Chapter 5

The concrete walls seemed dirty and closer than they had been. Did the tunnel narrow on the Summit County side? Reducing her speed even more, she anticipated the exit. Thank goodness for their headlights. Five streams of light were their only source now. The strobe effect had fizzled out, like a dying light bulb. To tell the truth, she was glad of it, too. That blinking was making her sick to her stomach.

Determined to pull over once they exited the tunnel, she would stop at the information center on the other side and tell whoever was there about the problems. Besides, after all this, she wanted to make sure the girls were okay with going ahead to Silverthorne. If that snowstorm continued on the other side, they could end up spending the night for sure.

Anya didn’t mind the idea. She didn’t have anybody to go home to anyway. Chris did, sort of. But one night away wouldn’t hurt any on-again, off-again boyfriend who may or may not be wondering where Christine had disappeared to on Valentine’s Day. Maybe he’d be relieved he had no obligation to wine and dine her when he didn’t even know if he wanted to continue to see her. At least Chris wasn’t sure where they stood, dating-wise. Anya sighed.

A warm breeze wafted over her body. She reached up to lower the zipper on her coat. Man, the weather was noticeably warmer on this side of the Continental Divide. This was the extreme weather difference she’d heard about. But to have a snowstorm on one side and what felt like an Indian Summer day on the other. That was weird!

She lowered her speed even more. Something was definitely wrong. Instincts beckoned to her that full speed was a bad idea. The asphalt road was covered in gravel. Had there been some sort of windstorm that scattered dirt and gravel on the road?

Motorcycle tires and gravel were not a good combination. Where were the other cars? Had they slowed down, too? They had to have, otherwise, they’d be passing the girls. Daylight glowed in the distance. Anya released a sigh of relief. Freedom at last. She thought to twist her accelerator handle and get on out of this death trap, but something in her gut held her hand still. Twenty miles an hour was ridiculously slow, but it felt safer.

As they rolled out of the tunnel, the gravel-littered blacktop became raw ground with scrub oak bushes, tufts of grass, and dirt. The vibration rattled Anya’s teeth. She gently squeezed her brake and put her feet down to catch her bike. Jackie Lynn had no trouble traversing the rough ground since her bike was a combo road and dirt bike. But the rest of the girls struggled to bring their bikes to a halt without skidding on the rough terrain. Even Chris bounced on her scooter, twisting her handlebars back and forth in an effort to stay upright.

Indigenous plants dotted the terrain where there should be asphalt. No road, no path, not even a trail. If the cars that had been ahead of them came out this way, too, wouldn’t there be tire tracks?

Anya saw nothing. A chipmunk scurried out from a sage bush, it sat up and twitched its head, then hurried back into its cover. Anya spun her gaze to the right. Where was the Info Center? The pull-out parking area? She pivoted in her seat looking back at the tunnel—

“Oh, my God!” Where was the tunnel?

She felt sick. What in the world had happened?

Anya unzipped her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. No signal. Great! She touched her Google map app anyway, but nothing opened on her screen.

The others pulled out their phones. From the disappointed looks on everyone’s faces, no one had a signal. And nothing in their apps worked.

“I pressed emergency, but nothing’s connecting,” Chris announced.

Nikki held her phone as she swung her leg off her bike, spinning slowly to see everything. “Holy crap!”

Jackie Lynn stepped away from her bike, taking in all the changes. “If I didn’t know better—” She turned to Anya. “You don’t suppose all that static electricity, those lights flashing off and on ... You don’t suppose somehow, we —” She shook her head. “No. It’s impossible.”

“What?” Anya held her bike with a death grip.

“It just looks and feels like we ... transported ... to another place or another ... time.” Jackie breathed the last word as if saying it too loud would make it true.

Jackie Lynn, dear sweet Jackie Lynn, had her own sad story. Not of violence and police reports, but her marriage ended after seven years of living with the world’s most boring man known to the human race. He could have played the super-neat and overly organized character in The Odd Couple. Life with that man was predictable, never changing, never spontaneous, and seldom enjoyable. She grew old in their marriage before she was even thirty.

When she finally separated and filed for divorce, she had a hard time justifying her leaving. However, since that day, she had slowly but surely ventured out, like this trip to Silverthorne, to just ... go, do things that were unpredicted, spontaneous, and fun ... only this adventure had gone all wrong. Still, Anya was proud of Jackie Lynn for stepping out of her safe bubble and agreeing to come along.

“You’re kidding!” Nicole bellowed. “This isn’t some TV show, like Quantum Leap!” She paused as if she were rethinking her words. “That’s physically impossible!”