The Gateway

by Steve Simons

  Chapter 11  Stop Messing About

  Tom says goodbye to 27 82 16. Then reaches for his walkie talkie and indicates that Barry does the same. Tom switches on the walkie talkie and presses transmit. The gateway is a bit clearer now. Tom steps into it and disappears. Tom follows shortly afterwards.

  As tom steps into the Gateway, he immediately notices two things, it is dark and the ground that he has stepped into is somewhat softer than the Realbot's world. It reminded him of the woods or forest. Sure enough as he takes his next step he can hear the crack of a twig on the ground. Tom just hopes this is the woods near where they live. He suddenly feels something pushing into his back, it is Barry. He knows it is Barry as he hears him grumble, Well get a move on then.

  Then Barry remembers the cliff that Tom had fallen off of, so stops immediately, in-case there is a cliff in front of Tom. However there isn't so Tom moves carefully forward, not knowing whether to get his torch out or not. If this is not home, but some other place, he may attract attention that they don't really want to.

  Suddenly it is Barry's turn to be surprised as something slams into his back. Instinctively he dives sideways, to get out of the way, after a controlled shout of Watch out Tom.

  Tom likewise dives to one side without question. Something hurtles past him, coming to an abrupt stop as it hits a tree.

  Closer examination shows that the thing that had tried to plough through the boys, is in fact a Realbot that has come through the Gateway in error. The boys get up and go over to the Realbot, to see if it Is OK. There are some lights flashing, so presumably it is still functioning.

  See if you can talk to it with your walkie talkie thingy that Aseer Alc gave you. suggests Barry in a whisper.

  Tom swaps his own walkie talkie for the one that Aseer Alc gave him. He sets it up to translate, luckily it has a display that lights up and also illuminates the control buttons, otherwise Tom would have been stuck. Soon Tom is holding a conversation with the Realbot, it is confused as to what had happened to it. One moment it had been busy travelling between constructs as it called the buildings, the next it was plunged into darkness and here with the boys.

  Tom tells the Realbot that they will return it to its world. Barry reaches for his walkie talkie and presses the transmit key, however, it is so dark that he cannot see where the Gateway is. He works out roughly where they came through the Gateway and says to Tom, send it through there.

  Tom explains to the Realbot what it must do, it attempts to move in the indicated direction, but because of the woodland ground, the Realbot finds it cannot get sufficient grip to be able to move. It decides to use it's movement field go raise itself off the ground and move forward. The Realbot heads in the direction that Barry has indicated. But after a few seconds, the boys hear a Clung! noise as the Realbot collides with yet another tree. The process is repeated several times, in the hope that the Realbot can find the Gateway, but without success.

  The Realbot, 34 28 88, is quite relieved when Tom suggests that it give up blindly searching for the gateway. It wasn't sure if it could take any more damage to its casing.

  Tom tries to find the Gateway with his torch, but without success. He also tries to contact Aseer Alc, but there is no response.

  Tom suggests that they sit tight and wait until the morning light. They all settle down for the night, not knowing how long they will need to wait.

  < collection of electronic instruments  representing the creatures>

  It was difficult to tell just how much time had passed since they settled down in this spot. It was starting to get lighter, so details of the surrounding trees and vegetation were becoming clearer. Whilst the trees in terms of their shapes, looked very much like those back home, the other vegetation was totally different, difficult for me to describe sitting here writing this story down, you really had to see it to appreciate it fully. Some looked very much like it was cut out of a very thick cardboard, all oddly shaped, with blobs sticking out occasionally, almost as if they were making a bid to form plants in their own right, but still being firmly attached to the main plant. As for colours, still difficult to make out in the low light levels, although leaning very much towards the blue and violet ends of the spectrum of colours, not like the familiar green plants that we are used to. They were also not single colours, more like splodges of colours that merged into each other where they met. The whole scene looked very dis-organised, it was difficult to see now how the boys and Realbot had actually managed to walk to the spot that they were now occupying. There was no obvious pathway and the plants seemed at least at ground level to merge into each other.

  There were various noises emanating from deeper into this kind of woodland landscape. It very much had the sort of collective sound that you'd find in a jungle. Each creature competing against the next, to get their voice or song heard above the rest. Although the sound was much more like an collection of electronic instruments than the productions of living creatures.

  Barry whispered to Tom, It sounds like we have entered some sort of world of electronic creatures, but not one as well organised and orderly like that of the Realbots.

  Suddenly there is the sound of breaking twig and it came from somewhere close to where the boys and 34 28 88 are sheltering.

  Barry and Tom carefully look all around themselves in the hope that they can spot whatever had broken the twig. But it is difficult to tell where the sound had come from let alone see anything apart from the trees and vegetation surrounding them.

