"Okay. What survival training do you have?"
Training? "Um, I've gone camping with my partners."
Boone's face looked strained.
My response was to give him a warm smile and say, "Twice."
His hands balled up and flexed a few times. "Okay," he said, "where do you think we should start?"
I had to give him props for his attitude, so I replaced the large, fake smile with a smaller, but much more real one. "We're better off than we were before. I know you have some sort of survival skills, and you know I have none."
Boone nodded.
It looked like he was having a hard time forming his next question, so I went ahead and beat him to it. "What I was going to suggest is to take a full stock of what we have."
"I told you I already checked," Boone said.
"You did, but you were looking for survival stuff, right?"
"And you're looking for?"
"My first thought is to comb through our supplies and check carefully for metal. Did you look for metal?"
Boone looked surprised. "I didn't."
"Yeah, I guessed that. But I thought I'd be nice and ask."
"The bag was specifically meant to be used for gremlin patrols, right?" Boone pulled the bag over to him.
"Yep. Plastic zippers and snaps."
While I watched him paw through the bag, I felt a little smug, but I let him go through it all the same.
"We dumped the metal shavings. It doesn't look like there's any other metal in the bag. What I also don't see is more than a liter of water or much in the way of food. I'm suggesting we get the lay of the land and start to find those things."
It was obvious he thought he might have overlooked something, and now, once again, he thought he was right and I was wasting time.
I sighed. "We have more than what's in the bag."
Chapter 7
Boone sat the bag down and patted his pockets.
"Your shoes," I said, putting an end to my game. "When we run into any gremlins, they're going to swarm you. If you want to get by unscathed and keep your feet warm, you're going to have to take the metal out of your boots."
Boone let out a sharp burst of air and shook his head. "You're right."
"We should both check our clothes for any signs of metal as well. Zippers, snaps, anything."
While he looked himself over, I did a quick inventory of my own clothes, wanting to make sure I caught anything before he did. Luckily, I had answered a few gremlin calls in the past year, so I had come prepared.
There was probably a way I could have made myself useful, but I laid down. While Boone worked on pulling the metal lace holes out of his boots, I fell asleep.
When he woke me, I was thirsty, but I felt much better than I had that morning.
"How long have I been asleep?" I asked.
"About an hour, but it's hard to tell here."
I nodded. "We have water, right?"
Boone handed over the bottle.
"How much should I drink?" I asked.
"What?" Boone asked.
"How much should I drink? You're Mr. Survival. I'm hoping you know how to ration."
"No more than an inch."
I nodded and drank, handing the bottle back to him. "No more metal in your clothes?"
"None. You?"
"I'm good."
"What about your, um…" Boone pulled at his shirt.
"What are you, twelve? You can say bra. It's an item of clothing like anything else."
Boone grinned, but didn't say anything.
"There's no metal in this one."
Boone only nodded. "That's fortuitous."
"Not exactly. I did mention this wasn't the first time I've been around gremlins, right?" I could feel my face turn red from the memory and turned away.
"You mentioned that, yes."
"Last winter I broke my leg. The office had been dealing with the gremlins for more than a month by the time I went on my first call."
The look on Boone's face was almost worth the story. I could tell he knew where this was leading, and he was trying not to smile.
My own smile started to come out, despite the blush. "That time, I had wire in my bra."
He snorted and I continued, pretending to ignore it. "Needless to say, the gremlins were very excited to get their hands on something beyond the metal shavings we were using to catch them."
"They took your bra?" Boone asked.
"Yes." I took a deep breath, knowing my face couldn't get any redder. "But they had to get to it first, so they took the shirt."
He laughed, and I could see his own cheeks reddening.
"What did your partners do?" he asked.
"Logan dumped the shavings into a pile, which distracted most of them. Rider just picked them up one at a time and held them up, taking pieces of my clothes back before using the plastic zip strips on them."
Boone laughed again and I couldn't help but join him.
"After that day, I've been very careful about what I wear at work. We get calls all the time for the gremlins." That sobered me up. We used to get calls, but the portal was closed now.
I looked at where the portal should be, and as Boone followed my gaze, his laughter died away. He didn't look aggravated or upset anymore at least.
"I'm sure the whole office was more careful after that," Boone said.
"You'd think so," I said. "But someone else wore jeans a month later. I got off lucky."
Boone chuckled again.
I tore my eyes away from the portal and looked around. "Okay, metal is out of the way. Did you keep hold of it?"
"I put it into one of the plastic containers the metal filings were in."
"Good idea. I'm sure we'll want to use it sooner or later. What do you think we should do next?"
He still smiled, but I saw the uncertainty in his eyes.
"It's fine," I said. "We need to work together, which means we consult each other. As long as we treat each other as equals and don't start ordering one another around, I think we'll be fine."
"I'll do my best," Boone said.
"Don't worry, when you slip up, you can count on me to point it out."
He laughed again. "Well, I doused the fire. You're right about that. If we can help it, we shouldn't start one. Last night was a special circumstance."
