The Portal Effect

Chapter 16

Over the next few days, Cody informed NASA that Keegan and I were no longer MIA/KIA, the field was fortified, and the survivors were ferried to Cape Canaveral while the rest of us, including Kaia, stayed behind to help prepare the field.

"We have no idea when they'll come." James mumbled, "We don't even know if they will come."

"It's better to be safe than sorry. If they do come, we can't let them get to the flash drive." Keegan said. James glared at him. For some reason or another, James and Keegan seemed to clash at any possible time.

"Why not just move the flash drive to the next field?" James challenged.

"We can't do that. If an asset is in jeopardy, protocol demands the problem get dealt with swiftly. Moving it would mean they attack here, not find it, and then move on. I am sure they wouldn't send their entire group here." Keegan relied. Something then occurred to me.

"What if they don't actually know exactly which field it is at, so they are attacking all four?" I theorized out loud.

"What do you mean? You did say there was a mole on the inside." Jessie pointed out.

"Yeah, but the mole wouldn't know due to the randomized intervals. He or she would simply know there were four possibilities. Instead of just attacking one base at a time, they're covering all four." I explained.

The others nodded. If I was right, then we might have a better chance to defend ourselves, since they will be split into four separate groups. But we also had to make sure we didn't overprotect because they might come back with a full force if they see the pattern. I relayed this to them as well.

Leo's radio began to cackle, and a moment later, John's voice came through. "Leo, I need your help. Can you spare twenty?"

"I'll be right over." Leo responded. I nodded when he looked at me, and he took off to the comms tower.

Soon, the sun had reached noon, and we all broke for lunch. The NASA personnel were serving bologna sandwiches and salads today. They didn't want us to help with food preparation as they felt we had helped enough in warning them about a possible impending attack. Seeing as Insurgents were very indecisive as well as impulsive, we couldn't risk not being prepared.

My group and Keegan sat down in the shade of the hanger.

"Not that I want to go through it again, why haven't we heard more about the rift beasts? Like we have been attacked three times, and then suddenly they become nonexistent again." Jessie asked.

"I have a theory on that." Leo said.

For the next twenty minutes, he explained that they were likely attracted to portals, as these portals gave off energy that they were familiar with and may even need to survive. He also added that all of the places a portal was reported being at was also a place plagued by radiation at some point in time. The space had been ripped enough to allow a portal seed to grow, seeking more energy from various sources.

"But how does that explain the one at our compound?" James pointed out.

"Likely, we never knew about it, and it was just there the whole time. Don't you remember, like a year before we started training, the compound was transferred to a new power grid. What if the old power grid..." Leo started. excitedly.

"Was being used for the portal." Jessie finished.

"I mean it makes sense. We were never allowed to go into that sector of the compound. No wonder it seemed so strange and ominous." Nick said. We all nodded. Keegan, however, looked quite confused. I did feel bad that he was the odd one out, but hopefully he started to fit in. When he caught me staring at him, he blushed and looked away.