Where There Be Dragons

Chapter 9

"Connor, where are you going?" cried Keira as she shouted down the corridor after me.

I stopped in my tracks and quickly walked back to her and Hank. I leaned in and whispered very intently.

"I know how we're getting out of here. I still have the control switch in my pocket, in my other clothes I mean."

"For the gateway elevator? But, you really think it'll open the portal?" replied a slightly intoxicated Hank

Honestly, I wasn't sure, but it was the only idea I had and I knew I had to try something.

I hurried towards the door of my chambers, praying that the cleaners, or whoever, had not been in and found it already.

I opened the door of to my room. I looked on the bed and my clothes were gone. I looked under the bed, in the bathroom, but they were nowhere to be seen.I looked over on the dresser and...

Thank God! The cleaner had laid out my wallet, my phone, my keys, that Damon medallion and finally the remote switch on a table by the bathroom door. There was a chance I was going home and finally back to my Dad.

"Why are you leaving?" shouted Keira. "This place is like a Utopia. And what? You just want to tear it all down, just so you can have a bit of fame, a small fortune? A future State named after you? Just so you can feel better about yourself in front of some hot shot astronaut? Who cares what he thinks?"

I put all my things from the little table into my pockets, but there was no time to look for my old clothes.

"Keira! Come on, it's not like that" interjected Hank.

I turned to Keira and yelled at her in my desperation to get out.

"I'm going to go home to my Dad, to let him know that I'm not dead, if that's alright with you?"

"Connor, wait, I didn't mean..."

As I walked away, she said something to me that I'll never forget. She said that she didn't see it as a way out anymore. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more it was just a way back in.

The party was ending soon and the guests would be leaving. I knew that I had to make my run for it right at that moment. As the doors of the banqueting hall opened, I headed over to the balcony.

I crept towards the elevator and used the remote to get back to the ground floor at the back of the palace.

I stumbled through the streets, as curious reptilian heads looked on. I stumbled over to where me and Hank had moored the boat. Thank God, it was still there.

I stood on the cruiser, cloaked completely in shadow and tried my best to feel around in the dark for parts of armour that I could don. I had a feeling I was going to be in for a bumpy ride, so wanted to take this moment to prepare. I retrospect, I think that donning armour was a two person job and in the time that I had fumbled around, Keira and Hank had caught up with me and they'd brought a friend.

It was Christopher! I was outraged. I couldn't believe Keira had told one of them what I was doing, but as he spoke, it became clear that Keira had actually saved my life.

Christopher told me that there was no way my elevator switch would have worked on the wall and that I was just grabbing at straws. I can't remember exactly how he put it, but he said it more medieval than that. I hadn't brought any food with me and blind faith was my only companion. It was clear that I would have starved. I agreed to disagree, and she said that she understood my reasons for going back as she helped me finish buckling up my armour. She packed me some food and prayed that I would make it and that my Dad would be ok.

Then Christopher stepped forward and gave me a set of keys for some sort of fuse box. He told me that each gateway had a circuit board made of hard light on this side of the wall, with a physical, tangible fuse box frame running down the right edge. If I could blow the fuse or break the connection, then the hard light circuit would drop out and the gateway would open.

He also gave me a tracker, programmed to the co-ordinates of Gate 270715, the last gate to be logged in the maintenance report. The Bermuda gateway.

"Now go, before they know that you're missing." He whispered.

I hugged everybody and told them that I would miss them. We were all aware, we would probably never see each other again. I told Hank that my Dad would have liked him and Keira that I would work on my dance moves. And I thanked them all for all their kindness.

I then sped away, off on another mysterious journey, still not knowing if I would actually get home.