Oblivion

Chapter 15 part 2

          "I don't feel dead and I don't look dead, so I can't be dead." I said, my voice sounding airy and light.

The man sneered and looked me over before speaking, "You look dead to me!" and some of the men behind him nodded.

      "Well I'm not." I said hotly; standing taller and feeling much braver than I should in this situation.

        "And why are you not? You should be." The man asked, his eyes never leaving my own. I thought for a moment. Why was I alive? What reason do I have for being here? How did I get here?

I chose my next words carefully, "Because this is only a part of the Testing. It's not real, it's like a dream and I can't die in a dream."

       Everything went silent around me. Until the men's faces started to crack like old porcine dolls and the wind blow away all the dust, leaving their white skeletons behind, even the dogs were skeletons. The wind picked up again and blew away the skeletons, like they were nothing but dust in the wind.

I was standing in darkness, before I started falling. Tumbling head over end towards the ground; my stomach plummeted. Right before I hit the ground, I woke up in an instant on the cold metal table.

          "Woah! Woah! Come on it's okay calm down!" Orion said to me as I clung to his shirt, gasping for breath. Tears fell down my cheeks, the pain was just a dull itch now but whatever I just saw left a bad taste in my mouth. The other people in my group were up and staring at me with weary glances.
        The weight of Orion's hands on my shoulders keeping me down, left leaving me cold and exposed. Victor slid off his table and was at my side in an instant.

        "You were out for a long time! We all thought you were going to be the one to die!" Victor said, worry laced his voice.

       "Who did die?" I asked, breathless.
Victor was quiet and he moved over to let me see a brown-haired girl crying over another brown-haired girl who looked just like her. The snotty from last night was trying to comfort her.

          "It's okay Samantha, I'm sure Carly fought with everything she's got." The girl whispered to Samantha who only cried harder.

         "I know Carly was a fighter, Molly, but she shouldn't have died at all. We shouldn't even be here." Samantha cried, gripping Molly's legs. The people around her consoled her and Victor pulled me over to the group.

The guards didn't stop us, they just stepped back to let us through; Orion stayed back against the wall with the blonde woman.

       "Hey, it's okay Sam." Victor said quietly to the brown-haired twin.
Samantha looked up from him to me and her eyes narrowed.

          "You. Newbie. You were under longer than Carly but you are still alive." She was silent for a moment, tears staining her face. "It should have been you. It should have been you!" Samantha screamed and she lunged at me, her hands grabbed my shirt than my throat. She shoved me to the ground, strangling me. That was when the guards joined in, tearing her off of me. She was still screaming that it should have been me who died. I was helped to my feet, I was still struggling to breath.

         "What the hell is going on?" Aris had walked in; his face was red and his eyes were locked onto me.

          "It's just a simple fight." The woman said calmly. "Samantha's sister was taken today during the Test, it is grief she is feeling at the moment, Aristotle." The woman explained to Aris, who didn't seem to care about what she was saying.

        "Does that give her the right to attack another Subject, Talia?" Aris asked, his blazing blue eyes stared at Talia. The tension was high in the room it could be cut with a knife. Finally, it was Talia who looked away from Aris and back to me and Samantha.

          "Take miss. Lovett back to her room. Orion take Miss. Jones back to her own room." Talia commanded the guards and Orion.
Orion took a step behind me and grabbed my arm, "Come on." He hissed into my ear.

        Aris blocked our way, his eyes drilling into Orion. "I'll deal with this, you handle the others." And Orion let me go. Very carefully, as if he was afraid I was going to break into a million pieces,  Aris took my arm and started to guide me out of the door. He was still seething with rage when he pulled me in to the metal hallway.

           "Did she hurt you?" he asked, trying to restrain himself from yelling. I refused to speak, I couldn't speak, I couldn't bring myself to speak. What had just happened with Samantha was nothing compared to the simulation. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before in my life. My life had turned upside down, nothing was what it used to be.

          "Addieca. Did you hear me? Did that girl hurt you?" Aris asked again, now his voice only held concern. My eyes flitted to him but I didn't seem to see him, he was just an object, a blur of color, in my line of sight, "We shouldn't be here. Whatever the hell you people are, you should have left us alone." I whispered mostly to myself.
         Aris was silent, he just stared down on me, his face expressionless and his grip om my arm tightened.

        "Come on let's get you back to your room so you can get some rest before dinner."

I let him pull me to my room, where he left me without saying anything. I, in a haze, found my way to the bed, where I collapsed out of exhaustion.

What happened to the life I once had?