“Okay, let’s move the gate up onto the van. Maybe that’ll be enough,” Richard said. They lifted the gate onto the deck of the van, reconnected it, and started up the portal. This time they were rewarded with a gate connection.
“Odd. I never would have expected the ground level to have changed like that,” Erin said. “This is like the hilliness in Lincoln …”
“Well, doesn’t matter,” Richard replied. “We’re ready. Let’s go through and get this done.”
Erin glanced at Richard with a frown but didn’t comment. This wasn’t the time to argue, but she was pretty sure he would be eating those words at some point.
They ducked as they walked through the large portal. There was a step down on the Outland side of less than a foot. The group huddled in a circle for a few moments. This experience was different from the last time. Here, forest surrounded them, reducing line of sight dramatically. The noise level from the local wildlife had an almost physical impact. It seemed to be mostly birdcalls, but there were enough of the deeper sounds from large animals to remind them that they weren’t alone.
After a pause to get used to the noise, Richard pulled out a can of spray paint and handed it to Monica. “Spray each tree as you go past it. Always to your right.”
“I’m on guard duty,” Monica retorted. “What’re you doing?”
“Carrying three-quarters of the equipment. Want to trade?”
Monica made a pfft sound, but took the spray can.
Erin, meanwhile, looked down at the ground on this side of the portal, then adjusted her load and scuffed her foot on the ground. She stared at it for several seconds, frowning.
Richard touched her shoulder briefly. “Problem?”
Erin glanced sideways at him and shook her head.
It took about twenty minutes to get to the creek, which was in the same place on the Outland side.
However, the area around the creek looked quite different. Erin did a full 360, her frown deepening as she became more perplexed.
“What?” Richard said, watching her.
“It’s just … the creek bed has a steep bank on both sides. On Earthside, it was a lot flatter. It’s weird.” A pattern was developing, one Erin didn’t like.
“Well, weird isn’t actionable,” Richard replied. “Let’s set up. Matt and Monica, you keep guard for now. Erin and I will get things organized.”
True to his word, Richard began unloading equipment from the packs. Meanwhile, Erin broke out the metal detector and swept the creek bed to get a general idea of where to dig. She marked the areas with good readings using bright yellow plastic tent pegs.
“I think we’re ready,” Erin announced.
Richard tossed her a shovel, and they quickly settled into a routine. Erin took a shovelful of creek bed and placed it in a screening box, which Richard and Matt held. While they shook it back and forth, Monica used the hand-held pump to pour water onto the muck and gravel.
It took less than a dozen shovelfuls before they spotted their first yellow nugget. Monica yelled, “Woohoo!” and passed the nugget around.
“Heavy,” Matt said, bouncing it in his palm.
Over the next hour, Erin took shovelfuls from different parts of the surveyed area until they were able to see where they were getting the best results. After that, they concentrated in that area of creek bed.
The gold bag filled fast.
Matt and Monica were conscientious about guard duties, but Erin couldn’t shake a bit of nervousness about her and Richard’s inexperience. She had never so much as hefted a shotgun before that first test outing, let alone fired one. If something happened, would she end up blowing off her own foot?
She sidled up to Matt during a break. “Y’know, we probably should have done some practice firing when we started.”
“Yeah, I agree. Maybe tomorrow morning?”
“Sounds like a plan. Right now, I want to check out the stream bank. Can you walk me over?”
Matt signaled his intentions to the others, then followed Erin. She kicked the ground, then dug a few shovelfuls of earth. Then she nodded to Matt, and they rejoined the group.
“That’s three times. Should we be worried?” Richard said.
“No, just a puzzle.” Erin gave him a small smile. “A geology puzzle.”
A short time later, they’d settled into the routine again when Matt said, “Uh oh. Visitor.”
The others looked up and followed Matt’s gaze. With four sets of eyes on it, the large feline that had been creeping up on them from the trees hesitated. Then, apparently having decided they qualified as food, it resumed its approach.
Matt and Monica hoisted their shotguns. Richard and Erin grabbed theirs as well, and Erin made an unsuccessful attempt to pump in a shell. Seeing this, Richard handed her his already-primed shotgun and took hers.
The feline continued to approach, but its body language showed increasing caution.
“I don’t think his heart’s really in it,” Monica said. “He looks young, and probably hasn’t hunted successfully yet. That may work for us.” Pointing her shotgun high, she pulled the trigger.
Erin jumped at the unexpected volume of the discharge. Only Monica’s earlier admonition to keep her finger off the trigger unless preparing to shoot saved her from firing her own weapon.
The shot boomed like a cannon in the close, forested space, and shredded a small tree. The feline jumped six feet into the air, did a backflip, and hit the ground running, spraying gravel back at them before it finally got traction and disappeared.
