Immortalys

Chapter Three: Northward

Willow and Friction drove northward all night, jamming out to music and snacking on the chips and candy they had brought from the house. The moon continued to shine brilliantly in front of them as they travelled onward, excitedly speculating what they would come across as the first sign that they were approaching Immortalys. Willow pointed out that they would most likely just see a bunch of light and perhaps some warped scenery, due to the strong magnetic field. Friction agreed but said he hoped he'd be able to see some UFOs.

They had driven until nearly 7:00 in the morning, where they found an empty rest stop off the highway near Williams Lake. They made a visit to the old, smelly restrooms, and then decided to sleep in the car for a few hours. Willow noticed that Friction had powered off his phone around the time that his parents usually got up in the morning. As the sky began to turn grey, Willow and Friction dozed off.

After a few hours of dreams she couldn't remember, Willow awoke with a start to feel the car moving again. She rubbed her eyes and looked blearily out the window. The sky was the pale-blue of a winter afternoon, and rocky cliffs and trees zoomed by on the sides of the road. Every once in a while a car would pass them in the opposite direction.

"Good morning, Willow," said Friction happily, "actually—just kidding. It's not morning anymore. We just passed Dawson Creek and now we're on the Alaska Highway, if you were wondering."

Willow grinned and looked down at the clock, which read 2:54 pm. "Wow, I slept a long time."

"You didn't miss much," Friction said with a shrug, "unless you count a few waterfalls and a couple of bears and a mountain goat, which I saw a few hours ago back near Chetwynd."

Willow glared at him. "Friction! I would have liked to see those! Did you take any pictures?"

"No," he said with a laugh, "I was driving! Maybe we'll see more today, I don't know."

Willow just shook her head and then dug out a granola bar from her purse. "Are you tired, Friction? You've been driving for a while."

He shrugged. "Not yet," he replied, "but I probably will be in a few hours. Which is too bad really, because I like driving at night."

"I can drive in a bit, if you want," Willow offered, "then you can sleep, and then get up when it gets dark and drive again."

Friction agreed, and that was what they did. Around 3:30, Willow took the driver's seat, pulled up on her phone the directions to their obscure coordinate point way up north, and drove the car on the highway. Friction snuggled into the passenger's seat and was asleep within minutes.

As she drove, Willow tried to determine in her head what their entrance to Immortalys might look like. She knew she had quite a few hours to think about this, but she decided she would be extra prepared. All she had heard about it were stories, so she didn't know exactly how the people there would act. The city was steeped in mystery. Willow remembered vigorously researching anything and everything about Immortalys she could get her hands on, ranging from strange tales of technology going haywire in that general area, to firsthand accounts of people who claimed to have seen the city. A man originally from Quebec stated that he had been standing in a house made of glass, "and the floor was made of gold." An old woman from the Northwest Territories declared that she had seen flying saucers and floating cars there, driven by people with "angelic, shining faces."

A little bit discouraging to Willow, however, was the implication that all of these people seemed to have gone a little crazy. According to the articles she read, they weren't able to recall everything they did; it was like they were in a dream or not fully responsive to their surroundings. Their accounts were uncannily similar to the many time-warp stories that Willow had been obsessed with reading: some claimed to have their phone clocks go forward or backward a few hours, some said they were sure that they had seen glimpses of past or future events, and most of their activities seemed to be accompanied by an "eerie green glowing light."

Willow decided flatly then and there that she would remain in her fully conscious state even if it was difficult. No one else seemed to have been able to do it— but of course she would be able to.

There was really no hard and fast conclusion to be reached, Willow knew as she fixed her eyes on the road, deep in thought; she would just have to wait until they got there to find out. She could stand it. She had read all the stories, she knew what to expect. And she could keep an eye on Friction; even if she had to slap his face a few times, she could keep track of him, make sure he didn't get lost. She was ready, ready to experience something she had never experienced before.

Willow continued to muse over what she would find when arriving in Immortalys, as she drove into the gathering darkness of evening. After the sun left the sky at around 6:00, she parked at a lonely gas station and woke up Friction.

They refilled the car's tank and bought some drinks, and they were on their way again into the night. Willow, since she had slept so long earlier, was not tired in the least; she turned on some music, ate some meat sticks, and stared thoughtfully at the road ahead.

By 11:00 that night, they had left British Columbia and crossed into the Northwest Territories. Willow was smiling as they crossed over the border; she had never been this far north before, and she knew they still had a lot of driving to do before they reached the coordinates of Immortalys. She gazed out the window at the moonlit trees and mountains until she drifted off to sleep.