Hey guys! Hope you all are enjoying reading this as I am writing it! Drop off a review if you guys want, and hope you guys enjoy this new chapter. The next one will be out in two weeks!
The Tenth Class
Chapter 7: First Day
"Coo, coo..." Rose heard a faint cooing sound nearby. "Coo, coo..." It was soft, but loud enough to wake her up from her sleep. She opened her eyes and say a white dove sitting next to her on her nightstand, watching her sleep. She smiled lightly and began to slowly sit up in her bed. Rose then, wiping her eyes from all the grogginess and looked around. Everything was still the same with Medic still no where in sight. 'Huh, I guess he got up early this morning,' Rose thought to herself. She looked back at her nightstand and the dove was still there.
"Are you Archimedes?" Rose asked, almost forgetting that she was talking to a bird. But much to her surprise the bird almost looked like it nodded to her question, nodding his head up and down. "Oh, well it's nice to meet you!"
The bird just let a light coo, continuing to look at her with great interest. Rose leaned over and lightly petted his head with her index and middle finger.
"Wheatly, start boot up sequence," Rose said after a quiet moment. The she heard some soft beeping and whirring coming from the back of her neck.
"Ahh, that was a good rest that was definitely well needed," Wheatly said after a few seconds passed.
"I take it you rested well?" Rose asked, stretching her arms behind her head.
"I do believe so. How about you miss?" he asked, his holograph lighting up in front of her.
"Oh yeah. That was probably the best night sleep I have had in a long time," Rose said with a gentle smile.
And it was true. For a long time, Rose hadn't been able to sleep well for months and it was begging to affect her slightly. She started day dreaming, or snoozing off while doing something monotonous during a mission. She could never figure out why, and Wheatly couldn't ever give her a straight answer.
"I can tell!" Wheatly said with a sigh of relief. "Your body seems a lot more relaxed and your mind scans show no extreme affects of negative activity."
"Well, that's definitely good news to start the day off with!" Rose said, getting up from her bed, stretching her legs as she got up. Then she heard the doors open and looked to see Medic Poking his head through the doors.
"Ah! Guten morgen herr Rose!" He said, coming through the door all the way, coming to a standstill in the middle of the room. "I zought I heard someone moving around back here. Did you sleep well?"
"Why yes I did, Medic. Thank you for asking," Rose thanked the German.
"Ah, of course!" He said with a bit of a bow. "Now, if you don't mind, I must get back to my experiments. I have some wild baboon hearts that need to be übercharged; for back-ups of course."
Rose's expression went from happy, to curious, to a bit worried. But then after a brief moment of thinking, Rose showed more curiosity than worry.
"Oh, how does that work?" she asked. Medic's face lightened up a bit to her question.
"Vell, if you have zhe time, I can show you exactly how it vorks!" the doctor said with a crazy look in his eyes, along with excitement. But before she could respond, her stomach gave a monstrous growl.
Rose looked down to her stomach, clenched it, and then looked back at Medic with a wince of pain.
"Um, I think I'll have to pass this time, doc," Rose said with a weak smile. "I haven't eaten in a while, apparently."
"Ack, zhat sounds about right," Medic said, his expression lightening. "You vere probably running off of adrenaline all night last night. I'm actually surprised you haven't passed out yet."
"Oh she's used to it," Wheatly finally chimed in. Medic gave him a confused look.
"It's okay, Medic," Rose assured him. "But I'll come take a look later at what your doing. It sounds interesting."
"Very vell! We have some food at zhe garage at zhe end of zhe hall downstairs," he instructed.
"Awesome! Thanks again, Medic," Rose thanked and then bolted out the doors.
Rose began her way out of Medic's office and down the hall she first made her way down to escape the mercenaries before. When she reached the stairs her stomach gave another vicious growl.
"Alright alright, I'm on my way," she growled back as she made her way down the stairs.
"Talking to our stomach again, are we Miss Rose?" Wheatly teased.
"What's this 'our' thing you keep saying? You're just a chip in the back of my neck," she teased back.
"Oh, great come-back. Let me just dust off the old sarcasm processors, and then I'll show you a real come-back," Wheatly said.
"Processors? Oh my goodness..." Rose said, putting her palm up to her face.
"It's a figure of speech, okay," Wheatly defended.
"Mmhm, yeah. At least your constant garbling is keeping my mind off my hunger," she said, clenching her stomach again.
"You're very welcome!" the AI said with snooty tone to his voice.
Rose just shook her head as they made their way down the hall. Rose noticed the stairs that were at the end of the hall to her right, the same ones she was going to go down before she was caught by Heavy and the others. 'At least this time I'm not trying to run away from anything,' Rose thought to herself. 'That would just make me more hungry.' Rose reached the stairs and heard some of the men laughing down below, enjoying themselves.
"Well, guess we aren't the only ones awake now," Wheatly said.
"By the way, what time is it, anyways?" Rose asked, making her way down.
"Oh it's 10:37 AM, Miss Rose," Wheatly said promptly.
"Wow, it's a little late for breakfast," she commented.