Erin stared at the hole in the underbrush where the cat disappeared, while the others alternated glances in that direction with scanning the rest of the perimeter. And, gradually, the forest cacophony, which had ceased with the gunshot, returned to full volume.
“That,” Monica said in a small voice, “was another Smilodon. Smaller, possibly gracilis. And I may have just peed my pants.”
That got dutiful chuckles, but Monica wasn’t done. “That’s a reminder, though, that we’re in wild country. This isn’t a hike in the hills. Keep alert.”
Monica’s words took any feeling of vacation out of the air. With renewed determination, they got back to work.
But the encounter had created an atmosphere of paranoia as well. After a couple of hours of jumping at every rustle of leaves or movement of bushes, Erin was emotionally drained. To add insult to injury, she had reached the point where she could barely raise her shovel, let alone pull another divot out of the stream. “Are we there yet?” she moaned.
Richard looked at the bag they’d been using to hold their finds. “I think we’ve done pretty well. Time to go home.”
21. They Also Serve
Aw, crap. Bill looked over at Kevin. “Hey, Kev, can you give me a hand here? Little help?”
Kevin looked up. He’d been sitting in the lawn chair, staring into space, and he looked irritated at the interruption. “What?”
“I’m kind of tangled up here …”
Kevin stood and hurried to the side of the van, where Bill had the second portal generator powering the pole-cam. He had the cables wrapped around him and around one leg, and he teetered on the edge of losing his balance.
“How did you manage that?” Kevin asked.
“I got bored, so I set up the pole-cam. Been doing some examinations of the plant life and small-animal life on the other side. I guess I lost track and got myself tangled up.”
“Well, first,” Kevin said, “you don’t keep rotating in the same direction if you don’t want to get tangled up. Second, we shouldn’t be using the spare, especially not running two units off the generator. Third, we’re supposed to be watching the gate.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Bill retorted. “Hey, here’s a thought. How about you untangle me so I can put this thing down without breaking it?”
Kevin shook his head and got to work unwinding his unruly partner-in-guarding.
He had just gotten Bill unraveled when there
was a ba-bump, and the van moved a little on its shocks.
“What was that?” Bill said.
“I don’t know. I was over here with you, not guarding.”
“Okay, Kevin, consider me scolded. Let’s see what’s going on.”
They grabbed their shotguns and headed to the back of the van. As they turned the corner, they came face to face with a very large wolf. There was a moment of mutual frozen astonishment before Bill and Kevin brought up their weapons and took aim.
“Um, Bill? He’s between us and the gate. If we shoot him, we could take out the hardware.”
“If we don’t shoot him, he could take out one of us. Or both; he’s big enough.”
As the men stood indecisively, a second wolf poked its head through the gate.
“Kevin, I think there’s a whole pack on that side. This can only get worse.”
“We’re in trouble, aren’t we? Do we just shoot?”
“No. I’ll cover them, you go pull the plug on the gate.”
“Oh God …” Kevin looked like he was starting to lose it, but he did hurry off around the truck, so Bill hoped he would follow through. Bill waited, his shotgun aimed at the animals.
Just before the gate winked out, the first wolf turned and retreated through the opening, pushing its pack-mates out of the way.
Bill let out a relieved breath as Kevin came around the truck.
“Are they gone?”
“Yeah, but that was too close for comfort, Kev. I think there will probably be raised voices and pointed fingers when the others get back.”
“They’re here.”
Bill turned at Kevin’s comment. Kevin held up the tablet, which showed an image of the gold-panning party from the pole-cam.
“Good. Turn on the gate, and let’s get them back. Then we face the music.”
The others came through the gate one at a time, dominated by Richard’s bad-tempered grumbling about the delay.
“What’s going on?” Monica said. “Why was the gate off?”
Bill looked at Kevin and then back at the others, a crooked grin on his face. “So, um, funny thing …”
“Oh, Christ,” Richard said. “What have you done?”
Bill hesitated and looked back at Kevin, who refused to meet his eyes.
Fine. I guess I’m it. “A funny thing happened while you were gone.” Bill filled them in on the events with the wolves.
At the end of the story, there was a brittle silence in the group. Then Monica spoke. “You. Let. Dire wolves. Get. Through?”
“We didn’t let them, Monica. We had to make a choice between shooting them and possibly taking out the gate, or letting them get out of the way.”
Richard shook his head. “Y’know, Bill, for all your talk about paranoia and movie twists, you still fuck up as bad as the rest of us.”
“Okay, I’ll take that one. But look, they went back through. So no harm, no foul, right?”
Matt interjected, “To be honest, using the pole-cam to keep watch is probably a good idea as a standard policy. That way there won’t be any more surprises like this.”
“Hmm, fair enough,” Richard said.
“What would we be looking at if one had gotten loose?” Erin said to Monica.
Monica looked over at Bill. “Did you notice if the one that came through was male or female?”
“Sure, Monica. As it stood there growling at us, I bent down to check.”
