The Dome Chronicles: Lies

Thirteen

"Mom! Nicholas! The tunnel collapsed! I repeat: the tunnel has collapsed!" Toby starts shouting as soon as I've tapped him on the shoulder and pointed out the window.

I can see that my mom is glancing towards the backseat, where she sees us pointing at the mound of dirt that used to be the tunnel.

Immediately after, she turns her attention back towards the front. I can see her shaking her head, clearly disappointed.

I feel the same way.

At this point, the little kids are getting antsy. Some of them are bouncing up and down in their seats, some are screaming and one or two are just sitting there.

Thank God there's seatbelts in this thing.

A moment later, we hear Nicholas' voice come over the bus intercom. "Attention teenagers, children, and babies: I will now be putting the window shades down to protect your eyes from the sun. Once we get to the...the mystery destination, I'll give you all special goggles so the sun won't hurt you. Thank you for your cooperation."

He sounds so much like a tour bus driver or a pilot that it's not even funny.

"Why not just make things easier and, oh, I don't know, NOT LEAVE THE DOME?!" Toby raises his voice. "We can't even see the sun when we're inside of the dome so there's no reason to put on goggles. Or leave."

Peyton reaches over and gives him a pat on the back.

"...Ever." He finishes.

"There, there. It'll be okay, big brother." She smiles.

"Get your hand off me." He grumbles.

Peyton slowly draws her hand back, looking hurt. "Well, sor-ry."

For the next two minutes, all three of us sit in silence while the kids up front continue to scream.

After awhile, I finally break the silence. "Hey guys, you wanna play a game?"

They both look at me like I had just asked them to lick the bottom of my foot.

"What? We need something to pass the time. There's still an hour left before we reach the mystery destination."

"How about...let's not... play a game." Peyton is still staring at the shade covering the window.

"Okay." I put my head down. "That's alright, I didn't wanna play a game anyways."

Toby squints his eyes. "Yeah you did. You just said so."

"It was a joke. You know what, forget it." I turn my head back towards the window. "You're so literal about everything, and it's super annoying." I shoot back.

I can see out of the corner of my eye that he's sticking his tongue out at me.

"I saw that." I whisper.

"No you didn't." He pouts.

"That's what you think." I shoot back.

We have these types of silly brother-sister fights all the time, but I don't think there's anyone who has a sibling that doesn't fight with them.

It is normal, right?

At this point, we're over our little fight. Toby's turned his attention towards a game on his phone and I continue looking out the window.

He might drive me crazy. He might get on my nerves. He might even make me want to strangle him sometimes. Nevertheless, it doesn't matter. He's my brother and he always will be. He'll always be there, whether I want him there or not.

As I'm letting my thoughts take over, I turn my head back towards the window. The drive itself isn't all that scenic, it's basically just a bunch of abandoned buildings that were literally melted by the sun.

In 2071, ten years before I was even born, scientists started realizing that the sun was getting stronger. The radiation was too powerful to even step outside for a couple minutes. The scientists felt that they needed to inform everyone about what was going on and warn them about going outside, so they wrote an article and released it to the public.

They made the wrong choice.

17 hours after that article was released, it had gone viral. If you asked any average Joe about the new article concerning radiation, there was a 90 something percent chance they could tell you every detail.

Which was fortunate for the public because they got more information on radiation safety, but unfortunate for the scientists.

Some people believed what they said and did what the article told them to do, which was not go outside. Others shamed the scientists and criticized them for their information. They claimed that it was fake news.

Who the heck would lie about radiation?

A lot of people, apparently, according to those haters.

Ten minutes later, we're about 25 miles from our destination. The little ones have gotten worn out from all the bouncing and screaming, and most of them are out cold. The only ones that are awake are 'the big three' and 2/3 of the babies.

I don't know how much longer I can be kept awake, to be honest. It's so quiet I could just drift off...just like that...

Just like that, I find myself drifting away, letting sleep overcome me. The heat from the sun reflecting off the window made it even easier.

In an instant, I find myself being pulled into a dream. In the dream, it's 10 years into the future and it's Christmas. My mom, Nicholas and my siblings are all gathered around the table. In addition to that, Hawk is sitting right next to me. He grabs my hand and squeezes it. A smile forms on his face.

The joy that I feel is unreal. It's Christmas and everyone is happy. It is supposed to be the happiest holiday, right?

Something is missing, though.

I see Jaelyn, Rilynn and Keaton down on the other end of the table. They're ten years old now, and they look so grown up. Rilynn resembles me and my

mom so much that it's unreal.

