AIR Series Box Set

by Amanda Booloodian

What would Vincent do if I didn't come home?

  I started feeling detached and my vision narrowed into one shining dot. I kept track of it as it made laps around the circle.

  There was pressure on my arm. I didn't need to look to know it was Boone. I wasn't sure if he was holding me up, or trying to get me to stop. It didn't matter, though, because this had to work.

  Would Vincent sense I was gone? Would he come after me?

  That was stupid—how could he come after me? The shiny ball of light began to slow.

  Would he leave the others? He had a life before we met. Would he go back to it?

  I blinked and struggled to open my eyes again. Something wet, sweat maybe, rolled down my face, but I ignored it, trying to find the remains of the portal. I spotted it in time to see it stop.

  Then it winked out and I was left in darkness.

  ***

  A mixture of warmth and cool air was the first sensation I felt. Then I realized my head felt like it was splitting in two. My groan was involuntary. My hands went to my head, pressing to hold it together before I opened my eyes. Firelight flared in the darkness and when I looked at the light, my head pounded. I closed one eye in an effort to minimize the effects. There was no way I was closing both. When you wake up lying on the ground, there are priorities that rank higher than nursing a splitting headache.

  "You're up," Boone said, stating the obvious.

  Grimacing, I sat the rest of the way up and looked around. "I guess you could call it that. What happened?"

  Boone yawned. "You'd know better than me."

  "Huh." Still rubbing my forehead, I looked around. We were at the edge of a meadow where I recognized nothing. "How long was I out?" I needed an answer, though I didn't know if I wanted one.

  "At least twelve hours."

  I groaned again and rubbed my face with my hands, wanting this nightmare to end. "Where's the portal?"

  "Gone. It used to be over there," Boone said, pointing into the darkness.

  "Gone?" I blinked sadly into the night where Boone had indicated.

  "I went through, although I'm still unclear as to how, and when I tried to return, you pushed me back. Before I got to my feet again, it was gone. Want to fill in some blanks?" There was a bitter edge to his voice.

  A deep melancholy began to settle in, and I stared into the darkness where the portal had been, attempting to will it back into life.

  Boone raised his voice. "Agent Heidrich?"

  "Something hit me in the back and I fell through."

  "Why were you next to the portal? It was obviously unstable."

  I shrugged and immediately regretted it. Through the headache, I hadn't noticed the stiffness in my muscles. "Why do you think? I thought I could help pull you back through."

  "So you weren't a part of this?" An accusatory sourness was in his voice that told me he already blamed me for something.

  "A part of what?" I had a feeling my brain needed to catch up and the faster the better.

  "I'd like to know that myself. What else happened?"

  "Dempsey was holding the portal. Something hit me and I fell through. That's all there was to it."

  "I meant after you got here."

  "Oh." The blanket mental denial was the first thing that came to mind. "Um, I was Reading, and I could see the remains of the portal, but they were fading fast."

  "You mentioned that you could see it. You were pretty non-responsive beyond that." Again the bitterness.

  "That wouldn't possibly have had anything to do with you trying to bark orders at me, would it?" I rolled my shoulders trying to work out some of the aches. "What made you think I could reopen a portal?" For that matter, what had made me think I could?

  Boone sat quiet for a moment. "What were you doing after that?"

  I guess I couldn't begrudge him ignoring my question. Still, I was getting aggravated about the third degree. "The portal was going away, so I did what I could to try to stop it."

  "Agent Heidrich, I can't see what you see, and I know very little about Readers. Could you add more detail?" It sounded like he was biting off each word.

  I was used to describing what I could see, but I was used to it with my partners, not a stranger. Sighing, I told Boone everything, starting from the very beginning.

  "And you passed out because?" Boone asked. His words were more subdued at this point, but it did little to dampen my aggravation with him.

  "I gave it everything I had," I snapped. "What else could I do?"

  Boone was silent again and we were left with the crackle of the fire. I took the opportunity to stretch out. Most of my muscles protested at the action.

  A small part of me wasn't ready to accept what had happened. "How well do you know Agent Dempsey and Agent Walden?"

  "I've met them before," Boone said, "but I wouldn't say that I know them.”

  "Should they have been able to stop this?"

  "Could they have? It's possible. I don't think they had any intention of doing so, however."

  That ripped away the last of hope. "They're not going to try to reopen the portal, are they?"

  "That is highly unlikely."

  "How can you be so calm about this?" I hadn't intended on raising my voice, but I had all the same.

  Boone shook his head. "We're in a world that we know nothing about. The only way, Agent Heidrich, that we are going to survive, is to keep a level head and think things through."

  Keep a level head? The only thing filling my mind was thoughts of home. I turned toward the night, unsure if I could stop my eyes from tearing up. There was no way I was going to let Agent Boone see that.

  It took a few minutes before I could speak again without betraying my fear and frustration. "You asked if I was a part of this."

  Boone nodded, but said nothing.

  "So you think that Dempsey and Walden did this on purpose?"

  "From what you've said, that's what I believe. At least, if I believe your account of what happened."

  My head whipped around and I glared at Boone. "Why on earth would I do this? Do you think I want to be here?"

