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The door was still open, but Octavia was now on the other side. She looked
pretty upset and scared. “Come in! Come in!” she screamed. Mateo heard
something behind him too, so he looked over his shoulder. Goddammit, another
goddamn monster horde was coming after him. Was this ever going to end?
Yeah, right now. He shuffled in through the door, and helped Octavia close
it. They could hear the booms as the monsters pounded on it, trying to get
through. “I thought they couldn’t cross the perimeter.”
“Rules have changed,” Octavia explained. “I think seeing me walk through
this door last year broke something in them. Imagine waking up one day and
realizing that you were in a simulation.”
“That literally happened to me, like, a few days ago.”
“Oh. So you know.”
“You’ve been here for the whole year?”
“Yeah,” she answered. They weren’t outside of the dome, per se, but now
inside of an antechamber. The border wasn’t a single two dimensional wall,
but a complete ring. If they were on the real Castlebourne, this plaza would
be used for intake, maintenance, and other meta-purposes. “There’s plenty of
food in the kitchen, and I’ve been using this time to find your friends.”
“And did you?”
“Yeah, it hasn’t been easy,” Octavia went on as she was leading him down the
corridor. “Obviously, they disappeared last year when you did, so they
weren’t anywhere. I couldn’t just command drones to fly around and search
for them. Optical cameras aren’t actually all that common. Security and
logging systems rely predominantly on other sensors. I had to sift through
this past data, looking for anomalies. I believe that I’ve pinpointed
them to six domes. Now that you’re all back, we can find out for sure
through those few optical cameras on scouting drones. I wanna show you
something else first. One of the domes is different. It flagged something
that I don’t recognize, and unlike the others, this anomaly appears to have
been there during the whole interim year.”
“Oh, no.” Mateo knew what this was. Still, he followed her into a room full
of monitors. She pulled up the feed that she was talking about, and
confirmed his suspicions. It was Boyd Maestri, a.k.a. Buddha Maestri,
a.k.a. Buddy. “Yeah, he’s...I know him.”
“Are you gonna break him out too?”
“I don’t see why I would. Where is this? Is that water, or is there
something wrong with the feed?”
“Apparently, it’s Atlantis, so yes, it’s underwater. But it’s not consumed
by water; it’s under a dome. But a smooth dome, rather than a geodesic one
like they usually are.”
He sighed. “He looks like he’s doing fine, and doesn’t need to be
rescued. He’s another bad guy...sort of.”
“Okay, well, he’s alone, so either one of these other domes is doubled up,
or I missed one.”
Mateo nodded. “Pacey did say that not all of us would be alone. I thought he
was referring to me, which was confirmed when you showed up, but
hopefully there are others.”
They sat there for a few minutes, watching the drones hunt for the anomalies
in realtime, instead of just old data. They found them. Ramses was in a
snowy hell. Leona was in a museum, Angela on a river, and Marie in an old
timey settlement of some kind. Oh, Dome for Pioneers, it said that right
there at the bottom. Olimpia and Romana were thankfully together, and Pacey
couldn’t have picked a better place than a cloud paradise. It was called
Heavendome.
“I assume you wanna start with Leona?”
“She looks fine,” Mateo noted. “She’s just looking at the artifacts. Let’s
get Ramses out first. It’s literally called Tundradome.”
“I postulate that the vactrain network is just like that door in that you
have administrative access to it. I have not been able to leave, not that I
had anywhere to go anyway.”
“You could have gone to The Bowl, and commandeered a ship.”
“I don’t know that that exists here. Like I said, this isn’t the real
Castlebourne. We may not be in regular space.”
“Still, I appreciate you sticking around. You’re a good friend.” They
hugged.
They took the circle line first to get to the vactrain station. It was a
series of sealed tubes almost fully underground, which could take passengers
anywhere in the world. There were hubs scattered around the globe, where
these vactrains switched tracks when necessary, but some tracks had direct
routes to each other, just based on proximity. The one between Bloodbourne
and Tundradome was one of these connections. Ten minutes later, they were at
their destination. According to the drone keeping watch over Ramses, he
wasn’t too far from the station, but it was still going to be a little bit
of a walk. Mateo and Octavia grabbed parkas from the locker room, and
started to put them on, as well as the boots, scarved, and caps.
“Don’t you think it’s a little weird, that Pacey hasn’t done anything to try
to stop us?” Paige asked.
“He told us that he didn’t want to mess with our memories too much, or make
every choice for us. My theory is that he believes in some level of
freewill, and freedom in general. We used our ingenuity to break out of our
prison, and break into others, and he likely respects that. He doesn’t have
to be our enemy, and he knows that. Or, his purview is limited, and he
straight up doesn’t know that we’re here. In case that’s the explanation,
let’s be careful and quick.”
