Chapter 36: Things Are Seldom What They Seem
She couldn’t ignore the noises any more. Why couldn’t the birds just
shut up, for pity’s sake? Didn’t they realize how
rude it was?
Lois groaned and opened her eyes. She did not enjoy camping; unfortunately, she was the only one in the family who didn’t. Clark had never wanted to force her to do it, but the kids had looked up at her with those big eyes, and well, what could she do? So she’d learned enough to get by.
When it had become obvious that Clark wouldn’t wake up but otherwise seemed OK, she’d had to make camp by herself. She hadn’t known what the local time was but it had seemed late.
She hadn’t wanted to set off by herself looking for medical aid, because first, who knew if they had doctors in this world, and second, if they did, she was pretty sure Clark wouldn’t want them poking at him. She’d hoped he’d sleep off whatever it was and be all right in the morning. If not, she’d reconsider her options then.
Lois had been able to pitch the tent, though by her reckoning it had taken her about ten thousand times as long as it took Clark. She’d been able to roll out the sleeping bags. She hadn’t been confident enough to try building a fire, but she’d been more than warm enough after wrestling her unconscious husband out of the time machine and into the tent.
She’d been tempted to just leave him, but she’d noticed he had a small cut on his hand where it had fallen against the controls. He’d lost his powers, at least temporarily. If she left him in the time machine he’d die of exposure.
After an immense struggle that had taken forty-five minutes, Lois had gotten him inside. Getting him into his sleeping bag had been beyond her by that point, so she’d unzipped it and wrapped it around him, tucking him in as best she could. She’d finished very late and sat outside in the freezing cold for five minutes, cooling down and feeling thankful she hadn’t wrenched her back. She’d crawled in with him, adding her own bag around them. Despite her internal clock thinking it was mid-afternoon and the complaints from every muscle in her body, she’d quickly fallen into a deep sleep.
Lois peered at her husband; he was still breathing peacefully. She put her hand on his forehead. Now, as last night, his temperature seemed normal. For him, anyway.
The contact caused Clark to stir, and Lois was gratified to see his eyes flutter open. “Clark?”
Clark was groggy. “Huh? Honey?” He blinked. “What?…”
“Something happened when we got here last night. You blacked out and your skin was… glowing green like Kryptonite for a minute or so. I couldn’t wake you up, so I pitched the tent and got you inside.”
Clark groaned and sat up. He spotted his glasses, reached over, and put them on. He winced slightly and looked at the small cut on his hand. It wasn’t infected but it wasn’t healed either. He frowned. “My powers are gone.”
“I know. I had to drag you out of the time machine and in here. It was too cold to leave you outside.”
Clark looked apologetic. “Oh honey… I’m sorry. That can’t have been easy.”
Lois smiled. “I did wonder at one point if you should lose some weight, but then, I like your body just fine the way it is.” Her smile widened into a saucy grin.
Clark gazed at her for a long moment, then leaned down and kissed her. He sighed. “Sadly, this isn’t really the time…”
“…or the place, yeah.” She sighed too. “Do you think your powers will come back?”
“I don’t know. It could be something about coming here, or it could be that there’s something about this reality that makes it so they can’t work.” He shrugged. “Maybe that’s why Tempus brought Kara here. I imagine we’ll find out.” He furrowed his brow. “Did anything happen to you?”
“I was dizzy for a few seconds, but nothing else.”
“Did you notice anything about where we are?”
Lois sat up as well. “Not really. All I saw was some trees.”
He nodded. “I guess our first job today is exploration, then.”
• • •
They’d eaten a light breakfast then broken camp. They’d covered the time machine with a tarp to protect it from the elements. Clark, used to clearing brush on the family farm, had used some from nearby to further hide it from casual observation.
Their camping gear was the latest, very lightweight, and everything fit into two medium backpacks. Clark looked around to make sure he’d recognize the copse where they’d arrived; then they set off.
“Clark? Do you think this world could be primitive, or even uninhabited? Could there be… dinosaurs or something?”
Clark shrugged. “I don’t know. If there are dinosaurs, I sure hope we don’t meet them while I’m not one hundred percent. And Kara… I hope she’s not on her own.”
They walked along in silence for a while.
They both stopped when there was the distant sound of an engine starting up. “Well,” said Clark, “by the sound of it, either the dinosaurs have tractors or… we’re near a farm.”
“Clark, look!” cried Lois, pointing skyward. High above them, the contrail of a jet was visible. The sound followed shortly thereafter. They looked at each other and smiled.
“At least we know there’s a civilization like ours here,” said Clark. “Let’s hope this is still the United States.”
They soon came to a cleared area, at the end of which was a dirt road. There were marks from car tires. “Better and better,” said Lois.
Clark looked back the way they’d come, as he had every few minutes. Confident he knew how to get back to the time machine from here, he turned and looked up and down the road. Judging by the sun, which they could now place, it ran north-south. “Huh,” he said. “I guess we were heading east.”
Lois looked up and down as well. “That way,” she said confidently, pointing left — to the north.
Clark raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a hunch. Have my hunches ever led us wrong?” At Clark’s look, she said, “Don’t answer that. Do you have a better idea?”
“Not really. North it is.”
