Cough, Cough, Cough (open)

Bam! Someone ran into Lyla. The impact was hard on Lyla’s fragile body. What little air she’d had in her body between coughs was sent out of her as she fell to the ground, the body of the being that knocked her over on top of hers, in a painful awkward position. Cough, cough, cough! Lyla couldn’t inhale. Cough, cough, cough! The severity of her cough wasn’t helping either. Cough, cough, cough! She was feeling faint as she tried to inhale. As her body permit, she was able to inhale barely enough toxin laced air to begin to get her body in normal function. Enough function to see who had knocked her over.

It was girl she’d seen before at her factory. She worked the same shift as Lyla, but was late often. Cough, cough, cough! She painfully uttered the word “ow” in response to both the impact and the painful sound from her throat.

Soon, a Peacekeeper was there though. "Hey Kat, late for your shift I see. And how many times may this be?" the Peacekeeper asked the other girl. Another series of coughs wracked Lyla’s body as she watched the exchange between the Peacekeeper and the familiar girl. She heard her utter, 'Well... I don't know... perhaps the second?' She almost scoffed. She’d seen the girl, heard her lie. She was late, or at least in trouble, often. This was why Lyla never got along with others. She judged too quickly.

Lyla stood up and scraped off the gravel on her hands and knees. Her hands were now bleeding, but her knees were covered. “May I g-go? I-I-I have,” cough, “a shift at the f-factory and,” cough, “I n-ne-need to be early.” Cough.

"Not right now, first you need to catch you breath, and tell me what happened. And yes I saw what happened, but an account of the victim, wish I had a better word, is generally better. And by any chance do you need a cough drop?" Lyla nodded and took a deep breath. She sincerely tried not to stutter in her explanation in what had happened, but apparently Peacekeepers made her less at ease than a normal person did, who in itself made her very nervous.

"I, uh, I was on my way to the f-factory, I-I've-I work at it, and I stopped because my, uh, my cough drop was coughed out of m-my mouth. I decided I sh-s-should go back to the factory instead of g-getting another and, I guess I wasn't paying attention because, uh, Kat ran in to me. It's, uh, it's my fault, I guess," Lyla said. She didn't know if she was lying or not. She hadn't really been paying attention. "And if, uh, if you have an extra cough drop, I w-would greatly appretiate it."