The Reality Bug

EELONG

I looked to the base of the tree and saw the small opening that I had crawled out of. It was so small compared to this monster tree that if I didn’t know it was there, I’d have missed it. Sure enough, carved in the bark just above the opening was the star symbol that marked it as a gate to the flume. Unbelievable. Now the hanging vines in the cavern below made sense. They were the root system of this immense tree. I walked along the base, running my hand across the rough bark. You could live in this tree… with all of your friends and their families, and still have room for a Keebler cookie factory. I took a step back, looked up, and laughed. The impossible kept proving itself to be possible. What was I going to see next?

The answer came quickly, and it wasn’t a good one.

I felt something hit the back of my leg. I looked down and instantly wished I hadn’t because lying in the ground next to my leg was an arm. A bloody, human arm. I quickly looked up in the direction it came from and felt like the wind was knocked out of me. If the big tree hadn’t been there to catch me, I would have fallen back on my butt.

Standing ten yards away from me was a beast. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The first thing I thought of was… dinosaur. It stood upright on two legs, with a long, thick tail that whipped back and forth angrily. It looked to be around seven feet tall, with powerful arms, and hands and feet that were three-finger talons. Its entire body was bright green, like a lizard, with scales covering it. But what I couldn’t take my eyes off of was its head: It was reptilian with a snoutlike nose. It had bright green hair that swept back from its forehead and fell halfway down its back. But most hideous of all was its mouth. It looked like a shark mouth, with multiple rows of sharp teeth that were all about tearing flesh.

And that’s exactly what it was doing, because clasped in its jaws was another human arm. Blood ran into the beast’s mouth and down its chin. If I hadn’t been so scared, I would have gotten sick. We held eye contact. I could feel this monster sizing me up. Its eyes were red and angry. Without looking away, it closed its jaws, crunching the arm like a dry twig. The sound made my stomach turn. The monster flipped out a green tongue and sucked the shattered arm into its mouth. One gulp later, the arm was gone. Swallowed. Bone and all. Gross. It turned back to me and broke out into a bloody grin.

I was next on the menu.

Welcome to Eelong.

It was a quig. It had to be. Every territory had its own quigs that prowled the flumes. They were somehow put there by Saint Dane, but I haven’t figured out how that happened, yet. On Denduron they were prehistoric-looking bears. On Cloral they were killer sharks. Zadaa had snakes and the Earth territories had vicious dogs. Veelox was strangely quig-free, but I think that’s because Saint Dane was already done with that territory by the time I showed up. Now it was looking like the quigs on Eelong were mutant, dinosaur-like reptiles. One thing was certain, it was a meat eater. Human meat. The bloody arm at my feet was proof of that. I didn’t want to know where the rest of the body might be.

The beast locked its red eyes on me and drew back its lips, revealing yet another row of pointed teeth. Swell. Its long green hair spiked out, like an angry cat. It hissed, and I got a whiff of something nasty. It was sending out a disgusting scent that smelled like rotten fish. This thing was going to pounce, and it was going to hurt. I was totally defenseless. Worse, the giant tree was behind me. It was like being trapped in a dead end. I took a tentative step to my right. The beast mirrored my move. I took a step back. So did the beast. It felt like I was playing basketball and this monster was playing defense. Only, it didn’t want to steal the ball. It wanted to steal my head.

That’s when I saw a flicker of movement to my left. I looked quickly, afraid that another quig might be circling in. But what I saw was my salvation. Poking his head out from the hole at the base of the tree was a person! At least I thought it was a person. The guy had straggly hair and a long beard. I only saw him for an instant, because he popped his head back into the hole like a scared turtle. He must have poked his nose out, seen the quig, and changed his mind about coming out. Good thinking. I wished I had done the same. But seeing him reminded me that I had an escape route. The trick would be to get to it before the quig got to me.

The two of us stood facing each other like gun-slingers. I hoped it didn’t realize that I didn’t have a gun and wasn’t prepared to sling anything. I knew that if I bolted for the hole, the quig would leap at me, and it would all be over except for the chewing. All I needed was a couple of seconds for a head start. But how?

