OBLIVIOUS

Chapter 10

"If we're not humans, then what are we?" I asked. "I know that a lot of strange things are happening right now but I don't think it includes us being non-humans."

"I'm just saying my thoughts," Baron defended himself. "You got to admit everything here is unusual. Everything is bizarre. And that includes us."

"Yeah. That's true."

"This whole damn place is bizarre," Baron added. "The plants, the animals, the whole environment. Even the moon looks strange. There is no end to this place's strangeness that I wondered if this is even real."

"I do think everything that happened so far is real," I say, but a new thought inside my brain had started to grow. What if Baron's suspicion is right? What if this is not real? "Although something in this place makes everything surreal."

"I just thought that maybe we are in a dream or something," he admitted. "But that doesn't matter now, because whether this is real or not we have to survive. If this is a dream, we have to keep on going so that we'll learn how to wake up. And if this is real, then obviously we have to stay alive for as long as we can. There is no turning back here."

I nodded in agreement because I think that way too. We have really no choice to begin with. I guess staying there in the medical facility was the other choice, but that choice sucks.

I stared hard at the mechanical insect that had chosen to attached itself to my arm painfully. The pain nor the ticking it emits no longer distracts me but the longer I look at it the more it reminds me of the danger we have been facing since Baron came into my room and saved me. It constantly gave me this horrible sensation of being prey. It gives off a feeling of paranoia and anxiety, and those two are a deadly combination.

"By the way, did you hear what I just heard a while ago?" I asked as soon as I remembered Vista asking for help. "I heard Vista. She was here."

"So that's who I heard," Baron replied, confirming that I really heard Vista's voice again. "I also looked around when I heard that voice, but I did not see her."

"She still might be here though," I said. "And she might be needing some help too."

Baron shook his head. "No one's going back there."

"But Baron---"

"We are not going back there," he repeated. "No one's going to risk his life again, you understand? We were only lucky enough to come back here alive but another trip there will kill us already."

"I won't cross that bridge knowing that Vista might still be here in this area," I replied to him indignantly. "I'm going to save her."

Baron looked like he wanted to hit me. And I guess he really wants to. "Axis listen, you are going to die if you go back there."

"And so is Vista! She'll die if we just leave her there!"

"That makes it two of you who's going to die," he snapped back at me. "I'm sorry but how will you save her if the Slackers see you? And they most likely will, because in case you had forgotten, we already established that the thing attached to your arm is a tracking device. So I ask you, what will you do if you meet those killing machines? Somebody already died at their hands. Don't make the same mistake."

I was aghast at what I heard. "W-Who died already?"

"A girl," Baron replied. "Forte only told me about her. The Mediborgs called her Celeste 1. She tried to escape too but has been shot dead by the Slackers."

But that horrible news only made me want to save Vista more. "If that's true, then I really need to save Vista. She will not survive in this area for long without help. And she already sounded like she was injured."

"She's not calling for help anymore, so it's either she's already been captured, or she's already dead. Either way coming back for her at your state now will only result in your capture."

I know that Baron was right again, so I stopped whining about Vista. Both of us were already exhausted, and we have yet to cross the water. While we are still here we are yet to be safe. But I can't stop worrying about Vista. She's the only person here that I really want to meet and now there's a chance that she's dead. I wanted to scream.

"Don't worry, we will come back here once we have recovered enough. Plus we also have to find a way to remove that thing on your arm. Once we are both able-bodied again, we will save Vista."

"But you already said it," I said trying to remind him of his bluntness. "What if she's dead?"

"I don't think that they are eager to kill her. Just as I told you earlier, her room was heavily guarded too just like yours. And in case you haven't noticed, the Slackers hadn't tried to shoot you directly or kill you. It seems to me that they just want you to be recaptured."

That calmed me. "You think so?"

"That's my wild guess. I might be wrong, but I could also be right. What I'm trying to say is, whether if I am right or if I am wrong, our actions will depend on how strong we are both. We'll only die trying to save her right now, Axis."

I know what he's trying to say. The odds that there is even a girl waiting out there for us to save once we decide to get her is not even a hundred percent. But the odds that we'll get slaughtered by the Slackers once we encounter them again because we are already weak and injured is as sure as the reality that we are not normal people. As much as I hate leaving Vista behind, I have too or both of us will be in peril. I guess I'll just have to believe in what Baron had said that Vista and I are somehow important enough to the White Shadows.

"Now we have to go," Baron announced and he carried the unconscious guy again. I was still perplexed at how this new guy looked calm while he's sleeping when he had just lost an arm, and it helped me in controlling my anxiety. He looked so fine that you would not think of him being just on the verge of death. Even Baron looked more cheerful now that we met another Moss. Maybe because the more of us here the greater our chances of actually leaving this place. I think we both felt more optimistic now because at least we are not just a duo anymore.

We both agreed that the new guy should wear the protective suit I was already wearing just in case something happens while we are traversing the deep waters. At least he'll float if we got separated. The water was already waist-deep when I saw the rippling current in the dark water.

