None of them slept particularly well. They were up earlier than usual, each dealing with the nerves of the journey ahead. They made their way into the kitchen and grabbed energy bars and dried fruit. Nobody seemed particularly hungry, but they knew they needed something in their stomachs before setting out.
Frankie had laid out uniforms from storage so it looked like they had the authority to be wherever they ended up. She’d also made one thing very clear: if they ran into a situation that required a little… creative storytelling, Carolyn would do all the talking. Carolyn didn’t argue. The three with her could not convincingly pass as military. Especially not Jilly.
They headed outside dressed in fatigues, backpacks loaded with spare clothes, toiletries, and a basic first aid kit.
When they reached the oversized Humvee, it was already stocked with MREs, weapons, and ammunition. Hopefully everything they needed to survive.
“I hate guns,” Rob said, climbing into the back seat.
“I hate guns too,” Jilly said, “but right now, they’re important. When this is over, you can go back to never touching one again.”
“That’s assuming this ends,” Rob muttered. “For all we know we're going to get beamed on board a spaceship and taken to the other side of the galaxy and made into slaves picking the earth equivalent of cotton. We'll never see home again.”
Carolyn slid into the driver’s seat. “You’ve got quite an imagination.”
Jilly called shotgun, shoving Lucas aside just as he reached for the door.
“…really?” he said.
“Yep.”
“I guess you and I get to be backseat drivers,” Lucas said to Rob as he climbed over him to the other side.
“You could've walked around,” Rob said as Lucas' rear rested briefly in his lap.
“This saves time.”
“Are you boys finished back there?” Carolyn asked. “I’d like to get moving, but I’m not going anywhere until both of you are in place with your seat belts buckled.”
“Yes, mother,” both of them said in unison.
“OK, off we go.”
There was a long driveway that left the complex the opposite way from where they came in. It was wide, well-paved, and not overgrown at all. When it finally hit the highway they were a couple of miles down from the small dirt road where they had driven in. The road was as empty as before and it stretched as far as they could see until it rose on the ridge and disappeared. They turned East and headed towards the city. Everything looked so peaceful. The clouds were wispy and white against the brilliant baby blue of the sky and the birds floated on the warm updrafts far above their heads. Nothing had changed for them. They were still free to go about their lives of hunting for bugs or building nests without a care in the world.
All four occupants of the truck were keenly aware that this was not their reality and there was no assurance for them as to what lay ahead. The truck bounced along announcing every pothole with a loud thud. The roads this far out were rarely maintained by the city so Carolyn had quite a job trying to avoid some of the bigger hazards. They drove for over an hour mostly in silence contemplating both what lay ahead of them and what they were leaving behind.
Rob quietly watched the scenery fly by and thought about Sylvia. How they had talked the night before and he thought he'd never met anyone with whom he had so much in common. He wished he had been able to stay at the compound and just continue to work on the computers. He had set up some lines of basic communication with two other groups of people and also showed Ethan and Kyle how to use one of his programs to break into the files that were stored on the computers there. But there was still so much to do and he really felt his skills would be put to better use there instead of bouncing along in the back seat of a military Humvee heading into an unknown situation that in all likelihood they weren't going to be able to do anything about.
Abandoned houses and businesses were getting closer and closer together. Eventually, the city high rises appeared in the distance and grew taller with each passing mile.
Jilly hung her head out the window, her auburn hair blowing in the wind. “There it is, There it is!” She yelled over the sound of the motor and air rushing past. “I can't wait. We're going to figure this out and be heroes!”
Rob felt his stomach drop. Why oh why did he agree to come along. He was going to die. Or be abducted by aliens which was probably worse. He was certain it would be one of these outcomes and it was probably going to be today.
“Get your head in the window right now” Lucas barked at Jilly. “You're going to fall out and crack your skull open.”
Jilly pulled her head back in. “Aren't you the least bit excited? I can't wait til we get there.”
"Just roll up the window and try to contain yourself."
Jilly reluctantly closed the window and crossed her arms with a huff.
“Here’s our off-ramp,” Carolyn said, turning under an overpass and onto the toll road. No one was there to stop them, and they breezed right past the empty booths.
“HA!” Jilly called. “Free ride!”
“I’m sorry,” Lucas said to no one in particular. “She’s always been like this.”
“It’s fine,” Carolyn said. “We need this kind of energy.”
“So true,” Rob added. “Too bad I have absolutely none to contribute.”
“We need you too, Rob,” Carolyn said with a smile. “You’re our safety monitor. That’s a very important job.”
“All right, I’ll continue to be scared of everything and wish I was back home again if it helps.”
