"What is that place?" Andrew grunted as he stepped on a stone and lurched sideways. With Jordan and Jinho on either side of him, they had moved at a steady pace. Evan followed close behind taking his turn carrying the backpacks.
"A do-" Jordan said but Jinho cut her off.
"A helidrome."
"A heli-what?"
"That's a very good question, Andrew. Please, Jinho, I beg you. Enlighten us. What is a helidrome?" Jordan put extra emphasis on the second half of the word.
"It is a collection of systems inside a sealed environment-"
To Jinho's dismay and Jordan's amusement, Evan interrupted. "So, it's a biome."
"Oh boy, here we go." Jordan shook her head, rolled her eyes, and ruefully added, "He just couldn't let him go."
Jinho opened and closed his mouth, then snorted. "No, not a biome, but similar if you can't grasp the technical differences. Similar to a biome, a helidrome is a sealed system for fostering verdure in a secure environment. However, it is also a collection of independent living spaces. All life inside is completely dependent on the sun. We use the sun not only to grow crops but also to support all the energy consumed on the inside."
"It runs on solar power?" Andrew asked.
Like a teacher instructing a pupil, Jinho continued, "Precisely. Transparent luminescent solar concentrators are in the solar panels on the top half of the dome. They create solar energy."
Flabbergasted, Andrew stared at Jinho. Jordan snorted from under his shoulder and muttered, "You had to ask."
Not hearing her, Jinho continued. "The transparent photovoltaics are extremely efficient because of the sheer size of the helidrome. The panels are secured to tempered glass that is extremely durable."
"Fascinating. Is he always like this?"
Jordan nodded. "I tried to warn you. We can push him into the next gulch if you want. I think Evan and I can get you to the cave from here."
"We're going to a cave?" He stopped, forcing Jordan to walk out from under his arm, then abruptly spun around dragging Jinho with him. "Are we being followed?"
Everyone stopped to listen and look back.
"I didn't hear anything. Nobody will be able to see us once we are in the chute," Jordan said.
"Sounds ominous," said Evan. "What's a chute?"
Jinho rushed to answer, "It's a-"
"What's a chute?" Andrew looked pointedly at Jordan.
"It's this crevice that leads into a cave. The rocks reach overhead and touch in a lot of places so it's like a tunnel through the rocks."
When they reached the chute, Jordan and Evan hopped down, then helped Andrew. They picked their way among splintered rocks that had fallen and collapsed in on themselves and finally squeezed between two stones that came face to face with a stone wall.
"Where's the cave?" Andrew asked.
"Almost there," Jordan replied, leading the way. She disappeared between a pair of boulders. Andrew followed behind and bumped into her when she paused to flip on her light.
"I can't see a thing, " Andrew said behind her. "There's a headlamp in my pack."
"Just stay close. This is a short tube."
After a couple of yards, the light beam spread out and Jordan stood up. Andrew stood beside her and stretched, groaning and clutching his side.
Jordan shined her light at Andrew as Evan and Jinho came out of the tube behind him. Fresh blood had left a dark spot on his shirt. She peeled his shirt to take a look and sucked in her breath. The tape had not stuck where the blood had pooled, and it was leaking below the edge of the tape.
"Is that duct tape?"
"Don't mock me. Duct tape can fix anything." He grabbed his shirt from her fingers and pulled it down.
Jinho pushed past them. "We're almost there."
When they reached the drop to the pool of water, Jordan and Evan climbed down first and waited for Andrew. He went slowly and paused several times. By the time he made it to the bottom, he was ghostly pale and beads of sweat covered his nose and forehead.
"Is that water safe?" he asked Jinho when he appeared beside him a moment later.
"My analysis of the contents show there are enough microorganisms to make you severely indisposed for at least a week."
Andrew squinted his eyes at Jinho.
"I wouldn't drink it."
Andrew laid on the ledge and put his hands into the warm water. He splashed his face and rinsed his hands, then pulled his water bottle from his pack and filled it. "The iodine in my water tablets will kill everything in a half hour."
Evan knelt down and filled his bottle while Jordan moved behind a boulder and peeked her head back out. She waved them over to the opening of the cave. "This is where you are going to stay."
"We should have everything we need in our packs." He took his pack from her shoulders and dug out a packet from a side pocket. "Water tablets. Second most important thing I keep in my pack after-"
"Duct tape," Jordan finished.
"Ding! Ding! We have a winner!" Andrew handed two tablets to Evan. They dropped them into their water bottles and shook them up. He peeled off his shirt and poked his fingers through the two holes. "Guess that's trashed. Might be able to get the blood out, but probably not the bullet holes."
He tossed it aside and picked at the bandage around his waist while the rest of them stood back and stared. A thread of blood leaked down his side. "How safe is this place?"
