The Reality Rebellions by Paul Anlee

Author:Paul Anlee [Anlee, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Darian Publishing House
Published: 2018-01-07T22:00:00+00:00

31

not a single person marred the tranquility of the impossibly long, pristine beach, though the weather was perfect for swimming. While the tranquil tropical paradise was alluring, the sight filled Darya with foreboding. Over thousands of visits, she’d never seen Vacationland so deserted. All in all, the effect was disturbing.

They’d nearly knocked over her favorite Cloud 49 table when they came hurtling through the portal, wild-eyed and out of breath. She noticed the lack of patrons immediately.

No time to analyze. Keep moving!

Darya started down the hovering restaurant’s long stairway, making no attempt to hide her drawn sword.

Timothy followed in her wake. “Where should we start? Do you have any idea where she might be? Where are all the patrons?”

“Trillian’s masking Mary’s location, but there’s a perpetual cloud of quantum confusion around her. I think she’s over that way, in one of the cabinas.”

“He won’t make it easy to reach her.”

“I don’t expect so. We’ll take an indirect route.”

They reached the bottom of the stairwell and headed for the lush vegetation across the beach.

Darya plunged in.

Timothy struggled to keep up. “Do you plan to approach through the underbrush?” he panted.

“No, Trillian will have guards on all routes between the restaurant and the resort area. We’ll find someplace quiet in another direction, and I’ll see if I can hack into a more direct route from there.”

“Couldn’t we have done that from the Alternus maze?”

“It was too complicated from there, and Trillian already had too many safeguards established.”

“We made it here, didn’t we? How much harder could it be?” Timothy asked. He was beginning to think Darya enjoyed the chase more than the accomplishment.

She stopped abruptly and faced him. “You’ll just have to trust me on this,” she said. “I think I can get us close to Mary, but I can’t do it from a different inworld, and I can’t do it if I need to keep watch for enemy Trillians descending on us. We need a hideout.”

She turned and resumed picking her way through the vegetation.

After what he hoped would be a safe while, Timothy ventured another question. “Do you have somewhere in mind?”

“I do. There’s a recreational cave system not too far away. It rearranges itself randomly with each user, or every twenty-four hours. It’s impossible to map. I’m sure Trillian won’t be able to track us there if we go in deep enough.”

They began making their way uphill, leaving the idyllic resort area behind. The trees thinned, and the pair picked up a trail to the cave system.

“If the caves can’t be mapped, how do people get out?”

“They don’t,” Darya answered, digging into the loose gravel underfoot. “That’s a big part of their charm; visitors pay extra for that,” she explained. “They are led deep inside by an automated guide they hold in the palm of their hands. They walk in for about an hour and then the guide shuts down. The challenge is to find their way out. Almost no one does.”

Timothy slipped on the loose rocks. “And they

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