Thera looked around in surprise, the "town" she had found herself in was virtually made up of a large underground dome which by estimation seemed to be the size of two small states put together. She stared at the carts and the conveyer belts, everywhere things seemed to be in motion; there were people in filmy coats walking around the belts and making occasional comments to each other, there was a rotary fan spreading something that looked like a sliver dust over a smaller dome housing things that resembled plants, except for the fact that their shapes and colors were all too unusual to be considered natural. In addition to that, there were iridescent panels lined up on the floor that seemed transparent when she looked straight at them but the moment she turned her head slightly, she could see them generating a strange image that crackled with static, glowed briefly and went out again.
She quickly walked away from their eeriness and nearly bumped into one of the 'coats' she had seen working at the belts. He didn't seem annoyed at all but rather as if he had been expecting to walk into her. Smiling he said, "Hello Thera, we've been expecting you," which besides being cliche and creepy confirmed her suspicions.
Glaring back at him she chose not to answer but rather to wait and see if he was really as patient as he looked. A couple of minutes went by like this before it was broken by a female Coat striding forward and impatiently pulling the man's hand. "Not now Viz, I've been put in charge of showing our guest the Fifty One," he said without taking his eyes off Thera. His words caused her to start, "Whatever's happening here I know my rights. I'm not going anywhere with you until I see the person in charge here." He smiled that infuriating smile again and let out a soft sigh. "I forgot how impetuous outsiders can be," He didn't say it in a degrading way but seemed genuinely worried about her attitude. "Now see here Thera," he began. "We're not your enemies and you're here because we believe that you're more like us than you think. Most of us have gone through hell to get here and those born under this dome understand the world they have here is a haven compared to the one they hear about from the ex-siders.
Thera put her head in her hands and tried to process what he was saying. As she felt her initial irritation wane, a thought struck her.
"How did I get here?" she blurted out. "I was in my car driving and..." she cringed as she remembered the exact reason she had been in the car by herself. She had been looking for a way out; a bridge, a tree even a nearby gas station would have done the job but instead she had driven through a feral cactus and after assessing her numerous cuts and bruises and eating herself sick, she had passed out from the unfairness of it all.
It had all started with her being fired. She'd hated the job anyway but it was all she had to pay the bills that congregated in her mailbox every Friday and with them, always doing the preaching, were the bills for her e addiction. After that, things had slowly gone downhill for her. She'd carried on taking e but she'd stopped paying her bills. Little by little her stuff had slowly disappeared as she sold them to her supplier who had eventually found out about her situation and taken her off his list of clients. This led to her roaming the streets of New York trying to get a desperate high from the toxic city air. It soon became depressing; walking the cold streets in her ragged clothing, heart bleeding at the sight of the small emaciated figures that huddled under worn card board boxes, looking enviously at the people eating fries and hamburgers. Thera had been forced to walk by; after all she couldn't even have fed herself if she'd wanted to. She'd walked back to the building where her apartment was and knocked on her neighbor's door. The cat lady – she collected strays - had poked her head out and as soon as she'd seen Thera, she'd tried to shoo her away. Swallowing her pride, Thera had told her of her interest in purchasing one of the old woman's cats. This had delighted the cat lady and she had steered Thera towards her living room and had gone off to collect her cats from the balcony. After gathering the cats and making sure they were all accounted for, she had led them back into the living room only to see that Thera had left and the wallet that the old woman had kept on the table was gone.
Thera had only stopped the car for fuel, water and a months worth of energy bars but other than that she'd kept on driving. Her stomach churned whenever she had to pay the tolls, she'd always seen it as an unfair practice. After being broke for so long she hated spending money – even if it was stolen. She didn't feel any guilt when she thought about stealing from the cat lady; society worked that way, it was do or die most of the time and everyone fed off of someone else. That it had taken her so long to realize it wasn't unexpected. She'd always been naïve in a way but recently she'd chosen not to see the malice that danced in people's eyes, in their actions, hidden beneath each potent syllable. That's how you ended up like this, she'd told herself; you lived in the drug while it fed off you, you let it eat away your sanity, your ambition and now you've stolen from an old woman because you want to run away and kill yourself in the middle of nowhere so that you can't panic and scream for help, yes you shall orchestrate a perfect suicide. She'd felt the warning sting in her eyes and had let loose a torrent of maniacal laughter until the tears had retreated back to home base. After that she'd parked behind a decrepit building, closed her eyes and dreamed about flying out into space on a giant sombrero.
The days had moved quickly, the road had become bumpier and as she drove on there had been less buildings and people until finally, she reached a place where ragged bits of tumbleweed were trying to hitch a ride on a nonexistent breeze.
Now that she had arrived, she had no idea on how to proceed. She'd thought that she'd have a moment of clarity and figure it out when she reached her destination but now, she wasn't sure she wanted to go through it after all. Ugh, she berated herself, that's the reason you drove out here. You're already out of water and the gas that you've been pumping into your car is almost finished. She'd clutched her head in agony and murmured under her breath "no regrets. No regrets." Then she'd looked up and spotted a large cactus that looked solid enough to annihilate Thera and her car without breaking a sweat. She'd started the car and accelerated towards the cactus which had seemed to shrug and say "well, if you must." She'd almost reached her goal when the car had died and instead of hurtling full speed into the cactus, jerked awkwardly and made just enough impact to shatter the glass, inflate the airbags and leave her with scratches all over face and arms.
