Fiber Optics

Faster! Faster! I have to go faster! Numbed by fear and pure adrenaline, I can't feel my legs. I'm no longer running; my feet are running, guided by nothing except for the gut-wrenching notion that it would catch me. I can't go faster! But I must! I can't let it catch me like it did Ambrose!

I dare to glance behind me. It's still there! I can't let it catch me! I can't let that light catch me, whatever it is. A blazing white dot, infinitely small but extending indefinately. A parcel of radience, so bright that it almost transcends the color "white." So powerful, it's force preceeds it, and I can feel its pulsing. I would stand dumbfounded at its awesome beauty, if not for the fear of it overtaking me.

It's gaining on me! The path splits! I take the right fork; it follows me! The path splits again! Left! It's still behind me! I can feel the rays reaching out for me like tentacles, grasping, groping, searching for a hold on me to pull me in. Another fork, and I take the center path. There's no use shaking it! It will catch me inevitably! But I have to keep running! Right! Left! Left! Center! Right! Center! Right! Weaving in and around! Where am I? Should I care? Would it matter? No, I just have to run.

My lungs are gasping for air, but I can't get enough! I've run so long! I can't give up now! I shouldn't fight it; it will get me anyway. But I have to run! Ambrose's fate burns in my mind. What became of him? What would become of me if it gets me? It's not a matter of "if" anymore; what will happen "when" it gets me? Will I be vaporized? Will it hurt? Will I be trapped for eternity? Left! Right! Right! Center! Left! What's that ahead? Another light thing?! No! It can't get me! It won't! I won't let it! But it will! It will! It's not another light thing...it's the port! The port! I never expected to see it! Glistening and sparkling like tiny fireflies, like living glitter! I have to reach it! The light is right behind me! I can't make it! I will! It will get me! No! I leap through the port.

The light is gone, but I still feel the tingle of adrenaline pumping through my body. My heart is about to explode from my chest. But I'm safe. Then Ambrose crosses my mind. What happened to Ambrose? I pull off my head set and look over at the swivel chair beside me, in front of the blinking console. Ambrose is still in his chair, but his chin is resting on his chest. I muster up the strength to reach over and nudge him. "Ambrose. Hey Ambrose, wake up." No answer. He's breathing, and his heart is beating, but other than that, there are no signs of life. I shake him and yell, "Hey! Wake up!" His head set slides off, dangling from its cord. I see his eyes; they are wide open, but unblinking. "Can you hear me?!" No answer. Ambrose isn't there. He's alive, but he's not there. I glance over at the papers spread out on the large desk in front of me. The finacial grants, the authorization letters, the progress reports...the warnings. "Such an experiment is reckless...will prove nothing...is too great a risk..." But we never expected it to end this way. I'm sure nobody expected to end this way. We didn't think it could be so perilous. I mean, the worst havoc that anyone thought it could reak were power outages and network disruptions.

I hear a faint rumble outside our dungeon-like room located in the very depths of the building. I venture out the door, still shaking from what transpired over the last several seconds. I follow a dimmly-lit hall through a few doors, turn a few corners, and arrive in a small, dark lobby at the front of the building. I hear the rumble again, this time much louder. I step through a pair of glass doors; a cool, wet wind blows through my hair, flaps around my jacket, and rustles past my shirt. I lift my head and look at the sky, past the short overhang five stories above me. I step out a little further to get a better view. The wet wind turns to a driving rain. I still gaze upward. Lightning slashes across the sky, followed closely by a throaty rumble of thunder. But I still gaze upward, letting the rain cool my face. Another bolt flashes, casting an eerie glow on the manicured landscape, causing the elegantly carved shrubs to take on a sinister nature. But I still gaze upward, looking for nothing, searching for everything. I see a dark shape in my peripheral vision. I turn my head. A flash of lightning burns the image into my retinas; I close my eyes, but, haunting like the refrain of a dirge, its negative floats against the darkness. I open my eyes and turn away, but the memory of the exploded transformer perched on a blackened pole continues to drift through my head. I begin to feel so unprepared, so inadequate, so ignorant.

I slowly walk back inside the building, my clothes heavy with water. My shoes squish and my hair drips on the patterned carpet of the lobby. I'm chilled by my wetness as I walk through the dim hallway. I look up from my feet and notice that the generator lights are on. I make my way back to the small dungeon-like room in the deep interior of the building. I look up at the console blinking through the blackness that filled the room. The blinking reflects against Ambrose, still slumped in his chair, his head set still dangling across his lap. I just stand there, a puddle of water forming at my feet. I can hear the distant rumbling outside. I can hear the drops of water splash onto the gray tile beneath me.

How could we have been so foolish? Were we blinded by our eagerness? Well, it would be perfectly natural to be eager about something with so many wonderful possibilities. So many solutions. So many chances for advancement. To live and work in a world we've only been able to work with. To move at the speed of light through wires and cables at will. We felt so strongly about it that we pursued it for years until someone finally decided that it was worth funding. We were the only ones to dare to carry out the experiment, and we would rather it be that way. It was our idea. No, it was more than that. It was our brainchild. Something as ground-breaking as inserting the human mind into the realm of information would make history. And we were to be the first ones to finally experience it. We took every precaution. Or at least we thought so.

I begin to think of my adventure in the network. Ambrose and I were just packets of information, zipping though the cables of the office network. The lightning struck and began to chase us, our minds interpreting the "zipping" as running. Ambrose began to think he was too tired to go on and decided to give up. I realize now that we were traveling just as fast as the lightning: the speed of light.

"You should have kept running, Ambrose."

I stand staring at his empty form, his body alive and functioning, but his mind obliterated. He thought he was unable to outrun the light, but he was able. He would have overcome, had he persevered, but his mind fooled him. And I just stand there. Dripping. Shaking. Staring. Thinking.

"You should have kept running."