Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 167. Wait for me
The thing about ’only those whose names were called can cross the portal’ worked for the first twenty people; then the rest of the Four Hundred practically stormed the portal.
Henry and I had gone back inside; our whole group was there, directing the people when they started to get restless until they nearly trampled each other. I simply took my grandma and Henry and stood back so we wouldn’t get implicated.
We waited, and in the end, we helped the people who had fallen to their feet. Luckily, no one died, but we now also didn’t know if everyone on the list had crossed.
Not only that, Ethan had told me at the beginning that they had discovered new survivors with each wall they had broken through inside the hellhole; there could very well be others still buried underground.
I had thought that this portal would stay open, as the previous ones had, and I had hoped we would return to our world. Then I would have told the military where to search for potential survivors, but honestly, I was now more inclined to believe we had gotten everyone who was alive out. I just wanted to believe it.
Still, when our group was in the midst of leaving, I looked back, feeling a gnawing sensation crawling up my spine.
"We tried our best." Henry said, again putting his arm around my neck.
The Devins, with Mr. Devin still carrying Jeyjey, my grandma, Ethan, Anti Guy, Glasses Guy, Red Hair, and Baggy Jeans, had all gone ahead, leaving us here alone. I had seen Athena before, wearing a disguise; she had crossed with The Four Hundred when Chaos ensured.
"Let’s go." Henry dragged me through the portal, and when we stepped out this time, the highway was full of people.
It wasn’t just The Four Hundred scattered along the highway, crying, wailing, or disorientedly hiding behind a few cars; it wasn’t only the car owners who couldn’t drive away due to everything; no, there were now helicopters in the sky, their spotlights lighting up the highway, and there were uniformed individuals pushing through the crowd.
"I feel like I’m inside a movie." I loudly said against the sound of the helicopters.
"Yeah, the scene shortly before the end, when the victims get rescued," Henry nodded.
"Exactly." I always kept my grandma in view; she had gone to the side, and so had the rest of our group.
"You know there are now around four hundred counterparts waiting to meet the people living here? What do we do if they slaughter each other?" I yelled and looked up at Henry, whose hair was blown back as he let his eyes wander over the scene.
"So be it. Like I said, we tried our best. Let Michigan handle it." He spoke after coming even closer.
"Ahahaha." I broke into laughter and watched the uniformed group. I had no idea if we should run from them, but I was absolutely exhausted, and there were so many people here, along with a huge lake and a highway—where should I even run to?
Let’s wait and see if these people are friendly or not. Because if they are not, we’d probably have to run back into the world we had come from.
"COMMANDER!" Someone screamed, and when I turned to the voice, I saw a young man running toward us. He was dressed in what appeared to be a dark military uniform. He hurried closer to us, looking at Henry.
Hmmm... could Henry’s counterpart in this world be a commander? Was the married Henry with kids a commander?
"Not bad, Commander Hannibal." I said loudly while Henry looked at me strangely.
"What should I do now?" His question was not even finished when the young man finally arrived by our side.
"Commander! You..." He took a closer look at Henry before pulling a small black device from his pocket. He reached out to grab Henry’s wrist, but Henry stepped back, pulling me with him. The soldier looked at Henry quizzically before scanning his face with the device. Other uniformed personnel arrived as well, about twenty in total, standing around Henry like a pack of puppies gazing at their owner.
"It is the commander!" The first soldier shouted after he read something from the device, and the group cheered.
"What happened? Did you find this many survivors? Why did you return just now?" They asked Henry. Some of their gazes shifted to me and my unusual eye color.
"What about these survivors? How will this situation be handled?" Henry asked loudly, still with his arm around my neck.
"Oh, everyone is informed. They will take them to a hospital, and after that, the DA will take care of them." While he explained, other uniformed personnel began to guide the many people down the Highway, amid the cars.
My grandma, Ethan, and Henry’s parents—his father still carrying Jejey, along with an unwilling Henrietta—came to our side.
"Good. I am not your commander, but we are all survivors from this... parallel world or dungeon. We can’t go back to our own world for now." Henry explained with a raised voice.
The soldiers exchanged glances.
"Had he been corrupted?" Someone asked out loud.
"Yes, he also seems younger." Someone else shouted.
"No matter; come with us for now." The soldier from before interrupted his comrades and motioned for us to follow.
Henry looked at me, and I turned around when I felt the air pressure change. The portal had truly closed, so we could leave this place—I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with an open portal to a world with potential dangers. No more shadows came through, which meant they hopefully would never appear again.
I shrugged at Henry, and we started to follow them, leading us through the crashed cars. Constantly flipping the coin, it never turned black, as if it asked me to stay tuned and not peek into what awaited us. Haaa.
I saw the twins far off to the side, still turning constantly to look at us—the doctor carrying the child, our classmate, and the faces of the many people who had used my conjured up ladder.
It seemed we would really be cared for here and not imprisoned or experimented on. If this really was the world of the married Henry with kids, then it meant they knew more about parallel worlds, aka dungeons. So, they probably were not only more relaxed about this topic, but they were also better informed than we were, and this could help us.
It took about half an hour until we were down from the lake and the highway, which was already closed off. At the end stood police cars, but mostly ambulances. A few big black cars were also there.
One of the paramedics finally took a hesitant and scared Jejey from Mr. Devin’s hands. However, she calmed down when Baggy Jeans ran to her side and went inside the ambulance with her. Good, he didn’t seem as crazed as the last time I had seen him. So... he could have just carried around his girlfriend instead of a skinny old Mr. Devin, but okay.
The soldier from before opened the door to the back seat of the black car, motioning for us to step in.
There was only enough space for the two of us. Some other soldiers also opened the doors of their respective black cars and gestured for the Devins and my grandma to get in.
I wanted to go with her, but she just waved at me and got into a car with Ethan.
Henry and I finally took a seat, and when the door closed, closing out the sounds from the outside, it turned eerily silent all of a sudden.
The partition wall to the driver and co-pilot seats was up.
"They think you are corrupted; what does that mean?" I asked Henry when the car started to drive.
This was a very modern city—far more modern than ours were. Many people tried to film the ordeal on the highway, even though they were far away from it. Others were shopping happily, the light of each store shining brilliantly.
"Something like I had been brainwashed by a poison or something?" Henry asked, holding onto my wrist while I continued to look outside. Somehow, this big street we took felt familiar.
"So they’ll try to get their commander back?"
"They can try; there is no commander here."
"You mean there is no Hannibal in your Henry?" I laughed, and Henry also burst into a fit of laughter before squeezing my wrist as if to punish me.
"When we arrive wherever, let them look at your wrist," I said, remembering his injury again. I looked outside and marveled at how clean this big city was, though there were quite a few beggars.
"Ah! I know where we are!" I said when we heard a slight noise, and pink gas spread inside the car.
"FUCK!"
"DAMN IT!" Henry cursed as well and tried to cover the opening in the floor where the gas came from. I tried it too, and we both elbowed our respective windows simultaneously, but it didn’t work; they didn’t shatter at all.
The gas continued, and I already felt sleepy when Henry cupped my face. "Kenny, no matter what they do, wait for me; I’ll come and get you." His bright blue eyes through the smoke urged me to agree.
"Don’t be cringy... Find my grandma first, then come and get me." I mumbled, closing my eyes.
