Dome

by Bryan Young

  “Is that bad?” Brodie asked. “We tell them we got lost and get a free ride down.”

  Tye began shaking his head and backing up as his eyes widened. “No. A strange device gets activated and we’re the only people in the general vicinity. They had to know that thing was there. If I had to guess, I’d say that’s why the patrols exist. They were monitoring it,” he said in a whisper. “If they catch us, something tells me we become just like those missing kids. No way some teens see something like that and they just let them go tell the world. I don’t think we should even let these guys see our faces.” He began to walk backwards, “Yo Jax. You still got the gun?”

  “Uh, yeah, man. Why?” Jax responded suspiciously, apprehensive about what Tye’s request might be.

  “Let me see it,” Tye said, extending his hand. Jax looked at Brodie and Tony, who shrugged. He reluctantly reached down into his pants to grab the weapon and held it out.

  As Tye grabbed the handle and attempted to take it, Jax held onto the barrel, looked Tye dead in the eye and said, “This is absolutely for self-defense only.”

  Tye nodded. “I know. No reckless behavior.”

  Jax relaxed his grip and Tye took the gun.

  He zipped open his bag and dropped it inside. “Alright, we gotta move. Now!” He took off down the trail, telling his friends to follow close behind. Jax cursed and ran after Tye, with Brodie and Tony following. They zoomed downhill, using their phones in an awkward attempt to illuminate their way. They jumped over debris and dips in the road as they followed the trail all the way back to the fork in the road.

  As they approached the fork, they saw flashlights and a car coming towards them. The boys stopped on a dime, their shoes scraping the gravel and kicking up dirt as they spotted five men walking in their direction. The turned off their flashlights and Tye motioned for them to hide amongst some bushes slightly off the trail. The boys laid in silence, not daring to let the passing men even hear them breathe.

  They silently watched the men argue over which trail to go down as they marched. Tye studied them closely, noticing that they weren’t dressed like typical park rangers. They wore camo with thick vests, and a couple were carrying firearms. One of them had a badge that seemed to indicate some type of authority, though he couldn’t quite make out what it said in the dark.

  After a few minutes of deliberation, the man with the badge walked up to the truck and told the driver to take it down the left path while he led the four other men with him down the right. Tye whispered to the rest of the boys that it would be best if they waited a few minutes for the men to move further up on the path so they could make their escape without being spotted. After another few minutes of lying in silence, the boys slowly got up and ran back down the path, only to see yet another troop of men walking down towards them.

  “Shit!” Jax whispered urgently. “The hell do we do?”

  Tye looked around for another hiding spot but all he could see was open space. The only thing concealing the boys was the total darkness of the trail. Impulsively, Tye grabbed the gun from his bag, put it on his belt, and told his friends to run on his mark and not look back. In a moment of blind faith and owing to a lack of real options, the boys quickly agreed.

  “Guys. I’m gonna do something really stupid, but I need you to trust me.” Raising his hand, he counted down from three on his fingers.

  On the mark, the boys dashed towards the figures in front of them. They could hear someone yell at them to stop and that they’d be arrested if they kept going. Once they could make out the figures in front of them in the dim light, they dropped their shoulders and barreled through them like a running back cutting through a crowd.

  Breaking through to the other side, they heard two of the men begin to give chase. “We just gotta make it to the car!” Tony screamed. “Everybody good?”

  Between rapid gasps for breath, Tye screamed back, “They’re gaining on us. You guys keep running towards the car and drive over to the second parking lot further down by the lake! Pull into the entrance as far as you can. I’m gonna cut through the woods! Wait for me with the door open! And make sure you take off the license plates before you come and get me.”

  “The hell are you talking about?” Brodie shot back. Tye skidded to a halt, nearly twisting his ankle in the process.

