D. MacHale - The Pilgrims of Rayne

Not anymore. That was another thing that had changed about Third Earth.

Patrick drove up and slammed on the brakes, looking anything but calm. Frantic, scared, nervous… those were all better words to describe him. I’d only met him once, but he seemed to be a guy who was in perfect control. He was an intellectual. A guy who lived to study and teach. Now he looked like a crazed guy who lived to rant and drool. He leaped out of the car without opening the door, ran to me, and grabbed both my arms. His eyes were wild. His hair was tangled. He hadn’t shaved. He was a mess.

“What happened?” he demanded. “What’s going on?”

I looked to Courtney. She shrugged.

“Uh, not following you, Patrick,” I said.

Patrick looked as if his head was about to explode. He looked at Courtney. “Who’s that?” He ran to her and grabbed her arms. “What territory are you the Traveler from? Do you know what happened?”

Courtney froze. “N-No. I’m not a Traveler-I-“

“Not a Traveler!” Patrick screamed, backing away from her, stepping closer to the edge of panic. “Pendragon, you can’t bring a non-Traveler here! What are you thinking? Things are all wrong!”

I gently put my hand on his arm to try and calm him.

“Relax, okay?” I said. “We’re here to help figure things out.”

I felt him relax. A little. His eyes darted around as if unseen ghosts were closing in on us. He was coming back to Earth. Or Third Earth.

“I’m going out of my mind, Pendragon,” he said, gulping air.

Yeah, no kidding.

“You’re used to jumping around between territories and dealing with this insanity. I’m just a teacher. I never thought something like this could happen here.”

I glanced around to see if there was a place we could talk that was more private. We were still outside the kiosk leading to the subway, and lots of people were passing by. Lots of Mark-looking robots, too. The creepy factor was still very high.

“Let’s drive somewhere, okay?” I suggested.

Patrick focused on my injured arm. “You’re hurt.”

“Quigs,” I answered. “Down at the gate.”

Patrick’s eyes suddenly went wide. “Quigs!” he shouted, ramping up again. So much for calming down. “You know what that means? Saint Dane is here! Here! It’s starting, isn’t it? That’s why you came, right?”

It was Courtney’s turn to try and calm him down. She put her arm around his shoulder and started out softly, saying, “It’s okay. We’re here to help.” Her calm, reassuring voice quickly amped up into a tirade. “But we can’t do anything unless you get a grip! All right! Now calm down!”

Good old Courtney. Patience wasn’t her strength.

“Nice,” I said sarcastically, pulling Patrick away from her. “Let’s take a breath and go someplace quiet.”

“I’ll take you to a doctor,” Patrick said. “You need to get that treated.”

“Fine, whatever. Let’s just go.” My first thought wasn’t about the slash on my arm, but if letting Patrick focus on getting me help would put him back under control, I wasn’t going to stop him. He jumped behind the wheel of the tiny car.

“You sure you can drive?” Courtney asked. She wasn’t thrilled about riding in a car being driven by a maniac. To be honest, neither was I.

“I’m okay,” Patrick said, taking a deep breath. He was definitely calming down.

We all got in, with Courtney in the back and me next to Patrick. I could feel Courtney’s tension radiate from the backseat.

“My doctor is in Manhattan,” Patrick explained. “He’ll take care of you.”

“Good,” I said. “No hurry.”

“Yeah, no hurry,” Courtney echoed. “Safe and boring. That’s the ticket. Let’s get there in one piece.”

Patrick looked at her, then at me. “She’s not a Traveler?” he said, as if I had just brought a martian into his life.

“It’s cool. She’s as much a part of this as we are.”

“But she’s not a Traveler,” Patrick argued.

“That’s the least of our problems,” Courtney said sharply.

I hoped she was right.

Patrick gave me a worried look, then turned over the ignition. The engine made no sound. Moments later we were rolling along the peaceful road, headed toward Manhattan. The trip was exactly as I remembered it, except for the dados. I didn’t say anything to Patrick about them at first. I wanted to make sure he was completely calm. I also wanted to make sure his mind was on his driving. Crashing into a tree wouldn’t have helped matters.

I noticed that his eyes were darting everywhere. It seemed like every time we rounded another bend, he’d see something so shocking that the sight actually made him tense up and give out a little gasp-as if he were seeing ghosts or something. The guy was a raw nerve. It finally clicked that it happened whenever he saw another group of dados.

I couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Okay, tell me why you’re so freaked.”

Patrick answered, “I was hoping you could tell me.”

“Uhh,” I answered dumbly. “We just got here. You’re the one acting all mental.”

Patrick thought a second. “You’d be a little crazy too if you woke up to find your territory wasn’t the same as when you’d gone to sleep.”

I shot a look back to Courtney. She raised an interested eyebrow.

“Explain that,” I demanded.

Patrick took a shaky breath. “When I went to bed last night, everything was normal. Do you know how I woke up this morning?”

“No,” I said patiently.

“A stranger was shaking me, saying it was time to get up to go to work.”

“Who was it?” Courtney asked.

Patrick laughed, but it wasn’t because he thought it was funny.

“Not ‘who,’ what!” he shouted. “It was a mechanical man! I jumped up screaming and demanded to know who he was, but he just gave me this confused look and said he’d been my domestic da… da…”

“Dado?” I asked.

“Yes, dado! He said he’d been working for me for five years and didn’t understand what game I was playing. I thought somebody was playing a practical joke. I ran out of the house to get away, but there were mechanical men everywhere! Pendragon, they weren’t here when I went to sleep. Now there are more robots than people and nobody seems surprised but me! Am I crazy?”

“Unfortunately, no,” I answered.

Patrick continued, “I drove around in a daze, not believing what I was seeing. That’s when my communicator activated, saying you were at the gate. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence.” He pulled the silver card out of his pocket. “But this isn’t my communicator! It’s changed! How can that be?”

The communicator looked exactly like the one at the flume.

Patrick added, “You can explain all this, right?”

I looked at Courtney. She shrugged and said, “Go for it.”

“I only have theories. We’re here to find the real answers.”

“But I don’t have any!” Patrick cried.

“History might,” I shot back quickly. “The same thing happened on Second Earth. One minute all was normal, the next minute technology changed. It’s your computer archives that we’re hoping will tell us why.”

“You’re saying this all happened in the past?”

“I think so,” I answered. “I think the reason nobody is reacting to the change is because it happened long before they were born. These robots are now a normal part of Third Earth.”

“But if something happened in the past, I shouldn’t have noticed a change,” Patrick argued. “I mean, this should all seem normal to me, too, right?”

“Except you’re a Traveler,” I said. “This gets into a whole nother thing, but from what I’m learning. Travelers aren’t like normal people. According to Saint Dane, we’re illusions.”