Chapter 12

The dome drew ever closer. I zipped up my hoodie, and took one last look at the direction of the camp. I could just barely make out the glow of lights in the sky. Looking off to the left, I could see the trashlands, aptly named for being the dumping site for the city. It was hard to believe that this very ship came out of there. After diverting my eyes from that eyesore, I once again found myself staring at the dome.

My gut was wrenching terribly. Just the thought of going back there was making me ill. But if this information we retrieve could give us the upper hand, I had to try. There was no sense hiding; sooner or later they would be after us.

Then the moment finally arrived. We reached the dome. Alongside the boat, there was a massive gate, one of the many disposal gates. Michael came up from the cabin, followed by the rest of the group. He walked over to a small panel on the guardrail adjacent to the dome, and pressed a button. The rail lowered, and a platform extended over towards the gate. Michael took the initiative and walked across to the gate.

"Everyone ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go," Jonathan replied for everyone.

We walked across the platform in single file. Michael took one last look at us, as if to silently acknowledge that there was no going back now. He then touched his forehead for a moment, and the ship began to retract its platform and sail away to its preprogrammed destination.

Michael then began to study the gate. He looked up and down and all over.

"Something wrong?" Sienna asked.

"Well this is odd… I thought there was an access panel here." Michael said quizzically.

"You mean you're not sure we can even get inside? We did all that planning and preparation and we can't even get in the door?" Jonathan snidely replied.

"I was just through here last week, the panel should be right… here!" Tobias said, slapping a panel on the wall.

"If that's true, then let's see what's behind that panel," Jonathan suggested.

Tobias backed away from the metal panel on the wall, and let Jonathan approach. Jonathan then placed his hand on the panel, and it began to glow white hot. Seconds later, a hole appeared in the panel, revealing an access panel.

After Jonathan finished with creating the hole, Michael walked up to it and looked inside.

"Jon, you idiot! You melted the access panel! I can't do anything with it now!"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," I said exasperated.

"Fine, I'll just melt the entire bloody gate down, how's that sound?" Jonathan said agitated.

"No! No, don't do that. Not unless you want the entire city after us." Tobias cautioned.

"So what the hell are we going to do now?" Michael asked, eying Sienna and myself.

"Don't look at us; you guys were the one that planned this operation, you think of something!" I said defensively. I wasn't about to be blamed for their fuck up.

"Why can't Michael just use the access panel's wires?" Anna suddenly suggested.

Jonathan, Tobias, and Michael then looked at each-other with such a priceless dumbfounded look that I'll never forget it.

"You… you think you could do that?" Tobias asked Michael.

"I guess so… I mean, I've never tried it, but in theory…"

Jonathan reached in through the hole and carefully pulled out the remains of the access panel. He flipped it over and disconnected a cable from the back of the unit.

"Looks like a typical etherwire cable, you have a connector for this don't you?"

Michael nodded and reached under his shirt behind his back. He pressed something, and a panel opened. Jonathan took the cable and attached it to him.

"Ugh, that's disturbing on so many levels," I said, cringing.

We all stood there for a few moments as Michael worked his magic. He seemed to be concentrating rather deeply about what he was doing.

"What the hell? Tobias, I thought you said this area was going to be empty!" Michael said unexpectedly.

"I did! Is there someone inside?"

"There are two maintenance guys inside according to access logs. I'm trying to find them on surveillance."

I looked over at Jonathan. Sienna put her hand on Anna's shoulder and held her close.

"They're three floors above. We need to get in now or we're going to miss our window." Michael said.

"We're waiting on you!" I reminded him.

As if to shut me up, the gate lurched into action. While the entrance slowly widened, I took a peek inside. Inside was a dank dark hallway, and it smelled of fuel and trash. Certainly fitting of a disposal gate.

We waited for Michael to detach himself from the wall, and we stepped inside. He pressed a few buttons on the gate's access panel, and the gate slowly closed behind us.

"I'm never going to get the smell out of my clothes," Sienna complained, shaking her blouse and holding her nose.

I didn't notice from the outside, but there was the sound of machinery off in the distance. Although it was nearly pitch black now, I could see some lights at the end of the hallway. Tobias took the lead and we slowly followed. As we drew closer to the lights, I noticed that the area ahead seemed to be a sortation center for the trash.

"Someone… no… many people… are coming here!" Anna suddenly yelled.

We turned around to look at Anna, who had one hand in Sienna's, while the other was holding her forehead.

"The men are looking for us, I think… they're confused but determined…"

"We need to hide then, and fast," Tobias warned.

Jonathan suddenly ran ahead and pressed his hands against a wall.

"Jon, what are you doing?" Michael asked.

"There's a vent here. I'm going to open up the wall so we can hide inside, and seal the wall back up behind us."

"That… that will work," Tobias accepted, caught off-guard by the idea. "Here I thought we'd have to run like hell."

