Courage, Compassion, and Capital

Chapter 10

Jack 

I wake up to the sound of someone chewing. I open my eyes, and sure enough, it is Johanna. Eating...something, I don't know what. Looks like...you know what, I'm not going to try guessing. 

I stare at her for a few minutes, until she realizes I'm awake. 

"Finally," she says, putting down her plate. "I was waiting for you to wake up!"

"You should've woken me," I say, surprised about how deep my voice was. It was puberty all over again. Ugh. "Why were you waiting?" I finally ask, after stretching. 

"Beetee wants to see you in the labs. He thinks you could help him," she says, observing her nails. After I see them, I realize they are bitten down to stubs. 

"Alright, let me get into my wheelchair..." I say, inching over to the side of the couch, where my wheelchair is positioned where I left it last night. I give a slight oomph as I land in the chair. 

Johanna winces, and mutters, "remind me to start your physical rehab..." 

I purse my lips, imagining it. Most likely, it would be us swinging axes. I was not looking forward to that. But, then again, it would be fun to have rehab with a Victor. 

"Alright...lead the way!" I say, positioning my hand over the place where I remember the track pad was. And sure enough, it pops out. 

Johanna starts to jog out, and I quickly follow, trying to figure out the perfect speed. We turn many corners, and I realize how little control I actually have with this wheelchair. Thankfully, it always stops before I crash. My heart felt like it was beating at 120 beats per minute, after I came to close to falling out of the chair after one of the abrupt stops when I almost ran into the wall. 

"Are we there yet?" I call call out to Johanna, hoping not that much farther. I didn't want to come closer to dying right now. 

She didn't respond, she just kept on running. After a few more minutes, she held up 3 fingers. 

What was that? Three doors? Three more minutes? Three more hallways? 

UGH! This woman annoys me. 

"Uhm, could you elaborate?" I ask, accidentally almost running into a wall again. I needed practice with this thing. 

"Nope!" She said, stopping as we reached a sealed door. Johanna stops, barely out of breath. 

She steps up to the door, and knocks three times, and with a hiss, a small microphone pops out. At least I think it's a microphone. 

"Johanna Mason." She says, speaking slowly and clearly. She bends down, and I see something scan her eyes. 

The doors hiss open, and she steps inside. Just as I start to follow, the doors slam shut. 

"Now what?" I say, exasperated. 

I am surprised when I hear a muffled voice, who I think is Johanna. "Do the same thing as me dumbo." 

Yep. Definitely Johanna. 

I wheel forwards, slowly, and knock three times. The microphone pops out, so I say my name, as clearly as possible. It pops back in, but the scan doesn't happen. 

Was I not allowed in? 

"Johanna, I'm not allowed in!" I say, my voice rising because of the nerves. 

"I know...BEETEE!" She screams, which I can hear quite clearly. 

I wait a few minutes, staring at the doors. I jump as they slide open quite quickly. 

Beetee stands with this back to me, and stops typing on a keypad. He turns, adjusting his glasses. "Come on in Jack." 

I comply, moving my finger on the track pad a bit to fast, so I zoom past Beetee. I jolt to a stop, inches from the next door. 

Johanna jumped out of the way just in time, but landed against the wall, and she's now rubbing her head and glaring at me. Great, she's going to kill me.  

Beetee proceeds, not giving Johanna any time to kill me. Thanks Beetee. "Retina scan once again," he says, the eye scanner thingy popping back out and scanning each of our eyes. 

The doors open once again, in a blank room, just like the grey walls all around the compound. 

"Welcome," Beetee says, "to the lab!" 

I look around, searching for anything interesting, but find nothing. 

"You said this was a lab Beetee. Where is the lab?" Johanna says, annoyed. She must be still cranky about me almost running her over. For the last time, I didn't mean to almost smash her...

"Be patient. See, there is a secret button somewhere in this room. If you press it, the door will open," Beetee says, standing back. 

"Well, this is stupid. I'm not finding some idiot button just for your I'm super cool  purposes," Johanna says, her arms crossed. 

I zone them out, and look around. Where would Beetee hide it? Somewhere nice and secluded, but easy enough for him to find. So, it wouldn't be too low, or too high. Based on the layout of the doors so far, the door would be on the opposite end. So I roll my chair towards the wall, slowly. I reached up, and groped along the wall. After a second, I sighed. Nothing was happening. I lay my head against the wall, defeated. But the suddenly, I heard a hissing, and I noticed I had made a dent in the wall. I laughed. I had found the button! I grinned, and as my eyes adjusted, I gasped. This was most definitely a lab.