Chapter 5

When she opened her eyes again, she was sitting in the chair, staring at the computer. When her senses gathered, she stood and began to pace.

"That should NOT have happened! How is that even possible!?"

She stopped as she ran a hand through her hair and a thought came to her.

"Am I hallucinating? What if I had something I shouldn't have had and that was…" She stopped mid-sentence and looked to the computer. She felt a strange pull to it.

What if I….?

She reached a hand to the keyboard, but then stopped herself with an intake of breath. She closed her eyes, "Get a grip. You're dead tired and you just need to go home and rest. Yeah…that's all this was. Exhaustion. You'll come back tomorrow…and this will have never happened."

With a deep sigh, she turned and made herself walk out.

The next morning, she got up fully refreshed. She took a relaxing shower and had a bowl of cereal before walking out the door.

When she got to work, she didn't think about the events of the night before. At least, not until she came to the hallway and she turned her head to the other end of the hallway, as the memories from the night before came back through. Shaking her head, she pushed open the door and went in.

She walked past a few of the early risers to her desk. She stopped in the entrance at the sight.

Her computer was still on. She must have forgotten to turn it off last night. And her empty Mountain Dew bottle sat on the desk next to it. Sighing, she threw away the bottle and sat down at her computer.

But she couldn't concentrate. No matter how hard she tried, she found herself continuing to stare at the computer screen, not making a move to touch the keyboard. Her mind kept going back to the dark land with the rubble in the distance.

Before she knew it, she was up and walking out of the cubicle, down the aisle, past the programmers that bothered to glance up and out the door. She looked back for one moment before continuing, around the corner, down the hall to the door.

Here she stopped. Hesitation grabbed her and she looked at the doorknob, as if it would reach out and pull her in. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and gripped the doorknob. Slowly, she turned it to find it was still unlocked. Quietly, she opened the door and looked inside. It was still empty. She quickly entered the room fully and carefully closed the door behind her. After a moment, she turned and quickly sat down in the chair. She copied the command string and hit enter. She closed her eyes as she heard the laser start up and hit her.

She opened her eyes again to see the dark skyline just outside the portal and smiled softly. Carefully, she stepped down and took a moment to enjoy the scenery that she had thought was just a dream….

Aimlessly, she walked until snow covered the ground under her feet. The rubble pile was still on the horizon, but much smaller. The wind started up slightly, brushing her hair off her forehead and tickling the nape of her neck. She pushed back her bangs and turned to see the portal was still in reachable distance.

This is as far as I'm going then.

Kneeling down, she cupped her hands into the snow. It was cold (what did she expect?) and brought forth a feeling of wonder. Sighing, she laid down in the snow with a soft smile on her face. She watched the dark sky and gave a small sigh.

Who knew this was all true?

Just imagine….

Realizing what she just thought, she sat back up.

Did I just…?

I did.

It's official.

I'm coming back.