Land of Equines

A New World

November 5th, 2012

  I groaned while stuffing my face in my pillow with my digital alarm clock beeping in the background. Lazily, I waved my arm around in attempt to press the snooze button until I finally pressed it, resetting the alarm for ten minutes.

“Thanks for the wake up call, Monday.” I mumbled to myself.

After taking in the next ten minutes and going through that annoying beeping again, I hopped out of bed and headed off to the bathroom. I slightly brushed my hand against my hair that stood up on end in the mirror's reflection. With that, I commenced the morning routine.

When I finished taking my morning shower, combing my hair, putting on some fresh clothes, and brushing my teeth, I walked into the kitchen and popped two slices of bread into the toaster and got out some strawberry jam.

Shortly after having my rather bland breakfast, I packed my folders into my backpack and headed out the door. While driving, I reached over to radio knob and pressed it. I twisted the knob to right and stopped on a news radio channel. At first they were talking about traffic conditions on Milwaukee’s Zoo Interchange and then they switched to a more interesting topic.

“In other news, reports of an attack on a research lab in Vancouver, Canada has led Canadian authorities scrambling to the area. Find out why after the break.” the anchor announced.

“That’s interesting.” I said.

A few minutes later, the news came back on.

“All right, coming back to that attack in Vancouver. Most of the staff have evacuated the building, but many say that one is still inside and is the reason for the disturbance. Canadian news stations have connected with WISN and revealed that employees who work with the one suspect still in the building are saying that he will activate “it.” Very vague answer, but we will have more updates shortly. Cathy, back to you.” the anchor concluded

“What the heck is “it” supposed to mean?” I thought to myself.

  After driving a little while longer, I made it to my high school and parked in my usual spot. I headed in the back entrance and ran into my friend, Ryan.

“Sup, man.” He greeted.

“Oh, hey, what’s up?” I responded.

“Monday, Caleb. Monday is what’s up.” said Ryan.

“Same with you.” I agreed.

“What’s up with you?” he asked.

Not much. Hey, have you heard about that attack up in Canada?” I asked.

“Nope. What happened? Did some Canadian run out of their monthly supply of maple syrup?” he joked.

“I see what you did there.” I said, while laughing with him.

Once me and Ryan made it to our lockers, the bell for the first class rang which indicated I had five minutes to get my butt to class. With a minute to spare, I made it to Strength and Conditioning on time. Seventy minutes later, the bell for the second class rang and I was off to German. Class went very normal as usual, but three minutes before second hour ended, we got a shocking announcement from the principal.

“Good morning staff and students, this is your principal, Chris McCormik. Due to a national emergency issued by the U.S and Canadian government, school shall cease throughout the entire day and until the emergency has been lifted. All sporting events and practices have also been cancelled as well. So please, calmly collect your belongings and leave school grounds. Once you leave, return to your homes and tune into your local news network for more information. Thank you, and stay safe.”

Everyone in the classroom looked at each other and than looked at the teacher.

“Ok, well, I guess class is dismissed.” our teacher told us, who was just as confused as us.

Immediately, my classmates began to chatter at each other while we exited the room. I headed to my locker to collect my folders and books. After getting those, I ran into my buddy Garrett.

“Garrett!” I said in a raised voice.

“Hey, Caleb. Dude, do you know what’s going on?” asked Garrett.

“Nope, I have no idea.” I responded.

“Has to be pretty serious if the principal just called off school.” Said Garrett

“Yeah, some sort of national emergency or something.” I added.

“That’s what I heard too.” Said Garrett.

“I also heard this report on the news earlier about this attack on some research lab up in Canada.” I said.

“No way.” exclaimed Garrett.

“Yep, maybe the emergency and the attack are connected.” I theorized.

“Was it a terrorist attack?” asked Garrett.

“Actually, it wasn’t. It was some crazy scientist who worked there.” I confirmed.

“That’s pretty weird. He must’ve done something pretty bad if it called for a national emergency.” said Garrett.

“I thought the same damn thing.” I said.

