Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Embrace of a different taste. ❯ Chapter 2

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Disclaimer: I created these characters, I wrote them, and I own them. From top to bottom, all my babes. XD


“So how is everything going?” Harley asked. Emil turned in his chair, cracking his sore knuckles as he did.

“Well…nothing’s blown up yet, so I’d say we are pretty good for the moment.” Emil responded. “Systems seem to be talking to each other just fine so far as well.”
Harley nodded, that was why he liked Emil, he was the only other competent person around. Five-seven with dark hair and brown eyes the head computer technician from Panama City Panama was the closest thing to a friend Harley had in this place.

Too bad he wasn’t Harley’s type though….not that Emil was bad looking, he had that strong Latin look, but besides being unflinchingly straight they just were not all that compatible.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Harley said with a grin. Emil rolled his eyes.

“Well I do aim to please.”

Harley just couldn’t resist….just too well set up.

“I could use a good pleasing now that you mention it.” He purred.

Emil pushed away on his little rolling chair, shaking his head. The computer wiz really was so easily squeaked.

“Must be killing you. Surrounded by all this rock hard military meat.” Emil zinged back. Now it was Harley’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Yeah…gross ass straight meat Emil. The worst kind really…looks tasty, but no flavor.” Harley quipped as he went out the door.

“Hey Harley!” Emil called out, prompting Harley to poke his head back around the door frame.

“Yes?”

“You sure this’ll actually work? I mean the amount of energy you’re dealing wit here…I’d think you’d just be fried.”

Harley quirked an eyebrow.

“Are you doubting me now too? The last thing I need is a Spanish speaking Clark.”

Email held up his hands.

“Hey, hey….no need to insult. I know you’re the man….I just don’t want to see anyone killed because of something on my end.” Emil said.

“It will work just fine. I would bet my life on it.” Harley proclaimed before walking away.

“Yeah….but it won’t be your life…” Emil muttered.

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< br> Harley liked Emil well enough, but sometimes the man worried too much. Harley cut him slack though, the tech was a genius at what he did, and being one himself Harley could respect that.
Emil had designed the programs that basically ran the four gate’s systems. Harley’s brother and father had specifically chose Emil for the project, and Emil’s astounding record none withstanding, that would have been good enough for Harley.

Not to mention Harley had thought the very same thing when he had read his father’s design notes all those years ago. Step into that kind of field and…zap…insta-dust.

But Harley had seen it work, abet on a much smaller scale, and now had worked on the mechanics himself. It would work, that wasn’t the question in his mind now, the only question he had was how far did you want to go? Harley smiled….Japan? Germany? Emil’s own beloved Panama? The moon?

Step in and away you would go. There before you could blink twice.

About the only other issue he could think of was making sure the history books spelled his, Tyler’s, and their Father’s names right.
Harley giggled, it was rather exciting, standing on the edge of history as he was. He almost couldn’t wait, it was worse then the last day before Christmas as a child, not only to see a dream become a reality, but also to finally get away from all the fucking retards that surrounded the project.

Well now…that wasn’t quite fair. Mentally challenged people actually worked, and did their best to improve themselves.
These people were lazy, and willfully stupid.

Almost as if on cue one of Howley’s grunts came marching around the corner, stopping in front of Harley in that ridged military style.

“Dr. Windham sir!” The solider boy pushed out.

“Uh….yes?” Harley muttered. What now?

“Sir, General Howley requests your presence immediately. Please follow me sir.”
Without even waiting for a reply the grunt turned and started off, which irked Harley, he wasn’t a dog, and he wasn’t one of these military meatheads. He did not jump just because someone with some stars on their shirt said so.

Still….it wasn’t wroth the hassle to just ignore, he had done that once before and had ended up with five or six of the large brutes practically dragging him along.

So he followed, and wonder what the old wart wanted.

“Sure private….I would be happy to come along.” Harley thought sarcastically. “But I’m going to watch that tight ass of yours all the way.”

It was tempting to say, but he knew better. The only person that knew he was gay was Emil, and only because Tyler had said something once.

Emil had brought up a true fact that, he did drool over a few of the little toy soldiers from time to time. Not that any of them held any last appeal, nor were all that interesting as a total package.

Ugly faces, that stupid buzz cut, no brains, no personality….but by god did they have nice bodies.

Harley sighed…it had been a while yes, years in fact. He didn’t think about it much, his work was so much more important then any relationship.

That kind of thinking had been something that had seriously irked his college boyfriends to absolutely no end. Not to mention that they never really had much chemistry.

In the bedroom sure, but outside of it everything tended to fall apart. It didn’t take much to be a good lover….but to get along outside those few hours of passion…now that took some work.

Harley had tried of course, but he needed to be with someone who could keep up with him intellectually, not necessarily word for work….but at least in the ballpark.

Typically he could either have one or the other. Either they would have the brains, but not the look he desired. Or be a total knockout that would stare at him blankly when he got going.

Not that he didn’t miss the sex, it certainly help after long, frustrating minutes, hours, days, of work.

His last boyfriend had been….amazing. Harley could just kiss him all day long, he had been that damn good. A nice, hot, Nordic ice blond….absolutely delicious.

Too bad the relationship had come crashing down. Harley could except his part in it all. He and Sven, god the name still made him tingle, had great chemistry in bed, or out on the town, dates, movies, dance clubs and the like. But the rest….not so much.

The problem had been their work. Sven had been finishing up college at the time, which had not bothered harley, eve though he had basically been supporting Sven for those two years.

No, harley did not mind that Sven was still in school, nor that he was a few years older. It all had to do with their work, where their passions had gone.

Harley was an engineer, a builder, a designer. He was an expert in robotics, among other things. If you could name it, he could build it.

Sven….Sven had a degree in philosophy.

PHILOSOPHY.

Harley couldn’t believe his ears when he had been told that. He had always been under the impression that Sven was going for some kind of teaching degree. But when Sven had rushed in, all excited, and told harley in that lovely, thick accented voice of his, about all the work he had done and how he had finally received his degree…well the moment he told harley what it was….well…Harley had lost it basically.

Six years, all that money Sven had paid, and for what?

Philosophy.

Harley couldn’t help it, and the words that had come out of his mouth next had pretty much destroyed their relationship.

“Wow…that’s amazing. Lets get on the phone and start calling all the big philosophy companies to see if they are hiring. Get you off to a good start…”

The words themselves were pretty harsh, but the gallons of sarcasm dripping off of them pushed it right over the top.

Sven’s face had just dropped, his arms crumbling down from their raised victory position. But the hurt had quickly turned to anger, and Sven went on the counter-offensive.