They also found snowmobiles near the entrance to the tundra environment, so
they drove right out to Ramses’ location, got him on board without a single
word, and drove back. That really was easy. “Do you remember who you
are?” Mateo asked once they were back inside.
“I remember everything,” Ramses answered.
“Me too.”
“I don’t have any powers, though, which is why I almost died out there.”
“You would be surprised. I materialized a solid knife made out of light in
my hand.”
“Good for you,” Ramses murmured.
Mateo laughed. “Let’s get you warmed up. They had hot chocolate in the
Bloodbourne intake plaza. I’m guessing that this one does too. It must.”
“Let’s just go,” Ramses requested. “I assume you know where the others are.”
“Leona’s closest,” Octavia answered, “but we will have to go through a
conjunction.”
It took longer to get to her than it did to get to Ramses, but they still
had plenty of time before next year stole them. She was less than
enthusiastic about leaving. She owed her resistance to the fact that she had
no clue who they were.
“Who are you? How did you get in here?” she demanded to know.
“Leona, it’s me!”
“I don’t know you, I don’t know Leona.”
“Claudia’s in trouble,” Octavia said, randomly maybe?
“What?”
“She’s hurt, and you know, if she dies, this place dies.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s, umm...on a river,” Ramses improvised.
“Yeah, she was looking for the Rod of Moses.” Octavia cleared her throat,
hoping that would work. “The snake bit her.”
“Why is she out in the field?” Leona lamented. “She’s always doing that,
still thinks she’s an agent. Wait, the Staff of Moses should be in the
religious power aisle.”
“Yeah, it was stolen,” Mateo said, hoping that she would find this
believable.”
Leona growled. “Walter’s son.”
“Yeah, we think it was him.” Even Octavia didn’t know enough about whatever
this place was all about, but this was working.
“Okay, let’s go.” Leona started to move, but then stopped. “Wait. I still
don’t know who you people are.”
“We’re from...Warehouse 14,” Octavia lied. “So...better not ask any
questions.”
Leona was still not convinced, so Mateo decided to take a gamble. He held
his hand up between them. A holographic daisy sprouted from his palm, and
then bloomed to full glory.
She regarded it with all-consuming interest. She didn’t think of anything
else but this one light-based flower. She slowly lifted her gaze up to her
husband’s face. “Mateo?”
“Are you starting to remember?”
“Yeah.” She looked away to consider it. “Yeah, I remember everything.”
“Triggers,” Ramses realized. “We all need triggers.”
“What was yours?” Mateo asked him.
“The cold,” he said. “My fictional persona was programmed to like the cold.
I do not. And that became quite apparent within about three microseconds of
being there.”
“Oh, Mateo, I almost lost you.” Leona wrapped her arms around Mateo’s neck
to hug, and then kiss, him. She hugged Ramses too. “Paige! You’re here!”
“Octavia.”
Leona held up an index finger. “Got it.” There was a brief pause. “Where are
the others? On a river, or was that just a lie to get me to go with you?”
“Angela is the one on the river,” Ramses replied. “It’s on the other side of
the planet. The others are more over there too, but in different domes.”
“Which ones?” Leona pressed.
“Dome for Pioneers and Heavendome. Olimpia and Romana are sharing that one.”
“Let’s go to Dome for Pioneers first,” Leona suggested, “even if it’s
farther away. It sounds terrible.”
“Hasn’t Marie done that kind of work before?” Olimpia asked as they were
starting to leave the warehouse. “She lived in the 1800s.”
“Her father was quite wealthy,” Leona explained. “He literally had slaves do
that work instead.”
“Oh.”
They went to Dome for Pioneers first. Marie was even more resistant to
leave. They kept trying, but could not figure out her trigger. Nothing they
said about her past—her real life—made her remember anything true about
herself. As far as she was concerned, she had been born in a cabin twenty
miles from here, walked with her family on the Oregon Trail when she was
three and four years old, and had lived in this settlement ever since. She
wouldn’t budge, and they didn’t want to force her. Not only was she becoming
more and more frightened of them the more they insisted, the androids who
were programmed to believe that they were other settlers were getting upset
too, and very protective of her. Okay, at least they weren’t going to hurt
her. The humans switched back to the original plan, and went to see Angela.
