Grounded | The Trapped Trilogy

Three (Part 2)

Three (Part 2)

o0o0o

I forgot how boring it was in here.

I finish straightening up the house I'm temporarily staying in for the last twenty hours and decide to head outside. I walk by the Gardeners planting trees and shrubs and bushes and flowers and food wherever they can in the large space and around their houses. They do it to keep busy and to keep in practice. I've always thought they had the prettiest yards.

I look up at the Dome wall, which, of course, is flickering. I think the Rethurps did an amazing job at the design, and I think I did an even better job on the serum inside of them. Just saying.

I smile proudly as I walk into the Cooker's long, fat building.

I walk up to the closest Cooker and she looks up at me, startled.

"Is there any chance I could get a plate full of bacon?"

"Uh, um, I, uh..." She sputters.

I roll my eyes.

"I don't think we can do that."

"Ugh, okay, fine," I say and walk out, not wanting to argue and my stomach growls.

My insides might be half Rethurp and half human, but that doesn't mean I'm completely satisfied on greens and salads. Ineed meat.

Maybe I could get some of my own from the Hunter's Dome. It's against the law, I know, but there's about to be no law and no people to follow it. So. I think I'll be fine.

I don't know how to hunt though.

Oh well.

It can't be harder than stabbing something or shooting something. I do have a gun. And a knife.

And I miss meat so much.

I look at the band holding the time in a little screen on my wrist. My watch, in other words. It's unusual inside of the Domes, so when I first saw one after I turned thirty I didn't know what it was. The aliens had to explain it to me.

Nineteen hours and thirty minutes left.

It takes half an hour for the bus to arrive at the bus stop.

Nineteen hours.

"Oh, heyyyy!" The bus driver exclaims, startling me. "Do you have my ID still? I need it back."

Taken aback, I look at her blankly. Then I remember that I'm in a different body and whoever it was that had this brain probably did know this woman.

I dig in my pockets and pull out a card. It's not hers, so I dig in the other pocket, find another one, and hand it to her.

"How's all the alien stuff going?" She asks excitedly.

My eyebrows furrow in confusion. No one is supposed to know...

"It was all a dream," I say and smile.

Her face falls.

"But-"

"It was."

She nods and I walk to the back of the bus, several people watching me walk past them. I wouldn't blame them. I'm dressed like a Government Official, though I'm not wearing the same thing normal Government Officials wear inside the Domes (the black shirt). It makes sense.

I look at the card that I found first inside the white jacket pocket. Apparently, they didn't change that out, like they did with the clothes, when they wiped me-her. Whoever. Whatever.

It's a strange thing being in someone else's brain. Someone else's body.

I look at the card. There's a picture of her-my-blank face. What kind of picture is that? It looks like one of those pictures taken when someone is caught off guard. Doesn't she have any other pictures-or was this her best one?

Eenralla Land. Government Official. No title.17 1/2. Daughter of Ream and Brock Land. Next ID renewal: 18th birthday.

Hm. Guess she wasn't that important inside of here, or she would have a title like 'Analyzer' or 'Compute' next to 'Government Official'.

...Eenie...

I look to my left. I thought I heard something.

Nope.

Just my brain spazzing out.

I slide the card back into a pocket, bumping my hand against other things. I'm too lazy to take them out. I'll look later.

I wonder if this Eenralla chick had been changed before or after the wipe. If she was changed before, I'm in for some major issues being me in her body.

The bus stops just before the doors of the Hunting Dome. It has an ordinary door with a steel wall because if a bus goes through it, it could ruin the ecosystem the Rethurps spent so much energy on perfecting it.

The tunnel leading up to the door is completely gray, but gives off a blueish glow, making you feel as if you're underwater. Or, well, it makes me feel that way. Not sure about anyone else who walks down here.

I twist the handle, and something beeps. A card swipe.

I take my-her ID out of my pocket and pray that it works. Only Hunters and Government Officials are allowed in here.

I swipe it. The red light blinks twice, and then turns green. I smile as I walk into the huge Dome, remembering that I ma, in fact, a Government Official-or rather Eenralla Whoever is.

It's twice the size of the Dame's and Dude's Domes, and stands taller than the Home Dome. Different species of trees and animals and plants are spread out everywhere, and includes different climates. They start from polar and reach all the way to desert in a straight line across the Dome.

The door is located in the Jungle climate, which is the center ecosystem, and I'm greeted with the squawking of birds up high in the tree canopy. Our genetic engineering when replicating the animals made them larger and able to reproduce twice as fast, which helps a lot when you have hundreds of greedy human mouths to feed.

I turn around to look at the map on the Dome wall and run my finger over the different climates until I reach the image of a pig. It's just a few ecosystems down in the forest habitat.

Something familiar weighs on my brain. I've been in here before, with someone... someone I used to know...

Forget it. I'm never going to remember, even if it's mymemory. What's the point in remembering something when all you have is right here and now? Besides, it's too much work.

I make my way through the sticky atmosphere, and feel the immediate changes as I cross over into a forest.

The different habitats are separated by a hologram, but these holograms are especially unique. They make it seem like the climate around you is all that's around you, but if you go too far, it seems like you've stepped into another world. The holograms hold in the climate's air and temperature, and are programmed into not letting the animals through.

However the Rethurps did this, I wish I could. It's genius and staggering to think that things like this are even possible to make happen. It's just crazy-but not as crazy as living on an alien planet that run Domes people live in like little hamsters. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing-I actually enjoy it.

I hear the hairy pigs grunting only a few feet away, and I lift my gun up in front of me.

I'm gonna have me some pig tonight.