The Reality Bug tpa-4

by D. J. MacHale

  After breakfast we all piled into the SUV and headed for my basketball game. I had played some pick-up hoops with Spader on First Earth-when we went there together in pursuit of Saint Dane-but that wasn’t the same as putting on a uniform and playing five-on-five in a gym. The last time I played organized ball was for Stony Brook Junior High. If I hadn’t left home I would be going to Davis Gregory High right now. Question was, where would my mind take us? Junior high, or high school?

  Dad drove us to Davis Gregory High. I had been there before and even played a city final in their gym, so I knew the place. I left my family and went right to the locker room, not entirely sure of what I’d find. For a moment it felt like one of those dreams where you’ve got to take a test, but suddenly realize you never went to any of the classes. But I didn’t panic. After all, Lifelight was supposed to deliver a perfect experience, right?

  It did. When I stepped into the room, I was thrilled to see all my teammates from junior high. But they weren’t getting dressed in the yellow jerseys of the Stony Brook Wildcats. They were putting on the crimson jerseys of the Davis Gregory Cardinals. I had always dreamed about playing for the Cardinals. My dream was about to come true. Sort of.

  The guys all greeted me, but didn’t act like anything was out of the ordinary. I wanted to grab them all and hug them and tell them how psyched I was to be back, but I played it cool. For some reason I knew which locker was mine. Hanging up inside was a Cardinal jersey with my number: 15. Any doubt I had about being in the right place went away when I picked up that jersey, turned it around, and saw the stitched lettering over my number. It read: pendragon.

  As I look back and analyze what happened, I can figure out why Lifelight did what it did. But at the time, I was totally taken up with the illusion. Even though I knew what was going on, it didn’t matter. I’m not sure if it was Lifelight doing it to me, or it was my own brain guiding things, but it was like I had forgotten that I was lying in a vast pyramid and mind tripping through a computer. As far as I knew, I was really there.

  And the game was awesome. The stands were full, and rocking like it was a championship. The band pounded out a war rhythm. The cheerleaders fired up the home side. Our opponents were the crosstown rival Black Knights of Easthill High. Our starting five were the same as back in junior high: me, Jimmy Jag, Crutch, Petey Boy, and Joe Zip. Man, I missed those guys. Coach Darula was on the bench looking confident, the same as always. As we came out of the locker room and headed for the court, I got that old familiar feeling in my stomach. The butter flies. They always started dancing right before tip-off. It meant I was ready to play.

  And man, did I play.

  From the opening tip-off, I was on fire. Being a point guard, I was used to shooting and scoring, but what happened in that game was nothing short of phenomenal. Everything clicked. We played together like a dream team. Most every shot I took found nothing but the bottom of the net. I didn’t gun the ball, though. Oh no. I dished it around. I shot no-look passes to Joe Zip, who laid it in. I alley-ooped a few to Crutch, who could leap high enough to jam it home. I stole the ball a bunch of times and generally ran the offense like a pro. It was a dream game. Yeah, that’s exactly what it was.

  We didn’t win by a hundred points either. The game was close, which made it that much more exciting. With only a few seconds left to go, we were actually down by two points.

  Jimmy Jag passed me a give-and-go, I drove the lane, and as I went in for the lay-up, I got hammered by their center. Yeah, you guessed it. Two points down, seconds on the clock, and I was on the foul line. It doesn’t get any sweeter than that. I stood at the line with my hands on my hips, totally exhausted and sweating. It was awesome.

  I looked around at the crowd. Everyone was on their feet, cheering for me. The ref bounced me the ball. I dribbled once, bent my knees, lined up my shot and… swish. All net. The crowd went nuts. I took another second to soak it all in before my next shot. I gazed around at all the excited faces. Some I recognized, others were people I had never seen before. But they were all cheering for me.

  Then I saw something that made a great moment even greater. Sitting on the bleachers behind our bench was my family. Mom, Dad, and Shannon. But that’s not all. Sitting behind them was you, Mark. Next to you was Courtney. You were all waving and cheering. It was the best moment I could imagine.

