Project Oxygen

I was fifteen years old when I learned that air can kill. Not a bullet, not a knife…air. 

Invisible, silent, patient killer. 

The smoke carries tiny particles that dig deep into our lungs, harm our hearts, and steal years from our lives. It took my mother slowly, breath by breath, until her lungs gave up. That day I promised myself that I would not let the same poison take my sister. Now I am twenty one, and District Ostrava is dying around me. 

The truth is simple: no one here survives for long.  

I tightened my respirator and headed toward Masaryk Square, the old center of Ostrava, as fast as I could. Smoke sticks to my hair, but the first thing people usually notice, if they even see past the mask, is my eyes. One is dark green, the other brown. Some say it’s lucky. I say it just makes people stare when the world is already ugly enough. 

My sister collapsed last night. She’d been unsteady all day and said she felt waves of dizziness, just like our mother used to in the weeks before she passed away. If I do not find a way to save us, she will be the next. I refuse to watch another person I love fade away while the Capitol sits in clean, golden towers, breathing air we’re not allowed to touch. They don't just own factories. They own the sky. 

Ostrava wasn't always a nightmare. Once, it was a proud industrial district. Now the factories that once paid our bills are the reason no one goes outside without a mask. People here walk slowly, speak little, save their breath like it’s the most precious currency left. Here, silence isn’t peaceful. It’s survival.

A familiar voice breaks through the smog.  

“You’re late,” Liam wheezes, stretching his legs. He has been my best friend since forever. He used to be the fastest runner in the district. Now every movement hurts him, but he still tries to stretch a little, probably hoping there might still be a chance to run away. 

We head toward the abandoned refinery. Maya Frost waits at the edge of the building. Her hands are shaking slightly as she flips through her notebook, the same one she carries everywhere. She looks calm on the outside, as always, but her eyes never stop moving. Her brown hair is pulled back in a messy braid, loose strands falling around her face. Practical, yes, but somehow it makes her seem alive in a way that’s hard to ignore. She was top of her class before the Capitol shut the schools down. Knowledge scares them. People who think are harder to control. Even though she seems calm and distant at first, somehow, being near her just feels… right. 

“I found something,” she says, voice low, like even the walls have ears. “The Capitol is hiding an air cleaning system - Project Oxygen. It cleans the air around their cities. They’ve been breathing clean air for years while we choke.”

My chest tightens. The impulse to rush straight to the Dome seizes me. I bite back the urge. If I make one wrong move, we all die. 

“They keep the system under the Capitol Dome,” Maya continues. “If we can get inside and change its direction, clean air could reach Ostrava in just a few hours.”

Liam snorts. “So we break in, steal their sky, and hope they don’t shoot us before breakfast? Perfect. Breakfast sounds good, by the way.”

“It’s not stealing,” I snap. “It’s ours.”

It’s ours and I’m doing it for my sister. For everyone who still believes tomorrow might actually happen. If there’s a way out, I’ll take it. Even if every step brings me closer to dying.

Leaving the district feels like crossing a graveyard with a beating heart. From what we’ve pieced together from banned broadcasts, District Brno is torn apart by tornadoes twisting buildings like paper toys. Further west, reports from Prague speak of endless floods. Rooftops stick out of the water like broken teeth. People cling to balconies and makeshift rafts, waiting for help that never comes. The same silence follows every district, like a reminder that no place is truly safe and that the poisoned air in Ostrava may be the only thing we can hope to fight against. 

“We’re all disposable,” Maya whispers.

I glance to the side and see a corner full of broken gas masks. Cracked lenses, filters ripped apart. People who did not make it are left behind like trash.

Yet we keep moving.

A collapsed bridge blocked the path ahead, twisted metal and shattered concrete stretching across the street. Smoke poured from the gaps, making it hard to see. 

We paused, hearts hammering. 

Maybe we should turn back,” Liam muttered. “We’re tired. We’re not ready for this.”

“We don’t get another chance,” I said. My voice sounded smaller than I wanted.

Then we carefully crossed the jagged edges, each step causing the bridge beneath us to creak. Dust fell from above, and for a moment I thought the whole thing might collapse. But we made it across, one by one, and pressed on.

By the time we reached the Capitol Dome, we were completely done. Every ounce of energy gone, barely able to keep moving. The Dome is blinding white - it made our eyes ache. Our clothes are soaked in ash. My gloves are torn and my fingers are bleeding. Every step is a reminder of how heavy the world has become.

Maya pulled out a small device from her backpack and connected it to a loose panel on the wall. The screen flickered as she opened the old security program. She didn’t break the system…she simply confused it. By copying a few lines of the Dome’s own code and mixing them with a fake ID, she made the security think we were allowed to be there. The progress bar jumped back and forth, unsure of what was real.

‘We have a few minutes,’ she said quietly. ‘Maybe less.’”

“No guards?” I whisper. It feels wrong. Something this valuable shouldn’t be easy to reach.

But it wasn’t.

We crawled through a narrow maintenance tunnel, climbed down a broken service ladder, and had to take a longer, twisted route through old hallways to avoid the main corridors. Twice we had to duck behind machinery as patrol drones hummed past.

From a distance, we could see Project Oxygen shining like a second sun. We had come around from the back, through shadowed side rooms and empty corridors, staying completely out of sight of the guards. To get closer, we had to keep moving carefully along this hidden route.

My hand floats over the activation panel. Liam stands beside me, shoulders tense, as if he’s waiting for a race that finally matters. Maya grabs my wrist — not to stop me, but to remind me that we're in this together.

“This changes everything,” she breathes. “Or nothing.” 

I press the button.

Alarms start screaming. The sound is so loud we can hardly hear anything else. Red lights flash all around, throwing sharp shadows on the walls. Heavy doors begin to close, one after another, trying to trap us inside.

Guards run toward us, shouting, but their words are lost in the noise.

Maya and Liam grab me, pulling me back. The Dome shakes under our feet, making it hard to stand.

Somewhere far behind us, maybe in Ostrava, someone might be breathing easier. Or maybe the Capitol will shut it down before the air reaches home.

Maybe we’ll die here.

I don’t know.

All I know is that the end hasn’t come.

Not yet.