Portals

by Johnson, Dustin

  “I think we should finish hiking to Guernsey, carefully of course, and scope out the situation.”

  “Okay. But what about the tent? Are we going to bring it with us?” Chris asked.

  “We could, or we could hide it somewhere in the woods around here. Or we could walk it all the way back to the car and lock it up.”

  “That would be a long walk back to the car just to take the tent. It's probably better just to hide it here, if we don't want to bring it. To be honest, I really don't want to be lugging it around, and we'd have to come back this way anyway if we can't reach the portal. The car is back that way, so it wouldn't be out of our way.”

  “That's a good point,” Mike agreed. “Let's do that then. We can hide the tent around here. I'll pack it up, and we can take it down the tower once you guys are ready.”

  C.J. finished his breakfast bar and bottle of water. He looked miserable, but to his credit, he didn't complain. Mike checked each set of stitches again and was glad to see that they had held up just fine. The veins in his arms and legs were flowing with the black crud, but to Chris's and Mike's surprise C.J. never even asked about it. Either he was too exhausted or injured, or he had already noticed it since last night and it was no longer anything out of the ordinary.

  “C.J., are you ready to head down?” Chris asked.

  “Sure.”

  Mike and Chris led the way, carrying the tent, and C.J. followed behind. As Chris had expected, it was much easier bringing the tent down than it had been bringing it up. It also helped that they could see what they were doing, and had had a decent night's sleep.

  Once they reached the ground, they set the tent down to look for a good hiding place. Chris noticed a batch of fallen trees and pointed it out to Mike. They carried the tent over to the cluster. It took a bit of climbing on the part of Chris, but they were able to maneuver the tent into the middle of the group.

  “You can still see the gray of the tent covering, but only if you're looking for it,” Mike reassured.

  Chris grabbed some nearby leaves and spread them around the rolled up package. “How about now?”

  “Yea that's good. It's pretty well hidden,” Mike said.

  Chris climbed out and arched his back, releasing the pent-up stress in a series of pops. “All right, which way from here?”

  Mike pulled out the compass, oriented himself, and pointed. “This way. Are we ready?”

  “Yep.” The sun shone bright through the leaved canopy of trees covering the forest floor. Chris looked up and enjoyed the way the sun splintered through the tree tops, lighting the ground. It was a cool day, typical of late fall, but the sunshine made it seem warmer than it actually was. The walking seemed easier today, lighter in some fashion. It was probably because they were running on bellies full of food, decent sleep, and no longer carried the burden of the tent.

  “Dad?” C.J. asked, just ahead of Chris, not turning his head.

  “Yea?”

  “Will we see Mom when we go through the portal?”

  The question caught Chris off guard. He hadn't really thought about it himself, and so he hadn't thought that such a question might be on C.J.'s mind. He supposed it made sense though; C.J. didn't know what was on the other side. Chris had been able to place his arm in, at least, and he knew that it led to a wonderful place. It had to. At least he thought it had to, if it felt so good. He thought for a while longer before replying, trying to find the right words. “I'm not sure, but I'm sure it's a place of peace and warmth. A place where we'll be happy, and we'll either be with those we love, or we'll know that they are also safe and happy.”

  Chris couldn't observe C.J.'s face since he was behind him, but C.J. accepted the response in silence. The matter was concluded for now, it seemed, though Chris wouldn't be surprised if he posed more difficult questions later.

  They decided to stop and rest a bit, taking a seat on the forest floor and leaning against a group of trees. They took out and ate some of the food they'd stuffed into their pockets, washing it down with water from the bottles they carried. Since it was still before noon, they knew they had plenty of time to waste before they had to be at Guernsey. If they were only two miles out, then it was about a thirty minute walk, and the portal wasn't due to open until the afternoon.

  “When we get there, how do you propose we find where the portal is going to open?” Chris asked.

  “If we're careful, we can just find wherever Steve is. He should be at the exact location, since he has the laptop. We stay out of sight, out of mind, and just watch.”

