CHAPTER 4

 

“You have made your world safe, for the time being at least. Now, will you come and help save ours?”

The words of the mysterious female voice from out of the black portal echo in my head. Less than an hour has passed since my Power finally appeared, triggered by the scorching fire of the balrog. The confrontation with the lava dragon was the penultimate challenge of a five hundred mile journey by land and sea, a journey marked by danger and death, by attacks from a swarm of wyverns, a kraken and a snake-haired gorgon, among others. Am I ready to step into an Anomaly now and journey to the nightmare world from whence those monsters sprang? I don’t see how I could be—how anyone could be.

My friends are all staring at me, waiting. I look at my fellow Miracles first. In all the world, these six are the only others we know of who possess a Power. I’m pretty sure they would all come with me if I were foolish enough to go. I’m certain Radar would—she’s been my closest friend pretty much ever since we were born just one day apart. She would never let me do something like this on my own. Neither would my dad.

I turn and search Dad’s face for some sign of his thoughts, but he’s got his Marine colonel face on, the one that doesn’t give the slightest hint of what he’s thinking. He’s leaving the decision up to me, for now, anyhow. The rest of the Marines will follow him anywhere, I know.

I don’t see how I could possibly put all these loyal friends and allies in any more danger. They’ve done enough already. More than enough, actually.

And then I look at Kai, the almost superhuman warrior from the other world who came through to help me on my quest. Without him, I would almost certainly have died at the hands of a two-headed cyclops. I owe him my life, and so our world now owes him as well, for if I died, our mission would have failed. He came here despite knowing he might never be able to return home. Destroying the original portal seems to have made that possible—so how can I refuse to return the favor and do what I can to try to save his world?

Kai is watching me with a bemused smile on his handsome face. I’m pretty sure I know him well enough to know he would never ask me to come back with him. Like everyone else, he’s leaving the choice to me.

It’s not fair. Not fair at all. I just turned eighteen today—I’m still a kid, for chrissakes. At least, I still feel like one, though in our present day world, kids grow up quickly, Power or no Power.

“So, none of you are going to say anything?” I say to all of them. “You’re leaving all this up to me?”

“She asked you, Leah,” Radar says. “Not us.” She grins mischievously. “Sucks to be you.” Her grin widens.

I can’t help smiling. Radar always has that effect on me.

Radar’s not finished. “You know I’ll go with you,” she says, “if I’m allowed.” She links her arm around Jordy’s. “I’ll bring my big strong Marine boyfriend along, too. He might be useful.”

The amused expression on Jordy’s young face tells me what I already know—he’s used to Radar’s quips.

“We’ll come, too,” Plush says. She’s holding Lights’ hand. He nods his agreement. These two Miracles are inseparable.

“All of us will,” Rerun says. He smiles. “All for one and one for all, and all that stuff.”

If I do decide to go, Rerun might be the most useful Miracle of all to have along. If going through the portal turns out to be an immediate mistake, he might be able to use his Power and reverse time long enough for me to change my mind. It never hurts to have a do-over in your back pocket when your life is on the line.

So, the Miracles are all in. The Marines will be, too, I know, but I’d still like to hear what my dad thinks about the idea.

“Dad?” I ask.

He sighs. He knew this was coming.

“As a father,” he says, “I’d very much like to keep my daughter out of any further danger. But I also owe a debt to Kai, for saving your life. The soldier in me feels duty-bound to repay that debt. Not to mention that Marines are trained to help those in need when we can. Still, the decision is yours.”

Dad’s words pretty much echo my own thoughts about all this.

I turn back to the black sphere. Since I can’t see anything inside, I don’t even know if the voice is still there. Maybe I’ll be lucky and she’s wandered away somewhere. Maybe the chance to decide has passed.

“Are you still here?” I ask.

The response is immediate. “I am, Leah. Have you decided?”

I draw in a deep breath. I guess it’s now or never.

“We’ll come,” I say. “All of us.”

“Thank you, Leah.”

I think I hear a touch of relief in her voice, but I can’t be sure. Having a conversation with a black hole is pretty disconcerting.

“There’s one thing, though,” the voice continues. “I do not have the power to bring all of you through to my world.”

Uh, oh. Don’t tell me she can only bring me. I DO NOT relish the idea of entering that nightmare world alone. Surely she can bring Kai with me, at least.

“What do you mean?” I ask. “How many can you manage?”

“Ten,” she says. “I can bring just ten from your world into mine. Kai does not count, since he is from our world. Also, I believe the Seven should all come.”

The Seven is her name for the Miracles. Her first message, sent via the mermaids, was that the Seven must go to Alcatraz and stop what was going to happen there. That turned out pretty well in the end, though it was touch and go there for a while.

So that leaves three. I know Dad will insist on coming, and Jordy, too, unless Dad gives him a direct order not to. I’ll leave the final choice up to Dad.

Jordy pulls his arm from Radar’s and steps in front of my dad. He snaps off a sharp salute.

