The bruises

Chapter 3: The Portal

Rick flicked a switch on the side of the structure and the once gaping white whole in the middle of the circle transformed into a purple light. "This, is the solution to our problems" Rick explained while Dan stood gobsmacked. "Wait, you don't mean?" Dan stammered. Rick nodded with a massive smile on his face. 

Dan felt a bit of unease stepping into the portal. Leaving your dimension sounded a bit strange to him, whereas Rick seemed fine with it. They obviously had to take weapons of some kind so Rick had taken his dad's assault rifle from his times in the military. They had taken as much ammo as possible, because none of them knew what to expect. 

Once they stepped through everything was strange, there was three massive pillars directly in front of them. All of a sudden this massive beast pounced from behind them, sending them and the gun into the dirt. Dan turned to face the attacker, it's colossal, beady eyes staring straight into his sweat covered face. 

Dan's fear kept him transfixed to the spot. But his paralysis lasted for a brief moment. He saw his attacker's claw-covered paw come down to his face. He rolled to his left to dodge the blow, but he was a split-second too late. The claw just scraped his face, leaving a blood-ridden mark just under his left cheekbone. Dan winced, but he scuttled as far away as he could on all fours. He saw the beast chasing him, claws out ready to pounce, but all of a sudden his whole world went black as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

Rick sprang to his feet and hurled himself towards the beast,knocking them both to the ground. The beast recovered first and hooked Rick up into the air with one blow. He landed awkwardly on his right arm. He rolled over and to his suprise he saw Dan lying there, unconcious. Rick then remembered the gun he had brought. He looked around, before spotting it, lying by the portal. He pushed himself to his feet and darted towards the gun. Out of the corner of his eye he could only just make out a shape. As he bent down to pick it up the beast lunged at him. Rick lay there, sprawled out on the dirt floor.

When Dan regained his conciousness his arms were tied to the wall in metal chains. He looked around, but instead seeing Rick he saw these two sinister looking men with slicked back grey hair. "Who are you? What have you done to my friend?" Dan asked, struggling to break out of the chains. "We, are humans. What are you?" They replied, smiling in a sinister way. "Your friend is still alive, out there somewhere, probably looking for you" They carried on. "How do you know he's still alive?" Dan questioned angrily.