#2 The Gate
The two tonne box they were strapped into was hurtling down the street. It contained all their possessions. Anything they owned and wanted to keep. Jhon stared out the rear window of the twenty fifteen Ram Fifteen Hundred.
“Where are we going again?” he asked.
“The Gate.” Replied his mother, Mrs. Dent, from the passenger seat.
“Why?”
“A whole bunch of reasons honey.” She really didn’t want to explain why they had to leave. Too depressing for a six-year-old. Wouldn’t want to give him depression. End of the world will do that to you, especially when you're six.
“We’re moving.” Mr. Dent jumped into the conversation.
“Aww, noo, I liked our neighbourhood. Could we please stay!”
“No, I’m sorry, we have to go.”
“I don’t wanna!” Jhon kept complaining. Off in the distance, a monolith rising above the traffic jams on the number one, the Gate came into view. From two hundred and fifty kilometres away, the peak of the Gate was viable.
The drive was only made longer by Jhon’s exercise complaining. He wanted McDonalds here, and Icecream there, and he needed to pee a million times. They approached around noon. Only Five Kilometres out from the base of the Gate. The Rearview mirror ws perfectly aligned so as to reflect the image of the dying sun to everyone in the car.
“Why’s the sun like that?” asked Jhon, perplexed as to why the sun suddenly changed. It wasn’t like that last week.
“It’s why we’re moving.” Explained Mr. Dent explained bluntly.
“It looks so weird. Why are we moving because the Sun, it can’t really hurt us. Its just a big lightbulb.”
“Not really.”
“I liked our neighbourhood. I hope the new one’s as good as the last.” Jhon was clearly tuckered out by the lengthy session of incessant complaining and questioning.
“I’n sure it will be.” Mr. Dent replied. He’s finally asleep, I dont know how she does it. How did she manage to take a nap while he was screeching about ice cream and McDonalds. I wish I had her superpower.
Increasingly less light came from the sun. No more than a lightbulb. It was three PM, but the skies were like twilight.
“Papers please.” asked the guard. He was a short man, stout. Like a bouncy ball with legs. His head had more in common with that of a pug than any human.
“Oh, of course sir.” Mr. Dent passed the papers to the guard.
“Oh, come on daddy, I don’t want to go! Please! Let’s stay! All my Friends are here! Please!” Jhon decided to come up.
“Hey! You’ll make new friends. Plus, Jaxson is moving right next to us!” Mrs. Dent ws tired of hearing complaining about this. They are moving in next to us though. He’ll like that.
“Alrighty Mr. Dent, you and your family are free to get through.” They drove off quickly.
“I can’t wait, can me and Jaxson have a playdate when we get there!”
“I’m not sure, we’ll have to unpack. It might take a while.”
“Aww, noo!”
The road into the Gate was much less congested than the kilometres of road outside. They drove by a chain link fence to the outside world. It was swift, but still felt like an eternity.
“Why are those people out there in the sun?” asked Jhon
“They’re,” it took Mr.Dent a second to come up with an answer that wouldn’t scare his kid. “Foot passengers.” That seemed to stop further questioning about the millions of people gathered outside the chain link fence. They’re not getting in. We had the money. We saved. We invested. They should've worked harder, then they would be in my spot here.
After thirty minutes or so, The car reached a glowing white portal, the night time skies outside illuminated to be as bright as day. As they drove through, the car stretched and pulled, shrunk and collapsed. It was shockingly unpainful. They came out the other end in a strange purplish pink land.
They were directed out of another great monolith, the other end of the gate. It was labyrinthine.
They came out the other end. It was a great landscape of pinks and purples. The ‘night’ sky was filled with galaxy-esk structures and blotches of all the colours. A billboard sat in front of them;
“WELCOME TO DIMESION SEVENTEEN, YOUR NEW HOME!