"How much further?" Olivia asked.
"Not much," Noble replied. "I think it's just up ahead."
They were definitely close. Noble could feel it inside his mind, calling to him, pulling him onward. It was the first time in months that it had been this strong. Together they had checked out the smaller rifts as they cropped up and Noble had closed them, but this was different. This was a major breakthrough.
Olivia and Noble had met with the IDEA crew two nights ago to discuss this. Olivia still looked odd in her long coat and wide-brimmed hat and glasses. Sure enough, he had been right about Orval, though. Orval went on and on about how Olivia had broken the sex barrier and was the first human woman to be part of IDEA.
"I don't know what it means," Ezekiel said. "I can sense it, too, but I don't know if it means that the Void has awakened or if this phenomenon is just something that happens. We knew that it was likely to cause problems when we transported Orval and everyone else back to their home dimensions."
"Hey, don't blame me!" Orval protested. "I just wanted to get home and get some lovin' from my woman."
Orval winked at Olivia and then at Noble. Noble suppressed his smile.
"I think you should pay the area a visit," Shaw said. "Noble, we need to keep them closed as long as we can. It's just a singularity right now, but if we let it fester and stay open and poison the world around them, it could mean more of these rifts opening."
So, here they were, on their way. Olivia had also called her mother and agreed to meet the woman for lunch, just to make the trip not seem completely insane.
"Here," Noble said and he pulled the car off the road.
On either side of them were acres of the most hideous-looking trees Noble had ever seen. They had passed these trees before and only recently looked them up to determine they were apple trees. Without the apples, they were twisted and bizarre looking and the gnarls on the trunks looked like faces.
They found a side road and parked. The air was very warm, but it was just starting to change from the heat of summer to the coolness and comfort of fall. The wind blew steadily through the trees and tugged at their shirts as they donned their gear.
Noble adjusted Olivia's hat when they were done. He smiled at her and laughed and she punched him in the arm. He couldn't help it. Although the clothing automatically adjusted to her size, that long coat and giant wide-brimmed hat still looked odd on her frame. Orval was already talking about trying to design a line of women's clothing for IDEA and loving the idea of recruiting more women from other dimensions.
Noble made sure the car was locked and looked around to make sure that they were alone. The last thing he needed was the farmer or someone who was part of the farm that owned this land to show up and wonder who the hell they were. Sure, they could just vanish into the in-between, but then their car would be there and who knew how long it would be before the curious people left.
They walked across the field and into the strange-looking trees. There was no fence to keep them out near this particular access road. Noble realized that this kind of thing often happened when it came to his abilities - fate just intervened and made it so things worked out.
The trees were even more frightening close up. To think that such sweet things came from these gnarled and bent trees was amazing. Perhaps when they had leaves and were in full bloom they looked better? Noble was reminded of the trees in the movie The Wizard of Oz that hurled fruit at Dorothy. Now he understood why apple trees had worked so well.
They didn't have to go too far. The rift was in the middle of a row just off the side road. Noble turned and could still see their car.
"OK," he said into the little intercom, "you ready?"
"I guess so," Olivia replied.
"Hold my hand and we'll do this," Noble said. "We can't stay there too long. Of course, we have no idea what's on the other side. I suppose if it's a mall or something, you might want to look around."
She punched him in the arm again, but he heard her laughter over the intercom. Then she sighed and put her hand in his. It was his left hand, of course, although he now had a new right hand, as well.
The right hand came from one of the other members of IDEA. The new hand was made from some strange composite material that was stronger than steel, but didn't set off metal detectors. He could also crush steel if he had to and he was still learning how to use it. Olivia held his left hand most of the time.
They looked at each other one more time and then walked toward the rift. Now that he was so close and their goggles had adjusted to it, the rift itself was very obvious. It was bigger than he had thought it would be, hovering in mid-air, but almost touching the ground. When they got within about three feet of it they paused again.
Noble and Olivia took one more look around, just in case they didn't come back for some reason. Then looked at each other one more time.
"Let's do it," Noble said.
Together they stepped into the rift.
And into another world.
Epilogue
Francis Duveen jolted awake and, for a moment, had no idea where he was. Then he recognized the ceiling, as well as the smell, of a taxi cab. He looked out the window and saw his home.
"Oh, thank God," he whispered.
Perhaps it had all been a dream. A horrible dream about ending up in another world, another dimension, with people who had never heard of Taured. People who had no idea what this great country was and showed him maps that showed his home did not exist. He remembered people in uniform asking him lots and lots of questions and there was a brief flash of memory about a hotel room and then strange shadowy figures showing up there and carting him away.
"We're here, sir," the cab driver said.
"Yes, yes, thank you," Francis replied, looking at the meter and fishing out his wallet.
Now the memories were just a blur, the way a particularly vivid and horrible dream could be. All of it seemed so silly now that he was home. When Francis looked up he saw that the lights were on. That meant that Josie was also there and probably the kids, Tom and Laura. He missed them more now than he had any other time he had come home.
