The Reality Bug (32 page)

“Can we get the elevator here? Like soon?” I asked, trying not to sound like I was about to panic, which I was.

“It's coming,” Zetlin answered.

“So is the snake,” Loor said.

The mutant snake slid to the center of the court and stopped. At least its head stopped. The rest of its snaky body kept coming.

“It is coiling,” Loor announced.

As the long body slid through the door, its head rose as it formed a coil. That was bad. When snakes coil, they strike.

“How much longer?” I asked.

“Almost here,” Zetlin answered.

“Almost might be too late.”

The snake must have been twenty feet long, the body four feet thick. It was now in a perfect coil. Perfect for striking. It dropped its jaw and hissed, revealing a couple of nasty-looking fangs that had to be a foot long.

“Dr. Zetlin?” I urged.

“It's here!” he exclaimed, and pulled the door open.

That's when the snake pulled its head back, opened its jaws, and struck.

W
e dove into the small, blue elevator and I quickly pulled the door behind us. At that exact instant the snake hit with such a force that it slammed the door shut the rest of the way, knocking me into Loor and Zetlin.

“Look!” Zetlin shouted.

Imbedded in the door, having cut clean through, were two snake fangs. A second later a stream of liquid shot from each of the huge teeth.

Venom.

We all scrambled to the side of the elevator to get out of the way. Zetlin's hand was splashed with the poison and he screamed in pain.

“Get us out of here!” I shouted at Loor.

She reached for the control buttons. I don't think she knew which was the right one, but it didn't matter so long as we got moving. The elevator lurched and we were on our way. The fangs didn't move, though. The snake was hitching a ride. Luckily the flow of venom had stopped. It must have shot out all that it had.

“We're moving sideways,” I announced. “Why aren't we going down?”

“Because the Barbican is horizontal,” Zetlin winced through his pain. “All the floors are on the same level.”

Oh, right. I'd forgotten.

Loor took Zetlin's hand and wiped away the venom with her sleeve. I saw that the poison had left a nasty-looking red slash on the back of his hand.

“I'm fine,” Zetlin said.

“How do we get out of here?” I asked, deciding to save my sympathy until after we were safe.

“We'll take the elevator across to the jungle where you first entered,” Zetlin answered. “I can right the Barbican into a vertical position from there, and we can walk out the door.”

“That's fine,” I said, then pointed to the fangs that were still imbedded in the door. “But as long as that thing's got its jaws in us, we won't even get out of the elevator.”

Suddenly, the car shuddered and stopped.

“Is that normal?” I asked.

“No,” answered Zetlin. “It must be—” Before he could finish, the elevator began to shake. I looked at the fangs of our hitchhiker and saw them moving. The snake had decided to take control. A second later the fangs pulled out, leaving two holes in the door.

“Now what?” I asked.

The elevator began to rock. It felt like we were inside a small ship in rough seas. Zetlin looked at the control panel and announced, “We're in the weight room.”

Weight room? Did Zetlin have a personal gym? He threw open a panel below the elevator controls to reveal a compartment with a series of odd-looking devices like the slippery skate pads we used to race across the ice. They had the same kind of wire frames that fit over shoes, but there was only one pad on the heel. It was a thicker pad, with a hole in the center. Zetlin pulled out three pairs quickly and handed them to us.

“Put these on your shoes,” he commanded.

We did as we were told. The elevator was now rocking so hard, we couldn't stand up anymore. The Reality Bug was trying to pull the car off its track. He was doing a good job. The three of us were being tossed around like kids in a carnival bounce. Only it wasn't soft and fun. It hurt.

“What are these?” I managed to ask while struggling to pull the wire over my shoes.

“It's the only way to get around in the weight room,” Zetlin answered.

That didn't explain anything. He then handed us each a small controller and showed us how to slip it over our middle finger like a ring. There was a button attached to the ring that rested in the palm of your hand.

“Once we're out,” Zetlin instructed, “press the button. It'll activate the inertia jets.”

