A distant howl breaks the silence of the night. A cold wind cuts through the forest. Leaves slowly drift to the ground floor. Mice skirt across the ground floor like they knew that if they ever stopped it would catch them. It wasn’t only the mice that moved away from the howl. Every animal knew to run. In less than a minute only one shadow stood in the forest. A person, one of the only ones left in the wild. He walked through the remnants of towns and cities now overgrown. So much so that from the air it looked only like a jungle nothing else. He spent his days traveling around from building to building looking for anything that hadn’t already been stolen by animals or swallowed by the undergrowth. He didn’t have a home or anyone to call his family. In fact, the only thing to his name was some old tattered clothes and his most prized possession was his air filter. It was the only way he could breathe without it getting him. The virus, the virus that had ended the world. It infected every animal that took it in. It mutated so rapidly that humanity couldn’t keep up. Once it entered the water it infected the fish which were the last safe animals to eat. By then it was too late to find a cure, and the domes were constructed. They called them utopia. Said it would be better than ever before. Humanities' last hope was locking ourselves in boxes and never coming back out.
Suddenly he saw it; The animal he had been hunting. He quickly got his spear ready, he had been sharpening it all day. He raced towards the shadow in the distance. He had to be careful though. One bite and it would be over, the disease would kill him. Just as it had killed his mother. He was five when it happened. The world had already been in shambles trying to slow down the progress of the virus. It didn’t matter in two months the virus was able to wipe out the entirety of Chicago leaving only the ruins of an abandoned city. A shadow zipped past him. In the corner of his eye, he saw it. A fox or well a viral fox it was clearly a third-generation virus holder. That was another thing the virus killed humans but for every other animal, it simply changed their DNA and mutated them. Made the laser focused on spreading the virus and breeding to keep the mutation going. He raised his spear and brought it down on the animal making sure it didn’t touch him. The spear slid right through the body of the fox and it fell to the floor limp. He would have to cook it very well to make sure no virus was on it. The changed DNA wouldn’t be a problem though. As he set up his fire to cook it he suddenly remembered when he first learned to cook with his mom. A happier time, when on the weekdays when he didn’t want to wake up his mom would sneak into his room and tell him
“Time to wake up James.”
Even simple memories like that made him miss her more than anything. It would be easier if he had anyone to share the pain with but after his mom got sick his dad did and shortly after that so did his brother. This was all during the fall of New York City. That year eight million people in the city died of the disease. He was one of the lucky ones, the ones who made it out alive. After the fall the domes were finished but without any guardians or someone to claim him as their own, he wasn't allowed in. He was left outside for the virus to take him. They threw him to the wolves and didn't look back. He was forgotten, lost, and afraid but unlike many, he had the will to survive. He scavenged the broken rusty cities searching for gems in piles of trash. The once bustling city once full of the sounds of cars and people full of flashing white lights and the smell of food carts all around was now replaced with the dark and gloomy forests that always smelled of rotting animals and vegetation. The once loud sounds turned into a deafening silence. James made his way across the city, the thick underbrush scratching at his arms trying to pull him down into the weeds. At the very heart of the city, there was one of the domes. The very one that had turned James away when he was younger. He tried to avoid it at all costs but now as he was stumbling through the dark woods he hadn't paid attention to where he was going and had found his way there. As he stepped through the leaves and into the clearing he saw it. The dome was a massive glass structure that was at least 3 miles wide on all sides. The glass was one way so he could see inside but the people couldn't see him. As he walked around the outside of the dome he saw something. A small crack in the glass barely wider than his fingernail (which he had kept trimmed using a pair of clippers he found). It was only three inches tall but it wouldn't matter the virus could get through. James wondered how many of these cracks there were. He walked away hoping that was the only one.
She rushed downstairs, and as she ran she looked at the clock on the wall 6:54 it stated. She was definitely running late. She crash-landed at the table and started eating breakfast.
¨ Lina, why are you so late?¨ questioned her mom.
¨I forgot to turn my alarm clock back on!¨ she retorted.
