Entering the Weave
Back To Reality

Josh could see light sparkling in front of him like sunlight on a tranquil sea and slowly a grey shape began to resolve itself. Other things appeared and soon Josh realised he was in Toby’s bedroom. Kat was leaning over him and peering under his eyelids.

“Josh? Are you waking up?”

“Kat? What are you doing here?” His voice was husky and his tongue had stuck to the roof of his mouth. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and only then did he realise he was lying on Toby’s bed. “How’s Toby? Is he still there?”

“He’s not woken up yet, if that’s what you mean. What have you been doing? Did you meet Geigerzalion again?”

“No, we… Yeah we met him ages ago.” He paused for a moment. “What time is it?”

“About nine.”

“Saturday night?”

“Yeah, of course it’s Saturday night, Josh. What are you talking about?” Kat frowned.

“I’ve no idea Kat. I…we found Geigerzalion…It seems…I think I’ve been away for hours…”

“Slow down Josh? Where did Geigerzalion take you?”

“He didn’t take us anywhere. Well, not directly. He told us he knew who was chasing him and took us to a world where he thought they were.” He remembered ZX82’s wasted body floating in the column of liquid. “We found a child.”

“A child?”

“Yeah,” he said bitterly. “Tech-Tonic have been wiring kids up together to make supercomputers somehow. We rescued one of them, but then the thing that’s chasing Geigerzalion turned up and we were transported to this other world where the inhabitants think they’re real people, but really they’re puppets, but they hate puppets. And there’s a man there who controls them and he was chasing us and…” He had been speaking faster and faster, his words tumbling over each other. He could feel the dryness in his throat getting worse. A racking cough shuddered through him.

“Calm down, Josh. It’s just virtual reality. It’s not real reality, nothing can happen to Toby.”

“You don’t understand. Something can happen to Toby. It can hurt him. It’s not virtual reality at all. It’s just as real as this is.” A sudden thought occurred to him. “How do I know this is real?” He whispered to himself.

“Stop that Josh. You’re starting to sound really crazy now.”

“I’m not crazy. How do I know you’re you, Kat?” But as he said it he knew. It wasn’t that he was completely sure he wasn’t in another virtual world, it was that he suddenly realised that you had to believe in something and there was something about Kat that made her seem very real. “I’m sorry. But we’ve got to help Toby.”

“How?”

Josh went across to one of Toby’s computers, and looked for something that he might understand. After a few seconds it became obvious that he just didn’t know what to do. He sighed. “I don’t know. We’ve got to wake him up.”

“Josh, I’ve been trying for half an hour to wake you two up, but you didn’t seem to respond to anything.”

“How did you wake me up, then?”

“I didn’t Josh. I’d just moved you onto the bed, and that’s when you woke up.”

“Well, let’s move him.”

They heaved Toby off his chair and lifted him across the room onto the bed. Josh marvelled slightly at how Kat had managed to move him all by herself. They gently placed his friend onto his bed and stood back, holding their breath for him to wake up.

He lay still, barely breathing.

They tried shaking him and pinching his cheeks. They even tried pouring water over his forehead and shoulders, but nothing worked. Toby lay on his bed almost as still as death. Only the faint raising and lowering of his chest and the very rapid movement of his eyes gave any indication that he was still alive.

“What are we going to do? Is he in a coma?”

“I don’t know, Josh. We’ve got to tell his mum.”

Toby’s mum caught her breath when she saw her son lying still on his bed, and Kat started to cry a little. Mrs Hawkins crept forward and carefully sat next to her son. Josh felt his bottom lip quiver every time Toby’s mum stroked her son’s forehead.

Then she calmly went downstairs and called an ambulance which arrived in a flurry of blue lights and green clad paramedics. Everyone was very efficient and kind and understanding. They all assured Toby’s mum that they had seen this type of thing before and they were sure Toby would be fine once they got him to the hospital.

Josh had expected to be blamed for everything that had happened. He thought it was only a matter of time before the police came to question him, but Toby’s mum and the paramedics were just as concerned about his health as they were about Toby’s. He began to feel like a fraud and coward. He wanted to explain that he didn’t leave Toby on purpose, but Mrs Hawkins dismissed his apology attempts before he really started.

By the time Josh, Kat and Mrs Hawkins arrived at the hospital, Toby had been installed in a single bedded room with loads of equipment monitoring his vital signs. A young nurse was attaching a tube to Toby’s arm. She looked up when they walked in.

