A Day Without Oxygen - Harry Styles FanFic

Chapter 1

Every morning and evening, I do the same thing—I watch the beautiful colors cascade over the horizon; it's about the only colorful part of my life.

Gazing at photographs of the planet before the way it looks like now has become a hobby of mine—the only way to describe the world today is utter devastation; but of course, this is all I have ever known. The pictures show vibrant green trees with birds hanging off the branches and people with great smiles and prominent families, and I wonder what it would have been like to be surrounded by so much life and happiness. My fingers graze upon the 2D image, imagining what the contents inside it actually would feel like. Today, trees do not exist. The same thing that polluted and ruined our Earth is the same thing that we are using to save the life that is still on it—machines. Isn't that one hell-of-a paradox? Without the OxyMac machines, we would have no oxygen to breathe. They replaced trees about 150 years ago, and they have never failed once, thankfully; otherwise, humans would not be alive.

In an attempt to match the beauty our planet once had, we created everything fake—fake plastic trees, grass, flowers, statues of deer and other now-extinct animals that were once known to reside in the area I live, and so on, in place of what used to be there just to try to have some form of nature. The government likes to say that the upside of this reality is that these fixtures don't die whereas plants and animals did, which is another thing everyone these days are obsessed with trying to beat, and they almost do. But my question is, why are they so fixated on escaping death? There has to be a better world in our afterlives, or at least if it is complete darkness, it would be better than existing in this disaster. Knowing that every morning, I will be confronted with a view of the irreversible mess humans have made to the Earth is dreadful.

Obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and any other type of disorder you can think of, does not exist anymore. There's a pill for everything, and it all works; however, one thing scientists cannot make a pill for is intelligence, thank God. The tissue within our heads apparently doesn't like to learn from anything other than it's own eyes and ears; therefore, we are forced to go the "hard, old-fashioned route." For me, going to college was enjoyable, and actually feeling myself learn the material was rewarding; I like that I acquired my knowledge organically, and it gives me a sense of happiness when almost nothing else does. Others, they complain that it is too time-consuming and makes them frustrated, and as such, research is still being conducted to try and solve and eradicate the last "extreme" weakness of human beings they haven't yet figured out how to beat—hopefully, I will not be alive to see that happen.

Global warming has done its dues, thanks to our ancestors. Now, the humans that live today, approximately 25 billion, are barely alive. If it weren't for OxyMac engineers like me, the last bit of life would not exist. Sometimes I think it would be better if I purposely programmed them to self-destruct and to give Earth a second chance to redeem herself.

As I said, the sunrise and sunset are the only chances for me to witness exquisite beauty—such vivid, gorgeous colors that are always followed by even more breath-taking art created by our universe, and it gives me the utmost serenity. At night, billions of stars fill my lenses, and by day, endless clouds and the beautiful blaring sun. Since beauty does not exist within humans anymore, the closest thing to bliss is through me on my roof at 05:00 in the morning and 20:00 at night—It's as close to real I have ever experienced.

I crawl back into my studio apartment through the window; sitting out there on that hard roof for as many hours as I do every day does put a major strain on my back, but I wouldn't stop doing it even if it meant the world would end if I didn't. Immediately, I remove the mouth mask everyone has to wear while outside because sadly the OxyMac's don't filter the air too—you take what you can get, I guess.