The Dome

It happened at exactly midnight. The power went out in our whole town. I live in a small, boring town, only a couple hundred people live here. So, it wasn't weird that so many came outside to see what happened and to check on their neighbors. None of us were expecting what we were about to see.

Have you ever had a car parked on the street with its headlights shining right into your house? Usually, it's just a couple of moments before the car is off or gone. It was like that, but for the whole town and not just for a couple of moments. A strange green light shone from all directions. The town was lit up as if by a green sun. The light formed an ominous dome around the edge of town.

We were all drawn to it. I am unsure if it was curiosity, some sort of mind control, or what, but it was not long before crowds started to gather. We all stared into the blankness of it. People went quickly from confused to scared. A fervor started to rush through the crowds.

Through the shouting of a mob a few of the local police were chosen to walk into the light to see where it's coming from. We waited. Nothing happened. There was no communication from the other side of the wall of light, at all. Gradually the townsfolk started returning to our homes.

The next morning, we were all summoned to Town Hall. We squeezed in tight. I had never seen so many people pack in there before. Typically, the meetings are brief, uninteresting, political conversations. Not exactly what most folk call entertaining. The people were unusually quiet, but considering the circumstances we all wanted to listen rather than speak.

The mayor came out onto the stage. He was dapper as always. His smile glistened even to those in the back. His slicked back hair, shiny shoes, and well-pressed suit gave the impression that everything is normal. Then he spoke.

"My good townsfolk before us now, we have a conundrum. A mystery like this town has never seen. Some of our finest policemen have gone and not returned. Our electricity is still not working, but we do have running water. Then, of course, there is this light outside. I am sure that like myself many of you lost sleep last night. I am sorry for this. As am I sorry for the families whose husbands, sons, or fathers did not return last night. We will not give up on these lost souls and we will not give up on our town."

His words inspired the crowd. Apart from the families whom were one short for the meeting.

The mayor went on to give us instructions. We were to spend the day gathering supplies. The town first focused on food. Perishable food was to be brought to buildings with generators. The mayor listed these off. We got right to work. Businesses didn't open and the community worked well together for the most part.

Then, a short while after noon some familiar faces were spotted heading from the edge of town. The officers returned with large smiles spread across their faces. They each claimed to have stepped into the light and right back out again. None of them were bothered that for the rest of us twelve hours had gone by.

They made their way back to their families and eventually to the mayor. The mayor and the sheriff took them all into a private meeting. I suppose they were trying to figure out where they'd been for twelve hours.

Eventually, they all came from the police station with an added task. They gathered up some of the most able-bodied townsfolk and started building barricades between the town and the dome, with guard posts set up along the way. They used plywood, sawhorses and traffic cones. This was intended to keep us safe, but it made some folk more nervous.

It took about two days to complete the barricade. In the meantime, the rest of us were organizing work schedules and rations. We had to quickly accept that nothing was coming into town. Just like nothing was getting out. With all the farmland in town we knew we’d have what we need to survive, but it was still starting to get a bit claustrophobic.

A few days in, a group of people decided they wanted to try the dome again. A small group of friends attempted to convince the mayor of their idea, but he shot them down. The group didn't abide his decision and instead went to the edge of town, bringing with them a homemade bomb.

See, in small towns like mine the most popular pastime is blowing stuff up. Have you ever had a neighbor get rid of their old shed? Have you ever seen it done with fertilizer and gasoline?

The men rushed past the officer at his post and rolled a beer keg stuffed with their explosive concoction. A flaming rag hung from one end as it rolled straight into the green light. A few moments passed with a crowd eagerly looking on. Nothing happened and most of them went on their way.

The man who had produced the idea couldn't just walk away. He waited there next to the guard post. He sat and eventually fell asleep there on the ground. He was awoken by the clanging of metal. His eyes opened just in time to see the keg rolling back from the green light and right towards him.

He scrambled to his feet, jumped the barricade, and barely made it to safety. The guard post was destroyed, but the officer had also made it clear before the blast.

