The Portal

by Charles Sterling

  “Okay, we’ll avoid doing that for now.” The thought of it! It made me shudder. The last thing I wanted was to be reminded of the clicker that consumed me alive.

  “Do you guys eat?” I asked her a minute later after another silence.

  “Negative.”

  “I eat,” I nodded. I hoped she understood what I was trying to explain. I didn’t feel hungry, but I had a mental craving for food.

  “Please wait here, I shall provide nourishment.”

  She was gone for around ten minutes. She returned with a glistening open-fire cooked fish, some amazing garnishes and a fork and knife.

  “No way!” my mouth began to water.

  “Is something wrong?” she looked down guiltily.

  “Are you kidding? This looks amazing! Did you make it?”

  “Affirmative.”

  I dug in. This was gourmet dining on the beach! I can’t remember real food tasting so good. If I was alone I would have licked my plate dry.

  “Thank you, Cyl, I loved it.”

  She slowly turned her head towards me. First her eyes smiled, then the corners of her glossy lips raised and parted lightly. Was she truly happy, or was she trying to display a human type of gratitude by faking a smile? I couldn’t tell.

  I could see myself having fun in this world, but not forever. Unless I travelled, which these guys don’t seem to do much. Maybe there’s skyscrapers and videogames everywhere? What about movies and reading books? What sort of technology does this world have? Is augmented reality at its peak?

  I let Cyl go do her walks on the beach or whatever it was. She rejected the offer and said she would only go if I ordered it. How was I supposed to answer that? I honestly don’t remember real girls being as complicated as her.

  She was trying to be human, yet she was an android at the same time. Do some things simply don’t mix? Proto seemed to be pulling it off just fine – he just had a bit more practice to do to make it look more natural. What about the other guys here? There were many individuals in the distance doing their own thing. I got so comfortable around Cyl and Proto that I didn’t quite feel like going out and socializing just yet.

  I lay on the couch and let the sound of the ocean, the cacophony of the lovely android people and the breeze through the trees fill my senses.

  I fell asleep.

  When I woke up, it was night time. The stars were out, and Cyl was sitting right next to me.

  “Cyl?” I rubbed my eyes. I noticed she tied her white hair back. “How long was I asleep for?”

  “Two hours, fifty two minutes and thirty three seconds,” she replied monotonously as usual.

  “What – the heck is that?” I pointed up to the sky. I walked out from under the roof and into the open air, staring at the humongous floating crystal in the sky. It had a strange bulky shape to it.

  “That is our spaceship, now used as a satellite for communication,” said Cyl.

  “Why is it a crystal?” I asked without taking my gaze off of it. Its shine was as strong as a full moon at night.

  “This crystal both protects the aircraft and amplifies the signal from earth, all the way to any other dimension we need it to reach.”

  At night, there were almost no people outside. I saw a few campfires in the distance, but that was about it.

  That floating crystal spaceship though, that was quite a sight to see.

  “How many are there?” I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.

  “One per squadron.”

  “Wow.”

  “My scanning tells me that you haven’t completed a full REM sleep cycle, and will not feel fully awake until at least another four hours of sleep.”

  “Are you telling me to go to bed?” I looked back at her.

  “I do not have such authority,” she looked away.

  Should I really go to sleep in this world? What am I saying? I just had a long nap. Of course I can sleep some more.

  “Okay, where can I sleep? Oh, and do you guys have coffee? It’s hard for me to get up without it.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Great! Take me to bed.”

  Cyl’s abnormally strong arms, despite her petite body effortlessly lifted me up as she casually walked off towards our destination.

  “Woah! I can walk myself!”

  “She stopped before slowly putting me down. “I thought you said to take you to bed…”

  “Not like that, it’s a figure of speech. It just means, lead me there.”

  “Oh,” she looked down disappointed again.

  “Cyl, don’t give me that disappointed look,” I chuckled a little, trying to lighten her up. “You get worried too much for some reason.”

  She didn’t reply to that, and led me to a cozy little hut not too far.

  “I hope the mattress is to your liking,” she said.

  “Thank you thank you,” I sat down on it. “It’s perfect. Good night Cyl!” I got into the pure white sheets.

  …

  She was standing at my entrance. It was too dark to see anything except for her two glowing light blue eyes.

  “Cyl?”

  “Yes?”

  “What are you doing?”

  “I am monitoring your sleep to make sure everything is alright.”

  “Why?” I yawned.

  “Is it the incorrect thing to do?”

  I almost lost my patience. She was like a newborn in a grown girl’s body, trying to learn and following instructions, but without curiosity.

  “Umm – just go do whatever you do every night as if I’m not here.”

  “What about a bedtime story?”

  “Why?”

  “I read that it is the optimal thing to do. Or perhaps massage, or…”

  “No!” I interrupted her, “no, Cyl, really, you’re very kind, but I’m just going to sleep, it’s nothing special.”

  She was silent for a moment. Then she nodded and said ‘understood’ before walking out. I must say, in some way I almost felt guilty. Was I too harsh with my words? I only meant to emphasize that she didn’t need to do anything for me.

