Chapter 11

Cindy was asleep for about an hour when she began to have a most amazing dream. At first she was at the bottom of an enormous cylinder, perfectly shaped and filled with crimson light and so vast it was beyond comprehension. There was a great golden spiral curving up around the inside of the cylinder, making one and half revolutions before reaching the top miles above her.

After a moment the scene blurred, and Cindy was falling backwards against giant red soap bubbles, a deep red light glowing all around her. The bubbles were much, much larger than her body, and her body felt strange, smaller and more agile than it should.

Cindy felt very calm. The slippery bubbles would compress when her body hit them, almost stopping her momentum before popping in a burst of red light and dropping her into the next bubble. No, not dropping, she decided. It felt as if each bubble pop were accelerating her into the next bubble. She could also feel Jim's arms around her in the alternate reality of sleeping on the couch, his hand still cupping the left cheek of her butt through her jeans. "Jim, what is this?" she link-thought in Cantonese.

"Quantum foam," Jim's sleepy thought returned in English.

"Huh?"

"You're so beautiful... Such lovely fur..." Jim thought in great drowsiness. "All the lovely brown and red stripes..."

"Huh?!"

"Lots of cute feet too..."

"WHAT?!"

And then the dream changed. The bubbles were gone, and Cindy appeared to be inside a cave. The cave sloped up and ended about ten feet in front of her, with an exit hole in the roof of the very smooth rock, almost polished. Two legs in jeans and hiking boots were just exiting the cave, pulling up a backpack tied to rope.

"Mark!" Cindy heard a woman's voice cry out, "How the hell did this storm move in so quickly? There were just a few puffy clouds here an hour ago!"

And then a man's voice from outside the cave shouted out in reply, "I don't know, I've never seen anything like it!" Cindy scampered up quietly to the tunnel exit, amazed at the quality of the dream. She heard the man's voice call out again, "Kara, there's not really any snow cover yet on the mountain. Let's get down from here before we get trapped!"

Cindy heard the two people walk away, and jumped up out of the tunnel to investigate. Astonished by what she saw, the link breakage with Jim's mind went totally unnoticed as she leaped outside the tunnel.

Cindy was at the top of a conical mountain, and around her was a howling snowstorm. The white light provided her with a good look at her new body. She gaped at what she had become, a large six-legged squirrel, with dark brown and red tiger striping covering her body, even her bushy tail. She felt her body in wonder, and realized her fur was far more luxurious than any squirrel's.

A sound from the two humans caught her attention. They were right at the edge of visibility through the snowstorm, and Cindy realized she could only still see them because they had paused for a moment to rope themselves together. As they resumed their descent, Cindy had an instant to decide whether to lose them from view or pursue them. Cindy moved quickly and followed them.

The next two hours were the most amazing of her life. Even in the cold snow she felt completely warm and comfortable. She realized her body was superbly adapted to the cold weather, and the six legs provided incredible agility. Keeping the two human hikers in sight was very easy, and she spent considerable time testing the agility and flexibility of her body as she followed them. She dimly wondered what her spinal column must be like to provide such fantastic six-legged balance and turning ability.

Both the snow and the daylight faded as Cindy continued to trail the hikers. Then the sun set and the hikers began to set up a tent. Cindy watched quietly from a nearby tree, delighted that she had walked straight up the trunk with no effort at all. The snowstorm had ended, but high clouds were still obscuring the night stars. It was extremely dark when she decided to approach the tent. She started to make out the man's words as she got close.

"... Worst-case scenario is that we are lost forever. But that can't be right, can it?"

And then the woman replied. "I don't know. The Hopewell lived in this canyon a thousand years ago, and then they just vanished forever... I'm just glad I brought the second Glock. Let's be sure to mount the scopes before we sack out."

Cindy shook her squirrel head in bewilderment. "What the hell is going on? They seem like nice people. The man's name is Mark, the woman is Kara. Should I try to communicate? SHIT! What am I thinking of?! I'd probably scare them half to death as a six-legged monster. Mount the scopes? Glocks? Pistols! Shit! They're armed! Cindy, be careful!"

The man's voice called out, "Want something to eat?"

Kara answered. "Yeah, I guess... Can I look at your GPS receiver?"

"Sure, go ahead..."

A moment of rustling passed. Then Kara said, "What do you think Mark? Did the sun set an hour ago?"

"Oh, at least. I think we were hiking in twilight for quite a while. I thought it was just the darkness of the snowstorm... My sense of time is all messed up..."

"Mark, when should the sun have set?"

"Uh, just after 5 PM, I think."

Kara gave a mirthful laugh. "Yeah. Well, the GPS is reading 1:53 PM now. It's a lot earlier than I thought. The fading light fooled me too. Hell, the sun must have set around 1 PM, maybe even before!"

"... Yeah..."

Kara shuddered. "Four hours earlier than it should?! Did a black hole pass by the Earth, change the tilt?"

Mark laughed. "No way! I can't think of an explanation though. Anything that could cause such a major change should have destroyed the planet... at least the surface..."

"Well," said Kara, "something changed the orbit. It's pitch black outside, and the GPS is reading 1:54 PM, December 26, 2008. Some Christmas vacation this has turned out to be!"

Cindy's mind was frantic. "WHAT?! No it's not! It's October 22'nd, 2009. What the hell is going on?!" Cindy's body was shaking from her emotions. "I don't like this dream anymore!"

Cindy tried to wake up from her dream, and realized in horror it seemed impossible. The reality around her was rock solid. She was stunned to realize she was awake. And then she realized her second horror. Her mind link with Jim was totally absent. After a long moment of panic, Cindy turned around and raced back to the tunnel where the all the insanity started.