Chapter 5: Phoenix
I slept in a chair in the library that night, and headed to the cafe early in the morning. I had to admit, there was something serene about the town at 6:30 in the morning, the sun just peeking from behind the tops of houses, spilling light over treetops and into the streets and lawns. I greeted the person at the cafe, ordered a hot chocolate and glazed doughnut, and sat at one of the outdoor tables. Today was going to be a tough day to get through, that's for sure. I cannot stress enough how important it is that Felix treats the situation with some respect. I've done the same for him, he can at least return the favor. I recycled the empty cup and headed back to the capitol to play some BattleBlock Theater and try not to stress over the situation too much. Around noon, I would go check on him and see if he wants to take my predicament seriously.
Back in the workshop, I tried to hook back up Felix's terminal and figure it out. I vaguely remember bits and pieces, and sighed in frustration since I would remember a bit more if it hadn't been for Felix getting a little trigger happy last year with a memory wipe. I scanned through a couple menus and eventually got to a login screen. Shoot. I was about to unplug the terminal again until I realized I now have an Internet connection thanks to my desktop. I unplugged the video cable from the terminal, plugged it into my desktop, and then fished Felix's credentials out of the garbage. “NIFELIX” was the username, just had to now figure out the password. He said it was encrypted, so I figured I'd try a bunch of them to see what I get.
I clicked on one of the first results for “decode words cipher” and typed in the garbage Felix wrote down. After trying maybe 10 different formulas, I found that none of them produced real words. The only thing I could consider is maybe I wasn't using the site correctly, or Felix's password was also a string of smashed letters. I tried a couple strings and eventually got locked out for the hour. That should also at least keep Francisco and co. from messing with the town more, right? I guess I did Felix a favor. Ten points for me. Go team.
I left to go see how Felix was doing just before noon, placing a mental bet on that he hadn't made any progress yet. I knocked on the door, and was greeted by a shockingly familiar sight. Leather jacket, TF2 T-shirt, jeans, the converse, hair down... He actually did it, the son of a bitch. “Hey, Felix,” he said in an unmistakable tone.
“Y... you did it. I'm impressed.”
"Thank you kindly. I tried to study the tapes all night to get the tone down, but suddenly couldn't stay awake just after 11:00.”
I took a small bit of pride in knowing he crashed just like I used to. Never found out why it happened, but it usually prevented me from engaging in stuff like all-nighters, watching European livestreamers, or going to any form of parties. “Oh, come in,” he said, gesturing.
“Hey, mom, Felix wanted to check some stuff out. Is that okay?” He called.
“What type of stuff?”
“He's just making sure our Internet is working.”
“Alright, then.”
Felix turned to me. “Pretty convincing, isn't it?”
“Yeah. Kinda scary, actually. How--”
“So Meredith is getting a promotion tonight, huh? Good for her, she works really hard at that design firm.”
It was weird hearing my voice, my tone, just everything call mom by her actual name. “Yeah, she does. So what did y--”
“I shot a man.”
There was a certain finesse to how bluntly he handled that sentence. It felt like he threw up the words. Words I already knew, but they still hit.. “I had to shoot the doppelganger to get rid of him. That's why I didn't want to let go of this, Ash. It's just... I haven't had to shoot someone, haven't had to put my hand on someone in like seven years. I was getting sick of it all, sick of me, and then this happened, and... and I could be young and not have a care in the world and run around all day, and... it was fun, Ash.”
“But...?”
“But I really can't run from that. I can only hope to do more good and let that overshadow the bad, y'know?”
I began to pace around the room, and picked up my dad's wooden figure of H.P. Lovecraft. “Ash, everyone has something they'd rather forget they did. I hate to bring him back up, but your dad. He has to feel awful about what he did for your family, your brother had to be worried sick about how you were doing to get you prescriptions to the meds you take, and I know I can't forgive myself for how you figured that all out. But if you sit and dwell on it all the time, then, well, you don't get to get better. I dunno, maybe I'm not making sense.”
I set the figure back down. “I get it, Felix.”
“Alright, thanks. I can go switch this back now, if you want.”
“It's up to you.”
“Then let's go.”
The walk back to the capitol was really heavy for some reason. The last two days have been a lot to take in, but at this point it doesn't phase me. New Infinity is packed with weird shit, and I'd be lying to myself if I said this wasn't business as usual. Francisco has been mostly harassing and threatening, but hasn't done any actual damage, and really every day's been an adventure. I mean, I don't know just how many people can say their town is in a computer of some kind. Felix opened the workshop, rearranged the computers on the desk and set my desktop on the floor, hooked everything up, and then logged in at a blistering pace. He sorted through the entire list of changes (which seemed longer than usual), and eventually got back to the large one. He selected it, pressed a button, and soon the screen flooded with code. “I'm going to put this all in a macro. Start the day over and all that. Alright, it's ready to go. Oh, and Ash? Thank you.”
Suddenly, I was hit with an overwhelming warmth. I was back in bed, and it was 11:00 AM. Way later than usual. I got up, and looked around the room. It was my room, and the person in the mirror not even half-awake was definitely me. Nice. I got ready for the day and checked my phone. It was still on the floor, uncharged, only at 8%, but it was indeed 11:45, Tuesday the 14th. I plugged the phone in and grabbed some breakfast... lunch? Whatever. I couldn't help but wonder though if everyone else remembered that first half of today or not. “Hey, Alex?”
“Hmm?” He asked, halfway through a bite of a waffle.
“Has anyone knocked on the door or anything yet today?”
“No. Why? Expecting an Amazon package?”
“No, just curious.”
“Alright then,” he replied, stabbing the waffle remains once more.
So he did wipe that entire day off the map, but I can still remember it. Wonder how that one works. What day is it outside anymore? It might be 2019, who knows, I just want today, here in New Infinity, to be normal now.
ns 15.158.61.17da2