  Tom's communicator device suddenly comes to life and the boys can hear an appeal for help from 34 28 88, when they look round to where the Realbot had been standing, they find the spot is bare, with no sign as to where the Realbot has gone. The boys listen out for any rustling of vegetation or other tell tale sounds that would give a clue as to where the Realbot was being taken. All they can hear is 34 28 88's repeated calls of, Help I am being taken away by two creatures.!

  Tom lifts the communicator to his mouth and in a quiet voice asks 34 28 88, Can you still see where we are?

  34 28 88 answers, No, I have completely lost my bearings, the things around me all look much the same.

  Tom replies, Do you mean the plants?

  34 28 88 replies, The tall and short things that are irregular in shape?

  Tom says, Yes those are the plants. Can you see what is carrying or dragging you?

  34 28 88 replies, No, whatever is taking me away is below me and out of view.

  Tom suggests, Could you put on your internal light, so we could see where you are?

  34 28 88 replies, What a good suggestion, I will do that now.

  There's suddenly a bright glow coming from behind where Tom is standing, it is so bright, that even though Tom has his back to it, he can still see the light at the edges of his field of vision.

  Barry suddenly points and says, Over there! He gets up and starts walking in the direction he is pointing, Tom follows him.

  At first the plants seem like an impassable barrier, but when the boys attempt to walk through them, they separate easily, almost like a collection of blades of grass.

  The boys soon find that they are gaining on whoever or whatever is carrying 34 28 88. When they get almost close enough to 34 28 88, to touch it, the Realbot suddenly descends below the level of the plants and is no longer visible.

  Tom's communicator emits the sound of 34 28 88 protesting at being suddenly dropped.

  As the boys push through the next row of plants, they suddenly find themselves standing before 34 28 88. The Realbot exclaims, Ah there you are, did not take you long to find me. Shall I turn off my light now?

  Tom says, Probably best to turn it off, after all we don't really want to advertise the fact that we're here.

  Barry suggests, Unless it was an accidental discovery, I think whoever or whatever lives here, already knows we are around. Seems strange that whatever carried 34 28 88
off through the..... woods, was sufficiently scared of us to drop him.

  Tom replies, Yes, mind you whatever it was couldn't have been very tall, so perhaps it was frightened by the sheer size of us boys and decided to quit whilst it was ahead.

  There are musical sounds, as the creatures nearby communicate with each other.

  Barry suggests, It sounds like whatever carried our friend 34 28 88, is reporting back to its friends that it was not successful in its kidnap attempt. Perhaps they are planning a fresh attempt, probably best if we get away from here.

  Tom replies, We don't want to get too far away though, otherwise we may not be able to find the gateway again.

  34 28 88 says, Can anyone tell me what is going on? Or are we just going to stay here and wait for these things to come back in numbers to take me away again.

  Tom tells 34 28 88 what he and Barry have discussed. Then 34 28 88 replies, Well perhaps we could get away from this spot and at the same time try and find the gateway that you speak of.

  This became the agreed action as the three of them head back where they had been sheltering through the night. The noises continue around them, as if they are being closely followed.

  Soon they find themselves back in the area where the gateway was. The three friends discuss how they are going to find the gateway itself. For a short while there was debate as to whether they would be able to see the gateway in daylight. Then 34 28 88 suggested that they were just wasting time and that surely the best solution was to just keep trying to open and spot the gateway.

  Barry gets his walkie talkie out and sets about pressing the transmit key whilst also looking around for any signs of the gateway.

  Suddenly the group hears some form of cry for help.

  It came from over there! exclaims Tom and he points in the direction he was looking. The three of them move in the direction that Tom had indicated. When suddenly they are taken completely by surprise as something comes hurtling towards them..... its another Realbot!

  At this rate we'll end up with the whole Realbot race in this place if they keep sliding through the gateway like this. says Barry.

  34 28 88 explains to its confused and totally bewildered colleague 42 61 25, what had happened to him.

  Tom says, Presumably that earlier cry was from local inhabitant of this place falling through the gateway into the Realbot's world.

  Barry suggests, Well at least we know we are close to the gateway now.

  Tom asks, Which way did our latest Realbot approach us from?

  Barry points towards a group of trees. As they look closer they can see marks in what must pass for soil in this place. The marks go between the trees but actually stop abruptly between the trees themselves.

  Ah ha there is the gateway! announces Tom.

  Barry says, Now all we have to do is send these Realbots back to their own world and travel back through the gateway ourselves.

  Tom replies, That is assuming that the gateway is still pointing to the Realbots' world.

  Barry says, But the second Realbot came from the Realbots' world, and that was only a few moments ago, so it must be.

  Tom asks, What choice have we got, but to try it out?

  None really. replies Barry.

  Tom sets about explaining their plan to the two Realbots, who become quite excited at the prospect of returning home.

  Barry keys up the walkie talkie and sure enough the gateway appears as it has done before, all hazy round the edges.

  34 28 88 moves forward and disappears through the gateway. 42 61 25 follows on closely behind and also disappears.

  Right your turn. Barry says to Tom.

  ~~~~~~~~~