  "You don't have to want to be here to have been a part of this." Boone's voice started to become louder as well.

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "If you were in on this, and they felt they were done with you, what would be a better way to get rid of you than to send you to another world?"

  My fists clenched. "What did you do that made someone want to get rid of you? What did you do that I would even care about?"

  "Do you know why I was observing your team?" Boone looked like he was studying me, but he was clearly pissed off.

  "Hank mentioned it yesterday." Hank, would he be organizing a way to get us back? "You're going to be working with a group of Lost, or people with powers, or both."

  "Something like that," Boone said.

  "And apparently my team is the only one set up that way." Would they be working on a way to get me back?

  Why was I thinking about my team? Boone was right about one thing: to survive, we were going to have to stay calm, and thinking about home wasn't going to work.

  "Right," Boone said.

  I cocked my head and waited for more—when none came, it did nothing to improve my mood. "Why on earth would I give a damn about your team?" Earth? Was this considered earth anymore?

  Boone shrugged. "You tell me."

  My hands balled into fists, but I forced myself to relax them again. After taking a few measured breaths, I sat back down, one eye on where I thought the portal might have been. I was done talking with Boone. How had I ended up trapped here with him? Whatever the reason, it was obvious he wasn't going to tell me. Why couldn't one of my teammates have been with me? It was my first day back and they had let me go away with another team.

  Before I realized what I was doing, I sniffed. I really didn't want to cry in front of this man. I closed my eyes and took a few moments to meditate. Home, my family, and my team, it all had to be
shoved into the recesses of my mind. It took longer than I expected. Thoughts kept bubbling to the surface despite my best efforts.

  "Do you know anything about this world?" I asked.

  When I didn't get an immediate answer, I looked over and saw Boone watching me.

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "We're going to have to trust each other."

  "I think you're mistaken about that." He didn't sound angry anymore, but there was a hint of sarcasm. Still, I guessed that was improvement.

  "Right. Can you at least trust the fact that we're going to need help from each other to survive?"

  Boone shrugged.

  That was the best I was going to get. I rubbed my head. The ache had started to fade, but Boone's attitude was making it come back.

  "Is there any trace of the portal still left?" Boone asked.

  "Would you believe me if I gave you an answer?"

  I hadn't expected a hesitation. "I trust that you want to get back to our world just as much as I do."

  I sighed. "You're not wrong about that at least." Turning inward, I concentrated on the small amount of energy I had built back up while I had been asleep. It didn't look good. "I'm not sure I can check." I didn't raise my voice much louder, mostly because I didn't want to admit I had reached my limits. "I'll give it a try."

  Sitting crossed-legged, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and made the jump into the Path. When I opened my eyes, I swayed. The Path here twisted and moved in a way that agitated my stomach. It still had the beautiful, glittering glow, but the flow was different, and there were eddies and blockages. In some areas, the Path swirled in circles, and in others, it flowed downward instead of from side to side. It made me dizzy to watch.

  "Agent Heidrich?" Boone called. He sounded farther away than he was.

  "Right." I focused in on the area where I thought the portal lived. Was there anything left? Without thinking, I tried to stand, but didn't get far before I slumped back down to a seated position. "I don't see it, but there is something there."

  "I don't know what that means." The words were each cut short.

  "If you gave me a more than half a second, I'd say more," I snapped. The Path fell away and my vision grayed around the edges. My body felt like it was weighted down. "There's nothing there to see. The circles of power are gone, but the Path itself is still there." Seeing Boone was going to talk, I raised my voice slightly and talked over him. "What that means is there is something there, either hidden behind the Path or imprinted on it somehow. It could just be the memory of the portal."

  "So it's gone?"

  I shook my head and rubbed my hands over my face. "It means that the Path remembers it. If someone tries to reopen the portal, I think it will be pretty easy for them."

  "Can you reopen it?" Boone asked.

  "I'm not sure what I need to say to make you understand that I don't know how to open or close a portal." I wanted my voice to drip with acid to let him know how aggravated I was. Or at least sound angry. Instead, it came out listless. I was too tired to work up any real emotion.

  We both sat silent, lost in our own thoughts. I watched the fire grow smaller and tried not to think about what was going on back home. There had to be something I could do to pause me wondering and worrying about what the others might be up to.

  A plan was what we needed. I'm not sure what needed to be done. Maybe we needed a plan for a plan? When I turned my attention back to Agent Boone, he was asleep. My questions and planning would have to wait. I'd been camping before. Sure, it had been in my own dimension, surrounded by people I could trust, but I knew what needed to be done. He was asleep, so it was my turn to take watch.

  The trouble was, I never found out what it was you were supposed to do when it was your turn to keep watch. Somehow, my partners seemed to know what to do instinctively. The best I could do was to stay awake and wake up Boone before he got eaten by anything.

  Shoot. That was worse than thinking about home. What else lived here aside from the gremlins? I didn't remember anything else coming through the portal, but it was my understanding our soil was enough to lure the gremlins over. They wanted the minerals and metals. I don't remember anyone talking about anything else that came through. The gremlins kept us on our toes. I'm sure I would have heard if there was anything else.