Jonathan concentrated on making an alcove in the wall for us to hide in. Anna continued to monitor the mysterious men. Michael tried to jack into the area's security system to look them up. Tobias stood behind Jonathan, apparently amazed at his handiwork. Sienna knelt down next to Anna and was talking with her about the men. I felt left out, and just stood around looking like a dork.

"I've found them on the security cameras. We don't have much time, Jon."

Jonathan simply nodded, not breaking his concentration on the wall. I walked over and stood beside Tobias, watching Jonathan form the inner room behind the wall. At this point, he climbed inside the newly formed hole, and created the small alcove where we would be waiting.

"Jon… you need to hurry," Sienna said. "Anna said that the men seem to have noticed our presence here."

"Alright, it's done, but it's going to be really cramped. Everyone inside!"

Jonathan ushered all of us inside, with him being the last to go in, to seal off the entrance. Slowly the small alcove grew darker and darker. We all kept readjusting, trying to find a comfortable position inside. Anna was the only one lucky enough to have enough space to sit down, while the rest of us were forced to stand or lean on whoever was closest.

Not a moment too soon, Jonathan sealed off the entrance, and we heard the sound of footsteps.

"Sir, we're picking up some strong heat readings down this corridor."

"Trace it to the source, and don't you dare lose them!"

"Yes sir!"

The footsteps grew louder, and it was now evident that there were a significant number of soldiers in the hallway. In the pitch black of the alcove I couldn't see the others' faces, but I had a feeling they were just as uneasy as I was.

"What the hell?" One of the voices outside exclaimed.

"What's wrong, Sergeant?" Another replied.

"The heat readings just stop here. There's no trace of where they went."

"Damn it! We're not going to lose them. I want a full search of the area conducted. Leave nothing unchecked. I don't care if it takes us all night, you hear? You know how concerned the General has been about the break-ins recently."

"Y-yes sir! You heard the man, split up and tear this place apart!"

The sound of footsteps scattered, and we all let out a small sigh of relief.

"Everyone just keep quiet, we're not in the clear yet," Michael said softly.

We kept still and silent for what seemed like an eternity. I do know it was at least a couple hours. My knees were on fire, and it was becoming incredibly stuffy inside. Michael kept us informed on how their ridiculous search was going, and finally gave Jonathan the signal to break us out of this prison.

Once the hole was large enough, we practically spilled out of it. We all immediately crashed to the ground, except for Michael who chuckled at our misfortune.

"Ha ha very funny, Michael," Sienna said snidely.

"What? It's not often I get to flaunt my metal knees!" He said laughing.

After we composed ourselves and were able to stand again, Tobias led us down the corridor and out of the sortation center. It was well into night time now, so the streets were clear of people. The city was much like I had remembered it from years ago. Although this was the industrial district, which surrounded the outer edges of the city, there were a few restaurants sprinkled around, as well as a hospital. The streets were spotless, with bleached white concrete. Cars were rare in City Eternal. Most people either employed the use of the public transit systems or rode around on motor scooters, and because of this most streets featured large walkways.

The buildings were new construction as well. It was easy to tell when a building was new at a glance. The new buildings all used new metal and glass construction, giving them a clean, open look. Older buildings, such as the hospital, used the bleached concrete like that of the streets, which was much cheaper and more plentiful to produce at the time.

Although there were a lot of factories and plants in the industrial district, it was nearly indistinguishable from the inner city skyscrapers. The government focused heavily on the look and feel of the city. They passed numerous laws governing the design and construction of various districts, to ensure that regardless of their purpose, they would all have a unified theme, of City Eternal.

I had to admit, being back inside the dome, and seeing the clean city streets, gave me a feeling of being home. The nostalgia quickly waned though. Putting my hands in the hoodie's pocket, I continued to follow Tobias.

We managed to make it the requisite five or six blocks without being noticed, before Tobias brought us to the old underground entrance. Jonathan stepped up to the rusty, reinforced steel door, and melted away the locks. Michael then shoved the door open, exposing us to a dark stairwell. There wasn't a single light in the stairwell, and I couldn't see the bottom.

Tobias reached into his pocket and retrieved a flashlight.

"Ready for some urban-style spelunking?" he asked.

"As long as it doesn't smell," Sienna replied staunchly.

"Can't make any promises," Tobias said with a grin.

With Tobias once again leading the group, we traveled down the stairwell. Jonathan brought up the rear, stopping to seal the door up again after we were all inside. Once the door was closed, we stepped down the stairwell a few floors. The stairs didn't loop around like typical stairwells did; they simply went down in one line. After a short while the walls ended, leaving only railings and the stairs themselves. For a moment I thought I could see some spots of light in the distance, but I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. Certainly this underground area couldn't be that vast.

Tobias then stopped us on the stairwell and briefly shut off the flashlight.

"Let your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you'll see why I mentioned spelunking," he instructed us.

Michael, who obviously didn't need any time to adjust his mechanical eyes, was the first to comment. "It's… incredible. I had no idea this was all under the city."

