Stuck inside

Sam could feel the morning breeze on his face, it was nice and sweet, he liked this dream. He tried to remember the last time he had felt the sweet touch of the wind on his skin, it must have been 5 years, just before the explosion that killed so many and left the atmosphere so toxic that no one was allowed outside anymore without proper protection.

Like many office workers, Sam was at work in a high rise building without natural ventilation when it happened, his life was spared but he lost everything else. His wife Maddie was volunteering for their 6 year old twins field trip to the zoo, and none of them made it. He wasn’t even given a chance to go back to their house in the outskirts of the city to retrieve family photos. The only thing he had to remember them was a small photo of the four of them tucked in a heart shaped locket he was planning to give Maddie for their 10th anniversary.

Most of the survivors had been working in central business districts and had very little practical skills. Within the hours following the incident, it became clear that survivors would have to stay where they are, companies got organised to accommodate stranded employees and the army organised food emergency supplies.

Within months tunnels had been built where streets used to be, oxygen generators and air purifiers had been installed in every building and airtight high speed trains were starting to be developed to travel between cities. Alcohol became prohibited because of the high rates of mental health issues linked to the explosion. Within 2 years, people had learned to live with it. Food was grown in greenhouses on rooftops, power was mostly solar. Virtual reality became a big thing to keep people entertained and to prevent nervous breakdowns, as well as riots

For the first two years the authorities had monitored the toxicity of the atmosphere, hoping that it would improve, but in the third year the new government decided it was pointless and decided to invest in developing the space available instead. They however kept publishing made-up figures to lead the crowds to believe it was still dangerous to go outside, and they had no reason to doubt.

In the fourth year after the explosion, people who had been travelling between cities started to notice that the once burnt landscape started to show elusive touches of green, but travelling at very high speed there was no way to be sure, and most dismissed it as their imagination. Once Sam had even been under the impression that he had seen a mosquito out of his window, but again, he had dismissed it as probably being only dust. Yet the reports from the government kept mentioning how dangerous it would be to get out in the open.

Sam opened his eyes, still feeling the breeze on his skin, as he looked around the broken glass on the floor caught his eyes, he looked up to the window and it was gone, letting in a warm summer breeze. Sam was suddenly overcome with panic, understanding it would take only minutes for his organs to fail from the toxicity he reached for his Maddie’s locket, the last token from the happy life he had built with her, and kneeling in prayer, he waited for his fate. But nothing happened. After an hour he stood up and looked through the window, he stood there and took several deep breaths. The air smelt like earth and leaves and flowers, he could hear chatter coming from the neighbouring apartments and see people at their windows across the street. Nobody knew what had happened, but everybody knew it was the beginning of a new era.