Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
As they glided smoothly through the tunnel, various ads for the PPP were projected onto the stone walls on either side. Most of the ads seemed to be happy people living a normal life inside the rainbow walls of the Dome—sworking, playing, laughing and smiling. There were also plenty of pictures of the “brothers and sisters” gathered around the Prophet, who had a look of benevolent wisdom on his bearded face. He often had his hands outstretched, as though he was blessing them in some way.
But there were other images that bothered Mia—one in particular showed a woman kneeling at the feet of a man Mia guessed must be her husband. She had her head bowed penitently and the man was looking down at her with a stern frown on his face. In his hand he held some kind of implement—a belt or a stick? The image flashed by too quickly for Mia to tell what it was but it seemed clear he was about to hit her with it.
What the hell? she wondered uneasily. Was this some of the “punishment” Brother Jonash had been talking about? Were the men beating their wives here and everyone was just okay with it?
For the first time she wondered what they were getting themselves into. She glanced up at Sev, who was standing in front of her on the moving walkway with Brother Jonash beside him, explaining something else about the PPP. But her partner didn’t seem to have seen the disturbing image and they were past it now, so she couldn’t point it out.
Mia kept a close lookout but the image of the woman kneeling before her husband wasn’t repeated and soon their journey to the other side of the tunnel came to an end.
The moving walkway dumped them out in front of a door that couldn’t have been more different than the wooden one at the far end of the tunnel. It was burnished metal and the lock on it was much more complicated. There was no crude keyhole here—instead Brother Jonash put his eye to a retinal scanner and pressed his thumb to a fingerprint reader. After a moment, the door beeped softly and clicked open. It swung silently inward revealing what looked like a tropical garden in full bloom.
“Welcome,” Brother Jonash said, stepping aside to usher Sev and Mia into the garden. “Welcome to the PPP Dome—we hope you’ll love it so much you’ll never want to leave!”
SEVEN
SEV
The inside of the Dome looked like a lush, tropical paradise, Sev thought as he and Mia stepped inside. There were green and blue and purple plants with broad, waxy leaves waving in the “sunshine” which came down from the top of the vast, rainbow Dome that surrounded them. The shimmering rainbow walls only added to the vision and enhanced the beauty of the brightly colored blossoms blooming on either side of the narrow path that ran through the plants.
“And here we are—isn’t it lovely?” Brother Jonash exclaimed proudly, as he turned to lock the door behind them.
For a brief moment, Sev had an almost overpowering urge to turn and keep him from locking it. He wanted to say,
“Wait, there’s been a mistake! We’ve changed our minds!” and then get himself and Mia the Seven Hells out of there.
The feeling was so strong he had to actively fight against it. They were here for a mission, he reminded himself. They had to expose the PPP cult for what it was—if not, it was coming to Earth. And who knew how much damage The Prophet might do if he got access to the influential leaders of the small blue and green planet the Kindred protected? The humans didn’t always pick the best among them to be leaders—they were often swayed by greed or fame. He and Mia couldn’t run away just because he felt some misgivings.
“Misgivings” was a mild word, though. Every instinct he had was shouting at him to run and Sev wasn’t used to ignoring his instincts. He forced himself to do it this time, though, and waited until Brother Jonash had finished locking the thick metal door behind them.
“If you’ll come this way, I’ll give you an abbreviated tour as I show you to your very own Smart Bungalow,” he told Sev. “I’m afraid we don’t have time for more than that—at least not now. You’ve come at the end of our work cycle and it’s almost time for the Evening Dimming.”
“The Evening Dimming?” Mia asked, and since Brother Jonash continued to rudely ignore her, Sev repeated the question, trying to tamp down his irritation as he did so.
“What is the Evening Dimming?” he said.
“Oh, that’s when the artificial star we have at the top of the dome gets turned down for the night,” Brother Jonash explained, still speaking exclusively to Sev. “It powers our Dome and gives us heat and light to grow our plants and crops. We don’t ever turn it off completely—we just dim it at night so that everyone can get some rest,” he added.