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Part 4-13: Hotspot
Just as I could ride on someone’s back as a ghost, turns out I could ride in a car too. There’s an impulsive part of me that often muses about insane things, like how easy it would be to hop off the tall balcony in our condo or start a huge fire in our trashcan. Obviously I never do it, but I still note the possibility with morbid and clinical fascination.
In this case, that chaotic cluster of neurons wondered what would happen if I willed myself to be un-solid while cruising down a rural county road at a respectable 15 clicks over the already generous limit. Would I just stop and plop down as the car blasted ahead of me? Or would it be like I leapt out of it, momentum slamming and shredding me into the hard ground?
Lucky for me, acknowledging my ability to do this thing did not accidentally activate it, and I remained tenuously safe in the backseat, although not being able to use the seatbelt was unnerving.
“I’ll stay on the channel as long as it’ll allow,” said Deluxe. “Suggest you engage the hotspot when passing… one moment… Fox Meadow Drive.”
She’d sent Fergus and Persi the GPS coordinates a few minutes ago, having done her best to approximate where the old bridge might lie across Danby Creek. Our destination was actually in the next town over, if you could call it a town. The population was under 500, and the bus from our neck of the woods stopped there only twice a day. The bridge itself was what seemed a twenty minute drive from the bus stop, if we could even still get to it by car—the road it serviced was not listed or mapped.
Assuming Tricia had taken the infrequent bus, she’d be arriving at the bridge in under an hour. If she’d gotten a ride, then it was probably too late.
As we moved further out of town, there were fewer and fewer routers, so I soon had a clear view of the giant monolith that dominated Clockworld’s horizon. The time was still two ‘til midnight. If Tricia’s soul was claimed by Eden, it’d not yet been taken to its prison.
“There’s Fox Meadow Drive,” said Persi, pointing.
“Approaching the edge of the clock’s influence,” Deluxe reminded us.
“Firing up hotspot now,” said Fergus. The car slowed as he thumbed at his smartphone’s menu. “Brace.”
His little plastic and glass rectangle started to flicker and flash. Its whole surface became white hot, and within I saw an infinity of wiggling lines. In a blink, a wireframe dome of them burst outward, then the white followed, and I was back in the familiar itching soup.
“I now see a network option for ‘Sex Dungeon II’ where there was no wifi option a moment ago,” said Persi.
“Yeah I should… maybe change that,” said Fergus. “Alena are you uh, can you—”
“Your sex dungeon is very uncomfortable Fergo,” I said, working on applying my twist. After a moment, the signal had been tamed.
“Success,” I reported.
“You— try the radi—” Deluxe’s voice was choppy and mired with static.
“What’d she say?” said Fergus.
“Something radio,” replied Persi, and poked the knob. The speakers roared nonsense at us, and the station was good ol’ 0.00 FM.
“Hello?” I said. “Fergus, Persi, come in.”
They did not react. I felt something poking at my shoulder, looked over to see nothing but the countryside rolling by.
“Oh, right,” I said, and willed my focus back to my body at home. For a frightening moment it didn’t work, not until I leaned forward off the car seat so I could more easily sense the condo’s couch on my back.
I closed ghost-me’s eyes and opened real-me’s.
“Hey, here,” I said to Deluxe.
“Radio’s out,” she said. “Either range or because of the rogue signal.”
“Okay. And, uhm… do we have a heated blanket or something? I need a solid anchor.”
“I’ll find something.”
“Something inanimate please!” I said, and snapped myself back to the car.
Fergus and Persi rode in relative silence, and to help dispel the awkward feeling I took Deluxe’s advice and tried to see if I could spot anything interesting or telling within the smoky plumes of blue and yellow that rose from their bodies. I clung to the front seat shoulders and peered into it, even went so far as to stick my face into Fergus’ glow so that everything swam blue and misty. Besides giving everything a weird hue, I couldn’t see much in the way of—what had Deluxe called them? Templates? Persi’s was no better.
After a while, I gave up and took to watching the clock tower on the horizon, something I’d not studied in detail either, having never really had a wifi-free stretch of time in Clockworld that didn’t involve immediate life or death situations. It was, for all I could tell, a carbon copy of the one in the office building. Right down to the carvings and the latch ring. I wondered what might happen if you opened up the door on the big clock, and figured no one would enjoy it. The only other thing I noticed was that it never seemed to recede as we drove away, lending to the idea that it was more illusion than anything.
“This is our exit,” announced Fergus, as we passed a township welcome sign. “Alena, you still with us?”
“They want to know if I’m still there,” I said to Deluxe.
A moment later, she said, “I tried a text message, but it’s not going through. Similar to yesterday evening near the Walkerby residence.”
Eventually, Fergus twisted his head around, sighed, and said, “I guess we’ll have to hope you are. We’re about 15 minutes out.”
We traded smooth blacktop for a crumbling road, passed many quaint houses, then traded further for a choppy gravel street. I counted three houses, all with enormous yards filled with rusted machines, various barrels, and tiny sheds. Then there were no houses, and only trees. We made our final trade, driving through a ditch which did number on Fergus’ suspension and ending up on our second forested dirt road in 24 hours.
It terminated after five minutes, ending in a massive boulder and a sun-faded caution sign. It was a yellow diamond, bordered with a checkerboard pattern.
“Let’s go for a hike,” said Fergus.
“Hopefully it’s less eventful than our last one,” murmured Persi.
Normally the idea of Persi cracking wise would boost my spirits, but I had the feeling that this walk was going to be anything but peaceful.
Two car doors slammed as they left, and I floated out to join them.
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I have high hopes for the next episode, because it'd be embarrasing to post this as my fav line for the next contest
;)
Ok. The bridge pictures were shot the year before. If this place is so far from Tricia's house then why would she visit this spot? Does she have relatives in the area she stayed with?
And why would she come back? Is she possessed like Persi's brother was?
Props on Alena sharing her ghostly car experience with us 😃
Alena is going to need to practice more if they keep getting in situations like this... I hope they can save the girl, and get Dack back!
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