by Fred Alvrez
“I don’t believe it! Apples! Oranges! For two years I’ve worried about my health, eating crap foods and drinking water from the tap.”
“How come you didn’t get scurvy or something like that?”
“I’ve been eating muesli with bits of dried fruit in it. I think that’s all that saved me.”
Wiremu tucked into his food. “You know what this means? They’ve run another test, and there’s been another glitch. That’s why you are here. It also means the chances of the portal appearing have just gone up a thousand percent. Finally, I might get home.”
“What about me? Can I come with you? How do I get back to my world?”
“You can come with me if it appears, but it might take you to New Zealand. Mind you, the portal I entered brought me here. Who knows where we might end up? If the program code that made this portal glitch is still in place and not altered, then hopefully we will end up back where I started. It was at a JET as well, but in Taihape.”
Amy sat, mulling over her options. Stay here on her own maybe for years, or go to New Zealand and try and find her way back—but maybe be in the real world, back with her boyfriend and normality.
“Corporal—”
“Please, it’s Wiremu.”
She smiled. “Wiremu, if the portal appears and we go in it, would we end up in this world or the real world?”
“The real world is called Base World. We’d end up in this world, if the last glitch is anything to go by. The military calls this TIGER World, after the project name. But then we could go through the proper portal to get back to Base World. So yes. Maybe.” He went on devouring his fruit, eating a mandarin.
The sun started to go down outside. Amy looked out, trying to decide what to do.
“Does it hurt to go through the portal? Is it dangerous?”
Wiremu continued to eat. “Not at all. It’s instant. It’s almost perfected now. Well, I say that, but here you are. I have no idea how you got here, Amy. The whole system is tied down to your DNA, so by all rights, it’s impossible for you to be here.”
“Well, hopefully we’ll find out how once we get back. How long does the portal stay there for? Is it only a few seconds?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know how long the one I went into was there for. But when I popped out here three years ago, I went outside to see where I was. When I came back in, it had gone, and I’ve been waiting ever since. The main ones are there for as long as we want them open. We can control those.”
Amy stretched her legs out. Decision made: she was going through the portal. If it appeared.
“Wiremu, in Base World you’ve been gone for three years. What do you think they told your folks?”
“I’m not sure. Probably Missing In Action. My uncle works on the same team as me, so he would have made sure nothing too bad has been said.”
She grabbed a nectarine from his hoard and started walking around the store. “How come you just went back to the supermarket and I guess for you the shelves have been restocked since it’s like a reset or something. And yet in here the shelves are still empty?” she said.
“I don’t know. All part of the glitch, I guess. Did you say your friend in New Zealand saw a portal at a JET?”
She walked over and grabbed one of the bottles of water he had brought back. “Yes, she called it a shimmering thing but it sounds like she saw a portal.”
“And she’s alive, too?”
Amy slugged back some water. “Yes, we spoke over Messenger. She’s fine but stuck like me. Us, I mean.”
“Weird. Well, it looks like there’s something to do with JET and the glitches. I have no idea why, but it gives me more confidence that one will appear if we stay here. Shit, it’s so good to actually talk to someone.”
Amy looked at Wiremu, who had started eating a whole cucumber. She couldn’t imagine what he had been through; three years alone, with the potential for it to be forever. She wasn’t sure she could have done that. She would have taken a different way out.
“Wiremu, tell me about this project. Or at least as much as you are allowed to.”
“Well, I’ve told you far too much already. Three years alone will do that to a soldier. The project is called TIGER. It stands for Tactical Intercontinental Gateway Eliminating Resistance. It’s been going on for over thirty years, and we are nearly at the end. The theory is that we can create a portal, drive soldiers through it in trucks or tanks, move them to wherever we want, then they pop out through another portal and attack. The enemy wouldn’t even know we were coming or where we’d arrive. That’s pretty much it.”
Amy sat, mouth open. This was too incredible to believe, almost as impossible as it was to think he had been sitting here waiting for the last three years. “And this was started in New Zealand, or somewhere else?”
“Yes, New Zealand. A famous scientist from the 1920s came up with the basic theory, can’t remember his name. And it works. Well, except for these glitches, I guess. But it’s more likely those are down to a programmer’s error.”
“And are these portals supposed to appear in other countries, like here?”
Wiremu shook his head. “Nope. Well, not as far as I know. We were doing what was to be the last test in New Zealand before we tried a portal exit in Australia. That was when I disappeared. I don’t expect they’d try an overseas one without testing out why I disappeared first. Or I may be wrong. Lots can happen in three years.”
“How on earth could they make them big enough to drive a truck through?”
“Well, they aren’t yet—we simply walk through them, but make sure we have transport already on the other side of the portal before they run the program. I have no idea how it all works really—I’m not a programmer or a physicist. But I do know they were looking to develop portals big enough to get an entire ship through. Imagine the edge that would give a country at war.”
“All this was happening in little old New Zealand, and we never knew?”
