The buildings were brittle and hard-edged, unlike their smoother, less bulky cousins in the main city. Ferrin couldn’t even fathom names with which to describe and qualify the architecture he was seeing, the designs were outside of his modernized vocabulary. They we’re ugly by his own personal standards, the gloom of disuse only adding to their lack of appeal. The soaring wall of the dome looked worn and tired behind the sea of green-grey.

     “This place is ugly.” Weasel said, her voice taking on the same hollow echo.

     “No, it’s just old.” Riley replied without interest, swinging head back to visualize the full scope the building rising before her.

They’d been walking down an abandoned street, devoid of the normal artificial vegetation. It was so strange to see a part of their city so dead, but it was outside the outer limits; there was no reason to allot any resources to an area no one was meant to see.

“I wonder why they condemned this district.” Ferrin followed Riley’s gaze up the sharp edges of the building. It looked as though families might have lived inside it long ago, before the Woodlands was vacated.

“You never asked your dad?” Garth asked.

Ferrin shook his head. “Naw, he doesn’t like when I ask him about info from work, always hits me with the ‘If you applied yourself and worked with your brother you could answer your own questions.’”  

“Bullshit.” Weasel huffed.

Ferrin stepped away from the building and continued walking down the street, the other three falling in step behind him. They’d all been in the city at night, when there was no air to breathe and most citizens were in their safe at home, in their breathable bubbles, but the aura of Woodlands was different, it was more than empty; it was lifeless. Even without knowing where he was, suspending disbelief for the moment, Ferrin could feel the absence of citizens, the absence of anything. It was a rush.

“God these buildings go on forever.” Riley said.

Weasel nodded vigorously. “Yeah when are we gonna see some wicked stuff.”

“You don’t think this is wicked?” Ferrin asked incredulously.

This was, by far, the most unnervingly novel place he’d ever been, and no one else could say they’d beaten him to it. They were in the no-man’s land - the outskirts of humanity. There could even be a softspot in the dome where they could get a glimpse of the Outside. That was just another issue Ferrin had with the Government under the dome; they didn’t allow anyone to see the horrid planet that their two meters of plex-plasic was protecting them from, at least not with their own eyes in real time. Anyone could go to the museum and watch the live feed, but that just didn’t deliver the same experience.

Ferrin’s mother had told him that when she was a young girl, her grandfather’s friend had been one of the scientists tasked with evaluating the environment, but after the radiation poisoning the team had gotten, even with the best protection possible, they’d stopped the initiative. Ferrin, after hearing that story at age 8, had been determined to be in the second wave of evaluators, and even went so far as to write up a petition for his father to bring to work, stating why they should reinstate the program and equally why he was the perfect candidate to be sent out. A Magistrate had written him back, applauding him for his dedication to the planet while gently explaining the continued risk of Outside exposure, that they were monitoring the hazard levels from inside and one day, if it was ever safe to again evaluate the Earth, his name would be first on the list. Of course, that letter was bullshit, but as a young boy Ferrin had believed it wholeheartedly and even begged his parents use a chunk of their annual print allowance to have a physical copy.

It was still hanging in his room at home, but he’d stopped believing his name had made it only any list years ago. No one was leaving the dome any time soon that was clear from the vid feed and from the yearly public reports. The Outside was a toxic wasteland, nothing could survive, and the city couldn’t risk losing citizens to a lost cause. Humanity was safe under the dome, and as the last civilization on their scorched Earth they had a duty to the human race to stay safe.

Not like there was any other option.

Right now, Ferrin and the rest of the O2 Crew were working directly against the creed. They were certainly not staying safe; but in Ferrin’s opinion, shared by him with his friends, boredom was more dangerous. Docile nature festered into incompetence, which was much worse for the city than healthy curiosity and vigor. He knew his mother felt the same even though his father intensely disapproved of his hobbies as well as the O2 Crew, as did his dead log of a brother. His father had even threatened to report them, keep them on house arrest, or set them up for capture, with the guise of character building. Thus far he’d convinced Gammon that he was just being a man, making his own choice, releasing some steam. Of course he hadn’t told him about their big trip tonight; that would’ve been sure to boil him.

