HOME
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I was first through the portal.
The real world felt as cold and lifeless as I had remembered. The gateway opened to the front lawn and as I stepped through I felt as though I was stepping onto a movie set. The houses were a façade of suburbia; their white washed picket fences and picturesque faces loomed over the sun-bathed street as if setting the scene and nothing more. It felt like forever since I had been home but I spent no time soaking in the moment; the second my feet landed - I ran.
The front door was, thankfully, still unlocked after my parents had returned home from shopping and as I spilled through the front door I could hear the others right behind. Miller helped everyone through and cast a second portal from this side. Between Drew and him, they discussed how to best solve the conundrum of letting everyone through (including Drew) and found the simple solution of having Miller learn the spell and cast it from within the frozen world. Teachers, who would’ve thought they’d be that smart? It worked swimmingly and by the time the last of them were through I was already upstairs on my computer.
The Code was running still as Drew and I had guessed. Line by line it was adding information but was still stuck on Dunn. It didn’t populate information for my house or for this world; we were outside of any instance, outside of time. It made sense as that was why the world here was frozen; why nothing moved. Without wasting any time I began to save a backup of Dunn on the USB that was still plugged into my computer. Downstairs, I could hear everyone preparing the house. The hammering was near deafening and with each hit I was nervous that we wouldn’t be alone for much longer; we’d be drawing everything in this world towards us. I could hear Killian loudly yelling as if trying to get someone attention and then heard him say,
“Not the oak table!”
I snorted through a laugh and as the USB bar reached 20% I felt as though we may make it through unscathed… then I heard the first howl. I ran out my bedroom door to the top of my stairs and looked down at the foyer of the house. My dad hammered the last of the boards against the front door and turned up towards me with a nervous look. They had already barricaded the front door and the side windows but the large bay window in the living room at the front of the house was still uncovered and I pointed towards it.
“I’m on it,” dad said as he walked into the living room with boards in hand. I descended the stairs just as Kappa came up to me.
“This floor is boarded up; if they get through we’ll move upstairs and…”
The cracking of glass sounded as the heavy weight of one of the creatures threw itself against the window my dad was boarding up. He stumbled back and fell sending a box of nails skidding across the hardwood floor of the living room. I rushed past Kappa towards him but Killian was closer and helped him to his feet.
“I gotcha Laddie,” Killian said as my dad cupped his large Dwarven hand in shock. The creature reeled back for another hit as my dad and Killian ran to the window and started to hammer. As I watched Drew called from the kitchen,
“They’re attacking the back as well!” he hollered. I turned to look down the short hallway to the kitchen to see Miller and Drew holding the back door, struggling to fight against the weight that was being thrown against it. Kappa and I ran to help and just as we arrived, Silas and Sarah emerged from the basement to help as well. The back door wasn’t nailed shut yet as the six of us all tried to push it and equally not crowd each other. I tapped Miller on the shoulder to relieve him and took his position with my back against the door. From the living room another crack sounded out and Miller ran to the front of the house to help. On the other side I could hear the creatures; their claws clattering against the wood of the back porch, their weight being thrown against the door and I worried how much it could withstand.
Jessica and my mom came in from the dining room with large pieces of wood that were pulled from the table and began half hammering in nails. The door sprung and bounced with each thrust of what must have been multiple creatures at this point as my mom put a board behind my head and started nailing. I stumbled back happy for the momentary relief as the howling continued just outside the house. Jessica stood next to me with boards and asked, “The copying - is it done yet?”
I nodded and ran passed her. I tore up the stairs and into my bedroom to see the status bar reading 94%. I sighed and sat down in my chair, jostling my leg anxiously, holding my open hand over the USB as if it were to jump out itself. As each percentage climbed closer to 100 I clenched my jar tighter and tighter. Just as the bar reached 99% I absentmindedly cast an eye out the window and felt the blood drain from my face. Outside, pouring in from between the houses across the street and on speedily crossing the sidewalk below weren’t just one or two but dozens of the creatures.
“Uhhh guys…” I said almost to myself. Then I belted at the top of my lungs, “WE’VE GOT COMPANY!”
I heard the smashing of glass and a deep scream from the floor below me as I pulled the USB from my computer. I turned to the door eager to help but knew that I had to stay here. I spun back towards my computer and typing faster than I ever had before, frantically used the find and replace script Drew had taught me to swap the contents of Dunn out and replace them with our original. After a few minutes the script started to auto run and I heard another scream from the floor below, this time it sounded like Jessica.
The program now working on its own, I ran for the door of my bedroom and slid down the bannister, arriving at the main floor just as a creature broke its head through the window left of the front door. I drew an arrow and fired at it from point blank range and in a cry it bucked back wildly but the arrow didn’t stay. It was as if it hit something soft and just fell. With wide eyes I swallowed hard and entered the living room to see another pushing its way through the window. It had almost its entire body through and as I drew back on another arrow I saw Killian, Miller and my dad run in and ram the creature with a coat rack. The thing yelped as they projected it back out onto the front lawn and cheered. My dad turned to high-five Killian who instead threw his arms around my father’s legs and hugged him. I smiled for a moment before hearing Jessica scream again and I bolted for the back door.
