Kai pulls me back from my thoughts.

  “I’d better get going,” he says. “If there are any nocturnal hunters in the area, they will be stirring.”

  Before I can reply, he bends his head forward and kisses me on the forehead.

  “Sleep well, Leah,” he says. “I won’t let anything in to harm you.”

  As Kai turns and disappears into the night, my thoughts begin racing again. I like that he still calls me Leah, instead of Blaze. It feels much more intimate. And then there was the kiss. His kiss wasn’t much different than the one my dad gave me—Kai’s lips may have lingered just a bit longer—but it sure felt a whole lot different!

  CHAPTER 13

  DAWN HAS BARELY BROKEN when we’re up and preparing to be on our way. No one is tired or complaining, though—we’ve gotten used to going to bed early and waking up with or before the sun. We all down a quick, cold breakfast of energy bars and C-rations and then we’re ready to go.

  Kai is waiting outside for us. His long hair is damp and plastered against his head—whether from an overnight rain or a heavy mist I don’t know—but he looks completely rested and refreshed, even though I doubt he slept much, if at all.

  As soon as we step out the door, Kai comes directly over to my dad and me. I’m pretty sure I see excitement in his eyes. And why not? We’re all pretty sure we’re going to find the portal we are waiting for today. For most of us that means venturing into unknown dangers, but for Kai it means going home. So why wouldn’t he be looking forward to that?

  “Good morning, Leah,” he says before turning to my dad. I only have time to smile before he begins giving Dad his report.

  “Everything is quiet,” Kai informs Dad. “I just finished checking a pretty wide half circle in front of us and found nothing to worry about.”

  Dad nods. “That’s always good to hear.”

  He flashes a hand signal to Lieutenant Gregerson, who immediately dispatches a squad of Marines to serve as today’s advance guard. Sergeant Moss will lead them. They set off at a trot along the road. Kai jogs alongside them for a few moments before shifting into a higher gear and quickly leaving them behind. He’ll be the advance scout for the advance scouts.

  The rest of us set out at a walk behind them. The morning is cool and overcast. The heavy gray sky looks threatening, but there’s no sign of rain yet. With luck, any bad weather will hold off until we’ve found our portal and left this place behind.

  We walk for a little over an hour. The sun finally makes an appearance, if you can call it that. It’s little more than a pale yellow smudge barely visible behind the cloud layer, not even as bright as the dim light globes Lights produced the night before. The rain has held off, but with no real sun to warm things up, the morning is still quite chill, so we stay tucked inside our sweatshirts or jackets. A strong wind rustles through the treetops, but for the most part the uneven topography and thick tree cover keeps us from being directly exposed to the wind’s onslaught.

  Near the bottom of a long, winding section of road, we reach what was once a sizable parking lot. The asphalt is pitted and cracked, with tall, mangy-looking green weeds poking up from many of the slits in the pavement. A weathered wooden sign lets us know we’ve reached the entrance to Muir Woods National Monument. This is the place Sergeant Moss seemed to think would make a good spot for a portal to open. With all the recent ups and downs of the road, it’s hard to keep track of our present altitude, but I’m guessing we’re still a couple of hundred feet above the bay. If there are some significant hills in the park, then we’ll be much higher still.

  The advance scouting party is waiting for us at the far end of the parking lot. I don’t see any sign of Kai, so he must have already ventured into the park to check it out. We can only see a bit of the park from here, but the trees look immense—far bigger than anything I’ve ever seen.

  We head across the long lot. A pair of sturdy wooden buildings sits to the right of the park entrance. Most of the windows have been smashed, but otherwise the structures look as solid as any we’ve passed. This out of the way place might have made a good place to hide, at least for awhile, back when things went to hell. We have no need of shelter right now, though, so the buildings hold no interest for us, as long as they aren’t concealing anything dangerous. The advance party has already checked them out, making sure they’re empty.

