AWAKEN - HUMANITY: Book One

Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End

Samantha looked over at Aran, her eyes stinging from the dust plume the wind had generated, she shouted over. "Who is coming?"

Aran pulled himself up and quickly joined the others, "we don't have much time we must leave now, and quickly."

Captain Carmichael rubbed her already bruised back and turned to the human form, "and go where?" she looked around, it was all open space, the dome could be seen in the near distance.

Aran stopped and looked directly into the Captain's eyes, she felt the cold stare dig deep into her soul, she shivered as he turned away, crouching down and brushed the dirt aside revealing a small circular area of red stone, large enough for one person to stand on. He stepped onto it, closed his eyes and muttered strange words and clicks of the tongue sounding more like a dolphin than a human.

Suddenly a blast of air cane from nowhere covering them all, ruffling their hair, forcing them to shield their eyes from the mini dust cloud. They all looked on at a shimmering short wall of air, reflecting their bodies like a poor quality mirror, distorted and out of proportions.

Samantha slowly moved forward and gently reached out with a hand, her fingers touching the wall, it felt cold, she retracted quickly shivering.

Aran spoke. "It is perfectly safe to walk through." He stared at them all, "it will protect us all but please we must be hurry."

Captain West glanced back at the active portal then back at the short shimmering wall of air, "where does it lead to?"

Aran looked at the Captain trying to read his thoughts, wondering why he was being questioned at such a critical time, he tilted his head to the side then gave a short smile. "Safety."

Davina grabbed Christian by the arm and pulled him along with her, she looked at them all, "fuck this I'm going through." She pushed an apprehensive Christian through first and quickly followed after.

Captain Carmichael protested but her words fell on deaf ears as she watched her two security personnel walk through the shimmering wall of air, watched it wrap itself around their bodies like a thick gel consuming them and pulling them in.

The two Captains looked at each other realising they had nothing to lose, nowhere else to go, they could stay where they were but Aran was convinced something was going to come through that portal and it would not be welcoming. They just nodded in silent agreement and ushered the others to follow Davina into the wall.

Captain West was the last one of the team to enter, he stopped before he walked through staring at Aran then back at the portal, "whatever we are running from...can we stop it?"

Aran just stared ahead at the portal and gently pushed the Captain into the wall, one last glance at the gateway and he too walked through.

The air felt cold on the Captains skin as he walked into the wall, his eyes blurring as he blinked, multi colours merged and danced around each other, the sound of muffled wind filled his ears. Seconds felt like minutes as he walked through, the air acting like water on his skin as he emerged the other end of the wall finding himself in a large room.

The others were standing bent over or on their knees, all in a huddle just away from the wall, he staggered over feeling light headed turning back to look at the six feet squared shimmering air. Aran came walking through.

The Captain leaned over and promptly vomited onto the stone floor, coughing, a headache quickly stabbing behind his eyes, he winced and stood up breathing heavy. He noticed the others looked equally as uncomfortable, all except Safron who stood silently still unsure of what was happening around her, the inbuilt data recorder capturing everything and logging it onto her complex hard drive storage system.