Trapped | The Trapped Trilogy Book 1

One (Part 2)

One (Part 2)

I decide to walk home when we're done with the panels, which is not abnormal, I think. People walk all of the time. It's what legs are for. Surely I won't get a strike for deciding to walk.

Oh, what good would it do me now? It's obvious I'm a screw-up. I'll bet that the Government's Analyzers have already calculated when my next mistake will happen, and are just watching behind their computer screens, waiting for me to mess up again. I bet that's what the Computes do all day anyway: watch people just in case they go crazy or something. And they really could, considering there's a camera every thirty feet.

I know, because we had to repair all of them one day.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, I think to myself.

I look at the sky-lid, and watch it as the simulated clouds move overhead. I wonder how many people actually believe all of this is real. I mean, I used to.

I see my house about a block down, the trees beside it getting thicker as they get farther from my doorstep.

Maybe...

I walk past my house, careful not to pick up my pace, because that would be suspicious to the Computes, and they would tell the Government and so on. I fight my way through the trees and past the branches and over the brush. I hop over one more log... and there it is. The Dome wall.

I can see it. There is a slight shimmering over the simulated trees as I walk parallel to the wall. I can't touch any of the panels, or the Government will know within the span of a minute. Maybe less than that.

I keep walking, the trees letting up a little.

Where are you? I think.

Aha!

I see the small panel projecting light. It's dimmer than it was this morning when I first saw it.

I slowly walk up to it, and take a deep breath. Glancing quickly around, I take three steps forward and close one eye, peering through the thumbnail-sized hole with the other.

I can see a little bit of what I saw this morning, in a smaller scale. The green grass and the trees lining the field, an animal scampering across my vision, and disappearing...

I feel myself start to teeter forward, my face leaning too close to the wall. Instinctively, I slam my bare hand against the wall to stay upright. A prickling sensation in my palm makes me jump. I pull my right hand back to me. Tiny dots of red-of blood cover my hand where I had pressed down the hardest. Suddenly, I feel dizzy and my hand starts to throb.

I look back up at the panels and see that each one is covered with needle-like spikes. Why hadn't I noticed them before? Why are they there?

Then a thought dawns on me. It doesn't matter why I didn't notice it, and it doesn't matter if it did anything to me. What matters is that I will get caught.

Here comes strike three.

I find my legs and rush back to my house, tripping over logs, and branches are crushed under my feet. I open my door, pausing in the doorway. The home camera above the door will give me away if it sees me rushing in, so I try to catch my breath before I walk in calmly. It's hidden behind a panel with a hole in it, and not many Domespeople would be likely to notice it.

I try to control my breathing, my heartbeat. I try to seem like I didn't notice the home cam come on.

You're going to get caught! My brain tells me.