Entrance
"Thorns! Lots of thorns!" cried Attie hopping away from the thick bushes to her right, almost knocking over Nixie who stood laughing at her friend's continuing bad luck. She fell on the left side of the path with thorns that were firmly attached to her right ankle trailing behind her.
Julia and Nixie couldn't help but laugh at Attie's disheveled appearance. Her red-brown hair was tangled from an earlier incident involving a rabbit mistaken for a rabid ground hog, a short run, and a low branch. And she was still damp from trying to rescue her favorite pair of sunglasses from a fast-pace stream after she had dropped them while trying to get a closer look.
"Shut up!" yelled Attie, picking the thorns from her ankle and torn jeans.
"Didn't I just say 'look out for the thorns on the left'?" asked Julia fighting her laughter.
"They were on the right! I'm just not having a good day…" Attie complained. "And you have no reason to be laughing Nix; you look just as bad as I do." Attie said referring to the tangled mess of Nixie's blonde highlighted hair and the dirt covering her clothing and exposed skin that had been caused by falling down a hill after Attie had tripped on a rock and pulled her friend after her.
"You're the one who pulled me after you!" protested Nixie.
"On the plus side, the dirt really makes your eyes like really blue." Julia said to both Nixie and Attie who had also been thoroughly dusted with dirt. She of course had room to brag; she was more athletic in nature and had somehow kept her long, blonde, curly hair pulled back neatly into a low pony tail with pieces framing her tan face and orange-brown eyes.
"Ha-ha," Attie said mockingly. She took out a piece of paper from her pocket and checked it against her GPS endowed cell phone, which was in surprisingly good shape considering it had been in her pocket through everything she had gone through.
"So how much further?" asked Julia squirting her vitamin water into her mouth from her water bottle.
Attie looked up in the direction they had been heading with a confused look and rechecked her GPS.
"What?" Julia and Nixie asked simultaneously.
"Should be right there," Attie stood, leaving her bag on the ground. Julia put hers down as well followed by Nixie and followed Attie over to an overhanging of thick ivy.
Together they pushed aside the ivy vines to reveal a large clearing with a large circle of stone jutting out of the grass with a wide stream running through the bottom that swerved at the vines as if refusing to pass through: also a large podium-shaped rock sat about twenty feet away, both were covered in ivy. They looked at each other astounded and Attie and Nix stepped forward leaving Julia to lug the heavy backpacks to the clearing.
Attie and Nixie hurried to the stream and quickly washed off their faces and ran their wet hands through her hair. After she fixed her appearance as best she could, Attie turned to the stone circle above her and did her best to clear away the vines but the top of the ark must've been at least eight feet high, towering above her five foot one stature.
She managed to clear away enough vines to uncover odd symbols made of what looked like random lines.
"Attie!" Came Julia's voice slightly panicked.
Attie looked over to see Julia standing over the podium-shaped rock that she had evidently cleared of vines.
"What did you do?!" Said Attie running along side Nixie over to where Julia stood starring at what seemed to be glowing squares of glass or crystal. Julia stepped to the side to let them get a closer look.
"I just touched it!" cried Julia in a high voice.
"It looks like controls of some sort," Attie muttered.
"Controls? To what?"
"I don't know," Attie replied in an annoyed tone. "That's why I said 'of some sort'" Julia pouted slightly but walked away to study the markings on the circle.
Before she had time to think about it, Attie started to press the squares, as if something else was whispering to her which to push.
"What are you doing!?" cried Julia from beside the ark.
"No idea," Attie responded in a soft, distant voice trying to concentrate on something she couldn't explain.
Suddenly the space between the curved lines of the ark shot to life with blue light as a small explosion seemed to take place but then recoiled back into the light.
"You broke it!" yelled Julia.
"I did not!" Attie yelled back. "At least I don't think I did…" she added in a quiet voice.
"I think it's just a lights display or something." Nixie guessed.
"In the middle of nowhere?" asked Julia doubtfully. Attie shrugged.
"Got any better ideas?"
"No," Julia admitted, "Just doesn't make much sense is all."
"Give me your hand." Attie told Julia and Nix walking over to the circle and holding out her hand.
"Why?" Julia questioned but took Attie's hand anyway.
Before either Julia or Nix could protest Attie stuck her head and shoulders through the blue light, completely disappearing beyond it. She pulled her head out seconds later, her eyes wide in amazement.
"You were right. Not a lights display." Attie said breathlessly. "You have to see this."
Julia showed little hesitation but leaned into the stream after Attie, still clutching Attie's hand hand, followed by Nixie. As if reading the others' mind, they leaned further, shifting their feet in the moss covered rocks. As they shifted again, their feet slipped, sending them falling though a tunnel of green and black with the faint look of stars. There was a flash of red but then they returned to the green and black; suddenly the tunnel was filled with the same blue light they had seen before.
"Unscheduled off-world activation!" cried the technician at the controls.
"From where?" an older man asked, walking briskly from his office.
"I don't know, Sir."
"Raise the shields."
"I cant; whatever it is, it manage to take the shield offline."
"What's going on?" yelled a man barreling into the room alongside another man and a woman.
"Someone shut off the shields and activated the gate." Said the older man.
"Who has the power to do that?"
"No one we know of, sir." Answered the technician.
The two men and the woman were handed P90s and headed down the glowing stairs along with several marines in uniform.
Attie, having closed her eyes at the flash of red in the dark tunnel, felt them spill onto a hard metal floor. Too afraid to move at first, she lay on her stomach, sprawled on the cold floor in a puddle of water most likely from the stream, with Julia lying across her back and Nixie lying atop her.
After a moment, Attie raised her head and opened her eyes slowly. She blinked the water from her eyes as the sight in front of them cleared.
What she saw made her wish that she never opened her eyes. They were surrounded by men in uniforms with guns pointed at the two women. Directly in front of them were three people not in uniform: an attractive man with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a black jacket over a black shirt with black pants; on his one side stood a woman with blonde hair just past her shoulders, big brown eyes, and a dusty complexion wearing a long skirt to her ankles and a tight purple top; on the first man's other side stood a tall, angry looking man with a short beard and dreadlocks with a complexion not totally different from the woman's, he was dressed in a light colored sleeveless shirt - leaving heavily muscled arms exposed - and brown pants. Attie locked eyes with the third man for a moment, and felt as if he now knew everything he wanted to know about her. It took her a moment to realize that he had barely glanced at the two others with her, and his angry, blood-chilling glare now rested fully on her. She looked around to the other two standing with him; they looked more shocked then angry. She couldn't help but notice his glaring at her had not lessened in the least before she looked back to him.
"Who are you?" the man in the middle asked with surprise in his voice.
"He asked you a question." said the tall man in a deep, rough, angry voice that matched his eyes after the three had paused.
"My names Julia Malenti," Julia stuttered nervously.
"Nixie Cald."
All eyes were on Attie.
"Attie Anderson," said Attie quietly. The tall man alone was enough to petrify her, not to mention that fact that everyone in the room had gun save the three young women still sprawled on the floor.
The first man paused.
"Alright let' get them up." He called to the others. Before they could protest, the three unarmed girls were lifted to their feet by strong uniformed arms from behind. "Mr. Woosley?" he called over his shoulder to glowing stairs and a large platform above.
"Bring them to my office please, Colonel," called an older man seemingly in his late 50's from a balcony above them.
"Yes Sir."