Dr. Leafhead: Story of a Mad Scientist, Part 2

Regarding How to Successfully Leave Antarctica without First-Class Air-Travel

           A horn sounded across the plains.  It was Leafhead's emergency signal.  I double-timed it back to the camp.  I had wandered farther than I realized.

     "Here, think fast!" shouted Leafhead as he chucked a gun at me.

     I caught the weapon.  So Leafhead had actually turned ice chips into high-powered laser-guns.  

     "It's time to go," he said. "The portal is about to re-open."

     "How do you know that?" I asked.

     "I had a seance this morning," he replied.  "A message from Melvin successfully passed through the ethereal dimensions.  He told me the portal would temporarily re-open this afternoon at exactly 1:13 pm."

     "The portal through the grave of Chukwu Partha?" I asked.  "I thought it only went one-way and would only work once?"

     "Yes, that's what I thought too," said Leafhead.  "Melvin has more tricks up his dead sleeve than I thought possible."

     "How does it work?  It's almost 1:13."

     Leafhead looked at his watch.  It read 1:11.

     "Holy Pluto! You're right!" shouted Leafhead.  "We've gotta go right now! Hurry up you idiot!"

     Leafhead scurried up the ladder.  I followed.

     We reached the plains.  The sun on the snowy ground sent off a mirage of steam.

     "Over there!" screamed Leafhead as he pointed at a nearby cliff. We ran for that direction.

     "What are we doing here?" I shouted.  The cliff plummeted far into in the ocean.  It was hard to hear my own voice over the sound of the roaring wind.  Large chunks of ice casually dropped from the shelf.  They hit with a violent splash.

     "Jump!" ordered Leafhead.

     "Jump?" I asked.  "What do you mean?"

     "I mean what I say," blurted Leafhead.  "Always."

     "You think jumping off this cliff is the way through the portal?!"

     "Yes. I told you, I had a visitation from Melvin and he gave explicit instructions that we were to jump off the cliff in this exact spot at exactly 1:13 pm today."

     "I'm not too sure about this one," I said.  I'd trusted Leafhead with some mad situations many times before, but this one seemed risky even for him.

     "It's only going to be 1:13 for about another 12 seconds," stated Leafhead as he pushed me over the edge.

     "No time for trust," he quietly added to himself as I screamed my way towards the icy water.

     Leafhead jumped next.  We never did hit the ocean.  About halfway down there was a strange portal-travelling sensation followed by the world vanishing and being replaced with a lot of dirt hitting my face.  We were passing through the grave of Chukwu Partha on the grounds of Chateau Leafhead.

     My hand punched through the surface of the grave like a horror movie cliche jump-scare.   I climbed out.  Leafhead followed.

     I looked at the strange tents that had been set up in the lawns.  I could see the house.  Lights flickered in many of the windows.  Home.

     "What's going on?" I asked Leafhead.

     "Run dummy!" he replied.  "We'll be spotted any second!"

     "Where?" I asked urgently.

     "Into the woods!  Now!"

     We sprinted as fast as we could into the surrounding forest.

     The old-growth trees were tall and dense and provided good shelter.  Of course Leafhead immediately set upon building an advanced tree fort.

     "What are you doing?" I asked.  "Aren't we going to take the house back?"

     "Yeah, we'll just storm right in there without any planning at all.  Great idea," he said. 

     "Point taken," I said.

     "First we observe and study. Then we make our move."

     All I knew was it felt good to be somewhere I didn't have to worry about freezing to death.