NOVEL FROG CHAPTER 67: The Portal Opens
After the muted response from the video, Atlas took the microphone back and glanced down the table at the rest of his team. "Alright, everybody. I know some of you weren't that happy with the ending, regardless of how you're clapping. I bet that's more because of the free booze." Sally Fox and her colleagues snickered.
"The reason I forced poor Hong Sha to make this ending is something really important." Hong Sha looked at Atlas, surprised that he was going to mention it was him who forced the ending. Most producers would blame the writers or the director.
Atlas continued, "Hong Sha didn't want to make this ending. He wanted to continue on to season two with the ‘Saving the Slaves’ storyline. And that storyline is going to happen."
"What?" Everyone was confused. How could it happen? In the show, Team Atlas and the Portal Crushers had all returned home to Earth.
"That’s where it's going to happen," said Atlas, pointing at the glowing red portal circle. "Portal Crushers are going to go and save those slaves."
"But how? They’d all returned already," a reporter asked.
Atlas pointed at the reporter. "Mary Kofia, *Entertainment Journal For People*."
"Seriously, I don’t have any idea how they would go back. Don’t tell me you're going to turn this into a dream sequence."
Atlas responded, "Hell no, I hate dream sequences. I hate anything to do with them."
*And I really hate them if they happen to me in real life. So I'm really glad I'm a time-traveling regressor.*
"Now, what I’m going to say is that in," he looked at the clock—there was a big giant holographic clock in the arena ticking down. "In fifteen minutes from now, the portals are going to open up."
"The portals are going to open?" the reporter continued.
"Exactly what I said. The portals are going to open in real life."
The team around Atlas was now all stunned. Atlas had told them all of this during training, and they thought it was just more mental prep—more Atlas playing crazy games. Even John, who’d had a year to prepare, thought Atlas was being a bit nuts.
Atlas said, "That’s a shocker, right?" Hands popped up from all of the media.
Trey Farby from local BBC Fight News asked, "Atlas, two questions. One, do you mean the portals that take you to the Wasteland Apocalypse are going to come in reality and start sucking people into them? And two, have you checked yourself into a local loony bin recently?"
Atlas said, "Well, let me answer those two questions in reverse order. One, no, I’m certifiably sane. I’m not crazy. And two, yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. The portals are going to open. But that’s not just here. Just like in the show, everywhere in the world, the portals are going to pop open randomly and suck people in. Me and Team Portal Crushers, though, are guaranteed to go. You see this red circle I’m in? This is a portal location. And when that opens, me and this team of ten brave men and women, are going to go into the wasteland, and we’re going to try to save as many people as we can. I want to create a peaceful oasis in the wasteland where people don’t just try to kill each other for food and money."
More hands popped up, disbelief written all over their faces. What was supposed to be an interview about how the Portal Crushers had won the last season of the SFB finals had turned into a crazy debacle. The internet was already full of chats too—*He's nuts. He's nuts. He's nuts* flashed across screens as people followed the live stream.
Numbers were increasing like crazy across the internet. As the livestream of Atlas and his crazy declaration went viral immediately after this last statement.
Atlas just let them yell questions, and make noise for a while. Then he pointed at the big jumbotron. "Look at that screen, guys," he said. "Countdown. We’re at twenty seconds now. Team, are you ready?"
When it hit ten seconds, the system’s sound speakers started playing again.The familiar statement played. "Portal initializing. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Portal Initializing."
As the jumbotron flashed a huge holographic number, the lights flickered in the portal room.
PHZZZOOOP! A big blue portal appeared.
Team Atlas and the Portal Crushers were gone. In their place was a huge glowing blue portal that slowly began to disappear, with electrical air crackling around it. Reporters and attendees in the safe zone went wild, filming the portal and the now-empty spot where Atlas and his team had been. Meanwhile, their devices buzzed with the news that similar events were happening all over the world. The songs that Atlas had prepared, "Atlas Will Bring Them Home" and "Way Back Home," were playing on loop in the background, in the now chaotic arena.
