Portal

by Fred Alvrez

  One thing was for certain: he couldn’t let these people live. Although it was never expected to happen, Brian had secret orders to kill anyone who turned up like this, as impossible as it always seemed. Too much of a risk to the project.

  The other door to the SUV opened and a female passenger exited. Brian could see her opening the rear door, and a dog got out.

  A fucking dog?

  How the hell could a dog get through to this world as well as two humans? This was going from really bad to a shit storm.

  The three walked toward Brian, stopping five feet short of him.

  “Sergeant Kahi, check these two for weapons.”

  The male looked over to him. “Your soldier just checked me and took my pistol.”

  “He did, but who’s to say you didn’t grab another one?”

  Kahi walked cautiously toward them, then patted down the male and female. As he patted the woman down for weapons, she flinched badly. Kahi lifted her shirt to reveal her bandages.

  “Miss,” Brian said, “what happened to you?”

  The soldiers kept their guns trained on the pair.

  “Uh, nothing really. Just a bit of a gunshot wound.”

  Butterflies rose in Brian’s stomach. He didn’t like this at all. He turned to face her. “A bit of a gunshot wound? Who shot you?”

  “Actually, it was Nate here,” she said, pointing at Nathan. “All a big mistake, though. We laugh about it now.”

  “I’m sure you do. It must be hilarious. Men, stand down. Milton, car keys and check the vehicle.”

  The soldiers dropped their weapons and holstered them. Corporal Milton went to the SUV and grabbed the ignition key out, then checked through it.

  “No more passengers, sir, but two rifles and another pistol in the rear of the vehicle.”

  Brian walked over to Nathan and put out his hand.

  “I’m Captain Sanderson. I’m in charge here.”

  The male shook his hand. “I’m Nathan, and this is Casey. And that’s my dog, Kevin.”

  “Nice to meet you both. I think you had better start at the beginning and tell me how you got here. I’m pretty sure you realize this isn’t your normal home. Also, I’m keen to hear why you are arming yourselves.”

  Nathan started off. “Not much to tell, really. I woke up alone and decided to head north, uh, with my dog. And we picked up Casey here on the way. We got the guns for protection.”

  “Protection against whom?” Brian asked.

  “Anyone. Just in case, you know?”

  Brian stood and looked at the male. He had no doubt his story was total BS.

  “Miss, how did you get here?”

  “Same as Nathan. Woke up alone, started driving, met up with these two. And here we are.”

  Brian absorbed this crap. They woke up alone in the world and treat it like it was nothing? Something major was missing.

  “So that’s it? You got up out of bed and started driving?”

  “Pretty much,” Nathan answered.

  “And whose vehicle is this?”

  Casey answered, “It’s mine.”

  “So, Casey, why do you have a bullet hole in your front windscreen?”

  “Oh, that? It’s a long story.”

  Brian narrowed his eyes. “Humor me with a shortened version. But maybe better than your gunshot wound story.”

  “I met a guy on the road who wanted to kidnap and rape me, and he shot at my truck while I was getting away. Happy?”

  Brian saw the male shoot the female an empathetic look. He obviously didn’t know those details she had just spilled. So there was yet another person out there, if she was telling the truth. He could see his early retirement from this project disappearing by the minute.

  “Not really, miss, but it will do. So—and please be honest here because it affects us all—you didn’t walk through a portal or anything?”

  Brian saw the girl’s face twitch seriously. Oh, there was a portal involved all right.

  Nathan spoke. “Nope, no portal. Don’t even know what that would look like or where to find one. Do you have one?”

  “I’ll ask the questions. Miss, have you seen any portals or walked through one?”

  “Same as Nate. No portals.”

  Brian stood silently. He looked down at the dog. It was sitting down, staring at him like it was listening to every word. This was getting freakier by the minute.

  “Okay, so you know nothing, apparently. Where were you headed? Why drive north? Casey, can you answer me?”

