For the Sake of Breathing

Chapter One

        I have never seen a cat before. I've heard their fur is soft, like eyelashes covering their entire bodies. I've also heard that people used to be allergic to them, before they became nearly extinct. I wonder if I am allergic. Or, at least, I think it's a cat. I gape at the incredible creature in the window of the expensive house, and turn away. I feel its green gaze piercing into me, curious about the human with the machine hooked up to its face. Perhaps it's used to by now. Staying indoors, growing fat on unauthentic food. Near flavorless food.

        I inhale a little too sharply. I have to stop breathing for a moment so my Carbon [dioxide] Shifter can quickly refill with artificial oxygen. I listen to it whirring, constantly, constantly, constantly, for if not, I'd be dead.

        I raise my fist, and lightly knock on the unrusted steel door. It opens, for a just a second, allowing me to quickly step through and to slide shut behind me. On the other side, in the front room of the house I could never afford, is the Mayor, bending over to stroke his cat's spine. It purrs boisterously. He straightens, and the magnificent creature crosses over to me, sniffing at me. I ponder over what it could possibly smell on me a part from dirt, sand, and rocks. It backs away, bored with my existence now that it has smelled me. I watch the great fluff-ball pad away into the room beyond. I marvel over how its tail curves around the edge of the doorway as it departs. I glance back at the Mayor, who seems somewhat irritated over my first meeting with an animal that isn't human. I resist the urge to pursue it in hope of touching its fur. "Welcome, welcome. Be a dear, and take that thing off your face, Kaylo," the Mayor greets warmly, gray eyes meeting mine. I actually forget what I look like. I've only seen my reflection once, in some foggy metal. But I was ten, then. I'm seventeen now. My face is probably completely different. 

        I simply nod at him. I remove my Carbon Shifter, and inhale the oxygen that's converted directly into his house. I remember why I'm here. I've met the Mayor three times before.  

        The first time I was in the street, waiting for someone to drop their Food Creator, and leave it there. Since there's no more water left on the entire planet, even in the oceans, we eat fake food. It happened slowly, as Ten always tells me, so scientists had time to store a few species of animals, and make the Food Creator. It's like copies of the original food. And a copy is never as good as the original. I've never tasted real food, but the Food Creators help us to survive. Mine was broken, and I needed a new one.

        I bent over to tie my shoe when someone's hand followed the length of my butt. Startled, I straightened, and found myself staring after a guy in his early twenties. He halted suddenly, and winked at me. At the time, I hadn't known he was the Mayor. All I knew is he looked rich, with his suit, clean skin, perfectly combed hair, and the most efficient (and most expensive) version of a Carbon Shifter. With those, you don't have to hold a button to talk, you can run with it, and you don't have to take it off to eat. He seemed to be waiting for me to say something. I ended up just stiffly fixing my gaze back on the people passing me, puzzled. Just then, someone dropped their Food Creator, and kept on walking. I peered around, noticed the man was gone, and no one was paying any attention. I raced over to the Food Creator, stuffed it into my bag, and fled before the woman who dropped it realized it was missing. Fleeing is difficult with my Carbon Shifter, because it doesn't recycle carbon into oxygen fast enough for you to actually run. And I have to walk the thirty miles to this small civilization from my camp and back whenever I need something. And Ten doesn't come with me. It's always better to come to the city alone, people are less likely to notice you. 

        The second time I met the Mayor, I was inside the store. He probably had no idea I was planning on stealing that blanket. In the store, like his house, you can breathe without a Carbon Shifter. He came up to me, and suddenly muttered, "Why, it's you! I was hoping I'd see your face again." This was only a few weeks after our first meeting.