10 - See You on the Other Side

Several cars rolled down the gravel drive leading down from the road. Mara had us directing cars to park in the fields on the near side of the house. It’s not like destroyed crops were going to mean anything when all this disappeared or reconstituted or whatever was going to happen in the next…ten hours. Geez we were cutting it close with this portal.

Families came spilling out of the cars and rushing over to the portal. It began to glow brighter and brighter after the first person stepped onto it. It took nearly a full minute to power up from when the first person stepped onto it. Only one family made it there before the light was overwhelming and the rest of the people stopped at the edge.

There was a blinding flash, and then everyone on the portal was gone. The rest of the people from the cars had caught up to the portal by now and they all jumped on. They stood around staring out with blank stares, anxious stares, scared stares, and in the case of one little boy an excited stare. A minute later they were all gone too.

“Someone is going to need to regulate that better. If we want to get everyone out as quickly as possible each trip needs to be full. All of them could have fit and gone in one trip, but it took twice as long because people didn’t want to wait,” I complained.

“Yeah. Something to let the National Guard guys know when they get here,” Mara tried to soothe.

“Speaking of portals and getting out of here, are we going to use it or are we hunting for another one?” Ashley asked us.

“We only have a little over ten hours left on the count down,” I said.

“We were able to find this one so fast though,” Mara argued.

“That was mostly luck. We have no idea what rules actually apply for these things. Maybe there are only three at all,” I argued back.

“Let’s put it to a vote,” Ashley suggested.

Mara and I nodded our agreement, though Mara’s was begrudgingly. John was coming back from dragging the final wolf behind the house. Oliver was right behind him. Mara waved them to hurry over. “Ok, so we apparently need to vote on whether to keep looking for more portals or to use this one ourselves,” Mara groused. “Obviously I vote we look a little longer.”

“Find portals. Kill monsters,” John immediately answered. Mara pointed finger guns at him.

“There may not even be any more. I vote we go,” Oliver said.

“Same,” I voted. “We more than did our job by finding this portal and reporting it.”

Ashley let out a sigh, “I hate being a tiebreaker – guys…” She whined a little and her shoulders drooped and she seemed to deflate in front of our eyes. A few seconds later she pulled herself back up to her full height and squared her shoulders, “I think we should leave. I don’t want to risk staying here any longer than we need to.”

“Fine!” Mara looked anything but fine. “Once the National Guard gets here we’ll hand it over to them and them portal out.”

I put my arm on her shoulder and squeezed, “Thank you.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she muttered.

Just then a large sounding engine came rumbling down the drive. We all turned toward the sound and watched as a military truck of some sort turned into the front yard. It stopped off on the side of the house away from the portal.

A few seconds later a trio of people piled out of the vehicle. One tall, gangly dude with a little blonde mustache and no hair on his head. A short man with a gun that almost looked bigger than he was, hair that looked too long for regulation, and a baby face. The third person stood somewhere in between the men height wise, but she was built like a tank. Her arms were probably as big around as either of their skinny thighs. Her thighs strained the pants of her uniform.

Mara nudged me to stop staring at the muscly goddess walking toward us. There was a loud huff from Ashley on my other side. I looked over and she was glaring daggers at the National Guard group. Maybe she knew one of them. I shrugged.

“Mara_Skywalker6969?” Tall and gangly asked us. He seemed to have the most stripes on his uniform.

“Oh, that’s me,” Mara answered. Obviously. “Glad you guys made it out so quickly.”

“Yes, ma’am. My name is Sergeant Owens. Has anyone used this that you’re aware of?”

“Yeah, a couple families went over a few minutes ago,” Oliver answered concernedly. “Is there a reason they shouldn’t have?”

“No, sir. Not that we’re aware of. We’d just prefer to send someone on the other side to secure the site for us and anyone crossing over,” he answered. The other two were silent and stood behind him.

“Cool. Cool. So, there was a pack of dire wolves here before we got here. Not sure what else is in the area. Are you sure you three can handle it?” Ashley asked pointedly.

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“We haven’t seen any monster incursions at any of the other sites, I’m sure the wolves were an anomaly. We’ll be fine. Are you and your group planning on crossing over?”

“Yeah. We were just waiting for you guys to be honest,” I answered. Mara sulked.

“Excellent. Please assemble your group together and we’ll send Private Rawlins with you to secure the other side,” tall and gangly said.

Muscle mommy nodded her head at us, and I could practically hear Ashley growl at her. I didn’t know what her issue was, or why she seemed to instinctively hate this girl. Maybe it was a women’s fitness thing? Maybe she knew her from the gym? I made a note to ask her about it when we got a minute. The Army lady raised a single brow at Ashley…which I have always found immensely alluring, probably because I can’t do it. I promptly lost all mental notes.

“Sure. We’ll be ready to go in a few minutes,” Mara answered after glaring warningly at Ashley.

The two Army guys nodded at us and walked away discussing how to establish lines and parking for the portal. The woman they were apparently sending over with us smiled. I think she winked at me, but Ashley grabbed my arm and marched us back to our bags before I could figure it out. The boys and Mara headed to Oliver’s car to get their stuff.

