The Floor is Lava

“It was excruciating. I felt nothing except for some sort of cruel slithering down my throat. My lungs fought back. Hard.” My voice broke. “I could feel them pounding against my rib cages. My heart felt like it was pulsating through my eyes.”

“Journee, it’s okay.” She reassured me.

“My mind was everywhere." I steered the conversation back on topic. “It was like watching someone walk on a tightrope of trauma and they’re two seconds away from losing everything, but they don’t. They only wish they had.”

“Why is that?”

“If they had, they wouldn’t have had to relive it all again.”

“You mean you.”

“Yes. We’ve heard theories about this for years. We’ve grown up around trashy films where resources are scarce, your best friends don't exist anymore, and every corner you turn you must expect to defend yourself no matter what. There is only survival. The theories," I scoffed. "The theories are paradise compared to this. This is mental warfare. It's mental torture and people think things are perfect. We've got people like you to turn to and technology but you’re both just a band-aid. A quick fix. You can’t put plastic and a small piece of woven fabric and think that it’ll heal deep wounds.”

“Breathe. Journee, breathe.” She looked down at her book and jotted down a few notes.

“You and everyone else just waltz around as if nothing has changed when in actuality everything has. I miss it back when the floor is lava was just some sort of a game. I miss my family, my friends, I miss being able to enjoy looking up at the stars, and I mean why in the world would anyone want to carry around these stupid oxygen tanks!”

Her face changed instantly to panic. “Please, keep it down.” She urged me.

I groaned angrily. "I miss being expressive. I miss not having to worry about the octave my voice is in. The world may be brighter than ever for most people but not for me. Not since that day.”

“Journee…”

“I know," I sighed deeply. "We’re out of time.”

“Journee, this week I want you to practice the breathing techniques we worked on.”

“I’m tired of breathing!” I yelled.

“Journee, please! Stop yelling.”

“These walls are soundproof anyway.” I mumbled angrily beneath my breath.

“There is a hole in the roof. Someone left their window opened and well one of them shot right through the roof. So, please, just keep it down.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Journee, where are you staying?”

“Around.”

“Please, let me help you.”

“I can’t do that, Sage. You’re helping me by letting me come here for free.”

“You know I can’t keep doing this. It’s been 684 days since everything has happened. Protocol has changed and we’re under an intense telescope these days.”

“I know. 'And only blood relatives are offered free services.' I get it.”

“I can help you. A thirteen-year-old should not be out in a world like this alone.”

“The world shouldn’t be like this.” I grabbed my items and headed towards the door. “I mean, we can fly but the world is barely habitable. Kind of hilarious if you ask me.”

“Do you need anything?”

“Money?”

“How much?”

“Two digits?”

Sage laughs. “I feel like I’m the one paying for therapy.”

“Thanks, Sage.”

“Promise me you’ll visit me?”

“Promise.”

I opened the door, held my hand out, and watched as several flying cabs rushed over to me. I hopped onto the back of the board, sat on the edge while the waist cuffs latched around me, and we took off.

“Same place again, Journee?”

“You know it, Marc.”

“Okay! That’ll be two digits today, number ten.”

“C’mon, Marc, just yesterday it was only one digit.”

He stopped abruptly. “I know but it’s inflation little lady. Do you have it or not? I can't continue if you don't.”

“I have it.” I rolled my eyes.

He looked at me with an eyebrow up. “Make the transfer now.”

“Really?”

“Times are rough and I like you, Journee, I do. I can’t take any chances. It’s enough that you’re already not documented. You’re a liability.”

I groaned. “I’m undocumented by choice. While they know your every movement and your spending habits, they don’t know a thing about me.”

“If we both get into it with the law, I’ll be the only one surviving though.”

“Yes, because who wouldn't want to live on this awesome planet.” I answered sarcastically.

Marc laughed. “You’re a morbid kid, you know that. Life’s much better than it used to be.”

“Are you going to give me a lecture or are you going to fly?”

“Have you made the transfer?”

I mocked him. “Have you made the transfer?”

Marc began flying away. Hovering over minacious plants and avoiding other flyers. “You’re lucky I knew your family back in the day. This sass wouldn’t have been so cute if I didn’t see so much of Catarina in you.”

“Were you obsessed with her? You talk about her every week.”

“She’s the love of my life.”

“Was.”

“Is." He flashed an angry glare at me. "It’s not like she’s gone anywhere.”

“She might as well have. Her and the rest of them are just rotting away in the energy bank while we rot away on what’s left of Earth.”

“It was either them or you. You know only two members of a family are allowed to be down here within the century.

“And Juna still gave that away.” My voice was resentful.

“She chose to transcend. We can’t be angry with people for how they cope with all that has gone on. Juna’s path did not align with your own and that is okay.”

“Nobody’s path does.”

“I wish we could talk more kiddo, but I’m afraid this is your stop. Do me a favor, eh?” Marc flashed a sympathetic look.

