Noah trusted the trucker more with every moment they spent with him. He got no ill feelings, which may have only been a sign he wasn’t a monster, but it was reassuring. The general vibe he got was a good one, and he liked the thought that it might have been his dad telling him the man was genuine.

There was also the fact that they had been driving all day and nothing had happened. The closest they had come to an altercation was Avery complaining that the audiobook they were listening to was too descriptive and didn’t move fast enough to be interesting. The problem was solved by the trucker instead telling them about his fiancé, and the life he dreamed of with her.

They went all the way to Ottawa, where the trucker dropped them off in front of a motel before going to deliver his shipment.

It was late, and Noah felt sleep tugging at him while Shane booked a room. When they got to the room, he collapsed on a bed and immediately fell asleep.

He was excited when he opened his eyes and looked up at a building. He was getting used to the idea that these dreams were his dad telling him things, and that was a better connection than the idea that his dad had just left. Considering his dad was a god, the dreams were kind of like getting letters in the mail.

Noah looked around. He was on the sidewalk in front of a building. His gut told him the building was the motel they were currently sleeping in.

That made him nervous. The last time he had dreamed about the place his body was actually in, it had been a warning. He studied every detail of the motel in front of him, looking for the threat.

But instead of finding danger, he started to turn away. He fought it, but he wasn’t in control. He could only watch as he started walking along the sidewalk.

The sun arched over his head. It moved from his left to his right. Noah took a moment to recognize what that meant. He was going south, not east.

The sidewalk under his feet turned into a gravel road with corn fields on either side. Then that was replaced by a dirt road and trees.

Noah’s heart started to pound with excitement again. He had seen this road before, back when dreams had just been dreams. Before he had known how important the road was, or where it led.

He started to run, searching the horizon in front of him for the five-storied brick building.

Noah sat up in bed, the world dark and his heart racing. He hadn’t reached the building, but that didn’t matter. He was sure it would be there.

Avery stirred beside him. “Noah?” She was alert in moments. “What’s wrong?”

“We’re almost there.”

His heart rate wasn’t slowing, and a sense of urgency gripped him. There was a reason he hadn’t made it to the building in the dream. It still wasn’t a sure thing.

They were close, but there was still something in their way. Noah got an uneasy feeling that it was something big.