From there it had been all the same tired old insults Harley had heard his entire life. He was heartless, arrogant, self-important, and a mindless techno freak that couldn’t understand that there more important things in life then building silly tinker toy shit.

That had pissed Harley off big time. Mostly because all the projects he had ever worked on were far from silly or useless. Men like him had created the airplane, the tank, the automobile, and countless other wonder machines that were now a part of everyday life.

And so the battle had raged, and escalated, until both of them were screaming at each other.

Again harley had always thought Sven was going to be a teacher, a noble pursuit to be sure, and said so. Sven countered that he was, a teacher of philosophy.

That had annoyed Harley even more, he didn’t even think such a thing could, or should, exist. It was such a waste really…Sven had been capable of SO much more, had so much to give….so much he could be remember for. He could have done anything, and out of all his choices what did he chose?

“So what your telling me is that you wasted six years of your life, all so you could teach a class to waste other peoples time?!” Harley had shouted.

And that was the end.

Sven had stormed though the house, gathering up his belongings, and had left. Harley had never seen him again after that. Which for a while had seriously bothered him, he had cared for Sven, had even begun to love him. He had wanted the chance to apologize of course, to make amends. But now that he had had time to think about it….he was almost grateful in a way.

It would just kill him to find Sven working at some burger joint, or something like that, which was pretty much all Harley felt his degree was good for.

No….Harley would much rather keep his memories untainted. Like when they had spent those three weeks in the Alps, great skiing…..great vacation.

Not to mention his apology would have been insincere. He wasn’t sorry he had said it, he was sorry he had hurt Sven yes….but as far as Harley was concerned he was right.

He did miss the man though, his hair, his smile, hi warm skin, his voice….Sven had the most adorable accent, and harley had a thing for accents.

Of course the next major even in his life was the deaths of his father and brother….god he could have used Sven then, to lean on, to be held by. But there had been no one.

To be honest he had half expected, half wished, that Sven would make an appearance….but no. Just a few half hearted words from false friends who hadn’t even bothered to sit through the entire funeral.
It had been a real eye opener. No calls, no cards, no flowers, no nothing.

So to hell with people really, no one had been there for him when he really had needed it. The same with relationships really, they all just went sour each time…so why bother?

A one night stand would probably suit his needs just fine. Of course all he had here were a bunch of military drones, not exactly the best pool to chose from. Certainly there had to be one or two that were gay, Harley was sure of that, but they were so locked up that there was no way that they were going to take any risks.

Harley couldn’t really blame them, if they got caught then boom….discharged.

Which just left him with the horny straight ones….total crap choosings there. Harley was versatile, depending on what he was in the mood for he could go either way, but it went without saying that there was very little chance that he wouldn’t end up on the bottom in such an outing.

He didn’t mind it, if done right it could be rather good, but there was something about it that bothered him. He didn’t like having someone on top of him, riding just wore out his legs more then anything, and there was something about the feel of a pelvis crashing against his ass that he hated.

Harley wasn’t sure why, but for the most part after only a few minutes he tended to just go “Okay…stop. Nice try….but we are done.”

So he pretty much preferred to top, things went smoother that way.

Drawing himself back to the here and now Harley tried to gauge where they were headed. Howley’s office was in the opposite direction of where they were headed, so obviously this wasn’t one of Howley’s stupid private discussions where Harley had to spend forty-five minutes explaining things that even though he used the smallest words he knew, the general still didn’t get it.

What could the blowhard possibly want? Harley couldn’t think of anything in particular. He had already sat though, and walked out of, the stupid budget meeting, and explained to the various higher up Neanderthals just what was going to happen three times now. SO there really wasn’t any pertinent reason that he could think of for he and Howley to meet up once again.

Of course that did not mean the old gasbag would not simply make up some silly little reason to waste some of Harley’s precious time, and make himself feel important.
As they reached a door the grunt pulled it open and not so subtly gestured for Harley to enter. With a snort he did, though he made sure to step on the drone’s foot as he went past.

Harley did so dislike being told what to do.

The door closed behind him and Harley realized that he was in one of the demo rooms. Usually the large room was used for presentations, slideshows, and the like. Things harley didn’t bother with much. But this time he saw not only Howley, and Clark, but also the head of every other department in the complex. People Harley had not seen or interacted with in months.

Other then Howley they were all seated against the wall, and there was a chair in the center of the room. Now what was this?

“Have a seat please Dr. Windham.” Howley said, pointing towards the lone chair. Rolling his eyes Harley did sit, and crossed his legs.

“Alright…what is this and why are you wasting my time with it?” Harley asked dryly. There were actual tasks he could be completing right now after all, at this very moment he could be working on final preparations, last minute hardware checks, washing his hair…pretty much anything else really.

Someone in the group scoffed loudly, and Clark spoke.

“That attitude of yours is part of it.” Harley made a little show of examining his nails, illustrating without words just what HE thought about what Clark thought.

“And we have some concerns that must be addressed.” A man with a beard said. He look vaguely familiar, though Harley didn’t have a clue what his name was.

“Your concerns are irrelevant I’m afraid.” Harley flat out stated. They were useless, they didn’t get it, and he did not need any of them at the point.

“Just who do you think you are?!” A man at the end, who Harley mentally dubbed idiot one, shouted.

“I am Dr. Harley Windham, director of this project. Perhaps you have heard of me?” Harley quipped.

Disgruntled murmuring rolled through the group, and Harley picked up grunts of “Arrogant.” and “Insufferable.”

Is that what this was? One big bitch fest? How trite.

“We’ve been sitting on our hands for months now. Not one piece of work has been sent our way. Not one.” Beard said. “You have not even sent us even one report, how are we supposed to file our own without any information? Do you really think that you can do all of this yourself?”

“Pretty much, yes.” Harley admitted. He had after all, he had taken his father’s and his brother’s work, what they had started, and finished it.

Honestly…in his opinion, between the two of them, they had already finished all the truly difficult parts.

The only things that he had not done was the construction of the other three matrixes for the main gate, he had designed the parts, and oversaw its construction, but not put it together with his own hands. Then there were the operation systems, which Emil had handled.

Other then that….pretty much all him…yup.

“Then you are a damn fool!” Idiot two shouted. “Based on our estimates it will take you at least, AT LEAST, ten years to bring this project into its test phase, as opposed to the six months it would take if we were involved as we are supposed to be.”

Harley chuckled under his breath. Poor babies…they really were out of the loop weren’t they? Of course that wasn’t his problem.

