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Description
In the beginning, the Earth was made.  Through humanity, life thrived and prospered, bearing equal perfection as imperfection.
  In the middle, balance became corrupt.  Through humanity, life and the planet itself were abused.  Some two thousand years after Jesus walked the Earth, the Final War reigned, extinguishing life in its discourse.  Nuclear war seized the planet, rendering its atmosphere uninhabitable.
  We live under the Dome.  ‘The Colony’ we call ourselves.  As far as we know, we’re the only humans left alive – or at least, that’s what Professor Raven believes.  The Dome was his creation – he’s truly a great scientist.  But lately, he’s been rather hasty and too urgent to get a straight answer out of him.
  It’s almost been two years since we retreated into the Dome.  It seems like an eternity.  Professor Raven works us like animals, forcing us to redo the same tasks over and over, declaring that we won’t survive otherwise.
  Is this the end?  Is humanity to die out under the slavery of an obsessed scientist?

  “Hey!  You there!”
  I groaned, annoyed at having been interrupted during my daydream.  My eyes flicked open and I stood.  Professor Raven was hobbling over, expression contorted with fury.
  I shuddered involuntarily as the stale stench of the Dome filled my nostrils.  I surveyed my dismal surroundings sadly – the Dome was about the size of a swimming pool complex.  The glass panels that the dome itself is comprised of are pitch-black; artificial light is essential at all times.  The glass used to have shutters that visually blocked all the happenings on the outside.  When the shutters were finally removed, dirt and other waste from the tremendous conditions outside had blocked them.
  On the surface below the glass panels, artificial grass and concrete covered the ground.  Right in the middle of the Dome, directly below where the supports of longitude and latitude intersect on the dome’s highest point, sits the Ntera Tree.  Even in the dim light it thrives as the only form of nature under the Dome.  Sometimes, if the conditions outside are calm, a small patch of natural light is visible right at the top of the Dome – it filters down past the cross and onto the Ntera Tree.  When this happens, the tree is said to be Shining.
  “What are you doing?!” Professor Raven cried.  “You should be working.  Everyone must work!”
  I shook my head in disbelief.  “The oxygen generator has been cleaned seven times today!  It’s pointless cleaning it again.”
  The professor narrowed his eyes at me.  “Check it again.  You never know what might happen.”
  Without complaint, I began to walk away.  But as I walked, I could hear a raspy voice behind me.  As I stopped to turn, I realised that Professor Raven was talking to the Ntera Tree, which I had just been resting against.
  “You were supposed to be our hope…”  He kicked the tree angrily.  “But no!  Nothing can survive out there… not even you.”
  I realised immediately what he was referring to and decided to break in.
  “The Ntera Tree can survive outside!  As long as its seeds have nutrition they can feed off for a few weeks, the tree will grow!”
  “Foolish!” the professor spat.  “You are but twenty-one years old.  You don’t even have any evidence to back up what you say!”
  “Where’s your faith?” I inquired.  The moment the words came out of my mouth I realised my mistake.
  “Faith?” he roared incredulously.  “Don’t you understand?  Earth is lost!  There is nothing left!”  He thrust a trembling finger towards the set of stairs that led to the top of the Dome, tracing their way along the black glass panels.  “Go on, see for yourself!”
  I felt as if he’d punched me in the stomach.  He was inviting me to death.  It was a known fact that anyone who ascended the top of those stairs and stepped outside would be dead within a few minutes. The atmosphere could no longer support human life.
  Only one person had ever successfully reached the top.  He was a young boy of just eight years of age, fed with fantastical stories about the outside world.  Curious of why no one was allowed up into this magical plane, his young innocence led him up the stairs.  Naturally, the alarms went off as soon as he was spotted on the stairs – but, as with every siren that blares beneath the Dome, it was too late.
  The boy had never returned.  Parents still tell their children similar magical tales about the outside world to mask the true destruction caused by the human race.
  How many more children will be lost?
  Shaking my head, I watched Professor Raven’s expression carefully.  Was that… disappointment?
  “Enough of your sick hope!” he yelled.  “Get back to work!”
  As Professor Raven hobbled across the artificial grass before descending the stairs to the underground floor beneath the surface, it dawned on me how utterly mad he was.
  There was no doubt – he was insane.
  With a sigh, I nestled back down against the Ntera Tree.  My eyes closed and the daydream resumed…

