Too Much Fresh Air Is Not a Good Thing!

1606 words. Roughly four A4 pages of reading. Written for a theme of “Left Behind”.

I breathed in deeply, the scented air, (floral, pine and a hint of loam), filling my lungs with the crisp sweetness of it. The slight chill burned my throat a little, but it was a small price to pay. I had never known anything as pure! It was a very bright day, but I had my tinted goggles on to shield my eyes from the glare of the sun. It was a perfect day to be out in nature.

 I was so used to the filthy smog that pooled around the buildings in the city, strangling them with its murk. There was no real way to escape the stench of effluence and disease, even in my own apartment, not even with my excessive, (and expensive), use of filters and air fresheners. Although my home did smell a hundred percent better than the air outside in the city, the stale air of it still scratched and clogged my sinuses, and I often struggled with hay fever symptoms despite there not having been any kind of grass or pollen in the area since Gods only knew when.                         

 It wasn’t just the air that was different to living in a city. I had never seen anything as beautiful as the landscape surrounding me. To start with, the sky was blue! Not just blue, blue sounds a bit plain and didn’t do it justice. It was a deep cerulean dotted with small clusters of soft white clouds. Flying, floating water, no less! I had read stories of such things but never thought to see them for myself. The sight was truly breathtaking!

 As for my surroundings, just stunning! What a view! In the distance, I could see mountain peaks, some of which were tipped with white. Water, again, this time, frozen as snow. Wonders that you could only ever see in record archives were just there, all around me! I had never seen so much water. More of it trickled down from the mountains with small cascading waterfalls tinkling as they ran into small creeks, one of which passed me by just a little way ahead. Such an abundance! No rationing! No water tax! Unbelievable! You could just help yourself, and that was that! I simply had to make my way over to the creek!

 I decided to do just that! I turned off my comms band to prevent anyone from calling me back too soon and set off.

 Lush green grass swished around my ankles as I walked. I wondered if it would tickle my feet if I took my boots off, and I smiled to myself at the thought. Best keep them on, to be on the safe side. A thick bank of trees grew to my right. Wild trees, growing outside of greenhouses, in any which way they pleased, giving no thought to rank and file or to being chopped down and processed. So many different types of trees, all living and growing together in a silent gaggle of shadows and greens.

 I could hear little creatures all around me. From the sound files I had listened to before my trip to the wilds, I could identify that there were flies or bees, and lots of birds chittering, mostly in the treetops. I could even hear small mammals sneaking about in the grass. I hoped I would be able to see some of them, even one of them, before we left! I couldn’t help but feel a surge of happiness from deep within me at the thought of possibly seeing a little rabbit, or hare, or maybe even something more exotic.

 **

 It took longer than I thought to reach the little creek, and if it wasn’t for the temperature regulators in my overalls, I knew I would have had a little sweat on me from the effort. The distance seemed deceptive, and I wondered just how far away the mountain tops actually were in the distance. Never mind, I had reached my destination and I now stood at the side of the clearest of water, gurgling away as it found its way over stones and rocks.

 I knelt down on the damp sand, giving no thought to how it might muddy up my overalls. Not because of carelessness, you understand, but because I simply had no idea that could happen. I had never even seen a stream before then, let alone knew about the risk of getting mud on my clothing.

Reaching over, I took off my gloves, my pale hands tingling with the nip in the air. I paused my hand just above the water's surface, teasing myself with anticipation. Who knew if I would ever get to see anything so wonderous again after I went home? Why rush the experience?

 After a long moment, I let my fingers gently fall through the surface of the stream. I took a sharp intake of breath. I knew it would be cold, but it was literally icy. My skin prickled and I smiled at the strange sensation. As I waggled my fingers through the snow melt, my breath caught in my throat as I gasped. A fish! An honest-to-goodness fish! It was a shiny brown colour with spots along its back. It sat there, slightly under the overhang of the bank across from me, only its fins and gills moving. I focussed my eyes on it and mentally toggled the readout on my goggles to identify it. I read brown trout (Salmo trutta). A trout! I had seen a real, live, wild trout!

 I hadn’t realised I had been holding my breath, until I let it out again slowly and eased myself backward into a sitting position, moving ever so slowly so as not to frighten the trout away. Could it see me? I could see it, and that was a wonder in itself. My eyes drank in the sight as I thought to myself, “When I go back home, no one is going to believe this!” Even I couldn’t believe it.

 I noticed a little to my left was a bunch of bright purple… flowers? Flowers! How had I not noticed them when walking up to the stream? I toggled the identify in my goggles readout again and read spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Thistles! I turned my head slowly and let my eyes drink them in and spotted little buzzers flitting around from one flower to another. Those had to be bees, surely? A quick blink and mental focus on identify, and my goggles display confirmed my guess. They must have flown away as I approached the creek earlier, but now flown back to the flowers because I was so still, and they realised they were safe to do so. Nice!

 I still had my gloves off, so I reached out my hand. I wondered if I could… just… carefully, carefully… touch one? “Ouch!” I yelled, (or some such equivalent), as a stinger went straight through my soft skin. I jumped up, shocked that it hurt so much! What the actual curses? Venom! The bee had injected me with some sort of venom, and it was excruciating!

 I began to breathe heavily from the shock, and then within seconds, I realised there was more to it than a little shock. It wasn’t just that I had been taken by surprise; I was having some sort of anaphylactic reaction. My throat felt like it was closing up and I quickly found I was struggling to breathe. I began to feel faint. My skin began to feel clammy, and my overalls did nothing to regulate the feeling. Gagging and gasping, I clawed at the tight neckline of my overalls, desperate for more air, but within a matter of less than a minute, I passed out cold and fell to the soggy ground with a soft whump.

 **

I woke up, my head pounding and my throat burning with the fires of the GalCorp Incinerator. It was dark and my face and fingers were icy cold. I managed to get up, and I began to worry. I turned and tried to run back to the transport, but I couldn’t run. That required more air than I was able to take in through my swollen throat. Partially stumbling, my mind still groggy, I found my way back, only to see a ring of scorched grass. I shouldn’t have been able to see that!

I mentally switched my goggles over to infrared mode, and I gasped in horror. Nothing there! Looking down at my wrist comms, and tapping a button to turn it back on, the messages began to scroll up onto my visual display. They started off simple, requesting my return, then they became sterner, then they took on a worried tone. Some messages mentioned a search party having been dispatched but unable to locate a signal from my comms device they had no choice but to give up. Time was up and they had to leave before the link closed. I was categorised as irretrievable.

 The fear set in, strangling me again as the horrors raced through my shocked mind. We had all been briefed on the risks. I had watched the footage we had received from remotely observing Hangar 18. Area 51 was a no-fly zone these days. All the evidence indicated that humans were cruel and they certainly did not deserve this awe-inspiring planet they lived on!

 I knew a couple of things for certain now. I would live the rest of my life on this paradise planet. And, I would live the rest of my life in fear and in hiding.

 I had been left behind!

(c) Catherine Knee 2023. All rights reserved.