The Reality Bug (27 page)

That's when I heard a strange sound. It was high-pitched, like an engine. Of course, it was hard to know where it was coming from because we were underwater. But there was one thing for sure: Whatever it was, it was getting louder. That meant it was getting closer.

I took a quick look straight ahead and saw lights in the distance. There were five of them at our level, underwater. They looked like flashlight beams, headed our way. Fast. Whatever they were, they were definitely making the whining sound.

I didn't know what to do. Were these lights a threat? Should I turn around and get us back down to the hole? Should I pull even harder and hope we would reach the surface? Should we stay where we were and defend ourselves?

I didn't have time to decide because in seconds they were on us. All five lights dipped down and passed underneath us so fast that I couldn't get a good look at what they were. They didn't hit us, but as soon as they shot beneath, I felt a hard tug that forced me to stop swimming. I knew instantly what had happened. A quick look down confirmed it.

Whatever those speeding lights were, they severed the vine that was our lifeline to the bottom. The cut end drifted up next to me. We were floating free.

That's when Loor gave me two quick squeezes. She was running out of air.

We were trapped in a watery limbo.

I
had to keep swimming for the surface.

We were too far away from the hole at the bottom to get back down. Besides, without the vine to guide us there was no guarantee I would even find it. No, the choice was clear. Swim up like crazy, or drown.

I kept doing the breaststroke as hard as I could. I really wished I could have kicked my legs, too, but Loor was wrapped around my lower body. My lungs were starting to ache. I think I was swimming so hard that it burned up whatever oxygen I had left.

An idea hit me: Press the button on my control bracelet and end the jump. If we didn't reach the surface in a few seconds it would be our only hope. But it was the last resort and there was no guarantee it would even work. Keep swimming.

A few agonizing seconds passed and we were still underwater. I was starting to black out. We had to get air, now. Time to abort. I reached for my control bracelet, but at the exact moment before I bailed us out, something splashed down into the water only a few yards away. Whatever it was, it was pretty big and moving fast because it made a dramatic
boom
when it hit the water. But I didn't care what it was. All I knew was that if something made a splash like that, we had to be near the surface. So I didn't hit the button, and made two more desperate strokes for air.

A moment later I broke the surface, followed right behind by Loor, both gasping for air. We had made it! But there wasn't time to celebrate because we now faced another danger. Loor couldn't swim. I had to change gears fast, and take care of her. She was already starting to flail in the water. If she clocked me by accident, I'd be out cold, and we'd both be sunk. Literally.

“Relax,” I commanded. “Float on your back, Loor. I got you.”

Loor rolled onto her back. She was breathing hard and her eyes were wild, but she tried to relax. I held her head above the surface and started to tread water.

“We're okay,” I said, trying to sound soothing. “Let's just catch our breath and we'll get out of here.”

I took the chance to look around to get my bearings. The cavernous space we were floating in was pitch black, and like the jungle below, I couldn't see the far walls of this incredible fantasy building. Again the ceiling disappeared into black. But there was something odd in the air above us. Floating midair all over this huge space were colorful, brightly lit globes. They looked to be about two feet in diameter, with each glowing a different neon color. Orange, red, green, yellow. There must have been a hundred of them, all floating in the air above us at different levels.

“They are like colorful stars,” Loor said. “What could they be?”

This was good. She was calming down.

“I have no idea,” I said. “They don't look dangerous—”

Suddenly there was an eruption in the water a few feet from us. Exploding up from below came the lights that had severed our line. But now we saw them for what they really were.

They were vehicles.

All five shot up from underwater and flew into the air. They looked to me like bright, colorful motorcycles without wheels. Each had a rider wearing a helmet. They were crouched down low like jockeys behind a conelike windshield. They were hauling, too. The vehicles flew out of the water and continued up toward the floating globes. These things not only traveled underwater, they could fly! All five riders charged in a pack toward a bright orange globe. They sped past it, turned sharply around it, and shot ahead toward the next one.

“They're racing!” I exclaimed. “Those globes mark the racecourse!”

The five racers flew away from us, speeding from globe to globe. They all then turned together and dove back toward the water. A second later all five hit the surface and disappeared below like a pack of hungry seagulls hunting for fish.

“How cool is that!” I exclaimed. “This is a racecourse!”

“Pendragon,” Loor said calmly, “I still can't swim.”

Oh, right. We had to get out of the water. I took another look around and was relieved to see another spiral staircase rising out of the water only a few yards away. A few quick strokes and I had towed Loor to the stairs. We both clung to them, happy to have solid footing again. While we sat catching our breaths, we watched as the racers erupted from the water once again, shot into the sky, and charged far off into the distance. Whoever these racers were, they were good, and they had the coolest vehicles I had ever seen.

“Are you okay?” I asked Loor.

Loor nodded and said, “We must continue up.”

I gazed up the staircase to see that it disappeared into blackness.

“Man,” I said. “This guy Zetlin is a piece of work.”

This time I took the lead and hurried up the stairs. As we rose up, we kept watching the racers zip around the globes, plunge into the water, then fly up again and back onto the airborne course. It looked like a lot of fun.

When we arrived at the ceiling, I was relieved to see this next opening wasn't water. Instead, the staircase rose up through a large, white circle.

Loor said, “How can this be? We are no longer wet.”

Sure enough, our jumpsuits and our hair were completely dry. I was beyond questioning anything that happened. If we were suddenly, magically dry, so be it. Whatever. As it turned out, it was a good thing because when I reached out to the edge of the circle to touch the white band, I was surprised to feel that it was cold.

“It's snow!” I announced.

Sure enough, I was able to dig my hand into the white edge of the circle and come back with a handful of ice crystals.

“Now what?” was all I could say.

