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                “Come with me if you want to live.”

Kyle Reese, the Terminator

                For a moment, I forget about the darkness that’s surrounded me and the dangerous person who’s tied me up. For a moment, I forget about the monsters that are undoubtedly closing in on us and instead I marvel at the incredible knot that I’m being held with, and the amazing precision for which it was tied. I had seen rodeo performances where people hog-tie calves in seconds. It was kind of like that.

                “Okay.” Comes the hard voice in the darkness of the person standing a few feet from me. “What’s your name?”

                I look up at the person, struggling to feel my thumbs as they’re tied together and simultaneously tied against my ankles. “My name’s Sam Helms.” I say with some trouble, as I wiggle both my thumbs so they don’t lose circulation against the wire-thin rope that I’m tied with. “Do you know . . .”

                “Shut up.” The voice seethes.

                “You’re a woman.” I exclaim.

                “You’re just now figuring that out?” she retorts coldly.

                “Well, I can barely see it’s so dark.”

                “Then how’d you figure out I’m a woman?”

                “When you yelled.” I smile. “I’ve been yelled at a lot, especially by women, so I’m pretty good at being able to tell the difference.”

                “What do you, did you do, Sam Helms?” She asks as she props herself up against one of the many trees that endlessly surround us.

                “I’m on a motorcycle demo team.” I say. “I also work at an auto-shop.”

                “A demo team?” She scoffs. “You’re lying. The Ever-After project wouldn’t admit someone with that kind lack of ambition.”

                “Look, woman.” I say, hoping I sound forceful. “I don’t know what’s going on, especially what any of this has to do with the Ever-after project, okay? I woke up yesterday morning inside some place called Argent labs with a bunch of man-eating monsters all over the place.”

                “Argent labs, huh?” she interrupts me. “What were you doing there?”

                “I told you, I woke up there.”

                “Were they doing tests on you?” She presses.

                “I. Woke. Up. There.” I say slowly. I try to sound calm, but annoyed. The reality is I’m scared out of my mind. “I went to bed two nights ago in my apartment. I wake up on some floor and these monsters chase me around and then some guy . . .” And like clockwork, my skin grows cold. “Some guy kills them and then I . . .”

                “There’s another person alive in here?” She says in surprise.

                I pause. “I, I don’t think he’s a person.”

                She sits back against the tree. “Another breed, huh?”

                “Say what?” I ask. “What the hell are you talking about?”

                “The zombies aren’t the only breed of monsters to get caused by this plague.” She says as she comes towards me. “Tell me, do you know how long things have been going on?” She asks. “Do you know how long this place has been like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like how long have the zombies been here? How long has this place been in this conditioning?” She asks.

“I just got here yesterday morning. I think it was morning.” I say.

She stands over me for a moment, staring at me. I look up at her, but I can’t see her face past her shoulder-length hair. She kneels down and grabs my hands. With her tiny knife, she cuts the wire on my thumbs, freeing me. “Alright, here’s the deal.” She says as I rub my hands. “I can get you out of this place, but you’ve got to do what I say.”

                “You know a way outside?” I ask.

                She shakes her head. “Just out of this bio-dome.” She says disappointedly.

                The woman leads me through the forest until we come to another glass barrier. She feels around for a bit, then pulls out a baton-sized flashlight. “Watch your eyes.” She says just before clicking it on. It’s like the sun rising in the morning with a running start.

                I can see her face as she searches along the glass barrier. She looks like she’s a few years older than me, with tanned skin and long dark brown hair. She’s dressed in military pants and a t-shirt, a military jacket tied around her waist. She’s got a small backpack on and an assortment of little compartments on her belt. Her collection of pockets seems full.

                She switches off her flashlight, leaving me blinded. “Come on.” She says as she starts away from me. I try to follow the sound of her motions as we move along the small gulley of space the glass barrier and the trees.

                It doesn’t take us long before she comes to a ladder built into the very glass wall itself. She grabs onto the inch-thick transparent rungs and starts to climb. I look up, but the distance swallows up my sight. I sigh and start to climb behind her.

                After the twentieth rung, I pause and look behind me. I’m above the trees. The ground looks too far away. I look out over the forest, getting a clearer view of where I came from. In the distance, I can see the town. I strain to look out farther and I can see Argent labs and the other town. That seems to be about it as far as the bio-dome is concerned. Up here now, I can start to see the shape of the giant half-egg I’m stuck inside.

                She keeps climbing and I follow her. We go up another thirty rungs or so and she reaches a platform. She pushes into the opening of the grate and climbs to the side. I climb up into the yard-wide grating, looking down. I can see through the steel-frame plating, which unnerves me. I can’t help but feel that the grating isn’t stable.

                But she shuts the trapdoor and sits down on top of it. I look in either direction, at the small cat walk that goes into the distance. “I’m Slate.” She says, her legs crossed as she seems to mediate.

                “Slate.” I say. I don’t buy that it’s her real name, but I don’t really care. “Nice to meet you.”

                “So let me get this straight, Sam.” She says. “You’re telling me, you aren’t part of the Ever-After Project?” She looks up at me. “You weren’t recruited or anything? You didn’t go through the application process or anything like that?”

                I shake my head. “No. I just woke up here.”

                “Where are you from?” She asks.

                “Williamsburg, Virginia.”

                “You’re a long way from home.” She said. “What brought you to New Mexico?”

                “I woke up.” I say again for the I-don’t-know-how-many time.

                “Wait.” She says. The tone in her voice tells me that it finally just registered with her. “You went to sleep in Williamsburg Virginia, and woke up inside Argent Labs?”

                “Yep.”

                She half-laughs, shaking her head. “I wish I could say that’s the weirdest thing I’ve heard. But it’s not far from it.”

                “Look, Slate.” I say, sitting down. “Do you know what’s going on?”

                “Not exactly.” She says. “I know that a virus escaped containment from in here a few weeks ago and its spread to the other bio-domes.”

                “Wait.” I say, my mind having trouble processing that. “Other bio-domes?” I gape.

                “Yeah.” She says. “There are six bio-domes in the Ever-After Project.”

                “Six!” I shriek. I feel faint. “This big?” I say, looking out at the giant space around us.

                “This big.” She nods. “They’re pretty impressive to see from the outside.”

                “Wow.” I say, looking away. “I had no idea they could build things like that.”

                “Well I had no idea zombies were real, but son of a bitch.” She laments. She looks out of the forest, searching. “I don’t think there’s anyone else.” She sighs after a moment.

                “I could have told you that.” I say. “I’ve been in both towns and inside the labs. There’s no one left alive in here. At least, no evidence that I’ve found.”

                “I know.” She says, sounding less than rock-hard for the first time. “I was just hoping.” She’s silent for a few minutes. “I came in here from one of the other bio-domes. There’s a huge network of tunnels that connect all of them, so that they can work together if needs be without actually exposing themselves to the outside world.”

                “Is that what the Ever-After Project’s supposed to be about?” I ask.

“I have no idea. It was originally about some type of environmental study or something.” She said, shaking her head. Then she looks over at me. “So,” She says. “You wanna get out of here?”

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