Outland (World-Lines Book 1)

by Taylor, Dennis

  "It was a spring-like day and they were frisky. Contrary to online reports, it's a natural occurrence and not the end of the world," park spokeswoman Amy Bartlett said.

  – Reuters

  They arrived back at the portal area more quickly than they’d gone out, both due to familiarity with the path and to a desire to not be there any longer than necessary. However, there was no portal. They looked around in confusion for a moment, then Matt pointed upwards. About eight feet off the ground, a camera pointed at them through a hole in the air. As they looked at it, it disappeared. A few seconds later, the large portal appeared at ground level.

  Richard stepped up and through the portal first. As he got out the other side, he stopped. Both Kevin and Bill had shotguns aimed in his direction, and Kevin with a shotgun was very unnerving.

  “What the hell?” he exclaimed. Bill and Kevin, looking a curious combination of relieved and embarrassed, lowered their weapons. As Richard moved aside, the rest of the group came through, and Kevin shut down the portal.

  “What was that all about?” Richard asked.

  “Well,” Bill answered, obviously choosing his words carefully. “A funny thing happened. You’ll laugh when you hear it. Really. See, we were sitting here guarding the portal and all, sitting in our lawn chairs, when this very large wolf—a dire wolf?—comes through the portal. It stood there for several seconds, looking around, then it looked at us. I’m embarrassed to say that if it had wanted to, it would have gotten at least one of us. Kevin, preferably.”

  Kevin did a double-take and looked offended.

  “So, where is it?” Matt asked.

  Bill answered, “We jumped up and pointed our guns at it, and it turned tail and disappeared through the portal.”

  “Oh shit,” Monica said.

  “After that, we decided that leaving the portal open with a welcome mat out was sub-optimal.”

  Richard stared at them for a few seconds, then sighed and turned away. He put down everything he was carrying and started stowing the portal hardware.

  Bill looked at Kevin, and Kevin looked at Bill. No words were necessary. The slight re-remembering of the day’s events would never be spoken of.

  ***

  They packed up all the equipment and cleaned up after themselves, got in the vehicles, and drove back to the motel. After the necessary showers, they got together in the men’s motel room.

  “We can’t just leave the portal open,” Monica said. “If things come through, it could be very bad.”

  “They already have wolves around here,” Matt pointed out.

  “This isn’t a standard wolf, Chuckie!” Monica shot back. “These things could eat a standard wolf.”

  “Well, I like the solution that Kevin and Bill came up with, with the pole-cam. Unless something can jump eight feet into the air and sail through an eight-inch aperture, I think we’re safe. Uh…” Matt looked at Monica.

  “No, nothing like that that I know of,” she replied with a wan smile.

  “So we should do that whenever we go through,” Richard commented. “That way there will be no more surprises.”

  “I’m going to make a suggestion, though,” Matt said. Everyone turned to him. “We should load the shotguns with alternating slugs and shot. Some things might shrug off a face-full of shot if they were angry enough, but having a six-inch hole blown straight through you is a good deal harder to ignore. Also, I think everyone needs to spend a few hours on a gun range or something. You need to get used to using the weapons. We can’t have people fumbling with them in a crisis situation.” Matt looked at Monica, who smiled sheepishly.

  “You’re the expert, Matt.” Richard said. “And on that subject…” People looked at him expectantly.

  “I’m beginning to realize how unprepared we are—I am—for all this. I’ve been kind of running things like I was in charge, and I’ve made some mistakes.” He looked at Monica with a wry grin. “I think I’m going to have to be a little more collaborative and a little less autocratic. That means everyone gets discussion and a vote on everything. It also means we have to consider ourselves like a company. Everyone’s a shareholder.”

  Monica put her hand on his arm. “Pretty sure the university doesn’t have a course on Handling Pleistocene Excursions While Gold Prospecting. Although we could suggest it.”

  Richard smiled back with a silent thank you.

