Grace

“What the…?”

My jaw drops as I lift my head and see the ocean of luminous hexagons above me. It’s like some bizarre beehive.

No. Not a beehive.

A dome.

Now I understand what Nancy was talking about.

It’s a marvel, to be sure. I have to blink several times before I believe I’m seeing it clearly. I have to pinch myself once just to know it’s not a dream.

No, not a dream. A nightmare.

As I realize what it means, the strength leaves my hands and the bunch of blue fabric I’ve gathered in my haste slips out of my fingers. My knees turn to mush and I fall to the ground.

I’ve been living under a dome, in a prison.

Since when? Why?

Silk rustles behind me.

“Grace?” Nancy puts her hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright?”

I look at her with tears of confusion brimming in my eyes, and hers grow wide.

“Please,” I beg her. “Tell me everything.”

~

Everything has been a lie.

I sit on the edge of the bed in Nancy and Phil’s guest room and run my fingers over the fresh sheets. I gaze at the old dresser in the corner and sigh.

I was here in this room just weeks ago. I woke up in this very room confused and thinking that I was twenty-one, that it was 2038, that I was single and working as a waitress at a cafe.

And then I met Travis and everything changed. He said I was his wife. He said that we moved to Hope Creek after we got married to live a simple life. He said I fell from a tree and hit my head so I can’t remember a thing.

All of that was a lie.

Well, not the fact that I can’t remember a thing. I still can’t.

But now I know I’m not Travis’s wife. Now I know about the catastrophic event that threatened humanity’s existence and changed it drastically. I know that Hope Creek is possibly the last remaining town on earth, and that it will be gone soon if the dome isn’t fixed. I know that I only arrived here weeks ago.

I’m not from here. And no one knows where I really came from, or who I’ve been for the past seven years.

I bury my face in my hands.

God, I’ve been living a lie and I couldn’t even tell. I feel so stupid, so deceived, so betrayed.

And the worst part is that I don’t even know who I am anymore.

The door opens.

“Grace, are you alright?” Travis asks.

I stand up, lift my arm and let my hand fall across his face. The crack of my palm against his cheek fills the room and lingers in the air for a few seconds.

“How dare you!” I tell him after the sound has died. “How dare you lie to me and make me think I’m your wife! How dare you feed me all those lies!”

“That was actually my idea.” Phil comes forward. “We thought Hope Creek would be safer if you stayed, and we needed to give you a reason to stay. Obviously, we couldn’t tell you about the Icebreaker, either.”

I turn to him. “Because if you did, you’d have had to tell me about the dome, and you didn’t want anyone else to know about it, did you? Especially not an outsider like me.”

“I’m sorry, Grace.”

“Come, honey.” Nancy grabs his shoulders. “Let’s leave them alone.”

She glances at me as she ushers Phil out of the room and then closes the door.

I sit on the chair and run my hands through my hair. “How could you play God with me and toy with my life, my very being? Didn’t you think I’d be upset to be given a fake identity? Didn’t you care at all?”

Travis leans on the wall. “Like Phil said, it wasn’t my idea.”

“You agreed to it!” I shout at him. “And you played the biggest part in it. You… made me believe we were married. You made me…”

I stop talking as I fail to bring myself to say the rest. My gaze drops to the floor and my head shakes in exasperation.

“I don’t see why you’re complaining so much,” he says softly.

I lift my head and my eyebrows. “What?”

“You were dying and we saved you, Grace.” Travis looks into my eyes. “You had nowhere to go and we took you in. We gave you a home, a place to belong. You were no one, and we gave you a family. You had no life and we gave you one, free of worries about the future and pain from the past. Don’t you think you’re being a little ungrateful?”

“I don’t have anything, Travis!” I get on my feet. “All of this, Hope Creek, none of this is mine. This life isn’t mine, and I… I don’t want it!”

He falls silent as the lump in his throat moves.

