by Wab Kinew
PENGUIN TEEN
an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers, a division of Penguin Random House of Canada Limited
Published in hardcover by Penguin Teen, 2021
Text copyright © 2021 by Wab Kinew
Cover art copyright © 2021 by Chippewar
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Title: Walking in two worlds / Wab Kinew.
Names: Kinew, Wab, 1981- author.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200399373 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200399411 | ISBN 9780735269002 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780735269019 (EPUB)
Classification: LCC PS8621.I54 W35 2021 | DDC jC813/.6—dc23
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020950733
www.penguinrandomhouse.ca
a_prh_5.7.0_c0_r0
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Anishinaabe Terms and Pronunciation Guide
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
One Year Later
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Acknowledgments
Resources
To the students at Pelican Falls First Nations High School:
Visiting your school over the years, I’ve noticed you face many things going to school away from home, some good and some bad, but you face them all with courage.
I started this book thinking it might be cool if you could read something that represented our backgrounds and some of the realities you face.
Ando-bawaajigek—seek your dreams!
“We don’t want to create two worlds, but walk together in one world—relating to each other as having our own uniqueness that we mutually respect.”
—SENATOR MURRAY SINCLAIR
Anishinaabe Terms and Pronunciation Guide
Anama’edaa (ah-numb-ah-yay-TAH): Let us pray
Anishinaabe (a-nish-in-NAH-bay): Ojibwe or Indigenous
Bagonegiizhigok (bug-oh-nay-KEESH-ig-oak): Hole in the day
Baakinan (buck-in-NONE): Open it!
Binesi (bin-NEH-see): Thunderbird
Eniwek igo kiga’onji-pimaadiz ndiwe’igan (AY-knee-wake EE-go key-gohn-jih-pee-MAH-tizz in-tay-WAY-gun): Through my drum you will live just that much more
Kookom (COOK-em): Grandmother
Mishi-pizhiw (mi-SHIP-i-shoe): A supernatural being in Anishinaabe culture
Nameg (nah-MAYK): Sturgeon (plural)
Ni-noonde-pimaadiz (nih-known-day-pee-MAH-tizz): I want to live
Onizhishin Anishinaabe Aking (oh-NISH-ish-in ah-nish-in-NAW-bay AH-king): Anishinaabe country is beautiful
Onjine (OWN-jin-nay): The way you behave will come back to you
Patai’itiwin (put-TIE-it-tee-win): The way you behave will come back to your children
Waawaate (WAH-wah-tay): The northern lights
CHAPTER 1
It was the best of Bugz, it was the worst of Bugz. She created life, she destroyed worlds. She appeared invincible, she knew only defeat. She was Indigenous, she didn’t belong. She moved with absolute confidence, she couldn’t shake the tiny voice inside: It’s no big deal, it’s the end of the world. In many ways, Bugz was just like everybody else…until she went online into the Floraverse. There, Bugz’s every move was watched by the entire world, who either loved her or hated her.
Hidden by total darkness, Bugz pressed her body close to a cedar tree, edging nearer to danger. She rarely hid in the virtual world of the ’Verse. Apart from her celebrity, there was her look: she wore a custom skin with an athletic physique packed into a black, neon-pink, and Day-Glo-green outfit. The ensemble borrowed from the body armor of science-fiction superheroes and the embroidered designs of a pow-wow dancer. Floral patterns that paid homage to the beadwork of her Anishinaabe Ancestors accented her bodysuit. Her midriff was exposed in a way that would’ve raised eyebrows among the aunties back on the Rez. Those older women preached modesty, but anytime Bugz’s mom heard those so-called teachings that singled out women’s bodies, she’d always stick up for her daughter and say, “That’s just the colonization talking.”
Bugz tossed her hair to one side and leaned in closer to her prey. Her heads-up-display visor cast a rose-colored glow across her cheekbones as she studied her targets. On-screen, a stream of comments flooded her peripheral vision. She paid the chat feed absolutely no mind, at least not for the moment. Her vision narrowed to a tunnel as she prepared for a huge battle, one she had no intention of losing. Besides, she’d turned her location off hours ago so no one on the stream could reveal her plan to the marks. She inched closer to the edge of the cedar trees and listened to them shouting down below. All five hundred of them. She liked her odds.
“We worked too hard and fought too long for anything less than victory!”