She could see Wiremu contemplating whether he should answer her or not, or what answers he could give her. “That’s right. No one knows except the prime minister and a few other high-level military people. Even our team was kept pretty small to lessen the risk of it getting out.”
“What do you think will happen if—I mean, when—you reappear in New Zealand? Will they be shocked?”
“Oh, for sure! No one has ever disappeared before, so this is a first, and so would be returning. I think they’ll be pretty excited to see me.”
The pair sat silently for a few minutes, with Amy deep in thought.
“Hang on,” she said. “If I sent a Facebook message to my friend and spoke to her this morning, why didn’t you just do that yourself three years ago? Why didn’t you contact someone in Base World and let them know you were alive?”
“I couldn’t—nothing worked. I tried the internet, cell phones, and even a landline. That’s the thing with the programming around this project. We were briefed that while traveling we might see funny little things, or things that don’t quite work right. We were to report them to the programmers, but if it didn’t affect the test we were on, it didn’t matter. So if the internet doesn’t work, it doesn’t stop us traveling from one portal to another, and that’s what the project is for. But you’re saying the internet is working now, so they’ve fixed some code somewhere, either by accident or they’ve decided they need the internet after all.”
“But this means you could contact your mum and dad right now.”
Wiremu sat there and thought about this.
“Maybe I could, but I think it’d be rough on them. Too much of a shock, and who’s to say they’d believe it? I think it’s better face to face. Anyway, if we died going through the next portal, it’d be pretty mean to get their hopes up that I’m alive and coming home, and then I don’t.”
“True. I hadn’t thought of that. Actually, I did try ringing everyone in my address book but they didn’t answer. The only person I could contact through Messeng
er was Casey, who is also in this world. Bugger.”
Amy sat there, annoyed with herself. She thought she had the answer, and now that option had gone. “Could you contact your team somehow? If they’re in this world, could you use the internet on my phone to get a hold of them?”
“We have to hand in our phones before we go through the portal. It’s part of the rules around being on the test.”
They were out of options. There was only one choice left.
“Wiremu, if it’s okay with you, I’ll come back with you if the portal shows up. But that means me not leaving this store either. But I need some food, too, and some blankets. I’ll shoot over to the supermarket and see what I can find. Can I get you anything?”
“Chocolate, please. I haven’t had any for so long I’ve forgotten what it tastes like. I forgot when I grabbed some fruit. There are blankets in the supermarket, right down the back on the left.”
“Thanks. I’ll be back soon. Yell out if you see the portal.”
Amy got up and left the JET. On the way to the supermarket, she thought over her rash decision to wait with Wiremu. She didn’t know him at all, and who knew? Everything he was saying could have been a lie.
She might end up sitting there for years as well, waiting for nothing.
In the supermarket, she raced around and got her supplies and a couple of bottles of water. She wondered what else she’d need to go into the portal. Warm clothes? She had no idea. Going as fast as she could in case the portal appeared, her arms filled up quickly. Amy spied a trolley and grabbed it.
Returning to the JET, she saw Wiremu’s face crunch up. “You brought a freaking trolley full?”
“Well, yeah. We don’t know how long we will be here, do we? Could be years.”
Wiremu stood, hands on his hips, and surveyed her booty.
“Pillows? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“We can’t all be tough soldiers, sleeping on the floor you know. I like some comfort.”
Wiremu tutted at her while poking at her trolley full of stuff. “And a blow-up mattress? The floor’s not that hard.”
“I don’t even want to go there. I’ve got my mattress and pillow. I brought a spare pillow for you, you know. I saw you haven’t got one.”
“Uh-uh. I’d lose my man card with the guys if they saw that.”
“I won’t tell.”
“No way.”
She looked at Wiremu. His eyes told a different story.
“And you are going to sit there all night blowing up that mattress, huh?”
“Nope, I got a foot pump, too.”
Wiremu rolled his eyes.
Amy got the chocolate out from under her blow-up mattress and gave it to him. “I didn’t know if you wanted white or dark, so I got both. And here.” Amy threw him a plastic bag. “You might want to change into something clean—uh, fresher, than what you have on.”
“Thanks. I should have thought of clean clothes when I went over before. My mind has been so set on staying here and waiting, I’ve sort of lost some common sense.”
He opened the bag. “Amy! This is a ’70s disco fancy dress outfit! I’m not wearing that.”
“It’s just about all they had, and, Wiremu, if I’m going to stay here you need to get rid of those stinking coveralls. I could have brought back the Village People’s Native American outfit, so count yourself lucky.”
Wiremu eyed Amy, then the disco outfit, then Amy again.
“But—”
“No buts. Those coveralls you have on can almost walk out the door on their own. I have some standards.”
Wiremu frowned and then sighed. “I guess we might be here long enough for these to wear out anyway.”
“That’s the spirit, soldier.”
He started to undress.
“Wiremu!”
He looked at her sheepishly. “Sorry! Remember no one else has been here but me. I totally forgot.”
Wiremu took the clothes and went into the men’s restroom.