  Chris nodded, they had talked about it before, but he had hoped something better had crossed Mike's mind. He wasn't sure what kinds of ideas he was expecting, but this would have to do. Chris's stomach grumbled and a wave of nausea passed through him. I can't be hungry, since we just ate. I must be nervous, he thought. This could be our last chance at a portal. Sure, we could get the laptop and have access to other portals, but is C.J.'s sickness going to go away? Is it killing him? There are just so many things I don't know, and I don't dare ask Mike.

  “Should we get going again?” Mike asked.

  “I suppose so,” Chris said. At that, they all stood and waited while Mike reoriented their direction with the compass. They began their march again with leaves and sticks crunching underfoot, announcing their presence. It wasn't long before they reached a sign, posted alone in the woods, which informed them that they'd entered park territory and hunting was not allowed. The legs of the sign were bent askew, and it leaned to the right, as if a large animal had barreled into it.

  The woods thinned abruptly, large trees giving way to saplings, and the leaved floor turned into a grass lawn. They exited the woods onto the rear lawn of a cabin. The lawn was clear save for a single maroon picnic table. Mike looked around, ensuring they weren't about to be caught off guard, and led the group to the rear of the cabin. They approached a sliding glass door, beyond which lay the interior of the cabin.

  “How about setting up shop in this cabin? We can let C.J. rest a bit, and you and I can go and scope out the situation?” Mike asked.

  “That sounds good,” Chris said. “Let's be careful here though, we don't want a situation like the last time we tried to get into a cabin.” Mike nodded in acknowledgment and cupped his hands around the glass to peer in. The interior appeared still, and undisturbed layers of dust lay upon the furniture. Mike attempted to open the door, but it resisted his pull and remained closed.

  “Locked,” Mike declared.

  “Maybe a window?” Chris walked to a window that led into the cabin's kitchen and tried to raise it. “No luck, it’s locked, too.” Chris looked around, searching for an idea. He didn't want to have to break the glass; it was loud, left things unsecured, and it reminded him too much of their previous attempt to get into a park cabin. “How about trying that cabin?” He pointed to the neighboring building.

  “Sure.” They crossed the lawn and jogged across the opening between the two cabins. Mike peered in through the sliding glass door and announced that it was clear. He met Chris's anxious gaze, breathed deep in an expression of hope, and tried the door. It slid open smoothly, making only a small sound as the rubber separated from the metal frame it had been pressed against for so long.

  They listened for a minute, and the cabin remained silent. Mike stepped through, followed by Chris and C.J., and then Mike pushed the sliding door closed, flipping the lock lever down. Once it clicked, he tried to pull on the door but it remained secure. He walked to the edge of the door and pulled on a string hanging next to the blinds, and they closed. He stepped back to make sure he could no longer see through the sliding door.

  “Just in case,” he told Chris, who nodded.

  “Let's do a walk-through and make sure there aren't any surprises waiting for us,” Chris said. The cabin was small, and it took only a few minutes to search the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and family room on the first floor. The basement was unfinished, and only contained a washer,
dryer, and some Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations stacked in a corner. The second floor contained a bathroom and two bedrooms, all of which were found to be empty, with beds still made. It didn't appear as if anyone had used the cabin, despite the fact that it had been unlocked the entire time, since the park had closed.

  Satisfied the cabin was unoccupied, they returned to the living room and took a seat on the couches. Mike sat in a love seat with its back to the windows at the front of the cabin, and Chris and C.J. shared a couch placed perpendicular to the love seat with its back against a wall. It took Chris a second to realize it, but he was actually relaxing for one of the first times in days. Just doing something normal, like sitting on a couch in a living room, was giving his mind and body a break from the stress of the whole situation. I can't really say this is normal anymore though, Chris thought. Maybe that's why things have been so draining. I'm clinging to a memory of how things were and not accepting how things are. I wish I could just let the pain, frustration, and longing go. It might make it easier to deal with the present.

  “So, we'll leave C.J. here, and you and I will try to find where Steve is?” Mike asked.

