He extended his hand into the car and I shook it.
“Lawrence Able.” I said, “You were chosen as well?”
“I was indeed.” He said, “By Ullr: God of Winter and Snow.” He answered. “Pull on up, and we’ll talk more.”
His fingers wrapped between the links in the chain and pulled it open. The heavy galvanized steel gate squealed as it flew open and rolled to a stop. I drove up toward the house, while the man got on an ATV.
The path climbed higher and higher into the hill side, until we came across a house sat halfway under an alcove. It was old farmhouse, with a shed that stood across the gravel road that led up to the old wooden stairs that led up to the deck, and up to the front door. Faint blue paint peeled off the wooden panelled walls of the two story building, revealing the pale wood under. The roof was slanted backwards: the pointed top brushing against the earthy ceiling, as the rains caught on the black shingles rushed downwards behind the house into trenches that had long since been eroded into the hard packed earth, and carried the water somewhere I hadn’t seen the red explorer was sititng beneath the alcove, covered from the falling rains A door sat embedded in the earthen wall of the alcove. I glanced over to the Shard sitting in the seat beside me. It’s a level 50. Came the response before I even asked.
I drove to a stop, and a brown haired woman wearing coveralls and boots stepped out of the house. Her eyes were as brown as a hazelnut, just as her skin was. Seth hopped off the ATV when he pulled up to its place right beside the deck. He climbed up the wooden steps and embraced the woman, and they shared a brief kiss.
“Is this the one getting the truck?” She asked as they broke their embrace, and he fell into place beside her.
“He is, but honey, listen to this. He’s also one.”
“Also one, what do you mean?”
“I told you about goin’ into the doors and fighting monsters, right?”
“Oh, not this again, Seth. I was listening on the radio just now and they’re calling it a mirage caused by global warming.”
“You saw me in one.”
“Yeah, but then you went right back out.”
“Couldn’t help it, it was a level 50.”
“Was it the one back there?’
I motioned to the door embedded in the wall.
“See! He knows where it is.”
The woman rolled her eyes, and Seth moved to grab hold of her hand, and she hissed. Seth held her hand up: she pressed a bloody paper towel against the palm of her hand.
“Cut myself.” She said grimly, “Not too bad.”
“Here, let me get a bandage for you babe.” Seth said as he kissed his wife on the cheek.
I pulled the wand from my pocket.
“Can I?” I asked.
“Can you what?” Seth asked.
“I know a healing spell.” I said as I limped up the steps.
“Do you really?’
Laura rolled her eyes.
“Babe, watch. Then you’ll believe me.”
“Hail Mary, full of Grace, I beseech thee to seal their wounds, by the power of Christ thine Heavenly Son.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“This is nons-- OH MY GOD, what the hell is happening?”
She tore off the paper towel just in time to watch the flesh stitch itself together.
“Oh my God, it feels like worms crawling in my skin!”
“See! See! Told you I weren’t lying.”
“Why are you fighting this time?” A voice came from the upper window.
I glanced up, and a young man; about 15 or 16, glanced down from the window.
“Mind your business, Derek.” Seth said, “We ain’t fighting, we’re discussing.”
“Mom, dad, please stop fighting…” A small voice came from behind them.
“We ain’t fighting.”
A pair of young children: one boy, who looked as if he took more after his mother, and a girl, who looked more like she took after her father, came up behind them. They couldn’t have been more than four or five. Seth ran his hand through his daughter’s curly hair, while Laura looked at where the wound had been just in time to see her flesh stitching together.
She looked at it: her mouth slightly agape as she glanced between her husband and I.
“So, all of this is…real?”
“I told you. I even showed you some of the stuff I could do.”
“All I saw was you swinging a sword.”
“You didn’t see the ice crystals?”
“You mean the dew? I saw that.”
“Did you feel how cold the blade was?”
“Metal’s cold!”
Seth sighed.
“Thank you…your name was Lawrence, right?” He asked.
“Yes.”
“Here, I’ll give you my number.” He pulled out his cellphone, and I pulled out mine. He recited his number, and I copied it down. “If you need help with a door, call on me and I’ll be over.”
“Same.”
“What level are you?” He asked.
“15 currently.”
“15? Christ almighty, I’m only 9. Can’t help it though, all the doors ‘round here are 30+.”
“Really? I wonder why.”
“Ullr told me that the mere presence of humanity lowers the level of the doors. So cities and the like will have lower levels overall. The further they are from human habitation, the higher the levels.”
My eyes moved to the nearby, empty hills. What level would those doors be? The mountains that clustered the horizon beyond. How about those? How about those on remote islands, or, heaven forbid, in the middle of the oceans? What horrors lay in wait in the amazon?
