Portal to the Forgotten

by John Gschwend

  “What are you doing, Luke?” Moon said. “They will kill you.”

  Luke raised a grenade. “I will slow them down.”

  “No. Don’t kill them. We will never stir them away from the German. You don’t understand.”

  Luke had not thought about it, but she was right. “I do understand. Now go! Adam, get her out of here.”

  Adam grabbed her by the arm, but she pulled against him and looked after Luke. “You run or I carry you,” Adam said. Moon hesitated, started to speak, but Adam was a man of his word. He threw her over his shoulder and started up the hill.

  “Okay, let me down.” He did and they raced up the hill.

  One of the guards ran out of a side alley, and Luke drew his tomahawk from his belt. The guard lunged with his spear. Luke went down and kicked the man’s legs from under him. He went down, but he was back up before Luke could react. He swung the spear around like a baseball bat. Luke blocked it with his tomahawk, and the spear cracked in two. The guard raised the short piece of spear over his head, intending to drive it down on Luke. Luke was prepared for this and hit the man in the head with the flat of the tomahawk. He was out.

  Luke turned and found a dozen or more guards were racing toward him. He saw a couple of giants behind. He pulled the pin on the grenade. He would let them get closer and toss it in front of them. That should scare the hell out of them and let him escape.

  The man on the ground shot back to his feet. He hit Luke’s arm and the grenade tumbled to the ground. “Oh, shit!” Luke whirled and sprinted up the road, the guard right behind, reaching, trying to grab him. The grenade exploded, knocking the guard into Luke’s back. Luke rolled him off and straddled him. He pounded the man’s face with his fist a few times until he didn’t move. He looked back. The guards had stopped. “Yes!” Luke said. Two came from behind the others and ran for him. “No!” Luke shot to his feet and raced up the road.

  He turned back. It was no use. These two would catch him. He tried to run faster, but he had no more. Adam and Moon jumped out from behind some rocks, and they made quick work of the two unfortunate men.

  Luke bent over to catch his breath. “That was too close.”

  “Let’s go before it gets closer,” Adam said.

  Moon took her pack from Luke. “Thank you, Constable, for coming for me, but let me have my bag before you blow the world up.”

  “You can have it. I’m not cut out for this,’” Luke said. She smiled. But at that moment he really couldn’t appreciate it—he began shivering. He was afraid. It hadn’t registered when the confrontation was going on, but now he believed he would cry if Moon wasn’t there. After all he’d been through, why this feeling now? Why not before?

  Her smile faded and she put her arms around him. “Luke, you’re a brave man. It takes a lot to do what you have been doing in this world.”

  Luke wiped his eyes. Her arms felt so good, but the attention made his emotions simmer to the top.

  “We must go now,” Adam said. “They will be coming.”

  Luke composed himself. “You’re right. Let’s go to Grace’s cave.”

  Moon squeezed Luke’s arm. “You found her?”

  “She found me.”

  Adam dug a bunch of large grubs out of a rotten tree and brought them to the cave for lunch. Luke hesitated at first, but his hunger got the best of him. He bit into the grub and it popped in his mouth—he thought he would vomit. However, the grub was actually delicious. Moon ate them without a word. They just as well had been popcorn.

  Moon inspected the contents of her bag as she chewed on the grub. “I need an army, but I only have two grenades left, and I need them for something besides a battle.”

  “What do you need them for?” Luke said.

  She ignored his question. “That damn German made them take my gun. When I go back, I’m gonna kick—”

  “Sha-She not going back,” Adam said as he stood at the cave entrance, his back to her, looking out over the prairie.

  Moon closed her pack and ignored him.

  He turned. His face was hard and his eyes bore down on Moon. “We leave tonight for home.”

  “I have something I have to do here first.”

  “We leave tonight.”

  “Look, Adam, this is important, and you don’t understand.”

