The Dome Survivor

I sit here looking at the 300-page textbook on my desk explaining the history of how our society came to be. The words blur together on the pages, and instead, my eyes gravitate toward the photos. The images of young girls riding their bikes down the street, a teenage boy listening to music on his headphones, and happy families playing with their pets. 

I can't help but imagine how different my life would be if I could do these simple things. But unfortunately, they could all put my safety and the people of the dome in jeopardy. 

The dome, I would call it home, but it's the only place I've ever known. For as long as I can remember, I have had to see the world trapped in a metal bubble I can't escape.

 We aren't allowed to use any vehicle as a simple crash could have the dome falling apart. I've never seen a dog, cat, or bird - no animals live in the dome. They are supposed to exist in the outside world, but after the earth's atmosphere got contaminated, we've assumed they've gone extinct. I can only listen to music once a month because if everyone were to listen to music at the same time, the radio waves would make the dome weaker. The weaker the dome grows, the more likely for the contaminated air to come in, and we all die.

 All I have of the outside world are these history books, as no one knows what the outside world looks like today. We can't leave; guards are everywhere watching our every move; I always wondered what's beyond the dome, and to be free from it is my only desire.

It's day 5840. I keep track of how many days I've lived so that if there is a day I leave the dome, I know how long I stay in it. I head towards the living quarters and watch as my mom takes another can from the cupboard and pours the gooey mush onto a plate. Some days the government drops o ff pickle jars, but most of the time, it's canned foods. Today we got canned tuna, not my favorite, but I'll take what I can get. In the textbooks, it stated that centuries ago, they had feasts for celebrations like a holiday they mentioned was thanksgiving. Where families would have tables worth of food, but in the dome, we can only eat foods that can be preserved. I've always been fascinated by how differently people used to live their lives compared to how we do.

“Good morning Lena. Are you ready for school?” my mother says.

“Yeah, I'm on my way there right now,” I replied. My mom and I don't have the best bond, and if I think about it, I'm not really close with anyone. My dad leaves for work at the library early. He's the reason why I read so many history books. Growing up, he would tell me the stories of how the outside people would ride buses to school and go on airplanes to visit different countries. This concept has always boggled my mind because it's something I've never seen or witnessed before. It's much harder to comprehend.

“Lena honey, please don't go to the edge on your way to school; remember what happened last time,” my mom pleads.

            “I won't get caught this time; I promise,” I say. I walk out of the house and head towards school. On every Friday, at the edge of the dome, a part of its glitches. And for one second, for one moment, you get a glimpse of the outside world. At least, that's what I've been told. I never make it on time; the edge is near school, so I always pass it there. But it's heavily guarded by security. Last Friday, I tried to catch the glitch. I went to the surface of the dome and moved my palm slowly toward the wall. When a police officer came out of nowhere and arrested me, it's against the law to touch the walls of the dome, as it may trigger an emergency breach causing the dome to break. There are so many things I don't understand, but I've been taught not to question them. People have been taken away for asking specific questions, so I keep my head down and stay to myself. 

I decided not to visit the edge today, last time, my dad had to pay a 300$ fine, and I could see the strain that it caused him. As I enter the schoolhouse, I see Newt; the smartest kid I've ever met. He wears glasses that are way too big for his face, and his ears stick out like elves. We’ve never talked before, but I've always admired his intelligence. His ability to see beyond the given and expand. I walk past him and sit at my desk—all the way in the back, near the window, just where I like it.

  “Hey Lena, mind if I sit here?” Brittney says, pointing to the desk in front of me.

             “Yeah, go ahead,” I responded. Brittney has short blonde hair and blue eyes, we used to be the best of friends when we were younger, but she started to fit in more with the popular kids than I did. From what I remember, she was the bravest soul I've ever met. She would go to one of the dome walls, kick it, and run as fast as she could. The crazy part is she never got caught by the cops, not once.