Monica sighed. “Well, it would raise questions if the wolves around here suddenly started getting bigger. Honestly, I don’t know if they’ll be interfertile with Earthside wolves anyway. And they aren’t that much bigger. About twenty-five percent on average. Some dogs are heavier. I’d more concerned about whether it’d be less afraid of humans.”
“It didn’t seem inclined to eat us,” Bill said.
“True. Normal wolves may actually be more habituated than something from the other side. Then there’s the question of cross-contagion. Canis lupus might be closely related enough to Canis dirus to be mutually infectious …” Monica stared into space. “Let’s pack this up, and I’ll think about it.”
They disassembled and stowed the equipment in almost complete silence, each person communing with their own thoughts. Bill walked over to claim the lawn chairs, the last items left. As he folded the second chair, he looked down.
Bill felt the blood drain from his face as he spied the animal tracks. They seemed to lead directly from the truck to the nearby trees. As a city boy, Bill didn’t pretend to be able to read spoor, but these looked dog-like and big. Really big.
The area near the truck was hard-packed earth with patches of scrub, so there was no chance of picking up signs even if it hadn’t been trampled by the crew. The tracks might or might not be related to their recent adventure.
Bill’s face felt hot as he realized he wasn’t going to say anything. All those years of being bullied, verbally abused, and ridiculed came rushing back. This would just be more of the same. From people he was starting to think of as friends.
If there was a dire wolf loose, South Dakota was on its own.
They finished cleaning 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. “I agree we should keep the gate closed except when we’re coming or going.”
“They already have wolves around here,” Bill pointed out. “And as you said, dire wolves aren’t that much bigger than the locals.”
Monica gave him a puzzled look. “Yeah, but saber-tooth cats or something even bigger could also be a problem. Bill, have you lost your paranoia superpower or something?”
“No.” Bill shook his head, trying to keep his face neutral. “That’s my laziness superpower kicking in.”
Monica chuckled and patted his hand.
“Personally, 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.
“So we should do that whenever we go through,” Richard commented. “That way there will be no more surprises.”
“And I think everyone needs to spend a few hours on a gun range or something,” Monica added. “You need to get used to using the weapons. We can’t have anyone fumbling with them in a crisis situation.”
“Oh, hell yes,” Bill said. “I’m embarrassed to say I felt clueless back there. Practice would be good.”
“You’re the expert, Monica,” Richard said. “And on that subject …” The others looked at him expectantly. “We’ve been going into this like we’re lords of creation or something, just playing it by ear, and we’ve avoided disaster so far only by dumb luck.”
“Like on a TV show.”
“Shut up, Bill. But yeah, we need a plan. We need to start making smart decisions and being better prepared.”
Monica put her hand on Richard’s arm. “Look, we’re not idiots. But this is totally outside our experience. Or training, except for possibly Bill, and that’s all from fiction. Like it or not, we are winging it. Maybe if the university had a course on Handling Pleistocene Excursions While Gold Prospecting, we’d do better.”
“Hey, um, how’d we do on the haul, by the way?” Kevin said.
“That’s right!” Monica exclaimed. “In all the excitement, I forgot 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 said, “Any idea how much we hav
e there?”
“No, not really. We forgot to bring a scale,” Erin replied. “My bad. That’s my area.”
“What’s gold worth?” Kevin said.
Matt pulled out his phone. After typing for a few seconds, and muttering about the lousy data connection, he announced, “$1225 per troy ounce. Yow! That’s almost $18,000 per pound.”
Kevin walked over to the bathroom and looked in. “Hey, you know there’s a scale in here, right?”
There was a stampede for the bathroom. Knowing the inaccuracies of cheap bathroom scales, they weighed the bag on its own and also 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.
“And we weren’t working very efficiently, either,” Matt said. “We spent a good part of the day just figuring it out. And jumping at shadows. We’ll get better at this.”
Monica patted the bag. “And the money train is just pulling into the station.”
22. The Road Home
July 1
The next morning, Bill was awoken by Richard banging around, opening and closing drawers.
“What time is it? Dawn o’clock?”
“Almost seven. We want to get an early start,” Richard said.
“Sez who?”
Matt sat up and rubbed his face. “Look at it this way. We’ll get a table without waiting. You’ll get coffee sooner.”
“Sold!” Bill sprang out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
“I’ll have to remember that,” Richard said with a grin.
As Matt had predicted, the group got a table immediately, and coffee soon thereafter. Everyone had a smile on their face, except Erin.
“Hey, Gloomy Girl,” Bill chided her. “We just had a successful expedition. What’s with the frown?”
Erin looked up, and her scowl smoothed out. “Sorry, Bill. It’s the raised ground level on the other side. It’s volcanic ash.”
“Oh, here we go,” Richard muttered. “I knew it wasn’t nothing.”
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