School was going to start in ten minutes and Lina had just gotten up. She raced back upstairs, put on her clothes, brushed her teeth, and did her hair before racing and leaping downstairs and out the door. Lina sprinted to school and went inside right before the bell rang. She walked over to her seat and sat down getting ready for the day ahead of her. Lina turned her head and looked out the window. Outside she saw the wall of the dome, she wondered what was out there. She had moved into the dome when she was very young and couldn't remember what the world had looked like. Of course, she had been told that there was only death and the virus. A barren wasteland they called it. A desert that stretched out for miles and miles. No water on the surface. No wildlife is left out there, everything has been killed by the virus. No people, no food, no life. She knew that there was nothing out there for her but deep inside she didn't believe what everyone had said. Deep down Lina knew that life was out there but as she watched the wall all she saw was the reflection of the city inside. Suddenly she was snapped back to attention when her teacher opened the door and walked inside. She got out her pencil and paper and got ready for class.
James couldn´t resist going back to the dome to look around. As just as he had thought he found more small cracks along the glass
¨Somethings wrong.¨ he muttered to himself
As he kept walking suddenly he tripped on a pipe and fell. When he got back up dusted himself off and looked at what had tripped him. As he inspected the pipe he saw that water was dripping out from under it. He got on hands and knees to get a better look. Then he saw it, another small crack. The water was dripping out from under it. He got back up and kept walking. Eventually, he reached one of the big fans that circulated the air. But something was off, the fan wasn't moving. He pushed it but the fan blades didn't budge. It seemed they had not moved in a long time. He kept walking and as he moved around the dome more and more things looked broken or stuck. He saw solar panels lying on the floor broken in half. He saw small ponds made from pipes that had split entirely open. He saw bigger and bigger cracks in the walls. The highest one reached almost five feet up the wall. Windmill blades broken and on the forest floor. The forest seemed to claim and consume everything that touched the ground. Not only that it looked like it was trying to swallow the dome as well. Vines choked the walls. Trees edged closer and closer to the wall. The so-called utopia for humans was failing. It wasn't going to stand for much longer. The worst part was that no one inside knew.
The school bell rang declaring the end of the day had come. Lina ran out of the building as fast as she could, glad to finally be free. She decided to take the long way home and pass through the park. She quickly gathered all her stuff and started her trek home. But just as she was getting ready to leave she saw something on the wall. It looked like a spider web. As she got closer she realized what it was. A crack, to investigate further she leaned down and peered through it. The crack didn't go through the whole way but it went through just enough that she could see the other side. On it, there was grass and trees.
¨Life!¨ she whispered to herself.
She was right there had been life on the other side of the wall. Everyone had lied. She began to wonder what else wasn't true. Like they had said that nothing could get through or break the walls but here she was with a crack in the wall. Then it dawned on her, they didn´t know the truth either. No one had been able to test the domes before they went up. Everyone just had to hope that it went ok and the virus wouldn't be a problem anymore. She bet that no one else even knew that there was a crack in the wall. She also suspected that there was more than just one crack in the wall. The thing was when the domes were built every home inside got one wearable air filter just in case the dome failed. Lina knew that if she told anyone about the crack in the wall they wouldn't believe her. They were too confident in the domes. Either way, once the cracks got bigger more people would realize and leave the dome. Also installed in every home touching the wall there was an airlock in case they ever needed to leave the dome. Lina made her plan for her great escape. But right now she needed to get home and get home fast.