“Hello. I’m Mandy.” She smiled at Toby’s mum.

“How is he?”

“He’s comfortable, Mrs Hawkins. His heart is fine and he seems relaxed. The only thing we’re a little bit concerned about is the amount he seems to be dreaming. It’s very unusual.”

“Dreaming?”

“Yes. His eyes indicate that his mind is being stimulated while he sleeps.”

“Oh yes. I’ve heard about that. Rapid eye movement I think they call it, don’t they?”

“Yes. That’s exactly right.”

“Why are you concerned?”

“We’re not really worried about it as such, it’s just that it’s so strange. Normally people who dream this much would be thrashing about in their beds or even getting up and running around, but, as you can see Toby’s so still.”

Josh looked at his friend and thought he looked very small in the big hospital bed.

“What do you think is the matter with him?” Kat, it appeared, was the only one brave enough to ask the question.

“We’re not sure. We need to run some tests.” Mandy gave them a professional smile and finished wrapping a bandage around the tube that she had inserted. “The doctor will be round soon. He’ll be able to answer your questions.” She seemed to almost hurry out of the room and Josh was sure he saw her face crumple into a frown as she left.

Mrs Hawkins waited a few seconds after the nurse had gone, and then slumped onto the bed and cried very quietly. Kat motioned with her eyes that Josh should try to comfort her, but he suddenly felt terribly self-conscious.

“It’ll be okay, Mrs Hawkins.” He muttered as he awkwardly patted her shoulder.

“He’s all I’ve got. I can’t lose him.”

“You won’t. He’ll be alright.”

Josh was about to tell Mrs Hawkins everything that had happened to them in the virtual worlds, but just then a doctor entered carrying a clipboard on which he was adding some notes. He was small and had a pointed, almost ferret like face. He wore glasses which were askew at the end of his long nose.

“Ah. Hello. You must be Mrs Hawkins. I’m Dr... ah... Gibson. This is a very interesting case. Can I ask you a few questions?” He seemed to be addressing Kat.

“Er, not really. I’m just a friend. This is his mother.” She pointed out Mrs Hawkins who had regained her composure.

“Ah, yes. Of course. What am I thinking? You’re far too young. Ha ha.” He hardly looked up, but shuffled over to Toby’s mum. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

“No. Not if it’ll help.”

“We just need some background.” The doctor adjusted his glasses nervously. “Erm… Did Toby play video games at all?”

“Yes. He did. He was always messing about with the computer.” Mrs Hawkins glanced at Josh. “He was playing games before he… became ill wasn’t he Josh?”

Josh nodded. “Yes, we had a virtual reality game set up. We were both playing.”

“Ah, good. Where did you go?”

“I don’t know really. We started off in these sort of tunnels that Toby said ran underneath the Internet, but I don’t understand it. Toby’s the expert.”

The doctor raised a quizzical eyebrow. “So you’re not a computer whiz then?”

“No.”

“And you managed to get out?”

“Yes.” Josh said unhappily.

“Did you stay in the Plexus or did you go somewhere else?”

Josh paused. “The Plexus?”

“Yes. You said you’d been in the pipes, didn’t you?” Dr Gibson peered at him.

He remembered then, that Rose had used that name, and Toby had never heard of it. It must be more widely known than Toby suspected. He fought down a sob when he thought about his friend. “We went into a game world called ‘Shiver’”

“Shiver, eh? Was it the European hub or one of the American ones?”

“I… I’ve no idea. It was a castle.”

“Okay. No problem. So what happened there?”

Josh couldn’t think of any reasons not to tell the doctor what had happened in the worlds that they visited, so he told him everything about going to the factory where they’d found ZX82 and the terrifying puppet society in Vienopolis. He tried to convey how real everything had felt. The doctor nodded and took notes, and seemed quite unfazed by the story Josh told.

When Josh had finished, he stood up and clipped his pen into his top pocket.

“Well thank you Josh.” He reached forward and shook Josh’s hand. “You’ve been very informative.”

“Are you going to examine him?” Mrs Hawkins asked sharply.

“Erm. I need to check some charts.” The doctor almost dropped his clipboard in his haste to leave.

“Well! I don’t know. Doctors seem to be getting younger every day. I hope he’s not in charge of looking after Toby.”

Josh was turning something over in his hand. The doctor had passed it to him when he shook his hand, and very subtly winked at him. The wink had been at odds with the doctor’s bumbling manner. It had given Josh an uncanny feeling that the doctor knew more about Toby’s condition than he was saying.

