Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Thirty-Five - Ira

It was so cold. I was lying down, paralyzed, and I couldn't see. It felt familiar to something from long ago, being chained down to a hospital bed on Dell Island. Liana? I couldn't vocalize the doctor's name. I expected her voice to float into existence but remembered what had happened that night in the desert.

Even though I was drifting in and out of consciousness, my chest clenched and my throat closed up when I remembered the grenade explosion. I was alive, but in what capacity, I couldn't tell. I sighed, the air coming up hoarsely through my dry throat, and gave in to sleep as the unknown chemicals in my bloodstream pulled me back.

When I next came to, there were voices around me, speaking in a strange accent. I was able to cough softly, which made the conversation around me stop. No one spoke for the next few seconds, as if they were waiting for me to let them know how done with it all I was.

"I need a drink," I said with difficulty. My jaw was only able to move slightly, and my tongue felt too big.

"You cannot," someone spoke up. "It will interact with-"

"Just get me a... strong one." Even without a drink, my words were incredibly slurred. My demand was quickly forgotten as my body chose sleep over my horrible memories once again.

󐁌♟♙♟♙

"I will deal with her," a female voice said from a distance away. The accent was familiar - Chinese - but why would I be back in China if the mission was intercepted? Footsteps came closer to me but stopped a few seconds later. "Hey! Tell Robin we have more, but not the ones we were expecting."

Whoever she was talking to said something back, but there was the loud closing of a door and the voice was muffled after that. The woman muttered something under her breath before coming over to me. The breeze from her movement blew gently against my cheek before she tapped my face. I groaned, but the touch reminded me that I was inhabiting a body. I felt the thick quilt draped over my body, the mask over my eyes, and the pains in my head and stomach. My back, however, was lying on something much softer than when I woke up last time. Finding movement in my hands, I reached up to take the eye mask away.

"No, no." The woman grabbed my hands and pinned them to my sides. "That will hurt."

"Why?" I rasped, fighting the nausea that was creeping up to my throat. "Who are you?"

She laughed quietly, but with a hint of arrogance. "So, they never showed you any recordings of me."

My tired brain spun with all the information. I thought of everything that Oasis had shown me. The compound, the tactics, the petite Chinese woman in her mid-twenties. "Four?" That innocent-looking recruit in the pictures couldn't have been so forceful. Could she?

"Not bad, you are clever," she answered. "And who are you?"

"What the-"

"Who are you?" Four cut me off demandingly. "What number, what base?"

"One, China." Her questions made my head hurt, and I needed that drink more than ever now.

"China?" It appeared that I didn't look Chinese enough.

"Yes."

"That is why they put the monitors in your eyes." Four sighed. "Do you have a history of trouble?"

"Excuse me?" I blurted out before remembering what she had said about my eyes. "They did what to my eyes?"

"We took them out right away," Four said. "We were lucky we scanned you. Don't move that. I said it will hurt. You are going to be sensitive to light for a few days. Do you want water? Food? I can arrange."

I wanted answers, but the ache all over my body was not helping my confusion. Any good feelings about the Oasis Project had gone out the window as soon as I heard that they put something in my eyes. My guts twisted, but I knew that I was starving. "Both... Thanks."

"I will-" Four stopped when there were knocks on the door. "Yes?"

"Robin wants to speak to you directly." It took all of my mental effort to decipher the man's accent and understand what he was saying.

"Ma-de, I need a vacation," Four muttered. The moving air stroked my face again as she moved away from me. "One, I will tell someone to bring food and water. Do not touch your eyes."

"Got it," I said flatly.

The next time she spoke, she was no longer talking to me. "Hello, Robin, we got a One... No, I don't know yet. We are delayed. She still needs a psych evaluation." As she walked further away, I held onto her voice over the silence as much as I could, but she disappeared soon after. So I lay in bed like a corpse, waiting for one of these people to revive me.