Versatile Girl

I am crashing through a hallway, pumping my legs furiously. The echo of footsteps sounds throughout the hall I pound down.

Someone yells my name as they shake me awake, “Iris!”

I sit up, opening my eyes. I gasp for air. Sweat beads line my forehead. My mom is standing at the foot of my bed. I look around to see that I am in my room again. “Mom?” I groggily ask.

“Yeah. Are you alright? You were shouting in your sleep.”

I nod slowly, “It was just a bad dream.” At least I hope it was.

Mom walks out of the room. I slowly get out of bed to choose my outfit for today. Quickly, I choose a pair of black jeans that match with a red graphic tee. I am trying to dig myself out of an emo phase. It is really hard because black is all I wear.

After I finish getting ready, I pound down into the kitchen. The smell of chocolate chip waffles fills my nose. My little brother Harris is standing next to the toaster with his face in his tablet. For being a ten year old, he is super lazy. I prepare a bowl of cereal. Harris and I eat breakfast in silence.

Mom interrupts our silence by singing, “It’s time to go! It’s time to go! I am so excited that my kids get to go! To work!”

Harris hops from his chair, opening the front door. I follow him. We walk into the driveway then get into Mom’s black pick up truck. Mom starts up the truck, pulling out of the driveway. We head to Mom’s work.

As we drive, I envelope myself in my thoughts. Suddenly, I realize something. I have no clue where my mom works. All I know is she works in a science lab. “Mom, where do you work? Like what do you do?” I ask.

She glances over at me, “That is a great question. I work in a governmentally owned building, so I work for the government. I handle chemicals to create cures for things and create things chemically. We can cure Type 1 Diabetes, but we haven’t figured out how yet. We can also create a drug that gives a person the ability to stay up for seventy two hours without feeling tired. I am a chemical engineer. Oh, look! We’re here!”

Mom parks the car in front of a plain, grey stone building. I immediately notice tons of guards standing in front of the entrance. We get out of the car, Mom leading us to the building. A man suddenly comes rushing out of the building. I inventory his features. Hazel eyes, brown hair, and a tall, muscular figure. “Rose? How are you?” He wraps my mother in a warm embrace.

“I am fantastic! I brought my kids with me today for take your child to work day. This is Iris and Harris.” Mom says excitedly after they break their hug.

“Hi.” Harris and I both greet him at the same time.

“My name is Doctor Lilo. Come on in, but you will have to take precautions.” Doctor Lilo scans his badge against a scanner.

The doors make a loud noise as they unlock. Doctor Lilo holds the door open for us. There is a little lobby area that has white walls and white tile flooring. There are lab coats hanging on the wall, sinks line the left and right walls. A small table sits in a right corner. A box of latex gloves is sitting on top of a box of hair nets. Doctor Lilo washes his hands in the sink. Mom puts her hand on my back, “Go ahead and wash your hands with soap.”

I wash my hands then Doctor Lilo hands me some gloves. I take them from Doctor Lilo. His fingers dwindle on my hand. I meet his deep gaze. He immediately runs a hand through his hair, removing his hand from mine. “You guys need hair nets now!” He announces.

I blink furiously, snapping out of my confused state. We all get hair nets, putting them on. Mom hands everyone a lab coat. We slide those on along with some shoe covers. Doctor Lilo scans his badge on another scanner. The doors make a loud noise as the last doors did. My mouth drops open when the doors open. Rows upon rows of tables with little vials on them are sitting on some nice white tile. A large staircase ascends at the back of the room. It leads to an open balcony hallway, which you can see from the first floor. The walls are white too. People working at their desks, are wearing a bunch of white too. This building has so much white in it, leaving a small pain behind my eyes. Doctor Lilo rests a hand on my shoulder, “Rose, want me to go ahead and give Iris the tour?”

“Yes, go right ahead! I will give Harris the tour soon!” Mom embraces me then walks off with Harris following right behind her.

