Page 78 of Not You Again
Carly held on to the handrail as the golf cart jostled them down the dirt road. “What happens when you reach a new spot on the perimeter? Do you just, drive at it?” Carly ducked to avoid the branch of a nearby tree.
Rick veered off the dirt road and into the woods. “I usually walk. Driving straight at it feels a bit too much like a roller coaster to me.”
The terrain they were going over was wildly uneven, and Carly had to grip both sides of the cart to stay inside of it. They reached a spot in the woods, overgrown with blueberry bushes and tall oak trees. Rick parked the cart, then got out. He took the map from Carly and studied it. “We’re about a hundred feet from my next target,” he said.
“I’m staying back to time the eclipse.” Hannah pointed to the sky. “We’ve got another hour until that happens.”
“So there’s really nothing new? No theories other than the wormhole at this point?” Carly stepped on a dry, crisptwig and it snapped so loudly in the quiet forest that she jumped.
“Afraid not.” Heather pulled her long hair up into a high and tight ponytail. “At this point, watching Rick cross through the perimeter might help reveal some of that exotic matter that we’re hoping to find more of. Buy us more time.”
“I’ve never crossed the perimeter,” Carly said. There was so much she couldn’t control about the eclipse, she didn’t want to add another unknown into the mix.
“I can tell you from experience that it doesn’t hurt.” Rick cracked his neck, then his knuckles—a fighter prepping for a match. “You coming?”
Carly could spend the rest of the day hunting for Adam, or she could step through the bubble and into the next loop, where he’d be resetting, too. What was the point in spending the next few hours in a state of high anxiety when she could skip to the good part?
“Would it help to watch me vanish, too?” Carly asked Heather, figuring that might be a better reason to walk ahead.
“Sure.” Heather nodded. “Let Rick go first, and then you can follow after. That way, Rick can test out two points on the map, right?”
“My lord, this woman gets it.” Rick proudly puffed out his chest.
Carly couldn’t help wonder what their relationship wasexactly.But before she could dwell too much, Rick began to walk toward the edge.
“Go in about ten feet to my left once I vanish, okay?” Rick asked.
“Will do.” Really, Carly shouldn’t have been worried. Rick did this same thing almost every loop, as did plenty of other people in town. Still, as she watched Rick vanish,and then began her own steps toward the edge, her anxious ADHD thoughts crept in.
Maybe this time I won’t wake up.
What if Adam returns but I don’t?
Maybe I don’t deserve to come back at all...
Carly took in a breath, and an even bigger step, and then there was a weightless snap that made her vision go black.
Chapter 28
Carly
Day 254
One moment she’d been in the woods, crunching through leaves, and the next there was the feel of the folding chair underneath her. But a folding chair was good, because it meant she’d reset, and so had Adam. Carly stood and spun to face the door of the funeral service room. She ran toward it.
“Adam!” she called out, maybe a little giddy.
Yes, she was anxious, and excited and floating at the idea of seeing him again. She had so much to catch him up on. Where to even start? There was the eclipse staying stagnant, how he’d swapped places with Shireen, the conversations she’d had with his parents—
Carly stopped running as she came to the hallway and saw Shireen. Shireen shook her head.
Carly’s mouth opened in shock. “He’s not here?”
“Adam didn’t reset with me.” Shireen crossed her arms and gave an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Carly.”
Carly blinked back tears and took a breath. She’d convinced herself that Adam would reset. The loop returned Shireen in the same amount of time—why not Adam?
Shireen’s arms wrapped Carly in an unexpected hug, and that was when the tears came. She’d tried to keep her despair pushed down, but she couldn’t any longer.
