The Portal in the Forest

by Matt Dymerski

  ***

  I looked up as the implications of that statement sank in. "Hey kid," I whispered, as quietly as I could. "What's your name?"

  "Thomas…" he whispered back, emulating me out of worry. "What's up?"

  "We really have to go, and… you can't make a sound…"

  "Why?"

  I stood slowly, shaking my head. I couldn't tell him that we were sitting in a room full of invisible corpses that were anything but dead. Ever so slowly, I stepped between the tables, heading for the front door.

  Creaks echoed around me as unseen joints began snapping, cracking, and… moving.

  Although I could see he was terrified, Thomas knew better than to make any noise. I listened carefully to the movement around me: were they simply reacting, or were they certain of my presence? I took one quiet step at a time until I saw chairs began to move back as their unseen occupants stood.

  I broke into a run, and I pointed toward the door. Thomas wasted no time in rushing out and into the rain, but he almost immediately tripped on invisible rotted piles of flesh. Picking him up, I waited, heart threatening to thump out of my chest, until the next flash of lightning revealed a path forward.

  He saw the bodies strewn about - he saw that they were starting to move and awaken - but I grabbed his mouth and kept him from screaming. Now that he knew, I used my flashlight, shining it hurriedly around us to - shit!

  The beam shined across a moving circle of decayed flesh; hundreds of unseen corpses approached through the streets, like ghosts in the rain. I shined the flashlight ahead, illuminating our path, and we splashed through heavy puddles and leapt over clawing rotten hands.

  Pushing down the alleyway as the rain intensified, we ran back through the portal at full speed.

  Pausing in the safety of the forest to catch my breath, I turned and looked back.

  The alley sat clear and empty… until a flash of lightning illuminated an endless legion of living corpses, all standing still and gazing at us. They made no move to enter the rift, but that didn't make me feel any better. Beyond them, up in the sky… I'd made the same mistake as the doomed man and his date. Those weren't clouds - just the reflection of other parts of the sky on vast metal, impossibly high chrome, and it began moving as we watched…

  The children all around screamed and flinched as a silent but tremendous impact on the other side threw mountains of rubble across the portal. Moments later, it was buried, and showed only onto the impenetrable blackness of layers of rock and dirt. We, however, remained perfectly safe. Only the other side of the portal had been buried, and I was certain it would simply open on a new destination the next day without interruption.

  "Are you alright?" the oldest boy asked me.

  "That was so cool!" the other kids exclaimed, gathering around Thomas. "What did you see over there?"

  Enjoying the attention, he began smiling and telling them exactly what had happened. There was no need for embellishment.

  "I'm fine," I told my lone listener, shaking water out of my hair. I looked down as I did so. "Goddamnit…"

  Without realizing it, I'd brought the book back again. Had it been in my hand through the whole escape?

  I set my jaw. I'd try again tomorrow.