“What right did you have to shut us out in the first place?” Idiot three asked. “Assembled here are some of the best and brightest in their respective fields, all to make this multi-million dollar experiment become a reality….and here you are….treating it like it’s a personal goddamn science project just to satisfy your ego!”

Harley could feel a grin coming on, but did his best to suppress it.

“What right did I have?” Harley mused. “Well….perhaps you all gave me the right, perhaps if you actually could get things DONE I would not have to do so. And if you are the best and brightestas you claim to be….then I weep for academia.”

“Excuse me?!” Idiot three snapped. Harley shrugged, the outrage barely registering to him.

“You are all worthless, lazy, and just plain stupid.” Harley said, which felt so fucking good. “You have failed at every level, botched every task given, and have taken large amounts of time to do so.” Harley stood, pushing the chair away from himself. “And I do not have any more time to waste on this.”

“Dr. Windham.” Howley barked as Harley neared the door. “Please have a seat.” It was much more an order then a request…and Harley hated orders.

“I am afraid I just do not have the time. I do have a timetable you know, and I aim to stick to it.” Harley declared.

“We are hear to discuss the future of this project.” Clark called out. “And it ahs been agreed upon by all departments involved that this colossal waste of time and funds be canceled.”

Harley paused, and a moment of pure blind rage roared through him, encompassing all his thoughts. The mere suggestion that someone would try to throw away all the work he had done, all the work his father had done, all the work his brother had done, was enough to make him want to scream.

But the moment past, and once collected he turned back towards the group of disgusting monkeys. Clearly that was all they were, a bunch of ignorant, dirty apes, hooting and hollering, banging things around but never really achieving any true results.

The fools all wore smug faces, as if they had actually pulled off some grand victory. Pompous pustules…..

“Do you know what I know?” Harley sung in his head. Which of course they did not, that was what made half the fun. “Is that so?” Harley pondered. “Well that would be a waste…what with it being so close to completion.”
Various snorts and scoffs echoed throughout the room, but Harley kept his eyes on Howley. As much as it infuriated him, Howley DID have the ability to shut everything down.

Unfortunately the old bastard had a good poker face, being on the defensive end of a major scandal probably helped give that, and gave away nothing.

“Really? And just when will this wonder machine be ready to go Dr. Windham?” One of the fools asked, adding an extra layer of sarcasm to Harley’s name and title.

“Weeellll….if what Emil told me is true.” Harley replied as he looked at his watch. “Everything will be powered up and ready for me to switch it on in oooh….about an hour.”

That got a reaction out of Howley…and everyone else.

“You can’t be serious!” Someone shouted.

“Funny thing is…I am.” Harley declared as he walked out the door.

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Harley wasn’t surprised when the door to his office opened without a knock as he went over the final readings on his computer. He also wasn’t surprised to see that it was Howley himself.

“Now what can I do for you general?” Harley grunted.

“You’re really serious? Is it actually done?” Howley asked. Harley held back a snort.

“As much fun as it might be, I do not make such statements just to rattle large groups of peons.” Harley replied.
Howley folded his hands behind his back, and stuck out his ‘dignified pose’

“I want to apologize for that. I didn’t see much point in it, but when that many people burst into my office…gotta do something son.”

Translation: I was all set to put some heat on you because I wasn’t about to let it fall on me.

“Oh I understand of course.” Harley replied.

Translation: You are so full of shit it is coming out of your ears.

Harley glanced back at his screen. The numbers were holding pretty steadily…which was god.

“So where do we stand?” Howley asked. Harley growled under his breath, wasted time, wasted words, wasted air.

“Just waiting for the main batteries to charge.” Harley said.

Not really true, but he did not feel like explaining everything.

“Well then…I will see you in the control room.” Howley stated. “I greatly look forward to this projects culmination.”

Harley shook his head as Howley turned and left his office.

“And I greatly look forward to being rid of you.” Harley muttered under his breath.

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The air in the lab felt almost alive, buzzing with the energy humming through the gates.

“What is the reading?” Harley asked Emil, who was seated at his console a few feet away.

“In the green.” Emil answered. “I’m impressed with how well this is holding up. Be ready to fire in minutes I think.”

Seconds ticked by, each one feeling more like an hour to Harley. It was something like a pressure test, and it was excruciating….waiting and waiting and waiting….

The anticipation was something palpable inside of Harley as he watched the little bars slowly climb, slowly invading every cell in his body, zinging through him with almost orgasmic joy.

In just mere moments all the work, all the years that his Father, Tyler and now he, had put into this modern marvel of a machine would bear fruit.

It would work, Harley was sure of it. He had never been so sure of anything in his life.

All the hours of frustration, the putting up with the mass of morons….it was all over.

All he had to do now was wait…

And it was killing him.

“Dr. Windham?” Harley heard from behind him…and the voice was unmistakable.

Clark.

Harley wanted to scream, and almost did, what could he POSSIBLY want now?!

“I would like-”

“There is absolutely no reason for you to be here.” Harley interrupted without even turning around. “Your entire purpose in this project is to evaluate the solider sent through the gate, and then to re-evaluate said solider when they return to see if the field has any negative effects. However as all we are doing is sending a robotic drone through, as opposed to the military meat one, your presence here is NOT required.”

Emil chuckled lightly, the programmer held no more love for Clark then Harley did, and harley could practically hear Clark grinding his teeth.

“Dr. Windham.” Clark repeated, his voice tight and tense. Harley rolled his eyes.

“You want to talk? Fine then…talk all you want…you’re a fly, so go ahead and buzz.” Harley sneered.

His annoyance with Clark was completely blown away a few moments later when he looked at his computer screen. The energy levels had reached optimum levels.

It was ready!

“Here we go…” Harley whispered as he brought up the command screen. “Sound it.” Harley said to Emil.

The tech reached over and whacked a large red button, which in turn set off five annoying seconds of a warning klaxon. Necessary however, certainly wouldn’t do any good to have someone bumbling about.

“Breakers set incase of feedback?” Harley asked.

“You know it.” Emil responded smugly.

“Alright…ready to make history in three….two….one.” Harley said into the microphone mounted on the desk, his voice booming through the complex as he typed in his password. On the screen in front of him he was prompted to confirm his order, as simple question.

Yes or No?

Again necessary, didn’t need an accidental firing after all.

Harley’s finger hovered over the enter key, savoring the moment, and when he finally snapped his finger down…well it was definitely the most satisfying key press of his life.

A loud surge rung through the air as the energy stored in the capacitors dumped into the four gates all at once…and they flared to life.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen as everything just…worked.

Each gate fired simultaneously, greeting each other dead in the center. The crackling energies mixed, swirling around like water. It took a few moments and then with one electrical bang the vortex started.

