The Mies Divide (Tentative)

Chapter 5

I awoke in a dark room. It was pitch black aside from the luminescent glow of a paper thin screen that floated about a foot from my head, which was emitting a steady beep and displayed various vitals. Each number displayed was a cool blue; not a red or yellow tone that could cause concern with most medical equipment so I didn't give it any thought. When I tried to sit up, though, I was immediately yanked back down onto a lightly padded, but cold surface. I turned to inspect my wrists, from which I'd felt the tug and noticed that they were tethered to metal bars connected to what I lay on. I began to fumble with the binds, but didn't make much progress, because my fingers felt oddly thick and numb; but due to the darkness I couldn't make out what was the cause. The lights in the room suddenly flashed on and I was blinded as if someone had just thrown a flash bang grenade into the room. I shrieked and curled up into as much of a ball as the restraints would allow me to.

"Ah, you're awake." An airy voice said a few feet behind me, it sounded female, but it definitely wasn't human so I wasn't quite sure. I realized that I was facing a metal wall and slowly rolled onto my back to get a glimpse of my visitor. At first I didn't see her, because I habitually looked for someone at human height, but when I looked down two feet, there she was. A female Nemian with a blueish-green complexion hovered beside my bed looking at my monitor with casual interest.

"How do you feel?" She asked. Her accent was thick and a little difficult for me to decipher. I thought about my wellbeing and the night before...or was that just earlier tonight? My stomach ached only dully now and I instinctively reached for it, but my restraints prevented my arms from getting that far. That was when I noticed that I was wearing some odd gloves.

"What the?" I panted.

"They're here to ensure my safety, is all." The Nemian woman stated as if we were discussing the weather, "Now would you kindly answer my question?" I studied my gloved hands for a moment and tried to summon up the tiniest bit of electricity I could, but instead of the electric tingle of power that accompanied my power, thousands of what felt like spikes pricked deep into my hands in response.

"Owww!" I shrieked.

The Nemian woman nodded slowly, "You din' believe me?" I groaned and without hesitation she reached for my waist. I flinched in anticipation of burning pain. It was then, when I looked down to where she was reaching that I realized that I was now wearing a plain grey tunic in place of my black robes. She grabbed my tunic and hiked it up to my waist to investigate my abdomen and I stared down in shock. It wasn't the gaping open hole that I had expected, the wound was a huge blackish bruise that took up most of my torso along with a freshly stitched up laceration that was about four inches in length and ran diagonally across my rib cage.

"What happened? Diona has never seen such wounds before. You're lucky she could mend them." The Nemian said.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked, refusing to make eye contact with the Nemian woman. I stared at the blank wall at the foot of my bed.

"That's classified" She replied, her voice had grown cold.

"I need to see the guy in white."

She was silent for a few moments, "The one who brought you in?" She asked. I nodded and she turned to press a few buttons on the monitor beside my bed, "Atlas is a busy man, but I will see what I can do." She then shuffled out of the room.

"Won't you at least untie me?" I shouted after her. The only response I received was the door to my room locking as it closed. I waited a few seconds before giving up on the idea of the Nemian woman returning and turned to observe the room in which I was temporarily trapped. I was completely unsure whether these people were with the Gaia or if I should have been concerned; Gaia often didn't employ non-humans, though and the Nemian woman was too blunt to be a servant; that was unsettling. I cursed myself under my breath. The walls were all a smooth metal and the room was pretty small. The bed on which I lay was nothing more than a metal frame with rails. Each of my limbs was shackled to one of these rails and was tethered tightly enough to disallow much movement. Panic rolled over me like a tidal wave and my mind started to jump from one conclusion to another. Was I a prisoner of War? Was this Theia? I'd heard so much about them, they hated Earthborns and either enslaved or killed most of them. Rumors about Theia had flown around camp since I was enlisted and anyone who went missing in action was presumed to have been taken by them and either tortured for information or outright killed. Gaia wouldn't care about me now, either. They would leave me at the mercy of Theia In a panic, I started to tear at my gloved hands again, maybe if I could get the gloves off-