Then an elderly doctor entered carrying another clipboard. He looked very much like a doctor should with friendly, tired eyes and a stethoscope wrapped loosely round his neck.

“Ah, Mrs Hawkins. I’m Dr Gibson.” He extended a large, competent hand towards Toby’s mum who shook it enthusiastically. “And this must be Toby. Let’s see how the little feller’s doing. Has he been feeling alright recently?”

“Well I think so, he’s not complained about anything, and you know what teenage boys are like, don’t you. They complain about every little thing that’s the matter with them.”

Dr Gibson laughed politely. “Yes. Indeed.”

“Doctor?” Kat asked quietly. “Did you say your name was Gibson?”

“Yes, young lady. That’s right.”

“That must cause some confusion.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Having two Dr Gibson’s in the same hospital…” She trailed off when she saw Josh trying to convey something to her using only eyebrow code.

“No, you must be mistaken. I’m the only Dr Gibson in this hospital.”

Both he and Mrs Hawkins were looking at Kat now, and this gave Josh a chance to examine the thing in his hand. It was like a business card, but it was made of shiny plastic that diffracted the dim light of the room across its surface. One side it was embossed with a single flaming eye. He slid it into the back pocket of his jeans.

Dr Gibson performed a thoroughly professional looking examination of Toby, from his chest to his ears, and his scalp to his feet.

“He appears to be perfectly healthy, Mrs Hawkins. His heart is strong and there is nothing wrong with his lungs. We’ve taken some blood and sent that up to Toxicology. We should get some results back this evening sometime. He is sleeping. Very soundly, admittedly, but he is not in a coma.”

“Thank you doctor. You’ve been a great comfort. Is it all right if I sit in here with him?”

“Yes, of course. Are these two yours as well?”

“No, no. They’re Toby’s friends.” She turned to Josh. “You should get home Josh. Your dad will be worrying about you.”

“Will you be okay?” Josh asked.

Mrs Hawkins cocked her head and cupped Josh’s cheek. “Bless you Josh. I’ll be fine. And so will Toby. I’ll ring you if anything happens. Go home and get some sleep. You can come back tomorrow. And stop thinking this is all your fault.”

Kat leaned over before she left and kissed Toby tenderly on the forehead. Josh just waved gently at his friend lying so still. They left in silence until they were clear of the hospital and then they both started talking at once.

“That young doctor was definitely called Gibson. I think he was an impostor.” Kat said.

“I know. He gave me this.” Josh produced the shiny piece of plastic. “What do you think it is?”

“You wally. It’s a CD.”

“What? But it’s not round.”

“It doesn’t have to be. My dad gives these out instead of business cards. Have you got a computer, Josh?”

“Yeah. It’s not very good though.”

“It shouldn’t matter. We’ll just see what’s on it.”

“Okay.”

It was well past midnight when they arrived at Josh’s house, and nobody was home. Jackie was probably still out partying the night away or more likely gossiping the night away, and his dad hadn’t come back from whatever meeting he was attending. Josh was glad.

He made Kat and himself a cup of tea and went upstairs to his bedroom. He silently cursed himself for not having tidied up and it took ages for him to reassemble his rarely used computer; he found his mouse hiding under his bed. He crossed his fingers and then pressed the button to turn it on.

Somewhat to his surprise it whirred into life and he inserted the business card into the CD drive.

Nothing happened for a while and Josh was about to eject the card when suddenly the screen went black as if it had been switched off. A tiny white dot floated in the centre. The dot became a tiny ball of fire which expanded to fill the entire screen. There was a bright flash and the young Dr Gibson’s head appeared on the screen.

“Hello again Josh.”

“Er. Hello.”

“Are you alone? Or is that young lady with you?” S~ᴇaʀᴄh the Find_Nøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Kat’s here.”

“Do you trust her?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You must be very careful about who you trust, Josh.”

“I trust her.” Josh said firmly. “Why should I trust you?”

“Excellent question. You shouldn’t of course. But you will have to if you want to save Toby.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is DoomLord.”

“DoomLord? What sort of name is that?” Kat snorted.

“Well, its my handle rather than my name. I…”

“So what’s your real name?” Josh interrupted.

“Look. That doesn’t matter. I’m a member of The Burning Eye. We’re a group of hackers. We know about the Plexus. We saw you go in and thought you might get into trouble.”

