The Last Portal (17 page)

‘Zentor!
Everyone under cover!’ Kaloc shouted

The soldiers
scattered. Chris, Susie and Joe were swept up in powerful arms and
carried to the nearest cover. Chris was dumped roughly into the
middle of a large bush and told not to move. Soldiers began running
everywhere as they drew their weapons and searched for the best
vantage points. He parted some branches to see what had caused all
the commotion. High in the sky were large numbers of black specks.
As Chris watched they grew quickly in size. At first he thought
they were insects, then birds, then he realised they were at least
the size of horses and travelling very fast on huge black wings. As
they flew closer, he realised they looked nothing like horses.
Their heads were triangular-shaped, like insects, with huge red
eyes, and their legs were claws, which hung from long, thin bodies
that tapered to tails, not unlike the tails of snakes. They were
repulsive, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the sight. As he
watched, more and more appeared, until the sky seemed black with
their hideous forms.

The lead
creatures circled directly overhead, searching the ground for any
signs of movement. Then one peeled off the main group and swooped
lower, a crystal weapon in its claws. The others, flying in single
file, streamed down behind the first one, then fanned out in every
direction when they reached the tree level. The main part of the
swarm circled higher up, as though waiting for a signal that their
quarry had been discovered.

The spectacle
drove home the awesome forces Zelnoff must command. Chris found
himself physically shaking, unable to think or do anything except
watch as these creatures repeatedly swooped over the forest. Some
movement in a tree close by finally snapped him back. It was a
soldier; he was terrified, but too well trained to panic, or do
anything except obey orders. He had seen these Zentors before,
swarms of them. He had fought them and almost died, as had many of
his fellow soldiers. One of these creatures flew so low the wind
from its wings momentarily fanned the trees. Chris caught the foul
stench of its body.

Another Zentor
passed low overhead. As it passed, it let out a hideous shriek that
was immediately answered by the other Zentor. Like the tormented
screams of thousands of people, the noise quickly intensified,
filling the air. Chris covered his ears, but his eardrums still
felt as if they were about to explode. A short distance away, Susie
was curled up into a tight ball, covering her ears with her hands.
Joe was crouched in a bush next to her staring up at the sky, his
hands also over his ears.

Every tree and
bush suddenly erupted in beams of blue light. A white beam cut a
Zentor in half, and Chris saw Kaloc standing in a small clearing
with his staff held high, a brilliant white beam blasting from its
top. All the low-flying Zentor were quickly sent crashing into the
trees.

The destruction
of these low-flying Zentor, however, only signalled the start of
the real battle. High in the sky the remaining Zentor, like ants,
massed then streamed toward the ground in a continuous dive. As
they neared the ground they fired their weapons, instantly
incinerating bushes and blasting branches off trees. Despite the
ferocity of the attack, Kaloc’s men held their ground, blasting
many of the creatures from the sky. Chris could see soldiers
darting in and out of the trees, so the swooping Zentor couldn’t
accurately fix their positions.

A bush in front
of Chris exploded in flame, sending Chris scampering over to Susie
and Joe. Another bolt of light struck the tree above and rained
flaming branches on top of them. Several soldiers lay dead by the
tree. Joe crept over and took their weapons, throwing one to Chris.
The foul smell of Zentor, mixed with smoke and weapon fire, filled
the air. Chris judged that around half the surrounding forest was
now on fire. The smoke filtered up and covered the sun, shrouding
the forest in an eerie twilight. Still the battle raged. Beams of
light flashed everywhere, splintering trees and sending others up
in flames.

