The Reality Bug tpa-4

by D. J. MacHale

  “I’m not a Traveler,” Evangeline said. “I’m an acolyte. Now please, eat your gloid.”

  (CONTINUED)

  VEELOX

  Acolyte.

  There was that name again. Uncle Press had told me they were people from the territories who helped the Travelers. But the only evidence I ever saw of them was when I’d flume into a territory and there would be clothes and stuff to change into. I had never met an acolyte… until now. I was pretty psyched because it felt like another piece of the Traveler puzzle was about to fall into place.

  “Eat your gloid, Bobby,” Evangeline said sweetly.

  Man, I didn’t even like the name. Gloid. It sounded like a body part, as in: “I’m afraid we have to operate and remove your gloid.” Ick. But I couldn’t be rude, so I picked up my spoon and cautiously took a scoop of the orange stripe. It was gooey, like pudding. I don’t mind pudding, but the bright color was throwing me off. Still, Aja and Evangeline seemed to like it, so how bad could it be? I wanted to hold my nose to kill the taste, but that wouldn’t have been cool. So I took a quick breath and put the spoon in my mouth.

  It wasn’t bad. It was sort of bitter, like nuts. I then tried the green color and discovered it was pretty good too, though totally different from the orange. The green was more like berries, sweet at first but with a tart aftertaste. With more confidence I dipped into the blue… and nearly puked. Blue was bad. I had to force myself not to spit it out. It was like a brus-sel sprout had gone south and got mixed in with kitty litter.

  At that exact moment I looked up and saw Evangeline put a big spoonful of blue into her mouth. My stomach twisted. But I felt like I had to finish my cup o’gloid, so I used the Aja technique and mixed all three colors together. It was a good move. The orange and green mellowed out the foul blue and I was able to choke it all down.

  When I finished, I was surprised to find I wasn’t hungry anymore. It wasn’t because the weird taste had shut off my appetite, either. I really felt satisfied, like I had just polished off a big meal. I had all sorts of energy, too. Whatever the stuff was, it definitely did the job. I still wished it had been a big old pepperoni pizza, but I wasn’t complaining.

  “That was… delicious,” I lied. “You make great gloid.”

  “Thank you,” Evangeline said with a chuckle. “Not everybody knows how to scoop gloid from a container like I do.” She winked at me. Ah, it was a joke. The gloid probably came ready-made, like ice cream. Oh well, so much for being a brownnoser.

  “Gloid is pretty much the only thing we eat anymore,” Aja said. “There’s hardly anybody left to grow real food.”

  “It’s a shame,” Evangeline said. She cleared the plates and Aja went to the sink to wash them.

  “What can I do to help?” I asked.

  “Nothing. We’ll be done in a second,” Evangeline said.

  I was looking for an opening to ask Evangeline about the acolyte thing, but wasn’t sure how to bring it up without sounding stupid.

  “You have no idea what an acolyte is, do you?” Aja asked with a snotty edge.

  Gee, thanks, Aja. Never missed an opportunity to point out something I didn’t know. Just as well, it broke the ice.

  “Uncle Press told me about them, but didn’t go into a whole lot of detail,” I answered. “I’d like to know more.”

  Evangeline wiped her hands on a towel and sat back down at her place at the table. Aja kept her back to us, washing the dinner dishes.

  “Everyone needs a purpose,” Evangeline said while looking me right in the eyes. “What better role could someone play than to support those who have a higher calling?”

  “Higher calling?” I said.

  “What else would you call it?” Evangeline said quickly. “The Travelers are concerned with the well-being of the territories. You can’t get a much higher calling than that. I, for one, am comforted by the fact that you Travelers are out there. It makes me sleep easier at night.”

  Yikes. Evangeline was sleeping easier because I was keeping the territories safe? How wrong was thatl I wondered if she knew about Saint Dane. I’ll bet she wouldn’t be getting so much sleep if she knew the wicked stuff he was up to.

  “I have to admit, Evangeline, I’m a little shaky on the whole Traveler thing,” I said. “Uncle Press wanted me to learn as I went along, but I don’t think I’ve learned all that much.”

