Welcome to research

As the first rays of the morning sun peek across the horizon, I wake up from my light slumber. My spear is lying next to me just the way I left it and there aren't any other traces of anyone else having been here the last night.
'Better get used to be around few people again, Sirus.', I think to myself and try to get up. As I start to move, my entire body feels like it's exploding and just for a moment my sight blurs and I see colorful dots.

After steadying myself I sigh, 'Damn, I haven't been this sore since that one time when I did that stupid dare to spend a night in that stupid cabinet...'
Nevertheless a smile creeps on my face at that thought of those happier days.

I stretch a few times and slowly the pain dissipates.
After I'm done, I pick up my spear and head towards the garden.

When I arrive, Gustav is just about to open the sluice.
He sees me coming and asks, "Ah, there's a hard worker. New clothes? Man, you really must be spending the money with both hands. Where'd you get those? They look expensive."
"Actually they're my old clothes. The clothes I came in with. Just washed and all that stuff. Anyway, why I'm here...I'm sorry, but I won't be coming to work any more."
Gustav looks me up and down and then at the spear in my hand before he asks, "I take it, you want to go back and dig around in the big garden again?"
A smile hushes over my face as I nod.

I bow to the front to express my gratitude and say, "I'm sorry for the trouble."
Gustav puts his big and heavy hand on my shoulder and replies, "Don't worry about it kid. We all have to find our place in this brave new world. And if you feel that your place is out there, then by all means go."
A tear rolls down my cheek as I thank the large man again and hurry off before one of us changes his mind. I must not falter now.

As I wander through the waking colony, I wonder how I would even find Marlon. After all, he never told me where he lives when he's not in the quarantine station.

I keep on wandering, asking people about him, but most people just shake their heads.
I guess he isn't as well-known as I thought he'd be.

After a few hours of walking, I find myself in front of the quarantine station, where a few of the armored people are standing in front of the gate.
I walk up to them, however before I can even ask about Marlon, one of them asks, "Sirus Loctor?"
"Err...yes?", I reply with an asking tone. I guess I am fairly well known.
"The mistress has issued a search warrant for you. I'd like to ask you to come with us."
"A...search warrant? Why, did I do anything wrong?"
"I don't know the details, but the warrant specifically says 'unharmed'."

I think about the situation for a little while and eventually nod, "Fine. There was something I had to talk to her about anyway. Lead the way please."
"Please drop your weapon.", the other guy suddenly says.
I give him a wry smile and ask, "Why, afraid I'll poke someone with it?"
"Protocol dictates, that all..."
I sigh and say, "Look, I've got a spear and am alone, you've got guns and are two. I'm not laying down my weapon, you can either take me along with it or let me through."

The two soldiers look at each other for a moment, before one of the two goes away a few steps and seemingly talks into his helmet. I guess there must be a communication device built into it.

After a minute or two, he comes back and says while patting his gun, "Alright, you can keep your toy. But please don't give us a reason to use ours, okay?"
I smile and reply, "Will do."

One of the armored guys goes behind me while the other one walks in front. We walk in silence and many of the people passing by eye me curiously, as if I was some sort of freak. But then again, I must look like one to them with my clothes made from fur and the weapon made from wood and bone in my hand, escorted by two armed men.

We keep walking down various corridors until we arrive in an area I haven't been to before.
"Excuse me...where are we?", I ask curiously.
"That's none of your...", one of the guys in armor barks, but a female voice I've grown to know all too well interrupts him, "Lieutenant, you would do well to remember your place. I asked you to escort him here. He is not a prisoner nor a criminal."

The Lieutenant startles and turns around as Eva comes walking out of the sluice. She is wearing the same armor she wore last evening, however her hair is neatly done and all in all she seems a lot more collected than last evening.

She looks me up and down and then says to the two men, "That will be all, thank you. You can leave now."
The Lieutenant objects, "But Mistress, he is armed! We should stay here for your..."
Eva sighs and moves her hand to her waist, revealing a gun hidden under a piece of cloth and says, "I think I can handle myself, thank you very much."

The Lieutenant tries to object again, but the other guy interrupts him and says, "Get the stick out of your butt and get moving, Carl."
"But...but the mistress...", Carl tries to object, but the other guy interrupts him again, "...has just given us a direct order and you're disobeying her. Let's go."
Carl sighs and throws me a devastating look before turning around and leaving.

After they're around the next corner, I turn to Eva and ask, "Are they always like this?"
"Many are, yes. Please, come inside."
Eva turns around and enters the sluice after entering something on a panel at the wall. Her fingers are moving so fast, I can barely follow the movement with my eyes.

The doors swing open and we enter the sluice as Eva asks, "So...I'm guessing you'd like to leave?"
"Gee, what gave me away?", I reply with a bit more spite in my voice than I intended.
"Oh, I don't know...but I think the reports of a strangely clothed man with an unknown weapon in hand wandering through the colony apparently looking for something was a good hint. When Gustav called me and told me you quit, I knew for sure."
"...so you had your goons escort me here...why exactly? To stop me from leaving?"

Eva turns around, her big, beautiful eyes clouded with sadness as she says, "I'd like to Sirus, really. But I've made up my mind last night, just like you seem to have. I love you...and that's why I'm letting you go."
"That...makes no sense."
"I know...my mother kept telling me, that 'If you love something, let it go. If it returns, love it forever. If it truly flies, it was never meant to be.'...or something like that. I'm just putting that to practice..."

