Vitality [Teaser]

Chapter 6: Four-Leaf Clovers

Orion stood over Nikos and shook his head.

"Nikos, get up. Mom made dinner." He said softly.

Nikos groaned and shifted around.

"GET UP!" Orion suddenly yelled.

Nikos quickly raised his head from his pillow and looked at him with squinted eyes.

"How long have I been asleep?" Nikos asked under a giant yawn.

"For eight years, you missed the escape plan entirely. Now come on, mom's waiting." Orion said.

He then walked out and turned on the light just as he left. Nikos shielded his eyes from the aggressive glow and looked out the window. It was already pitch-black outside with guards patrolling the streets. He got up and slowly made his way downstairs.

"Nikos, you didn't fall asleep as soon as you came home, right?" His mother asked.

"No, of course not." He said as he sat down at the dining table.

"Liar," Orion said. "I wish I could have slept for that long, but nope couldn't even get a single hour of sleep. I've been awake since last night. Nearly a whole twenty-four hours."

"Good for you," Nikos replied.

Alanis shook her head and walked into the kitchen. Nikos glanced at the table and saw that there were forks and knives beside each of them with a cup of plain water.

"Where's the food powder? And protein pills?" Nikos asked.

"I decided we should eat something special today since this is our last day in Salento." His mother said.

"We're eating fish," Orion said.

"What kind of fish?"

"The ones that breathe underwater," He replied sarcastically.

"It's Mojarra. I even got patacones to go along with it. Your grandfather always made this when I was younger. It's a special Colombian dish he picked up when he traveled here." Alanis said.

"He taught you how to make it?" Nikos asked.

"No, but it can't be too hard to make. You just season the fish and fry it, and you basically do the same thing with the plantains." She said.

"How did you even get real food in the first place? Isn't that stuff super expensive?" Orion asked.

"I got it from the market. People in Sector 1 tends to get this stuff, but I saved enough credits from the factory to buy it. Not bad for a family in Sector 3, in my opinion." Alanis said.

"I thought fish were extinct with how polluted the water is," Nikos said.

"It's probably a cloned fish," Orion said.

"A cloned fish?" Nikos asked.

"Yeah, you know like they got the DNA of the fish and just cloned it," Orion replied.

Nikos shrugged.

Alanis kept an eye on the food in the kitchen. She then grabbed the slice plantains and placed them in a different pot of oil. As the food sizzled in the background, its odor lingered in the rest of the house. Orion stared at his brother for a moment until Nikos suddenly spoke up.

"What?" Nikos asked.

"Your eye... It's yellow?" He said questionably.

"It's not yellow it's..." Nikos stopped himself and sighed. "I had an eye transplant so they can remove the tracker that was inside my eye."