Portal

by Fred Alvrez

  With more urgency, she pushed harder until her entire head was in there, and opened her eyes. She could see a few people walking around the same gas station she was in—or at least it looked like the same one.

  A man walked right past her head on the way to the restroom and didn’t even see her head near the floor.

  “Hey, you!”

  With not a single break in his step, the guy on the way to the restroom didn’t seem to hear her at all.

  The voyeur in her meant she kept her head in the hole longer than she should have until the pain from the pressure became unbearable. Slowly, she pulled her head from the shimmer, and with a pop she removed her head entirely.

  Casey almost fell to the floor. A huge sense of loneliness and solitude smacked her with full force. That was her normal world she had seen; she was sure of it. And she was stuck alone in this world, because…

  She had no idea why.

  The shimmer didn’t seem to answer any questions, and posed even more than she had to start with. Maybe it was in another time as well?

  She rubbed her temples. The endless not-knowing was a powerful energy suck.

  Looking up again, she saw that the shimmer wasn’t there anymore. It had vanished, just like her Mum.

  Maybe she had imagined it?

  Casey heard a familiar sound. She took her cell phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen.

  Someone had replied to her Facebook post.

  Chapter Five

  Nathan sat, mouth open.

  “This is crazy, Kevin. I thought you just spoke.”

  “I thought I did, too. Hang on, I did! Can you understand me?”

  “Yes, I can, and I think I wet myself.” Nathan looked down to check. It was totally possible, but luckily he hadn’t.

  “I wonder if that portal made it so I can talk English?”

  “I guess so,” Nathan answered. “I mean you couldn’t before and now you can. This is so freaky I can’t describe it.”

  Kevin sat slowly down on the floor. “Same for me. What’s your name? You already know mine.”

  “Nathan. But I’m guessing if I’m not dreaming this, you can call me Nate.”

  “Cool. So what now, Nate? Does this change anything?”

  “Well, other than you being able to talk, I guess not. That’s assuming you are okay with my plan about going to my brother’s place?”

  Kevin nodded. “I was always on board with that one. It seems like a good option. Can I have some more hot dogs, please?”

  “Sure, hang on.” Nathan got up and went to the hot dog machine. “Can you tell me about what happened? You know, yesterday morning when everyone disappeared.”

  “Well, it was like any other day. My owners put me on the porch to sleep for the night, and then when I woke up, they never came to feed me. Man, I was so hungry!”

  “Here you go.” Nathan dropped another three hot dogs down for Kevin, who was already drooling a little.

  “How about some mustard on them? I do like a bit of mustard.”

  Nathan walked back to the hot dog machine like a zombie. Dogs couldn’t talk, and yet there he was getting mustard for a border collie’s hot dogs. The weirdness of this new world had ramped up to a whole new level.

  Nathan squirted some mustard on for Kevin. “You were saying you were hungry?”

  “Oh yeah, I was starving. I even ate the cat’s food and I never do that.” Kevin wolfed down the hot dogs, and then lay down on all fours. “They just didn’t show. And I was still hungry after eating the cat’s food, so I thought it was time to try and break out of the porch. I had this weird feeling that something was up.”

  “Where was the cat?”

  “She was inside with my owners, so I guessed she still was. I didn’t really care. I never liked that cat. She was always getting me into trouble. So yeah, I ended up scratching the hell out of the porch door and managed to break the wire mesh stuff so I could get out.”

  “What did you do next?”

  Kevin tilted his head to one side, thinking.

  “I went out to the road, and you nearly killed me, remember?”

  “Uh, no—you nearly killed me, remember? I’m the one that took the fall.”

  “Well, we may have to agree to disagree on that one, Nate. Anyway, here we are chatting. This is so weird.”

  Nathan sat down on the floor. “Weird for me, too. What did you think about the portal, other than it made you talk?”

  “I don’t know—I could see people, and smell nice food smells, but I don’t think they could see us.”