  “A company?” Bill exclaimed. Eyes rolled to heaven. Everyone knew Bill well enough by now to know that tone of voice. “How about Wildside Enterprises?”

  “NO!” Five people yelled at once. Bill sat back, smiling. Another victory on points.

  “Hey, um, how’d we do on the haul by the way?” Kevin asked.

  “That’s right!” Bill added. “In all the excitement, I forgot that that was the point of all of this. Are we rich? Can we retire?”

  “Oh, I think you’ll be pleased,” Matt said. He pulled up the bag from the floor and poured the contents onto the table. Given the situation, having an entire planet to themselves, the prospectors hadn’t felt the need to scrabble for every flake of gold. They’d collected only gravel-sized pieces or larger. The result, on the table, left everyone staring.

  After a few seconds, Kevin asked, “Any idea how much we have there?”

  “No, not really. We forgot to bring a scale,” Erin answered. “My bad. That’s my area.”

  “What’s gold worth?” Kevin asked.

  Matt pulled out his phone. After typing for a few seconds, and muttering about the lousy data connection, he announced, “About $40,000 per kilogram. For the Luddites among us, that’s about $18,000 per pound.”

  “Hey,” called Bill, who had moved off while Matt was looking this up. “You know there’s a scale in the bathroom, right?”

  There was a stampede for the bathroom. Knowing the inaccuracies of cheap bathroom scales, they weighed the bag on its own, weighed it while being held by each person, then subtracted that person’s weight. They took all the results and averaged them.

  “Just a shade over six pounds,” Matt said when he had completed the calculation.

  “Ho. Lee. Shit,” Richard muttered.

  Monica inclined her head in Richard’s direction. “What he said.”

  “Well, folks,” Bill said, “It looks like Wildside Enterprises is…”

  “SHUT UP!”

  The Road Home

  Is US government working on secret evacuation plan in case Yellowstone megavolcano erupts?

  Conspiracy theorists claim US citizens could be relocated to Australia, Brazil, and Argentina

  – Daily Mail

  The next morning, Richard got up bright and early. The relief of having dodged the bullet with the smilodon, plus the excitement of having harvested over a hundred grand worth of gold on their first time out was euphoric. He woke everyone up with a promise of breakfast at the local eatery.

  They were ready in record time, and got a table immediately. Everyone was smiling around the table, even before the coffee arrived.

  Everyone except Erin. Her frown had returned and showed no sign of dissipating.

  “What’s up, buttercup?” Monica asked.

  “It’s the raised ground level on the other side,” she said. Monica raised her eyebrows in a silent question.

  “It’s volcanic ash.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, volcanic ash has a unique composition and look. There was a volcanic eruption on that side that hasn’t happened here.”

  “How recently?” Richard asked.

  “Not very,” Erin answered. “There’s a thick layer of topsoil on top of the ash. The creek has managed to wash it away right down to the original creek bed, and that doesn’t happen fast. Not to mention that that much ash would have wiped out the ecosystem. Everything you see over there has regrown since. And there’s no visible trace of the old growth, like dead trees.”

  “So…” Matt prompted.

  “Not less than ten thousand years
ago, and not more than a hundred thousand,” she answered. “My prof would kill me for making a sweeping statement like that based on a couple of feet of digging, but that’s what it looks like.”

  Erin looked around at the group. “I have a favor to ask. Could we swing past Yellowstone?”

  “Swing past?” Richard exclaimed. “It’s in the opposite direction!”

  “I know, and I’m sorry to ask. We’ve got enough vehicles so that everyone doesn’t have to go.”

  “Hold on,” Matt said. “Do you want to go through and explore or just look?”

  “Just look. At least this time. If I see something significant, I’ll lobby for a full trip.”

  “Well, okay.” Matt looked at Richard. “How about if we put one of the portal generators and the pole-cam in the back of the pickup? It’s secure with the tonneau cover. Erin and I will head that way. Monica, could take Erin’s car back home with Lucy and you could drive. And Bill and Kevin could take the van back.”

