The middle of this continent is unremarkable in just about any reality. Flat, monotonous land eventually gives way to rockier, monotonous land. And in the absence of landmarks, the mind is allowed to drift and create its own timeline connected only by rest stops and drive-thru windows. Myria didn’t need rest and I didn’t mind sleeping in the truck now that traveling in it was as pleasant for me as being in a spa.
We stopped briefly in Cheyenne and I had a very generic chicken-fried steak. Then we paused in Rock Springs. Myria had grown silent again. She squinted at surroundings that were clearly unfamiliar to her. Her unease grew even more as we reached the outskirts of Salt Lake City in the middle of the night. We pulled over onto the shoulder and she exasperatedly shoved herself back into her seat. “What the heck is this doing here? Why build a city in the Great Salt Sea?”
I couldn’t answer that. The whole area was held as a nature preserve by the Shoshone in my reality. “Is this where we’re supposed to be and it’s wrong?”
“No, no. I’m still sensing coast, but like coast coast, you know? This city being here throws me off.” She climbed out and started gazing up at the sky. “North or south. North or south. Heh. Even the stars here aren’t quite the same.”
I opened my door to join her and quietly munched on a piece of gas station jerky. “Yeah, I can’t find Brooke’s Rest at all.”
She sighed. “I’m gonna need help.”
I pulled out my phone. “I can have Emmy poll the troops. There might be some weird signals Yard Sale is throwing out there that some of them have picked up on.”
“Worth a shot.”
I leaned against the hood of the Gladiator as I sent off a DM to Emmy. “Do you mind if I ask a question?”
“I don’t think I’m ready to answer it, Har Har. What happened out here was kind of the beginning of the end of everything. And I’m only now remembering it at all.”
I nodded, but couldn’t leave it at that. “This might take you having a full accounting.”
She sighed even louder this time. “I know. I know. Let me have a night of blissful ignorance first?”
A reasonable request, easily granted.
