The Reality Bug

VEELOX

Howdy, Pendragon!” Saint Dane exclaimed jovially while leaning against the hitching post. “I see you brought along your violent little girlfriend. What a nice surprise!”

This didn’t compute. How could Saint Dane be in Dr. Zetlin’s fantasy? This wasn’t like before where he was a prerecorded hologram. This was him. For real. Or should I say, in fantasy. My brain locked.

“You seem surprised!” he laughed. “This can’t be possible, yet here I am. It seems as though Aja’s Reality Bug has completely scrambled Lifelight.”

Loor looked to me and said softly, “This is real, isn’t it?”

“Real enough!” Saint Dane answered for me.

He pulled out one of his six-shooters, aimed it at the sky and pulled the trigger. The sharp crack sounded pretty real to me. A moment later four more cowboys with six-shooters appeared from the saloon. They moved quickly behind us, cutting off any chance we had of escape. These guys didn’t look like the friendly cowpokes from the mountains either. The word that came to mind was, desperados.

“Since this is a fantasy,” Saint Dane continued, “let’s have some fun.”

He stepped off the wooden walkway and strolled over to us with his thumb in his gun belt. He was enjoying this. We weren’t.

“The man you’re worried about?” he said. “I know where he is, and I’m going to give you the chance to rescue him.” I shot a look at Loor. This had just gotten interesting. “Rescue?” I asked.

“About a mile south of town is a dam. It’s an immense structure. Holds back an extremely large lake. Without that dam, this town would be underwater. On top of the dam is a small, stone hut. That’s where you’ll find him.”

“That’s it?” I asked. “Simple as that?”

Saint Dane laughed. “Pendragon, please, is it ever as simple as that?”

He pulled out a golden pocket watch and checked the time.

“Dynamite has been placed all over that dam, thanks to my associates here. In just about, oh, ten minutes, it’s all going to explode and things around here are going to get very wet.”

My adrenaline spiked.

“So you’re giving us ten minutes to get to the hut and get him out? Is that what you’re saying?”

“With one small complication. I’ll give you a two minute head start. After that I’m sending my associates here, to stop you. Won’t that be exciting?”

Saint Dane leaned down and looked me square in the eye, saying, “You didn’t have the strength to succeed on First Earth. How will you handle this little challenge?”

Without thinking, I reached forward and quickly grabbed one of Saint Dane’s guns from its holster.

“Nicely done. Quick Draw,” he said, barely showing surprise. “Now what?”

I grabbed Loor’s hand and started to run.

“Yahoo!” Saint Dane called after us.

If we had any chance of getting to that dam in ten minutes, we needed the horses.

“What is dynamite?” Loor asked as we ran.

“It’s like tak,” I answered. “It’ll destroy the dam.”

We made it to the blacksmith barn in a few seconds. I jammed the six-shooter into my belt and we started to untie the horses.

“Does it matter if this town is destroyed?” Loor asked. “It is not real.”

“It’s not the town,” I answered quickly. “It’s Zetlin. If something happens to him we’ll never get the origin code and Lifelight will-“

Crack! Ping!

A bullet zinged off a metal bucket that was hanging near the barn door. It barely missed us.

“That wasn’t two minutes!” I shouted.

Either the desperados didn’t care, or they couldn’t tell time, because I was answered with a series of gunshots.

“Inside!” Loor commanded.

We grabbed the bridles of the horses and ran them inside the barn. Loor quickly closed the big doors. We were safe, but trapped, and the clock was ticking.

“What do those noisemakers do?” Loor said while pointing to the gun I had jammed in my belt.

“It shoots out small pieces of metal. They’re deadly. But it only fires six times and they have a lot more guns than we do. And to be honest, I’ve never even shot one before.”

More shots were fired from outside, shattering a window, making the horses whinny in fear.

“We gotta get outta here,” I said and ran to a door in the back of the splintered wood just over my head. To use a cliche Western phrase, they had us surrounded. I ran back to Loor and shouted, “You’re the soldier-in-training! What are we supposed to do?”

Loor wasn’t panicking, I’m not surprised to say. She coolly looked around the barn, seeing what we had to use.