At that moment a different thought came over me, the sheer weight of the task that Seth and I, and all of us who had been chosen have been given. The fact that no matter how well we did, in a couple of years humanity was going to be going through a major shift.
“I…can I sit down?” I asked.
Before Seth could even answer I had sat down on the edge of the deck.
“You alright? You have kind of a far away look in your eye.”
“I don’t know…I hadn’t gone out of Porterville since the beginning of all of this, so just looking at the big picture…we’re,” I glanced back to see the small faces of the man’s children looking out of the door, “We’re…well doomed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe not doomed, but life is going to drastically change whenever these,” I motioned to a door that was just off the path leading up to the house, “open, the world’s going to change drastically.”
Laura approached us from behind.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, think about it. How are we going to transport food from the farms to the cities around us? The roads are filled with these doors. Large cities that rely on imported food will die out.”
Seth’s already pale face shifted a shade paler, and he, too, sat down.
“All the highways and interstates will probably be overrun…” he muttered, “I…I never really thought of that.”
“Me neither. Not until now. Even if we wanted to start right now, they’re far out there, and so their levels will be prohibitively high.”
“That’s not to mention the farms…the waterways -- you’ve seen the doors along the river banks, right? The power stations…the railroads. Shipping lanes. Ah hell…”
“Wood will become scarce. Remote oil fields will be inoperable, while those out in the ocean will be destroyed.”
“How will we survive?”
“I don’t know. All we could do is get stronger so that when they come out of their world, we’ll be ready to fight them.”
“Well,” he said, “They’ll have a hell of a hard time taking the states.” He said, “Every good ol’ boy with a rifle will be out raising hell for them.”
“Language, Seth.”
“Raising heck with them.”
“Even so, we don’t know how strong the monsters from further away will be. I’ve already come across…something I doubt bullets will be any good against.”
He went silent for a moment.
“Well, I suppose we’re to lead them then.”
“Lead them? Sorry, I’m hardly a leader.” I say, defensively, “It took more courage than I care to admit calling you for the truck.
He sighed, and slapped his legs.
“Well, speaking of. You still want to buy it?”
“Of course.”
“Well, how about I drive it by your place, then? And you can take me back and we can talk on the way back.”
“I don’t see why not.
I nodded a brief farewell, and Seth headed inside for a brief moment before remerging carrying something wrapped in cloth. It stood just a bit taller than him, and almost as tall as me. He set the thing in the back of the truck and hopped in. It hummed to life at the turn of a key, and opened the glove box.
“Well, let’s get on.” He said.
I got into my car, and drove away. Seth followed after me in his truck as we both hurried through back through the town. As we pulled into the apartment complex, I pulled to the side, and opened the garage door with the clicker. Seth pulled in, and I stepped out.
“Do we have to do some paperwork?”
“Yeah...but not right now.” He said as he pulled out the long polearm and a bag that had apparently been sitting in the back of the truck. “I want to do some more doors. You opened my eyes that I’m not doing nearly enough.”
“Why do you say that?”
“My family...I have a young daughter in the hospital. Crippled by a car accident twelve years back when she was 13. If civilization collapses, what’ll happen to her? If civilization collapses, just as you said, what’ll happen to my family? All them doors near my house lets the horrors of the other world come here? What’ll happen to them.”
He cleared his throat.
“The people in my church..what’ll happen to them? There’s this old lady I’ve known who goes there, who has gone there ever since I was a child — helped me through the hardest parts of my life. What’ll happen to her when the doors go? My parents, god bless them as flawed as they might be, what will happen to them? At the very least, I want to clear the area around this town. After that, we’ll play it by ear.”
“So you want to start now?”
He nodded.
I sighed. Putting pressure on my leg still felt as if I were pushing a bruise, but he was right. We shouldn’t be sitting idle enough...but, there were still somethings I had to do.
“I’ll start again tomorrow.” I told him as I tossed my keys to the man, “You can have my car, but I have things to do today.” I said.
He caught the keys, and I passed him the 12k. He looked over the condition of my car, and handed me 5k back.
“Think of it as a trade in.” He said as he jingled the keys in his hands, “I’ll catch up to you in no time.” He got into the car, and rolled down the window, “What’s your number? After your done with whatever you have to do today, give me a call and we’ll go in a few together.”
I have him my number, and he put in his phone before he pulled out, and went god knows where, and I went back inside to pack up the things I needed. All the gold rings, and golden talons...perhaps I should melt them down into coins or bars. I thought about it for a moment before dismissing the idea. I had no clue how to do it, and I’d probably start a fire. I put as many as the rings and talon coverings into the chests and trunks in the garage, and set them in the back of the truck before setting off.