Portals in Time 1 by Michael Beals

Author:Michael Beals [Beals, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-02T22:00:00+00:00

Ten minutes later, they were airborne and flying over West Fork. The town looked like a film set tacked onto the barracks as a joke. Even the railway station looked like something out of the Wild West, rows of telegraph poles stretching into the distance. Kat could see Oakley’s mine in the distance, an ugly yellow scar, surrounded by patches of forest. She’d never been to Utah before, and it surprised her. She’d expected it to be all mountains and grassy plains.

They passed over the old mine where they’d given Giselle target practice. Its entrance barely visible from the air, then over a dry riverbed, a grassy plain that seemed to go on forever until the land dipped. The area became more hilly with small patches of forest that appeared to be mainly cottonwood and silver birch. She saw the ranch at Quiggly’s Gulch quite suddenly. It was perched on a ridge, just above the river. But there was no sign of life. No horses, no cattle, no animals, but as they drew closer, it became apparent that there were also no vehicles either, no method of transport whatsoever. The place looked deserted.

The pilot landed the helicopter a few yards from the main house. There was no garden or fencing to worry about, just bare Earth. They all climbed out. It was cooler here than West Fork, and a fresh breeze was blowing in from the south. Making their way over to the house, Kat gazed at it. It wasn’t a large house. It probably only had two or three bedrooms, but the paintwork was in good condition. The place was well maintained, but by who, she wondered. Walking over to the front door, she turned the handle. The door opened easily.

“Hello!” she called, stepping inside. “Anybody home?” But her voice echoed back at her.

She walked cautiously into what looked like a living room. But she needn’t have worried. There was no one here, and there was no furniture. The oak hardwood floors were well varnished, and the window frames newly painted, but the house was an empty shell. The helicopter pilot frequently brought people out here, but no one stayed at the house. It was merely a drop-off point for people he never saw again. So where were the people he’d dropped off this morning? Had they just faded into the landscape?

She turned to Giselle. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“You think it’s a portal?”

“What else could it be? There was no plane waiting to take all those people home again. They’re dropped out here and never collected again. They were rich, city people. Are they going to go wandering off into that?” she exclaimed, waving her hand at the arid landscape through the window.

She looked at Dore, who was standing in the doorway. “What do you think, Jock?”

He stared at her for a moment. “I think we should collect our things from the hotel, and get the fuck out of here before McInnes arranges for Rostock, and his cronies to kill us all.

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