5

"But how would you know that?" I squinted my eyes at him.

"Because Ariyah, whosoever they pointed fingers at is an actual dead man. They are trying to put the blame on someone." He stood to his feet, his hands behind his back.

"They could easily have framed him because they were trying to put the blame on someone." I said to him, leaning my hand against a seat in the room.

"It's not that Ari, these people have a reverse, we just need to find out why they lied to us, and why they have put the world in danger." He expressed his concerns, spreading his arms apart as if the words he read were high in the sky.

"Why would you come to me for this?" He had placed my hope high over nothing and that angered me to an extent. I retrieved my school bag and hung it over my shoulder, getting ready to go to class even though I was late. "And my name is Ariyah, if you are going to say it all, please do it sensibly."

"I came to you because no one else would believe this, I'm a pro with this and believe me when I tell you that by tomorrow, every piece of information about Nie will be taken down from the internet." Luke paced around me, moving the seat out of his way at intervals when necessary.

I continued to walk away from him, scoffing on my way out, greatly regretting that I had spoken to him, despite how risky I considered it to be.

"I need someone's help with this, please. I have a way to help everyone!" He sounded desperate. Too desperate. I didn't stop walking.

"I'm a girl!" He exclaimed from behind me.

He just lied. I turned around to see if he would fall on his knees and exit the world. How could he have risked something as precious as life just to get my attention.

Nothing happened. Luke was still standing on his feet, breathing.

"Why aren't you dead?" I wondered aloud.

He pulled out a little bottle from his pocket. It had something that looked like a thick oil. He handed it over to me for scrutiny.

I pulled the cap open and narrowed my eyes at the bottle, "what is in this?"

"Almadate oil." He explained. "I made it myself. The reason people die is because there has been a mutation and it is almost like oxygen has been modified. So instead of O2s, which is the formula for oxygen, there is more of a new gas, which I'm yet to discover its chemical name or symbol, so it's saying we now have XO2, where X is unknown gas." He explained.

"Why are you making this feel like some damn chemistry class, just go straight to the point." I had to roll my eyes at him.

"I'm sorry, I'm getting somewhere. You take science classes so I know you are not completely illiterate on matters like this." He moved forward, grabbing my wrist and pulling me to return to the seat I had taken previously.

"Remember in chemistry class when we did separation techniques?" He met my gaze, expecting a positive answer. I nodded in response.

"Air is homogeneous, so only fractional distillation could separate those gases." He said.

"How do you separate a worldwide gaseous mixture?" I wondered.

"Almadate oil. I need to make enough of it. I combined a distillate that is edible, and since it can be put in any form, food, metal, breathing it in, all that matters is getting everyone to taste it. This one currently only lasts for twelve hours." He retrieved the bottle from me. "You need a full cap to refrain from the unknown gas."

"Wow, how did you come up with this? Can I get a taste?" I would do anything to have this unknown oil in my mouth.

"That doesn't matter, and yes you can." He nodded in approval, giving the bottle back to me.

I hurried to drink a full cap. It tasted like what barf smelled like and that earned a scrunched up face from me.

"Ugh! It tastes so gross." I complained, wiping stains from my mouth with the back of my hand.

"El-oh-el." He teased, stretching his hand for it. "Don't worry. The substance itself is almadate, like I said, you can mix it with anything. Hence, this oil my brother blended onions into one time." He chuckled.

"Gross! You still haven't answered my question as to how you plan on getting rid of gas X?" I stood to my feet.

"All I need to know is what equipment was used to blast this air worldwide. If I can get it, I don't even need to know what this gas is, we fill it with almadate and boom," he paused to make an explosive gesture with his hands, "we can lie our way out of parties." He smirked.

"Wow, why me?" I began to progress towards the door seeing as he made similar moves.

"I believe I already answered that question." He replaced his headphones while we both walked out of the computer room.

"But this has to be a secret between us. Nobody must find out, we can't trust anybody." He explained.

"How do you intend to find the source that led this out? Why would the government do this intentionally?  What exactly do they want from us?" I raised my deepest thoughts.

"We will just have to find out." He said.

This was good for me. I needed it. I knew I had to come out to my family eventually but I was not ready yet. I hated to know if they would disown me for my true identity, the part of me that I could not change.

"Thank you for giving me this hope though, Luke." I put one hand on his shoulder.

He was about to respond when I heard a voice call from behind, "so it's just me you are not talking to?" Grace gasped from behind me.