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Chapter 6: Tedious Travel

An hour had passed since Isabella's discovery of the snowmobile tracks, and her anxiety from the previous night had been replaced with enthusiasm. Their breakfast of instant oatmeal and dried peaches only energized her further, and she was beginning to think that they were on an adventure rather than lost in the wilderness.

What Isabella was more pleased about, however, were Phineas's prodigious creations. While she had been stretching outside, he used the remains of the tattered sleeping bag to both construct backpacks for them and, once they came back inside, to substantially improve their less-than-reliable coats. He even made himself some thin snow pants after Isabella insisted he do so, and then he used the last of the bag's fluffy interior to fashion her a white scarf. The clothing was crudely made, not at all reflecting his usual workmanship, but Isabella knew he had done his best. After all, he had only sharp rocks and shoelaces to work with.

After finishing packing the couple set off, following the tracks towards the forest. Travel was much easier with their backpacks and they made excellent time considering the extra layer of snow. In addition, their improved clothing seemed to do the trick; neither Phineas nor Isabella had any more problems with shivering.

They were telling riddles to each other when Isabella finally got a good look at the forest. The trees were somewhat short, as one would expect from at such a high altitude, but they didn't look quite right. Phineas noticed as well and they quickened their pace towards the strange forest.

"What are those?" Phineas asked, once they had reached the edge of the forest. They could now see more mountains looming in the distance, partially covered with more forest, but Phineas was indicating the "trees" themselves. Thick, dark green tubes sprouted from the snow ground, completely straight and rigid. They had snowcapped, pointed tops and looked almost plasticy, faintly reminding Isabella of pine-green crayons.

"We never covered these trees in the Fireside girls," she replied curiously, straying a few yards from the tracks to approach one. She touched the smooth trunk and noted its unusual warmth. When she removed her hand from the tube, a dark imprint of her fingerprints remained, almost like finger paint.

"Cool!" exclaimed Phineas, tracing a triangle on the tree. Isabella giggled and added a body to the triangle, complete with a swimsuit and generous biceps. He rolled his eyes and traced next to the figure a semicircle with a ridiculously oversized body, obviously meant to be her.

Isabella's eyes glinted mischievously as Phineas chuckled away. The two of them were still so childish, yet that was what made their time together so fun. "Why you little…"

Isabella had meant to make a playful dive at Phineas into a nearby snowdrift, but at that precise moment, an immensely loud groan sounded from deep below, and once again, the ground began to shake virulently. She bowled into him unevenly, all excitement quashed as a loud series of cracks echoed through the air. A bolt of dark, uncontrollable fear exploded in her heart as the noise from the earth intensified. Isabella clung to him, her eyes wide with fright, as the ground gave a terrific jerk to the right and their tube-tree splintered. Her scream was nearly drowned out by the noise as it began to careen towards them, but Phineas acted fast and rolled them away nanoseconds before it crashed to the ground. And then everything became deathly still.

"Why d-do these keep happening?!" she asked perturbedly, her voice cracking as Phineas shakily helped her up. She kept glancing around frantically, as if expecting another series of formidable shocks. "This many earthquakes at once isn't normal, not even in the mountains," she said, more to herself than to Phineas. She was supposed to be the expert at these things, why couldn't she explain anything unusual?

You need to stop flirting and pay attention, Isabella reprimanded herself angrily, This situation is life or death, so stop treating it like it's a friendly stroll in the park!

With nothing else to do there, Phineas and Isabella quickly resumed their trek, but neither felt like conversing anymore. Isabella's exuberance had been drained away with the earthquake, leaving her terse and uneasy just like she had been the day before. She was growing restless just thinking of when the next quake would start. Even Phineas, whose sole existence currently seemed to be to make her laugh, was unnaturally silent. The blue sky was slowly filled with grey clouds as they walked, and wispy fog once again began to settle thickly across the valley.

They had just stopped at an overturned tube-tree to eat lunch when it began to snow. It was only sprinkling, but Isabella felt as though her whole body had gone numb from disquietude, which was partially true. They were going to lose their trail to civilization.

Abandoning their lunch spot, the teenagers stole back to their trail at a heightened pace insomuch they were nearly jogging. They had to make it as far as possible before the tracks were lost to more snow. Isabella pushed herself onwards as they began trudging through deeper snow, although her energy was slowly ebbing away. When the snowfall thickened they began to run, but the tracks were becoming less and less clear until Isabella was squinting to find the parallel lines.

Phineas pressed on stubbornly for five more minutes before finally accepting that they had lost the trail. Both were gasping hard now, trying to avoid inhaling snowflakes while at the same time searching for any sign of the snowmobile. But it was hopeless; they were once again lost.

