"Rise and shine sweet princess!"
John slowly opened his eyes under the repeated shaking he felt and that loud and annoying voice. When he looked, he found the strong sun rays passing through the broad glass, while it gave him the impression of being at noon!
"I overslept…" he pushed the hand that kept shaking him off, adjusting himself to see who was treating him in such a way, "it's you!" and what he saw made him smile despite trying not to!
It was the same soldier he pinpointed as a potential close friend to John. His presence here, and the carefree way he was behaving with him right now proved his initial theory about the man.
And now what was left was for him to know his name!
"You are smiling, which is a good sign, but…" Alfred leant over John, sniffed him as if he was a hunting hound, which made John push him away.
"What's wrong with you?!!"
"You didn't sleep with the hot doc, right?" Alfred winked, and for a moment there John recalled a romantic moment with Elly, before the memory vanished and he decided to act as he should behave, as the real John should behave.
"I swear I'll punch you when I'm out!"
"Hahaha, you first need to get out," John closed a fist and waved it towards Alfred's direction, but he knew the latter would easily evade it, "you first need to extricate yourself from the hellfire coming at you!" Alfred added, while his tone changed to be deep and serious.
"What hellfire? The serg…"
"Hey, don't speak of the devil," Alfred hurried to shush his friend, "this time he looks dead serious on kicking your as* if the tests are positive."
"Don't worry, they won't," John confidently said, but the reaction on Alfred's face told him things wouldn't go the same way he was confident about!
Alfred noticed the puzzled look on John's face, which made him look at his friend in a weird way, "what's wrong with you? You seem… Off since yesterday!"
"Oh, about that…" John knew John's closest friend would be an easy person to manipulate, but he needed to first clear any doubts about him to achieve that. And luckily, he found a good excuse to pass this lie detector test, "it seems I hit my head hard yesterday… I have a terrible headache and for a reason the back of my head hurts like hell…"
"Oh, I recall it now!" Alfred hit his palm with a fist, "you fell hard on your head when you lost your consciousness!"
"That must be the reason then," John intentionally paused, before adding, "since I woke up and… I feel like some memories are… Gone!"
"Gone?!! Hey, it's not a joke, right? You know this isn't something to joke about, right?!" Alfred's tone was filled with worry and soon he started to panic, "I need to get the doctor here, how come she didn't examine that wound of yours and find a way to solve that mess in your head…"
"Hey wait," John wanted to heave a sigh of relief when Alfred bought his silly excuse, but this wasn't the time for that, "fill me in, why do you think I'll be in trouble with these tests?"
"You don't remember?" Alfred looked over his shoulder, to make sure no one was behind the door to eavesdrop. He even came closer and whispered, "we went out, you know, into the city, had some fun, and that includes…"
"Damn!" John felt instant panic. He suddenly realised what he missed so far! This body was John's, and that meant if John did something wrong, like getting drugs or something, he would still suffer from that!
From Alfred's words, he could tell John was a troublemaker! And he now had to suffer and pay for such things that he didn't commit!
"Can we…" As he found himself in such a mess, John had to find a way out as fast as possible."
"Can we… What?" Alfred came closer as John whispered, "Oh, that? I tried already," Alfred took a step back, took in a deep breath, and said nothing while shaking off his head in a helpless way, "you are doomed my friend, sorry about that!"
"You tried and failed? Come on!" John didn't know how good his friend was, but he would be popular with girls, "can't we try again?"
"Pft!" Alfred was about to laugh when his back got slammed hard by the door that suddenly opened.
"You are awake, great, let's see what the tests will tell you about you, soldier John!" it was the sergeant, and from the look on his face and the tone of his voice, John could tell his fate was sealed!
He asked Alfred if he could play on a nurse and promise her to spend a night with him, then he would get access to the test results files and change them. Yet his friend tried that already, and it seemed he miserably failed.
And John could imagine the reason why when he spotted Sophie passing through the door.
"I see you are awake and fully healthy this morning," Sophie gave Alfred a side glance, "and as always, even when visiting is prohibited, your pal, Alfred, managed to slip by our closed doors and get into here… Interesting!"
"I'll deal with him when we are back," the sergeant gave Alfred a threatening look, and the latter kept his silence.
As for John, he felt like he got an answer to one of the many questions he had; his friend's name!
