They
saw the stairs after another thirty seconds, and then climbed them in the next
twenty seconds. It had been starlight they’d seen after all. They emerged into
a forest full of trees that’d been full of leaves until fall. But now their
refuse littered the ground, clearing the way for Mary and Dani to feel the
crispness that late fall and winter can provide. The stars were even brighter
than they’d been when they’d left.
“We’re still in the forest,” Dani
said, “Maybe we haven’t traveled too far.”
“Are you going to check your global
positioning satellite app on your phone there?”
“Yeah,” Dani said, “I’m gonna to check it right now.”
Mary stifled a nervous laugh that echoed
in the forest. Behind her the entrance to the tunnel seemed shrouded by the
bricks and stone that surrounded it. This tunnel had been connected to some
home, too, it seemed. Mary was pretty sure it wasn’t the same one. She didn’t
know how they could have gotten lost in a one way tunnel.
When she looked up at the stars she
wished she had studied them more, to know if they were as different as they
seemed.
“This was cool,” Mary said, “This
trip.”
“Neat,” Dani said, “The app is loading so we’ll know pretty soon
that we are… in… Urualton?”
“Wait, really?” Mary leaned over to
look at the GPS. Dani tilted it over so that she could see it better. “We
didn’t walk that long, did we?”
“My phone said it was eight thirty
six when we entered... It’s nine twenty now. So, in short, no, we didn’t walk
for that much longer than forty minutes, not enough time to cover twenty
miles.”
“We ran for a little while,” Mary
said.
“Ha, yeah, we ran for maybe three
minutes tops. But we didn’t run that fast,”
Dani said. “Damn,” she walked over to a tree and rested her back against it,
“What just happened?”
Mary pulled out her phone and looked
at it for a second. She didn’t have any texts though. She’d really wanted to do
something other than think about the tunnel’s curious spatial disparities with
the outside world.
“What
just happened?” Dani repeated.
“We should get back,” Mary said,
“Are we near a road?”
“Uh,” Dani said. She looked down at
her phone and replied without looking up, “Suuuure.”
“How far?”
“Just a mile west of here. A little
less.”
“I’ll text Neil and tell him where
we are,” Mary said, “Maybe he can swing by in his car and pick us up.”
“He’s got a car?”
“His dad’s car,” Mary said.
“You sure he isn’t busy tonight? I
could call my parents.”
“How do you think they’d react to
you saying you ended up twenty miles away from my house after a walk in the woods?”
“They’d probably ask me to do it
again so they could replicate such a fine goddamn experiment,” Dani said. She
cracked a smile, “Or they’d just be really confused. More confused than we
are.”
“I’m sure Neil will be confused
too,” Mary said, “but he won’t care as much.”
“Neil it is, then,” Dani said, “Worst
comes to worst, I can text Elys. Maybe she’s back from the movie already.”
“Well, that would be the worst,”
Mary said, “I hate dealing with her sometimes.”
“She’s ok if you give her a chance.”
“Said the Honors student of the
Honors student.”
“That was an awful joke,” Dani said,
“But, OK, I see your point. And hey, you’re technically an Honors student too
so shut ‘yer trap.”
“Only technically,” Mary said, “I
wouldn’t be caught dead hanging out with you guys.”
“Except you are hanging out with one,” Dani said, “Right now.”
“Yeah that was the joke, Dani!”
“So ’re you going to text Neil or
what?”
“I was getting to that,” Mary said.
She flipped the phone over in her hand and typed up the text as quickly as she
could; Could you get me and Dani from Urualton?
We’re on the side of Minute Rd.
“Ok,” Mary said, “I’ve sent it.”
“Is our chariot en route?” Dani asked.
“Yeah, that’s a way you could say
that.”
After about five minutes of trekking
through dead leaves, dirt, and dry brush, they reached the road. Mary hadn’t
heard back from Neil, which is why she sent the second text, the one you
already know about. It was just Neil’s name followed by three question marks.
It looked a little like this: Neil???
And Mary didn’t have to wait very
long for Neil to send her another text: Yeah, but
it’ll be awhile. Is there anyone closer?
Mary sent one back with such
alacrity that Neil was startled by it, How soon is
awhile?
Neil: 5 mins before
I can get my dad’s truck, and then 15 before I can get there
That works.
“He’s coming,” Mary said, “He’ll be
about twenty minutes.”
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