Coger

Chapter Two

Christian woke in the same room he had been in.

"Good morning starshine. The Earth says hello!" A voice screeched through the microphone causing Christian's to pound.

"Hi David."

"How're you feeling?"

Christian stood to his feet, "I'm alright." He wiped his nose with his hand before feeling that the bandage was no longer on his face.

"Your nose should be better by now," David replied through the speaker, "We've been keeping an eye on you, and our doctor said that she feels like you had it on long enough."

"How long was I out?"

"A couple weeks. No big deal."

Christian's eyes got huge, "Weeks?? You know I have a girlfriend, a job--"

"Yeah, yeah. We've got that taken care of," David interrupted, "A body double has taken your place until we feel like you can be released back into society."

Christian shook his head in disbelief, "You know I was expecting a shot or something. Not really gas."

"After the incident with 114, we stopped injections and made it able to just seep into the skin and be inhaled."

"Well..." Christian looked at his hands, "What's my power?"

"That's what we have to find out."

Suddenly, a wooden paddle appeared from the wall near him and smacked him in the head before retracting.

"Not dexterity nor pain resistance," David came back over the speaker.

"That kind of hurt," Christian complained as he rubbed the back of his head.

"That was the point."

After a moment, the room began to fill with water.

"Try breathing underwater."

"Excuse me?" Christian exclaimed as he attempted to keep his calm while the frozen waters rushed in on him.

"It doesn't look like temperature tolerance," David noted.

"Nope! Definitely not!" Christian began swimming up toward the ceiling as the water got higher. When it got to the point where he was forced to go under to hold his breath, it became obvious that he was not amphibious.

Panicking, he swam towards the door and grabbed the handle. With little force, the door opened and water spilled out into the main hallway, causing him to wash up at David's feet.

"Are you kidding me??" David stomped before taking a note.

Christian coughed as he stood to his feet, "Lock the door next time."

"That's the problem," David said angrily as he marched off down the flooded hallway.

An older man wearing jeans and a flannel turned the corner opposite of David before seeing the hallway and let out a calm but sudden, "If they think I'm cleaning this up, oh hell no."

*****

Christian walked back and forth between the three windows of Kilby, Heather, and Pickle, watching them in their training sessions.

"What am I supposed to be leading?" Christian asked himself as a cough from behind him caused him to swing around.

An older woman with a cart full of towels began lying the towels over the water on the floor.

"I'm sorry about that," he apologized to her.

"It's alright, sweetie," the woman said through an extremely scratchy voice.