The Portal Effect

Chapter 15

When the sun rose, I walked over to Keegan and nudged him with my foot. He woke with a start, but then calmed down when he saw me.

"Lucky I didn't have a gun on me." he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. I scoffed and walked away, allowing him to get up. I checked my bandage, and the blood was minimal. Which was good. We spent the next few hours walking, headed southeast. I brought up that we should recon the base, because if they were talking about invading NASA controlled airfields, we needed to warn them.

After three hours had passed, I almost gave up, thinking that they had tricked us in case we did escape. But then the sound of a plane landing caught my attention. We followed the sound and came upon a small base. It was a simple airport with three hangers. Two of the hangers were full, and the third was being emptied. The plane, another cargo, was about to take off, and the plane landing was going to be placed into the hanger.

But I sighed in relief when I saw that the people walking were NASA people. So, the Insurgents were wrong. But could there be an attack that we didn't know of.

Ten minutes later, we were almost to the gate. The guard at the entrance did a double take when he saw us.

"Harley?" he asked. I frowned, as I did not recognize him.

"Who's asking?" I inquired, but before he could respond, someone bear hugged me out of nowhere. It was Jessie. Keegan looked just as shocked as I.

"Hey Jessie." I said, patting her back. But she didn't let go. "Ok, wounded, exhausted person." I managed after a moment.

Jessie let go, looking excited. "I knew you were alive." she rambled. I held up my hand, grinning. She stopped and looked at me happily.

"Jessie, this is Keegan." I said, introducing Keegan. He stepped forward.

"Please, no bear hugs." Keegan joked. We all laughed, even the guard. He let us through. But the moment he was out of ear shot, Jessie started rambling again. Everyone was ok, but news of Insurgents growing more daring was spreading fast.

"Jessie, hold on a moment." Keegan said quickly, silencing her.

"Jessie, listen. We have reason to believe we aren't safe here. Yesterday, we were caught by a small group of Insurgents. They plan to attack this airfield." I explained. She paled. As we walked, Keegan and I explained the conversation the men started. Jessie sighed, and then scratched her head.

"There's something else, isn't there?" Keegan asked, noticing her nervous tick as well.

"Yeah. But I'll let Cody fill you in." Jessie said.

"How so?" I asked, stopping.

Jessie just shrugged, turning back to the direction we were walking.

We continued walking, heading to the middle hanger, where I saw a tent was erected. Cody, McFay, Andvari, and Sarge were looking at something on the table. I smiled, happy to see them. When we got closer, Cody looked up, and relief spread across his face. The others looked around and similar expressions were shown.

"Hey guys." I said, smiling. Keegan looked on awkwardly as the others hugged me.

"Who's this?" Cody asked when he saw Keegan. I grinned and walked over to him, punching him lightly.

"This is Keegan. The pilot I crashed with." I said. Cody shook his hand.

"Glad you both are ok, but how the hell did you survive the crash? You went down pretty fast." McFay asked, frowning.

"Not sure, ma'am. But I am glad to have survived. And I wouldn't have made it without Harley." Keegan replied. He was so polite.

"We couldn't have survived alone. I was able to help us escape Insurgents, and he knows his way around medical gauze." I said, shrugging. Keegan took his turn at a light punch. I blushed. I did have to admit, his turn from not liking me to becoming my survival buddy felt like a pretty big win, but I didn't know why.