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air won’t be breathable soon, and we’ll all suffocate.”
    “But how can that be?” The tendons in Liam’s neck are standing out. “Is it the red light? Is it messing with the plants’ oxygen production?”
    “Let’s walk and talk,” I say. Stepping around him, I explain, “The plants never produced the bulk of the oxygen. There are machines that do that.”
    Liam follows me, but his gait is uncertain, and his breathing is labored again. “Everyone knows it’s the plants that produce—”
    “Right.” I can’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “Just like everyone knows that the sky is never red.” I look up at the screen-like Dome. “Just like everyone knows we’re on Earth, in a paradise, and nothing can go wrong.”
    Liam gives me a confused look and says, “Okay, let’s say machines are at work. Why is it getting harder to breathe so quickly?”
    “I don’t know for sure.” For the millionth time, I hope Phoe will chime in with some scientific explanation, but she remains silent. “It might be the part about the nitrogen,” I fib, suppressing a shiver from the chill seeping into my skin. “I read that too much nitrogen in the air can suffocate you, and it might also take oxygen out of the air. If not nitrogen, then maybe the machines are messing up in some other way. It’s not hard to run out of oxygen if you stop or slow down its production, since all of us are using it up by breathing. It’s not like air can come from outside the Dome…”
    “What about thermostatic what’s-it-called?” Liam says after catching his breath for a few steps. “What was that about?”
    “Haven’t you noticed how cold it is?” I say, rubbing my hands up and down my bare arms.
    Liam looks at the gooseflesh on his own arms. “I thought it was from the lack of clothes and this being the middle of the night. At least I assume it’s the middle of the night. Do you actually have any idea what time it is?”
    “No, I don’t,” I say. The air coming out of my mouth looks like smoke, or more accurately, vapor. This is how the ancients’ breath looked when people walked around during winter. I’ve never seen it in real life.
    Liam jams his hands into his armpits. “So what’s going to happen to us? What’s going to happen to everyone?”
    “I’m not sure.” I try to keep my teeth from chattering.
    “Then where are we going? What’s the point of following the Guard?”
    As though he was waiting for Liam to ask that question, Albert disappears into the forest.
    I pick up my pace. “If we run, we’ll stay warm,” I explain when Liam glances at me. “Plus, the forest might have more oxygen with all those trees.”
    Without complaining that I didn’t answer his question, Liam runs after me. By the time we reach the tree line, his breathing starts to sound like a broken steam engine.
    The forest looks creepily black under the red light, reminding me of an evil, magical forest from a fairytale. I expect Liam to say something about it, but he doesn’t—not a good sign.
    A mile or so into the woods, Liam stops, and I can tell he’s about to ask me why we’re following Albert and where we’re going. To save him oxygen, I say, “The Guard isn’t really our destination. He might know something, but the place we really need to reach is the Adult section. They might have some answers.”
    Liam takes a couple of heavy breaths and says, “But how are we supposed to get through the Barrier?”
    “Let’s keep moving,” I say and grab his ice-cold arm. “I’m hoping if we can catch up with the Guard, he’ll get you through.”
    I don’t tell Liam that even if we don’t catch up with Albert, there’s a good chance that the Barrier will let him through because he’s with me . I can access any area in Oasis thanks to Phoe’s Birth Day hack that fooled Oasis’s systems into thinking I’m an Elderly.
    The smell of the pine forest, or perhaps the oxygen it produces, reinvigorates me, but the same