Chapter 5: Rift
"Step in one at a time." The commander said to the recruits. Motioning those at the forefront to start moving. Most of them hesitated, but some summoned the courage, stepping forward to be the first to test the waters.
Not surprisingly, it was those from rich merchant families that took the first step. Everyone watched as a tall guy with his black hair tied in a ponytail stepped forward with confidence, crossing the short distance to the portal. His hair billowed as the energy waves coming from the portal became stronger with every step. He paused right before entering, waiting to see if the commander was going to say anything else, but when he saw that she just looked on, emotionless, he braced himself and stepped right in, his body slowly fading from view.
"Next!" An official called out.
Just like that, the others began to step forward. They probably just needed someone to start the process, as their numbers began to dwindle quickly with each person entering one by one.
Zephyr tried to hang back, hoping to be the last to enter, but it seemed some others had the same idea. A few recruits around him were also stalling. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, knowing he had to go eventually.
He braced himself as he approached the swirling portal, the energy waves radiating from it whipping his hair around. His mind raced through the brief instructions they had received, none of which could possibly prepare him for the unknown. As his foot crossed the threshold, his senses immediately plunged into chaos. He felt an intense bout of weightlessness and disorientation. He couldn’t even tell where up or down was as the world around him twisted into a riot of swirling colors, like an abstract painting without any rhyme or reason. His stomach began to turn in nausea.
Then, as abruptly as it had all begun, the sensation of weightlessness vanished. He staggered forward, as his boots hit solid ground again.
"Damn that lady! She downplayed this way too much!" He cursed silently as his vision slowly began to clear, the strange swirl of colors fading away. The experience had felt longer but lasted only a few moments in reality.
"Hoo... thank goodness for the nanites, Zephyr thought, breathing deeply as he felt his body rapidly recovering, by now he’d probably be retching if he wasn’t nano enhanced. He tried to regain his bearings and quickly scanned his surroundings, hoping to find any sign of the others who had entered before him.
His eyes were met with a bleak, gray world. The sky was a dull, lifeless shade of gray, flecked with black dust that drifted lazily downward. It blanketed everything in sight. More concerning, however, was the fact that he couldn’t see any sign of the others- Not a single person in sight.
"So we didn’t end up in the same place. Another thing they never told us about," he muttered as he took a few tentative steps forward hoping to find some clue that might confirm his suspicion. As he walked forward he felt the odd weight of his body. The gravity here was different, he could tell right away. Every of his movement felt just a bit heavier, as though the very air around him was pushing him down. He looked around, trying to see if he’d find anything like footprints, but he didn’t.