  “Sure. We're assuming wherever he is, the portal will be, correct?”

  “That's the hope,” Mike said, crossing his fingers. “If we find him, we'll come back for C.J. and hide within watching distance.”

  Chris turned to face C.J. “We won't be gone long.” C.J. didn't look very concerned, just tired, but he felt like reassuring his son in any case. “Just stay here and try to get some rest.”

  Mike stood up, removed two more pills from his jeans, and handed them to C.J. “Please take these, too; they're helping to keep the infection at bay.”

  “Dad?” C.J. said, taking the pills from Mike's extended hand. “I had a weird dream last night.”

  “Oh yea?”

  “At first I didn't want to tell you, but I think that maybe I should,” C.J. said, looking down, and cradling the pills in his hand.

  “Go ahead, kiddo.”

  “You, Mike, and I were all standing in a large field.” He paused for a second, swallowed the pills, and chased them with a drink of water. “The field was full of sunflowers, and it was a bright day. The sun was shining, and the flowers were swaying in the breeze. All of a sudden the sky was covered with large black clouds. It began to rain blood, and as the blood landed on the flowers, they all died. In the dream I knew that the flowers were all of the people we knew. I knew it in the way that you know anything in a dream, just by the feeling, even though it doesn't make any sense. When the flowers were all dead, we just kept standing there in the field, covered in blood.”

  “Is that it?” Chris asked.

  “No,” C.J. said, taking another drink of water. “The next thing I noticed was that a door had appeared in the middle of the field. It just sat there, right in the middle of the air, not touching the ground or anything. Just like I knew the flowers were people, I knew that the door was really a portal, though it didn't look like one. We tried to reach it, and you were yelling at me to hurry. Both you and Mike went through, and you left the door open. When I got there the door wouldn't let me go through, no matter what I did. I kept trying to put my foot in, but it was like there was an invisible wall over the entrance of the door.”

  The image of a bird flying mindlessly into a window flashed through Chris's mind. Its wings flapped desperately, as it tried to get inside the house, not realizing that there was a transparent object preventing it. He suppressed the image in order to focus on what C.J. was saying; he didn't want C.J. to feel like he wasn't taking his dream seriously.

  “Do you think it means something?” C.J. asked.

  “I'm not sure,” Chris said, tousling his hair. “But I can tell you this. If, for some reason, you weren't allowed to go into a portal, then I'm not going either. I'm not going to leave you behind. I'm sure it was just a dream though. Our feelings work themselves out in our dreams. When we're scared, worried, or anxious, we tend to dream more. It's our mind's way of relieving stress, you know? Our brains filter out the garbage that has built-up over time using our dreams.”

  “Yea, I guess,” C.J. said, frowning.

  Chris laid his hand gently on C.J.'s knee. “Hey, don't worry. I'm going to take care of you. Mike and I will find where the portal will be opening, we'll come get you, and we're going to go through together.” C.J.'s eyes remained lowered for another second, and then he raised them, nodding.

  Chris stood and handed C.J. the water bottle from his pocket. “Keep drinking water. Medicine tends to dehydrate the body, and you need to be in fighting shape.” He gave C.J. a wink and a smile.

  C.J. smiled back. He twisted the cap off of the water bottle, took another drink while Chris watched, and offered to return the bottle.

  “Actually, you keep it,” he told C.J. “Finish the rest of it. I'll get some water when we get back. Try to take a nap on the couch. We'll lock the door, and you don't open it until we get back. We'll have a secret knock so you know it's us. I'll knock twice, pause, and then knock a third time nice and loud. Only open the door if it matches that pattern.”

  “Okay,” C.J. nodded.

  “What's the pattern, so I can be sure you've got it?”

  “Two knocks, wait for a bit, and then knock one more time,” C.J. repeated.

  “Perfect. Remember, that third knock will be a loud one. Are you ready, Mike? Let's get this done,” Chris said.

  Mike stood and swung his torso from side to side to get the blood flowing again. “I'm as ready as I'll ever be.”