“Beautiful….” Harley whispered

It looked like a giant glass cube, filled with swirling light green water. It wasn’t of course, but it certainly was a sight to see.

There was cheering echoing over the intercom, but harley paid it no mind. Without a word he made his way over to his exploration robot. He smiled as he switched it on, it was almost like seeing an old friend.

Originally this had been his biggest contribution when his father and Tyler where in charge. A wave of nostalgia washed over him as he did one last system check. Originally he wanted to remote control it himself, but the whole satellite receiver thing was such a pain in the ass.

Instead he had opted for a simple AI program, much more self contained, less likelihood of something breaking.

Everything seemed to be in order, the sensors that would detect the energy filed itself were functioning properly.
The crystal that would give off the proper frequency that could be dialed for recall was safely installed. That had been tricky though…figuring out how to bring something back. It was the only thing Harley was not entirely sure would work correctly.

The recall system itself had never been tested period, unlike the gates themselves which Harley’s father had tested over and over, although in a much smaller scale. But if he was right the would be able to dial the position of the robot, fire the age, and in a sense create a gate WITHIN the gate.

The would use the main gate to project another, which would surround the target to then be pulled back.

Harley had hope that it would work, but if it did not….no big deal really. Much like an airport they would simply have to construct other gates.

Satisfied harley activated the remaining systems and stepped away. In a matter of seconds the robot had detected the field and began to follow its instructions to drive into it.

Back up at his command post Harley watched with the rest of them as the bot inched its way towards the swirling cube. He wished he could have made it a bit faster, but had instead opted for heavier armor. Never knew what kind of terrain it might encounter, ditto for wildlife. The last thing he needed was for the whole experiment to be blown because the damn thing feel down a hill, or worse…some inbreeded local took a shot at it.

“Tuned in to its signal?” Harley asked over the intercom as his robot neared, only a few more feet to go.

“Yes sir.” Came the reply.

“Well…not sure about that part to be honest.” Harley admitted. “At this point all we can do is dial in the earth itself, there isn’t much else to pinpoint yet. My best guess its either the north or south poles…or perhaps somewhere around the equator. Those are the hot spots.”

“Sooo…this thing could end up….like at the earths core or something?” Emil wondered. Harley shook his head.

“Highly unlikely, the gate is designed to move matter, not punch through matter.”

A hush went over the lab as the bot drove into the field. The swirling green stilled for a second, darkened, and then started up again.

Harley blinked….he had been expecting a noise, a pop or something…but there was nothing.

“Its off the grid Doctor….wherever it is…its not here.” Came over the com.

“It should start broadcasting immediately, so start looking.” Harley ordered.

“That is, of course, if it was not simply destroyed. “Clark spat behind him. Harley ignored him, why was he still here anyway, and began scanning for the drone with the gates own instruments. They were much more precise, but not as capable when it came to covering large areas.

Still…it was better then nothing, and they did have an extremely large area to search.

What followed was thirty of the most nerve wracking minutes of Harley’s life.

Searching, searching, searching….but no signal.

Just dead air everywhere he turned his attention to. Smug whispers flitted about behind him. Contemptuous, mocking, hushed voices.

“Knew it wouldn’t work.”

“Smug punk…can’t wait to see his face after this.”

Even harley himself had a moment of doubt, could he have been wrong?

Of course it was a rather tall over, searching the entire planet for one designated signal. Realistically it could take days, but something told harley that he might not have that much time granted to him.

“GOT IT!” An excited voice came over the com. “Satellite’s picked it up!”

Harley practically dove for the speaker button.

“Where?!” He near shouted.

“Uh…looks like…..South America….grid nine.”

Fingers flying across the keyboard, Harley swept the gate’s sensors over the area. It took a minute or two, and more then a little fan-dangling but sure enough, there it was. Harley grinned as he locked in on his little crystal beacon, broadcasting loud and proud. Harley watched in heart pounding anticipation as the focusing crystals in the gates became to shift position, dialing up his robot’s position.

“Alright….here is the tricky part.” Harley said over the com. “Not sure how well the recall system may work, so we might just have to go with a more personal retrieval.”

“Have no fear Doctor. Either way we will get it back.” Howley’s voice came through.

Locked and ready Harley gave the command. This time there was a much more dramatic effect.

The cube swirled rapidly, and made a noise that was somewhere in between an explosion and a loud vacuum suck, but a second later his drone came chugging triumphantly out.

Harley could hear cheering coming from the secondary command post, no doubt where Howley was, and allowed himself to bask in the sound a little.

“Well then…shut it on down.” Harley ordered.

Shutting the gate down was not nearly as dramatic as the start up, the cube wavered for a few moments, and then simply flickered out of existence.

With the all clear sounded Harley his way towards the bot. It wasn’t steaming or scorched, in truth it looks none the worse for wear. The metal was even still cool to the touch….so it did not seem that the gate created any heat as once feared.

Of course there were still a few tests to run before they could declare it safe for human use, something with a monkey if he recalled, it wasn’t really his area.

“Alright now…lets get the date out and see what this thing recorded.” Harley said. He did not really have to say it really, as an eager, excited Emil was already kneeling by the robot, removing the access plate to get to memory storage.

While Emil was working on that Harley headed over to the main power junction. He wanted to see how well everything had held up under all the strain of so much power running through.

The noise level had increased, people cheering and carrying on. Harley snorted…not like any of them had actually contributed to the success. Personally he just wanted to see the faces of all the naysayer.

“How do you like me now?” Harley whispered.

Everything look to be in order, nothing looked or smelled fried, and it hadn’t burst into flames…which was always a plus.
Suddenly he was surrounded by people slapping him on the back, and pumping his hand with firm handshakes. It was smiling faces all around, jubilant in the projects success.
Harley allowed himself to get caught up in it, these were not the bitching blowhard who had plagued him today, these were members of his own team. While not as proficient as he would have liked, they did listen for the most part, and got the job done more often then not…provided he prodded a bit.

He heard the sound of a cork popping and chuckled. Dare he tell them just how much work was left? The hard part was over yes, but there was still much left to do. This was only one gate, a test….there was a whole system to set up.
Harley turned, and there stood a scowling Clark, looking every bit the bitter old man that Harley knew him to be. Honestly…considering that they had just had a successful test he really could not think of anything the old fart had left to say.

Plus he was in no mood to listen to any more bitching.

“Look everyone.” Harley quipped as he gestured towards Clark. “it’s a fly, buzz, buzz, buzz.”

