Callidus Rising | Complete ✔️ | Book 1

10: Gel

Beep...Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...

I open my eyes.

I wince, and as my eyes adjusted I raise a hand...

Wait a minute.

I yank at my hand again, but it doesn't move. It felt stuck. Everywhere feels stuck.

Im laying with my body slightly tilted to around a 150 ° angle. My upper body was the more inclined portion. From what I can see, I am inside some sort of tank.

The top is domed and it has little air purification filters whirring, but it is going backwards. It is purifying the air that is going out of the containment pod.

The most terrifying part was that I am surrounded by a deep blue opaque substance that restricts all of my movement. The entire back half of my body is submerged, and I am wearing a form-hugging jumper suit.

Every few seconds I can feel a little electric jolt move through the gel and me, and then I hear another persistent beep.

In the top corner of the tank, there is a small drone filled with some sort of silver-ish liquid. The small monitor that rests outside the tank at my feet flashes green in a steady rhythm and then it flashes red.

Afterward, a question pops up on the translucent screen:

Sedate patient?
Yes or No

My eyes widen.

No!

"Nuheh, bont sebayt, preaz," I try to speak.

Over my lips was a thin filmy piece of Lukas-Knows-What.

My lips are slightly parted and they are stuck in that position. When I try to inhale through my mouth, water fills it instead of air.

What the hell?!

I try again, and get more of the same. It is like someone incorporated Jumper tech into a portable mouthpiece.

Somewhere, there is a water source I am drinking from, and this device is jumping it into my mouth.

This is crazy.

As I am chugging as much water as I can, a portion of the wall pushes outwards and slowly lowers until it is floating just above the all-white floor.

A petite little woman walks out and steps onto it.

I stop drinking and watch her curiously.

The wall behind her melds back together, and despite the piece the woman was on, it looks just as flawless as it did earlier. The wall piece that levitates just above the floor reshapes itself to look like a Hover-Board.

She leans forward slightly and the board moves toward my tank at an alarming rate.

Just before she would've splatted into the translucent barrier closest to my feet, she leans back a little bit, and it halts.

She looks down at me and smiles. I don't return it... It's not like I can with this thing on my mouth.

Instead, I take in her appearance.

She wears a loose white dress that buttons from the stomach all the way up to the neck, and it has a small fabric belt that ties around the hips. It also has a collar at the neck. It reminds me of an altered version of those mad scientist lab coats from those old movies.

Lukas used to play them on replay for me after he hacked into different databases for them, and quite a few had those "mad scientist" types, but surprisingly, I don't get this vibe off of her.

She has black hair and caramel skin, but her eyes were very light brown. Almost amber.

I watch her as she selects "No", and I then declare that I don't hate her like I hate her blacked-out friends.

She looks up from the monitor.

"If you promise to try to rest, I won't sedate you again, and after, I'll give you something a little bit more flavorful than water, and I'll get you out of there," she says with a strong voice.

The silver-filled drone flies over and removes the innovative Water Jumper from my lips.

I take a moment to move my previously trapped lips. The petite non-"mad scientist" scientist woman looks at me expectantly.

I grind my teeth together for a moment as I think.

"I promise... So long as you get me out of this goop... this gel," I reply.

"And give me food. I'm starving."

She smiles again.

"Alright," she says. As she turns and leans forward on the board back to the wall which opens again, I hear her say "Gel" and laugh a bit to herself.
~~~~~~~~~~

A little bit shorter, but not by much. A few questions:

•So, do you trust the petite scientist?
•Where the heck is our fav, Lukas?
•Isn't that wall pretty cool?
•And why do you think they put her in a tank?
PS... The picture above is what the room looks like without the tank inside it.

Thank you all so much for reading!!
♥️