  Chris led the way to the back door, reached through the blinds, and opened it. He stuck his head out and looked around, satisfying himself that it was still clear. “Come lock this door behind us C.J.,” he said.

  C.J. rose from the couch and joined them at the door. Chris stepped through the opening, the blinds shaking noisily as he passed, and Mike followed. They turned on the patio to face the door again and watched as C.J. shut and re-secured the door. The blinds swayed back and forth for a second, and then lay still again, hiding the interior of the cabin.

  “Which way do you think we should head?” Chris asked.

  Mike walked to the edge of the cabin and peered around the corner. They were in a cul-de-sac filled with cabins around all sides. The entranceway to the cul-de-sac led out to one of the park's main roads running perpendicular. The main road consisted of lawn after lawn, which didn't provide much cover. They would be completely visible if they walked along it. “I'm not sure. It doesn't look like there's much cover around. I hadn't really thought through how we were going to sneak around.”

  Chris joined him to observe the situation and came to the same conclusion. His stomach dropped. This wasn't going to be quite as easy as they'd planned.

  “I wouldn't say it's the best, but I have an idea. Maybe we could find some worker uniforms, and pretend that we work here? If we did happen to cross paths with him, then he might just avoid us.”

  “I don't have anything better,” Mike said. “If it looks like we work here, and we don't look like we're trying to sneak around, maybe he wouldn't suspect us.”

  “That's the general idea,” Chris said. He didn't really think Steve would just notice them and go on about life, even if he didn't recognize them, but who knew. Hopefully he just wouldn't see them, and the uniforms would be an unnecessary precaution.

  “Okay, let's head this way, and see if we can find an administration building,” Mike said, pointing to the left. They moved from yard to yard, through the cabins, taking a long circular path out to the main road and never remaining directly in the open.

  After reaching the edge of the main road, they looked to both the left and the right, trying to find the nearest building that didn't appear to be a cabin. Unfortunately, it appeared that all of the important buildings were disguised as cabins as well, in order to maintain the wilderness experience. It may help to keep the mood, but it also made it difficult to find what yo
u were looking for.

  “Left or right?” Chris asked.

  “I don't think it matters much. Both ways look the same,” Mike said. “Left.”

  They started down the grassy lawn lying parallel to the road, keeping as close to the attached woods as possible. It occurred to Chris that they could go back in the woods and follow at the edge, which would decrease their presence, but at the same time it would limit their visibility. He was sure the thought had crossed Mike's mind as well, so he didn't bring it up.

  Without consciously deciding to, they fell into a natural pattern; they went from building to building near the woods, walking to the rear of each and determining its purpose. After thirty minutes of searching and finding only regular old cabins, they finally found one storing landscaping supplies. It was locked, but Mike broke the handle on the rear door with a brick he found utilized as part of a border around a landscaped mulch bed. No matter how many times they had to break into some place, it still felt like vandalism, though all of these places were as good as abandoned. Mike pushed the door open and braced the brick against it to keep the door from swinging closed.

  “Let's see what we can find,” Chris said. The building contained a concrete floor, on which stood ranks of lawnmowers in one corner, snow blowers in another, and weed whackers hanging from hooks screwed into the walls. There was a desk pressed against one wall covered with green hardcover notebooks; a plastic chair with wheels was shoved under it. Papers littered the top, and a trash can stood on one corner of the desk filled with rolled up maps standing on end. The trash can sported a sticker on one side, from which a large brown bear pointed at the world, declaring that 'Only YOU can prevent forest fires!'

  Mike began looking through the various closets located throughout the room while Chris searched the desk. Chris didn't know exactly what he was looking for, but he hoped he'd know it if he found it. He grabbed one of the rolled up maps from the re-purposed trash can and unrolled it on top of the desk. It provided an aerial view of the park, and each building was labeled with a name selected from the wide selection of tree species. The building they were currently in appeared to be named Sycamore. He traced the path they had followed from the cabin backward and found that the cabin in which C.J. was resting was named Hickory.