Dome

by Bryan Young

  Tony offered his opinion on the matter, trying to restore some normalcy to the situation, “Maybe everything is asleep? It’s pretty late.”

  Tye shook his head but decided to keep his theories to himself.

  As the boys continued on the trail, conversation picked back up. A familiar peace of mind had returned to the group, until Nathan suddenly stopped and fell to his knees. Before he knew what was happening, vomit erupted from his mouth.

  “Jesus Christ!” Tony yelled as he rushed to his brother’s side. “Are you okay, dude?!”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Nathan said, pushing his brother away. “It’s just... I felt a little nauseous, is all.” Nathan dusted himself off, shook his head, and took a couple deep breaths to ensure that he was indeed okay. “Probably just some bad theater hot dogs or something. I feel better.”

  Tye looked at the vomit on the ground and raised an eyebrow. “Just a little nauseous, huh?”

  Exchanging concerned looks, the boys decided to stay on course and continue towards the hills. Barely a few minutes later, Brodie began to complain about a splitting headache and sudden fatigue. They stopped once again to check on their friend and make sure the adventure could go on without a rushed visit to the emergency room. But much like Nathan, Brodie was able to shake it off after about five minutes and agreed to keep walking.

  Nonetheless, Tye was worried about his friends. He felt it would be best to also check on Tony and Jax. To his surprise, both admitted to feeling lightheaded and nauseous too. Trying to determine why his friends all suddenly felt this way, he attempted to probe into the matter. “So, were you guys sick beforehand? Or did this just kinda… pop up...? It’s not a particularly hard hike, so I’m just wondering what’s up.”

  Nathan admitted that he’d only begun to feel sick around the time the group had noticed the absence of animals. Jax, Tony, and Brodie nodded in agreement.

  “What about you, bro?” Brodie asked.

  “What about me?” Tye asked.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Oh!” Tye paused. “Hm... Fine... Uh... Great, actually. I’m pretty pumped and energized.”

  “You always were a weird one, Tye,” said Tony with a chuckle.

  Tye shrugged and asked if they should continue walking or if it’d be best to turn around. The boys agreed that since they had made the effort to be there they might as well tough it out and continue. They started walking again at a slower pace. However, Tye couldn’t help but wonder why he seemed to be unaffected by the strange sense of fatigue and sickness that had overcome his friends. He also began to think about why he felt so energized and ready to take on the world when just a few hours ago, he could barely stay awake in the movie theater. His mind raced, trying to find a connection between his friends’ sudden bouts of sickness and the supposed horrors of the hills.

  As they continued to trudge along the dark path, they came upon a fork in the road with no discernible sign around.

  Tye rubbed his chin and a strange sense of familiarity hit him. Despite the missing sign, he knew he had recognized the area they were in. “I swear, I’ve been here before. I just... don’t remember there being two trails.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Brodie pulled out a lighter and a pre-rolled joint from his pocket. “These trails could go down for miles. I’m up for going to the Hills but not if it means walking around for hours just to see the damn place.”

  “Hmm. You guys chill here for a minute. I’ll scout down both paths and see what’s up,” Tye told his friends before quickly jogging a few hundred feet down the path on his left to see if he could find anything familiar. After seeing nothing interesting, he started back to report his findings.

  As he began to jog back, he tripped in an attempt to clear a dip in the trail and took a nasty tumble on the hard gravel, dropping his phone. Collecting himself off the ground and shining the phone’s light in front of him, he noticed an active fire ant hill inches from his face. “Ah! God damn it!” he yelled, as he jumped back. “Fuck! That!” He scooted back in the dirt, scuffing his jeans in the process, until he felt he was a sufficient distance from the raging ants. As he stood up and patted off the dirt, he had an epiphany. “Wait... Ants?” He quickly turned his light to the ground and noticed a litany of insects crawling at his feet. Excitement building inside him, he did a quick fist pump and ran back to the fork in the trail.