Bugz recognized the imposing eight-foot-tall warrior now shouting—Alpha. A scar bisected his face, testifying to a past battle. His eyes—each a different color, one green and one brown—reminded Bugz of a wild dog, a husky that fled captivity and returned as the leader of a pack of
wolves. Bugz knew his online backstory. Alpha began his ascent in the ’Verse by slaughtering the gamer clan that welcomed him in as a noob. As fierce as he looked he still only stood second in the ’Verse’s global fan rankings. Bugz slowly drew a deep breath and reminded herself that she ranked #1.
Bugz noted all of Alpha’s followers gathered below wore an Ø symbol on their arms as a way of paying homage to their scarred leader. They called themselves Clan:LESS, the clan that was not a clan, a nod to Alpha cannibalizing his first team. They counted among their ranks a mishmash of the best soldiers and mercenaries from across the Floraverse. Bugz studied their artillery: massive guns, laser cannons, and the coolest energy swords crypto could buy. Not bad, she thought to herself. But nothing special.
“For years we’ve journeyed across the ’Verse seeking what is rightfully ours!” Alpha yelled. Bugz, still hidden, rolled her eyes. “The resources, the creatures, the weapons we need to dominate the Spirit World. All of it is rightfully ours. Men built this technology, men perfected the blockchain, and now it’s run by a woman? No! We will take it back from her.” Bugz studied Alpha, scanning the obedient stares of his charges. “We’ll take it back in battle. She can never beat us…we must always win!” The crowd roared its approval.
Gross. Bugz stepped farther back behind the cedar tree. She hated Clan:LESS—they harassed women who played the game, shared sexist content, and banned women from joining their ranks.
“I thought this VR and AR stuff promised to make a better world,” Bugz whispered to herself. The chat in her display screen exploded with comments. “Oh well. I guess we can create better technology without becoming better people.”
She peeked around the corner of her hiding spot again and sized up the battlefield. At present, 499 Clan:LESS members encircled Alpha, still hanging on his every word. He screamed at the assembled troops, psyching them up for the coming battle.
“This coward Bugz wants to take your lives from you. She wants to take your weapons from you. She wants to force you to respawn and lose everything you’ve fought for.” Alpha paused for dramatic effect. “But will you let that happen?”
“NO!” roared the crowd.
“Are we going to fight?!” Alpha shouted.
“YES!” the crowd replied.
“Are we going to win?”
“YES!”
“We launch our sneak attack tonight!” concluded Alpha, thrusting his fist in the air.
“YEAHHH!” The crowd responded by punching their weapons into the sky and high-fiving the clanmates closest to them. They chanted Alpha’s name.
“Pro tip: don’t announce your sneak attack before you actually launch your sneak attack.” Bugz winked to her audience streaming along online. Millions of her followers watched from their own heads-up displays inside the ’Verse or on phones in the real world. Bugz crouched, bending her knees, as she prepared to leap out from her hiding spot. She felt a bead of sweat gathering on her brow in real life. The chat in her display sparkled with activity.
“Ahh, what am I getting all tensed up for?” She blew her hair away quickly, stood up straight, and stepped out of the shadows. “Hey losers, look over here!”
Some of Bugz’s viewers were warning the Clan:LESS horde an attack was imminent. The warriors who noticed the warnings took their eyes off Alpha and began scanning the horizon. They were the first to see her. Bugz—the specter, the legend, the phenom—appeared before them, all swagger and attitude. She pulled a flaming, torch-tipped spear back like a javelin thrower, illuminating her bodysuit in the process. She took careful aim and launched the projectile in a long, soaring arc that delivered its payload directly to the center of the crowd. She stood on one leg to admire her throw as the spear landed, splattering the horde of Clan:LESS soldiers with fire and flame.
Instantly dozens of soldiers evaporated into the ether.
“S3reum was eliminated by Bugz.”
“Nigel_The_Knight was eliminated by Bugz.”
“xx.GFguerilla.xx was eliminated by Bugz.”
Dozens of other gamertags flickered and disappeared into the sky.
The wounded stampeded in all directions.
“You cowards!” Alpha cried. “Don’t run! This is what we wanted. Our enemy is right here. The battle is on!”
Bugz stood on the higher ground, taking in the carnage and confusion below and feeling quite proud of herself. She looked down to see one member of Clan:LESS just staring at her, frozen. She laughed. Bugz got this sort of reaction all the time. Other gamers often seized up in her presence like kids meeting a childhood idol.
“Get her!” Alpha yelled. The 450 or so surviving members of Clan:LESS tore up the incline as Bugz turned to the hills and ran.
Before she could reach a full sprint, laser beams and machine-gun fire rained down all around. As if dodging the spray from one gun wasn’t hard enough, Bugz found herself dodging overlapping fire from several automatic weapons at once. She moved as though she had the power to slow down time. As the tsunami of weapon fire chased her, she bobbed and weaved a perfect path that avoided each beam and bullet.
