Spiderland: did he invent it or did he take credit for it?

  Yaw: I hope that's a rhetorical question.

  Spiderland: ... isn't he... well you know... you?

  Outward pathways became more shiny bark than concrete. Fitful server lights finally warded off the darkness, and Iker and Camilo were making their way to the virtualtops attached somewhere to the overgrowth of the Prunus Tantalum.

  "You don't remember any of this at all? Did your mom and dad never let you down here?" Camilo asked.

  Every question proposed by the apparently Colombian boy made Iker go down a memory wormhole. Most were unsettlingly contradictory, especially the certainty Iker had that he would meet up with Bastian. That certainty he had at South Park Elementary was now one of the few memories he was sure had happened. However, according to Camilo, Bastian never existed.

  "You're being very nice to me... and I'm not answering any of your questions... since when were you this calm?" Iker asked. Each wormhole his mind's eye slipped into took up an inconceivable amount of time, especially the ones where he felt where Bastian would eventually appear. However, each memory he played in his head thoroughly had no hint of Bastian whatsoever, betraying his conviction. Iker felt as if he could only meet up with Bastian, he would know why the hell this was all happening. What he was supposed to be doing.

  Yet, Bastian was apparently imaginary.

  "Hey... answer me."

  "Iker, do you remember you told me about your past? Or even about all the esper shenanigans going on?" Camilo asked. "Of course I wouldn't pressure you to answer anything about your past."

  If anything, Iker felt as if he spent more time in Bolsa Magicá than whatever this place was to him.

  "... why should I be following you? I just remember you being an asshole and now you're nice to me," Iker said.

  "How much of grade five do you remember?" Camilo asked. "We made up... during that time."

  "Pretty much nothing," Iker answered. "I feel like the school closed forever before we got to that grade."

  "I have memories of that too," Camilo said with a faint smile. "I have memories of us graduating, and memories of the school shutting down before we graduated. They all feel like a fusion of memories and dreams... I can't tell what's real anymore. This is why I was looking for you, Fatima told me to go get you."

  "Does she know what's going on?" Iker asked.

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  "Yes. She was under little time and told me as much as she could. She said if we can make it to a virtualtop machine we can find out anything we wanted to know... or needed to know," Camilo explained.

  "What did she tell you?"

  Camilo broke eye contact with Iker, and Iker only realized at that moment how he stared at him the whole conversation. "She told me we were inside of a book simulation."

  4 YEARS EARLIER...

  "Aren't you allowed to smoke weed?" Iker asked.

  Fatima laughed. "Not at our age."

  The two kids were at one of the only two places the Ember Military cared about maintaining in Pueblo. The Weisbrod Aircraft Museum had been renamed to Fort Weisbrod long before the children were born, and it was both a destination for jaunters and for tourists. They were at the food court already having finished their box of pizza, and if Iker peered past any of the cashiers or the cooks, he could spot the soldiers in the mess hall being served on the other side.

  "I never thought you would want to hang out here," Iker said while taking sip of his coke.

  "Why?" Fatima asked.

  "I don't know. I would imagine people here would be bigots towards you," Iker replied.

  Fatima smirked. "Well... they are a lot nicer to you if they find out your flux receptive."

  Iker almost chocked while gulping. "Wait... what?"

  "Yea," Fatima replied, taking a sip of her own apple juice. "That's why I'm here."

  "It... it feels wrong to congratulate you," Iker murmured.

  Fatima shrugged. "As soon as I can retire I will retire. Supersoldiers earn a lot of money, especially jaunters. Jaunters don't even have to do missions... a lot of them just end up being taxis for the rich."

  "You sat down and calculated how long it would take you to retire didn't you?" Iker asked rhetorically, getting Fatima to nod enthusiastically.

  "However, other than getting the chance to say goodbye to you. There is a much bigger reason why I wanted to meet up with you. A very big reason... one that might make me look crazy," Fatima said. "They want me out of this town as soon as possible."

  "Tell me. Now I wanna know," Iker said.

  "Uhm, did you ever watch Star Trek? Some of its shows came out in the twenty-first century right?" Fatima asked.

  "I skipped the first season of it ever based on what my mom told me about it... and I didn't get around to finishing the second," Iker replied.

  "Oh... then I have to find a different way to explain it," Fatima said.

  "Did you watch it?" Iker asked.

  "No... I was just trying to find a way to not make myself look crazy," Fatima replied. "Do you know what supersoldier scientists are trying to do recently?"

  "I only know the conspiracy theories," Iker said. "What you said reminds me of the one theory about supersoldier reflexes. Scientists were trying to push and see how much they could genetically modify reaction time... and they came across some kind of time shenanigans."

  The two kids locked eyes, and Fatima took the slowest sip of her juice so far. "If I somehow knew future events and I needed you to do or know something... let's say I'm just joking around for now. How could I tell you without making you think I lost my mind?"

  Iker scratched his chin, more to find out if he was hitting puberty yet rather than to think. "Tell me something that would come true right after this."

  "Right after you remember this memory, or right after this?" Fatima asked. "When you... remember this... in some ways this memory will only become virtual. Imaginary."

  "Okay, you lost m—"

  "When you head back to reality, whatever you consider reality," Fatima interrupted.

  "Don't trust Camilo. Run away from him."