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Jessica, Kappa, Sarah and Silas were still at the back door as my mom hammered board after board against the door. Jessica had a gash on her neck and I ran over to try to help. She shook her head as I approached and gestured to the dining room,
“Help Drew!” she said and I spun on my heels and headed into the dining room to see Drew desperately trying to hold a board over a broken window. He had a nail in his mouth but reached for a hammer that was by my feet. As I entered he breathed a sigh of relief and I kicked it towards him just as the creature he had been hoping to lock out lunged in and sent him flying onto his back. With a crash the board fell from his hands and I fired an arrow at it. Again the arrow felt like it hit something soft and porous instead of a creature but the thing reacted nonetheless and bolted past him into the living room. I ran over to Drew and helped him up and we turned to see the creature sprinting towards the three men in at the front window.
“Dad!” I shouted as he turned around just in time to see the creature skulk towards them. My mom, hearing my cry from the next room entered in a panic to see the creature approaching Miller, Killian and my dad in the living room. Killian swiftly removed the axe from off of his back and called out, “Come at me ye mangy beast, me axe is thirsty for blood!”
It moved from its crouched position and stood on its hind legs, like I had seen it do the first time I entered this world and I could see Killian’s expression melt from blood lust to fear. It reeled back ready to leap forward and lunge for Killian but never had the chance. Instead, my mom stepped behind the thing and the hammer she had still be holding laid it out – and I mean laid the thing out. Her swing knocked the thing to the floor, connecting with the soft blurry flesh hard enough to send whimpering to the floor. She didn’t stop either; she stood over the thing and wailed on it as we all watched. Eventually it scrambled to its feet and dived for freedom from my mother’s wrath towards the front hall but she follow.
“My, my!” Killian shouted. He wore an infatuated smile on his face for a moment before another creature entered through the broken front window my dad and Miller were desperately trying to board up. Killian spun with a renewed lust for carnage and ran for it screaming. I could hear a yelp from the back door again as I turned to Drew who nodded at me as if to say; I have this now you go help. I ran for them to see them still fighting to hold the door shut. Multiple sets of black, speckled jaws chomped ferociously through the back door which was now slightly ajar. The boards had come loose, prying the trim out along with them and I looked towards the front hall and the stairs leading up knowing that we couldn’t last much longer.
I tore past my mother who had cornered one in the front hall and was beating it back, ran up the stairs and burst into my room in time to see that the code had almost completely finished its find and replace program. From downstairs, I heard the loud crashing of glass from the front window and the screams of my father. We were in the final moments, it was almost over and yet I didn’t know if we could even make it. I saw the black masses of movement from outside; not just dozens but hundreds of those things, a sea of creatures with no other purpose then to destroy us. I could feel the pit of my stomach drop as my eyes moved across the almost water-like movement of the creatures which poured from every which way. They stumbled over each other, disregarding their own well-being as if their own existence was secondary to their purpose and as I watched, I suddenly noticed something else standing in that sea of creatures...
It was a man.
He was dressed in ragged, black clothes and stood with both hands behind his back as if strolling on a summer day. He had an air of confidence and certainty and sent a chill up my spine as if he were leading the pack that attacked our house. I froze on the spot and in the shadow of the sun I thought I recognized his face. Then I heard a crash from behind me. I spun around to see a creature had slammed into the wall at the top of my stairs. It turned and slowly moved towards me. I reached for my bow but it was too fast and it leapt at me. I closed my eyes in anticipation of the bite and….
Nothing came.
Nervously I opened one eye and cast it around the room. There was nothing there. I turned around and saw that the computer was running and the code was replaced. It read;
bedroom1_dunn
…as it had when I first started it up. I turned and looked out the window at the sun streaked lawn and the street; no man, no sea of creatures and I ran downstairs. I turned on the bannister running down past the broken front door which lay in splintered pieces and into the living room to see my Mom, Dad and Killian clutching each other on the floor; their eyes closed, surrounded by broken glass.
“Mom! Dad!” I shouted and they opened their eyes to see Killian still holding them. They all scrambled apart as I ran to the back and saw the others; Miller, Sarah, Silas, Jessica and Kappa all picking themselves up off the floor. Sarah was bleeding from her arm but only slightly and Jessica still had a cut on her neck but other than that they looked unscathed against the splintered wood and broken glassware that covered the floor of this room. Drew moaned and I entered the dining room to see him lying under a pile of rubble at the side room. I ran over to him and helped lift the table off and then helped him to his feet. He was by far the most hurt, he favoured his arm and had a fair bit of blood from his right ear but smiled widely as he said,
“Did it work?”
He asked loud enough for everyone to start moving towards the front door. Killian threw a large broken piece of wood that blocked the porch and we walked through the front door to reveal the summer lawn.
We all shared a nervous look. The day was still and unmoving and for a moment I felt panic creep over me… that is until we all felt the breeze wash over us. Like waking up from a nap the world slowly began to feel alive; the sound of dogs barking came into ear shot and we each realized it at the same time. We were home.