The Dome Chronicles: Lies

Nine and a half

Peyton and Toby stand up at the same time.

"Izzy? Isn't that a girl's name?" Toby asks curiously.

"You have no idea how many times I'be been asked that." He chuckles a little. "My name is Israel, but people call me Izzy."

"Oh." Peyton shrugs. "I like it. My name is Peyton, this is my older brother Toby, and that's our big sister Freaya. It's very nice to meet you." She says, pulling out the cute little girl smile so we don't seem intimidating.

Izzy gives us a wide grin. "It's nice to meet you, too. Where are you kids headed? Isn't it a little late for you to be out in these tunnels alone?"

"I don't think so." I say. "What time is it?"

"It's about 2:30. Don't you think your parents will be wondering where you are?" He asks.

"Our parents don't care about us." Toby responds blankly.

I punch him in the shoulder.

"I don't want to send the wrong message. Our parents care about us, they're just not home yet. They went to the water park with our 9 younger siblings, and I don't think they'll be gone much longer." I frown. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Who are your parents?" Izzy inquires.

"Nicholas is our stepdad and Natalie is our mom." Toby says in a robot voice.

This time I give him a slap on the face.

"What? He asked." He says, looking at me as if I'm an i***t.

"You don't just tell anybody that stuff, they could find our parents and hurt them." I tell him.

"I'm not out to hurt anyone." Izzy replies. "I do know your stepfather, though. Nicholas, was it? Nicholas Johnson?"

"Yep." I say. "How do you know him?"

"I work with him. I'm basically his number two."

"But Nicholas is the mayor. How are you his number two? Are you his assistant?"

Izzy laughs. "Your father-"

"Stepfather." Toby interrupts him.

"Right, sorry. Your stepfather is not just the mayor. He's an inventor, which you probably already knew, but he's also a scientist. He has all kinds of tools stored in a room somewhere. I think it's in the-"

"The hospital!" We all shout at the same time, excited that we've figured out part of the mystery.

"That's it." Izzy frowns. "...how did you kids know that?"

"We have our ways." Toby replies, grinning from ear to ear.

"We want to see his laboratory." Peyton states bluntly.

"I suppose I could take you there but you'll have to walk fast, we don't have much time." Izzy says, picking up the briefcase that he set on the floor earlier. "Let's get moving."

We walk for a little bit until Toby breaks the silence by turning to me and saying:

"Hey Freaya, you know what would be cool? If the leader of our group had a big torch or something to symbolize that we're going on a mission."

"Mmhm." I mumble, half-listening. I'm absorbed in my own thoughts again.

"I don't have a torch, but I have a crayon that I just found in my pocket right now." Peyton says, pulling a peach colored crayon out of the pocket of her blue jean shorts.

"Why do you have a crayon in your pocket?" Toby asks her.

"Why...don't you have one?" Peyton responds and then skips ahead of us singing the mission song. Toby still looks confused.

"Why the heck are we being led by an i***t with a crayon?" Toby asks me.

"I don't know," I tell him. "That is one thing I can't explain."

Peyton is now walking ahead of us, but not ahead of Izzy, holding the crayon up high in her right hand and chanting

"We're going on a mission, we're going on a mission, we're going on a mission."

"Seriously, what's wrong with her?" Toby just can't seem to let this go.

"So, Izzy," I change the subject. "Are you from around here? Nikotopia, I mean. Or did you move here?"

"I was born in what used to be Chicago." Izzy states, not looking back. "It's not there anymore, but it was a cool city." He clears his throat.

"Anyway, I became an orphan at age 5 because my mother died from alcoholism and my dad fought in the war. My mom was an addict. Me and my little brother Asher were transferred to a foster home, where we got adopted by two married doctors. They were great parents to us, better than my biological parents. My dad was never home and my mom didn't care about us." He finishes. "You probably didn't want my whole life story, but I told it to you anyway, I guess." He chuckles.

"I didn't want your life story." Toby murmurs.

"Toby, shut up!" I yell, and he hangs his head like a puppy.

"Sorry about that, Izzy. He's not usually like this." I give Toby a shove so he gets the idea.

"That's ok. My brother's nosy too, I get it. It should only be another mile before we get there." He says.

"Get where?" Peyton pipes up.

"To the lair." I can see Izzy smiling devilishly, like he's plotting something.

It sort of makes me regret ever following this man in the first place.

It is the year 2097 after all, and you can't trust anyone these days.

Toby hesitates. "...what lair?" He asks.

"Oh, you'll see. Soon..." Izzy replies.

"I'm starting to think this guy is onto us." Peyton whispers.

"What?" I whisper back. "There's nothing to be onto us about."

"I'm just joking." She reassures me, and I relax a little.

"Maybe." Her wide eyes are pointed straight ahead.

I shake my head. "You're such a weird child."

"I know." She replies.

"What're you whispering about back there?" Izzy asks.

"Nothing!" Me and Peyton yell at the same time.

"Jinx. You owe me a soda." Peyton whispers.

I can see up ahead that the lights on both sides of the tunnel slowly dim until none of them are on at all. Soon, we're walking in complete darkness. I pull out the flashlight I brought in my bag, so we can see.

"Put that away." Izzy commands.

"Why? It's PITCH BLACK!" Peyton asks.

"Because," Izzy answers somewhat creepily. "you don't need it."

All of us look around, clearly confused. I do as he says, turning the flashlight off.

Everything is dark for a second, then I see two flashlight-like beams shining up in front of me.

Everyone is silent for a second, then I hear Toby shriek,"THOSE ARE HIS EYES! HIS EYES GLOW!!"

I walk forward a little bit to see that he's telling the truth.

Sure enough, there's a bright blue beam of light coming from each of Izzy's eyes.

We come up to the end of the tunnel, where there's a red double door with multiple security checkpoints, like a fingerprint scanner, a screen where you can type in a password, and a retina scan. Izzy stops first, then the rest of us follow suit.

"Step back." Izzy says.

We all take a giant step back.

"Close your eyes." He commands.

We do as he says and cover our eyes with our hands.

I can't see what he's doing, but I hear a series of beeps and other technological noises.

"You can open." Izzy says.

We all open our eyes and see that the door's open, revealing the room branching off the hallway that we went in before, except the lights are on and three tall, muscular men are standing in the doorway.