Suddenly the entire structure shook. It was so fast and hard, it nearly pulled me off the stairs. We all stopped, clutching the handrails for safety.
“What was that?” I called out.
“I don’t know,” answered Zetlin. “Keep going, but use caution.”
I started down again. Another minute went by and the structure shook again. We all held tight and didn’t move.
“It’s gotta be the bug,” I said. “Maybe it’s trying to break through one of the walls.”
We started moving again, but now with the fear that at any moment we could get thrown off the stairs by these mysterious jolts. It happened three more times, and each time we held tight. Then, finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, we made it to the ground. Nobody stopped to celebrate. We were now at the base of one side of the arch, in the widest part of the structure.
“There is the way out,”Loor said, pointing to a door not far from us. We all ran to it and Loor pulled it open.
It was pouring rain outside, but I didn’t care. We were out! We hurried away from the arch, trying to get as much distance between us and the Reality Bug as possible. We must have run at least a half mile down the wide street before we felt safe enough to stop. The three of us found refuge in the entry way of one of the black buildings.
As we stood there, catching our breath, I looked back at the incredible structure that was the Barbican. What an impossible, amazing, breathtaking building. It hung in the air, on its side, offering no clue as to the wonders inside. It seemed both spectacular, and sad.
I glanced to Dr. Zetlin and saw he wasn’t looking at the building. He was actually looking down the rainy street of his dreary fantasy city. It was a place that was here to remind him of a life he had fled. Now it was his refuge.
“Dr. Zetlin?” I said softly.
“I swore I would never return,” he said, his voice cracking.
I looked out at the city to try and see it through his eyes. Rain bounced off the gray streets. It was a pretty depressing place. It struck me that there were no people. From the time the Reality Bug started to wreak havoc, I hadn’t seen a single soul. I didn’t know if everybody had fled, or the fantasy had somehow altered and wiped out everybody but the real people. Us. I guess it didn’t matter. We didn’t belong here. None of us did.
“This isn’t reality either,” Loor reminded him.
“It is to me,” he said.
We then heard a sound that at first I thought was thunder. It was a deep, violent booming sound that came from the direction of the Barbican. We looked at the building, but there was nothing unusual to see. We heard two more loud booms.
“Whatever it is,” Loor said, “it is what made the arch shake when we were climbing down.”
But what was it?
The answer came quickly. We heard another huge booming sound. Zetlin gasped.
Something was attacking the Barbican… from inside. Chunks of the building were tearing away and crashing to the ground below. I think we all knew what it was, but didn’t want to believe it.
“It wasn’t trying to break down a wall,” I gasped. “It was trying to break out.”
Then a huge black shape erupted from the far end of the building. It was the end that held the jungle. We watched in awe as a massive fist pushed its way up and out of the building. The sound of wrenching metal and breaking glass cut through the pounding rain. The fist pulled back into the building and another shape pushed up. It looked like a monster was being hatched from the horizontal structure. The black mass pushed up and out of the hole, tearing it wider, sending chunks of wrecked building to the pavement. The mass writhed and twisted, and then opened its eyes.
It was the head of the beast and it was a creature from hell. It looked like an animal, but no animal I had ever seen. The shape was like a boar’s head, with a snout and long, curling teeth. The eyes were snake eyes with vertical slits. The beast had gigantic horns that curled up and around like a ram. The whole head was covered with black, oily fur.
The beast forced its head up through the hole and opened its mouth to bellow as it struggled to push out of the building. The gaping mouth was bloodred and full of multiple rows of yellow teeth.
We watched, mesmerized, as the beast punched out another hole. Its fist blasted out, making the escape hole even bigger. It then punched its other fist through so both arms were free. Now it could lift its colossal chest out of the structure. Its chest and arms were almost human, with massive muscles. The thing was still growing as we watched. It was now too big to fit inside the end of the building. We could hear the sound of wrenching metal as the beast’s weight pushed down on the one end. If it grew any bigger, the building would collapse.
The beast howled again and smashed its fist down on top of the building. It blasted open another huge hole and water came flooding out. It had broken open the room that held the underwater racecourse. Tons of water spewed from the building like a waterfall and crashed onto the street. There was so much water that, in just a few seconds, the surge made it all the way to us, and we stood knee-deep in a river. But we didn’t move. We were already soaking wet from the rain. A foot more of water wasn’t going to make things any worse.
The beast pushed against the top of the building and lifted one leg out, then the other. We saw that the bottom half of the monster was furry, with hooves for feet. It heaved itself out of the hole and stood on top of the horizontal building. Last out was the creature’s tail. It was long and bone white, like a rat’s tail. The monster stood on its two hoofed feet, with its tail wrapped around one leg, and howled. It was a horrible, angry sound that made my blood freeze. We were staring at the physical being of the Reality Bug. All the fears of the people of Veelox had fed this thing, made it real, and let it grow.
The three of us were absolutely powerless against it.
The monster then climbed off the building and slid down one side of the arch. Now it was on the ground. The question was, would it start looking for us? It stood tall, looked around, and sniffed the air. I saw its piggy snout moving as it searched for smells. I really hoped we were downwind. Any second I expected the beast to catch our scent and start coming.
But it didn’t. It gave one last look around, then fell to its knees.
“What is it doing?” Loor asked.
The beast balled up its monster hand into a fist, raised it into the air, brought it down hard, and punched the ground. The force was so strong it shook the street as if it had been slammed with an earthquake. The monster did it again. Its muscles rippled with strength as it punched the ground again. And again. And again. He kept punching at the same area, eventually blasting a crater in the cement.
The look on Zetlin’s face told me he didn’t have any better idea than we did about why the beast was punching the street.
“What’s happening?” came a frightened voice from behind us.
The three of us jumped in surprise, and turned to see…
Aja. She walked past us with her eyes fixed on the beast.
“What’s happening?” I asked back. “You tell us! We’ve been running from that thing since we saw you. Are you gonna get us out of here or what?”
Aja didn’t answer me. She just kept staring at the Reality Bug.
As the beast pummeled the ground, its head changed. It went from the strange, piglike creature, to the head of a bird with a long, curved beak. The beak opened to reveal huge, pointed teeth. Its body then changed to something like a reptile. Its head then changed again. It became a gruesome, fleshless skull with dead eyes and fanged teeth.
“It’s feeding on the fear of the whole territory,” Aja gasped.
“Aja,” Loor asked calmly. “Do you know why it is punching the ground?”
Aja turned to us. Her face was totally blank. “I think it’s trying to escape,” she said.
“It already escaped,” I said. “Look at that building. It’s destroyed.”
Aja shook her head. It was creepy to see her like this. Aja was brilliant and she showed it in her eyes. But those normally sharp eyes now looked vacant, as if her mind wouldn’t accept what was happening.
“No,” she said. “It’s trying to escape from the fantasy.”
Zetlin shot her a look. “What do you mean?” he demanded.
