Dome

by Bryan Young

  “Sheesh. I dunno if I’m gonna be able to do this. In fact, I’m definitely not gonna be able to do this,” Tye said, folding his arms. “But... On the off chance that my strength has increased as much as my other abilities, I suppose it’s worth testing out. And I’m still talking to myself. Yikes.” He then took another look upwards and slumped over. “Craaaaap. I’ma prolly throw out my back or sum’n.”

  He spat into both his hands, rubbed them together, and then placed them firmly on the base of the tree, digging his feet into the dirt and pushing with all his might. At first, he felt no movement, but as he continued to push, he could hear the roots anchoring it to the ground snap. He let out an exasperated grunt and after another 10 seconds of pushing, he completely uprooted the tree, jumping back as it fell onto its massive brothers and got caught on a pair of intersected trees on the way down.

  “Sweeeeet!” he said to himself, unsure if he was more impressed with his feat of strength or the fact that the tree had gotten caught just as he had hoped it would. He stepped back to take a second to marvel at what he had accomplished before jumping onto the base and rushing up what was now a walkable path. Taking off from its midsection, he landed on the highest branch of one of the trees it had been caught on.

  Now with a clear vantage point, he looked silently out onto the new world he had entered, truly appreciating the wonders of this new strange place. He attempted to take in every detail before saying, “This is all... amazing. A whole new world of life never before seen by humans… And it’s somehow more fascinating and marvelous than any of our wildest dreams. And yet... The biggest question is, why?”

  He noticed the black object he had initially seen upon entering the dome. His eyes widened as memories of the events at the crater flooded back, causing his jaw to drop. “That’s the centerpiece of the egg thing I saw!” he said, thinking aloud. “But I didn’t see it leave the crater when I was there last... Unless...” He rubbed his chin in thought. “Unless that’s the fifth light reported in the news. Could such a small thing have produced all this though? I mean... It’s obviously important enough to be connected to the rest of the dome. This is just a thought, but if we can find a way to take that out, then maybe we can find a way to take this whole thing down?”

  Holding tight to one of the tree’s branches to steady himself, he raised a hand and shot a beam of energy at the thing, only to see it bounce off meters away from the actual device. “Hm. Looks like it has some kind of field protecting it. Which definitely makes me think it’s something that the creators of this place think is worth protecting. But I bet if we can get some weapons in here, maybe a bomb or something, we can take it out. The question is how the hell do I get out and how do we get stuff in?”

  Before jumping down to make his way back to the edge of the dome, Tye noticed two figures racing through the jungle not too far from him. “Animals hunting each other in here?” he wondered, mimicking binoculars with his hands.

  He strained his eyes to focus on what was happening beneath him. He spotted an extremely large and agitated purple boar-like creature with four large tusks protruding from its slobbering mouth. Multiple jelly-filled sacks and thick long hairs stuck out from it, making it look somewhat like a porcupine. “Jesus Christ! What a monster!” Tye said, impressed. “But what has it so pissed off?”

  Shifting his imaginary binoculars ahead, he saw a feminine-looking humanoid figure in a pink hoodie and yoga pants running in a clearly distressed manner. “Oh man, these creatures are weird! That thing almost looks like a person!” He tightened his hands around his eyes to simulate focusing his binoculars and in near shock, he shouted, “Oh shit! That is a person!”

  Shooting straight up, Tye jumped from his perch, rocketing forward and landing with a thunderous boom only mere meters away from the chase. He took off after the two.

  Running through the trees, shrubs, and vines, his ears picked up on the heartbeat and breathing of the girl and the powerful gallops of the creature as it let out loud bestial furious grunts. He made a sharp turn, jumping off a small ledge and landing in a much thicker part of the underbrush. The two faced off. The girl was cornered, her path cut off by a large wall of rock.

