Portal

by Fred Alvrez

  Nathan sat some more, trying to figure out how he was going to steal another car.

  “Car dealers! They have lot of cars. We break in, grab keys, and we are out of here.”

  Standing, he waited to let his aches and pains subside before walking down the steps. “Back to the taxi, Kev. I know exactly where we are going to get a car. And it’s going to be good.”

  They drove off through the city and back toward Taranaki Street where car dealers had their yards.

  “Not just any car, boy. We’re gonna get us a Tesla.”

  Nathan had always dreamed of driving a Tesla, but at over $100,000 for the cheapest model, it was unlikely—until today.

  They pulled up outside the Tesla dealer’s yard, and Nathan killed the taxi’s engine. He climbed out, with Kevin jumping after him. He nearly reached back through the open window for the keys, but then thought how pointless that was.

  “Come on, Kev. Let’s do some breaking and entering.”

  Circling around the yard, Nathan found some large lumps of wood around the back. He grabbed one of the larger pieces, came back around to the front, and found a smaller door that looked ripe for smashing.

  “I’ve never done this before. Better move back.”

  Kevin, obviously feeling the gravity of the situation, moved well back and sat down.

  Nathan heaved with as much strength as his poor sleeveless and grazed arms could muster, and put everything he had into the wood, aiming for the glass.

  Nothing broke. Not even a splinter.

  Vibrations from the wood reverberated back through his arms, sending him yet again almost into passing-out mode.

  Leaning against the door, he waited for the pain to pass. Kevin came alongside him and leaned his body into Nathan’s legs, offering moral support.

  “Okay, boy, that hurt like hell, but we’ve got to try again.”

  Kevin moved back on cue, and Nathan trying once again

  Same result. Not even a scratch.

  Again, Nathan waited for the pain to pass. He looked closer at the glass to see wire mesh embedded into it. He was never going to break that glass.

  Dropping the wood, he took stock of the situation. There in the showroom were three brand-new Teslas, and he felt they were all laughing at him.

  He looked down at the dog.

  “Come on, Kev. Time for Plan B.”

  Kevin moved with Nathan, back twenty feet and behind a small shed next to some used cars for sale.

  “Stay here, Kev. Shit’s gonna get serious now.”

  Kevin sat obediently and watched as Nathan walked back to the taxi.

  He climbed in, and started the motor.

  “Laughing at me, door? Not for long. It’s time to adult.”

  He put his seat belt on this time. Selecting Drive, he moved the taxi to be in line with the main showroom door.

  He gunned the gas as hard as he could, and the car shot forward toward its target.

  There was an almighty crashing sound as the car hit the door, Nathan instantly regretting not putting his window up, as thousands of small pieces of glass came into the car.

  Airbags popped out, and then Nathan came to a sudden stop as his taxi went headfirst into a red Tesla. Part of his plan hadn’t included actually putting the brakes on after he hit the doors.

  “Idiot. That wasn’t how Han would have done it.”

  Looking up, he saw he was in the showroom and still alive.

  Steam poured out of the front of the taxi, and he could see over the top of the airbag that the Tesla he hit wasn’t going anywhere. The front of it was caved in and now married to the taxi.

  “That’s not going to pass a safety check now.”

  Nathan laughed out loud. At least he had made progress. He just needed to get his taxi and the damaged Tesla out of the way so he could get one of the other two out the door. Assuming he could find the keys, of course.

  Releasing his seat belt, he opened his door and climbed out, glass falling off him. Kevin rushed over, barking excitedly all the way.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  Nathan’s heartbeat went straight to 160.

  Someone was calling out to him.

  Chapter Three

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  Nathan almost pissed his pants, his heart threatening to move out.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  An alarm came on, almost piercing his eardrums it was so loud. Kevin yelped at the noise and shot outside at full speed.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  The alarm siren continued on. Nathan stood rock solid.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  Suspicious, Nathan turned to see no one. He looked up at a massive speaker and realized it was all part of the security system.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  “Not today!” Nathan covered his ears with his hands and walked over to the sales office.

  There were more aches and pains from the seat belt compressing his chest in the crash, but adrenaline kept him moving. He hunted for keys. On the wall sat a cabinet with the word KEYS on the front, badly written with a blue marker pen.

  Taking one hand off an ear, he opened the cabinet and pocketed the three sets of keys marked Showroom.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  He walked back, the noise still deafening. After jumping in the taxi, he put the front window up to try and stop at least some of the noise.

  “Here’s hoping,” he said as he turned the ignition key to start it. Nothing. One dead taxi.

  Nathan got out and walked to the crashed Tesla. That car, electric or not, wasn’t going anywhere, let alone being able to push the taxi out with it.

  That left the other two cars. How on earth was he going to get either of them out with the main door blocked?

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  He walked over to the next showroom door and saw a button labeled OPEN. He pushed it and the door opened.

  But decision time had arrived. Should he take the cheaper Tesla with the cool gull-wing doors, or the more expensive one with normal doors and a longer range?

  What would Han Solo do?

