The Oasis by Janette Osemwota Page A

to see in detail how it affected people. Some of his colleagues, specifically the scientists, had stayed long enough to determine the patterns, appetites, and aggressive behaviors that he had been told about. Unfortunately, none of those scientists lasted very long. Either the aggression of the early “test subjects” had resulted in their deaths, or they had gone mad with some infection of their own. It didn’t really matter. At that point, most of his unit had dispersed in attempts to save their own lives.
    It hadn’t occurred to Jasper that one day he would be throwing himself into such a mess over another person. He no longer found any real value in his own life; what mattered was getting to the O.A.S.I.S. before it was too late, before the information that only a few people knew about was lost. Every day he worried about the knowledge he had about the virus being lost. It was a dangerous world, so to imagine himself running into some pretty hazardous territory for a woman he barely knew seemed a little suicidal.
    But something about Lena was different. Although she carried herself like she needed no one to care for her and had survived this long on her own when he found her, she had a vulnerability that he knew he could fill. He hoped that if she was in trouble she was fighting off anything that came her way, but he silently wished that wherever she was, she was avoiding that trouble and staying as far out of sight as possible. There was no question that when push came to shove he would defend himself and kill any creature that came near her. He was ready for war.
    Stepping over the sleeping form on the ground, he sauntered over to the building, covering his face as much as he could. He stepped into the dark knowing that Lena would be at the very top of the building…that is, if she was still alive.

 

     
     

    Chapter Eight
     
     
    Lying on the floor, Lena looked up at the face of her captor. She knew what kind of man he was, what kinds of things he was capable of. What she didn’t know was why. When she had met Jasper, after her initial fear and apprehension, she trusted him, even came to care for him. This man, she sensed, was very different from Jasper.
    The free man didn’t come near her, only watched her cautiously as if trying to decipher what she was thinking. She stared blankly back at him, knowing that any emotion she showed would fuel him. He was looking for something.
    Silently they stared at each other. Lena sat up, slowly lifting herself off the floor, her body beginning to ache. Her cheek still stung from the slap she had received earlier. Pushing through the pain, determined not to show any emotion or sign of discomfort to the free man, who continued to stare at her, she struggled to stand.
    He also showed no emotion. She suspected that he had learned his control over these people was on a deep level, and that the stronger he acted and appeared in their eyes the more powerful he was. Lena knew there were some people who needed to be shown power through violence, like the others she and Jasper had seen in the woods. One powerful leader, usually the most violent member, led those kinds of groups. Here, the free man had been smart in enlisting the strong men that he kept as his bodyguards. Although they were clearly strong and easily capable of violence, their intelligence and perception were limited.
    The free man, a normal man like Jasper, seemed mad with power. He had built this tower of power and found some kind of joy in controlling these poor people. It didn’t surprise Lena that she sympathized with the others . She had suffered as much as any normal person had, but she’d never thought of trying to live among them. It amazed her that this man had managed to create a society based around himself, as if he were some kind of a god. That was part of the reason she was so repulsed by him. He had lost his humanity in the process of trying to be something that he could never possibly be. He was