  “Yeah, I yelled out loud to that mother and her daughter, but nothing. Do you think it’s our normal world that we should be in?”

  Kevin contemplated this. “I think so—who knows really, but it surely looked like it. What do we do now, Nate? Do we just stay here and keep trying to get back to our world, or keep moving?”

  “I’m not sure. I don’t want to leave the portal thing behind—it’s our only link so far to our normal world—but the pressure was so bad I don’t think it’s going to achieve much. I doubt I’d ever be able to get my body through that hole.”

  Kevin lifted a back leg and started scratching his ear. “Ditto. Even my smaller body was almost crumpling up under the pressure. Man, that was intense. So we keep going, then?”

  “How about we hang out here for a while and keep trying? Maybe we try and poke something hard through it that we can leave there and see if anyone sees it?”

  “Great idea! What about a can of drink? It’s round, so if it rolls on the floor in the other world, more of a chance someone will see it.”

  “They were right, Kev; you border collies are clever. That’s a brilliant idea.”

  After grabbing a can of soda from the refrigerator, Nathan sat down in front of the portal. He knew this was going to be painful again, but he also knew it had to be done.

  “You going to come through with your head?”

  “Not this time. Too much pain. You go for it.”

  Nathan started with the end of the can in his fingers, pushing with all his strength. Slowly, it went through the portal, followed by his fingers. When he was sure it was far enough, he released his fingers and pulled them out. Straight away, he started with his head again, desperately wanting to see what had happened to the can.

  Pushing harder and harder became more and more difficult. The pain was bordering on unbearable, but he needed to see where the can had gone.

  Eventually his eyes were through and he could see the can on its side on the floor, almost in the middle of the doorway to the restrooms. More people were in the gas station than before, and no one seemed to spy the can on the floor.

  Almost out of energy, Nathan hung in there until he saw someone seemingly step right through the can, and it didn’t move.

  He pulled his head out.

  “No good, Kev. Someone sort of kicked it with their foot, but their foot went through the can and it didn’t move at all. I don’t think they can see it, maybe because it’s from our world. I don’t know. I’m not a physicist.”

  Nathan saw Kevin slump. “Bugger. I was really hoping an entire object in that world would appear. What now? Do we still hang about?”

  “I think we should. After all that energy used up getting into that portal, I need to rest. I don’t want to drive right now. Why don’t we crash here for the night, and try and portal again tomorrow in case it changes?”

  “Okay, good idea. But you are assuming the portal will still be there.”

  “Oh yeah, didn’t think of that. Well, tomorrow will tell, then. I’m stuffed. Let’s get organized for an early night.”

  Nathan raided the gas station, finding some checkered travel blankets in the storeroom. They set up a small sleeping area in the shop with the blankets.

  Kevin went around in circles four times before he lay down on the floor to sleep.

  “Why do dogs do that, Kev?”

  “Do what?”

  “Go
around in circles before they lie down?”

  Kevin furrowed his brow. “I didn’t do that. Don’t know what you’re talking about. Hey, why don’t we just go to a motel? You humans don’t like sleeping on the floor; I know that.”

  “I don’t want to leave the portal in case it goes as soon as we walk out the door.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Kev, what’s it like being a dog? I may never get to ask this again. I’m guessing I’m the first person in the world to talk to a dog.”

  “It’s okay, I guess, as long as you get a good owner. I’ve chatted to some other dogs and they get treated really badly. Hey, I don’t have to go to work like you humans do, so it’s not all bad. I’ve seen people working on TV, and it looks like it sucks.”

  “Fair call, and yes, it does suck. So could you understand everything a human could say before? On the way here it seemed you knew every single word. Was it like that before?”

  He saw Kevin thinking. “Mostly it was ‘blah blah blah sit. Blah blah blah go to bed.’ After whatever it was that happened, I could understand everything much easier. Well, maybe only everything you say anyway. Until we meet someone else I won’t know. If we meet someone else.”

