Portal

by Fred Alvrez

  “He’s got us this far. I’m sure he’ll get us to Raglan.”

  The trio hit the road.

  As Nathan got to the top of the hill a little north of Taupo, he stopped the truck in the middle of the road at an intersection.

  “What’s wrong?” Casey asked.

  “Nothing’s wrong, just wondering. With all the crashed trucks on State Highway 1, we might be better off turning left here and taking the back road to Hamilton. Less traffic and less chance of having to avoid crashes.”

  “Mmmm,” Casey replied. “Part of me wants to stay on the main highway for safety, though. Then again, that might mean we meet up with the army trucks you saw.”

  Nathan nodded. “My thoughts exactly. Kev, what do you think?”

  “Main road for me. The army guys might have thought exactly like us and taken the back road to save time. If they are still in front of us, of course.”

  “That’s a good point,” Casey said. “I’m switching my answer to the main road.”

  Nathan released the park brake and accelerated away. “State Highway 1 it is, then.”

  “Nate,” Casey said, “are you okay to drive? You didn’t get much sleep last night, you said. I’d hate for us to crash because you started to snooze.”

  “I’m too wound up to sleep. Shooting someone does that to you.”

  As Nathan drove, Casey closed her eyes. After last night’s events—I was shot!—and then talking to a dog today, she was pretty worn out herself.

  At least she could have faith in Nathan. Touching his arm on the walk to her truck showed glimpses of his life, with the majority in the last seventy-two hours. She saw nothing to give her the impression he couldn’t be trusted. Interestingly, she saw nothing in his future, like she had with Flynn. She hoped that didn’t mean what she thought it might mean.

  But what to do after Raglan? If Nathan’s brother wasn’t there—he’s not, let’s be honest—then should she let the two continue with her to the Far North? There was safety in numbers, sure, but what if…what if…Casey couldn’t think of any what ifs.

  She drifted off to sleep in her seat.

  Brian leaned over the hood of the Land Rover and peered into the engine bay.

  “Corporal Phillips, how long until this vehicle is fixed?”

  “Not sure, sir. Looks like something in the ignition has gone. There’s no spark, sir.”

  “Okay, well, take another hour tops, then if we can’t fix it, we transfer the test equipment from this Land Rover and spread it around the other two. We can’t afford to waste much more time here.”

  “Yes, sir. I think we really need to get a new coil. Not that we can easily, but we passed an auto parts shop not too far back, sir. It would be worth trying.”

  Brian checked his watch. “Leave it with me, Corporal. I’ll get one organized.”

  “Thank you, sir. If there’s more than one type, grab a bunch. One should get us going again and it’s only minutes to change it over.”

  He left the corporal to work on the vehicle, and walked towards Sergeant Kahi and the rest of his team.

  This was unplanned and unexpected, and was putting a big dent in their timetable. Moving the test gear around was never a good idea, but they needed to get going. They’d already spent two hours broken down. The problem wasn’t caused by TIGER, but any time delays always caused anxiety with the project team.

  Some of the team always found a way to link anything unexpected to TIGER.

  Brian kicked himself for deciding they’d camp overnight at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. They should have picked somewhere with more shops and things, just in case something like this happened.

  He found the sergeant and the other soldiers fifty yards north of the Land Rovers, eating wild blackberries at the side of the road.

  Brian grinned as he approached them. They might be mean, tough, do-anything-for-him soldiers, but to see them all with purple lips made him smile. They were men, doing their job, and having a feed.

  “Sergeant Kahi, you and I have a mission.”

  “Yes, sir. Coming, sir.”

  “The rest of you men, as you were. Not much else you can do but wait and eat.”

  “Yes, sir,” the trio said in unison.

  The soldiers returned to eating blackberries.

  The two men walked on the highway, back to the convoy.

  “Where to, sir?”

