Turning on this portal was what I would call courage.
Standing in front of it, inches away from the cold void and mustering the resolve to push my entire arm through my screen – that was courage.
Chapter 3
Going through the portal felt almost like a dream. Strange things happened – you see lights, you feel like you’re falling, then you feel like you’re flying. But at the end of the journey, you simply wake up. You also feel drowsy and you have blurry vision at first. You remember what was it that you just saw, and you vaguely remember travelling through various dimensions and tunnels almost in an ethereal form of light.
But the memory was so distant and so vague that you shrug it off as a dream. You also shrug it off because you’re too concerned with where you ended up.
My groggy face and sleepy body felt warm, then suddenly cold and wet before going back to warm. My face was against hot sand, and I could clearly feel water running up my body and then back down.
Ah, I was on a beach. If I was on some deserted island with strange creatures, you can imagine my displeasure.
Just barely lifting my head up and looking forward, I saw two delicate pale feet in front of me in beach sandals. The awareness of someone else looking at you jolted me back into full consciousness. I got up to see a young woman, almost girl – stare down at me with a lifeless face. She wore normal summer clothes, a beach dress, a beach straw hat, soft red lips and pure white hair. The sun was behind her head, making her pair of glowing light blue eyes stand out.
I was up on my knees, the water still hitting me from behind every few dozen seconds.
“Hello,” I covered my eyes from the light. Those glowing eyes were incredibly unnatural.
“You are a human,” she said in a normal tone. It was a very soft-spoken, girly voice.
“Yes, and you’re not?” I asked her. One can never be too cautious.
She shook her head left and right, and continued lifelessly staring at me.
“What are you then?” I asked her.
“Model Nine, Unit Three Hundred and Eleven Type C.”
“What is that supposed to mean, are you a robot?”
“Do not pair me with robots,” she replied abruptly. Her tone did not change, but somehow I felt like I touched a topic that I shouldn’t have.
“Where am I?” I slowly got up. My body was obnoxiously wet, but the sun would take care of that in no time.
“Would you like me to show you?” she asked me while tilting her head slightly to the right.
I looked down at her. I was weary – she wasn’t human, and I was. Were there other humans? What year were we in? What world was this exactly? Judging from the first world I got forced into, I get teleported to an existing world thought up by someone and turned into a movie. The ‘Digital World’, right?
“Yes,” I replied, “I suppose I wouldn’t mind,” I nodded firmly. Her appearance was beyond innocent, but seeing her eyes in the sunlight again… damn. They were glowing blue with little bits of code and digital circles moving almost naturally. Much like the human retina and iris move depending on what we focus on and how much light enters, her eyes had a similar biology to them.
She grabbed me by the wrist and began walking away from the ocean.
“Why are you holding my hand?” I asked.
“I thought it is customary for humans to hold hands when they are walking together, was I wrong?” she stopped to look at me.
“It depends, but it’s not necessary.”
“Oh,” she let go of my wrist, looking down disappointed. That was the first emotion I saw in her face.
“Alright, don’t worry about it, let’s go!” I walked a bit ahead of her.
Beyond the beach were some rocky cliffs and rocky terrain. The terrain was covered in beautiful trees and flowers, almost like a paradise island. Lush green grass looked like it was growing straight from the rock, and the balance of green and grey along with the touches of red and pink with a clear blue sky hovering above was extraordinary.
“So where are you taking me exactly?” We were walking in between two tall cliffs that created a path in the opening, almost like a deliberate open tunnel into the beach.
“Your choice was for me to show you where we are, would you like to change your decision?”
“Oh, no, it’s fine I guess,” I nodded to myself.
The walk wasn’t even all that long. After a minute of walking through nature, the two cliffs on our sides ended. Beyond us was a hill going down, and beyond the hill, beautifully laid out in front of us, was a view that made my eyes sparkle.
Palm trees were spread left and right, gorgeous jungle terrain was laid out on the right side, and the shallow beach started again on the left. In between were little sandy lakes and patches of saturated grass. There were people coming in and out of their little tropical huts, playing beach volleyball, having a picnic, sunbathing and more.
“Humans!” I smiled.
“Wrong,” she said.
“Not humans?”
“No,” she shook her head left and right.
“You’re saying they’re all like you?”
“Yes. This is where I live. There are squadrons in other parts of the world, occupying space and controlling nature without damaging it.”
“Squadrons?” I looked down at her.
She blinked and hesitantly said, “groups?”
“Okay, sure,” I nodded.
“Would you like to go meet them?”
“Wait,” I collected my words to try to not sound impolite. “I have a lot of questions, and before anything weird happens I would like to meet only as little people as I can.”
“I understand. I have chosen the units to be Model Nine, Unit Two Hundred and Seventeen, Type A, and myself.”
“Don’t you guys have normal names?”
“I am Cyl, and he is Proto.”
“See, that’s more like it. So who is this Proto guy?”
“I have already contacted him, he is on his way.”
“Say what?” I looked at her again. I swear she didn’t press any buttons.
