Chapter Fifty-One – Wake Up

Chapter Fifty-One – Wake Up

“John Hopkins-Pepsico University is proud to announce the addition of a Consumer Neurosciences course for our Spring 2025 curriculum!”

–Excerpt from JHUPc Message to Students, 2024

***

Catherine, I believe you should wake up now.

A small jolt hit me. It wasn’t quite painful, but it was still startling, a buzzing snap that started in my skull then travelled down my spine, lightning-quick.

I sat up, almost fell off of the… bench I was on, then grabbed onto the edge of a table to steady myself as I regained my bearings. The temporary cafeteria? Someone had shut the room’s lights off, though there was still light coming in from the other rooms nearby, as well as the low murmur of people at work.

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up on the bench that I’d apparently used as my bed. I was going to be sore, I just knew it.

Blinking, I realized that someone had draped a thin blanket over my shoulders, and placed another rolled-up bundle of cloth down to serve as a pillow. Lucy? That would be very much like her. I smiled, then lost the smile to a jaw-cracking yawn. “What time is it?”

It is six-seventeen AM.

“Oh, shit, how long did I sleep for?”

You had ninety minutes of REM sleep. Sufficient to be functional. Though I imagine that a few more hours would have been better for your overall health.

“Yeah, I feel that,” I said as I tilted my head way to the side and worked a crick out of my neck. The blanket and makeshift pillow was a nice gesture, but a real bed would have been awesome. Still, I couldn’t complain. A nap was a nap. “Why’d you wake me up?”

The situation hasn’t yet gotten to the point of being out of control, but your intervention will be needed soon.

Oh, that was Myalis-speak for everything was going to shit.

I stood up, then looked for my helmet and found it waiting on the corner of the table. I started to slide it on, then stopped and put it back down. “Hey, got something like… super coffee? Nothing like that Mind Crank Ultra shit, I just need something to wake me up.”

I can provide something for that. Budget?

I shrugged. “A few points, I don’t know?”

Points Reduced from 51,590, to 51,586

A can clunked onto the top of the table without much ceremony. I picked it up and looked at the label. There was a cute pastel cat snoozing on a pile of cartoony alien corpses. The label read Cat Nap Cure.

“Is this custom?” I asked.

I had a nanosecond to waste.

I rolled my eyes and popped the tab, then took a sniff, then a pull. It was pretty mild. Soda with a hint of bubblegum flavour. Not entirely to my tastes, but very much something Lucy would like.

It’s packed with sugars and essential vitamins, as well as delayed-reaction chemicals that will act similar to caffeine in approximately ninety minutes. And it will cure your morning breath.

I laughed and finished the can, then flicked it over to an empty trashcan in the corner where it tapped the lip and then bounced off onto the floor with a clang.

I sighed, walked over, picked the damned thing up, then dunked it before returning for my helmet. I tucked the helmet under one arm and started for the exit. “So, what’s the situation like that I had to be woken up?” I asked.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Myalis who answered, but Lucy.

“Things have, predictably, gone to shit,” she said. “Hi Cat, I was about to wake you up.”

Lucy looked a bit frazzled. Her poofy hair was matted down here and there, giving it a wild, dishevelled look that definitely worked for her, but the bags under her eyes didn’t. “You okay?” I asked as I moved closer. Instinctively, we fell into each other’s arms, and I regretted that my armour didn’t let me feel her warmth.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. Her head tilted back, and I pressed my lips to hers. “Oh, you taste good,” she said. “Is that bubblegum?”

I grinned. “Yeah. I’d get you some, but you look like you need sleep more than anything else.”

Lucy groaned. “I was going to grab a cat nap too, but then there was one thing, then the other, and I didn’t get the chance to sleep at all. I might carve out an hour or two right now to catch some shut-eye.”

“You look like you need more than a couple of hours,” I said.

“Yeah, I need eight hours of sleep and an army or two, but we can’t always get what we want, can we?”

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“I don’t know, I think I’ve got what I want right here,” I said before I gave her another soft kiss.

Lucy grinned. “Smooth, Cat,” she said. “But I’m too tired for anything fun, and besides, the world’s on fire right now.”