  “Just. Keep. Running!” he yelled. He pulled the gun from his waist, whipped around, and began randomly firing at the ground. “Back up!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. The men doubled back in fear. One of them upon hearing the gunshots, came rushing over. He fired warning shots back at Tye, yelling at him to drop his weapon and slowly come towards them. Instead, he took off running to the right of the path, going off trail into the woods and firing randomly in the direction of the men to put some distance between them.

  Tye could hear the men blundering after him as he ran through the brush. One of them was barking out orders. Looking back, Tye could see flashlights spreading out, trying to find him. He stopped for a moment to determine the direction of the lights. One was going wide right, one wide left, and another was coming straight down the middle but slightly off his position to the left. He figured it’d be best to run right to create the most distance and prevent the three rangers from converging on him.

  He took off towards the right and kept running until he hit a steep dip in the ground, measuring at least 30 feet deep, with trees and jagged rocks lining its face. He turned to see a flashlight coming towards him. He looked back to the dip and then back to the flashlight. Knowing he didn’t have many options, he cursed, took a deep breath, and then backed up a couple of feet before taking a running start down the dip, making sure to maintain constant momentum so he wouldn’t trip and bash his head against a tree or a sharp rock. He jumped from stone to dry grass to branch, trying to maintain a near superhuman level of balance and precision.

  Nearly at the bottom, his foot caught an upturned root. As he fell forward with his arms outstretched, he could feel his whole body levitate in the air for a few fractions of a second before descending onto a log under him. Instinctively, he placed one hand on a small, smooth portion of the log and placed his other on the ground right before him while thrusting his legs over his head and propelling his body forward. He landed on both feet near the end of dip. The gun slipped out of his pocket and skidded to the bottom of the dip. He picked it up and looked at it with contempt.

  Tye looked back at the hill he had miraculously descended. He paused for a moment, amazed at this incredible feat of dexterity and timing. A feat that seemed reserved for world-class gymnasts. While a generally healthy and athletic kid, he had never before pulled off anything quite like that. He thought back to the metallic object from earlier for a fleeting moment, wondering if it was somehow responsible for his newfound skill but tabled those thoughts quickly upon remembering that he was on the run and needed to meet his friends before they got caught by the dozens of personnel patrolling the park. Seeing a light slowly come over the top of the hill, Tye ducked into the foliage and took off once again towards the lake.

  He approached the clearing that led to the lake. He could see three men standing guard, blocking his path to the parking lots. Two of the men held large guns. Tye quickly crouched behind a nearby bush and pulled out the gun from his pocket, checking the bullets in the magazine once more, hoping he’d miscounted earlier in case he got into a shootout with the men.

  Tye racked his brain for a plan of attack. He cursed, realizing that he would likely have to use the last of his ammunition and that if his plan didn’t work, he’d be left defenseless. He took a deep breath and gripped the gun tightly, shaking his leg nervously. He attempted to stand, but he felt his body tense up as anxiety kept him anchored to the ground. He bared his teeth and willed himself to move. Steeling his nerves, he slowly stood up and fired two shots just left of the three men.

  As he had predicted, they began to retreat right and Tye took off to the left of the lake, hoping the men would remain
under the impression that they were taking fire. He fired another shot in their direction and made a dash for the parking lot.

  Realizing what was happening, the two men with guns began firing in Tye’s general direction but missed due to the lack of light and his erratic running. The third man began chasing after him, yelling for him to stop. As he ran, Tye turned his head to see that the man was quickly catching up. Letting out a yelp, he contemplated firing another round but feared he would kill the man. Catching a glimpse of the parking lot in the distance, Tye knew he had to clear some space before attempting to get into the car. Only, he didn’t have any real way of doing so.

  As he drew closer the parking lot, he could see the car under a dim light with his friends yelling and motioning for him to jump in. Knowing that safety was but a few moments away, Tye accelerated forward with an extra boost of adrenaline, nearly doubling the space between himself and the man chasing him.