“I apologize, should I have confirmed your desire to meet with him?” she frowned and fiddled with her white hair.
“Why do you only get disappointed?” I asked her. But I was interrupted by Proto’s sudden appearance.
“Yo!” A guy’s voice rang from a side. Wow, he was your typical suntanned Chad. Muscular, dark hair, Hollywood smile, in a tropical t-shirt and shorts. He was climbing up the hill from our right.
“Hello, Proto?”
“That’s right,” he stretched out his hand. We had a nice and firm handshake before he pat me on the shoulder and asked me “how are you doing? All good?”
“Heh,” I chuckled sarcastically, “you’re kind of different.”
“No,” he shrugged his shoulders, “Model Nine just like her.”
“No I mean… You feel more human somehow.”
Cyl lowered her head conspicuously. Her frown was tearing my heart apart.
“We’re all trying, it comes easier to some than others,” Proto nodded firmly. “Shall we? We can make you some fruit cocktails.”
“Woah, I’d love a cocktail!”
Proto took us down the hill, avoiding going through people and straight into a relaxing hut. It had a few beds with the world’s most perfect white bed sheets in the corners, typical wooden floors, ceiling made of straw, walls made of wood, a few tables, and what-do-ya-know, a large bar with a couple of bar stools.
“Let’s see here,” Proto began looking through some fruits and bottles of various liquids inside.
“So uh,” Cyl and I sat on the barstools opposite to Proto. “How long have you two known each other?”
“About two thousand four hundred and eleven years,” said Proto, “two months, nine days, twenty one hours, fourteen minutes and thirty thirty seconds.”
“I don’t think the word ‘about’ fits into that description,” I remarked.<
br />
“Oh,” Proto began mixing some drinks together, “sorry I thought humans like, say that for no reason.”
“Like literally frozen to death,” said Cyl, “while being alive and perfectly normal.”
“Yeah,” Proto agreed, “why say ‘literally’ when it’s not literally?”
“Good question,” I nodded to them.
“We’re just going along with it, that’s what we were told to do,” he passed me my drink. It was in a beautiful crystal glass and had a pleasant orange hue to it. “How is it? You’ll be the first one to taste it in my entire life!”
“Seriously? I’m nervous now,” I smelled it. It smelled perfect! Oranges, bananas, kiwi, it had the whole tropical vibe going. I took my first sip. The sweetness of the drink covered my mouth before settling down and turning really salty.
“Did you add salt?” I asked while inspecting the drink.
“No,” said Proto.
“Then I guess you used sea water,” I smiled politely.
“DARN!” Proto spun around, “I wasn’t supposed to use sea water? I didn’t know it would make such a big difference, I’m sorry!”
“Hah! Don’t worry about it,” I took another sip, “the saltiness actually mellows out the fruit into a different flavor that I can appreciate.”
“We’ll make it right next time, don’t worry.”
“So,” I changed topic abruptly, “where are all the humans then?”
“Dead,” said Cyl.
“Dead?” I asked. Okay, for a moment it hit me kind of hard, but I just reminded myself where I am and that it’s not so bad. I just had to go along with the story.
“Yeah, there was war about three thousand years ago,” said Proto. “Before the human race went extinct, they wanted to honor their legacy by having us stay on Earth and pretend to be them as much as we could.”
“What? For three thousand years you guys were here? Doing this?”
Proto nodded to me. “There’s actually heaps of stuff we haven’t discovered yet. There’s all sorts of archives on the human networks and servers. We have been studying those and copying them.
“On this beach?” I asked.
“Yes,” Proto shrugged his shoulders.
“For three thousand years? You were playing volleyball here?”
“Yes,” he shrugged again as if asking ‘what’s wrong with that?’
“No comment,” I took another sip of my salty fruity cocktail.
“I know that word!” Proto slapped the counter in celebration, “people say that when they hide something!”
“Uh,” I looked at him. He was waiting for a reply excitedly. “No comment.”
Proto laughed out loud almost exaggeratedly.
“So if all of them find out I’m here, what will happen?”
“Nothing,” said Proto. “We obey humans and will never let harm reach them.”
“But won’t they flock around and have questions for me?”
“Curiosity is not in our system,” said Cyl.
“So is it easy to make friends here?”
“If you’re friends with Cyl,” said Proto, “you can become friends with anyone. She’s the least talkative of us all.”
“I deny such accusations,” said Cyl.
“Okay, well, do you have any questions for me then?” I somehow managed to finish my cocktail. Despite talking to non-humans, I am terribly afraid of offending them somehow.
“What’s your name?” said Proto.
“Raymond Smith,” I replied.
“Where are you from?” said Proto.
“Washington, twenty first century,” I replied.
“How’s the weather?” said Proto.
“I see what you’re doing, Proto,” I smirked at him. “Asking me the most common conversation questions, are we?”
“No comment,” said Proto. I laughed at that one.