Riley ran ahead and turned around, cam-rod in hand, “Smile guys you’re live!”

“Come one Riles.” Ferrin rolled his eyes. He hated when she recorded their trips, it felt like they were stealing a part of the experience from the experience itself. It wasn’t authentic. He knew Garth didn’t like being on camera much either, but he wouldn’t speak against Riley if his life depended on it.

Riley grinned, teeth purple through his contacts, and spun to get the full expanse of the street, buildings, and lifeless expanse in between, on film. The cam was pretty amazing in the utter blackness of the penetrating black of the dome, and the footage would probably come out better than what they were seeing in real time. Ferrin quietly admitted to himself that he looked forward to seeing it later, to relive the groundbreaking trip.

“Woah!” Riley exclaimed, a couple meters ahead, cam pointed down the street that branched off to their right.

“What is it?” Weasel pushed between Ferrin and Garth and joined her up ahead. “Oh wicked!”

Garth and Ferrin sped up their gait to join them. The street to the right led straight to the dome, but just before the rising plexi-plastic curve was a row of interconnected buildings. The dome’s bulk fell down atop of the building, visibly splitting it in half. The top of the row of squat blocks were smoothed half domes, much more similar to the architecture of the main city, and odd among the sharp lines and corners of the rest of the district.

“It’s in the dome.” Riley said breathlessly.

“Woah.” Garth said.

Weasel didn’t wait any longer, and took off towards to anomaly at a jog. Garth didn’t yell after her and instead, possibly because of Ferrin’s earlier advice, took off to follow his little sister.

Riley, cam held high to capture the approach, and Ferrin fell in step behind them. Ferrin had been up close to the dome front before, all around the city, but never before had he seen a building set up against, let alone split by, the solid-smooth plexi-plastic. It was unheard of, and surreally strange. The closer he approached, the more the effects of neglect became clear. Shutters hanging half off, rust and other manifestations of age painted lightly across almost all visible surfaces. This building, whatever its purpose had been, was abandoned as quickly and suddenly as the rest of the district.

     Riley stopped to trace the cam across the full bulk of the structure, Garth behind her, and Weasel raced ahead of them and the dark patches of dirt, that must have been the resting ground of past foliage, to the main entrance.

     “It’s locked!” Her voice was barely audible over the distance.

     “What do you think it was?” Ferrin asked.

“No idea.” Garth shook his head.

“We’ve got to get inside.” Riley ran off to join Weasel at the entrance. Ferrin and Garth trailed close behind.

The flash of red reflected off her face before Ferrin could see the source. He leaned over her shoulder to get a better look at whatever device she had pulled out.

“Oh what! Where did you get a laser knife?”

Riley grinned up at him. “I have my ways.”

“Ways like Chen’s dad is a surgeon.” Weasel taunted.

Ferrin glanced back at Garth at the mention of Riley’s sometimes boyfriend.

“Well are you gonna use it or are we acting out Star Wars?” Garth crossed his arms across his enormous chest. His mouth was slightly downturned but his eyes were hidden by the shadow of his bangs, blocking Ferrin’s gaze.

Riley turned back to the door, knife in hand, and gently lowered it to the location of the lock. It sizzled imperceptibly then slid through the crack with ease. Ferrin let out a tight breath.

“Like buttah.” Riley flipped off the laser and stuffed the small device back into her pocket.

Weasel pulled on the door again and it opened with ease, allowing them a clear view of a wide hallway that led deep into the recess of the building. Ferrin half expected the hallway to appear pitch black, but the crevasses and depths were illuminated in the dark greens and purples he had grown so well accustomed to. The hallway stretched down and then branched, stairs to the front and two more paths to the left and right.

Weasel was bouncing by the door, fighting her obvious urge to run ahead and leave the rest of the crew behind.

Ferrin stepped in first as the de facto leader of the crew and the rest fell in behind him.

“I think we should go up.” He pointed to the stairs up ahead, at the end of the hall.

“Don’t you wanna check out what’s down here first?” Garth asked.

“No this building looks fricken huge, if we checked in every room it would take us till sunrise. Plus, we’ve only got two hours till we need to head back to the trash heap. We can’t afford to miss the return transport, it’s the last one out.”

