The Reality Bug (3 page)

We were at a crossroads. What was the best thing to do? Stay here and do damage control, or stop Saint Dane from digging into a new territory called Eelong?

“You've been here before,” Gunny said. “You know the Traveler. What's her name?”

“Aja Killian.”

“Right. The floating head. I think you should find her. She'll know what Saint Dane has been up to.”

“What about you?”

“I'll follow him to Eelong and see what we're up against there. Then I'll be back.”

“I don't like splitting up,” I said. “Remember what happened on First Earth when Spader took off on his own? That was nearly a disaster.”

“I know,” Gunny reassured me. “But this is different. Spader had his own ideas. You and I are working
together
.”

I didn't want him to go, but if we had the chance of heading off Saint Dane before he could get started on Eelong, we had to take it.

“Promise me you'll bolt if something wacky happens,” I demanded.

Gunny laughed. “Shorty, seems to me like everything is pretty wacky.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Course I do. Don't you go worrying; I'll be fine,” Gunny said.

The two of us hugged, then Gunny pushed me back and asked, “What was the name of that territory again?”

“It sounded like ‘Elong,'” I answered.

Gunny stepped into the mouth of the flume, stood up straight, and faced the tunnel. “
Eelong!
”

On cue, the flume sprang to life. The moment before he was taken away in the shower of light and music, he smiled at me and said, “What is it that Spader always says?”

“Hobey-ho, Gunny.”

“Hobey-ho, Pendragon. See you soon.”

I hoped so. An instant later he was gone and I was alone. I stood there, trying to collect my thoughts. The idea of Gunny being lost to me was horrible. I was a fraction of a second away from jumping in the flume and going after him, when I heard a familiar voice.

“What took you so long?”

I spun quickly to see a giant face. It was Aja Killian. The hologram-head was back. I looked up at the bizarre image and said, “You called. I'm here. Now what?”

The head vanished. A second later I heard a faint sound from across the room. I looked to see a door opening, by itself. Light spilled in from whatever lay beyond.

It was time to meet Aja Killian and get my first look at the territory of Veelox.

I
found myself in a long, narrow tunnel that stretched far off in two directions. Light came from overhead bulbs, but it was pretty dim because every other bulb was burned out or smashed.

Slam!

The gate shut behind me. It was a plain, metal door that practically disappeared because it was the same gray color as the cement walls around it. The only thing that told me it was there was the star symbol that marked it as a gate. I hoped I wouldn't have to find it again in a hurry.

I saw that I was standing on tracks. Uh-oh. Another subway. My adrenaline spiked. Was I going to have to run from a speeding train? A closer look showed me there was no danger. Big chunks of the track were missing and a thin coat of brown rust covered the silver steel. There hadn't been a train through here in a very long time.

“Walk to your right,” Aja's voice boomed from nowhere. “You'll find a ladder.”

“Where are you?” I shouted. I was getting tired of all this mystery. “Why don't you just show yourself?”

“Find the ladder, Pendragon,” Aja's voice commanded.

Fine. Whether I liked it or not, the mystery was going to continue. As I walked through the tunnel, I wondered if the people on Veelox were giants. If Aja's projection was life-size, then I was in for a whole
Gulliver's Travels
adventure. That wouldn't be fun.

I came to a metal ladder that disappeared up into a dark opening in the ceiling. I was about to climb up, when a thought hit me. I was still wearing the flannel shirt and jeans you loaned me on Second Earth, Mark. We weren't supposed to mix things from other territories, including clothes. But there hadn't been any Veelox clothes at the flume. What was I supposed to do? I actually had a quick thought that since I had only seen Aja's head, maybe the people on Veelox didn't wear clothes at all. How's
that
for an image? Big, floating, naked giants. Sheesh. No way I was taking my clothes off.

The ladder led up through a round shaft that wasn't much wider than my shoulders. A few more steps up the ladder and I hit the ceiling. I tested it with a push. It moved. This was it, my portal into Veelox. With a quick breath to calm myself, I pushed the heavy hatch up and climbed through to get my first look at this new territory.

