After parking at one of the trial heads that was out of the way but still boardering the Nantahala National Forest, Mark pulled on his pack and helped Emmy adjusted some straps to make the hike a little easier.  They'd stopped by the ranger station to file a hike plan.  The rangers told them about being careful of bears and fires.<br/><br/>There was a pistol and ammunition in Mark's back pack for security, along with some clothes, a cooking pot and a light weight tent. They had some freeze-dried rations but he wanted to set up camp and set up some snares to try to catch a rabbit or two.  He was setting his third snare along a game trail that went along-side a cliff.  He put my hand against the moss-covered surface to give him some balance and almost fell into the cliff.  The cave was so well hidden that even knowing that it was there didn’t allow him to see the entrance.<br/><br/>There were two rock surfaces that overlapped with moss and vines that hid the entrance as well.  He used the snare to mark the entrance and went back to camp for the night.  Emmy and he sat around the fire and he told her about the cave he'd found.  The fire felt good and the noise of nature filled they're ears instead of the commotion of civilization.  They went to be after making the fire safe and slept peacefully cuddling in the double sleeping bag.<br/><br/>After watering a tree and checking his traps and finding them all empty, Mark went back and helped Emmy  break camp and they went to pick up the last trap that he'd left tied to the tree.  He left it there but sprung the trap.  After getting his flashlight out, he slipped between the rocks and into a passage way.  Around a corner and then another 20 feet to a room that looked to be about twenty feet tall and wall to wall.  It felt like a perfect cube.  Emmy was next to him with her hand on his shoulder when he was shining his light all around when I heard a voice, “Congratulations.”<br/><br/>The light shown in the direction of the voice, a place where it had shown just a few seconds earlier.  There stood a man.   He wasn’t tall or short, he was just ordinary.  He wore jeans and runners with a t-shirt and hoodie.  He said, “My name is Ben.  There is no reason to be afraid.”<br/><br/>Curiosity was probably a better word than fear but Mark stepped in front of Emmy in a position to defend her if needed.  “I’m Mark, how did you get in here?”<br/><br/>“I’m what you would call an alien.  You are the first person to find this cave or portal.  It was created many centuries ago.  Since you found it, the portal belongs to you.  Only you can use it.  There are other portals but this is the last one to be found.”<br/><br/>“A portal, to where?  What does it do and how does it work?  Is this some reality gotcha TV show?”<br/><br/>“Mark, there are many parallel universes that you and Emmy will be transported to.  If you pick the date and location, you will be transported there.  You can do what you want and it will not change the history here.  You can go for a minute or fifty years but when you return here, you will arrive back at the same time you left.<br/><br/>“You can die but you will not get any diseases while you are traveling, you won’t get sick, you can’t get anyone pregnant and you won’t age.  You can only travel backwards and back to this portal.  Do you have any questions?”<br/><br/>“I’m sure I’ll have a hundred if this place is real.  I don’t know how I will survive.  The English language isn’t that old and will run out of bullets soon enough.  I only brought a box of fifty for my 9mm.”<br/><br/>Ben took a couple paces while he thought.  “The vocabulary is easy.  You will be able to speak and understand any language that the person you are speaking with is using.  Your clothes will adjust to the times, like what happened to me when I came here.  You won’t look or sound out of place.  Let me see your pack.  I might be able to fix your last problem as well.”<br/><br/>Mark was hesitant but Ben had been nice so far.  Ben started to unpack the large main section of the backpack.  When completely opened, it was almost three feet tall and had the circumference just smaller than a five-gallon bucket.  When it was empty, he took a few steps and disappeared.  He reappeared a second later.<br/><br/>“Well it took a while but I have fitted your pack with a replicator.  It will recreate what has been in here before.  If you put a box of bullets in here and then shoot one, ten or all of them and then put the box back in the pack, it will create a completely full brand new box of ammo.  If you tear your shirt, it will come out as good as new.”<br/><br/>“Thanks, how long were you gone?  It was only a second here.  How did you go and come back?”<br/><br/>“It took about a year to build it and install it.  Time stands still here.  I will give you two bracelets one for each of you.  Say where and when you want to go and touch them together.  To come back here just say, ‘Home portal.’  The bracelets will disappear once you put them on and you will forget they are there.  Those are the instructions, you can’t bring anything living through the portal with you so no wives and kids coming back with you or a pet dog.  Other than that, I don’t have anything else to show you.  Good luck.”<br/><br/>With that, he was gone.  They waited to see if he would be back but it was just silence except for their hearts beating.  They went back outside putting on the bracelets in the light.  They talked about what the implications were about everything.  Mark took out my knife and carved a heart in the tree.  He know it is a horrible thing to do but finding the entrance is impossible unless you have it marked.<br/><br/>They had a plan put together in their minds and had thought it through the best that they could.  Back inside, they stood in the middle of the room or portal wearing their backpacks and said where and when they wanted to go.  As they touched the bracelets together, there was a flash of light and then they weren't in the cave.  They were in Vegas a few months earlier at the beginning of March Madness.