“I can lift 300,” I overheard a classmate. I look around, trying to pinpoint who said that. And, of course, not to my surprise, I see Edgar. He's my neighbor. He's also the strongest person I know. He's a bit cocky, but honestly, if I had his strength, I would be too. When we were in primary school, he could lift the teacher's desk all on his own. I take a quick look at everyone in my class, these are the kids I grew up with, and they are the future of the dome. *Beep Beep*. The sound of the bell goes off, and a man on the intercom speaks.

“Good morning, students of Dome high school; we have a special announcement today regarding an opportunity to explore the outside world…If you haven't seen the flyers posted around the dome, then you will be happy to know there is a competition with a prize of 1 million dollars. This competition is based on the idea of “ survival of the fittest”. You will endure a series of challenges, and you must be in a team of 5. To participate, please come to the front desk so that we can give you the contract to sign; remember, this opportunity could change your life,” says principal Reynolds on the intercom.

“There's no way”  “This has to be a joke,”.Whispers fill the air as all my classmates talk about the possibility of winning that much money.

I couldn't even fathom a million dollars; the thought of being able to give back to my family is enough reason for me to participate in this. My dad, a librarian, and my mom, who works at the flea market, have given me everything; it's only fair I try to give them something back. With that money, my dad and I can own a library of our own, filled with history books going back centuries. The only part that would be difficult is finding a team. I don't have any friends, really, I'm known, and I know everyone. But friends? Is a bit of a stretch.

“Oh my gosh, what did I miss?” says Milan as she stumbles in

Milan has long black hair, kind of like mine. She's well-liked by everyone, and she always has the brightest smile on her face. I've always wondered if she's genuinely happy or if she uses her smile to cover up her insecurities. But I've always wanted to be her friend, her ability to turn every negative situation into a positive is something I've admired and a trait I wish I had. Today, she walked into class late and missed practically the whole entire announcement. But instead of going to ask one of her friends, she comes over and asks me what Principal Reynolds said.

“The one-day I'm late, I miss the biggest bomb drop ever, care to explain, haha?” she asks me as she leans closer.

“Sure, he said that there's a 1 million dollar prize to be in a competition based on challenges of the survival of the fittest, but you have to be in teams of 5 to participate” I reply. She stands there stunned; her eyes widen, and her jaw drops.

“ONE MILLION DOLLARS?! We should totally team up.” she shrieks in excitement.

Me? Why would she want to be partners with me? Of course, I didn't say that out loud, but the thought lingered. 

Instead, I rejoiced by saying, “sure; now we just need three more people.”

“ hm, how about we figure everything out after school at my place?” she asked me.

“That sounds like a good plan to me,” I say. I didn't think it would be that easy to find a teammate, but one down, three to go; I guess I wondered why anyone would want to be partnered with me, I'm not strong, and I'm not smart. I'm just a girl who reads books for fun. Milan, on the other hand, knows everything about the basics of survival. Her dad was a cop, and her mom was a doctor. They taught her all the survival skills she should know in case she was in danger.

AFTER SCHOOL

As I walk out of school, I think about how pointless it is to live in this repeated cycle, how the past 16 years have been the same restricted schedule. Waking up, eating a can of food, going to school, reading a book, and sleeping. I can't be trapped here, but I know that there is no other way to live. 

“Hey Lena, are you ready to head to my place?” says Milan

“Yeah let's go” I reply

“You know I think that new kid could help us a lot if unites with us!” she announced 

“Yeah but I doubt he'd want to, can I ask you something?” I ask.

She looks at me for 10 seconds before replying with a muffled and silent “sure”.

“ Why did you pick me to be your partner? I whisper.

“What do you mean why?? You have so much knowledge on the history of the dome, you've read more books this week than I have in my lifetime haha” she chuckles.

I smile with her as we walk towards her apartment. We all live in a small apartment, there are like 5000 buildings in the dome. But Milan lives in the highest one, her building reaches the top of the dome, barely touching it. They live on the 100th floor. You can see the whole dome for her window, the people the size of ants walking down the street.

“So if we're gonna invite Newt, I think we should invite Brittany” I explain.

“Brittany really? She seems like a snob. Why would you want her?” Milan says.

“Well I remembered how brave she is that could come in handy, and I don't think she's a snob” I responded.