Harley rather enjoyed the pissed off look on Clarks face, but that was where the fun ended.

Snarling, Clark picked up something off of the command desk and hurled it at him. Harley instinctively ducked and the sound of glass shattering came from behind him.

Brrzap!

Oh….that did not sound good.

Turned out the something was Emil’s coffee mug, which had fluid in it, which was not all over the main power box that Harley had just checked, which was still live with enormous amounts of electricity.

The power surged, and Harley could hear fuses start to blow. The whole grid was going to end up fried….god damn it.

Then something happened…something that really shouldn’t….but did anyway.
From behind Harley the sound of the gates starting to fire rang out.

Curing he shoved Clark out of the way as hard as he could, but even at his computer there was nothing he, nor anyone else could do other then watch the gates fire out of sync…and completely out of control.

“Harley!” Emil shouted over the noise. “What do we do?!”

The breakers didn’t kick….they were only there to prevent feedback, not output.

Unbelievably the cube still formed, although not the picture of precision it had been. It was lopsided, and twisted slightly in the middle. The gentle swirling vortex had become violent, and a high pitched whine filled the room.

Harley couldn’t believe it, the whole thing suddenly seemed like a bad B science fiction movie. A massive teleportation device sent into a violent, near meltdown by a fucking coffee spill….ridiculous.

Harley could hear shouting over the com from the secondary command post, but it was mostly being drowned out by the sounds of the out of control gate. He watched as the crystals shifted, something that should NOT be happening without prior programming.

“What is it doing?!” Emil shouted over the noise. “My computer is locked! The damn thing won’t respond!”

“Its dialing!” Harley answered.

“What?! Can it do that?!” Emil asked.

“Apparently…” Harley grunted dryly.

“Well…what the hell do we do? At this rate everything is gonna fry! The main batteries wont stop still they are out of juice…and we can’t just stop the flow or they’ll blow up!” Emil shot back.

Harley pondered that for a moment, this wasn’t something he had planned for. But Emil was right, the main batteries were designed to dump all their power at once, they were grounded sure, but you couldn’t just shut the flow off without giving it somewhere to go. There SHOULD have been a secondary flow point, just in case…but the bureaucrats are argued that would put the project over budget….

However Harley wasn’t a fool, and he had designed something of failsafe just incase the gate refused to respond to the computer.

“I will just have to shut it down manually….and then beat Clark with a hammer.” Harley reported. He got about halfway around the desk before Emil grabbed his arm.

“Are you nuts!? What if it sucks you in!? Who knows what might happen! You could be killed!”

Harley scoffed, and pulled his arm away.

“Its not going to suck me in Emil…it’s a portal, not a vacuum.”

Ignoring the various shouts Harley headed down to the center gate, there had been no discharge yet, which was good. Although out of control, it had not truly overloaded, the circuits were holding up like champs. But the odds of it burning out vital components at this rate were more then Harley wanted to risk.

Prying the access plate off Harley grabbed the large switch and pulled. It didn’t even budge….he pulled harder, and still nothing. Using both hands and all his weight with one final yank the thing finally started to move…and then snapped off.

It would figure….the one piece he had not done himself. He had designed it yes, but that was when his father had been in charge, so he simply had delivered the plans to the elder Windham, who had obviously delegated it to his staff….the same staff Harley had ended up cutting out because of their incompetence.

Still…he would have thought something so simple would have been too simple to screw up….never underestimate the power of stupid people….

Enraged Harley spun around and burled the broken lever at the secondary post overlooking the lab. It bounced off of the safety glass and ended up landing near the test bot.

“Can none of you monkeys do ANYTHING right?!” He screamed

“Harley! The batteries are dry! Its not getting any more juice…so why isn’t it shutting down!!?” Emil shouted. Harley turned back towards the cube, staring up at it.

“Its self-sustaining…” He muttered in awe. That had been a bit too much to hope for, just didn’t’ seem possible….but in the in a plus. Energy costs to power the gates had been one of the complaints voiced. How typical…revolutionary device and some people were still so focused on trivial things. Money meant nothing…why wouldn’t some people see that? It was always about filling their own pockets….nothing more.

Harley was so wrapped up in his admiring and decrying that he barely noticed the crystals locking into alignment, each changing to one uniform color to indicate that a destination had been located.

The gate pulsed, something it was most certainly not supposed to do, and actually pushed beyond its confines. Harley jumped back, but ended up falling hard on his back. The grated floor dug into his skin, and his left foot was tingling…

Looking down Harley saw that his foot was inside one of the odd bulges in the cube…not good. Staying calm Harley started to pull his leg back, it didn’t’ hurt, just felt odd. But his foot would not budge…and he could feel himself being tugged.
Harley fought it, but found himself slowly being pulled along the floor.

“Oh dear…” Harley whispered as his other foot slipped in. It shouldn’t have been doing this…how could it have been pulling? What had changed?

Harley could barely distinguish any of the voices he could hear in the background, but surely someone had seen him fall. Someone would come over an lend him a hand….

Once it reached his shins it started to pull harder, which in turn made him enter faster. Harley held onto the floor as best he could…but he just couldn’t fight it.

“Um…help!!” Harley cried out. It shouldn’t be pulling…why was it pulling?!!

“Harley!” Emil cried out as it reached his stomach. “Hang on!”

“What do you think I am doing?!” Harley snapped.

He heard footsteps, but at the rate he was going…the would not reach him in time.

Over his stomach, past his nipples…almost to his chin….

“Harley!” Emil shouted. Harley turned his head just in time to see Emil throw something. He was just able to grab one of the straps hanging off of it when the field gave one final tug and in he went.

The whole world went white…and away he went.

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Emil watched in horror as Harley disappeared into the cube. The swirling energy darkened considerably, shimmered, and then dissipated into nothing.

But there was no sign of Harley.

The armored lab door opened behind him, and Emil could hear Howley’s barking voice shouting out orders, demanding answers, but he paid no attention.
There were so many things he needed to do now, needed to start digging to see if he could get the gates main frame to tell him where it had locked on to, if he hadn’t simply been atomized, needed to start going over Harley’s notes to know what to look for incase they couldn’t get to where Harley was and needed the gate to retrieve him, needed to know what was broken and how to fix it, needed to let everyone know what Clark had done….

So much to do….

But his mind kept rolling back to Harley’s earlier comment.

“It’ll work…I’d bet my life on it.”

“Well…now you really did…” Emil muttered distantly.

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Harley woke with a start, and pushing himself off of the ground into a sitting position so fast that he nearly lurched over onto his face. He dozens of little white spots floating in front of his eyes and felt as if he had been knocked on the head a bit firmly. Though there was good news….he had gone through the gate and wasn’t dead. No memory lose either…

Not the way he wanted to prove a theory…but hey, it worked.

