Tethys - Thunder Bay

September 21, 2558, C.E.

Sam went back to his room. He knew the three of them hatched a plan that would take place tonight. The room was 10 feet long by 15 feet wide. It had a small window on the short wall and the door on the other short wall. Along one long wall was both a bunk-bed and a small desk. He sat on his bed and looked out the window at the grass he would be trying to run across soon to reach the field.

A couple of hours later it was past lights out and Gwen had made her way undetected to the little room to join the two of them. They were on the second floor but that did not deter any of them from knowing what they had to do. Tim opened the window looked down and muttered something under his breath. Then he grabbed his backpack and jumped. Sam looked out the window to find his friend standing just fine waiving at him to jump down. One deep breath later it felt like he was floating, not falling, to the ground and he also landed without injury.

After Gwen was with them they bounded across the grass for 15 minutes to reach the edge of the fields. They were undetected, but they saw flashlights coming around the edge of the grass right behind them near the field line. They jumped into the brush as quickly as they could and hid. As soon as the flashlights had passed they started thinking about this idea they concocted and how it may not be so great after all... They realized they had not brought much with them Tim was thoughtful enough to bring a backpack with some snacks, some basic equipment, three flashlights, and a small bucket of paint.

“Bucket of paint?” Gwen inquired

“Ah watch,” Tim said as he poked a hole into the bottom with a screwdriver. The paint can begin to drip a luminescent yellow paint and he carried it as they started walking.

They started talking quietly about random stuff to pass the time. About an hour and a half after they started walking into the prairie Sam asked in a quiet voice, “What do you guys remember about before you came here?”

Gwen stopped in her tracks “What do you mean?”

“I don’t have any memories from before I came here,” Sam responded.

“Really?" She was surprised, "I was an only child and my parents died before I came here. This place has been my haven.”

Tim told his story as well, “My parents and I decided this would be the best place for me to come since they have an advanced history degree and I’m looking to teach history when I go back home.”

Sam looked down feeling very left out. “Let us keep going, maybe there’s an answer for me on the other side of this prairie.”

As the paint dripped they walked further and further away from campus. This time they walked in silence. It seemed like it would never end. About half an hour later the can was getting light and Tim said, “we need to think about heading back since we won’t have a way to keep track of where we are.”

Sam was walking ahead of the others in a daze and just kept going many things happened at once. There was a resounding thud, Sam yelled “Damn it!” and he tumbled backward onto the ground.

Tim and Gwen stood there in stunned silence. Sam had just run into... the sky.

They reached out ahead of them and felt the prairie was a wall. It looked like a projection of a prairie onto a wall as they reached higher and higher the wall continued. Tim took a tennis ball out of his bag and threw it into the sky ahead of them. It bounced off the sky and ricocheted back at them with a dull thud. He threw it higher with the same effect.

All three of them looked at each other. “It is a wall,” Tim said. “If we cannot go over it, let us go under it.” he produced a small collapsible shovel from his backpack. He started digging but after a couple of moments ran into the concrete. He put the shovel away and said in an exasperated way “how odd”

Gwen thought about it a second and said if we stay along the wall there should be a seam somewhere. They all put their right hand on the wall and started walking along with it. They noticed after an hour or so that it seemed to have a gentle curve to the left. “It’s circular,” she said.

“What if it’s a dome?” Sam proposed.

Gwen stopped abruptly, “Here’s the seam” two metal plates conjoined together, yet it still looked like a projection of the prairie was on it. The nut was on the side where the teens were standing.

Tim came over to look at it and took out a small powered drill and started drilling out one of the nuts on a bolt. As soon as it loosened the bolt slipped through the wall. A massive force of suction started on the other side. Despite the small size the force knocked all three of them off their feet in surprise and they felt very cold and suddenly had a challenging time breathing. Tim was quickly rummaging through his bag for something else. He quickly pulled out a small tube and squeezed the contents into the hole. The suction stopped as epoxy filled the hole and froze.