“Okay if we're inviting Brittany we should invite Edgar, he's really big and strong” she exclaims

“Yeah okay, how about we split up, I'll go convince Newt since he seems like the type to work alone and since you ad Edgar are already good friends, we can assume he's a yes,” I tell her

“Yea, Edgar will join us, I know it but I can ask Brittany,” Milan says

“Alright see ya later” I responded. As I exit her apartment and head to the 60th floor. Lucky for me she and Newt live in the same building. I try to think about how I should word what I'm about to say. I exit the elevator, in utter silence, not a person in sight. His floor was much different from Milan, it was dark and gray, but Milan's was a bright yellow. I head towards his door and knock three times precisely three.

“Who is it”? A voice exclaims

“Um it's Lena, from school,” I say. The sound of at least 5 locks, unlock and you see an eyeball pop up from the circle in the middle of the door. Then after a couple of seconds, the door opens.

“What do you want? If your homework answers, I'm not giving you anything.`` Newt says.

Not only was I offended by his little comment but also shocked. I decided to ignore it and just jump right into why I came.“So I and Milan are joining the competition for a million dollars and we were wondering if you would like to join us?” I ask.

“Ha you do realize that we would have to split the prize by 5 so really if we win we'd only leave with 200,000 each and I prefer to work alone,” He says.

I hadn't even thought about the fact that I wouldn't have the whole 1 million to myself, but 200,000 would still help my parents out so much. “I assumed you'd say something like that, but you can't enter the competition alone, so why not join us? It's me, Milan, Edgar, and Brittany. We all know you have the biggest crush on Britteny, so think about all the time you could spend with her” I say, trying to convince him. His face turns a bright red and his eyes widen after my little comment about Brittney.

“Okay fine I'll join, but this stays between us,” he says.

I smile in excitement. Now that I have Newt, we only need Brittaney and Edgar. I head back up to Milan's apartment. We jump in sync, and she tells me that they are both sad to join us as well. “Now that we have an entire team. We just have to go to Mr. Reynold's office.

THE NEXT DAY

School ends, and I walk around the building trying to find my fellow teammates. I got Milan first then Brittney, Edgar, and newt. We walk to the principal's office, handing him all the forms. I'm not going to lie, it was a bit awkward. We were all different types of people. We never even talked to each other before today, at least not in a group. “So guys, the competition is tomorrow. We gotta be prepared.” I say. They all nod, looks like I'm going to be doing most of the talking, I think to myself. The only rule Mr. Reynolds said was that we must stay in the building where the competition is being held for 5 days. That's how long the competition will be. I didn't expect to be camping out, but it seems like winning the money will be a lot harder than it seems.

DAY OF THE COMPETITION.

We all headed towards the center of the dome, an empty gymnasium. It had just been built. Solely for this competition, which makes sense, 1 million dollars is a big deal. As we enter, a man approaches and points us to this dark hallway. Then a sign above us says “Good luck, this is life or death”. We all stare confused but keep walking. Then the dark room lights up with each BOOM sound, and the brighter the room gets. Until we see these 5 other kids on the opposite side of the room. But between us and them is a man.

  He blows a whistle and says “ choose your weapon”. 

But there are no weapons in sight. We look around the room and find nothing. But then we start hearing the sound of a clock ticking, 2 minutes on it. We all huddle together.

“ Guys I think that we have to make the weapons,” says Newt.

“No way, with what? All I see are some scissors and paper” whispers Milan.

“The only weapon I need are my fists” yells Edgar.

“1-minute guy” Brittney says nervously.

“ We are not going to have enough time to make something, I think we have to use our fists,” I explained.

“What exactly are we fighting?” asks Milan.

“Them,” says Newt as he points towards the other group of kids.

“Wait- so does that mean we are actually going to get hurt?” says, Brittney.

But before someone can answer her question, the clock goes off, and the other team starts running toward us. Then that same man yells “ To move on to the next level, you must eliminate one person from the other team”.

As I try to process what he means by “eliminate”. I realize that we must kill one of their teammates in order to move on. We all stare at each other in shock. This is not what we signed up for. As I try to hold back my tears, my adrenaline kicks in. I prepare myself mentally and emotionally for what's about to happen.