Now…where the hell was he?

Looking around, Harley took in his surroundings. It looked like a forest…temperate at that. Harley rubbed at his eyes and turned his face skyward. The sky looked…weird, had an odd tinge to it. Harley rubbed at his eyes again, blinking repeatedly, obviously they had been affected by the trip.

“Protective eyewear…” Harley muttered. Well at least this whole debacle was yielding positive date.
Spotting the black, military style backpack that Emil had thrown at him only a foot or so away Harley reached and pulled it to him. With any luck there would be a phone or something similar inside….

….No such luck. Rummaging around a little more Harley realized what it was. It was the survival bag that the lucky solider boy sent through the gate would have had. He remembered being told about it, but hadn’t paid much attention. He wasn’t a survival expert, he could not give any worthy information to add to it…hell…he didn’t even go camping. So he had stayed out of the discussion.

Searching around inside Harley found some kind of handgun, he wasn’t a gun person so he wasn’t sure what kind just by looking, four extra clips, two boxes of ammunition, various dried and canned food supplies, an army style wristwatch/compass, several bottles of water, two water filters, water purification tablets, some kind of military style knife, and various other pieces of equipment.

Strapping on the watch Harley closed up the pack and strapped it onto his back. No radio or nothing…that was poor planning all the way around. Granted…no living person was scheduled to go through for quite some time, so it was possible that they simply were not finished stocking it.

Checking the watch Harley learned that it was a quarter after three, which didn’t tell him much, he hadn’t’ looked at the clock all day long. He didn’t know how long he was been out, or why he had passed out in the first place.

It was still daylight of course, but he couldn’t use that either, for all he knew he was on the other side of the world. Harley checked the compass and promptly rolled his eyes. It was pointing west….how typical…stupid army crap, broke so damn easy.

The first destination had been South America…but the forest he was in hardly looked tropical, that was what they had there right? Harley wasn’t sure. While it was warm, it was not blistering hot either….so….yeah.

“Maybe I’m in Montana.” Harley muttered. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Well it wouldn’t do much good to just sit there, the base had no real way to locate him, he hadn’t managed to pull anything with in him that gave off a signal. His best bet was to try and find some people, a town or something. From there he could be directed to a pone and after that he would be safe at home again.

Nodding to himself Harley located the direction that looked the least….difficult in terms of terrain and obstacles…and started to walk. Hopefully this wouldn’t take too long.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This sucked….Harley groaned and shifted the heavy pack to a new spot on his back that hurt a little less then where it was now. He had been walking for hours, and he still had not seen even a hint of civilization.

No signs, no buildings, not even a pile of litter.

According to his watch it was well past nine p.m. now, yet the sun was still high in the sky. Obviously he had to be in a different time zone then he previously was.

This was completely, utterly beneath him, an absolute outrage at that. Someone of his genius tromping around in the god damn woods like this.

His back hurt, his legs hurt, his feet were screaming little beacons of pain…and it was all that fool Clark’s fault. Harley considered himself to be in fairly good shape, he worked out regularly, but the closest thing to a hike he had ever been on was when Sven would drag him along on one of his boring nature walks.

He certainly wasn’t dressed for this either. He was wearing a nice pair of black dress pants, what had been a clean, pressed, white button up shirt, and black dress shoes…which were rubbing the backs of his heels raw. He had not been planning on doing anything amazingly strenuous today, and had wanted to look good for the historic pictures that would be taken after the successful test of the gate.

The worst part of the whole situation were the hills, the steep, muddy, wet hills. Harley had gone up and over at least twenty of them already. Of course he had slipped and fallen over at least a dozen times as well.

His nice pants were ruined, not only were they filthy, but his left pant leg had a large rip in the shin now. His expensive shoes were completely caked with filth and partially filled with water and mud….this was clearly the second worst day of his life. No contest.

“I hate outside….nature sucks. Plow it all up and build something useful.” Harley growled.

After another forty-five minutes Harley finally reached a nice, flat stretch of forest, but still no sign of humanity. He was beginning to get a little worried. He really did not want to have to spend the night out here. If he remembered right the pack did contain a military style collapsible tent, but he still would be exposed to the elements….and forced to sleep on the ground of all places.

Not to mention the threat of wild animals….there could be bears out there somewhere!
Harley let out a long suffering sigh, regardless…he would have to stop soon, his poor feet couldn’t take much more, and he was hungry…and thirsty as hell.

It looked like there was a set of rock formations jutting out of the ground up ahead, probably a good place as any to stop, not to mention he wouldn’t have to sit on the wet ground. They also looked large enough that he could probably fine a nice patch of shade to sit in, he had no desire to get sun burnt, he was miserable enough already.
Reaching the rocks and rounding one of the larger ones to enact his place Harley’s heart suddenly swelled as he finally spotted what could lead to his salvation from this outside hell.

What looked to be a person’s upper body was laying face down, with arms folded under their head, on one of the round rocks, bright blood red hair blowing softly in the breeze. Sun tanning most likely, not something he would suggest, but at least he now knew he was somewhere near civilization. Especially since said person’s skin was a rich, creamy looking brown, kinda reminded Harley of a chocolate bar, which he could totally go for right now actually. Thus the long, lovely looking hair had to be dyed, as Harley was pretty sure red hair was basically a Irish-Caucasian trait.

“Oh thank goodness.” Harley gasped. “Excuse me? Hello!”

The head slowly lifted, which was good, Harley so did not want to stumble across a dead body, and he soon found himself looking at a slightly puzzled, yet unmistakably masculine face. A beautiful face actually, and once Harley got a little closer he could see t sculpted lines of delicious muscle along well formed biceps, shoulders and back.

“Mmmm…hot Mocha.” Harley thought before giggling.

He took a few more steps and then the back of his right shoe dug right into the raw blister right on his heel, effectively dismissing any and all sensual thoughts. Hissing through his teeth Harley nearly whimpered.

“Uh…listen….could you help me?” Harley asked. “I am…uh…well….I guess you could say I’m lost.”

The man did not respond, he only looked even more confused, and tilted his head to look at Harley’s legs. Harley looked down, his lower half did look ridiculous, the man was probably wondering why he was dressed for a social event rather then in proper gear.

“Yes…I realize I am quite out of sorts.” Harley said. “Which is why I am in need of assistance. Could you perhaps direct me to the nearest town? Or maybe a phone booth? Perhaps you might even have a phone on your person?”