  “Phillips says we passed a car parts shop not far back. He needs a new coil for the Land Rover, and we are going to get one for him.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  The pair took a Land Rover from the remaining two, turned it around, and headed south.

  Casey slowly opened her eyes. It was a short nap, but a powerful one. She stretched her arms out, until the pain made her stop.

  “How are you feeling, Casey?” Nathan asked.

  “Hungry, but not for that junk food in the back seat. Why don’t we stop at a café or something; see if we can find real food? I’d kill for a burger.” She looked to the back seat. “Kevin, what do you say?”

  Kevin, standing on the back seat, wagged his tail rapidly. “I concur! Food, please, Nathan.”

  “Food it is. Keep your eyes open for somewhere…I was going to say open, but since it all went to hell at 3:00 a.m., that’s unlikely.”

  Kevin stuck his head between the front seats. “Some McDonald’s are open twenty-four hours.”

  Nathan looked into the rearview mirror. “I’m not sure I’d count McDonald’s as real food, Kev.”

  “There it is, sergeant. Let’s pull in around the back. It might be easier to get in through the back door. I want to avoid smashing windows if we can.”

  While it made no difference to anyone in this world—because there wasn’t anyone but them—Brian still found it hard to simply smash his way through to get any supplies like this. It felt so wrong.

  Kahi drove the car around the back of the JET gas station and ended up at the rear door of the attached car part shop.

  “Where do you want me to stop, sir?”

  “Line up the back of the vehicle with the back door. I’ll attach a chain to the door, you pull forward, and the door should come off.”

  “Roger that, sir.”

  Kahi reversed up to the door, then Brian got out and retrieved a chain from the back of the Land Rover. He hooked it around the door handle, and then back to the tow hook on the Land Rover.

  “Forward slowly, Sergeant.”

  The Land Rover inched forward.

  “Come on, door. I want you to break and not the handle.”

  The Land Rover pulled the tension up, and the door creaked. Brian stepped away for safety just as the door popped off its hinges.

  Brian stood, waiting for the alarm to go off. He peeked inside—total darkness. He assumed the power was off. Only one way to find out.

  He stepped inside the rear of the shop, as Kahi stepped out of the Land Rover.

  No alarms rang out, and the rear of the shop was pitch black except for the light coming in through the doorway. He got his army-issue torch out and scanned the shelves as Sergeant Kahi joined him.

  “Shall I go and look in the shop itself, sir?”

  “No, I think I’ve found them here, and look—”

  Kahi put his hand up in a halt motion. “Sir!”

  “Yes, Sergeant?”

  “Listen. I’m sure I can hear a car.”

  Kevin pointed with his paw. “Look, a JET. Anyone want to stop and check for a portal?”

  Nathan looked over at the JET. It was a familiar sight for him now, and gave him some comfort. But they didn’t have any real need to stop.

  “Not me. Like Casey, I’m hungry for real food. And since you can talk, we don’t need to find a portal right now. Casey?”

  “I’m with you. Unless, Kevin, you want to go in?”

  “No, just a thought. We’ve spent so long during our drive looking for JET gas stations I keep spotting them. All good.”
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br />   The trio passed the JET.

  Brian stopped what he was doing and listened carefully.

  This was crazy—they were the only ones there, and the other Land Rover would not have been driven back this way.

  “Sergeant, I don’t hear a thing.”

  “Me either, sir. I could have sworn I heard a car, but likely it was nothing. Is that the part we need?”

  “I’m not sure,” Brian answered. “He said bring all of them. There are three different sorts here, so let’s take them all.”

  Brian grabbed the three coils. “You thirsty? I could go a drink from the gas station.”

  “Me, too, sir. A bottled water would go down well.”

  “Let’s see if we can find a door directly into the gas station from the shop.”

  The pair walked toward the front of the shop.

  “There, look.” Kahi pointed to a door with a This way to the JET sign on it.

  They walked through it, and straight to the drinks fridge.

