The Black Portal
“He’s been in there for too long,” Major Miles grumbled to his commanding officer. General Reeves, the kind of man who was always smoking something made of exotic smelling tobacco, grunted and raised one of his bushy black eyebrows. He was obviously ambivalent to the situation. Not only was he incredibly patient, but he was also the kind of officer who didn’t calculate risks unless his life was on the line. As far as he was concerned, everything was roses.
“Too long?” the general echoed. He pulled his thin cigar away from his wrinkled lips and blew a substantial cloud of gray smoke into the air. He looked down at his leather wrist watch and tapped on its glass casing with his index finger. “It’s only been five minutes.”
“Five minutes is equivalent to two hours in the dimension that Captain Beckum now occupies, General,” Sergeant Ashlynn, a communications and planar specialist in an ironed white uniform announced from off to their side. She sat in front of a wide computer, glaring at graphs and lines of silver code as they flashed and disappeared on-screen. She typed furiously for a moment before blowing a few thin strands of long amber hair out of her eyes. “The Major is right, sir. The Captain was supposed to have come back by now.”
Miles gave Reeves a scrunched look that said “I told you so,” and the older officer grunted again.
“I say we give him more time,” Reeves said. He took a generous drag from his cigar and cracked his neck. “We anticipated the unexpected. If he needed help, then Beckum would have radioed in for it.”
“That’s the problem, sir,” Miles responded tactfully. “First his signature disappeared, not even two minutes after he walked through the portal. And now he’s been in longer than he said he would be. At this point, we can’t even assume that he’s able to radio in, even if he wanted to. Heaven forbid, he could be absolutely gone.”
“If that’s the case, then it’d be his fault, now wouldn’t it?”
Miles narrowed his eyes as he shook his head in disbelief at the general.
“Sir?”
“He was the one who wanted to explore that frequency your team discovered, Major. No-one else did. He walked into that portal,” Reeves pointed aggressively at a thin, hovering wall of black light that remained in the middle of their darkened, empty auditorium. Not a sound came from the portal as it occasionally seemed to glitch out of shape. “And he knew the risks. What was it that you two promised me, Miles?”
“Sir, we can’t just leave him in there-”
“What was it that you promised me? The both of you?”
Miles hung his head and clenched his hands into trembling fists. He knew that bringing in their superiors was a bad idea. He’d told Beckum, just before he’d decided to put together a one man expedition to explore the curious portal, that it would’ve been best to conduct their experiments themselves first. To prove to others that they were onto something. To make sure that telling higher command that they’d forced open an interdimensional frequency would warrant more funding to their program. After all, there were rules that had to be played in order to guarantee long-term success in the military.
But Beckum disagreed.
A live demonstration of their competence would leave no doubts as to whether or not their speculative operations department should remain operational. It was a chance to make history. A potentially flawed history, but history nonetheless. To Beckum, every conceivable risk was worth it. So he contacted General Reeves, suited up and dared to be great. Miles was only worried that his ambition would cost him his life.
“We promised that if this failed…that if Beckum was unable to succeed in convincing you of the validity of our department…that you’d shut it down.”
Reeves tilted his head. “Shut what down, Major?”
Miles frowned as he tightly shut his eyes. “Everything. You’d shut everything down.”
“That’s a good boy,” the general said smugly. He motioned to Ashlynn, a crisp, cutting jerk with his hand that told her to end their experiment, but before he could finish, a swift fist collided with his jaw, sending the older man reeling backwards to fall unconscious on the floor. Ashlynn’s eyes widened as she watched Miles compose himself over the body of his assaulted superior. Miles spat right next to the general’s head and nodded at his surprised specialist.
“Get ready to open the portal for me.”
Ashlynn swallowed and shook her head incredulously. “For you?”
Miles was in the process of shedding his uniform. First came his blouse, then his boots, then his trousers and finally his dog tags. He nodded sharply at Ashlynn as he hurriedly made his way over to a table that housed a number of full-body suits made of iron and aluminum; the only substances that would allow the human body to travel through the hovering portal.
“That’s right. Now hurry up.” He grimaced as he pulled the hefty, transparent full helmet of his suit over his head and sealed the ensemble shut. “I have a feeling that we don’t have a lot of time.”
Ashlynn, who’s eyes were still wide as she tried to process the situation, spun around in her chair and began to type away. When not stimulated, the portal wouldn’t allow anything organic through, which meant that both dimensions, the one they occupied and the one that Beckum was in, was secure. She would have to send a carefully calculated rhythm of micro-electric shocks into the portal to open it up for the major.
“She’ll be ready for you in under thirty seconds,” she reported as the portal began to twitch. She looked over her shoulder to glance at the general, who she hoped was going to be out for a while. “And…if he wakes up before you come back…what should I tell him?”