After that, the mayor and the sheriff became more serious about not approaching the edge of town. A trench was to be dug. They recruited the same few who'd constructed the barricade to start digging. Progress wasn't fast enough for the mayor.

Over the next days, he would recruit more and more to dig. Shifts were taken to ensure that we could get it dug as fast as possible. Since the light showed up it hadn't gone away at any point. It became difficult to track the time without the setting of the sun.

People were sleeping less and working more. The mayor had become obsessed with digging the massive trench. An empty moat was surrounding town. Dirt was piled along the edge of the dome. As the trench got deeper the wall got taller.

Days, maybe weeks went by like this. Some thought the mayor pushed too hard. Rumors circulated that he had cracked. No one knew why we were still digging. Many started to think the mayor was just keeping us busy knowing full well we were all trapped forever.

Eventually, there was a tipping point. After many attempts at pleading with the mayor to end the digging and let people rest. The sheriff and some officers decided to remove the mayor from his station. When they approached him at his home, he wasn't surprised.

"I knew this day would come, my friends. You think I'm betraying you, yes?" He asked rhetorically. Shocked by his demeanor the sheriff let him continue.

The mayor walked past him as he continued to speak. A small crowd followed him toward the edge of town. "We have almost made it." he said.

"You all think the digging is for nothing, but you have to trust me we're almost there. Follow me and I'll show you."

He led them to the trench where the crew is digging. We'd been digging down a few feet and shifting along in segments. The trench stayed even this way. The mayor opened his arms wide to the crowd before him.

"Listen and soon you'll hear it. Maybe a few more minutes, maybe a few more days, but I promise soon you'll hear it."

The sheriff shouted at him. "Hear what? What are we going to hear? Why are we still digging?!"

"I promise, you'll see soon enough." The mayor responded with a smile almost sinister.

"That's not good enough!" Shouted the sheriff. The trench was about six feet wide and twenty feet deep at this point. He then shouted down to the crew within "It's over! You've dug enough!"

"Tsk, tsk." The mayor waved his finger at the sheriff. "You don't want to do that."

The sheriff had clearly had enough at this point. He pulled his cuffs and approached the mayor. Who then jumped back and raised his hand toward the sheriff with his hand pointed like a gun.

“Bang!” He shouted as several police officers all fire on the sheriff. As the sheriff’s body fell to the ground the mayor shrugged in disappointment. “Guess there’s another six feet that needs digging.”

The crowd is stunned to silence. The police officers who gunned down the sheriff happened to be the same few that had gone into the light. The mayor examined all the shocked faces surrounding him.

“This town has a mission. It has always had a mission and I am trying to see to it that we fulfill this mission.” His head then slowly turned to look down into the trench as the officers lifted the sheriff onto their shoulders. “Keep digging and it will be over soon. For now, we will mourn our sheriff and soon we will celebrate.”

As shovels started again to pierce the soil, we did hear something. Clang! Clang! The crew had found something.

The mayor’s eyes lit up. He turned and jumped down into the trench. It was graceful, too graceful. He shrieked with joy as he reached into his pocket. From it he pulled a small object. No one could tell quite what it was at the time, but we could all see a faint green glow coming from his hand.

He placed his hand to the metal revealed under the soil and the ground began to shake. The dirt wall built at the edge of the dome began pouring back into the trench. Where the mayor had placed his hand began to glow with the same green light and it was spreading. Light began to shine from the trench as an earthquake tore our town down around us.

We were being lifted. This metal structure must have been underneath the whole town and it was rising. The dome rose along with it. The dirt and debris slid to one side revealing what I can only describe as a flying saucer. Many of us were brushed away with the town right into the green dome. Some of us held on for better or worse. A few hundred became a few dozen in a matter of seconds. Our town was gone, even the land it sat upon.

The mayor moved to the center of the saucer gesturing for everyone to follow him. Those of us who could walk followed him in a daze. I’d like to say I was in shock, but I don’t know. We followed him to a ladder leading down into the ship, leaving behind any who could not walk themselves.

The mayor stood before the ladder with a grin. “My good townspeople! Now we go home!”