“Can you get in and out of it? Can you get me back in to help Toby?”

“We can get in at certain times, and we’ve developed a technique for exiting on demand. We lost some people in it at the beginning, but we got them out before they went crazy.”

“Crazy?”

“There are theories that say if you stay submerged within these Vrealms for too long, your mind will never be able to tell what’s real and what’s not. You are confined to a life of dreams and illusions. Madness.”

“How long?”

“We don’t know. The longest anyone stayed in was forty-eight hours. It took him weeks to recover, and still he thinks that if he wraps a certain cloak around him he becomes invisible. Other than that he’s fine.”

“We’ve got to get Toby out.”

“It’s easier said than done, Josh. You’re the only one who’ll be able to help him, and you’re not trained properly.”

“I don’t care. I can do it. I’m not scared.”

“You should be. You know how dangerous it is, how real it can seem.”

“I don’t care. What do I need to do?”

“You need to come to our facility. I’m outside your house. In a white van. I’ll take you there.”

“I’m coming.”

DoomLord disappeared from the screen.

“Josh. You’re not going are you?”

“You heard what he said. I’ve got no choice. I’ve got to try and save Toby. If I hadn’t told him about Geigerzalion we’d never have got into this mess in the first place. It’s my fault Kat.”

“Well I’m coming with you.”

“No. You should go home. Go and see Toby tomorrow, though. Please”

“You must be joking. Someone’s got to look out for you. You’re too important.”

They argued for a little while, but Josh didn’t have the energy or time and Kat easily won him over.

Josh had expected the van to be a high tech, gleaming super van, so he was a bit disappointed when he saw the battered white transit parked opposite his house. DoomLord was leaning against it and watching the house.

“Glad you decided to come, Josh. This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to help anyone who’s fallen into the Plexus.”

“Where are we going?”

“The facility is about thirty miles away. It’ll take about an hour.” He had pulled some black cloth out of his pocket.

“You’re not going to blindfold us are you?” Kat asked.

DoomLord looked puzzled. “No. Why would I? I’m just going to clean the windscreen. The wipers don’t work.”

The inside of the van looked as though DoomLord lived in it. Fast food containers littered the seats and there was a sleeping bag crumpled up in the passenger foot well.

“Sorry about the mess. I’ve been too busy to keep it tidy.” He grimaced embarrassedly and brushed some cartons off the seats to make room for Josh and Kat. They sat gingerly, half expecting to stick permanently to the dark fabric.

Josh didn’t realise how tired he was until they set off. Sleep tugged at his eyelids as the streetlights passed overhead and Kat and DoomLord’s interrogation of each other started to sound as if it was getting further away. He slid into a dream.

He was walking along a dirt road at the side of a hay wagon, being pulled by the largest horses he had ever seen. A grizzled old farmer slumped in his seat at the front of the cart, chewing a straw and swatting huge horseflies away with his hat.

“Hello there.” He said when he noticed Josh. “Do you want a lift?”

Josh didn’t know where he was going, but he thought riding on the cart would be easier than walking wherever he was going. He hoisted himself up onto the seat next to the farmer.

From this height he could see much more of the surrounding valley. It was beautiful. The surrounding hills rolled down into the valley’s woodland bounds and rocky sheep walks crisscrossed the high pastoral coves. Willowy hedgerows separated gilded turf and emerald meads, and glistening streams babbled into a meandering river. Josh breathed in through his nose and thought he had never smelt such sweet air.

“This is your first visit. Yes?” The farmer said to Josh after a while.

“I think so. Where are we?”

“This is Trinity Vale.” He said it in the manner of a person who is saying something amazing, so Josh nodded appreciatively. He hazily remembered something about the name. Another dream, perhaps, with a unicorn.

“Wow.” He added after what he considered a respectful pause. “It’s lovely. Do you live here?”

The farmer chuckled. “Not exactly. You don’t know where you are do you?”

“No.” Josh admitted. But then something else grabbed his attention and it was all he could do to keep himself from falling backwards off the cart. “What’s that?”

An enormous, long-necked dinosaur had rounded a curve ahead of them and was plodding ponderously towards them.

“It’s what your scientists are currently calling a Brontosaurus, I think.”

“What do you mean?”

“To understand, you will have to know where you are.”

Josh sighed. It seemed that now even his dreams were conspiring against him. “Where am I?”

The farmer smiled at him and Josh quickly added. “And don’t just say Trinity Vale.”