Miles took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles. He checked a handheld radio that he’d snatched from off of the utility table and shook his head as he attached it to his hip.
“Have a private radio ready and keep the portal open for one minute, sergeant. If I’m not back in that time, then…just shut it down.” He frowned as he watched neon streaks of white light dance through the middle of the portal, indicating that it was safe to enter. “Hopefully, if I’m able, I’ll still be able to communicate with you through my radio if I’m trapped inside. Just keep your ear open. I don’t expect to be in there any longer than I have to.”
Ashlynn nodded her head slowly. Miles relaxed as he prayed for Beckum’s safety, and with a few hopeful steps he vanished, entering the portal to leave the rest of his world behind.
***
There was nothing inside. No vegetation of any sort, no buildings, no apparent alien life and no sounds. The only thing that he could see for miles and miles, in every direction, was nothingness. A white expanse that threatened to swallow him if he ventured too far away from his only link back home. Miles looked over his shoulder to make sure that the shuddering portal was still behind him, and then continued to slowly open his eyes as they adjusted to the incredible light within the dimension. He rejoiced inwardly as he spotted what he was sure was something in a suit much like his own, sitting cross-legged in the distance. It had a humanoid shape, which could only mean one thing.
He reached down and tapped onto the receiver of his radio.
“Ashlynn, this is Miles.”
The confident voice of his specialist came back loud and clear, elevating his growing happiness. He grinned as he kept his eyes on the figure in front of him.
“I can hear you loud and clear, major.”
“Thank god,” he whispered to himself. “Be advised, I’ve spotted Captain Beckum. He’s seated no more than four-hundred feet in front of me. I should be back in seconds.”
Ashlynn’s voice sounded relieved. “Glad to hear it, major. Just say the word and I’ll have your gateway open for you.”
“Roger that,” he responded as he began to carefully step towards the figure.
He tried to look around its back, but the round helmet that it wore was tinted on both sides, obscuring any hints as to its true identity. He felt a few trickles of sweat fall down the back of his neck as he continued to walk, and cleared his throat as he realized that he was fogging up his helmet. It was getting hotter. The temperature rose as he closed the distance between himself and what he was sure was Captain Beckum. All he had to do was say the man’s name when he was close enough. That would tell him everything.
He stood tall and silent once he was able to reach out and touch the figure. He cleared his throat once more and swallowed deeply before taking a slow step around it. The suit was exactly like his own, save for a few recognizable patches; their country’s flag, the numerals to a bible scripture and a stitched pattern of a bald, smiling woman. It was Beckum’s wife, Josie.
Miles, who by then was sweltering, had found him.
“Beckum,” he said as he bent down to touch his friend’s shoulder. But he stopped, partly because there were splashes of something red on the pale ground in front of his friend, and partly because he could see something materializing in front of them. Something that began to growl as he raised his head and looked up, and up and up. Something that towered over them both as he realized that what was painted on the ground in front of Beckum was his blood.
Like a mirage, the something that growled menacingly appeared from out of a collection of hazy lines of heat. Bit by bit it revealed itself, from its hairy, ant-like feet to its elongated, sluggish torso and finally to a head that was made entirely out of pinching claws. He could make out a single eye, with a glamorous color as rich as any ruby, that twitched from him to Beckum and back again.
Miles spoke to himself as if he was a child again, frozen in bed at the thought that his dark bedroom closet had opened with a creak because of the bogeyman. He counted to five and then reached down to grab onto Beckum’s shoulder, just as a few more creatures appeared beside the first, each one more and more grotesque as they revealed themselves from out of illusionary heat waves. He could feel a river of sweat running off of the tip of his nose. It was growing hard to breathe.
“Beckum, get the fuck up,” he whispered as the first creature took a step forward. The ground underneath him shook slightly and he struggled to hold his balance as he began to pull Beckum backwards by the back of his suit. “Beckum, get up,” he repeated, panting. He looked down and jerked the captain backwards with a good portion of his strength, only to peer onto a face that was missing its eyes. Beckum was smiling behind the clear helmet shield of his suit, smiling blissfully with two bottomless holes where his eyeballs had once been.
Beckum remained cross-legged as Miles lurched backwards with a yelp, disgusted at the horrific sight of his friend as he sloppily fell to his haunches. The captain’s head fell limply to one side, as if he suddenly had no control over his muscles, and he whistled eerily.
“Miles?” he asked in a clear voice. “Miles…is that you?”
Miles struggled to catch his breath as the creatures behind Beckum leaned forward. They seemed to be getting ready to pounce.
“Where have you been?” the captain asked. His smile became lopsided. “It’s paradise in here. We’ve discovered paradise…and now we’ve made history.”
