“Do you guys feel that?” Jesse asked. “It feels like the whole world is vibrating.”
Down the road they could see the lights in the houses at the edge of town suddenly go out, and the vibrating increased until Murky could feel it in her bones.
“Something’s…”
Murky could only assume that Laura was about to say “Something’s wrong,” but the last word was ripped from her mouth by a sudden boom accompanied with a flash of light from the direction of the center of Kettle Hollow.
And that wasn’t even the most alarming thing that happened during the next couple of seconds. While they were all turned to the blinding flash, multiple soldiers erupted out from various hiding places in the fields around them, and the night became full of shouted commands. Most of the soldiers took positions with their weapons pointed to the town, like they thought a sudden attack might come from the sleepy little village. Three of them though, ran right to the kids.
“Don’t move!” a soldier yelled at them. “Hands where we can see them!”
Murky immediately dropped her bike and put her hands up like she’d seen in movies. Laura and Jesse did the same, although Henderson hesitated. He looked like he wanted to punch the soldier for threatening him, or maybe he was just hesitant to drop his prized bike, even if it was a cheap knock-off of the Murray X20C he actually wanted. Thankfully he did as he was told.
While soldiers surrounded them, the flashing from town stopped, although a low rumble continued to be heard. Murky also thought she might have heard screaming, but she hoped that was just her imagination.
One of the soldiers took out a walkie-talkie and spoke into it. “Sir, we’ve got a problem at Checkpoint H. It looks like four of the kids from the town weren’t in it as the portal erupted.”
“Damn it!” a voice on the other end said. “We don’t have time for this. Detain them and take them back to the base camp. We can make that Larson woman babysit them while we do our jobs.”
“Roger that.” The soldier put away the walkie-talkie and then gestured at the kids with his weapon. “Come on. This way.”
“What… what’s happening?” Laura asked. “We have to get back home. Our parents…”
“If your parents were in that town when the portal went off, they’re probably dead,” the soldier said.
All four of the kids stared at him with open mouths.
“Way to show some sympathy, Rodgers,” another soldier said to the first one, then also gestured at the kids. “He’s right though. If you don’t want to be as dead as everyone else in your town, you better follow us.”
With nothing else to do or say, Murky, Laura, Jesse, and Henderson went with the soldiers out into the field.
Chapter Two
Now that any pretense of hiding seemed to be over, the soldiers were openly walking around as the kids were directed to the temporary base that had been set up in the field. Just because they weren’t hiding though, didn’t mean they weren’t all visibly on edge. Murky could see that every single one of them was nervous, and the mood wasn’t helped by the steady thrumming that could still be felt in the ground.
“Where are you taking us?” Laura asked.
“Out of the way,” the lead soldier said. “You kids really have no idea what you lucked out of experiencing.”
“Could someone please explain what’s going on at least?” Jesse asked.
“That’s classified,” the soldier responded.
There were four or five tents that had been erected here, although from what Murky could tell from the broken bits of walkie-talkie chatter they could hear, this wasn’t the only camp that had been set up. It seemed there were stations like this set up all around the town, although no one would tell them why. The soldier led them to one tent that looked like it was full of some kind of supplies and then told them to get inside. The four of them did as they were told for now, and as the soldier left, Murky could hear him ordering two more soldiers to stand guard on them.
“What the hell is going on?” Jesse asked. “This can’t be real.”
“Laura, did that guy really say everyone in town is dead?” Murky asked.
“I’m sure he was lying to us,” Laura said, although she didn’t sound like she was sure she believed it.
“Did he say something about a portal?” Henderson asked. “What was he talking about?”
“And what was that light and noise?” Jesse asked.
“I don’t know!” Laura said, her normally calm voice rising, giving hint to hidden hysteria underneath. “I don’t know the answer to any of this.”
Jesse glanced around the tent, then dropped his voice to a whisper. “I bet you we could get out of here pretty easy. It doesn’t look like they set this place up with the idea of keeping anyone in it.”
“Sure, but where would we go?” Henderson asked. “We’re still in a camp surrounded by soldiers who could blow our heads off.”
“They wouldn’t really do that,” Murky said. “Would they?”
Laura shrugged. Before they could discuss any of this any further, they heard raised voices from outside the front tent flap.
“Damn it, I’m not here to look after a bunch of kids.”
“Well, you don’t seem to be here for any reason, if you ask me.”
“What was that? What did you just say?”
“Nothing, ma’am.”
“Yeah, right. I bet.”
The flap got pulled aside and a woman with red hair and a black suit walked in. She let the flap close behind her, not even bothering to hold it for the soldier that had escorted her here. It didn’t sound like the soldier was that interested in them anymore anyway.
She sighed when she saw the four
