The Meadow 85 into the past. Amanda out.” The trees grew ever denser, greener, and bigger, reaching over the river even as it widened. Amanda talked excitedly—“Look, Doctor, that flower is red!”—but Bailey had fallen into thoughtful silence. They continued in this manner until Amanda’s voice rose to a shriek: “Doctor, there’s something coming at us!” Bailey, searching her bag at the back of the canoe, snapped out of her daze and whipped her head around. Nothing floated with them on the river, and nothing peered out at them through the veil of dark vines and branches. “What? Where?” “There!” Amanda pointed into the sky, at a distant foggy mass, and Bailey relaxed. “It’s just a mountain, Amanda,” she said. “Mountains? Doctor, how is that possible? A river maybe, a forest maybe, but a mountain? How could we not know about a mountain?” “I need to do some research,” Bailey said. “Keep us in the center of the river.” She tried to connect her computer to the servers at the Department’s headquarters. “Having trouble connecting. Right.” She dug through the records she had on her computer but didn’t have access to the right information. “Doctor...buildings.” Bailey looked up. Gray squares, windows unbroken, peeked over treetops. Figures inside drifted like ghosts. “I think I’ve figured it out,” Amanda said. “Somehow the bombs didn’t affect this area. Maybe the people here don’t even know about the war. They’re cut off and they don’t even know why. We should stop and...where did they go?” Only trees, and the looming mountain, surrounded them. The buildings, melted like snow under the fierce winter sun, had disappeared, and the ghosts inside them were gone as well.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODQ3NA==