A Million Bodies by Erica Pensini - HTML preview

Chapter 17

Arthur breaks but it’s too late, our car hits the truck, it spins, my body hurts, my head feels light. I sense the car drifting off the road, beyond Arthur’s control, as my consciousness slips away.

When I regain consciousness all around us is darkness, and I reason that we must have ended up in a tunnel. Our car is moving, but I cannot find the manual break to stop it.

“Iris, are you ok?” Arthur’s voice emerges from the blackness in which we are immersed.

“Yes,” I say, “And you?”

“I’m so sorry, Iris,” he apologizes.

“Don’t apologize, tell me if you’re hurt,” I insist, the words quickened by the adrenaline still flowing through my veins.

“I’m ok, and I’d feel even better if I could understand what’s happening,” Arthur replies.

“Can you try to break?” I ask.

“I’ve tried already,” Arthur tells me.

“I can’t find the hand break,” I say.

I hear Arthur feel around the car, and I sit still, holding my breath.

“It doesn’t work either,” he tells me after a moment.

“So the breaks are broken”.

“I doubt it. There’s something else happening here. Don’t you have the perception that a force is pulling us somewhere?” Arthur replies.

“Are you scared?” I ask.

“No, not this time. Now I really want to see what’s next,” Arthur says, and a moment later we exit the tunnel, our bodies and car battered and yet still functional.

MONASTERIUMBURG, reads a wooden sign in the unpaved road unravelling before us.

5:03 a.m., reads the clock in the car.

“It seems like we got in the right spot in no time,” Arthur comments, forcing a laugh to lighten the atmosphere, as we look at each other and shiver.