I was thirteen when it happened.

The air was getting too thick for me to breathe properly. The sky was dark, even during the hottest of the days. There were clouds everywhere. My parents told me stores about how people, back when they were younger, couldn't really believe that pollution could destroy Earth. Well, I was living proof that it actually could.

When I was about five, I started seeing people wearing masks on their faces. Young people, about my age. There were news of lung diseases everywhere, it was like there was a plague. My parents warned me about trying my best to help the environment, but I knew it was already no use. However, I obeyed them, because I could see the damage that not caring would do, long term.

When I turned seven, my parents told me I could no longer walk outside without a mask on. It was like we were in a hospital, where everything around us was infected. But, then again, everything probably was. The city I knew was already like that, but I could see in my parents eyes that they were heartbroken by it all. They hadn't always lived like that, and I could tell they didn't like the fact that I didn't know any other life.

Like any other kid, I asked for a brother. My mom sighed and, with a sad sparkle in her eyes, she told me it was too dangerous. That any child that was to be born would be in danger from their first breath. It broke my heart, mostly because I knew it was true. When I talked to my friends about it, they told me their parents were sad all the time. Everything was like a bomb, waiting to explode.

I had just turned thirteen when it finally did. People on the news talked about how no baby had been born in the last two years, how contraceptives' sells were rising up. Condoms were never used as they were then. Television showed concern, of course, by showing pictures of the world thirty years before and all that. It sickened me.

Ever since I was a child, all I saw was commercials of toys, candies... of something that would be way too expensive. All people cared about was money. Employers would explore their employees just because they could, just because money was enough. No one cared about the important things. No one cared about how the world was dying and we would be soon dying along with it. Everything humans once knew was vanishing.

The protests started and, consequently, everything turned to chaos. We stayed inside the house for an entire week, living off of the preserved things we kept on the pantry. Even though it was everyone's fault, people started revolting againts their leaders, claiming they were the ones that ruined everything. My parents held me in the nights I cried myself to sleep, because I was so scared. All I could hear was gunshots and people screaming at each other.

I thought I would die in a matter of days.

But then, my parents told me we had to escape. That we would find the biggest forest we had around us and live in there; just so we could breathe a bit better. My parents never did anything wrong, they loved and they cared about everything. They tried to protect Earth almost as much as they tried to protect me. So, why were they killed?

Alienor

I remember falling to the ground. Hard. It was like the air was being sucked out of my lungs and I suddenly couldn't breathe. My parents had put themselves in front of me, as an instinct, and my dad was the first one to die. My mom screamed and I hid behind her legs, grabbing her as to escape the reality that surrounded me. I remembered having made no sound, because I could see a man a few feet away and he was looking at us with a scary glimmer in his eyes - that was how I knew he did want to kill us.

Before I even got the strenght to grab my mom's attention from my dad's dead body, I saw my own arm pull out the gun from my mom's back pocket and fire. Since I had always been good in sports, at school, I had a pretty good aim and I shot the man in the leg. My mom was so shocked I almost apologized, but she didn't let me speak. She told me to grab the man's gun before he could and, after she took the one from my dad's jeans. I looked at him one last time and, after saying goodbye and telling him I loved him, me and my mom grabbed each a strap from the backpack he had on his back and ran as fast as we could.

It wasn't easy, not as it had been in the heat of the moment. My dad was shot and had lost a lot of blood so, when we left, he had already passed out, but he wasn't dead. I felt terrible for having abandoned him, but we had to go on. The only thing I knew was that I didn't want to lose my mom as well - I couldn't. Because of the chaos around me, I hadn't even let the idea that I had shot someone into my brain. Maybe it was only my instinct, because I obviously didn't want that man to shoot my mom, but I hadn't ever taken notice of that side of mine. However, I knew then that my mom would count on me, so I forced myself to stop thinking about details.

After we left downtown, where we lived in, we had to steal a car. It wasn't really that hard, because people were so focused on killing each other and rebelling that they couldn't really care less about their posessions. I kind of understood them, because I was also seeing my life being robbed from me due to actions of the generations that had come before me. We filled the tank and didn't even bother leaving any money, from the fear that someone would try and attack us. Sighing, I watched how people were fighting everywhere. My mom hit the gas really hard, so we were driving way faster than what we used to before all that, but I didn't complain. I just wanted to get away from that city, even though I knew it was like that in every other town, as well.

