A barren wastend of ice id out for their view in every dire. The Field from Ayumi protected them from most of the elements. Even still, the wind dug through like cws and fangs to grope at the teens. It managed a cool chill that left everyone feeling as though they had been spshed with cold water.
The words from Ayumi failed to provide any reassurao the group. Seiji and the others that had strong doubts about the ehing saw the ck of any proof to be suspicious. They went along with her vague expnations, but time tio tick away. The emptihey saw furthered their doubt.
“You keep saying to go further and further, but each time there’s not a damn thing! I’m thinking you’re just stringing us along for the shits.”
“But Ayumi says—“ tried Yuki befetting cut off.
“She says helluva lot, Yuki! And we’ve yet to have any damn proof anything she’s saying is true!”
Yori kept to his spot, still examining the situation. The number of pieces missed prevented him from uanding. ‘It’s almost like she’s purposely keeping us limited and in the dark.’ He khat left alone Seiji wouldn’t get them any progress. “I think we all have our doubts, but only a few more steps is not too much to ask sidering the distahat we have traveled. I assume there’s a reason we ’t see your homend from here?”
“I certainly don’t like being strung around,” Chiharu added, “So there better be something good expining things in these few steps.”
“Seiji, if Ayumi says you’ll uand soon then she means it,” Yuki persuaded. “Ohing I know to be true is that she tells the truth even to the point of being tactless.” The st word from Yuki gave him a chilliion down his back as though someone had just stepped on his grave. He refused to turn, afraid to see the look that Ayumi gave him.
Saki stepped up, spping Seiji in the shoulder bde hard. “All you’ve been doing is whining all this time. Thought you were a tough guy, not some pansy.” She gave him a mean smirk taunting him with her st words.
He took the bait without thinking. Seiji leaned over to face Saki and got close enough to actally spit on her while he spoke. “Oh yeah?! I’ll sure as shit show you who’s actually a pansy!” He shoved Saki aside into Fumiko and charged in the dire that Ayumi inteo take them.
Ayumi tried to speak up to stop Seiji, but she didn’t have enough time. She groao herself about dealing with children before throwing up a barrier. He smashed into it and nearly shattered it to her surprise. The barrier gave her the time to catch up to him and stood in front casting a heavy imposing shadow. “I’ll be going first. Follow behind me in any order that you wish. If you don’t want to trust me then you leave your trust to Antarctica.” After her words she stepped forward and disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Chapter 97 – Strangers in a Strange Land
The disappearance of Ayumi left the party stunned. It took them a while to read approach the area where she stepped through. A few of them waved their hands through the space trying to see if part of them disappeared, but nothing happened. After the failed attempts they turo exge stares.
Chiharu made the bold move to stand where Ayumi had been. She paused only long enough to check her surroundings o time before diving into the void that Ayumi must have gone. Her body disappeared like Ayumi had befiving some certainty to the others.
Seiji kept quiet after seeing two of them vanish before his eyes. He had no room left to pin and the procession of the rest gave him a slight indignant look. The few in the group left, leaving only Seiji, Haruo and Yuki behind. He decided to take his turn to prove that he had no fear, though the muffled scream didn’t help his case.
“See you oher side!” Yuki waved with a cheer to Haruo befoi. The moment that Antarctica became a bck void he khat he had ehe space everyone else had before him. His e to his body seemed to stretch out until it no longer felt as though he moved. A great ale hand reached out pulling him forward as though the void itself beed him. The call summoned him as though to greet him home from a long journey grateful in his return for his absence was greatly missed.
‘I feel so warm and invited…’ It felt as though all of his worries and fatigue melted away in the warm embrace of his homend. He had never felt something that made him feel so wele. It forced out any thoughts in his mind. Only a bnk sense of bliss stirred within the gaps. He knew of only oime before that made him feel as he did at that moment.
Yuki soon bathed in a bright light signaling the path. ‘Atntis is beyond here…’ He reached out to take hold of the doorway. A yearning grew ihe closer that he came to the light. It felt so familiar. ‘Why do I feel like I’ve e home?’ The void shattered like gss as he broke through smiling wide. Excitement pounded in his heart. Atntis stood before him. “Atntis!”
However, all of the preparation and thrill seeking fell short of the magnifit vista that y out upon everyone’s eyes. Even those ahead of him that had been there loill stood in awe. A nearly cloudless sky of pristine blue hung veiled over boundless fields of grass and farmnd. Warm soothing breezes forted everyone. No sign of ice or the Antarctica everyone ked. It seemed impossible.
“Is this Atntis?!”
“Impossible!” Seiji decred having appeared behind everyone.
“How is it possible for this to exist?!” Fumiko asked, looking over at Ayumi.
Ayumi stepped forward and tilted her head over her shoulder to look back at them. “I’ll answer your questions ter. Right now we have to move quickly.”
“Huh?” broke Seiji.
Yuki stepped forward to pce himself in front of her looking for an answer. They had just arrived. He didn’t uand hoce that looked so peaceful presented a threat to them. The urgency to reach Atntis for him still persisted, but a few mio gaze hardly seemed to be a problem. “What’s wrong, Ayumi? Why do we have to leave so fast?”
“I’ll expin ter! We ’t stay here!” The sense en her voice mixed with danger. It made things clear that something was wrong.
“Why ’t we stay here? What’s going to happen?”
“We’ve ehe South Gate’s territory and they’ll know that we’ve entered.”
The rest of the group started gathering around them, sensing the seriousness of Ayumi’s words. Ayumi led them away from where they entered. Their view back held a strange mirage of ice that looked more like water that had been poured around the world. The water pressed back by only the mere strength of the world’s iy. Further up away from the horizon filled the perfect sky being like a world trapped within a dome.