  Sergeant Moss comes over to my dad and Lieutenant Gregerson. He’s holding several faded pamphlets he must have found inside the information hut. He gives one to my dad and one to the lieutenant, then unfolds one he kept for himself. I sidle over for a look and listen.

  “These maps should come in handy,” the sergeant says. He traces his finger along a dotted line on his map. “If I remember correctly, this trail leads up to the highest ground around. It’s barely a two-mile hike.”

  Dad nods. “For want of anything better, that’s where we’ll go, then. We’ll wait for Kai to return to let us know it’s safe, then you’ll take the advance squad out again. We’ll follow.”

  Kai appears a moment later, almost as if he heard my dad. And who knows, maybe he did.

  “I went in pretty far,” he reports. “Except for the main path, the trails are pretty overgrown, but they’re passable. I ran across a couple of deer, but saw no sign of any creatures from my world.” Kai glances at me and smiles. “Depending on how long we have to wait, maybe we can dine on some fresh meat later.”

  I return his smile. He knows how much I enjoyed the venison he brought me the day I met him. I definitely wouldn’t mind a repeat, especially if he’ll sit still long enough to eat some with me.

  “Okay, that’s settled,” Dad says. “We’re going in.” He shows Kai the trail Sergeant Moss indicated on the map a few moments earlier. “We’re going this way.”

  Kai studies the map for a few seconds. “I went a little way up that path,” he says. “I’ll go back and scout the rest of it.”

  With that, he turns and trots into the park, gone again. Sometimes I think he’s only a mirage.

  Sergeant Moss’s squad follows behind him. The rest of us wait a couple of minutes before my dad gives the order to move out.

  We enter the park beneath a weathered sign hanging from a log fixed atop two thick posts. The change is immediate. From the pale, cloudy daylight in the parking lot, we step into a dim, shaded twilight. The trees that looked so big from across the lot seem even larger close up. Nothing I’ve seen in any book has prepared me for trees like these giants. They soar well over a hundred feet tall, straight as flagpoles, with thick trunks covered by rough, reddish-brown bark. It’s easy to see why they’re called redwoods.

  The lowest branches are at least fifty feet above our heads, but there is plenty of growth on the forest floor, mostly green leafy plants that grow between four and ten feet high.

  Even though the undergrowth has taken over the edges of the path, the trail is still wide enough for five or six people to walk abreast. Other than the muted shuffle of our footsteps on the packed dirt, we hear no sounds. The forest seems still, empty.

  Before long, a wide stream begins running along the left side of the path, its gurgling tune breaking the silence. We pass two low wooden bridges that used to allow park visitors to cross the stream to enjoy the woods on the other side. Like the sturdy buildings at the park’s entrance, the bridges remain intact and undamaged. They clearly built things to last in this place.

  Amazingly, the farther we get into the park, the bigger the trees become. Most of them are so tall now that the upper branches are lost to sight, and some are so wide that all us Miracles couldn’t join hands and circle our arms around the bases. Even without stepping through a portal, I feel like I’ve entered another world.

  We hike for about fifteen minutes, until we reach a narrow trail branching off to the right. Dad takes a quick look at his map to confirm this is the path we want. It seems to be, so we begin following it.

  This new trail is barely wide enough for one person, so we walk in single file. It’s clear this path was nowhere near as wide as the main trail, and I’m a little surprised the underbrush hasn’t completely swallowed it up after all these years. Perhaps the deer Kai told us about have had something to do with that. Other animals may have used this pathway as well.

  At first, the trail ascends slowly up the ridge, but it gradually grows steeper, which is exactly what we want. The steeper the ascent, the sooner we’ll reach the higher ground we’ve been seeking. Since we know this trail isn’t all that long, no one minds the increasingly strenuous climb.

  As we move higher up the slope, the trees begin to slowly shrink in size. They’re still gigantic, for sure, but are not as big as the monsters we passed by lower down. Maybe it has something to do with the soil or the drainage, or some other topographical feature. Or it could be something else entirely. I don’t know, and I guess it doesn’t really matter.