Though to be honest harley did not think they guy had any right to judge him. After all he was out here loafing around on a rock, shirtless at that, exposing that rather…scrumptious body for all to see. But harley wasn’t interested in why the guy was out here or even in his body, as nice as it was. All he wanted was a damn phone so that he could go home.

Still the man said nothing, he just watched harley with some very strange eyes. Harley wasn’t close enough to see all the details, but it looked like the dark skinned red head was wearing some kind of contacts.

“You can talk can’t you?” Harley asked, becoming a little impatient. Then a thought occurred to him. “Do you speak English?”

The man’s nostrils flared and something flicked out of his mouth so fast harley could not even see what it was. The man tilted his head from one side to the other slowly, just rocking back and forth oddly.

Again Harley wondered just where he was. His drone had ended up in South America, but this forest just did not strike him as a South American one. It was more a Rocky Mountain style then a jungle-ish one. Still….if he was in South America that would mean the guy spoke Spanish wouldn’t it?

Harley didn’t know, wouldn’t help him much if he did anyway. He only spoke English and Technical, and something told him the guy wasn’t the machine type.

But he was rapidly getting annoyed, he didn’t like being ignored, and the guy hadn’t even moved, other then his head that was.

“Do you speak at all?” Harley wondered. Maybe he was mute? “Do you live around here?” Harley gestured around them, waving his arms in a circle.

Still nothing.

“Do you know-o where I might find-o el phone-o?” Harley snapped. Everyone should just speak the same damn language….it would make everything in the world easier.

The man pushed himself up, stretching out his shoulders and back. The simple, lazy action infuriated harley.

“Oh is it stretching time now? Maybe time to roll over? Don’t let me disturb you now.” Harley snarled. Grumbling under his breath Harley stalked towards he man, though he wasn’t sure just what he was going to do. He only got a few steps forward when his right foot suddenly sunk into the ground to about mid calf.
It was so quick that it seriously jammed his knee, causing him to topple over onto his back. Groaning Harley pulled hi leg, but it barely budged. All around his submerged limb he could feel wetness and soft sludge…which was so disgusting.
Standing up Harley yanked again, his foot finally coming loose with a wet, sucking plop. He slipped as he took a step back to put his newly freed foot back on the ground, his back and butt sliding along the wet, muddy ground.

Groaning at the second jarring crash in only a few moments Harley looked down, only to see that his shoe and sock were missing…and he just snapped.

“Oh come on!!” Harley screamed. “These shoes cost eighty dollars!!”

He sat up, and on all fours peered down at where his foot had sunk in, practically willing his personal property to return. It didn’t’ of course, and Harley wasn’t about to reach down into the muck for a ruined shoe.

Crawling away from the nasty spot Harley sat back down and fumed. A feeling amplified even further when he caught the sound of someone chuckling.

Body shaking Harley slowly raised his head. The man on the bolder was watching him intently with a bemused expression on his face. He had one hand up in a loose fist in front of his face, with his knuckle pressed to his lips.

And he was laughing.

Rage roared up from within Harley and he snarled.

“You shut up! It bet you’ve never even SEEN that kind of money! And its all your fault anyway you stupid red-headed heathen!”
Harley’s hands balled at his sides, and his right hand happened to close around a rock.

“Have you no decency?! I am obviously in distress, yet all you seem to care about is laying on your stupid rock! I am tired, and hungry, and thirst, and now I am wet and muddy. My legs and feet are killing me and you have the nerve to laugh?!” Harley screamed as he whipped the rock at the man’s big stupid face.

The man’s expression barley chanced as he jerked his head to the side, the rock harmlessly rocking past. The movement was so quick that harley could barely follow it. He saw the beginning and the end, but somehow missed the middle, which had just been a blur.

It, and the man’s seemingly unblinking stare unnerved harley.

The man suddenly rocked his head back and forth again, and seemed to nod to himself. He pushed himself up from his resting place then, moving more then he had since harley had come across him.
As he moved Harley could hear a odd sound, one that reminded him of something heavy being dragged along the ground. He might have focused on it more, but it seemed so arbitrary…plus the sight of a narrow, tight stomach with abs you could wash clothing on came into view and…distracted him.

After all this misery he deserved to ogle damn it.

Hips would have came next, and the man should have stood up…but they didn’t, and he didn’t.
Instead he just slide down the bolder, a thick trunk of…something trailing behind him. Harley was confused, his tired brain trying to process what he was seeing. The feeling only grew when t man didn’t face plant into the ground like he should have. Instead he just hovered above the ground as if held on wires and somehow he still came forward, only to start to rise up.

Harley watched and realized that the man had no legs…yet he was…what the hell??

Following the body down from his chest Harley saw that the thick, trunk thing was attacked where the man’s pelvis should have been, and considering that harley still did not see any clothing he should have been staring at some dangling manhood.

But no…he wasn’t.

Blinking, Harley started at the…trunky part. It had a pebbly texture…that looked familiar to him. He thought about it as the man-thing continued to come forward, then it hit him….
Snake skin.

Harley looked up and now he knew why the eyes had looked so odd before. Copper reptile eyes stared back at him.

He was looking at a giant snake man.

The logical part of Harley’s brain balked at that. He couldn’t possibly be looking at a giant snake man because there was no such thing.

“A whole new say to travel Harley. Instantaneous. No more long rides in a hot, cramped airplane, kids screaming in your ear. And what of space travel? Why spend thousands just trying to get off of the ground when you can be right outside of Mars in an instant?” Harley’s Father’s voice rang in his head. “So why stop there? What about whole new worlds Harley? Maybe billions of light years out of our solar system…or maybe even a plane of reality outside of our own. Think about what would could do, what we could find!”

Harley slowly pushed himself up to his feet, nearly taking his eyes off of the approaching snake…thing.
All the pieces clicked together. Now he knew why everything looked strangely different….he wasn’t in Montana or South America….he wasn’t even on Earth.

“Oh I know what we could find Father….” Harley whispered.

Giant snake men apparently.
He also realized there was a good chance he was in mortal danger. The guy was snake like, and snake were predators…and Harley was much smaller then he.

And so, as the giant snake creature began to reach out for him, Harley did the only thing a smaller, fatigued, unarmed person with no combat training or experience to begin with would do in such a situation.

He screamed at the top of his lungs and ran away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As it turned out, running with only one shoe and a heavy pack on one’s back was not the easiest thing in the world to do.

After a few hundred feet into his mad dash through the woods Harley lost his remaining footwear, but unlike its brother he paid it no mind, if anything he found he could run easier without it. Plus it gave his ragged and torn heel a break.