A silent tear glitters in the dim lights of the corridors we're walking and hits the ground, splitting into a billion pieces.

Eva remains silent for a little bit and then asks, "Sirus...I...I have a question. That girl...the princess...sorry, what was her name again?"
"Nym."
"Right...this Nym...is she...is she good to you?"

Eva's question slings itself around my heart and squeezes it so tightly, I feel like it is going to burst any moment. But I've come to far to back down now.
I reply truthfully, "Yes. She's the best companion I ever could've hoped for out there. And I...I must know how she's doing. If she's still alive. Sure, she has her moments, but just who doesn't?"
"Do you...do you love her?", Eva keeps drilling, punching more holes into my fortitude.
After a long pause, I reply, "Yes. Yes, I think I do."
Eva smiles at me warmly and says, "Then...I'd like to meet her."

Eva's statement hits me like a hammer to the stomach and I have trouble breathing for a moment.
After recovering, I ask, "Pardon, what was that?"
"I want to meet that bomb of a woman who would brave the dangers of the outside world and steal your heart away. Will you take me with you?"

"Eva, out there...that isn't a playground. This is different from playing adventure in the gardens. There's real monsters out there!", I try to argue, but Eva's eyes already tell me that whatever I'm going to say isn't going to make a difference anyway.

She's always been like that, once she's put her mind to something, there's literally no stopping her. She's the most headstrong girl I've ever met. Not unlike someone else I've got to know, actually.

I sigh and ask, "Eva...why are we here? You didn't lead me here to ask me that, did you?"
Eva shakes her head and leads me a little farther down the way and into a large room, where a variety of creatures are hovering in some sort of liquid.
"What..."
"Welcome to research, Sirus. This department researches the outside world, the creatures that inhabit the land and tries to use it's findings for the betterment of mankind. The blood samples they've taken from you, as well as the armor you came in were also examined here. Doctor Thursen, please tell Sirus what you told me."

A man in a white coat looks up from his tablet and asks, "This is the young man who brought in these fascinating creatures?"
"Yes, this is Sirus Loctor. The survivor."
The doctor hurries up to me and grabs my hand, shaking it vigorously, saying, "Oh, it's an honor to have you here, Mr. Loctor. Would you mind sharing your tales..."
Eva interrupts him and says, "Doctor, we're kinda in a hurry, could you please...?"
"Oh why yes...please step over here and look at this."

Doctor Thursen leads us to a large picture screen, where tiny creatures are swimming closely knit together on a canvas of red.
I ask, "What...is that?"
"This is your blood, Sirus. Magnified a ten-thousandfold. And these tiny creatures are nanites. From the concentration in the sample, I'd say they're in your entire body."
"Okay...eww? Are they...bad?", I ask carefully.
"No, no, quite the contrary. They seem to have built a very strong symbiotic relationship with their host...pardon, you. We could probably spend years studying the intrinsics of these fascinating creatures...might we maybe ask for another donation? They die all too quickly once extracted from the host system."
"Doctor, please.", Eva interrupts and then turns to me, while the doctor gets called away by one of the other researchers.

She says, "Sirus, the research team says, that these nanites have a very positive effect on your body. Superior wound regeneration being just one of them. They also assume, that your absurd muscle build-up is also a side effect of the nanites thriving within you."
"Erm, Mistress Eva?", Doctor Thursen interrupts her.
"Yes, what is it, Doctor?"
"Well, I don't know how to say this...but some of our devices have detected some sort of...humming when you entered the room."
"...what in the world...?", Eva asks, but the doctor simply turns around and points at another one of those picture screens. This one shows a distinct waveform or something, which seems to be repeating.

"What am I looking at, Doctor?", Eva asks a little impatient.
"I don't know! Wait...wait, wait, what is it doing now?"
Suddenly, I'm getting a headache and my sight blurs slightly at the changing curves in front of me and the overwhelming feeling of having to get out grows within me.

I apologize and run for the door.
However, just as I stand outside, the feeling of dizziness disappears just as suddenly as it appeared.
When Eva and the Doctor come running after me, I look at them wearily and ask, "What...what the hell is wrong with me?"
The doctor replies, "I don't know...but the humming stopped as soon as you ran out...whatever that was...you were the trigger."
Eva orders the scientist, "Examine the recordings and bring Sirus' armor out here. At once."
"The...but we're not done examining..."
"I don't care! Now do what I say!", Eva shouts at the doctor, who startles and runs inside.

About a minute later he comes back out with my armor and says, "Quite an astonishing piece, if I may say so. As sturdy as the metallic alloys we use for our armor, yet extremely lightweight and completely resistant to fire."
I scoff, "I could've told you that...everything out there is immune to fire on the outside. But their blood...their blood burns extremely well."
"It...burns? Of course, that must be because...", the doctor goes on, but Eva simply leads me away and says, "I'm sorry Sirus. I had no idea this would happen."
"...don't worry about me, I'm...I'm better now."

An obvious lie, yet I had to tell it. Otherwise I wouldn't know if I would have the strength to actually step out into the wild again. But then again, whatever made me sick happened right there in that room. And as my mother always used to say, 'If something makes you feel uncomfortable, avoid it.'