Sarah's+Group

**__ Dome City:Year 3000 __**  Children were outside playing on an ordinary day, however this was not the case for the setting. There was no summer breeze, even though it was mid June in Dome City. No clouds made their way across the sky, while metamorphosing into all different shapes and sizes. Instead sea turtles swam by, right along with fish, and dolphins; all sorts of underwater creatures. The children played and frolicked on grass in front yards of wooden and brick houses the kind you see in old films. So how could there be animals from the sea? They don't know, that's just the way things were, they had never known any other life, no citizen had. Except one. His name was Travis Scott. He was no ordinary person, he knew what life was like before the Domes and what had come from living under the water. As for the others of his generation, they all passed away, he's the last one left. So you may be asking, what happened that forced a move underwater? This mid-June day was the day Travis would answer this big question, so that they could appreciate Dome City as much as he does.

Travis had just been woken up by his 10 year old great granddaughter. She had been begging him for years to divulge the story, to answer the questions that everyone had. Why do we live underwater? He had always promised to tell the story before he passed on. So he decided to tell her and all of his other grandchildren and anyone else that was interested to hear the story. He was already 152 years old, so it was either now or never. His great granddaughter's name was Elizabeth and she was so excited to finally know the reason for the world she lives in. Travis got up and announced to everyone that they could come and listen to the story, as well. He had gotten dressed as fast as he could, putting on his best clothing, for today was, perhaps, the biggest event to happen in Dome City in years. He had sat down in his kitchen for some coffee and decided to write notes and ideas so he wouldn't get lost. When he looked outside there was already at least a thousand people outside waiting for him to come out and share the story with them. Elizabeth had helped her mom and dad make a place where Travis could sit and tell the story. They had just gotten finished with placing the chair and microphone when Travis walked out. He walked slowly to the chair, sat down and began talking. It became very quiet, the only sound that could be heard for miles was Travis's voice painting a picture of the past like a projection on a movie screen.

"It had been a day much like this one, there were children outside playing in the warm breeze and others in malls, or watching T.V. The one thing that was different, there was no dome." At this point there could be heard many whispers of confusion and doubt. "Pollution had almost taken over the whole planet. Once green grass was now purple form pesticides and chemicals, even the animals began to take on eerie radioactive tints, only seen in horror movies. My elders had told us the world wasn't always this way, humans had destroyed it. The Elders told stories of green grass, and blue skies covered only by fluffy clouds that seemed to high for birds to reach. My personal favorites were the stories of what happened at night. It was said to be a magical sight, the sun went away and there was darkness," he took a slight pause as the children's jaws dropped in horror.

"Now children don't be afraid, this was not a bad thing. Millions of specks of light known as stars would light up the sky, it was one of the most magnificent sights ever imagined, and all of us, thanks to human error, will never experience it nor know if the tale is even legitimate. But in my time, there was only a minuscule bit of land left that had not been polluted and our population was quickly ruining that as well. There were people dying everyday from horrid diseases caused by the filth that consumed most of Earth. We needed to get out of there, and fast. The only place to go was underwater, the water had somehow remained unaffected by all the garbage that sickened the rest of Earth even though the pollution had multiplied like flies."

"The Government had been secretly talking for years about going underwater and how to build a dome. Only high up military personnel like myself had the slightest clue. There had been many tests, most of which failed, on making domes and living underwater that caused millions of casualties. Then, the government finally created a dome, this dome, that does not break or float away, provides oxygen, and most importantly stays clean." "So that's it? That's why we live in here, in Dome City Gramps?" prodded Elizabeth,

"Oh no," Travis chuckled, "Don't you wish child? No this story gets much, much worse." Once again everyone in all of the city held their breaths waiting for Travis to continue his tale.

"The citizens of the world had...mixed emotions about moving underwater. Some people were ecstatic, others horrified. No one knew what to expect. Many had ridiculous questions like, 'How will we breathe?', or 'Will we turn into fish? Or ducks?' Travis laughed an impressively booming roar for his age, it shook all of Dome City."Obviously, as you all can see, none of these things caused conflicts," he continued, "Now we have everything! No disposal of any kind, is left up to the laziness of Man kind! In my days on land, this was not the case. We struggled for food, air, water to drink, survival, all because no one could pick up after themselves!" Travis paused to collect himself, he had gotten too worked up.