  “Sure. Nate’s brother is in Raglan—or so we hoped. We were going there first, then if he wasn’t there, we were heading to Auckland—a much bigger city so we thought better chances of finding someone. After all, there’s us three, uh, two, still here. Three, really, if you count Kevin.”

  “Yes, Kevin. I suppose Kevin can confirm these stories?”

  “Woof.”

  Brian looked quickly toward the dog.

  “He’s very intelligent,” the male said. “Border collie and all that.”

  “Yes, of course he is. Sergeant Kahi, a word in private, please.”

  Kahi nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  They walked twenty feet away from the pair.

  “Kahi, your thoughts?”

  “Swiss cheese, sir. Full of holes.”

  Brian rubbed his chin. “I agree. I don’t know what we can do. There’s torture, of course. No one would ever know. But I’m at a loss. I’ve got standing orders if we meet people like this, but we really need information before disposing of them. We’ve got to find out how they got here.”

  “Torture, sir?”

  “Yes, well, it doesn’t have to be really bad. Maybe just shoot a foot, something simple like that. That would get them talking.”

  Kahi looked back at Casey and Nathan. “We could separate them for a start, sir. That might get them talking more honestly.”

  “Yes, good idea. I’ll keep the male here; you take the female back to the Land Rovers and talk to her. Take Milton with you. There’s something they aren’t telling us, I feel it. And Kahi?”

  “Sir?”

  “If you feel the need to pressure the female to talk more freely, well, that might work. Females generally give in before males do. It wouldn’t take much. Lastly, keep the orders of disposing of these people to yourself for the time being. That’s not to be shared with anyone else.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The pair walked back to the group.

  “Miss, Sergeant Kahi here will escort you down to the vehicles, and I’ll keep Nathan here to chat to him. Milton, go with them.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Nathan cut in. “I’m not sure I want to be split up, Captain.”

  “You don’t have much of a say here, Nathan.”

  Casey shot Nathan a worried look. This wasn’t expected.

  Sergeant Kahi, Corporal Milton, and Casey walked toward the Land Rovers.

  Brain faced Nathan directly, less than a foot from his face. “Right, Nathan. Time to spill. I need to know what really happened. You’ve given me the bullshit story; now I need the truth.”

  “There’s not a lot more to tell. I could go on about how I had to ride a pushbike into Wellington city, and then took a taxi from a gas station, but it’s all pretty boring stuff. I’m just not sure what it is you want to know.”

  Brian moved back a bit and put his hands up, palms out. “I’ll be direct, then. Portals. You’ve come through one into this world—end of story. I need to know how you did that. Go.”

  “I didn’t come through any portal. I woke up in my bed a few days ago, and everyone was gone. I’d take a lie detector test if you had one. What does a portal look like? Maybe I went through one and didn’t know it.”

  “I get the feeling you’re playing games with me here, Nathan.”

  Nathan shrugged. “Not at all. Everything I’ve said is true.”

  “Nathan, what’s your job? Something in the military, I expect?”

 
“I work for a government department.”

  Brian smiled. “At last, some honesty. GCSB is it?”

  “No, Ministry of Social Welfare. I work on the IT helpdesk.”

  Brian looked over at the dog. It hadn’t stopped staring at him.

  Why did this dog unsettle him so much?

  As Casey walked down the road toward the army trucks, she saw one of the soldiers who had his head under the hood look up at her. It unnerved her even more than she already was. What was going to happen to Nate, Kevin, and her?

  “That’s far enough, Miss,” the sergeant said.

  Casey leaned against one of the Land Rovers.

  “I guess you know why we’ve split you up?”

  “To check our stories out? I’ve got nothing more to say. We’ve told the truth.”

  “I’m sure you have, but the captain thinks you’ve left out some vital information, like what portal you went through to get here.”

  Casey rubbed her face with her hands in desperation. “But I didn’t go through any portal. None of us did.”