Riley nodded in agreement. “Plus if we head to the top we’ll probably get a sick view of the district, maybe even the city.”

“Sounds good to me.” Weasel sped up towards to stairs.

“And we gotta check out where the dome slices it.” Ferrin added.

“Duh.” Weasel called over her shoulder, already a couple steps up towards the second floor.

The stairwell ended at a platform, lined with doors and two hallways stretching to opposite ends of the structure. They followed the hallway to their right, barricaded from going deeper into the structure by a wall of lockers.

“I think this used to be a school.” Garth said.

“Woah nice detective work bro.” Weasel sneered.

Garth started to reply but instead shot a glance at Riley, who was completely occupied with filming and just muttered “whatever.”

The hallway ended with a set of double doors that, upon kicking open, revealed a stairwell that led far up to the topmost floors. Ferrin glanced back down the hallway, which branched and led deeper into the school. If the layout was similar on all the floors then there was most likely a similar path farther up.

Ferrin returned to the stairwell where the other three had already begun their ascent, led by Weasel. The steady beat of their footfalls on the stairs, along with their muffled breathing through the masks, provided an eerie soundtrack to their climb upwards. The main stairway ended at the 7th floor, but a skinnier stair continued higher, with the door at it’s end labeled “ROOF ACCESS.”

Weasel didn’t wait to consult and dipped under the rope barring the entrance to the smaller stairs. She reached the top before Ferrin halved her progress and pushed her weight against the door.

“This one’s locked too!” She called down.

Riley jogged up the remainder of the stairs and pulled out her laser knife. The red flared purple in the night vision, a beacon among the dreary backdrop, followed by a distinctive sizzle.

Once the lock was clear Weasel attempted pushing up against the door again, but it was too heavy for her to open, even with Riley’s added help.

“I’ll do it.” Garth panted, shouldering between the two.

He planted both palms against the metal and gave it a short shove. It flew open without so much as a hesitation.

Riley whistled and Weasel patted her brother on the back.

“Nice job muscles!”

Garth didn’t particularly like that nickname, which was why Ferrin usually abstained from referring to him by it, but this time it didn’t seem to bother him much. He led the way out onto the roof with Riley’s cam floating by his ear. Ferrin took up the rear, glancing back down to the seventh floor entry door, still consumed with musing about the boundary of the dome.

“Holy shit!” Weasel’s exclamation pulled his attention back to the roof.

Stretched out before them was a dead metropolis, not just the hollow darkness of no-mans land, but beyond that the city was easily visible on the horizon. The night vision could only illuminate so far, but Ferrin could see the edge of his city with ease. He could even make out the blackened form of an approaching bot; most likely a waste transport headed for the trash dump.

He turned about himself and was faced with the enormity of the dome, just a couple meters from the jutting cube of the door. It rose like a beast from the sea, curving up into the sky, increasing its angle against the group the higher it crept until it was parallel to the sprawl of the city.

Neck craned upwards Ferrin felt smaller than he ever had, and closer to the Outside than any vidfeed would ever make him feel.

“Woah.” He breathed.

“Make sure you get the bot dropping off the junk.” Garth’s voice rose behind him. Ferrin turned to see him pointing out towards the approaching transport. Riley was tracing the path with her cam.

Ferrin returned his gaze to the dome, which sank into the infrastructure of a building like a knife. It was a smooth cut, forming seamlessly into the roof. Ferrin stepped around the roofed in top of the stairwell, and stepped up to the boundary. He ran a hand across the plexi-plastic surface, his curiosity growing exponentially. He squatted down to investigate the intersection of the wall of the dome into the center of the structure, but it was just as it appeared farther back: seamless. The dome acted as a natural fourth wall to the structure.

The other three were all looking out into the distance, pointing at areas and objects of interest with vigor. Ferrin was enjoying the view, but he was way more interested in seeing the wall of the dome from inside the school. He had a feeling there might be some type of way into the other half of the building, and if there was he needed to find it before they had to head back to trash yard.

They only had about an hour before they'd need to leave anyways.

