"Life Under" - A Short Story [✔]

Chapter 7

I bent down on my knees, ready to cradle this handsome being. He was so attractive and perfect looking, despite the old clothes and slightly dirty body. I developed a love for him instantly. "Are you alright?!" I ask in shock.

"H-how? How long have you been up here? I've been around in this crisis for four years, and I've yet to find a living being instead of dead bodies on the ground," he was questioning his whole life at this point.

"We just came up here from the underground escape," I said as he had another coughing spasm. "They must have not let you down there with us."

"How are you still alive? You should be dead right now. Your lungs have got be blacker than black itself. That's why you're coughing," Wyatt blurted. He really sucks at being supportive and comforting. He also doesn't have a filter, what-so-ever.

I gave Wyatt the shut-your-mouth glare before returning my head to face the new teenager again.

"We can help you. My name is Renee and that idiot is Wyatt. What is your name?" I asked as I look into his sparkling green eyes. They were so gorgeous. I've never seen someone so perfect, yet damaged.

"My name is Nicholas. Just call me Nick, please," he replied as his shaggy black hair moves with the motion his pale body struggling to get up.

Nick shouldn't even be alive right now. After four years of breathing in thick smoke and pollution constantly, his lungs should be just about ready to say goodnight. He was one of the very few people left in Canada, or at least he was the only person we've found. No, Canada didn't experience the fires, but the four years of constant burning and heat make the smoke spread and he's been non-stop breathing it.

He told us he was super hungry and to follow him. He was taking us the opposite way of the tunnel and Wyatt and I wasn't sure why. How was there even food left up here anyway? We walked for a while before he turned into a house that he didn't recognize and neither did we. We followed and watched as he raids the cupboard, finding packaged snacks and canned goods to eat from.

"I've been doing this my whole life for the past four years," he said while opening a box of stale crackers, "I've been walking from house to house in search of food and sometimes a new outfit for survival. It's gotten me farther than the others."

I smiled. He was so hopeful and so determined to stay alive. I loved that, really.

"How have your lungs lasted longer than the others?" Wyatt asked, folding his arms against his chest.

"Oh, I have severe lung damage, that's for sure. I cough and cough all day long. But that isn't going to stop me from trying to survive. I'll never leave this place, this Earth. I'll find a way. I'll find a way to defeat this condition," he says with a hopeful expression.

"And we're going to help you defeat it," I added. He looked confused. So I explained to him that we were going to take him back to the underground with us and get him to a doctor. His smile shined so brightly. He was so happy to finally be given a chance instead of working for one.

We started the long walk back to the tunnel. Nick was pretty social and very thankful. I couldn't help but nonchalantly stare at his face the entire time.

He and Wyatt seemed to have gotten along pretty okay, actually. It's just that whenever the topic of Nick's terrible lung condition was brought up, Wyatt was not very comforting about it. If I were Nick, I'd be scared that I was to die any second because of what Wyatt was saying.

As they were talking, thoughts were stirring around inside of my head. What would happen if the government found out we used their tunnel? Would the doctors even accept to help Nick? Would Nick's lungs ever be able to recover or get better? Are mine and Wyatt's lungs getting more and more damaged every time we breathed in?