Beyond Oasis

The Outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

She needed to know what was out there...the curiosity pulled at her every day and was made more intense by the view out of Director Simmons’s office window. It felt like she belonged out there.

Even though, looking out at the lifeless desolate landscape in its muted tones of grey and brown with dashes of sickly green, spoke of the pollution that had ravaged the world.

In this habitat they were all safe; it had been built by a crazy survivalist group 10 years before the planet had lost its battle with its people.

Ironically, the survivalists had perished before they were able to get to this habitat, only the signs and plaques on the walls told the tale of who they had been and why they had built Oasis-their name for their Habitat.

A few years after the group of survivors -that Chelsea was part of- had taken up residence in Oasis, someone had found the journal of the Doctor who had recorded the outbreak of plague that had wiped out the survivalists and most of this section of the continent.

So everyone did their best to honor them and give thanks for their foresight. The survivors had even started The Founders day celebration to honor the Durin Survivalists.

Hmm, that was coming up soon and Chelsea had no idea what to bring as an offering.

With that thought, she snapped back to the present....That was enough daydreaming. And if the Director found her zoning out he would give her twice the workload she had now.

Chelsea worked for a tyrant as his assistant/flunky, but at least Director Simmons hadn't made a pass at her as a few of the other officials had, which was a huge relief.

Her mind still on the viewport, she went back to scrubbing the exploded feline feces off of the walls. She had already cleaned the ceiling.

Chelsea had a decent idea who had let a cat with the runs into the director's office and while she admired the girl's spunk.......she was not a fan of the aftermath.

Isabella Torres, the little....

"Oh my god!!!!" Stacy's wild red tresses were even more disheveled as she barreled into the installation room where she knew I would be...I was perpetually assigned to clean it. It was boring work, but I could mentally drift while working so it was a good gig.

"Hmmm" I asked quizzically. I kept my eyes down and kept mopping the white & grey tiles.

So the news had gotten back to Stacy already..... Word traveled faster than normal today.

Or it was possibly the subject of the news.

"Director Simmons’s office is covered in cat diarrhea!!!!

What the hell?" Her green eyes were rounded in astonishment

I kept mopping "hunh, how'd that happen?" strands of my mousey brown hair falling out from under my black baseball cap with each swipe of the mop, the cap was old and ragged but I loved it.

I found it 6 years ago while I was working, checking the air ducts. At 11 years old, I had been small enough to fit through them and had found all kinds of stuff.

I also found a few things that I had kept a secret even from Stacy.

One of those things had been a journal detailing someone coming to Oasis from the outside world-A place that was supposed to be devoid of all life, according to the elders-, I had picked it up because of the dates I saw on it...it was written 16 & a half years ago. I would be 17 this founder's day.

"They said that somebody let a cat into his office because they thought it was HIS cat" Stacy's voice raised an octave

"Wow, Director Simmons hates cats. Hunh, I hope the kitty is ok" I made sure that Stacy couldn't see my face, but the smile in my voice must have tipped her off.

"Bells, don't you find all this funny? The director was a real jackass to you last week....he even denied your request for time off to go to Randy's Concert." I felt her eyes narrowing at me

"Ehhh, I'm over it. No sense holding on to stuff." Randy & his band The Zone were one of a tiny handful of musicians that had kept making music consistently since survivors had come to Oasis.

He was also in my class, sat beside me, and we were friends.....sort of.

Stacy insisted that he wanted to be more than friends with me, and while I had my mind on other things- like how I was going to keep sneaking out of Oasis every week to keep exploring the outside-, A boyfriend would have been really nice. And Randy was handsome, a lot of girls and guys thought so.

Although his drummer Carl was nice too, Carl wasn't as pretty as Randy... but boy was he a great guy, super sweet and always really nice to me and I had really wanted to see them play that night, but the Director decided to have me work a double instead.

I felt bad for his assistant-Ms. Chelsea Soren who was only a year older than I-, she had wanted to go to the concert too and he had made her reorganize his files for two days.

Uggh, the man was evil.

"Riiiiiiiight, that's you, Miss let it go hunh? You know I’ve known you since we were babies. And you have never let ANYTHING go in your entire life….oh say... Like the time you took it upon yourself to COVER Mr. Kensies quarters in Dog poop?"

"Ah, fond memories! Man, it took forever to get those dogs to poop all over his place....I'm glad he was on ore refining duty. Cleaning it all up made him a better person though" I smiled wistfully.