  The woods were full of shadows. The snap and crackle of the dying fire was the only thing I could hear. I covered my mouth to stifle a yawn. Last time I took watch I had leaned against a tree. Here, I wasn't willing to step far enough outside the firelight in an effort to lean against a tree. We hadn't had a fire the last time we had camped. We were too worried about giving our position away.

  Shouldn't we have worried about that here? Maybe Boone knew something I didn't. I wasn't willing to wake him up to find out. He was aggravating enough without being tired and cranky on top of everything else.

  The ground was rough enough. Maybe if I kept my mind busy, I wouldn't fall asleep. Looking around, I saw Boone had our bag next to him. That was annoying. It wasn't that I couldn't take an inventory what we had; it was more the idea that he didn't trust me.

  Did I trust him? Maybe it didn't matter.

  My eyes started to get heavy.

  A snap came from the woods. I smiled, thinking of Rider stepping on a twig to announce himself in the dark. Then my brain kicked in. Rider wasn't here.

  Straining, I tried to hear hints of other sounds. Still, I had an uneasy sensation I was being watched.

  It was just my nerves, right? Gremlins weren't exactly the type of creature to stalk someone. They were almost annoying in the amount of energy they had. They didn't walk anywhere. Instead, they ran, jumped, and swung around on things.

  That line of thought wasn't helping. What were my choices here? I could investigate, but that thought had stupidity written all over it. It didn't matter if it was a squirrel—whatever it was would have an advantage over me. I could wake up Boone, but that thought wasn't appealing, either.

  Taking a deep breath, I decided on door number three. I did nothing. I still listened intently for any hint of a sound, but aside from that, I sat and watched the fire die down to embers.

  Time seemed to go by slower than it should. The noise had probably been my imagination. Either that or it was something that wasn't interested in us.

  When the sky began to lighten, I relaxed. With the firelight gone, my eyes had started to adjust to the night. As the sky became brighter, I could see into the forest and make out individual trees. Some of them were large. Massive, even. My eyes felt weighed down, but I watched the woods until Boone started to stir.

  "Did you sleep?" Boone asked.

  "I kept watch." My voice was scratchy.

  Boone nodded and didn't ask anything else.

  "I heard a noise, a twig snapping, I think. It happened about an hour or two ago," I volunteered. "But I didn't see anything. We may want to avoid a fire, unless you know what kind of animals we're dealing with, that is."

  Oh, crap. Animals. It hadn't crossed my mind until that moment. Animals didn't like me. One of the downsides to a shattered soul was that predators wanted to take me out. The last time I ventured into the woods, Vincent had become irate when he found out I hadn’t had a weapon.

  "What else?" Boone asked.

  "What do you mean?" I tried to push the thoughts out of my mind.

  "It looked like you had more to say."

  "That's it." It was a different world. Who was to say the creatures here would react the same way.

  Except every Lost had treated me the same way. Some didn't want to kill me. The smarter ones knew something was wrong and couldn't figure it out, and those that were too self-absorbed to pay much attention to those around them hardly noticed.

  Predators were predators. It didn't matter who or what you were.

  Boone shook his head, aggravated.

  "We do need a plan, though," I suggested.

  "That's something we can agree on. Are you able t
o check the portal?"

  "No." I hated it with every fiber of my being that I couldn't. Any time I reached a limitation, I had a hard time dealing with it.

  He seemed to take me at my word, at least, because he didn't push.

  "Okay," Boone said, "our plan for today is to scout the area. You need to stay here and—"

  "I'm not your lackey. When I said we needed a plan, I wasn't asking you to tell me what to do. We need to work together on this."

  Boone gave me a hard look, but I only returned it back to him. There was no way we were going to start out by him ordering me around.

  "You have a plan?" Boone asked.

  I rolled my eyes. "No, we need to make one. Together." I said the last word slowly, as though he were slow or hard of hearing. He acted as if he was both.

  "Agent Heidrich," Boone looked like he was having a hard time keeping his temper, "I have ten years of experience in hostile environments. I've been dropped into some of the worst places you can imagine and survived, getting myself and others out."

  "A, I'm not one of your troops. B, we don't know if this is a hostile area, and treating it as such could turn it into one. And C, we need to take stock of what we have so we know what we need."

  Boone stood and rubbed the back of his neck, taking his time to look around. When he spoke, he was much calmer. "I know what we have. I took an inventory last night. Our priorities are water, food, and shelter so we can stay alive long enough to get home."

  I shook my head and shifted around, trying to find a comfortable position.

  "You disagree?" Boone asked. He looked surprised and genuinely interested in my reaction.

  It was a shame he had ticked me off so badly. I glanced him over from head to toe, paying special attention to his shoes. "I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter if I disagree."

  "If there is a legitimate reason—"

  "What possible reasons could I have? It's obvious you know what you're doing. Go for it."

  He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, but he sat back down across the dying fire from me. "This isn't going to work," he said at last. He looked tired.

  I tried to pull my frustration and sarcasm down to simmering levels. "It will if we work together."