Beau found Tessa working her shift inside the Deadwood Hospital. She tightened bandages around a man’s arm who was recently bitten by a rabid squirrel. The man had thinning gray hair and his hand shook when he drank from a glass of water. His name was Henry, who worked at Onyx Coffee Lab downtown. He’d always been one of those people who got along with everybody.

  “Beau, look at this,” he held up his bandaged arm, in disbelief. “There’s something bad in the water. I don’t know what’s gotten into those squirrels, but they’re rabid. They need to be put down. Something’s not right.”

  Tessa smirked at Beau and rolled her eyes as she wrapped fresh gauze around Henry’s arm then checked his vitals on the monitor beside her. “This is the most action we’ve seen in a while, Henry.”

  “Am I going to live, doctor?” Henry asked.

  “Yep,” Tessa said, unfazed. “First, we have a squirrel attack. Now, the lights are flickering. The dome is freaking out again. Mom’s on it, though. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Tessa’s blonde hair was pulled back. She wore scrubs with her sleeves rolled back. She was focused like a scalpel.

  Beau approached Tessa. “I need your help with something. It’s bad.”

  She raised her eyebrows, but didn’t stop working. “Are you sick? Why are you so pale? I swear, Beau, if you get me sick I’m going to lose it.”

  “I need you to come with me. Just for a few minutes. Please, Tessa. There’s a big problem and I don’t want to talk about it here.”

  “Beau, I’m working. Ever since the power flashed, we’ve had nothing but problems. We’ve had to recycle the hospital’s power ten different times. The MRI machine is malfunctioning. I’ve had to turn people away. I really don’t have time for whatever you’re up to.”

  “Come on, the hospital is empty.”

  “I’m here,” Henry replied. “But don’t mind me.”

  Beau rubbed Henry’s arm. “Thanks Henry. How’s it healing?”

  “I’ll survive,” he said.

  “We’re all done here, Henry,” Tessa said. “Pick up some antibiotics.” She handed him a prescription. He hopped off the medical chair, gave her a playful salute, and exited the room.

  “Okay, Beau. What is your big secret? And why are you sweating so much?” She peeled off her medical gloves and tossed them into the trash.

  Beau went to the door and looked both ways down the halls. They were empty. He closed the door behind him and locked the door. He kept his voice low. “I know what’s happening to the dome. I know why the power is flashing.”

  “Seriously?” Tessa asked.

  “Yep. And I know more than that. I know what’s outside the dome. There’s a rift. I climbed out. It’s not what you think. It’s not what Dr. Gerben told us, it’s not even close.”

  There was a long silence between them. Tessa nearly went cross-eyed she was thinking so hard. Then she rubbed the stress off her face. “I don’t know, Beau. That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard from you in a while. Did you break the dome or something? How is there a rift?”

  “Kind of.”

  She sighed. “You’re insane. I can’t get involved with this.”

  “Listen to me, Tessa. There’s something out there. We have to see it.”

  “I’m still in uniform,” she said.

  “Don’t you want to see it? Imagine what you could learn. It’s incredible!”

  For a long moment, they stood under the flickering light of the medical room. The sirens wailed outside like some chorus who pleaded to find the perpetrator. Police cruisers, fire trucks, and even ambulances cruised toward the rift to respond. Beau spotted them through the third story window of the hospital. He badly wanted to join their convoy and investigate further, even under the risk of getting caught. So he turned back to Tessa, grabbed her wrist, and said. “Please, Tessa. I’m in trouble and I need your help with this. You’re the smartest person I can trust.”

  She removed her medical cap and rustled her fingers through her hair. “Okay, Beau. Show me.”

  Beau grinned wide. He motioned to the door. “My truck is outside.”

  If anyone could figure a way out of the situation, it was Tessa. He needed her to see the truth. He needed her to help him fix this terrible situation.

  Tessa exhaled as she buckled into the passenger seat.

  Once inside the truck, Beau pulled out of the hospital parking garage. He merged onto the street, and then onto the highway, and cruised with Tessa back toward the rift.