  “So how do you know stuff, like putting a can through the portal?”

  “My owners are—well, were—elderly, so they watched lots of the Discovery Channel. You can learn a lot as a dog watching that channel, you know.”

  Nathan lay under his blankets, contemplating a talking dog who loves the Discovery Channel. Silence reigned for a while. But Nathan had one last question he was dying to ask.

  “Kev, you still awake?”

  “I am now. What’s up?”

  “In the car today we were playing that game and you woofed when I said I’d meet a pretty girl and we’d settle down. Why did you woof at that?”

  There was silence before Kevin answered. “Actually, I don’t know. Part of me thinks because it was the last answer and I was bored.”

  “What about the other part of you? What does it think?”

  “My gut said it was the right answer, but I don’t know why, sorry.”

  “All good. Good night.”

  “Night, Nate.”

  Nathan lay still, sleepiness taking over him.

  A freaking talking dog.

  He wondered what tomorrow would bring.

  The sun rose early, and so did the pair, both eager to see if the portal was still there. It was, shimmering away silently.

  Nathan looked over at Kevin, who was lying on his side and stretching his legs out.

  “Morning Kev. How did you sleep?”

  “Woof. Woof?”

  Kevin suddenly looked dejected. He sat up.

  “Kev! Speak to me!”

  “Woof.”

  It was gone.

  Nathan sat up, cross legged. “No! That was the best part of yesterday, talking to you. Christ. There’s got to be a way to fix this, Kev. If the portal gave you the ability to talk yesterday, hopefully it can do it again today. Come on.”

  Kevin sat on his back legs in front of the portal, which looked exactly the same as the day before. Pushing hard while Nathan held his body, it took him longer than the day before to get his head through. After a minute of his whole head being in the portal, he withdrew it.

  “Far out, that hurt! Hey, I can talk!”

  Nathan relaxed his shoulders. “Excellent. Good to have you back, buddy.”

  “I wonder if I leave my head in longer, maybe that will allow me to speak English for longer?”

  “Or maybe it’s an overnight thing. I’m not sure what we should do now. How was it? Had anything changed?”

  “No, it was exactly the same as yesterday. The can of drink was still there, too.”

  The two sat, each thinking about different problems.

  “Even if you held your head in there for, say, ten minutes, who knows if that will give you speaking abilities for longer?”

  “Maybe not. I doubt I could hold my head in there for that long. One minute was almost too much.”

  “So what now? Do we leave and keep driving?”

  Kevin lay down on his stomach, torn by indecision. Nathan knew that Kevin’s ability to speak was too incredible for him to give up, but they couldn’t stay there forever.

  “I think we should go. I want to stay, but I know that’s not a long-term thing.”

  “Good on you, Kev. I know that must be a hard choice.”

  Gathering the blankets, Nathan put them in the trunk of the Tesla. With all the hot dogs gone, he got Kev some of the dog food from the trunk, and helped himself to cookies for breakfast from the gas station.

  Before leaving, they both naturally gravitated back to the portal—to see it had gone.

  “Well, Kev, I guess that made the decision for us anyway.”

  Kevin sat down with a sigh.

  “Yes, but I’m going to hate waking up tomorrow to find I can’t talk to you again.”

  “Ditto. Maybe it will come back to here tomorrow, or later today. We could always try stopping at more gas stations on the way to Raglan and see if we can find another portal.”

  “Excellent! I like that idea. Shall we hit the road?”

  The duo wandered out to the Tesla. Nathan looked up and down the state highway. No cars, no noise—he hadn’t even seen a bird yet since the world seemed to end.

  They motored out of Bulls, the pair silent in the car.

  “Nate,” Kevin said, looking over at his window. “Could you…”

  Nathan smiled. “Of course, buddy.” He thumbed the button to lower the window.