An idea came to me. A hideous idea. If I hadn’t been so desperate, there was no way I would have been able to pull it off. But if there was one thing I learned since becoming a Traveler it was that self-preservation is a pretty strong motivator. Without taking another second to talk myself out of it, I slowly bent my knees and reached for the ground. I saw the hair on the back of the beast grow higher. It was waiting to see what I was going to do. I cautiously picked up the bloody arm that lay at my feet. I know, how gross can you get? I grabbed the arm at the elbow trying not to think about what it was. When I touched it, I almost gagged because it was still warm. Whoever it belonged to had been using it not long before. I had to push that thought away or I’d have lost my lunch… and probably my life along with it. As soon as I picked up the arm, the rotten smell from the beast grew stronger. I think the sight of the bloody arm was getting it psyched, like blood in the water does to a shark. That was okay. It meant I had a chance. I slowly stood back up and held the dismembered arm out to my side. The beast’s red eyes followed it like it was some tasty morsel. Gross.

The next few seconds were critical. They meant the difference between buying myself the time I’d need to get to safety and experiencing total failure, which meant the quig would eat me and then get the arm anyway. It all depended on how stupid this quig was. I waved the arm, tantalizing the beast, which stayed focused on it. The horrible smell grew stronger. Oh yeah, the quig wanted the arm, all right. I reared back and flung the arm off to my right.

The beast went for it. The instant it moved I bolted for the hole like a base runner stealing second when the pitcher goes into his windup. I could only hope the quig would keep going for the arm and not decide I was more interesting. I didn’t stop to look back, because every second counted. I ran for the hole and dove inside, headfirst. I hit the ground and scrambled to crawl inside. I thought I had made it, when I heard a bellowing howl from outside and a burning sensation in my leg. The beast was back and it had me by the ankle! It was too big to follow me inside, but that wouldn’t matter if it pulled me back out. I kicked for all I was worth and felt its sharp talons rake across my skin. No way was I giving up. The beast was going to have to work for its supper. With one hard kick, I yanked my leg free of its grip. I was loose! I tried to bend my leg and get it inside, but couldn’t. A quick look back showed me that one of its talons had caught in the braided twine that held my cloth boot on. It still had me!

I frantically wriggled my foot, trying to pull it out of the boot. I actually cursed myself for doing such a good job tying the twine with half hitches and square knots I had learned in Boy Scouts. Why did I have to do such a good job? I expected to jaws clamping down on my leg, biting me like some giant Buffalo wing, but that didn’t stop me from squirming to get away. Then suddenly I felt something snap. It wasn’t my leg, I’m glad to say. The beast’s claw must have severed the twine, because my foot slipped out of the cloth shoe. I quickly tucked my knees up to my chest to keep my feet out of reach. Looking back, I saw the long, green, scaly arm of the monster reaching inside the hole, groping to get at me. Its sharp talons whipped back and forth blindly, finding nothing but air and a few dangling vines. It was pretty charged up, and the rotten-fish smell got so bad, it made me gag. But the beast had lost. With a final bellow of frustration, it pulled its arm out and gave up. I suppose it went back and got the arm as a consolation prize.

I lay inside the dark space, breathing hard, trying to get my head back together. Now that I was safe, the reality of what had happened finally hit me. I had picked up a human arm and used it as bait to save myself from getting eaten. How disgusting was that? I looked down at my leg and saw three long scrapes that ran from my knee to my ankle. I gingerly touched them and found, luckily, that they weren’t very deep. They would just sting for a while. Eelong was shaping up to be a nasty place.

I had to find another way out of this tree. I wasn’t about to stick my head out of that hole. For all I knew. Little Godzilla was waiting outside, savoring its arm-snack and waiting me out. As much as I wanted to flume out of there, it wasn’t an option. I had to get away from this tree, away from the quigs, and find Gunny. So I got on my hands and knees and started to crawl around, pushing my way through the dangling vines, looking for another escape route. I figured there had to be one. If not, where did the guy come from who poked his head out of the hole? He sure wasn’t down in the flume-cavern when I was there. And for that matter, who was that guy?

I passed by the hole that led down to the flume and continued crawling with one hand out in front in case I hit a dead end. But that dead end never came. I kept crawling deeper and deeper into the tree. What I first thought was a small space was actually a tunnel that brought me into the very core of this behemoth tree. As I crawled along I saw that it was actually getting lighter. Of course that didn’t make sense, but when did something silly like “making sense” matter? I soon felt confidant enough that I no longer held my hand out in front of me. Up ahead, I saw light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. I hadn’t been crawling for that long, so there was no way I had gone all the way through to the other side of the tree. It was way too big for that. But I didn’t stop to wonder what to expect, I’d see for myself soon enough.

