Westvale

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Ben and Clara, fully equipped and ready to leave the United States, left the observatory through the same hole they entered, around an hour later as Denny explained the plan. The government would be looking for the three of them so staying was quite dangerous. Denny jumped out of the hole as well, falling on his way down to the small dirt alley zigzagging through the mountains. They said their goodbyes, as Clara started tearing a little bit. Denny was on his way back to the lab, while Ben and Clara would follow the dirt road in the opposite direction, getting further and further away from the town, until they found an all-terrain vehicle waiting for them, hidden amongst the hills and mountains, not too far from where they were according to Denny. One of his contacts had arranged the vehicle's drop off, he was to arrive at the location in 20 minutes. Ben and Clara's walk to the location would take about the same amount of time, hopefully meeting Denny's contact to at least thank him. As soon as he'd get there, he'd drop off the vehicle, then disappear himself. It was now dark as the frigid, early spring cold arrived. They had no jackets and no gear in order to resist the night's cold as they left her house in the biggest rush ever. The drop off point for the car was just off the dirt path, right after a split, leading to who knows where. They were meant to take a right, which is indeed what they did. A few steps later, they came across a vehicle, the all-terrain SUV that was supposed to wait for them. The car looked quite massive. It was dark green with very large and thick wheels. The keys were very clearly strapped to the handle of the driver's seat, which Ben took to open the trunk. Supplies awaited them, food, water, and even clothes. An olive duffel bag waited for them as well, which Clara took and unzipped. Two Canadian passports, and a note from Denny:

Dear Clara and Ben,

Here are two Canadian passports that you will use to find a new life in Canada. Two pairs of keys are stuck to the passports with an address, which will be your temporary cabin near Calgary, the nearest city. Remember, you were never American, your birthplaces say otherwise. Make up a story for your lives. The rest of the necessary documents are in the blue folder. Your new names are Martha Walters for Clara, and Martin Green for Ben. Otherwise, I can contact your families if they are in Westvale. You have 50,000 American dollars, along with bank accounts for each with more money inside. I can transfer your money from your previous accounts, we'll communicate via the phones for that. Try your best to keep out of the United States for a while, the forces know who we all are, another one of my mistakes, sorry, they listened through my computer that I thought wasn't hacked, but you know, they're always one step ahead. More awaits you at the cabin. Remember, the U.S. government will try its best to make sure that we don't say a thing about their little secret, meaning they'll still try and kill us. You should be more than safe in Canada though. They'll be looking elsewhere. Remember to attract as little attention as possible.

We'll see each other soon enough.

Denny

Clara, a little surprised and trying to wrap her head around the situation handed the note to Ben, who was getting the car started. She shut the trunk and got in the front passenger seat as Ben read the note.

"I never thought the situation would escalate to such a point" said Ben after reading the note.

"Well, Martin, it's too late to go back now. The sooner we cross the border and get to the cabin, the better."

"Denny said to take I don't know what road when crossing the border, so we go in incognito."

"I never wanted to be put in such a situation" said Clara, with growing frustration.

"He said it would be a while before he tweaks the system and erases our identities from the American servers and introduces us into the Canadian ones."

"Turn the headlights off until Canada, cause you know I have to think like some undercover cop now or something" said Clara sarcastically.

"Did he say 'should' be safer in Canada?"

"You bet ya."

They took off and struggled with narrow dirt roads and rough terrain for half an hour, got lost twice and drove the car into a stream once before they found a one lane, asphalted, yet unlit road. Ben sped in the direction that the map Denny had left them indicated, a road that turned in every possible direction and danced around the mountains, until it came to an abrupt stop, in front of a pine tree. The plan told them to go left 10 meters, and continue in front along the corridor in between trees, something Ben took ten minutes going through as he was not going at more than 8 kilometers an hour, afraid of hitting a tree or ramming some unknown object or living thing in the middle of the night. The corridor was something from a horror movie. Dense forests on each side, with trees arching over them, in the most solid darkness Clara had seen. Good thing they couldn't use headlights! The bumpy ride finally ended, with the map telling them to turn right past the pond and continue in front until they were on road 93, or Kootenay Highway, just north of Roosville. The last step said, "Welcome to Canada".

They both laughed, mostly out of despair but also out of relief as they finally reached the second asphalted road and didn't have to track through forests anymore. After all the off-road driving through the dark forests of the U.S. and Canada, they were finally on a straightforward path to the cabin. Around 4 hours later, the road trip had ended, with Clara sleeping as Ben pulled in the driveway of their new home. The cabin was of a fair size, had somewhat of a winter cabin charm from the outside, and was definitely cozy inside. They unloaded all their things and left them in the living room that was almost half of Clara's entire previous home. In the left hallway were two bedrooms with double beds each, and a full bathroom. In the right stretch was the kitchen and the garage. The house was very well furnished with the classic couch, a chimney in the middle of the living room, a flat screen TV above that, many rugs of many different types on the floor and hung up on the walls, with the couch in front of the chimney. There were large windows on either side of the chimney as well, yet there wasn't much to see as the darkness of the night engulfed everything outside. They went to bed, each in their separate bedrooms and fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

The next morning, Ben went outside for a walk, as to get used to the surroundings, and see where he had arrived; that was hard to do in the night. The air was much warmer than the night before and had a pleasant breeze to it. Their cabin was the only structure he could see, as it was placed on a curve on the road, with tall pine trees lining the sides of the road. There wasn't much else to see apart for the main road they had used to get there the night before, only a few kilometers away, separated by a green plain, just like the ones in Westvale. As he held his coffee mug containing green tea he had made as soon as he had woken up, he sipped on it as he observed a helicopter in the distance, headed his way, by the main road. He followed the helicopter as it got closer, and soon watched as several black SUV's came out of the blue, speeding down the road, in a perfect line, headed for their house. Clara had woken up too, following Ben outside.

"Good morning. This ain't too bad. What do you think? There are plenty of supplies already in the cupboard, I started boiling some eggs. I'm really worried about Denny though. I wish he'd call, I don't know how to use those weird phones he gave us".

She stared at him, expecting an answer, but instead, Ben just watched as the vehicles approached them, paralyzed, the same ones from the barricades, the same ones the forces in Westvale had. He was simply gazing in the distance, unbeknownst to Clara's presence. She looked up at his face as he glared in front of him at which point she did the same, her eyes not believing the sight. Their journey would end sooner than anticipated.

Fin