  Suddenly, we break out of the redwood forest. One minute we’re surrounded by giant trees and the next there’s nothing but a low, pale green groundcover flanking the trail. I glance back over my shoulder to make sure the trees didn’t somehow disappear. Sure enough, they’re still there, towering above us. In front of us and to the sides, though, there are no more trees.

  The sky hasn’t changed much during our sojourn through the woods. The clouds still form a canopy of varying shades of gray, and while the sun has moved higher in the sky, it remains an amorphous, barely visible glow filtering through the grayness.

  The wind is from the west, so it’s still mostly blocked by the giant trees behind us. Ahead, I can see a grass and rock covered summit only a hundred feet above us. I also see Kai, standing watch just a short distance past the trees.

  He comes back to join us.

  “I don’t like the idea of going any higher until we need to,” he tells my dad. “It’s too exposed up there. With the cloud cover, any flying predators could be upon us before we know it.”

  Dad takes a moment to scan the top of the ridge. “I agree,” he says. “We’ll wait here, at the edge of the trees, where we have cover. Maybe this is as high as we’ll have to go. If a portal opens at the summit, it won’t take us more than a minute or so to get up there.”

  “We can only enter the portal one at a time,” Kai explains. “We don’t know how long it will remain open, so you should decide on an order now, to save time. I will go first.”

  “Good idea,” Dad says. He thinks for a moment, then looks at Sergeant Moss. “Sergeant, you’ll go through after Kai. Jordy, you’ll follow, and I’ll go next. Have your weapons ready. I want as much firepower on the other side as possible before the Miracles come through. They’ll have plenty of protection on this side from the rest of the company.”

  Sergeant Moss and Jordy nod their understanding. Dad turns to me. I wonder if he’s going to have me enter next because he doesn’t want me out of his sight any longer than necessary, or if it’s because of my Power. I’m guessing it’s some of both.

  “Leah, you’ll be next,” he says, then smiles. “In case we have any lava dragons to deal with. Then Radar, Rerun, Plush, Lights, Doc and Sneak. Any questions?”

  We all look at one another, but no one has anything to ask or add.

  “As you may have guessed,” Kai says, “my world can be a very dangerous place. When you come through the portal, stay close to me. There are things in my world that may not appear dangerous, but can be deadly.” He looks at Sneak. “No wandering off, any of you.”

  We all nod solemnly. Not for the first time, I wonder what we’re getting ourselves into.

  CHAPTER 14

  OUR WAIT FOR THE PORTAL to appear is a short one.

  “Anomaly!” Radar shouts less than fifteen minutes after we arrived at the edge of the forest. She points to a spot about halfway up the hillside. “Up there.”

  There’s no sign of any portal yet, but Radar is never wrong. We’re all ready to hurry up the slope, but my dad stops us.

  “Not yet,” he says. “We stay here in the trees where it’s safe until we see it begin to open.”

  Dad’s being smart and cautious to the end. Radar’s warnings sometimes come as much as ten minutes before an Anomaly actually occurs. There’s no need to expose ourselves just yet.

  The wait now seems interminably long, but in reality it’s probably only three minutes or so before the air begins to shimmer right where Radar pointed.

  “Okay,” Dad says. “Let’s go.”

  We hurry up the ridge, being careful not to get too close to where the Anomaly is forming. All the Marines hold their weapons at the ready—there’s no guarantee this is the portal we’ve been waiting for. It’s possible something deadly could come through.

  We watch, holding our breath as the black hole appears and begins to grow. It stops expanding when it’s barely taller than a man, just like the one on Alcatraz. The blackness seems less dense and not quite as well-formed this time. The surface of the dark sphere looks a bit ragged, too.

  The familiar female voice echoes from the blackness. “Hurry,” she says. “Something is affecting my ability to open this doorway.” Her voice is fainter than the last time, and it sounds a bit uneven, too. “I’m not sure how long I can maintain the opening. Please…hurry.”

