once more, hoping that she wasn’t trapped beneath the wireframe rubble.
Finally, his call was answered.
‘I’m here!’
The Doctor turned to see the warrior standing astride one of the tower blocks above him. Her clothes were torn and stained with orange numbers, but her sword glowed brighter than ever, and her face wore a grin of triumph.
The Doctor waved, beckoning for her to join him.
She flexed her knees and jumped. Soaring through the air like a dancer, before landing by his side.
‘How many?’ the Doctor asked.
‘At least a thousand,’ she said, looking at her sword.
‘A thousand?’ The Doctor looked incredulous. ‘How did you manage that?’
Blondie grinned at him. ‘I’m the best.’
The Doctor smiled slightly. ‘I forget you can fly.’
‘I can do a lot of things without you slowing me down.’ Blondie winked.
A spray of pixels slashed across their faces and the Doctor ducked to avoid one of the Defrags as it flew past them.
Blondie’s sword flashed in the air for a second and the Defrag’s splintered body dissolved, crumbling to join the pixels on the street below.
‘Make that one thousand and one saved,’ she declared, as her sword absorbed the glowing white ball that contained the citizen’s mind.
The wall of darkness was closer than ever now and it filled the sky, turning the world to night. The Doctor placed a hand on Blondie’s arm before she could take off again. ‘No, it’s too late, that’ll have to do.’
Blondie stopped. ‘What now? We can’t ou
trun it.’
‘I know.’ He looked at her. ‘Cast your water shield.’
Blondie nodded, and raised her hand.
The bright column of light arced out above them, then exploded outwards into a fountain of water – stretching out and down to the square below.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and, without warning, thrust it into the column of light.
‘What are you doing?’ Blondie shouted over the roar of the water.
‘Trying to change the computer code of the spell. If I can tweak it enough, the system wipe might not be able to erase it.’
‘Well I hope you can tweak fast,’ Blondie replied. ‘It’s going to hit us!’
The Doctor turned in time to see the Darkness engulf the square.
There was an ear-splitting crunch and the Doctor screwed up his face in pain as the world around them crumbled into nothing. The water shield boiled. Clouds of steam drifted across what was left of the square, stinging the Doctor’s face as the system wipe searched for a weakness in the code.
The Doctor turned to Blondie. ‘I wasn’t fast enough,’ he said sadly.
‘It’s okay,’ said Blondie, ‘we all have to die sometime.’
The shield trembled and stuttered. Then the water froze in mid-air, like a shining glass bubble.
The bubble popped.
CHAPTER 24
Salvation
‘We’re alive,’ said the Doctor.
‘Don’t sound too surprised,’ said Blondie.
They looked around as a deathly silence fell. The square had been carved into a circle, traced by the outline of the water shield. The emerald floor radiated out only a few metres from the base of the golden statue, deep green cobbles marked out on the surface. They warped and twisted as they reached the edge of the world, falling away like a waterfall frozen in time.
The Doctor looked behind them. As if through a grey haze, what remained of Parallife still stretched away in the distance, the straight border that marked the edge of the wipe overlapped only slightly with Blondie’s island. Barely enough for two people to walk across side by side. The system wipe had halted.
The Doctor burst into motion, racing down the steps to the base of the statue and across to the edge of the circle. He was moving so fast that he could barely stop himself from falling when he reached the edge.
He knelt down and put his hand out in front of him.
‘They did it,’ he said. ‘They stopped the wipe.’
Blondie appeared by his side. ‘And only just in time.’
She looked down at the emptiness that stretched away in all directions. ‘It’s the edge of the world,’ she whispered.
‘And beyond it, nothing.’
‘Except for that.’
The Doctor looked around. ‘Except for what?’
‘That,’ Blondie pointed, ‘that star.’
‘What star?’ The Doctor trailed off as he followed her finger. ‘Oh.’
A small white point had appeared in the distance – a bright, white light. It twinkled, then began to grow.
‘It’s getting bigger,’ said Blondie.
‘No, it’s getting closer,’ replied the Doctor.
And it was. The closer it got, the brighter it became and soon the Doctor had to shield his eyes against the glare. So it was Blondie who spotted him first.
‘There’s someone in there!’ she shouted. ‘A man, on a bridge!’
‘A bridge?’ the Doctor squinted through the haze.
Blondie was right. The dark silhouette of a man was walking inside the light of the star. And beneath his feet a golden road seemed to be building itself with every step he took. The bricks’ outlines arced in front of him, drawn in pure white light before transforming into solid gold as his feet touched the surface. As the man came closer, the bridge shimmered in the void behind him, a thin strand of sunlight in a sea of blackness.
The Doctor took another look at the deep green landscape beyond the square. ‘A yellow brick road and an emerald city,’ he murmured. ‘Perfect.’
Blondie dragged the Doctor to his feet and pulled him back, as the white outlines extended onto the spot where he’d been standing.