“The right question would be: What is Trinity Vale?”

“Okay, then. What is Trinity Vale?”

“Aha! Now that’s a good question.” The farmer laughed good-naturedly. “But I think it is too soon to burden you with explanations now. Use this visit to get used to being here. If you are who I think you are, we’ll be seeing a lot of you.”

Josh wanted to protest, but there was something in the way the farmer was determinedly chewing his straw that forbade discussion. He sighed and watched the dinosaur crash past them. Dreams weren’t normally this detailed. He could make out every crease and wrinkle on the dinosaur brown hide, and even see the muscles moving underneath. Its tail swished up high above their heads, avoiding any contact with the wagon.

“Why don’t they destroy everything around here?”

The farmer looked puzzled and considered Josh’s question intently for a while. “Why would they? They’re herbivores.”

Josh spent the rest of the journey staring in awe at one impossible sight after another. He saw a shining silver unicorn rearing onto its back legs and whinnying on the top of a nearby hill, and a lumbering mammoth drinking from a pond in the middle of the one of the meadows. He saw a fat, waddling dodo cross the road just in front of them, so close in fact that it was almost crushed by the huge horses pulling the cart. There were also hundreds of normal animals roaming around the countryside.

They rounded a corner in the road and came upon a quaint village consisting entirely of round, dry stone huts. Smoke rose from the chimneys of some of the buildings and the smell of cooking made Josh’s mouth moisten instantly.

Some children, who had been playing a chasing game before, ran up to the hay wagon and called out to the farmer.

“Have you brought new stories, Farmer Brandreth?”

“We caught the troll down by the bridge. It was just where you said it would be.”

“My mother’s made pastries for you coming to the village.”

The farmer dismounted leaving the horses to plod forward on their own. The children were all so excited by the arrival of the farmer, that Josh started to think that he must be the most important man in the land. He handed out trinkets and sweets from his pockets as he strolled amongst them.

The cart stopped when the horses reached the centre of the village and started to graze on the lush grass growing there. Josh clambered down and looked about. He could see mountains rearing beyond the rolling hills of the valley and he idly wondered how far away they were.

“Josh?”

The voice pierced his heart as truly as an arrow. The voice of the person he had most wanted to see for over a year; the voice of his mother.

Hardly daring to breath he turned around.

She stood on the edge of the grass, clothed in an old-fashioned country dress. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders and her mouth was stretched wide in that smile that had met him from school or cheered him up after a scraped knee so many times before.

He ran to her, not bothering to try to wipe the tears away from his eyes. He hadn’t shed tears like this since the day she died.

He wrapped his arms around her and buried his head into her soft hair. He remembered her as being taller; his head did not use to reach her shoulders. The air, which had seemed so gloriously fresh, was now full of her smell, and Josh found himself sobbing uncontrollably.

“I’ve missed you mum.” He repeated over and over again. His throat hurt already with the effort of crying.

His mother just stroked his hair and said nothing, but she squeezed him a little tighter with her other arm.

Eventually Josh pushed himself away and looked into his mother’s eyes, which were as wet as his own. “This is a dream, isn’t it?”

“Not exactly, Josh. I’m not from your imagination. I’m as real as you are here.”

“But how?”

“It’s my memory that exists here. The memory of everything I did, or every interaction with every other living thing. I have melded into a greater whole, but I have still retained myself. I live in this village for most of the time, but sometimes I have visited you and Jackie, and your dad. I’ve been there Josh. I’m still connected to you.”

Then suddenly and terribly Josh’s vision began to swim. Darkness reached from behind the huts and everything winked out of existence.

“NO!” He screamed and reached out, trying to grasp onto his mother’s dress; stretching his fingers, trying to find anything that could keep him in this world. “Mum!”

“Josh, wake up. You’ve slept all the way here.” Kat said. “You’ve been dreaming.”

“It wasn’t a dream. I met my mum.” Josh’s throat ached.

Kat stroked his hair, just like his mum had. “Josh, you’ve been asleep. You must’ve been dreaming.”

Josh closed his eyes and tried to will himself back, but the cold reality of the rain lashing against the windscreen was now so much more tangible than the idyllic village. He felt despair tugging at the corners of his mouth and fought the urge to cry. “It seemed so real.” He managed to say hoarsely.

“Oh, Josh. I’m sorry.” Kat wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head.

DoomLord cleared his throat rather too loudly. “Well, we’re here.”

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