The couple ate their delayed lunch in miserable silence, then continued on in what they believed to be the direction of the snowmobile tracks. Their progress seemed much slower than before, making the next few hours drag by. They gradually drew away from the forest and progressed into a sort of canyon several hundred yards wide. Phineas still acted as the gentleman and helped her up steep climbs, but light pleasantries of "Please" and "Thank you" were the highlight of their trip.

All traces of happiness had now left Isabella; she wondered how she could have thought of this as an adventure before. She was getting tired of being constantly cold, hungry, and in danger of seismic activity. The protein bars in particular were getting to be much too gritty for her taste, yet they had little else to eat at this point. The snow had let up, replaced with more sunshine, but this did little to lighten her mood.

Phineas must have noticed her growing depression, however, and began making feeble attempts at conversation once again.

"A penny for your thoughts?"

Isabella faltered, trying to think of what to tell him. In actuality, she had been speculating how many more earthquakes she would have to go through, but she didn't want Phineas to think she was scared.

"Just remembering the night we went to Preference together."

Phineas smiled at the memory. "Yeah, that really brought us closer together, didn't it?"

Isabella nodded, a tiny smile playing across her lips as well. Only a few months earlier she had finally gotten the courage to ask him out, and she couldn't remember having a more enjoyable night. The one-on-one chatting and teasing was fabulous and the slow dances heavenly. When she dropped him off that night, it was a bit of a letdown to learn he had only considered the date a friendly one, but she soon realized she should be grateful for the opportunity in the first place.

"And then I took you to Prom a few weeks later. Now that was fun."

"Hmm... I still think Preference was better."

He grinned. "That's only because you got to plan it out. Prom was obviously the best of the two. For instance, look at how I asked you compared to you *sarcastic cough* asking me."

"Hey! I spent an entire weekend sewing you that stuffed bear!"

"I can't bear go to Preference without you?" Phineas laughed, making her blush furiously, yet lifting her spirits.

She pouted, or at least tried to hide her toothy grin. "That was creative, and I know it still sits on top of your bed! At least I didn't go way over the top and get the air force involved!"

It was true. Phineas had asked her to Prom as they got out of school with not one, not two, but fifteen automated fighter jets that wrote a message in the sky. Not just her name or a heart, but an entire paragraph of witty mots and an outline of her in a dress! Isabella had about died from happiness until it occurred to her that Phineas would think of this date the same as he had the last one, as friends. But then she realized, it didn't really matter. This would hopefully be the beginning to a lot more 'dating' with Phineas, and maybe one day, one of them would end romantically.

The terrain seemed to be getting craggier as they continued deeper into the canyon, and that combination with the fading sunlight was making their journey much more treacherous. The temperature was also dropping, and Isabella had to wrap her scarf around her neck tightly to keep warm. The couple continued their joking, but Isabella was beginning to wonder if they had guessed the right direction to travel, as the snowmobile would have a hard time maneuvering through this ravine. Still, with the level of snow it was possible, even if she and Phineas occasionally had to walk around large, inky black cracks in the earth. They stared into a particularly wide one, big enough that Isabella could not touch both sides if she had wanted, but there was too little sunlight left to see what laid below.

Traces of a brilliant, yellow sunset were just beginning to reveal themselves when Phineas popped the question. Or rather, he popped the statement.

"When we get home, we should go on some more dates."

Isabella did a double take. "Could you repeat that?" she asked.

"Well it looks like Izzy's ready for bed," he jested, smirking.

"Shut up. You just excited that you get to sleep with me some more," she shot back, her eyes flashing playfully.

"Yeah, that is pretty fun," he quipped, nudging Isabella and earning a light slap from her. He rolled his eyes.

"I said, we should go on another date sometime. We've only gone to dances and we're always together anyways, so why not?"

Isabella was both flattered and slightly disgruntled. "Phineas, do you understand why people go on dates?" she inquired.

He turned around to help her up a rather steep and icy spot on the incline. "Yeah, so they can learn new things about each other. So they can go have fun, try new things."

She nodded, but then added, "People go on dates because they like each other. Like, like like each other."

"Yeah, it's like hanging out on a new level."

"Not really." she retorted bluntly. "People date because they want to start a relationship, maybe even more." She had begun leaning towards him to emphasize her point.

"Yeah, sometimes that's a part of it too," he replied casually, watching rays of light streaking across the sky. He didn't get it.

"Not just sometimes. Every time." Not entirely true, but Isabella knew from experience that she had to spell it out. Phineas just looked confused.

Isabella sighed, then decided to change angles a bit. "Who do you like, Phin?" She was grateful she was older now; even two years ago, she wouldn't have been able to ask that without having a panic attack.

He perked up. "Why do you ask?"

"Well you just asked me out, and I'm a little confused…"

"Ooohh. Well like you said, I am trying to date you." He nudged her playfully and gave a very exaggerated wink, which she returned with a smirk. "I did fancy Adyson for a week or two last year, but that went away pretty fast. She's not like you."

