The Door

Darren was covering Gerome's back as they traversed the broken land, looking for food and a place they could safe-hold in for the night. He had a large backpack stuffed full with supplies on his back, and an old sniper rifle with only a few shots still worth a damn gripped tight in his hands. Gerome was similarly stocked, but with a shotgun rather than a sniper rifle, and even fewer shots. Truth be told, weapons like theirs weren't worth much in this day and age. Whatever had happened to their world, it was apparent that it had been on the brink of destruction for quite some time, and technology was to blame. Old, physical guns like theirs were prone to misfire and failure, and could just as easily kill the wielder as the target. But they were more likely to find a bullet or two among the land's wreckage than a useable battery for a laser pistol.

Gerome stopped abruptly, and Darren did a quick sweep of the area he could see to make sure there wasn't anything coming. As he glanced over his shoulder to see what had made Gerome stop, the answer quickly became apparent. In the middle of a stretch of sand, bereft of any connected concrete or buildings, was a single door, still upright and seemingly undamaged by the events that had left their world in ruins.

"What is it?" Gerome asked quietly, speaking more to himself than to Darren.

"Well..." Darren replied, "it looks to me like a door."

Gerome glared over his shoulder at his friend and partner. "Yes, doofus, I know that part. But what is it doing out here? We've moved outside of the city, and it hardly looks like it would have even belonged there. What the hell was it a door to?"

Darren shrugged in reply and, after a moment, the two moved closer to it. They searched the area around it, sweeping away sand to see if there was any kind of hint of a structure that had once stood there, but found only hardened sandstone, which the door seemed to have almost chemically fused to. They passed their hands over it, searching for some kind of hidden compartment, but found only solid oak wood under their fingertips. After a bit, and with some hesitation, Darren put his hand on the doorknob.

Gerome looked blankly at him as though he had lost his mind. "It's just a door," he stated flatly. "It's not like it's going to lead us anywhere."

Darren sighed. "Yes, I know," he said. "But the only place left for us to potentially gather information is from the inside of the doorframe."

Gerome hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. Darren slowly and carefully turned the knob, afraid that the door might break from the exertion after years of disuse. As it swung open, the two saw something they had never seen before.

On the other side of the door was a world full of colors and noises and bright lights which they had never witnessed before. It was near blinding and deafening, and yet it drew them to it unavoidably. It was like something from a dream, yet it was something they never could have imagined in their wildest dreams.

Gerome swung around the outside of the door to the back of it. Nothing was there. The world was unchanged from the one he had been raised in. Dead and lifeless and brown. He looked through the door from the other side, and he could see nothing. But swinging back around to the front, he was once more exposed to this new and different experience that not even the stories of the elders could compare to.

The two looked at each and nodded in silent agreement. Guns prepared in hand, they stepped through the door.

The other side was a different world entirely. It wasn't just a narrow corridor as it had looked from the other side. It was all encompassing. Bright and colorful and loud, like a million societies bundled all together inside of it and around them. They looked back at the door as it swung shut behind them. It looked completely inconspicuous - a door to an abandoned building that not even they would think to enter. But peeking through once more, they could see their world, still there on the other side.

They took a moment to try and take in the surroundings, but it was overwhelming. They gripped their guns tightly, like their lives depended on them, and waited for their ears to adjust.

Darren looked at his friend, his head pounding. Gerome looked hardly any better. But a thought was coming to him.

"Do you think... this is the old world?"