The Reality Bug

by D. J. MacHale

  “Okay, no problem,” I said, trying to keep calm. “We gotta get back there.”

  That’s when we saw it. Crashing through the tropical trees only yards away came a terrifying sight. The Reality Bug had transformed itself into, well, into some kind of green bug. It had multiple, tarantula-style legs, a long scaly body, and a massive head with pincers that snapped in front of its red, fleshy mouth. And it had grown. This beast now towered over us like we were in some kind of Japanese monster movie.

  When it appeared through the trees it stopped, reared its head and let out another one of those painful shrieks.

  “We are in the wrong place,” Loor announced, and gunned her zip. She shot into the air, making sure to keep out of reach of the monster bug.

  But she didn’t get far. No sooner had she taken off than the bug turned its head toward her and shot out a clear, ropelike cord from its mouth.

  “Loor!” I shouted, but it was too late. The thread caught the back of her zip in midflight and held her there like a kite at the end of a string. Loor gunned the throttle, trying to shake it, but the filament held firm. I saw that it was reeling Loor in like a fish on the line. The pincers around its mouth snapped in anticipation. The spider had caught its prey and was ready to feed.

  “I’m gonna bail her out,” I shouted, and was about to fly up and get her off her zip and onto mine. But Zetlin was quicker. He shot off the ground and throttled up to full speed. I thought he was going way too fast to stop right next to Loor, but that wasn’t his plan. He aimed his zip halfway between the struggling Loor and the giant bug, blasting into the taut filament, snapping it in half. Totally smart move. Loor sped forward as if propelled from a slingshot.

  “Yes!” I shouted, and instantly wished I hadn’t. I was now alone, with the Reality Bug looming over me. Oops. I might as well have shouted: “Here I am! Come and get me!” It was time to go. I turned hard, to my left to stay as far away from the beast as possible, and throttled up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it turn toward me and shoot out another cord. I quickly pushed my toe down, making the zip dive. The cord shot right over my shoulder, barely missing me. By the time the big bug reloaded, I was gone. A quick look over my shoulder showed me that it was scrambling back the way it had come, following the wide trail it had already cut through the jungle.

  The race was back on.

  I retreated in the direction of the water portal and soon caught up with Loor and Zetlin.

  “Nice move,” I shouted at Zetlin.

  “I am very good,” he answered.

  He was good. Not modest, but good.

  “Follow me back to the machine room,” he announced, and throttled up. Loor and I gunned our zips and settled in behind him. I was confident we would make it. The Reality Bug was getting bigger and that meant it was slower. If we kept the pedal to the metal, we’d beat it to the machine room and get out of there with no problem.

  Or so I thought.

  The big liquid square that was the portal to the water room appeared in the distance. The three of us were flying toward it at full speed. In a few seconds we’d hit the water and be on our way. Zetlin turned back to us and shouted, “You two okay?”

  We both nodded.

  “Don’t slow down. We can beat this thing,” he added with confidence.

  Because Zetlin was turned back toward us, he didn’t see that something had appeared ahead. We were on a direct course for the big square of water, moving as fast as ever. But in that quick moment, I saw that there was something covering the opening. It took an instant for my brain to compute, but I realized what was stretched across the square.

  It was a web. The Reality Bug must have spun a web after it came through, and it was about to catch a couple of speedy flies.

  “Look out!” I screamed.

  Too late. Loor and I turned hard and pulled out, but Zetlin didn’t have a chance. He barely had time to look forward when he slammed right into the web. I had a fleeting hope that it would snap like the cord Zetlin severed before, but it didn’t. This wasn’t just one cord, it was an interlocking web.

  Loor and I circled back quickly to see that Zetlin was stuck in the sticky cords. His zip had crashed to the ground, leaving him tangled and helpless like, well, like a fly caught in a spiderweb. I wasn’t even sure if he was conscious. Or alive.

