Could they be talking about the so called "portal sealing" that was mentioned on the news? If so... then these are rebels.
In that case, maybe the main entrance wasn't jammed, but purposely blocked by them to prevent someone from getting in. Nevertheless, I banged the door and screamed, they must have heard me, right? Were they feeling under pressure because they knew I was around? It did not seem as the rebels were looking for me, since closing the portal was still their priority, but also, I was unaware of how many of them at the Center.
What was I supposed to do? Should I at least try an offensive to buy time for the police to get there? Because they surely were taking their time! My friends were still roaming other areas of the Center, ignorant about the crime scene we had stumbled upon. I was not the type of person to see an unjust deed and overlook it even if I felt scared, which is why I tried to ignore any sort of warlike conflict; once in front of me, I could not overlook them. Even if I didn't want to stick my nose in J's rebels bussiness and the government, I wouldn't be able to fool myself much longer and pretend that we wouldn't all be affected sooner or later. Having said that, and knowing I had such high profile criminals within my reach, I felt morally obligated to forget my own safety and to think on how to stop them. There had to be something I could do.
Anxious, I waited in silence, trying to hear what else they could let out that was important. They sounded like young males, and skipped between spanish and italian. I only knew some basic phrases from the second language, so acquiring information was turning out to be hard, but I had to try. They were criminals, whatever I could get would surely help the police.
"He's back," one of them said.
I heard a heavy door opening, maybe the entrance that was supposed to be jammed? Then light steps followed, coming closer to my position. I felt my heart running wild, and despite knowing I should not worry since I was hiding, I terrible feeling overcame me, as if warning me of a potential danger.
"Over there," said a new voice, also masculine.
Suddenly, the vent below me gave in and I let out a short scream as I fell. I landed on steel boxes whose corners almost stabbed my back, then I rolled to the floor pushing part of the tower of boxes. In the midst of my pain, I tried to see the bright side: a row of boxes was still intact and covered me from the possible rebels, so I still had a chance to escape. It was obvious that they knew now of my presence. Rolling over myself, I stood up as I could and started to look for a way out, ignoring the rash of pain in my back, arms and legs. Unfortunately for me, a few feet later I bumped into one of the men, or should I say, boys. The one in front of me was really tall, about six feet, with a platinum short blonde hair, olive skin and a trained body. He had a resigned expression.
Humans? Here?
"There was still one left?" he mumbled, bored. He squinted his eyes and got closer to me, seemingly confused, "E sei anche un uomo,"
I stifled a scream of fear and backed away. Of course, I knew they were going to easily find me, although I was sure I had not heard them coming towards my position. Did they had weapons? At plain sight, I didn't see anything special about them, his clothes looked like a combination of a military and sport outfit: a cream colored turtleneck jacket and a dark gray sports shirt, black pants and military boots. That was it. No guns, no communication devices, not even masks to conceal their identity. Nothing.
"Oh, cosa fa un uomo a questo mundo?" asked another boy behind me.
Startled, I immediately turned around. He was also taller than me, but not as much as the other. He had fair skin, and his body looked equally trained, but also had finer features, and his face was more childish; a clear minor. It was his hair what caught my attention, it exhibited a vivid light gray, most likely dyed. He didn't seem to be tired or annoyed, just curious, but that wasn't enough for me to lower my guard. I forced myself to smile, ashamed. I believed his question was something about, why was I in that world? But I had the same question for them, the language I saw written outside was not earthling, so it couldn't be a Center runned by humans. It was becoming increasingly clear that they were illegal invasors.
"School trip," I answered, trying to sound compelling, "I got lost during the turmoil... I'm sorry, I only speak spanish and english. I heard voices so, I thought someone must have been trapped in here,"
He smiled back at me, mockingly.
"You are a pretty bad liar," the corner of his lips stretched even more as he got closer, "You were hearing us from the duct,"
I didn't lie. I just skipped that part, it's different. I thought, my mouth twitching. Either way, it was two against me and there was no way I could just evade them and get to the door, I wasn't that fast. Fighting was not the smartest choice.
"Well, it's weird hearing kids at a Center, I didn't know what I was supposed to do," I said, trying to soften my expression. Again, that wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth, and they didn't need to know, "Are you in charge? Do you work here? Are you hurt?"
That caught him off guard.
"Well-"
"You can't be here," the blonde cut him off, with a serious gesture, "And you can't tell anybody about what happened, it's a confidential matter for the government,"
The gray-haired one frowned, and both locked their eyes silently for some long and tortuous minutes.
"He's right," he finally let out, and sighed, "Just leave the building and keep this a secret, ok?"
I nodded. My pulse was still going crazy, and the stiffness in my shoulders only got worse. I needed to leave as soon as possible, there was something off about those boys, I could feel it, but just didn't know how to explain it.
I took a quick look behind them, and what should be a huge portal seemed to have shrinked to a quarter of its original size. They should have a ratio of, at least, almost twenty feet, this barely had seven and was still shrinking fast. It had its characteristic protection of reinforced steel for whoever tried to take advantage of it without proper authorization Since it was still working hours, the defensive mesh wasn't on and the switch to shut it was broken and shooting sparks. I couldn't see the third member of the group, as some boxes where still on the way. I was only able to notice some red-glowing panels with images of the portal at the other side of the room and an emergency exit next to them. I also realized that the smoke was nearly absent, since a low breeze of unknown origin or destiny was running inside the place, despite there was no other access, excluding the entrance door, that could allow such ventilation.