  Without the slightest hesitation, Tye rushed in front of the girl and faced the alien boar, which was much larger than he had originally estimated. It easily stood six feet tall and over twelve feet long in addition to its massive girth, likely well over 1,000 pounds in weight. Two angry red eyes burned in its head with the desire to gore them both.

  Tye held his fists up in an awkward defensive position, ready to go to war with the monster. “Don’t worry! I got this!” he yelled.

  From behind him, a strangely unperturbed voice replied calmly, “You got this? And what exactly are you gonna do?”

  Confused, Tye yelled back, “Does it matter? Just run! Trust me. I can fight this thing!”

  “Oh really? My hero! You’ve come to save the princess crying for help from her castle!” the voice mocked sarcastically.

  Unsure of what exactly was happening, Tye noticed that the creature was about to charge. It let out a final booming squeal and took a step forward, forcing him to change his stance and put out his arms, preparing to blast the creature. Suddenly, he heard a snap, and in an instant the beast went flying up into the air, caught in a trap hanging some ten feet above the ground. The girl walked past him and over to the creature which, though struggling in the trap, could do nothing to free itself. Inspecting what she had caught, she spoke again, “It turns out that this princess never actually needed any saving in the first place. But I appreciate the attempt!”

  “Um. What the hell just happened?” Tye asked, walking over to the girl as she turned to face him. He was immediately struck by her beauty. She had a thin athletic build and stood about 5’7”. She had flawless fair skin, straight long blonde hair that fell to her chest, and soulful blue eyes that resembled two dancing nebulae in the everlasting glow of the cosmos. She stood with a sly smile that encapsulated her strong but playful demeanor. He blushed, thrown off by her allure. “Whoa!” he unintentionally said out loud.

  “Whoa?” she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

  “Yeah uh... As in... Um... Whoa! I didn’t expect to see another person in here!”

  “Well, here I am!” she said, her arms extended to her sides. “Honestly, I’m kind of surprised to see someone else here too. Though I’ve found some other reasons to believe I may not be alone.” She stuck out her hand for Tye to shake. “I’m Ashley. Ashley Rosé. My friends just call me Ash.”

  Tye shook her hand timidly. Still confused, he said slowly, “Hi, I’m uh... I’m Tye. Look, I’m sorry but... What just happened?”

  “Uh, I caught dinner?” She then walked over to the still-trapped and struggling beast, raised a hand up to it, and a bright orange energy surrounded her palm before she shot a ball of pure energy at the beast, instantly silencing it, singeing off all its hairs, and popping the sacks on its back.

  “What I’ve learned through observation is that those sacks and hairs are its defense mechanisms. Obviously, the spikes don’t make it look like the most appealing thing to put in your mouth, but those sacks are pretty sensitive and burst to release a pretty nasty toxin. So if a creature does decide it wants to bite it, it quickly realizes this is not the meal it’s looking for. And that’s if you can deal with its size and aggression. That’s why I have to burn them off before I can actually cook the thing.”

  Flabbergasted at what was transpiring, Tye put his hands on his hips and asked, “How the hell do you know so much about that thing? And you just shot a freakin’ ball of energy up at the space pig monster! How did you do it?!”

  “How did I do it?”

  “Yes! How did you do it?!”

  “I do it by uh... I... I don’t really know? Honestly, it’s a pretty freaky thing and it’s something I can’t really explain. Just that once I got in here, I felt... Different? Yeah. Different. And before I knew
it, I was shooting beams of energy from my hands and flying.”

  “You can fly?! What the hell! I can’t fly!” Tye bawled.

  “Wait, so like you can do other stuff?”

  “Yeah, I have a few abilities. Super strength, super speed—which is how I found you—super jumping, energy beams, eye beams, super hearing, super sight, super endurance, and maybe a few other things.”

  “Wow. I mean, I’ll trade you all of that for flight!”

  “You’ve got yourself a slap-happy-butt-smacking-deal, good madam!” Tye joked, causing a genuine fit of laughter from the plucky girl.

