Chapter 21: June 2010 Archives

The next day we crossed over Lake Michigan. We turned off the jet and instead placed the ship in the water, using all of the lift system's power for propulsion instead of floating. It doubled the speed it was capable of, but it still took us half a day to cross the lake. As we came close to the opposite shore, Michael scurried down the stairs into the cabin.

"Listen to this!" he yelled, and pressed a button at the inside control pad.

A crackle and lots of static came over the speakers. Jon looked at me, and I looked back at him, shrugging our shoulders in tandem.

"All I hear is static, Mike," I said.

"Obviously! Don't you know what that means?"

"Uh, nothing?" Jon replied.

"No! You only have static where there is a signal. Up until now, the radios have been completely silent, no static. Something is broadcasting near here, and that static is the proof."

"So there is something out there…" I said amazed. "Finally, we might get answers!"

"But how will we find the origin? According to the maps, Wisconsin is rather… big," Jon pointed out.

"I'm going to set up a directional antenna array below deck. By using that, we can figure out which direction that signal is coming from. Jon, I'll need you to get us out of the lake and floating again. I want to get this antenna up before we lose the signal."

"Sure thing," Jon replied, and scurried up to the deck.

A half hour later we were finally ashore. Michael had rigged up a directional filter for the ship's antenna, and relayed directions to Jon to drive towards. Over the next hour, the signal grew stronger. Before long, we were able to actually understand what was being said. Michael had Sienna, Anna and myself sit by the speaker and try to pick up on what was being said.

"Whatever the signal is, I did some analysis. It's a looping message. Try to figure out what its saying," he told us over the intercom.

We listened intensely, trying to pick out any words we could understand. Finally, the ship went over a hill, and the signal cleared up enough to understand. I yelled at Jon and Michael to hold their positions, and we focused on the message.

"Attention all Wisconsin dome residents: due to increased military activity from the New York dome, Wisconsin has been evacuated. If you still reside inside the dome, please evacuate to the pre-assigned encampment location. The dome has been placed under automated control. Life support and power is expected to last less than two weeks. The area is dangerous, and return access to the dome has been closed off due to the continually deteriorating infrastructure. Please make sure you have everything you need, and leave immediately. This is the final warning. This message will now repeat."

"They abandoned the dome?" Sienna asked.

"City Eternal must have really hurt them if they're abandoning the dome…" I replied.

Michael and Jon came into the room, and we explained what the message said.

"If that's true, there might not be any Wisconsin left to visit. Who knows how old that message really is," Jon said.

"Well it said the dome had two weeks of power remaining. Besides, if that message is still broadcasting, there has to be something left," Michael pointed out.

"Yeah, and since we know the general area the signal is coming from, we'll be able to locate the dome a lot easier."

Michael took the helm again, as we headed towards the direction of the transmission. It was only an hour later that Michael called down to us.

"Hey, I can see it, come look!"

We all scurried up to the deck, while Michael slowed the ship down to make it safe for us. Holding carefully to the railings as the ship slowed, we looked out towards the north, where Michael was pointing.

"My God… it's a disaster…" Sienna said fearfully.

The dome was in terrible shape. Two gaping holes were visible from our perspective, and a few patches of fire and smoke could be spotted as well. Like City Eternal, the original smooth plating shell no longer existed, but much of the inner structure also looked mangled and warped.

"No wonder that transmission said it wasn't safe inside. I'm surprised it's still standing," Jon remarked.

"Remember that bad feeling I told you about, Michael? It just became a whole lot worse," I said worryingly.

As the ship crept closer, we gathered our things in preparation.

"Should we pack the weapons?" I asked.

"I wouldn't take any chances," Jon replied.

I nodded and grabbed my gear. Besides the weapons though, we packed light, intending to scavenge for food inside. Our ship's food supply was severely limited, and with the sail situation, it could take us much longer than planned to make it back, so we tried to ration as much as possible.

I stepped back out onto the deck, as the ship carefully slid up to one of the dome's entrances. It was similar to City Eternal, that much was obvious, but in a state of disrepair. Frankly, I was shocked when the control panel came to life and opened the door for Michael. We slowly stepped inside, but didn't proceed far, as Michael wanted to try and access the dome's network.

"The main server is down. All I'm seeing are some random backups for the dome's major systems, like power and water. Even the civilian information is unavailable," Michael informed us.

"So, we're on our own," Sienna said.

"Looks like it," Michael replied.

"What are we even looking for?"

"Same thing we were looking for at City Eternal: access to their server. Assuming they were both built similarly, they should both have the same core server with some valuable information."

Jon and I started walking forward a bit, until we reached an archway. Beyond was an impressive set of stairs. The stairs were in fact so impressively long that we couldn't even see the bottom.

"Is this really the entrance?" I asked, looking at Michael.

He shrugged, and we all proceeded to descendinto the depths of the dome.

"I just realized something. Remember back at City Eternal, there was that underground city? The abandoned one? Maybe this dome is the same." Jon pointed out.

"It's possible. It never made sense for City Eternal to build atop a perfectly good city, so it stands to reason that other domes wouldn't do the same." Michael replied.

Michael grabbed a flashlight from the hefty backpack he was carrying on our behalf. It revealed a large door in the darkness. We opened the door not sure what to expect, but in hindsight I don't think we could have ever prepared ourselves for what we saw.

The door opened up to reveal a city not unlike what we saw in the City Eternal underground. But for the first time we saw it open, bright and free. Much of the city looked war torn, but it still had as beauty of its own. The devastation was made more apparent by local fires, and gaping holes in the fake sky, but the fire mixed with the dim lit sky gave a sort of hue to the city that normally you'd only see in old photographs of sunsets.

"So much destruction…" I said in awe.

"I'm amazed the dome still stands in this condition," Michael replied. "Feel anyone out there, Anna?"

Anna shook her head, holding close to Sienna.

Jon stepped up to a railing in front of us. Our vantage point overlooked much of the city, as if high atop a mountain. The city itself sloped downward in from the edges, in stark contrast to the perfectly flat City Eternal main floor. This meant that our vantage point was just one of an endless number along the edges of the dome.

He looked over the railing, curiously searching for something from what I could tell.

"There's a tram down there, what do you think are the chances of it working?"

Michael walked up beside him to look as well.

"No, look, further down the line the rail is broken. Without a map of the city or access to the computer systems, we'll never find a working one."

"So we're walking the whole way?" I asked.

"It's only about five miles to the center, right? Shouldn't take us long," Sienna said.

"That isn't five miles of flat ground though. It's going to be difficult to find a path to the center," Michael explained.

Sienna stepped up to join the other two at the railing, Anna in tow.

"Maybe we should pick a spot to take a break and get our bearings then. Like a halfway point," she suggested, as she looked out across the city in front of them.

"There!" she pointed.

I decided to join the group and see what Sienna was pointing toward.

"That clearing should be a good place. Looks about halfway, and it looks like it has a good vantage point of the rest of the city as well."

"Yeah, that should work, good idea," Jon said.

Michael stepped away from the railing, heading towards the spiral stairs going down.

"Alright, enough gawking. We're not getting any younger here."

"More stairs?" Jon moaned.

"I have a feeling that's going to be a regular sight around here. At least with all the support systems down. Best start getting used to it," Michael quipped.

I silently agreed with Jonathan's sentiments, not just dreading the climb down, but the much more unsightly climb back as well. I reluctantly shuffled in behind Jon, while Sienna and Anna followed.