Michael smiled—he didn’t care. He felt so much better that the world had brightened and cleared.

“I’m glad that makes you so happy,” Bryson muttered, then patted his friend on the shoulder. “Actually, thanks for not spewing all over me.”

“You’re very welcome,” Michael replied.

“You feel better?” Sarah asked.

“Tons.” Michael folded his arms and shifted his legs to get more comfortable. “I guess I’m feeling better about everything. I mean, I’m not sure what happened back in Atlanta—but it’s something that we’re all still alive, right? And now we’re on our way to people who want to help.”

And I have a plan, he thought. It was the first time in ages he’d had one, and it felt good. He would go to the Hallowed Ravine, back to where this had all started. He just had to find the right time to tell his friends about it.

“Dude,” Bryson said, “you’re a glass-half-full kind of guy. I like it.”

Sarah smiled and covertly grabbed Michael’s hand between them, slipping her fingers through his. The world brightened even more. And we need to make sure Gabby’s okay, he thought. The last time he saw her she’d been unconscious—hit in the head—and it was Michael’s fault for dragging her into the whole mess. He didn’t want to pull her in any deeper, but he needed to make sure she was all right.

“We’re almost there,” Gerard called back to them, slowing. “Uh…I think.”

Butterflies filled Michael’s stomach. Still holding Sarah’s hand, he leaned forward, peering through the front windshield as they continued tunneling through the leafy forest. He had absolutely no idea what to expect—where they were going or why—but his excitement built in leaps and bounds as he watched the road ahead. It made him think of the Path, and with a jolt of anxiety he wondered if he was truly in the real world, in the Wake, or somewhere in a box, connected to wires and uploaded to the VirtNet. He’d been fooled so many times and in so many ways, he’d never be certain again.

He thought back to the man, the one who had visited him at the prison right before Agent Weber. It had come back to him in his dream also. Something about waking up over and over again, within layers upon layers of VirtNet levels. What was it? Like a dream within a dream. That really creeped him out.

The road pitched steeply downward, and Michael shook the thought out of his head. He’d get dizzy again if he kept it up. He focused on the world around him—real or virtual—as it was.