Moments later, we were sitting in an open hut with just the straw roof over us and some perfectly modern, comfortable round couches. It all felt so human – like I was in a tropical island movie where everything is perfect. It was mind-blowing to think that they were doing the exact same thing for so long, just to honor the now dead humans. How selfish of humans too – they could have lived the lives that they wanted, and discovered their own perks and ways of life, but instead they were cursed by an order given to them three thousand years ago.
“So the TV just sucks me in one day, and I end up inside of a movie. The first movie I ended up in I was actually watching at the time. I opened my eyes and I was on top of a half rhino, half spider, half scorpion, half bat and half shark thing.”
Cyl was sitting close to me, and Proto was sitting across me with a table in between us.
“I never thought DNA mixing of that extreme is possible,” said Proto.
“No no, it isn’t! It was part of another story. Someone invented that story, and it became a digital world of its own. So somehow, I don’t know how, I got teleported into it.”
“Do you know the name of such a device?” Proto leaned forward. “Maybe I could scan the database for more information for you.”
“It was… PRTL,” I nodded.
After a few seconds of not moving at all, Proto’s eyes glowed a light blue, just like Cyl’s.
I looked at Cyl on my left and asked, “how come his eyes are normal usually, and yours glow all the time?”
“He turns them off to appear more human,” she replied monotonously.
“No,” said Proto. “Nothing that matches your description. Actually, nothing that powerful even exists in the universe.”
“So then there was a timer,” I continued the story. “The timer and the message that came along with it basically said that I have to keep entering the portal before the time runs out, or else the nano-pixels attached to my heart will stop.”
“I have scanned your body,” said Cyl, “I did not discover anything that matches your description.”
I got chills. What does that mean? Were the nano pixels a lie? Or is it such a different technology that these androids just don’t detect it?
“So did you go in again?” Proto asked.
“I did not want to. I died a really gruesome death before appearing back in my living room. But the timer kept ticking, so way before it ran out, I wanted to confirm for sure that the portal was not a hoax. I went in a second time.”
“Where did you appear?” Proto asked.
“Here,” I said quietly. Proto’s unnaturally bright expression faded instantly. He was not moving, not blinking, and not saying anything. I looked left to find Cyl staring at me. It was scary, how deeply she was peering into my soul.
“However,” I continued hesitantly. I wasn’t sure how they would take it. “I chose modern day New York as my second movie, but despite that I ended up here. That much doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Raymond,” said Proto. I blinked and snapped my gaze at him nervously.
“Yes?”
“Your given information does not match the information of this reality. That means it is true.”
“What?” I didn’t understand what he meant.
Cyl answered bluntly, “If two realities don’t match, it proves that they are two different realities. If your reality was the same as this one, we would have found an explanation for your experience.”
“Oh, that makes sense. You don’t think I’m lying?”
“You did not show any signs of lies,” said Cyl.
That was strange though. The way their faces turned pale for a moment – I got genuinely worried that I said something I shouldn’t have. If these guys are self-aware, then telling them that they’re part of someone’s imagination might have adverse effects. Maybe I shouldn’t be going around telling people where I’m from, that would basically be telling them ‘you’re not real’.
Proto decided to shake my hand one last time. “I will be around, if I break my routine too much it might throw us off balance.”
“I
understand,” I nodded, shaking his hand back.
“Cyl on the other hand,” Proto pointed an exaggerated finger at her. “All she does is walk on the beach all day, she can afford to be by your side as long as you need.”
“Appreciate it, hope I’m not a burden,” I watched Proto walk away.
Cyl fiddled her hair again while looking away embarrassed. “What’s wrong with walking on the beach?”
“Nothing, I did that back in Ibiza myself,” I tried reassuring her.
I stayed silent for a moment. Cyl did not speak much until spoken to. It was hard to maintain a conversation, so I went all out with the bluntness of my questions.
“How come you’re so silent?”
“I was not asked nor tasked with anything,” she stared up at me.
“Neither was Proto, but he was talking a lot.”
“Meaningless exchange of information yields limited results.”
“Well, you don’t have curiosity in you, but I do,” I leaned back comfortably. The breeze was quite pleasant.
“Then I am ready to answer or do anything you order.”
“Even playing beach volleyball with me?”
Cyl turned away shyly, “even.”
“Do you have any clues what my mission is here?” While I had the chance to speak to someone from the digital world – someone that seemed absolutely willing to answer any of my questions, I best do it.
“Negative,” she said.
“You sure you’ve been alive for three thousand years?”
“Affirmative,” she sat straight like a doll.
“How do you think I can get back home?” I asked casually. She snapped.
“Why do you need to get back home?”
“Huh?” I held eye-contact with her. The sun was slowly setting, which made the glow of her eyes brighter.
“Oh, I apologize. According to the given information, you return home upon dying a gruesome death. That is all the data I have to work with. Should you choose to go home I may provide it for you.”
“Provide a gruesome death?” I asked in a shaky exaggerated tone.
“Yes. That is the currently most accurate way to get you back home. More data is required.”
The Portal Page 3
