The Gateway

by Steve Simons

  Chapter 2 - Painful Troubles

  It was too late, there was a huge flash and both boys suddenly found themselves on the ground unable to move, unable to feel a thing, in Tom's case it was a bit of relief from the painful ankle,

  but it was very frightening. They could breathe and could see what was going on around them,

  but they were paralysed and unable to move.

  The caterpillar had come to a halt and several of the creatures had climbed down and were surrounding the two boys. The creatures grunting and signing to each other, obviously deciding what to do with the boys. Several of them grabbed the boys and dragged them over to the caterpillar creature. It was during this activity that the boys realised that the creatures, whilst quite strong, were actually shorter than the boys.

  The boys were hoisted up one at a time and fastened to the armoured plates. Tom could see and smell that the armour plating was made out of some form of really dense leather.

  The creatures were soon back up on or in their riding positions and the caterpillar was making its way once more into the wooden stockade.

  When they entered the stockade itself they could see that it had a large fire to one side, the remainder of the space around the sides was taken up by a collection of what looked like straw and twig huts. There were lots of the creatures busying themselves with various tasks.

  The caterpillar settled itself down into some sort of depression in the ground that must have been it's nest. one of the creatures tossed some food, to the head of the caterpillar, it grunted in appreciation and set about chewing its meal.

  A large pot was being dragged to the fire. Once in place, some bones were thrown in and

  a stream of creatures made their way up to the pot, each throwing in what appeared to be some vegetables of some sort.

  Barry thought to himself, "I wonder if we are destined for the pot? Or will they invite us to join them for supper"

  A rather impressively dressed creature walks up to Tom and starts grunting at him,obviously expecting Tom to understand him. Tom neither understands nor is in a position to be able to reply,

  being paralysed still by whatever the creatures had shot him with.

  The creature starts poking Tom with one of the lances, at the same time grunting and waving his arms with much emotion.

  Barry had feeling returning to his hands and it was gradually spreading up his arms. Whilst it was good news that the feeling was returning, it was also agony, just like that feeling you get if you lay awkwardly on your arm and then move it, you get that agonising "springy" feeling. The creature standing guard nearest to him, watches in fascination as Barry screws up his eyes in agony and

  makes various faces as the pains travel up his arm.

  The impressively dressed creature moves over to Barry, it had given up any hope of engaging Tom.

  It looks at Barry with the same fascination as the guard, as Barry's face is still very contorted in agony. The creature seems to believe that Barry's face movements are an attempt to communicate.

  It studies Barry for some time in silence, then suddenly starts grunting as it did at Tom.

  Barry manages to find his voice and responds by saying, "Look, sorry I don't understand a word you are saying. We don't mean you any harm, we are strangers here."

  The creature looks at the guard, who grunts and starts to wave its arms up and down.

  The creature then calls to some more guards who are passing by. They stop and listen, then come over to Tom, one of them points its weapon at Tom. Barry panics, thinking that they are going to harm Tom, Barry shouts, "There's no need to harm us, just because we don't understand you!"

  There's a click noise and Tom falls from the restraints. He slumps to the ground, still apparently lacking any muscle control.

  Barry realises its his turn, as the guard turns his attention towards Barry, its weapon pointing towards Barry's head. Barry hears the click noise and braces himself for the fall. He has regained enough muscle control that he is able to land on his feet and remain upright.

  Suddenly Barry feels a sharp prod in his back, thinking 'Oh no here we go again!' He is quite surprised to find that it was one of the other guards, that had simply prodded Barry with the end of his weapon. Barry understands the message behind the action, 'move!'. He looks at Tom and realises that the creatures are waiting for him to regain muscle control.

  The creature behind Barry prods him again and grunts. Barry reluctantly starts walking forward. The creatures in front of him move out of the way. The creature behind, keeps prodding him in the left or right shoulder as it wants Barry to change direction.

  Barry soon finds himself being pushed into one of the huts along the side of the stockade. After entering the door is slammed shut and secured somehow.

  Barry wishes he could see what is happening to Tom, especially when he hears weapon fire and

  a lot of excited grunts coming from the creatures outside.

  Barry thinks, 'They must be torturing Tom. Taking advantage of the fact that he is defenceless.'

  Suddenly there is weapon fire near the hut that Barry is in. He hears noises as something sounds as if it is attempting to unlock the door. There is much noise and more weapons fire. It sounds as if something is climbing the outside wall of the hut.

  Then Barry hears Tom's voice saying, "Well are you coming out dorky, or do I have to take this lot on my own?"

  Barry takes a chance that the door is unlocked, kicks it and darts into a corner in-case it is a trap and there are creatures waiting for him to emerge.

  The door is wide open now and all he can see in the dim light of the fire, is a load of creatures laying on the ground.

  "How the.....!" exclaims Barry as he emerges cautiously from the hut. He is taken by surprise as there's weapon fire nearby and he hears something fall off the roof. He fears that Tom has been hit until he hears Tom say, "Well watch out doofus, you're going to be hit and I don't fancy carrying you around."

  Something flies past the door, Barry darts back inside just in time as one of the creatures rolls through the entrance, hitting the rear wall with a rather loud 'Thwack!'against the wall.