They started walking, but Clark stopped abruptly. “Huh.”
“What is it?”
“The sun. Usually I feel a little tingle from it, but… nothing.”
“Maybe that’s why you lost your powers?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.” They resumed walking.
Lois’s hunch turned out to be correct; after about a quarter mile they came to a gated fence across the road. “I hope we haven’t been trespassing,” said Clark. He climbed over, then helped his wife to do the same.
They read the sign on the outside: “Wildlife Area — Official Vehicles Only.” The sign was also marked with the seal of the state of Delaware. “English,
and we’re still in Delaware,” observed Lois, relieved. “I guess this world isn’t as different as Mr. Wells feared.”
The road on the other side of the gate was paved. After another few hundred feet they came to an intersection with what was obviously a public road. The road they’d come from was not marked with any kind of sign, so Clark again looked around the intersection, memorizing the landmarks. If they couldn’t find the time machine, they’d be stuck here. He knew how to build a time machine from scratch, assuming he got his powers back, but he had no idea how to build the three-axis device that allowed travel between realities. He’d tried looking inside it but it was opaque to his vision.
“That way?” wondered Lois, pointing right. “We were heading east to start with.”
Clark shook his head. “Since we’re in Delaware, east leads to the bay, and judging by the land we might be close already. West would be a better bet.”
Lois nodded, and they headed off. As they walked, their hands found each other. It was cold, colder than it should be in mid October, but it was a nice day and they were warm enough. It would have been a pleasant hike if they weren’t unimaginably far from home, looking for their lost daughter.
• • •
After about twenty minutes, they heard the engine noise of a truck coming from behind them. They moved to the side of the road, still holding hands, as a pickup came around the bend. It had Delaware plates and was driven by a man in his sixties; he slowed down to a stop beside them.
“Mornin’,” he called. “What’re you folks doin’ out here? There’s no campgrounds nearby.”
Clark shrugged. “I guess we’re a little lost. We were trying to head to, uh, town?”
The man nodded. “Milford? I can give you a lift, if you don’t mind ridin’ in back. I don’t think I can fit you and your packs in the cab.”
“We’d be mighty grateful if you could,” said Clark, slipping back a little into his Kansas speech patterns.
“Just open the gate yourself and climb in,” called the man.
“Thank you, sir,” called Clark, as they went around the back and climbed in. “Can you tell us what road this is?”
“You’re on Cains Landing Road. You really
did get lost, huh?”
“We sure did.”
The truck started up again, and the combination of engine and road noise made conversation with the driver difficult. Lois and Clark watched in silence as they navigated a series of country roads, finally emerging onto a divided highway marked State Route 1.
“Delaware Route 1? We must be south of Metropolis,” observed Lois. Clark nodded; north of Metropolis, Route 1 had become Interstate 395 in the 1950s.
They were even more surprised when they passed a sign saying, “Welcome to Milford, Home of Supergirl.” The familiar shield of the House of El adorned the sign.
“‘Supergirl’?” echoed Lois. “Clark, do you think that… there’s a
female version of Superman in this world?” She wrinkled her nose unconsciously.
“Well, if she’s his age I’d hope she wouldn’t still be calling herself Supergirl,” said Clark. “Though the shield implies she’s related to him somehow. But Milford… there’s no town in Delaware named Milford.”
Lois frowned. “Clark… what if there’s no Metropolis here? Are we where Metropolis would be?”
“It’s hard to tell, honey, until we can look at a map. At least we’re in Delaware.”
Lois’s eyes widened. “Clark… Super
girl… you don’t think…?”
Clark frowned, then glanced quickly at their driver; his attention was on the road, and Clark was sure he couldn’t hear them. Still, he leaned in closer to Lois. “She can’t have developed her powers all at once — look at Jordy, and it was the same for me. Besides, it looks like this Supergirl has been here for a while.”
“Still…” She pondered that. “Hey! Whoever Supergirl is, if she really is ‘super,’ maybe that’s good news for you getting your powers back.”
“Assuming they work the same way, yes.”
They turned off Route 1 and headed into the business district of Milford. Their driver pulled over to the side of the street when he spotted a parking space, then called out the rear window, “This a good place for you folks?”
“Yes, sir,” said Clark. “We’re much obliged. Just a moment while we get out.” He and Lois climbed out, closed the gate, and went around to the passenger window, which the driver had opened. “Thank you again, Mr. … ?”
“Reynolds, Carl Reynolds. My pleasure.” He reached out a hand at the same time as Clark, and they shook.
“Thank you, Mr. Reynolds. I’m Clark Kent and this is my wife, Lois Lane. We really appreciate your kindness.”
Reynolds’s smile vanished in an instant, and Clark withdrew his hand uncertainly. “Sir?”
Reynolds regarded him evenly for a moment, then sighed. “Son, you look like good folks, so take some advice from an old man. Just give this fool scheme up and find an honest way to make a living. I know times are tough, but this ain’t the answer.”
Without further ceremony, he drove off. They both stared after the truck as it turned a corner.
They looked at each other. Lois opened her mouth, then closed it again. They both looked back to the corner the truck had turned.
“Clark, what just happened?”
“Beats me.”
• • •