“It’s not mine, Travis,” I continue in a softer voice as I shake my head. “It’s not real.”

He nods slowly. “You hate married life that much, huh?”

“It’s not that. I…”

Travis steps forward. “What bothers you more, Grace? That you had a fake husband, or that this fake husband made you shudder and gasp and scream at the top of your lungs as you writhed in the throes of ecstasy?”

My jaw clenches at that smug grin and I lift my hand to slap him again. This time, he stops my wrist.

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to think of me as your husband anymore. In fact, you might even never see me again.”

My eyes grow wide. “What?”

He drops my hand and walks to the window with his hands in his pockets. “I’m leaving ASAP.”

“Leaving?” My eyebrows crease. “But Nancy said…”

“That it’s a wasteland out there? That it’s hell?” He looks out the window. “She’s right. But I still have to go. I have to get to City Q to get parts for the dome. We managed to reroute some of the energy so that the dome is still invisible from the outside, but it’s just a cloak now, not much protection.”

“Does it really need protection?” I ask. “Hasn’t it been three years since the flood? Why is Hope Creek even hiding?”

Travis turns to me. “Because Hope Creek is the only place where the soil is still good, where plants and animals still exist, where there’s enough food. It’s a paradise compared to everywhere else, and the moment other people know about this place, what do you think they’ll do?”

I don’t answer.

“They’ll destroy Hope Creek. Just like they’ve destroyed every piece of paradise there was on earth before.”

I draw a deep breath. “Alright, so Hope Creek needs its cloak, which it still seems to have. But why does it still need a shield?”

“The earth hasn’t recovered,” Travis replies. “Humanity isn’t stable yet. Until then, we don’t know what could happen. Wars could break out. Someone could launch another nuclear warhead. Another flood could come, another cold spell or a large storm. Hiding isn’t enough to keep you safe, Grace.”

I nod. I guess I understand Hope Creek’s desire for survival. No, not just survival. For preserving their way of life in a world which according to Nancy has descended into destruction.

“Why should you be the one to go?” I ask him.

“Because I know which parts are needed,” he says. “Martin told me everything about the dome.”

“Angie’s father.”

“Yes.”

“She really was your wife, wasn’t she?”

He nods. “And she died along with the baby when she gave birth.”

The sole truth among the lies, and even that was something he tried to keep from me.

“Now that he’s gone, I’m the expert on the dome,” Travis says. “Aside from Phil, that is. Besides, I probably have a better chance of survival out there than anyone else.”

“You’ve been out there before?” I ask curiously.

He nods. “But not to a city.” He walks towards the door. “I better go get ready.”

“I’ll go with you,” I blurt out.

He gives me a look of surprise, then shakes his head as he opens the door. “You can’t.”

“Nancy said I probably came from City Q, and you’re going there,” I tell him. “I want to go there, too. I might find a clue about who I was, who I am.”

“She has a point,” Phil speaks from beyond the door.

Travis opens it wide and he enters, looking at me.

“We’ve given her a place to belong, but if she wants to find out where she’s meant to be, she has that right.” Phil pats Travis’s shoulder. “Take her to the city.”

Travis sighs. “Is this another matter where I have no choice or say?”

“No,” I answer. “I’m… asking.”

He turns to face me. “You don’t know what you’re asking. You don’t know what’s out there.”

“But you do, and I trust that you’ll get me to the city.”

“Why? I’m not your husband anymore, remember?”

“You’re still Travis.” I step forward. “And I know Travis.”

“Do you, now?”

I hold his gaze and lift my chin. I’ve already made up my mind. I’m going to the city to find out who I am, and that’s it.

“Fine,” Travis says finally. “Just keep your hands off me, okay?”

“If you’ll keep yours off me,” I tell him through gritted teeth. “Which you’ve never been good at.”

“Oh, I’ll keep them off,” Travis promises. “Pack your things. It’s going to be a rough trip ahead. And I know you said you like things rough, but trust me, you won’t like this.”