Concealed

Although he’d been using his computer for years, he didn’t know about eggs.

Easter eggs, that is. Those sneaky bits of programming snuck in by software programmers, just for a lark. Hidden bits of code that make things happen when some weird set of key strokes, or more precisely, a command, is typed in at the keyboard. It’s just some bizarre activity that these people get up to. Go figure! Anyway, this guy simply hadn’t heard of them, until quite out of the blue the topic came up one weekend at his tennis club. One of his regular partners, a player that regularly lost when they played, told him about it in the changing room. This followed a game that saw him thoroughly beaten once more. Despite this, he was most informative on the subject, giving examples of where you could find them, hiding in places like Word, Excel and even Google Search.

He was so fascinated with the idea, that when he got home that day, he went straight to his computer and tried a couple. His friend had told him where he could find them.

Over the following days, with a bit of research on the Net, he found more and more hidden gems. At this point you could say that the whole thing had become an obsession. So much so, that when he caught up with this particular tennis partner again on the following weekend, he felt that he had to tell him all about it, after thrashing him yet again.

It was during this follow-up conversation that he was told that there were a number of truly spectacular easter eggs that were concealed on the dark web. In fact, he knew of one that he’d been given some time back, but had never tried himself. He was quick to point out that the dark web wasn’t really a good place to spend time in. He had never wanted to take the risk.

Despite this warning, the new easter egg enthusiast pressured the other to provide him with details for both entering that part of the web and the phrase he needed to type in to generate what sounded like a very special egg.

That same day, he planned to spend time delving into this latest adventure during the evening. He would need to follow the very specific instructions received in order to enter that veiled part of the internet. Then, he would have to have his wits about him once he was in there. It had been explained to him that it wasn’t a place where you wanted to make mistakes!

He felt the unrestrained excitement building during the afternoon. So much so, that when the time came to sit down at his computer, his fingers were trembling. Trying hard to steady himself against the growing sense of anticipation, he carefully followed the instructions that had been written down for him.

As he entered that part of the dark web he’d been directed to, his screen went dark. He supposed that made sense. Then, he meticulously entered the phrase he’d been given and waited. After a few seconds the screen went from dark to black. This was black, black. It was pitch-black, the sort of black you get when the computer is switched off. He sat wondering for a while whether this was the case, when a great heavy, red circle slowly formed. It filled the screen. Again, he sat staring at it. After several more, long moments passed, a group of extremely faint numbers began to appear inside the ring. They gradually became larger and sharper until clearly visible. Now, in large, bright red characters, it read ‘120’.

It was just a number: for the best part of a minute the image remained on his screen, giving him time to consider what it meant. He hadn’t made any progress on that score, when the number changed to ‘119’, then a moment later, to ‘118’…

It was at this point that he realised that these were seconds and they were counting down. He had a bad feeling about it. At the same time, he became aware of a smell. It was as though something was burning. Then, he looked on in horror as smoke began to rise from the machine. It was at this point that he felt that something pretty awful was about to take place! Seeing the counter now read ‘58’, he jumped up and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

He was in the lounge room when he heard the explosion.