"Specs and I come out here all the time. We've never seen anyone. Nobody leaves the dome. Well, technically, nobody is supposed to leave the dome. I had to convince him to sneak out with me the first couple times, but once we found the pool, he wanted to come out every day to get his protozoans."
"It's Jinho. And they're microorganisms," Jinho corrected.
Andrew pulled his medical kit from his pack and pushed the bag toward Jordan. "Can you find the tape?"
While Andrew tore open fresh packages of gauze from his kit, Jordan fished around in his bag. When she didn't hand the tape over right away, he looked at her puzzled.
"Find it?"
Jordan had frozen. Her face had the heat of a blush on it.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" She snatched her hand from the bag and handed it to Andrew. "I can't find it."
Evan eyed her and took the bag. She smiled and put her hands into her back pockets with a shrug.
"Here it is."
Jordan took the tape from Evan and walked behind Andrew. She gently peeled at the tape where it adhered to his back while Andrew pulled at the front. He sucked in his breath when it ripped the hair from his stomach, but once he had a strip started, he pulled it under his arm and passed it to Jordan. She continued to pull it from his back, wadding it up as she passed it to him. They continued going back and forth until he got to the final bit covering the bullet holes.
Slowly he peeled it back. The saturated gauze and teabags fell away with it, and Evan gagged. Blood welled up immediately and ran down Andrew's waist to the band of his pants. He quickly caught it with the gauze and put pressure on it while Jinho grabbed the gauze from his other hand and stepped around to the back with Jordan.
Jordan stared at the small gaping hole and felt herself reel with sudden dizziness. Jinho swept the gauze up Andrew's side and pressed it on the hole. He snapped his fingers at Jordan to get her attention. It broke the spell, and she tossed the wad of bloody tape on the discarded tee shirt. She peeled a fresh length of tape from the spool and pressed it over the gauze, then continued to bind the wound tightly until Andrew and Jinho could remove their hands.
Evan's hands covered his eyes. "Tell me when it's over."
"Sissy," Jordan said.
He peeked between his fingers and mouthed at her, "So?"
She shrugged.
Jinho helped Andrew sit back down, and Jordan dragged his bag to him. He unclasped the straps holding the sleeping bag and put it behind his back to lay against it.
Evan sat down next to him, and Jordan took a seat on the other side. She rubbed the rocky ground with her fingertip.
"How long have you lived in the dome?" Andrew asked her quietly. He had picked up his water bottle and swirled the water.
"Not long. A couple months. Jinho has been here longer...since he was eleven. He loves it here." She glanced at Jinho. He didn't seem to mind that she was talking about him though he wouldn't look at them. "He hated public school. He was smarter than all the other kids, and they teased him. He got beat up. There aren't any other kids in the dome, and the adults love him because he speaks their language, so he hangs out at the labs most of the time. I'm lucky he's here, even if he is a geek."
Jinho was smiling when he held out his hand to her. "We have to get back inside. We'll be missed if we don't show up for chores."
Jordan stood up, then knelt back down beside Andrew and touched his arm. "I'll bring back water and antiseptic if I can get back tonight. What else do you need?"
"I have Tylenol in my medical kit, but if you can get something stronger, I might need it."
"I'll see what I can find. I'll be back."
"We'll be back." Jinho corrected.
"We'll be here," Evan replied. He took Andrew's shirt between two fingers and cast it over the bloody gauze lying on the floor.
Jordan gave one last look around the cave and gave a little wave, then followed Jinho outside.
Evan stuck the duct tape back into Andrew's bag. "Let's hope we're done with that," he said with his English accent.
"Quite," Andrew replied.
"We didn't really get any information out of them, did we? Do you think they were trained how to interact without spilling the beans? What if they're going to get someone right now to finish us off?"
"They would have just taken me into the dome," Andrew said quietly. He closed his eyes.
"Or maybe they couldn't take you into the dome because they are aliens and their little baby aliens are in giant egg sacs everywhere."
"They're not aliens."
"How can you be so sure? What kind of name is Jinho? Sounds alien to me. And no kid is that smart."
"He is smart," Andrew agreed.
"You should rest. It's not every day you get shot and live to tell the tale. Our parents are going to kill us. I'll never get my car back. Oh, shit. Your mom. I don't even want to think about what your mom is going to do to me."
Andrew tuned him out. The pain in his side became a dull throb once he laid still for a few minutes. He thought he could sleep if he didn't move, and he closed his eyes, but then sat back up and unrolled his sleeping bag. He unzipped it, crawled inside, and pulled it over the lower half of his waist. The sleeping bag felt like a cocoon and the air dried the sweat on his forehead. Evan's voice became a hum and when he closed his eyes again, the light from the entrance of the cave glowed behind his eyelids.