  The open sky was brilliant blue – an endless stretch of blue from horizon to horizon.  Far below, I could just make out houses, mere specks on a vast panorama below.  The wind rustled my hair – cool, refreshing air.
  On my left and a little higher up, my father laughed giddily.  He steered his parachute in a sharp turn to lose altitude even faster.  I adjusted my parachute and did the same.  Together, we sailed to the distant ground below.
  This particular memory was from three years ago, just after my eighteenth birthday.  My dad and I had often parachuted together.  It was a moment when out spirits could be free to soar.
  When the Dome had been built, my father did not join my mother and I.  He never made it into the Dome in time.  Sometimes, I pictured him alone in the sky, watching from above as the world died.

  A deafening blaring tore me from my thoughts.  I jumped up in alarm, met once again by the dead aroma that filled the Dome.
  The sirens were screaming – something was wrong.  I ran towards a large group of people.  Their faces were pale – not from fear, but etiolation.  I joined them as they hurried underground towards the source of the alarms.  Through the dank, depressing corridors, riddled with darkness, until…
  A universal gasp echoed around the hallway as we reached the oxygen generator.  It had stopped.
  Havoc and chaos arose within the crowd.  It would take days to fix the oxygen generator, and there was nowhere near enough oxygen left in the Dome to support The Colony for that long.
  A few minutes later, the problem was identified.  Something had entered the oxygen turbine, blocking it and causing it to stop.  The object that had surely doomed us was…  Professor Raven.
  His body had been crushed before the turbine had ceased functioning.  There was no doubt this suicide had been planned.  I realised that if Professor Raven had the intention to kill himself, he would take The Colony down with him.

  The Professor’s death had a predictable affect on The Colony.  Neat uniform and direct order were discarded – instead, everyone worked together to get the oxygen generator up and running once more.  It took four days.  Afterwards, when it was understood that there hadn’t been anywhere near that much oxygen in the Dome, people scratched their heads – it just didn’t make sense.
  Finally, an ex-environmentalist had the answer.  The Ntera Tree had produced just enough oxygen to keep us alive until the generator had been fixed.
  I knew now what I had to do.
  One day, after my daily daydream, I told my mother not to worry.  Of course, she didn’t know what about just yet.  She didn’t fully comprehend until I picked a bunch of seeds off the base of the Ntera Tree.
  “No,” she whispered, eyes wide.  “You cannot do this…”
  Already tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
  “It’s all right,” I said gently.  “I need to show them hope.”
  I hugged her one last time.  She said a prayer.
  “Tell your father I said ‘hi’,” she said meekly, wiping her tears.  I smiled in reply.
  I began to ascend the stairs.  It felt strange, to be taking this path.  I wondered how the eight-year-old boy had felt as he had risen above The Colony.
  My mum watched me the whole way, crying, yet understanding.  I was halfway up when the alarms finally sounded.  Within minutes, the whole of The Colony was watching me climb those stairs.  The moment was truly touching.
  Then I reached the door – the door to outside.  I placed a steady hand on the doorknob.  With one final glance back down, I took a deep breath in awe of what I saw.
  The Ntera Tree was Shining.
  I opened the door and exited the Dome forever.  The blinding light forced my eyes shut.  I stood still for a moment, savouring the gentle wind against my face.  All of a sudden, I was parachuting again!
  “Father…” I gasped, feeling my lungs burn from the unbalanced atmosphere.  Tears rolled down my cheeks as I opened them.  I wasn’t sure if this was due to the toxins in the air, or the prospect of seeing my father again, or even due to the endless wasteland that surrounded me – perhaps a combination.
  My body began to die.
  I clutched the seeds till the end, never forgetting my mission…
  The Ntera seeds would feed off my body, and give Earth hope.