  She went over to the fresh kill and flew up to the vine, holding up the trap, using a small beam of energy from her fingers to cut it down, making the carcass drop to the jungle floor with a thud. “I kinda planned to just fly this over to my camp, but since you can’t fly, it might be kind of an awkward trip.”

  “Wait, does that mean you want me to come with?” Tye asked.

  “I do! But only because I haven’t really seen any other people yet, and it’s probably a smart idea for us to stick together. But I’m gonna need you to do one little thing for me. To prove your worth.”

  Tye raised an eyebrow and nodded, unconvinced. “Okay... What is it?”

  “Take that vine and drag our friend to camp. You said you have super strength, right? So it shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

  Scoffing at her proposition, Tye folded his arms. “What? Wait, but you said you can carry this thing back to camp! Doesn’t that mean you’re strong enough to lift it too?”

  “I can do it. But I don’t want to do it,” she said with a shrug. “Plus, you’re coming to my campout, so I feel like it’s the least you can do. Especially when I did all the hunting,” she said with a wink. Tye rolled his eyes and smiled, taking the vine from her hand and wrapping it around his waist as they started walking through the woods.

  “You’re sure these vines aren’t going to tear with me dragging this thing?” he asked.

  “They shouldn’t. They have a lot more tensile strength than anything in the outside world. That’s how I knew my net would be able to hold up that boarlien.”

  “Boarlien?”

  “Yeah! It’s like an alien that looks like a boar so... boarlien!” she responded with a smile.

  Tye laughed and repeated the name in a playfully mocking tone. “You know, that’s super lame. But I also kinda dig it, so well done, Ash. Well done.”

  The two walked and spoke for what felt like hours before eventually arriving at a small cave entrance partially obstructed by foliage. Tye walked in behind Ashley, giving the boar one final heave and deciding to leave it by the entrance. Ash was standing in the middle of the cave, two balls of energy burning in each palm. She floated them upwards, creating two bright sources of light. She then proceeded to gather up sticks into a large makeshift fire pit and ignited it with another blast of energy.

  While she began preparing the semi-fresh kill, Tye took a seat on a flat protruding rock and looked over the cave. He noticed that the ceiling above him was entirely crystalline and radiated a faint pinkish light that also helped illuminate their surroundings. The ground was clean, save for the remains of a few odd-looking traps that Tye took to be prototypes for Ashley’s working model.

  He then looked over at her and saw that she was beginning to gut the alien pig with a large sharpened rock. Not wanting to sit in silence, he asked awkwardly, “So! This is your place? It’s... homey?”

  “Well, I hope it’s not too homey,” Ashley responded.

  “Oh? Why’s that?” Tye pushed.

  “I don’t exactly want to be here for much longer than I have to,” she replied, slightly irritated. “If you couldn’t tell, living in a cave kinda sucks.” She motioned towards the creature in front of her, “Doing this to survive? It’s not my first choice for a vacation.”

  “Hey, I’m right there with you. I was kinda hoping this would be a couple-hours-maximum kinda thing.” Tye paused to watch her take off her hoodie and pull out the creature’s organs. “You need help with that?”

  “Not really. It’s more of a one-person job,” she said coldly.

  “Ah. You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re slightly annoyed.”

  “Oh, you could tell? It’s like I said, I don’t really want to be here and in the midst of well, still being here... I don’t know. It’s just making me feel like my stay is going to be a lot longer than I expected.”

  Tye frowned, feeling her mood crash. He got up from the slab he was sitting on and sat across from her on the floor. He reached into his bag and pulled out a bag of candy and threw it at her.

  “Ow! What was that for?” she yelled, confused, as she inspected the bag.

  “Break time! I feel like since you’ve done like 55% of the work here...”

  “55%?”

  “55%.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “Maybe, but I also did 45% of the work, so I’ve earned a bit of crazy.”

  She flashed a large smile at this and let out a genuine laugh before digging into the candy, thanking him as she chewed. Content at having brought a smile to her face, Tye proceeded to ask how she had found herself within the dome at the cave.

