ANDREW

Ten days since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

"Mfwhasat?" Andrew sputtered with a full mouth.

"You said the gateway stopped working after the girl came through. How do you know?" Sten demanded once again.

"Nothing has happened for a while now. There's dust falling from the top of the pillars. Can't be any more obvious than that." Everyone stared at him in silence.

"What? What dust? The things are standing as they were. There's no sign that there's anything different about them." A tall woman with copper hair squeaked suddenly.

"I agree with Jess. What are you talking about, Andrew?" Eric had become one of the deciding members in this group of eleven, and his voice rang without hesitation.

"There's dust falling down from the pillars. I meant what I said. During these last five days, the pillars have gotten shorter. By at least four pieces."

"What? No. They're as tall as they were." Jess was easy to unsettle, and her voice went higher and higher.

"Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?" Sten's voice was stern.

"I am not blind. We counted the pieces, didn't we?"

"Why didn't you tell us as soon as you saw the dust falling?" Sten kept staring so hard it made Andrew uncomfortable. "Autumn is in full swing. Five days. That's almost a week. If we've wasted an entire week trying to fix something that cannot be..." Sten buried his face in his hands.

"I thought you knew! The pillars have gotten shorter! It's not hard to look up." This felt unfair. Was Sten blaming him? "You kept arguing whether it's machine or magic."

"We didn't argue all the time." Eric mumbled and glanced at Robert.

"It doesn't matter if it's machine or magic. Not any more if he is right. We need to decide what to do. Tonight." Sten still had his face buried in his hands. A cold sensation spread across Andrew's face. Everyone looked pale and sick.

"We need to make sure. Andrew could be wrong. It's getting dark outside. Maybe it was the evening light playing tricks. We're all tired from the day." A soft pitter-patter sounded in the leaves above them. "And now it's raining." Eric sighed.

"That dust has been falling for days. I know I am not hallucinating." Saying that, Andrew hesitated. He knew it was not a hundred percent true. He was certain he had seen things no one else had.

"Sten, I know what you want to decide. You want to go out there. Out where? We took the hike. There is nothing but forest beyond this valley. We have shelter here, water and food. And maybe, a possibility, to go back. Andrew could be wrong. We don't know right now. Just one more day." A woman with tawny skin and bleached hair broke the exchange between Sten and Eric, causing the former to frown and gather his thoughts.

"One day." Sten said incredulously. "It's six days, Sarah. Six days we could have used to get a head start before winter arrives."

Sarah shook her head and long hair defiantly. "It's just one day."

"We don't have food here. The chickens are all that's still edible, and there aren't a lot of them left. We can't survive on them all winter." Anna stood up and added wood to the fire.

"We cannot go out there. There are wild animals. No shelter." Sarah argued.

"Wild animals can be food and we won't have trouble finding water if we follow the river."

"Shelter, Sten. Shelter. Do you expect us to sleep under trees? In the middle of nowhere!" Jess asked in disbelief.

"There's barely any shelter here. It wouldn't be that big of a difference." Lenna rolled her eyes before meeting Jess' gaze.

"We can't move because we have an unconscious person with us. How will we transport her?" Jess was growing louder with each word.

"She's small enough for any of us to carry her." Sten intoned, visibly attempting to stay calm. An argument was starting again. Everyone's voices were growing louder.

Andrew thought about slipping outside. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about him. But as he briefly crossed gazes with Kauri, the thought was forgotten.

The somewhat round man of average height had taken to observing the flow of tonight's argument and had yet to say anything at all. From what Andrew had gathered, Kauri shared a common ancestor with Jess from a few generations ago, and the two of them were Maori. Jess supposedly half or quarter, as her skin was noticeably lighter than Kauri's.

"Alright, enough!" Mai shouted. "No more fighting, please. We are all adults, not schoolchildren here. Think rationally. What do we have?"

Eric took that as his cue to take the stage. He took a deep breath as he stood up.

"We found clothes here, warm clothes. We found armour in the chests left behind in this village. And weapons. Means to carry water and some food with us. We've made something resembling sleeping bags. We have a map. Two maps, even. And compasses." He kept pacing around the fire.