"Don't be scared, sweety. We'll be fine." Even though it was useless, my mom still tried to comfort me. I just smiled, because I didn't know what else to say. "I mean it."

"Yeah." Nodding, I tried turning the radio on, but there was no station available. I shuddered, thinking that there was no radio because people were already invading big companies.

"Hey, you're shaking. Are you cold?" I shook my head and closed my eyes for a few seconds. After having counted to ten, I reopened them. "Alienor..."

"I'm fine, mom. Really. It's just that..."

"I wish we could go back there and bring him with us, but we really can't. It's not safe. You know he wouldn't want us to put ourselves in danger like that." She reasoned and I nodded. Even back then, I understood, I did, but I was thirteen! You can't expect a thirteen-year-old girl to lose her dad like that and just stay calm.

"Yeah. I know. But what if he wakes up and looks for us? He was only passed out, he wasn't already dead..."

"Alienor." And that's how I knew my mom was trying not to cry and that I shouldn't say anything more.

She kept driving until we could barely hear any noise. For a few moments, I tricked myself to believe that everything was okay; that my dad wasn't killed and that the world I knew was collapsing. It didn't last long. As we left the city and entered the countryside, I could feel the differences. The world was bad, but those who lived in big cities like mine suffered the most. The sky was still grey, even though it was barely afternoon, but the air didn't seem as thicker. Maybe it was the fact that there were a lot of trees around us; I liked it.

Mom didn't prepare me for what she was planning to do next. She only told me to leave the car and grab all of our backpacks and step back. Of course, I did what I was told and walked a few feet back. She pulled out a lighter from her back pocket and opened the gas tank. I sighed, guessing what she was about to do. From a bottle she found inside the trunk, she spilled gasoline around the car and took a deep breath. I was scared it wasn't going to work and, mostly, that she would hurt herself.

Burning the car was definitely not helping Earth's condition, but I kept my mouth shut.

"Mom..." I tried to reason, but she didn't let me. She just shook her head and tried to smile at me. I thanked the effort, but it really didn't do much to calm my nerves. I sighed, once again.

She walked up to me and took a deep breath. I watched as she flicked the lighter and tried to keep the little flame steady. Then, everything happened way to fast. Everything around the car was burning; there were flames everywhere. I only let myself be scared for a few seconds, then I looked at my mom. She was watching the scene in front of her in horror, and I knew then that she was hating everything she was doing. Our family wasn't like that. We were against violence, in every way or form.

No one expected that to happen. I don't really believe that anyway wanted for it to come to that. Humans are destructive, it's in our nature, but not all of them are self-destructive. The fact that everyone was scared to death with what was happening proved my point. No one actually wanted to create such a terrible death.

"We need to do this." Obviously agreeing, I nodded. I didn't want her to feel bad about me seeing this. I, myself, had killed a man out of instinct. That wasn't normal. "I love you, Alien. I'm sorry."

"I love you too, Mom." I smiled and grabbed her hand. She looked at both of our hands and smiled, looking relieved. "You don't have to worry about me. I'll always be by your side, nothing is going to happen."

"When did we change roles?"

We laughed together and put our respective backpacks in our shoulder, and kept sharing the weight of the one that was supposed to be dad's. The strap I was holding reminded me of dad, but not exactly in a nostalgic way. He was probably dying as we walked into the forest, and I tried to forget that fact that he died alone, but my mom was right - it would have been harder had he been awake and forcing us to leave. Neither of us would have gathered the strenght to do it then, not as we had done. We had stolen a car, burned that same car, and were trying to run while bearing a backpack and a half.

Running took my mind off things for a while. I felt at ease, because the forest we were in was so green. With the mask on my face, a bit damp from the sweat and the tears, it wasn't easy to run, though. Our lungs weren't exactly strong, but the "good" thing about it was that no one had strong lungs, so it wasn't like anyone would be able to catch us, if they were after us.

After a few minutes, running became almost impossible. We already deep into the forest, as I could only see treetops and the grey sky. I felt like crying, everytime I remembered what we were doing. We were looking for a good place to sleep, in the middle of a forest, because we couldn't breathe elsewhere. I tried to calm myself down, so as to not catch my mom's attention, but it was practically impossible. Other than our puffy breaths, there was no other noise, so my mom caught up on my emotional state quite well.

