Doomed

This was my first ever published work in an anthology.  I hope you like it - even if it's not your cup of tea I would appreciate your commments.

                                                                DOOMED

None of it happened but all of it’s true.  Sal had always had an air of mystery surrounding her.  That’s what initially attracted me to her.  It was that quirky look and the flash of her eyes she gave whenever you were getting too close.  I’ll admit I was curious about where she sloped off to every night but I never quite managed to find out because she always gave me the slip.

Tonight was different; she had been distracted all evening.  I decided to leave early and waited in the darkness underneath the viaduct where she would pass by.  I spied her coming down Ripley Street.  Her head was bowed and as she got closer I could hear her sobbing.  Keeping to the shadows I followed her further than I had ever managed before.  From out of a dimly lit side street a figure joined her, their familiarity with each other angered me.  I felt betrayed but I had no right.  We were just friends.  She’d told me from the start she didn’t want a relationship, only friendship but it didn’t stop me feeling jealous.  Who was this stranger talking so intimately with her?

 He made a grab for her arm, dragging her towards the city wall.  Sal was struggling but he was too strong.  He shoved her hard into the wall.  I shouted her name fearing for her but instead of seeing her bloodied face, I saw nothing.  She had literally disappeared.

The stranger had heard my cry and was now hurrying towards me.  He was taller and looked much stronger than me but I didn’t care.  I needed to know what had happened to Sal. 

“Where is she?” I demanded.

“This is none of your concern boy.  Go home.” He said threateningly.

He shoved me backwards again and again.  I stumbled at his relentless attack.

“GO,” he ordered, unsheathing a large dagger.

I ran praying he wouldn’t follow, dashing down the back end of Norton Street.  Peering cautiously around the corner I saw him walk back to the wall.  He stopped as two shapes joined him from the shadows, then all three evaporated into the wall just like Sal.

Where had they gone and where was Sal?

I ran over to the wall and tentatively put my hand on it expecting it to vanish before my eyes but all I felt was solid brick.  Brushing my fingers gently along the wall, I started to feel the texture become more elastic to the touch.  Swallowing hard I pressed my arm through a little at a time.  It was like pushing through treacle.  Without warning my arm was jerked as I was dragged through.  On the other side I found myself staring into the stranger’s face.

“You should have stayed away.  You have doomed Herstham forever.  Look upon your destruction.” 

I turned to where he was pointing.  It looked like my home, Herstham.  There was Ripley Street, the city walls and the countryside beyond but it was all in ruins.  The sky was black as pitch.  There were no stars, no moon.  The only light came from hundreds of camp fires illuminating the silhouette of a ruined land.

“Where am I?”

“Where you are does not matter. Through the selfish actions of my daughter and your foolish curiosity the fate of both our worlds cannot be undone.”

“Father, what’s wrong?  Why…why are you here?”  Sal turned as her father hauled me in front of her.

He raged at Sal.  “See what your stupidity has done?  Our end will be upon us sooner because you just couldn’t keep away from the portal.  He is your responsibility, deal with him.”

Sal took my hand and led me away.  There was sadness, almost pity in her eyes as she looked at me.  We walked in silence.  I stared at the harshness of my surroundings. 

 "Sal what is this place?  Your father said it’s Herstham.”

 “It is, but not as you know it.  This is the Herstham I come from.  The Herstham yours will become.”

We were heading in the direction of the viaduct.  All I saw was a pile of rubble.  The crumbling high walls reminded me of fingers pointing upwards.  We sat down away from the noise and out of the sight of prying eyes.  Sal began to explain, talking about parallel universes; one unchangeable future; how she was sorry; that she should never have entered my Herstham.  I was confused unable to comprehend what she was telling me.  Dawn was breaking when she finished.  As we walked back towards the village I looked around once more.  It was much bleaker than I had seen during the night.  There was no blue sky, only dark angry clouds above a desolate landscape as far as the eye could see.  A host of rickety dwellings made of wood, mud and cloth were dotted amongst the ruins and the inhabitants huddled around small fires.  The cries of hungry children filled the air.  These people had nothing.  No proper homes.  No hope.

Sal ushered me into her tent.  I saw her wince as her father glared at her.  She offered me a bowl of thin translucent soup, there was barely any meat in it.  I took it grudgingly remembering the sight of so many malnourished children outside.

 "Have you told him what he’s done?” Sal’s father’s voice boomed.

“Father please”

He threw her another searing look of anger and strode outside.  I touched her hand trying to comfort her.

“I still don’t understand any of this.  Parallel worlds?  Two Hersthams?”

“Many Hersthams” she interrupted.  “There are thousands, maybe millions of parallel worlds.  All existing in a different time frame.”

“Are they all connected to the wall?”  I asked.

“Not all of them, there are many types of portals connected to different worlds”

“So if your world, this world is dying why don’t you all move to a safer one?”

“It’s not that simple.  Only portal guardians are able to pass through a portal and only in certain circumstances.  If they do cross over they are forbidden to interact in any way with the other world. They are there to observe only.  My family are the caretakers of this portal… but I broke the rules.  I couldn’t resist the beauty of your world.  It has so much colour, so much life, compared to the dullness in mine.  And then I met you and your friends.  You are all vibrant and so innocently unaware of what is to come”. 

Sal explained that anyone crossing into other worlds accelerated the destruction of their own and because she had come through dozens of times she had condemned her people on a path to a speedier destruction.  Just as my own inquisitiveness had now sentenced my world to the same fate.

“Somewhere in your past one of your ancestors must have been a portal guardian.  That can be the only reason you were able to enter our world.”

