The Portal Effect

Chapter 21

As the weeks went by, there seemed to be little new information on portals popping up. As far as the NASA satellites could tell, nothing new really was happening. My team was just sent out to explore strange creature occurrences. Whenever we did go out, someone would stay behind to keep an eye on the Gate. We knew that General Anderson was an honest man, but he also had duties of his own to attend to, and he couldn't always be on base.

The funerals had taken place very smoothly. John and Keegan's group were awarded a Purple Heart, and the military personnel had been awarded heroic medals and other badges as well as plaques. The families received the flags and were consoled. The services and meals lasted for three days after.

Only a small fraction of the agents chose to try and lead a normal life. They were told that they could come back if it didn't work out but would then be filed as civilian NASA workers. Those of us that stayed did not wear military uniforms but did have wrist sleeves signifying that we were.

Later on in the future, people would call us the Rift Force, as we specialized in dealing with anything related to the portals and the beasts.

"Harley, we're about to land. Want to wake the others?" McFay asked. I looked over to her and nodded.

We had just finished our fourth recon mission. The portal itself was gone, but we did find signs of a Breacher in the area. It was in northern Wisconsin this time. We had found an abandoned airfield and turned it into a small base of operations until we found the Breacher. However, it had escaped us, as they usually did.

For some reason, they weren't attacking, but fleeing. We could never determine where they were going, but west seemed to be the general direction. James, Nick, Keegan, and Jessie had deployed on a separate mission to Maine, while McFay and I were accompanied by Sarge, Leo, and Riley. Andvari and Cody had stayed behind.

I walked back to the holding area and blasted an air horn to wake them up. Lately, we'd been so exhausted that we slept like rocks the moment our eyes closed. It took something loud to wake us up.

"Bloody hell, woman." Leo grumbled, rubbing his eyes. Sarge sat up and groggily reached for his water jug. Riley looked around as if he had forgotten for a moment he was just on a mission.

"We're about to land." I informed them. Just then, McFay yelled something. Before I could ask her what she said, we all flew to the side as McFay banked the plane sharply. Shrieks of surprise followed.

I crawled to the cockpit and stood up. "Wake up call much?" I asked. She shrugged and pointed to what she'd just avoided. Another plane had just taken off, nearly colliding with ours.

"Bloody hell, tower command!" McFay snapped into the comms radio. An apology cackled from the other side as McFay finished the landing. I walked back to make sure the others were ok.

Sarge was soaked with water while Leo had slid against the wall, his legs sticking up where he'd landed. Riley was holding onto the mesh covering one of the large video vehicles. But otherwise, they were unharmed. I checked my hip to make sure it didn't rip. If it did, Kaia would have my head for it. Nickels would stand by and watch, smirking.

It appeared to be alright, and I also wasn't in any more pain. When we disembarked from the plane, McFay made a beeline right for the communications tower.

"She's not happy." Leo said groggily.

"More like the communications department might need some new trainees up there. It's the second time she's had to worry about not communication and making sure planes wouldn't collide." I said.

Sarge went right to work on getting the equipment unloaded while Leo and I headed to the dining hall. Riley stayed behind with Sarge to help. Just as we reached the doors to the hall, Richie's voice met our ears. We turned around to face him.