I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It is weird walking into a stranger’s house. Luci’s was strange in that I, as an adult, should not be following random thirteen-year-olds into their homes. But once inside, the place looked straight out of Instagram. Tidy, trendy, adorned in all the right decor. It was like I was viewing some real estate open house.

This place, however, is a real, lived-in apartment. It has a smell. Not potpourri and Lisol. More like… I don’t know, cologne and maybe milk? The entrance leads straight into the living room with floor-to-ceiling windows ahead. Even with the semi-transparent shades, the apartment is awash in warm light.

The living room is messy and authentic. There are hoodies and undergarments draped across a sagging blue-gray sofa, a pair of sticker-laden bass guitars leaning against a desk, rolling paper and sprinkles of weed strewn across an Ikea coffee table, several band posters haphazardly taped to the wall. A rogue roomba rebounds across the laminate floor, dragging a trail of toilet paper.

Definitely neater than my apartment.

Text pops up in front of me.

1.

Title(s) Earned:

Fledging Criminal: Break into a non-party member’s home.

Reward: Lockpicking +1

2.

New Skill Unlocked!

Lockpicking

You can now bypass locks without a key or permission. Improve this skill to increase your speed, lessen noise and conspicuous movements, and bypass more advanced locks. Does not work on arcane or enchanted locks.

[Bonus Proficiency: Dexterity]

“Ooo, lockpicking!” cheers Luci. “Dad says you used to be really good at that, Tío Elias.”

Elias’ face reddens. “He did?”

“He let it slip once.”

Elias shifts his gaze. “It was a hobby.”

Smirking, I tuck that information away for later. Maybe our resident good guy isn’t so clean after all.

Propping the fire axe by the door, Elias shakes out his hand. He winces as he prods his bandaged thumb, the bandaid soaked in blackened blood.

“You okay?” I ask.

He folds his hand behind his back. “I’m fine.”

“Anyone home?” Luci says as she skips past her uncle. She ducks her head into a bedroom, sniffs, and backs away. “Ew.”

“Elias, that doesn’t look fine,” I say.

“It will pass.”

I dig the roll of gauze out off my backpack and waggle it at him.

He sighs. “You won’t leave this alone?”

“Nope.”

“Fine.” He peels off the bandaid, flinching as it comes loose.

“Holy mother…”

What was once a harmless pinprick is now a festering, swollen gash, caked in blood and oozing viscous, yellow pus. The veins extending down his thumb have turned black, like ink.

“Well, that’s gross.” Unraveling the gauze, I fumble with where to start. “Do you want to maybe wash that first?”

In answer, he heads to the kitchen. It’s little more than an L-shaped counter and an island, both buried in clutter: keys, a thermos and gym towel, an open box of Wheaties, a glass pipe, and a palm-sized Batman figurine. Whoever owned the place seems like the kind of guy I would have loathed most of my life and then drunkenly banged last year.

“I have a… status condition,” says Elias with more than a hint of shame. He flips on the faucet, water rebounding off a stack of dirty dishes. Running cold water over the wound, he strains unsuccessfully to bite back a grimace. Sweat beads on his forehead and under the rim of his glasses.

“Me too. Fatigue. Go figure.” I lean against the counter, eyeing a cheap drip coffee maker in the corner. Too bad there’s no power. “What’s yours?”

“Hunted.”

“Yeah, that seems worse. Is there a description?”

“It reads, ‘The floras have your scent. They will ignore their own weaknesses to reach you.’”

I eye the entranceway, half-expecting there to be a pile of vines now braving the sunlight. “You know, in every sci-fi movie, there’s always a guy who touches stuff he shouldn’t. I’ll admit I really didn’t think that guy would be you.”

“Hey, guys?” says Luci. She’s only a few feet from the island, her ear pressed against what I assume to be a bathroom door. “I think someone’s here.”

Elias elbows the faucet off. The water stops. We listen.

Someone inside the bathroom is… grunting.

Dabbing his hand with a paper towel, Elias moves around the island and the kitchen table. Luci moves aside as he tentatively approaches the door.

Just as he’s about to knock, the toilet flushes and the door swings open.

A guy bursts from the bathroom, arms stretched high, a self-satisfied grin smeared across his face.

He nearly bowls Elias over before he catches himself on the doorway. He’s imposingly tall. And big in a big-boned sort of way. He looks about early forties. Scruffy dirt-blonde hair, fit but with a bit of a paunch, kinda square face, wearing a faded black t-shirt with the sleeves rolled to his shoulders. A thick pair of wireless Beats headphones covers his ears.

He reminds of an over-the-hill Dane Cook.

“Well hey!” he says, yanking down the headset. His smile is lazy and glowing, stretching all the way to his bleary eyes. On his shirt is a skull adorned with a tiara, with a long tongue waggling between its boney teeth. “I thought I heard someone come a-knocking! Sorry ‘bout the stink. Didn’t know I’d have company! What brings you to mi casa, my man?”

