Beau and Tessa rolled back into Dome 101 under the light of freshly installed perimeter beams. Beau’s eyes felt gritty from hours of scanning files, searching drawers, and processing their harsh new reality as Tinylings. Dust clung to his sleeves. His truck smelled like old carpet and synthetic insulation. Once the truck climbed back through the rift into Dome 101, past the security checkpoint, the guards scrambled to their feet in alarm—hands on their weapons, adrenaline kicking—until they recognized the figures inside. The tension drained from their faces in an instant, replaced with wide eyed curiosity.

  “They’re back!” one shouted.

  Beau parked the truck on the gravel lot. Three more trucks rolled past him, up the ramp and through the rift. They were on their own missions set by Mayor Carnie, to further map and identify key locations inside the facility.

  Chief Mahoney jogged toward Beau. His movements carried the tightness of suppressed urgency. “How did the mission go? Find anything useful?”

  “Yeah…we found something.”

  Beau reached into the back seat of his truck, grabbed the electric rifle he’d been holding onto, and handed it to Chief Mahoney who took it and inspected it like something precious.

  “Woah, you forgot to show me that earlier,” Tessa said. “Is that thing real?”

  “Yep,” Beau said. “Wanted to surprise you.”

  “Do you think we can manufacture these?”

  “Now this…” Mahoney said, turning the rifle in his hands with reverence, “THIS is a real weapon. This could kill some ants, that’s for sure.” His face lit up when he realized the switch on the side. “Automatic fire? This is incredible. Where did you find it, Beau?”

  “Inside another Paradise Dome—Dome 4455.”

  “There’s another dome?” he asked. Seriously?”

  “Yep. Down the South Corridor.”

  “We also found Dr. Gerben,” Tessa said.

  “Are you kidding?” Mahoney said. “He’s alive?”

  “No. We found his body. He’s in the master bedroom,” Beau replied. “You can access Dr. Gerben’s mansion through the North Corridor. It’s there where we found his bedroom, and then his body. There’s tons of research that could be useful. We need to assemble a convoy to retrieve the data. We’ve only scratched the surface.”

  “It will take years to analyze it all,” Tessa said.

  “We found something else. I know I screwed up real bad with the rift. But I’m not done making up for it. We found drawers filled with preserved food in Dr. Gerben’s bedroom. There’s enough food for everyone.”

  Mahoney's eyes widened. He straightened up like a soldier who recalled his purpose. “I know I’m Chief Mahoney, says it right there on my badge, but I’m really impressed with your leadership. Tell me how I can help, Beau. Say the word and I’ll assemble a team. We’ll haul back every calorie and then some and fill our stomachs tonight.”

  “Let’s do it. Make it fast,” Beau said. “It’s untouched. Double check the expiration dates so we don’t get anyone sick. The last thing we need is some weird disease from a Little Debbie snack cake.”

  Mahoney gave a curt nod and spun on his heels. He barked orders and waved at the men and women nearby who climbed down from their scaffolds and approached to hear about the mission.

  Tessa reached across the seat and tapped the dash with her knuckle. “What about the other thing?” she asked. “You know…the size difference between us and them?”

  “What are you talking about?” Mahoney asked.

  Beau waved his hand. “It’s better if you see for yourself. I suggest you go with the convoy…it’s quite a shock but it’s the reality of our situation.”

  Mahoney nodded. “Another weird thing to deal with. That’s just great.”

  “Tell me about it,” Tessa said.

  “Let’s hit up Mayor Carnie,” Beau said.

  They rolled off the gravel lot and down the winding road into Deadwood.

  The Mayor’s Mansion loomed over the Deadwood square like a brick temple to authority. They parked on the rounded driveway. When they got out, they were greeted by the Mayor’s assistant, a polite woman named Anita who led them through the house and to the back deck overlooking Deadwood.

  Mayor Carnie surveyed the land and smoked a thick pipe. He reviewed printouts of inventory levels and production volumes on critical projects like weapons and medicine. There were white boards pressed against the wall of his house with handwritten mission plans. They didn’t know if the giant ants would come storming into the dome again after the last attack, so he worked out a defensive plan to more effectively combat and survive the onslaught of another ant wave.

  They all hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Mayor Carnie looked a little older, a little more stressed out. He stood more hunched. The circles under his eyes were bruised. Yet there was a sharpness behind that fatigue and a mind that had not yet collapsed under the weight of his responsibilities.

  “You two again,” Carnie said, voice brittle. “You look like a cow pie. How was the mission?”

  “You better sit down for this,” Beau said.

  “Prefer to stand. I’ll sit when I’m dead.”

  “Fair,” Tessa said, who approached.

  Carnie led them to the edge of the deck. The wind was stronger up there. It carried the laughter of unaware children at the park not far away. They heard the chirping of the birds, dome birds, so not real birds. They heard the creaking of wooden doors opening and closing from the attendants inside the mansion.

  “Tell me everything,” Mayor Carnie said.

  “We…found evidence of something,” Tessa said. “We all know Dr. Gerben lied to us about the poison gas, but there’s something even bigger.”

