Chapter 5

The miles glided by. The ride was incredibly quiet; the only sound the rush of wind by the windows. Cindy had been relaxing with her eyes closed, her body tired but her mind too excited to rest. She finally gave up trying to sleep and opened her eyes and looked at the clock. "Past 6:40," she said. She let her fingers play with the wind outside her window. "At least it's still cooling off some more. What a relief! Still doing fifty- eight?"

"Yep, speed is steady..." said Jim, very quietly.

"See any exits yet?"

"Oh, I would have told you."

"Yeah, I guess so. We're over forty-five minutes into the test now, aren't we?"

Jim sighed. "Yeah, fifty in fact. My sanity will start to go very soon."

Cindy smiled and activated the display. "We're still showing both packs charged at 95%." She sat back in her chair and waited.

Five minutes later Jim spoke up. "Well, I guess maybe I do believe in magic. Let's punch this test up a bit. I won't mind at all getting stopped for a speeding ticket." Jim accelerated the car to 74 mph and locked the speed. "There! We're using 25 HP now, pulling 10 HP out of the batteries. According to this display, we should be able to do this for about seventy minutes... Uh, Cindy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I travel this fast?"

"Heck no! I always drive this fast. You want to know about magic? My dad says it's magical I haven't gotten a speeding ticket yet!" Cindy tried to smile but it turned into a frown. "Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you been thinking, about... well, my car?"

"Yeah, sure have. The tow-truck through the exit ramp scenario is impossible. Maybe the sound-barriers can be moved, to make an opening. Or maybe they used a big helicopter as a crane... So absurd... I can't believe I'm saying this..."

"Well, you were right about it not being the same spot. I've been watching the sun shadows too. You were right, we're still heading due west, not traveling in a circle. And the sound-barriers too, they're bigger than ever."

Jim nodded. "Yeah, over thirty-five feet I think... I'm going to be so happy when we leave Nebraska..."

They drove in silence as the miles flowed by. It was past 7:30 when Cindy gave a whimpering sound.

Jim grimaced. "I see it too. Just stay in the car when I slow down. I'm going to drive right across the median and park alongside." In less than a minute Jim pulled up along Cindy's car in the eastbound breakdown lane. The battery icons on his display cycled back to blue. "Another hundred and ten miles," Jim said. "Exactly the same as before."

"Uh huh," muttered Cindy. "I'll go check my Globalstar system again. Who knows? Maybe I can get a satellite signal now. It'll tell us where we are." Cindy got out of Jim's car and sat in her Mercedes. She played with the car's navigation system for a while, and then called out, "No luck."

Jim's eyes lit up. "Wait a minute! It can probably tell us even without the satellite link. Cindy, all we need to do is mark when the sun goes down." Jim smiled when he saw they probably had a half hour of sunlight left. They chatted until the last of the sunlight left the top of the northern sound barrier, and marked the time as 8:19 PM. Jim typed for several minutes on the Mercedes display, and then looked up and whispered, "Damn..." There was a very worried scowl on his face.

Cindy was standing by his side outside the open door. She reached in and ruffled his hair for a moment. "Hey! It can't be that bad. What have you got?" Her hand petted the back of his neck once and then rested on his shoulder.

Jim looked up at her. "It's bad Cindy. There's a lot of intelligence built into this system, astronomical data tied in with the map info. For today's date, sunset at Pine Bluffs would be at 8:35 PM. I'm speaking Central Daylight time. Omaha would be at 8:03 PM."

"Oh..." Cindy frowned. "And we're right in the middle, aren't we? Which means we're right in the middle of Nebraska..."

"Yeah, exactly. We've traveled two hundred and twenty miles west from where I picked you up. We should be crossing into Wyoming now. Maybe within a mile of where you got on two days ago." Jim looked around in the evening twilight. "These sound barriers are huge! They must be fifty feet high. Do you remember them being this large, when you first got on?"

Cindy stared at the barriers "No. I don't remember them at all. It's possible, I suppose. It was dark, and I think I entered my daze before the sun came up on the freeway..."

Cindy concentrated for a moment, and then gave a soft whimpering sound. "I don't have any memory... any memory just after entering the freeway... none at all... except for x-rated dreams... Shit... Shit, shit, shit... Oh, pardon my language..."

Jim shook his head and gave her a kind smile. "Oh, I don't mind. I feel like cursing with you."

Cindy shrugged her shoulders as she stared down the road. "So, what'll we do? Actually, if I can make a suggestion, how about we have some dinner and just sack out for the night? I'm feeling exhausted."

They ate a quiet meal together, commenting on the relief of the cooler temperature. Both cars were showing an outside temperature of 77F. Jim noticed Cindy was looking a little pre-occupied. "Well," he said, "Want to sack out now?"