As president of her middle school environmental club Becky knew that even though the rest of the town had given up, she and her fellow students could not. Not only was the polluted water ruining the environment now, but also it would ruin years to come. Any animal that drank or swam in the river could get sick and, if nothing was ever done, the animals could go extinct in the area. “I have to figure out what’s causing this. We have to change it before its too late,” Becky told her fellow students. Together they raised enough money to buy a kit that tested the pollution in the water and went down to the river to collect a sample of the dark, murky water and tremendous yellow bubbles. “I’ll get the water sample, you stand guard incase you see anyone coming,” Becky directed her friends as she snuck down the grassy bank with the kit in hand. The bank had become slippery with residue from the water, but Becky climbed onto a rock and began to reach into the water to scoop it up into the plastic container. However, the rock was even slipperier than she thought and with a quick PLOP she fell head first into the dark water.

“Oh no, the water sample!” Becky thought as she reached for the surface, but the current pulled her under, drawing her into the dark purple and blue swirls. Swimming upstream was difficult; the water was thick with trash that kept pulling her to the bottom. Having trouble breathing, she was pulled under the water once more, but this time she noticed an underground pipe dumping black oil into the river. She swam closer to the pipe in hopes to see any markings from where it was from, but when she finally reached it she was suddenly engulfed in darkness.

Becky awoke on the riverbank; the current had washed her body up onto the shore after she had fainted. After standing up and coughing, Becky wiped herself off and untangled herself from the trash that had wrapped around her. Pulling a plastic soda holder off her wrist, she noticed something was different. “My hands!” she gasped. They had turned white and bony along with the rest of her body. ‘Something odd must be happening in that river and it probably has to do with that pipe,’ she thought to herself, “I have to figure out where its coming from.”

It didn’t take long for Becky to discover where the pipe was coming from. In front of her were the tall towers of an industrial oil refinery, miles of pipes that wound about like city streets, and an intrusive yellow ‘NO TRESSPASSING’ sign. Becky knew the oil refinery wasn’t new to the area, but she couldn’t remember ever hearing of it impacting the environment negatively.

Becky started walking towards the factory when she noticed a spotted guard dog running towards her. Barking loudly he advanced on her until Becky had no choice but to turn and run. The angry little dog chased her down the road until she finally was far enough away. Despite the guard dog, Becky knew that she had to return another day to stop the pollution of the river: she just had to come up with a plan.