The Oasis

Chapter 4

This chapter is dedicated to S_Clifton! Thanks so much for the feedback and the tremendous amount of support you have given me in the last few weeks. Without readers like you The Oasis would be just another story floating on the web! 

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A week had past since my fight with Mika. Although I didn't want to admit it, he was right in a way. I couldn't condemn him to a life of misery out of fear. I wouldn't except it if our places had been switched. I needed more faith in my brother, my blood.

So I backed off, and as a result, I found myself spending countless hours with a new friend, Felix.

Two days after the "big one" (as I am now referring to my fight with Mika), Felix had messaged me. He was working on an astronomy project for school and needed some help. I agreed, having nothing else to do with my new found free time. Lizzie had been spending most of her time with Mika, and I had been isolated in my room for nearly two days straight.

I welcomed the distraction.

One day turned into two and by the end of the week we had spent every free second we had together. In the short time we had spent together, I had learned so much about him. He was easy to talk to, not judgey or overtly pushy in his own views. I could tell that he longed for the companionship as much as I. He and I were very much alike in many ways, yet very different at the same time. Felix was what we call and Only. An Only is a exactly what it sounds like, he was an only child. A rare circumstance in our POD but something that happened for time to time. The story was really quite sad.

When he and his sister Fiona were born, Fiona was found to have Prader-Willi Syndrome. A genetic mutation that had been up until her birth completely wiped from the genetic coding of the human race. PWS is a qualification for termination. So for one day only Felix was a twin, after that he was considered an Only. His parents terminated Fiona, and were punished for the mutation. Their ranking in RING 2 was lowered, affecting their jobs and status among peers. Felix says he feels like a constant reminder of their failure. The lowering and loss of their child created a monster in Felix's father. By day he worked as a janitor in the government buildings in the center of RING 2, by night he was a zombie, unable to process, or move or think. Now, Felix is the head of the house by all means. His mother although not much better, and noticing her husband decline in the world, has stepped up to fill his shoes as best as she could.

For Felix, schooling at the Education Center, is like a mini vacation. It's a means of escape. It's his home.

Felix was smart, and quirky. He loved old world science fiction, and was brilliant at anything computer related.

We spent night after night walking the paths of the river, sharing in our hopes and dreams of the future. Felix was sceptical of The Oasis, unwilling or wanting to believe in a place so perfect. I believe his only real want was to rid himself of his duties here in RING 2, and escape to any of the RINGs that didn't included his family or a constant reminder of his past.

He hoped to one day be an engineer and designing a new PIA system in the future. I have no doubt that he is capable of it. Unfortunately that would mean he had to be a citizen of The Oasis, a thing it seemed he had no interest in being.

It was amazing to me, that in such a short amount of time, we had formed a close bond. Maybe something was always there, we were just to busy, or pig headed to ever see it before.

Now I sit and watch as he gleefully chases a set of twins around the park during the neighborhood picnic for Creation Day.

He laughs and runs , his carrot topped hair flopping with each bounding step he takes. The children squealing in delight as he tags them. He stops and grabs one of the twin, hoisting her up into the air, her laughter filling the warm summer sky.