"So? You can have a brunch instead," Wheatly replied. "Besides, what do you care if you're so hungry?"
"You know how I like to be specific," she explained.
They finally made their way down the stairs and came out to a garage that had a truck that said Red's Bread on the side near the door of the garage, a fridge, sink, and microwave to the immediate right of the truck, a workbench with various tools, along with a tool wall to the right of the fridge. There was also a table to the left with some chairs where Scout and Sniper were sitting and having some beers. Heavy was by the fridge eating a sandwich and Engineer was at the workbench working on what she could only assume was his teleporter that he was telling her about last night while they tweaked the weapons.
"Hmhm, hey guys!" Rose spoke up. "Anything good to eat this morning?" All the guys stopped what they were doing and looked at her, Engineer being the happiest to see her.
"Well howdy Miss Rose!" the Texan said with a big grin. "I hope y'all slept well last night."
"Certainly did, Engie. Thanks!" Rose said making her way to the fridge. "I am starving, however."
"Well, if yer not those picky eater types, there's a bucket of cold chicken, some left over pizza, and some sandviches in there, along with some beer," Engineer explain.
"You mean sandwich, right?" Wheatly spoke out.
"No. Sandvich," Heavy mentioned.
"And I'm guessing you're not the sharing type, huh?" Rose asked. Heavy shook his head. "Alrighty then. Anyone have dibs on the pizza?"
Everyone shook their head, so Rose took that as a sign as to what she was going to have for breakfast. She walked over to the fridge and Heavy moved out of the way so she could get into the fridge. Rose nodded as a sign of thank you to Heavy and he grinned slightly. She opened the door and saw that there wasn't much, but sure enough, everything that Engineer said was in there, was in there; a box of pizza, a bucket of chicken, some sandviches, and a case full of beer from Mexico. They had lime wedges in the spouts.
Rose opened the box of pizza and relieved to find that it was just pepperoni topping, and not something crazy like Hawaiian pizza or something. She grabbed two slices, stood back up and closed the door and looked over to the sink area. There was a cabinet just to the left of the sink, so she walked over and opened it. There were a few dishes, most of them broken, but clean. She grabbed a plate and a clear glass cup and moved over to the sink for some water – she believed it was too early for a beer. She was about to turn the faucet, but Engineer interrupted her.
"Um, we have bottled water instead, miss," he stated. "These parts don't really have the best water reservoir, if ya know what I mean." Rose looked at him, glanced at the faucet, then put the glass down with a nod. Engineer went over to a cabinet that was behind him and pulled out a bottle of water and tossed it to her. She caught it and made her way over to the table that Scout and Sniper were sitting at. There was an empty seat to the left of Scout that she decided to sit at, but not before asking if she could sit there.
"Hey, um, Scout? Is it okay if I sit here?" Rose asked sheepishly.
"Oh yeah sure!" the Bostonian said with a big grin. She pulled out the chair and sat down and began to eat the pizza when a cough from Scout stopped her. "You gonna eat that cold? Not even gonna nuke it a little?"
"Nah, I like to eat cold pizza," Rose said with a smile, and took a big bite out of the first slice. "Mmm, not to mention I'm too hungry to have patience."
The men just laughed, and Heavy came to come join the group. Rose chowed down the rest of her pizza and drank all of her water before she participated in conversation.
"So what do you guys do around here for fun?" Rose asked after finishing.
"Eh mainly just chill, play some cards or just practice shooting at like, cans or something," Scout said. "We all just kinda do our own thing."
"I see..." Rose began. "So you guys don't, like, practice defensive procedures, or attack maneuvers for when Gray attacks again?" All of them chuckled, except for Engineer, who looked up from his work with a bit of interest.
"Psh, nah. Since when would we have time for dat crap?" Scout said.
"Well, right now would be a good time," she responded. "Sniper, what do you think?" Sniper looked at her for a quick moment, then got up without a word and left the room. "Was it something I said?"
"Nah, miss. He just isn't a big talker," Engineer said, coming over to the table.
"Oh, like around new people?" Rose said.
"No, like to anyone," Scout replied. "He's like one of those weirdos that just sit there and watch. Like a creep."
"Oh, okay I guess," Rose said. "Anyways, I told Medic I would see what he meant by übercharging a wild baboon heart after I got done eating." The men froze and looked at her with surprised expressions. "What?"
"Um, just be careful ma'am," Engineer spoke up. "The doc tends to get a bit...eccentric when it comes to his experiments, and most of us have had the misfortune of getting tangled up in some of them."
"Oh I'm sure everything will be just fine," Rose said getting up and putting her hand on his shoulder as she walked passed. "Besides, I'm almost positive I have seen worse."
"Alrighty then," Engineer said, tipping his hard hat to her.
"Hey, uh Rose? Mind if I walk wit ya? I need to stretch my legs out and...stuff," Scout asked.
"Um, sure Scout. I don't see why not," Rose said, going up the stairs. Scout got up immediately and caught up to her before she could take off without him.
They were walking down the hall in quiet for some time before reaching the second set of stairs, when Scout started up a conversation.