‘Get out of the way,’ she hissed, as the last few blocks fell into place and the golden road joined the remains of the square. Slowly, the man stepped off the bridge. The starlight followed him onto the pale green ground, then scattered, and finally Blondie realised who it was.
‘The Games Master. He’s come back,’ she whispered.
The man was tall, well over two-metres tall, with long silver hair and a broad chest clothed in a tight T-shirt. He wore jeans and flip-flops and, despite his bulk, he moved with a gentle grace. The Doctor thought he looked –
‘Dishy,’ said Blondie.
‘Dishy?!’ The Doctor looked at her. ‘Really? Is that really something you say?’
Blondie nudged him. ‘Quiet, he might hear.’
The Doctor rolled his eyes and stepped forward, extending his hand in greeting.
‘Daryl, I presume?’ he said.
The man grasped his hand. ‘How did you know?’ he said in a soft growling voice.
‘I didn’t,’ the Doctor replied, ‘but I hoped.’
He turned and opened his arms to present his companion. ‘And this is Blondie.’
Blondie smiled sheepishly.
Daryl smiled back. ‘You don’t need to tell me that. She was always one of my favourites. I can see you didn’t disappoint me, Blondie.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ she said. She stepped forward and offered him her sword. ‘We tried to save as many Defrags as possible. Maybe you’ll be able to restore them.’
‘Restore them?’ said Daryl.
Blondie faltered. ‘Yeah, when you rebuild Parallife.’
Daryl took the sword, but shook his head. ‘I’m not going to rebuild Parallife,’ he said slowly. ‘I think it’s time to set you free.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Blondie, I’ve come to take you to a world with no Games Master. A place where no one can decide your fate for you. A place where I am just another character.’ Daryl hefted the sword. ‘These will be the first, but I’ll need you to gather together the rest of the survivors.’ He looked over their shoulders, to what was left of the Architects’ Guild and the remains of the land beyond. ‘Lead them to Legacy, she will explain everything.’
‘Legacy’s a girl?’ the Doctor asked.
‘She is now,’ smiled Daryl. ‘I’ve reprogrammed her. To copy what I did with myself all those years ago.’ He paused. ‘There are thousands of robots out there, Doctor, ready to begin the reconstruction of Earth. Imagine if they all had minds of their own, brimming with imagination. What kind of world would they create?’
The Doctor smiled and swept his arm across the shimmering landscape behind him. ‘Do you even need to ask?’
‘I think the human race will get a surprise when they return.’
‘Yeah,’ the Doctor nodded, ‘but it’ll be a nice one.’
The Doctor had insisted on staying in Parallife until every survivor had been saved. But as Blondie pointed out, in-between her regular flights over the broken landscape, his lack of abilities meant that he wasn’t much help. The Doctor had just smiled and ignored her. He said he wanted ‘to be sure’.
Eventually, the last hundred citizens were lined up alongside the splintered central spire of the Guild, ready for Blondie to lead them over the bridge to the new world that was waiting for them beyond the network.
The Doctor stood on the sidelines, hands in his pockets, watching them. Blondie turned to look at him, and he waved.
She sighed and walked over to him.
‘This is the last of them,’ she said.
‘I know,’ said the Doctor.
‘And I’m going with them.’
‘I know.’
‘And I’ll probably be downloaded into a robot on the other side of the world, knowing my luck,’ she said.
&
nbsp; The Doctor shrugged. ‘Maybe.’
‘What I’m trying to say,’ Blondie paused, ‘is that this is probably going to be goodbye.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘I think you’re probably right.’
They stood there for a minute in silence, until Blondie finally plucked up the courage to kiss him on the cheek.
‘Take care, Doctor,’ she said, before turning quickly back to join the line of people as they began their journey over the bridge.
The Doctor watched her disappear into the distance.
Daryl appeared behind him.
‘Ready?’ he asked.
The Doctor nodded. ‘Time to leave.’
Daryl reached out his hand, and snapped his fingers. A small purple globe appeared in the air in front of them.
Cautiously, the Doctor reached out his hand and touched it.
In small white letters, a message typed itself into the air.
Do you want to save your game?
Yes/No
The Doctor pressed Yes and the message refreshed.
Quit?
Yes/No
The Doctor paused for a moment and looked at Daryl.
‘Don’t forget to turn out the lights when you leave,’ he said.
Then he quit.
EPILOGUE
The Tower
The sun was rising as Amy and Rory trudged along the flat, gritted plain towards Chicago. Or at least where Chicago had once stood. The soft, brown sand that had now replaced the rolling white dunes glowed a dull orange in the low sunlight. A haze of dust made the world seem calm and unreal.
‘It’s hard to believe that only yesterday this was all skyscrapers,’ Amy said. ‘Doesn’t feel like any time at all really.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ Rory replied. ‘I’m starving.’
They had instructed the large construction robot, who had carried them tirelessly to Legacy and back, to wait for them at the old city border, but this time they weren’t its only passengers. A small team of mini-robots, barely half Amy’s size, fanned out in front of them, scouring the land with sonar. They were searching for something.