"Special circumstance?"
"Well, I had a virtually unknown, comatose woman with me. I wasn't sure how you'd react if you woke up with a stranger watching you in the dark."
I thought that over. "That was probably a wise course of action."
Boone nodded. "Now, I think it's time to find water and scout the area."
I nodded, but I didn't feel good about the idea of splitting up. "How does this work?"
"That's a good question. I'm not sure if we should leave the area unattended."
"Do you think they'll get someone else to reopen the portal?"
He looked uneasy with the question and didn't answer right away. "Opening portals is a pretty rare gift. It may take them a while to find someone."
"I hope Dempsey and Walden are locked up in tight cells."
"Do you think they will be?" He watched me carefully again, as though he was ready to weigh my answer.
"I think the longer we're trapped here, the more pissed off my partners are going to be."
"That's true." The thought seemed to unsettle Boone.
"You look worried. Don't be. Logan's not going to let anyone kill Dempsey or Walden. He'll keep the others in line." I thought about that a little further. "Well, in line may be stretching it."
"The problem is when they returned to the office, they only have Dempsey and Walden's word for what happened."
My stomach sank. "But I don't think they can say anything to convince my partners not to come looking for me."
Boone shrugged. "I don't know them well yet, but I hope you’re right."
Could they say anything that would stop my partners from trying to get me ba
ck? Thoughts raced around my head.
"Don't worry about it now," Boone said. "You'll drive yourself crazy. But be on your toes when we get back. We can't assume the others will know what happened or that they will take our word for it."
"Do you think Dempsey and Walden will try to convince them the portal can't be reopened?"
"I doubt it. I think with enough power, used the right way, any portal can be reopened. I don't know if they can transport much power to where the gremlins break out, but there may be other ways."
That should have made me hopeful and it would have if Boone had sounded even remotely convinced.
"So, one of us stays by the portal and the other looks for water?" I asked.
"For now. I'll go out first. If it opens, take your chance and leave. Make sure you yell as loud as you can first, though."
"You want me to leave you here?"
"Yes. Reopen it if you can find someone who will."
Yeah, if he thought I would leave without him… well, that wasn't going to happen, but I didn't say anything. "Should I check out the immediate area?"
"As long as you can still see the portal."
"Sure thing. Take the water with you."
"I could be gone for a while," Boone said.
"Good. You can bring some water back with you when you return."
Boone handed me the bottle first, and I took a drink before he left.
The sounds of the breeze and the forest were the only things I was left with. And the bag. Well, at least I could finally take inventory. Boone had a lot to learn before he and I were going to get along, but at least he was trying. The bag was a typical gear bag except for the weapons. Boone had been right, nothing metal remained in the bag, but we had a first-aid kit, paracord, a few power bars, and a few plastic containers, one of which held the metal from Boone's boots.
He should have taken it with him. Gremlins can swarm over someone even if they didn’t have metal. It's less likely, but they are enthusiastic little buggers.
Then I found the most wonderful commodity of all, tucked away in the first-aid kit. Caffeine pills. Someone must have kept me in mind and added them, just in case. It was tempting to take one now, but I beat down the idea and put them back in the first-aid kit.
With that done, I stood, stretched, and took in my surroundings. The woods were close, but I wasn't about to start there. Vincent's warning about always keeping a weapon on hand was still rattling around in my head. It's possible I should have let Boone know about my little affliction, but we were getting out of here soon, right? There was no need to tell him what he didn't need to know.
Besides, if I told him, he’s likely put it into an AIR file somewhere and I'd be benched or out of a job. There was no way I was going to let them stand me down for something I couldn't control.
Away from the woods in the other direction, a field stretched up a small rise. I moved up the small hill, but I consistently looked back to see the portal. It was surprising that the grass wasn’t high. The color struck me as interesting. When I had fallen through the portal yesterday, I had spotted it, but I had had other, more pressing issues on my mind at the time. The grass was a blue-green color instead of our typical green. I plucked a blade and twirled it around in my fingers, finding it was softer as well.
As the ground sloped upward, more of the meadow stretched out. The tree line was just that, a line. Roughly drawn, but the ground went straight from field to forest with no in-between. Standing this far back, I took the opportunity to look for movement in the woods, though with the steady breeze blowing, it didn't lead to results.
When I topped the rise, it didn't give me the view I had hoped for. Nothing would give me the view I had hoped for until I was back home, so it wasn’t like my surroundings here had much chance at wish fulfillment.
The land straightened out until it bumped into another stand of trees. Not quite the dense forest that we had slept by, but nothing that screamed civilization. I watched for a while, unsure of what I was looking for, then I gave up and went back to the campsite.
With this many trees, there had to be lots of water around. The wind blew light, but steady. Maybe between the two columns of trees this area acted as a wind tunnel. It was hard to tell.
Looking up, the sky was a bright blue color that I'd never really seen at home—Not in the United States. At least the sky was similar. I'm not sure I could have handled a red sky or something along those lines.
