D. MacHale - The Reality Bug

I touched the button in my palm… and rocketed up. Whoa! These things were powerful!

“Easy!” Zetlin ordered. “Just touch it.”

I spun around and touched the button tentatively. Sure enough, I was able to control it. When I took my finger off the button, I slowed down pretty quick. It was easy to get used to. Under other circumstances, this would be the most totally amazing, fun experience possible. It was like we were floating in outer space without space suits. But these weren’t other circumstances. Somewhere out there among the stars was a giant, poisonous snake trying to kill us.

“Follow me,” Zetlin announced. “I know the way to the far side.”

“How?” I asked, looking around at nothing but nothing.

“I know the star formations,” Zetlin answered.

I had to take his word for it. If it were up to Loor or me, we’d be floating around here forever.

That’s when the snake came into view. It was far below us, floating free. At least I think it was below us. It was impossible to tell up from down.

“We’re in luck,” Zetlin said. “There’s no way it can maneuver in here.”

Excellent. The Reality Bug had chosen the absolute worst place to pull the elevator off its track. I figured it would float helplessly in here with no way to escape. That would give us enough time to get out of the Barbican and for Aja to untangle the software. Suddenly there was hope.

And just as suddenly it came crashing down.

The snake had no way of fighting the weightlessness, so it began to change. We watched in horror as huge, humanlike arms sprouted from the snake body. The hands were massive and strong. They groped around as if trying to grab on to something.

“What is it doing?” Loor asked.

A second later we had our answer. The massive hands found what they were looking for.

“The elevator track,” Zetlin said soberly.

The elevator track was the only solid thing in this world of weightlessness. The huge hands grabbed on to the dark track and the creature had control. It moved, hand over hand, in the exact direction we needed to go.

“Hurry,” Zetlin said, and took off flying, his inertia jets making a soft whooshing sound as he moved.

Loor went next. She started in the wrong direction, but shifted her legs and soon had enough control so she could follow Zetlin. I then hit my button… and spun in a tight circle.

Oops. I realized I had only one foot in the right position. The other was floating free. Idiot! I backed off on the button, twisted my body into the right position, made sure my heels were together, and took off. After a few seconds I had it figured out. It really was easy. Just a slight movement of my heel altered my direction and I learned how to make midcourse corrections. In no time, I was sailing along next to Loor, with Zetlin in the lead.

I glanced back and down over my shoulder to see that the Reality Bug was moving quickly along the track, hand over huge hand. But with the help of the inertia jets, we were moving faster.

Zetlin then changed direction and shot down at a steep angle. Loor and I were able to follow right behind. I looked forward and saw a small, glowing red rectangle that seemed to be hovering in space. This is where Zetlin was headed. He stopped at the door-shaped rectangle and gave it a push. It was the door out.

I looked back to see the huge black snake with the human arms gaining ground. It opened its jaws and hissed angrily.

“Hurry, please,” I said to Zetlin.

Loor and I followed him and stepped through the doorway. I instantly felt the pull of gravity as we were back on solid ground. I quickly pushed the door shut behind me. It was a heavy door, much heavier than anything we had come across in this wacky building so far. It was more like a hatch than a door. When I closed it, I saw there was a heavy latch. I slammed it home. Anything we could do to slow down the Reality Bug was a good thing.

“Keep moving!” Zetlin ordered.

We were in a short, dark chamber about ten feet long. On the far end was another door that Zetlin pushed open. When we stepped through, we entered another space that I can best describe as being like the inside of a giant clock. It was a huge room full of gigantic, heavy gears. All around us and high above were massive, interlocking cogs and flywheels and I don’t know what else.

“This is the center of the Barbican,” Zetlin explained as he closed the door behind us. “This machinery rotates the building. I think we’re safe in here.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

Zetlin slapped the wall next to the door we had just come through. “This wall is the structural core of the Barbican. It’s five feet thick. That monster is too big to come through the doors, and there’s no possibility of it crashing through this wall, I don’t care how strong it gets.

“I hope you’re right,” I said.

He wasn’t.

The proof appeared at the bottom of the door that Zetlin had just closed.

“It doesn’t need to break down the wall,” I said, pointing to the door.

An ink-black liquid was leaking its way into the room through the edges around the door. Like oily poison it oozed through the seams, poured onto the floor, and continued to move across it.

The Reality Bug had gone liquid.

“This way, hurry,” Zetlin said, and ran off.

He didn’t need to add the “hurry.” We were right after him. There was no telling how long it would take the Reality Bug to ooze into the room and reform as something nasty. We had to keep moving.

“We’ll take the zips,” he said.

“Zips?” I asked.

We followed Zetlin through the giant machinery. I felt like an ant running through a monstrous engine, that’s how big the mechanism was. He led us to a row of vehicles that I recognized from when we first arrived. They were the motorcycle-looking speeders that we saw racing underwater and in the air. Zetlin grabbed a helmet from the seat of one and jumped on.

“Whoa, we don’t know how to drive these!” I complained.

“Not a problem,” Zetlin answered. “A child could drive them. Watch.” He grabbed the handlebars and said, “Right grip is speed, left grip is brake.” He then pointed down. His right foot was resting on a pedal. “Heel back gives you nose up. Toes down, you dive. Keep your foot flat for level flight. Steering is obvious.”

We then heard a gruesome scream coming from back in the machinery. It was a loud, metallic, tearing sound. The Reality Bug had reformed. Loor and I gave each other a nervous look. We then each grabbed a helmet and jumped onto a zip. We were going to have to learn how to drive these babies, fast.

“Buckle in,” Zetlin said while pulling a bar around his waist. “If you’re not locked in when you hit the water, you’ll be thrown.”

“Hit the water?” Loor asked nervously.

Zetlin then flipped a switch under the handlebars and his zip whined to life. Loor and I did the same. I could feel the hum of power coming from the zip. It felt like being on a motorcycle, like Uncle Press’s. But I had never driven one myself. The closest I had come was one of those kiddie rides at the mall that you put a quarter in and it bucks around a little bit. Something told me this was going to be a little bit different. I glanced at Zetlin and he pushed his heel down. The nose cone of the zip tilted up into the air like a missile getting ready to fly.

317 325 “Let’s go,” he shouted, and hit the throttle. Instantly his zip launched. He shot into the air, turned sharply, and stopped, hovering over us. “C’mon!” he yelled.

I looked to Loor. Loor shrugged and followed Zetlin’s lead. She pushed her heel down, the nose lifted up, and she took off. She shot past Zetlin, nearly hitting him.