Fractured Reality
Copyright© 2020 by Luke Longview
Chapter 11
Monday, June 3, 3089, 2:29 p.m. Looking about, Rebecca considered her idiotic and spineless decision to step through, knowing that having it out with Leda was a better plan of action. Stepping away from the portal, she lowered the bags and automatically glanced back, cursing her cowardice and stupidity.
Her glimpse of the person turning the corner was so fleeting that she hadn’t identified the figure as Leda, but she knew instinctively it was. Certainly, the woman had seen her disappear through the gate and would follow. She glanced back again, intending to clear additional space and with a shock realized the gate wasn’t there. No oval hung on the air.
“What? No!” she cried. Rushing the space formerly occupied by the portal, she thrust her hands frantically through the empty space, screaming “No!” again. Grabbing the tote, she hurled it through where the gate should be, and watched it fly spinning through the air, haphazardly disgorging its contents across the floor. “No!” she screamed, again. “You can’t do this, Leda!”
Furious, she whirled on her bad foot, grimaced in agony as the ankle buckled beneath her, and then stumbled to the dais and climbed up. The gate couldn’t be gone! This was its home location! Leda had told her so! Yet a wave above the control panel failed to elicit a response from the viewer. She dropped to her knee and punched the power button below the console with her middle finger. Nothing happened. Panting raggedly, she poked the button again and again, tried holding it in for 10 seconds, and then banged it with her middle finger a dozen more times. The console remained unresponsive.
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