  From the fork, he could see his friends talking and smoking joints. He had a large smile on his face and was eager to share his findings, but he did not want to give them false hope until he was sure. So he replayed what he had seen and jogged down the trail on the right, making sure to go more slowly and thoroughly search the trail with his flaslight.

  His suspicions were now confirmed. As far as he could tell, there were no insects, birds, rodents, or big predators hiding anywhere. He stopped to contemplate this and its ramifications, theorizing what the explanation could be. It was then that he realized that if they had continued left, they would’ve likely hit the Red Mountain trail and gone off into a completely different part of the woods.

  Excitedly, he yelled with pure joy as he dashed back to his friends, confident in his newfound knowledge about the location of the hills. Sweaty and out of breath, Tye attempted to convey his findings despite the constant swirling thoughts in his mind, only to be met with confused and slightly concerned looks from his friends.

  “Bro,” Brodie began. “What on earth are you saying?”

  Tye took a moment to compose himself, wipe the dirt from his sweater, and yelled, “I freakin’ found it!”

  Shocked at the sudden outburst, his friends became even more confused and concerned. Nathan offered Tye a hit of the fresh joint he had rolled to calm his nerves.

  “No, man! Listen. There’s wildlife on the left but nothing on the right! Absolutely, freakin’ nothing! I think... I think it means we’re getting close.”

  “How do you figure?” Nathan asked.

  “Because I’ve hiked this before! To the left is Red Mountain, and as far as I know, there’s nothing interesting about Red Mountain besides an incredibly difficult trail known more for people puking their brains out than people having a good time. And to the right—”

  “The unknown,” Jax said, cutting off Tye.

  “Exactly!” Tye responded, pointing. “See, I knew this place was familiar! That trail wasn’t there before! They must hide it or block it off during the day so people don’t try and walk down it. The question being... Why?”

  The boys turned towards the pitch-black trail on the right and took a second to process the fact that they were potentially heading towards something much more terrifying than the legends claimed.

  As Tye strode forward, he turned to look at his friends, who continued standing there for an uncomfortably long time, paralyzed and staring into the void. He couldn’t quite place the feeling, but he knew that much like the sudden disappearance of the animals and the sickness that had washed over his friends, something was off.

  “Guys! Wake up!” Tye yelled. “We gotta keep moving if we plan to see this thing.”

  “Right, right,” Brodie responded, shaking his head. “Where the hell were we? I feel like I blacked out.”

  “You kinda did,” Tye said, concerned and fearful of what exactly was happening.

  “How long, exactly?” Jax asked, confused.

  “Just a few... er… More than a few seconds. It was... Weird.”

  “Is this place starting to freak anyone else out?” Nathan asked shrilly as he jumped back slightly from the wind blowing through the leaves of the surrounding trees. “Is it too late to turn around and smoke somewhere? That sounds way more kosher than this.”

  Tye shook his head and said sarcastically, “Yeah, man. Five high teens operating an automobile at night, when four of them can’t even stand up straight, is a great idea.”

  “Just a thought man,” Nathan said under his breath.

  Tye could sense the fear that had c
ome over all the guys. While everyone had been on edge before, this moment seemed to take it up to another level. “Look, guys. I don’t know what’s happening here. But is it possible that there’s a logical explanation for all of this? Maybe our fears over the stupid legends about this place has our minds playing tricks on us? I get it if you want to turn back, I really do. But what if we miss out on something great because we decided to run from our own shadows? Are we gonna turn back because of a little nausea and not seeing boring animals that we would’ve ignored anyway? Can we just all take a deep breath, clear our minds, and choose? I’m with you guys either way. But I have a special kind of feeling about this place that I’ve never had before and I want to see it through.”

  Everyone took a moment to process Tye’s words, debating silently whether the whole ordeal was worth it. Jax stepped forward towards Tye and yelled “Fuck it!” at the sky. “I’m with you on this, bro.”

