Summary: What if when Joe and Norrie found the center of the dome, there was something else than a mini-dome there? But Gabriel Novak isn't saying a word, and the tensions in town are running high...
A/N: Welcome to another story. I know everyone's waiting on the fifteen stories I already have running, but well, what the hell, right? Enjoy!
P.S. The title is what my mom said when I asked her 'What would be a good title', so I just went with it.
The forest was silent as Joe and Norrie made their way through, only the faint rustling of leaves in the wind could be heard.
"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Norrie asked cautiously, remembering how Truman had run from this place.
"We're almost there. We-" Joe paused, gripping her wrist to prevent her from walking further.
A few meters in front of them, there was a man. He had short brown-blond hair but it was hard to see his face, since he was turned away from them.
"This is it. This is the center." Joe breathed, looking apprehensive now too.
"Oh my God, is he dead?" Norrie said, pulling her wrist free to hurry over to the man. Joe followed her, unwilling to let her go alone towards the potential danger.
"He's warm," Norrie informed Joe, feeling for a heartbeat. A few seconds of frigid silence later, she breathed a sigh of relief. "He's alive, thank God. I hate finding dead bodies all the time."
Joe looked at her, hesitating. "Should we carry him back to town, or try to wake him up?"
"Well, I'm not carrying him." She scoffed. "Let's just throw cold water over him or whatever."
Joe threw her an incredulous look, and bend down to shake the guy gently. When that had no response, he shook harder. "Hey strange guy, come on!"
Norrie gave him a weird look. "Wait, you don't know him? Don't all you townspeople know each other?"
"I know most people here, yeah," Joe agreed, "but I've never seen him before. Do you think he knows something about the dome?"
Norrie shrugged.
"Dome?" A new voice asked curiously. Joe's head snapped back to the guy on the ground, who was now sitting up and looking at them. When-?!
"Holy shit!" Norrie shrieked, startled. "What the fuck? You can't just- do that!"
The man grinned. That reminded Joe he really needed the guy's name, he couldn't keep calling him 'the man' in his head.
"Sorry," the man said, sounding completely unapologetic.
"Hey, what's your name?" Joe asked. The man stood up and dusted himself off, bridging away the leaves clinging to his clothing before answering.
"Gabriel. Gabriel Novak." The guy- Gabriel- said, looking around, taking in the forest around them. "What am I doing here? Uhm, where is here?"
"Chester's Mill," Joe answered, as Norrie looked like she was still pissed. "I've never seen you before. What- are you injured?!"
Gabriel followed Joe's wide-eyed gaze to his stomach, where a dark spot that looked suspiciously like blood stained his clothing. Something flashed in his eyes.
"Nah," Gabriel dismissed it, a strange note to his voice. "Old blood."
Joe eyed the man suspiciously, but he seemed to be standing just fine.
"We'll have to get you back to the town, we'll figure out what to do with you after." Norrie decided, while Gabriel pretended to be offended. "Joe will fill you in on what's happening on the way back."
"I will?" Joe asked, surprised. Norrie just rolled her eyes and began to lead the way back.
Gabriel grinned at him, although Joe couldn't help but feel it was off. "Well, you heard your girlfriend. What's going on?"
Joe's face burned at the 'girlfriend' remark, but he didn't deny it.
"Well, about a week ago," He began, not sure how to break the news to the stranger, "This enormous barrier came down around the town. It's unbreakable, and most importantly inescapable. We're all trapped here."
There was a gloom silence, Joe letting the man- letting Gabriel process that. He almost expected the other to start demanding the truth, or even if he did believe Joe, panic or curse or something.
But Gabriel just walked on, silent, his brows furrowed like he was trying to figure something out.
"Huh," He remarked finally. "Sounds bad."
Joe tried not to sputter at the guy's reaction. He shook his head, bewildered, but continued. "We found out it's a dome, trapping us from all sides. There's been weird events happening this whole time, and now we found you, exactly in the middle of the dome."
Apparently Gabriel had processed that they were all trapped, because his eyes widened and he let out a string of what Joe assumed to be curses in some foreign language.
"... Yeah," Joe agreed.
Norrie turned around to look at them.
"You don't have an accent," she commented towards Gabriel. "Where're you from?"
Gabriel smiled faintly, looking like he was trying to recover himself. "Norway."
"Really?" Joe asked, surprised. "That didn't sound like Norwegian."
Norrie bumped him with a fond smile. "Nerd." She muttered quietly.
"It's not." Gabriel answered Joe. The other two slowed their pace a day stared at him in confusion, but they when Gabriel didn't offer any further input they let it go.
Joe noticed he was walking next to Norrie now, somehow, with Gabriel behind them.
"So, what do we do now?" Norrie wondered aloud.
Nobody had an answer to that.
