"And also with you," came a collective murmur as the occupants huddled around the door.
Two police cruisers pulled to a stop at the curb. They turned off their emergency sirens, but the lights atop their vehicles remained flashing as they exited the vehicles. A lot of good these guys will do now, Chris thought.
"Look at all of those bodies," Mike said, pointing toward where the portal had been. The pile of bodies thickened as it neared the location of the portal. "They must have been trying to make it through the sentinels."
"Yea, people are getting desperate due to the lack of basic necessities like food and water. Ever since the government stopped communicating its plan, people are convinced these things are the only chance to escape the craziness."
"I suppose. I've been lucky enough to have a job the whole time. What about you?"
Chris shrugged his shoulders. "Kind of. My wife worked in marketing and lost her job pretty soon after the portals began to appear. I used to be an actuary, but the insurance market died shortly after, too. I was fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time though, and found a job as a manager at a Target for a while. That lasted until two months ago, and I haven't found anything since."
"Excuse me,” a policewoman asked, approaching them with a notepad. “Did either of you see how many sentinels there were?"
"I think there were four," Chris said. He looked to Mike for confirmation.
"That sounds right," Mike shrugged.
"Were you here when the portal opened?" she continued.
"Yes. It opened up right over there," Mike said, pointing. "People started going nuts."
"Could you clarify what you mean by 'nuts'?" she asked.
"For one thing," Chris intervened, "that woman was run over by a car while she tried to reach it." He pointed to the woman's corpse. It still lay awkwardly, half on the sidewalk and half in the street.
The policewoman didn't turn to look at the body. "How long was it between the portal opening and the sentinels appearing?" she continued.
Have we really become so heartless toward one another, Chris wondered. She doesn't even seem fazed. I can't imagine having to see this kind of carnage day in and day out.
"It was five minutes and thirty seven seconds!" Brent said excitedly, walking over to join them. "That is the shortest time period yet between a portal opening and the sentinels appearing! It's absolutely marvelous."
What a whack job, Chris thought. This guy is obsessed with these things. But he does have a point. If they are opening in a pattern, I wonder if he can find where they'll be opening next?
"All right, thanks," she said. "May I have your names please? They have to go in the report."
"Chris Tregaron.
"Can you spell the last name, please?"
"T-R-E-G-A-R-O-N."
"And you?" she said, pointing to Mike with the eraser from her pencil.
"Mike Walters."
"I'm Brent Stiles," Brent said. "I used to work for the government so I know all about these portals. If you need additional information I can give you my address and phone number."
"That won't be necessary, sir, thank you," she said.
"No, really. I don't mind," he continued. "I'd give you my cell phone number as well, but, you know, they don't work anymore."
"That's really not necessary, thank you," she said, holding up her hand. She stepped from the sidewalk back into the street.
"That was a bit rude," Brent said, shrugging his shoulders. "Oh well. Her loss."
"Brent," Mike said. "If there is a pattern to the portal openings, could you find where they are going to open?"
He read my mind, Chris thought.
Brent smiled. "I've been able to narrow the location down to a 1000 foot area each of the past two times. I was at the portal in Denver a month ago right after it closed, and I couldn't believe my luck when I saw the next one was going to be right here in Aurora. I made it here just as the sentinels appeared. Then I headed into the church, obviously, where I met you fine fellows."
"So you can find them!" Chris said. The blood rushed to his face and his heart raced. "That's awesome! Can you tell us where the next one will be?" he tried to whisper, struggling to contain his excitement.
"Gentlemen, I'm going to have to ask you to leave now. This is a crime scene," the policewoman called.
Brent pulled out a small green notebook from his laptop case. He ripped out a piece of paper and tore it in half. "This is my address," he said, scribbling onto both pieces of paper. "And this is my phone number. If you are interested in locating the next portal, just let me know." He smiled and extended the pieces of paper to Mike and Chris.
"I'll definitely be in touch," Mike said, taking the piece of paper.
"Thanks. I'll have to talk it over with the wife," Chris said. "She hasn't been sold on the whole 'portals are a good thing' concept yet. I'd sure like to try though.” Chris surveyed the street again. “It sure doesn't look like things are going to get much better around here."
I just wish she could see this mess, Chris thought. She's stuck at home with the kids most of the time and doesn't understand how bad it's truly become out here. The number of decent people decreases every day, since they seem to make it safely through the portals. It's hard to find food, and everything is shutting down. I suppose I'll just have to find a way to convince her.
"You know where to find me," Brent smiled. They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.
CHAPTER TWO
"You were there when the portal opened?" Sarah asked while folding clothes and placing them on their bed. "Thank God you're all right."
"It was pretty crazy. Some jerk just left his wife and kids. He went through the portal alone."
"Really? Oh my goodness, did they make it too?"
"The kids did but not his wife," Chris said. He picked up some of the completed piles of clothes and began placing them into the dresser.
I don't really want to go into details and depress her, he thought, but maybe it would help her see how bad things are.
"I just can't believe anybody would abandon their kids like that."
"It was pretty sad," he said. "I don't know how he could do it either. A car hit the woman right before she reached it, and the sentinels arrived before she could make it through."
