OBLIVIOUS

Chapter 4

Being able to move made me feel sublime. I could feel my whole body aching, but it did not make me wince nor cry. I have no time for emotions. I waited for this long enough. And thank heavens, I could feel really alive now. I thought I had to endure a full week of just lying there on the bed wasting, but luck finally looked down on me and I could never be grateful enough for this.

Wearing only a white thin garment, I stood there on the foot of my bed with the plastic tubes on my left arm dangling like chains as it's now the only thing between me and my freedom. My ears were waiting for another word from Vista but she never talked again. But it did not dishearten me. In fact, Vista's sudden silence only made me want to look for her more.

Of course, escaping from here is what I aspire to do. In my mind, I was already planning what should I do now that I finally can move. I guess I'll try to open the steel door just in front of me and leave this room, look for an easy way out of this facility without being seen by the White Shadows and leave as quietly as possible. And if I could be luckier than I already was, I will also try to search for Vista and escape with her.

However, I know that my plan could totally go awry. I actually don't expect to escape from here in a breeze, as I know that whoever owns or runs this place won't take any chances. They know what they are dealing with, so I know that they already have measures in case a patient tries to escape.

I expect nothing less than a tight security, probably with armed guards and roving White Shadows based on what Vista had told me. I reckon that if this place was easy to escape from, Forte would have been able to find a way out. Just according to how Vista introduced him to me, Forte seems to be that kind of guy who would try every possible option he can think of, and I am sure that he had thought of escaping from here. He would have thought of escaping the moment he overheard the White Shadows talking about us being on an island as that alone was suspicious... Or when he read about us being sent to another place once we get fully recovered here which talks about a survival rate.

With all of this on my mind, I could feel my heartbeat going faster as I try to hold on to my footing. Adrenaline was pumping through my blood and I know that I have to act now. One single moment of hesitation or doubt will cause me trouble. I have to be out of this room when the White Shadow returns, or when the Mediborg checks on me.

I really want to escape from here but there was one major problem that I have to face--- I was still weak as an infant.

I may be able to stand on my feet now but it took all of my strength just to be able to prevent my whole body from falling over. I could feel my legs vibrating and my muscles become tense yet they feel like they are made of jelly. With a loud gasp, I had to hold onto the sidebar of the bed made of steel, or else I would have fallen to the floor. Holding on to the bed arm was already exhausting, and I was already slipping and was half-bent towards the floor. My hands and fingers were other problems. I couldn't have a firm grip on the steel bar so my hands were sliding from it little by little. Gasping for breath I struggled to get back up and stand straight again as my arms and legs become unresponsive.

Thinking that this could no longer get worse, I groaned inwardly as I heard loud noises. I could hear booming sounds, beeps, and there was a human voice magnified over these sounds. The voice was of a woman's, and she was talking about something I could not hear properly due to panic and the pandemonium I was feeling from all of this.

Again, I heard someone shouting, which I immediately recognize as my own voice. I was shouting without even knowing that I did, and if I had just the time to study my voice further I would probably be amazed at how young my voice sounded, and yet it also sounded so hoarse. But knowing that I have no time to ponder on such thoughts right now, for I was still screaming at the top of my lungs, I thought of another escape plan. First, I tried very hard to shut my mouth but for some weird reason, I can't. It almost felt like I had no control of my vocal cords or my whole mouth. It was bad because I wanted to save my remaining energy because I know I'm going to need it still...and that's when I finally slid to the floor.

At last, my screams stopped when I finally touched the cold floor. Disregarding the pain from the hard contact, I tried to use my limbs and crawl towards the door but I couldn't move anymore. Well, it should have not been a surprise that I only managed a few inches from my bed but the excitement of the moment had blinded me. I forgot that I was immobile for quite a while, so naturally, my muscles had decreased mass or something like that. It does not take a genius to know that a long period of not using my body would give me muscle atrophy.

Digesting my unfortunate circumstance, tears started leaking out of my eyes. Not because I'm childish, but because my body had been strained enough that even just breathing hurts now. My body was seriously struggling and I wondered if this was the last thing I will remember.

The noises outside my room went on as I rested on the floor. I took deep breaths to calm myself while closing my wet eyes. I tried to regain my focus by recounting all of the stories Vista told me. That was effective as I finally started and think of my next move. I don't know what will happen to me if someone comes to my room again, but I prepared myself just the same. They will probably lock me up if they find me hostile, and I think I will be hostile to them if I could. I decided that I have no plans of letting them do whatever they want to do to me. I don't want to become like the others.

I lied on the floor for a couple of minutes. The noises outside don't seem to stop and will probably go on for the next few minutes, so I guess my shouts had been unheard by the people outside. If I think about it, they might still have not discovered that I am already awake. The proof is the fact that nobody has been here yet so I know that this was my only chance. My last chance. So I tried my hardest to move despite my current condition. I began crawling on the floor though very slowly and very weakly.

Footsteps could be heard outside, like everyone there was in a frenzy. I was already out of breath when the door burst open and a Mediborg came in. My worst fear had come to fruition, together with some bluish smoke that came in with it from the outside. The door immediately closed as it entered. It scanned the room with its robotic, compound-like eyes but did not spot me since I was lying on the floor.