  The ref bounced me the ball; the crowd grew silent; I put up the shot and… oh yeah, it was good. The buzzer sounded. We were going to overtime. I jogged over to our bench while looking up at you guys. You were going nuts. I couldn’t have imagined a better scenario. Come to think of it, from what I learned about Lifelight, it was the exact scenario I imagined.

  The team manager threw me a towel and I sat down on the bench to catch my breath. I wiped the sweat from my face and did my best not to smile too broadly. That’s when I heard a voice I didn’t want to hear.

  “Having fun?” asked the intruder.

  I looked up and saw Aja sitting next to me on the bench. It actually took me a second, again, to remember who she was.

  But I did, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t want her there, no way. Not then. She was going to ruin it.

  Aja looked around at the screaming crowd and added, “Wow, you really like to get the old adrenaline pumping, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, so?” I shot back. “It’s my fantasy. I can do what I want, right?”

  “Absolutely,” Aja continued. “Only one problem. Your jump’s over.”

  “What?” I shouted. “It can’t be over, we’re going into OT!”

  “Sorry,” Aja shrugged. “I told you, the jump was timed.”

  “Give me twenty more minutes,” I begged.

  “Sorry. Besides, it’s good to end like this,” Aja said. “It’s the perfect demonstration.”

  “There’s nothing perfect about ending this now,” I complained. I then noticed that the silver band had returned to my wrist. The button on the right was blinking red. I didn’t like the looks of that.

  Aja picked up another towel and threw it at me. “Wipe your face. You’re all sweaty,” she ordered.

  I caught the towel and wiped my face. But when I dropped it, I realized with horror that I had gone blind. At least that’s what it seemed like because the gym had gone black. Worse, I had gone deaf, too. A moment before, the place was rocking with the sound of hundreds of frenzied fans. Now it was like somebody had pulled the plug on the TV. Everything had gone dark and silent. I was totally disoriented, until I heard a voice. It was a calm, familiar voice that brought me back to reality.

  “Relax, Pendragon,” Aja said. “Nothing is wrong. You’re coming out of the jump.”

  I then realized the truth. I wasn’t deaf or blind. I was lying in a dark, silent tube.

  “Just lie still for a few minutes,” Aja said.”I’ll be right there to bring you out.”

  I was filled with all sorts of emotions. First off, I was angry. Lifelight had just given me the most incredible gift I could imagine, only to snatch it right back. But I was also still high from the excitement of the game. I wasn’t physically tired because I hadn’t actually done anything. But the emotions were still there. I could remember the thrill of sinking those foul shots. But most of all, I felt sad. I had been given a small taste of being back with my family. It all seemed so real, and it made me miss them even more.

  I heard a slight hum as light entered the tube. The silver disk behind my head was sliding into the wall. It was now official. I hadn’t moved an inch since I was first sealed in. I had “jumped” into a computer simulation. I felt a slight movement and the table slid out of the tube. The first thing I saw was Aja. She stood at the control panel looking down at me.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Like I need another twenty minutes in there, thank you very much.”

  “I’m glad it ended that way, because it only helps illustrate the point I need to make.” “What point?”

  Before she could answer, an a
larm sounded. At least I thought it was an alarm. It was a loud, persistent horn that sliced through the quiet pyramid. Aja quickly glanced at her wrist band.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Medical call,” she said, suddenly sounding all official. “It’s in this sector.”

  Without another word of explanation, she bolted for the door. I was still a little dazed after coming out of my jump, but

  I wanted to know what was going on, so I threw my legs over the side of the table and stood up. I was a little wobbly at first, but a second later I was running after Aja.

  I blasted out the door and almost lost my balance again when I was hit with the sight of the interior of this vast pyramid. Man, talk about a rude awakening. I had to shake off my disorientation, fast. I looked both ways and saw Aja sprinting along the balcony. I sucked it up and ran after her.

  Up ahead, a red light was blinking outside one of the cubicle doors. It didn’t take a genius to know that was where the alarm was coming from. Just before Aja got to the door, I saw a red suited vedder running up from the other direction.

