So I had a hell of a day.

Oh, yeah. Petey didn't write this chapter, I did. I'm Mitch, by the way.

In my room at the lab, I had a radio set to turn on at a certain time in the morning and wake me up. One morning, it woke me up with music, as normal. Then, when the song ended...

"We have some sad news to share with you all this morning," the radio announcer said. I sat up and turned up the volume. "I'm sure everyone's heard of him: Vikk, the founder of the country's largest corporation, Vikkstar Industries. An intern of his went to check up on him when he didn't answer his phone this morning. Upon arriving at the tower, the intern did not find the multi-million dollar industry owner, but instead, a suicide note."

My eyes went wide. I'd never known Vikk personally, but I knew that he was part of Vaq's project and that this was going to be a big deal for him. I continued listening.

"Authorities are searching the area for Vikk's body, though no other information has been released. I'll keep you updated. Anyway, here's Wonderwall."

The announcer stopped talking as the guitar from the very famous intro to Wonderwall started playing.

I quickly threw off my bedspread and put on my hoodie before rushing out of the room. There was a microphone on the wall outside my room, used for contacting Vaq or announcing something over the intercoms. I pressed the button to contact Vaq specifically.

"Hey, where you at?" I asked.

"Kitchen," Vaq said glumly, through the speaker near the microphone. From his tone of voice, I guessed he'd already heard the news.

I ran through the halls, sliding around corners on my socks. The lab was like a maze, but I'd lived there long enough to know my way around. I reached the kitchen quickly and, sure enough, the radio was turned on, Wonderwall was playing, and Vaq was sitting at the table, brooding.

"I assume you heard?" I said, sitting down next to him. He nodded sadly.

"I just..." Vaq began, "...feel like it's my fault, somehow."

"Don't be stupid, he doesn't even know who you are," I said.

"I know, but..." Vaq continued, "...what if it had something to do with his power? I can imagine a three-sixty degree view of everything at all times could get annoying. Or, what if it was because of Lachlan? They were friends for so long and..."

"Stop it!" I said, gripping his shoulder. "You'll probably never know so don't torture yourself, okay?"

Just then, Jerome rushed into the room.

"I was just surfing the web and-" he said, though upon seeing our faces and hearing the radio, he stopped. "-you already heard, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Vaq said, gloomily. I didn't look at him as he spoke. I had heightened sight and hearing, see. And I could hear something out of the ordinary.

Click, cRASH

Sounded like a door breaking down, far away in the lab.

Step, step...stepstepstepSTEPSTEP

A ton of footsteps. I turned to Jerome.

"Do you smell anything unusual?" This would be a weird question to anyone else, but Jerome had heightened smell so he might have been able to smell if someone was in the lab other than us.

He stopped for a moment, sniffing the air. "Smells like...industrial rubber boots, sweat...a lot of people. Some metal and - well, it smells like an army," he sounded worried. We both turned to Vaq.

"Are we being invaded?" I asked. Vaq's eyes were wide. He looked like he might cry.

The footsteps became loud enough to be heard without heightened senses. We all went deadly silent.

"GET ON THE GROUND!" Yelling. I obliged and got down on the ground, covering my hands with my head. I assumed Vaq and Jerome did the same. Were they holding guns? I thought they were holding guns. My heart was in my throat.

"I SAID GET ON THE GROUND!" I guessed one of them had not gotten on the ground. I heard Vaq's shaking voice next.

"Wh-what d-d-did I d-do t-to warrent-t th-this?"

"GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND!" They ignored him. I felt a body be forcefully pushed to the ground next to me. He whimpered.

"Alright, search the place," the guy who'd been yelling at us instructed his troops. "I'll take care of these guys."

"Y-you w-w-won't find any-anything!" Vaq said. "At least, n-nothing y-you weren't al-already expecting t-t-to find."

"I don't give a shit," the guy said. His voice was oddly projective, especially in a room with acoustics like this. "We have reason to believe you're hiding something, Vaquxine. Especially after Vikk's death this morning."

"WHAT? Why?!" Vaq exclaimed, lifting his head off the floor for a moment. The army man kicked him in the side. Vaq lowered his head.

"A man who created an experiment only to have that experiment go off and become a multimillionaire has reason to be jealous."

"Are you saying I murdered him because I was jealous?!" Vaq yelled. "You don't have proof of that! That's no reason to search my lab!"

"Oh, Vaquxine, we've been wanting to search this place for years," the army man said with an ominous laugh. "So we staged an anonymous tip and used it as an excuse. If we truly aren't going to find anything, you have no reason to be afraid, correct?"

Vaq let out a hiccupy sob. I glanced at him briefly, before doing something more bold than I thought I could do.

I stood up, looked the army man in the eye, and said with absolute seriousness: "You, my good sir, are a piece of shit."

Then I punched him in the face. Sadly, not hard enough to knock him out, but hard enough to disorient him at least. I quickly grabbed Jerome's hand, pulled him up off the floor, and ran out of the room. I regret leaving Vaq behind.

"HEY!" The army man yelled. But he didn't want to leave Vaq alone, so he spoke into a communication device clipped to his belt and told some of his troops to find us and arrest us.

Footsteps. Yelling. Jerome gripped my hand tighter and I struggled against the slippery floor because I was still in my socks.

BANG

"SHIT THEY'RE SHOOTING AT US!" Jerome yelled. I tried to tighten my focus and hear each individual person as they raised their weapons and aimed.

"THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!" Jerome yelled. I heard a finger tap a trigger and ducked my head. "DOESN'T VAQ HAVE A CONTRACT SAYING THAT GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AREN'T ALLOWED TO KILL US?"

Another army man appeared in front of us, holding a gun to my throat. I panicked and froze. Jerome dragged me in the opposite direction and into a room - the lounge.

"Fuck," Jerome grumbled, "bad idea."

I pressed my hands to the sides of my head and looked around the room for something, anything we could use to our advantage. There was a window high up on the far wall, but it was too small for either of us to fit through. Several books - mostly textbooks - were strewn about. There was a wrench on the windowsill. A TV remote that was missing several buttons and...

"Mitch..." Jerome said, "hurry..."

...an old, used syringe, sitting beside a bookshelf.

I locked my eyes on it. It was our only hope at this point, other than the wrench, but I didn't think I could reach it easily.

"What? What do you see?" Jerome asked. "Please tell me it's something good."

I dashed forward and grabbed the syringe. I held it out for Jerome to see, and then I hid around the corner, waiting for one of the army men to come find us.

Step, step...

As soon as one guy poked his head around the corner cautiously, I took the syringe and shoved it in his cheek. It must have been more painful than I anticipated because he screamed rather loudly and his partners rushed to his side.

"What is that?!" One of them exclaimed.

"It could be poison..."

"Or a deadly disease!"

"He needs to be quarantined."

I'd successfully distracted them. And while they were busy, Jerome and I made our escape, leaving Vaq behind.

~~~

What do you guys think is gonna happen to Vaq? I'd like to hear predictions. ;)

(Also I'm gonna be kinda absent for a bit because I'm writing another book for a school club thing and that book is actually gonna get published...it's due in three weeks and I only have three chapters written lmao)

Ciao!