Newt felt cold as she watched the billowing darkness, and heard its eerie wail. It seemed to radiate malevolence. It gripped her insides and froze her to the spot.

Dr Bloom leaped into action.

She tore across the room, skipping over wires, dodging machinery and vaulting pieces of equipment. She skidded across the shiny white floor as she fell onto her left side, like a baseball player stealing home plate. As she slid towards the dais, she grabbed a gun-like device lying on the floor. Rolling onto her back as she stopped, she aimed it up at the darkness, just as it emerged from the distortion.

Watching Dr Bloom, Newt thought she had gone from baseball player to action hero with a big sci-fi ray gun.

Bright blue-white arcs of energy cracked from the tip of the weapon, ensnaring the darkness.

It is a ray gun, thought Newt, in amazement.

The darkness screeched. Newt felt anger and hate radiating from it, as it thrashed and whirled about. It was caught within a crackling haze of energy. With another shriek it burst apart and was gone.

Dr Bloom dropped the device to the floor and lay back, breathing heavily.

Newt and Rowan watched in stunned silence.

No one moved for a few moments.

When Dr Bloom finally got to her feet, she scooped up the weapon and took it over to a cluttered workbench. Newt and Rowan silently joined her.

She flicked a couple of clips and shook the ray gun. A smoking battery pack fell onto the bench beside a row of other battery packs, each one connected to a charging cable. Dr Bloom inserted a fresh battery pack and flicked the clips back into place. She exhaled a long, loud breath, patted the device affectionately and turned to face the kids.

‘Volt Rifle. Basically, it’s just a souped-up taser,’ explained the doctor. ‘Turns out the darkness really doesn’t like electricity. Handy, as it means power has been uninterrupted.’

Newt remembered the untouched power lines along the streets. That explains that, she thought.

‘How did you find that out?’ asked Rowan.

‘Research,’ said Dr Bloom with an air of self-satisfaction. ‘After the initial attack on the city, I went through all the CCTV footage I was able to download. The entity reacted badly any time it touched electricity lines. So, when I realised that bits of it were still entering our world, I tried this out. And it worked.’

Dr Bloom kept saying I this and I that, but Newt thought there must be other people working on this project with her. And there was someone in a lab coat on the video.

‘Where are the other scientists?’ asked Newt.

‘Ah … yes. They’re out in the corridor.’

‘You m-m-mean that pile of bones?’ Rowan went pale.

‘Yes. I’m the last one left. I put the remains out there. It was a little unnerving having them in here with me while I was working.’ Dr Bloom swallowed. ‘Couldn’t concentrate properly.’

‘Concentrate?’ whispered Newt.

‘But their sacrifice was in the name of science,’ said Dr Bloom, excitement creeping back into her voice. ‘I must get on with things.’

‘Get on with things?’ Newt’s voice was still quiet and subdued. She was having a hard time dealing with all this loss of life … in the name of science.

Science should be about discovery and progress … not death, thought Newt.

‘This may have been a bit of a disaster, but failure is the best teacher,’ said Dr Bloom, with enthusiasm. ‘It can lead to the greatest discoveries. Onward and upward, as they say.’

‘What are you getting on with?’ asked Newt.

‘Stopping any more darkness getting through to this world. I’ve repaired the frequency oscillator, so I can open the portal again.’

‘Open it again?’ Rowan’s voice was almost a shout. ‘Are you nuts?’

‘I know exactly what I am doing,’ said Dr Bloom coldly. ‘I have a much larger version of the Volt Rifle. That entity is in for a big surprise. And now that the two of you are here, I can put you to work.’

‘Work?’ asked Rowan. ‘No. We need to find a way home.’

‘I’m still not convinced you are who you say you are, so I want to keep an eye on you.’ She paused and regarded them carefully, teeth playing over her bottom lip. ‘And since you’re staying with me, you might as well be useful.’

‘We are from another world,’ insisted Newt.

‘Well, assuming that you really are from another world, and not sneaking, lying imposters … you’re never going to find a way back to that world on your own. Surely you realise that. You’re just kids. But I have the equipment to assist you. It’s simply a matter of finding the correct combination of frequencies. So play nice. Of course, I can’t spend time doing that until I know this world is safe.’

‘Safe?’ said Newt incredulously. ‘It’s already destroyed!’

Dr Bloom laughed.

Newt thought her laughter had a nasty edge to it.

‘One city and its surrounding area has been partially destroyed. That’s hardly the whole world. It’s not even the whole country.’

Heat rose to Newt’s face. She felt stupid for thinking the whole of this world had been devastated.

‘But why has no one come to help?’ asked Rowan.

‘The area has been cordoned off until I have resolved the situation,’ explained Dr Bloom. ‘There is no sense in risking more people and equipment. I have been in contact with the government, and that’s what I told them. Better to not have them snooping around, anyway.’

‘Snooping?’ said Rowan. ‘What –’

He was interrupted by a moaning from behind them. He and Newt whirled around, shocked to see a zombie – that wasn’t really a zombie – shambling through the hole in the wall. They began backing away.

‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ hissed Rowan.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ huffed Dr Bloom, striding up to the man. ‘This is Brian.’