  There was a long silence and then Adam spoke. “I have been outcast from my people—your people—all my life. They called my mother a whore because of Orion. They hate Orion because he is smart and different. But none of that matters. I keep going to the village because they are my people. Orion has always taught Adam to do the right thing. And bringing you home to them is the right thing.”

  Moon stood. “Adam, I have been gone all of these years. They have been without me that long. They don’t need me now.”

  “You are back now. Everything is for a reason. The king will not be with us much longer.”

  Moon placed her hands on her hips. “I have to do what I have to do.”

  Adams voice grew deep and firm. “I will do what I have to do. You are Kayeeya. You made that clear to me back at the diamonds. You will be queen and our people will need you. We go tonight.” He turned and walked out of the cave.

  Moon turned to Luke. “He doesn’t understand how important this is to the world. He is simple.”

  “I think he understands how important you are to his world. He has risked his life to save yours. No, Moon, he’s not simple. In my world, he’d be a damned hero.”

  Moon lowered her head. “You’re right, Luke.” She looked back up to Luke. “But I have to stop that German; you know that.”

  Adam stepped back into the cave. “Girls coming.”

  Grace and Wak’o arrived carrying bamboo poles. Luke went down to meet them. “What have you here?”

  “A frame,” Grace said.

  “For what?”

  “A secret weapon.”

  Moon came down with her hand extended. “So you’re Grace. The constable has searched high and low for you. I’m Moon.”

  Grace shook her hand and said dryly, “We know each other.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “We saw you on the prairie. We hid well, but I know you knew we were there.”

  Moon nodded. “Well, now we know each other’s name.”

  Luke was uncomfortable with the exchange so he stepped up. “What is your secret weapon?”

  “I guess we don’t need it now.” Grace looked at Moon.

  “What is it, Grace?” Moon said. “We may need it.”

  “I have the stuff to make a glider. We would jump off the top of that mountain and fly over the city. I thought that should impress them enough to want the technology, want to be our friends.”

  Moon looked to Luke for an explanation. “We figured if we had technology to impress them, we may be able to work a deal to get you back,” Luke said.

  “Okay, I understand,” Moon said.

  Luke didn’t believe she was too impressed with the idea. “I think they have more advanced technology than we believed, especially since they can levitate those heavy boulders.”

  “What?” Grace said.

  “Yeah,” Luke said. “They just stood around the giant stones and blew horns at them until they rose up in the air, and then they set them on top of a giant wall. When the stone settled on top, it pressed into the other stones like they were made of clay. Hell, with that technology they could build a starship.”

  “That technology is ancient,” Moon said. “It was used in your world in ancient times. Those huge stones at Cuzco, Peru were set in place that way, as well as Stonehenge. Many cultures did this, but the archaeologists won’t admit it. The people used harmonics and the earth’s magnetic field. It’s simple technology, but you have to understand how to do it. Our historians are too arrogant to admit that the ancients were smarter than just using ropes and slaves.”

  “It didn’t look simple to me,” Luke said. “I’m sure you don’t want the Nazis to u
nderstand it.”

  “You’re right. It is simple, but it is also extremely powerful. Didn’t I tell you, Luke, there were powers here?” Moon turned to Grace. “Your glider is an excellent idea. These people know nothing about the power of flight or gliding or balloons for that matter. They will think it is something from the gods. They know about things that appear like magic to us, such as the portals, but that is just nature to them, just like the levitation.”

  “Moon, you are guessing at what they don’t know,” Luke said.

  “I’m gambling at what they don’t know. There is nothing else to do.”

  Grace and Wak’o laid the bamboo poles out on the ground. “This is the frame. I saw this done on YouTube.”

  “What do you have for the skin?” Moon said.

  Grace reached into her skin bag and drew out a large red cloth. Wak’o took one end and Grace took the other, and they spread it open. It was a giant Nazi banner, red with a white circle in the middle. In that circle was a black swastika.

  “Damn,” Luke said. “Where did that come from? Are there more Germans here other than Karl?”