She then said calmly, “The animals. What did you call it before? Stampede?”

I could have kissed her. It was brilliant and insane. There were about a dozen horses in stalls, plus ours. If we could get them moving together out of the barn, we might be able to use them as shields. I was more than ready to give it a try.

“Get them together!” Loor commanded.

We ran to opposite sides of the barn, throwing open the stalls and yelling at the horses to get out. It was kind of scary. The horses were already nervous because of the gunshots. Having two crazy people running around waving their arms made them even more excited. This was dangerous. One quick horse kick to the head and it would all be over.

After a few frantic seconds, we had all the horses gathered together in the center of the barn. They were bumping into each other, kicking at the ground, and whinnying. They weren’t happy about this at all.

“Go to the doors!” Loor yelled.

I ran to the big barn doors and grabbed the handles. Loor took our two horses with saddles and led them to the back of the pack.

“Are you ready?” she called out.

I was. So were the horses. They were starting to rear up and I was nearly stomped a couple of times. “Let’s go!” I shouted. “Open the doors!”

I threw open both doors. Loor gave off a sharp whistle, and the herd of horses charged out of the barn.

I barely had enough time to jump to the side before getting trampled. Loor ran forward with our two horses. Without a second to think about how crazy this was, I jumped on mine and we charged out after the fleeing herd.

Outside, it was a chaos of wild horses and dust. The horses blasted into the open and ran together toward the main street. Loor and I pushed our horses forward to stay as close to the wild herd as possible. We both crouched low in the saddle, trying to offer smaller targets. I kept expecting to hear gunshots, but they didn’t come. I guess there was enough confusion going on that the desperados didn’t want to waste their ammunition. Good for the horses, good for us.

We were out, and we had our horses. Now it was a race. We had to get to that dam and find Zetlin before the whole thing blew up, or the desperados stopped us.

“Which way?” Loor yelled.

I figured we came into town from one direction, so the dam must be in the other. I gave my horse a quick kick in the butt, and we were off. We charged down the main street of Old Glenville, flew past the church, and blasted along the dirt road leading south. Side by side we galloped along the road like a couple of bandits on the run.

I soon realized there was something else to worry about. As much as I’d like to pretend otherwise, I’m not a very good rider. This was freaking scary! The horses were fast, which was good, but I barely knew what I was doing. If I fell off at the speed we were going, something would get broken. Probably my head. I grabbed the reins with one hand, and had a death grip on the saddle horn with the other. I didn’t even look at Loor. She knew way more about riding than I did. I had no idea how much time had gone by, but every second counted. Slowing down was not an option. “There it is!” Loor called to me.

Sure enough, looming up in the distance, tucked into a ravine, was a huge stone dam. Saint Dane said it was a mile out of town, but it was so big it looked much closer. I could even see the small, stone building on top, right in the middle.

Bang!

We weren’t alone. I didn’t turn around to look because I was afraid I’d lose my balance. But Loor did. “They are coming,” she announced. “How many?” I asked. “All of them. Saint Dane, too.” Swell.

More shots were fired. I kept expecting to feel the sting of a bullet, but they must have been too far back to be accurate. We had to keep it that way.

The road forked. It was clear that the right fork would take us to a trail that led up the side of the ravine, and to the top of the dam. Without a word we both steered our flying horses onto the right path. The trail quickly grew narrow as it rose up along the side of the steep ravine. But we still pushed the horses on. We couldn’t risk being caught. Soon, we had risen up so high that there was a steep drop off to the left. I was in the lead. If my horse took one wrong step, adios.

The trail then entered a forest. Branches slapped at us from both sides, trying to knock us off. It was getting painful.

“We gotta slow down!” I said.

Loor and I both pulled on the reins and slowed to a trot. I could see through the trees up ahead that we were nearly at the top of the dam. There were only about a hundred yards to go.

“Give me the noisemaker,” Loor ordered.

I looked back and was shocked to see that Loor was getting off her horse.

“What are you doing? We’re almost there!” I shouted.

“Keep going,” she said, “Find Zetlin and get him out. I will stop the others from following.”