Description
In the beginning, the Earth was made.  Through humanity, life thrived and prospered, bearing equal perfection as imperfection.
  In the middle, balance became corrupt.  Through humanity, life and the planet itself were abused.  Some two thousand years after Jesus walked the Earth, the Final War reigned, extinguishing life in its discourse.  Nuclear war seized the planet, rendering its atmosphere uninhabitable.
  We live under the Dome.  ‘The Colony’ we call ourselves.  As far as we know, we’re the only humans left alive – or at least, that’s what Professor Raven believes.  The Dome was his creation – he’s truly a great scientist.  But lately, he’s been rather hasty and too urgent to get a straight answer out of him.
  It’s almost been two years since we retreated into the Dome.  It seems like an eternity.  Professor Raven works us like animals, forcing us to redo the same tasks over and over, declaring that we won’t survive otherwise.
  Is this the end?  Is humanity to die out under the slavery of an obsessed scientist?

  “Hey!  You there!”
  I groaned, annoyed at having been interrupted during my daydream.  My eyes flicked open and I stood.  Professor Raven was hobbling over, expression contorted with fury.
  I shuddered involuntarily as the stale stench of the Dome filled my nostrils.  I surveyed my dismal surroundings sadly – the Dome was about the size of a swimming pool complex.  The glass panels that the dome itself is comprised of are pitch-black; artificial light is essential at all times.  The glass used to have shutters that visually blocked all the happenings on the outside.  When the shutters were finally removed, dirt and other waste from the tremendous conditions outside had blocked them.
  On the surface below the glass panels, artificial grass and concrete covered the ground.  Right in the middle of the Dome, directly below where the supports of longitude and latitude intersect on the dome’s highest point, sits the Ntera Tree.  Even in the dim light it thrives as the only form of nature under the Dome.  Sometimes, if the conditions outside are calm, a small patch of natural light is visible right at the top of the Dome – it filters down past the cross and onto the Ntera Tree.  When this happens, the tree is said to be Shining.
  “What are you doing?!” Professor Raven cried.  “You should be working.  Everyone must work!”
  I shook my head in disbelief.  “The oxygen generator has been cleaned seven times today!  It’s pointless cleaning it again.”
  The professor narrowed his eyes at me.  “Check it again.  You never know what might happen.”
  Without complaint, I began to walk away.  But as I walked, I could hear a raspy voice behind me.  As I stopped to turn, I realised that Professor Raven was talking to the Ntera Tree, which I had just been resting against.
  “You were supposed to be our hope…”  He kicked the tree angrily.  “But no!  Nothing can survive out there… not even you.”
  I realised immediately what he was referring to and decided to break in.
  “The Ntera Tree can survive outside!  As long as its seeds have nutrition they can feed off for a few weeks, the tree will grow!”
  “Foolish!” the professor spat.  “You are but twenty-one years old.  You don’t even have any evidence to back up what you say!”
  “Where’s your faith?” I inquired.  The moment the words came out of my mouth I realised my mistake.
  “Faith?” he roared incredulously.  “Don’t you understand?  Earth is lost!  There is nothing left!”  He thrust a trembling finger towards the set of stairs that led to the top of the Dome, tracing their way along the black glass panels.  “Go on, see for yourself!”
  I felt as if he’d punched me in the stomach.  He was inviting me to death.  It was a known fact that anyone who ascended the top of those stairs and stepped outside would be dead within a few minutes. The atmosphere could no longer support human life.
  Only one person had ever successfully reached the top.  He was a young boy of just eight years of age, fed with fantastical stories about the outside world.  Curious of why no one was allowed up into this magical plane, his young innocence led him up the stairs.  Naturally, the alarms went off as soon as he was spotted on the stairs – but, as with every siren that blares beneath the Dome, it was too late.
  The boy had never returned.  Parents still tell their children similar magical tales about the outside world to mask the true destruction caused by the human race.
  How many more children will be lost?
  Shaking my head, I watched Professor Raven’s expression carefully.  Was that… disappointment?
  “Enough of your sick hope!” he yelled.  “Get back to work!”
  As Professor Raven hobbled across the artificial grass before descending the stairs to the underground floor beneath the surface, it dawned on me how utterly mad he was.
  There was no doubt – he was insane.
  With a sigh, I nestled back down against the Ntera Tree.  My eyes closed and the daydream resumed…