  “We found it out on the prairie. Someone had partially buried it under some rocks. There were large skid marks in the dirt close by, like someone had moved something huge and heavy,” Grace said.

  “It must have been draped over the bell,” Moon said. “I guess when it energized, the banner came with it.”

  “Makes sense,” Luke said.

  “Bell?” Grace said.

  “I will tell you about it later,” Luke said. “It’s a good story.”

  “Guys, I think you are on to something with this glider idea,” Moon said. “I have an idea too.” She turned to Grace. “Can I contribute to your plan?”

  “Sure, but I have a condition.”

  “You are not in any plan,” Adam said. “We leave tonight.”

  “Adam, how would you feel if the giants destroyed all of Frelonna in a day?” Moon said. “If that man gets back to his world—Luke and Grace’s world— with the Nephilim’s knowledge, that is what will happen. He will destroy their village and many more.”

  Adam turned to Luke. Luke nodded and said, “It is true.”

  After thinking for a time, Adam said, “Luke is my friend. We will do this one last thing.”

  Moon turned to Grace. “Now, what is your condition?”

  Luke found it hard to believe he was back in the Giant’s city in the dark, sneaking through the alleys like a cat, but he damn sure was. And it was his idea—that’s the strangest part of it all. Moon had wanted to come alone, but the plan needed two people.

  Luke watched Moon—admired Moon—as she went ahead around the buildings. There was a bright full moon, so they stayed to the shadows. She was in commando mode again, and she was good at it. Luke followed when she motioned him forward. There was no doubt who was in command of this sortie. She had a club in her hand and was ready to bring it to action at any second. Luke had suggested a tomahawk would be better. She had said killing one of them would ambush the plan—they had to get back on good terms with Shevay. Luke hoped if it was needed, the club would be enough.

  They went past the pyramid with its electric peak. Moon had told Luke the Giants had learned how to harness the earth’s magnetic field as the ancients in his own world had done it—just science, nothing so special. Luke wondered if it wasn’t so special, why wasn’t it done on every skyscraper in New York. He meant to ask her more about it when they finished the mission—if they finished the mission.

  Moon motioned Luke to come to her behind a statue of a mammoth. “See it?” She pointed to a large courtyard beyond. It was the bell. The moon bathed it in eerie silver. It looked like something from a science fiction movie—maybe something from the twilight zone.

  “What is that damn thing?” Luke said.

  “We weren’t really sure until now. We had suspected the bell was some sort of time machine, but we weren’t sure.” Moon stood, peeped around the statue, and then settled back in behind it and next to Luke. “It works by a magnetic field.” She pointed to the pyramid’s peak. “It can get that from there.”

  “What does it have, a lightning rod on it or something?” Luke said.

  “I don’t know, Luke. If it does, it could go any time.”

  “We can try to get close and see what it has.” Luke pulled his binoculars. “There are guards all around it though.”

  “I suspected it.” She took his binoculars and looked. “That is why when we get close, we destroy it.”

  “What is it Karl will take back to Germany?” Luke said. “I guess one of those horns they used to lift the stone.”

  She handed the binoculars back to him. She smiled and Luke found it beautiful, but condescending. “What?” Luke said.

  “I’m sorry, Luke. You don’t know what I know, and I’m just being an ass. You remember the stones I picked up on the prairie, the ones I used to pull the lightning from the pyramid?”

  “How could I not remember them?”

  “They are from a meteorite, I think, but not for sure. I don’t know what they are. If I find the way back, I will take them for analysis. But they are like some sort of magnet. If you can find a way to get a magnetic field moving, they will concentrate it like a laser. Those people use harmonics and magnetic fields to move and shape those boulders. Those long horns and those diamond-looking rocks are the instruments that help them do that.”

  “So if Karl takes those rocks back with him...”

  “And if that bell can come and go at will, the Nazis will easily take over the world,” Moon said.

  “But you said ancients in my world used harmonics to lift giant stone. The technology is already there.”