  “Where is this jumper’s phader?” Aja demanded.

  “I don’t know,” the vedder answered.

  They both entered the cubicle with the flashing red light. I ran up and peered into the open door to see what was happening. Aja was at the control panel, quickly pushing buttons. A second later, the alarm stopped blaring.

  “It came out of nowhere,” the vedder said nervously. “There weren’t any signs.”

  “Did the jumper try to abort?” Aja asked.

  “No! His vitals just suddenly spiked.”

  A second later the silver disk in the wall slid open and the table emerged with the jumper lying there. The vedder immediately attended to the person. The jumper was a man maybe around my father’s age. He didn’t seem to be in any kind of trouble. It looked like he was sleeping peacefully. The vedder had a device that resembled a Game Boy. He put it to the jumper’s chest, then checked the readings. A second later he took it away and shook his head.

  “Too late,” he said sadly.

  “Too late?” I asked, entering the room. “What do you mean, ‘too late’?”

  “What do you think he means, Pendragon?” Aja said quietly. “He’s dead.”

  Whoa. Left field. I hadn’t expected that. “I thought this was supposed to be safe!” I said, feeling numb.

  “It is,” Aja shot back. “But sometimes… things happen.”

  The vedder started for the door.

  “Where are you going?” Aja asked. “You’ve got to fill out a report!”

  “Not me,” the vedder said haughtily. “My shift’s over. I’m jumping. The next shift can handle it.”

  The guy left. What a tool. Someone just died on his watch, and all he cared about was jumping into his own fantasy.

  “Aja, what happened?” I asked.

  Aja looked shaken. She tried to collect her thoughts. “I don’t know. We’ll have to look at the records of his jump. There are thousands of people in the pyramid. Sometimes they die of natural causes. But…”

  “But what?”

  “But it’s starting to happen more often,” was her sober answer.

  I didn’t like the sound of that.

  “You’ve seen Lifelight at its best, Pendragon,” she continued. “It’s a wonderful tool that has brought joy to the people of Veelox. But it’s got a downside, too. That’s what you’ve got to see next.”

  I’m going to end this journal here, guys. While Aja did a postmortem on the dead jumper, she put me in a room by myself with this incredible recording device. I wanted to be part of their investigation, but Aja didn’t know how to explain who I was. Still, I’m curious to know what they come up with. Once they’re finished, Aja is going to take me to her home. Then tomorrow she’s going to show me more of Rubic City.

  But the truth is, I’m not here to sightsee. I’m not here to learn about the wonders of Lifelight or tour the city or take a trip into my own fantasies. I’m here to find out what evil Saint Dane has brought to this territory. After seeing what happened with the jumper, I have the sick feeling that I just got my first taste of it.

  So I’ll sign off now. This is the end of my Journal #13. By the time I record #14,1 should have more answers. Good-bye, guys. I miss you.

  (END OF JOURNAL # 13)

  SECOND EARTH

  After a quick good-bye wave, Bobby’s image disappeared in a flicker, leaving Mark and Courtney staring into the empty space of her father’s workshop. Neither could say anything. They had been watching Bobby’s story unfold before them, spoken by Bobby himself. It was like he had been standing in front of them, in the flesh.

  “Well,” Courtney said after several silent seconds. “That was… different”

  “I can’t imagine something like Lifelight being real,” Mark said thoughtfully. He reached forward and picked up the silver, credit card-size projector. He turned it over in his hand, inspecting it. “Then again, I can’t imagine something like this, either, so what the heck do I know?”

  “Do you think Saint Dane sabotaged Lifelight?” Courtney asked.

  “That’s my guess,” Mark answered. “But I’ll bet it’s not as simple as that. Man, what I wouldn’t give to try it out.” “What would you do?”

  “A million things,” Mark answered quickly. “I’d ride a horse.

  79 88 I’ve always wanted to do that. I’d fly an airplane, and play in a rock band, and run the New York marathon.”