"Even this spring is strange," I noted while trying to stay close behind Baron. "The water appears to be alive as well."

"This is what I was telling you," he said without looking back at me. "Everything in this place is surreal."

"Including us," I added, remembering what he just said. "And if you're right, what do you think we are then? Are we some sort of a new breed?"

"Most likely. Or maybe we are not from here. I don't really care about that, but sometimes when I was alone in the night I can't help but think about our existence. That maybe we are not supposed to be here."

"How long had you been living alone like this?" I asked again. "It must have been tough for you."

"About a week, I guess. I don't exactly know how long, because I noticed when I counted the days that the nights are longer than the daylight."

I did not get that, so I asked another question. "But how are you managing to stay well during these past days? I mean, I know that you are crazy strong but you must have felt hungry. Your wounds must have impeded you so I wondered how on earth do you manage to stay alive because if I was you, I would have starved or died from injuries."

I heard him chuckle at my remark. It was the first time, so I almost thought I was just imagining it. "I rarely get hungry," he revealed. "And when I do, I drink water and steal food from the facility. There are fruits and animal on the forest that looks like they're edible enough for me but I chose not to touch them at all."

"Why? Because you're concerned that they might be poisonous?"

"Yes. And I don't think they are good for someone like me."

"Someone like you? What does that mean?"

He did not answer me, because we can now hear the loud noise of gurgling water ahead of us. I stopped too because the sight in front of us was equally breathtaking and alarming. For just above us is the looming charcoal-black steel fence-bridge hybrid that glowed in that familiar ghostly electric yellow. I bet my whole life that we'll get electrocuted if we touch it even with only a strand of my hair or with the tip of my fingernails. Its base was only a head higher than us, so we had to dive underwater to make sure we won't touch it and perish.

This was a huge problem because the water looks like it won't easily cooperate with us. It was swirling and moving like a true whirlpool, so swimming under it is sure to be a devilish thing to do. With my body's current state I don't even know if I can swim the way we needed to swim across this threat of a fence, but there is no turning back now so I had no choice but to gamble again.

I was already picturing a horrible scenario in my head but Baron was again my savior, as he already thought of a way for us to swim without getting separated from each other. Out from inside his clothes he pulled a thick, glowing vine-like material that faintly glowed in the dark. "Let us use this. I'll tie both of you to my body with this. Just make sure you don't get untangled."

I nodded and let him tie me with the rope-like vine he probably got before coming here. I was so impressed by this because it meant that he had planned this thing even before he saved me which means he actually wanted to save other Mosses like me.

When he finished tying us, we continued to move forward. There was a slight pain in my arm because of the open wound I got from this mechanical bug-like thing that is now beeping like crazy (I was half-expecting it to get destroyed once it was submerged in the water but it didn't) which made me nervous. However, upon seeing Baron swam with the one-armed new guy with him as a liability made me forget about getting drowned. All I wanted right now was to get past this whirlpool and cross over the fence.

Digging a tunnel might have been an easier way of crossing over this lethal fence but I was now feeling victorious when we just passed by the first whirlpool and we managed to stay afloat despite the water becoming deeper.

I could no longer walk on the bottom, and the cold water engulfed me. A lot of times I had to dive because the huge rippling water kept on slapping on my face, and when I look in front of me I could see Baron holding on to the new guy (who was floating.) With the rope as my safety net, I tried my hardest to swim without fear, and I did swim with lesser effort. The second whirlpool which was larger than the first was now in front of us, and that's when the tragedy happened.

Something pulled the rope downwards. I had no chance in checking what caused it, or who, for that matter. All I knew is that a strong force was pulling Baron underwater. And because I was tied to a rope which was in turn tied on his waist, I was also pulled downwards with a great force that it made me release air bubbles from my open mouth as large as my head.

I go down, down, and all I was able to think at the moment is how everything ended in a dangerous circumstance. I thought about death, something which I tried really hard to avoid and escape from, but now is again trying to thwart my streak.

As I went down losing so much air, I thought about my life--- my unknown past and the secrets I have yet to uncover about myself. I thought about what my life could have been if I just actually have been able to cross that damn fence, be it over or under it. I wondered about what I could really be, and why is almost everyone wanted me captured. Or dead.

I wanted answers.

And because I wanted answers, I wanted to live more.

I wanted to do something on my own that will catapult us to safety for a change. I don't want to give all of the responsibility of saving us to Baron, who had already done so much. I wanted to be relied on too. I wanted to defy what my body can only do.

That's when I thought of the thing that I think will let us live, at least for now. Of course, how can I forget about my newly discovered ability to use electricity like it was air? Like it was in my blood? Like it was in my veins?

So with great concentration that I haven't done before, I thought about releasing electric current with all my might. I was shouting 'please let this work' a hundred times inside my head, and luckily it did.

With my eyes, I saw the water around me illuminate in bright yellow. It was so bright that you'd think someone submerged the sun into this body of water, and my body was immensely tingling and I felt my temperature rise up like crazy. I heard so many zapping noises and someone or something was screeching, and then it became quiet.