Doctor Lilo leads us up the large staircase. He runs up it while I take my time. He stands at the top of the staircase, watching me with a strange glint in his eyes. “Iris, could you possibly go any slower? My great grandma could walk faster than you, yet she’s dead!” He chuckles at his own joke.

I laugh, “Would you like me to go slower? I easily can.”

Doctor Lilo gestures out to the floor below us, “That is the White Room. We work there with all the other people. It is the whitest room here. It hurts my eyes.”

“It hurts my eyes too! I am normally an all black wearer,” I lift a strand of my black dyed hair, “Heck, I went emo.”

He laughs as we walk down a hallway. Guards heavily line this hall as do the cameras. He turns right, prancing into a room. I lean against the doorway. “This is the experiment room! We test individuals in here,” He taps a mirror, “It is like an interrogation room.”

I grin, “Has anybody died in there?”

His face falls, “Who knows?”

We step back into the hallway. We continue down the hallway to the point where Doctor Lilo halts at a set of really thick looking metal doors.

Doctor Lilo comes to a halt at a set of really thick metal doors. He scans his badge, has a machine scan his eyes, then take his fingerprints. Whatever that is behind this door has to be either really important, super dangerous, or both.

A loud automated voice says, “Doctor Lilo Decar as entered the chemical zone.”

We enter the ginormous room. I inspect it. Large cabinets with scanners line the walls, tables sit in a square around a cauldron looking thing. Doctor Lilo gets access to a cabinet, grabbing a few vials. He sets them on a vial holder sitting on a table. I join him. He dumps a couple of vials into the cauldron. He look to me, “I need you to dump this vial,” he taps a vial, “into the pot. I will be right back. Do not touch the liquid in the pot.”

I smile. His cheeks turn a little pink as he turns then walks out of the room.

I take a glimpse at the vial. Purple liquid fills it. I take it, dumping it into the pot. The purple liquid swirls in with the others, turning the mixture into a light grey. The liquid bubbles. I watch it in excitement. The liquid oozes over the rim of the pot. I back up, slamming into a table. Doctor Lilo stated specifically to not touch the liquid, so who knows what it could do to you.

A loud BOOM! fills the air. The room vibrates. The air now reeks of fireworks and spoiled eggs. I slide underneath the table, backing all the way up to the cabinets. It is not supposed to do that. I don’t think Doctor Lilo would mean to harm me.

A table slams down from the wall, right onto my outstretched legs. I scream in agony. I must not have seen that before.

I glance to the door, where Doctor Lilo stands. “Doctor Lilo! Help!” I shout.

He just stands there, watching me struggle to get this freaking table off me with his arms folded over his chest. The mixture is moving towards me, not in any other direction. My eyes widen in horror, “Why is it moving towards me? Aren’t liquids suppose to spread out? Liquids don’t work like this!” I shriek, trying harder to move this table off me. I groan in exhaustion.

The liquid creates a slop sound every inch it moves closer. The liquid is on my shoes. It burns my feet badly. I attempt to scoot closer to the cabinet, but my legs ache too much. I slump against the cabinet, wanting to accept that this is my fate and probably won’t end well. The burning travels up my legs all the way to my knees. I stare at Lilo, pleading for him to help. “Doctor Lilo! I know you can see me! Help!”

He does nothing as the burning sensation is at my hips now. A tear rolls down my cheek. Now I believe Doctor Lilo did this on purpose since he isn’t helping me. I angrily roar, “Why did you do this? I did nothing to you!”

The mixture is at my neck. I am struggling to breathe. “Iris, this is all part of the plan. The versatile need you, I need you.” I hear Doctor Lilo say.

Black dots dance across my vision. I can barely see the outline of someone, whom I assume is Doctor Lilo. It feels as if all the energy from my body is being drained. I throw my arms around the air, giving my best shot at finding Doctor Lilo. I exert all my energy left in my body to shout how he is an idiot and how I will harm him if I make it out of this. My eyelids close as all the pain in my body suddenly disappears.