Blood

by Cheryl Twaddle

  “I think you’re wrong, wrong, wrong, Nicky,” said Marshal. He took the paper from me and picked up my discarded pen. I didn’t want to argue anymore. I thought I had counted the days correctly since I came here but, apparently, nothing was adding up. I was out by ten days to Colonel Al’s calendar; ten days! Either I screwed up big time or Colonel Al did. Believing that the latter was unlikely, I had to admit that I’d somehow lost ten days of my life somewhere.

  “See? Look,” Marshal pointed to the paper where he had written a series of numbers. “If you take into account the winds and all the time we spent at Pig’s, the storm should start the day after tomorrow.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said, hands in the air. “I give up. You’re right and Colonel Al’s calendar is extremely accurate. So, I guess we should get lots of wood ready and put up some tarps to keep the wind out of Cocoa’s shelter.”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” said Marshal, “we should.”

  “Before you do that, though,” said Robert, “we need to settle something. Colonel? I think you should stay here to weather out the storm. It’s warmer and we have plenty of room.”

  “Oh, no,” said the Colonel. “I’ll be going back to the mine as soon as possible. My experiments can not be left unattended for too long. When that storm comes, I’ll be fine inside the mine. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be fine inside the mine,” said Robert. “I just thought, if we move some of your experiments here, we could work on them together.”

  “That’s not such a bad idea, mate,” said Cornelius. “We have plenty of food and that stove can really keep you warm as long as it’s kept well fueled with wood.”

  “They’re right, you know,” I said. “Stay; we’ll get so much more done.”

  “Okay, I’ll stay,” he said, giving in to their hospitality. He had to admit, it was nice to finally have people to talk to.

  That afternoon they took Cocoa with them to the mine and packed up some of the test tubes, the microscope, some of the rock samples and a few personal belongings. They filled up bags tied to Cocoa’s saddle and went back to Marshal’s. The temperature was already starting to drop and the sky had turned white. It wouldn’t be long before the snow came.

  The blizzard showed up the next day, exactly when Marshal said it would. It was a horrible storm, too. The wind blew snow around so fast that it began to pile up into four, five and even six-foot-high snow drifts. If you were outside, it whipped your face like tiny little ice chips, stinging you like thousands of bees. Visibility was zero; you couldn’t see across the yard to Cocoa’s shelter which, thankfully, we had managed to extend and tarp before the storm started. Cocoa was safe inside out of the wind and covered with warm, dry blankets. We did have to go out and check her food and water throughout the day to make sure she had enough and it wasn’t frozen. This required us to tie a rope from the house to the shelter so we wouldn’t get lost. The blowing white snow was so bad you couldn’t see two feet in front of you. We also tied a rope to the trap door that led to the underground fortress in case we needed more wood or food.

  The rest of us stayed inside where it was nice and warm thanks to Billy and Cornelius who kept feeding the stove with fresh wood. It was cozy inside and I found myself becoming lazy. I was comfortable in the tiny house. There were games to play, people to talk to and Robert lent me a small box of books and I found myself sitting on the couch or bed reading for hours at a time. I should have been trying to solve the problem of breaking through the dimensional veil but all the calculations were driving me crazy. The blizzard seemed to have sealed us all inside a sort of cocoon and I felt safe.

  Barker stayed by my side the whole time the blizzard raged outside. I think he wanted to protect me from the blowing winds outside. It was like the days down in Marshal’s underground fortress after I had first come here. The winds raged then as well and Barker stayed by my side just like he was doing now. I liked it; he felt warm and calm against me.

  I went to bed on the last night of the blizzard thinking about Barker and how lucky I was to have such a good dog, even if he did tend to wander off from time to time. I was still not comfortable with the fact that Colonel Al had him for all those years before I came. I kept telling myself that it didn’t matter; Barker had to survive down here the only way he knew how and if that meant being looked after by different people then so be it.

  It was late and I could hear the winds howling outside. Emma Lee and Kitten had gone to bed earlier and were fast asleep by the time I crawled under my covers. I had stayed up a little longer, talking with Robert, Marshal and Colonel Al but now I could barely keep my eyes open; I was so tired. I gave in and called Barker up on the bed so he good lie next to my feet and keep them warm. I turned down the flame in the lantern until it went completely out and the room was thrown into darkness. I lay back on my pillow and felt totally relaxed as I drifted off to sleep.

  For what must have been the second or third time since coming down here I started to dream almost as soon as I fell asleep. I dreamt about the day I woke up for the first time in this world. I seemed to retrace every step I took that day, not leaving anything out; the walk to the school, back home, to the mall. Every moment being relived in my mind. My dream self was walking to the police station when I heard the barking in the distance.

  ‘A dog,’ I had thought. I wasn’t alone, there was another living thing here with me. I felt so relieved. I heard him starting to cry and I started walking a little faster. There was no reason for him to be afraid, I wasn’t going to hurt him. I turned the corner and looked down the street. I knew this block well, one of my friends lived here. There were a couple of parked cars, a mail box and a fire hydrant. Trees lined the street, planted in the strip of grass that ran all the way down the block between the sidewalk and the road. I saw the dog sitting perfectly still, waiting for me to come to him.

