The ramp from the 81 to the 37’s gone. Instead the two roads, and I’m being generous here, have been changed so the ramp’s replaced by a direct connection to the bypass around Winchester.
It doesn’t look like an engineer sat down and redesigned the junction. The underpass isn’t filled with concrete, with an intersection connecting the roads. It’s simply gone, the ground’s level and the bifurcation looks like it’s always been there, made from centuries of people walking in that direction, as well as continuing north.
The asphalt’s all gone too. It looks like a hard-dirt path, instead of simply being broken up with grass growing through it. Is it a sign of what’s coming for the highway, or something else?
There used to be businesses here, a mall, and restaurants. That’s all gone. Taken over by ‘nature’. The trees hide Winchester, and I can’t remember if it was always the case as I took this ramp, or because the system is growing them larger. Even without seeing it, looking in that direction, there’s a sense of something being off.
“You think we should take this route?” John asks. “Or keep going closer to the city?”
“It’d be best if you keep going. Winchester pretty much straddles the highway, so the road should improve, and there’s been a better way off to get into the city.”
“You sound like you’re trying to get rid of us.” He smiles.
“The plan was to get you all here. I’m heading on the thirty-seven, since it looks good enough. Hopefully, the five-twenty-two is going to be as good.”
“And if it isn’t?”
I shrug. “I’ll deal with it then.”
“We’re going to stick with you.”
“John, I can manage on my own.”
He chuckles. “Possibly, but it’s not a good idea to split up now.”
“They should go with other people.” I motion to the family. “You all should.”
“I don’t think you realize how hard that’ll be to make happen for some of us.”
I glare at him. “I didn’t ask for any of you to tag along.”
He nods. “You have us nonetheless. This is a bypass, so it’s going to have roads going into the city. They can take that when it comes to it.”
I glare at him again, then start pulling.
“We’re turning here folks,” John calls, as if it wasn’t already obvious. “For those of you going to Winchester, there’ll be a way.”
Like he knows that for sure. I look in the direction of the city, and a shiver runs down my back.
* * * * *
“That…” Albert trails off.
“That can’t be normal,” Terry says.
The sun’s down. Has been for a few minutes, which is when the glow became visible. Sickly green in the distance over the trees. In Winchester’s direction.
“You sure we should send them in there?” John whispers.
“That might not be Winchester,” I reply and he rolls his eyes. “Maybe everyone’s concentrated in the center. That’ll make the rest wild, but it’ll still be safer for them there when with me.”
“Kinda wish there was a way to know before we start in that direction,” Hanz says. “If there’s nothing, there’s no point in going.”
“There’ll be something,” I stated. There will be, because I need to unload all of them there.
“Do me a favor,” John says to me. “Stick with us tonight. If something’s going to come out of there, I’d rather we all be here to fight it off.”
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I nod.
The clearing among the trees on either side of the road is large enough that they can sleep on one side, and I’ll be on the other. I think this used to be another interchange, but all signs of it are gone. There is no under or overpass, no road heading toward Winchester or away. This might just have been a rest area for all the signs that are there. Except there were none of those along the bypass.
The foraging by the family is minimal. Deloy isn’t entirely happy when I ask him to go with them, to look after them and Maggie, but he understands it’s important to keep them safe. And I think he and Maggie are getting along. At least I’ve seen them talking. Unfortunately, he isn’t taking all of her time, so she’ll still hang around me and give me that look as I do my best not to notice her presence.
* * * * *
I wake to a distant roar and I’m crouched, bar in hand. Hanz is already up, tense. The others are slower to wake. There is something… odd about the sound when the roar comes again. It’s from the city’s direction, but I can’t put my finger on what it is off, other than that there is an unnaturalness to it.
It comes a few times over the next ten minutes. Everyone except Deloy is awake at this point. The sound never comes closer.
“Alright, everyone go back to sleep,” John says. “We have a watch setup so there’s nothing to worry about.”
