Chapter Four - Anomaly

It was almost an hour later that Alice and Crystal discovered a fresh anomaly. They heard it long before they saw it.

The anomaly came as a deep, bass-like thrum. A boom that echoed out across the lifeless highway and across the open fields around it. It was rhythmic and constant. A thump, a few moments, then another.

"I can't get any signals," Crystal complained as she waved her antenna around. She'd made another stick, this one some three metres long, and had wrapped her antenna wire around it. At first it created a much better signal, but now it wasn't catching anything.

"Do you think there's interference?" Alice asked. The distant thump was growing closer as they walked at a steady pace in the middle of the road.

"Yeah, I think so," Crystal said. Her radio hissed, then made a deep hiccuping noise at almost exactly the same time as the thump.

Whatever was causing that distant noise wasn't just making a noise that was audible, it was interfering with more. Alice could sense something in the air as well. Magic contracting, then letting loose all at once. It was almost like a heartbeat, though faint. If it wasn't for the thumping noise alerting her to something being strange, she might not have noticed the effect in the magic around her.

They continued, with Crystal soon abandoning her attempts to get a signal. The best she could do was catch a few words before another hiccup delayed them, and there was no point in listening to half a second of music then a bassy thunk from her tiny speaker.

It was another kilometre before they finally discovered the source of the thump.

Fields were sown alongside the highway. They'd turned into fields of low-lying weeds, the ground unfarmed and abandoned. It was startlingly green, and actually kind of nice. Nature reclaiming this spot. All except for one area.

Along the side of the road, off of a small bridge leading into the field, was a space some twenty metres across where nothing grew. In the middle of it was a bright red tractor, or at least the back half of it.

The front of the tractor was crushed.

Another thump sounded, and a tiny puff of dust rose from the space at the front of the machine. A perfect circle was drawn in the ground, dirt pressed in, the metal of the tractor's engine and front wheels crushed into a thin, flat plate.

Another thump, and more dust spread out from the circle. Alice imagined that the circle burrowed just a tiny bit deeper into the earth.

The empty space around it was devoid of plantlife, covered in dust. With every thump, the nearest weeds shook a little, a wave of trembling plantlife moving along as the ground shook like a drop hitting a still pond.

"Do you think that's something Meagan could do?" Crystal asked.

"Maybe," Alice said. Meagan was, arguably, the oldest magical girl. She'd gained her powers not long after Alice had gained her own, but Meagan 's powers allowed her to make time her plaything. How many cumulative years had she spent in time loops, or redoing an entire day or conversation?

Alice knew that Meagan tended to take things rather... casually. She had read every book she wanted to read, and watched every show or movie. All the things that others put off because time wouldn't allow them to learn or practice or enjoy, Meagan had done.

This thumping thing wasn't something Alice had seen Meagan do, unless... "If it's just kinetic energy striking downwards on a loop, then it's possible."

"I think she could do that, yeah," Crystal said. "Should we... do something about it?"

"I don't think so. No one intelligent is going to stick their hand in it," Alice said. "We're almost at the city, too."

There was a road sign not too far away. It read Pripyat, 10 kilometres.

They continued, and the constant thump slowly faded to obscurity behind them. Not that it was the last anomaly they found. There was a car that was driving forwards, then disappearing. It would reappear again, still driving forwards back where it started.

The area around that car was marked with road cones, some of which flickered away. It seemed like the people who had marked out this anomaly's range had done so by placing cones around it, tossing them closer and closer until they disappeared and reappeared mid-toss.

The edges of the field were filled with blowing leaves and a few lost birds caught in the effect.

Perhaps the most distressing thing was the driver. A middle-aged man, cigarette in mouth, brows set in a frown that grew as he drove along.

"Wow," Crystal said. "I've seen Meagan do loops, but never... just leave them."

"Because just leaving them might be a fate worse than death," Alice said. She could feel the man's fear, the same way she could feel anyone's. He wasn't afraid, really. More... frustrated and irate. Worried about bills, about being late. Simple fears that were easy to overlook.

At the very end of the loop, there was a sudden spark of fear. Where were all the other cars, the traffic? But that fear blinked away along with the man and his car.

At least he wasn't conscious of being in a loop.

"Should we, uh... put him out of his misery?" Crystal asked.

Alice considered it. He wasn't suffering, technically. In a way, that strange man would outlive just about everyone else on the planet. But she wasn't sure if she could consider his life actual living.

"Do you think you can?" Alice asked.

"I'm pretty decent at killing things," Crystal said.

"You'd need to do it in the fraction of a second when the loop starts. Otherwise you'll just be killing him over and over again," Alice said. "That, or you interfere with the loop enough to break it."

"That wouldn't be so bad," Crystal said.

"We'd have a man out of time and out of place," Alice said. "Someone as unaware of what's happening as we are."

"Yeah, but he'd know about the wider world, right? I mean, before the, uh, apocalypse."

Alice considered it, then nodded. "Okay. I wouldn't mind driving the rest of the way. Can you break the loop cleanly?"

"I can try," Crystal said. She nodded, more to herself than to Alice. "Yeah, I can do it. Trust me!"

Alice did. Crystal had always felt like a little sister to Alice, but she was a dependable little sister, one with her heart in the right place who dearly wanted to impress. She was behind all of the others a little, in strength and experience, but her attitude helped a lot. Crystal was always trying to improve and become a better magical girl.

Alice could remember meeting her, praising her just a little for her efforts and seeing Crystal almost explode with poorly contained embarrassment before she redoubled her efforts. It was endearing.

"Alright. Let's see..."

Crystal closed her eyes and stretched her hands out towards the anomaly. Crystalline pillars broke out from the road and rose up until they bent inwards and met over the top of the anomaly.

Crystal frowned, then the pillars started to glow. Each loop made them brighten before the light would recede, but never faster than the next glow would come. Soon, after a dozen loops, the pillars were becoming bright enough that they were beginning to be hard to look at. The street, even though it was only mid-day, was lit up by ethereal blues and greens and splashes of a deep, dark blue whose hue Alice wasn't sure mortal eyes could see, but which reminded her keenly of Meagan .

Then, with a sucking feeling as if all the magic in the vicinity was pulling inwards, the loop broke.

Birds caught in it took flight, some of them bumping into the pillars and careening off with angry flaps. Leaves caught in ancient winds fluttered away, and a small rain of water and snow poured down from the top of the anomaly.

The car shot forwards and rammed into a pair of the pillars, snapping them apart before the driver slammed on the brakes and came to a stop some dozen metres past the edge of the anomaly.

"Phew!" Crystal said as she wiped her brow. "That was a tough one!"

"Well done," Alice congratulated, simply and honestly. It still set Crystal's cheeks aflame.

Then the driver stepped out of the car, swearing up a storm. He gestured to the hood of his car, dented by the pillars he'd rammed through, then turned towards the two of them. "What did you bitches do? What is going on? Blyad, where is everyone?"

Alice glanced at Crystal, who shied away and made a little 'you handle this' gesture to Alice.

She sighed, but Crystal had done some good work, and it was often Alice's job to take care of public relations. "Hello, sir. Would you mind giving us a ride to Pripyat? We can explain what we know along the way."

***