“Uh…” Elias says wisely.

The guy bounds out of the bathroom and wallops him on the shoulder. At six-foot-something, he’s at least a head taller than Elias. “Not a dude of words. No worries. I haven’t seen you around here, have I? Oh whoa, there’s more of you. It’s a whole party in here. What’s up? But also, real serious, what are you doing in my apartment?”

Elias just stands there. I just stand there. Luci bursts out laughing.

“Bruh, I love that t-shirt,” she says.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“Why thank you. You’re a little button, yourself,” he replies. In my periphery, I notice Elias does not seem to care for that one bit. “Hey, you have a gun.”

“Yeah. So this is gonna sound sus, “ she says, “but we’re here to look out your windows. We didn’t think anyone was home, so we kinda let ourselves in. Is that okay? We thought maybe we’d see the portal.”

“Well damn, you came to the right place then!” He struts across the living room. “Whoa, my door. That is insane.”

I have to know what strain this guy is on.

“Follow me!” our host says, swinging his arm in a wild arc. The grinning skull on his shirt leers at me.

Luci skips after him toward the windows on the far side of the room. Just as the guy grabs onto the beaded cord, he spots Elias’ hand. The paper towel looks like it just mopped up a painter’s palette, all soaked in splotches of red and yellow and black.

“You got a problem there, amigo?”

I rush forward with the gauze. “Just a flesh wound, right?” I say, catching Luci’s look of concern.

“If you say so.”

The guy yanks open the shades as I quickly dress Elias’ wound.

A quick line of text materializes.

Skill Proficiency Increased:

Healing 3

Huh. Guess a lifetime of using bandaids doesn’t count for much. Honestly, the system could have been at least a little more generous with divvying out points for our past. Of course, generosity clearly doesn’t seem to be their forte.

As the shades disappear, sunlight floods the room. I wasn’t sure what seventeen floors up would get us, but the view is pretty good. It faces east, back toward downtown Chicago. With so many lowrises between here and the city, the guy must’ve had a great view of the skyline. Probably little slices of the lake too. But, you know, not anymore. After less than a mile of apartments and shops, it just ends, like paper, the edges torn away.

Bye Chicago.

Bye world.

So, what else do we have. A little closer in, I can see the roofs of the squat, two-story stores lining the street we used to get here. Behind that is a thin road, followed by a square block of tree tops. Likely a park. I can’t see anything farther that way.

The other Lookout Tower sits kiddy-corner of this one, obscuring most everything to the north. To the south, it’s another few blocks of retail, apartments, and then houses. Black smoke billows from somewhere beyond. No sign of anything portal-y.

Down below, it looks like there’s a large rooftop terrace that attaches the two apartment buildings. I press my face to the window, though I can’t make out much. Thankfully, this unit has a sliding door that leads to one of those juliet balconies. You know, not so much a balcony as it is a mildly protruding half-wall of glass that real estate agents call a balcony.

“It’s a sweet candy view, ain’t it? Had to have the ‘rents chip in, but the city, it is my muse,” the guy says. “After this, I think maybe I’ll try heavy metal. Rock just won’t have the same taste, man.”

“Is it cool if I open it?” says Luci.

“I got ya, little lady.” Unlatching the lock, he slides open the door. Fresh wind blows into the room, uninhibited sunshine baring down on my face. I step forward, clutching the wall, and peer down.

Ohhhhhhhh shit, dawg.

“Is that it?” Luci gasps, leaning over the railing. “Did we find it?”

Right there on the rooftop terrace, maybe ten floors up from the ground, is a stark white circular disc about thirty feet across. There are cracks in the terrace spidering out from the disc, with little bits of refuse wedged underneath. It’s as though the portal had been dropped from the clouds, crushing whatever fancy outdoor grills and picnic tables the Lookout Towers once had. Inside the disc are three concentric circles.

And there are bodies. Honestly, at this point, one should assume every description comes with “and bodies” at the end. If I wasn’t desensitized already, I’m sure as hell getting there.

Maybe that’s the point?

But yes. Back to the bodies. I count four of them, each an adult, each bloodied and battered. Three of them are prone just outside of the disc, another a few feet away. There are more than a few weapons scattered about the terrace as well. Baseball bats, guns, knives, a garden hoe, a fire extinguisher.

The disc itself is spattered in blood.

“The ride gets off here, my people,” the guy says. “Damn frisbee came down this morning. I just got off my night shift. ‘Bout to hit the hay. Scared the bejesus out of me. After the big announcement though, I thought I was a lucky s.o.b. Everyone scurrying around trying to find the portal, and it’s just an elevator ride down.”

“So that’s the portal. We made it,” Luci says breathlessly.

