Chapter 3 - Inside

Chapter 3

Inside

Courage had made sure to leave the attic as fast as possible so The Computer couldn’t protest to him about it. He had quickly made his way into the kitchen and gotten Muriel to follow him, he wanted to show her what he had found.

“Did you find something to help Eustace?” Muriel asked as Courage led her into the attic.

He’d been trying to get his words across to her but as always it sounded like gibberish to her.

As Courage made his way up to The Computer with Muriel it angrily spoke up “I hope your happy twit! If I die of a virus because of you I swear I’ll...”

‘Calm down’ Courage typed. ‘Is it completely downloaded now?’ Courage secretly had no intentions on giving his computer virus protection, why should he help the thing anyway?

“Give me a few minutes sheesh!” The Computer replied just as angry as ever.

Courage looked up at Muriel who looked very worried, she constantly gazed over at the door expecting Eustace to come crawling in begging for help.

“Courage could you check Eustace for me?” Muriel asked fidgeting nervously.

Seeing how worried Muriel looked Courage decided he would despite his hatred for Eustace and with I sigh he left the attic again.

...He didn’t hear the “Oh, no.” The Computer had whispered the moment he left the room nor had he seen the VIRUS ALERT flash across the scream in large red letters.

The virus had finally been detected but it was already to late.

“It’s actually happing to me...I can’t believe...” His voice was cut of as an electronic buzzing, static sound filled the air as hell just about completely broke lose in his system. Without virus protection the virus took over in seconds, The Computer was helpless at this point.

...Nobody heard Muriel scream or saw the green light that filled the room for a few seconds...

A few minutes later after many sneeze and many ‘stupid dog’ callings from Eustace Courage finally headed back to the attic.

He instantly realized Muriel was nowhere to be found...all that there was was the strange buzzing like sound coming from The Computer.

He instantly launched himself into the computer chair and typed ‘Where’s Muriel? What happened to her!’

Although The Computer didn’t speak up letters printed out across the screen. Sadly it was almost impossible to read. “1t g07 4er Virus, Virus, Virus, Virus(”

‘ A virus got Muriel! What can I do! Tell me! I’ve gotta help her’

“9ca6ne7"

‘I can’t understand!’

“Scanner, Scanner, Scanner”

Now the word ‘scanner’ was constantly repeating itself across the screen, Courage gazed down at the white scanner which had to be what The Computer was talking about.

He looked back up at the screen before hopping out of the chair, it was now repeating. “4irus all y3ur fa8lt, all your fault, all your fault6whywhywhy#!1!”

Courage felt his heart sink at the sight, what was he going to do now? This really was his fault, what was going to happen to Muriel now?

Placing himself under the scanner, there was a bright light...and suddenly he was falling...

He screamed the whole way, he was falling through steep, endless, darkness. His arms and legs were flailing helplessly at his side, his screaming went unheard...and suddenly it was over...

There was no impact at all...he was just standing there as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t been falling at all.

Despite being a little shook up Courage began to take in the settings, he really must be inside The Computer because the walls, floor, and everything else looked like a computer chip. Long, almost endless looking hallways sprawled out before him. He was in a large clearing but at least six hallways could be seen from every side.

“Which way...do I go?” He murmured. How was he supposed to ever find Muriel now?

His question seemed to be answered when a vicious snarling sound filled the air, coming from a hallway to the right. He didn’t want to run right into danger but for all he knew it could be Muriel over there getting attacked!

Taking off faster then ever he headed down the ‘computer’ like corridor and came into yet another clearing, this one was much smaller then the other but overall was the same.

What he saw made him gasp, what looked like your normal computer mouse was now a large, snake like, monster with even deadlier looking snake like teeth. The thing had a mouth only because it looked like a mouse split in half and of course it used a cord to suspend itself somewhat like a snake too. It was looming over some kind of glowing thing crumpled up on the ground before it.