  I walked over to him and crouched down so I could pat him. He reached up his paw to me and something caught my eye just behind him and off to the right. The air seemed to be wavering like it does when it’s really hot out and you can see heat waves rising from the surface of something. I hadn’t noticed it before, or hadn’t acknowledged that I noticed it. I let go of the dog’s paw and reached out to the wave. The dog jumped up and started barking again, this time wagging its tail, excited that I had finally seen this.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked. I looked at the dog and he looked back at me.

  ‘It’s the way out,’ he said.

  I sat up with a jolt, feeling at the end of my bed for Barker. He was sitting up, wide awake, wagging his tail. He licked my hand and gave out a little whimper. My heart was beating fast and I tried to catch my breath.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Chapter 16

  Barker spoke to me! I mean, it was a dream but, still, he spoke to me. His voice was clear and direct. He told me that wavy thing I saw was the way out! It was a portal of some kind; it had to be. Maybe Barker was awake when he was dropped in this world. Maybe he saw the portal and knows how to use it. I didn’t even look when I found him. I was more excited that I had found another living creature that I didn’t even think to look at the air around him. Who would? The important thing was that there was a portal and Barker knew where it was and so did I now. Lot of good that did me, though. There was no way I could find it with the city gone. I would need the city to reappear so I could go to the same street again and find it and that wasn’t going to happen until the next 360.

  “You knew all along didn’t your?” I pat Barker behind his ears and kissed his head. “If you could talk for real, it would be so much easier to ask you questions.”

  “Nicky?” It was Emma Lee; I must have woken her up when I talked to Barker. “Is everything okay?”

  “It’s better than okay,” I said, not even caring that I woke her up. “I know how to get back home! I know where the portal is!”

  “Portal?” asked Emma Lee, the sleep lea
ving her voice as she became more awake. “What is that?”

  “It’s like a door that brings you from one dimension to another,” I explained. “If you go through one, you wind up somewhere else. I think that’s how we came to this world.”

  “Well there must be a lot of these doors because people came here from every part of the world,” she said. I stared into the darkness to where her voice was coming from, feeling all the wind deflate from me. Of course, there was more than one door. Why didn’t I think of that? Either there was more than one door or the door, itself, moved around the world collecting people. If that was the case, then my chances of finding it again were pretty slim. I reached out and took Barker’s head in my hands.

  “Why can’t you talk?” I asked. “You could probably tell me everything I needed to know about the dumb portal. It’s not fair that animals can’t communicate with us; they know so much more than we do.”

  “Nicky, are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “Go back to sleep. I guess I’ll wait until the morning to talk to everyone about it.”

  “Okay,” said Emma Lee. Within minutes I could hear her breathing grow heavy and I knew she was asleep. It took me longer, at least another hour before I finally calmed my mind and fell asleep. No dreams this time, though, just sleep.

  In the morning I got up and dressed quickly so I could let Barker out for the bathroom and then go and check on Cocoa. The snow had stopped sometime through the night and the temperature had dropped dramatically. I knew what a Chinook was, who didn’t? Living in Calgary or any other part of southern Alberta made you well aware of the warm winds that came in over the mountains. They were a welcome break of cold weather in our long winters. I could already hear the snow melting and it made me smile because I knew that this was the end, or pretty close to the end, of winter. We had maybe three weeks, at most, of the coldest season left. That was according to Colonel Al anyway. I would be glad not to have to trudge through the snow anymore, freezing my feet and hands and face.

  Marshal was already up, sitting at the table and drinking tea when I came through and Robert was putting more wood into the iron stove. They both said good morning to me as I walked out the door and I told them I had something important to tell them when I got back. I returned fifteen minutes later and was happy to see that Corporal Al and Cornelius had joined them. Hopefully, I would only have to tell my story once.

  “Okay,” I started after getting a tea for myself. We all sat around the table and everyone was waiting for me to speak. “Last night I had a dream about when I found Barker. It was so real, like a memory that comes to you under hypnosis or something. Anyway, I recalled every little detail that happened the day I woke up down here for the first time.

  “I heard Barker barking down the block and was so excited that I wasn’t alone. I found him sitting on the sidewalk, waiting for someone to come. I bent down to shake his paw and that’s when I saw it.”

  “What?” asked Cornelius.

  “The portal,” I said. “I didn’t notice it the first time, the non-dream time. I was just happy to find Barker; I didn’t look at the things around him. I must have subconsciously looked, though, because the memory is still in here.” I tapped my head with my finger.

  “Nicole?” asked Robert. “Are you sure that this wasn’t just a dream?”

  “I’m sure,” I said. “Like I said before, there was too much detail for it not to be a memory.”

  “What did this portal look like?” asked Robert.

  “It was wavy, like the air was full of heat of some kind,” I explained. I could see that Robert was very interested in what I was saying. “That’s when Barker told me it was the way out.”

  “Barker?” Cornelius tried to hide his laughter. “The dog told you it was the way out?”