I stood back at our puny camp, unsure of what to do. We had nothing. Each time I had gone out with Logan, Rider, and Vincent, they had packs filled with what seemed like hundreds of odds and ends that they had deemed necessary to bring.
How do you do this with nothing?
A void began to build in my stomach. I swallowed hard and tried to focus on what I could do and what we did have. Well, at least what I could do, since we had almost nothing I could work with.
The only thing I could do was read. Maybe making an attempt at Reading the Path would tell us something. At the same time, saving my energy for an emergency might have been a better idea.
Wait, we're living the emergency. I shook my head and closed my eyes. When I stretched to the edge of my mind, I stopped for a moment, taking in the state of my soul. If we were here for much longer, I'd have to warn Boone about that, at least. If something else managed to gain control of my body, we'd both be in big trouble. He hadn't said it since last night, but I was sure he still didn't trust me. If I attacked him or started speeding around the woods looking like I was on meth, it might cause an issue.
Everything looked fairly normal. Normal for my soul, anyway. Since our fight with Einar more than a month ago, there had been less activity. It felt like there were fewer shards of soul than there had been before. It felt like my own personal shards were there for the most part, but some of the others had been taken and released.
Maybe, I wouldn't have to tell Boone. I'd love to force them to stay settled down, especially the minotaur soul, but there was no consciousness there. Only tiny shards of essence that had once belonged to another person.
Satisfied my soul was in the best shape it could be, I stretched into the Path. Since I had been intent on my soul, jumping into the Path felt like a punch to the stomach. A roaring tide greeted me, and every muscle tightened as though the weight of the Path were slamming physically into me.
It burned through energy too fast. I did what I could to dam up the flow, but it wasn't enough. Not wanting to get worn down this early in the day, I took a quick look around. The irregular flow of energy had me baffled. How do you read this mess?
I went to the portal, knowing Boone would want to know what we were left with. It was the same as yesterday. A hint of the circular portal was all the Path remembered. A white glow with beads of energy that looked ready to be set into motion. Knowing how hard it was to get those little suckers moving, I didn't bother trying.
Maybe when I had saved all my energy I could try again.
Knowing the longer I stared at it, the more power I burned, I looked around the woods, trying to see if I could find anything else of use. There were other Paths of a sort. Animals, maybe. They weren't the light colors of brown and green of our animals, which had very little thought beyond instinct. They still had that light, filmy look, but the colors were blues, yellows, and purples, and they shifted in quicker succession than I would normally see in our world.
I had no idea what lived out here. Shaking my head, I took one last look around. A solid swirl of color caught my eye. I itched to run over to it, but something told me a slow approach was better.
Cautiously, I walked a few yards and stopped. I rolled my shoulders and looked around. It felt like I was being watched. The Path wasn't that old and it was complex—something that a person might leave behind. Worried about moving any closer, I started to circle wide around the remnants.
Someone had stood there. Remembering the twig snapping last night, I wondered if that person had been there at
that time. An involuntary shiver ran through me, and I hastily looked around to see if anyone else was nearby, but there was nothing else.
My head started to ache, and I realized I had almost run through any meager energy reserves I had built up. The spot where the person had been should be easy enough to remember. There was a circle of trees where they had been standing. A few other landmarks stood out, so I studied the spot one last time and closed my eyes, ready to push away the Path.
The Path didn't want to be closed. When I struggled to push it back, it built up and overwhelmed my attempts. Knowing this could only mean trouble, trouble I wasn't sure I could get out of, anxiety sprung up along with the power of the Path.
My breathing increased and I moved to grip the side of a tree. I'm not sure what leverage the tree could give me, but I felt better grabbing the rough bark, almost as though it were an anchor, holding me to the spot.
Power buffeted me from all sides. Panicking wouldn't help, but that didn't mean I could stop it. I took a few deep breaths and thought of the meditations Vincent and I had tried. Remembering his voice, telling me to breathe in and out, slowly—the comforting timbre of his voice steadily moving me through me the process of reaching to the edge of my mind and back—it all helped.
I could practically feel him here with me.
After taking those few meditative breaths, I concentrated hard and shoved my way through the resistant Path.
When my mind snapped back to the real world, I sagged against the tree. There was no other noise apart from a small rustle here and there. I listened intently for a while, trying to let myself go numb, not daring to move until I knew I could stand on my own.
Even with him being gone, Vincent was able to help me. An empty feeling spread out inside that kept continuously reminding me he was gone. They all were. I was alone with a stranger in a world where I didn't belong. There was no help and no backup if my powers spun out of control.
In that moment, I was certain if we didn't find a way home soon, or if my partners didn't find their way to me, I would die here. And they would never know.
I slid to the ground and hugged my knees, allowing myself a few minutes to grieve what I might be losing. Logan, Rider, and Vincent, Gran and Mom, Gran's cat and my bunny, Hank and everyone at work. They were all gone.
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