PNEUMOTOPIA

 

CHAPTER ONE · AN ILL WIND

My name is Cassandra Gale and I am a Covid.

You wouldn’t know just by looking at me. Outwardly I’m just a regular teenage girl. Well, as regular as anyone is these days.

I’m heading for the district market to get supplies. My mum has to stay in our apartment and look after my kid brother. He’s a Covid too, but you can tell. He can’t control his cough in the way I can, in a way that gets you past the Feepers.

I stop at the statue on the outskirts of town where I usually take my Locket. It helps with the cough. If the Feepers see you cough, they shoot first and ask questions later, even if you stay two metres from everyone. My mum said they used to give you the benefit of the doubt once, long ago, before I was born.

I look up at the big concrete statue, inspecting it properly. It’s always just been there; an oversize figure on a plinth, headless and leaning over, with the steel rods at the feet inside exposed and rusting. I read the inscription on the base again, what’s left of it. Who was BORIS? What happened in 2025? Grandad used to hint at things before he disappeared, but no one can tell me for sure, or wants to.

CHAPTER TWO · THE HOSPITAL

Saj lives a few streets over from me on the neighbouring estate. He works in the Big Hospital, the one that constantly belches out smoke. That makes him an Essential. I don’t normally like Essentials – they often act like they are more important than the rest of us, and take more than their fair share of lockets. But Saj has managed to stay normal. That said, I haven’t really spoken to him since we left out makeshift kindergarten.

CHAPTER THREE · HARDY

The door of the auto swings open and I eye the driver. A young man, a boy really, but it’s hard to tell how old Isols are. They live so cleanly.
“Get in. I can give you a lift,” he flicks his eyes skyward and smiles, “it’s going to rain and that bag looks heavy.”