The Contaminated

A start to a short dystopian piece about toxic air and its attack on humanity.

I walked through the front door of Nate’s coffee shop out into the gray filled day. I pulled tight on the straps of my pink face mask. A habit I have kept with me since leaving my childhood home. The briefest of smiles on my face as I remember my mother’s reminders in my head.

“Mia, you must always make sure your mask is tight and secure. Remember, all it takes is just a little gray to contaminate you.”

Contaminate. Thats what we called it when the gray rushed into the lungs and spread into the blood stream. The centuries of careless pollution had finally caught up to the human race. The gray was the potent chemical mix that was now left in the air for my generation to breath will literally attack our humanity. It goes after our dna and mutates it into horrible deformed creatures we call the contaminated.

Yeah, pulling on my mask was the best life saving habit I had. The rest were bad habits and many involved other ways of slowly killing my body.

“Hey, Mia.”

The greeting ripped me from my thoughts as I looked up and smiled at my friend, David.

“Hey, David. What’s the news?”

“Well,” he began looking at me with that great sideways stare that he knew made me weak in the knees, “Mara is down again, probably another week out. Chase is already in Zone E and Jackie is stuck babysitting, again. Her mom has to go to the Zone H again for meds.”

Our eyes me, we both knew what that meant. Another day babysitting. That was three weeks now. Just four more days and she wont have to worry about babysitting anymore.

“That’s just messed up. Poor Jackie and her poor mother. What’s that now, three? Four?”

“Mia, just don’t talk about it any more. Jackie will need us more than ever when she gets back. And its four,” David said not meeting my eyes.

Jackie’s mother was not the most attentive of mothers and it was only because her father was around that Jackie survived long enough to take care of herself when she was out in the gray. It was difficult to take keep a mask on babies and even more difficult to do so with toddlers.

They had lost the first two before the age of two. The third was lost by six months and this last one. Daniel. She was barely two months old. That meant she was exposed at just over a month old. I shook my head.

The government had banned all forms of contraceptives nearly twenty years ago because it was harder and harder to keep children uncontaminated. A part of me wish they still had them. Clearly Jackie’s mother was losing her mind. Everyone knew you don’t take babies out into the air. They belonged inside the artificially cleaned atmosphere of buildings.

This being her fourth loss was bittersweet though. At four child losses the government took over. They couldn't afford loosing any more citizens. Once the mother tested positive for pregnancy the government took her into custody.

It wasn't all bad though. She received a large apartment with all her necessities provided for while she pregnant. Once she gave birth the government takes the baby and sends the mother back home to her family. Most G babies, that’s what we call the government babies, are never seen again by their mothers. Most of them go to rich families and government officials. At least that’s what they tell us.

The apartment is top of the line and only the rich and the few bad mothers ever see one. It even included a large indoor garden with fresh fruit trees. We haven’t see one of those outside the government facilities in a few decades. I have never seen one in real person.

Author's Note

This is a start to a story I am working on. Let me know what you think of the story idea and the characters so far. This is my first time writing in first person so any feedback will be greatly appreciated.