It takes another four hours before any of you have the courage (or defeatism) to enter the dome. A second door opens, one that leads to the dome, swinging inward with an awful sense of finality. The door to the tubed entrance swings shut as you enter, and you watch in horrified fascination as the water drains from the sides of the submarine. You try every trick in the book, but the tractor beam pulls you in toward the dome. The alarms go haywire, and as you frantically search for the cause you realize the dome still grows ever closer, a tiny, tubed entrance visible just to the north. Suddenly an almighty force jolts the submarine. You pilot the submarine to the edge of the dome, the unreality becoming clearer with each fathom. Uneasiness crawls under your skin, but curiosity wins the day in the end.
“Should we get a closer look?” your assistant asks, as baffled as you. Except there are no humans anywhere to be found. It looks like the Oregon Trail took a wrong turn and built a little house in Atlantis. Oak trees dot the edges, log cabins line one end, with a nineteenth-century-era church jutting into the refracted sunlight. The dome is clear as glass, revealing within a perfect ecosystem for human life. In all your years, you’ve never seen anything quite like it. Hunter Ford is a copyeditor of nonfiction and a writer of fanfiction. You can find her posting pictures of her cat and chronicling her longsword adventures on Twitter. She has spoken at numerous conventions on a variety of topics ranging from disability representation in sci-fi/fantasy to comics collaboration. Her short fiction has been published in Clarkesworld and Uncanny Magazine, and she has published nonfiction articles with Uncanny Magazine,, Women Write About Comics, and the anthology Barriers and Belonging: Personal Narratives of Disability. She is co-creator of the Hugo-nominated graphic novel Mooncakes (2019, Lion Forge/Oni Press). Suzanne Walker is a Chicago-based writer and editor. Let’s give it a try, together.Ī deep sea diving expedition finds a long-abandoned dome. Building a world doesn’t have to be hard or scary.
#LITTLE NIGHTMARES THE DEPTHS SERIES#
Building Beyond is an ongoing series of conversations about how much fun worldbuilding can be.