I reminisced......That guy had been a level 10 jerk and had been stealing his son, Marcus, earnings without feeding him properly.

Marcus was a found child, He had been wandering the laundry area along with Chelsea Soren but Mr. Kensies had decided to only foster Marcus and sent Chelsea to be fostered by our Elders; something about not wanting to raise a girl.

Marcus had started school late due to Mr. Kensies disregard for him and had ended up in the same class as Stacy and I-Those two had a huge crush on each other but were far too shy to show it, which made it awkward once puberty started to hit us all- and we all became friends.

This is how we noticed Marcus "forgetting" his lunch day after day, so he started eating with us.

And then he started having dinner and breakfast with us too.

At which point Mom- who had already done the math and figured out what was actually going on- decided to petition Director Simmons for fostering rights to Marcus.

Mom knew he wasn’t ready to be on his own, but also had a hunch that he and Stacy would end up married (Mom’s “Hunch’s” were scarily accurate-and combined with her oddball ways, headstrong demeanor and long black hair … some people called her a witch), so to avoid any awkwardness decided on Fostering.

Basically, a paper stating that Marcus could rightfully move in with us.

I don't know what went on in that office, but I had never seen the Director that angry.

Mr. Kensies has been on waste processing ever since, the Director even made him move his quarters to the waste treatment center...Mr. Kensies has not been back to the central portion of Oasis since. And that was 5 years ago.

"Bells?" Stacy's big green eyes widened and she arched her eyebrow "Chelsea broke down crying when she saw his office"

"Hmmm, I guess she cries easily. Just wait till she finds the other five cats that have had a supply of chocolate to snack on for a couple of days. Well, chocolate and glitter." I looked up and smiled at my friend. Apparently, it was a not-so-nice smile because her eyes bulged and she started laughing. There was a reason that Stacy and I were both sisters and friends.

"Oh god! 6 cats? Glitter? Bins, what the hell?"

Bins were my nickname when I was little because I had been found abandoned in a laundry bin as an infant.

The same laundry area, where both Marcus and Chelsea were found.

So apparently somebody out there decided to dump three kids off in the laundry and never look back.

I knew my birth parents were out there somewhere, and I wanted to meet them if nothing else out of curiosity.

I also had a huge hunch that they were from outside Oasis.

The journal I had found detailed the writer having left three little kids in Oasis to live a better life then what the writer could provide.

The youngest name was Pleaidia, the elder boy and girl were Veran & Solstice-respectively, and the author of that journal went on to describe their lives in the outside world and some of what had brought the author to this decision. It was horribly sad to read and I genuinely hoped that the author had forgiven themselves eventually; they had never mentioned a name for themselves so I just called them Author.

Stacy's mother had found and raised me, so she and I had grown up as sisters.

Which was great because Stacy had been a sickly child and hadn’t had many friends....it also meant she was quite familiar with my personality, so I had to fess up eventually.

Might as well do it now, and I knew she wouldn’t snitch on me, truth be told I was lucky....neither of my siblings were tattletales.

"Ok, so I was a little peeved at Simmons. Nobodies dead and he has other things to do then harass people with unnecessary double shifts. And he now has a reason for his ill tempered and disagreeable personality. “I shrugged and my oversized charcoal sweatshirt flapped a bit around my black leggings....I was petite but I preferred baggy clothes. I was always "Comfy-looking", as Stacy called it. I batted my eyes at her.

Stacy rolled her eyes "Oh my god Bins, What are we gonna do with you? Hmm. Fine...it IS pretty funny ...but did Chelsea really deserve that? She is the one cleaning it up." Her eyes turned sympathetic.

I blew out a breathe, I hadn’t meant to give Chelsea problems and I felt bad for her...but not that bad; and then like instant karma the comm. system sounded "Isabella Torres to Director Simmons office, now"

"Oh hell!!" I knew what that meant and I better bring the mop! So much for my plans tonight.

Stacy's eyes widened she raised her eyebrows “So I guess I will let Mom know that you won’t be home for dinner hunh? Oh wait, you haven’t been home for dinners on Thursdays for over a month.....How come?" She asked sweetly, the look on her face at the last comment meant that she knew I was doing something that I would get in to trouble for.

And the fact that I hadn’t already told her about it meant it was worse than normal.

I contemplated telling Stacy about my ventures beyond Oasis, I had thought about it many times and truth be told I hated keeping anything from her, but it was safer for her if she didn’t know.