No one believes him. That’s clear, but they lie down anyway.
I do the same, and I’m out.
I wake up a few more times to that same distant roar but go right back to sleep after confirming it’s not getting closer.
* * * * *
“Okay, there’s no way you can convince me that’s normal.” Albert motions to the greenish air off the road. A wall of it going as far as I can see to the left and the right. As odd as that is, that isn’t what catches my attention. It’s the way it abruptly ends twenty meters from the road. A straight, arbitrary line that isn’t following the curves of the road we’re on. And when it turns, it’s at a sharp angle. Almost like someone cut up the area in sections and the green stuff is filling some of them.
A lot of them, I’m guessing.
Like how the system divided Harrisonburg.
Another oddity is how things look on the other side of that line. More like the old world, but also completely wrong. There are buildings to the left within a large parking lot. Might have been a mall. There’s a sign on it that should tell us what it is, except that I can’t make out the letters.
I see them. I can even almost understand them, but the more I try, the more of a headache I get. Along with that, a sense of utter wrongness.
The delineation between the normal air and green runs across the parking lot. On this side of it, it’s all bushes and small trees. I can’t make out the pavement or roads. On the other side, the lot is there, along with… they might have been cars, but they are twisted into things that only hint at what they used to be. The pond that’s divided by the line is even stranger. The water’s crystal clear on this side and a murky brown that slowly bubbles on the other.
“It’s like it’s an entirely other world in there,” Terry says.
“No need to sound impressed, kid,” John replies.
“It is kind of impressive,” Hanz says. “Until now, the changes the system’s done have felt more like pulling our world back to something out of the dark ages.”
“With magic,” Terry adds.
“Yeah. But this… that feels like it’s from an entire other universe.”
“Chuck, you think it’s safe to leave the pickup unattended here?” John asks.
I shrug. “I doubt there’s anyone around to steal it. Maybe some monsters will destroy it, but who knows.”
He nods. “Okay, I need someone to stay with the non-combatants.” He hands a gun to his wife.
Deloy looks at me. “I’ll stay, I guess.”
“Terry,” John starts.
“I’m going. I don’t care what you say. I’m not staying behind.”
“Liz?” John asks.
“I can stay behind.”
“I was more interested in you talking sense into your son.”
“All this is more his world than mine. He has magic, and Chuck is going to look after him.”
“I’m what?” I demand, looking at them.
“You’re coming, right?” Terry asks, and I look at him in disbelief. “People could be in trouble in there. We have to go help them.”
“Or at least go see if there’s anyone that needs help,” John says.
“How is that any of—” I feel my mother prodding me to go with them.
Think beyond yourself, Charles.
Right. No man is an island and all that crap. I look at the green and I can’t think of anything good that’ll come of going in there.
I’m with her, you know. My father says.
“You’re what?” I ignore the stares. Since when do you ever agree with anything she told me?
Look. Going with them will make you more valuable to them. Will make them depend on you more, which will give you power over them.
Even worded in exactly the way my father thinks, I still can’t get over the fact that he’s agreeing with my mother’s voice. I want to do the opposite of what he wants me to do just on principle, but again. It’s what my mother is urging me to do and to go against him means I’d…
Am I using reverse psychology on myself? Well? I demand when he doesn’t respond.
No.
Bullshit. There’s no way you want me to go in there and put my life in danger for potential strangers. Your reaction to what they want me to do should be to urge me to let them go to their death.
To which you’d have decided to go with them just to vex me.
So you’re agreeing with mother to get me to do the opposite? You’re an asshole, you know that?
I step off the side of the road.
“See,” Terry says, then joins me.
“Was that weird to anyone else?” Hanz whispers.
Weird, that’s me. At least he didn’t call me insane.
“Seems on par with how the world is now,” Albert replies. Then he, John, and Hanz are at my side.
Fuck, we’re all idiots.