With the fires
gaining hold around them, Chris signalled to Susie and Joe, and
they retreated further into the forest where the canopy was thicker
and offered more cover. But they hadn’t run far when two Zentor
crashed through the canopy and landed in front of them. Both
creatures were still twitching and clutching their weapons in their
claws, even though they were clearly in their death throes from
deep wounds. Despite pleas from Joe and Susie, Chris approached to
within a short distance of one of these creatures. Its huge insect
head and red eyes fascinated him. Somehow he had seen this creature
before, but he knew this was impossible. Another Zentor landed,
only this one wasn’t dead. It was scuttling across the forest floor
like a huge cockroach, a crystal weapon firmly clasped one of its
front claws. For the briefest moment, Chris looked right into its
eyes. This creature was part of a swarm of hunters. The joy of the
hunt, the slaughter, was what it lived for. It had found its prey.
He felt the surge of excitement, the anticipation of the kill. This
creature had only known war, only wanted war, only lived war. It
killed indiscriminately and without mercy, or even pity. The vision
swallowed him up in its horror. He had seen these creatures before;
it struck him like a hammer blow. When he first arrived in this
world and he had eavesdropped on Batarr’s thoughts, these creatures
were there; swarms of them in endless battles on endless planets.
They rained down the same destruction and terror he had just
witnessed. They had destroyed the villages by the lake. He
remembered the destruction and carnage he had seen in Batarr’s
thoughts.

The creature
raised its weapon. In a moment it would blast a hole through his
chest. This was what it wanted. Its mission was the destruction of
the Mytar. Chris stood there immobile, unable to think or act
decisively. Something heavy bowled him over as a tree exploded
behind him. Joe managed to spout off a few obscenities, directed at
Chris, as he sprawled across the ground. The creature scuttled
quickly toward them, then stopped abruptly. Chris and Susie had
disappeared behind a boulder. The creature stood up on its back
legs, as though trying to scan the area for Chris. A weapon blast
from the boulder struck it in the chest, throwing it onto its back.
It lay there kicking and twitching, spilling out a green putrid
liquid on to the ground.

The boulder
turned back into Joe. ‘Come on!’ he yelled, waving them on as they
sprinted deeper into the forest.

Down a Hole

Chris, Susie and Joe
only stopped running when their legs and lungs couldn’t carry them
a step further. By this time they were a long way from the battle,
deep within the forest and concealed by a dense overhead canopy - a
comforting roof to seal out the Zentor. They had stopped by a
stream, pouring itself between deep, moss-laden pools. Chris took
off his shoes and waded up to his knees into one of the deepest
pools and splashed some water on to his face, trying to wash away
acrid taste of smoke and battle.

‘What do you
think you were doing?’

Chris turned to
see Joe, who was panting heavily and bent over nearly double, with
his hands on his knees. His pink face bathed in sweat.

‘Offering
yourself for target practice? You almost got us killed.’

Chris opened
his mouth but no words came out. Joe waded into the water and
pushed Chris backwards. ‘You almost got me killed!’

‘Don’t push.
I’m sorry, okay.’ Chris returned his glare.

‘Well, sorry
doesn’t cut it. Next time I mightn’t be around to bail you out.’ He
went to push Chris again, but Chris grabbed his arm and steered it
away.

‘Stop it, both
of you!’ Susie shouted. ‘I’m sure Chris didn’t just deliberately
stand there.’

‘I had a
vision,’ Chris said, knowing how lame he sounded. ‘I saw something
and I couldn’t move.’

‘You couldn’t
move enough to dodge a crystal weapon blast?’ Joe spat.

‘Well, you
didn’t see what I saw.’

‘And what’s
that supposed to mean?’

‘Those flying
creatures come from another dimension,’ Chris said. ‘And what I saw
was all the towns and villages they’ve destroyed. The Zentors are
Zelnoff’s favourite enforcers. They kill anything on his command.
And they want us. They’ve been sent here to kill us. You
know…us…the Mytar. Zelnoff sent all those Zentors just to kill us
three.’

Joe blinked
several times, looking like someone who had forgotten the words to
a speech. ‘Well, I figured that,’ he said finally. ‘Are they still
after us?’

‘Of course
they’re still after us,’ Susie interjected. ‘We’re still alive,
aren’t we?’

Joe glanced
sideways at Susie. ‘Well at least you can say thanks. That’s three
times in less than a day I’ve saved you.’

‘Thanks,’ Chris
said, trying to sound sincere.

Joe drew a deep
breath then looked down at his shoes, now completely immersed in
water. ‘I don’t feel that well,’ he said, sounding increasingly
miserable.

