Breath of Life.

Shrilk. shrik. shurk. puff. Titilayo heaved a sigh and leaned on her shovel for a moment. She gazed at the endless mountains of waste lying before her, then frowned at the shovel in her grasp. This is all a waste of time. She tossed it aside and plopped to the floor. A moment later, her headgear crackled with static, and Usman's gritty voice filtered through the speakers.

"Titi?" The light from his headlamp swept across her. "Why did you stop?"

A puff of laughter escaped her lips, and she turned to the man hard at work a few meters away. "Don't you find this pointless?" Usman seemed unfazed at her words, and his shovel did not pause for one moment.

"You must be joking," he said. "Look at the sky and tell me what you see."

She rolled her eyes at him, but she looked up anyway. "Nothing."

"Exactly."

For a moment, silence filled the air, and only the background static and the sound of Usman's breathing as he dug into the mire of filth punctured it. "Last week, I made a little hole over there." Titi turned towards the waste and angled her headlamp at a spot a few meters in. "That's where we stopped on Thursday last week. It's been five days, Usman."

She turned back to him. "A new mountain formed in five days! There's an enormous giant waiting outside our planet to swallow us up, but even more waste is piling up, and it's even faster than before! Usman, tell me, what is the point?!"

"Titilayo—"

Crackle. "Hey!" Mayowa's shrill voice pierced through the speakers and eclipsed Titilayo's disordered breathing. "You guys, guess what I heard on the radio!" He wheezed as he ran over, and Titi was tempted to toss a stone at his head to shut him up.

After a moment, she squashed that thought. It was too difficult to find spare parts for their headgear. "I doubt it will be anything useful."

Mayowa burst into laughter at this, and his excited voice wafted through the speakers in intermittent bursts. "This bzzzt wrong bzzt you bzzt bzzt found—" Titi groaned and gave her gear a few rough smacks before the signal cleared up. "What did you say?"

"I said, they found a patch of grass that can self-multiply. It can also induce its surroundings to sprout different plants! Do you know what this means?! Vegetables! Vegetables that don't taste weird!"

"Really?!" Usman's shovel clattered to the ground, and he rushed forward to meet the figure who was struggling to catch his breath. "Mayowa, you can't joke about something like this. You're only thinking about vegetables to eat, but if we can get trees to grow again, the giant sitting out there might lose interest in us and go looking for another decaying planet to devour."

Titi scoffed. "I hate to burst your bubble, but growing trees won't be enough to chase it away. We also have to be alive to see it."

"Titi!" Usman whirled on her. "Stop with your petty nonsense! Can't you see this is a sign of hope?!"

"Hope? Ha!" She bounced up from the floor and patted the dust from her trousers. "You all are blind to the facts! Why do you think it's been sitting there for so many years? It's just been waiting for us to all perish so we don't give it diabetes, or whatever disease such planet-devouring monsters contract."

"And how would you know that?!"

"Simple. Common. Sense."

"Um... Can we just... calm down for a moment?" Two bright headlamps zeroed in on Mayowa, and he shrank back in fright. "Never mind. Carry on, please." They turned back to each other, but after a moment they realised their anger had deflated quite a bit. Titilayo was the first to recover her wits, and she gave a long, weary sigh.

"Motives aside, any random person can guess what the authorities will do next, even with their toes." Usman's bulbous helmet dipped in a nod, and Mayowa looked from one person to another with question marks floating around in his brain. He didn't understand why they looked so gloomy at this stroke of fortune.

"What's wrong? Won't they hand it to people who can study it and use it properly? They might even distribute it around!"

Once again, two rays of light turned towards him. Even with their faces covered, he could feel the disdain pouring off them in waves. "What?"

Usman held his head in his palm, and Titi shook her head, hands akimbo. "After all we've taught you, you still can't figure this out?"

Mayowa chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.

Titi turned away and gazed into the expanse of darkness around them. "For a quarter of a year, we're shrouded in utter darkness by its enormous size." She paused for a moment, perhaps reminiscing about the world before its appearance.

"Despite that, some people would rather live short but comfortable lives in their high security underground bunkers than work hard to ensure they still have a planet to live in." She slowly shook her head from side to side. "It's such a shame."

Usman grunted in agreement. "By now, they must be in intense disagreement over the self-sufficient plant. Arguing for benefits, benefits, and more benefits." He let out a long breath. "When will it all end?"

"When the monster consumes the planet."

Titi spluttered and choked on her spit, while Usman doled out a smack to Mayowa's head. "Ow!"

With much effort, she saved herself from a miserable death and stomped towards him. "Mayowa! I still haven't questioned you for coming late. Again!"

Mayowa's desire for survival kicked in, and he rushed towards the pile of shovels. "Hey, it's your fault for leaving me behind! Plus, there's no sun to keep the time. And it's freezing cold! My blanket was too comfy."

Usman chortled. "You call that patch of rags a blanket?"

"Mayowa!"

"Okay, okay! Coming."

He pulled out a shovel with little rust on it and slunk over to the nearest waste pile. He sunk his shovel into the mess. 

The other two watched as he ripped into the filth with much gusto. A moment later, Titi switched off her community channel and sent a private connection request to Usman. Click.

"They dropped off more supplies."

The man grunted in response. "I don't understand," she said. "Why won't he accept his family? They found him after so many years, but—"

"Titi." He turned towards her. "It's his choice. We should respect it. He's already an adult."

He looked away and stalked to his own workstation. She clicked her tongue and turned her community channel back on. Just as she took a step towards her abandoned shovel, a shrill scream pierced through her helmet.

Her heart leaped into her throat, and she dashed towards Mayowa, who had jumped a few meters away from his spot. Usman was also barreling over, and with his long legs he got to Mayowa before he tumbled to the floor.

Titi skidded over and swept her light across the area. Once. Twice. She was about to turn away when she caught a tiny shadow peeking out from behind an empty can of porridge. She peered closer and discovered two little beady eyes gazing back at her. She squatted and reached out her hand, but the black shadow dashed away in the blink of an eye and melded into the darkness.

She paused, but a moment later she stretched her hand forward again. "Titi?" Usman asked. "What did you see?"

She ignored his question and lifted the empty can away. She gasped at the sight that greeted her.

"Titi? What's wrong?"

She still did not respond, so he lay down his charge and came forward. When he saw the willowy green sprout that was nearly chewed to bits, words failed him.

After a long while, he sucked in a deep breath and called out to the young teenager on the floor. "Mayowa... did… did that radio describe the grass they found?"

"Huh? Well... it's green?"

"Anything else?"

"Um... Oh! They mentioned something about it having little white flowers at the tip."

Titilayo choked out a sob, and a moment later she dove into Usman's arms and wailed. "It's okay," he said. "It's okay; we'll be fine. Look, even the earth is unwilling to give up hope. We must do our best to assist it." He turned to Mayowa and beckoned him over.

The young boy scrambled up and dived over. He snuggled into the man's embrace and offered a hand to calm the disconsolate woman.

"It's okay, mama. We'll be fine."