  Evangeline gave me a little smile. She then reached out and held my hand.

  “What about Denduron?” she asked. “I heard you saved that territory from a horrible civil war.” Whoa. She knew about Denduron? “It wasn’t just me,” I said quickly.

  “And Cloral would have been ravaged by a plague if you and the others hadn’t intervened,” she said.

  “The people of Faar saved Cloral,” I corrected her.

  “And First Earth? Saint Dane was trying to change the destiny of three territories by saving that zeppelin and altering history.”

  I guess she knew about Saint Dane after all.

  “You’re making it sound more dramatic than it was,” I cautioned.

  “Am I?” she said quickly. “You’ve got quite a reputation, Bobby. I think you’ve learned a lot about being a Traveler.”

  “How do you know so much about what I’ve been doing?” I asked.

  Evangeline glanced to Aja, who turned away. She looked annoyed again. What was her problem?

  “The acolytes share information,” she answered, holding up the ring on her chain. “Many of us keep the journals that the Travelers write. Aja asked me to keep hers. It was a great honor, but I wanted to do more. That’s why I became an acolyte.”

  “Now that you mention it,” I said, “I have some friends who want to become acolytes too. They’re the ones I send my journals to.”

  “Can you trust them?” Aja asked.

  I was getting sick of Aja always challenging me. I decided to zing her back. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be sending them my journals, would I?”

  “I’m not talking about holding on to a bunch of papers for safekeeping, Pendragon,” Aja countered. “I’m talking about being there, anytime of the day or night, no matter what the situation, whenever they get the call.”

  “They’re my friends. I trust them,” I said firmly. I didn’t like the way she was questioning you guys, or me.

  “I’ll take care of it, Bobby,” Evangeline stepped in, trying to be the peacemaker. “Your friend will get the chance.”

  “Two friends,” I corrected her. “Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde.”

  “Can we deal with the real issue here?” Aja asked impatiently.

  “And what is that, dear?” Evangeline asked.

  “I’m trying to convince Pendragon that Veelox isn’t in danger from Saint Dane and he’s wasting my time by being here.”

  That was it. Aja had pushed me over the edge. I looked to Evangeline and said, “Sorry for this.”

  Evangeline nodded as if she knew exactly where my head was and said, “I understand.”

  I then turned to Aja and said angrily, “Let’s cut through it, all right? You’ve been treating me like an idiot since I met you. I took it because I didn’t know how your territory worked, but now I do, and I gotta tell you, I think Saint Dane was right. He’s already won. Veelox is falling apart. You say you’ve got it under control? I don’t see it. You better start giving me some real answers or I’m going to flume out of here and come back with a whole bunch of my friends who have the same higher calling as me and-“

  “And what?” Aja shouted back. “Blow up the pyramids? Destroy Lifelight? Convince everybody how they’re better off living in reality than in their fantasies? Is that what you’d come back and do?”

  I was really ticked off, but the truth was, I had no idea what I would do. Still, I couldn’t let her think I was winging this. No way. I forced myself to calm down, but not lose my edge.

  “You have no idea of what Saint Dane is capable of,” I said through clenched teeth. “Have you even gon
e to another territory?”

  Aja faltered. “Well, no, I’m too busy here and-“

  “Well, I have, and even after all the horrible things I’ve seen, I’m not sure I know the true depths of Saint Dane’s evil. That’s the difference between you and me. I worry about the things I don’t know. If I were you, I’d start worrying a little more.”

  This seemed to tweak Aja. She turned away from me, reached into a pocket, and pulled something out.

  “I don’t care what happened on the other territories, Pendragon. You can’t beat Saint Dane here with a fight. There are no bad guys to battle or zeppelins to destroy. But it’s every bit as dangerous as anything you’ve faced before. That’s because the real enemy here is perfection.”

  “I get that,” I said. “The people have to be shown what’s happening to the real world.”