  I wasn’t expecting to hear such urgency from her. I don’t really like the sound of it.

  Kai glances toward my dad, then spins and steps into the sphere, disappearing immediately. Sergeant Moss and Jordy look at Dad, who nods. The sergeant hurries forward, followed by Jordy.

  When they’re gone, Dad looks to us Miracles. “Don’t delay,” he says before vanishing into the portal.

  I wait half a second and then step into the blackness right behind him. My body vibrates strangely for a moment, a sensation unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, and then I’m through. I look down at my arms and my body, which seem no worse for the wear.

  Radar pops out of the black hole right behind me, followed by Rerun and Plush. The edges of the dark sphere seem to grow more ragged as Lights appears on our side. Suddenly, the portal vanishes. Doc and Sneak have not had time to cross through. The Miracles have been divided!

  We’re all looking at each other with stunned expressions on our faces. I pray that neither of my friends was inside the Anomaly when it vanished. If they were, I can’t even imagine what might have happened to them.

  An idea hits me. There’s no time to waste.

  “Rerun!” I scream. “Use your Power.” I point to the space the portal occupied just moments before. “There! Turn back time there!”

  Rerun’s eyes widen for a split second, but then he understands what I want. The familiar look of concentration tightens his features as he brings his Power to bear. I cross my fingers, hoping my idea is going to work. A moment later, the portal reappears.

  My heart is pounding as we stare anxiously into the blackness, waiting. I’d cross my fingers if I thought it would help. Heck, I think I’ll cross them anyhow. It certainly can’t hurt.

  A feminine hand appears out of the portal, followed by the rest of Doc. I breathe a sigh of relief as Sneak steps out from the blackness behind her. He’s barely through when the portal shimmers and vanishes again, but it doesn’t matter now. Everyone who was supposed to come through is now here, safe and sound.

  Now that we’re all together again, I take a moment to scan our surroundings.

  We’ve emerged onto the top of a barren, boulder-strewn ridge. Some of the stones and boulders sit atop the ground, while others are partially buried. They’re mostly shades of reddish-brown, but there are a few dark gray ones sprinkled in. The stones vary in size, ranging from the size of a human head to taller than a man, with surfaces that are more jagged than smooth. The only life I spot here on the hillside are a few stringy yellowish brown weeds poking up from the ground. All in all, it reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of the surface of mars—except for the weeds, of course.

  The sky is not too dissimilar from the one we left behind, though I’d describe it more as a high, gray haze rather than a true cloud cover. The sun floats near its zenith, barely visible, like a candle behind a thick gauzy curtain. Kai told me the sun here is much weaker than our own, so I’m guessing the hazy atmosphere we’re seeing is the rule rather than the exception.

  Far off in the distance, I spot a quartet of volcanic peaks. Dark, heavy smoke billows up from two of them, and the sky above them glows orange, testament to the volcanic activity going on inside the mountains. I hope we won’t be heading in that direction—despite my new Power, I have no desire to face any more lava dragons.

  Below us, in the opposite direction from the volcanoes, lies a forest. Even from here, I can see it’s nowhere near as magnificent as the redwood forest we’ve recently left behind. The trees all look gnarled and stunted.

  None of this is really important at the moment, though. What’s important is what’s missing—there’s no sign of the woman who brought us here. We’re completely alone here on the hill. Before any of us can ask about it, Kai speaks.

  “Follow me, quickly,” he says. “We need to get out of the open.”

  He leads us over to an immense boulder just a few paces away and gathers us in front of it. The sheer size of the thing provides us with as much cover as we’re going to get on this barren hillside. Kai squats, and the rest of us do likewise, further reducing our outlines from any approaching threats.

  “This is not where I expected to emerge,” Kai says once we’re huddled under the protection of the rock. “We can discuss what it might mean later, after we get ourselves off this ridge.”

  Dad nods, though I’m sure he’s also wondering what happened to our host.

  “You’re in charge here,” he acknowledges. “Which way do we go?”