The Dome

The Last Piece of the Puzzle

As she arrived home, she decided to visit the old lady. However, when she knocked on the door, there was no answer. She would've left and thought the old lady wasn't home if it weren't for the fact that she suddenly heard muffled coughing. There was something wrong. Silasque turned the doorknob to find it locked. She looked around for another way in. Luckily, the old lady's house had a window. Most houses didn't. Realizing the window was locked, Silasque quickly found a rock and threw it as hard as she could against the window. She heard the window shatter and climbed inside, gritting her teeth from the pain of the glass shards cutting her skin.

Once she was inside, Silasque found the old lady lying on the ground coughing. She gasped and rushed over to the old lady's side.

"You can't save me," the old lady coughed out, "I need to tell someone."

"Tell someone what?" Silasque prompted as she took the old lady's hand in hers.

The old lady smiled sadly, "The people need to know what's out there."

"So it's true?" Silasque asked.

"It is. Take the-" the old lady suddenly erupted in a coughing fit, some of her coughs bringing blood, "Take the book. Read page 97."

Silasque nodded, "I will, I will."

"Good," the old lady wheezed, the light fading from her eyes as she squeezed Silasque's hand for the last time.

Silasque looked down at the old lady who served her jasmine tea, the old lady who had brought her family salad when Daphne had died. A tear rolled down Silasque's cheek, followed by another, then another until they flowed freely down her face. The old lady didn't deserve to die.

She reluctantly left the old lady's side and walked somberly over to the bookshelf and took the book 'Our History' off of the bookshelf and sat down on the floor next to the old lady. She turned to page 97 and started reading out loud to the lifeless body that lay before her.

Dear diary,

Today marks the mensiversary of Peter's death. His death has broken a part of me that can never be fixed. I can only wish him the best in whatever comes next, and I will remember him everyday. Today is also the day the Guardians promised they would kill my family because of our last name. The reason for it is so petty and absurd, I am ready to kill the Guardians myself for it. I am truly sorry that I couldn't protect my family. Like with Peter, I wish them the best in whatever comes next.

Today is also the day where I finally have the missing piece to the truth. Here's what happened: Many many years ago, a huge experiment went wrong and deadly toxins were released into the atmosphere. Nowhere on Earth was safe. However, domes had been constructed in advance in case something went wrong. Seven-eighths of the human population died. The ones that had survived were living in domes. All the domes had animals and plants, but one dome, our dome, had gone awry and only humans could survive in it. For the years that everything was toxic, people from other domes delivered veggies to us. No meat because meat was too heavy and more vegetables could be transported at a time than meat. However, after the atmosphere became livable again, all the domes let their people out and the domes were destroyed. However, the then leader of our dome didn't want to let his people out. I've come up with a couple of possible motives: power, fear. Our dome has been concealed, so people flying planes over the area cannot find us and we wear the clothes we do in the Dome because they are colors of nature, so we blend in better in case we are accidentally revealed. Personally, I always thought we wore black coats because black absorbs more light, so we're warmer. As I was saying, we are living our whole lives believing that we are the only people left on Earth and that Earth has deep fissures and the environment is completely, 100% toxic. And the people outside our dome have been searching for us for many, many years, and they still haven't found us.

My hope is that the people of the Dome will someday be free.

Yours truly,

Maritha Sina Guardian

Just as Silasque finished reading the entry, she heard heavy footsteps outside the door. Silasque calmly closed the book and glanced worriedly at the door. She hurried into the old lady's bedroom and slid under the bed, hoping whoever it was wouldn't find her.

"Put the body in the bag and clean up the blood on the floor," a gruff voice demanded. Silasque guessed it was a senior guard.

From the slit between the covers and the ground, Silasque could see several feet shuffling around and picking up the body. Silasque had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. The body was stuffed inside a bag. Suddenly, the senior officer held up his hand for silence. Silasque felt her breath catch in her throat and she quietly edged farther away from the edge of the bed.

"Someone else is here," the senior officer said, his eyes looking menacingly around the room.

"Sir, it isn't my place to say anything-" another officer was cut off by the senior officer.

"Damn right it isn't," the senior officer spat.

The officer took a deep breath and continued, "I think we should bring the body to Guardians at the earliest possible time, like they ordered."

The senior officer eyed the officer with disgust, probably because the officer was right, "Fine, let's go."

The other officers nodded and they lifted the bag over their shoulders and carried it outside, the senior officer barking at them for being too slow.

Once their voices faded into the distance, Silasque let out the breath she was holding. That was close. Wiping the sweat off of her forehead, she inched out from under the bed and took a quick glance at where the old lady's body was before, then rushed out the door. Just as she was out the door, all the pieces started coming together.