“Permission to go, Sir,” he asks.

Dad nods. “Granted, son.” He looks at me. “I’m coming, too, of course. Which leaves one more.”

Lieutenant Gregerson steps forward. “I’d like to volunteer, Sir.”

Dad smiles. “I know you would, Lieutenant. But someone has to lead the rest of the men back to San Diego. It’s not going to be an easy trip, without the Miracles or Kai. I need you to go with them.”

Lieutenant Gregerson nods. “Yes, Sir,” he says, though I can hear the disappointment in his voice. “I’ll get them home, don’t worry.”

Dad looks over the ranks of his men. They all volunteered for the mission to Alcatraz—he knows every one of them would volunteer for this newest mission. His gaze fixes on Sergeant Moss, our grizzled weapons expert.

“What do you say, Sergeant?” Dad asks. “You got one more mission in those old bones of yours?”

Sergeant Moss’s face lights up like a kid who just received an early Christmas present.

“You bet, Sir.”

“That’s settled, then,” Dad says. “Seven Miracles and three Marines—I hope to God that’s enough.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I turn around and speak into the portal. It still feels weird to be talking to a black hole.

“So, what do we do now?” I ask the darkness. “Do we just walk into this thing?”

“I’m sorry, no,” replies the voice from the other side. “This portal is only strong enough for communication between our worlds, not transport. Even though the original opening has been destroyed, too much residual interference remains in the area. I cannot create a powerful enough portal there to bring you through. You need to move.”

“How far?” Dad asks.

The voice pauses for a few moments. I guess she’s thinking.

“At least a few miles,” she says finally. “Higher ground would help, too.”

Dad turns to Lieutenant Gregerson. “Looks like we’ll be leaving the island together,” he says.

“There’s plenty of tall buildings in the city,” the lieutenant replies. “The top of any one of them would be higher ground. Some of them are at least a few miles from here.”

I remember all the dark forms we saw moving about the city. I’m not sure I like that idea, not at all.

Dad considers the suggestion for a moment, then shakes his head. “No, the city is too dangerous. We know creatures are living among the ruins, and there are too many hiding places they could attack from.”

I’m glad to hear Dad agrees with me. I guess I’m beginning to think like a Marine colonel.

“The land north of here—on the other side of the Golden Gate—was always much less developed,” Sergeant Moss tells us. “My late wife and I toured there many years ago. There’s plenty of high ground, and even a huge redwood park. Muir Woods, I think it was called. ” He looks at Kai. “Kai is our best defense against being surprised by any of these monsters. I think he’d be more comfortable in that kind of terrain than in the city or suburbs.”

We all turn toward Kai.

“Very true,” he says. “We have no cities anything like this one in my world.”

Once again, I try to picture what his world is like, but other than his brief descriptions of desolate beauty and volcanoes, I can’t create any kind of specific image. I guess I’ll find out soon enough, though.

“I guess that settles it, then,” Dad says. “We’ll go north. We just have to decide how to get off this blasted island. The way I see it, we’ve got two choices. If the mermaids and dolphins are still around, we can leave the way we came. Or we can risk using the boat at the dock, if it’s in working condition.”

I certainly wouldn’t mind another dolphin ride, but I keep my mouth shut. This kind of decision is best left up to Dad and his officers.

“The mermaids can only take six at a time,” Lieutenant Gregerson says. “The boat would be a whole lot faster. But what if running the engine triggers an Anomaly? Maybe we could rig up some oars and row instead of using the motor.”

Everyone looks down toward the old boat tied up at the dock. It appears undamaged, which Sergeant Moss quickly points out.

“Doesn’t seem like it’s attracted an Anomaly yet,” he says. “Maybe the creatures did something that prevents it from happening.”

“Maybe it’s simply the creatures’ presence that keeps any Anomaly away,” Radar suggests. “It could be as simple as that—no anomalies appear around beings from There. We can keep Kai near the engine, in case that’s true.”

Dad turns back to the portal. “What about that,” he says into the black hole. “Is what Radar said true? Would Kai’s presence near the engine insure against triggering a portal?”

“Yes, it would,” the voice answers immediately. “I’m not sure why, but portals don’t open on your world where anyone from mine is close by.”

“That settles that,” Dad says. “The boat it is—if it still runs.”

He dispatches our two remaining Navy guys to go see if they can get it started. They climb over the crumbling outer wall of the old prison and set off on a trot down toward the dock.

“Kai, go with them please,” Dad says. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you near that engine when they get ready to start it. We don’t want to trigger an Anomaly before we even begin.”

Kai nods. “Of course.” He hops over a four foot high section of wall as if it’s not even there and races after the sailors, catching up to them before they’re halfway to the boat.

Dad turns back to the portal. “Is there anything else we need to know? Anything we need to do?”

“Not now, no,” replies the voice. “Just get yourselves away from the island and to a place where I can open a portal.”

With that, the edges of the portal begin to shimmer. A moment later, the thing seems to collapse into itself and disappears.