Angela was much more open to the idea that none of this was her real life,
though she still didn’t want to leave. The way this dome worked was that an
upper lake was the source of water to a river, which fed into a lower lake
before being evaporated up, and rained back down. It might not have been as
conventionally coveted as the Christo-centric interpretation of the
afterlife, but it was still gorgeous and pleasant. Still, she said that she
felt she could trust them, so she walked through the exit, and got on the
vactrain. They then went back to Dome for Pioneers, where the Walton
twins served as each other’s trigger. Now they only had one more place to go
to collect the whole set. If Angela’s reluctance was any indication, it
could be the hardest. Who in their right mind would ever want to leave
heaven?
“Oh my God, this place is so boring!” Olimpia complained.
“You have a way out?” Romana asked. “Let’s go!”
“Do you remember us?” Mateo asked them.
“No. What? Why would we remember you? I don’t care who you are. If you have
an exit, then point me to it. ¡Ándale!” Olimpia exclaimed.
“Seconded!” Romana agreed.
“Okay, great,” Ramses determined.
They started to walk back towards the elevator, but then Marie stopped them.
“Wait, where are we going? Which dome is safe and preferable, or somehow
beneficial?”
“Oh,” Mateo said, realizing that they hadn’t actually thought that far ahead
yet. “Octavia, how did you get here in the first place?”
The group all looked at her, so she started to recoil a little. “It was a
train. I found a line that looked like it didn’t go anywhere. Unlike the
others, I think it was interdimensional. I ended up back where I was, but
everything was different.”
“Where is this line?” Leona asked her. “You can’t access it from just
anywhere?”
Octavia was still nervous. She shifted her focus from person to person.
“Castledome. You have to go to Castledome.”
“Which is probably where Pacey is,” Romana lamented.
“It’s where he was,” Octavia agreed. He found me right quick, and
took me to Bloodbourne.”
Mateo placed a hand on her shoulder. “Remember what I said with the car,
that you had me to help you. That’s still true, but you now you also have
them.” He indicated the group. “Castledome won’t be a problem.”
“No,” Leona concurred. “Let’s go.”
They took the vactrain back to the other side of the world, not speaking too
much during the ride, but catching each other up a little. Mateo was able to
trigger his daughter by recounting the story of when they first met, and
Olimpia with a passionate kiss. They now all had a lot of memories that they
didn’t have before, including their true pasts, their fabricated lives in
Underburg, and the new ones from their respective domes since being
separated. Something went wrong with navigation, which sent them on a detour
away from Castledome. They ended up in Power Crystal Factor. Leona and
Ramses tried to reroute them, but the controls were locked out. Someone
wanted them here, almost certainly Pacey. With no other reasonable choice,
they stepped off the train, crossed the ring, and walked through the main
doors.
Pacey was waiting for them on the main floor. The name was fitting. He was
surrounded by crystals of all shapes and colors, forming in their little
growth chambers. They were sparkly, beautiful, and a little mesmerizing.
Pacey still stole focus, though. He didn’t look mad, and definitely not
surprised. He spoke first. “I’ll allow you to leave, but under one
condition.”
“What’s that?” Leona asked, stepping forward, and resuming her role as their
leader.
Pacey smirked. “All members of your party must be present at the reservation
time. We do not seat partial parties.”
“Ah, shit,” Mateo said. “You’re gonna make us go get ‘im.”
“I’m gonna make you go get ‘im,” Pacey confirmed.
Mateo sighed. “And then we can go?”
“And then you can try to figure out how to leave,” Pacey corrected. “Whether
you can actually do so is entirely up to you.”
“So that’s a no, you won’t let us.”
“I won’t actively stop you,” Pacey said. “But I won’t help you.”
“Well, at least we know he’s in Atlantis,” Octavia said encouragingly.
“He’s not necessarily there anymore,” Pacey countered. “The Recursiverse
Immersive Experience takes the immersive part very seriously. It’s
the largest dome network on the planet. It may take you a while, and you
won’t have access to any tracking systems, or navigational data. But you
might wanna take this.” He pulled one of the nearby crystals out of its
slot, and offered it to them.
“What’s this?” Leona asked. It was totally clear while Pacey was holding it,
but then it started to change to multiple colors once Leona took hold of it.
“You don’t know?” Pacey asked. “Ramses?”
“Never seen one like it,” Ramses said. “It’s technicolored, though, which is
interesting.
Pacey nodded once with the corner of his lips turned down, but not in frown.
“You’ll figure it out.” He ushered them back out to the train station.
“We’ll go to Atlantis first, and start on his trail from there,” Mateo
suggested. “We’ll get it done faster than you think.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Pacey said as Team Matic was filing into the train
car. “Good luck,” he added just before the doors closed.