Me and him walked to our cars while thinking up of possibilities of what the crazy scientist could’ve possibly done. We reached my car first and we parted our ways.

“Hey, Caleb! Be careful out there.” Advised Garrett.

“You too, Garrett. I'll see ya when I see ya.” I said back.

“Later, dude.” he said.

While I was driving home, I switched on the radio, hoping to find some EAS alert system going off, but only got white static for some reason. About ten minutes later, I finally made it back home and walked inside my house. I saw my dad on the computer browsing the internet, applying for jobs. He looked at me with wide eyes.

“What are you home early for?” he asked, surprised.

“Didn’t you hear? There’s a national emergency that was issued by the U.S and Canadian government, so we go let out early until the emergency is lifted.” I explained.

“National Emergency!?” he exclaimed while getting out of his chair.

“Yeah, i’m gonna put on the news.” I said.

“Did the elementary school get let out?” he asked.

“I would imagine. You should probably go pick up Eveline.” I suggested.

“That’s what I was gonna do.” he said while grabbing his car keys and putting on his camo hat.

He than ran to his car, started it up and drove off to pick up my little sister. When he left, I turned on the T.V and switched the channel to WISN 12 News and sure enough they were talking about this emergency. Shortly after, the EAS alert system finally came on. God, those tones are so eerie. Anyways, here’s whats going on:

Apparently, a research facility who has ties with the Canadian government up in Vancouver were working on some sort of contraption they came up with in early 2003 that could, and I quote, “open doorways to other dimensions.” The contraption would shoot a stream of energy into the atmosphere and that would create a portal. The research facility was planning on to scrap the entire project because they thought it was very dangerous and now is not the time to mess with dimensional technology. But that one scientist who worked there intentionally turned it on. Witnesses said he was so angry that all of that work was about to be flushed down the toilet. The witnesses also described seeing a giant blue laser like anomaly shooting up into the sky and the clouds starting joining together in a swirling motion, just like a hurricane. Then that blue energy joined into the center, which created a glowing, light blue center. What the real kicker is that a gusty wind pushed the portal clouds southeast and is travelling at 66 miles per hour, at this time, it’s now over Montana and is expected to go over Elkhorn at around 3:00 AM. Everyone is advised to stay indoors while it passes over and to do your daily activities now before it arrives.

“Jesus H. Christ.” I whispered to myself.

Fourteen minutes has passed and I was pretty much pacing back and forth around the living room while watching the news at the same. My pace was broken when my dad and sister walked in the house.

“Hey, dad, check this out! This Canadian research facility up in Vancouver created some sort of portal.” I informed.

He remained silent and looked at the T.V in confusion while my sister looked at me and asked:

“Is that bad?” Eveline asked.

“I don’t know, we’ll just have to wait and see. I’m sure we’ll be fine.” I reassured.

"The news said the portal will pass over Elkhorn at 3 A.M.” I whispered to my dad.

“Oh yeah?” my dad asked in shock.

“Yep.” I responded.

“Those Canadian’s are friggin wackos.” my dad whispered back, causing me to slightly chuckle. A few minutes later, my mom walked in.

“They let you off work early?” I asked.

“Yeah, they were talking about a portal or something that’s coming our way.” she responded.

“It’s all the news right now.” I said.

My mom than sat down and watched the news, taking in all the information.

“Soooo, it’s a portal that can open doorways to other worlds?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s pretty much it.” my dad said.

“Mm, they shouldn’t be messing around with stuff like that. Those scientists are pushing the limits.” my mom said.

“No kidding.” I said.

For the rest of the day, we kind of just took it easy and relaxed while keeping up to date with the news. Around three in the afternoon, the portal was now starting to slow down to 55 mph because the wind was dying down a little, but was still maintaining its course.  The portal was now causing power outages in the cities it floats over. The city of Elkhorn also plans to shut off the power to decrease the possibility of any power surges or fires.