"Thank you again," Francis said handing over a handful of bills. "Please keep the change."
The cab driver was impressed and even got out to open the door for Francis. Francis had a big stupid smile on his face as he ascended the stairs that led to the front door.
Funny, he thought, how he didn't remember anything about his business meeting or Chicago or the flight home or meeting the cab or anything like that, either.
Never mind. Push it away. You're home.
Francis fished his key out of his pocket and inserted it into the lock. He heard his kids yelling for joy inside and then their feet running across the hardwood floors. He opened the door, dropped his briefcase, got down on one knee, flung his arms wide and was soon buried in his children's faces, hair and kisses. He kissed them back and hugged them. He laughed and they laughed, but when Laura asked him why he was crying he just said that it was because he missed them. It wasn't really a lie.
Francis looked up and saw Josie standing in the doorway that led into the kitchen. He could smell food cooking, too. Perhaps the children and Josie had been eating. She was wearing her after-work clothes which amounted to sweats and a T-shirt, her long red hair in curls and cascading down around her shoulders. She smiled at him and he had never seen anything more beautiful.
Francis disentangled himself from his children and shut the door behind him. Then he walked to his wife and kissed her long and deep. It was such a long, deep, passionate kiss that Josie was a little surprised, but eventually was swept away in it and kissed him back.
"Well, that is a great way to say hello," she said.
Francis laughed.
"Honey, I have had, without a doubt, the weirdest day."
The End
Other Books by Bryan W. Alaspa
Non-Fiction:
Ghosts of St. Louis: The Lemp Mansion and
Other Eerie Tales
Chicago Crime Stories: Rich Gone Wrong
Chicago Disasters
Forgotten Tales of Illinois
Silas Jayne: Chicago’s Suburban Gangster
Sabotage: A Chronicle of the Chesterton Crash
Chicago’s Unsolved Mysteries
Fiction:
The Ballad of the Blue Denim Gang
The Vanished Child
Dust
RIG: A Novel of Terror
Sin-Eater: Part One
Sin-Eater: Part Two – Destiny
Sin-Eater: Part Three - Renegade
MYTHOS: A Thriller
After the Snowfall
The Dead Phone
One Against Many
Vicious: A Novel of Suspense
Sapphire
Strange Fruit and the Slender Man
The Lightning Weaver
Fracktured
Rotate the Earth: Book One: The Drivers
The Hat Trick
Collections:
Stories (a collection of short stories)
Why Hockey Sucks and Other Random Thoughts (a collection of essays)
Flashpoint: A Collection of Curious Beginnings and Endings
WRECKAGE: Tales of Murder and Disaster
From Midnight ‘Til Dawn
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bryan W. Alaspa is an author, freelance writer, and journalist born and raised in the Chicago area. He is the author of more than twenty books in both fiction and non-fiction genres. He is also a forerunner of the independent publishing movement and has published most of his works of fiction in various e-reader formats. He is also a prolific blogger and social media user. He still hopes to, someday, write the definitive book about Chicago.
WHERE TO FIND BRYAN:
Visit his Web site at: http://www.bryanwalaspa.com
You can also find him on Twitter (@bryanalaspa), Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest.
Also by Guffawing Dog Publishing:
There are things that go bump in the night. Things that snake out of drains, hide under beds and creep around in closets. They watch you sleep. They wait for their moment and then...strike.
Collected in here are several short stories from bestselling horror and thriller author Bryan W. Alaspa. Find out about the horrific vengeance against the town of Vermillion. Find out about the power a little girl has when she meets her grandmother. In another tale a ghost finds a friend, but hides a horrible secret. Venture into space with galactic police and listen in on a radio conversation between a killer and a radio host.
These are stories that will make you afraid. They will make you jump. They'll make you wonder what that sound was just then. They will keep you awake From Midnight 'Til Dawn.
***This collection also contains the bestselling horror novella Strange Fruit and the Slender Man***
Available in print and Kindle editions at Amazon.com.
Also by Guffawing Dog Publishing:
Deklan Falls is a broken man in a corrupt city. Once he was a cop in Oldtowne, a small city in eastern Ohio that most people don’t know about, and those who live there wish they could forget. Then he became a corrupt cop. Then he became a crusader private eye, and then, when his world blew apart, he crawled into a bottle to die. Then, one day, a filmmaker walks into his office because Deklan can be bought cheap. The documentary filmmaker wants to find the star of a famous adult film from the late 70s who vanished. The film was financed by the mob, made in Oldtowne, and is one of the biggest mysteries in the adult film industry. If Deklan can find out what happened to Faline Forest, star of the world-famous film The Cheerleader, he’ll get a million dollars. That’s enough to get cleaned up, but it means possibly facing off against the mob that rules Oldtowne. He’s been warned twice about that. But maybe, just maybe, if he can figure out what happened to Faline, he can redeem himself and maybe, just maybe, he can fix Oldtowne, too.
One broken man in a corrupt city. One very cold missing persons case. One shot at redemption.
Available in print and Kindle editions at Amazon.com.
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