“It’s possible I suppose. I was adopted as a baby and I never knew my birth parents.”

There was a scream from outside.  We scrambled out of the tent as twenty or more horsemen careered through the camp screaming war like cries as they corralled the villagers with their horses.

Sal dragged me behind the tent.

“Its scavs, they’re here for our food.  Anything they can get their hands on.  I have to get you away before they see you’re not one of us”.

“What about your people?”

“All they want is our food stocks.  Our lookouts usually warn us of their approach then the children are sent to safety whilst the adults take up arms.  Even scavs won’t fight when they’re outnumbered.  Unfortunately half the men are away hunting.  The scavs must have seen them leave.”

We dodged from one tent to another out of sight of the raiders until we made it to the treeline.  I thought she was taking me back to the wall but I was wrong.  We ended up at a cave entrance half way up a steep hill the other side of the woods. I didn’t want to be here, I just wanted to get home. 

“The wall’s that way, I thought…”

“No you can’t go back.  Not until you know everything.”

The cave was dank from the wet mossy foliage growing out of the walls. The constant drip, drip drip of water running down sounded like the second hand of a clock.  An uncanny reminder that time was running out.  Sal said it was their only source of drinkable water.  Luckily the scavs knew nothing of its existence.  If it was discovered, she said that would be the end of her people.  For without water they could not survive for long.

From the safety of the cave we lay on our bellies watching as the scavs plundered every piece of food, brutalising anyone who got in their way.  Sal gasped as her father was kicked to the ground for protecting a woman and her child.  Three or four more joined their companion to mete out his punishment.

“I came to your world to escape this…this nightmare” she wept.

Sal retreated into the cave.  I followed her.

“What else did you want to tell me?”  I asked.

“You have to go back to your world but, you can never, never tell anyone what you have seen or what the future holds.  You are the portal guardian.  You and you alone must carry the secret of the destruction of your world.  If not in your lifetime, then in your childrens or your children’s childrens lifetime.”

“Why can’t I tell anyone, maybe it could change the outcome.”

“No. This is going to happen.  Trying to change things will only speed your demise.  By following me you have already accelerated the death of your world and I am so sorry - that was my fault.”

There was something in her voice that made me realise it was all true.  Why had I followed her?  If I hadn’t I’d still be in blissful ignorance.  I stared at the slate grey horizon, wishing I could rewind the last few hours.

We stayed in the cave until Sal felt it safe to return to the village.  It was totally wrecked.  The scavs had ridden over all the makeshift homes breaking everything under their horses’ hooves.  In my world Sal’s village would have been described as a shanty town.

Sal’s father was covered in cuts and bruises, his assailants had really given him a good beating. Thankfully he had no broken bones.  He looked at me with a mixture of suspicion and loathing.  I knew he held me just as responsible as his daughter for the misfortunes of his people.  As Sal walked past him he reached out and pulled her into his arms clutching her to his chest. The tenderness of his action touched me. 

“I am glad you are safe,” he whispered in her ear.

Then holding her at arms-length he was once again that stranger, the one who had tried to warn me off.  “Now we need to restore the village.”  

“I’d like to help.” I said.  It sounded more of a request than a declaration.

He nodded curtly. He needed every able-bodied person he could get.  We worked tirelessly for several hours rebuilding the village.  Everyone was involved.  The children rescued smaller items like cooking utensils whilst the women repaired the tents and dwellings.  Some of the coverings were made of small animal hides sewn together.  I daren’t venture a guess at what animal they might be from although I noticed a distinct absence of dogs in the camp.

The men did the heavy lifting of carts and the now empty wine vats, which had held the village’s food supplies.  Sal’s father was quiet as we worked together and I kept my head down, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.  A group of children ran past me, one fell over and began to cry.  I picked him up and produced a lollipop from my pocket.  Sal always teased me about my sweet tooth because I was never without a couple in my pockets. I took off the wrapper and gave it to the boy whose eyes lit up.  His tears stopped straight away as he popped it in his mouth.  With the stick protruding between his lips he ran off to catch up with his friends.

“You are a caring man” Sal’s father said.

“I like to think I am” I replied.

It broke the atmosphere between us and Sal’s father began to spell out the burden of responsibility I now carried as a portal guardian.  For the next three days he recounted the history of the portals, the dangers and my role as caretaker for my world.  I asked him why as guardians we could not warn our people.  It transpired that many years ago some guardians had tried but no-one, neither friends nor those in authority would listen, calling them cranks.  Sal’s father said the only good thing guardians could truly do was to help their people by stockpiling supplies and teaching his people the old ways of hunting and survival for as long as possible. 

Shortly before I was due to leave her father made Sal and me promise never to enter the others world.  We agreed and with heavy hearts Sal escorted me back to the wall.  I took one final look at Sal’s Herstham.  She was crying - again.  This time I knew I was the cause.  We had grown so much closer these past few days.  For the first time since I had met Sal she let me kiss her.  It was a raw desperate kiss full of longing which would never be fulfilled. Then I returned to my Herstham.

We kept our promise to Sal’s father and never saw each other again, but the pull was too great for either of us to stay away from the wall.  We pledged to one another that on the anniversary of my entering her world we would go to the wall and clasp hands through the portal.  That physical contact was important to us, knowing each other’s world was still there, until finally one year Sal didn’t come.  I went back the following day. The portal had gone. It was just bricks and mortar. 

The years have rolled by since then and although my family continue to reach out to survivalists year after year I can already see that the grey clouds are gathering.