Agent Atlantis

Chapter 14--Recovery

No. I can't let you escape.

Not when you're trying to kill others—to turn others into monsters like me.

STOP!

Luke jumped back into consciousness. Literally. In the span of a moment, he was pulled out of his dark chains as machines crashed onto the ground so loud that he was forced to open his eyes. He found several employees dressed in nurse clothes looking at him concern through the privacy curtains. The loudness of his beating heart almost drowned out his embarrassment.

He looked down at himself—he was wearing a hospital gown decorated with cartoon ducks that smiled back at him innocently. An IV drip fed into his right arm, now utterly useless because the pole and the bag, thanks to his stunt, were now on the ground.

It was just a nightmare, he sighed, leaning back onto his pillow. Maybe that spar was a part of it too—I don't feel any of my wounds.

Any semblance of this theory was shattered when someone shouted, "Lucas!"

The curtains swished to the side, and then two people appeared at his bedside—a familiar looking man and woman. Luke glared at the woman. "My name's Luke."

Jocelyn looked flustered, as if her shout had been a slip of the tongue, and Collins teased, "I thought it was Agent Atlantis."

Luke groaned. "I was hoping that all transpired in my head. It's not that bad, right?"

"Everyone'll forget it within the week," Jocelyn reassured him. Her hair was in knots and her clothes were wrinkled, but she still managed to glow within the infirmary walls.

Just then, one of the nurses tentatively poked her head in through the curtain. "Everything alright, Agent Atlantis?"

Luke groaned again, putting his head in his hands. Collins howled with laughter as Jocelyn kindly told the nurse that everything was handled. "It's not that funny."

Collins seemed to find the entire situation pretty amusing, though.

Jocelyn lightly elbowed him in the stomach. "It's rude to make fun of a patient, Roger," she scolded, and the captain immediately shut up.

Alarm bells rang in his head, but Luke ignored them. He glared at Jocelyn. "Why are you here?"

"Why can't she be here? That's no way of treating the vice co-headmaster—"

"I'm your dorm manager," she told Luke cooly, driving her elbow deep into Collins' solar plexus. "Anything that has to do with you—injuries, grades, and even deployments—is my responsibility. And right now, your mental acuity is at the top of that list." She looked at him carefully, as if scouring his face to read his emotions. "We heard you screaming about moles."

"Yeah. Those pesky badgers," Luke smoothly transitioned, keeping a steady face. "The grounds of my last apartment were full of them. You couldn't go a yard outside without tripping on one of them—and then they'd chase after you until they got tired.." He released a movie-worthy shudder. "As if the snow was bad enough."

Jocelyn looked unconvinced. "Badgers don't spend time on the surface when it's winter—and for Wartena, that's all the time."

". . . the King did some testing on the local population," Luke tried. "He wanted to make them into biological weapons. It kind of worked—they're serious tripping hazards."

"I love where this is going," Collins interrupted, stifling his laughter, "but before you embarrass yourself further while trying to keep our secret, I'd like for you to know that Jocelyn is a part of the investigation team as well."