The Reality Bug

by D. J. MacHale

  Gunny turned to me. I saw a hint of tension in his eyes. “Did I ever tell you I’m not a big fan of this fluming business?”

  I laughed. “Gunny, there’s plenty of stuff out there to be scared about. The flume isn’t one of ’em.”

  As the light grew closer, the dark rock of the tunnel began its transformation into clear crystal.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Gunny said. The light flashed nuclear, music echoed throughout the space, and Gunny was gone. I dropped my hand in time to see the light disappear into the depths of the tunnel. The flume had returned to normal, waiting for its next passenger. Me.

  “Veelox!” I shouted, and the process began again.

  As the light and music came for me, I closed my eyes, waiting for the first tug that would signal the beginning of my trip.

  Here we go again.

  The flume ride to Veelox wasn’t different than any other. I crossed my arms, kicked back, and enjoyed the sensation of shooting through the crystal tunnel. I gazed out through the clear walls at the star field beyond, trying to pick out a constellation, but none looked familiar. I still didn’t know exactly what happened when a Traveler went through a flume. I was beginning to understand that it wasn’t like moving through the regular old three dimensions of space that we’re used to. You know: up, down, forward, back. I believe a flume trip sent you through a fourth dimension, which was time. That’s why the Travelers are able to show up where they need to be, when they need to be there.

  Uncle Press explained to me about Halla. It was everything … all times, all places, all people, and all things that ever were. And they all still existed. If that were true, then maybe there was a fifth and even a sixth dimension, and the flumes were interdimensional highways between them. Something like that would make sense, or the universe would be getting pretty crowded.

  Did I say that made sense? Who am I kidding? Does any of this make sense? There was only one thing I knew for sure: All this thinking about multiple dimensions was ruining my cool flume ride. I had to lighten up.

  Too late. The jumble of notes grew more furious, which signaled I was nearing Veelox. A few seconds later gravity kicked in and I was gently set down. The first thing I saw was Gunny’s back. He stood at the mouth of the flume a few feet in front of me. The second thing I saw was …

  Saint Dane.

  Whoa.

  “Hello, Pendragon,” the demon said with an oily smile. “Welcome to Veelox.”

  Saint Dane stood facing us in the dark room.

  His sharp blue eyes cut through the gloom like cold fire. He was in his normal form, standing seven feet tall with long gray hair that fell over his shoulders. To say I was shocked to see him doesn’t cover it.

  “I’m surprised, Pendragon,” Saint Dane continued. “After your embarrassment on First Earth, I thought you would have given up your foolish pursuit.”

  I couldn’t talk. I was in total brainlock.

  “No matter,” he continued. “My work here is complete. Veelox is on the verge of crumbling. I must say, I didn’t expect Veelox to be the first territory to fall, but in the end it won’t matter, since all of Halla will ultimately meet the same fate.”

  “Veelox is about to crumble?” Gunny asked, stunned.

  “I don’t believe you,” I said, finally kick starting my brain.

  Saint Dane smiled from one corner of his mouth and said, “You say that as if I should care. Now, please, step aside. I have business elsewhere.”

  “You’re not leaving,” I announced defiantly.

  Gunny gave me a quick, nervous look. That was a pretty bold threat, especially since I had no idea of how to back it up.

  “What are you going to do?” Saint Dane chuckled. “Hold me here?”

  “If we have to,” I said, trying not to let my voice crack. I meant it too. If Saint Dane ran for the flume, I was ready to tackle him. We had to know what happened on Veelox.

  “Isn’t that a little unimaginative?” Saint Dane said. But the words didn’t come from his mouth. They came from our right. Huh? Gunny and I both turned quickly to see …

  Another Saint Dane was standing there. There were two of them! “Certainly you can be more creative than that,” the second Saint Dane said.

  “Or maybe you’ve reached your limit for resourcefulness,” came another voice.

  Uh-oh. Gunny and I spun to our left to see a third Saint Dane.

  “Press would be so disappointed in you.”

  We turned to see yet another Saint Dane behind us, standing in the mouth of the flume. “They’re not real, Gunny. They’re holograms,” I said. “Like movies.”

  “Correct!” Saint Dane announced. The fifth Saint Dane. We were now standing in a circle of Saint Danes. There were twenty of them, all the exact duplicates of one another. They started to move together, circling us.

  “The question is,” they all said in unison, “which one of us is real?” They let out a chilling laugh. “What to do? What to do?” they sang together.

  Gunny and I stood back to back, trying to spot any sign that would tell us which was the original. It was impossible. They were perfect clones. Then, in one unified voice, they all shouted, “Eelong!”

  Uh-oh. The flume came to life. If we were going to do something, it would have to be fast. Gunny made the first move. He jumped forward and wrapped his arms around the closest Saint Dane. But all he got for his trouble was an armload of air.

  The Saint Danes laughed. This was fun for him. Or them, or whatever.

  Light from the flume lit up the room and the musical notes were nearly on us. Gunny lunged at another Saint Dane, but his arms swept through the hologram like it wasn’t even there. Because it wasn’t. In seconds Saint Dane would escape to another territory and we’d be left to pick up the pieces. As scared as I was, I lunged at one of the Saint Danes… .

  And wrapped my arms around the demon Traveler. The real one. I had guessed right. First try. Lucky me.

  It’s hard to describe the feeling. Yes, I was petrified, but I guess that’s obvious. What I remember most is that Saint Dane felt cold. It was like hugging a block of ice. With my chin stuck in his chest, I looked up into his eyes. For an instant I was afraid the blood in my veins would freeze solid. Maybe it did, because I couldn’t move. When he opened his mouth to speak, his breath smelled like something had crawled in there and died.

  “Does this mean you’re coming with me?” he asked with a wicked sneer.

  That threw me. I felt as if holding on to him wasn’t going to stop him, but instead make me his prisoner. The thought was so gruesome, I automatically let go. Bad move, because Saint Dane instantly bolted for the flume. Gunny lunged at him, but the demon was too fast. He leaped into the flume at the exact instant the light came to take him. All that was left was the echoing sound of his laughter as he flumed away.

  Saint Dane was gone.

  So were the holograms. Gunny and I were left alone in the big empty room, staring at a dark flume.

  “I’m going after him,” Gunny announced.

  “No!” I shouted. “We’ve got to figure out what he did here on Veelox.”

  “He’s going to start in on a new territory, Pendragon,” Gunny declared. “What’s done here is done.”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” I countered. “Just because he said it, doesn’t mean it’s true. He’s not exactly an honest guy.”

  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 w
hat 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?”