When he returned, he was almost like a new man. A disco man. A tight shirt and even tighter pants left little to Amy’s imagination.
“Woo hoo. Looking sharp, brother!”
“Cut that out or I’ll go put the coveralls back on.”
She looked closely. “Hang on—are you going commando?”
“What, you think my underwear would last for three years? Fat chance.”
“Next time I go over to the supermarket I’ll find you some. I do think you should burn those coveralls you had on—they stink the place out.”
Wiremu laughed out loud. “Ha! They sure did. I think I was immune to them in the end, but I do remember after a month of wearing them I got a whiff. They were pretty ripe. They’re in the trash can now. You have your own toilet to use, so you won’t smell them. Hopefully.”
“I was going to grab some scissors for your hair and beard, but didn’t want to waste any more time over there, just in case. And the long hair suits your new outfit anyway.”
“Hmmph.” He started on his chocolate bar while Amy drank some more water.
It was full dark outside now, with the streetlights showing a lot of nothing moving. Wiremu went to the wall switch and turned the light on, his clothes making a swishing noise as he walked. “I haven’t done that for years. At nighttime, I’d sit in the dark.”
“How did you get on? I don’t see any books you’ve read.”
“I read all the magazines here and all the books in the supermarket. I took the books back and swapped them as I finished them. Actually, I learnt a lot. I read most of the books six times each. And I’ve got a pack of playing cards. I’m awesome at solitaire.”
Wiremu grinned, and she returned it.
Amy stood and removed the mattress from its packaging, along with the foot pump. She got to work. “Okay, I need to know something,” she said while pumping. “Let’s say anytime now this portal appears. What do I do? Is there any trick?”
“Nope. You simply walk through it. When your whole body is through, then you appear on the other side. If you open your eyes before you are fully through, it’s like a white light you see. Not blinding, but not comfortable either. But Amy, this is a glitch we’re talking about. I can’t guarantee it will work, or where we’ll end up, or if we’ll even survive going through it.”
She stood still, looking at him.
“I don’t have any choice really. I don’t want to be alone here.”
“Portal reentry it is, then. I’ll do my best to look after you. After all, it’s sort of my project that got you into this.”
“Who goes first?” she asked, still pumping
Wiremu laced his hands behind his head. “Doesn’t matter really. How about we go together, at the same time?”
“Yes. Thanks. And you have no idea why I’m here? Why am I still here and not my boyfriend instead, or my neighbor, or anyone else?”
“Nope, nothing. Once we get back I’ll talk to the captain. They’ll want to review every line of code, which will take a long time, but we need to know why this has happened.”
“Do you have any kids, Wiremu? Ones that might freak if they see you?”
“No—single guy. That’s the preference for members of the project, for obvious reasons. But my mum and dad will be so happy to see me. We’re really close. My uncle, too—he’s like a second father to me.”
Amy stopped pumping, her air mattress all ready. She pushed it into position and yawned. This had been a hell of a day. She got up to go brush her teeth with the toothbrush and paste she got from the supermarket.
She returned to find Wiremu under his blankets with his head on a pillow, facing away from her. “So. Still got that man card, then?”
“Totally. Don’t tell any of the guys, okay?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Amy got her bed on the floor organized, walked over and turned the lights out, and crawled under the blanket.
In the darkness, Wiremu called out quietly. “Amy?
”
“Yes?”
“I can’t believe after three years I didn’t think of grabbing a pillow. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Least I could do.”
Daylight streamed through the shop windows. Amy opened one eye. Yup, it was no dream. She’d slept in a gas station for the night.
She shivered. Looking down at the floor, she noticed that the mattress had deflated overnight.
“So it was a budget blow-up mattress, then?” Wiremu said from his side of the shop.
“It was the only type they had. And good morning to you, too.”
“Amy, it was almost a surreal experience having a pillow last night. Thanks again.”
She laughed. “As surreal as sleeping in a gas station?”
“Hey, don’t knock my home. It’s been—”
“Wiremu!”
“Yep?”
“Look.”
Amy pointed to the corner behind him.
A portal had appeared.
Chapter Thirteen
Nathan sat bolt upright, searching for his holster in the moonlight coming through the window. He found it, pulled the gun out, felt for the safety catch, and flicked it off.
“Stay here,” Nathan whispered. “I’ll take a look. Actually, why don’t you take a look? You’re much lower so less chance of being seen.”
“I think he’ll hear my claws clicking on the floor,” Kevin said quietly.
“Okay. Me then.”
Nathan spied through the doorway of the staff room into the shop. In the light coming from the drinks cabinets, he could see a dark shape slowly moving among the shelves.
Carefully looking out to the forecourt, Nathan spotted the same black SUV that had passed them in Waiouru shining under the harsh fluorescent lights of the forecourt.
The government tracked us here?
Suddenly the pistol felt very necessary.
He carried it in front of him, moving carefully out of the staff room without making a noise so he wouldn’t be penned into the room. He saw the man stop by the drinks fridge, open it, and take out an energy drink.