Ferrin stood and walked back to the crew.

“I'm gonna look for a bathroom down on the seventh floor.”

“Why don't you just piss off the roof?” Garth asked.

“Cuz I don't want your dirty sister taking a peek.”

“Hey! What the fuck! I would not!” Weasel stammered, red turning her cheeks a deep purple in the night overlay.

Riley laughed and Garth snorted but neither protested. He did have to piss but moreover he wanted to spend a couple minutes looking around, and he didn't want to tear his friends away from the view. Plus Garth would want to look in ever room and Riley would want to record everything. If he found anything interesting he'd go get them.

He returned to the doorway and jogged down the stairs to the entryway on the seventh floor. He nudged open the door and was relieved to see the layout was identical to the first floor. Ferrin continued into the hallway, the slight bang of the door closing behind him resonating in the penetrating silence.

Ferrin wasn't one to feel frightened, especially not in the dark, but the quiet and lifeless appearance of his surroundings was causing his heart to pickup tempo. He laughed at himself, half to generate sound other than his hollow footfalls.

“Nothing to be scared of. Just an empty hall.”

The hallway made two sharp turns, lockers and doorways to other rooms or areas of the school dotting the path, before ending abruptly against the wall of the dome. Instead of smooth plexi-plastic akin to every other part of the dome surface he’s ever seen, there was a noticeable seam of a door carved right into the wall. It almost seemed like an impression, or a carving, but after tracing a hand along the seam, Ferrin was sure of its purpose: it was a way through the dome.

Ferrin had imagined time and again uncovering such as this, but all his frequent imaginings hadn’t fully prepared him for an actual discovery. This doorway, regardless of where it led or what was resting just behind it, was more than Ferrin had ever imagined finding on their epic adventure out into the Woodlands district. Even against every instinct and belief that had been drilled into from birth by his father, his teachers, and his government Ferrin wanted, more than anything else he ever had, to get through that door.

“No fucking way.” He breathed, pressing his palms hard against the plastic.

He pushed but it didn’t budge. He returned both his hands to the seam, probing it lightly, feeling for a mechanism or a lock that was preventing it from pushing open. A singular section of the seam felt slightly more solid than the rest. He pressed his ear to the seam and knocked at the point, then above and below it. The echo was deeper in the center, where he felt the change in material. That was the lock, or whatever was keeping the door sealed in place.

Ferrin was about to pull his head back from the seam to take a final glance at the door and then head back to the roof to report what he’d found, when a faint sound trickled between the seam.

It was a leak; a very small one, but a leak nonetheless. Surprisingly, he couldn’t feel a pull or push of air on his skin, but maybe it was just delicate enough that the strain he was putting on his ears to pick up whatever was faintly calling to him had distracted him from all other observations.

He listened intently, pressing his ear so hard against the plastic that he could feel the slight edge of the seam imprinting upon the side of his face. At first the sound was too garbled by the thickness of the door to make out at all, but the repetition of the voice slowly solidified into Ferrin’s mind. The repetition transformed into words, and the loop, even when he pulled his ear from the door prompted by Riley screaming his name, played over and over in his mind.

“45...Dome 45...Dome 45...Do you copy...Dome 45...Dome 45...can you read...”

Ferrin whipped his head toward the source of the yell, the loop becoming background noise in his mind, the content of the words briefly forgotten. He took off at a run down the hallway, Riley’s scream rising in pitch as she ran towards him.

They collided as he made the second turn of the hallway, the final stretch towards the door to the roof. He caught Riley in his arms and steadied her. Her face was flushed purple through the goggles and she was shaking with panic.

“Riley! What’s wrong?” Ferrin barely got the question out before she was pulling him back down the hall towards the stairwell.

“Garth’s already headed down to the ground, I had to come find you. We need to go! I wasn’t looking, didn’t know what she was doing. And then she yelled and her mask oh God Ferrin we need to hurry!” Riley was breathless, running down the stairs pulling Ferrin behind her. Her voice was frayed with panic.

Ferrin didn’t say anything in reply, just allowed Riley pull him down to the ground. They sprinted down the final staircase and through the hall. Garth was jogging, a few dozen meters in front of the building, with Weasel’s limbs bobbing limply around him.

