Bard and Calypso spent the better part of the morning traveling back toward Jemez.
They stopped briefly once they reached Española, refueling their vehicles and themselves. They didn’t take much time to talk.
Bard wiggled the bat pendant hanging around his neck.
“I was thinking we’d go back to where this all started for me.”
Calypso took a sip of her coffee.
“Like I said, you lead the way. I’m along for the ride now.”
“Okay, great. For the rest of the ride, let me know if you notice anything that seems off. I’ll have my phone close by.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
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They parted with their coffees and breakfast sandwiches and returned to their cars.
Bard left the gas station first.
Calypso followed closely behind as he took them back toward Route 4, toward where the temple and underground complex should have been.
Eventually, they reached the stretch of road where the turnoff should have been.
It still wasn’t there.
Calypso pulled up alongside Bard on the shoulder.
Bard pointed toward the forest.
“This is roughly where it was, but nothing’s right. There’s one other place I wanna go look.”
They cruised for a while until they reached the other location, where Bard had found the garage.
Nothing.
Calypso pulled up beside him again.
“None of this is right. It’s almost like the land is changing.”
Bard said looking out toward the trees.
“This might be the third version of it I’ve seen.”
“That’s strange,” Calypso said. “You sure that’s not because you were out here tripping before?”
“No. I steer clear of anything like that.”
“Well, there’s not really any obvious sign of anything here, so I guess the next move is to see if I can pick up any kind of trail back near Los Alamos, where I was investigating when I first ran into the retro po-po.”
“Okay, but can we stop? I really have to pee.”
“Me too. Let’s just stop here.”
They both killed their engines.