"As for you…" Sophie took a pen out of her white coat. John didn't see what she did, as he was distracted by her features that he greatly missed, "your test results should be ready now. Let's take a look at them, shall we?"
She turned to give John a look that he knew exactly well what it meant! His Elly had this habit, the tendency to seek vengeance from anyone daring to trespass over her inner zone. And making light of her and trying to take advantage using tricks were considered ones of the many big no in her life.
'That's what my Elly would have been like…' John inwardly sighed, as even with all such abnormal resemblance with his deceased wife, Sophie wasn't Elly.
"Hmm, interesting…" As he was distracted, a floating screen appeared in front of everyone, in the middle of the room. Seeing the screen appearing in such a way made John panic, jumping off the bed, while his body started to tremble.
"Hey, watch out, you'll fall!" Alfred moved while Sophie shouted to warn John from falling off bed, yet both were a bit second late!
*Bang!*
"I'm… I'm fine!" John stood with the help of Alfred and Sophie, panting as if he just finished running for hours. What others didn't feel but Sophie felt were the tremors, subtle and faint, yet irregular and involuntary. She gave John a deep look while the sergeant and Alfred blamed John for his carelessness.
Sophie was a good doctor, actually she was very highly skilled to end up serving in such a floating military base in the middle of nowhere! She had a bright future, except when she spoke about certain anomalies, things that didn't get well received in the medical society, nor by her colleagues and seniors.
She had to suffer from bad treatment for no reason, ending up making up her mind and decided to venture outside, exploring the unknown, just to prove her theory right!
As if what she noticed proved to be right, then the understanding about this world would entirely change dramatically. And that was partially why everyone mocked her and didn't support her theory at all, or that was what she thought since then.
A skilled doctor like her wouldn't miss such a reflexive reaction. She could easily tell John was genuinely afraid, afraid of that simple showcase screen that appeared in the middle of the room!
What she didn't know was that screen reminded John of the black screen he saw before. The two looked exactly the same, even in the way the two appeared!
The screen Sophie summoned came from small white dots that appeared in midair, grew big while coalescing together, ending up forming the white floating screen.
"I'm… I'm good," John realised by his involuntary reaction to that harmless looking screen, he aroused more suspicions and attracted unneeded attention towards him, "I'm fine, really!"
He leant on his friend while freeing Sophie from his arm. He was surprised to see Sophie helping him stand up from the ground. And being this close to her made him feel more panic than seeing that white screen!
"I told you serg, he told me he hit his head and he has been feeling funny since then!" Alfred from the side didn't let this chance slip by, tried his best to help his friend and make the cold hearted sergeant feel some concern about John.
If not for fearing to blow off all the efforts Alfred was putting to help him, John would have raised a thumb up for this man!
"I've checked his head injury, doesn't look that bad from the outside," Sophie regained the calm look on her face, walked away from John's bed, while looking at the screen that showed lots of data, "I'll keep you locked in if needed, but I prefer a more practical approach…"
"He first needs to clear his reputation and name by the test results," the sergeant stepped in and interrupted Sophie's words.
"Ah no worries about that," she intentionally paused, turning to look at John while putting both hands in the pockets of her coat. And John felt his judgment day was coming, "his test results came all clean."
"All?!" Even the sergeant didn't buy what Sophie said, looked at the screen and started to read the weird medical symbols and terms there, trying to decipher what they said.
"Don't you trust my medical judgment?" Sophie felt little insult, turned to give the serge a serious look. And at this brief moment, John raised a thumb up for his friend, as he really deserved one at this moment!
"It's not like that, I have a witness who saw these two scumbags roam in the streets of the city and make lots of heinous acts!" the sergeant pointed at John and Alfred, while seeming quite confident in the source of his information.
John was sure after hearing this, if not for Alfred taking the risk of playing with a nurse and modifying the files for him, he would be a goner right now!
"Interesting…" Sophie turned to give John a long look, before turning off the screen and walking to the door, "he is free to leave!"
"How about his head injury? His head injury, doc!" Alfred took this chance to slip off the room and escape the explosive sergeant. As for John, he prayed for his friend!
"I don't know how you did it, but believe me, you will suffer hell from now on!" The sergeant threw his threat over John, turned around and slammed the door in a fierce way.