Ferrin sped up, Riley behind him now, to reach Garth. He glanced down at Weasel. Her mask was torn down the center, and her breathing shallow. The tear was big enough to let out O2 but thin enough to function, at least minimally. It expanded and decompressed slower than normal, warped around the abrasion.

“Oh fuck.”

Garth looked over at him darkly, eyes cold with focus and mouth in a tight line. Riley was running directly behind them.

Ferrin didn’t ask what happened; it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting back to the city; getting back to air.

Weasel’s eyes were shut but she was still awake. Her mask had enough air to keep her alive, even with the leak, but not for too long. They needed to get on a transport and back to the city now. There was no way to communicate with anyone back in they city; none of them brought their tablets. It wasn’t an issue of punishment; they just hadn’t been prepared for disaster.

Ferrin glanced at his watch and recalled the transport schedule. There would be one coming by in twenty minutes. If they ran the entire way there they would make it, but getting Weasel’s limp body up and into the bot would be another obstacle all together.

“We need to get there in 20.” Ferrin said.

Garth nodded tightly and sped up. He wasn’t a runner but with his sister’s life in his hands Ferrin had no doubt in his endurance. Riley and Ferrin followed tightly behind, both sweating and panting, but pushing past their weakness, only focused on getting to the waste yard.

They reached it just as the transport approached. Garth stopped suddenly before the ladder and turned back to Ferrin and Riley. His face was red with effort.

“Take Jeanie I’m going to keep the transport in place while we load her in.”

He didn’t wait for a response and pushed his dying sister into Ferrin’s arms. He turned to the ladder and hurried up it, quicker than could be imagined for a man of his size. He waited for the transport to fly just above him, parallel to wall in preparation of the dump, and leapt up to grab the rail lining the down-facing door of the bot. He pulled it down, straining his arms against the inhuman strength of the machine.

“Now.” He grunted, neck muscles extended out with the effort of holding the transport in place.

It was bucking against the unnatural barrier, systems attempting to diagnose the problem. If it couldn’t figure out what was wrong and remedy it within a minute it would shut down and wait for a maintenance crew to fix it or it would just shut down and they’d have to wait for the next one, which was not an option.

Ferrin tossed Weasel over his shoulder, fireman style, and hurried up the ladder. Garth had turned, back to the group, and with unfathomable strength pulled the transport down to himself, so the bottom of the door was level with Farrin’s shoulders. Without hesitation Ferrin heaved Weasel’s weak form into the open door. She had enough strength left to pull herself inside and away from the door. She disappeared from sight.

Ferrin hesitated for a moment and then threw himself inside as well. The transport was whining and bucking against Garth’s grip, enough that, once Ferrin had landed hard inside, Garth lost his hold and the transport shot forward with a lurch. The noise stopped and the bot resumed its duty. Ferrin barely had enough time to pull himself up towards Weasel and away from the doors as it tipped out the remainder of its innards. The doors slid closed around them, plunging them into darkness. He could hear Weasel’s shallow breath beside him; a quiet reminded of the urgency of their situation.

Just as Ferrin was sure the transport had risen to too high an altitude for Riley and Garth to jump, he felt the bot list towards the left than right itself. In preparation Ferrin pulled out a flash bulb from his pocket, turned it on, and tossed it to the other end of the interior.

The bot had picked up speed to its normal velocity across no-mans land by the time the left hand door pulled open and Garth flung himself inside. He fell into the depression in the center, now empty of trash, and pulled himself up the other side. He dug his fingers into the small groove between the two doors and yanked it open, pulling a flushed Riley inside. The doors slide closed with a distinctive click.

Without a word the two pulled themselves up beside Ferrin and a fading Weasel. Ferrin released his hold on the girl's shoulders and let Garth pull his sister to his chest. Riley was seated on the other side of Garth and Ferrin saw that she was tightly gripping, so much so the creases of both were white with pressure.

The mood was somber and quiet, painfully distinct from their travel the opposite way only hours before. The transport traced a path, which felt much too slow, back towards the city. 

Next Chapter: Chapter 3