  Loor pulled her zip right up to Zetlin and hovered next to him.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  Zetlin nodded. Whew. He was shaken, but alive and awake. He was also trapped in a spiderweb. I looked down to the jungle below to see the giant bug in the distance, scurrying toward us. Its eight legs were thrashing hard to speed it along to see if anything tasty was caught in its trap. We had to get Zetlin out of there fast. But how?

  Loor had the answer. She reached into her jumpsuit and pulled out a vicious-looking kitchen knife. I didn’t know she had kept one, but I was glad she had.

  “Help me, Pendragon,” she ordered. “Go below him.”

  I eased my zip down and underneath Zetlin. Loor went to work cutting away the web. I grabbed hold of Zetlin’s legs, ready for him to drop down onto my zip. While Loor sliced away, I snuck a look back down. The Reality Bug was getting closer. If it decided to change into a bird, it could fly right up and have us. But it didn’t. The giant bug just kept charging through the jungle.

  A few seconds later Zetlin fell loose from the web and Loor eased him onto the zip in front of me.

  “Are you with us?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” he said, but sounded loopy. We didn’t have time to rescue his zip, so Zetlin leaned forward into the nose cone of my zip, giving me a clear view forward.

  “I suggest you hurry,” Zetlin said.

  I looked up to Loor and asked, “Is the web clear?”

  “Clear enough,” she answered.

  The two of us then pulled away from the web, made a wide circle back, and gunned the vehicles toward the hole she had cut. Loor was first and sailed through with room to spare. I was right behind her and shot through the tendrils and into the water.

  Speed was everything now. Loor and I drove our zips side by side, squeezing the throttles, coaxing every last bit of power out of the strange but cool fantasy machines. Loor made the first move to surface. Zetlin and I were right behind. We both launched up and out of the water, headed for the icy opening that would lead us to the slickshot course.

  Minutes later we blasted through the ice tunnel and shot out over the bright, frozen glacier. We kept pushing the zips forward, not even taking a second to turn and see if the Reality Bug was on our butts.

  Zetlin never looked up from inside his position in the nose of my zip. Just as well. Both Loor and I knew where we had to go, and a short few minutes later we were sailing over the giant gears of the machine room.

  “There’s the trouble,” I said while pointing down.

  Sure enough, two massive metal bars had been jammed between a set of gear wheels. When the Barbican started to move, it jammed up the works. Not only was the Reality Bug vicious, it was smart.

  I motioned to Loor for us to land, and the two of us guided our zips down to the floor.

  “Dr. Zetlin,” I said. “We’re in the machine room. How do we get out of here?”

  Zetlin pulled himself up from the nose of the zip. He looked groggy.

  “Are you hurt?” Loor asked.

  “Just rattled,” Zetlin answered. He looked around, scanning the vast machine room. “There!” he announced. He pointed to a round, vertical tube not far from us that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. It was made of the same light blue aluminum as the inside of the elevator.

  “That’s the dead center of the Barbican,” he said. “And our way out.”

  “We should leave these vehicles and travel on foot,” Loor said. “We do not want the monster knowing where we are.”

  Excellent idea.

  “Let’s go,” I said and the three of us hurried across the floor of the machine room, head
ed for this blue cylinder. We kept looking back, expecting the Reality Bug to appear. But it didn’t. I was beginning to think it had run out of tricks and was trapped back in that jungle. Good. I hoped the vine-shooting cactus plants were gnawing away on it.

  It only took us a few minutes to get to the cylinder. It was about four feet wide and shot straight up. Zetlin directed us to a square hatch that had a wheel built into it.

  “This leads down into the arch that braces the Barbican,” he explained while spinning the wheel. “We can climb all the way to the ground inside the arch.”

  He pulled open the hatch and entered first. Loor went next and I followed last. It was dark inside the round tube, especially after I closed the hatch and spun the wheel that locked it. Our eyes adjusted in a few seconds and I saw a metal ladder that ran the length of the tube. Zetlin got on the ladder and climbed down. Loor and I followed quickly. The ladder went down several feet to a platform.