It’s now 9:00 PM and the portal has now picked up speed and is moving at 77 miles per hour. My parents also headed off the bed and decided to just ride out the passover by sleeping. I on the other hand decided to stay up late and watch the passover. I knew it was a serious situation, but it just caught my interest so much. I peeked out my window and the outside was pitch black. I couldn’t even see my own hand. The only source of light I had was a flashlight and some candles.

Three o’clock had finally arrived. I took my flashlight and walked out to the back patio to watch the portal go by. It was so quiet outside. All I heard was the rustling of leaves and the wind blowing into my ears. Hell, not even the crickets were chirping. I looked at my non-digital clock I took out with me and it read 3:34 AM. My guess is that it bypassed Elkhorn for some other city, but that was about to change.

I started to hear this humming sound in the distance, it was very faint, but still audible. As it got a little bit louder, there was a blue glow in the sky. I now knew that the portal was here. It came in from the northwest and was coming in fast. It was still pretty cool watching it, the blue center would undulate in a wave like movement. It was quite the sight. The humming was much louder now because it was basically right on top of me right now.

The humming was much louder now because it was basically above me.  However, something wasn’t right. It slowed down and stopped while it was above me. I knew right away that something wasn’t right. I slowly backed to the door. While backing up, it felt like something was lifting me up, causing me to panic. I flailed my arms and legs in desperation to escape, but it was too late. Before I knew it, I was sucked even higher into the portal.

“Woah! Help! Somebody help me!” I yelled, knowing I was screwed either way if help somehow came or not.

The more a flailed, the faster I went up until I finally reached the blue center. I felt all the hairs on my body stand up on end as I entered the portal. I was expecting to be transported somewhere else, but everything inside was calm. My surroundings were very bizarre. It looked like the little color effect you see when you look at oil on the street, but the stillness did not last for long. Just like someone switching on overdrive, the colors began to undulate back and forward rapidly and my body was flung forward like a ragdoll. I closed my eyes tightly and yelled out a few times while speeding through the wavy energy. It felt like forever, but the sound of electricity running past my ear made me open my eyes. I could distinctly make out a little hole that grew bigger as I slowed down gradually. I came to a halt right at the edge of the large hole and gravity came back.

I fell out of the portal and landed right on my feet, causing me to stumble and fall forward. Slowly, I raised myself back on my feet and looked around. It was still late at night. The moonlight was my only way of knowing where I was at the time. I appeared to be in a field with knee high grass and I could make out the silhouettes of trees and hills in the distance. But what I really thought was odd was this castle that protruded for a mountain. It was far away, but it was still distinguishable from the interior lights.

Finally, I decided that I needed to find my way back to or find the nearest town because I was in the middle of nowhere at the moment. I couldn’t get to the castle because that was on the side of a frickin mountain. I searched the area more and spotted a gravel path that pointed into a heavily wooded area that read “Ponyville.” I knew I had to go through the woods in order to get to this village. I went to grab my flashlight, only to find out it was not with me.

“Well this idea is going to bite me in the ass.” I said to myself.

With caution, I started heading into the woods and it was nearly pitch black when I really got in there and my heart began pumping faster. I couldn’t get the idea of someone following me in pitch black out of my head. While slowly walking, I heard the snap of a twig on the right side of me. I jumped in shock and my adrenaline began to take into effect. Quickly, I sprinted away from the sound in the dark and looked back only to find a pair of glowing green eyes following me.

“Holy shit!” I cried in fear.

When it seemed like all hope was lost, I made a life saving decision to quickly make a left turn and climbed the nearest tree. I jumped as high as I could and pulled myself up in one explosive movement and kept climbing upwards. I looked down and saw the those glowing eyes looking up at me while whatever it really was, scratching at the tree. I and the eyes made eye contact with each other for a minute or so before it decided to leave me alone.

At that time, there was no doubt that I wasn’t going back down until it was morning. So I decided to feel around for a sturdy branch that could support my weight. After finding one, I slouched uncomfortably and leaned my head against the tree and closed my eyes.

“Please be a dream.” I said to myself, softly.