  “Well, that seems workable,” Richard said, deadpan. “Any objections?” There were none.

  Driving Home

  “—And they all sang, Sieg Heil! Tickle my ass, taboo…”

  As they ended the last chorus, both Richard and Monica broke into uncontrollable laughter. Richard found himself driving out of his lane and got honked at, which sent them into more gales of laughter.

  “Wow, that’s crude,” Richard said. “I get that your brothers thought it was funny to teach you all these drinking songs, but I don’t see why you enjoy them so much.”

  “Because they’re so crude, of course! I refuse to be prim and proper and politically correct. It’s just no fun. What I can’t understand is why you know so very few of them. Where did you grow up? Salt Lake City?”

  Richard chuckled. “Because that’s not stereotyping…”

  He hesitated for a moment. “I’ve been in foster homes since I was ten. Not that any of them ever felt like homes. I didn’t have people teaching me drinking songs. I had people stealing my stuff, or beating me up and taking my stuff, at least until I got too big for that. I know I come off as Mr. Serious, and it’s because I always have my guard up. I had hoped that university would let me start over and make some friends, but I just fell into the same old habits.”

  Richard stopped talking and stared straight ahead. He felt his ears burning. Verbal Diarrhea. Great. Way to go, moron.

  Monica was silent for a few seconds before replying, “Brothers and sisters can be just as bad. I’m the youngest, and I was always the smallest, and shit runs downhill, so guess who always ended up wearing it?”

  “Did it ever stop?”

  “Yep. One day one of my brothers, Rico, had been eating my food off my plate, and every time I told him to stop, he’d slap me on the side of the head. So I turned, braced my feet, and pushed him right off the balcony.”

  Richard’s eyes went wide and he snorted in surprise. “Wow! Was he hurt?”

  “No, he landed on grass. But I looked down at him lying on his back with this surprised look on his face, and I said something like, ‘You have to sleep some time, fucktard! You get in my face again, and you’ll wake up singing soprano!’ ”

  Richard couldn’t stop grinning. “How’d that work out?”

  “It taught me something about taking care of myself.” She grinned at him. “I’ve had some confrontations with my brothers since, but I always make sure they pay.”

  She continued after a pause, in a more serious tone. “You know we’re all your friends, right?”

  Richard, still a little embarrassed, smiled at her in reply.

  Side-Trip to Yellowstone

  It was a nine-hour trip from the Black Hills to Yellowstone National Park, but the time passed quickly for Matt. He spent it talking with Erin, getting to know her better, discussing school, career plans, and anything else that came to mind.

  “You’ve never explained to me what it is about your parents and money,” Erin said.

  “You mean the ‘We won’t support you’ thing?” At Erin’s nod, Matt continued, “My father took a plastics manufacturing company that was about to go under and turned it into a major industry player. In the process, he made a lot of money. I mean a lot. Our family had some lean years before that—I used to share a room with my older brother, and wore a lot of his hand-me-downs.

  “Anyway, once we were wealthy, we started moving in those social circles.” Matt raised an eyebrow to indicate his opinion of said circles. “Dad got a look at some of the second and third generation family members. I think the nicest word Dad ever used was ‘parasite,’ and it went downhill from there.”

  Matt paused for a moment and smiled. “It didn’t help that the previous owners of the plastics company had inherited it from their parents and then had run it into the ground. Harvard MBAs, too.” Matt shrugged. “Which I guess is why Dad wasn’t too unhappy about me going out to the boonies for university.”

  Erin poked him in the ribs. “Hey, watch it, bucko. I’m from those boonies.”

  “All the more reason to be happy about my choice,” Matt grinned at her and took her hand.

  Erin rolled her eyes, said, “Nice save,” and pointed forward. “Eyes on road, please.”

  Matt laughed and took his hand back.