  Moving to the metallic blue Tesla Model X, he hit the button to open the gull-wing door. The siren, still blaring, couldn’t stop him from being so elated. He was going to drive a Tesla! It was his!

  Well, sort of.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  Nathan hopped in the driver’s side, the smell of leather hitting his sense of smell. Luckily the key was a proximity type, so there was no need to guess which key was the right one. The dashboard displayed ‘press brake to start.’ He did this but nothing happened. The siren went on, as did the command to stay right where he was.

  “Stay where you are and don’t move!”

  “I’m an IT guy. I should be able to do this!” Nathan called above the siren. He spotted a lever on the side of the steering column that was marked with P-D-R. Pulling it down to D, he let the brake off. The car still didn’t move forward. An idea hit him—he pushed the button on the center console to close the gull-wing door.

  Success! Smiling, he drove out into the lot and opened the passenger’s door, calling Kevin over the sound of the siren.

  Kevin shot straight over him and into the passenger’s side of the car.

  “We are off, boy, in style.” Nathan thumbed the button to bring the door down.

  Time for a road trip.

  Kevin put his front paws up on the dashboard, looking straight ahead.

  Glancing down before driving away, Nathan was reminded his shirt was bloodied and torn to shreds, and his pants were much the same. His bare arms were covered in dried blood. He expected he wasn’t your typical Tesla buyer.

  “First, we need to go back to my place and get some more clothes, and I need a shower. Bad.”

  Kevin turned to look
at Nathan, and gave him a monotone “woof.” Affirmative re the shower.

  He gunned the silent car up Taranaki Street, toward home.

  After a few minutes, they pulled up into his Mum’s driveway. Easing himself out of the car, Nathan’s aches and pains were really starting to hammer home. He was in agony.

  Nathan took stock: it was 11:00 a.m., and he needed to shower and gather some clothes for their trip, and probably pick up some dog food from the supermarket, too.

  “One hundred percent off today,” Nathan chuckled. There were some benefits to being the only one left in the world.

  But he wasn’t in any rush, was he? Maybe it was time to rest his beaten body before driving all the way north to Raglan.

  They went into the house, and Nathan found some lunch meat in the fridge for Kevin, and then showered. The water almost made him pass out again; there was much more almost-raw flesh on his body than he’d thought. His body could only handle a short, tepid shower.

  “I think we need to do some body repairs before going anywhere,” he told Kevin, who’d followed him into the bathroom.

  Nathan got out the first aid kit and went to work taping up his body as best he could.

  He then crawled—literally—into bed. With no more adrenaline to keep him going, his body was shutting down, needing to put any energy into fixing itself.

  He was kissing the new office girl. Her lips—as soft as he expected they would be—tasted amazing,

  Then she licked his ear.

  Huh?

  Nathan opened an eye to see Kevin’s long tongue all over his face. Looking over at his clock, he saw it was almost 6:00 a.m. He brushed off Kev, his personal alarm clock.

  Had he really slept for eighteen hours?

  Sliding his legs out of bed, the familiar pains arrived, although not quite as bad as the day before.

  Kevin was staring straight into his eyes, his tail wagging.

  “Woof.”

  “Yeah, I’m hungry, too.” Nathan’s stomach rumbled in agreement.

  Kevin hopped off Nathan and almost sprinted to the kitchen. Nathan followed at a much slower pace.

  He found some leftover lasagna in the fridge and stuck the whole plate on the floor for Kevin. Famished, Nathan cooked up some bacon and eggs, convincing himself that it was protein and fat his body needed to complete the rebuild process.

  Breakfast over, Nathan grabbed a travel bag and threw in some clothes and other essentials.

  He racked his brain to think what else he might need—he might never set foot in this house again. He went to his room and picked up his Han Solo bobblehead—not essential, but at least familiar.

  “Come on, let’s hit the road.”

  After getting in the driver’s seat and letting Kevin in, Nathan stuck the bobblehead Han on the top of the dash.

  “Han, don’t let me down now.”

  They cruised up the road to the supermarket. Not wanting to wreck his new car, Nathan grabbed a line of shopping trollies and rammed the front one at full speed into the door.

  This door did smash. Alarms rang instantly, and Nathan ran through the supermarket, stopping to grab two bags of dog biscuits.

  He threw the bags in the trunk of the Tesla, and took off toward the motorway.

  The road trip had begun.

  The road to the motorway was a bit more blocked than the city, and the pair took it slow and easy, dodging around cars and trucks that had crashed.

  At last, the Terrace Tunnel came into view and was clear of cars.

  Nathan looked around the Tesla while they were on the motorway.

  “It’s like our own Millennium Falcon, Kev.”

  Kevin turned his body so he could sit and look at Nathan.

  “Woof.”

  “So let’s say I’m Han Solo. I guess that makes you Chewbacca? You can’t be Luke Skywalker, you’re too furry.”

  Kevin tilted his head to one side.

  “Woof.”

  The tunnel opened out onto State Highway 1 and a smattering of smashed vehicles.

  The miles came and went as they drove slowly around crashed cars and trucks, at times crawling over broken glass while Nathan prayed for no flat tires. He didn’t even know if the Tesla carried a spare.

