The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the thick smoke that almost covered the permanent gray sky. The smell of burning plastic burned my nose as I struggled to see through the smoke. As my eyes came into focus, I saw people walking along the roads with cannulas on their noses, oxygen tanks trailing behind them in small carts.

That's when I realized that each breath brought a wave of nausea and dizziness. I tried to reach for my own tank, only to realise I didn't have one. Each inhalation set my lungs on fire as they screamed for relief. I looked around for a tree that could provide the precious oxygen. But all I saw were factories, more of the people with cannulas and the poor who had died from breathing the toxic air. The streets were lined with the dying and the dead, increasing my panic. I stumbled through the crowd, searching for a tree but I found nothing- just concrete, smoke and sorrow.

The pain in my lungs was unbearable now. "Mom, where are you?", I whispered as blackness started to cloud my vision. My voice was barely audible over the screams of the dying and roar of the factories. I felt the darkness swallow me completely.

And then I woke up, my nightmare ending as suddenly as it had started. My mom was gently shaking my shoulders and left the room once she saw I was awake. I took a deep breath to calm myself. The air was calm and breathable. Yet the terror of the nightmare still lingered. But a greater terror overtook me when I realized that this could be the future of our world.

© Aurora Bridston