Overpass

"Nothing is working!" The woman threw her gun at the disfigured creature and ran down the alley. An inhuman howl came from the beast, and soon, more distinct cries echoed through the desolate streets.

Despite her abysmal environment, Grace was soon able to find familiar structures. This was her hometown, after all.

Grace knew that she was traveling to another universe, but she didn't know the state of the reality she was entering. Her superiors tried her best to prepare her to enter the world where she originated but failed to prepare her for a world they had never encountered.

A war-torn world is what her commanding officer predicted, but this was nothing like anything she'd seen on her tours. The landscape was similar to what was expected- but the creatures inhabiting the remains of a republic were something out of a nightmare.

What was once a thriving neighborhood was now barely recognizable as a residential block. Homes hardly retained their foundation, and there was hardly a distinction between the pavement and the street.

Grace ran to the first still standing house and banged on the door while attempting to twist the knob. The creature pursuing her was persistent and was now joined by several others.

"Help! Please, someone," she pleaded. She could feel her eyes beginning to sting from the incoming tears. Sheer panic coursed through her veins as she kicked at the door. The mahogany door refused to move despite her adrenaline-fueled attempts.

Defeated, Grace jumped the rail and ran around to the back of the house. The garden plants were tall and unkept, and thorns cut through her jeans. She peered through the back window to see a shadowy figure in the house.

"Please! Open the door; I need help!" Grace waved her hands at the individual through the window. She rushed up the back patio to the screen door. As her hand touched the handle, the figure appeared before her on the other side.

Grace fell back in shock at the grotesque man before her. It wasn't as feral as the creatures who chased her earlier, but it was not entirely human either.

Grace picked herself up as the humanoid opened the screen door. The woman pulled out her hunting knife from its holster and held it up in defense.

A noise similar to a laugh came from the monster before her. Grace tried her best to still her trembling limbs but to no avail. The creature pounced on her, knocking them both to the ground.

Face to face with the creature, Grace could tell where the creature's mouth was as it gnashed at her face. She jerked her hand, wielding the blade wildly, praying to wound the beast.

The taste of metal soon flooded the soldier's mouth, and she flailed in an attempt to get rid of the creature.

Suddenly, ringing filled Grace's ears, and the creature fell limp on top of her. Her eyes shot open and took in the bright blue sky above her. Shakily, Grace pulled herself from underneath the creature.

"A thank you would be nice," a disembodied voice echoed. Grace turned to her left and saw a person standing a few feet away from her. A dirty black garter covered the majority of their face, and their eyes were shielded with goggles. The individual tucked a gun into their waistband and approached Grace.

Grace stared at the gloved hand extended towards her and then peered up at the stranger. She cautiously took their hand and stood up.

"There's more of those- those things," said Grace.

"Yeah, you led them here with all your screaming. Are you not from around here?" Grace shook her head.

"No, not at all. Please, do you know somewhere that's safe?"

"Nowhere is really safe, but my camp is better than out here. I can take you back, but you're going to have to answer some questions," they said.

The stranger did not wait for a response and began walking deeper into the neighborhood. Grace steeled herself with a deep breath and followed behind the masked individual.

It was a short walk to the end of the block, where a house sat on the corner. The house was rundown but still standing.

"By the way, I'm Dre," said the masked person. Dre led Grace into the house, where there were several other masked people.

"This girl is clueless about the gnashers and ghouls."

An older woman with coarse hair looked up from her desk and made eye contact with Grace.

"Where are you from?" asked the woman. Suddenly, the calm environment was tense.

"I'm from a different universe," said Grace cautiously. "I came here to investigate some paranormal phenomena from my world." Grace reached in her pocket and pulled out a small, heart-shaped gold locket. The older woman's eyes widened.

"A man suddenly appeared from nowhere with this item, and my country's government wanted to find out more."

The woman stood up and briskly walked towards Grace, and grabbed the arm of her backpack.

"Where did you get this?"

"The man I just mentioned had it," Grace stared into the woman's cold, dark eyes.

"Where's Hakim?" The older woman grit her teeth.

"I don't know who that is," Grace wrapped her hand around the woman's wrist. "I'm not trying to cause harm, I just want some answers. Let me go."

"That's Hakim's locket. Where is he?" The woman raised her voice and tightened her grip on Grace's bag. The other people around the room looked on in silence.

"He's dead," said Grace. "He's in my world, and he's dead." The woman snatched the locket from Grace and took a few steps back.

"Yolanda," Dre started.

"My God," Yolanda opened the locket and stared at the photo. "He did it." Suddenly, Yolanda's demeanor shifted, and she rushed towards Grace and put her hands on her shoulders.

"How is your reality? Is it better than this?"

"I'm assuming so; I don't know what those creatures outside are. What happened here?"

"A lot," the masked person spoke. "But somehow, no one knows exactly what. There's plenty of theories, but most of them blame the government. The one most people believe is that these creatures are mutants from a project the government was working on," they sighed. "but I don't know what people believe now."

"Yeah, that was a popular one when things first went south," an elderly man on a sofa laughed. "It's been a while since people had the time to come up with explanations for the Hell we're living in."

"Hakim thought that these creatures came from another dimension. Honestly, I thought he'd finally lost it," Yolanda took a deep breath. "But looking at you-"

"Science fiction just became a reality," the elderly man mused.

"How did you get here?"

"A portal-"

"Is there a way for us to go to your world?" A young blonde girl spoke from beside the older man.

"I don't know how to get back there myself. I was supposed to be able to communicate with my team, but after a bit, the signal cut out," sighed Grace.

"Even if we were able to, I don't know if it would be the best idea," Yolanda released Grace and went back to her desk. "Following Hakim's theory, the creatures are caused by dimensional leaks. Wouldn't traversing realities cause more of these to form?"

"But Hakim clearly went to her world," said Dre. "At this point, how much worse could the leaks get?"

"We don't even know how severe the leak is that caused these creatures to get here. Imagine if it was just a tiny tear that caused this. Jumping between realities is only going to make everything unstable. What we need to do is close the leaks somehow," Yolanda rubbed her temples.

"If Hakim managed to travel to my world," Grace paused. "Does that mean that my world is in danger as well?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Your world can very well end up how we are or worse," Yolanda said as she flipped over the locket. "To save my world," she read. She covered the locket in her hand and sighed. "We can fix this. There's hope. We need to go to Hakim's lab and see how he traveled to this girl's world. If we can figure out how he created an overpass, maybe we can figure out how to close the ones present here."

"Grace! Grace! Come in, Grace!" A voice cut across the radio in the side pocket of Grace's bag.

"Yes! Hello," Grace pulled the device out of her bag and turned up the volume so that others could hear.

"Grace, you need to retreat. We lost contact because we had to close the portal. This- this thing! Crawled out of it-" Static filled the line.

"I've made contact with some people here. Our world is at risk of infestation by these creatures. Apparently, they're from another dimension or something like that. There may be a way to close the leaks and fix it-"

"There's more! Close it!" Another voice screamed, and the transmission ended.

"We don't have much time."