C James - Dome Six

“When we run, we run together. Let’s go!”

They entered the arched tunnel, the lights from the headlamps bouncing off the smooth sides at jarring angles. The car that had disappeared earlier wasn’t the back of a long train — it was all by itself. That erased any question that Downing was on it. Though it was still going slowly, it seemed the best they could do running as a group was to match its pace. Hideki was quite fast when he needed to be, but he couldn’t break away from their pack to try and chase it down.

Tosh wasn’t in shape for running. The adrenaline kept pumping, but her muscles were starting to scream. The dry air made her lungs feel raw. They wouldn’t catch up to the train, but they still had to stay as close to Hideki as possible.

“Keep going, Tosh,” Byron urged. “You’ve got this.”

“Come on, Mom!” yelled Owen, who barely looked winded despite having one arm still in a sling. Working in the Towers had him in great shape.

But Susan and Greg were struggling, too. Dee and Vi were at their side, urging them along.

The tunnel ahead curved gently right, and as they rounded it they realized that dim light was coming back toward them, distant and tinged pale blue.

The door!

The realization gave fresh speed to Tosh’s legs and the burning, like everything else, fell away. Oh, to see the sky and know if she really saw a tree! She didn’t care what happened as long as it included these things.

As they rounded the corner, they saw the exit. The light they’d seen could only be from the moon but there it was, silhouetting the train car. She wished it was daylight but reasoned the Burn might be more hospitable at night.

But she also could see that the train was picking up speed as it barreled toward the open door and that they had no chance of catching it. Downing was going to get away.

Hideki, who was leading the pack, suddenly pulled up and stopped, then fell to his knees in front of a box beside of the tracks.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, panting.

“We can’t catch it, but maybe we can stop it,” he said, grinning. “I think this is a pressure switch.”

Tosh leaned in closer. A mechanical switch was set into the track and she instantly put together that it must open the door to the outside. Once the circuit was broken, it triggered the door.

“Can you reverse the polarity?” she asked.

“No time,” he said. “We’ve gotta short it out.”

Tosh whirled to Byron. “Byron, your tools! We need something flat and metal.”

He whipped off his pack and handed him a set of pliers. “Will this work?”

She grabbed it and handed it to Hideki. “Perfect,” he said, and slowly wedged it into a space under the lever. Up ahead, it appeared the train would shoot free of the exit any moment.

“Hurry!” she said.

Hideki said, “The contacts should be just inside. I’m gonna give it a kick. Everyone stand back.”

He kicked the wrench under the lever. There was a bright flash and a buzzy pop , and suddenly the light at the end of the tunnel shrank.

“It’s working!” exclaimed Owen.

“Come on, close,” Tosh muttered.

The doors didn’t close fully before the train plowed into them, but they closed enough. They opened inward, so when the car hit, it slammed them back shut. But its momentum was too great. The doors snapped off their hinges like toys as the car smashed through. Tosh felt the impact deep in her chest. The sound was like a thunderclap, so loud and focused by the tunnel that they instinctively cowered. The car canted hard to the right then tumbled over four or five times before coming to rest on its side.

Tosh and the others slowly opened their eyes and saw what happened, then resumed moving toward the exit — first at a brisk walk, then building their way back up to a run. In the moonlight, they could make out the black outline of the overturned car.

Lush, green grass swayed around it like a wave.

They continued toward the ruined tunnel exit, unsure what it could mean. Maybe Downing was dead and maybe he wasn’t. The engine wasn’t moving very fast when it hit, and it seemed to tumble over in slow motion. But that wasn’t why they were running. They were drawn to the light like moths. It wouldn’t have mattered if the atmosphere was pure CO 2or chlorine gas.

They just wanted to see it.

There was still no sign of Downing but they’d deal with that soon. For now, there was no greater priority than knowing the truth.

Tosh and the others spilled out into the night and took a deep breath. It smelled delicious and felt cool against their skin. Cold, even. A swirling breeze caused stands of towering trees nearby to sway and creak. Knee-high grass swallowed their feet. And overhead was the nearly full moon, shining down on them like a spotlight. Sunlight stirred lazily over the hills.

If there was a Burn, it was not at their doorstep. It was nowhere to be seen.

For a long time, no one spoke. Their eyes drank in the sights like water. Foreign sounds poured into their ears. Fresh, organic smells they lacked the words to describe filled their nostrils. The world wasn’t a ruin — at least not here. To them, it seemed closer to paradise.

Suddenly Downing’s machinations felt small.

“Is this real?” Owen asked, tears trickling down his face.

“My god, the trees,” Byron said, pointing. “They’re so tall! Tosh, you were right!”

So she had seen the top of a tree during the shield failure. At least she wasn’t crazy.

She took Byron’s hand in hers. Even he was welling up. Everyone just stared, their heads on a swivel, marveling at the sight. The anger would come, but this was a time for wonder.

From the engine there came the distinct sound of a door opening. Their heads all turned to it. Elle removed the neurogun from the loop of her pack, held it out in front of her, and moved slowly toward the engine. Tosh and the others were jolted from their reveries and closed ranks behind her.

Downing crawled out of a hatch in the roof of the engine, which was facing away from the Dome. In the dim light it was impossible to see if he was injured. He was halfway out, groaning from the effort, before he even noticed them.

“Don’t move,” said Elle, training the weapon on him.

He looked at Elle, then past her to the others and shook his head, wincing from whatever his injuries were. “You’ve gotta be shittin’ me,” he said.

Elle drew within a couple meters of him. The others formed a semicircle behind her. “It’s over, Luther,” she said. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“You stupid bitch. You have no idea what you’ve done.”

Luther ignored her order not to move and crawled the rest of the way out of the hatch. In the half light, Tosh could see a dark stripe of blood down the side of his face. He pushed his back against the roof and sat there on the ground looking dazed, his eyes drifting across the landscape.

“Well, well. Looks like we’ve been had,” he said.

“You knew,” Elle hissed. “This whole time, you knew.”

“Knew?!” Downing said. “About this? You really think I would’ve stuck around for 20 fucking years if I knew it was the garden of fucking Eden outside?”

Elle glanced back at Tosh as though to get her take on whether he was lying. Tosh shrugged. Maybe he really didn’t know. Maybe he’d been played as much as anyone, if not more. The questions came so fast and insistent that it made her dizzy.

“We all saw the data,” Elle said. “The footage. What happened to the Burn?”

“We saw what they needed us to see,” Luther said.

Hideki turned to Owen and said, “No monster behind the door.”