The Reality Bug

by D. J. MacHale

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  “There is one possibility,” she said reluctantly. “But it’s too much to ask.”

  “Ask!” I shouted.

  Aja sighed and said, “It’s possible to jump into Lifelight and find Zetlin.”

  “But I thought the grid was in suspense?”

  “Suspended,” she corrected.

  “Whatever.”

  “It is, but there’s another way,” Aja said.

  She walked to the far side of the Alpha Core, where there was another door. She took out her green card and inserted it in a slot. Instantly the door slid open. I peered into the room beyond and was surprised to see a room similar to the jump cubicles in the pyramid. Only this one had three large silver disks on the wall.

  “This is the original unit,” she explained. “The alpha grid. It operates independently from the main grid. I could bring it back online by itself.”

  I gazed into the cubicle as the reality of what she was telling me slowly sank in. “Are you saying—”

  “Yes. Dr. Zetlin is in there.”

  Whoa. The father of Lifelight was lying only a few feet away. It felt like I was peering into a tomb. But it was no time to pay respects.

  “So fire up the alpha grid and pull the old guy out of there!” I said.

  “I can’t,” Aja said. “He doesn’t want to come out.”

  “So what!”

  “It’s the same problem,” Aja said, trying to be patient. “He programmed the jump so nobody could end it. He doesn’t even have a phader or vedder assigned to him. Without the origin code, I can’t end his jump.” She glanced into the cubicle and added, “But I can put somebody else in.”

  “You’re telling me we could enter his jump, the way you were in my jump?”

  “Well … sort of.”

  “Tell me everything, Aja. C’mon!” I suddenly understood the term “like pulling teeth.” Sheesh.

  “Yes, it’s possible to enter his jump. The trick then is to find Zetlin and convince him to give up the code.”

  “Then let’s do it!”

  “We can’t! I mean, I can’t. I mean … I can’t go with you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because somebody has to stay out here and phade the jump or you might not get back out again. You’d have to go alone, Pendragon. That’s why I said it’s too much to ask.”

  Gulp. A few minutes ago I thought Aja was going to sit down at that control console and make everything okey-dokey. Now I was faced with the possibility of going back into that crazy fantasy world.

  “Let me ask you something,” I said. “If Zetlin’s jump is on a different circuit—”

  “Grid.”

  “Yeah, grid, whatever, stop correcting me. Since it’s different, did the Reality Bug infect it?”

  “I can’t be absolutely sure,” she said slowly. “But I would have to say … yes. The overall operating software is the same, and that’s what I designed the bug to attack.”

  “So let me understand,” I said. “The only way we can get rid of the Reality Bug is for me to jump into Dr. Zetlin’s fantasy and get this code from him. But it might be a horror show if the bug is doing its thing?”

  “Yes, that’s about it.”

  Oh, man, no way I wanted to go. After what happened in my own fantasy with the quigs, the idea of jumping into somebody else’s fantasy was truly horrible. Worse, I was going to have to do it alone.

  “I don’t want you to go, Pendragon,” Aja said quietly. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “Yeah, me neither. But what choice do I have?”

  Aja shook her head. “What you said before makes sense. We’re stronger together. It’s way too risky for you to jump in by yourself. I don’t know what to do.”

  The reality of the situation was beginning to sink in. I was going to have to jump by myself.

  That’s when an idea hit me.

  “There might be another way,” I said. “What if I got somebody else to jump with me?”

  “Who?” Aja asked quickly. “You can’t ask one of those technicians out there. If they find out what’s really going on, there’ll be a riot.”

  “I’m not talking about one of them,” I said. “I’m talking about another Traveler. Somebody who knows the bigger picture and how important this is. If anybody is going to jump with me, it has to be another Traveler.”

  Aja let the idea sink in, then nodded. “Sure. I could send you both in. Do you have somebody in mind?”

  “Absolutely,” I answered. “And I can’t think of anybody I’d trust more to get us out of a gnarly situation … alive.”