"Alien..."

"Mom, don't worry. I am fine, okay?"

"I keep forgetting you're only thirteen." She murmured, and stopped completely. For a few seconds, I looked at her completely confused, but then she hugged you. "I wish Dad was here with us, it would all be easier."

"Yeah..." Sighing, I tightened our embrace. "We can do this. Right?"

"I really hope so. I haven't ran this much in a while." I chuckled and her eyes lit up.

We hugged for a while; I could see she was needing it as well. It wasn't easy, after all. There was chaos everywhere and we would never know how long it would take until the entire planet was in it. Everything was being destroyed and I honestly didn't know what to think about it. There was no way back - either we learned to live with the destruction we caused, or we ran away, much like my mom and I were doing. What could save us? People were desperate. The air was thicker and the temperatures started rising, it was only a matter of time until the level of the waters rose as well.

Although I was running towards what I hoped would be the extension of my life, I knew it was hopeless. We were doomed.

Although we had been running for a while, it was like I could still hear the sound of chaos. A gunshot would sound every now and then, and after that there would be a few moments of silence, but some kind of high-pitched cry, that sounded awfully a lot like someone dying, and it would be over. Everytime it happened, I tried not to think of it too much, and I could see my mom was doing the same. We kept running. We ran until we almost fell on the dirty ground from exhaustion but, of course, none of us would actually admit it.

In a way, I was a lot like my mom. My dad was always the more sensible one, the one who would calm us down when something bad happened. Like polar opposites, my mom had always had a bit of temper. She would always need to shout and brake something to be able to calm herself down, but it wasn't a bad thing, since it barely happened. She was also the kind of person who would follow their instinct, and with her, it always worked - she was just astute like that. I had turned out a lot like her, although I had always been pretty quiet, just like my dad. 

"What will we do next?" No answer. "Mom?"

"I don't know." She sighing and let her head fall in her hands. I moved a little, resting my head on her shoulder. 

A few minutes passed and the only thing breaking the silence were the ocasional screams that could still be heard outside the forest. The silence wasn't unconfortable, not at all, it was actually a thing I knew we both enjoyed. It gave us space to think. Growing up, I never had any close friends, so I became used to the silence that often surrounded me, when I was alone in my room, playing with the few toys I had. My parents weren't exactly worried about it, but they didn't like it either. I could see they found it weird that I had no trouble being alone, but now it was coming in handy.

All of a sudden, my mom got up and opened the backpack that once belonged to my dad. She opened all the side pockets, desperatly searching for something unknown to me. I knew better than to ask, so I just watched her. Her eyes seemed to have gained a glimmer that wasn't there before and I felt my mouth twitch to a smile. Shaking my head, I furrowed my eyebrows and, when I prepared myself to speak up, my mom took a folded paper out of the backpack and smiled at me - a real smile. I hadn't realized how much I missed seeing her smile until that moment, that she finally did it again.

"This is it! Alien, I found our salvation! I found it." She opened the paper and put it on the ground. It looked like a map of the forest we were in. "Look, we are here." She drew a circle in a place that seemed pretty random to me, but I didn't say anything for a while.

"How do you know for sure?" I asked, still a bit confused. "And how will that help us?"

"Because we came from that road," she pointed at a path drawn in bright red. "and, according to my phone, we have walked exactly three miles and one thousand, seven hundred and nineteen yards. So, I would bet we are here."

"How will that help us?" Repeating my question, I kneeled beside her.

Something wasn't right. According to the map, there was a section of the forest that didn't have any trees, because it wasn't green. It was grey, making it seem like there was a city in the middle of the forest. But that wasn't possible, right? Why would anyone live in the middle of nowhere? There didn't seem to be any signs of road connection, and the forest was pretty big. The biggest in our country. Confused, I looked at my mom, but she still had that same big smile on her face. I didn't understand, at all. What was that?

"Alien, this is Blackmarsh." My mother told me, in a calm voice. "Years ago, probably about fifteen or even twenty, the government created a secret town called Blackmarsh. Only a few people know about it, but it is said that the government had a really dangerous project going down in there. Anyway, with the changing of the people in charge, I guess the project was withdrawn. The important thing is...Blackmarsh is said to still be standing!"

"So...there's an entire city inside this forest? And we can hide in in?"

