13 Chapter 11

"... This way, the plants pull water and nutrient from the ground up the stem. Through this easy and very simple process, they defy gravity making plants the founders of the food chain, this makes us think that there's a reason why plant are the only creatures that's truly independent and self sufficient..."

Sarah stood in the lecture hall, hearing her own voice echo back to her ears. She'd been on autopilot mode since she'd left the lab, Adam hasn't returned by the time she left, and she was glad she had the chance to compose herself before breaking the news to him. The result data chart was still stuck in her mind's eyes and she kept thinking about it over and over again, she could feel that she was still in denial, and didn't want to know what she'd do when the news sink into her mind. She was so distracted that if she didn't already know the lessons by heart she wouldn't be able to do the lecture. Millions of questions came and went, but the only one that stood out with neon highlight in her mind was; did the professor know?

"This will be all for today," she said after another half hour of autopilot lecturing, thinking about how the lecture passed without her realizing it. Collective exhales echoing through the hall made her chuckle, bringing her mind away from her troubles. she felt a pang of guilt when realized that she was too hard on the students, perhaps the content was too charged to throw on them in one lecture,

"Don't worry, I'll re-explain today's content during next period, you can catch up on what you couldn't then. You've worked hard today, so take it easy." she told the student who broke into lively chatters as the heavy weight was lifted from her shoulders.

Sarah found herself watching them with a smile on her face, thinking about how she really loved what she did. All these problems almost made her forget why she chose this path from the start. They made her let go of her passion and drive, which was something that she'd promised herself she'd never do when she was a little girl watching people around her lose their drive to the day to day routine, killing their spark and going with the flow they were thrown into. It had made her heart hurt so much that she'd lost sleep over it many nights, staring at the ceiling of her bedroom and wondering if she'd become like that too one day. That's when she'd sworn that she'd live her life doing what she loved, no matter how hard and unreasonable it was, as long as it was something she enjoyed she'd do it.

Yet, looking at herself now. she felt shame at how she was letting go of her passion in face of the ugliness of real life. She was losing to it, she had to admit t. but the battle wasn't over,

Picking up her phone, she thought of Adam. they missed each other earlier so he must've contacted when he found that she took the data with her. frowning at the blank screen she dialed his number, it kept rang the transferred to the answering machine. worry creeped into her heart as she gathered her material and left the hall in a hurry.

Her phone rang as soon as she reached the door, expecting to see Adam's name, her shoulders stiffened when she saw her brother's name blinking at her.

"Hello, Austin." she responded masking the worry from her tone

"Hi, Sarah. you didn't call me about the spare ID. did you check?"

"Yeah, i did. it's still there. but it doesn't mean anything since the ID isn't required to log out, Adam didn't do it." she told her brother in a firm tone, even though the situation was suspicious, she didn't want to jump to conclusions,

"Adam is my friend, Austin, I'm going to trust him until proven otherwise. " she told her brother "I won't repeat the same mistake twice." she whispered to herself not wanting Austin to hear her.

"Understood" Austin responded with a sigh, "I'll look into the footage for now, But if he's there, we're talking to him"

"Alright," she said settling the bargain.

After she hung up with her brother she started heading to the lab, but stopped midway . The lab isn't safe anymore, that's all she could think about. She couldn't go in there alone, that's not a risk she could take anymore. changing her mind, she headed toward the incubation room where Adam said he was going when they parted ways, he'd said the he was checking the contamination rates, he could be late because Maria caught him in an endless one sided conversation, The woman was determined to make him go to a matchmaking session.

she reached the incubation section and heard Maria's tireless voice, she was speaking in Hight tones as if trying too reach someone through speakers. she entered the incubation room to find her stretching to look into the inter-phone connected to the inner part of the Incubation room.

"As I'm telling you, my hands are tied. why did you go into the room without your ID? I Can't just open it up for you from the outside. " She complained into the interphone

"I told you the i have my ID with me but the room was locked from the outside to begin with." Sarah heard Adam's Voice through the speaker and almost burst out laughing, He sounded frustrated and at the same time baffled.

"I have the master key, no one can do that except me." Maria responded crossing her hands and leaning against the wall giving Sarah her back, she didn't notice her at all, the woman was having too much fun tormenting Adam. Sarah started filming them with her phone in silence wondering what kind of masterpiece leverage she could get out of this.

"Look, Maria. I've been stuck in here for three hours. One of which we kept repeating the same conversation over and over again. can you please let me out and then try to figure this out?" Adam was almost pleading by now, but Maria wasn't ready to let him go.

"You know, things could've been easier if you were my son in law, or honorary son in law. I would never leave a family member stuck in a suffocating room"

"Then please don't leave a human being here either, it's too late to become you son in law at this stage anyway."

"I'm sure we could manage something."

Sarah burst out laughing startling Maria who looked at her in shock, then eyed the phone with wide eyes. "Sarah! You were filming us?!"

Sarah smiled and didn't respond, she heard Adam groaning through the speakers and burst out laughing once more. "I caught some pretty good leverage on video, Adam. Perhaps a future wedding video."

Maria perked up at that, which made Sarah want to laugh even more. the woman really wanted to marry Adam off to one of her relatives, Adam sighed and said "Whatever, just get me outta here before I go crazy."

A few minutes later, Sarah and Adam were sitting on a bench in the garden. Adam, who's freckled face was still red from staying too long inside the incubation room, was gulping down his third bottle of water without stopping to breath. he finished it with a sigh and leaned back enjoying the cool breeze against his flushed skin.

"So," He said his eyes still closed and body relaxed " what happened while I was in captivity."

"You have a lot to keep up with, the phone was invented, you know the device that allows you to communicate with people even if you're away from them."

Adam opened one eye to look at her, then closed it again. "Give me a break, anyone forget his phone from time to time." he grumbled "what was the result?" he said then in a somber tone.

"The white Devil." she responded.

Adam stiffened but didn't move for a while, Nothing bellied his true feelings, he was so still that she feared he's just passed out in that position. But then he sat down ever so slowly, leaned forward putting his elbows on his knees.

"This is real trouble, Sarah, We're screwed." He said in a toneless voice,