The Elias Anomaly

Nine

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The tunnel leading from Nonem to Dewsmonk opened out back of a farmhouse in the middle of a large prairie slope. It connected to a corner at the back of the big chemist in the shopping centre.

To Joseph it appeared that the tunnel network lead arbitrarily from place to place without much in the way of rhyme or reason. Dulcie assured him that the tunnel network was only part of the system that connected all parts of the cluster together.

Technically, Dulcie had explained, the tunnel in Nonem didn't lead directly to Dewsmonk. Rather, it lead to a part of the Cluster dubbed the Follies. The Follies were half playground half studio space for the people who maintained the Cluster. In order to use a tunnel into the Follies you had to not only invoke the space but also sort of 'dial in' to the specific Folly you wanted to enter.

Joseph understood from this that if Dulcie hadn't located him he would never have found his way back home. Of course, if you accepted everything Dulcie said their current location wasn't Joseph's home. In addition to this Joseph was not Joseph, and nothing that had surrounded Joseph for his entire life was real.

Overall Joseph felt that he wasn't ready to roll over and accept that everything he knew was wrong. Following the magic tunnel from plains to shampoo aisle moved him along the road towards acceptance.

As they arrived Dulcie looked about the chemist. She appeared impressed by the fluorescent strip lights and the boring beige metal shelves. She examined the plastic bottles for a variety of name brand shampoos with something approaching awe.

"This work," she said, picking up a bottle of tea tree conditioner and turning it over in her hands. "It's so detailed, it's not based on anything pre-existent, whoever built this did it from scratch."

"Or," Joseph said. "It's not a bunch of digital fakery, it's some weird cross portal from this Cluster of yours to a real place in England."

"No, Joseph," Dulcie said. "It's definitely not."

"How do you know?" Joseph asked.

"Well, there are unique things about Cluster environments that you become attuned to after a while. Mostly the experience of the Cluster versus reality is 1:1. Nothing is perfect though. I can tell this is definitely part of the Cluster."

"Prove it," Joseph demanded. He found Dulcie's certainty all this was a computer generated mirage was irritating in the extreme.

"I will," Dulcie said. "However, it might be nice for you to get used to the features of the Cluster yourself. First off look at the security cameras up there."

Dulcie pointed at the short metal stalks that emerged from points in the shop unit's suspended ceiling. Each stalk held the squat black shape of a camera. A wire curled out from the back of the unit into the ceiling. A steady red light shone from the front of the camera body.

"What about it?" Joseph asked.

"No, not just one, look at more than one," Dulcie said.

Joseph looked over the rest of the ceiling. From the back corner he could see there were about six cameras spread out to cover the whole shop. He moved his gaze from one to the next trying to see them the way that Dulcie was seeing them. He couldn't pierce any illusion these identical items were enfolded within, or gave the lie to.

"I don't get it," he said. "There's nothing odd about any of them. They're all exactly the same."

"And that's normal?" Dulcie asked. "You know, in the real world?"