  “It was in ancient times. We believe the ancients freely went through the portals and were able to harvest these meteorite stones. And that is why you are going to put a grenade in that bell.”

  She got up and moved down the street to a clump of bushes and waved Luke forward. “We will hide here until morning.”

  “Hell, let’s blow it up now while it is dark,” Luke said.

  “If we do that, the Nephilim will wipe out my people. No. I must convince them I am the friend and Karl is the enemy.”

  “This plan of yours seems way far fetched to me,” Luke said.

  “I heard them talking, and I know Karl will be here in the morning to charm Shevay. I don’t know what tricks he will use. I don’t know what he has in that bell. But I do know if Shevay can find an advantage with Karl, he will take it. The Nephilim are highly intelligent, but they have no idea what our world has become.”

  “What’s to keep him from taking advantage of you?”

  “That’s why we can’t let him know we are the ones who destroyed the bell. You must not be caught.”

  The weight grew much heavier on Luke.

  “I hope your friend Grace is as resourceful and cunning as you say.”

  Luke looked up at the moon and an anxious breath escaped his lips. Oh, how he wished he were in the Ozark Mountains right now looking at them and not here in this weird place. “When we get back, I would like to take you walking along this beautiful stream I know close to home. It would be beautiful in the moonlight.” He surprised himself saying that. He felt that old familiar flush come over his face like warm wax.

  Moon smiled. Luke felt it more than he saw it. “I will take you up on that, Luke. It sounds lovely. But now, get some rest. Tomorrow will be busy.”

  Luke settled in under a bush. He felt his chest flutter. If he hadn’t fallen in love with Moon, it damn sure was something like it.

  “Luke,” Moon said softly.

  “Yes.”

  “Is Grace really as athletic and resourceful as you say?”

  Grace’s pretty face came to Luke’s mind. She wasn’t the Grace he had known—or thought he had known—back home in Arkansas. She really was a machine. He felt himself smile. “She’s what I reckon you were like as a teenager. She will be th
ere when we need her.”

  After a long pause, Moon said, “Will you be there when I need you?”

  Luke didn’t know how she meant that. It didn’t matter; the answer would be the same. He said, “Count on it.”

  “Wake up, Moon. It’s breaking light and something’s happening,” Luke said as he nudged her. Her hair was wild and Luke loved it—it fit her.

  She reached and Luke handed her the binoculars. “What’s happening?” she said.

  “I’m not sure, but more guards are gathering around the bell, and I’ve seen a few of those giants milling around over there, too.”

  “It’s too early,” she said. “Grace will be late.”

  Luke studied Moon as she worked the binoculars. She did not miss a detail as she swept the glasses slowly in all directions. He didn’t trust many people, but now he had to trust her. She was the pro here. She was cool and calculating.

  “There’s Karl,” she said.

  “What’s he doing?” Luke said, but she didn’t answer.

  “I don’t see Shevay.”

  The dawn was growing and the gray was fading. The peak of the pyramid made a loud crack and then it settled back down to its normal crackle. Luke let out a loud gasp.

  Moon giggled a little, but didn’t take her eyes from the binoculars. “Just the magnetic field shifting. We don’t have to worry about ancient spacemen.”

  Luke smiled, but said nothing. He saw a glow coming close to them. It was three guards coming with glowing spheres in their hands. They walked close, but didn’t have a clue that Luke and Moon were in the grove of bushes. One of the glowing balls disintegrated into thousands of tiny lights and then disappeared. The other two guards walked slowly, carrying the green balls as if they were explosives. They went to the bell and handed them to Karl one at a time, and he set them inside the bell. It made the bell glow green.

  “What are those things?” Luke said. “A Reeze had one on the prairie.”

  Moon turned and handed Luke the binoculars. She sat and rubbed her eyes. “I remember them when I was a girl, but I can’t remember what they are called. My people think they are spirits. Sometimes they float on their own around swamps.”