  “I know, I know,” I tried to make it sound legitimate. “Dogs can’t talk, it’s impossible. Not here, anyway, but he did talk to me in my dream and I think that’s quite possible.”

  “Yes,” said Colonel Al, “the Private has spoken to me on several occasions. In fact, he’s the one who convinced me to make my calendar.”

  “He did?” I was surprised to hear this. “I swear, there is more to this dog than anyone knows.”

  “So, the dog told you, in your dreams, that the wavy air you saw, in your dream, is a portal. Is that right?” asked Cornelius.

  “Yes,” I answered sharply and glared at the Englishman.

  “Just checking,” he said. “So, what do we do with this information?”

  “I guess we go look for this portal,” said Marshal. “Right, right, right Nicky?”

  “We can’t,” I said.

  “Why not?” asked Marshal.

  “Because I don’t know were it is,” I answered.

  “But you just said...” said Cornelius.

  “I know, I saw the portal,” I explained, “but that was in the city when there were streets to navigate from. I don’t think I can find it without the city being there.”

  “I guess we wait then,” said Colonel Al. “Until then, we keep doing the experiments.”

  “Oh, jolly,” said Cornelius under his breath. I smiled and rolled my eyes at him so he would know that he was not alone in his thinking.

  Chapter 17

  Max

  Max left Howling Wolf’s camp and headed southwest. He was pretty sure the warrior would send spies out to see if he had been telling the truth about where he was off to. He wasn’t disappointed. Two men were following him and if they were an example of Howling Wolf’s army, it didn’t say much about his men. Max was aware of their presence almost immediately. They weren’t very discreet as they tried to hide behind trees or ducked down flat to the ground, thinking the snow banks would hide them. What fools, he thought. They were dressed in black! Surely they must know that they stuck out against the white snow. He could spot them from a mile away. To add to their lack of camouflage they were noisy. There were times he could hear every word they were saying. On one occasion they even got into a shouting match over their food supply; the whole countryside could hear them. Max kept going, though, pretending that he didn’t know they were there. He kept marching in a southwest direction like he said he would. If he convinced them he was actually going to the west coast, they would go back and report it to Howling Wolf. Hopefully, this would convince the warrior that he was telling the truth. Whether or not it made him change his direction from the north and head west as well was another question. Somehow Max didn’t think it would. As soon as his two little tag-alongs decided to go back to camp, Max would change directions and go back home to Nicky.

  After three days of tagging behind, the two men decided it was time to go back. There was nothing unusual about where the Scott was going. He said he was heading to the coast and that was exactly where he appeared to be heading. He was on his own and, from what they observed, had no intention of meeting up with others. They could report to Howling Wolf that he had nothing to be concerned about; Max would be long gone before they packed up and headed north.

  Max waited one more day just to be sure the men weren’t coming back then he turned north and started to head back to Marshal’s. He made sure that he was about a half mile away from his original path. The last thing he wanted was to run into Howling Wolf’s group of men on his way back. He knew he could travel much faster than they could. He kept to the trees for the most part, knowing they would provide cover for him. There was more than just the warrior to worry about down here. Smaller groups of two or three could be just as dangerous if you didn’t stay aware of everything around you at all times.

  He just made it to where the Canadian border should be when the blizzard hit. It was bad and he knew he had to find a warm place to wait out the freezing storm or he would die. After, what seemed like hours, stumbling around in the blinding snow, he found a little cabin amongst the trees. It was owned by a couple in their twenties. The woman had fallen two years ago and the man arrived in
the 1950’s. They met each other six months ago on the west coast and fell in love almost instantly. They wanted to explore this world together and left their coastal home not long after they met. When they got here, they fell in love with the quiet beauty that surrounded them and decided to stay for awhile. This proved lucky for Max, who would have frozen to death if he had not found them before he froze to death.

  Sajni was a beautiful girl and Max probably would have tried to seduce her if he hadn’t been thinking of Nicky all the time. Oh, how that girl had changed him! Sajni was exactly the type of woman he’d want for himself. Tall, curvy in all the right places, long black hair and dark eyes; she was beautiful. Her boyfriend, Phil, should consider himself lucky, Max thought. Phil wasn’t built very big and he was lacking in any real muscle power. It would have been easy to take Sajni from him.

  He stayed for five days with them, until the storm subsided and it warmed up outside. They were gracious hosts and Max promised he would stop in to see them if he ever made it down this way again. He wanted to get back home as soon as possible. Nicky, Marshal and all the others had to make plans to either stay and fight or run. Although he’d only known them for a short time, he knew that they would stay and fight. Like himself, they would not give up what was theirs easily. They fought Pig and his men and won. There was no way they would give up everything they had worked so hard for to a man like Howling Wolf and his men. This scared him more than anything because the warrior was not like Pig at all. Howling Wolf was smart and trained in the art of brutality. Max knew men like the warrior; they thrived in the killing fields. Wiping out Nicky and her friends would be fun for him. Their army was big and willing to do whatever Howling Wolf told them and the warrior had no rules when a battle was being fought. They would just as easily kill Kitten as they would Max, himself.