It whizzed towards the bed with swift speed as I see it use its wheeled legs to move forward like a vehicle of some sort. Luckily, it ignored me despite me being on its peripheral scope and just proceeded to check on my bed. It looks like it still had to check if I was there or not, even though it was as clear as day that I already wasn't.

A sudden realization dawned on me... This Mediborg doesn't actually think like a human, and that it was actually better that it was not a White Shadow that came here. This mechanical being could be fooled and I overestimated its abilities. I remembered what I heard from that Olan guy. Maybe this was it... This was the reason someone managed to escape.

Gaining confidence from that, I started crawling again towards the door. I can't exactly explain what is it with my body that made me feel this tingling sensation right now and just like that I could move again and the fatigue that was draining me seemed to have been lifted. Thinking that fate had already given me the chance, I continued what I was doing. I crawled to the door with the intention of not making any sound.

"Axis 1 not found," said the Mediborg that almost made my heart jump from my chest. "Auto-Patient Search Initiate..." it said again and loud beeps were coming from it now.

I know I was done for when I heard that, and as soon as I looked back to my bed to check I saw the Mediborg was already coming for me. Its head was already emitting green lights and seemed to have found me. I was a hundred percent sure that it was about to capture me but then a miracle happened.

The door opened again and a young man in a mask came inside. The same weird smoke came wafting and billowing inside the room and the young man's first words to me are... "Cover your whole face and don't inhale the smoke or it will kill you!"

His voice sounded so deep because of the mask he's wearing. It was more like an order than anything else, and with the situation I was in, all I could really do was to follow what he just said. I tried my hardest to cover my nose and mouth and not breathe the smoke as the young man closed the door. I noticed that as he closes the steel door the smoke had stopped spreading like it needed the door to be open to keep its motion.

"Found Axis 1... Immediate capture needed..." the Mediborg said in that same robotic tone and it was already behind me and was ready to pounce on me. However,r the young man that just came in did the unexpected... He pulled out a weapon of some sort from his back and aimed it at the Mediborg.

"Take this you piece of scrap!" he bellowed before shooting the humanoid creature with the gun-like weapon. The impact of the explosion and contact was unbelievable. The bedsheet scattered into pieces and the glass from the window pane shattered. I knew this room will be wrecked as the bed exploded too, scattering its flying parts everywhere.

The Mediborg fell to the floor with loud bangs and thuds and its two arms disintegrated into smaller parts. Some of them came my way and it gave me scratches, but the pain did not even bother me feel as I was too shocked by the encounter.

The next thing I knew, I was being scooped by the young man. He has this wild look on him like he had not changed clothes or took a bath for quite some time. He had dark, shoulder-length hair that made him look bewildered. He was wearing what to me looked like a White Shadow's protective suit but not white--- his suit is charcoal black just like his respirator mask that almost covered his whole face.

I wanted him to put me down but I was again lost for words. Like a sack of potato, es he carried me on his shoulder and sprinted to the window. The next thing I knew we were already falling...

It was a free fall.

This dude must be crazy as I realized what he just did. He just jumped right into the window without hesitation, and now we're falling down because my room was actually not on the first floor!

Everything happened so fast that all I could see was the window above me getting smaller and smaller in the dark, and then there was a loud thud, and everything went black.

***

Someone was shaking me repeatedly that woke me up. I opened my eyes and pain immediately registered on my whole being. On my head, on my limbs, on my chest, and my back, the pain was searing and escalating that made me wonder how the hell was I am still alive.

"Wake up. We need to get out of here."

The man that saved me from the Mediborg was standing beside me. He was staring at me with dead eyes beneath his respirator and it made me feel uncomfortable. "We have no time to rest here."

I opened my mouth to argue that I could barely move but I still couldn't find my voice. My voice just seems to not exist just when I need to.

He probably read the struggle on my face so he went on talking. "Just stay silent for a while. You just woke up so it means you can't use or control your body yet. That also happened to me so don't worry, your voice will come back."

That made me less wary of him. But still. A stranger just saved me from the Mediborg but I still don't want to trust him. I had decided not to trust anyone in this place, maybe except for Vista, but she too now looked suspicious.

I remembered the window where we just came from so I moved my head to look for it. A tall, white building loomed over the darkness on my right, which I assumed was the facility.

There was no more questioning about the window. I was in a room on the third or fourth floor (I couldn't really tell now because of the distance) and that fact baffled me. If I was that high, how on earth was she able to talk to me from the window? Did she climb the wall? Or was she really in the next room from where I was and her voice was just coming from the window?

The latter comes to me as absurd as the glass on that window looked secure enough to soundproof and was attached tightly to the window frame. Vista's presence in my room puzzled me so much that my head hurt badly again making me wince.

"Stop worrying or your headache will just get worse," said the young man who decided to crouch down on me and carry me again on his shoulders. "I know there's a lot of questions going on your head right now but I advise you not to get paranoid. Thinking too much causes us headaches."

But why?

That's the question I wanted to ask him as he started to walk again. "What you need to do is conserve your energy. We are not safe yet," he said to me calmly and authoritatively at the same time. But just as he was talking, he halted and I could tell that he just froze on the spot. Clueless about what was happening, it took me a couple of seconds to realize that bright white lights were all over us, like we were in the center of a show.

"The Slackers..." he whispered with what I knew was worry in his voice.