I continued up the last few steps and arrived at a small, snow cave. It was like standing up inside an igloo. It was chilly, too. Good thing we were dry.

“I guess that's the way,” I said, pointing to the opening to the cave.

Neither of us had any idea what to expect outside, but we had to brave it. So the two of us walked toward the light and out of the cave. The small cavern took a turn, and as soon as we both rounded it, we were blinded by an incredibly intense, white light. After having been in the dark of the jungle and the watery racecourse, all we could do was cover our eyes and wait until they adjusted to this new environment. It took a few seconds, but when we lowered our hands, we were met with yet another incredible sight.

It looked like Antarctica.

Not that I've ever been to Antarctica, but if I had, I'm sure it would look like this. Everything was white, which explained why we were having trouble seeing. The sky was bright white too. Again, we may have been inside a building, but this time we were enveloped in such blindingly bright light that we couldn't see walls or a ceiling.

As my eyes grew more accustomed to the light, I began to make out more detail. It seemed like we were standing on a vast field of ice. It wasn't all flat, though. There were huge mounds of craggy ice that formed hills and valleys all around us.

“This Dr. Zetlin has a very strange imagination,” Loor said.

Before I could agree, we heard excited shouting.

“Whooo! Yeah! Eehaaaaa!”

It sounded like a bunch of guys having an adrenaline rush. A second later five figures appeared on top of one of the icy mounds. They shot over the top, got some serious air, and then landed on the slope and slid down on what looked like snowboards. They weren't like Second Earth snowboards though. These things were round and black. They were about the size of a garbage can lid and curved up at the rim. The riders' feet were attached in the middle somehow. Man, they were good. As they sped down the slope, they did three-sixties and dodged around one another and basically looked like a stunt team. They all wore the familiar green jumpsuits, but with black helmets that covered most of their heads and faces.

Loor and I watched in awe as the five riders sped toward us. I wasn't sure if we should run, or hold our ground. I started to back away, but Loor stopped me.

“No,” she said. “We cannot show fear.”

Easy for her to say. But I stayed where I was.

A second later Loor and I were hit with a spray of snow as the snow riders dug in and stopped directly in front of us. It was a totally awkward moment. The five helmeted riders stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at us through dark, tinted goggles. Nobody said anything. Finally I figured it was time to cut to the chase.

“We're looking for Dr. Zetlin,” I said.

The five riders looked to one another and started to laugh. I didn't expect that. Then again, I'm not sure what I expected. Finally one of them got control of himself enough to step forward.

“You can't just show up and see the Z,” he said.

“It's very important,” I said, feeling kind of lame. “He'll want to see us.”

I had no idea how to sum up quickly why we had to see Dr. Zetlin. They didn't seem like the kind of guys who would stand still for a long-winded explanation. Or care.

“Do you know where he is?” Loor asked.

Another rider walked up to her and said, “Sure, but if you want to see him, you've got to play first.”

“Play?” I asked. “Play what?”

“Slickshot!” another rider shouted.

“Yeah! Slickshot!” the others chimed in.

The riders then quickly released their boots from their snow disks, tossed them aside, and started to skate across the ice. It seemed impossible because they moved like they had ice skates on, but they didn't. They were sliding along with only their boot bottoms touching the surface. The first rider then skated back to us and stopped right in front of me.

“Here's the deal,” he said. “One of you races slickshot with us. You don't have to win, just finish.”

“What kind of race is it?” I asked.

The guy pointed out across the ice to the other racers who were skating along.

“It's a skating race,” he explained. “There's a course over the ice marked by red arrows. We all skate the course together, first one back here wins.”

“And all we have to do is finish?” I asked.

“It's not that easy,” the rider explained. “There are five checkpoints. The first one has a tower with six red balls in it. One for each racer. You have to pick up a ball, then skate forward and drop it in a basket before skating to the next checkpoint. That one has six balls too. But the third checkpoint has only five balls. If you're the last one there, you're done. The next one has five balls too, but the final checkpoint has only four.”

“So six start the race and only four finish,” I said.

“Exactly,” the guy said. “Finish the race and you can meet the Z.”

“We are not here to play games,” Loor said firmly.

“Too bad,” the rider said with a shrug. “We are.”

With that he turned and started to skate away.

“Wait!” I shouted. “I'll give it a shot. But I don't get how you guys are skating without skates.”

The racer skated over to the mouth of the cave. Next to the opening was something we hadn't seen when we arrived. It was a rack full of the same black helmets like the racers wore. Next to it was a wire bin with close to forty red balls about the size of a grapefruit. I guessed those were the kind of balls that would be at the checkpoints. The guy picked up one of the helmets and skated back to us.

“Attach these to your shoes,” he said while reaching into the helmet. He pulled out two wire frames that looked as if they would fit onto the sole of a shoe. Each one had two yellow pads, one for the front of the foot, one for the back. He then added, “Get used to them. We'll go set up the course.”

He skated away to join the other racers.

“Maybe I should be the one to race,” Loor said.

“Do you know how to skate?” I asked.

Loor looked down. She didn't like to admit defeat.

“I do,” I said. “Let me try these things out.”

The wires attached easily to the soles of my boots. One end clamped over my toe, the other attached over my heel. But I didn't understand how they could work like ice skates, until I put my feet down and pushed off.

“Whoa!” I shouted as I slid across the ice.

The pads must have been made of a superslick material, because I glided over the ice as easily as if I had on hockey skates. It took me all of thirty seconds to get the feel of these things and found they were even easier to control than skates. I played a couple of years of junior hockey, so I was pretty confident on the ice. With these slick pads, I found that I could turn, stop, cut, and skate backward better than at home. My confidence was building.

But we faced a tough decision. Between the two of us, Loor was the athlete. But if she couldn't skate like me, it didn't matter how strong she was. She'd never make it to the first checkpoint.