The Underrails #1

The Underrails #1/2

“You think I manufactured the inscription? I didn't. I'm not pursuing you.”

“You just want to hold hands.”

“You see the imprint just as clearly as I do. It's ancient.”

“And, if it opens up a portal? Should we skip through it together?”

Zya grinned.

“I asked you here because of your fire. I was watching you just as much as you were watching me at that coffee shop. I know what I saw.

Rolling her eyes, Zya extended her hand, trying to ignore the charge that shot through it when Akir's hand closed around it. Glancing at the imprint on the box, Akir stepped closer to her until their arms formed a sharp V, making a disjointed version of the letter H with their bodies. His eyes met hers then, but whatever attempted to linger between them was interrupted by the beam of green light that shot abruptly from the box. The pair watched it in amazement as it nearly widened enough to permit one person through it. It was definitely a portal. Zya's eyes glinted. She could make out the outline of buildings in the distance beyond the tinted threshold, but it was difficult to tell “where” it led. And, before they could make it through the gate, the light sputtered. Just as they cried “Noooo,” it went out.

“Why would it close?”

Akir looked at the box with obvious emotional strain, the vitality draining from his sun-kissed face.

“I don't know, but it closed when we let go of each other's hands.”

“Maybe it needs a polarity-based frequency,” he muttered, almost to himself.

“I'm intrigued. We should find out where that door leads."

“Your club card is in the mail. There are several watches and circles who want to get into that world.”

Zya's brow raised.

“Why?”

“That is the question. Isn't it? Not that we can answer it now.”

“Maybe, Maybe not. The imprint might be suggestive, not literal.”

Akir looked to Zya dumbly, clearly unsure of how to respond.

“It's a no-brainer. The port is polarity-based,” she added.

Catching her meaning, and swallowing his apprehension, Akir moved closer to Zya, hesitantly lifting his eyes to meet hers. Zya grinned and drew his lips into a soft kiss. Their eyes glanced at the box in tandem, but it remained closed. Zya lifted her head again, her hand closing around his, and this time he accepted her kiss without guard, pulling her closer to him.

A green light hit them then. It was working. But, the portal's light had only opened a hair. Not even one of them could slip through it.

Zya turned Akir's head back to hers and raised her mouth to his, once more, pulling him even closer.

The widening of the green light alerted them to their success. It was almost as big as a door now. It flickered twice before they turned to watch it, pulling away from one another slowly. The portal had grown as wide as a Watch door. They could easily step through it now. Exchanging a hopeful glance they tightened their grip on one another's hands, but that too was interrupted by a shower of glittering shimmer raining out of the green light. Their eyes squeezed shut as it covered their faces and hands and spattered their clothes. Swallowing apprehension, Zya blinked through the shimmer and tugged Akir along, determined to make it through the door, but it flickered just as they reached it. Like a television screen, it crackled with a kind of static, and abruptly closed.

“Dammit!” Zya shouted.

“Worth a try anyway,” Akir murmured, a deep disappointment saturating his tone.

Zya looked him over.

“All's not lost."

“Yeah?”

“I'm sure this glittery stuff can tell us something. You got a microscope around here?”

“In the corner collecting dust,” he answered.

“Scotch tape?” Zya asked.

“In the drawer to your left.”

Zya reached for the drawer handle and pulled it open, ripping two pieces of tape from the built-in roll at its center.

“C'mere,” she told him.

Akir stepped closer to her, holding out his hand as she applied the tape and peeled it back gently. A reasonable amount of the shimmer came off with it. She did the same to a patch of skin on her own hand then carried the two pieces across the room to the desk where the microscope perched.

“It's an ancient piece of equipment,” he offered, moving to join her. “Let me have a look?

The nomad pressed one of the tape segments between two slides pulled from the drawer at the mechanism's base, and set it in place, leaning to peer at it through the lenses.

“Whatever it is, it isn't moving at a rate I can detect.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I'm really not sure, but we can save these. We should each keep one. We don't know where that portal leads.”

“Could be we're not meant to know,” Zya offered.

“Could be,” Akir agreed, his eyes lingering on her until the crash of several data disks drew his attention abruptly away.

Zya swallowed a flicker of fear. “You think something more than the shimmer came out of that gate?”

“I don't know,” Akir answered, frowning. “Whatever it is, we should get you out of here.”

“I'm a big girl.”

“I know, but we don't know what we're dealing with. Let me escort you home.”

Frowning, Zya crossed the room to grab her coat. She began her ascent up the twisting stairwell and halted on the third step, glaring at him. Akir grabbed his own coat and followed her without a word.