Breathe For Me

CHAPTER 2

SARA

The first time someone ever caught PoMast- scientifically known as Pollution Manifestation- it was back in 2341. His name was Adam Chole'. He was a singer on a world tour, traveling from one polluted city to another, until it was simply too much for his body to handle.

When he died, it was huge. It became a scientific enigma. Everyone wanted to be the one to pinpoint the reason for the death of Adam Chole'. But by the time they figured it out, it was already too late. PoMast had sunk its claws into thousands of people living in the world's most polluted cities.

In 2344, the final diagnosis was made. According to the medical research, the more carbon dioxide there is in the air, the less room there is for oxygen. The less oxygen there is, the more the brain is deprived. At a certain point, the brain begins to shut down. A person will begin to lose all use of their hands, legs, spine, and eventually, their heart.

People finally began to realize that their cars and planes and factories were killing them only after whole cities had succumbed to this disease. The Environmentalists in America, the Ecologi in Russia, the Greens in France, the Kank'yo Hogo in Japan were all screaming for the world to start making massive changes before the situation got any worse. But people are slow to change.

Nobody believed anything could ever happen to them until it did. When it hit them, they had to run. And so they ran. Up the Andes, the Alps, the Carpathians, the Barisan, the Qin, the Kjolen, the Rockies, the Kunlun, the Western Ghats, the Zorgos, the Drakensburg, the Tian Shan, and the Himalayas. When my grandad ran, he decided to run up the highest of them all. The Everest. Where he was sure that the PoMast could never catch with him or his family.

Others weren't so lucky. Most people didn't have enough money to move to the mountains, or anywhere else, for that matter. And when areas began getting sanctioned, they couldn't leave. Anyone within a sanctioned area had a 97%-100% chance of catching the PoMast.

People began rioting- shouting for some sort of federal relief- begging for any sort of death other than the slow deterioration of the body. It was at this point that the worldwide Shipment Act came into effect.

Those that wanted out of a sanctioned area were able to enter a lottery. Every fourth person was chosen and transported to a safe haven. To a place where the PoMast had not yet reached. Every once a year, a whole batch of these people are settled into different areas of the globe. Last year, it was the Carpathians and the year before that, it was the Tian Shan.

This year, it's our turn.