Miles fumbled with the receiver of his radio as he kept his eyes on the creatures behind Beckum. Their growls were growing louder, and, just underneath the sound of his voice, Beckum strangely began to growl along with them.
“It’s paradise in here, Miles,” he repeated. “Just let them show you what it’s like. Let them show you how much fun we can have in here. Us and the rest of the whole world…all we have to do is show this,” he opened his arms and gestured around him, “to everyone else.”
Miles, unable to press down on his radio’s receiver because his hands were shaking too heavily, slammed his palm down onto the device and spoke as clearly as he could.
“A-Ashlynn…this is Miles.”
One of the creatures whipped its head to the side and a sickening crack decorated the air. Ashlynn’s voice, slightly broken, came through loudly from out of the radio.
“This is Ashlynn. Go ahead.”
Miles slowly began to rise to his feet. His eyes never left the creatures.
“Open the portal, Ashlynn.”
The first creature took another step forward. The ground shook again. Ashlynn’s voice was getting more scrambled by the second.
“W-what was that, major?”
“OPEN THE GODDAMN PORTAL!”
Miles spun around and sprinted towards the spasming black doorway that would lead him back to his world, and widened his eyes as he witnessed a deep ocean blue hue surround the outside of the design, fanning out in patterns that resembled flames as the portal…began to shrink.
“ASHLYNN!” Miles yelled at the top of his lungs. He wheezed as he tried as hard as he could to fill his lungs with air, but the oxygen was burning him from the inside. He felt as if he was being cooked alive inside of his suit. “Ashlynn! Keep the portal open!”
Ashlynn snapped her head away from her computer to watch as the portal began to shrink even further. She didn’t know what she did wrong. The micro-electricity was started, and then the doorway, for lack of a better way to explain it, exploded. It expanded in a violent display of light before it regained its original shape, and then started to shrink as timid streaks of lightning escaped from within.
“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong!” she screamed into her radio. She was on the verge of tears as she helplessly watched the portal decrease in size.
Miles dared to look over his shoulder as he neared the portal, and watched as one of the creatures, a rainbow colored atrocity with the disfigured body of a horse, stomped down on Beckum’s shoulder with one of its hooves. The leg went straight down into the captain’s torso, causing him to spurt out a fountain of blood and jerk under the strain and pain of the blow.
But he never stopped smiling. Beckum reached out towards Miles as the creature reared back and stomped into him again, sending his collarbone through the bottom of his jaw. Miles watched his friend wave weakly at him with his repulsive smile as he was stomped on for the last time. It sent his body to the ground, where he remained a twitching mess of beaten flesh.
Miles turned back around in a panic and rejoiced as the portal neared. He heard something screech painfully, something that he never saw because he refused to turn around again, and leaped, with every remaining bit of strength in his body, through the sewage drain sized opening of what remained of the portal. He felt a wave of cool air envelop his body, he couldn’t draw a breath no matter how hard he tried to breathe, and then he was back in the dark auditorium with Reeeves and Ashlynn.
He hurriedly pulled off his helmet and harshly croaked at Ashlynn as she stared at him in wonder.
“CLOSE THE FUCKING PORTAL! SHUT IT DOWN!”
With a cry of surprise, Ashlynn reached over her keyboard and slammed her hand down onto a glowing console, ending the currents of electricity that stimulated the shrinking doorway. It widened for a moment, and both Miles and Ashlynn heard a deafening screech fly through the portal before it completely disappeared.
Miles, panting on the floor, fell backwards and cradled his face. Ashlynn rushed over to him and knelt by his side.
She scanned over his body; there were remnants of the dimension where he’d just been only moments ago, in the form of dancing streaks of white light as they appeared and disappeared around his suit. She refrained from touching him, assuming that his molecular structure was getting used to existing in their own plane again. But she wasn’t so fascinated that she ignored the obvious.
Miles was alone.
She was careful to speak as softly as she could.
“Major…” she began, straightening her neck in surprise as Miles dropped his hands away from his face and regarded her with a painful look stained by tears. His skin was steaming. He was…scorching. It was apparent that he’d suffered close to second degree burns. He had to be in incredible pain. “I’m going to call for an ambulance,” Ashlynn said through a frown. She pulled a cell phone from out of one of her pockets and dialed 911. As the phone rang, she looked back down at Miles and asked what she truly wanted to know.
“Major…did you find Beckum? Was he alive?”
Miles stared up at the ceiling as he realized that his skin was screaming. He laid still and silent as he listened to his own breathing. He replayed the images of both Beckum and the creatures within that empty dimension in his head over and over.
“Beckum…Beckum’s gone, Ashlynn.” His bottom lip quivered and a new batch of tears began to run down his cheeks. “He’s gone. He’s gone and he’s never coming back.”
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