  “They already know!” Aja shot back. “They don’t care! They think they’ve created the perfect system that runs itself. But the truth is the phaders and vedders would rather jump than do their jobs. You saw that vedder today. Someone died and all he cared about was starting his own jump. You only got a taste of Lifelight, Pendragon. And you know what? You didn’t want to come out, did you? What was it you wanted? Twenty more minutes? They all want twenty more minutes, twenty more hours, twenty more days, weeks, months! Most of them don’t even realize it’s a fantasy anymore. If I hadn’t timed your jump, you’d still be in there.”

  I had to admit it. She was right.

  “Okay, you convinced me,” I said. “Lifelight is, like. addicting. But my question stands. What makes you think you’ve got it under control?”

  Aja threw the thing she had taken out of her pocket onto the table. It was a small, silver disk about the size of a quarter in a clear, plastic case. It looked like a tiny CD.

  “I’ve been working on that for nearly a year,” she said with pride.

  Evangeline picked it up and handed it to me reverently. “It’s all she thinks about,” she said.

  “Saint Dane was right in some ways,” Aja said. “He’s done here. If things continue the way they are, it would only be a matter of time before Veelox falls apart for good. Lifelight itself wouldn’t be far behind. But I know how to save the territory.”

  “With this?” I asked, holding up the disk.

  “With that,” she answered with confidence.

  “What is it?”

  “I call it the Reality Bug,” she said. “And tomorrow you’re going to jump back into Lifelight and get a firsthand look at exactly how it works.”

  (CONTINUED)

  VEELOX

  I wasn’t so sure I wanted to jump back into Lifelight, not after seeing that jumper die. On top of that, I was starting to get nervous about Gunny. He had followed Saint Dane to the territory of Eelong and was supposed to take a quick look around and come right back to Veelox. Since Aja had the gate monitored, I asked her to let me know the instant Gunny arrived. I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d found on Eelong. My guess was it wasn’t good, but then again I always assume the worst. Trouble is, I’m usually right.

  I decided the best thing I could do was stay focused on Veelox and trust that Gunny could take care of himself. I spent the night in a guest room of the mansion. It was real comfortable and I would have had a great sleep if it weren’t for the fact that I couldn’t turn my brain off. It was all jammed up with worries about Gunny and jumping back into Lifelight. I ended up tossing around most of the night, nervous about what the next day would bring.

  In the morning, Evangeline made us a yummy breakfast of, what else, gloid. We weren’t treated to the tricolor stuff this time. This batch was all orange. That was okay by me, as long as it wasn’t blue. I was surprised again by how filling the little cup of goo was. I would have preferred a stack of pancakes with maple syrup, but the gloid did me just fine.

  Aja had on her blue jumpsuit, ready for business. She gave me a jumpsuit of my own, only mine was dark green. She said jumpers wore green when they spent long periods of time inside Lifelight. I didn’t want to hang out inside Lifelight any longer than necessary, but figured I should be wearing Veelox clothes anyway. So I traded in my jeans and flannel shirt for this new suit. Aja also gave me some lightweight, black boots. I kept my boxer shorts, though. Rules or no rules, I always keep the boxers.

  When we were ready to leave, Evangeline gave me a big hug. This time I hugged back. I liked her. Besides, she had to be pretty special to put up with Aja.

  “Be safe, Bobby,” she said to me.

  “Don’t forget, Evangeline,” I said. “I told my friends I’d find out about the acolytes for them.” “I promise,” Evangeline assured me.

  I gave her one last squeeze of thanks and followed Aja outside. Evangeline watched as we went down the marble steps to the street and the vehicle that would take us back to the Lifelight pyramid.

  “Bye, Vange,” Aja called to her aunt. “I’ll be home when I get home.”

  The two of us boarded the three-wheeled vehicle and began pedaling back toward Lifelight.

  “Tell me about the Reality Bug,” I said.

  “I’m going to give you a demonstration,” she said back.

  “I know. Humor me.”

  “It’ll be easier to show you,” she argued.

  “I’m sure,” I countered, into my voice. “But it would help if I knew a little bit about what to expect.”

  Aja sighed. I got the feeling that she thought of me as an inferior intellect who couldn’t put two thoughts together without drooling.