  The motorway ended, and State Highway 1 continued on. Nathan drove cautiously, with Kevin looking out the window.

  “Want to play a game, Chewy?”

  “Grrrrr.”

  “Okay, sorry—not Chewy. Kevin, do you want to play a game?”

  “Woof.”

  “You Wookies, so sensitive. The game’s called ‘what will happen when the world has ended.’ The aim of the game is to woof at the answer you think is right. Got it?”

  Nathan turned to see Kevin, who was looking out the front of the car, turn to look at him.

  “Woof.”

  “Excellent. First up is Answer A—and think carefully about all the answers, don’t just jump at one that sounds good.”

  Nathan looked at Kevin. Kevin was staring intently into his eyes with total focus.

  He looked back to the road. “Okay, uh, yup. Oh yeah, Answer A: We get to my brother’s place, he’s there and alive and knows all the answers.”

  Silence from the doggy decider.

  “All right, Answer B: We keep driving, and at some point the world turns back the way it was and everything is the same. Well, except maybe I get arrested for stealing a Tesla.”

  No woof. Nathan looked over at Kev. The intense staring hadn’t changed.

  “Answer C—and there are only four answers. Keep that in mind.”

  “Woof.”

  “Glad you got that. Answer C: Let’s say we find more people as we head north, and Auckland becomes the new capital city.”

  Silence.

  Nathan thought hard. He had no idea what a fourth option—real or imaginary—might be.

  “I’ve got it! I find a beautiful girl, we settle down, and live happily ever after.”

  “Woof!”

  Nathan stopped the car in the middle of the motorway. He looked into Kevin’s eyes. Kevin allowed him to, not moving in the slightest.

  “I swear, boy, you are freaking me out here. This is crazy—you’re a dog. Do you know the Quiet Game?”

  Kevin dropped his head a little and delivered Nathan sad eyes. “Woof.”

  “Okay, let’s do that one, then.”

  Silence fell over the pair, made even more silent by the silent car, silently gliding along. Bobblehead Han Solo nodded in silent agreement.

  They drove past endless green farmer’s fields, normally packed with sheep or cows, but today, empty.

  “I’m starting to get peckish again. Why don’t we stop at Bulls and get some food?”

  Kevin leaped to his feet, putting his paws on the dashboard and looking ahead. “Woof woof!”

  Kevin was doubly hungry.

  The two-hour drive on State Highway 1 to the small town of Bulls took over three hours. Nathan was exhausted from concentrating on looking ahead for crashed cars.

  He pulled into the JET gas station. It was the first time in his life he’d seen it deserted. Still, it was a twenty-four-hour station so that meant the doors should open for them. He wasn’t keen to keep smashing doors and windows just to get food.

  On cue, the automatic doors opened with a bing for man and dog, and Nathan started surveying the food options. Chips, cookies, and old sandwiches. His stomach rumbled in disapproval. He needed something more than this.

  He spotted some hot dogs on rolling around aimlessly on metal rollers, still warm by the look of it, and got some out for Kevin.

  “Here you go Kev—your favorite.”

  Grabbing a bag of crisps, Nathan opened them up and started to munch on them. He cruised over to the magazines, browsing for any that might have some end-of-the world advice, like those preppers he had seen on TV. Surely they had their own magazine by now.

  But no, only car mags and women’s magazines. Neither would help when yo
u were the only person left in the world.

  “What the…”

  Something caught Nathan’s eye. Not a movement, but a shimmering near the restroom, down low near the floor. Walking there, he kept his eye on the shimmering in case it disappeared.

  But it didn’t.

  In his peripheral vision, he saw Kevin following at his side.

  They approached the shimmering. To Nathan it looked like the heat haze that might come off a road, but this was inside. He couldn’t quite comprehend it. Only a few feet round and upright, it was one of the weirdest things he had seen. Except for everyone disappearing, of course.

  He glanced down at Kevin, who was also staring at the haze. When he looked back at it, he could see it was still there.

  There was no noise or humming, just a shimmer in the middle of the gas station.

  Indecision gripped Nathan. What to do. Ignore it and drive away? Just looking at it wasn’t going to prove anything. And he had a weird desire, a pull, to actually touch it—as much as his brain said that was a bad idea.

  “Kev, do you see it, too?”

  “Woof.”

  “I can’t stop myself. I’m going to put my hand there and touch it, see what happens. It’s what Han would do.”

  No response from Kevin.

  Crouching down to the floor, he lifted his hand slowly and moved it toward the shimmering, like he was moving in slow motion.

  His hand got closer and closer and then was right in front of the haze. He tried to touch it, but even though the haze was away from the wall, it felt almost impossible, with lots of pressure trying to stop him.

  With all the force he could muster, he tried again and managed to push the tips of his fingers through, and then with a big push, his hand. His hand disappeared.

  Freaking out, Nathan whipped his hand back—and there it was, unharmed.

  He forced it in the haze again, this time a bit more quickly. It disappeared once more, and then he pulled it out unharmed.

  Kevin stood there with his mouth open in awe.

  “Woof!”

  “I agree. This is freaking weird!”