Courage gasped and turned around to run but he had already gained its attention, it was no long looming over the glowing thing but gazing at him!

It let out a howl before launching forward at him thankfully it didn’t make it very far...

It stopped in it’s tracks and let out a moan before static began to shoot out of it, it twitched a few times before hitting the ground and stopped moving altogether.

It’s cause of death had been no other then the glowing thing which was now standing with and arm out stretched at the now dead computer mouse creature. The glowing thing had a humanoid form but was completely featureless, it was nothing more then a glowing human form.

It lowered its arm before suddenly gripping its chest like killing that thing had hurt it horribly. It dropped to the ground like a wave of pain was passing over it but as soon as it was over it stood tall yet again as if nothing was wrong at all.

It strode meekly over to the creature, examined it for a few seconds before kicking vigorously and yelling “Good for nothing virus! Mess one more thing up why don’t you?”

Courage instantly realized who that was, that British accent was unmistakable. “Computer!” He yelled unable to believe that glowing thing was him.

The glowing thing looked over at him before crossing his arms and saying. “I thought you had an owner to find, dog?”

“W-what was that thing!” He gasped.

The Computer looked back over at the creature. “It was one of my security defense systems but the virus has reprogrammed all them to attack me instead of help me. I’m blocked out of just about everything so I can’t do a thing about it. Normally I’m within the system and am not... ‘seeable’ as you would say or better said I’m everything you see around you right now but I’m blocked out of even that so I have to run around like this. That defense system I just destroyed as apart of me just as anything else here so as you can imagine it would feel the same as someone cutting off your arm or leg. The virus has still given me the luxury of being aloud to destroy myself as much as I would like not that it’s not already doing the job for me. ”

“You can still help me find Muriel right?” Courage asked softy.

“Im afraid I’m just as useless at that too, normally I could find her in a millisecond in here but...well you get the idea with the situation I’m in...and I also have no idea why the virus captured your Muriel in the first place.”

“You know, you seemed to be in a lot worse condition when you typed that message to me!”

“Don’t you dare say that! If you haven’t noticed this little virus is trying to kill me off! It took me a considerable amount of energy just to tell you those things because the virus was trying to block that out from me too! I could have just left you in the dark to figure out what happened to your owner on your own! Now if you don’t mind I have my own hardware to save! You can go find your stupid owner by yourself while this thing kills me!”

It didn’t take rocket science for Courage to tell he’d just officially pissed his computer off but before he could attempted to say anything The Computer was stopping off down one of the corridors. “Hey, I’m sorry okay?” He called down. “I didn’t know things were as bad as they were!” But he got no reply.

Courage spent the next half-hour literally wandering around finding nothing, all around him he could see damage from the virus though. Corruption from the virus could be seen in large areas on the walls, it glowed a deep green color and it seemed to spread constantly growing wider. It seemed the farther he went in the more green it was become. The floor was even becoming corrupted, sometimes Courage had to leap across areas because the floor would be one giant green hole.

Getting sick of walking Courage stopped and gazed at a small green spot forming...he couldn’t help but wonder...he stuck his paw out to touch it but seconds away from it’s green glow another hand gripped his arm and pulled him back.

“Don’t touch! Do you want to get corrupted too?” Came the voice of The Computer who had a hold of him, Courage was surprised how warm he was...almost like Muriel...

“You could have said something instead of coming up and scaring me like that!” He yelled at the glowing form.

“What are you doing in such a corrupted area anyway? Your stupidity doesn’t cease to amaze me.”

“Well then, what are you doing here then!” Courage growled.

“That’s none of your business dog, besides I see you hardly know left from right so I’ve decided to follow you around from now on so you don’t go do something stupid right away.”

“What! What if I don’t want you around”

“You can’t argue, now come on! Do you want to find your Muriel or not!”

End Chapter

A/N: The snake computer mouse can be seen in Hard Drive Courage but that one is much small then the one in this story.

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