Once he calmed down, he continued, "The people were loaded into submarines, families split apart, possessions seized, children were crying and mothers were screaming. It was chaos, but a much better fate awaited us just below the depths of the beautiful, untainted sea. This dome!" he looked around taking in the magnificent sight. "Look at it! Lawns that trim themselves and absorb animal waste! Streets that absorb trash and pollutants and dispose of them properly! Everything people were so negligent to do was now done for them in Dome City. We would never have to worry about polluting this place! For years people argued that it should be called Atlantis!" There were many laughs among the people.

By this time, people had been standing for 3 hours. Travis knew this, so he told them all that he would continue with the story the next day. There were a great many complaints at this decision, most of which coming from the younger children. Eventually, after promising them about a hundred times to continue where he left off and not to forget is place Travis hobbled off to bed. He fell asleep peacefully that night, thinking of how delighted all of the citizens of Dome City had been to hear the story. He knew tomorrow would be even better because up to this point the story had been fairly non-climatic.

The next morning was very much like the previous, except when Travis sat down to speak it seemed to him that the audience had doubled it's size. This was somewhat nerve racking, but it was too late to back out now.

"Good morning everyone!" Travis yelled.

"Good morning Elder Travis!" The Crowd called back in unison.

"Now, let's see here. Where did we leave off..." Travis murmured, under his breath, as he rifled through his notes, "Ah, here we are. So, now you know how we all got here, but what you don't know is what happened shortly after that." Some worried looks flickered across faces at the inflection in his voice.

"We did not always live in peace with the Merpeople like we do now. Unfortunately, our government had failed to research in depth what exactly lived down here. So, when "we humans" came along and disrupted the place that Merpeople had called home forever they weren't very happy." A nervous stirring and fidgeting took place throughout the crowd at this moment. "So they did what was customary for them, waged war on us. Of course, this took us all completely off guard, and without weapons or supplies sufficient enough for a war we ordered our troops only to attack if they attacked first. However, their warfare tactics were very different from ours and they staged a sneak attack. It was horrifying we were trapped like spiders under a bowl! We had no means of escape! No means of defense! To this day when we celebrate "Dome Day" that is the day of this battle. The Merpeople were absolutely furious with us, but who could blame them? We had done the same to them as the ancient american settlers had done to the Native Americans! Once again a repeat in history. They had advanced technology that made us look like squandering cavemen! They were using catapults that had the power to launch whole boulders, bigger than mini-vans, four miles away! They shot currents of electricity causing many casualties among innocent sea creatures. After a thunderous boom the dome rattled and shook! It was scary, a scene from a horror movie multiplied infinitely! Eventually, after this strenuous bombardment they managed to put a significantly large crack in the dome!" The exclamations from the millions of people echoed off of the walls of the Dome.

"Yes, it was very serious," Travis said in agreement with his audience, "So serious in fact that it destabilized the Dome's oxygen level. Many of you may not know this, but at that time oxygen was what __all__ of our technology ran on. More importantly it's what kept us alive. This event could have cost humanity existence and if not it would have put us right back into those dark ages like on Earth. Luckily, The Head Elder was able to reason with the Merpeople and come to a peace agreement before any more damage could be done. The great Elder Leland explained to the king of the Merpeople that we had no choice but to come down here and we were very sorry that our mistakes had cost them some of their home.The agreement was and is to this day, that as long as we did not disrupt the environment of their prey, which is a very skittish type of fish, we could continue living along side them in peace. This agreement is why the Merpeople hunt for us and bring the supply of fish that we need to us, so that our very different hunting methods do not scare away their only source of food. It was really quite humble, and generous of them to let us share the fish with them."

"Well anyway, with the Merpeople's help, we rebuilt the Dome with a new indestructible compound, just in case any other enemies decided to attack us. However, the rebuilding process meant that, unfortunately, the citizens had to move back up to Earth for a short, but grueling period." A series of gasps erupted through the audience. "Yes, my children it was awful. We all had to wear gas masks so we wouldn't become ill from the fumes. It was all worth it though because we only had to stay there for one year. When we returned to Dome City it was even better than before, and we knew that we would always live in peace with the Merpeople and not have to deal with another threat. Without the Merpeople we would never be able to survive down here. So lets here it for the Merpeople!!" Loud applause erupted through the audience.