  “It’s kind of a long story.”

  “A long story? Oh no! It’s not like we have all the time in the world sitting in a cave!”

  This prompted another laugh. “It really isn’t all that interesting. My family is from New York and we were just visiting the area. On what was apparently the absolute worst day to go for a hike, I decided to visit the Angeles National Forest, when some kind of drone, I think, flew over and shot a beam of energy into the sky. I remember just standing there watching as that energy or whatever it was started to form the outside the dome, coming down and surrounding the entire forest...”

  “That sounds intense,” Tye said softly, leaning in. “Though I’m assuming the forest and all the animals didn’t look anything like this. So how’d that happen?”

  Ashley nodded. Before continuing, she placed her hand on the carcass and watched as it started to heat up from the inside. “You’re right. This place has a completely different geography apart from the different plant and animal life. Honestly? I didn’t catch much of it, but it was almost as if the entire forest got re-skinned.”

  “What do you mean re-skinned?”

  “I mean, I watched as everything—the plants, the animals, and the very ground I stood on—changed from under me to become something new. I was in total shock at how something like that was even possible. I tried looking for other people but couldn’t find anyone. It was pure luck that I stumbled across this cave, so I decided to hunker down here till I could find a way out.”

  “And your powers?”

  She removed her hands from the carcass and looked down at them before reaching for the sharpened stone behind her. She began cutting up pieces of the now fully cooked meat and placing them on a slab nearby. “It was kind of by mistake. I got cornered by one of the less friendly creatures and as it was about to pounce, it was almost like instinct took over. I put my hand out and this strange sensation radiated through my spine. It went through my arm and out my palm where it was almost like I was releasing pent up emotion. Luckily for me, that emotion was lethal.

  “A wise man once said there are no mistakes, just happy accidents. I think there’s a lot of good that could come from your powers,” Tye commented.

  “Is that so?” Ashley smiled. “Oh!”

  She jumped up and grabbed a medium-sized stone bowl and ran to the back of the cave. She returned with the bowl full of water, handing it to Tye. He thanked her and gulped it down.

  “Yeah, sorry. I forgot to mention I have a small natural well back there. Don’t worry, the water’s clean,” she said with a smile. “Anyway, as soon as I was in this place, I had this strange feeling that something was different. But I couldn’t exactly place what. Turns out I’m a certified freak. After that,
I figured I might as well take some time to explore my surroundings. I used the rest of the day to study as much as I could and make some traps in case I was here long enough to where I’d need to hunt.”

  “You’re not the only certified freak here! I mean, I’m not exactly normal either. We’ve gotta stand together as strange human beings!”

  “I appreciate your solidarity in weirdness, good sir.”

  He flashed a smile and did a mini bow. “Thank you, fine madam.” He then grabbed a piece of meat, using a large flat rock as a makeshift plate. “And, don’t worry, Ash. We’re gonna find our way out of here, I promise. We’ll figure this out. I’m not gonna let you keep wondering when you’ll get to go home and be with your family.”

  She smiled and walked around the firepit to hug him. “Thank you, Tye.” The two sat next to each other for the next couple of hours, talking and eating with Ashley even teaching Tye how to put a little energy into his clothes to prevent them from disintegrating before they mutually agreed to call it a night and go to sleep.

  Before heading to bed, Ashley walked over to the kill and placed her hands on it. Tye noticed that the boar looked increasingly drier the longer she touched it. After roughly 40 seconds, she pulled out a small backpack from a corner of the cave and used it as a crude pillow. After she had lain down, Tye walked over to the boar and felt it to find that it was completely frozen solid. His eyes grew wide, realizing that not only could Ashley produce energy, she could take it away. Amazed, he whistled to himself and chuckled, curious about what other secrets she was hiding before taking out his sleeping pad and attempting to go to knock out for the night.

  To his surprise, Ashley called out to him from her corner.