Rude Awakening

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Loud snoring broke through my curtain of sleep and I reluctantly opened my eyes. I was still on the couch where I had fallen asleep and the others were scattered around me, some even laying on the floor. I rolled over and met Kenji's wide open mouth snoring right into my face. I rolled back over quickly, falling off the couch and hitting the floor. I stood up and rubbed my eyes.

I looked over to Mae, who was still at the desk and running tests on that strange white cube they had found. Yasmina was sitting on a chair near the desk with her head in her hand, her breathing gentle and shallow. She was asleep like everyone else. Since I knew I couldn't get back to sleep now - thanks a lot, Kenji - I walked over to Mae to see if there was anything I could do to help, or maybe see what she had discovered, or maybe subtly find more out about myself.

"Find anything interesting yet?" I asked as I walked over to Mae and looked at the computer screen.

"Oh, your awake!" She said loudly before covering her mouth. "Sorry, you gave me a fright. No nothing just yet, I'm certain I'm close to something though".

I sighed and looked down. "Did...Mantah Corp ever let slip to you about any really important experiments?" I asked as casually as possible, sounding like I didn't want to know.

"Important experiments?" She checked, she then shook her head. "Sorry, Max. I didn't have that kind of clearance, Mantah Corp was always very secretive about anything in their inner circle. Makes me wonder why they hired someone as loose lipped as me". She chuckled at her joke and turned back to her screen.

I turned around and pretended to strangle the air as frustration rose up in me. Nothing, as usual. I was literally dead centre in the one place that would hold answers and even now it's like their just trying to keep it from me.

"Max, from the moment I saw you, I knew there was something different about you," Mae said randomly. She spun in her seat and stared at me for a few seconds, as if studying me. "You're different from your friends too, but to me, there's something so familiar about you...but I can't decide what".

"I don't know what you mean," I said cautiously as the now familiar feeling of fear of what she'd find out appeared.

"...Neither do I," she said and turned back to the computer screen.

As I was about to turn back to the couch, maybe try to get more sleep, a small voice caught my attention. I turned and looked at where it had come from. Yasmina had a frown on her face as she made small distressed noises in her sleep. She was like that for another few seconds before she suddenly surged up straight and gasped with her eyes wide open.

"You okay, love?" Mae asked.

"Yaz?" I asked as well, taking a step towards her.

"Huh?" She said, still looking a bit dazed. "Oh yeah, I'm good". She leaned her arm on the table and smirked at me, but it faded a little when she saw that I wasn't convinced in the slightest.

Mae spun in her seat and looked at her. "I only asked because you gasped loudly, dropped my tablet to the floor, then startled awake," she said. Yasmina apologised and reached down to pick up the laptop. "No, look. I appreciate you keeping an eye out for BRADs, but you should rest like your friends over there".

"Yeah, we've been through a lot," she said quietly. "But I'd rather stay up, if that's okay".

"You're the boss," Mae said with a smile. "Unless you're assisting me, then, obviously, I'm the boss. Now hand me that petri dish". Yasmina picked up the glass lid with the cube on and handed it to Mae. She took a pair of twwezers and ripped a small chink off the cube, then dropped it into a glass vile of fizzing chemicals. After a small shake, the liquid turned from blue to an acid green.

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