Bronchial New World by Simon Collinson
from Dystopia: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
I woke up coughing, wheezing and gasping. It could only mean one thing.
The air supply has been reduced again.
“How long for now?” I asked.
“Till they fix the, Cough, leak. There’s tons of it, Cough, escaping, Cough, every second, Cough, Cough. They say there’s a big, Cough, leak over, Cough, cough, cough, Birmingham. They think, Cough, the air will be back to, Cough, normal by, Cough, lunchtime. Of course not everyone will, Cough, be able, Cough, to last that, Cough, long. I saw some scavengers dragging away, Cough, old Joan an hour ago. And she wasn’t even, Cough, Cough, dead yet.”
“She’s not been, Cough, Cough, well for ages, Cough. But she’s slowed up, Cough, Cough a lot this year.”
“With the frequent, Cough, air supply problems, Cough, Cough, it’s not looking good for the , Cough, sick and the, Cough, Cough, old.”
“It’s not looking good for, Cough, any of us. Cough, Cough, Cough.”
“We’ll be, Cough Cough, old one day…”
This story appears as part of Dystopia, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series.
Bio
Simon Collinson is a writer from England. He seeks solitude, sorrow and shadow.
PUNK NOIR, the online literary and arts magazine that looks at the world at its most askew, casting a bloodshot eye over the written word, film, music, television and more.
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