“Inertia jets?” Loor questioned.

She never got an answer because the elevator toppled and started spinning. The Reality Bug had pulled it from its track and tossed it. It felt like we were inside a washing machine as the little car rolled over and over on its side. I braced myself as best I could, waiting for an impact. But it didn't come. We just kept spinning. It seemed impossible, but the rotating elevator didn't slow down.

Zetlin went for the door handle. “Follow me!” he ordered.

“Don't!” I yelled. I thought he'd kill himself for sure. But he had no fear. He pushed open the door and heaved himself out. Loor followed right after him. I figured if we were going to go down, we should do it together, so I dove for the door and launched myself out.

“Launch” was the perfect word to describe it. As soon as I cleared the door I covered my head and curled up, ready to land hard. But I didn't. I realized after a few seconds that I wasn't going to, either. That's because I was floating. I took a cautious peek out from between my arms to see it was pitch black, with stars everywhere. I was drifting in outer space! This wasn't a weight room, it was a weight
less
room. Far off to my right, the elevator car was still spinning out of control. I watched it in wonder for a second, then felt something touch me on the shoulder.

“Ahhh!” I spun around fast, expecting to see the fangs of the black snake about to close on my head. But it was Dr. Zetlin. He was hanging next to me with Loor. He held her hand. They were both upside down. Or maybe I was the one upside down.

“The inertia jets shoot from your heels,” he explained. “Point your body where you want to go, and touch the button in your palm. You can maneuver by adjusting the direction your heels face.”

I touched the button in my palm … and rocketed up. Whoa! These things were powerful!

“Easy!” Zetlin ordered. “Just touch it.”

I spun around and touched the button tentatively. Sure enough, I was able to control it. When I took my finger off the button, I slowed down pretty quick. It was easy to get used to. Under other circumstances, this would be the most totally amazing, fun experience possible. It was like we were floating in outer space without space suits. But these weren't other circumstances. Somewhere out there among the stars was a giant, poisonous snake trying to kill us.

“Follow me,” Zetlin announced. “I know the way to the far side.”

“How?” I asked, looking around at nothing but nothing.

“I know the star formations,” Zetlin answered.

I had to take his word for it. If it were up to Loor or me, we'd be floating around here forever.

That's when the snake came into view. It was far below us, floating free. At least I think it was below us. It was impossible to tell up from down.

“We're in luck,” Zetlin said. “There's no way it can maneuver in here.”

Excellent. The Reality Bug had chosen the absolute worst place to pull the elevator off its track. I figured it would float helplessly in here with no way to escape. That would give us enough time to get out of the Barbican and for Aja to untangle the software. Suddenly there was hope.

And just as suddenly it came crashing down.

The snake had no way of fighting the weightlessness, so it began to change. We watched in horror as huge, human-like arms sprouted from the snake body. The hands were massive and strong. They groped around as if trying to grab on to something.

“What is it doing?” Loor asked.

A second later we had our answer. The massive hands found what they were looking for.

“The elevator track,” Zetlin said soberly.

The elevator track was the only solid thing in this world of weightlessness. The huge hands grabbed on to the dark track and the creature had control. It moved, hand over hand, in the exact direction we needed to go.

“Hurry,” Zetlin said, and took off flying, his inertia jets making a soft whooshing sound as he moved.

Loor went next. She started in the wrong direction, but shifted her legs and soon had enough control so she could follow Zetlin. I then hit my button … and spun in a tight circle. Oops. I realized I had only one foot in the right position. The other was floating free. Idiot! I backed off on the button, twisted my body into the right position, made sure my heels were together, and took off. After a few seconds I had it figured out. It really was easy. Just a slight movement of my heel altered my direction and I learned how to make midcourse corrections. In no time, I was sailing along next to Loor, with Zetlin in the lead.

I glanced back and down over my shoulder to see that the Reality Bug was moving quickly along the track, hand over huge hand. But with the help of the inertia jets, we were moving faster.

