Craig of the creek: From beyond the creek

Phantom at the gate

Craig, kelsey, J.P. and mortimer sat on their modified raft (the same one they used to cross the rapids a while back) with Will pushing it, it was nice for a change, not having to paddle upstream,  they had already passed the overpass (with little obstruction from the green poncho, as the king had not made any trouble since Jeremy thrashed the place) after a while of going upstream the landscape stopped being familiar, and more unknown terrain showed, the light green color of the woods they were used to was now darker, and the bright sunny sky got covered with darkened clouds, Craig was busy drawing every bit he could to his map, eventually the line of papers got so long he had to start drawing a new map,  it was a rather short trip, only 25 minutes, before anyone on the raft knew they were already at the machinot line, the raft stopped moving, but before anyone could even make a comment about it, Will burst out of the water, startling Craig and friends, and causing Craig to misdraw a line on the map he was drawing  "here we are ! home sweet home !" Will gestured towards the ominous door, but the  kids on the raft were still recovering from Will's surprise entrance "do you have to do that every time you start talking ?!" said craig, annoyed that he had almost ruined a perfectly good map "do what ?" asked Will confused "show up randomly like that ! you're going to give somebody a heart attack that way !" Will scratched his head "yeah, sorry force of habit... regardless" Will waved his hand dismissively "this is the machinot line... the border between my world and yours... so to speak" Will spoke in awe "man I always wondered how it was on the other side" he said as he began to approach the wall "wait, so you didn't know what was on the other side?" asked Kelsey Will shook his head "nope, this is as far downstream as somebody could go, at least until a couple days ago, when i slipped through...somehow..." "wait... that thing is closed... how did you get to our creek ?" Kelsey asked as Will approached the door "I have no idea, I've only seen this door open once before..." Will kicked the metallic gate, a far away siren sounded, startling Will and making him duck underwater only to come back up slowly, suspiciously eyeing the metallic door "but if the doors are closed how are we supposed to get in ?" asked J.P. with concern, Will shrugged "I don't know but Jeremy went over somehow..." Will stood silently as Craig and Kelsey rowed the raft towards the shore of the creek. It was then when J.P. spotted something, a lever sticking out from the wall, hidden behind some bramble, he jumped out of the raft and went towards it, he tugged on it but it refused to move, J.P. pulled he lever again, this time it gave away a little, but not enough "hey Craig, Kelsey come over here I found something !" J.P. called out " what is it J.P. ?" shouted Craig as he and Kelsey hurried towards J.P. "did you find something ?" asked kelsey curiously "yeah, I need some help with this lever" J.P. spoke non-chalantly but Craig was a bit nervous "I don't think we should be touching anything... this place gives me the creeps" the faraway siren sounded again, this time it was louder and clearer, startling Craig "ah what was that !" Kelsey rolled her eyes before patting Craig in the back "calm down, whatever it is it's probably far away from here" "well regardless !" Craig huffed as he crossed his arms "I don't like this place, for starters it looks like salvaged matter zone from slide the the ferret,  and as if that wasn't enough we still don't know what that Will-kid wants..." he looked over to where Will was, he was trying to rappel up the gate, casting his line over it, tugging it to make sure it was anchored to something, but instead a wrench dropped on his head, he then stomped angrily on the water before trying again "yeah Craig, I don't think he could do any harm... at least not to us" said kelsey and Mortimer chirped in approval, but Craig sighed "still I don't think we should trust him too much, you know what I mean ?" kelsey nodded and J.P. leaned against the wall as a strong wind current began to blow by "so I don't pull the lever ?" asked J.P. as that faraway siren sounded, now much clearer and closer, and fog was starting to set in