Jilly twisted around and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. “You’re my favorite scaredy-cat, Rob.”
“…thank you. I think.”
“I hate to interrupt this episode of the Brady Bunch,” Carolyn said, “but how close do we want to get before slowing down?”
“I’d slow now,” Lucas said.
She dropped from sixty to fifteen with the Humvee creeping forward. All four of them leaned slightly, squinting—like maybe they could see the invisible wall if they just tried hard enough.
“THERE… THERE!” Lucas suddenly called, pointing straight ahead from the back seat. “There are two cars stopped right in the middle of the highway. Slow DOWN!”
Carolyn slammed on the brakes and even though they weren't going very fast, everyone's seat belts locked and they collectively made choking noises.
Once they could all breathe again, they piled out of the truck and carefully approached what appeared to be the barrier. Two cars were stopped right next to each other, with no apparent damage to either. But both of their doors were flung open as if the former occupants had jumped out in such surprise they didn't notice that they had left them like that. On the other side of the highway, exactly in line with the cars on their side were two more cars going the other way.
“Looks like you can’t get out of there either,” Lucas noted.
Jilly stepped forward first and reached out, pressing her hand against nothing. “Okay… that’s weird.”
She pushed a little harder. At first, it felt soft—almost like resistance in water—but the more pressure she applied, the firmer it became. The surface was perfectly smooth, without a bump or imperfection anywhere.
“Ew,” she said, dragging her hand along it. “It’s like… squishy until it’s not.”
Rob stepped up beside her and poked at the air until his finger bent back slightly. “That’s definitely a wall.”
Lucas didn’t bother experimenting. He went back to the truck, grabbed a shovel, and started digging at the side of the road. “If we can’t go through it…”
A few scoops in, he stopped. “…you’ve got to be kidding me.”
The barrier curved down into the ground. He tried again a few feet back, then moved farther away and tried once more. The same thing happened. By the time he could dig more than a foot deep, he was about twenty-five feet from the road, with no realistic way to tunnel underneath.
“Appreciate the effort,” Carolyn said.
She’d been testing it her own way—pulling tools from the truck and striking the barrier. A hammer. Then an axe. Then a screwdriver. Nothing made a dent or even a sound.
The sun was rising in the sky and it was starting to get uncomfortably hot. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and dropped down in a small patch of shade created by their truck. In frustration, she flung the hammer directly at the shield. It arched in the air, the heavy top pulling the lightweight bottom over and over in an uneven tumble until it reached its target and kept on going, straight through until it lost momentum and dropped unceremoniously onto the pavement on the other side of the barrier.
“WOAH” Carolyn jumped up “WOAH, did you see that? The hammer went straight through! It's on the other side. I threw the hammer and it went straight through. LOOK!”
Everyone came running over and stared at the hammer wide-eyed with their mouths hanging slightly open.
“How did you do that?” Jilly asked.
“I don't know. I just got mad and threw it and went straight through without even slowing down. Maybe the barrier is only so high.”
Lucas ran to the truck and grabbed a small step ladder silently thanking Frankie and friends for providing so many things they otherwise wouldn't have thought of needing. He brought the ladder over to exactly where Carolyn said the hammer went through.
“It wasn't that high up,” she said. “I was sitting when I threw it so it couldn't have been more than 7 or so feet.”
Lucas climbed up the ladder and started looking for an opening. Nothing. He reached up as high as he could, then backed down the ladder running his hands along the area where it appeared that the hammer would have gone through.
“If I didn't see it for myself laying there on the other side I'd swear you were mistaken,” Rob said.
“I saw it go through with my own eyes” she insisted.
“I know. I believe you.”
Jilly grabbed a large rock from the edge of the freeway. “Lemme try something, move Lucas.”
Not wanting to get knocked in the head when the rock bounced off the wall, Lucas backed away.
Jilly wound up and tossed the rock as hard as she could trying to hit the same area where the hammer went through. It missed the target by a couple of feet to one side, but it too went sailing straight through and landed about 10 feet in on the other side.
Again, the group stared in disbelief. Lucas grabbed the ladder, keeping his eyes on exactly where the rock went through and hauled himself up and tried to stick his hand into the other side. He was met with the same invisible, slightly soft barrier with absolutely no sign of an opening anywhere.
“What the hell?” Carolyn exclaimed.
Jilly grabbed another rock and this time, tossed it a few feet lower, maybe 4 or 5 feet up and off to the side. This time the rock bounced off and flew back at them.
"…okay. Rude.” Jilly yelled at it.
“Wait, was there a portal or something that closed up? ” Lucas stared in disbelief.
"Portal?" Carolyn looked him, one eyebrow raised.