  “If I thought there were a better way of doing this, I swear I wouldn’t be here asking you to come along,” I said.

  This was tough. I was asking a friend and fellow Traveler to go on a dangerous mission. In some ways it was more dangerous than anything we had faced so far, because we were dealing with the unknown. When we were in my own jump, the Reality Bug searched my brain for things I was afraid of and came up with those vicious quigs. As scary as that was, at least I knew all about the quigs and could figure out a way to beat them. But once we were in Dr. Zetlin’s jump, the dangers would be from his memory, and we wouldn’t have a clue as to how to battle the nastiness that might come flying out of his genius brain.

  “I could go myself,” I said. “I will if I have to, but I think we have a better chance of pulling this off together.”

  I could have asked any of the Travelers to help me, except for Gunny because I still wasn’t sure what happened to him on Belong. But of all the Travelers, there was one I felt had a superior chance of helping me battle whatever boogeymen we found on the jump into Dr. Zetlin’s fantasy world.

  That was Loor.

  “You have explained this Lifelight very well, Pendragon,” she said. “Yet, it is hard for me to believe it is possible.”

  “Weren’t you the one who told me that after all we’ve seen, we shouldn’t think anything is impossible?”

  Loor looked right into my eyes and gave a little smile. That didn’t happen often. Loor wasn’t the smiley type. But when she did, it made my heart melt. It wasn’t until I saw her again, here on her home territory of Zadaa, that I realized how much I had missed her.

  Aja had taken me back to the gate, where I flumed to Zadaa. I have to admit, part of me wanted to flume to Eelong to find Gunny, but I needed to find Loor. I could only hope that Gunny was okay.

  I had been to Zadaa once before, with Spader, so I knew the way to Loor’s home. I arrived at the gate on Zadaa and quickly changed into the white robe that was waiting for me. (Boxers stayed on, as usual.) I then made my way quickly through the labyrinth of underground tunnels that brought me out to the wide, subterranean river flowing under the city of Xhaxhu. Behind the waterfall that fed the river was a portal that I knew would lead me to the ramp up to the city. Everything was pretty much the same as I remembered it, except for a few disturbing changes.

  Through the portal behind the waterfall was the giant gizmatron that controlled the flow of the underground rivers of Zadaa. It was a coolio-looking device with dozens of different-size pipes that ran floor to ceiling. In front of the pipes was a control platform with a series of levers and dials and switches they used to control the river water. Spader and I had watched a guy work this bad boy when we were there before. Well, when I entered the chamber this time, there was a guy working the controls again, but with one big difference.

  “Stop right there!” a gruff voice shouted at me. “Where are you going?”

  It was a big, beefy guard with a long, nasty-looking club that would do some serious damage if it made contact with any part of my body. In fact, three of these bad boys stood there, guarding the water controller. The people who lived underground were called Rokador. Loor told me that there was some tension between the Rokador tribe and the people who lived on the surface, the Batu. Whatever the tension was between these tribes, it must have gotten worse since
I had been here. Before, the Rokador didn’t need guards.

  “I’m, uh, I’m going up to the city to, uh, get some supplies,” I said, trying to sound like I wasn’t making this up as I went along. Which I was. The Rokador were light skinned, like me, so they assumed I was one of them. Good thing. I didn’t want to be a piñata.

  “Do you want an escort?” the guard asked. That wasn’t a bad idea. If I was safe down here with the Rokador, then it followed I might be in danger up with the Batu. But I had no idea how I would explain that I was going to visit Loor, who was a Batu.

  “Thanks, but, no,” I said.

  “Be careful,” the guard grumbled. “Return before sunset.”

  Now I was getting nervous. If things had gone south here on Zadaa, then it was going to be tricky finding Loor without getting hammered by some Batu guy who had an ick against the Rokador. The only thing I could do was try to be invisible. I hurried up the winding ramp that brought me into a building on the surface, and for the second time I saw the beautiful city of Xhaxhu.