“Guys don't worry, I got this, just stand behind me” screams Edgar. 

“Edgar, go for that tiny boy, he's the easiest one “ yells Newt.

Then in a blink of an eye, the little boy approaches Edgar with a knife and Edgar picks him up and stabs him.

“ OH MY GOD, I CAN'T DO THIS SOMEONE TAKE ME OUT I QUIT” screams Brittney.

I and Milan are still in shock. Fall to the ground crying. There's no way we just killed a little boy. 

The man says, “Congratulations, you completed level 1; you can move on to level 2”.

Not knowing what to do next, we follow the man. Half of us were in tears, but we all realized that there was no escaping this. We must win to SURVIVE.   

“Sir, what's going on? We didn't sign up for this!” screams Brittney.

But the man ignores her and instead points towards a confined room that has six bunk beds and a small table in the middle, with a bottle of water and a TV on the roof. We all walk in, and the man shuts the door behind him, locking us in. 

“Guys we screwed up,” I say.

“I knew this whole competition was fake, they just want to decline the population,” says Newt.

“ What do you mean?” I responded.

“My parents have been talking about how the dome has reached its limit. The one-child policy has not been working. Apparently, the only way for them to reduce the competition is to trick us” says Newt.

We all stare in shock. His reasoning makes sense, but why would they want to depopulate the teens? Why not the older people?” I ask.

Maybe because the old people have more wisdom and history of the stride they can help scientists figure out what life was like then” says Milan.

“True, what are we doing in this room, though?” asks Edgar.

“ I have no idea,” says Brittney.

Hours pass, and some of us sleep. But Milan and I lay wide awake. I stare at the ceiling, the Tv seems to be turned off, but there's a button on it. I climb down from the top of my bunk bed, grab the desk and stand on it. My hand reached towards the button. I push it, and the screen turns on.

‘GUYS, GUYS wake up look at the TV” I yell.

We look up and watch as two teams go through the challenge we just went through. But these kids knew what they were doing, they were much more ruthless. We watch as both teams kill each other but I overheard one of the kids say “if we eliminate as many of them as possible the higher our chances of winning”. I wondered what he meant by that. That guy looked mean, he had this stern look as he killed each kid one by one. I was terrified. I look over my shoulder and see Brittney crying once again.

“GET A GRIP, BRITT STOP WHINING” yells Milan.

“I'm sorry, but I don't want to DIE” yells Brittney.

As they argue in the background, The screen flashes with a bright title saying, “ challenge 2 begins: ESCAPE”

I wasn't sure how to get everyone's attention, we were all scattered around our brains trying to accept our fate.I looked around trying to decipher the message. Escape? How is there some sort of code?. I look around trying to decipher what I've been given. I look at Newt, and I think maybe he knows what to do.

“Guys I think our best plan of action is to look for clues, they didn't just put us in this room at random, there's got to be something,” Newt says.

We all agree and scatter around the room, tearing the whole place apart. We break down the bed and throw the mattresses on the ground. After a solid minute of searching, we find a note that says “pin.” What type of clue is that? I think to myself; we're screwed. 

“What the heck does this mean?” asks Edgar.

“I think it means a hairpin. Do you guys have one in your hair?” asks Newt.

“ i do,” yells Britteny.

“Finally doing something useful,” muffles Milan under her breath.

I take the pin and start picking at the lock on the door, and after a couple of twists and turns, the door unlocks. We walked into a dining room filled with all sorts of foods. Foods we have never seen before, but I read about these foods in my history books. It reminds me of the thanksgiving dinner chapter I had read about. All of us were too hungry to speak or think, so we just kept eating until we couldn't anymore. My energy drained, I look around and watch as everyone falls asleep in the chair. As if there had been something in the food leading us to doze off. After a bit I find myself needing to close my eyes, and within seconds I'm asleep.

THE NEXT DAY

I wake up trying to catch my breath. I realized that the whole challenge wasn't a dream but a reality. I scatter around, trying to wake everyone up so we can leave. We all run out, passing through a really long hallway and not knowing where we are heading. Then the tile floors start changing colors like a dance floor. With each tile a different color. In Front of us are 2 kids standing on the other side of the hallway, and they are each standing on a tile. The older kid is on a purple one, and the younger kid is on a yellow line. 