Everyone in Oasis was forbidden from leaving the compound, save for the scavenger teams.

They were 5 person teams sent to scour the outside world for useable items.

The moment Director Simmons had attained his position, He had moved up the ranks with a viciousness that terrified his allies and competitors alike, he had assigned the 4 scavenger teams.

The teams were made up of men and women who were unfamiliar to most of us in Oasis. The Director made a statement that they had come from waste disposal and ore mining sections. And Oasis was big enough that it was possible...but I had started having serious doubts.

My shoulders slumped, I sighed, hefted the mop and pall over to the cleaning cart and muttered over my shoulder at Stacy “Tell Mom to leave me some noodles, I will heat them up once I’m done scrubbing karma for the night. I have a feeling this is gonna be a thing for awhile.”

Stacy called brightly at my sulkily retreating back “Will do!!”

Even as I trudged along behind my rattly cart, I smiled. I was lucky to have Stacy and Mom and Marcus in my life.

I spent so much of my time with my mind on other things, not really keeping my thoughts in the here and now…..I had earned the name of Cloudy from my teachers-my head was always in the clouds- and I found my mind drifting again.

I was thinking back to last week when I had gotten back to the Hab so late that I thought for sure that I would be caught, but it had been worth it.

When I started out last Thursday, I had had my sights set on exploring the small mining operation -Well it looked like a mine, so that what I was labeling it as- that I had noticed from afar a few weeks before.

It turned out to be a mine that was barely hanging on to its relevance, most of the ore having run out. There were so, so, so many people. They were filthy, tired and afraid………and I wanted to find a way to help them. I just didn’t know how, and that broke my heart.

I stuck to the shadows and kept my head down as I had melded into the throngs of people going about their day to day lives. So many were living just beyond Oasis’s reach and no one here had the slightest idea, it blew me away.

This was a big part of the reason that I hadn’t mentioned it to Stacy, she was so passionate about helping people in need and standing up for anybody who was being given the shaft, it would kill her that we couldn’t do anything for these people.

It was a good thing that I had found & read that journal as it prepared me for what I would see, well ….as prepared as anyone from Oasis could be when faced with a world so different from their own.

As I trundled down the hall, closer to the Directors office, the stench hit me.

It brought me back to that crazy old man-he had smelled much like the Directors office- that had been sitting at the central counter -They called it a bar- of this mines relaxation center-They called it a Pub- , he had been intoxicated and very talkative so I had sat & listened to his stories.

I was surprised at how easy it was for me to walk into their pub, In Oasis there were age limits on our relaxation center- the adults went there to drink alcohol and such- but in -the signs proclaimed it to be Paradise city- the Pub I saw even saw a few young children there.

The man’s name was Siriaeh and he was kind enough to buy me an ale, no one else seemed to want to listen to him and I think he was just happy to have an audience.

He told me a tale of a boy who had become a father too soon but had tried to honor his duties.

The boy’s name was Argent and he had done right by the mother of his child, he had married her and worked hard in the mines and in any other job he could get to make sure she and their son would never have to go without.

When the girl came up pregnant again, Argent began working even harder to ensure that his two kids would have the world.

Argent was saving much of his earned credits to get his wife and children off world, it was the only place that they could have a better life and he knew that many of the people who were well off around the planet had already left for different off world colonies.

I remember feeling my heart drop into my stomach and surge out of my mouth as I asked him about this off world business, how could Oasis have never known? Were we truly so sheltered?

Siriaeh laughed and told me how in the decade before we really noticed the planet going in the crapper-his words- there had been a segment of the population devoted to off world travel for exploration and recreation.

Their pet project had paid off when the planet started to get sick, and there was a mass exodus off world.

According to Siriaeh there were various colonies doted throughout the galaxies.

He went on to tell how His friend Argent had had his heart set on Teton colony 5, it was close and prosperous-which meant he would be able to afford to move his family there if he worked another season in the mines- and had good healthcare for the kids.

Siriaeh recalled how excited Argent had been when he had gotten a bonus check for the extra hours he had put in and had rushed home to his wife, the bonus check meant they could leave in a few months versus almost a year, only to find his barracks empty save for his 18 month old son and crying newborn daughter. Argent looked everywhere for his wife and found no sign of her, he calmed the children and put out a search request for his wife’s whereabouts over the city’s comm. system.

Only to find that his wife had left Paradise city.

Upon further inquiry he found out that she had met a well to do electrician and they had gone off world together.