Harley could hear something behind him, almost sounded like a voice calling out, but he couldn’t understand it, and wasn’t about to stop. For all he knew it would be the snake thing screaming for him to come back so that he could eat him.

Harley ran, and ran, and ran.

As fast as the snake thing had moved his head earlier, Harley would have thought he would have been caught by now. But thankfully it seemed like the creature did not have speed over long distances.

Finally…after what seemed like forever Harley stopped, he couldn’t run anymore, and stopped down on all fours. His lungs and legs were screaming at him for forcing them to work so hard. Harley proceeded to suck all the oxygen he could in, in desperate, dry throated gasps.

His arms shaking Harley went down on his sided, peering into the distance behind him. It was starting to get dark at last, but there was still enough light for Harley to see, or not see, that anything was following him.

He had to have just ran six or seven miles…no doubt in his mind.

The world was silent, other then his gasping breaths there was nothing. No birds, no crickets, no nothing.

Harley didn’t like that, how could any place be so quiet? His stomach clenched painfully, adding to the silence with a loud grumble.

He was so hungry he was shaking, he hadn’t eaten all day, and all the exertion certainly had not helped matters. But he couldn’t just plop down in the open for anything, he was way too exposed, and who knew what else could be lurking out there.
What he needed was a good hiding spot, like a cave or something or the sort.

He didn’t have much daylight left either, so he needed to get moving. He couldn’t risk using a flashlight or just wandering around in the dark.

Harley groaned as he picked himself up off of the ground, his shoes had torn the hell out of his heels, but the ground had done a number on his bare feet as well.

After a twenty minute stumbling search Harley was unable to locate a cave, but he did come across an outcropping that was fairly hidden by a large clump of trees.

It would have to do, as the sun had set, which had looked completely different from what he was used to. The fiery reds, yellows, and oranges of home was instead replaced by cool blues, greens and what looked something like a deep purple. It had been beautiful yet…unnerving.

Harley slowly shrugged off the pack, hissing as the straps seemed to rip right out of his flesh. A thing dress shirt was hardly enough padding for such a burden.

It was too dark to even distinguish what was inside the pack, so Harley was forced to use a few of the glow sticks. They were very low intensity but using them still made him nervous, what if he were seen?

He kept checking behind himself, half expecting something to come lunging out of the darkness. But so far…nothing.

The tent was exceedingly simple to pitch, he had been expecting to have to completely assemble it piece by piece. But as it turned out it was something of a spring loaded pop up tent. Rather sturdy too, which was definitely a plus, he certainly did not want to be relying on some paper thin, rickety piece of junk to protect him.

There was also a thick, rolled up sleeping bag inside the pack with a cushioned interior and a rough jean exterior.

It was only once he was within the tent, snuggled inside the bag and had eaten three of the worst tasking dry meals had ever eaten that the truth depth of the situation dawned on him.
He had no idea how to get home, nor any idea how to try and signal the base for retrieval. He also didn’t know if they would even try to look for him….what if one of the higher ups decided that he simply wasn’t needed anymore? Then what?

Harley didn’t wan to think about it, too much had happened today already.

Fortunately his mind and body were so exhausted that the moment he was able to get himself into a semi-comfortable position he conked right out. Maybe he would wake up in his own bed…maybe this was all a bad dream brought about by a late night mix of pizza and chocolate.

One could hope.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harley awoke to the faint sounds of a struggle. The way he felt told him that he couldn’t have been asleep for more then an hour…and that definitely was NOT enough sleep.

Disorientated and confused about where he was Harley tested his surroundings. His hands met the thick, manufactured fabric of the tent, informing him that he most certainly was not in his bedroom.

The sounds reached Harley’s ears once more and he stilled. It was so faint, but he could swear it sounded like someone being overpowered. Like someone with a hand over their mouth and nose, trying to scream, trying to breath, as they violently thrashed.

Bit it didn’t sound violent. If anything he couldn’t really hear much movement at all.

Then came a heavy noise, like something rubbing up against something else, and then a faint sound that sorta reminded Harley of a leather glove being tightened into a fist.

Then came a almost wet pop, followed by softer cracking and crunching.

The gun, his mind reminded him, get the gun.

Yes…he had a weapon, he could defend himself. The thought gave him no solace though, first of all the gun was in the pack, which was by his left leg. It would take him precious seconds to retrieve it, and even then…he didn’t know how to use it.

That was probably the most important thing.

He had never fired a gun in his life, never even held one in his hand. What if the safety was on, which it surely was, how did he disengage it? Was it loaded? If not, how did he load it? Was it like the movies, just shove the clip in and presto? How did he get the clip out anyway? Where there a button?
Each question just as important as the last, and to each he had no answer.

Instead he just sunk deeper into this sleeping bad, shaking with a fear he had never known before as he pulled it up by his face.

Going still harley tried to be as quiet as he possibly could. He turned his ears in on the outside world, trying to catch every sound.

Everything was quite again, and hopefully if there was something out there it did not know that he was here.

Minutes ticked by, and around the fifteen, twenty minute mark Harley began to slowly relax. It was probably foolish, for all he knew something was creeping up on him that very moment. But the calm stillness outside made Harley wonder if he had even heard anything in the first place.

It had all been so faint, except for that pop, and that could have very well been from one of the many, many trees outside. Something could have fallen off, or an old branch could have finally given way for his nervous imagination to grab and run with, creating a threat out of nothing.

Over forty minutes since he had last heard a sound Harley slowly laid his head back down on his makeshift pillow. Sleep was tugging at him hard and he was having serious trouble keeping his eyes open.

Then again…he didn’t need them anyway, he couldn’t see anything though the tent after all. He could close his eyes and still listen now couldn’t he? Yeah…that was the ticket.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harley had never exerted himself like he had today. Never been pushed like the fear inside of him had pushed. As a result he had fallen into a slumber deeper then any before it, almost as if he had been pumped full of sedatives.

So deep that he never heard the slow, heavy rustling that approached his extremely light defenses. He didn’t notice the hands that gently probed the material of the tent. Didn’t notice that after a few fumbling minutes the entrance was slowly, quietly unzipped.

He didn’t see the body that slowly pushed its way in, didn’t awaken when the eyes that could see better in the dark then he every could, eyes that had watched his small shelter for hours, roamed over him.

He did not awaken when two powerful arms gently gathered up he and his things and slowly pulled him out of his small tent.

He barely even stirred as the invader held him close, and began to slip off to parts Harley could never have known.

Nor did he know what the invader had planned for him…and that…was probably the most important piece of information that he could have asked for.

To be continued.