“I'm so sorry, max,” says the older kid.

“ What are you sorry for?” responds the little kid.

But before the other kid can answer, the little kid's tiles fall to the ground, and the kid falls down a hole with it, leaving a big empty dent in the ground.

“AH, WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED?” yells Milan.

Then this man walks up to the older boy and says“ congratulations you are the only one left on your team, and now you are a finalist”. 

The boy falls to the ground in tears and keeps yelling, “ I'm so sorry, man, I'm so sorry.”

I look around, and Newt is already looking at the tiles trying to decipher his next steps. But he wouldn't tell us anything, this is when I realized that we were not only fighting against other teams but our teammates as well. I now understand why it's survival of the fittest, it's every person for themselves. Newt wasn't willing to tell us this, he was too focused on not dying, and I don't blame him. But I've created such a strong bond with these kids; I can't lose them now. 

This is the only time in my life where I have actually had friends, but I must survive. I watch as everyone looks at each other trying to choose the correct tile color to stand on. I go with my gut and jump on the blue tile, Milan on the purple, Newt on the green, and Brittney on the Orange. 

“Oh no, oh no, no, no,” whispers Newt.

“What??” I ask.

“ I noticed that every cool color doesn't have cracks on them because there isn't a hole beneath them but the warm colors have cracks on the very edge,” says Newt.

“ Wait, Brittney and Edgar are on warm colors.”

“BRITTNEY, EDGAR, JUMP TO A BLUE TILE NOW” I yell.

But by the time I want to shout, it's too late. They fall underneath the ground within seconds. My heart sank; I could have saved them. If I wasn't so focused on myself, I could have protected them. We all gather together and start crying. Milan's eyes are as puffy and red as you could imagine; Newt takes off his glasses, and his eyes start to get watery.

“Wipe off your tears we still have a couple more challenges left,” says Milan.

The same man comes out, but this time he takes us into a classroom and makes us sit down like we are in school. Rows of desks filled the room, and there had to be at least 20 kids. Every kid with a desk, chair, and pencil. Are we taking a test? I think to myself. I don't do very well with tests. A young lady walks into the room, wearing all black, and her face is covered. I feel like I've seen her on TV somewhere, but I can't pinpoint where. I look around the room, just wanting this nightmare to be over, and I notice that there's a door all the way in the back, and the door is propped open. Maybe I could make a run for it and just escape. Milan looks dazed off as if shes daydreaming, while Newt is sat with a straight posture and he looks as prepared as one could ever be. I try to get his attention, but he's so focused on looking straight ahead that he doesnt turn back once. I start to whisper Milan's name, hoping that she notices. She looks around, trying to figure out where the voice is coming from, and then makes eye contact with me. Then she shrugs her arms with a confused look. I point toward the door, and her confused stare turns into a smirk. 

I wait for the lady to leave the room; it looks like she's writing something on the board. It reads “ouy lliw lla ied”. I look at it, trying to read it, but it doesnt seem to be English; I hadn't seen anything like it before. I look around the room, and most of the kids seem confused except Newt. He looked terrified, like someone had just put a gun to his head. Then he starts to cry.  Tried yelling his name, but the lady was staring at me.

She finally decides to walk out of the room. But in her place come three officers, they stand in the front of the room with big smiles on their faces. Then I hear desks falling, and Newt screaming, “Milan and Lena, make a run for it; I will distract them.” 

“What are you talking about?” we yell back. When all of a sudden, Newt is fighting the guards, and the other kids in the room join him. I and Milan start running towards the propped door, but as we are exiting, we hear a gunshot. They were followed by at least 10 more.

“NOO NEWT,” cries Milan.

I look behind me and watch Newt falls to the ground, lifeless and dead. They killed him, and he wasn't the only one all the other kids were slowly dying one by one. Milan wants to run back and save him, I pull her back because I know there's no way we will be able to carry him and escape.