Thera shook her head to clear it of the unwelcome memory. She turned back to the coat who had been assessing her and he said "My name is Riz, and you Thera are the newest addition to our growing population."
Thera opened her mouth to speak but was silenced by Riz who shook his head ever so gently.
"I'll give you a tour and then I promise to answer any questions you may have for us." At the 'us' part I remembered that Viz was still hovering nearby looking anxious.
"Are you coming with us?" Thera asked her. Viz hesitated, and then nodded in affirmation. Thera felt her temper flare and turned on Riz, "Aren't women allowed to speak here? Don't tell me this is one those alpha male things."
Riz immediately looked concerned. "They still do that up there?" he asked in wonder. Then answering Thera's question he said, "We don't have gender roles here, we're a peaceful community that support and work for each other. Viz chooses not to speak for reasons that are her own." Viz started walking ahead and they followed as Riz told Thera about the dome and its inhabitants.
"Here men and women are seen as equal, children are brought up not knowing about the social order in the outside world until they're old enough to understand.You may have wondered where these people come from. Like I said some of us have gone through hell to get here. Years ago the government decided to make a safe haven that could help and accommodate people who didn't seem to function well in society anymore. Mental Institutions were emptied and the people were secreted away to this underground dome. People who had attempted or were attempting suicide were given a new chance here; people who had been estranged or who had fallen victim to substance abuse, a lot of the people that society had cast as misfits were led here and after an orientation period, they were able to live and work with the other inhabitant of the Dome." They stopped at the conveyer belts.
"The government sends us the equipment we need to keep this place running because in a way we're helping them see what the outsiders are lacking in order to make them as content as we are." He reached into one of the carts as it went by and pulled out a sheet of black material that shimmered when as it moved. "This is the material that covers up our core panels. The panels are constructed in a way that allows them to reach deep into the earth and absorb heat which in turn powers up the entire dome. The covers are made from a new type of element that we call Lexon. It's the only thing that can withstand the intense heat without giving it off again and by hammering it out we're able to create a sheet that absorbs and collects the energy. It's almost like a sponge in the sense that it expands as it's charged. Strange things have occurred with the material like images that can be seen when looking at the sheet from the corner of you eye and some people have reported hearing quiet voices singing; as a result the children call it angel paper," he said. Thera couldn't help but smile; there was something happy about this place. From what she was hearing it was a utopia for people like her.
Viz led them to the smaller dome she had seen earlier. "This is the harvest," Riz said happily. "We've created seeds that grow a variety of fruit and vegetables on one plant and we've combined different species to get the weird looking ones you see here," he said this while pointing to a graceful tree that had something like purple strawberries hanging on its branches. As Thera drew closer she saw that each fruit was about the size of Riz' head and that was saying something since his head seemed to be quite big. He was talking again, "they're extremely nutritious and have no negative side effects whatsoever. They don't spoil quickly like ordinary produce and the kids absolutely love them. Speaking of children," he said. "We should show you the rest of the community."
He took out an object that could have been a phone except for the fact that its flatness made the iPhone and all its surviving competitors look morbidly obese. He murmured some unintelligible words into it and it beeped in response. About a second later a door seemed to materialize in one of the walls. With Viz leading the way they went through it and stepped into an amorphous black box that immediately began its descent to a level below what Thera assumed was the lab. Another door materialized before them and this time she saw that it blended in with the wall but the edges lit up when commanded to. They stepped through the door and Thera nearly dislocated her jaw as it dropped open. All around her there were multicolored domes – all of the same size- and she saw people laughing and relaxing in what liked like the real world except much cleaner and with far less noise. She saw a group of children exiting a building that may have acted as a school and their hands were held by couples who looked like everything parents should be – genuinely interested and happy to have this moment to share with the people they cared about. There was a group of people who were helping each other in decorating one of the domes while a grinning couple – the owners? – served drinks. Thera blinked and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Riz, seeing her reaction said, "See Thera, this is our sanctuary. In this world this is the closest thing we can get to a utopia; there's no discrimination, hate, or war here because these are people who wanted happiness and now that they have it, they want to keep it that way. Thera chewed on her lip, wanting to ask a million questions but finally deciding on the one which had been nagging her the most. "How can something this big exist without 'outsiders' knowing?" Riz rubbed his hands in anticipation, "I thought you might ask that," he said. "Okay Viz blindfold her." Thera's eyes bulged but Viz' calm expression told her that she could trust these people. She obediently waited for the blindfold to be tied around her head and let them lead her to whatever destination they had in mind.
They walked through so many twists and turns and for so long that her feet began to ache then without warning she felt a sudden change. She knew she had left the cool clean air of the dome and was now back outside. She ripped off the blindfold and looked around her. There was no sign of the dome or an entrance only the irksome cactus silently mocking her. She turned around and saw Viz and Riz appraising their surroundings." Where's the dome?" she asked as calmly as she could. "It's under you of course," Riz replied. Thera stared at the ground as if willing it to open up and reveal the dome, her sanctuary.
Riz said in a careful voice "Thera, you were unconscious when we brought you into the dome so we didn't have to use the blindfold but it's a necessary precaution, we can't have people knowing where the entrance is otherwise we end up losing our home. There've already been rumors of this place but if people knew the truth...."
Thera raised an eyebrow,"Rumors? Where exactly are we?"
Riz smiled and opened his arms wide as if he was about to embrace the empty space around them. "Thera, welcome to the legendary Area 51."