The Portal Effect

Chapter 12

"Ten more minutes." James said as we finished packing up the last of the gear. Only the communications technology was left. We wanted to minimize how much time we spent here, as Riley, now comfortable with speaking up, had pointed out that if the beasts were still out there, they'd hear the rescue team.

"Yep. And still no sign of the beasts." Jessie added optimistically. James went over to a tree and knocked on it ten times.

"You know that doesn't do anything, right?" Jessie teased him.

"You jinxed it, and I am trying to stay alive." he retorted. We all laughed.

Cody and McFay were at the comms radio, waiting for anything to happen over the channels. Leo was helping John recalibrate the one drone the mechanic had managed to save. Two more were scrapped nearby, but their parts had been taken off and applied to the working one. They had created a super drone in the hopes it would give them a slight advantage in case anything wrong happened. Which would just be our luck.

Nick was counting the mags, making sure they all had bullets in them. The one he kept near him at all times was the mini machine gun. I think it was called something like an FN Minimi, but I was never the best at remembering gun types beyond handguns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles.

Andvari and Sarge were sharpening their knives, coiled rope at their feet. The three Secret Service agents were helping Millie and Kaia with medical supplies. Riley was talking to some of the patrol agents about how to best avoid the beasts should they make a surprise appearance.

I placed my palms against the tree behind me and leaned back. Closing my eyes, I opened my ears to the noises around me. I could hear the wind whistling through the trees, bird chirping, woodpeckers pecking, shy footfalls of deer. And behind it all, the telltale moans of the Beasts. By the sounds of it, the beast was a Breacher.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I knew we only had a few minutes until the rescue team arrived, but I didn't know if it would be enough time. If I thought optimistically, the Breacher didn't know we were here. My question, though, was how it got here. Did it escape the lab before it blew up, or did the explosion give some more beasts access to this world before the portal closed for good?

When I saw Riley, I saw in his eyes the same thoughts going through my head. He could sense the Breacher too. I had a feeling NASA's guesstimate on the number of beasts roaming the globe was much higher than they wanted to tell us. I also had to wonder if it was possible that there were stable portals the beasts could walk through between both worlds to avoid detection.

Just then, the communications equipment let out some noises. And my mind flashed back to the patrol mission we'd done just before we were sent out beyond the borders of the area we called home. It sounded exactly like that. Suddenly, the hairs on my neck and arms stood up. Around us came the sound of pure silence, like all the animals and the wind had been whisked away. This time, it seemed even more silent than ever before.

And that scared me. Fear spiked through my body, and I looked around. The others had gravitated to each other or grabbed weapons.

"Dammit!" I swore as the comms unit exploded in a flurry of sparks. Cody cried out as they flew into his face.

"Cody!" I cried, running to his aid. McFay had taken off to start escorting people to the center of the clearing, away from the possibility of death at the edge of the forest. Anyone who knew how to fight, or could fight for that matter, was taking up weapons.

"Cody, you good?" I asked, helping him to a rock some distance from the comms unit, which was still sparking. He mumbled something before removing his hands from his face. The electrical burns were very minimal but had crossed from the top left side of his temple to the bridge of the nose. His eye was closed and non-responsive. Otherwise, he seemed unharmed.