  ###

  Beau parked his truck in the lot outside the rift and they exited. Tessa and he got out and drew her eyes up at the massive knight’s helmet. It was surrounded by firefighters scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to deal with it. There were dozens of firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and engineers, who all seemed just as equally confused about the existential crisis in front of them.

  “This is really bad,” Tessa said.

  “Yeah…any way out of it?” Beau asked.

  “You caused this?”

  “Yep.”

  “Beau…”

  “I know, I know!”

  Tessa sighed. “What’s on the other side?”

  “That’s what I was hoping to show you, but there’s too many people around.”

  “Psh…that’s never stopped me before.”

  She grabbed Beau’s hand.

  “What are you doing, Tessa?”

  “Just come on.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  With the confidence of two kids who acted like they owned the place, they walked through the middle of a group of loosely scattered fire fighters and approached the rift. By that point, the engineers had bolted the torn sleeves open and created a permanent doorway to the outside world until they figured out the best way to solve this problem.

  A young firefighter named Harvey stepped in front of them, blocking their path, and placed his hand up. “Stop,” Harvey said. “Nobody goes outside the dome. It’s too dangerous. There’s poisonous gas outside. You know what Dr. Gerben said about the outside. Just turn around and move along. No curious cats.”

  Beau motioned to the rift. “Harvey, do you see any green gas? Are you currently choking and suffocating to death?”

  “No…” Harvey said.

  Tessa placed her hands on her hips. “Harvey, my mom sent me out here to investigate. Beau is here to check the electrical work. We have to check the wiring from the outside. Don’t you want us to fix this? We’re going through that rift whether you like it or not.”

  “Dr. Lorne asked you to go out there?” Harvey asked. “No, it’s too dangerous. You don’t know what’s out there.”

  “According to Dr. Gerben, there’s nothing out there,” Beau said. “Everything is dead. What is there to worry about?”

  Harvey scratched his chin and pursed his lips, confused.

  “Harvey,” Tessa said. “Look around, there’s no poison gas. It seems perfectly safe to me. Have you even taken a look through the gap?”

  “What? I’m not going out there, no way!”

  “Why not?” Tessa asked. “Don’t you want to know what’s out there?”

  Harvey turned and peered through the gap, into the darkness. He stood there for a while, breathing hard. He sniffed a few times. Then he stepped right up to the rift and peered through. But a moment later his legs wobbled a bit and stepped backwards. He turned toward them, paler than before.

  “It’s creepy out there,” Harvey said. “I can’t see anything, it’s too dark. I don’t like it. I wouldn’t go out there.”

  “Inhale any poison gas?” Beau asked. “See any monsters? Anything to be afraid of?”

  “No…” Harvey said. “I guess not. Okay, fine. If Dr. Lorne said you can go out there then go. But don’t say that I didn’t warn you, because I think going out there is a really bad idea.”

  “Thanks Harvey,” Beau said.

  Harvey walked past them, back toward the gigantic knight’s helmet. A firefighter named Dave briefly spoke with Harvey and pointed to Beau, but Harvey mentioned something to him which made him lose interest.

  “That worked?” Tessa asked. “Amazing.”

  “If it was just me, that would have never worked,” Beau said.

  Tessa climbed through the breach, ahead of Beau. They stood beside each other on that vast stretch of concrete floor in near complete darkness. The air tasted dry. Tessa’s breath hitched as her boot scraped against the concrete floor of the chamber. She walked forward, without a word, lost deep in thought. Beau followed her.

  “This is so creepy…,” she whispered.

  “Told you,” Beau said, grinning. He checked over his shoulder and realized nobody was following them through the rift. When he turned back around, he said, “Welcome to god’s attic.”

  “It’s like Pandora’s Box,” Tessa said.

  Above them stretched nothing but darkness air. It was still storming outside the mega complex. Every time the lightning struck, Tessa stopped and examined the massive chamber. The knights in armor loomed against the far wall in the shadows. Compared to their size, the knights were like titanic warriors of steel. Hundreds of server lights blinked in the distance. The chamber floor rolled outward like a dead ocean.

  Tessa folded her arms. “None of this is right.” She turned to Beau. “Why did you bring me out here? This isn’t something we can ‘fix’”

  Beau shrugged and stepped beside her. “I wanted your ideas. I guess I really just wanted someone to see all of this before I get locked up for life.”