  “This platform is the very top of the arch,” Zetlin explained. “There are metal stairs on either end that will take us down.”

  Yikes. I thought back to seeing this arch from outside. It was huge, which meant it was a long way down. I was beginning to realize why this wasn’t Zetlin’s first choice of escape route.

  Loor was thinking the same thing. “If the Reality Bug follows us in here …”

  She didn’t have to finish the sentence. We knew we’d be trapped.

  “I know,” Zetlin said. “But it’s the only way down.”

  I didn’t want to waste any more time, so I started walking toward the end of the platform. I must have gone about thirty yards when I came upon a set of metal stairs with metal handrails. The stairs curved down and away into the dark. Gulp.

  “Be careful,” Zetlin said. “It’s a long way down.”

  I didn’t need that reminder. I turned around and went down the stairs backward, with a death grip on the handrails to either side. Loor followed me and Zetlin was last. It was tough at first because the stairs weren’t very steep. It was like walking on my hands and feet. I thought back to the shape of the arch to remember it curved at the top. I figured that the farther down we got, the steeper it would get and that is exactly what happened. Soon I was climbing nearly straight down, as if on a ladder. I moved as fast as it felt safe to go. Speed was good, but if I tripped …splat. I didn’t know what scared me more: falling into this dark hole, or having the Reality Bug attack from above. Either way, it was good motivation to keep moving.

  None of us spoke on the way down. There wasn’t a whole lot to talk about. But I knew we were all thinking the same thing. Keep moving, get down and out of here before the bug finds us.

  Suddenly the entire structure shook. It was so fast and hard, it nearly pulled me off the stairs. We all stopped, clutching the handrails for safety.

  “What was that?” I called out.

  “I don’t know,” answered Zetlin. “Keep going, but use caution.”

  I started down again. Another minute went by and the structure shook again. We all held tight and didn’t move.

  “It’s gotta be the bug,” I said. “Maybe it’s trying to break through one of the walls.”

  We started moving again, but now with the fear that at any moment we could get thrown off the stairs by these mysterious jolts. It happened three more times, and each time we held tight. Then, finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, we made it to the ground. Nobody stopped to celebrate. We were now at the base of one side of the arch, in the widest part of the structure.

  “There is the way out,” Loor said, pointing to a door not far from us. We all ran to it and Loor pulled it open.

  It was pouring rain outside, but I didn’t care. We were out! We hurried away from the arch, trying to get as much distance between us and the Reality Bug as possible. We must have run at least a half mile down the wide street before we felt safe enough to stop. The three of us found refuge in the entry way of one of the black buildings.

  As we stood there, catching our breath, I looked back at the incredible structure that was the Barbican. What an impossible, amazing, breathtaking building. It hung in the air, on its side, offering no clue as to the wonders inside. It seemed both spectacular, and sad.

  I glanced to Dr. Zetlin and saw he wasn’t looking at the building. He was actually looking down the rainy street of his dreary fantasy city. It was a place that was here to remind him of a life he had fled. Now it was his refuge.

  “Dr. Zetlin?” I said softly.

  “I swore I would never return,” he said, his voice cracking.

  I looked out at the city to try and see it through his eyes. Rain bounced off the gray streets. It was a pretty depressing place. It struck me that there were no people. From the time the Reality Bug started to wreak havoc, I hadn’t seen a single soul. I didn’t know if everybody had fled, or the fantasy had somehow altered and wiped out everybody but the real people. Us. I guess it didn’t matter. We didn’t belong here. None of us did.

  “This isn’t reality either,” Loor reminded him.

  “It is to me,” he said.

  We then heard a sound that at first I thought was thunder. It was a deep, violent booming sound that came from the direction of the Barbican. We looked at the building, but there was nothing unusual to see. We heard two more loud booms.

  “Whatever it is,” Loor said, “it is what made the arch shake when we were climbing down.”

  But what was it?

  The answer came quickly. We heard another huge booming sound. Zetlin gasped.