"Well, that's what they call openings in space in the movies don't they?" Lucas defended himself.
"Next time I'm in a movie I'll let you know."
Rob went up and rubbed his hand over the spot where the third rock failed to penetrate the barrier. He furrowed his brow with the effort of thought. He scooped up a generous handful of gravel, stood back, and tossed it underhand as hard as he could towards the wall. The lower end of the arching gravel hit the barrier and bounced back towards them while the upper arc sailed right over and landed on the ground on the other side.
“What does it mean?” Carolyn asked. “How is it doing that?”
“My guess is that the lower barrier up to about 7 or so feet is as solid as a stone wall but things can pass unimpeded through the upper part of the barrier as long as whatever it is isn't touching the ground."
"I wonder if it's like that all the way around" Lucas mused. "And if so, then how and the hell are we supposed to get inside? If we have to climb up 7 feet and jump over that's a long way down. It's not like we can go drag a mattress out here and haul it up in the air and toss it over."
Jilly stood back, surveying the situation. "There's got to be something we can do. Maybe scaffolding?”
“Then what?” Rob said, “You still have to get down to the ground on the other side and with nothing to land on that's a big risk of breaking something like your leg or neck.”
Jilly crossed her arms, staring at the barrier like it was being deliberately difficult. “There has to be a way through.”
“Well now what?” asked Lucas.
"I guess we just keep going until we've made an entire lap around the city to see if we can see something some of the other groups might have missed,” Carolyn suggested.
“I guess that's the only thing we can do,” Rob sighed.
They headed back toward the truck.
Jilly followed, but stopped at the barrier. She reached out and tapped it once with her knuckle. “…rude,” she muttered, then hurried after them.
They all climbed back into the truck and headed across the highway to the other side where they drove the wrong way up the on-ramp and onto the frontage road and headed towards one of the highways that would take them in an arc around the outskirts of the city. The road took them through a rural area where there weren't many structures and they could see downtown. They looked down every cross street hoping to see something that might give them a clue as to what they should do next.
Every so often one of them would throw out a different idea and then the others would pick it apart giving all the reasons why it wouldn't work.
Jilly was just outlining how she thought maybe they could get a giant trampoline and jump high enough to get over the solid part. Lucas pointed out that there was STILL nothing to land on the other side, as he had previously explained.
“I already thought of that ding dong” she retorted. “We'll wear parachutes and pull them as soon as we make it over and before we hit the ground.” Rob shook his head and put his face in his palms.
“Well, it's better than your idea of getting dynamite and trying to blast through it.”
Rob was just about to explain again why it wasn't as stupid as it sounded when Carolyn slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel hard. “HOLY MOLY! Look at that!”
Just as they rounded a curve, in the distance there was a convoy of Hummers just like theirs lined up and rolling slowly towards the city. Carolyn backed quickly down one of the side streets so as not to be too obvious. She hopped out of the truck followed by Lucas climbing over Rob again and peered around the corner fence. They were just at the end of the neighborhood so there was nothing but open space between the end of the block and where the trucks were driving.
“Where are they going?” Lucas whispered.
“How should I know” Carolyn whispered back. “It looks like they are going straight through where the shield should be.”
Rob crept up behind them. Against his better judgment, he decided he should take a look for himself.
“Look at that,” He said as quietly as possible. “Do you see the spark of light every time one of the trucks goes through right about where the barrier should be? Something is allowing them to pass through. I think it's coming from that long antenna on the roof.”
Both Carolyn and Lucas squinted their eyes after staring at the procession for a moment and then both agreed with what Rob was seeing.
“Where?” Jilly asked creeping up behind them, much louder than she should have, closing one eye and turning her head sideways hoping she could see it better.
“SHHHHHHH,” each of them said and Lucas clamped his and over her mouth. She licked his palm.
“EWWWWW” Lucas groaned and wiped his hand on the back of her head.
“Well then don't do that again,” She said while spitting and wagging her tongue around in disgust.
“So who are they?” Carolyn wanted to know.
“It's either whoever is responsible for what's going on and they've commandeered that equipment, or else it's actually our military and they are in cahoots with them,” Rob suggested.
They continued watching the trucks roll through the barrier. After 4 or 5 went through, the trucks stopped and several people got out and gathered to talk off to the side of the road.
In the distance, they saw another Humvee roll up and get in line. “What do you think?” Carolyn asked quietly “Should we grow some steel balls and go get in line with them? Maybe they won't notice us?”
“YES!” Jilly said in an exaggerated whisper “Yes, that's got to be the way we're going to get inside!”
Lucas was thinking out loud. “But we don't know who they are or if we need some kind of credentials or if they know everyone or what will happen to us if we get caught.”