  Tessa examined her surroundings. When the lightning flashed again, she looked toward the headless fallen knight way in the distance. She murmured silent calculations to herself. She turned to Beau. “How did this happen?”

  “I rigged one of my traps to a central power line. I was trying to catch a deer. Ended up frying a possum instead. It sent the whole system up in flames. The electric current surged and fried one of the lights.” When the lightning struck again, he pointed to the distant fallen knight and the shattered light fixture beside it. “There,” he said.

  “Oh, wow,” Tessa said. “That’s a big problem.”

  They walked back to the dome. Tessa trailed her fingers along the exposed insulation, which was still warm. “Nobody has ever seen the outside of the dome before.”

  “There’s no people, Tessa,” Beau said. “Maybe there was poison gas and it killed everyone, but it dissipated over time.”

  “Beau, everything out here is gigantic in scale.” She focused again. “Are there other rooms in this place?”

  “I haven’t even considered it.”

  She snapped her fingers. “Well, that’s why you brought me. I can see all of the possibilities. There’s so many great options right in front of us.” She cast him a sly smirk, then turned back to explore the abyss.

  “Yeah,” Beau said. “Kinda makes you wonder what else Dr. Gerben lied about.”

  She nodded. “If he were still around, he’d have some explaining to do.”

  They walked out into the darkness toward the blinking red and green lights coming from the server towers in the distance.

  “Let’s face it,” Beau said. “It doesn’t matter what’s out here. They’re going to seal the rift and lock me up. Everything will go back to the way it was. Mayor Carnie is never going to allow anyone to travel outside the dome. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’m just glad to have you alongside me to enjoy my last moments of freedom.”

  Even in the darkness, Beau saw the color drain from Tessa’s cheeks.

  “What is it?” Beau asked. “Don’t worry, you can always visit me in prison.”

  “It’s not that,” she said. She pointed back toward the dome.

  Beau turned.

  A line of movement shimmered across the concrete expanse. There were hundreds of dog-sized figures skittering across the concrete in a perfect line. They were headed right for the rift.

  “Ants!” Tess exclaimed. “Giant ants!”

  Beau stepped forward. “Look at them, they’re huge!”

  Each one was the size of a doberman. Their mandibles twitched. Their red carapaces gleamed in the flickering lightning. They moved fast. The ant in the front of the line crawled up the dome and into the rift. The others followed in an unbroken stream.

  “Oh no—oh no,” Tessa said, voice tight.

  “Oh god,” Beau muttered. He turned to Tessa. “We have to do something.”

  “Beau, my mom’s in there.”

  “My grandpa Rufus…”

  “We’ll never get past them. And if they catch us…”

  “We don’t have to outrun them,” Beau said, pulling her back. “We have to just wait for a break in the line. Then we’ll run through. Be ready.”

  They heard screams coming from inside the dome. Beau’s heart froze. He thought of his grandfather, Rufus. He was too old to protect himself. The dome had a few police officers, but they didn’t have anything close to a military force. And none of the police officers had any firearms. When Dr. Gerben created the domes, he forbade it.

  The line of ants was too steady.

  There was just endless marching and endless waiting.

  Finally, the stream of ants ended and the last of them entered the dome.

  “This is our chance,” Beau said. “Run, Tessa! Run for it!”

  Together, Beau and Tessa sprinted toward the rift. Behind them in the unseen darkness, Beau heard the clicking of mandibles and the scuttling of feet. There were more ants somewhere behind them.

  Without looking back, they climbed in through the rift. Inside, the firefighters swung their axes at the red ants. The paramedics fled back to their ambulances and sped off back down the dirt path. The police officers barked at others to retreat while swinging their batons. Some ran directly into the forest, avoiding the fight entirely. Hundreds of ants scattered in all directions, headed deeper into the forest. Soon they would make it to Deadwood. Beau and Tessa didn’t stop, they sprinted through the middle of a gap in the ants and climbed back into Beau’s truck who started it and sped back down the dirt path following an ambulance blaring its sirens.