The Portal To The Gaslands

Where am I?

I was blushing. I woke up to sweltering humidity.

My neck was ringing together beads of sweat.

I swiped my fingers across my neck. Searching. Searching for my locket.

I started to breathe heavily, the oxygen felt limited.

After my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could only see a faint sliver of light peeking through beneath an industrial door.

Was I in a warehouse?

Hours passed. And so did I. Passed out from dehydration.

Only to be awakened by a band of stomping boots. The door charged open. I stood up to be greeted by men in torn-up camouflage laced with blood. And dirt.

“It’s not working,” the man’s voice bellowed.

I sat idle. My eyes now adjusting to the light.

“You hear me?” he shouted.

With a nod and a smirk. I confirmed they were going to need me. Need my heart. Not just my heart-shaped locket.

“What are you smiling about?” he screamed.

Palms first, I fell to the floor as he slapped my face. Gold never looked so good.

As I rose up, I raised my voice, “you will never be able to go through the portal without me. You need me”.

“Oh yeah? What if we throw you to the Gaslands. You know better than anyone. The Fumes will eat your skin alive” he said.

“That sounds dreamy,” I said.

The door cranked loudly behind them.

8 years earlier.

They didn’t believe me. They never believe the scientist that warns of the apocalypse.

They lied to the public. They told them that the Hadron Collider was safe. That is wouldn’t create a black hole. But it created a hole.

That’s when the fumes started escaping from the earth. The ocean’s temperature gradually rising every hour.

I was the only one who survived that day in the lab. The gold in the heart-shaped locket I’ve worn since the day I was born is what saved me. The way that gold interacts with large scale quantum shifts is unbelievable.

The atomic weight of gold is literally equivalent to the time lapse between two atomic seconds.

When the Collider tore a hole through time, effectively creating an invisible portal, my gold locket’s atomic weight was exactly equivalent to the size and depth of that hole.

This mass surge of energy fused the two creating an energetic mechanism between my locket and the portal.

It’s literally the key. To the Other Side.

The Riots of 2048

It’s been 8 years. Every moment, I can feel the portal pulsing, harmonizing with the beat of my cherry-stained heart.

I’m one of the lucky ones. The rip in Time has effectively made me ageless.

Others not so much.

I’ve seen children buried the day they were born.

Time has not been so kind. The Riots outside the Gaslands were demoralizing, but not defeating.

Every sunrise, a blaring recorded message wakes us up. The daily siren there to remind the civilians under Guardian rule that if anyone finds me to bring my locket and me in, alive.

Sometimes my radio picks up another frequency. At the same time. Every day. I feel like I can hear his voice. It’s been years since we were separated. I can’t imagine that he’s still alive and looking for me.

Something tells me that he’s on the Other Side because whenever this frequency is detected, my radio starts spazzing.

The next morning, I packed my things and started my journey back to the Hadron Collider. The site of the mass graves.

Guided by the inscription in my locket, that was given to me by my father, I see my way back.

It reads:

THE KEY TO THE HIDDEN VEIL IS HOUSED IN THE HEART OF THE LION.

So even if they capture me, they are cowards. They will never know the Other Side.