“You sound like Rob,” Carolyn said “No offense Rob.”
“None taken. But I would like to point out that we don’t have one of those blue glowy permission sticks.”
“Rob's right. I don't want to get sent to an alien prison where they do experiments on you like anal probing or something.” Lucas explained.
Rob squirmed around at the thought.
“Well it's got to be now or never because I bet as soon as they run out of trucks they are going to close that wall up tight and we're going to be back in the same boat we are right now which is having no idea how to breach that damn barrier.” Carolyn said
“Well if you think we can BS our way in, then I say go for it," Lucas concluded.
“Me too” Jilly whispered still a little too loud.
They all looked a Rob.
“What are you looking at me for? You know what I'm going to say and everyone will override my veto and we're going to go anyway so I'll just skip that whole step and say 'what the fuck let's do it' OK?”
Everyone laughed at his out of character swearing, patted him on the back, and hurried towards to the truck. Carolyn told Lucas to sit up front since he looked more like he could be in the military than the other two. She turned the key, took a deep cleansing breath, and announced “We can do this.”
As they turned out onto the road she outlined what she wanted from everyone when they got to the other trucks. Everyone was to be completely quiet, she shot a look over her shoulder at Jilly who put up her hands then pretended to zip her lip.
“If anyone says anything to you, you answer with a 'Yes sir' or 'No sir” and that's it. Don't even look anyone in the eye unless they talk to you. And Jilly tuck your hair up under your cap.”
Everyone was on edge as the truck rumbled down the road towards the convoy. They watched people wander around, stopping to poke their heads into other trucks then go around the back, check for something then wander back up to the front where they stopped to talk to the men near the entrance.
“Oh look at the size of the guns they've got” Rob whispered.
“We've got guns too” Jilly pointed out.
“Yes, but ours are in the back and I'm guessing they would have less second thoughts about shooting us than we have about shooting them if the need arises.”
“We’ll be fine. Just sit quietly and stare at the floor,” Jilly said.
“Easy for you to say. Well, maybe not the sit-quietly part,” Rob smirked.
“Hey!”
“SHHHHHH you two. Knock it off” Carolyn warned them.
They both stopped talking and stared out the front window.
Carolyn approached the line of trucks that had started moving through the barrier again and pulled behind the last one. They were rattling along slowly, dark smoke belching every so often from one of the exhaust pipes because obviously, no one was maintaining them like they needed. They could hear some people talking loudly as they approached the barrier. Carolyn glanced into the side-view mirror and noticed another two trucks had fallen into place behind them.
“Well,” Rob mumbled. “this is how I die. Not dramatically. Just… waiting in line.”
“Relax,” Carolyn said. “We’ll figure it out.”
“There is not a lot of time to figure it out.”
The line moved again.
“Carolyn,” Rob said carefully, “I'm just stating one final time that we are still lacking whatever official entrance approval system thing they’re using.”
“I know.”
“—and yet we are still moving toward the invisible wall—”
“I know.”
“Okay. Just making sure we’re all committing to the same bad idea.”
Finally, they were close enough to see faces and note that everyone looked perfectly human and no one looked like they were under the influence of alien gas.
The truck behind them honked—not aggressive, just insistent.
Carolyn rolled forward again.
Then it was their turn.
Carolyn eased forward until the Humvee bumped into nothing and stopped. The seatbelts locked again.
“I wish we would stop doing that,” Rob muttered, pulling the belt off his neck.
A man in a sergeant's uniform looked up from his paperwork, scowled deeply, and came hurrying up to the truck.
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.
Carolyn went right into military mode. “I don't know sir. I have no idea what happened.”
The sergeant looked around at the truck then put his foot on the step outside of the door and hauled himself to look on the roof.
“You’ve got no transmitter, soldier,” he barked.
Carolyn put on her best surprised face. “I was not aware of that, sir.”
“DERRICK!” the Sergeant roared. “Get OVER here!”
A scraggly young kid with a pointy nose and dirty blonde hair hustled over. “Yes Sir, Sir”
“We've got another one of these trucks without the damn antenna hooked up. Damn incompetent bunch back there. This will the second one this morning. Fix this, would you? And I better not have another one down here again or there is going to be hell to pay.”
He looked into the truck, eyes resting on each of the occupants, then noticing Rob who looked like he was going to pass out, asked “Are you Okay back there son?"
Rob glanced up. “Yes, sir,” he managed to get out.
“He's not feeling well sir. Breakfast didn't sit well on any of us this morning,” Carolyn cut in.
“I've had the food up there and it's barely passable. Lucky anyone is even able to function. Do you need to get out and walk around soldier?”