  As he mentally screamed at himself to run, yet another wave of adrenaline hit him, and he shot forward even faster, this time tripling the distance. Mere feet away from the car, Tye dove directly into the open door, and Brodie slammed it shut as Jax peeled off into the night. Just as they made their exit, they saw no less than ten unmarked cars with tinted windows enter the parking lot along with five men dressed in outfits similar to those of the men in the forest.

  “Holy shit!” Tye gasped after springing up in his seat. He looked around at his friends with a wide grin and let out a howl. “Did you guys see what we fucking did?!” Excitement taking over his body, he began to shake his fists in the air. “I’m hyped son!”

  Completely baffled by everything, Nathan demanded an explanation—a request that Tye was all too happy to fulfill. He began to recount the fantastical tale of the buzzing, the crater, the floating metal object, and his epic shootout with supposed park rangers.

  As Tye continued to embellish an already extraordinary story, Jax mentioned that they were about to pass a 24-hour gas station convenience store and that it might be a good idea to put their license plates back on and take a breather.

  “I agree, Jax. Pull over,” Brodie said softly.

  “Oh damn. You excited to help me put on some license plates, Brodie? What a pal,” Jax said.

  “Oh yeah, man. I just love putting on license plates,” Brodie replied sarcastically. “Just, uh. Pull over right here and I’ll help you out.”

  Obliging, Jax pulled into the parking lot and let Brodie out of the car, who proceeded make a mad dash to a nearby trash can and threw up.

  The boys got out to comfort their friend and take a moment to process the events that had taken place. “Okay. We have to talk about what we saw,” Jax said sternly and without the apparent amusement that Tye seemed to be finding in the situation. “What the hell did we see?”

  “Fucking aliens!” Tony snapped back. He began to pace back and forth with his hands on his head, staring at the ground. “We just saw fucking aliens. Th-They... They’re real. They’re h-he-here. Holy shit. Holy shit! Holy! Shit!!”

  “Yeah. I think I have to agree with Tony,” Jax said with a sigh. “I think uh... I think we just saw aliens.” He looked over to Tye who was leaning against the car, scrolling on his phone in an attempt to distract himself from the conversation. “Tye. You had what I think we can consider a close encounter of the freaky kind. What say you?”

  Tye looked up from his phone and looked around at his friends standing around him. Then he shook his head and shrugged, softly saying, “I say... Aliens?” He gave out a shrill laugh and continued, “I honestly don’t know what to say. What is there to say?”

  Wiping the spit from his mouth, Brodie walked over and leaned on the car next to Tye. “I never got the chance to ask but... You good, man? After... what happened?”

  Tye gave out another nervous laugh and said, “I’m feeling as good as I can. I’m not the one throwing up in trash cans, so I’ll say I’m alright. Surprisingly, I feel pretty... normal. But I guess we’ll see if I grow any extra hands or feet in the morning.”

  “So what do we do now?” Nathan asked. “We can never unsee what we just saw and we obviously stumbled on something freaking insane. Where do we all go from here?”

  “I dunno,” Tye said. “I think we should keep this on the downlow for the most part. For now we should just try to keep everything moving like normal. Unless something that requires our attention comes up, let’s just the convo about this casual. We survived. No need to freak out. Sound good?”

  Brodie gave Tye a light punch in the shoulder. “Look at you taking charge. Sounds good to me.” He then jumped forward and threw his hands in the air, yelling, “But what’s really good is how you got us the hell out of there man! Did you see yourself, bro?! You were all ‘stay the hell away.’ Holding your strap like that?! Then you dipped and got them all to chase you and with that one dude at the lake?! Bro! You was like a real-life superhero out there, boy!” Jax and Tony backed Brodie up with cheers and a round of applause.

  Tye smiled. Slightly embarrassed, he said, “Chill, my dudes. Chill. I just wasn’t gonna let you guys get hurt because of something I got us into. If someone had to make a sacrifice, I felt it was gonna be me. You guys are my brothers and I’ll be damned before anything happens to you.”

  “Doesn’t not make you a hero,” Tony said with a smile.