Next I see Devyn, who is 13, and Charlotte, who is 12. Since they're only a year apart, they're very close. They're currently chattering and giggling about something I can't make out because they're talking so fast.

Teenagers, am I right?

Patrick and Noah are sitting on the left side. They are 16 and 14 so they're pretty close in age too, but they're just staring at their phones.

Typical.

Next I notice Mason sitting on the right side, just observing his surroundings. Abby is helping my mom cook dinner. She's always been into cooking, so she's pursuing it as a career. Mason, on the other hand, wants to study law and become a lawyer. He's always been very feisty and narrow-minded so I think he would do very well. When he puts his mind to something, he gets it done.

Peyton is sitting next to me on my right. I look at her and she gives me an awkward smile and wave.

It doesn't take me long to figure out who's missing.

Toby.

Where is he?

He's probably in the bathroom or something. I'm just about to get up and go find him when Hawk stands up, too. He grabs my hand and pulls me back towards him.

"Where are you going?" He asks. "We're just about to eat."

"I'm going to look for Toby. He's late for dinner. Little rascal is probably hiding in the bathroom on his phone avoiding all human interaction-"

"Freaya." He interrupts me. "I know you miss him, but we're all here for you and you know that. Everyone here misses him too." He strokes my hand as the tears well up in his eyes.

"W-what are you t-talking about h-he's still h-here." My voice quivers as I immediately start to think the worst.

"Freaya, Toby passed away a long time ago. When you were 16, don't you remember?" The tears are streaming down both of our faces now.

"No! That's not true!" I scream, running down the hall to the bathroom. I sit down on the toilet and cry for a solid ten minutes. No one comes in to ask me if I'm ok or comfort me.

He can't be gone... is all that's running through my mind.

He can't...

Be...

Gone...

"Freaya!" Someone is pounding on the bathroom door. "Freaya, wake up! Freaya!"

I'm not even sleeping, what are they talking about?

"Freaya, we're here!" I open my eyes and see Toby shaking me.

"We are?" I ask, looking around. We're parked in a pitch black parking ramp that looks like it's underground.

"Yes! What were you dreaming about? You kept yelling things." He looks a little concerned.

"It was nothing. You know how I have bad dreams once in a while. Anyway, what did I miss? Did they tell you where we are?" I brush past the dream like it was nothing, but I don't really think it is nothing.

I guess I'll find out in ten years.

"We're at some sort of hotel. What we're doing here, I have no idea. We should probably get our stuff." He grabs his bag out of the overhead compartment and slings it over his shoulder.

"You ready?" He asks.

"Yeah...yep just let me get my stuff." I stand up and grab my bag out of the compartment on my side. After I put my backpack over my shoulder, we start making our way up to the front of the bus.

As we're making our way through the crowd, I hear one of the little kids ask, "Daddy, what are we doing here?" Nicholas responds with "Daddy is just taking care of business. Don't worry about it, okay?"

"No, seriously. What are we doing here?" Peyton pipes up.

"It's just business." Nicholas shrugs.

"Y'know, when he said 'it's just business', I half expected him to get an evil look on his face and say lord business." Toby whispers.

"LEGO movie?" I ask, looking straight ahead.

"Yup." He says blankly. "How did you know?"

"I just know. You and your movie references sometimes, I swear..."

At this point, we're getting off the bus because the little kids are finally out of the way. Nicholas is grabbing each car seat one by one and bringing them outside while my mom sets up the triple stroller. Once he's done bringing the babies out, he takes the three compatible cribs out from underneath the bus and hands one to each of the big kids.

"This seems very sketchy." I mutter as we walk towards the elevator leading up to the hotel. "Whenever anyone asks him what we're doing here, he just says 'business'."

"And a surprise trip to a desolate wasteland isn't sketchy?" Toby gives me a look.

"Point taken."

Once everyone is inside of the elevator area, Nicholas takes a piece of paper out of the back pocket of his jeans and clears his throat.

"Okay kids, listen up. We'll be staying at this hotel for 2 nights and I booked 4 rooms. In my hand, I have the room assignments. Keep in mind that you'll probably be sharing a bed, except for the babies, who get their own compactable crib. Any questions before I continue?" Nicholas asks, looking around at all of the kids.

"What are we gonna do when we're here, daddy?" Mason asks, c*****g his head.

"Well, buttercup, there's a lot of things we can do. There's a swimming pool, so you can swim if you want. And there's a restaurant and ice cream shop in the hotel."

