Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Thirty-Nine - Ira

After I told Beiya that losing Keshav was her own fault, she was nicer to me one time, and stressed and even more demanding the next. There were a lot of things that she needed to prepare, she said, and that eventually translated to leaving me alone. I spent the day wandering around the old house, seeing nothing but locked doors that hid whatever chatter went on behind them. Yulian was probably behind one of them, being evaluated. I wondered how much Beiya was still delaying the psychological evaluation on me, which she mentioned before.

I found the door to a wide yard, and when I tried it I was surprised to find it unlocked. A strong, warm gust of wind hit me, and I immediately felt the moisture drain from the exposed skin of my face, legs and arms. Dry tufts of grass grew out of reddish-orange soil - more like red dust - and I wondered if the unwelcoming bushes were dead. In the distance, there were some thin trees, twisted and missing patches of bark. Looking at the faded green plants and the brightly coloured soil, my first thought was, Mars? I laughed and breathed in a refreshing scent that filled my body.

Oh please, don't let there be an Oasis Project on Mars.

Bored out of my mind, I stepped onto the red soil and poked at one of the clumps of grass with my shoe. It rustled loudly and I saw something scurry away. I jumped back, my breath caught in my throat. Oasis might have prepared me for an extraction mission in the desert, but they really saved their breath on explaining what to expect from Egypt-bushes and Egypt-trees.

"Not today," I said to the clump at my feet but stayed away from the dry grass on the rest of my walk. The sun scorched the back of my neck as I paced aimlessly around the block. There wasn't much to see; it was the middle of the middle of nowhere. I thought I saw a shed-like object in the distance, but it could have been another illusion of these weirdly-shaped trees. The sky was a strong blue like the ocean.

"Ira!" The hot, dry breeze carried my name. When I turned towards the voice, I saw Yulian running over in khaki shorts and a sky-blue t-shirt. His hair had turned more blonde than brown under the harsh sunlight. He caught up to me and shoved a bottle of water in my hand. "What are you doing out here? Drink."

My first sip made me realize just how parched I was. I was halfway through the bottle in a matter of seconds. "Where are we?"

"Central Australia," he started, then patted me on the back when I choked on my water. "Yes, I know. Four never told you?"

I shook my head, still in shock. Australia was never on my radar. I never expected that I'd end up visiting, especially not under these circumstances. It was... too far away from everything. The perfect place to hide from Oasis if they didn't have a base here.

"Well, Four wants to speak to you now," Yulian said. "She wants to ask you some questions."

"More questions?" Surely she wouldn't be doing my psychological evaluation? Yulian didn't have an answer for me, so I just followed him back to the large house suspiciously located in the middle of the vast Australian outback.

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"Have you ever met someone called Emma?" Beiya asked, arms crossed and leaning against a dusty windowsill.

I knitted my brows into a frown. It had been days since I last thought of Emma, and Linkin, in that terrible accident. I licked my top teeth from behind my lips and gulped nervously. "Emma?"

"2-1, with what they call the siren voice." Disgust was written all over Beiya's face. "Has she ever touched you, spoken to you?"

I dig into my jumbled memories, ignoring the soothing voice that came up to tell me to believe in my role in Oasis. "Yes," I said slowly.

Beiya pushed herself off the windowsill and I took a step back. She was half a head shorter than me, but she was a pocket rocket that I didn't want to be too near. She sighed. "This is why I didn't want a One. They are all so... screwed up!"

"Am I supposed to be sorry?"

"It is not your fault," she said, surprising me. She put a hand to her forehead. "Just... It is hard to know who you are. I saw what Emma did to that fish girl back in Hainan. Oh my f-"

"What did she do to Celestia?"

"The girl was in a terrible state, screaming, hallucinating about a dead boy. Doctor Dunn had to make the call to bring Emma from Alaska, to reprogram her." Beiya absently stroked one of the darker scars on her arm while she spoke. "When they came out of that room, the fish girl was a completely different person. She asked to be sent on a mission the next day to deal with whoever had wronged her and the Oasis Project."

I shuddered, remembering the chlorinated water gushing down my throat. "I'm not like h-"

The door swung open, and a man in his fifties stood with his mouth open on the other side. "Four-" he said loudly in an Australian accent.

"I know it's your house, Bruce, but do you not knock in Australia?" Four demanded.

"Robin just called," Bruce said in a rush. "He wants our One on a mission."

"What do you mean, Robin wants her on a mission?" Beiya shouted. "We hardly know who she is!" She fished out a phone from her pocket, but Bruce interrupted her.

"He's on a plane," Bruce said, making Beiya seethe even more, "on his way here. He said he will do an eval himself right before they go. It's an emergency."