There's a door. Sitting in a plain doorframe. Seemingly disconnected from any building, and looking suspiciously unweathered.

Huh. Maddie doesn't know how she didn't see it there before now. And, more pertinently, why someone would go to the trouble of... lugging a door and a doorframe up to the peak and installing it there, when it'd probably get destroyed in a few days by the environment.

She walks around to the other side. There's no knob on that end. Just the back of the door. 

She tries the knob, and the door swings open—

—into another world altogether.

A different mountaintop, a lot greener and stonier than the snow covered peak she's standing on.

She takes a few staggered steps back. Um. Okay.

Maddie walks around to the other side of the door. No portal there. Just, the back of the door.

Her brain attempts to generate an explanation, and fails miserably. No no no, she doesn't want to die up here. If she even is up here, and not just hallucinating this entire thing. Well. Ok. Call emergency services.

"I think I might be hallucinating or something," she says.

"Ok. Describe what you're seeing. And, wait, are you spoofing your location or something, or are you actually on top of [Mount Chimboranzo] right now?"

"I think I am! As far as I know. There's a door that appears to be a portal of some sort, going to somewhere else?"

"Is that a metaphor-"

Maddie turns on her camera and shows the operator.

"...Can you walk around it?"

She walks around slowly, showing the back of the door.

"Do you have a selfie stick with you?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, I want you to place your phone on the selfie stick, and walk around the door again, keeping yourself in the field of view, and.... with your nondominant arm I want you to stick it out straight. Yeah. Just like that, and then turn your elbow to angle your forearm down to the ground, forming a right angle. Good. Now... no, wait, take off the glove on your nondominant hand. Yes, i know it's cold, it'll only be a minute and then you can put it back on. Yes, you can put down the camera to do it. Ok, place your arm in the same position, turn your hand to face the camera, and then press your thumb and fourth finger together. Good girl. Ok, now slowly walk around the doorway, keeping yourself, your hand, and the door in the field of vision, and maintaining the position. Yes. Good job. Ok, you can put your glove back on now."

The operator forwards all of this information to his superior, marked with "??????? I have no idea what's going on, urgent." Some discussion is done. They ask the operator to make Maddie do a few more tests, unconvinced this isn't some sort of elaborate prank. 

"Alright, we're sending a team to take two helicopters up to the summit, one of which will take you back down, but it'll take a couple hours. Please stay up there in the meantime."

Maddie sits there. Does she want to go in to take a look, she wonders? Does she want to ask if she can? They'd probably say no, anyways. But does she want to?

Nah. She's a bit curious about what it looks like on the other side. But she'll leave that up to the professionals. Maybe one day they'll let her know what's there.

She waits for about 3 hours before she hears the thrum of a helicopter coming up the mountain. They drop a ladder for her and she climbs into one of them, which neatly swoops down and returns to the bottom of the mountain. She's taken to a hospital, and put to sleep.

The envoys from Passerine have arrived in the Betweenlands!

(Well, their local instance of it, at least. They haven't merged with the other instances yet.)

They seem to be pretty cautious of it, though. Mostly just hanging around the door. Oh right, description. Ahem.