Elliot stood five feet away, the heat pleasant on his face. He turned back to look at Evajean. She leaned against the side of the truck, hands in her pockets, staring forward at this new reminder that reality had become very different through the course of their journey. Hope sat on the dashboard, barking, the sounds muffled by the glass.

He shifted his attention back to the wall. It warped and churned, yellows and browns and oranges, the surface slick and bulging like blown glass. He stepped forward. The heat wasn’t bad, closer to a campfire than an inferno, but getting too close would burn him nonetheless. Hands outstretched, he took a couple of steps closer.

The details of the wall were difficult to focus on. Everything shifted, his eyes along with it, such that staring too long resulted in a mild headache. What is it? he thought. It’s not light. It’s something else. As far as he could tell, it went on forever in both directions, north and south, and cut directly across the wide lanes of the freeway. They’d have to find a way around if they were to continue. Even if the truck could handle the heat, Elliot had the feeling the barrier was solid, that it would repel them as effectively as concrete.

“We’ll drive north,” he called back to Evajean, “and see if we can get around that way.”

The wall mesmerized him. As to the north and south, it seemed to continue forever upward, curving back away from them gently like a dome. Where it plunged into the ground, the asphalt glowed in a thin, bright line. He walked across the road and past the curb, following it. In the dirt and grass, the line was paler but still noticeable, the color of molten steel.

“How are we going to get north?” Evajean said from behind him.

Elliot turned. She was standing a few feet away, staring beyond him at the barrier. “What do you mean?” he said.

“There aren’t any roads. There’s this one, but we can’t take it anymore and it doesn’t go north, besides.”

“I don’t know,” Elliot said. “Go back? Drive back until we hit something heading the right direction?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“I don’t trust the truck off road, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yeah.”

“If it breaks down,” he said, “we’ll be pretty much stuck. Out here, on the highway, we can maybe find something else, but out there”–he pointed across the endless grass–”we’re out of luck.”

“Okay,” Evajean said. “We’ll go back and find another away around. I wish the truck had one of those road atlas books.”

“Me, too,” Elliot said.

“You ready?”

“What do you think this is?” he said, looking again at the barrier.

“Who knows?” she said. “More of the same. More stuff we don’t understand.” She started back to the truck. “Come on, Elliot. I’m exhausted. I can’t keep my eyes open. Anyway, if we can’t find a way around, you’ll get lots of other chances to look at that thing.”

“You’re probably right,” Elliot said and followed her.

Hope stopped barking as soon as Evajean opened the truck’s door. Once settled, the two of them fell asleep within minutes, while Elliot drove east.

Shortly before the sun came up, Elliot found a promising exit and took it, now driving roughly north, parallel to the barrier. Evajean woke up some time later and they stopped long enough to eat a quick breakfast of apples and oatmeal warmed on the engine block. Hope devoured a few strips of jerky.

Elliot lost track of where they were but getting back to the highway only meant turning around, so he didn’t worry about it and just drove. Off in the distance to their left, the barrier could occasionally be seen, but it was mostly lost in the glare of the cool September sun.

“What do we do if we can’t find a way around?” Evajean said.

“We will. That thing can’t go on forever.”

“Yeah,” she said, “it can. We’ll have to go back. Give up on finding anything out.” She took a small bite from her apple. “Whatever it is, the Hole, I bet it’s on the other side.”

“That’s probably true,” Elliot said.

“It’s– I bet it’s the Hole that’s making that thing.”

Elliot remember Evajean standing tall in Nahom, the golden box–the golden book–held high over her head, and a field of energy forcing back the crazies. He shook his head. “Regardless, we need to try to get around it. If the Hole’s back there, if it’s the cause of that light, then it’s a lot more than just where they’re taking the dead.”

“Yeah,” Evajean said. “I wish I knew what we’ve gotten ourselves into.”

“I don’t think we got ourselves into anything. Something got us.”

Then Evajean screamed. “Elliot! Look out!” She was staring out her window and, as Elliot jerked the wheel, startled, he saw two more of those creatures, the tubular beats with the enormous faces, charging across the empty field to the east toward them.

“Goddamn,” he said, and pushed his foot down on the gas, hard. The truck coughed and lurched forward. The creatures closed, their arc taking them onto the road behind Elliot and Evajean.

These were smaller than the first two had been, only a few feet taller than the cab of the truck, and slower, but they had no trouble at all keeping pace.

We need to find some place to hide, Elliot thought. The overpass trick isn’t going to work on these.

“There!” Evajean shouted. Coming up was an exit leading to a small truck stop town. What had caught her attention was a modest church made of stone. They could hide in there.

Again Elliot thought of Nahom. But those creatures weren’t the crazies, just animals. They wouldn’t be able to open the doors and were too big to come in through the windows. Inside, he and Evajean could wait them out.

He took the exit, the creatures perhaps twenty yards behind. The truck bounced through the curve, rocking as he brought it straight again. The church was close, and he knew they could make it.

“We’re going to have to run,” he said. “Be ready.”

Evajean nodded.

Elliot braced himself, then hit the breaks hard. The truck shuddered and slowed, coming to a stop just in from of the church’s huge wooden doors.

“Go!” he shouted, jumping out. Evajean followed, clutching Hope to her chest. They ran, crossing the dozen feet to the entrance.

And found it locked.