Day 81
Eve
We wanted to cross the border into Canada today, but after three blocked entry points, we gave up.
The first one had some fallen trees blocking the road.
We circled back and headed to another one—a fallen tree blocked my path once before, so I didn’t think anything of it, but the second checkpoint was narrower, and as we got closer, it became clear it was completely overgrown with vines and bushes.
The shrubs were so thick we couldn’t even see through to the other side of the road.
It was odd, but we decided to try again.
And the third entry point had fucking wolves.
Adam joked that someone doesn’t want us going to Canada, but then he saw the look on my face, and I think he realized.
I said we should try one more. We headed there, but then the GPS stopped working midway. On the car navigation system and on both our phones.
When we got the signal back, we were in fucking Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin. More than a nine-hour drive away from where we first tried to cross the border in Minnesota, not more than two hours ago. The road signs confirmed it.
“What the fuck?” Adam’s tense mumble sounds exactly like I’m feeling.
“I don’t know.” I look up at the sky. It should be summer, now, July, but it looks like a storm is coming toward us. It’s approaching from the direction we came from, although the sky was clear when we headed out in the morning.
It should be around noon. It looks like nighttime now.
“Let’s get out of here before the storm hits. While the GPS is still working.”
If it even is truly working.
We’re walking through another abandoned city when the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I swirl on my heels, but of course, there’s nothing there; nothing except my skin crawling at the sense of being watched. My eyes scour the buildings behind us for a long moment before I give up and turn back around.
A gasp crosses my lips when I nearly collide with Adam’s chest. “You scared me,” I huff, trying to control my breath.
“Did you see something?” he asks, ignoring my alarm.
I shake my head. “Nothing. Just this weird—feeling. Like we’re being watched.”
He studies me for a moment. His face is frozen, like ice, his entire body still as he stares at me.
“What?” I hug myself. I suddenly feel cold. No, not cold; stiff, like I haven’t moved in a long time.
“We are being watched.”
“What?” I try to whip around, but he grabs my elbow with force, his fingers sinking deep into my arm. Too deep. “Ow. You’re hurting me—Who’s watching us? Is there—”
“None of it is real,” he hisses, silencing me, and my jaw slacks.
“What?”
“Think about it, Eve,” he implores, his clutch like steel, his voice desperate. “Can you smell anything?”
“I don’t—”
“It’s not real.”
His wild eyes are starting to scare me. “Adam, what the hell are you—”
“How do you usually know you’re dreaming? You can’t really smell anything. You’re not even really cold.” His fingernails are sinking painfully into my skin, leaving crescent moons in their wake. “And you never really remember the beginning of a dream, do you?”
My heart skips a beat. I feel disconnected from my own body, like my limbs are suddenly too heavy for me to move them. “What do you…”
“How did we get here, Eve?” He’s nearly shouting, that’s how on edge he is. “How did we end up here?”
“We just came from…”
He waits.
“We were at—” I try again, searching my brain, but I come up empty.
“Where are we right now?” He sounds broken as he watches the truth dawn on me.
I manage to move my fingers, just enough to grab him back. His forearms aren’t even warm under my fingertips. But they’re not cold, either. It’s like I’m holding onto nothing.
My voice is barely a whisper. “A dream?”
And then the ground slips away from under me, my heart jolting, snapping me awake.
Adam looks at me questioningly from by the fire. It’s low, now, mere embers and dormant coals, barely retaining any heat.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” I huff out, trying to calm my raging heartbeat as I lie back down.
The coals hiss and crackle, as if trying to soothe me back to sleep.