"Yay! Mason yells, jumping up and down. "Ice cream! Ice cream! Swimming!"

"Okay, here are the room assignments. In room one will be mom, Jaelyn, Rilynn, and Charlotte. In room two, it will be me, Keaton, and Noah. Room three will be Toby, Patrick and Mason. Lastly, in room four will be Freaya, Peyton, Abby and Devyn." Nicholas pauses before he reaches into his knapsack, which is on his right shoulder, and pulls out a large ziploc bag with four walkie-talkies in it.

"In order to keep close contact with one another when we're all in different rooms, the room captains, which are the oldest people in each room, will be using walkie talkies. These bad boys have a range of up to 1 mile so we can be on complete opposite sides of the hotel and you'll still be able to chat with one another. The rules regarding the walkie-talkies are as follows. Rule number one: You must have it on channel 1 at all times so we can reach you. Rule number two: There's no talking on the walkie talkies at night unless it is an absolute emergency. And rule number three: for the purpose of constant communication, keep your walkies on at all times. That's why there's no talking on them at night, because we wouldn't want to wake the little kids or babies. Comprendo?"

"Aye aye, captain!" Toby yells loudly.

"Yes, sir." I respond quietly.

"Compredo." Peyton confirms, looking in my direction and smirking.

"Alrighty, then. Let's go up, shall we?" Nicholas asks theoretically and pushes the up button on the elevator.

It only takes about a minute for the elevator to reach us. Thankfully, it's plenty big so all of us and the triple stroller can fit.

Once we're all inside and the doors are closed, the elevator shoots upwards at what feels like lightning speed. It takes us no more than ten seconds to reach the lobby.

We step outside of the elevator and into the lobby of the hotel. It looks very old fashioned, with light brown carpet and red furniture. The front desk is made of wood, and so are the coffee tables which sit in between various pieces of furniture in the seating area. There's a coffee shop off to the right of the front desk, a frozen yogurt store straight ahead, and a restaurant to the left. Nicholas gets us checked in while the rest of the little kids are running around like little tornadoes, destroying everything in their path.

"Thank you." I hear him say, and Toby, Peyton and I help round up the little ones so we can go up to our rooms.

Once we get up to the third floor, which is where our rooms are, Nicholas gives each of the room captains a key.

"Call me if there's any problems. Remember the rules. See you tomorrow at 9:00 for breakfast at the restaurant," Is all Nicholas says as he takes his respective kids and disappears into his room.

Right after, mom goes into her room and Toby into his. I make sure all my kids are with me and slide the card into the card reader.

The first thing I notice is that our room is a suite. There are two king-sized beds, one in the main part of the room and one behind a divider. There's a full sitting area with a TV and a bathroom.

This is actually kind of nice.

I look at my phone. It's 9:30 pm. How did time fly so fast?

I hear a crackling on my walkie. "Start getting the kids ready for bed, it's late." Nicholas says. I can hear a baby crying in the background.

Boy, did I luck out.

"Alright guys, you heard the man. Nighty-night time. Get your pajamas on and brush your teeth. Abby, I'll be in to help you in a minute. Just let me get dressed first. Peyton, start getting Devyn ready. One, two, three, break."

For the next twenty minutes, me and Peyton are running around, helping get our siblings ready for bed. Once they're both ready, we all climb into one of the beds and read them a book.

After two minutes, Devyn is out cold. Abby's still awake, but barely. We somehow manage to sneak out of the bed, turn off the lights and slide the divider over.

Peyton and I are just about to turn the lights off when I hear a crackle from the walkie.

"Hey. Guys, it's me, Toby. I overheard something from Nicholas' room that I thought you might want to know about." Toby whispers.

"What? What is it? Tell us!" Peyton half-speaks, half-yells.

"Peyton, be quiet! The girls are trying to sleep! Anyway, Toby, continue." I make sure to shoot her an unforgiving look before urging him to keep talking.

"Our town is in trouble. Nicholas said something about receiving a missile threat from someone named Benjamin." He whispers.

"Tell me more." Peyton's mouth is wide open. She's basically speechless.

"Well, I don't know all of the details but I do know this."

"Tell us! What is this?" I ask eagerly.

"Well... and don't repeat this. This stays between us..." He starts.

"Yes! I promise!" We both yell.

"Benjamin Kapernick, you know, Nicholas' sworn enemy? He's the one that did it. He's planning to send a missile towards our dome on purpose."