"So, uh, do you like eating cold buckets of chicken?" Scout asked, a bit nervous. Rose stopped, looked at him confused for a second, then a light turned on in her head, and she smiled lightly.
"Um, yeah. Yeah I do. Why do you ask?" Rose responded.
"Well, I like buckets of chicken, so do you..." Scout was about to ask.
"Let me stop you there," Rose interrupted. Scout stopped with a look of defeat on him, realizing that she caught on and wasn't happy about it. "Look, you seem like a great guy Scout. But firstly, I just got here. Secondly, I know nothing about you, and I'm not a fling girl."
"Heh," Scout smiled, "Yeah I figured that wouldn't work."
"Yeah, but I admire you for trying," Rose said. "Don't give up on that. Especially with Pauling."
"How did you-" Scout began.
"See ya later, Scout," Rose interrupted again as she started up the stairs.
"Yeah, see ya later!" Scout said, and he made his way back to the garage.
"Smooth operator that one," Wheatly said sarcastically.
"Hey lay off him," Rose snapped. "He was just hoping to get a girl. Unfortunately, it wasn't me."
"Yeah, I could tell. Good job letting him down easy," Wheatly commented.
"I know right?" Rose responded sarcastically.
"It was smoother than a baby's bottom," he continued.
"Way smooth..." she said. "Anyways, let's see what this doc is up to."
Rose came up to the door and heard the German mumbling something to himself while he was working. 'Wonder what he's working on?' Rose thought. She then decided to open the door at the same moment that she heard a small explosion, and when the door was all the way open, there was something red flying incredibly fast towards her face. Without hesitation, Rose ducked out of the way just in time for the red things to skim past the top of her head and splat on the wall behind her in the hallway. She looked at the red projectile that flew past her, and looked in wonder. 'Is that...blood?' she thought, expression turning a bit disgusted. Rose then turned her attention back to the doctor's office to see his suit vest spattered in blood from the explosion; in his right hand he was holding his mounted medi-gun, and in his left, the remnants of what looked like a heart.
"What the hell happened?!" Rose asked, a bit confused but curious as well.
"Vell, very simple actually," Medic began to explain. "You see, zhe charge from zhis medi-gun was too powerful for zhis little heart to take."
"And why is that?" Wheatly asked impatiently.
"Oh! I am glad you asked!" Medic began to get excited, and Rose became even more curious, despite the fact that she was almost splattered in the face by an exploding heart. "You see zhat was a normal human heart, vhich normally can't take zhis kind of voltage, but I've tested übercharging a mega baboon heart and have succeeded. But apparently I have gotten zhe wrong kind of heart."
"How did you come across this whole concoction in the first place?" Rose asked with wonderment. Medic tossed the remaining heart in a bin, and looked at her with an excited look.
"Vell, it all started when my team and I vere taking some heavy fire from our enemies, and I didn't have anything to heal zhem vith on zhe spot..." Medic began to explain. "Demoman's head was on fire and he began to flail his arms around vildly, knocking over one of my shelves, and the whole zhing was mixed together vith one of my small med-kits, a sandvich, a jar of jarate, and a small amount of blood."
"Um, quick question here," Wheatly interrupted, "What is jarate?"
"Oh, zhat's just a jar full of Sniper's, vell, yellow liquid," Medic said, almost hesitating to finish.
"Eeeewww," Rose and Wheatly echoed one another.
"Dude, that's a bit gross," Rose winced.
"I couldn't agree more, miss," Wheatly agreed.
"Oh it's not zhat bad," Medic said as he cleaned his hands off. "Don't be such babies."
"Oh I am not a baby when it comes to medicine," Rose stated, coming closer to the operating table. "Oh, I almost forgot!" She then pulled out a black switch-blade knife, the same one she used to escape from Medic when she first arrived.
"Oh...I almost forgot about zhat," the German said, his expression softening.
"Yeah, I figured since we are all on the same team now, I should probably give it back," Rose said, handing him knife. But instead of taking it back, Medic pushed it back towards her. "Don't you want your knife back?"
"Nein," Medic said. "Think of it as a welcome gift."
"Oh...well...thanks, Medic," Rose said, awkwardly putting the knife back in her pocket.
"Bitte, fräulein," Medic said. A long awkward pause sat still in the air before one of them spoke up.
"Mmhm," Rose cleared her throat, "So, can you show me how your medi-gun actually works? Like, does it really keep patients alive while you are working on them? How is that even possible!"
"Oh vell, I hope you don't have anyzhing planned for zhe day, because zhis could take awhile!" Medic said with excitement again.
As the German doctor began to explain his crazy medicine theories and sciences, Rose became at home, even more so then when she first arrived. She enjoyed the company of the doctor, regardless of any type of insanity the others may have accused him with. She also enjoyed the company of the others when she was having breakfast.
The only problem that she couldn't shake, and that was the Administrator. She got bad vibes from that woman, and the fact that she had eyes on all of these guys at all times. She was probably even watching her right now. 'These guys definitely deserve better than this...whatever this is,' she thought as she continued to work with Medic. But all of that was for another day. This...this was just the first day.