  Just as Barry is about to cautiously emerge again another creature rolls in and joins it's friend in a painful 'Thwack!' against the same wall as the last creature had hit.

  Suddenly a hand reaches in and drags Barry out of the hut.

  "You going to stay in there all night?" asks Tom. Barry realises the hand was Tom's.

  Both boys nervously look around, but there isn't any sign of movement. Barry take another opportunity to scan all the creatures lying around on the ground.

  "How the..... did you defeat this lot?" asks Barry.

  "Element of surprise" replies Tom, then continues, "Those self defence classes came in handy after all."

  "But....but..... you were defenceless on the floor, still paralysed." replies Barry, still stunned.

  "Ah that's where you and they were fooled. I came to about the same time as you, however you attracted their attention with all your contorted face movements. I managed to conceal the pains and only made small movements as feeling came back into my limbs."

  Barry replies, "But I saw you collapse on the ground, you had no control of your muscles at all."

  "All an illusion, which not only fooled you, but also...." Tom pointed around, "....them. So when they attempted to poke me, like they did you. They were not expecting the coiled spring reaction they got. I was knocking them over before they even had a chance to recover from their surprise and attempt to raise their weapons. By the time they went on the defence, I'd taken a fair few of them out. When they did start firing at me I was darting all over the place and confusing them left right and centre. A fair number of them hit their fellow creatures, actually helping me out."

  Barry bend down and picked up one of the creatures weapons.

  "Be careful" warned T
om, "We've no idea what those things are capable of."

  Barry turned it over and over in his hand, but there was no sign of any buttons or indentations, the shaft of the weapon was completely smooth.

  "How do they operate this thing, there are no controls!" asks Barry.

  Tom replies, "Perhaps its some form of mind power control."

  Barry drops the weapon and it suddenly goes off, causing a yelp from the caterpillar creature that had remained perfectly still whilst all the commotion was going on.

  Tom suggests, "Why don't we grab some form of trophy that we can take back home with us as proof that we've been here."

  "Well we sure aren't taking one of those weapon things, its too dangerous." replies Barry.

  Both boys look around for anything small, yet unique that they can take back with them.

  Barry spots it first, he sees a belt with a strange buckle laying by one of the creatures, it is has same strange writing on it.

  "How about this?" asks Barry.

  "Perfect.... and I'm sure they can't miss it. Well we'd best get out of here before this lot start waking up.

  The boys set off back in the direction that they had originally came from. Barry's torch was a bit temperamental, it kept going dim, then with a quick whack, went bright again. They manage to get back to the tall grass again without tripping. Throughout the journey the boys expected to hear the thumping of the caterpillar creature.

  Either the creatures were still knocked out, or had decided against pursuing these very dangerous boys.

  "We arrived somewhere around here." says Barry.

  The boys walked around and around, but nothing happens and they find nothing out of the usual, well at least for this place.

  Suddenly Barry says, "Hey I just thought, when I tripped I had the walkie talkie on, perhaps it acts like some form of electronic key."

  Both boys turn on their walkie talkies and walk around the grass patch, but still find nothing.

  "Perhaps we have to be transmitting." suggests Tom, as he takes his walkie talkie off his belt and presses the transmit key. He carefully walks forward and Barry is astounded at what he sees, one minute Tom is in front of him then the next he's gone, just as if he stepped into fog.

  Barry follows Tom's lead, presses the transmit key of his walkie talkie, carefully walks forward. Suddenly he notices that he is no longer walking through grass, but on rough ground.

  He is about to take another step when he hears Tom call out, "Stop! or you'll fall over this..... uh!..... cliff."

  Barry smacks his torch and is surprised to see Tom's hand gripping the edge of the rocks in front of him. Barry kneels down and carefully looks over the side of the cliff in front of him. He can see it is very steep and a long drop. Tom is supported only by the one hand. Barry suddenly remembers the belt he has in his hand. He unravels it and flicks it over the side.

  Tom shouts, "Ow! What are you trying to do .... kill me?"

  "Grab the end with your free hand!" exclaims Barry.

  Tom swings his arm around searching for the belt, when suddenly he finds it and grabs it.

  Barry pulls on the belt as hard as he can. Tom manages to rise up enough that one of his feet finds a rock. He attempts to lift himself up further, but unfortunately the rock crumbles and his leg swings free again. The sudden load on the belt slips through his hands, swinging down and slapping Tom on his right leg.

  "Ow.... you're determined to make me suffer aren't you?" complains Tom as he swings around again supported only by the one hand.

  Barry shines the torch around him in the vein hope of finding something else that he can help rescue Tom with. But he is frustrated, there is nothing.

  Suddenly both boys hear a loud strange noise, as something with strong lights approaches, lighting up a large section of the cliff face.

  Tom struggles to hold onto the cliff edge. He's tempted to turn around to see what is making the noise, but he knows it would be fatal to do so. He looks up at Barry's face, but there's no reassurance there, as Barry stares open mouthed at whatever is behind Tom. The pain build up in Tom's arm is too great, he can feel his grip loosening on the rock edge. He tries to re-establish his grip, but it is useless as his body tells him, in its own way that he has run out of strength and can no longer hold on.

  Suddenly Tom feels himself falling, he hears Barry scream out his name.

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