Adding insult to injury, His wife had taken every credit he had saved up with her for her and her lover’s new start on another world, leaving him and the children with nothing.

The note that she left in the old box that Argent kept under their bed to save the money for their family consisted of one sentence, “I need this more then you and the kids do”.

Argent had been crushed.

Sirieh went on to say that if it hadn’t been for Argent’s sister Deanne, Argent and the children might not have made it.

Deanne moved into their barracks and kept things running as best she could, she had a small daughter of her own so the living situation was cramped but they all made it work, until she got sick.

Argent worked tirelessly for his family once more, but he couldn’t make enough money to get them all off world to better medical care in time to save Deanne.

She died 7 months after moving in with her brother and the children.

Leaving Argent with three babies and no one to watch them while he worked.

So Sirieh recounted how he began to help out as best he could, he was no Deanne but at least he was someone that Argent could trust with his children, and that was how Argent ended up disappearing for 3 days and coming back with the craziest story Sirieh had ever heard in his life.

His friend had ended up sick with heat delirium from all of the overtime in the mines and had wandered out into the plains once his shift ended.

Argent said he had wandered for awhile until he came upon a white dome out in the wastes.

Siriaeh related how his friend had wandered all around this substantial dome to find a way in, until he finally gained access through the air ducts, once inside Argent had told of finding a whole group of survivors who had plenty of food and medicine.

Argent had spoke of them growing all of their food in hydroponic gardens that spanned the entire inner dome and a water reclamation system that would have made Sirieh weep.

These peoples world was clean and self sustaining.

Sirieh had thought Argent had finally cracked up and told him so, but Argent had stayed firm in his recounting.

For a month after that Argent would be away from his barracks, leaving the children with Sirieh, for a few days at a time.

He told Siriaeh that he was researching this dome, he called it Oasis.

Then one day, Siriaeh came back from his shift to find Argent at the small eating table…. holding at his wife’s diary in his hands

That diary detailed just how many men his wife had been in romantic entanglements with, how she had thought of Argent as a tool to allow her live comfortably, how she had left the children with whoever would take them, How she thought of Argent & his devotion to his “family” as a joke, and how she had become pregnant with Siriaeh’s child but when Sirieh had told her he wanted nothing more to do with her…she had slept with Argent to fool him into caring for her and the baby.

Sirieh said that his friend’s words to him that day were still etched in his mind,

“You knew, this whole time…you knew that he was your son.” Argent had closed the door on Siriaeh while the other had stammered in shock.

Siriaeh had felt horrible, he truly had thought the girl had been lying about the pregnancy but as Argents son grew it had grown harder to ignore the boy’s similarities to Siriaeh and by the time Siriaeh had accepted the truth… it was far past the time to tell his friend.

By some miracle Argent’s newborn daughter was his biological child…but it was cold comfort after everything that he had just found out.

Argent had been left and betrayed by everyone that he had held dear and that was not a good headspace for anyone to be in.

Siriaeh had said that that was the last time he saw his friend or the children.

He had hoped for many years that they had made it to Argents Oasis…but as the years went by Siriaeh had lost hope and accepted that all four of them were most likely long dead in the wastes.

I could tell how much hurt this old man carried even though he told his tale jovially, how the misunderstandings and lies and half truths had crippled him in the years since…and I felt terrible for him and for his friend and for the kids.

It had just been a horrible situation, the life out here was fraught with so much hardship and the people’s mindset made it worse.

As we had finished our drinks he got up to leave and I asked him what the children’s names were, he had closed his eyes and when he opened them I saw tears sparkling in them, He said that Argent had named his son Veran and his daughter Pleaidia but that Deanne’s little girl was named Solstice…then he walked away.

And that had been why I needed to go back to the mine, I wanted to show Sirieh the journal and let him know that his friend and his friend’s family had made it to Oasis.

But that wouldn’t happen tonight or even this week.

I smiled as I heard Chelsea exclaim “How can there be more? I just cleaned it off of there! And why is there glitter?!!!”

Tonight would smell terrible, but it was worth it.

I didn’t like being delayed from my explorations, but I learned some very interesting things in the week that followed. I had no idea how many things in my life were completely opposite of what they seemed.

But that is a tale for another time, right now I needed to mop up and hopefully make it home in time to eat two bowls of noodles instead of one….If I wasn’t fast enough Marcus would eat my second serving, and Mom & Stacy would help him. They thought it was hilarious.