[ IP ] The Sheltered City

[ The Dome ] ( http: //www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/1vqnzx/wp_a_dome_has_been_over_the_city_for_as_long_as/cev37om ) 
 
 ( Part 1 ) 
 
 Seth crouched among the wilting plants with their limp black and green leaves. He'd been outside the dome for almost six days now, dodging patrols of tithe collectors. Seth had seen more people like him. People stolen from the protection of their domes. He was hungry and afraid to eat any of the plants or animals he encountered. Six days of traveling and the sun never rose. Only that single solitary light in the eastern sky. The city was one of theirs. It did n't look old. It was too new. If Jesslin had been honest, the domes had gone up right before the invasion. That had been three hundred and eleven years ago. The city before him could n't have been more than a hundred years in total. It was their city. 
 
 He scampered backward into amongst the bushes and lay still. A patrol was moving past. The tithe collectors all looked like Jesslin, the bounty hunter who'd lured him out of his dome. They all carried the glowing batons. They all entered the city with captives. He'd been watching them and wondering what he should do. Frankly, he was terrified. Their technology was beyond imagination. He looked up over his head as one of their ships drifted past. 
 
 It was a builder. He glanced toward the sheltered city, and watched the progress of one of the builders. It was slowly rising a few inches at a time. It appeared to be motionless, but it was two stories higher than it had been four days ago and the building it was printing beneath it was taller. In the distance, he watched one of the glowing domes blink out. This gave him concern. It was the third dome to blink out in as many days. What that meant for the the thousands of refugees inside, he did n't know. The Tithe Collectors had evidently figured out how to disable the generators powering the domes. It was bad. 
 
 The tithe collectors had been visiting the domes for hundreds of years. They only ever came on occassion to take one lucky citizen away with them. 
 
 Seth hesitated, pondering the wisdom of what he was about to do. He grabbed a rock from among the weeds and crept down the path toward the city -- toward the three tithe collectors and their prisoners. He was hoping the prisoners would help him handle the other two after he took out the third. He inhaled a deep shuddering breath and hurried after them before they came insight of the checkpoint. 
 
 `` Please help me.'' Seth entreated of the prisoners, even as he bashed in the head of the rear guard with his rock. He had expected confusion, indecision, and bewilderment from the prisoners. He was completely surprised with how efficiently they took down the other two bounty hunters. The snapped one man's neck and electrocuted the female with her own stun baton. 
 
 `` Thank you, brother.'' One of the haggard prisoners replied, but I fear you've messed up our plans. The man opened his vest to reveal rectangular blocks wrapped in plastic and connected by red and yellow wires. 
 
 `` What is it?'' Seth asked, not recognizing the explosive vest for it was. 
 
 `` It was our only way of taking down their Resonator.'' The man told him, closing his vest. 
 
 `` Resonator?'' Seth asked. The old man pointed to the half-bridge shaped structure in the middle of the city. 
 
 `` They're matching the domes resonance and collapsing them. If we do n't destroy it, then humanity is finished. It took them seventy years to finish this one. We've destroyed three others since their invasion. The only way into the city is as prisoners.'' 
 
 Seth looked at the ship printing the building on the edge of town. `` Could you fly in?'' He asked, pointing. One of the female prisoners looked toward the ship and her confederates. They shrugged. 
 
 `` We could try.'' She responded. The old man grinned and started stripping the bounty hunters they had killed. A half hour later, they were climbing the newly printed stairwell of the ship. Seth took up the rear, having no idea what to do. He was n't even sure why he was with them, other than the fact that he did n't want to be outside his dome all alone. 
 
 The top floor was a terrible place. They had to crawl from the stairwell into the hall with the whirring printing heads zipping back and forth a few inches above them. The old man, carefully removed his vest and found the hatch that would give them access to the ship. It was sealed tight. The explosive vest took care of that. He rigged it on a delayed fuse and they retreated back down the stairs while they waited for it to detonate. 
 
 `` Whiskey.'' The old man said, offering Seth his hand. 
 
 `` Glad to meet you Whiskey. I'm Seth.'' The others laughed. 
 
 `` No. Would you like some whiskey?'' He pulled a flask from his pocket, popped the top and handed it over. Seth sniffed the liquid inside and perked up. 
 
 `` Caickle?'' He asked, recognizing the smell as that of a popular drink the people in his dome consumed in place of coffee. 
 
 `` If you drink enough, it'll make you cackle, cry, and beg god for death.'' The old man laughed, misunderstanding. `` I'm Pete.'' He gestured to the other three prisoners. `` Simon. Corbin. Sasha.'' 
 
 `` I'm Seth.'' He said, dipping his head to his new companions before taking a swig from the flask. He started sputtering and gasping in shock. The others laughed. The vest went off a moment later shaking the building beneath them. Fire spewed down the stairwell, but stopped well shy of where they waited. The freedom fighters raced up the stairs and hurriedly crawled across the floor to where the open hatch was located. The printing heads jerked and screeched as a result of the damage the bomb vest caused. The hatch was open though and they wasted no time in entering it. 
 
 
 ( Continued in Reply )