“Yeah…” Propping my elbow on the half-wall, I turn to him. “So why are you still here?”

“It weren’t for lack of trying.” He pauses. “You all want a beer?”

“Oh, def-” I start before catching Elias’ stare “-initely no. Yeah, no. I think we’re in a bit of a rush. So you tried and then…?”

“Sure, yeah, it was right in the beginning there.” He takes a seat at the kitchen table, feet propped up on a chair. “Right after the big announcement, the whole building stormed the portal. I didn’t check my stats or nothing. Just joined the parade. When I got down there, there was a big crowd. People pushing and shoving. I didn’t even make it outside. Just watched from the windows. Couldn’t see much of anything. Only the heads of the first bunch as they went up on the portal.”

“What happened?” asks Luci, captivated.

“There was a light. No sound. Not that I could hear anyhow. And a bit of a shake. Like an earthquake. Then… screams. I never heard nothing like it. It was no Def Leppard concert, I’ll tell you what. Worst sound I ever heard. Then came the stampede. No one wanted to be there anymore. Everyone’s running. I made it up the stairs, came all the way back up here before I knew what happened. Smoked my throat raw. Gotta calm the nerves, you know?”

My heart drums against my chest, my mouth dry. Of course they wouldn’t make it so easy. “What scared them? The flying piranhas or the plant?” I ask.

“The plant? You mean the vines? Yeah, Frank mentioned that. The monsters go ape-shit for that stuff. Haven’t seen it myself. But nah, that just sits in the dark I hear. What gets ‘em is the giant bat bitch.”

“The matriarch,” I confirm.

“Yeah. Watch for a spell. You’ll see. You can’t just step on the portal and whiz away to heaven. It takes a full minute to rev up. I timed it. Sixty seconds. Soon as it starts, the lady comes calling. Her and the little ones. Those rings on the portal, they light up. Then a big circle appears Star Trek style and out you go! I’ve seen some people make it through, no doubt. Not all whole though. There was a dude who got his legs nibbled off by a pack of those monsters. Blood spewing. Dude was a major boss though. He crawled his li’l torso up there and got zapped up, blood and all.”

Elias clears his throat.

“But in that minute when the portal’s getting its motor started, most people get picked off,” he continues. “Poor Mrs. Frolova got swept off her feet and tossed like a chicken bone right over the ledge. She was my neighbor. Seventy years old and could still drink me under the table.”

He makes the sign of the cross over his chest.

No one speaks.

Finally, Luci frowns, hands on her hips. “This is bullshit.”

Elias gapes at her. “Luci!”

“I’ve seen people die. I can say ‘bullshit’ if I want,” she snaps. “Which is exactly what this is.”

She storms over to the sofa, deflating into the cushions. Elias stands behind her, his grip tight around the fire axe.

“She alright?” the guy asks.

“It’s been a long day.” Turning back toward the window, I gaze down at the alien disc. So close, yet so far. Indeed, this is some certifiable bullshit. “Have people tried fighting it? The matriarch?”

“Oh man, yeah. Plenty. First was this one guy from the fourth floor, Frank. His friends and him went up and down the floors getting people to join his party. Turns out you can have five folks in a party at most. I think they went down with seven parties total. And… yeah, a few people made it.”

“A few?”

“Like… six? But they were all super low level. Others have made it on just pure luck. Like the mama bat just didn’t show or she was so busy chowing down on one of their pals that the rest of the party made it through.”

“Right. So, has anyone done it without losing people?”

“Yeah, once. That I’ve seen. I haven’t watched all of ‘em. But this party. Man. Bunch of cops. I bet they used to be army too. Totally ripped. The one I talked to - he was Level 12. No idea how. He and his guys were searching the place for anyone over Level 10. Then they killed the monster dead. Bang bang bang.”

“Wait, what? We saw her. She’s still alive.”

“Oh she came back. The bitch does not give up easy. That’s why I’m practicing my jumps.”

“Your jumps.”

“Yeah! I used to be in cross country. High jump. Been a couple decades now, but my jump skill’s still at a solid 5. I’ve been doing jumps for two hours now. I’m at a 6. In twenty hours, I’m gonna jump right over that bat.”

He puffs out his chest. This is a confident, enthusiastic man right here.

I’m about to crush his dreams.

“Right,” I begin. “Um. So. First, that is a wild idea. Second, I don’t think we have twenty hours. We have two. Tops.”

“Not anymore,” interrupts Elias. He hesitates, glancing at Luci. “It will be two hours until the entire zone is gone. However the Lookout Towers sit east of center. At the rate the zone is shrinking, we don’t have two hours. We have one.”

“Oh.” The guy’s shoulders slump. “Huh.”

“Yeah, oh,” I agree. “Maybe if we-”

My body lurches to the side as the apartment quakes. In silence, a shadow swoops past the window.

The portal is activating.