“What?”

“Smile a bit more. Catalina would have liked it if you did.”

I sighed. “I will try my best.”

I arrived back at where I was staying and found that my items were scattered around everywhere. Seamac, my only friend, was feeling around for our things.

“Well, what the hell happened here?”

“Nee-nee, what’s up?”

“I told you I hate that nickname.”

“Yeah, and I hate being blind but what can we do about it?”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“Loran. She got a hold of my bracelet and saw that I was speaking to Echo again."

“That girls got some serious control issues.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry she wrecked the room.”

“Where’s Juna’s locket? Have you seen it? I-I mean felt it?”

“No, all of this just happened. I thought she just pulled all of our clothes out of our dressers like she normally does."

“It was in my bottom drawer with my keepsakes. ”

“I’m really sorry.”

“I told you to keep her out of here!”

“Your octave, Journee.”

“No! You’re so stupid and so selfish for letting this happen.”

“I’ll help you find Juna’s locket. The heart shaped one. Right? I’ll just keep feeling around. It’ll be fine. I’ll find it.”

“It’s not just a locket, Semac. It was my family!”

“Shh!” Seamac rushed and covered my mouth. I began to cry. “Journee, please calm down.” He held me in his arms as we fell to the floor. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“I did.”

Seamac and I sat against the walls of our now silent room. He listened to the sound of my breathing while I looked at him fidget with his fingers. The tension in our place was thick and spiritless. The sun began setting which made the situation much worse. Seamac opened his mouth to speak before hesitating and looking down at his watch.

“The beep?" I asked, referring to the noise sanctioned watches made.

When the government needed to get into communication with people the watches set off an alarm at a frequency only the wearer could hear. For those who were hearing impaired their watches vibrated and for those visually impaired, like Seamac, their messages would formulate as braille on the watch.

Semac placed his fingertips on his watch and began reading. His facial expression changed immediately and I knew that any news to come would not be good.

“It’s happening again.” He gasped.

“What’s happening again?”

“Journee, we have to go.”

“Talk to me. What’s happening again?”

“The Floor is Lava.”

I laughed nervously. “C’mon man. Really, what is it?”

“Journee, the floor is lava. That’s what the message said. We are in Phase 2.”

“Wh-wh-what?” I yelled, panicking.

“Shh!” Semac urged me.

“Well, what does that mean?”

"I’m not sure.. b-but when phase one hit us. It was..”

"It was horrific..." My heart fluttered with anxiety. "People were dying left and right and all of a sudden there were new rules. The government was no longer the government, they were-“

“The Glitch." We spoke in unison.

“We couldn’t walk on the ground in the morning because these monsters, these large angry plants, could sense us. Sense our presence. They would grow slowly into us. They would pierce our skin just barely so it was like a small pinch that you may or may not notice. They planted their roots into us and exited through different parts of our body tearing us from the inside out and-"

“The only way to stop them is to rip them out from their original roots." Semac finished my sentence.

“You. You weren't always blind.”

"I wasn’t."

"Then night time hit and it got you."

“It was some sort of a toxin. I could smell it. I’ve always loved rainy days. My mother said that it was the perfect cleanser. An opportunity to birth something new into the world. The air smelled of rain and I had been trying to figure out my coding for a new game all night. There was an error in the system that I just couldn’t solve. I thought this was the day I’d give birth to something special and then everything went black. It happened to me and many others day after day after day until the Glitch realized that not only the poor was affected. That’s when oxygen tanks came into play. They gave us only five days at first. One hundred twenty hours of oxygen while the rich got twelve hundred."

"Fifty days.” I spoke softly, saddened. "Then the Earth started breathing.”

Semac laughed at our insider. "Yeah, then Earth started breathing and they gave us fifteen days while the rich got one hundred fifty.”

“'Use your days wisely because you never know when the Earth will contract again.', as if it's not bad enough that the Earth contracts three times a year.

“For twenty-four hours at that.” Semac added.

“Taking all of its oxygen with it. You would think oxygen would be a human right but they cover up their corruption by saying it’s our choice.”

“And then killer bird.” Semac began laughing hysterically.

I joined in his laughter. "Right, as if the Earth trying to end us all wasn’t enough.”

“At night the air releases killer toxins if you're walking on the ground but no flying because then you have a homicidal bird, larger than a damn full-sized mattress, coming after you."

“Oh, and definitely no yelling or walking on the ground in the daytime because you have sunflowers that want you dead.”

"Don't forget roses and lilies and random plants you've never even heard of before." Semac took a deep sigh.

“I’m tired too, S.”

“I don't know what Phase 2 has to offer but I would guess all of that and more.”

“I need to find my family.”

“No.” He protested.

“That locket is all that I have left. I can’t lose anyone else.”

“They’ll never come back if you’re gone, they need you, Journee.”

“I know, but I gave up on one person before. I can't do it again."