We packed up the few things we’d taken out. I may have snuck another snack cake…who could say? I waited for Ashley while she put all her guns in big canvas bags except for her pistol she left on her shoulder, then we walked over to the portal together. The National Guard woman was already standing around waiting for us. Her face lit up when she saw us coming. Ashley growled and I remembered my mental note.

“Hey, I’m Jessica,” Army girl introduced herself. She smiled at me, ignoring Ashley glowering at her beside me.

“Oh, I’m Grace. This is Ashley,” I introduced us.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she purred.

“Y-yeah. You too,” I stuttered. Before things could get any tenser around me, Mara and the boys arrived. “And this is Mara, John, and Oliver,” I pointed to everyone as I introduced them. “Guys, this is Jessica.”

The boys nodded at her. Mara turned toward me and rolled her eyes. Ashley glared.

The other National Guard guys came over. “Oh, hey guys. Just so you know, it seems to take about a minute for the portal to activate after the first person steps onto it,” Mara turned and told them.

“Thanks, that sounds like it’s in line with what the other sites have said as well,” tall and gangly told us.

With nothing left for us to do, we all stepped onto the portal. It instantly began to brighten up. I closed my eyes to the brightness as it became unbearable. The next instant there was a sharp nauseous feeling and the feeling of being turned inside out. I opened my eyes in a panic only to realize it had worked.

We now stood in a completely different place. There were mountains all around us on the horizon. The air was slightly cooler, but more humid. We were standing in a small park. I could see houses and buildings around the edges. Most noticeably though, there were a dozen men surrounding us with the same kind of army gun that Ashley carried, though just the boring black kind.

No one was pointing their guns at us, but there was definitely a hint of hostility in the air. Out of the group of men stepped a short man with a big cowboy hat. He alone didn’t have a gin. “Welcome to Whitcomb. I’m Lieutenant Montgomery, and all of you are being detained until we can figure out what the hell is going on around here.”

“Excuse me, I’m Private Rawlins with the National Guard–”

“Let me stop you right there, young lady. Based on your uniform you’re from the US. But, if there even still is a US, you’re not in it anymore. Whatever authority you thought you’d have is null around here.” He smiled condescendingly at us all.

“Now, if you could place all your weapons on the ground,” Montgomery instructed.

The air around us felt tense as both Ashley and Jessica growled at the lieutenant. The guys with guns around us tightened their grips on their guns and a few raised them hesitantly in our direction.

I inched my way away from the guns around us, hands up nonthreateningly. Ashley and Jessica both subtly stepped between me and the men pointing guns at us. They looked at each other with a glare, then went back to daring the lieutenant to come take their guns himself with their eyes.

“We haven’t committed any crimes. So why are we being detained and stripped of our weapons?” Ashley demanded.

“”Well, technically you crossed illegally into Canada. Second, you didn’t declare your firearms at the border. And C, this is my town and I aim to keep it safe.

“If everything checks out and you’re on the up and up with me you’ll get them back. It’s a precaution to keep all of us safe, ma’am,” the lieutenant answered. He seemed oddly nonplussed. I was worried.

I stepped up behind Ashley and whispered in her ear, “Remember, even without guns we’re not without weapons anymore. It’ll be ok,” I promised her.

“Yeah, well I don’t exactly trust any government, let alone the police, to be honest and fair,” she retorted in a much louder voice. She did not care what the police thought about her, which I hoped wasn’t going to bite us in the ass in the near or distant future.

“Look, you all need to make a decision soon. No telling what is going to happen if another group tries to come through and you’re still standing there,” Montgomery offered.

Jessica laid her gun on the ground and stepped back from it with her hands raised. I eyed Ashley warily. After a few tense moments where she and the lieutenant seemed to be in a staring contest, Ashley set down her gun bags and pulled her pistol from its holster. She placed it all on the ground carefully and stepped back from it, anger radiating out of every pore.

Montgomery waved his hand toward us and the men around him leapt into action. Several of them snapped guns up to their shoulders, aiming them at us. The others rushed forward and began shoving us down on our knees roughly.

A pain shot up my arm as some asshole grabbed my wrist and wrenched it behind my back. I heard John roar behind me and panicked shouts. I turned my head and caught sight of him transformed into his metal skin, hands molded into sharpened daggers, waving them around.

People were shouting loudly all around us, and I couldn’t make out anything over their overlapping voices. Out of the corner of my eye though I noticed Montgomery make another gesture and suddenly John was crumpled on his knees on the ground, struggling against some unseen force. The lieutenant’s face seemed strained as he tried to mentally restrain John’s strength.

Someone slammed the butt of their gun against John’s head. The gun broke and John just roared louder. I looked over at Ashley struggling in her own pile of bodies. Mara looked dead behind her eyes as she was manhandled onto her stomach. Jessica was on the other side of my head as my face was pressed into the floor so I couldn’t do more than hear her struggle.

Someone finally pulled out a taser and shot it into John’s side. He stiffened and tremors ran up and down his body with the current. Then he collapsed onto his side. Several people jumped on top of him and began pulling his arms, which had reverted to normal, behind his back to shackle together.

Only one question kept ringing around inside my head. What had we just gotten ourselves into?