Alternate Dream Part 2

3. According to Plan

She had touched this wall many times over the past hour and a half but this time she was nervous. This time she had an actual plan.

Her finger pressed the first image. Nothing.

Then another and another still nothing.

But she kept going. A few more and suddenly she noticed a slight glow and a breeze picking up.

"Tom! Carol!" She yelled in excitement as her fingers continued on their path.

She could hear them shuffling behind her.

"It's happening!" She could hear Tom yell. Carol joined with a "What do we do?!"

"Hand me my bag!" Pea yelled. She didn't know what she would face but she wanted to attempt to be somewhat prepared. She was afraid to stop, afraid it wouldn't start up again. This was it. She was finally going to Nina. To her sister. Her daughter. She had always felt more like Nina's mother.

Tom helped put her bag over the shoulder she wasn't using. "How did you figure it out? What is it?"

"It's our Dad's lullaby! Nina must have recognized it as well! Can you believe it?! Our lullaby!" The wind was getting stronger and the glowing images were lifting off the wall now.

"What lullaby? What's the song?!" Carol was practically crying.

"I don't know!  Maybe he wrote it, I've never seen it other than when he wrote it out for me."

Only a handful of notes remained. "Thank you both! I can't thank you enough for your help!" The glowing images began to swirl like a vortex and as she hit the last note she heard them both yell "Good Luck!" 

She was suddenly freezing cold and everything went silent and dark, but in a flash she was standing in an open field. An open plain? She wasn't sure what it was. It was barren looking with just rocks, dirt, and small brush. She looked all around her, taking it in. The sky was gray, the sun behind the clouds. She bent down to open her bag and put on her jacket. The terrain was hilly and rocky so she was glad she'd bought herself some boots like the ones Nina had purchased for her work. She'd never spent much time outdoors but she had come prepared for it. Or as prepared as she could be.

She picked a direction and began walking. Maybe if she topped a hill she would have a better vantage point. Once on top she looked around again. Not much better, all she could see was more of the same.  She closed her eyes and drew in a breath. The air seemed much clearer here than at home. It reminded her of when she was very young and they had visited her mother's parents in the country. She's pretty sure she hasn't seen them since. I guess abandoning your offspring runs in the family, then. She must take after her fathers side, she thought with a smirk, liking that thought. 

She sat to gather her thoughts for a moment, opening her bag to find the small pouch she needed. She brought the binoculars to her eyes.

She stood up to her full height and prayed she'd see something. Anything to give her a clue to a direction. The wrong decision here could be deadly, even she knew that. 

And then she saw it. She blinked to make sure she wasn't imagining it. The tops off trees far off in the distance. The small binoculars barely catching them, she would have never seen them with her own eyes.

That seemed like her only clue.  So she zipped up her pack and started in that direction.

~~~~~~

Over the past several hours, she had sent many prayers of thanks that the dark clouds hadn't opened up to drown her.

But she could tell the sun was getting lower in the sky and everything around her seeming to slowly darken.  She had picked up her pace and managed to reach the trees at some point. But once in the forest, she hadn't found any more signs of which way to go. So she had kept the sun to her back and continued in the same direction.