  “Miss, let me explain. For this project, to be able to even exist here, your DNA has to be matched to the software. If your DNA isn’t in the software, you can’t come in here.”

  “So your program is faulty, then?”

  The sergeant stepped back a little. “Uh, sure, well, yeah, that’s a possibility, but we still need to know what portal you came through.”

  “We didn’t come through any portals. Honest.”

  “Miss, the captain thought you might resist giving us the correct information. So we’re gonna have to resort to Plan B.”

  Brian turned to look down at Kevin.

  “So, this is your dog, Nathan, right?”

  “Yes, he is. Why?”

  “Be a shame if something happened to him.”

  Casey’s heart fluttered. Plan B? What could Plan B be?

  Sergeant Kahi grabbed her arm.

  In an instant, she was in his mind. She could see a dark tunnel, Devonport Naval Base in Auckland, a bigger version of the portal she had seen in JET gas stations—and soldiers walking through it.

  And in the near future she could see the captain shooting her and Nathan in the head.

  “What do you mean something happen to him? You can’t hurt Kev. There are laws. You can’t hurt any of us.”

  Brian put his hands on his hips, and sighed.

  “Nathan. Do you see any policemen around? Any cameras? Anything other than just us? Anything could happen to the two of you and your dog, and no one would ever know. Unless of course, you tell me the truth.”

  Casey’s mind reeled. They were going to kill them?

  There was only one thing to do. While the sergeant held her arms and was twisting one of them toward breaking point, she yelled out at the top of her voice.

  “Nate, they are going to shoot us!”

  “Casey!” He didn’t understand what she said, but she sounded like she was in big trouble.

  “Ignore her, Nathan. What about your dog? What about Kevin?”

  The captain grabbed Kevin and put a pistol to his head. “What if Kevin here was to be shot on the spot?”

  Again, Nathan heard Casey call out something. His blood was rising. They were hurting her, and Captain Asshole was about to shoot Kevin.

  “You can’t do this! And you need to let Casey and Kevin go.”

  “I’ll do what I fucking want, Nathan, and if I want to shoot your dog, I will.”

  Nathan’s emotions ran over. Casey was being hurt and Kevin was in trouble.

  “Let them both go. Right now.”

  “Nothing is going to save your dog, Nathan. Too late.”

  Kevin spoke up, looking at the captain. “Not fucking likely, asshole,” and then bit his arm.

  The captain released Kevin, and both he and the remaining soldiers took two steps back in shock, their eyes enormous with surprise.

  “Stop!” Nathan called out, as loud as he could.

  Time stopped.

  Literally.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nathan, still raging inside, looked around. Everyone had frozen in place. Completely and utterly stopped moving.

  What the fuck just happened?

  He walked over to the captain. He stood there, mouth still wide open from hearing Kevin talk. Nathan saw two puncture marks in his arm from Kevin’s bite.

  “Asshole. I told you not to hurt my friends.”

  He kicked the captain in the balls as hard as he could.

  Nathan walked over to Kevin and patted him. Kevin didn’t move, but Nathan could see him smiling from biting the captain.

  The two soldiers stood there, mouths open too. Nathan stuck his finger in the open mouth of one of them.

  How was this happening?

  He walked down the hill toward Casey and the other soldiers. The sergeant had Casey’s arm tightly held at a weird angle, maybe trying to break it.

  Tentatively, Nathan removed the sergeant’s hand from Casey’s arm and moved hers down back to a normal angle. He couldn’t see any bone sticking out. A good sign, he hoped.

  The corporal who had taken their keys was standing next to Casey. Nathan fished their car keys out of the soldier’s pocket. He also retrieved his pistol from the soldier, putting it back in his holster.

  Shit! I wonder how long this time freeze thing lasts.

  Moving faster, Nathan moved Casey’s other arm down so they were both at her sides. He tipped her body to the point where he could lift her, and carried her back up the hill to her truck. He propped her body up like a surfboard against the SUV while he opened the back door.