She's not like me? She thought, mystified. Had Phineas been kidding when he nudged her, or was there a message in that? She hadn't really understood him. Did he like her or not? Did he even understand the concept of a date, or was it merely a private hangout?

"Who do you like?" he asked back, throwing her even more off-guard.

"I umm... W-well I kind of like..." She was seriously considering just telling him casually when Phineas let out a gasp.

"Look at those!" he exclaimed, pointing at the sky. Isabella looked up and caught a glimpse of the matured sunset. Vibrant streaks of light appeared to be racing across the sky as the distant sun sank lower into the horizon, and a gradual aura of warm color filled the area—not yellow light, like before, but silver.

"Are those the Aurora borealis?" Isabella asked out loud. "The northern lights?" she explained when Phineas remained incognizant.

"I don't think so," he replied, screwing up his features as if to get a clearer view of the lights. "They don't look quite like the ones we've seen at the North Pole," he continued, referring one to their many trips to visit Santa. They stood there for a few moments, mystified by the brilliant lights streaking across the sky. They were mesmerizing.

And then, just as she was beginning to relax again, another tremor vibrated through ground. It lasted maybe a second, but it was enough to make Isabella whimper and grab Phineas's hand.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Sure," she lied, skirting a few jagged rocks with him, "It just surprised me, that's all."

It was almost too dark to walk and avoid the chasms in the ground now. "We need to settle somewhere soon," she added.

She waited for a second for Phineas to agree, but he hesitated. "This just doesn't make sense," he finally let out, making her raise her eyebrows. "Like you said earlier today, these severe earthquakes at such a frequent rate can't be explained by current theories, nor does that forest of an undoubtedly new and undiscovered species of trees make any sense. You don't recognize any of these mountains ranges either, and from my guess—" he paused to scale a small cliff then turned to help her up, "—The lack of any wildlife, even in a climate like this, isn't normal."

He paused for a moment. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't think we're on Earth."

Wait, what? she thought as what he said sank in. But then his reasoning began to make sense. Most other people would be astounded by his hypothesis, but she was so used to Phineas's bizarre yet astonishingly correct ideas that this one didn't seem even remotely out of the ordinary.

How would we ever be able to leave this … world if we don't have any means of communication or equipment? she thought reluctantly. That can't be possible. We're just on one of the more eerie islands in Canada or something. And near a faultline.

"But what about the snowmobile tracks? What about the atmosphere, wouldn't we be unable to breathe on another planet?"

"Those I still can't explain," he muttered, shaking his head, "Which is why this whole endeavor is just so perplexing. But the evidence of those lights have me convinced—I think we've been brought to an entirely new planet."

Isabella was about to remind Phineas of the harsh but bearable weather conditions—far more likely on Earth than an alien planet—when the true impact of Phineas's idea began taking its toll on her. If they had, indeed, been teleported to another undiscovered planet, millions of light years from their friends, then how off Earth were they going to make it back?

Isabella wondered if Gretchen and the Fireside girls could see the same lunar lights from the Tri-State Area. That would be unlikely, due to the city haze and lights, but the thought still gave her comfort. But then she remembered Phineas's claim, that they were not on Earth at all, and the well-needed comfort vanished.

"I don't know," she answered, as he was probably waiting for a response. "I don't want it to be true."

"Neither do I," Phineas concurred. "I don't expect you to support me. I just think that perhaps we should be a little more careful while we look for civilization. Maybe other humans found this planet first."

Isabella was feeling the same way, and they quickly agreed that if they discovered anything new or unusual, including plants, animals, and even rocks, that they would examine them together for added safety.

At this point the alien lights had faded and it was too dark to see more than a few feet away, and they discovered that there was either a new moon—the opposite of a full moon—or that there was no moon orbiting this planet all. A sheer wind began to blow through the canyon, but as they began searching for shelter, Isabella felt Phineas's fingers intertwine with hers.

"How off Earth were they going to get back?" Did anyone appreciate this horrendous pun as much as I did?! BD :D I want your honest opinion on the chapter, feel free to tell me how to write better!

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~Word of the Week~

Reprimand • Rep + ri + mand • Verb

- to speak at angrily for something done wrong; to rebuke, esp. formally.

This word is a little hard to understand in the dictionaries, but I think of it as getting after someone and telling them off when they did something wrong. If a mother catches her son drawing on the wall, then she would reprimand her son for his mischief. This is also used in courts to reprimand people of things they've done wrong. From the story: "You need to stop flirting and pay attention, Isabella reprimanded herself angrily, This situation is life or death." Isabella was angry at herself for not taking their trek seriously, and she was reprimanding herself for it.

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Guest Review Responses:

Guest: I'm glad the word of the week isn't a waste of time!

Heinz Doofensmi: Lol that's a possibility, but who knows?

8 Bit Mario: Good guessing, some things you suggested were already in here!