All three of them dumbfounded by everything they had seen started walking back the way they had come along the edge of the dome. They looked up and could see, knowing what they know now the stars they saw were not real. The clouds they saw were only an animation. The moon? Was there even a moon on the other side of the dome?

They found their luminescent yellow paint and started tracking it back through the prairie. After about fifteen minutes of walking, Sam looked back. “It looks more real the farther we get from it.” They all turned to look. “So, it does,” Gwen saw, “that probably isn’t a coincidence.”

“What do you think it means?” Sam was the one that opened the door.

“Well at the very least someone is lying to us.” Gwen’s brow furrowed

“Well taking it apart, we clearly cannot leave. Far beyond breaking the rules, physically, we cannot leave. This has changed from a school to a prison. But that brings in to doubt many things. Is this Earth? If so, why is there a dome that has what appears to be a vacuum on the other end?”

A wave of apathy reached over them. Why had people lied to them? Why were they imprisoned?

“I don’t think my parents would have agreed to me coming here if they knew what it was.” Tim considered. “Something has to be wrong in my memory. They either didn’t know as much about this place as they thought, or they didn’t support me going.”

They traveled again in silence for a while. Suddenly, they heard a noise, stopped, and got down. They all crouched and listened. They could hear security guards rush nearby them running toward the seam in the dome where they removed the bolt. The security guards crossed in front of them but did not see the line small line of luminescent paint.

After the sound had passed, Gwen rallied the boys to action. “Come on, we have to run this time.” They all started running along their paint trail, trying to make as little noise as possible. Gwen reached the edge of the tall grasses first and popped out not realizing it. She quickly jumped back in and grabbed the boys to stop them. They all fell to the ground in a heap. A couple of moments later a security guard passed the path in front of them but did not notice them just inside the line of vegetation.

Tim was digging through his large backpack again. “I hope you guys can climb.” This time he pulled out an item that looked like a four-pronged anchor and tied it to a 50-foot rope. “Here’s the plan, we run, then I throw this into the window and hook it on the metal bar under the window or the bed and we climb up.” They both agreed although Sam did so slightly reluctantly. He never did like gym class.

They sprinted across the lawn and found their open window. Tim closed his eyes, muttered something under his breath. When he opened his eyes, they had an exceptional focus the other two had never seen before. He threw the grapnel anchor into the window and a few tugs later it stuck. He leaned his weight against it and it held.

“Okay, who’s first?” As he handed the rope to Sam he muttered another line about strength and flight. Sam looked at him confused as Tim urged, “go, go quickly.”

As Sam pulled himself up the rope it did not seem as hard as it was in gym class. It was adrenaline. It was the fact that he was already tired. Or Sam thought, could it have been the words Tim said?

Gwen and Tim clambered up after Sam. Tim was reeling up the rope “You need to get back to your room quickly.”

She opened the door quickly and popped her head out. “The hallways are red. We’re in lockdown.” She closed the door again. “How do we get around this?”

“Come with me, I know the guard patterns in lockdown.” Tim quickly grabbed her hand and dashed out into the hallway. Moments later the door closed behind and Sam heard a guard walking by.

Sam started wondering things about his roommate who he met only a short time ago.

Five minutes later Tim came back in. “Okay, all is well. Hopefully, they didn’t go door to door earlier.” Sam had a sour look on his face. “What’s up?”

Sam welcomed time with a glare and a bombardment of questions. “How did you know the guard patterns? Why does it seem like the world changes when you say things? What do you know that I do not? Are we really in a dome?”

“Honestly, I do not know if we are in a dome, it seems that way. I know that I have made friends with Mr. Mustang and he has said things to me that make me question if we are on Earth or even if it is the 21st century. I suspect our memories were changed.”

Tim laid down and stared into the ceiling “There is a whole different world out there, but I have no idea what state it’s in.”