"We should have enough food to get us to the river shown on the map." Sten blurted, interrupting Eric's flow of thoughts.

"We have shelter here. And enough material to improve our shelter. We don't know what's out there! Or where we even are!" Sarah now decided to butt in.

"We have a map, Sarah." Sten's calm voice made him even scarier.

"A map we can't read. All the notes are in some gibberish language."

"We don't need the footnotes. The map shows a route from the south. If people came here from the south, it is a good chance we will find civilisation there." Sten stood up and raised his voice before Sarah or Mai or anyone else could interrupt him. "We will freeze and starve to death here! If we leave soon, we have a chance of outrunning winter and reaching areas where the season is softer. If we follow the river, water won't be an issue. There's fish. Wild animals may come to drink. Maybe there are edible plants around the river. We can even improvise a raft to get us downstream faster."

"This place looks like it has been abandoned for centuries. And where did the people that came here, go then?" Jess whined, and everyone shared murmurs of agreement.

They had found six small footlockers in a house, hidden under rubble. They looked different from the other chests and cases found in the village. Almost pristine, the items inside untouched by time while the other surviving chests in the village looked old and worn. Most of the items inside those had been eaten away by moths or decayed.

These six footlockers were small, easy to carry, and decorated. They were made of a grey wood with silver inlay. At first, they looked to be locked, with no keyhole or visible handle. But holding your hand on a crest on the lid of the locker, made it open.

This had sparked another argument about the nature of this world. Robert was adamant that there were touch sensors. Lenna and Anna were convinced otherwise. Andrew was not sure of either. The clothes everyone wore looked simple and rustic. Everyone had taken the strange armour from the footlockers. They would not have been out of place at a medieval fair.

"We need to be sure before we go anywhere that there is absolutely no way to use the gateway." Eric threw a stern look at Sten.

"We've had three weeks. If we couldn't figure it out all this time, then Andrew is right. Whether it's machine or magic doesn't matter. That thing is out of our reach." Sten barked, this time losing his composure.

"And what if there is something we've overlooked? Andrew said there is dust falling from the pillars. Something none of us saw. We could have missed something else. We could still have a chance of going back." Sarah glanced at Jess. "We don't want to go. You realise, leaving this place means giving up. If we go, we might not be able to return here."

"I think it's time we all considered something else for a moment." Mai spoke again in her usual manner, as if giving a speech. "What if the reason some of us don't want to go south is because we are afraid of the true nature of this place? We have all thought about it. The small sensation in your hand when you open those black chests. How the gateway seems to work on its own. With no power source or visible outside force."

Robert was rolling his eyes so much, Andrew was afraid they would pop out any moment now.

But Mai did not let herself be bothered by the man's scowls. "This village has been long abandoned. It's all old. There is nothing modern about this place. The weapons, the tools that have survived, and the clothes. The houses. Everything."

"Shut up!" Robert growled. "Are you an idiot? Why would we want to wander into the wilderness? Why would we want to throw away our lives?"

Eric turned to Sten again. "He is right. Think about it, Sten. We might be able to go back, but we could miss that one vital detail."

"We cannot stay here. We will freeze and starve to death. It's more reasonable to try to outrun winter. Find a better wintering ground, so to speak. And return once the warm season starts. It all depends." Sten's voice died, and he sat down on his sleeping bag.

Eric looked around the room as if asking for help. "Tomorrow. It is only one more day, Sten. Let's think about everything calmly and then decide tomorrow morning."

"It's going to be another week gone in three days. I am only trying to help us. But have it your way then." Sten said and returned his attention to his food.

Andrew shook his head and stepped out of the ruined house. He mumbled about needing to go to the toilet, but no one paid much attention to him. The cool air felt nice. It had been unbearably hot between those four walls, despite the soft rain. He walked away from the house so no one would bother him.

Going about his business, Andrew looked up. The rainfall had been brief, the clouds were moving further away and the first stars that slowly appeared did not look like those he was used to seeing back home. He could have sworn they were moving right before his eyes, but Andrew had a hard time trusting them.

There were times here when he thought he saw shadows high in the hills. Other times, they were much closer. But after a second look, they were gone. He did not dare speak of those experiences.