Terra Prima

The Portal

Alise had refused to see her off. She had even locked herself in her room and told the walls not to allow Issi's voice to enter the room. Issabella felt awful. How could she go without Alise? But she had to. She would never get another chance to go. She glanced around at the throngs of teenagers, their IDs around their necks. All of them looked nervous, except one blond boy. He stood, back straight, hands by his side, military style.

Son of a soldier, she realized. This Pilgrimage was filled with people under twenty, and twenty-one was the enlistment age. She hefted her backpack higher onto her shoulder and continued looking at the blond boy. He was gorgeous. A pretty boy was what Alise would call him.

She grimaced. Even thinking of Alise's name hurt.

"Attention all Pilgrims," Issabella looked around. "Please move towards the Portal and go through when your number is called. Please remember, no pushing and shoving. I understand that you are eager, but you will all get there." Anxious murmurs broke out as they shuffled forwards on the bridge, towards the swirling blue mass that was the time-slip. "One."

A girl stepped forwards, the number on her ID reading 1. She took a deep breath, cast one glance back, and stepped through. The tips of her straight brown hair vanished right after she did. Issi's stomach churned for reasons unknown.

The volume increased exponentially. Issabella grimaced for the second time in five minutes

So loud.

"Ladies and gentleman, please lower your voices. Please step forwards as your number is called. Number two." A pale brunette with a shock of short, bobbed, frizzy hair stepped forwards, dark shadows under her brown eyes. Unable to sleep, just like mostly everyone here. The hot blond seemed refreshed though. His face was bright and there was an excited light in his eyes.

He had to be the only one who wasn't tired.

They went through the Pilgrims in numerical order, and each pale-faced teen stepped through apprehensively. There was a pattern. Two girls, then two boys. Two girls, two boys.

"Number seventeen." That was her. She felt everyone's eyes on her as she stumbled towards the Portal. She cast a glance back. The boy smiled at her as their eyes met. 'Go on,' he mouthed. 'I'll see you over there.' Isabella nodded. She hoped she would. He was gorgeous, not in the raw, powerful way of the man in her dreams, but gorgeous nonetheless, in a golden-boy way.

Turning back to the Portal, she shut her eyes, took a deep breath and set her shoulders before stepping through the hazy blue veil. Her reaction the the time-slip was instantaneous. Everything went crazy.

Her skin went cold as ice, her blood freezing in her veins. She couldn't move, and when she opened her mouth to breathe, the cold pervaded her mouth. Then she was deposited face-first in dirt.

Dirt.

Rich, thick dirt.

Fertile dirt.

She spat out the mouthful and scrambled to her feet just as another teen landed in the exact same place she had just been in. Face down. He stood up, cursing and spitting dirt before scrambling out of the way just in time to avoid a brunet boy falling through.

Another teenager, a blond girl with painstaking makeup, landed in the soil and also swore before she got to her feet and brushed herself off. She managed to get out of the way just as a redhead hit the dirt.

Another teenager, a boy, appeared and landed on top of her, pinning her to the ground. The redhead, a larger girl with wide, innocent grey eyes, looked scared. All credit to her, she flipped instead of freaking. She yelled several rude words, accompanied by the word 'rapist!'. He scrambled off of her and helped her up and away from the drop zone, apologizing profusely.