Chris watched
Joe stalk out of the water, sit down against a tree trunk and begin
unlacing his shoes to drain out the water. He bore little
resemblance to the Joe he had known even a week ago. His plump
appearance was replaced by a more slender version, with an ashen
face and deep shadows clinging below each eye. Feeling all of Joe’s
anger had now dissipated, Chris waded ashore and picked up his
shoes before sitting down next to Joe. Only Susie seemed to
maintain any enthusiasm as she walked around placing her hands on
nearby tree trunks.

‘We’re not
alone,’ she said after touching the trunks of the nearby trees. ‘I
can sense Prower in the trees. I think they’ve been following us.
Kaloc must have sent them.’

‘Then Kaloc
must know where we are,’ Chris said.

‘If he’s still
alive,’ Joe added miserably.

Susie continued
to move from tree to tree, sometimes frowning, sometimes expressing
surprise. Chris and Joe felt too tired to ask her what all her
various facial expressions meant. When she finished her survey she
sat down next to them, her blue eyes contrasting markedly with her
dirty face and mat of tangled hair.

‘There’s also
been Zentors in the tree tops,’ she said, after watching them both
with a faintly disturbed look. ‘It seems they’ve been continually
landing and taking off.’

Chris looked up
at the dense canopy overhead. There was no sign of Prower or
Zentor. The only movement was from a gentle breeze, which swayed
the highest parts of the canopy, but, like Susie, Chris could feel
them. They had been sent to destroy all the Mytar, and that’s what
they were still trying to do.

‘Well, we can’t
go back, that’s obvious,’ Joe said, now speaking softly, as though
afraid of being overheard.

Chris pulled
out the key. It was cold. They were out of range of the portal, but
at least it wasn’t glowing. He thrust it back in his pocket in
disgust.

In the same
pocket his hand also touched the crystal that Cass had given him.
He pulled this out and held it up to the light. There was a faint
tinge of green. Chris leapt to his feet. ‘We're near a Nethral
tunnel.’

Joe looked up
at him blankly. ‘Huh...’

‘The crystal
the Nethral gave me. It's changing colour.’

‘So?’ Joe
shrugged.

‘Cass said that
when it turns bright green it indicates that a Nethral tunnel is
close by. ’

‘So we can
escape into the underworld,’ Susie concluded. ‘But you can’t be
sure a Nethral tunnel will lead to the portal. ’

‘True,’ Chris
conceded. ‘But at least we’d be safe.’

‘I think we
should just keep running. Get as far away from here as possible,’
Joe said, concentrating on ringing out his socks.

‘Then we would
end up totally lost,’ Chris replied. ‘No one would ever find us
again and we’ve got no food, not even any warm clothes.’

‘And we’d
freeze at night,’ Susie agreed.

Joe folded his
arms in front of him. ‘I don’t like holes.’

‘Maybe we can
wait here during the day and search for the Nethral entrance at
night,’ Susie suggested.

‘That’s another
thing I saw,’ Chris said. ‘The Zentor can see just as well, night
or day. Even if we could hide during the day, at night we would
probably walk straight into them.’

In the end,
with few real options, it was decided to try for the Nethral
tunnel. Unfortunately, the crystal seemed to become greener only
when they retraced their steps. This put everyone on edge, and
several times they stopped and fell into a heated debate about
whether to continue. But each time, with no better suggestions,
they decided to resume their search. In particular, Joe became very
nervous and several times Susie had to re-assure him that the
noises they occasionally heard were only Prower following them.

After a while,
Chris noticed that the overhead canopy was beginning to thin.
Shafts of light penetrated to the ground more frequently, turning
the forest floor into a mosaic of light and dark. He continued to
urge the others on, promising the entrance was close, and
periodically showing them the crystal for encouragement.

Further on the
canopy disappeared completely. Directly ahead they faced a solid
wall of rock, which towered high above the forest. At intervals
along the base of this rock face were a series of what looked like
small caves, caused by the wind. Already knowing the Nethral
preference for concealing their entrances at the back of caves,
Chris felt sure he only had to find the right one. They hid in some
bushes next to the clearing, hotly debating what to do next.

‘We’ll be
sitting ducks,’ Joe said, scanning the distance between them and
the caves. It only needs one Zentor to find us and the rest would
be all over us in seconds.’