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    I Can't Breathe
    I Can't Breathe
    I Can't Breathe
    Ebook54 pages43 minutes

    I Can't Breathe

    By Lex Williams

    ()

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    About this ebook

    WARNING: Contains high impact horror and mature themes. Discretion is advised.

    The collective trauma in the aftermath of the Thick Lung Virus, and the lockdowns to manage it, still lingers after the distribution of a vaccine. Wolfram and Kamilla, two survivors of TLV who need to wear gas masks all day every day to live, are just trying to get by. But trauma often begets trauma, especially when a comfortable ignorance is easier to believe than uncomfortable truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLex Williams
    Release dateFeb 27, 2021
    ISBN9781005606473
    I Can't Breathe
    Author

    Lex Williams

    Lex Williams is a novelettist ( although occasionally writing novellas with the rare novel ) whose intent is to take advantage of self-publishing stories to provide interesting, different and weird ideas that you won't find in traditionally published stories. Williams typically writes for the horror genre ( usually dipping into the surreal variety ), but has explored other areas, such as ( non erotic ) romance and science fiction.

    Read more from Lex Williams

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      Book preview

      I Can't Breathe - Lex Williams

      I Can't Breathe

      Lex Williams

      Distributed by Smashwords

      Copyright 2021 Lex Williams

      Thanks to my editor, Lee Cope, who I found through writerfind.com.

      Thanks to my cover artist, Antoci Bogdan, who I found at deviantart.com under the username, Sucdeportocale.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1: A kind of ordinary

      Chapter 2: Incurable

      Chapter 3: Sub-standard of living

      Chapter 4: A lucky break

      Chapter 5: Costs

      Chapter 6: Losses

      Chapter 7: Superheating

      Chapter 8: Flashpoint

      Other Titles by Lex Williams

      Connect with Lex Williams

      Chapter 1: A kind of ordinary

      Kamilla's breaths made a slight echo in her panoramic, full-face gas mask. It was the kind with an activated carbon filter that could protect lungs from dangerous chemicals in the air… or protect weak lungs from regular air.

      She glanced up at the top shelves of the supermarket aisle. It wasn't entirely barren, but she could recall a time when there was so much more variety. The problem wasn't supply, of course. Just logistics.

      She took a packet of pasta. One per customer. It was just a band-aid, and an ineffective one at that, even after all this time people were still panicking, like society never really moved on. Not that the rule impacted her much. Every dollar she spent had to be stretched as far as it could, and one packet was all she could afford.

      Not that someone with her condition could blame anyone else from refusing to move on. She put the pasta in her hand basket. People without gas masks stepped away from her as she headed toward the checkouts.

      She waited in line, her legs beginning to ache. She took deeper, slower breaths. Almost everyone in the line, heading out and heading in, didn't wear a gas mask. They didn't need to. She was just one of the unlucky ones.

      It was her turn and she stepped up to the checkout. The assistant scanned through her items quickly. Kamilla noticed that the he didn't place them into the bag so much as he dropped them in close enough to the bottom of the bag that it didn't damage anything, doing so only for her. She paid for her groceries.

      As she walked to the exit door, she could hear the sound of the assistant spraying something. He would wipe down the register and wash his hands before he could serve another customer. Not that it was necessary.

      Not that scared people cared.

      ***

      Kamilla waited in the building's lobby. She was already feeling the cost of going out to buy food. She rated days in spoonfuls of energy; today was just under a two. That was all she had. And with so many things to do. Unlike the gas mask, people couldn't see that side of her – she looked the same to the world, whether she had many spoonfuls or none.

      A man in an expensive looking business suit came to collect her. He took her up an elevator and into a small

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