Dorothy

Chapter 4

Dorothy started to scream as a pronged hand flew over her mouth. Rosie's fan was whirring, and she made a noise that almost sounded like a shushing. Dorothy stared at the motionless figure, it stared back.

Rosie slowly drew her hand away from Dorothy's mouth. "What is that thing?" Dorothy whispered.

"I don't know, my database doesn't recognize it. Though it is sitting in what is called a suspended animation tank."

Dorothy took a tentative step toward the tank. Then another. Slowly, so slowly, she circled the thing. The thing followed her with its eyes. "What do we do?"

The thing moved its mouth just a bit. Dorothy almost thought that it was trying to form a word. She leaned in a bit. "What? What are you trying to say."

The thing moved its head ever so slightly, indicating a tube that had been pulled halfway out of its arm. Blood was forming around the spot, trickling into the blue.

"I believe," Rosie said, "That those are the sedatives."

"Great," was Dorothy's only reply.

The thing continued trying to form a word. It mouthed, but Dorothy couldn't read its lips. Rosie's programming, on the other hand, could. "It's saying, 'Help. Get me out.' Not particularly original, if I do say so myself."

"What do we do?"

"I think that we should help it," came Rosie's reply. "It doesn't look too harmful or dangerous, and it may know how to get us out of here."

"It doesn't look particularly harmless either." Dorothy pointed out. Rosie rolled over to the glass and used her prongs to break a small piece of glass away from the wrench-hole.

"Probably best if I do it," Rosie said. Working quickly, she enlarged the opening. Gel seeped out onto the floor. When it started to get close to her treads, Rosie backed away and motioned to Dorothy. "The gel isn't good for me; best if you do it."
    
       Dorothy stepped toward the tank uncomfortably. The hole had gotten big enough for the thing to be able to get out, if it crouched, but all the tubes were still connected to it. She reached into the tank and tugged one of the needles from- his?- arm. He flinched in pain. "Sorry," Dorothy stammered.

      Five minutes later the thing was free, though it had looked incredibly impatient the whole time. "Come on out," Dorothy said as she backed away. The thing stooped and half stepped-half fell out of the tank. Dorothy quickly grabbed the man (she had decided that it was a man), getting herself covered in the blue goop in the process.

     "I'm fine," the man slowly uttered his first discernible words.

     "Well then," Dorothy felt rather put out at the man's reaction. She quickly drew away and the man slumped to the floor and into the pile of blue goo. He tried in vain to get up several times, all the while Dorothy smirked next to him. 

     Rosie finally had the decency to grab the man with her prongs and haul him to his feet, but he immediately slumped over again. "Come on come on come on, " he said softly to himself. Dorothy and Rosie exchanged a look; this guy really didn't have any originality.

     "Would you like some help?" Dorothy asked.

     "I'll be fine in a second." The man struggled for a couple more minutes, then sighed in defeat. "Fine," he almost spit on the words. "We need to get out of here." He raised a thin, pale arm toward her. Dorothy grasped the limb and hauled him up to support him with her shoulder.

     "I should be alright in a few minutes. We need to get out of here. An alarm almost surely went off when you broke that tank. I'm shocked they haven't gotten here yet with all your slowness."