  I went out after her, under the moonlight, and under the crystal light. The giant floating spaceship moved a little bit from the last time I saw it. I suppose it orbits the area depending on the time of the day.

  “I tried being human, but did not succeed,” she said. We walked side by side along the shore.

  “Yes, well… You’re good at being who you are, isn’t that enough?”

  “I thought I had a chance to prove myself by being useful to a human, but failed at that as well.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, that was the most amazing fish I ever tasted!” I bumped her shoulder and messed up her hair a little. She did not even flinch.

  “Are you really going home?” she asked nervously.

  “… I mean, I have to, I can’t stay here forever.”

  “I understand,” she stopped walking for a moment and opened her palm. There was a faint glow in the center that became brighter as the seconds passed. “Please, take this.”

  “What is it?” I watched as a beautiful, clean light blue crystal emerged from her palm almost like a hologram, but then materialized and fell upon her palm, emitting its soft glow.

  She placed it against my chest and pressed on it with her palm. It… went right through! I felt a little tingle. My skin vibrated and my fingertips had a faint glossy light for half a second.

  “If you are ever in trouble, I will come and save you.”

  “I don’t think you have a television that teleports you to different worlds,” I did a brief half-hearted laugh.

  There was a rumble in the air – something unsettling was eminent.

  We both looked towards the jungle. Something caught our eye – something big, fiery, and fast. It crashed through the jungle, shaking the ground before exiting and taking down a few huts with it.

  “What the?!” she pushed me really hard. I was sent flying back what felt like seventy feet befor
e tumbling and rolling on the sand. A large meteor of fire landed exactly where we were standing. From behind me, three large, menacing robots scanned and analyzed my appearance as I was brushing sand off my face. They had alien-like jaws, mechanical bodies, slanted backs and overall predator-like structures to their massive metallic frames.

  They readied their blasters and aimed them straight at me. I scurried back on the sand before jerking my entire body from loud blaster shots coming from behind me. The three hunter robots in front of me were destroyed and blasted into pieces.

  The sounds… no war I am familiar with could reproduce them. They were deafening and lethal – when a laser shot flew past it felt like your body would get torn to pieces just standing close to it. Every meteor that came crashing through the jungle and on the beach shook the earth. Large streams of vapor erupted from the sea upon contact with the orbs of fire.

  “Cyl?” I looked back. Who saved me? Who killed the three robots? I saw Proto – his entire arm morphed into a deadly machine that fired god knows what. Behind him, two more androids, one man and one woman. Their faces were serious, it wasn’t your friendly usual Proto anymore, he was a man on a mission.

  I tried looking beyond the steam and dust to find Cyl, but the debris wouldn’t allow it. More machine gun-like blasters rained down upon Proto and his friends. I couldn’t see if they got killed or not, I crouched and covered my eyes. On pure instinct, I got up and began running away from the chaos. To my dismay, running away from the chaos meant running from the only ones that could protect me. What looked like a robotic machine with a jetpack attached to it emerged from the night sky, flew straight into me and took me away.

  Like attached to the roof of a roaring sports car, I was being flown away from the androids. I began yelling and squirming, but the machine held me tight. I watched the dark jungle pass by below me, and the beach getting further and further away.

  “LET ME GO,” I kept resisting. It got quieter – the chaos was behind me. It was both calmer, yet more nerve-wrecking at the same time.

  Then, all I heard was a loud blaster shot from a distance. This light blue streak of light went straight through the machine that was holding me. The heat from the blast burnt my back and the back of my neck. I yelled out in agonizing pain as I prepared for a crash landing. Straight through the dark trees, the sound of crackling twigs filled the vicinity before a loud metallic thump crashed through the ground.

  The damaged electric circuit rang from the pieces of the broken machine – I couldn’t move, it hurt way too much. I was injured, in shock, and in pain. Lots of things were going through my mind. It’s true what they say, when your life flashes before your eyes. I was seeing memories I thought I had forgotten, familiar faces that showed kindness to me in my past, from a friendly neighbor, to a high school crush, to my own parents.

  “Mom,” I muttered, blood dripping down my forehead and onto the ground. My vision was hazy, and images of the past blurred into the groggy view of what was actually in front of me. I stopped hearing everything around me, hearing only that which happened years ago.

  “Get in the car before you’re late,” she said.

  “Wait, I can’t find my game,” I called out to her.

  “You don’t need your game!” she yelled from downstairs.

  “I do! What am I going to do during lunch break?”

  “Speak with your friends maybe?”

  “My only friend is Bob and even he plays games!”

  “Raymond.”

  “Raymond…”

  “Raymond…!”

  “Huh?” I opened my eyes. Cyl was holding me. Her beautiful sad face paired with those glowing, unnatural eyes. Straight from a fantasy story… Oh wait.

  I wanted to yell from the pain that crawled its way up my back, but did not even have the energy to do that.

  She placed her glowing hand on my forehead. It relaxed me – and she looked more peaceful knowing I felt a little better. My breathing was steady, and there was silence. The sounds of blasters and metal being torn to pieces faded. I think I was falling asleep again…

  Then I felt being dropped to the ground. I opened my eyes abruptly – several of the enemies emerged from the trees, and Cyl was alone, in between me and them.