  “There was a guy.” He hesitated. “Brent something. He and a small group were always getting in trouble, and their parents were always bailing them out. Total wastes of oxygen, is what my father called them. He wanted Pete and me to understand where cake comes from.”

  Erin poked him again with her index finger. “Yeah, I saw what you did there.”

  ***

  When they got to Yellowstone, Erin directed Matt to a location on the Grand Loop Road that afforded a scenic view of the park. They were in an isolated area, so they didn’t expect any interruptions. In any case, although the park wasn’t officially closed, the geological activity over the last few weeks had made the public very reluctant to visit. Yellowstone National Park was probably experiencing its poorest season in a hundred years.

  Matt and Erin got out of the van, pulled the pole-cam out, and connected things up. Matt used the inverter to run the equipment off the truck. He powered up the portal, and switched on the gate.

  Matt raised the pole-cam into the air while Erin held the tablet.

  “Is this good?” Matt asked.

  Erin didn’t answer, just stared at the tablet.

  “Erin?” Still no answer.

  He switched the gate off, cutting off her feed.

  She looked up at him, with a shocked, stricken expression. “It’s gone.”

  “Er, what’s gone?”

  She showed him the video, played back on the tablet. It showed a scene that looked nothing like the view in front of them. In the video, they could see a huge body of water, evidently an inland lake or sea. In the background, parts of some of the mountains were visible. Matt looked up and could see where it matched up with the Yellowstone scenery.

  “What are we looking at?” he asked.

  “It’s a caldera,” She answered. “Collapsed magma chamber, and it didn’t get filled in by lava flows afterwards. This is what’s left of Yellowstone in Outland after what must have been a supervolcano eruption. That lake would have taken thousands of years to fill up. Maybe tens of thousands.”

  “Okay, so it blew up there but not here. Why is this an issue?”

  “Matt, we’ve been asking why Outland doesn’t have humans. I think this is our smoking gun.”

  Yellowstone, Outland, Toba + 200

  The clouds of dust and ash spread from the Yellowstone eruption as quickly as they had from the Toba eruption less than 200 years before. For ecosystems that still had not recovered from the previous event, this was devastating. In Africa, a certain type of smart ape that had just managed to pull through the first event was not so lucky this time. The last Homo sapiens died—cold, alone, and terrified—sitting in front of a dead campfire, unaware that in another rea
lity his descendants would walk on the moon.

  Cashing In

  Risk of supervolcano eruption big enough to 'affect the world' far greater than thought, scientists say

  Scientists have analyzed the molten rock within the dormant supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park and found that eruption is possible without any external trigger

  — The Independent

  Yellowstone Super Volcano Won't Erupt Say Experts

  Peter Cervelli, a volcano expert at the US Geological Survey, said: "I have not made yet an observation at Yellowstone that causes me to be afraid or causes me to wonder if an eruption was coming."

  — Huffington Post

  “I got a phone call from Erin,” Monica said. “They’re on their way back from Yellowstone.” She grabbed a piece of pizza from the fridge. “It was very cryptic, though. She refused to discuss it. Just the minimum amount of talking necessary to update me, then she hung up. Something’s weird.”

  “Hmm, well we’ll find out in a day or two anyway,” Bill said. He turned to Richard. “So, Big Daddy, what do we have?”

  Richard looked at his notes. “About six pounds of gold and cruft. After refining and commission, that’ll be somewhere around eighty-seven thou net to us. Reimbursements to members,” Richard looked around, “comes to about twelve grand, so seventy-five grand when all is said and done. Twelve grand each.”

  “That’s pretty good, but we’re going to be doing this again, right?” Bill said.

  “Yeah, and I wanted to talk about that,” Richard continued. “The whole motel thing freaked me out a bit. I didn’t like the idea that the van was parked outside, just waiting to be broken into. Or that we had to have the portal on out in the open. Or that we had to go to a remote site before we could do even that. I could go on…”