Friday, June 14, 2013

Prologue

"Too look into the World Beyond the Doors
Is to gaze upon the very fabric that makes
the constants of the universe."
- The Mfwalga Aha'zra, Volume III of VIII

"We were stupid
All doors lead to the Empty City
The City decides when we're ready
for it."
- The Last Reports of Dr. Theodore Weiss

Crouched on the concrete floor of the warehouse, aided only by the dim, ever-fading sunlight from the windows on the far walls, were three figures. They said nothing, but looked towards each other warily for solace and comfort, then casting furtive, disbelieving glances back to the platform above. In the still, empty air just above the platform, there was a Door.

The three people, dressed in camouflage-patterned army combat uniforms and lugging heavy tan hiking packs with them, did not immediately react. They were too heavily weighted down and the sight of their target both unnerved and enamored them, calling them forth like a siren with its true face hidden.

The Door looked similar to any other door. It looked no different than the door that led them into the warehouse, or the door that took them out of the office, save for the unnaturally bright gleam of its color, or the fact that the Door suddenly appeared where a door logically shouldn't. First Lieutenant Jack Adrian adjusted the thick interwoven cords that looped around his belt. The cord attached to a pulley system that was fed by a large crank-driven spool of the thick metal strands. He grasped the cord, studying it, and he finally realized the full immensity of the task at hand.

Corporal Susan Locke and Private Douglas Jones stood behind him, both pairs of eyes locking in terror on the Door as the latch gave a resounding click and began creaking. The Door was opening. Smoke drifted out- no, it was not smoke. The more they stared the more it began to take concrete form. They were roads, twisting and contorting like thick tendrils of tar and paint as they escaped the doorway and flattened themselves onto the walls, ceiling and floors. Suddenly the horrible screech of metal threatened to burst the eardrums of the three mercenaries as the metal walls and some of the shipping containers had holes in them, ripping themselves into an impossibly endless void of nothing, neither dark nor light but simply not. A sign post suddenly appeared as if made of condensed vapor and quickly embedded itself on the far wall. A fire hydrant also emerged from whatever lay beyond the Door and fused itself completely to one of the few undamaged containers.

"Adrian, you know the mission!" Susan said, "Come on and shut the damn thing before this spreads!" Suddenly she pushed Private Jones aside as a manhole dropped from the ceiling with a whoosh of air and force.

Adrian nodded and looked gravely at the Door, roads and other things still emanating from the open doorway. He began sprinting towards the Door, just barely dodging the things that were sent from beyond. Shadows began forming around the perimeter of the door, beings with human forms and white pinhole eyes, engulfed in shadow and clawing madly at each other for escape. Adrian was right in front of the Door now and he saw the City in all its beauty. It dazzled him, and left him disoriented enough for him not to notice the shadowy hands reaching out towards him. Jones saw what was happening, and pointed it out meekly to Corporal Locke, who was busy firing at one of the beings of shadow. She took notice instantly.

"Adrian, shut the door! Quick-"

But the words were lost as Adrian's mind shut down completely, his body slouching but otherwise remaining standing. His eyes refused to register what was happening, and his other senses deadened as well. The shadows were upon him, dragging him in and slamming the Door almost shut. Corporal Locke tried making her way to the crank on the spool of thick wire, but the door and Adrian's half of the cord suddenly dissipated, severing the thick metallic rope. The roads that snaked out of the doorway like tendrils of asphalt also vaporized and ceased to be. The infinitely empty holes in the freight containers sealed up as if they never were.

"Dammit!" Corporal Locke exclaimed angrily.

"We're going to have to explain this to the Captain, or maybe even the Major." Private Jones gulped and his already-pallid face grew even paler at the thought.

"This is the first time a Door has acted up like that."

"That's what happens when we're not around in time to shut it back again."

"No, but didn't you see those shadows? That's the first time I've ever seen things like those."

"Yeah?"

"Don't  you realize what this means?"

"...no?"

"It means that the Doors- or even whatever lies beyond- is getting... agitated."

"Agitated?"

"Yes, agitated or... something. Hell, Adrian was one of our top people out there, and... this makes him the tenth person who's been taken in the past month."

They were silent for a moment. Then they gave each other knowing nods, trying to reassure themselves and each other, then they walked out of the warehouse, just as they began hearing the scrapes of corrugated metal containers straightening themselves. They left the warehouse to the shadows.

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