A Hole in Time

The Dome - Chapter 11 - A Hole in Time

Liam's handwriting is so much better than mine, so I let him do all the writing. We write as much as we can possibly remember into the books. I relay the full conversations I have heard from Duncan and his superior over the past three mornings, including the fact that two days I heard them say snow and today added hail. Hail, as I remember learning, is solid rain. We do not get rain here in the Dome. I do not even know where our water comes from. Liam writes into the book of all the cameras and microphones we remember seeing. There are so many. I now realise why all the Hierarchy are needed in their headquarters. With so many cameras around the place, there would be that many computer screens in the building that need to be monitored. 

I start to get antsy, so I stand up and go for a walk around the field. I smell a few of the flowers, enjoy the grass under my feet and the feeling of the warm sun, or sun projection, on my face. Then suddenly, It is gone. I open my eyes and I see that I am under the black spot that Liam and I noticed before. It is cold and dark, and I can feel water falling from the sky. I think this is what they call rain. I do not like it. How did this hole get here? And why did not I see it earlier?

I feel a hand grab my arm and pull me backwards. I look up and feel a flood of relief when I see Liam's face. I bury my face into his shirt, still shivering from the cold, and he holds me tight. "Gracie, what happened? One minute you were walking around looking at the sky and the next thing I know, You are gone. I ran over here, calling your name, but you did not answer me. I must have been waving my hands around because I felt the cold. Here, stick your hand out." 

Liam moves us closer to the black spot and we both put our hands straight out. I let out a small yelp when our hands disappear. I think it is called curiosity, but something inside me wants to know what is going on. I grasp Liam's hand, smile reassuringly, then walk straight in. I feel the cold of the rain hit me instantly, but I want to find out. I look around me and for as far as I can see, there is rubble and broken buildings. 

I hear a noise to my left and I turn sharply. I see a man stumbling over the rubble, coming towards me. He calls my name and holds out a parcel. "Grace, this is for you. You two will understand it." I reach out and take the parcel. "Who are you? How do you know me?" The man shakes his head. "You need to go now. It is not good to stay out of your time for too long." I call out to him, but I feel Liam pulling on my hand. I resign myself to just figuring out the parcel and I walk backwards with Liam as my guide.

Liam and I sit back down on the grass and look at the parcel. Liam believes me about the man. I am still trying to figure out what he said about time. What did he mean, 'out of my time'? I push the thought away for later and open the parcel. We are both shocked to find that it is the book we have been writing in today , as well as another book filled with writing. The book that we have been writing in is filled with our handwriting, but the dates seem strange. I flip to the last page in the book and I find a note. Liam reads it out loud. 

"Grace and Liam, if you are reading this, then we have failed. It is now your turn to try. Now, let us clear something up. Whichever one of you just stepped into the black spot, and we think it will be Grace, you met with our son, Mikey. He is stronger than we are, so he made the journey in our stead. We are writing to you from the future. It was our job to try and stop the horrible events that have happened. We have not been able to succeed in our mission, so you must try."

Liam stops reading to look at me. Could this be real? A letter from the future? How is that even possible? I curl up next to Liam, still cold from the rain, and urge him to continue. "This is a hard letter to write, but it is needed. As you will have come to find, you two are different. You do not have microchips. This means quite a few things, but the two most important are: Your thoughts are your own, no-one can read them or change them; And you are not tracked. The microchips are tracking devices as well as information download from the Hierarchy. This information is your biggest tool."

"We have included our book in this parcel. It has all the information we could possibly find and write down. Hopefully this will help. The other book you need to be very careful with. It is the schematic diary of the time technology that is responsible for all of this mess. Yes, Grace, you were in the future just now. You have seen what the price will be if you fail. The complete destruction of the Dome and everyone inside. You now have the tools to heal the holes in time. Yours in time, Grace and Liam."

I stare up at Liam, unable to speak for a while. We just sent a letter to ourselves from the future, couriered by our future son. "Wait, did they say holes in time? That must be how the leaks form. They are holes that let the snow and hail from the future through into our time. That must be what I walked into. A hole in time. Now we have to heal those holes." Liam nods. "I guess we better get to work then, Gracie."