  Tye shook his head. “Nah, man. I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy doing what I think is right. Protecting what’s valuable to me. I don’t think about what that makes me. I just think about the result.”

  “Always humble,” Nathan said with a smirk. “By the way. While you guys were going on alien adventures. I saw something wild from the car!”

  “What was it?” Brodie asked.

  “Some crazy lights shot up into the sky and kinda... dispersed. It was almost like seeing reverse shooting stars.” The air suddenly became heavy as the gravity of Nathan’s words hit the boys.

  “The pods?” Tye proposed. “If what you’re saying is true, then... You guys don’t think—”

  “They’re going to find other people?” Jax said, cutting him off.

  “Yeah,” Tye responded, bowing his head.

  “But what would they want?” Nathan asked.

  “Hell if I know!” Tye responded. “I’m not gonna say ‘This is just the beginning,’ because honestly? That’s super cheesy and cliché but I do feel like there’s gonna be a lot more to this story.” Pausing, he looked up at the sky and saw a light streak across the darkness. “And I feel like whatever happens, it’s gonna be bigger than any of us could ever imagine.”

  Chapter 4: Changes

  Tye was woken up by an obnoxious buzzing coming from under him. He rolled off his bed in surprise before realizing that it was just his phone ringing. He yawned and reached under his sheets to feel around, pulling out his phone which was nearly dead from being left unplugged for most of the night. His eyes burned from the bright blue light and saw that it was an out of state number, likely coming from a telemarketer. Contemplating switching off his device and going back to sleep, he figured he might as well check for important messages. There was a message from Brodie.

  Brodie: SOS!!!! MEET ME AT THE COURTS AT 12!!!!

  Shifting his eyes to the clock in the corner of his screen, he saw that it was 11 AM. He let out a loud groan, knowing that this SOS was likely some ridiculous ploy by Brodie to do something stupid. As his dad walked by his room, he stopped to ask him if everything was alright.

  Tye assured him that the only problem he was facing was eventual death from sleep deprivation. His dad gave him a confused look and a quick speech about how 11 AM wasn’t actually an early time to wake up and how he should really get to bed earlier if he wanted to be a productive member of society. Slipping in and out of consciousness and barely listening, Tye hid his face in the bed. His dad shrugged and walked out the room, more perplexed than when he had walked in.

  Tye rubbed his eyes and sighed while staring at the ceili
ng in a dreamlike daze. He took another deep breath and sat up. Plugging his phone into his charger and grabbing a towel from his dresser, he headed to the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth. He caught his reflection in the bathroom mirror and paused. Suddenly, he felt a deep pressure in his skull. Weakness overcame his lower body, and he had to use the bathroom counter to steady himself. He felt the pain intensify as more images from the night before played rapidly in his mind. The more he saw, the more he wanted to collapse to the floor until the flashes of his contact with the floating alien machine disappeared.

  He could visualize the scene in his mind clear as any picture he had ever seen. And yet, following the recollection of this episode was a strange sense of peace. The pain faded. He stared at his reflection. He began to inspect everything, as if to give himself whatever little comfort he could by confirming that he was indeed himself. He felt his neck, around his shoulders, and his biceps to find that he was incredibly sore. His whole body felt as though it had just gone through the most intense workout he had ever experienced. He shifted his focus to his chest, feeling around for the intrusion point from the night. But he didn’t find any indication that he had been stabbed at all. He repeated the process with his back, first feeling around and then turning around to examine it in the mirror. Again, he found nothing.

  Is it possible that I imagined that part? Maybe it was some super lucid dream and me being there is a false memory?

  He thought for a moment but ultimately was unable to arrive upon a logical conclusion. He hopped into the shower, washed his hair, and brushed his teeth and then proceeded to grab a pair of jeans and a hoodie along with his backpack.

  As he was about to walk out of the house, he noticed a message from Gemma.

  Gemma: Hey, Tye! Glad to know you made it out the hills alive haha

  Gemma: I saw the pics too! It’s actually a lot prettier than I thought it would be :)