When I reached the mouth of the tunnel, I crawled out and stood up to view an incredible sight. The tree was hollow. Or at least, this part of it was. I found myself in a huge space that had been carved out of the core of the immense tree. I was kidding before about being able to live in this tree along with cookie-making elves, but this room proved it was possible. The walls were made of, well, wood. Duh. Light came in through cracks that ran up and down and all around, like veins. I’m not sure if the hollowing-out was natural or done by hand. If it was by hand, then it had to have been done a long time ago because everything looked aged, with bits of green moss growing everywhere. Looking straight up was like looking into the mouth of the flume. It disappeared into blackness. There was no ceiling. For all I knew, this tree was hollow all the way to the top. I saw multiple levels and ledges that led to other tunnels, like the one I just crawled out of. I wasn’t sure how you got from one level to the next. I suppose you could climb the vines that clung to the walls, but that would be tough for anybody but Spiderman.

Now that I was safe from the quig outside, I began to wonder who the people of Eelong were. By the look of that hairy guy who poked his head out of the hole, they didn’t exactly seem to be a race of advanced mathematicians. I figured they were a primitive, tribal society who lived in these incredible trees. If they were more advanced than that, they certainly didn’t prove it with the clothes they made. Besides, I had yet to see any sign of tools or buildings or anything else you’d expect to see from a society that had advanced beyond the stone age. I was beginning to think I would have to deal with cavemen. Or tree-men.

“Hello?” I called out, my voice echoing. “Anybody here?” All I got back was the gentle groaning of the tree. I glanced around, trying to figure out which tunnel I’d take to find another way out… when I was shoved from behind with such force, it nearly knocked me off my feet.

I spun around quickly and came face-to-face with the guy who had peeked out of the hole before. He was short, probably no more than five feet tall. His hair was long and tangled. So was his beard. In fact, I think his head hair was tangled up in his beard hair-not a good look. His skin was white and filthy, and he wore the same kind of rags that I did. The guy was crouched down low and breathing heavily. A line of drool ran from his mouth and down his gnarly beard. He may have looked human, but he was acting more like a wild animal.

“H-hello,” I said, trying to calm him. I held my hand out the way you hold your hand out to a dog when you want to show you’re not a threat. “My name is…”

Before I could say another word, my arm was grabbed and yanked to the side. I looked in surprise to see that a vine had been thrown around my arm like a lasso. Holding the other end was another person, looking just as hairy and gnarly as the first. I opened my mouth to say something, when another lasso of vine was thrown around my shoulders from behind. It pulled snug around me, locking my arms into my sides. I looked back to see a third guy yanking it tight. Another vine whipped around my ankles. This one was pulled so hard, it yanked my feet out from under me. I hit the ground, the wind knocked out of me.

“Wait… wait…” I gasped, trying to get air. I wanted to use my powers of Traveler mind-persuasion, but things were happening so fast, I couldn’t think straight. “I’m a friend!” was all I could get out. I know, not exactly convincing, but what else could I say? A second later it didn’t matter because one of the guys leapt at me and jammed a fistful of cloth into my mouth, making me gag. Not good. I didn’t think any of these dudes knew the Heimlich maneuver. I figured they must have seen me as a threat. An invader. I needed to show them I meant no harm, because they seemed ready to put some serious hurt on me.

The guy who jammed the cloth in my mouth sat on my chest, staring down at me. I was pinned, unable to move. I looked up into his eyes, and saw something that made any hope I had of reasoning with these people fly out the window. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before, but I didn’t. Now it was too late. The lizard-beast that attacked me outside may have been deadly. It may have been trying to eat me. But there was one thing that it wasn’t. Its eyes should have told me. Its eyes were red. Quigs didn’t have red eyes. Quigs had yellow eyes. And as I looked up at the guy who was sitting on my chest, I saw that his eyes were yellow. And vicious. He opened his mouth into a grotesque smile to reveal rows of sharp, bloodstained teeth. A thin line of drool ran down his lips and fell onto my cheek.

In that one instant, the horrible truth hit me: the quigs on Eelong were human.