  Struggling, he picked Casey up again and put her headfirst onto the back seat of the SUV.

  “Kev.”

  Nathan walked around the front of the truck and picked up Kevin.

  “Sorry you had to go through that, buddy.”

  Kevin’s tail stuck out directly behind him, mid-wag.

  Nathan put Kevin in the front passenger’s seat. Kevin’s legs were stiff, but at least he didn’t topple over.

  He then collected all the soldier’s guns he could find and threw them into Lake Karapiro.

  “Find those, you bastards.”

  Nathan got into the driver’s seat of the truck. He didn’t know how long this time-freeze thing would last—maybe permanently?—and he wanted to get out of there.

  He started Casey’s truck up. Something niggled at him.

  “Daisy.”

  He left the truck running, got out, and retrieved Daisy from the back of the truck.

  Nathan walked quickly down the hill, whistling as he went.

  When he got to the first Land Rover, he popped the hood open and swung Daisy as hard as he could, smashing everything he could see.

  He did this on the other two Land Rovers, too, making sure they were immobile. He didn’t want to waste time, but he smashed all the windows as well. Just for fun.

  Looking in the center car, he saw a laptop on the front seat, so smashed it to pieces.

  He also noticed lots of equipment in the back, so smashed that to pieces—then went and did the same in the back of the other Land Rovers.

  Nathan started to walk back up the hill to Casey’s truck.

  He looked to the right on the way up the hill to the truck.

  “Lake’s looking stunning today,” he said, Daisy resting on his shoulder.

  Nathan smiled.

  He had found his power.

  Casey slowly opened her eyes. She felt groggy but had no idea why.

  What happened?

  She sat up, realizing she was in the back seat of her truck. Outside, darkness had fallen over the land they were passing.

  Casey looked to the front to see Nathan driving her truck. “Nate? What happened back there? How did I get in here?”

  “It’s a long story. Well, not long really, but you’ll freak out at what happened.”

  She rubbed her head, feeling a bit sore. “Where are we now
?”

  “On the way to Raglan. We’re still on State Highway 1. A while to go to Raglan yet. Lots of crashed trucks to get around while you and Kev have been out of it.”

  Casey heard Kevin moan, and in the lights of the dashboard she saw him sit down on his back legs and put a paw on his head. “Oh, my head. What happened? Nate, how come you are driving? Why is it dark out?”

  She heard Nathan sigh. “Well, since you are both up now, I better tell you. You won’t believe it. Casey, I heard them doing something bad to you back there. You were calling out. I couldn’t hear what you said, but it sounded really bad.”

  “They were going to shoot us,” she said in a monotone.

  Nathan nodded. “I didn’t realize it was that bad. Kev, that asshole captain had a gun to your head and was going to shoot you.”

  “Did you see that sucker’s face when I spoke to him? Crack up. And then the bite. That felt good.”

  Casey stuck her head between the front seats, looking at Kevin. “You bit the captain?”

  “Yes, but he did have a gun to my head and was about to pull the trigger.”

  “Do you guys want to hear the story or not?” Nathan interjected.

  Casey answered. “Of course, sorry. Lips zipped.”

  Nathan drove on, getting back into his story.

  “Okay, so Kev was about to be shot, and you were in trouble. I’m not really sure what happened but I could feel myself about to explode. I think I yelled out stop as hard as I could, and time stopped. Just stopped. Freaked me out. No one was moving or breathing or anything. So I grabbed you, Casey, and put you in the back of the truck, and then got Kev, too.”

  There was silence in the car as each comprehended Nathan’s words.

  “Nate,” Casey said. “So you are saying you do have some power, and you can fucking stop time? This is too incredible to believe.”

  Kevin looked at her. “Any more so than me talking?”

  “No, I guess not. But still hard to believe. What happened next, Nate? Did you drive away, and now we are here? How long did this time freeze last?”