Chương 101: What the Camera Saw

I decided to wait until everyone got back to the cabin to watch the video. I thought it showed remarkable restraint. Tala said I was being lazy. She wasn't entirely wrong. In fact, she told me this repeatedly while I sat in my recliner for twenty minutes browsing YouTube videos while I waited. God, such a nagging wife. Isn't there some proverb or verse in the Bible that says something about nagging wives? Is it her time of the month or something? I tried to tune her out as much as I could until the others arrived.

Once they did, we watched the video. I'd expected it to be grainy, such as in World War II videos. Instead, the resolution was amazing. I was also prepared for the footage to be jerky, but apparently military helmet cams had stabilizers so I didn't get queasy watching the video. It just cemented my belief that all the bigfoot and alien videos were fact. They had to be government operations meant to distract the public from other stuff they were doing.

I had to wonder if maybe the government knew mana was returning and decided to show people a lot of weird stuff, maybe in preperation for when really strange stuff happened, like now. There wasn't even any otherworldly interference with the technology. When mana returned to our world, it did have some effect. Luckily, it was just temporary. If I didn't have first-hand knowledge that the video was real, I would've thought it was fake. Sitting there, watching another plane of existence, was just too unreal.

I almost felt like I was dreaming. What was even more surprising was how close the first encounter with otherworld life was after the team crossed over. Within the first hundred yards, they ran into a cluster of plague rats. I thought they would attack immediately but instead the rats scattered. That type of behavior wasn't what I'd seen when they crossed over into our world. Did the mana drive them crazy? If so, why didn't it affect our team? Pierre was the one who said what I was already thinking.

"Those aren't acting like the same rats." He was right. The ones that had come through the breach seemed crazed. These ones on screen were just milling around. I just hoped the video would explain the behavior differences. I didn't like not knowing things. Was it some type of feeding frenzy, like with sharks? The footage kept going, but unfortunately didn't offer up any immediate explanations. Sandra's team pushed further north.

That was when her camera caught one of the agents dropping a straggler with a short burst. What the hell? Why did he do that? I couldn't understand why he would do something so stupid. He just alerted everything around the gate. What was even more perplexing was the fact that Sandra didn't reprimand him. That fact alone told me the soldier had probably been acting on orders. What bothered me was the fact that someone had ordered him to do something stupid like that.

I mean, come on, scouts usually observe and report, not start fights. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I was really starting to wonder if I had made the right move in teaming up with the government. Sandra's voice came over the audio calling out for someone to grab the crystal from the body. Someone bagged it and they kept moving. Are they trying to see if the plague rats there also have planar crystals?

Are we going to grow planar crystals inside our body too now that there is mana in the world again? I had so many questions and no answers. I was getting pretty annoyed before the team was a half a mile away from the gate. The team then crested a low rise and stopped. I leaned toward the TV, my annoyance vanishing. Packed earth walls ran across the gray plain in long rectangles. Some had roofs. The camera zoomed in. Inside the walls, plague rats stood with their heads down, eating and drinking from troughs.

Nobody in the room said anything for a minute. I said nothing because I was trying to figure out why there were some plague rats pinned up while others were roaming around. After a moment, I realized they might be seen as something like cattle. That was when I realized how stupid I had been. Cattle don't make their own pens. That meant someone was herding these rats, which implied an intelligent race.

"Fudge me," I muttered, breaking the silence. No one else said anything though. They just stared at the television to see what was going to happen next. The camera kept moving across the structures. Between the rows, channels had been cut into the earth, running at angles that fed the pens.

"Those are pens," Shelly said.

"Yeah," I said. I wanted to say more, but Tala gave me a look that promised I'd regret it. I'd expected something earthbreaking. Instead, I just felt disappointed. That was until I noticed something, "Stop it there," I said. Claire paused it. In the distance, a figure was briefly visible. It walked upright and was roughly human-sized. Tala's claws found the armrest.

"Did the team see it?" Pierre asked.

"No," Claire said.

"Just the camera." I stared at the frozen frame. It looked like a humanoid rat with a tail.

"Okay, that's something." I said. Shelly asked the obvious question, "So, isn't that strange that a ratman is herding giant rats?" I had to admit, it was weird. It would be the same as humans keeping monkeys around as a source of food. Then again, in some parts of the world, people did eat monkeys so I guess it wasn't too absurd. When no one said anything, she continued, "And for all they know, we stole a lot of their animals. At the very least, they're probably confused. They might even be pissed."

"That's true," Pierre said, agreeing with her. I gave him a look, but I bit back the comment I was going to make. Damn, man, grow a spine. You don't have to agree with everything she says. Then I saw Tala glaring at me again and changed the subject.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to try to establish peaceful contact. Of course, it probably didn't help that the military had to go and kill another rat. Hopefully, it was wild." Claire looked skeptical.

"And how are we going to communicate with them?" I had to admit, that was a fair point. How can we talk to them? It isn't like we're likely to speak the same language. Luke spoke up next.

"And if they show up angry? What if they decide to go through the portal to see where their herd animals went?"

"That's another good question. I guess we have some thinking to do. Nothing happened for the rest of the video. The exploring team watched for a while and then turned around and went back to the gate. It actually wasn't much of an exploration at all. We all sat there in silence for a minute. Eventually I reached over and shut the laptop. Then I put it back on local news. I was curious how long it would take for the government to release the footage. If I had to guess, it would probably be never.

Or at least it would only be after plenty of other footage was released. Everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts. After a few more seconds, Shelly asked, "Do you think they will come here if they see the gate open?"

"Yeah, most likely. I'd want an explanation for all my missle livestock" I settled back into the recliner and wondered how long I could ignore the problem.

"I don't think they're different enough from me for that not to matter."

"And when they get there?"

"Then I find out if a raccoon and a rat can have a conversation." I closed my eyes.

"I've had weirder meetings." Tala made the sound she made when she thought my optimism was going to cause problems later.