Won't Catch Me!

Chapter 2 - First Impressions

Chapter 2 - First Impressions

I turned the dials and pressed the buttons on the Unrestricted Gate Opening Device in the sequence that activated the gate.  The UGOD lit up briefly but as I watched the lights dulled and it again resembled a non-descript sports watch.

“See,” I held up the device with a relieved smile, “I told you that it wouldn’t...” I stopped midsentence.

A soft breeze swirled around my ankles.  I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.  Coincidence, a pure coincidence, just a random puff of air – nothing more - I tried to relax.  Before I could stop myself, my eyes lifted to the sky.  There was an ominous darkening and the breeze was now moving my clothing.

“No,” I whimpered, “No, this is a mistake.”

The technicians were affixing protective eyewear as they congratulated each other.  The management were clapping and some were even backslapping each other.  The Generals were simply nodding with the same serious expressions that they had maintained for the past three hours.  I turned back to where the management now gathered around Alexander. He smiled a smug I-told-you-so smile at my wide eyed shaking head.

“No,” I said again but repeating it didn’t make the wind, which was now flinging my hair around, any less.  The sky was dark, low and had the unmistakable hues of green and purple spun with the blackest of black.  

“The gate’s about to open,” Gavin took my hand and dragged me in the direction the wind was pushing us.

“No, this is wrong,” I tried to insist but Gavin either didn’t hear me or ignored me.

This had to be wrong.  Maybe the gate wasn’t really opening and we would plummet into the nothingness and be lost forever.  It could be that the gate wouldn’t let us pass through it.  That might be the point when it detects that I’m not a clone.   I can’t be a clone.

The air shimmered in front on Gavin.  Then it ruptured.  Puncturing at one point with a blinding flash of pure white light then slicing downwards forming a jagged vertical line of searing brightness against the stormy backdrop. The wind whipped us as we waited for the lips of the tear to separate and reveal its iridescent watery passage. 

It wasn’t going to open, I told myself but, at this point, even I was having a hard time believing myself.  This had all happened before.  Exactly the same way it usually started. There was nothing to indicate that the outcome would be any different.  Whether I liked it or not, the gate was opening and it was because of me.

I felt the tears ripped from my eyes by the vicious wind as the gate opened to show the calm glowing surface.  I wanted to run. I wanted to hide.   This couldn’t be happening.  I turned into the wind but my movements were sluggish, the essence must be working.  The UGOD injected the essence into our bloodstream.  It was the substance that ensured that we sleep through the horror of falling through the nothing which existed within the gate.  I knew from experience that I wouldn’t be able to escape the fall now.  If the gate was open then I was going to fall.

Gavin was moving, pulling my numb body with him.  He cast a glance back at me, his face illuminated by the tendrils of light, and smiled with his boyish excitement.  This was just another jump to him, somewhere new to explore.  There were no other connotations for him, just another adventure.  I wished it was that simple for me. 

I wished Joel was here.  I looked over my shoulder but our audience was in darkness and seemed a million miles away.  I needed Joel.  Joel would help me understand this.  I wanted Joel’s arms wrapped around me.  I needed his assurance that this didn’t change anything.  But instead I was jumping.