  Something was attacking the Barbican …from inside. Chunks of the building were tearing away and crashing to the ground below. I think we all knew what it was, but didn’t want to believe it.

  “It wasn’t trying to break down a wall,” I gasped. “It was trying to break out.”

  Then a huge black shape erupted from the far end of the building. It was the end that held the jungle. We watched in awe as a massive fist pushed its way up and out of the building. The sound of wrenching metal and breaking glass cut through the pounding rain. The fist pulled back into the building and another shape pushed up. It looked like a monster was being hatched from the horizontal structure. The black mass pushed up and out of the hole, tearing it wider, sending chunks of wrecked building to the pavement. The mass writhed and twisted, and then opened its eyes.

  It was the head of the beast and it was a creature from hell. It looked like an animal, but no animal I had ever seen. The shape was like a boar’s head, with a snout and long, curling teeth. The eyes were snake eyes with vertical slits. The beast had gigantic horns that curled up and around like a ram. The whole head was covered with black, oily fur.

  The beast forced its head up through the hole and opened its mouth to bellow as it struggled to push out of the building. The gaping mouth was bloodred and full of multiple rows of yellow teeth.

  We watched, mesmerized, as the beast punched out another hole. Its fist blasted out, making the escape hole even bigger. It then punched its other fist through so both arms were free. Now it could lift its colossal chest out of the structure. Its chest and arms were almost human, with massive muscles. The thing was still growing as we watched. It was now too big to fit inside the end of the building. We could hear the sound of wrenching metal as the beast’s weight pushed down on the one end. If it grew any bigger, the building would collapse.

  The beast howled again and smashed its fist down on top of the building. It blasted open another huge hole and water came flooding out. It had broken open the room that held the underwater racecourse. Tons of water spewed from the building like a waterfall and crashed onto the street. There was so much water that, in just a few seconds, the surge made it all the way to us, and we stood knee-deep in a river. But we didn’t move. We were already soaking wet from the rain. A foot more of water wasn’t going to make things any worse.

  The beast pushed against the top of the building and lifted one leg out, then the other. We saw that the bottom
half of the monster was furry, with hooves for feet. It heaved itself out of the hole and stood on top of the horizontal building. Last out was the creature’s tail. It was long and bone white, like a rat’s tail. The monster stood on its two hoofed feet, with its tail wrapped around one leg, and howled. It was a horrible, angry sound that made my blood freeze. We were staring at the physical being of the Reality Bug. All the fears of the people of Veelox had fed this thing, made it real, and let it grow.

  The three of us were absolutely powerless against it.

  The monster then climbed off the building and slid down one side of the arch. Now it was on the ground. The question was, would it start looking for us? It stood tall, looked around, and sniffed the air. I saw its piggy snout moving as it searched for smells. I really hoped we were downwind. Any second I expected the beast to catch our scent and start coming.

  But it didn’t. It gave one last look around, then fell to its knees.

  “What is it doing?” Loor asked.

  The beast balled up its monster hand into a fist, raised it into the air, brought it down hard, and punched the ground. The force was so strong it shook the street as if it had been slammed with an earthquake. The monster did it again. Its muscles rippled with strength as it punched the ground again. And again. And again. He kept punching at the same area, eventually blasting a crater in the cement.

  The look on Zetlin’s face told me he didn’t have any better idea than we did about why the beast was punching the street.

  “What’s happening?” came a frightened voice from behind us.

  The three of us jumped in surprise, and turned to see …

  Aja. She walked past us with her eyes fixed on the beast.

  “What’s happening?” I asked back. “You tell us! We’ve been running from that thing since we saw you. Are you gonna get us out of here or what?”

  Aja didn’t answer me. She just kept staring at the Reality Bug.

  As the beast pummeled the ground, its head changed. It went from the strange, piglike creature, to the head of a bird with a long, curved beak. The beak opened to reveal huge, pointed teeth. Its body then changed to something like a reptile. Its head then changed again. It became a gruesome, fleshless skull with dead eyes and fanged teeth.