This is from a story called Driving Into Forever. The premise is, a woman is driving home in the fog and ends driving through some kind of dimensional shift and ends up crashing into a tree. She’s found by a group of scientists who are researching this phenomena they call the Myste. In this scene, she and the nephew of one of these scientists are going on a excursion back to her car to remove the stereo – one of the things they do is look for other technology. Oh, and Hannah and Kelvin are attracted to each other (in case you couldn’t guess), only Kelvin seems to be fighting it.
Sorry about the poor quality of the cover picture, but I couldn't find my original and had to pull this off the NaNo site, which apparently has changed the sizing of their covers.
“Good morning, sleepy heads,” Hannah called to Kelvin and Terrell as they finally put in an appearance for breakfast. Always an early riser, she’d been up for over an hour, and in decidedly good spirits.
“Sorry we’re late,” Terrell said. “Kelvin kept me awake with his tossing and turning.”
“Really,” Hannah grinned and turned to Kelvin, “Trouble sleeping?”
“Not at all,” he replied, sending her a look that made her tingle all over.
While they helped themselves to breakfast, Hannah went over to where Colby and Padraic had an assortment of tools waiting for her. She picked through them carefully, looking for tools that not only looked familiar but would aid in removing the stereo system from the jeep. By the time she had half a dozen of the most helpful looking instruments assembled, Kelvin was finished with breakfast and waiting for her.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” he asked. “I could take Terrell with me.”
“And you both know what a car stereo looks like?” she asked. “And how to remove it? It’s okay, Kelvin. I’ll be fine, really.”
“All right then,” he said, handing her a breather. He picked up the pack and slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“Good luck,” Terrell called after them.
It might have just been Hannah’s imagination, but the Myste seemed thicker than usual as they followed the trail. The trail seemed longer, narrower too. Maybe it was just the oppressive silence and the eternal gloom. She shivered and stayed close behind Kelvin. Finally they reached the spot where they needed to leave the trail.
Hannah was so busy looking around nervously that she didn’t realize Kelvin had stopped until she walked right into him. Reflexively he put his arms out to catch her and they stood there for a few seconds, staring into each other’s eyes. Kelvin’s arms tightened a fraction and her breath caught, but instead of the kiss she expected, he gently released her. She felt like grinding her teeth in frustration.
“This is it,” he told her unnecessarily, stepping back. “We’ll need the breathers from here.”
Although she felt more like smacking the back of his dense head, she watched him put his breather on and then followed suit. Holding on tight to the guide wire, she followed him into the Myste. The path twisted and turned and if she didn’t know better she’d swear it was longer. At last they reached the wreck.
“My poor jeep!” Hannah exclaimed, through the breather.
It was little more than a rusted out shell. Kelvin passed her a pair of heavy gloves to protect her hands as they carefully peeled back the sagging roof. The interior seemed to be still relatively untouched by the Myste, the seats and the dash board anyway. Hannah nodded to Kelvin and tried to open the door. It seemed to be rusted shut; she tried again but it was stuck fast.
Kelvin motioned her to the side so he could try his luck. Muscles rippling beneath his shirt he gave a mighty heave and wrenched the door not only open, but off the hinges entirely. Hannah’s eyes widened in appreciation.
He handed her the tools and she ducked into the jeep to remove the stereo system. She’d laughed at Sara at the time, but now she was grateful that Sara had sweet-talked that same teenager into installing a similar system in her own car. Hannah had watched him do it and now had a vague idea of how to remove it with the least amount of damage.
Once she’d removed the screws and disconnected the wiring, Hannah passed the stereo to Kelvin who placed it carefully in a protective bag. On a whim she popped open the glove box. The contents were untouched by the Myste and Hannah removed another half-dozen CDs and a personal CD player. She handed these to Kelvin as well, who looked at them curiously before covering them carefully in more protective wrapping and stowing them in his pack.
He waited patiently while she had one long, last look at her last link with her old life, then gently took her hand and led her back into the Myste. Hannah was not the only one who felt the Myste was thicker, Kelvin noticed it too. They only went a short distance when he stopped suddenly.
“What is it?” Hannah asked, voice muffled by her breather.
“The guide wire, it’s not right.”
“What do you mean it’s not right?”
The desire to protect her warred with the desire to be honest. “I have what my Aunt calls an over developed sense of direction, that’s why she prefers me to lead any forays into the Myste when Raynor isn’t available.”
“And what’s your sense of direction telling you right now?”
“That we’re going the wrong way.”
“What should we do?”
He hesitated. “I’m probably wrong, the Myste can be very disorienting. We should keep going.”
They went a few more yards and the guide wire grew lax in their hands. A few steps further and Kelvin stopped again. “It’s been cut.”
“What?”
“The guide wire,” he turned to show her the loose end. “It’s been cut.”
“But why? Who would do something like this?”
The roiling Myste seemed more oppressive, a shiver went down her spine at the thought of someone trying to deliberately strand them out here.
“I don’t know.”
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