After a minute of standing there, my eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and I could make out what Michael was referring to. The reason I couldn't see the stairwell is because it was so amazingly long. Traveling down for what I guessed was at least 50 or 60 floors, the stairwell was dropping us right into the center of a massive underground city.

"Welcome to the old City Eternal," Tobias said.

It was an amazing sight. We were only seeing a glimpse of the top of this underground city, and already the scale was massive. The buildings seemed to go straight to the center of the Earth. I could spot the tram system we were heading for on a platform off to the side of the stairs below. It was only one of many such systems connecting the buildings, all suspended hundreds, if not thousands of feet above the ground.

"There's not much we know about this old city. What we do know is this old city was scrapped in favor of the new one built above. We're not sure why the government chose to rebuild directly on top of these remains of the old city, but we believe it might have something to do with the lack of resources. Rebuilding on top of the old city saved a great deal of work creating a new dome, and there was already a reliable water supply.

We think that this is where the first refugees hid. However, it became far too dangerous to live down here. Buildings are in disrepair, and are constantly falling apart. Food is scarce, meaning they were forced to travel to the surface city regularly. The last real activity down here was when the refugees were forced out by the government after they caught on. Many thousands were left outside to fend for themselves, leaving us with the refugee camp as you know it today. An interesting factoid: our impressive power system was stolen from this very city. The government came down one day to retrieve it, and it was no longer there. The bastards went ballistic once they figured that out." Tobias explained.

As we continued to walk down the stairs, I couldn't help but look around. Above was a sky of metal, much unlike the holographic sky projection the surface city used. Immense beams and poles stretched from the ground and the sides to suspend the new city above the old. I couldn't imagine the engineering required to hold such incredible weight spread over such a large area.

Although the city was mostly dead, there were a few areas that still had light, areas that seemed to be relics of the construction of the new city. I really hadn't imagined things. The place was cold and damp, and with the sight of steel everywhere, it certainly felt like a cave. But those lights calmed my nerves, reminding me that regardless how lifeless this old city may seem, there was still a connection to the "real world".

Finally, after scaling down the stairs for what seemed like an eternity, we reached the platform for the tram system. The tram sat upon a large single rail, and featured two open-air cars. We each grabbed a seat as Jonathan and Michael went to work on trying to get the ancient thing running.

"The rail system should have power according to the reports Tobias gave us. It's just a matter of getting this thing up and moving." Jonathan told Michael.

Michael fussed around with the control panel for a few moments, obviously confused and frustrated. Then suddenly the tram lurched to life… for a second, and then went silent again.

"The blasted lift engine won't come start!" Michael yelled to Jonathan who had stepped off the tram and was looking under the front car.

"This engine is rated for 12 amps, what are the rails supplying?" Jonathan asked.

"8 amps, just like all the power systems up on the surface." Michael replied.

"Figures. It'll run on that, but it's going to take more than 8 to get it started."

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?" I asked snidely.

"Shut up and sit down Yukari, last thing we need is some of your lip." Jon replied annoyed. I laughed.

After doing some strange electrical rigging with capacitors or something that I didn't really understand, Michael was ready to give it another try. Jon jumped back onboard the first tram car.

"That should do it, charge the capacitors and try it now."

Michael pressed a few buttons on the control panel, and the tram car lurched again, but this time remained floating just slightly over the rail.

"Alright, we're up! Time to get moving. Next stop, the CARMEL datacenter!"

The tram jumped a couple times, obviously stiff from decades of disrepair. But to the credit of her original engineer, the thing did move smoothly once it was up to speed.

"It'll take us about 10 minutes to reach the platform where the datacenter is. Just sit back and enjoy the view." Michael informed us, like a true tour guide.

I was more than happy to take the time to give my legs a break. Anna looked to be enjoying herself, as she kneeled on the bench in the back and looked down at the expanse below us. Her hair was whipping strongly around her head and she had to constantly push it out of her eyes and mouth.

Sienna was a bit smarter about it, though, and was allowing her hair to flutter behind her in the breeze. She closed her eyes and seemed to just try and find some peace in the rather hectic day so far. I only wished I was able to relax as she was.

For whatever reason, Jon and Michael were bickering over something pointless about the tram, while Tobias was looking over his notepad. I never really paid attention to it before, but I seemed to remember Tobias checking his notepad regularly. The leather-bound notebook had seen better days, as it was faded and falling apart in places. It didn't seem to bother him however, as he continued to write in it.

As I wondered about what Tobias could be writing, he looked up and closed the notebook.

"Michael, we're almost there, try slowing the tram down gradually so we don't make too much noise. I don't want to trip any alarms when we arrive."

Michael nodded, seemingly happy to finally break away from Jon's endless debating. He walked up the control panel, and pressed a couple buttons.

"Uhm, are we even slowing down? You don't have to be that gradual." Tobias remarked.

"Jon!" Michael yelled abruptly.

"What?!" he replied.

"We don't have any brakes!"