Yuki tried to keep himself focused on leaving, but the world held him in stant awe. Saki dragged at his arm to force him to keep walking. ‘We’re here…the pce where I face my so-called destiny!’
“I’m…really…sleepy…” Seiji colpsed to the ground in a peaceful dream state.
Yori looked back along with the others fused by what happened so suddenly to him. “He’s been sleeping for the entire ride and he’s still sleepy?!” He rushed over with Yuki to get a better look at Seiji. A few shoves and hits did nothing to ge him, but redden his skin. The fact that he didn’t react to anything worried them. He fell too deeply into sleep to be normal.
Yuki shouted ahead to Ayumi needing an answer. “What’s wrong with him?! Is there something special in the air that makes it poisonous to outsiders or something?!” He worked with Yori to turn him over on his back for a better view.
“Nothing so hazardous or dramatic as that.” She stopped from her pd only faced them. The gre from Yuki demanded an answer and Ayumi sighed before relenting to his request. “Pick him up and carry him with us. I’ll expin as we walk. Time’s still of the essence.”
“…fine…” Yuki looked back at his friend relieved, but still worried. The attitude from Ayumi bothered him more at the moment. ‘It’s like she’s back to the way she was when I first met her. Why’d she ge so much wheered Atntis?’ He cooperated with Yori to lift Seiji up to his babsp; Once Seiji’s sleeping body’s full weight pressed against his muscles he started tret doing it alone. “Man, he’s heavy…”
Fumiko and Yori’s sister approached Yuki seeing the state that he was in after trying to lift Seiji. “It’s too much for you to carry alone, Yuki.” Yori’s sister gnced over to Yori with the expectation for him to help.
“Yeah, Yumi’s right, Yuki. You should let us help you carry him.” Fumiko already tried to get Seiji off Yuki’s back.
Yuki raised his hand to stop them. “No, I’m fine.” He tried to get to his feet again and failed. His knee jerked out, stabbing his leg. “I could use some help getting to my feet though…”
Through stubbornness aahey brought Yuki to his feet. He still appeared unbanced and staggered to the side even on his feet. They hesitated to let him walk on his own, but he insisted. After a minute, Yuki seemed to improve, finding his stride. A pace for everyoled in pushing them away from the sky.
Ohey marched enough to be sidered brief stares began to pop up. Each of the pairs of eyes focused on Ayumi. She o give an ahat they would accept. Ayumi shifted her sights around to take it all in while she filtered through what she had. “I guess I’ll start at the beginning. Around Atntis is a barrier in the shape a rge dome c the nd pletely.”
“Is that ere uo see it from the outside,” inquired Yori.
“Correbsp; The barrier has a number of purposes all meant to protect Atntis from the outside world. The first is making it pletely invisible and creating an illusion.”
“But that doesn’t prevent people from just walking in. There are bound to be stists and explorers that have stumbled into here. And aren’t there bases within here as well?”
“That is the sed part and is a little more plicated. It also creates a false sense of spabsp; So people are further to the coastlihan they realize.”
“Are you tellihat everything that sce has done here is inaccurate?!”
Ayumi didn’t seem to care about the rger implications of Yori’s question. She answered him pinly as though it held no bearing for her. “Only when speaking of distance.”
Yori didn’t believe what heard from Ayumi. It made him sweat a little when she looked back at him fused as to why he took it so seriously. The surprise he felt slowed down words. “So casual…”
“I don’t see the big deal. No one’s hurt and this is our nd.”
“But you stay hidden from the world,” Fumiko ented. “Don’t you think it’s time that you show yourselves? This won’t st forever. Something’s going to happen.”
“Third,” tinued Ayumi, ign what Fumiko said, “The barrier creates a sense of fusion when someoers and is followed by deep untrolble sleep. Which is the reason for his dition.” She pointed over her shoulder to Seiji peacefully sleeping on Yuki’s back.
“Why was Seiji the only ohat was affected though? assed through the barrier.”
“That’s because my Field protected you from the effects. The only way to enter is with someohat egate the effects. He strayed too long ihe barrier realm before leaving. So he was affected while you weren’t.”
“What happens to the people that wander in here?” questioned Yori’s sister.
“The st part of the barrier and the reason why we must leave. The barrier is ected to fates set across the perimeter. Ary is registered with the closest gate. Unscheduled entries are decred to be intruders until established otherwise.”
“What happens then?”
“A border patrol locates the intruder, wipes their memories and sends them back out.”
“But Yuki and you are Atnteans. Shouldn’t you be able to get past the patrols with that?”
“No, Yuki is being hunted and as am I f to find him. All that would happen is getting captured.” A small forest and a brush ahead gave Ayumi hope for cover. She directed them into the bushes granting them rest for the moment. While they spread out, in such a disanized manner as to throw away any sibince of stealth, she peered out through cover to check their fnk. ‘Their respoime is ten mi best. But I don’t know how long we evade them.’
“Is he awake yet,” Saki asked, not watg her voice.
Yuki shook his head, ed for how long he slept. They had ehe lion’s den and that started to pce a new pressure on his babsp; ‘I didn’t think we’d have this sort of trouble just trying to get to Atntis.’
“What are we going to do if he doesn’t wake up?” asked Fumiko.
“We just leave the deadweight behind,” replied Chiharu softly, “If they find someohey’ll probably not try to pursue the rest of us further. They probably aren’t expeg a group.”
“We ’t do that!”
“Quiet!” Ayumi snapped back trying to keep her voice from rising too mubsp; Her fears proved to be strohan her hopes. In the distahe shadowed figures of the South Gate border patrol appeared. Time ran out for them. “The patrol is in the area. Keep down and silent!”