Atlas had prepared these songs because he knew that the unknown disappearance of so many people would cause fear. And that fear would turn into chaos, and that chaos would turn into suicides, banditry, and anarchy.
He had prepared as much as he could, and hoped it would be enough to lower the suffering and chaos on Earth.
The reporters and people watching the feed got goosebumps as they REALLY listened to the lyrics.
**Way Back Home**
People from Earth see the sky change,
Portal opens wide, time to rearrange,
Monsters waiting on the other side,
A year to survive, nowhere to hide understanding,
Fight for all our lives.
Creatures call,
They're eerie, they're strong,
They pull us through,
With hope in our hearts we follow the clue,
One year in this land,
Fight every day,
Monsters around us, crying to slay,
But we will be back from the black,
Hold on, stand firm, stay on track,
Time drifts slow as battles rage,
Each sunset marks another page,
Hope watches from heights unknown,
It's the beacon guiding us home,
Through the struggle, through the night,
We gather strength, ready to fight,
Time nearly up, we feel the shift,
Hope's hand gives the final lift,
Don’t worry and don’t you cry,
For we will not give in,
Not even if we die.
***
POV WASTELAND
The Portal Crushers opened their eyes after the teleportation, expecting to find themselves in the familiar training arena, but this time, everything was different. The portal room was gone, replaced by an apocalyptic wasteland that stretched endlessly in every direction. The sky was a dull, ashen gray, with dark clouds swirling ominously overhead. The air was thick with the smell of smoke and decay, and the ground beneath their feet was cracked and barren.
Around them, a group of people who were *not* the actors they'd rehearsed with were in various stages of panic, their eyes wide with terror as they took in the nightmarish surroundings. Some were screaming, others frozen in shock, while a few were trying to make sense of what had just happened.
Atlas quickly jumped into the situation. He yelled, "Portal team, ready!"
The team, trained to respond instinctively, immediately snapped into action. "Portal team, ready!" they echoed in unison, their voices steady despite the chaos around them. They began moving among the group, doing exactly what they had been trained to do: calming everyone down, assessing injuries, and trying to establish some order.
"Hey, it's okay, we're going to be okay," Isabella reassured a woman who was hyperventilating, her hands trembling. Isabella handed her a bottle of water, guiding her to take deep breaths.
John was already checking their supplies, making sure that their gear had made it through the portal intact. "We need to set up a perimeter," he called out, eyeing the ruined town that surrounded their landing site, looking for anything that could be used for cover.
As the dust began to settle, the group of people finally started to calm, their panic subsiding under the Portal Crushers’ guidance.
***
POV EARTH
Back in the arena, among the VIP guests, whispers of confusion and concern rippled through the crowd. Several had been invited by the Portal Crushers and were now shocked to realize that their loved ones had just vanished.
“Did they really go somewhere?” one young doctor asked, her voice trembling.
“This can’t be real,” another murmured, looking around frantically, trying to spot anyone who could explain what had happened.
“I saw it... they were just here,” an elderly man said, his voice shaking. “My son... he’s gone. Just like that.”
A young woman clutched her phone, her eyes wide with fear. “It’s happening everywhere. My sister texted me that people are disappearing all over. What does this mean?”
The mood in the room shifted from disbelief to rising panic as more guests realized the gravity of what had just occurred. Some began to cry, while others furiously dialed their phones, trying to reach their missing loved ones, hoping it was just a trick, a publicity stunt. But deep down, they knew this was something far more terrifying.
***
Meanwhile, in the wasteland, Atlas and his team braced themselves for the challenges ahead, knowing that they were the only hope for those lost in this new, hostile world..
**[link](https://suno.com/song/0d7eb593-bc86-4d97-ada0-666f0b4f327d)**
END OF BOOK 1
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