The green water swept my blood away as I sat in the shallows of a river hunched over, coughing up my insides. The toxins in the water entered through my skin, making my condition even worse. But as of now, I didn't care. Closing my eyes, I just wished for death.

~nearly four months before~

The warm air was sickly sweet, and I breathed in and out vigorously while sprinting towards the City Square. Stupid, I thought angrily to myself, you did not need headphones, and you missed the the A.Train because of it! Could have been there in less than 2 minutes but noooo. You had to get those ridiculous headphones!

Breathing hard, I bent over to take a breather, looking around wildly for a sign to give me directions. CITY SQUARE -> read a neon yellow sign. I groaned and turned to the right, crossing the road without checking the light, which of course was green, my eyes on the pamphlet in my hand.

The car screeched to a halt 2 feet in front of me and blared the horn. I yelled "So sorry!" And quickly ran to the other side of the road, waving at the furious driver as she drove past, an apologetic smile on my face. Checking the time on my Holo-Ring, I gave a yelp of dismay and continued on my journey, the pamphlet fluttering in the wind.

I have to get there for the announcements, my friends'll kill me if I have to ask what the announcement was about. Almost slamming into a metal pole, I swore under my breath. And I need to pay more attention to my surroundings.

The pamphlet I held was no help either, it just said

MEETING IN CITY SQUARE
1 PM, BE THERE FOR THE BIG
ANNOUNCEMENT!

Rounding the corner, I reached the square and checked the time again, 1:01 PM

Crap. It's already started, and I still haven't found my friends! With about a hundred "Excuse me's," I waded into the crowd, scanning people's faces while squeezing between them. Then I spotted a familiar face that was connected to a hand waving at me.

A sigh of relief slipped from me and I walked over to my friends. Lance laughed at my red-faced-out-of-breath appearance, saying "Raven, are you ever on time? You missed the A.Train AND you are one minute late-" he glanced at his holo-ring, "correction, TWO MINUTES LATE to the huge important announcement thingy." I rolled my eyes at him and asked Brianna "Did I miss anything?"

"No girl," she replied shaking her head and grinning, "lucky for you, they had to postpone it another 5 minutes. Lance is right, you need to work on your time skills." "Oh shut up!" I laughed and shoved her towards Jake, who stumbled and fell backwards into some random person, earning him a glare.

"You guys!" He said with a scowl, "Knock it off!" "Awwww, Jakey-poo is upset!" Lauren teased him. I smiled at my friends. All five of us together cause some serious trouble. But that's why I love them. "Seriously you guys," Brianna shook my shoulder, "shut up! It's starting!"

A man walked onto the stage holding a microphone, smiling at the excited faces of the people. "Hello everyone! I am pleased to see you all here, and even more to give you this message from the President himself!" My friends and I whooped, earning some more glares from surrounding people.

The man ignored the various shouts of excitement and continued on. "As you know, we have great amounts of some really advanced technology at our fingertips," some nods in the crowd, "but now is when I inform you of our biggest discovery in almost 500 years!"

People's eyes widened in anticipation as they waited to hear what this discovery was. "Scientists have been searching for another inhabitable planet for forever, and no longer than 17 hours ago, did they find one!!" He basically screamed the last part into the microphone as thousands of people in the crowd went wild at the thought of another planet that could contain life.

"Hold on, hold on everybody," he waved his hands at the crowd. "That's not all! We are preparing rockets to take people there! The rockets to survive such a long trip will be ready in exactly EIGHTEEN MONTHS!!!!!"

******

I walked to Brianna's house that evening alongside my friends, jabbering on and on about how amazing and freaking awesome it was going to be to see another planet. Eventually, at around 11, people began to break
off and head home. First Jake, Lance followed close behind, and Lauren left last, until it was finally just Brianna and I.

"I can't believe they've found another pla-" I broke into a fit of coughing, my eyes watering. "Sorry," I apologized. Brianna looked at me, obviously concerned. "I have some cough drops if you want them?" "No thanks, I'm okay. I'll probably just be going now so that you can get some sleep." Brianna nodded to my reply and walked me to the door.

"Do you need a ride?"

"No I'm okay I'll walk."

"Alright then, see ya!"

"Bye!" I shouted back to her as I slowly increased my pace to get home. It was a few blocks from here, and would only take a couple minutes.

When I reached home, I changed into sweats and a t-shirt, and turned on the tv to watch while I dozed off on the couch.

".....if any of these symptoms occur, report to a hospital immediately. We can not have it spreading through the population. Stay indoors, and do not breathe in the outside air, I repeat, DO NOT BREATHE IT IN. It WILL CAUSE DEATH!!"

I shot up off the couch at the TV's words with a yelp. What symptoms? Was coughing one? Was I sick with whatever the person on the emergency broadcast was warning people about? Going to the window, I looked outside. The air was thick with dense green clouds, glowing specks swirling around.

I had just walked home, and I breathed in the air!! Was I going to die!? Running through my house, I shut every window and locked them all, despite the fact that I probably was already a goner. Moving back to the couch, I curled up into a ball and laid there, fear flickering through my head.

What is going on!?