We opened the door, and we thought it would be a hallway, but it was a laboratory. We walk in slowly, trying not to make any noise. Then we shrieked in shock. Briteny Edgar and the little boy that fell in the tile challenge were kept in a human-sized tube—filled with some sort of liquid and a tube connecting their mouth to a machine. Then we start to what footsteps are coming our way. We tiptoe across the floors and hide behind the tubes. 

“ These kids have no idea what reality is ahaha” says an old man in a lab coat.

“ Imagine if they got out and actually saw what the real world is like,” says another scientist.

After they walked away, I and Milan stayed quiet. But then she leans closer and starts whispering.

“Lena, I know why Newt did what he did?”

“How did you understand the writing on the board?”

“Yeah, It was “you all will die” but backward”

“OMG, so he knew we were going to die, but he protected us.” My heart sank to the floor, and sadness filled my body. We get up, look around and keep running. I kept thinking about what the scientist guys were talking about. We find a gate at the back entrance. We jump over it and make a run for it. I had never seen this part of the dome before, at least not this side. But then, for the first time, I see the glitch.

We made it to the side behind the guards, the edge of the dome. The glitch is supposed to be the escape route out of the dome. I sigh in relief; maybe all this pain was worth it. But I spoke too soon.

“HEY HEY, WE SEE YOU” yell the same scientists we over heard earlier. 

They came running our way; they were bigger than us and faster. Milan looks me in the eye and stops running.

“What are you doing? We are so close.” I urge her. She leans in and hugs me.

“Thank you for being my friend; you gave me the one thing I always wanted a true friend. So now I will give you what you have always wanted. To escape.” she says.

“What do you mean? We can escape together.”  I tell her.

“NO, LENA, RUN” she pushes me away from her and ran towards the scientist. Trying to distract them. I tried to run back, but they had already caught her. I wipe off my tears and head towards the glaring lights coming from the edge of the dome. It was a massive door, more prominent than anyone iv ever seen before; it had at least 50 locks. But to my surprise, they were all unlocked.

“DON'T GO OUT THERE” yells one of the scientists. But it's too late; I take my first step. My eyes are wide. The door was one step behind me and it shut. In front of me is a street. A neighborhood with kids riding their bikes. But this neighborhood looked like the one in my history books, nothing like the dome. I turn behind me, and I thought I would see the dome, but I saw nothing. Just the same street with houses going down a hill. Did the dome disappear? Was it invisible? I rub my eyes; maybe I'm dreaming, I think. How am I not dead? The air I'm breathing in, didn't seem contaminated, quite the opposite. The dome was stuffy, the air was much clearer. A little boy approaches me.

“You look like one of the kids on the news,” says a little boy riding his bike. “

“Who are you? where am I?” I ask him.

“ My name is Robert, and this is Milwaukee, Wisconsin”.

“Oh, what news?”

“ A bunch of people got kidnapped a couple of years ago, and they have missing flyers everywhere; look.”

ONE YEAR LATER,

I soon figured out that my whole life had been a lie. About 100 years ago, a group of mad scientists convinced thousands of people to participate in an experiment. But they didn't know what would happen, they were told all they had to do was eat fruit, and they would be given 10,000 dollars. But instead, the scientists trapped them in a metal bubble they called “ The dome”. They wanted to create a society separate from the rest of the world. The people were forced to reproduce, and their old memories of the old world were erased.

 My parents were the first generation of kids to be born into the dome. I am now 18 years old.Iv learned to adapt and change into the reality I currently live in. It took me months before I could grasp the idea that I had been living a fake life. The “competition” we were a part of was simply to lower the population of the dome. The kids that died like Brittney and Edgar, were kept in tubes so that the crazy scientists could test experiments on them.

 I still mourn all the people I lost on my journey here. I visit their graves and talk to them endlessly about the new life I live and how much I miss them. I was found by the FBI, and I tried my best to show them where I came from. We drove about 100 miles west from where I met Robert. He's my little brother now; his parents adopted me the second they found out about my story.

They eventually located the dome, and once they found the entrance. Everyone inside had died. I was the only survivor. This is my story. Lena, The dome survivor.