Oblivion

Chapter 15 part 4

        When I woke, my limbs were still groggy and I could barely lift up my fingers. It only took me a few minutes to realize I was in my room on the Overseer, in my bed and I was naked.

         "Do you need any help?" I whipped my head around to see Orion sitting beside my bed.
My eyes narrowed and I tried to pull my blankets tighter around me, "What are you doing here? Why am I naked?"

         "You sweated through all your clothes, so Aris sent in some lady to take off your clothes so you could be more comfortable. And why I'm here is because..." he paused for a moment, his cheeks grew red before he continued talking. "because I was worried about you." He sounded uncertain and a little uncomfortable.

I watched him from my bed for a moment before I laughed at him. My laugh was bitter and cold, there was no joy in it, only the small hints of betrayal.

          "Really? You were worried about me? Well gosh isn't that fantastic! Save your worry for someone who actually gives a rat's ass about you." I spat at him.
Orion sat motionless, as stiff as a board. I knew I had hurt him, even if he hid it well. It was in his eyes, that twinge of pain and hurt that flashed there for a moment before disappearing. He took a deep breath before standing up from his chair in the corner. My eyes followed him to the door where he stopped briefly before turning back to me.

         "I thought you were dead. We all thought you had fallen victim to the Testing; me Allister, Aris, the other Subjects, even the doctors. They written you off as "legally dead," after your heart stopped beating for over two minutes.

         "Usually Aris doesn't even bother coming down when the call come out that a Subject has died, but he rushed down the instant they said your name and so did Allister." He paused; thinking over his next words carefully.

        "They don't know how you did it. How you were able to claw your way back to life after two minutes of nothing. Aris is calling you a miracle and I'm starting to believe he's right."

                  We were both silent.
I, for finding out that, in my hell-scape, had been dead longer than a minute and Orion stood quiet, waiting for me to say something anything at all. When I didn't say anything, he sighed before turning to leave.

           "That doctor. What happened to him?" I asked, staring at my hands.

           "Aris... he's different from all of us. He's been able to control and manipulate the electrical field ever since he was a young boy and because our bodies can create electricity, he can control us. Both alien and human alike.

             "That's why he's captain of this ship. Because of his ability; all captains of every ship have the same power as Aris. What else he can do is beyond me, that's all I know of these special abilities. So that's what happened to the doctor, Aris used his abilities on him."

         "Alien?" I asked, quietly.

           "Relating or denoting beings supposedly from other worlds; extraterrestrial." Orion told me, he sounded like he was reading from a script. When he saw that I didn't quite understand, he explained farther, "Addieca, Allister and I are not of your world. In fact, the only people who are the Subjects. Nearly a hundred years ago my people decided to test humans to see if they were really as resilient as we had heard. So, we sent a meteor down – which is something you guys call the Great Fire - to destroy everything and like predicted your people came out of hiding.

         "So, we decided to test you, see which ones had the need to live, to survive. Than we would send someone down to guide and watch how you guys would fair if you were pushed to your limit. Of course, some of you give up after a while and we have to start all over, looking for someone who has a will to survive."

          I didn't say anything. Nothing of this made any since to me. Why would they want to rip us from our home? Where we only mice in a maze searching for a way to get the cheese at the end of the maze? Only to find out that instead of the end of the maze, there was only more and more maze to travel through until finally we tore ourselves apart?
Orion noticed my silence and said, "I am really sorry Addieca." He turned to open the door and leave.

I stopped him, "These tests... what are you guys looking for?"

             "As far as I know. We're looking for Oblivion."