  “It’s a computer program,” she reluctantly explained. “Lifelight is designed to take the jumper’s thoughts and give them the perfect experience. The Reality Bug alters the program… slightly.”

  “How?”

  “It attaches to the data stream, changes it, and makes the experience less than perfect.” “Really? How?”

  “That’s what I’m going to demonstrate,” she snapped. “You’ll have a lot less questions after I show you.”

  I didn’t want to argue. This was her show. I figured I was going to get the answers I needed soon enough anyway. Doing it on her terms was going to be less painful. So I shut up and we rode the rest of the way to the pyramid in silence.

  When we arrived, we followed the same route as before. We went through the long hallway of freaky purple’ sterilization, then to the airlinelike ticket counter where I was fitted with another silver bracelet with three buttons. They didn’t take any blood this time, I’m glad to say. I was already in the system.

  As I waited for my control bracelet, I looked at the portrait of the kid Aja called Dr. Zetlin. After having been in Lifelight, I had even more trouble understanding how a kid could have invented such an incredible device. But then again, didn’t Beethoven write symphonies when he was, like, four? I guess you’ve either got it or you don’t.

  We left the bracelet counter and continued on through the core. This time Aja stopped at one of the control stations. A glass door opened and we stepped into the high-tech room. Sitting in the coolio chair was a skinny little phader who looked like he was around twelve. He was gazing up at the wall of monitors, scanning each, looking for signs of trouble on the jumps while slurping down some blue gloid. Ick.

  “Hey, Alex, we’re doing a dual. I need you to phade for us,” Aja said.

  The kid, Alex, didn’t take his eyes away from the screens. I noticed that he had a wicked case of acne. I wondered which color gloid caused that.

  “I’m off soon,” he said with a high voice that sounded as if he were talking through his nose.

  “But you’re the best, Alex,” Aja implored, sounding a little flirty. “I hate jumping with anybody else.”

  Alex gave a little smile. Aja had him. She knew how to manipulate the guy.

  “You need a vedder?” he asked.

  “Nah, this is gonna be short and sweet,” Aja answered. I liked that.

  Alex then tore himself away from the screens and looked at us. He checked m
e out, then looked to Aja and gave a sly smile. “Careful what you do in there. I’ll be watching.”

  “Do you have any idea how creepy that sounds?” Aja said to him coldly.

  Alex instantly lost the smile and went back to watching the screens, embarrassed.

  “Don’t be long,” he said while shoveling more blue gloid into his mouth. “When my shift’s up, I’m jumping.”

  “Don’t worry” was Aja’s reply as she turned and left the control room. I followed right after her.

  “He’s a jerk,” Aja explained. “But he’s the best phader there is. Next to me, of course.”

  “So then why aren’t you going to be the phader for my jump?” I asked.

  “Because we’re jumping together. Didn’t you hear what I said?”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t know that was possible,” I said with total surprise.

  Aja didn’t explain. Instead she entered another control room. This one was empty. Nobody sat in the control chair and all the screens were dark. She gave a quick glance back to the corridor to see if anyone was watching, then sat in the control chair and expertly hit a few buttons on the control pad that was built into the arm. Instantly a small section of the console in front of us sprang to life with indicator lights. Aja reached into the pocket of her jumpsuit and took out the tiny, silver computer disk she called the Reality Bug. After another quick glance outside, she stood up, went to the console, and inserted the disk into a slot in the board. She quickly sat back in the chair, hit a few more buttons, then ejected the disk and popped it back into her jumpsuit. Another few keystrokes and the console went dark. The whole event took a grand total of twenty seconds.

  “It’s loaded,” she announced, and left the control room.

  She either knew exactly what she was doing, or knew how to put on a good show.

  “What did you just do?” I asked.

  Aja shot me a quick look that had “Shut up, idiot” written all over it.

  We entered the center of the pyramid and I was once again stunned by the enormous size of the place. We took the elevator up, made the scary walk across the bridge to the far side, and found an empty cubicle. This one was different than the others I had seen. It was bigger, with two silver disks on thewall rather than just one. Aja went right to the control panel and started to program our jump.