Rúndasburg
Trigger/content warnings: None that I could think of but if there are some I failed to mention please do let me know.
Pages: 1 Words: 1,051 Reading time according to Ellipsus: 5 minutes Setting: Oracle Corp Characters: Jelani, Angelus, Tyrone, Ginger
Written as part of the prompt challenge from @flashfictionfridayofficial!
It once had a name. It was once home to hundreds of people. It was once full of life, the chatter of everyday lives going about their daily routines, local wildlife would sometimes wander a little too close and then scatter off at the sight of far too many humans for their liking, the local Veery would fly above the town and even make nests around town and flew through it. Now? Its history was lost to most, it's name all but forgotten and those who remembered uttered it in whispers laced with fear or regret.
After the town was abandoned most residents moved to Ashstone while some moved out of the state of Maine altogether. The older locals hardly ever spoke of the town and if forced to drive past it none would dare look in the direction it was located in. The sign that once stood proudly to announce the town, population, and charming little quote of "Let nature's beauty embrace you" held a significantly eerie aura to all who stopped to look at it. If the sign wasn't enough to deter the morbidly curious, the overgrown road leading to the abandoned town surely would. It hadn't been tended to since the mid 60s when the residents of the town of Rúndasburg decided to finally leave. A once small little town close to the border of Canada was abandoned, and in a hurry as well, most cited fears of disappearances, others cited fears of demons and devils roaming the forests surrounding the town, a fair few cited alien activity, and some cited government conspiracies too outlandish to be repeated. Ultimately no one was sure why Rúndasburg was abandoned and as the decades passed and the town became nothing more than an obscure ghost town it was less and less conclusive.
As with most things impossible to explain Oracle had answers and it was nothing like the rumors that had once plagued the town.
Portals, while a natural phenomenon, are extremely dangerous and part of Oracle's duties for keeping the population safe. As researchers and scientists allied to Oracle have uncovered more and more information about them they somehow get more and more impossible to describe and understand. They seem to activate at random though each portal does have a designated destination that could prove either extremely deadly or safe enough for humans and non-humans to safely be in for as little or as long as they find themselves in it. Millions of disappearances throughout the history of the world can be attributed to what Oracle calls an RPA, random portal activities. Most Oracle agents fear portals and opt out of answering the call when an RPA is reported to their areas but there are agents fascinated by the phenomenon and will gladly respond. Others know the dangers and rather than allow innocent civilians to come to harm they'll respond even if they do fear them.
At exactly 0356 the Rúndasburg portal activated once again prompting Oracle agents from the 00 branch to be called in. An exhausted and mildly irritated Jelani looked on as researchers and scientists with appropriate gear scattered about excitedly as they studied the portal. Thanks to a clever collaboration between technology and the arcane portals could be seen and some could even be manipulated to a certain degree to allow people to see and study them and in some cases force them open long enough to allow search and rescue operations to be conducted. As of the year 2025 it was rare to find a portal that was impossible to manipulate.
"I swear, this fuckin' thing does this shit on purpose." Jelani muttered, mostly to himself, as he looked on at the massive portal surging with energy as it seemed to hover over the center of the abandoned town.
"Yeah, hon, it does it just to fuck with you specifically." Angelus laughed as he handed his husband a bottle of water. "Don't worry it's probably just acting up, hopefully it's not serious."
"I hope so!" Tyrone yelled as he made his way towards Jelani and Angelus. "It's been years since I been inside one of these bad boys. I'm dying to go back in!"
"Ty? This one has three colossal inter-dimensional entities that devour every living thing they can. They're like mbwa mwitu, they never get tired of chasing their prey and have to be tied down because so far we haven't found a way to actually kill them. You really wanna go in there?"
"Right you are, love!" Tyrone laughed loudly as he wrapped an arm around Jelani and brought him into a tight side hug. He looked at Angelus and did the same thing while watching the portal with an intense look of excitement.
Jelani was beginning to fall asleep when Ginger walked up to the trio and with worry in her tone and her expression she asked that they follow her as there was some bad news the lead researcher had about the portal. The four of them walked down to the tent set up to house some electronic equipment, among them were three monitors all displaying a strange land with what appeared to be some sort of sky that was best described as swirling paint. Two monitors had what looked like colossal insectoid like creatures that towered above the tree lines with some sort of glimmering encasement around it, the third monitor was empty. As Jelani looked at that third monitor he let out a frustrated sigh and looked at the lead researcher who lowered his gaze as he shook his head.
"Let Aleksey know what's happening. Tyrone, Angelus, Ginger, Jasmine, and I are going in. Hopefully it didn't get too far. Did it try to get out?"
"No, sir. The two portals were shrouded, these things can't see them and if they get close there's a trap set in place to deter them. Best case is it won't find the exits and if it somehow does the trap will stop it from getting closer."
"Fine." Jelani looked down at his phone momentarily as he quickly wrote a text to Loke. He then looked up at Angelus and the others he had assigned for the task and in a less than amused though serious tone followed it up with, "Arm up."
