Aim Shorts

Gateway

Prompt from "Aim to Engage", December, 2021: A large hole has opened up in the center of your town. People say they can hear whispers coming from down below. The last time a team of explorers went to investigate, they disappeared.

Story word count = 497

**** Aim to Engage contest winner! ***

I knew this was foolhardy, but I don't like being stonewalled.

In the dead of night, I crept past the barriers to the Big Hole and peered down into the abyss. Faint whispers rose from the depths. Earth Spirits to some, but they were more likely seismic echoes. The thing that most puzzled me was the periodic, ultra-low-frequency radio waves.

A voice from behind made me jump. "Figured I'd find you here. Patience never was your forte, Emma."

I put on a defiant pose, folding my arms. "Jake, I'm going!"

An expert spelunker, he consulted with the Big Hole Investigative Team and I used him with my geology research. We even dated awhile, but he said I was 'difficult'.

Jake shook his head. "There are two options. One, I hog-tie you and drag your arse to the authorities--"

"You wouldn't dare!" I hissed, then gulped. His narrow-eyed steeled expression told that, yeah, he would.

"Or two," he continued, softening his features, "I go with you. Your choice."

So I chose option two.

Carrying backpacks, we descended into the darkness on a cable lift. A week ago, the hole opened up, nearly a kilometer deep and swallowing part of the town. The first investigative team disappeared, which included my father. They told me to 'cool my jets', but I didn't.

Our headlamps lit the way as we followed footprints on the dusty floor through a long tunnel. The rock walls were rounded and smooth - no jagged surfaces or mineral formations. Jake knew, like me, that this was not natural.

We came to a lighted cavern, empty except for an immense circle of dull metal that stood upright in the middle like a sentry, marked with bizarre symbols around the perimeter. The air shimmered within like rising heat, but when I touched, it felt icy cold and sent a tingle up my arm.

A voice shattered the quiet. "You should not be here." Two men pointed guns at us.

As we raised our hands, another voice instructed, "It's okay. Lower your weapons." A gray bearded man emerged from the shadows, the investigative team leader. "What are you doing here, Emma?"

"Looking for answers, Carlos. Where is my father?"

He pointed at the metal circle. "There's your answer, but we don't know the right questions. It is some kind of gateway to who knows where. It was active when we arrived and your father entered it, but then it shut down. We don't know how to turn it back on."

Jake's eyes widened. "Is this... alien?"

"Most likely."

A thought came to me. "I recorded a long-wave radio burst earlier. Maybe that was an activation code?"

With a nod, Carlos walked to a hard-wired phone and spoke into it. Several moments later, the gateway hummed and flickered, revealing vividly a tropical landscape filled with strange flora and fauna. Somewhere not of this world.

Jake shook his head. "You're not thinking of--"

I grinned. "You comin', or not?"