  If you remember, guys, I told you that it looked like ancient Egypt, with tall sandstone buildings. The streets were paved with stone and lined with palm trees. There were statues of all sizes, some towering as high as the buildings. It was a beautiful oasis in the middle of a vast, dry desert. Its water source was the river that ran below ground. Without that water, Xhaxhu would dry up and blow away like a forgotten sand castle. Knowing that, I saw something that made me nervous.

  Running beside many of the streets were troughs that carried water throughout the city. At nearly every intersection was a fancy fountain that sprayed arcs of water in complex patterns. At least that’s what I saw last time I was here. This time the troughs were nearly dry. Only a small trickle of water ran through them. The fountains weren’t spraying water either. This was a really bad sign. If there was a problem with the water, the city was in trouble.

  But that was something to worry about another day. Right now, I had to find Loor. It was a scary trip. The streets were alive with people, most of them Batu. As I described before, the Batu were dark-skinned warriors. They wore light, leather clothing that showed off their lean, muscular bodies. With my light skin and white robe, I stood out like a flashlight in the forest. I was getting some seriously bad vibes from these people. If looks could kill, I wouldn’t have lasted two minutes. Seriously. I could feel pure hatred coming from them as soon as they laid eyes on me. It wasn’t just the tough-looking dudes, either. The women were giving me the evil eye too. So were their kids. Heck, if a Batu dog walked by he probably would have peed on me. I put my head down and kept moving, hoping to make it to Loor’s home in one piece.

  Loor lived in a large, one-story building that was reserved for the military. She was a warrior in training, and was given a small apartment. I found it pretty easily, and was within a few yards of her place when my luck ran out.

  Without warning, somebody grabbed the back of my robe and lifted me up like a doll. The guy spun me around and I came face-to-face with a giant Batu warrior. No, make that four giant Batu warriors. They all stared at me and none of them looked happy to see me.

  “You have lost your way, little Rokador sheep,” the guy snarled. “Are you looking to take back more of your precious water?”

  “Uh, no, actually,” I said, trying to be friendly, “I’m looking for—”

  “Water!” he shouted. “Water is all you know, water is what you will have!”

  The other Batu warriors cheered, egging him on.

  “But my friend lives right—”

  “Here is your precious water!” he shouted.

  The Batu warrior dragged me over to a wall near the front of the building. I tried to break away, but the guy was too strong. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. If I broke loose, there were three other goons there to grab me. Behind the wall was the community bathroom. On one side of the enclosure was a trough of fresh running water for drinking and washing. On the other were holes in the ground with water running underneath for, yeah, you guessed it, going to the bathroom. It was basically an outhouse. Unfortunately we didn’t stop at the fresh-water trough.

  The warrior stopped at one of the open sewer holes, then stuck his nose in my face. “You love water so much,” he seethed, “then have it.”

  The guy lifted me up and turned me upside down. The other warriors laughed and cheered.

  “Hey, stop!” I yelled. “You’re making a mistake.”

  I know, pretty lame, but I didn’t know what else to say. The guy lowered me toward the open latrine hole. I was going into the sewer headfirst! I was in such a panic, I didn’t even think to try and use my powers of Traveler persuasion on him. All I could think about was landing in smelly sludge. My head got closer to the hole. I did a quick calculation and unfortunately figured that it was plenty big enough for me to fit through. This was going to be gruesome. My head was only a few inches away from crossing the portal into the land of stench and disgust, when someone shouted out, “Put him down!”

  I really, really hoped they were talking about me. Sure enough, the warrior flipped me over. I landed on my feet and looked up to see …

  Loor.

  I could have kissed her, but that would have been a major-bad move.

  “I know this one,” Loor said. “He gives me information on the Rokador. He must not be harmed.”

  The warriors grumbled in disappointment and shuffled off. Loor had spoiled their fun. Gee, too bad. Bullies. I hate bullies.

