“T MINUS TWENTY-ONE MINUTES UNTIL ARTIFICIAL OXYGEN.”

The calm robotic voice wasn’t helping my nerves at all. It was announcing each minute we had left to breathe in fresh oxygen. Not that the oxygen was good to breathe in anyways. It was contaminated. I didn’t know where the damn voice was coming from, so I didn’t know how to stop it. It made me super nervous. I looked up at the sky. I didn’t know how long I would be able to see it. 

Oh, actually I did. Exactly twenty-one minutes left. Thanks a lot, robot voice.

I sighed and looked around. I didn’t like how we wasted the oxygen that seemed so available to us already. I didn’t like how we were so selfish. Zoe was trying to catch my attention. I didn’t even have the strength to deal with her today. We’ve been arguing for a month now, and I didn’t care if she ditched me to date someone else anymore. Not today at least. While trying to avoid her eyes, mine wandered off to something else. A chipped, old mug lay on the ground.

“I’ve got a question,” I said suddenly, raising my voice.

I was in the park the closest to my house. Government’s orders. The government wanted us to be outside and breathe in the fresh air before it was all gone I guess. In each park, a government official was standing, keeping order. 

“Yes?” the Official turned to me. She looked annoyed that a child had distracted her from her work, even though we were her work.

“Uh, I’ve got a question,” I said again. I asked the question before the Official deemed that it wasn't worth talking to me. “How is it going to rain if we’re putting a giant plastic orb around the Earth?”

The Official sighed and said, “First of all, we’re not putting a plastic orb around Earth. We’re putting a glass one around it.”

“Then what happens if there are meteor showers? It’s going to break. So will plastic—obviously—but glass? Also, then is there going to be no wind?” I asked. I had millions of questions about the future and the Official didn’t know the answers to any of my questions judging by the look on her face.

“You ask too many questions, little boy,” the Official finally said.

“But—,” I started.

“One more peep out of you and you’re going inside,” the Official shot.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been a big threat but, as I only had a few minutes to be in the fresh air, the threat worked pretty well. Until my arch nemesis, Daniel pinched my arm.

“OW!” I hollered.

The Official turned to me, livid. “Go into that building.”

I turned to the building she was pointing to. It was shiny and it was purely made out of glass. It was a government building.

“But it wasn’t my—”

“Go.”

I scowled. There was no use arguing with an Official. I shot a glare at Daniel—who had been my best friend a mere month ago. Now he was sending me into a building that I didn't deserve to go into. I didn’t want to get into more trouble, so I dragged my feet into the building. The door automatically opened, sensing that I was close. I got in and turned around. I stood there until the door closed behind me. Then, when I was about to turn around again, a huge hand clasped my shoulder. I stiffened. I didn’t know why, but I felt that the person was dangerous.

“Don’t turn,” the person’s voice was gruff.

I stayed where I was.

“Why did you come in here?” the person demanded.

I couldn’t see the Official outside the building because of the door. I wondered if she knew that this person was in the building when she sent me in. “Someone sent me because I was being obnoxious apparently.”

“It’s not safe for you to be here,” he announced.

I relaxed a bit. The figure wasn’t here to harm me. “Why isn’t it?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” the person turned me around forcefully so I would face him. He was a big person with reddish brown hair, green eyes, and a beard. He kinda looked like a teddy bear.

“What’s obvious?” I asked.

The person muttered something about how dumb I was and motioned me to follow him further into the building.

“Uh, who are you?” I asked after a while. I didn’t think that the person would tell me who he was unless I asked.

“The name’s Joah.”

“Joah?” I repeated. 

“Yes.”

He didn’t say anything else and kept on leading me. Now we were in front of the stairs. The man named Joah started to go up the stairs and I meekly followed, not wanting to get pummeled by him for not obeying orders. He didn’t seem like he was evil but I wasn’t going to take my chances. I started to realize how quiet the building was. It wasn’t supposed to be like that—especially with Project Artificial. I would’ve expected everyone to run around the building making sure nothing goes wrong.

“Where is everyone?” I asked Joah.

Joah didn’t look back at me and replied, “That’s the question, is it?”

“Huh?” I said. I didn’t get it.

“Everyone’s supposed to be here. That’s what everyone out there thinks too,” Joah jerked his thumb to the wall, indicating everyone outside. “I checked everything here. Everything’s completely fine; the countdown, the coding for the project….”

“Everything’s fine except for the fact that everyone’s missing?” I asked, suspiciously.

“And for the fact that the glass dome won’t activate.”

“What?” I cried in alarm. The math had been done precisely. One second too late, we wouldn’t have oxygen. It was supposed to happen at the exact right moment or we’d all be dead. It made me feel uncomfortable that something had gone wrong.

“I don’t get it…as I said, the codes are correct and there’s nothing else wrong with it. It just doesn’t work.”

“Hang on, how come you’re here if the others are not?” I asked.

“I just got here,” Joah sighed. “I was running late today. Well, I’m going to make up for it. I tried everything I can to make it work but I just think that I need to use another perspective. So that’s why I need your help.”

“Superb. How can I help?” I asked eagerly.

“I’m taking you to the control room. Maybe you can figure out what to do.”

I was flattered about how Joah thought that I was smart enough to crack the code. Everyone knew that I was a genius. There was no denying it. I was only thirteen and I could achieve things that adults couldn’t even dream of. I was well known in my town.

Joah opened the door to the control panel. “Good luck, boy.”

“Thanks,” I said as Joah closed the door, giving me the privacy I needed. The control room wasn't state-of-the-art. In fact, It was the opposite of that. The control room was so old and even the control panel was chipped on the side. I sat on the chair in front of the panel, ready to get to work. I was confident that I could fix it since I recognized everything there. I didn’t know how to fix it exactly, but I had a guess. But then, I hesitated my hands over the control panel.

Why was Joah late to work today? Everyone knew that it was D-day for Project Artificial so they would have come early. Another thing that was suspicious about Joah was how he trusted me to come into the control room without supervision. He didn’t know me considering how he didn’t call me by my name and called me boy. And he said that the place was dangerous when no one was there. It wasn’t like anyone could hurt me in here except….

“T MINUS TEN SECONDS UNTIL ARTIFICIAL OXYGEN.”

I flinched. I only had ten seconds until we were deprived of oxygen. The whole human race’s fate was in my hands. I took a deep breath.

“Jason,” I told myself, “Focus.”