A New World

Chapter 13

My eyes slowly opened as I woke up. My entire body felt weak and tired. It felt as if I just ran a 10-kilometre run without the sore lungs. I looked around me and realized I was in a moving wooden cart chained up. I had shackles on my hands that were bolted to the walls. It was warm out so it was probably noon. Sitting next to me was Issac, who was the only person in this prison cart besides me.

"Ah fuck, what's going on?" I exhaustedly asked.

"We were knocked out by that fucking lightning spell by that rock python bitch." Issac angrily explained. "Now we're on our way to the prison to be sold as sex slaves to some anthro if no one saves us."

Fear slowly rose in my chest as the reality of the situation became more clear. We were captured and off to the same fate as Matt.

Even more fear pooled in me as I realized the portal device I usually kept slung around my shoulder was missing. These soldiers had our only means to escape this world, to go home. If they broke it or we never found it, we would be stuck here. I know I may not mind that, but Issac, Pat and Matt would be completely fucked.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"Nothing, we can do nothing." Issac depressingly answered.

I leaned back in my seat. We were screwed. We were god knows where, likely off to a prison to be sold to some random anthros later on. I can't even be happy about seeing Matt there since he's likely already booked to be shipped over so when we get there he'll be gone. There was nothing we could do.

I took a moment to stop doubting myself and think. We came this far, we survived being shot at with magic and muskets, survived a fight against guys with spears, survived an ambush and siege, so we can survive this. We just had to hope to whatever god this world had that someone would save us, whether that be Guapeu rebels or Elise or Pat or even some sort of luck for Issac and I can escape on our own. We just had to hope for the best and keep our spirits up and minds off of bad things.

"Issac, can we talk?" I asked.

"Why? Why should we talk?"

"You know, we may be off to our deaths or permanent separation from each other, anything you want to talk about to pass time or say in case we never see each other again?"

Issac leaned back and seemed to be thinking. A while passed before he asked, "About the science notes for the device, we weren't the first humans to travel here right?"

"Yeah, there were notes about a single expedition here before the lab burnt down."

"Tell me about it."

I took some time to remember what I read before saying, "Well, after the portal worked successfully they did some tests to make sure it was safe. Testing whether plants would die, then testing whether mice would die or merge with things around them, just stuff to make sure shit wouldn't fail."

"Then what?"

"The main boss guy in charge of the lab didn't want to risk more people learning about the operation so he got a few security guards together to send through the portal and document the new world they had just discovered."

"Were the guards well trained for this?" Issac asked while shifting around in his seat.

"Nah, they weren't mercenaries who were well trained, they were just some strong guys equipped with bulletproof vests, shotguns with slugs, and a single camera. Those scientists put all their effort into the creation of the portal and not the actual use of it. They sent them into the world, and to the scientist's surprise, they came back in only about an hour. They didn't know about the time stuff so those explorers were gone for a day and the scientists didn't know." I continued.