Chapter 46 - Alive Again

While the old man carried him out of the Osarv Forest, Sola faded in and out of consciousness. Due to his blood ceasing to flow no oxygen could get to his brain. Whenever his vision faded to black, Sola mustered as much psychic power as possible to get his blood moving again and keep him alive for a few more seconds. He kept this up for so long that he was only aware he was somewhere different when he felt a drop in temperature.

Sola focused on gathering as much of his psychic power as possible. Once his brain felt filled with static electricity, he released the mental energy. The metallic liquid in his veins was immediately filled with life as it began to move once more. With his blood now in motion, Sola was able to give himself a shot of adrenaline. In a few minutes, his body began to awaken as his senses returned.

With his sight and feeling returned Sola found himself confined in a small metallic rectangle. A pale mist spewed forth from his mouth with every breath he took. Underneath his foot was something that felt like a door. Sola kicked the door sending it flying off its hinges. He proceeded to crawl his way out of the container and into a main room. Sola found himself in a room with walls filled with shelves labelled with various numbers. A few of them were left open displaying the corpses that lay inside. Sola was in a morgue.

The grey-haired man glanced at his hand as he clenched it tightly. In his fight with the old man, he had overloaded on adrenaline which short-circuited his psychic powers, leading to his blood stopping. Unlike his other bodily functions, controlling his blood flow was something that Sola had to do manually with his powers. His metallic blood was too heavy for his heart to pump on its own, especially after all the years. There had been times when he had experienced an adrenaline overload but that was when he was still learning how to use his powers adequately and was testing his limits. Something like that happening now was unprecedented.

Sola was so deep in thought he did not notice the other person in the morgue until she screamed. He turned his attention to the woman who was terrified by the resurrected corpse in front of her. It was at that moment Sola realised he was not wearing any clothes. He quickly picked up a cloth on a table at the centre of the room and wrapped it around his waist. 

The woman's scream called for two other people to storm into the morgue. Their eyes widened upon seeing Sola. The grey-haired man stared at the three for a while before finally breaking the silence.

"Are you guys going to give me the clothes or am I going to have to keep standing here naked?"

After getting over their initial shock the three morticians guided Sola out of the morgue and into the hospital the building was attached to. He was quickly given clean clothes to wear; a pale blue shirt with navy khakis and a pair of sandals; before he was taken to a doctor to have his vitals checked. While the doctor checked his heartbeat with a stethoscope, another of the morticians was making a call a few feet away with a hushed tone.

"You seem decently healthy," The doctor said, unable to hide the surprise in his tone. "I still can't believe you weren't dead. Before we put you in the morgue, we couldn't even get a pulse off of you,"

"Where's the man that brought me here?" Sola asked.

"I'm right here," A voice spoke.

The two turned to see the grey-haired old man dressed in a colourful ragged robe and a partisan slung over his shoulders. Sola shot to his feet and began to approach the old man but he quickly raised his hands in submission.

"Calm down buddy," He said. "I'm not here to fight you this time,"

"Not so trigger happy are you now?" Sola scoffed. "I guess your reasoning is better now that you've dropped the booze at home,"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever," The old man rolled his eyes. "When the hospital told me you'd come back to life, I didn't believe it. Now that you're living and breathing right in front of me, I can't deny the truth any longer. You're some freak of a person, you know that right?"

"The only freak here is you old timer. How the hell can you fight like that under the influence?"

The old man smiled and put his index finger over his lips.

"If I told you all my secrets then I wouldn't be the greatest spear master in Pedtro, now would I?" He smiled. He turned to face the doctor. "Thanks for helping me with this guy,"

"You're welcome, Ordan," The doctor. "Since he has no health issues, he's free to go,"

Sola and Ordan stepped out of the hospital and out onto the streets of Minar. The city was not as large as the planet's capital, but it did not fall short in its technological advancements. The streets were filled with hundreds of people moving to and from their various destinations. The skyline of the city was packed with several cargo-type hover vehicles that were moving the various goods Minar was known for seeing. There were even a few which bore a crescent moon crossed with a pickaxe on the side of their doors; the logo of the Moonfall Mine.

"Sorry about attacking you earlier," Ordan apologised.

"It's fine," Sola replied. "Besides, I was finding it a bit difficult to pinpoint Minar's location while I was using my map,"

"What kind of map were you using?" The old man raised an eyebrow. "Any GPS would get you here without any issue,"

"I don't care for any of that technology shit. It's too complicated,"

"Look who's sounding like an old timer over here!" Ordan laughed.

Sola scowled at the old man. He could not help but be reminded of his partner with their interaction. Once again, he found himself wondering what Folorunsho was getting up to without him.

"How long do you plan on staying here?"

"Long enough to refill my travel pack and get directions to my next destination," Sola replied.

"Then you don't have a place to stay then,"

"No. I was planning on staying in a hotel or something,"

"That's too expensive!" Ordan exclaimed. "Why don't you come and stay with me?"