Sarah's hand rose to her mouth, "Oh no. That's terrible."
"Sarah, I'm starting to think that we should try to find a portal ourselves. Things are so bad out there, and they're only getting worse."
"Those things are dangerous,” she objected, pausing with a half-folded pair of pants in her hands. “We hear stories of people turning into ash all the time. We just don't know anything about them. Who knows what those things are? They may not lead anywhere!"
"I know," Chris said. "I can agree that I've never seen a so-called 'bad' person make it through, but I've also never seen a 'good' person turn to ash. It could lead somewhere wonderful. Heaven, paradise, eternal peace, whatever you want to call it."
"Or we could just die."
"Sarah, come on," Chris tried reasoning. "Why wouldn't the sentinels appear at the same time as the portal if they controlled it, or if it was something evil? Why the time difference? It has to be because they are trying to prevent people from using them."
"We don't know that! Are you willing to bet our kids' lives on that?"
As if on cue, the sound of children's laughter cut the moment's tension. "What are they doing anyway?" Chris asked.
"Playing Slap Jack. They've been doing it most of the day, ever since the power went out."
Chris smiled. "That's a fun game. Seriously though, do you want to just keep struggling to get by? How much food do we have left? Where are we going to get more? Do you have a secret garden somewhere?"
"No, Chris, of course not," she said, raising her voice. "I don't know where we're going to get more food any more than you do, but I sure as hell know that I don't want to trust in some random circle of light."
; "I've seen people make it, Sarah," he said. "They pass right through, and nothing bad happens. You can tell the difference. It's blatant when someone makes it or not."
"How do you know we're good enough?" she replied. "How can you possibly know? What if the people that make it through are just gone, forever, into nowhere?"
"They can't just be here for nothing; I refuse to believe that. They have to lead to a good place, otherwise why are the sentinels trying to prevent people from getting there?"
"I don't know, Chris! I don't even know what those things are!" she said even louder. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She threw the shirt she was holding back to the bed and covered her face with her hands.
Chris walked over and wrapped his arms around her, holding her head to his chest as she sobbed. "I don't know either, but I know that we're going to starve slowly and become animals if we stay here. We've waited for longer than a year for the government to do something, but the government is dying along with the rest of us. They don't know any more than we do. Besides, government leaders have been going through portals just like the rest of us common folk. I'd bet that's why they're no longer responding. They've all probably reached a portal by this point."
"You're probably right, Chris,” Sarah relented. "I'm just scared. I know things are getting worse, and it's only going to keep going that way. Mrs. Roberts from next door told me that the Whole Foods is closed now as well, too many of their employees are gone, and people kept looting at night anyway. Thank God you were able to work for as long as you did, or we probably wouldn't even have the food that we do."
"How much is left?" he asked.
"Probably about three weeks' worth."
Chris sighed. "I met this guy today when I was waiting it out in the church. He claims he can find where the portals are going to open before they appear."
Sarah walked to the mirror attached to their dresser and stopped. She looked at him in the mirror for a minute before replying, "I guess we could give it a shot. I don't want to be anywhere near those awful sentinels though. We'd have to make sure to reach a portal long before they show up."
"Are you sure? This guy could always just be a crackpot." This guy really could be full of it, Chris thought. What if he's just trying to lure a group of us to those roving bands of sentinel worshiping freaks? He shuddered at the thought of the Loborians. The rumors were that they cut people up and used their bodies for sacrificial worship. Once they're done with the ceremonies, they eat them. He decided it was better to not even bring that up at this point. The last thing he needed to do was scare Sarah even more.
"Like you said, what choice do we have? If it's just going to keep getting worse and we're going to run out of food, then we have to do something." She turned and walked over to him, looking deeply into his eyes. She raised her hands and placed them on his chest. "I don't want to watch us slowly starve. I do trust you. I know you'll keep us safe."
"I love you guys more than anything in the world, and I just don't want to stay here to see how bad it can possibly get. I don't want to wait until it's too late."
"I know."
"So what's for dinner?" he asked, attempting to lighten the mood.
"How about two cans of green beans and a slice of bread each?"
"Sounds delicious," he said, licking his lips in mockery. "How long will it take to cook?" He patted his belly and she laughed.
"How about three minutes to open the cans? Get the kids and we'll meet at the table," she said, also patting him on the belly. She turned and walked out of the bedroom.
That went about as smooth as it could have gone, Chris thought. I just hope that Brent knows what he's talking about and isn't just putting us on. The sounds of faraway gunshots and what Chris thought might be a person screaming permeated the night. He walked to the bedroom windows and double-checked that they were locked. Then he walked through each room of their single floor home and did the same, closing any open blinds.
They decided to tell the kids of their plan to look for a portal during dinner. The kids knew of the portals, of course, as did everyone. You couldn't not know about them seeing that they were pretty much the only thing people talked about. The news covered each occurrence while the power was on, which was rarer and rarer as time passed. Chris Jr., or C.J. as most people called him, and Angie even talked about them with other kids at city parks and play dates. Before they canceled public school, C.J. had even heard Johnny Torrance start calling the kids he didn't like (no surprise that they tended to be the bookish kids) sentinel-lovers.