  Brian got a can of Coke, opened it, and started chugging it down. He looked over Kahi’s shoulder to something that caught his eye.

  “What the? Look over there,” he said, pointing toward the restrooms. “It’s a fucking portal—in a JET!”

  “I’m not sure it is, sir. Too small.”

  The pair walked toward it.

  “Kahi, this is a portal. I’d bet my life on it. After the tests we’ve been through, this is just a smaller version of our ones. How the hell did it get in here? Another glitch?”

  “I’m not sure, sir, but I expect the project team leads are going to want to know about this one.”

  Kahi bent down more to get closer to its center. Like the one they walked through in Trentham, it was round and vertical but far smaller.

  “Stu—careful, mate. We don’t know what the hell this really is. It could be dangerous.”

  “I’m going to put my head in for a look.”

  “We can’t do that. We have no idea what its capabilities are. It could kill you on the spot.”

  “I have to do it, Brian. Wiremu might be in there.”

  Brian’s heart sank. It was the first time in three years Kahi had called him by his first name. He now knew there was no stopping him doing this. “I understand. But think of the risks. This is so fucking dangerous. We don’t know what we’re messing with here.”

  “I know. But I don’t have a choice. If you want to stop me, your pistol is going to be the only way.”

  Kahi started to push his head into the portal inch by inch. Brian watched in amazement. For the main portals, you simply walked through it, and yet here in front of him Kahi’s head was disappearing.

  After thirty seconds, his head was completely inside the portal. Brian could see his neck moving, so guessed he was still alive and turning it to see something.

  Sergeant Kahi withdrew his head.

  “Well? What was in there?”

  “It was Base World, I’m sure of it. I could see people buying things in this JET. I’d guess the time was about the same. No one seemed to see my head or hear me when I called out. It’s a glitch all right, but nothing dangerous.”

  Brian exhaled, not even realizing he had been holding his breath. “Okay, well, that’s sort of good. Nothing to worry about. I’m sorry you didn’t see Wiremu. But it has been three years.”

  “He could still be alive, sir, somewhere.”

  “Indeed he could.” Brian knew it was almost impossible that Wiremu would still be alive.

  The men walked back out through the car parts shop, picking up the coils as they went. They climbed into the Land Rover and headed north, back toward the rest of the team.

  On the way, Brian couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Sergeant Kahi, you understand our orders if we see Wiremu?”

  “Yes, sir. Shoot on sight.”

  “And you believe you could do this? If you had to?”

  “I’m a soldier, sir. I follow orders. It’s my job.”

  Brian looked over at Kahi. His knuckles were hard around the steering wheel, turning white. This was not an easy topic for either of them.

  “If we did see him, you wouldn’t have to do it. We both know how unlikely it is he’s alive, but if we had to follow orders, you wouldn’t have to be the one to actually follow through.”

  “He’s my nephew, sir. I believe I should be the one to carry that order out.”

  “Very good.”

  Brian slumped back into his seat. Yeah, right.

  “Nate,” Kevin said. “There’s a café on the right. Looks good.”

  Nathan looked over to see a café as they passed through the farming town of Tirau. It was made of corrugated iron and shaped like a big border collie—and painted black and white.

  “Any special reason you picked that one?”

  “Of course not. It just caught my eye.”

  “Yeah, right. Okay then, border collie café it is.”

  Nathan pulled up outside, and they exited Casey’s truck.

  The three of them stood at the front door.

  “I remember watching one program on Discovery Channel about Fort Knox,” Kevin said. “I think this is locked up better.”

  Nathan nodded. “Those are some pretty tough-looking locks all right. I’ll grab the sledgehammer. Maybe we should head around the back to take a look.” He went back to the truck to get the tool.

  “You guys brought a sledgehammer?” Casey asked.

  “Best find ever, Casey,” Kevin said, grinning.

  The three walked around to the rear door.

