Panic Room

Part two; the third

This is actually a chapter I added after I had finished writing the book. I thought that there were a few unanswered questions which appear later, and the people who read them all seemed to want the same thing, so here. I have saved you the trouble of wanting answers. You're welcome! 

Wednesday; 1998; Luna; S.P.I.D.E.R; 13:34 pm

Luna followed Oliver out of the small room that they had been sitting in and into a long white hallway. The door closed with a soft whoosh and they began to walk. Their footsteps make clicking sounds against the floor and Luna was suddenly transported back to her hospital experience. Oliver's feet had made that exact sound as he had come to see her. She was jerked out of it by a wall suddenly looming up in front of her, and she turned sharply to the right to avoid it. 

She looked around at the hallway to keep from drifting off again, and for the first time noticed that it was not entirely white as she had first presumed, but studded with thick leaflets of stunningly bright paper. Notices and puzzles and codes lined the walls, and Luna frowned. She jogged to catch up with Oliver and began a stride walk next to him, trying to catch her breath enough to pose her question. Eventually she felt it would never come and ran in front of him, her arms outstretched. He stopped dead in his tracks and raised one eyebrow.

 Luna bent over, gasping for breath, and hating the way her chest heaved and her brow dripped after only a short walk. Once she was able to speak again, she looked around at the walls and then back to Oliver. "Please, can, you, explain, what, is, going, on!" She asked between gasps and Oliver's face switched from confusion to realisation and even embarrassment. "Oh! Of course! My mistake. You and I are currently walking through the hallways of the agency S.P.I.D.E.R!" He said brightly, and Luna frowned up at him. "I meant specifics! She snapped, and his face fell one more. "Oh, right." He said with a slight shake of his head. "I am currently taking you on a tour of the coding facilities at S.P.I.D.E.R. Welcome to your new office. Well, hopefully." He stepped to the side and touched a section of the wall, which promptly slid away. Luna stepped back in surprise, and then forward her curiosity overtaking her doubt. The room was completely black inside, but flooded with light the second that she entered. The room was small and plain, containing no more that a desk with a computer on it. Behind the desk was a large glass window, and behind that window sat three men in heavy white coats. Luna didn't even hear Oliver entering the room until he was right behind her. "Welcome," he said, "to your initiation test!"

Luna spun on her heel to face Oliver, his beaming face showing no signs of the rage which was slowly creeping into Luna. She stood there, readying herself for an argument. "I'm sorry," she said in a voice which was much calmer than she. "Could you repeat yourself please?" Oliver smiled. "Certainly! This is your initiation test to see if you can stay as a full time employee at S.P.I.D.E.R!" Luna felt as though somebody had grabbed her heart and was twisting in around and around. "So." She said in that same calm voice, "I have to take a test to determine whether I can be in an agency which you are forcing me to be in! How does that even make sense!" Oliver smiled at her, a pitying look filling his face. "Well, it is tricky. See, we can't simply put you back in the outside world-"

"And why not?" Luna interrupted.

"There are people, Luna. Bad people who want to use your...abilities for their own gain. But, we can't just let you into the agency either. You need to earn your place here." Luna staggered back. Her mind was spinning from this new piece of information. Abilities, what abilities? And which people were out to get her? Twist. Her heart went. Luna looked down, feeling a sense of panic that was both understandable and confusing. Twist. Why was she nervous, or was this sadness? Twist. Oliver was looking at her with the kind of look her father always gave her when he knew she was upset. Twist. Her father. Twist. Her mother. Twist. The life she had left behind, the world that she had known which had become so complicated and confusing in such a short space of time.