Entry

By Cliff Lake

 

Entry

 

When we first got him back, he wasn’t…

When we first got him back, he wasn’t.

I begged him not to go through the

Door?

Portal?

Dimension?

It was none of those things.

It was all of those things.

But he’d built the machine,

Built it too well,

Self-contained,

Dual everything,

And triple the good stuff.

His pride and the history of pioneers,

Self-testing maniac engineers…

There were four of us.

When he first turned it on

Johnson immediately started to lose it,

He just kept getting worse.

Eventually he…

I should do something with the body.

I should do something

but

Sylvie saw the opening and

She’s never coming back here.

I hope she is sane enough to make the report.

State Department, Defense, somebody…

I’m still here.

Hoping I can figure out

something.

When Andrews went in he

There was a low moan –

It was all the fear I have ever felt

In my entire life

All at once

Concentrated

Spoken aloud

It must have been minutes.

I don’t know.

We hauled on the rope we’d tied to him.

When we got him back, he wasn’t.

When we got him back

Whatever it was now told us

The end

How it will all end.

Johnson left.

I found him later

I found his

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

The

Andrews

Finished by telling me three things

Before I tried turning off that damn

It told me that they know of us now.

It told me that they are coming.

And it told me

They can turn it back on from their side.

I should do something.

I should do

 

Cliff Lake 10/25/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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