  Brodie smiled and nearly skipped over to Tye and Jax. “If the white boy is in, I’m fosho in. Can’t be out here getting outdone by someone that looks like they should be bucking hay for a living.”

  The twins, still not convinced, conferred with each other and ultimately offered to wait by the car until the other three got back.

  Tye groaned. “Look, if one of you wants to go back and wait by the car then that’s fine, but it’d be cool to have at least one of you with us.”

  The two reluctantly agreed to the compromise and seeing as he had experienced the brunt of the mysterious effects of the hill, Nathan volunteered to walk back to the car and wait for the others.

  Jax tossed him the keys and as he turned around, he told the group that he’d be on the lookout in case he saw anyone or anything from his side of the trail.

  As Nathan walked back up the trail, the four remaining boys descended further into the darkness, only able to see what their phones could illuminate before them.

  As they walked, Tye noticed a noise after roughly five minutes after separating from Nathan, “Either I’m going insane or there’s an annoying buzzing I hear. I doubt anyone is doing any work out here at this hour and we’re pretty far away from any residential areas, so what’s up? Brodie, you’re a mechanical engineering guy. What is it?”

  Brodie shrugged. “Can’t say, man. I build shit but I don’t know every machine sound on the planet.”

  “Fair point,” Tye conceded.

  “I think it may be coming from the hills,” Tony suggested.

  “Like, something we’re walking past?” Jax asked.

  “Nah, I don’t think so. It seems to be increasing as we walk towards it. If it was in one place we were walking past, we’d hear it slowly increase and decrease.”

  “Oh, you mean the Doppler effect. Like... Trains or police cars,” Tye commented.

  “Exactly!” Tony said. “The fact that we’ve been walking for a bit now and the sound has only increased makes me think it’s up ahead. And as far as we know, there’s only one place to go. Meaning it’s either in or on the hills. Either that or someone up ahead is doing some weird trail work at 11 PM.”

  “Damn, is it really 11?” Tye asked.

  “It is, according to my phone,” Brodie responded. “We’ve got a clear sky in a place that’s relatively away from all the light pollution we normally see. Take it in, boys.”

  The four of them stopped to admire the night sky, gazing at the bright stars glistening back at them.

  “You know?” Jax began. “We see stuff like this all the time at my cabin up in Northern California. We should all make a trip up there sometime. Just us guys for a week.”

  As Tye was about to respond, he noticed a faint blue streak across the sky. As far as he could see, the strange light had no source. He was entranced by the light despite it being miles away. As he stared at it, he could almost see it become increasingly brighter in sync with the buzzing in the background. His mind and body seemed totally attracted to the beam in a way he didn’t know was possible. He stood there, frozen, seemingly isolated from the world. The only thing he could perceive was himself and the light, as if they were the only two things there and were somehow connected. He felt a deep power rise from inside him. An inexplicable energy incomprehensible to his mind. He felt that if he raised his hand and jumped, he would cover the impossible distance between him and the source of the light. But his trance was broken when he felt Brodie push him and heard Tony yell his name into his ear.

  “What...? What happened,” Tye asked, shaking his head and rubbing his temples as he struggled to stay upright, still reeling from that strange experience and trying to understand what had just occurred.

  “Dude, you stood there not saying a word for like five minutes. Are you okay? How do you feel?” Jax asked with concern.

  “I feel... great,” Tye said softly. “I just. I dunno. I just felt like I was somewhere that wasn’t here? If that makes any sense. My whole body felt weird, man. I... Do you guys notice that light across the sky? Like, really notice it?”

  The other three boys stared up at the sky, trying to locate the light for a solid thirty seconds as Tye attempted to guide them to no avail. Finally, Brodie located the beam—an extremely faint yet noticeable line across the sky. “That thing?” he asked, pointing to it. “Uh, dude. That’s what you were freaking out about? That thing looks weaker than a spotlight to be honest. That’s what has you all riled up?”

  “Nathan said this place freaked him out and I kinda agree with him,” Tony admitted softly, fidgeting with his hands. Tye nodded in agreement, but still unshaken by his strange ordeal, he urged the guys to continue.