The portals were so prominent and discussed so often in society that the local news station 9NEWS allocated a dedicated fifteen minute slot to cover them. For a while, they even had a running tally of how many people had successfully made it through versus those who didn't. A Vanna White wannabe would flip numbers on a large scoreboard. That was when things were a little more orderly, and the portal sites hadn't become quite as chaotic. In typical fashion, the other competing local news stations soon followed suit, and the kids would be glued to the television each night. At least until Sarah found out and turned off the television. She didn't want them watching the news in general, since they tended to report only the worst things in life, and when it came to the portals it was no different.
“So kids,” Chris started. “We have some news.” C.J. and Angie looked up from their plates curiously, Angie chewing and C.J. with a fork of speared green beans still in his hand. “I met someone who says he can predict where the portals are going to open. I've talked it over with Mom, and we've decided that we're going to try to find a portal. What do you guys think?”
C.J.'s eyes widened and he sat his fork back down on his plate. “Really? Cool!”
Sarah smiled. “Yes, but let's not be too hasty. We're not sure whether or not this person can actually find portals. He could be lying, or he could be wrong. We'll meet with him, see what he says, and we'll go from there.”
“Still, that's cool!” C.J. said.
“Are we going to go through the portal?” Angie asked, through a mouthful of chewed green beans.
“Please wait until you've swallowed your food before speaking,” Sarah said. “To answer your question, we don't know yet. Like I said, we're going to look at things if we reach that point. It's kind of hard to say right now.”
They decided that Chris would talk with Brent tomorrow to come up with some type of plan. Once he knew more, he would discuss it with Sarah. They would figure out the logistics of what they needed to bring, when they should go, and other details. By the time they had finished with dinner and answered the kids' questions it was time for the kids to go to bed. Sarah ushered them to brush their teeth and get into their pajamas. Chris cleared the table and placed the dishes on the counter. He filled one sink with soapy water and dropped the plates and silverware in. Once the dishes were washed, rinsed, and put away back in the cupboards, he went to tuck the kids into bed. This had become a familiar nighttime ritual for the family and the kids were already in their beds.
"Goodnight, Dad," C.J. said, as Chris entered the room. The blanket was tucked up to his armpits and left only his arms and face exposed. A worn leather baseball mitt covered his left hand.
Chris smiled. "Why the baseball glove, kiddo?"
"I want to be ready, in case I have a dream about playing baseball. If I'm the only one without a glove, then they probably wouldn't let me play." C.J. slid his right hand along the outside of the glove, tracing over the tied laces.
"That's a pretty good reason," Chris said. "All right, I'll see you in the morning, okay? Here's to hoping you have baseball dreams." He crossed both sets of fingers and held them up. I wish he could have played at least one year of little league, Chris thought. It's not fair that kids just don't get to be kids anymore. Chris looked around the room; it was adorned with baseball posters, and a glow-in-the-dark solar system of stickers on the ceiling. At least he has a pretty cool room. Better than any room I had as a kid.
> "Thanks Dad, I love you."
"I love you too. I'll see you in the morning." At that he slapped C.J. on his blanketed thigh and left the room. Chris closed the door quietly.
He walked down the hall and paused outside Angie's room. Sarah sang softly and her voice carried through the door. He couldn't make out the words, but he could tell by the rhythm and intonation that it was twinkle twinkle little star. He couldn't help but smile again. The singing turned to muffled voices through the door, and a minute later the door opened.
"Tag out," his wife said and they slapped hands. It was a running joke they had for whenever each parent had one of the kids and they swapped. Man-to-man defense had worked well for them so far. At one point they had considered the possibility of a third child and a switch to zone defense, but things just hadn't turned out that way. The timing just wasn't ever right.
"Baseball dreams," he called over his shoulder.
"What?" she asked, stopping in the hallway.
"Baseball dreams... you'll see," he smiled and continued into his daughter's room. Nobody would ever doubt that a little girl lived in here, he thought. The room was filled with princess toys, a princess couch, and a princess toy box that was, of course, filled itself with other princess accessories. DVDs of Disney and Pixar movies populated a little TV stand in the corner of the room, and the walls were covered in lively posters of animated scenes.
"Daddy?"
"Yes dear?" he asked, kneeling by her bedside.
"Can we have pizza for dinner tomorrow?" she asked.
Chris smiled. "I wish more than anything that I could make that happen," he said, gently rubbing his hand over her hair and stroking her cheek. "I don't think so. None of the pizza places are open anymore."
"Can Mommy make some?"
"No sweetheart, we don't have the stuff to make pizza. I promise, one day we'll have pizza again, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy. I love you."
"I love you too, Angie, now get a good night's sleep."
"I will."
"I'll see you in the morning." Chris kissed Angie on the forehead and rose to his feet. He walked to the doorway and paused. He watched as Angie rolled over on the bed and suffocated four stuffed animals in a hug. Pizza, he thought. What I wouldn't give for a large pizza.
Portals Page 2
