GLASS BACK [COMPLETED]

7

"Huh?" said Henric. "What do you mean, it's yours?"

"Exactly what I said, it's my name. What type of joke is this?"

"I'm serious, it's my name. I don't know what you're talking about."

They eyed each other suspiciously. Henric couldn't tell if the boy was joking or not.

"What's your dad's name?" The sick Henric asked him.

"His name is David."

The sick Henric's mouth opened slightly after Henric said that name.

"What's yours?" Henric asked him. The sick one didn't reply.

"What's your mother's name?" He asked, ignoring the question.

"My mother's name is Rachel, but she passed a while ago." Henric confided.

There was a different kind of shock on the older Henric's face, like he just figured something out.

"Are they your parents too?" said the younger one, not even believing his own words.

"No. At least, that's not my mother's name. Let me see that I.D. for a second."

Henric handed it over and the sick one glanced at it quickly.

"This was his fucking plan. That bastard..."

"What? What happened?"

The sick Henric looked at the younger and sighed. He laid back down and closed his eyes.

"Get me a wheelchair and I'll explain."

"Why should I?"

The older one looked up and snapped.

"Because you clearly don't know what's going on, or how to get around this place. You don't know where my dad is, you don't even know what you are!"

Henric just stood there while the sick one yelled at him.

He calmed down quickly though, and his tone changed.

"Look, forget what I said. Just get me a wheelchair, and I'll help you. We'll find... David, and get out of here."

"Okay."

Henric backed out of the room with his crutches and the door automatically shut behind him.

I don't know what I am? What is he talking about? Henric wondered as he walked down the hallway. That guy wasn't making sense. But he at least seemed to know more than Henric did, so he decided to help him. He started by checking the other patient rooms, but his I.D. wasn't working. None of the other rooms opened. He headed back towards the lobby and raced the receptionist's desk. Built into the desk was a touchscreen monitor for patients to use when the receptionist was busy. Just like everything else in the lab, it had a scanner. Henric leaned his crutches against the side of the desk and pressed the I.D. against it, half expecting it to fail, but it didn't. He was greeted by a welcome screen showing his dad's name, followed by a help menu. The screen read:

Schedule Appointments

Manage Appointments

Check Prescriptions

Refill Prescriptions

Request Aid

Henric pressed Request Aid and it presented him another menu.

Human

Automaton

Crutches

Knee Scooter

WheelChair (Manual, Pediatric, Power)

He pressed the human button just to see what would happen and a sixty second timer appeared. After it hit zero a pop up appeared saying, "No one has responded to your request. Please try again later."

"I figured as much." Henric muttered. He pressed the wheelchair button and selected power.

Suddenly, the desk started sliding to the right. Henric grabbed his crutches before they fell and stood back as the wall behind the desk lifted and a wheelchair rolled out on a conveyor belt. Henric sat in it and layed the crutches across his lap. He'd always been fascinated by wheelchairs but never needed one until now. After giving this one to the sick guy, he'd come and get one for himself.

Cruising back to the room, Henric scanned the I.D. and turned his crutches upright so he could get through the door. Upon seeing him, the sick guy smirked a bit and sat upright.

"Too lazy to walk back, I see. I'd have done the same."

"My leg is broken, if you haven't noticed."

"I did, and that's how I know you don't know shit about this place. You should be fine. Come help me get into the chair so we can get out of here."

Henric helped him into the chair and together they left out the room.

"Okay. Now let's go to the lobby so I can get one of these." said Henric.

"What? No." The older one replied. We need to find the medicine. We do that and neither of us will need wheelchairs."

"What do you mean find? I thought you knew your way around this place?" Henric accused.

"Oh I do. But most medicine is locked up, and I'm pretty sure you at least know you need clearance for damn near everything." The older one replied.

"Yeah, I know. I have some leftover medicine in my room, the robot guy left it in a cabinet." said Henric.

"If you met a 'robot guy', he's probably an automaton. They don't call those robots. Is this your room?" the older one pointed to a room that was clearly lit from the inside.

"Yeah, let me just scoot past you to swipe the I.D-"

"No need." The older Henric pulled out his own I.D. badge and swiped it. The door slid open, much to the younger one's surprise.

"How did you do that?" The younger Henric asked. The older one gave him his lanyard and he looked at it. There was a scientist I.D. card on one side and his actual government I.D. on the other. Henric read it aloud.

"Henric McCathey. Eyes: Brown. Height: 5'11. Date of birth... August 17th, 1991."