  A little later, Jax noted that they had been walking at an ever-increasing incline for the past half hour. They could now see some patrol cars casing the area a few miles away.

  “The hills should be right up ahead, I think,” Tye said. “Weird that they’d shut off the entire surrounding area. Maybe there’s other trails they don’t want people finding?”

  “But why not shut down this one as well?” Jax asked. “If they go through the trouble to hide this thing in the morning, why not patrol it at night if they know about it and what it leads to?”

  “That’s a good point,” Brodie said.

  Tye logically considered the matter. He guessed that maybe patrols didn’t actively patrol the area because the trail was too narrow for cars and that there were only so many men available, so they possibly took turns walking between trails. However, no one found this answer satisfactory.

  Suddenly, all the boys’ phones turned off, leaving them in the darkness as their makeshift flashlights went out. They unsuccessfully struggled to revive their devices, furiously pressing the power buttons and shaking their phones to no effect.

  “Dude! My shit had like 70% left!” Brodie shouted in frustration.

  As he put his phone back in his pocket, Tye calmly said to the group, “Something tells me it’s not about the battery. What are the odds that all our phones would bug out like this at the same time?”

  “Not very likely. Not very likely at all,” Brodie stated flatly.

  Knowing they’d need light to carry on with this adventure, Tye reached for his bag.

  “What’re you doing, Tye?” Tony asked.

  “Getting my chargers. They also double as flashlights. They’re not strong but it’s all we have.” Tye handed the two extra chargers to Jax and Brodie and instructed Tony to stand between them while he took point.

  After another mile of walking and stumbling in silence with the weak beams struggling to penetrate the all-encompassing darkness, the boys found themselves at a steep incline. They stopped and pointed their lights up at final stretch of the trail before they officially entered the hills. There were still no insects or any trace of animal life, and they still hadn’t spotted a single patrolling officer in the area despite the fact that they could see the cars just a few miles below.

  “Seems like we’re in the home stretch, fellas,” Tye said with a smile. “Just gotta climb
this last part and we’re good.”

  As the boys began their ascent, the buzzing seemed to increase significantly faster than before. They now had to yell to be understood. This seemed to impact Tye the least—the more the buzzing intensified, the more determined he seemed to follow the sound to the top of the hill. Eventually, he went completely silent as the boys walked upwards. Their conversations were drowned out by the buzz that seemed all too familiar, urging him to continue forward until he found its source. He couldn’t tell why or how it was pushing him, but he felt a sense of peace as he walked forward. He knew what he had to do. His friends assumed that he was eager to reach the top of the hill and wasn’t in a particularly talkative mood.

  Tye’s pace increased; he went from a slow methodical walk to nearly running as he could feel the top approaching. His feet were taking off from the ground, almost of their own accord. He flew up the trail faster than he had ever run in his life, zipping up with more speed than his friends thought possible. Tye sprinted up the winding trail, rounding corners with ease and skipping over every obstacle almost as if he knew every foot, every inch, every atom of the trail. Despite the steepness and his speed, he didn’t feel exhausted for a single second: There was no need to stop and rest, as his heart wasn’t pumping any faster than normal and his lungs seemed to be working better than ever. It was almost as if, in spite of the great apparent physical exertion, Tye wasn’t doing anything at all. He felt as if he was exerting only as much energy as it would take for his body to be at rest.

  Noticing something was off, Tye could hear Brodie call out to him. “Yo! Tye! What the hell are you doing, bro? You’re acting hella weird again!”

  “Uh, maybe we should go catch him?” Jax asked.

  “Did you see how fast he took off? I don’t think we’re gonna catch him. How he has the energy to do that up here is beyond me,” Tony commented.

  “Are you serious?! Our friend is running around acting insane in an area where kids went missing in the dark with no flashlight! We gotta go!” Brodie said urgently before taking off after his childhood friend.