Excerpt from The Portal

"So what do we do," Kevin asked. "Just walk into it?"
"Yeah. It'll be all kind of foggy, but just keep going. I think there are some sort of instruments on the sides, but I couldn't quite make them out. Just a couple of steps, and you're out the other side."
"Cool. Want me to go first?"
"Okay. I'll be right behind you."
Kevin grinned. "All right," he said. "Here goes." He stepped inside. I watched him disappear, and it really was weird, seeing him vanish right in front of me. No wonder Stinky had been so freaked. I took a deep breath, and then I followed.
I was inside the thing. Same clouds, same vague shapes off to the sides. Everything seemed kind of out of focus, like you needed special glasses to see things clearly. I blinked a few times, but nothing changed. "You there, Larry?" Kevin said.
The sound of his voice was reassuring. "Right behind you. Keep on going."
I kept my eye on Kevin's back as he moved forward.
But it was more than a couple of steps this time, and still the clouds didn't go away. Instead it started feeling cold and damp—like real fog. And then I heard shouts and what sounded like footsteps.
Uh-oh, I thought. "Um, Kevin?"
As my eyes adjusted, I could make out trees through the fog. I looked around for the dumpster, but it wasn't where it had been yesterday. Nothing was where it had been yesterday.
I saw two men coming towards us. One of them shouted at us. It sounded like Spanish, but I couldn't understand it.
"Let's go back, Kevin," I said.
But where was the portal? I had lost my bearings in the fog. The men were wearing blue uniforms and carrying rifles. They were soldiers, I realized. They raised the rifles and pointed them at us.
Kevin took off through the trees, and I followed.
I heard rifle shots and tensed, expecting a bullet in the back. But the shots missed; one of them screamed as it ricocheted off a rock or something. I was having a hard time keeping up with Kevin. A branch whacked me in the face. There was more shouting. "C'mon!" Kevin shouted back at me.
The trees petered out suddenly and we found ourselves on a road. And now we heard hoofbeats and saw a wagon bearing down on us through the fog.
"Samuel, stop!" a woman's voice called out.
The wagon slowed. We stepped back.
There were more rifle shots.
The man driving the wagon peered down at us suspiciously.
"Get in! Quickly!" the woman sitting beside him said.
We hesitated. Kevin looked at me, his eyes wide with fright.
"Now!" the man ordered. "Before the blasted Portuguese send all of us to our Maker!"
Portuguese?
More shouts, from close behind us now. We scrambled into the wagon and the man drove off. Behind us in the fog we saw the Portuguese soldiers come out of the trees and aim at us again. But the fog closed in around them before they could shoot.
I looked at Kevin again. He was shaking. I felt as if I was ready to cry.
The wagon picked up speed. And every second that passed, it took us further away from the portal, and from home.