"If you're not hurt or in need of assistance, then I have nothing else to do here," I stated, still having their suspicios eyes over me, and turned around towards the entrance, "Good luck,"
If I had known about the abilities those boys had, I may have filled my head with any other type of thoughts, even the most ridiculous stuff, as to not arouse any suspicion. Nevertheless, I still believed myself to be safe inside my mind, so before getting to the exit, an idea crossed my mind, and condemned me.
Wow, ‘a confidential matter for the government’ I repeated to myself “I know I'm just a kid, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid. I can't stop them, but at least I'll be able to identify two of the group of rebels that have been closing portals.
As soons as I finished my thoughts, the big metallic door closed in front of me. My emotions were pure chaos: I was first confused, then worrried, and finally, frightened. What was happening? I turned around to confront the two boys staring at me, displeased, and who looked about to throw themselves in my direction.
"I guess things are not going to be as smooth as I wanted," the younger boy spoke, slowly walking towards me.
I felt my face drain of any color, as my heart bolted and urged me to use all the adrenaline it was pumping through my body to try and escape. They were rebels, only a few hours before they had almost shot me in the head for contradicting them—and hitting one of them, and those guys weren't even as important for their rebellion as these kids.
Killing me was, probably, their first option.
I raised both hands in the air, surrendering and audibly swallowing. I hoped that the trembling of my body was not as evident as I felt it.
"Wait..." I began, unsure on how to continue.
I had just beginning to come up with an excuse, when the light suddenly vanished. Bulbs exploded, plunging us into darkness. I thought I saw the light of the portal disappearing, that meant the third member had finished his job and, now, I had one last chance to escape. Mentally tracing a map of my surroundings—a product of my panic, I had an idea of which way to use to sneak out; my only wish was for them to not be magically able to see in the dark. I moved as fast as I could towards the emergency exit at the other side of the room.
"Hey!" the other member shouted with an innocent, kid-like tone, "Who's the intruder?"
"Alan, you chose a very bad moment to close the portal," said the blonde.
I could hear him somewhere behind me, but wasn't sure about the exact position.
"I completely agree," complained the boy that cornered me before, "Just two seconds later and we would have caught the mole,"
During my life in poverty, and this I can say with pride, I'd tried to accustom to the penumbra of the nights to avoid spending more money on electricity bills since, despite receiving money from my uncles and aunts and the Opportunities Program from the government, it was still hard to pay for all the food, bills and the tuition fee of my private school. Not to mention the emedical emergencies or any sort of transportation. As a result, I started noticing that the amount of time it took my eyes to get used to the darkness was shorter everytime. Past Melisa had made a great decision when she decided to be petty with her money, because now, it was saving my life.
Now, if my calculations were right about my progress, I'd be a few feet from the emergency door, from which I'd dart as soon as I got there. I hoped I wouldn't cause a single sound and would be able to pass unnoticed by the strangers.
Unfortunately, I wasn't counting on what was about to happen.
I had just stretched my arm looking for the panic bar, when it suddenly opened up and a dazzling light emanated from it, leaving me momentarily blind and perplexed.
"MELISA! WE FOUND HELP!" a girl almost howled, and noticed from her voice that it was Abril, "They're coming here right now!"
When my eyes got used to the light again, I stared at her, dumbfounded. Behind her, I could see Jolly carrying a gun. Where the hell did she got that from? In one of the buildings?
"This is the worst entrance you have ever done, in your life," I claimed, on the verge of hysteria.
To my regret, they had just revealed my position to the enemy. I turned back to see the last member of the trio just five steps from my position, looking surprised. He was redheaded, but the tone was really light, and my victory regarding our heights couldn't be above one inch. His body, although younger, was almost as trained as the other two guys, but I was sure our ages weren't that different either.
Before anyone could do or think about anything else, the portal abruptly reopened, almost as an explosion, with the image of the destiny at the other side constantly changing. The hole began to increase its size and the flor below us to tremble. My heart sank to my stomach when I realized that it was getting destabilized.
But that can't be I thought, stunned It was closed! How is it getting any energy to reopen?
The one whose name was Alan seemed baffled, and the other two joined him. Then I confirmed that something really unusual was happening. Portals have been kept open for years due to the energy supply coming from both sides, but once it was closed, it couldn't be reopened. Despite having the technology to feed a portal and keeping it open, no one had yet been able to create a device to open a brand new portal, that's what made their loss so problematic: no portal that was once closed, could ever reopen by its own.
Nevertheless, the implausability of the situation didn't save us. The sphere began to grow beyond measure, and I feared the worst. The gray-haired boy got time enough to raise his hand towards the portal before it finally bursted.
"Watch out!" Abril yelled at me, then fell on me the second before the black mass engulfed us both.
Without being able to do something about it, we were both swallowed by a remnant once again.
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