  The open sky was brilliant blue – an endless stretch of blue from horizon to horizon.  Far below, I could just make out houses, mere specks on a vast panorama below.  The wind rustled my hair – cool, refreshing air.
  On my left and a little higher up, my father laughed giddily.  He steered his parachute in a sharp turn to lose altitude even faster.  I adjusted my parachute and did the same.  Together, we sailed to the distant ground below.
  This particular memory was from three years ago, just after my eighteenth birthday.  My dad and I had often parachuted together.  It was a moment when out spirits could be free to soar.
  When the Dome had been built, my father did not join my mother and I.  He never made it into the Dome in time.  Sometimes, I pictured him alone in the sky, watching from above as the world died.

  A deafening blaring tore me from my thoughts.  I jumped up in alarm, met once again by the dead aroma that filled the Dome.
  The sirens were screaming – something was wrong.  I ran towards a large group of people.  Their faces were pale – not from fear, but etiolation.  I joined them as they hurried underground towards the source of the alarms.  Through the dank, depressing corridors, riddled with darkness, until…
  A universal gasp echoed around the hallway as we reached the oxygen generator.  It had stopped.
  Havoc and chaos arose within the crowd.  It would take days to fix the oxygen generator, and there was nowhere near enough oxygen left in the Dome to support The Colony for that long.
  A few minutes later, the problem was identified.  Something had entered the oxygen turbine, blocking it and causing it to stop.  The object that had surely doomed us was…  Professor Raven.
  His body had been crushed before the turbine had ceased functioning.  There was no doubt this suicide had been planned.  I realised that if Professor Raven had the intention to kill himself, he would take The Colony down with him.

  The Professor’s death had a predictable affect on The Colony.  Neat uniform and direct order were discarded – instead, everyone worked together to get the oxygen generator up and running once more.  It took four days.  Afterwards, when it was understood that there hadn’t been anywhere near that much oxygen in the Dome, people scratched their heads – it just didn’t make sense.
  Finally, an ex-environmentalist had the answer.  The Ntera Tree had produced just enough oxygen to keep us alive until the generator had been fixed.
  I knew now what I had to do.
  One day, after my daily daydream, I told my mother not to worry.  Of course, she didn’t know what about just yet.  She didn’t fully comprehend until I picked a bunch of seeds off the base of the Ntera Tree.
  “No,” she whispered, eyes wide.  “You cannot do this…”
  Already tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
  “It’s all right,” I said gently.  “I need to show them hope.”
  I hugged her one last time.  She said a prayer.
  “Tell your father I said ‘hi’,” she said meekly, wiping her tears.  I smiled in reply.
  I began to ascend the stairs.  It felt strange, to be taking this path.  I wondered how the eight-year-old boy had felt as he had risen above The Colony.
  My mum watched me the whole way, crying, yet understanding.  I was halfway up when the alarms finally sounded.  Within minutes, the whole of The Colony was watching me climb those stairs.  The moment was truly touching.
  Then I reached the door – the door to outside.  I placed a steady hand on the doorknob.  With one final glance back down, I took a deep breath in awe of what I saw.
  The Ntera Tree was Shining.
  I opened the door and exited the Dome forever.  The blinding light forced my eyes shut.  I stood still for a moment, savouring the gentle wind against my face.  All of a sudden, I was parachuting again!
  “Father…” I gasped, feeling my lungs burn from the unbalanced atmosphere.  Tears rolled down my cheeks as I opened them.  I wasn’t sure if this was due to the toxins in the air, or the prospect of seeing my father again, or even due to the endless wasteland that surrounded me – perhaps a combination.
  My body began to die.
  I clutched the seeds till the end, never forgetting my mission…
  The Ntera seeds would feed off my body, and give Earth hope.