  Beau leaned on the railing. Tessa grabbed a glass of water from the tray and sipped on it. They told Carnie everything. First, Beau told him about finding Dome 4455. Then he told him about the giant cockroaches and about finding the electric rifle. They both chimed in about Dr. Gerben’s master bedroom and the research they found. They told Mayor Carnie how everyone inside the dome was only two years old and all their past memories had been fabricated. They weren’t really human. They were an experimental species of humanoids called Tinylings, manufactured to live inside Paradise Domes until maturity, reaching a population of one hundred thousand, after which the domes would crack open to repopulate a decimated world. But they both admitted, the world is not as dead as they believed.

  “We found Dr. Randall Gerben’s body,” Tessa said. Her voice was calm, but each word landed like a brick. “We found his skeleton. It’s a real one. It’s ‘regular-sized.’ He’s been picked clean. I suspect he’s been dead for about two years.”

  “He looked as if he just gave up,” Beau said. “We couldn’t find a single living human. Tons of bugs, though.”

  Carnie went still. The wind tugged at his coat. “Are you sure it was him? Are you sure about…all of it? This is a lot to take in.”

  “It was Dr. Randall Gerben,” Tessa continued. “We confirmed it by the engraving on his wedding ring. There’s also tons of evidence, like pictures on his phone. We cracked the code. It’s him. That much is clear.”

  Carnie blinked slowly. “Dr. Gerben? He built all of this and lied to us? And now he’s dead? Why? To what end?”

  Beau shook his head. He didn’t like it, either.

  “He wasn’t just an engineer,” Tessa said. “He was the architect. He directly oversaw the construction of every dome and there are clearly thousands. We don’t yet have a total number. In the beginning I thought of the facility like a complex or a sanctuary. But now I’m starting to think of it as a gigantic lab. We exist, approximately, at a scaled ratio of about 1:68 compared to everything else. We’re manufactured, sir.”

  Beau watched as Mayor Carnie sagged backwards. His hand clutched the railing as though the truth may push him over the edge.

  “He built us,” Tessa said, each syllable like a knife. “Forget the yearly video. He didn’t rescue us from some disaster. At least, I don’t think he did. I think he built us to fill a void in his heart. After his wife died, he broke. He turned inward. He used his wealth, his technology, to manufacture a new species. He populated domes with synthetic offspring to replace the silence. I think we were made for that purpose.”

  “Maybe, but that can’t be everything,” Beau said.

  “No,” Tessa said. “I think this is just the surface of a deep well of secrets.”

  “But what about the other domes?” said Carnie. “Where are they? Why aren’t there thousands of Tinylings outside? If there are more of us, where did they go?”

  Tessa bumped her shoulders, unknowing.

  Beau shook his head.

  Carnie gave a single, pained laugh. It was dry and joyless. “So…my wife…my brothers…?”

  “If they’re not here inside the dome, they never existed,” Tessa said. “Unless you’re shacking up with someone and had a kid in the past two years—which, thank God we can still reproduce—then we’re all the family you have.”

  Carnie turned away, lips trembling. He stared down at the Deadwood square and the innocents below. It was several long moments before he spoke again.

  “We are synthetically created and yet we can reproduce? It’s a miracle. And it’s madness.”

  “There’s more,” she said. “We found floorplans. Email logs. We haven’t found a ‘master list’ of every Paradise Dome, but there could be tens of thousands spread across the world. This wasn’t an isolated project. It was a movement and the catalyst was a grief-stricken man’s legacy.”

  Beau stepped in. “The green gas? Obviously, that’s pure myth. There’s no mention of it. No warning system. No notes about some grand war, forcing people underground. There were no nuclear missiles, not that we can tell. It was a fabricated story to keep us inside. We still don’t know what happened to the real humans, the others like Dr. Gerben. That was not made clear to us.”

  Carnie covered his face with trembling hands. “I lied to everybody. I forced everyone to watch that stupid film. I even brainwashed myself.” When he lowered his hands, his eyes were bloodshot. “So the world is still out there?”

  “It may be ruined, but it’s out there. We don’t know. We haven’t seen it. All we know about the outside world is that it’s still there.”

  “Safe to say everything will be supersized,” Tessa said. She stepped closer. “I want to lead a team and recover the data from Dr. Gerben’s electronics. I want to better understand our design. Our function. Our potential. We need to know more about who we are. And what we’re meant to be.”

  Carnie turned again and looked over Deadwood square. The lights from the vendor stalls glimmered like stars.

  “You’re telling me that everything I ever knew was fake,” he said. “Now you want to lead a mission to concrete the evidence?”

  Beau stepped beside him. “I know sir, it was a shock to me too.” He placed his hand on Carnie’s shoulder and squeezed, comfortingly.

  Carnie looked at them both, lips tight. His jaw trembled slightly. “You both have my full support. You’re handling it better than I can. Assemble your team,” he said. “Before you go, though, I need you for something.”

  “Anything,” Beau said.

  “We’re right here,” Tessa said.

  “I’m calling a conference downtown. Gather everyone. Since we’re all family as you say, every brother and sister has to know the truth.”