James predicted that the dome only had a couple of weeks left, maybe two months. He was tired after walking around the dome so he got a small camp set up and prepared to go hunt. He wondered how long it would take the people inside of the dome to realize the cracks in the wall. He hoped people had started to notice the cracks. Even if they didn't they would become evident in a couple of days. He heard a howl in the woods and rushed towards the sound. He pondered if the people inside the dome ever heard the sounds from the outside. He assumed they didn't even know what the outside looked like. He suddenly realized something big. If this dome was failing then it would make sense to assume all the other ones were too. He didn´t even know if the people inside had a safe way to breathe air. If the domes cracked even further the virus would get in and without a filter, everyone inside would die. Just like how it had started in the cities. More and more people would get it and pass it on to the next and the next. In a month the whole dome would be in shambles. Everyone trying to find a safe place to live. He refocused himself on hunting. He pulled out his spear and followed the tracks of the animal. He heard another growl from the woods. The sound reminded him of a car starting up and driving away. As he marched forward towards the sound he heard something crunch under his feet. It was a newspaper. He was surprised to see that most pieces of paper had broken down or were disintegrated by rain. He picked it up and the date said it was from 3/15/2053. That was seven years ago. The only other thing on the paper was the title of a long-forgotten article. All it said was Virus Takes Hold of the City. He didn’t even know what city it was talking about. He dropped the paper and walked away, spear raised ready to pierce his prey.
Lina had rushed back to her house as fast as possible, her plan cemented in her brain. She ransacked the pantry for food to hold her over once she left the dome. After that, it was a search to find where her mom had put the emergency filter. She had limited time seeing as her mom would come back to the house in only an hour. She raced around the house searching everywhere she could for the filter. She tore apart the attic, she scoured the basement until finally, she looked in a small cupboard in the corner of the kitchen. She ripped open the doors and inside she found what she had been searching for. The filter was hanging on a rack inside. She snatched it and moved towards the airlock door in the back of the house. It was a gray metal door with no windows. It was at least two feet thick and had a password to open it. Luckily Lina knew this password. She punched it in and heard the lock click open. She reached for the handle but her hand stopped midway frozen in the air. She turned around and looked behind her. This is where she had lived her whole life; she had no other home. Now she knew once she opened the door she would never be able to come back. The door would lock behind her and then she wouldn’t be able to open it. Locked out forever never to see her mom or friends again. It would be so easy to forget she ever saw the crack. Put back the mask and lock the door again. Live the rest of her life in the dome. But she knew she couldn’t do it; she would be living the rest of her life in a fake world. A world of false security. She would always know that someday the crack would open. The constant fear would crush her. She turned back to the door and pulled the handle. It clunked and clanked so loudly she thought the whole city could hear her open the door. She pushed it open and stepped out onto the ground. She quickly shut the door to prevent too many viruses from getting in. Once the door closed she could hear it lock again. Then there was silence. It seemed she was the only one there. There really were no people left. She was entirely alone in the world.
James pushed the spear through the fox making sure it was dead. He started dragging it back towards his camp. The fox was heavy and he was tired after the long day of walking around the dome. He pushed forward towards his camp. He still wondered if anyone had seen the cracks or if he was the only one. The sun was starting to set and he was almost there. He started humming a tune to pass the time as he kept pulling the fox. He was about to push through the last part of the forest and into the clearing where the dome sat when suddenly he heard a sound. CLUNK CLANK CHUNK. Birds lifted from the trees into the sky and flew away. Animals skirted away from the sound. James dropped the fox and started to sprint to the sound wondering what had caused it. He ran faster and faster sprinting at top speed towards the sound in the distance. Finally, he arrived at the source of the sound. On the side of the dome a metal sheet slide open. He ducked into the underbrush to see who would come out. A small girl walked out and quickly shut the door behind her. She stood there for a second. She looked stunned at what she had just done. Then she quickly scanned the area around her before dropping to the ground in a crouching position. One tear slid from her cheek and crashed on the ground. James stood out gathered his strength and stepped into the clearing.
Lina screamed. She picked up the nearest stick and threw it at whatever had just walked out of the forest. When she got a second look she saw it was a boy. Another person. She wasn’t alone. But before she could start to talk the dome squeaked from behind her. A crack split from where the door had closed. Then more started racing along the side of the dome. She stood there shocked. The cracks got larger and larger. The boy grabbed her arm and pulled her into the forest right before a wall crashed down behind her right where she was standing. She heard pipes bursting and power lines sparking. As the sun began to set the forest was filled with the sound of the crashing dome. She closed her eyes and took a breath.