There was no way I was going to leave Loor here alone. “Loor, I won’t-“

“You are wasting time, Pendragon!” she shouted at me. “We must save Zetlin! That is all that matters. Give me the noisemaker!”

It killed me, but I pulled the six-shooter out of my belt and tossed it to her. She looked at it curiously. My confidence wasn’t high.

“Hold the handle, point the long end at the bad guys and pull the trigger,” was the quickest instruction I could think of. “Hold it tight, it’ll probably kick.”

“Go!” she ordered.

I snapped the reins, kicked my horse, and galloped for the dam. I took one last look over my shoulder to see that Loor had pulled her horse into the trees. She was setting a trap. Man, what a brave girl. But then again, if the dam blew up, she wouldn’t be on it. I would. I didn’t know which was worse, facing the desperados, or standing on an exploding dam. Suddenly I wasn’t feeling so bad for her anymore.

It was all about time now. I had no idea how soon the dam was going to blow. A few seconds later, I broke out of the trees on top of the ridge to see the huge lake that Saint Dane told us about. A quick look to my left showed me that I had made it to the top of the dam. The stone hut was about halfway across, which I’m guessing was about fifty yards away. Fifty very long yards. I figured I could cover the distance faster on horseback.

That’s when I heard gunfire. The quick, sharp pops told me that the desperados had caught up with Loor. I could only hope that she’d be safe, and keep them back long enough for me to get to Dr. Zetlin.

“Yah!” I slapped the horse’s flank, and we charged out onto the dam. It was only about ten feet wide, with water on one side and a very long drop on the other. I hugged the water side.

Crack! Crack!

More gunshots, followed by splinters of stone kicking up around me. The desperados weren’t gunning for Loor, they were shooting at me through the trees. I ducked down on the horse and begged it to run faster.

Ping! Crack!

A piece of flying stone stung my arm. They were getting better, but there was no way I would be stopped. Not when I was so close. We had played Saint Dane’s evil game and nearly won. I made it to the stone hut and jumped off my horse. I tied it on the far side of the hut, making sure to use the building for protection against the shooting desperados.

A million thoughts flew through my head. What was my next move? I would get Dr. Zetlin out, get us both on the horse, and then go… where? If we went back the way we came, we’d land right in the laps of the desperados. But I couldn’t abandon Loor! The only choice was to keep going to the far side of the dam. But then once the dam blew up, Loor would be trapped with the desperados.

It was a familiar, horrible feeling. I was faced with a choice. Which was more important? The future of Veelox, or the safety of my friend? It was the Hindenburg all over again. Was this what Saint Dane wanted to do all along? Did he want to put me in the same, horrible position just to see me fail again?

These thoughts took all of three seconds to flash through my head. I truly didn’t know what to do. All I knew for sure was that I had to keep going. But when I threw the door of the hut open, I was rocked by a sight so incredible that it made all my other concerns seem trivial.

“Dr. Zetlin!” I shouted as I opened the door. “We’ve got to get off the dam or-“

When I saw the man inside the hut, I froze. It wasn’t Dr. Zetlin. This wasn’t playing out the way it was supposed to. But to be honest. Saint Dane hadn’t lied, either. He told us that the man I was worried about was in this hut. And he was.

It was Gunny.

“Shorty!” he yelled when he saw me. “What in heck is going on?”

Gunny was tied to a chair with a long length of rope. Seeing him was such a shock, I couldn’t function.

“Wha-how did you get here?” I stammered.

“Saint Dane sandbagged me! Get these ropes off!”

My brain clicked back into gear. I ran to Gunny and started working on the knots. I wasn’t sure if I was happy to see him or totally freaked out.

“You’re not gonna believe what’s been going on,” I said. “This isn’t real. None of this is.” I then stopped working and looked at him. “Wait, I don’t get how you can be here. Did Saint Dane bring you into a Lifelight pyramid?”

Gunny was about to answer, when I felt a sharp rumbling. It felt like a short, quick earthquake. But it wasn’t. Our ten minutes were up. More rumbling followed. The dynamite was exploding. There was no way we could get off in time. The dam was about to collapse, with Gunny and me still on it.

(CONTINUED)