The LAB

Chapter 1

"Vick, I'm so fucking tired... I'm forgetting my own VIN number."

Jerry slumped on his suspension, frame on the verge of touching the stiff carpet below as the poor Mustang tried to stay up on his tires. The screen to his side flashed with several windows of nothing but text, and a clock that blinked slowly with the numbers 4:45am. He groaned loudly before splaying his tires out and flopping to the floor in a heap of tired machine, and with a heavy sigh finally closed his eyes.

"Vick, are you even still awake? I've had better nights pulling all-nighters to study for finals in BIO class last semester. I really doubt I can stay up any longer." Falling silent, he strained to listen for his pal in the other room. Oddly enough, the noise was that of a keyboard typing faster than he had ever heard at this hour.

"Vick?"

The Corvette zipped through pages of text and typed just as fast as he read. His tires moving over the fancy plates making letters and equations on the screen in front of him, his eyes glued with more desire to finish than he ever had for schoolwork.

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm awake man. Sorry just concentrating on something." Vick could hardly think on verbally responding to his pal and instead almost typed out what he wanted to say. He had to pause and chuckle before deleting a few words before zipping back on track.

"Concentrating? You never concentrate on anything but a beer and maybe a couple games!" Jerry shouted, forgetting the thin walls and hour they were awake at. The Mustang grumbled, getting back to his tires before rolling into the other room to harass his roommate.

"The fuck you working on anyways?" Jerry questioned, raising an eye ridge to his yellow painted friend. Vick gave no reply but kept typing madly, as if that was all he was made to do.

"VICK!" The Z06 jumped, shooting the Mustang a death glare from hell itself.

"DUDE! I'm right here! Don't gotta shout. Fuck man, what?!" Jerry returned the glare with a tired and annoyed glance backed up with a huff.

"Right, wasn't talking again, sorry man." Vick shook his front slightly before pointing at the screen with a tire.

"I found someone willing to hear us out, and the best thing is they just want emails for now to see if we're, like, you know, the real deal on this topic before meeting us outside the net." Jerry froze with too many questions to speak, he was really too tired for this.

"Look man, it sounds a bit weird, I know... but, see, like, we still have half a semester and figuring out what day to take off or, like, skip to meet someone is stupid. Plus we have work in the office at odd hours, so this seemed like a good move. Don't you think?" Vick turned to his friend for at least some advice. Instead he got a frozen look of confusion with a side of overly tired eyes on a slumped stance.

"Jerry?" The Mustang tiredly connected the dots in his mind, slowly blinking like a messed up cartoon. Soon, he stood up tall and smiled to his pal.

"Vick, that's actually not a bad idea. In all honesty, I don't think at this hour. All I do is sleep or drink unholy amounts of caffeinated drinks or jet fuel even!" Both chuckled before Jerry yawned, and loudly at that.

"Man, go get some rest. This is my stupid idea, I'll suffer through it a bit more. Besides you have like, what, a class in two hours?"

"HOLY SHIT!" Jerry went wide eyed and instantly zipped to his sub-room.

"I gotta get a nap at the very least! Night Vick!"

"Night Jerry!" With a chuckle, the Corvette went back to his screen of numbers and letters.