Mist

[Samuel]

In a far off solar system, there exists a world coated in a thick, unrelenting fog. From the thick of this white wall that chokes the land, there spawns monstrosities, some laughable, some horrible beyond imagination. Humanity exists in domes, from which the fog has been expelled, in which a semi-peaceful existence can be filled out. However, travel between the domes is obviously risky, and thus, trade is…scarce, to say the least. There are of course those who go out into the fog, seeking glory, answers, or a new home, in the case of those exiled from their Domes. The name of the world, you ask? Simple… they call it Mist.
   
    No one knows who built the domes. No one knows how to build them. As far as humanity could remember, they were just…there. There, to conveniently shelter their cities from the beasts that lurked Outside. It was in the Domes, that, for as long as they could remember, humans marked out their lives… the story begins in Dome 381, or as humans know it to be, Gaelroth. Gaelroth was an unlucky Dome… unlucky in that it had an unusually high amount of those who sought adventure out in the thick fog, or, Mistrunners. So many returned dead, that Gaelroth had to do something. It forbade its residents from leaving the Dome. It set up a watch over the gate… but a bubble is only spherical in the air...

Sam woke from his place on the bench, staring up at the rounded glass bubble that kept him, and everyone else, safe from Outside. Sam wondered just what was out there...perhaps one day he'd find out. He rose from the bench, and began to wander Gaelroth. There wasn't much to see...just a dwindling population...the decision to close off the Dome was a stupid one. Trade didn't just bring goods. It brought people. New genes to add to the pool... Sam walked until he'd left the town, entered the fields, and passed the strange devices that brought water to them. Sam didn't know what had made them, they'd always just been...there. Now he reached the edge of the Dome. The material was clear and thick, like glass, but was near impossible to break. A giant insect, buzzing incessantly, was ramming itself to no avail against it. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Sam watched it for awhile.

[Relym]

You know, I really like the idea of the domes in the mist, and the term Mistrunners has novel written all over it. I have the feeling you're not sure where to go with it, though. Unless I'm wrong, and you have the whole plot planned out, I have a few good ideas for you.

Instead of having the population dwindling, have the population too large for the dome to support, and the government makes a law against having more than one child, or having a child without getting married first. Sam gets a girlfriend, she gets pregnant (passively, of course, this is a family-safe forum), and they are both exiled from the dome. They need to find another dome through the mist before the child is born, or before the monsters get to them.

Or, if you really want to have the population dwindling, then you could have the government (what is it with me and government?) chooses Sam to join a caravan of Mistrunners to go out and find another dome, and bring back some more people. The story is the chronicle of their adventures, finding other domes.

What do you think?