  “But you can do all that for real,” said Courtney.

  Mark shrugged. It didn’t feel to him as if any of those things were within his reach. “What would you do?” he asked Courtney.

  Without hesitation Courtney said, “I’d put some major whup-ass on that soccer team.”

  Mark said, “Same thing, you can do that for real.”

  Like Mark, Courtney shrugged. Her confidence was so low, the idea of putting major whup-ass on anybody seemed like a fantasy. Mark then looked back at the silver hologram projector. A thought came to him, and he frowned.

  “What?” Courtney asked.

  “This is wrong,” Mark answered. “Bobby shouldn’t have sent this to us.”

  “Why not? It beats having to read the journals.”

  “But he’s not supposed to mix things from other territories,” Mark answered while fingering the device nervously. “It’s totally against the rules.”

  “We’ll put it in the safe-deposit box at the bank,” Courtney offered. “Nobody will ever see it.”

  “Good idea. I’ll go first thing after school tomorrow,” Mark said. “Man, why didn’t Bobby think of this?”

  “Maybe they don’t use paper on Veelox. It might have been the only way he could send a journal.”

  “Still,” Mark said. “It might cause-“

  Mark’s ring started to twitch. He stopped talking and held his hand up.

  “You’re kidding?” Courtney said with surprise. “That was fast!” Mark stared at the ring quizzically. “It feels different” was all he could say.

  He quickly took off the ring and put it on the table. Courtney stood next to him and the two gazed at it. Normally when one of Bobby’s journals was arriving, the gray stone in the center of the ring would turn crystal clear. The band would then grow and the journal would arrive in a flash of light and music. But that wasn’t happening this time. The large gray stone didn’t change. But something else did.

  Engraved in the silver band and circling the stone was a series of odd characters. Each symbol was unique, with no apparent pattern. When Mark first got the ring he did a search on the Internet, thinking he could decipher them. But he came up empty. After tons of research there was only one thing he knew for sure: The symbols had no relation to any language or culture on Earth.

  Now one of those symbols was starting to glow. It was as if there were a light inside the ring, shining out through the engraving. The glowing symbol was nothing more than a squiggle wit
h a straight line passing through it. Mark and Courtney watched, dumbfounded, as the ring finally began to grow.

  “Something’s coming in,” Mark gasped. “I think.”

  The ring didn’t grow as large as usual. But they heard the familiar jumble of sweet notes that accompanied every trip. The light from the symbol then flashed across the room, momentarily blinding Mark and Courtney. A second later they looked back at the ring. As always, the event was over quickly. The ring had returned to normal. No more light, no more sound, nothing unusual…

  Except for what the ring had deposited. It wasn’t a journal. It was an envelope. A regular old white, Second Earth-style envelope.

  “What is it?” Courtney asked.

  “It’s an envelope,” answered Mark.

  Courtney rolled her eyes. “Duh. Why did Bobby send us an envelope?”

  Mark cautiously leaned over and picked up the piece of mail. He turned it over, examining it. There was nothing weird about it. It was sealed, with no writing on the outside. Courtney gave Mark a nod of encouragement and he carefully opened it, trying not to rip it more than he had to. Inside was a piece of plain white paper.

  “I don’t think this is from Bobby,” Mark announced.

  Courtney looked at the page. There was handwriting on it, and it was definitely not Bobby’s. Bobby wrote in a kind of classic script. This note was written with block letters. It was actually jittery looking, as if the person who wrote it didn’t have a sure hand. The note was simple. It was an address.

  “‘Four twenty-nine Amsterdam Place. Apartment Five-A. New York City,’” Mark read aloud. “You know anybody who lives there?”

  “No,” Courtney answered. “Why would Bobby send us an address? With no explanation?”

  Mark suddenly looked up, as if he were hit with an idea.

  “What?” asked Courtney.

  “Could it be?” he asked, half to himself, half to Courtney.

  “Could it be what?” Courtney asked, growing impatient.

  Mark looked at the address again, then back at the ring. “Could this be about the acolytes?”