breath//a short story

z e r o

Allis Garrison stood on the edge of the barren cliff, staring at the chaos in front of her.

War was destroying who she was and everything she loved.

It broke her heart to see her world like this.

The group had continued walking and she ran up to them quietly .

Her gas mask took every frozen breath she took and gave it back to her so she could breathe again.

But she knew that the toxic waste was still slowly killing her.

"Where are mommy and daddy?" says a small voice beside her.

Her little brother tugs lightly on her white linen shirt, his green eyes cloudy and dark. His name was Evan and he had no idea what world he lived in.

He was too young to die like their parents had. Too young to die in the volcano they were going to have their last breaths in. The young volcano they were going to now.

Her heartbeat quickened and Aliss knew they were getting close. "I love you." She whispered. "Never forget that."

"Ali? Where are they?"

"They're going to meet us in a few minutes." She said.  "In the sky."

"The sky?" He asked amazed, his eyes looking up at the fog covered sky. "I don't see the sky. Where'd it go?!"

The sky was still there but the pollution had blocked the sight of it. World War III had destroyed the world, just because a few people didn't like laws.

Slowly, those few people turned into millions, until those millions turned into half the world.  The rebels versus the royals. Then the rebels began the epidemic of the Opal Fever, killing the billions of royals everywhere.

Sadly, the rebels were idiots, and the Opal Fever struck the rebels too.  And the fever had struck the Garrison home, killing the ten year old girl Allis had called her sister.

Two years later, the rebels came out with a cure, announcing that instead of using diseases, they would take the royals's supporters instead.

They took Allis's parents, and brought them to the toxic volcano in which their souls left their bodies forever.

Now it was Allis and her brother who were going to die.

It was another hour of walking when the rebel capturers ordered them to take off their masks. It was time to die.

One by one, the masked men took people of different sizes, colors, and ages, off to the volcano where the radioactive gases would kill them excruciatingly slow.

One of them grabbed Allis's arm, dragging her over to the volcano without a struggle since Allis already had decided her fate.

She had already arranged withe the leader to die with her brother, so the two of them quietly climbed onto the bottom of the pit.

Since Evan was five and his lungs were not yet fully formed, it only took two minutes for him to die in Allis's arms.

For Allis, it took longer. The gases were different colors and seemed to mock her. The only thing left in the barren wasteland humans call home were toxic murderers.

Allis refused to breathe at all, but the gases were burning her skin trying to find a way into her body.

Breathe, the air told her.

Breathe.

Take a breath.

Just Breathe.

And Allis wanted to breathe, but she didn't want to die.

Breathe, her parents told her.

Breathe now, said her sister.

Just Breathe. whispered poor Evan in her ear.

Then Allis did, and the downfall of the Garrison family was somthing that was supposed to keep you alive.

A breath.