The last line appeared on the screen before the monitor dissolved into white light: “Extraction complete.”
The progress bar didn’t move. Instead, his monitor flickered. The hum of his cooling fans surged into a high-pitched whine, then snapped into dead silence.
Elias reached for the power cable, but his hand passed right through the cord. He looked down at his fingers; they were beginning to pixelate, breaking apart into raw hex code.