  Kevin stuck his head out and let his fur blow in the wind.

  Stopping at every gas station took its toll on time. Who knew where these portals could hide, or even if they’d ever find another one?

  The miles clicked by, with Nathan still driving around crashed trucks. He kept an eye on their range—only 100km left before they ran out of battery power. Maybe the Tesla wasn’t the best choice of car after all.

  “Kev, if you can’t talk tomorrow, I’ll keep checking every gas station anyway, okay?”

  “I’d appreciate that. I really want to keep up this talking thing.”

  “We’re gonna have to stop to charge up the car soon. We’re really low on power. I’m not even sure we’ll be able to find one, but I think I read they put an electric car charger in Waiouru a while ago. Let’s try for that.”

  “Sounds good, Nate, although I have no idea where Waiouru is anyway.”

  Passing through the small farming town of Taihape, Nathan pulled into the JET gas station.

  “Come on, Kev. This is the last one before Waiouru. It’s worth taking a look.”

  The pair went into the shop, taking separate paths to look for any sign of a portal.

  “Nate, over here!”

  Nathan went to Kevin who was by the drinks chiller. Looking down, he could see the same shimmering they had seen in Bulls.

  “Only one way to find out, Kev—I’ll stick my head in and see what’s up. Well, assuming it’s the same sort of portal and I can actually put my head in.”

  Nathan sat down on his knees, assuming the position. Feel the resisting force on his head, he tried to push through. He felt Kevin’s paws on his back, the dog trying to help by giving some downward force to his body.

  With much effort, he pushed his head through, and could instantly smell smells and hear talking and other everyday gas station noises. Turning his head slightly, he could see people at the till. He called out as he had in Bulls, but got the same response: nothing.

  He pulled his head out, hearing the now-familiar pop sound.

  “Well?” Kevin asked. “Anything different?”

  “It’s not the same portal. I mean, it’s not like I saw the can we had pushed through, but it’s the same in other ways—I could hear a roaring noise, and when I called out, no one turned.”

  “So you could see people?”

  “Yup, bu
ying stuff, but no one heard me.”

  Kevin sat down on his haunches.

  “I’d like to say that’s interesting, but it doesn’t help us much. Still, it does mean if I can’t talk tomorrow, at least we know there’s one more portal, and hopefully others, too.”

  “Yeah, totally. Anyway, let’s hit the road to Waiouru to charge the car.”

  The boys drove through the countryside toward Waiouru, dodging more crashed trucks on the road. State Highway 1 was obviously a major overnight trucking route.

  Kevin turned to Nathan. “How long will it take to charge the car fully?”

  “I have no idea. Never done it before. I’m praying that there’s a charger there, and power, too. Why?”

  “I’m wondering what we are going to do while it’s charging. Maybe go scavenging for food and load up the trunk? Or get a map and have a look at other options, in case your brother isn’t…around.”

  Since they’d left, Nathan hadn’t considered his brother disappearing. A worried look came across his face.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bum you out. But we just don’t know, you know?”

  “All good, Kev. Yeah, let’s find a map and take a look. I’m not even sure if gas stations have maps anymore.”

  As they drove into the army-base country town of Waiouru, Nathan spotted the bright orange electric-car charging station, and pulled in. Seeing some green lights on the charging unit, he assumed that at least there was power.

  Getting out, he had a look around the car. Spotting a fuel filler cap-looking thing on the car, he got back in and moved the car so that part was closer to the charger unit.

  Nathan got out, and felt stupid—he was holding the charging cord but had no idea what to do next. He moved closer to the filler cap thing, and it opened all on its own. Nathan plugged the cord in, the car made a bing sound, and the charging unit display read ‘Charging. Estimated time to fill, 45 minutes.’

  “Well, that’s that. Let’s go and check out the shop for maps.”

  After hopping out of the car, Kevin instead walked straight to the middle of the road and sat down. Nathan followed him.