I'm not sure what I expected to see, but this wasn't it.

First off, I was relieved. Since Saint Dane had said he had already done his dirty work here, I was nervous about finding a territory that was on fire, or laid waste, or had people running around screaming in panic. But there was none of that. What I did see was totally strange, if only because it wasn't strange at all.

Veelox looked like Second Earth. I found myself standing on a city street that could have been a neighborhood from home. The hatch I had just climbed through was a manhole in the street. The buildings were city-style brownstones. There were sidewalks and trees and even streetlights. If I didn't know any better I'd say I had pulled a U-turn in the flume and landed back on Second Earth.

Still, as familiar as this place was, something felt off. I looked around, trying to figure out why I was getting such a strange vibe. It took me all of three seconds to understand.

The place was deserted.

Not just empty, I'm talking desolate. No people, no cars, no music, no nothing. The only sound was the whisper of wind as it blew through the buildings and rustled the trees. It was totally eerie. The place was … dead. That was the word. Dead. Veelox was a ghost territory.

Great. Giant, naked, floating
ghosts
. Could this get any stranger?

“Over here!”

I spun to see a welcome sight. Standing on a street corner not far away was Aja Killian. The real deal. I was relieved to see she had a body to go with the head. Better still, she was normal size. Still better, she was wearing clothes. Phew.

I jogged over to her. Aja was shorter than I was, and I'm guessing a little bit older. She wore a dark blue jumpsuit that fit her pretty well. She was kinda cute, with big blue eyes behind those yellow-tinted glasses. The only thing non-Second Earth about her was a gizmo she had strapped to her right forearm. It was a wide, silver bracelet with lots of buttons that looked like a high-tech calculator.

And she was cute, too. Did I say that?

“Hi,” I said, being all sorts of charming.

I held out my hand to shake. She didn't take it. Aja snapped angrily, “What took you so long to get here?”

Whoa. Where did
that
come from? I had been here for a grand total of ten seconds and she was already giving me grief. Not a good start.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“I've been trying to contact you about Saint Dane, but you haven't been responding,” she scolded. “I was ready to give up on you when—”

“Whoa. Hang on,” I interrupted. “I didn't get your message because my ring was stolen. The second I got it back, your message came through and here I am.”

She couldn't argue with the logic but still wanted to fight. So she changed her tack.

“How could you let your ring get stolen?” she demanded to know. “Do you know how important these rings are? If you're not—”

“
Stop!
” I yelled. “I got here as soon as I could. Let it go at that, all right?”

“Fine,” Aja said, sounding snotty. “But everything's fine now, so you can flume off with that Gunny person and worry about some other territory. Good-bye.” She turned and walked away.

My head was spinning. What just happened here? Was she blowing me off?

“Time out,” I said while running after her. “Did you hear what Saint Dane said?”

“Of course. I have the flume monitored, remember? I know everything that happens down there.”

“Good, then you know he said Veelox was ready to crumble.”

“He was wrong,” Aja said without looking at me.

“Explain, please.”

Aja came to an abrupt stop and I nearly ran into her. “Technically he's right,” she explained. “Veelox
is
ready to crumble. But it hasn't yet, and it won't. I made sure of that.”

“So what was he up to?” I asked. “Is there some kind of battle going to happen? Are there armies going to march on one another? Who's fighting here?”

Aja shook her head like she pitied me for being totally pathetic. “No, Pendragon. There is no big war. There are no guns or bombs. Nothing is going to explode, which I'm sure is disappointing to you.”

I let that comment slide. “So then what's the conflict? What's the turning point on Veelox?”

Aja stepped up to me and touched my forehead. “The turning point is in the head of every single person on Veelox. There are no good guys or bad guys here. This is a war that is being fought in people's minds, not on any battlefield.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” I admitted.