  “Oh, this is much better. This will be no trouble for Daisy.”

  Casey turned to Nathan. “Who’s Daisy?”

  Nathan smiled. “Our sledgehammer, of course. She’s got to have a name.”

  Casey rolled her eyes, but she had to admit the small sledgehammer made short work of the lock. Two good hits and they were inside.

  They strolled around the commercial kitchen, and Casey and Nathan picked up things they wanted to eat. Stainless steel refrigerators lined the walls and gas cookers filled the center of the room.

  Nathan lit one of the burners. “There’s still power and gas here. Casey, why don’t we actually cook some food up? Might be our last chance for a while. We could have a real feast.”

  “Why not? I’m already over all the gas station junk food. And I see some bananas and apples there. We could take those with us.”

  Kevin was drooling, and pacing back and forth. “Whatever we do, can we do it soon? I’m starving here. And sorry, but I won’t be much help other than eating it.”

  Nathan and Casey got to work cooking up burgers with all the fixings.

  They got juice out from the fridge, napkins, and the fanciest plates they could find.

  “Is it far away?” Kevin asked. “These smells are driving me crazy. Dogs have pretty powerful noses, you know.”

  “Nearly there,” Nathan answered. “Hang in there, buddy.”

  In a few minutes, everything was taken out to the large wooden tables in the dining area.

  Casey carried out a plate from the kitchen. “Kevin, I cooked you up a plate of burger patties. Hope that’s okay?”

  Kevin was drooling again. “You know me already, Casey. Thanks.”

  “Uh, where do you want it? On the table or on the floor? I’m so sorry for asking.”

  “On the floor is fine. I don’t want to gross you guys out while I eat.”

  The trio tucked into their meals.

  “I’m trying to eat slowly and enjoy this, but it’s not easy,” Casey said in between bites. “We’re going to have to try and eat better than chips and dip for breakfast. Have you guys just been eating gas station food the whole time?”

  “Mostly,” Nathan answered. “But that was because we were spending lots of time in gas stations. You’re right, though; we need to eat better. This is so good.”

  Meals over, Nathan lay down on the bench seat on his side of the table, and Casey did the same
on her side. Kevin lay down on the floor and nodded off.

  Staring up at the ceiling, Casey spoke. “Nate, you know I’m a plumber. Well, I was a plumber. What was your job, you know—before?”

  “Nothing as glamorous as a plumber. I worked on an IT helpdesk at a government department. It was boring as hell and I was in a rut. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Still don’t.”

  There was a pause in conversation before Casey answered. “Helpdesk. I wouldn’t have picked that for you.”

  “What would you have said?”

  “I don’t know—something with your hands? You seem pretty good with stuff.”

  Nathan grinned. “Except shooting a pistol.” He was at the point he felt he could joke about it with her now.

  “Yeah, you suck at guns. Let’s hope we have no need for one anymore. Until we get back, of course.”

  “Casey?”

  “Yes?”

  “What if we don’t get back? Almost every hour I’m thinking about how we are going to get back. What if there’s no way back? What if we’re stuck in this world forever? We don’t actually know yet how we will get back at all.”

  Silence filled the room, at a time of day when the café would normally be packed with hungry tourists.

  “I’ve been thinking about that, too. Trying not to, but can’t help it. Honestly, Nate, I don’t know. I think when—I mean if—we get to that point, we make plans then.”

  “You said we make plans. Does that mean you don’t mind a couple of hangers-on for a while?”

  “I’m okay with it. More than okay, really.”

  His heart jumped at this news. “That’s good to hear. And, hey, sorry for bringing you down. It’s really good to talk to someone about it. It’s been burning away at me for a while.”

  “Talk any time. I think it’s going to be the only way to get through this. Whatever this is.”

  Kevin rose up quickly, and went straight to the windows facing the road.

  “Nate, Casey. Quiet.”

  “What’s up, Kev?”

  “There’s a car coming.”