Zetlin then changed direction and shot down at a steep angle. Loor and I were able to follow right behind. I looked forward and saw a small, glowing red rectangle that seemed to be hovering in space. This is where Zetlin was headed. He stopped at the door-shaped rectangle and gave it a push. It was the door out.

I looked back to see the huge black snake with the human arms gaining ground. It opened its jaws and hissed angrily.

“Hurry, please,” I said to Zetlin.

Loor and I followed him and stepped through the doorway. I instantly felt the pull of gravity as we were back on solid ground. I quickly pushed the door shut behind me. It was a heavy door, much heavier than anything we had come across in this wacky building so far. It was more like a hatch than a door. When I closed it, I saw there was a heavy latch. I slammed it home. Anything we could do to slow down the Reality Bug was a good thing.

“Keep moving!” Zetlin ordered.

We were in a short, dark chamber about ten feet long. On the far end was another door that Zetlin pushed open. When we stepped through, we entered another space that I can best describe as being like the inside of a giant clock. It was a huge room full of gigantic, heavy gears. All around us and high above were massive, interlocking cogs and flywheels and I don't know what else.

“This is the center of the Barbican,” Zetlin explained as he closed the door behind us. “This machinery rotates the building. I think we're safe in here.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

Zetlin slapped the wall next to the door we had just come through. “This wall is the structural core of the Barbican. It's five feet thick. That monster is too big to come through the doors, and there's no possibility of it crashing through this wall, I don't care how strong it gets.

“I hope you're right,” I said.

He wasn't.

The proof appeared at the bottom of the door that Zetlin had just closed.

“It doesn't need to break down the wall,” I said, pointing to the door.

An ink-black liquid was leaking its way into the room through the edges around the door. Like oily poison it oozed through the seams, poured onto the floor, and continued to move across it.

The Reality Bug had gone liquid.

“This way, hurry,” Zetlin said, and ran off.

He didn't need to add the “hurry.” We were right after him. There was no telling how long it would take the Reality Bug to ooze into the room and reform as something nasty. We had to keep moving.

“We'll take the zips,” he said.

“Zips?” I asked.

We followed Zetlin through the giant machinery. I felt like an ant running through a monstrous engine, that's how big the mechanism was. He led us to a row of vehicles that I recognized from when we first arrived. They were the motorcycle-looking speeders that we saw racing underwater and in the air. Zetlin grabbed a helmet from the seat of one and jumped on.

“Whoa, we don't know how to drive these!” I complained.

“Not a problem,” Zetlin answered. “A child could drive them. Watch.” He grabbed the handlebars and said, “Right grip is speed, left grip is brake.” He then pointed down. His right foot was resting on a pedal. “Heel back gives you nose up. Toes down, you dive. Keep your foot flat for level flight. Steering is obvious.”

We then heard a gruesome scream coming from back in the machinery. It was a loud, metallic, tearing sound. The Reality Bug had reformed. Loor and I gave each other a nervous look. We then each grabbed a helmet and jumped onto a zip. We were going to have to learn how to drive these babies, fast.

“Buckle in,” Zetlin said while pulling a bar around his waist. “If you're not locked in when you hit the water, you'll be thrown.”

“Hit the water?” Loor asked nervously.

Zetlin then flipped a switch under the handlebars and his zip whined to life. Loor and I did the same. I could feel the hum of power coming from the zip. It felt like being on a motorcycle, like Uncle Press's. But I had never driven one myself. The closest I had come was one of those kiddie rides at the mall that you put a quarter in and it bucks around a little bit. Something told me this was going to be a little bit different. I glanced at Zetlin and he pushed his heel down. The nose cone of the zip tilted up into the air like a missile getting ready to fly.

“Let's go,” he shouted, and hit the throttle. Instantly his zip launched. He shot into the air, turned sharply, and stopped, hovering over us. “C'mon!” he yelled.

I looked to Loor. Loor shrugged and followed Zetlin's lead. She pushed her heel down, the nose lifted up, and she took off. She shot past Zetlin, nearly hitting him.