With so much firepower bearing down, there came a moment when no path remained for Bugz, no way to move that wouldn’t see her riddled with slugs and lasers. In this instant, the chat screen in her heads-up display filled with expletives and shouting.
“d@rcy987: INCOMING!”
“sweet_n_lowa: #!@& no!”
“Porselyn: Holy @#$%!”
The Floraverse’s automatic chat-censoring captured the worry of the fans watching Bugz’s livestream. They all aspired to fight as forcefully and move as gracefully themselves, but none could match Bugz’s preternatural ability in the ’Verse. So they watched her, imagining themselves in her shoes. Or moccasins.
The view counter ticked upward; this battle between the Floraverse’s greatest individual warrior and the most ruthless clan in existence was pulling in the most views in the history of the game. But with the artillery closing in, it seemed as though it would come to a premature end. In just a millisecond, the lasers, bullets, and spears would converge on Bugz and eviscerate her.
But just as the first of the beams approached, Bugz traced a quick zigzag motion through the air behind her. Instantly the roots of the nearby trees tore through the earth and grew thick, forming a shield. The laser beams and gunfire ripped through this organic barrier in a fraction of a second, but Bugz didn’t need any more than that. By the time the gunfire obliterated the plant matter, Bugz had gained a step and was once again weaving a perfect path through the mayhem.
Her chat screen exploded with gold coins, flowers, and diamond rings as her fans showered her with gifts, inspired by her virtuosity. Bugz could back herself into a corner and stun them all with an impossible escape. Fans paid for the virtual gifts themselves with real money or crypto, and Bugz, like everyone else in the Floraverse who received a gift, earned a micropayment every time she received something from a fan. Bugz glanced at her balance. She’d just earned enough to buy a new car.
Behind her, Alpha raised a giant, oversized cannon onto his shoulder. It resembled a jet engine, with a blue-and-white glow sparking outward from where the turbine should have been. He aimed and fired a massive energy blast, incinerating a huge chunk of the forest and splattering shrapnel up the hillside toward Bugz.
As the explosion closed in on Bugz, the heavens opened up and what looked like a giant black eagle screamed down from the sky. It swooped down to Bugz, snatched her in its talons, and lifted her up to the clouds. Another energy blast tore a huge chunk out of the mountainside and triggered an avalanche. This buried the first lines of Clan:LESS warriors on the hill and sent the others running back down the slope until the rockslide abated.
Bugz rode the Thunderbird over the peak of the mountain.
“Monff: HOW are you so lucky?”
“BhadBhab: Nice save!”
“**-GirlGirl-**: No way!!”
Her chat screen continued to flood with comments from fans. These ranged from cheers for this latest twist in the theater of war to the sort of random abusive comments women gamers always faced. And, of course, spam.
“DerkWerk: You’re a fraud!”
“Yalta187: Affirmative action at its finest.”
“ManTan1997: Win a new phone, DM me to find out how!”
Bugz paid them no mind, her awareness completely consumed with setting a trap for the approaching horde. With a slight nod of her head, she conveyed to the Thunderbird the arcing flight path she wanted her to take. Closing her eyes, she marshaled every other living being in this virtual landscape to her side.
CHAPTER 2
“How does she do it?” Feng asked. Though he stood among his clan brothers, all of whom were blocked from pursuing Bugz for a moment by the landslide, he wasn’t speaking to any of them in particular. Feng’s virtual assistant assumed the question was directed at it and popped to life in his heads-up display, launching a user-generated video tutorial explaining the ’Verse.
“The Floraverse is different from other virtual worlds before it,” the young voice said over a montage of idyllic scenes from the Spirit World. His phone played the English language video inside his visor and translated the audio instantly into Mandarin for his earbuds. Feng scanned the battlefield and half ignored the feat of computer translation. “Rather than letting users build their environment out of minerals and tools, or forts and wood, the game engine that powers the Floraverse is modeled after living, growing things…” Feng swiped past the video and on to another one as he began to climb the boulders the avalanche had left in his way. This video was labeled “The Bugz Conspiracy.”
“While many other players in this world seek to exploit the Floraverse, Bugz lives in concert with it, appearing to be able to call anything she can imagine into existence,” an on-screen host intoned. Feng’s boot slipped momentarily from a crevice. He stumbled and regained his footing as the host continued. “No one knows exactly how she does it, but the result is that she has become the best player the game has ever known.”