Aja smiled. I think she liked feeling superior.

“It doesn't matter. Everything is under control. I contacted you because that's what I was supposed to do, but you aren't needed here, Pendragon. Veelox is safe. Go away.”

She turned and walked off again. I wanted to believe her. One less territory to worry about was, well, one less territory to worry about. But I couldn't just take her word for it. So I ran after her again.

“What do you mean, you were
supposed
to contact me?” I asked.

“Because you're the lead Traveler,” she said, throwing me a look of disdain. “Hard to believe.”

Yikes. New twist. Lead Traveler? Nobody told me that. “Uh … who said I was the lead Traveler?”

“Everyone,” she answered.

“Everyone who?”

“The Traveler from Denduron, for one. Alder was his name. Did you really blow up an entire castle?”

“Yes. Alder told you I was the lead Traveler?”

“I first heard it from Press Tilton. Now
that
guy I could see being the lead Traveler. Do you know him?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “Press was my uncle. He's dead.”

Aja stopped walking. It was kind of harsh to give her that news so abruptly, but at least I had gotten her to stop being annoying for a few seconds. “I … I'm sorry, Pendragon,” she said with sincere sympathy. “I didn't know.”

I didn't want to have to battle this crazy Traveler girl. So at the risk of getting insulted again, I decided to put it all on the table. “I'll be honest with you, Aja,” I began. “Up until you just said it, I had no idea I was a lead Traveler. I don't even know what that means. But whether it's true or not, I'm not your enemy. So cut me a little slack, all right?”

I looked her in the eye, trying to will her into trusting me. I wasn't sure if Traveler mind persuasion worked on other Travelers, but I was willing to give it a try.

“Come with me,” she finally said, and walked off.

Phew. That was a start. The two of us walked along the center line of the empty street. The block reminded me of those big movie sets I saw on the tour of Universal Studios. Everything looked normal, but totally without life.

“Where is everybody?” I asked tentatively.

“Most everyone is in Lifelight,” she answered.

“Lie flight?”

“No, Lifelight.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I don't know what that means.”

Aja stopped walking and touched her silver bracelet to my head. I felt a short, warm buzz, then she pulled it away.

“What was that?” I asked nervously.

Aja then pointed her hand, hit a few buttons, and said, “Look.”

I looked to where she was pointing and saw something that made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. It was Marley, my golden retriever. She stood facing me, wagging her tail so hard her whole backside wiggled. She had a goofy grin on her face and wore the green collar I got her for Christmas two years before. This wasn't just any golden, this was
my
golden.

“Marley?” I called out tentatively.

Marley wagged her tail harder and ran to me. She was all set to jump and I was ready to catch her, but the second her front paws left the ground, she disappeared. Poof. Gone. All I caught was air. After a frozen moment, I looked to Aja and squeaked out a stunned, “How did you do that?”

“Lifelight,” she answered. “It pulled that from your memory.”

“Huh?” was all I could get out.

Aja smiled. She was back in charge again. “Veelox is the perfect territory, Pendragon, because we can live any existence we choose.”

I was sinking deeper into the land of confusion. “Now I'm totally lost,” I said.

“Imagine the perfect place,” she continued. “It could be anywhere you want and populated with the people you choose. Like that dog. That's Lifelight. People here can live a life tailored specifically for them.”

“So Lifelight sends people all over the territory and sets them up in whatever perfect life they want?” I asked.

“No,” she answered. “I said people live any life they choose. They don't go anywhere.”

“Still not getting it,” I complained.

Aja motioned for me to follow her. She took a few more steps, rounded a corner and pointed to a sight that actually took my breath away. No kidding. For a second I couldn't breathe. That's how awesome it was.

Sitting in the center of the city, maybe a mile away from us, was a huge, four-sided pyramid. It dwarfed the buildings around it, looking as if a massive, alien spacecraft had set down in the center of town. The shiny black walls reflected the sun toward us, making the immense structure seem more like a shadow than a building.