Brian wore a blue cleaner’s uniform, with a little feather duster tucked into the belt. A name tag over the pocket read, Hi. I’m Brian. His sad, blank eyes were sunken into a wasted face, with puckered skin and a misshapen nose. One of his ears was missing, but other than that, he seemed more or less whole.

‘Where have you been?’ Dr Bloom berated him. ‘I sent you for coffee over an hour ago.’

He grunted in response.

The kids watched in astonishment as Dr Bloom snatched the coffee cup out of Brian’s outstretched hand. She took a tentative sip, pulled a face and spat it out. ‘Urgh! Cold! And instant. For goodness sake, I’ve shown you how to use the espresso machine.’ She thrust the cup back into his hands. ‘Why do I bother?’

She turned back to see Newt and Rowan cowering.

‘He’s perfectly harmless,’ she explained. ‘Almost no mental capacity, but he is useful for fetching and carrying.’ She sighed. ‘And I had hoped he might be able to handle coffee.’

‘But … but the ones outside ch-chased us,’ stammered Newt.

‘They just want human contact,’ said Dr Bloom dismissively. ‘They wouldn’t have hurt you.’

‘Oh.’ Newt suddenly felt sad for Brian and the other zombified people. And again, appalled at the scientist’s attitude.

‘Now,’ said Dr Bloom. ‘Everything is set up and ready, apart from the Volt Cannon. You can help me get it out of storage.’

She turned on her heel and headed into the corridor, Brian ambling along behind her, cup in hand.

‘I feel really sorry for Brian,’ said Rowan. ‘Is it just me?’

‘It’s not just you,’ Newt assured him.

‘And what’s with the Volt Cannon?’ continued Rowan. ‘She just happens to have some massive electric weapon in storage?’

Newt shrugged.

They followed Dr Bloom down the unobstructed part of the corridor to a large metal door at the end. A palm scanner on the wall unlocked it and they entered a warehouse. There was row after row of wide shelving, divided into aisles.

Dr Bloom operated a set of controls to the left of the doors, which manoeuvred a machine that ran along rails on the ceiling. It looked like an inverted forklift. After lowering several large crates onto one of the trolleys parked to the right of the doors, Dr Bloom led them to it.

‘I’d normally get workers to fetch any equipment I need, but we’re a little short staffed.’ She chuckled at her own bad joke. ‘So, you can help Brian with this.’

The three of them pushed the trolley down the corridor to the hole in the wall, while Dr Bloom walked beside them, repeatedly telling Brian to either be careful with the delicate equipment or to move faster. Newt felt even sorrier for him. Being reduced to this zombie-like state was bad enough; but having Dr Bloom as a boss made it so much worse.

Debris made it impossible to get the trolley into the Portal Chamber, so they had to lift and heave the crates through manually.

After the crates were opened, Dr Bloom barked instructions at Newt and Rowan for the assembly of the Volt Cannon. This was beyond Brian, so Bloom sent him for more coffee.

It was quite large when finally put together, sleek and menacing, upon a swivel base. There was a stool and control panel that moved with the barrel.

‘I supposed that’s the firing mechanism.’ Rowan pointed to a large red button.

‘Keep your hands off the controls,’ snapped Dr Bloom. ‘I’ll be operating it by remote.’

‘Why do you even have this thing?’ said Newt, getting up the courage to ask. ‘I mean, isn’t this a science facility?’

‘Oh my, you are naive, aren’t you,’ responded Dr Bloom. ‘Multiverse research is my pet project – what I’m really interested in. But there’s no money in it. Not yet anyway. If you want to make science pay, there’s no better way to do it than with a nice, fat government weapons contract.’

‘What? No. You mean …? What?’ Newt struggled to get her words out. ‘What about ethics?’

‘Ethics are an impediment to research,’ said Dr Bloom, as she strode over to a control panel on a smaller raised metal dais to the side of the large one. As she pushed buttons and flicked switches, machinery began to move around them.

‘I do not like her,’ Rowan said quietly to Newt.

Three large metal arms lowered from the ceiling, each ending in a device that looked like a cross between a radar dish and a fancy high-tech speaker. The three arms converged around the main dais.

These must be the frequency oscillators, thought Newt.

‘Okay,’ Dr Bloom called back to them. ‘I’m about the open up the portal. You might want to take cover. My control sphere only has room for one.’

A bubble of energy crackled around the Doctor and her controls.

‘What do you mean?’ said Newt. ‘What’s a control sphere?’

‘It’s my own personal energy field,’ explained Dr Bloom. ‘Quite impenetrable. Keeps me safe.’

‘What about us?’ yelled Rowan.

‘You can’t leave us out here,’ shouted Newt.

‘Yes I can,’ answered Dr Bloom. ‘Powering up.’

A high-pitched whine filled the chamber, and began to get louder.

‘Five!’ Dr Bloom began to count down.

‘Outside,’ cried Rowan.

‘Four!’

He and Newt raced for the hole in the wall.

‘Three!’

The whine grew louder and higher.

Rowan and Newt jumped through the hole.

‘Two!’

The wall was vibrating with sound as Newt leaned against it and peered back into the chamber.

‘One!’

The whining reached a pitch beyond the capacity of the human ear. But Newt could still feel the sound around her.

‘Activate!’

Reality fractured above the dais.

Malevolent darkness roiled within it, surging forward.

Newt held her breath.

Rowan screamed.