My mom nodded vigorously and I found myself nodding as well, a sign of comprehension. She folded the map and put it in her pocket, explaining me we still had a long way to go before we reached it, but we could only make small stops from then on. I understood, sensing a tiny bit of hope inside me. Blackmarsh seemed to be the answer to my fears. Neither me or my mom knew how to actually survive outdoors, and I was actually beginning to worry if we would survive at all, inside a forest whose size almost twice that of the city I lived all my life.

So, with that bit of hope, I gathered enough strenght to last me through the day and a few hours after it had gone dark. My mom told me we should take a nap, because we were still a bit far and we had to be well-rested for the next day. As I lied on the ground, in my sleeping bag, I looked at the sky and imagined how it would be if I could actually see the stars. My parents always told me how they loved sitting on their roofs back in the houses they grew up and stargaze - I wish I was able to do that. But the air was so toxic we could only see one or two stars, within the dark grey sky. Sighing, I closed my eyes.

"Sleep tight, sweety. Tomorrow we'll finally be safe."

Although I knew I shouldn't believe that, I did. My mom took off her mask for a few seconds just to kiss my forehead and that was what it took for me to believe her. She looked so hopeful and I had never seen her like that, so I couldn't bring myself to be the person who crushed her hopes. After we slept, we would continue our journey and hopefully escape from all the chaos that was happening everywhere around us.

I found myself feeling lucky. My parents were never the people to fight, if they were, I don't know what would have become of me. Would I had been out in the city, killing innocent people because I was in such a deep level of panic that I didn't know right from wrong? I would have probably been killed in an instant. I was, indeed, lucky. They always knew what to do and how to act and, even though I had already lost my dad, I was sure that my mom would not part the same way. Before we left our house and previous life, they had created the plan to go to the forest. Probably because they knew of Blackmarsh's existence and wanted to prove the rumours true, all the while escaping from the dangers of our world. My mom was simply following their plan, and she was doing just fine.

"I love you, mom." I whispered, clutching tightly to her hand. She pressed her fingers against mine, almost uncounsciously, and I smiled behind the mask.

With all the trees around us, we were sure to be in a much healthier place than the rest of the people, but I still couldn't help but feel the air too heavy. Sure, it was nothing compared to how it was in the middle of a city, but it was still a bit hard to breathe. I didn't know if that would ever be changed, and I didn't want to give myself too much shope. Althought I knew hope to be a powerful weapon, it lso had a way of distracting people from reality. Hope was decieving, no matter how much light it brought us in the middle of the night.

During the night, I didn't exactly get much sleep. But I didn't complaing when my mom woke me up and forced me to get up. Sighing, I took a piece of bread out of my dad's backpack, just like she had done, and ate. We made small talk, and I assumed things were already catching up with us. My dad was dead, we had run away from our hometown, we were in the middle of a forest. We had found an escape. Evertyhing we had done the previous day seemed to be happened in a far away past, but they hadn't. I had shot a man in the leg. Not really believing myself, I touched my stomach, and there it was. The gun.

How could I have done it? I had no idea. My instinct had acted before I could even think about it and, when I finally did, the men was down and I was stealing the gun with which he had killed my dead. I was holding it, using it to protect myself. I thought of my dad for a while, and I shuddered thinking of how his body probably looked. Shaking my head, I looked at my mom. She had a really pensive expression on her face, so I didn't dare make a sound.

Once again, I sighed.

"Alright." My mom got up and looked at me, taking her mask off to smile at me. "I was hoping we wouldn't need these things anymore, but I guess we can't have everything."

"It's too dangerous." I said, although I had no idea why it had to be dangerous. It just was.

"I know, sweety." My mom sighed. "We need to get going, if we want to reach Blackmarsh. I'm starting to think we should have driven a bit longer into the other side of the forest."

"But isn't this secret city right in the middle of this forest? It would have been the exact same distance." My mom laughed a bit at me, and then she nodded. I smiled, although she could only see a faint smile because of the mask.

"We only have about..." Imitating her moves, I looked at the map. "six and a half miles. We should be there in about two or three hours, if we take our time."

"Let's take our time." I suggested and my mom laughed once again, agreeing with me.

"If that damned city hasn't got a few nice mattresses I'll be terribly disappointed in that government." Shaking my head and laughing, I didn't bother answering. We both took a deep breath and carried on.

Blackmarsh was beggining to sound more like a paradise by the minute.