“No, sir,” was all Rob was able to say.
“Well private Casey is going to get your antenna attached and you can be on your way. When you get to the base maybe you should take a walk down to the infirmary. Make sure you're good to go.”
“Yes sir” Rob gave him a halfhearted sick smile and leaned back so no one could see him.
The sergeant suddenly noticed some men struggling with equipment and turned and wandered away to yell at them.
Meanwhile outside Private Derrick Casey was fooling around on their roof. He had put a small step ladder next to the side of the truck right outside Jilly's window and was leaning way over, one leg lifted into the air counterbalancing himself as he attempted to attach an antenna. Jilly stared as the front of his uniform pants rubbed back and forth against the glass.
“How long is this going to take? She whispered loudly. “I'm not sure I can sit here much longer.”
“Hopefully he's almost done,” Carolyn whispered back. “If I don't have to talk to the boss again we may be good to go.”
The minutes ticked slowly by as Derrick fumed and fussed.
“There!” he finally called out crawling down off the ladder, folding it up, and backing away from the truck. “Give it a try now.”
Carolyn started the engine again and rolled forward ever so slowly.
One foot, two feet, three feet, and suddenly the truck glowed a brief but intense blue and they were driving through the barrier to the other side. “Thank you Private” Carolyn called out the window and floored it as soon as they cleared the "doorway".
As she sped away, without actually looking like she was speeding away, she kept checking her rearview mirror to see if anyone suddenly realized they were impostors and were coming to get them.
A mile or so down the road Lucas asked “Can I breathe now?”
“I think so,” Carolyn said. They kept driving trying to look as casual as possible.
“Where are we going to go?” Rob asked from the corner of the backseat that he was still tucked into.
“I don't know. I didn't see where the other trucks went but I'm not sure we should follow them because I don't know where they are going and what we would find when we got there.”
Carolyn had slowed down a bit as they entered one of the neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city.
Looking around there were people scattered here and there, some in their yards raking leaves, kids running down the street playing ball. No one looked frightened and every so often someone would wave to them as they drove past. Jilly rolled down the window and waved and called out “Hello” before Lucas turned around, smacked her on the knee, and rolled up the window himself. “What is wrong with you? Knock it off!”
“Geez, you don't have to get all physical,” she said and leaned back in her seat with a huff.
They continued slowly towards downtown. Everywhere they looked there were people wandering around, seemingly busy but at the same time not actually doing anything. The closer to the city they got, the more people there were. A lot of them were just sitting, chatting among themselves on park benches or bus stops. Some were eating at little tables outside of restaurants. All very normal yet not normal at all.
“Should we ditch the truck for a while?” Carolyn suggested. “There aren’t any cars or trucks anywhere, and if we keep driving around without actually heading wherever the other trucks were going, someone is going to notice.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Rob said, finally leaning forward. “We don't want to have to explain ourselves since we don't even know what we should say.”
“OK. I'm thinking a parking garage where we can kind of hide this without looking like we're trying to hide it.”
“My old office building is about a mile ahead, I've still got my wallet with the entrance card so we can pull in behind a gate,” Rob said, “Four lights down then turn left and it will be on the right.”
“Sounds good,” Carolyn said as she headed down the block and made the left after waiting patiently at a red light.
"Why are these still working?" Jilly wondered. No one had an answer.
They turned into the parking garage and Carolyn slid the key card into the slot and the wooden arm lifted up allowing them access.
The giant truck barely fit through the cement pillars and it was so tall that Carolyn unconsciously ducked her head as they drove down the aisle.
She drove all the way to the back and pulled it in at an angle in a far back corner. After they all crawled out, Carolyn suggested they change out of their fatigues. They each took turns changing into regular street clothes behind the truck. Then they grabbed their backpacks, locked the doors, and headed towards the glass atrium that led to the lobby.
Once there, they lingered in the shadows watching the people on the other side of the door wander in and out of the building, stop to talk to one another, then continue on.
“What are they saying?” Jilly wanted to know.
“We won’t know until we get out there and mingle. We’ll have to pretend we’re one of them,” Lucas said.
“I was afraid of that,” Rob mumbled
“It'll be just like acting,” Jilly said. “I was in the school play last year and you just have to act like it's all real, pretend you believe it then everyone will believe it too.”
“Sounds perfectly logical,” Rob said, not exactly understanding but hoping it would sink into his brain and work out somehow.
“I'm game if you all are,” Carolyn said, hand on the door pull.
They all looked at each other and nodded, Carolyn slid the door open and they all walked out into the lobby, heads up and smiling, right into a group of zombie people.