  “Come with me, Rokador!” she barked at me. She then walked away quickly. I was all too happy to follow. Seconds later we were in her apartment.

  “Nice friends you have,” I said.

  “They do not like the Rokador,” Loor said with no emotion.

  “Yeah, I got that. Thanks for saving me.”

  “No need to thank me. If they had finished what they started, I would have had to smell your stench in my home.”

  The two of us looked at each other, then I burst out laughing. Loor relaxed too.

  “Man, I’m glad to see you, Loor,” I said. I went over and hugged her. She didn’t hug back. It wasn’t that she didn’t like me, it’s just that Loor never showed affection. So as I hugged her, she only gave me a couple of friendly pats on the back. What can I say? That’s Loor.

  She started a fire and we settled into her woven chairs. I first told her all that had happened on First Earth and the Hindenburg disaster story. I left out the part about my chickening out at the last second. I didn’t want Loor to know that.

  Loor told me how tension between the Batu and the Rokador was worse than ever. She feared there would be a war. The Batu had strength, but the Rokador controlled the water. In her heart she knew this would be the turning point of Zadaa, but had no idea what to do about it.

  I then told her about Veelox and Lifelight and the Reality Bug. Being a warrior from a territory that had no technology, it was hard for Loor to imagine the concept of a wristwatch, let alone something as amazing as Lifelight. Still, she listened and did her best to understand.

  As I sat in that room with the dirt floor and the fire crackling in the fireplace, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The fire gave her dark skin a warm glow that looked as if she had stepped out of a painting. An amazing painting. And she’s cut like an athlete. The leather outfit she wore showed off the long, strong muscles of her shoulders and arms. I’ve seen her battle guys nearly twice her size and kick butt. But more important than the physical stuff was that she had an incredibly clear way of seeing things. She didn’t overthink things the way I sometimes do. Okay, the way I always do. With Loor there are only two ways: the right way and the wrong way. She wouldn’t think twice about cutting down an enemy, or risking herself to save a friend.

  That’s why I was here. I needed Loor to cut down some enemies and risk herself for a friend. Me.

  “I want to help, Pendragon,” she said. “But I worry about what will happen here on Zadaa. I do not want to be somewh
ere else when trouble finally arrives.”

  “I get that,” I said. “And when the time comes, I want to be here to help you. But the flumes will always put us where we need to be, when we need to be there. I don’t understand it, but it’s true. When the time comes that you’re needed on Zadaa, you’ll be here.”

  “And what if this Lifelight is as dangerous as you say, and we do not survive?”

  Ooh. Good question.

  “I don’t know,” was my only answer. “But I do know that millions of people are in trouble right now. If they die, Veelox will die along with them and Saint Dane will have his first victory. I can’t let that happen.”

  Loor stoked the embers of the fire. In this light she looked like her mother, Osa, the woman who died saving my life. Loor was a little older than when we had our adventure on Denduron. So was I. Hard to believe this was possible, but she was even more beautiful. I was suddenly hit with the realization that I didn’t want anything to happen to her. Not here, not on Veelox, and certainly not in the fantasy world of some wacky old scientist.

  I was about to get up and walk out when she turned to me and said, “I want to return as soon as possible.”

  “No,” I said quickly, and I stood up. “This was a bad idea. You don’t need to be watching my back. Your place is here. I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to ask. I’m gonna go back and—”

  “Pendragon!” she said firmly. “I am a Traveler. It is what we are meant to do.”

  She stood up and grabbed a nasty-looking sword that was leaning against the fireplace. She twirled it expertly, the sharp blade flashing with light from the fire. “What weapons will I use on Veelox?”

  “We won’t know until we jump into Lifelight.”

  Loor gave the sword one last swing, then put it back down. I knew she wanted to take it with her, but that was against the rules.

  “What is it that Spader says?” she asked.

  “Hobey-ho?” I answered with a smile.

  “Yes. Hobey-ho, Pendragon. We belong on Veelox.”

  We were a team again.