  “Surrender the human,” a dark robotic voice spoke. Their footsteps were heavy, crushing the earth beneath them, and their robotic sounds were menacing as if readying their guns for an onslaught.

  “Cyl?” I looked up at her. They engaged in combat. The roar of their guns commenced. Cyl was shot down straight through her chest before falling lifelessly to the ground. It happened too quickly for me to even react.

  “Cyl!!” I yelled hopelessly, writhing on the ground.

  “Raymond?” Proto’s voice called out loudly. Proto and his team made quick work of the enemies. They practically leveled the jungle with the sheer amount of projectiles. Smoke and dust rose from the ground, trees were burned down and mechanical scrap parts of the alien robots were scattered all over the place.

  Proto ran straight to me, telling me to stay down – that I was too injured. I refused – I was crawling to the most human person on this planet. Death reached even the immortal.

  “It was my fault,” I told Proto, burying my face into the ground. “They wanted me, so they attacked all of you.”

  “We fight for humans,” he replied firmly. “And we die for them too.”

  I wept. There was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t move, I could barely talk, my friend was dead a few feet in front of me, and that was it.

  “Kill me,” I said.

  “Raymond?” said Proto.

  “That was a fucking order, shoot me right now,” I glared at him menacingly.

  Proto readied his shooting arm, standing above me.

  “But Proto,” one of his team members tried to talk him out of it.

  “He is not from here,” said Proto. “He needs to go home.”

  I stared at Cyl’s lifeless face. A second before Proto shot me, Cyl slowly turned her head to look at me.

  The shot ended my life instantly.

  Chapter 4

  It was painful. I mean, the physical pain from the crash went away, but the memories were painful. I could never have imagined getting so attached to a place where not even a full day has passed. I woke up on the floor, completely defeated. I am thirty two years old – at this age men don’t cry. I wasn’t crying, I said to myself. I was a big strong man. I just avoided looking at mirrors to keep telling myself that.

  Should I call Bob for more drinks? No, not a good idea.

  Damn. What do I do? I didn’t feel like living. I felt like going back to them and saying I was sorry. I felt so damn guilty for being responsible for the deaths of imaginary characters! Why were they so real then? That desire to be real was the most human thing I’ve ever seen.

  I let myself sit on the floor against the wall for some time. It took me a while to get up – my body was buzzing and my limbs felt numb.

  That’s it – I just sat there. My hands rested upon the floor like I was bleeding out after being shot. Was there any way that could have turned out better? I could have… died sooner, I guess? I could have asked them to kill me way before.

  I don’t even know.

  Cyl’s eyes were haunting me. And the worst thing was, I think I regret dying at the time that I did. She was still alive. That was the part that hurt the most.

  Around three hours later, I slowly stood up. Picking up my remote, I went to channel minus one. The big red timer was on screen – it showed sixty one hours and who cares amount of minutes.

  That’s less than three days. Sitting upon the more comfortable couch, I watched the seconds tick down.

  It was horrible. I’ve been through the portal twice so far. It’s always the endings – the endings are miserable. Death is usually not pleasant, but I just wish there was a better way.

  And what exactly did that trip achieve anyways? I thought I was supposed to f
ix their machine or something? I don’t even remember the message anymore.

  I dialed up a number on my phone and put it up against my ear. It felt like a long ring – but finally it went through.

  “Hello?” a woman’s voice answered.

  “Hey, mom? How are you?”

  “I’m okay, thanks for calling, you don’t usually do that.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “Yeah, I…”

  “Is it Emily?” she asked me casually.

  “No,” I replied immediately. “No it’s not Emily.”

  “You know maybe you should call her,” mom tried to sound cheerful.

  “No, I’m telling you, it’s not Emily. Umm – I…”

  There was a pause. I didn’t know what to say.

  “You know you can tell me anything,” she broke the silence.

  I sighed. “Yeah, sorry I’m just, I feel a bit weird.”

  “A lot of stuff has been happening lately?”

  “I guess you can say that.”

  “You know what? Why don’t you come over for a few days? You can help me bake like when you were small.”

  I looked up at the ticking red timer again. Sixty one hours… “Yeah,” I replied. “Yeah, I’ll come over.”

  It felt refreshing, going to my parents. They live on the country side with a modern house by the lake. It wasn’t big by any means, but it was very, very cozy.

  Mom wasn’t joking about the baking part. For most of my two days there I was firing up the oven and helping her roll the dough and things like that. Dad and I did some fishing and some barbecue. ‘A real man’s worth is decided by how he chops wood’ he would tell me as often as he could. You can imagine what a traditional dad he was.

  And then there’s me, the writer. They never minded the fact that I was a writer, but what I was writing about didn’t seem serious enough when I started. We never argued about it much, we only disagreed in our philosophies.

  The timer on the TV was at five hours and a few minutes. I was having my coffee while watching it tick down. They could have at least added a fancy wallpaper to it; so inconsiderate. Whoever ‘they’ were.

  There was a part of me that dreaded the timer, and a part of me that couldn’t wait to go in. I was curious, what will the next world be exactly?