iii. waking up, then to sleep
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THE next morning, bright and early, Jake had woken Odessa up by splashing cold water on her. She had been out cold; slept through her alarm, and managed to sleep through the harsh shoves of Jake.

Somehow, she had woken up after being splashed with cold water. She rolled Jake out of the room and locked the door so she could get ready. When she was done, clad in her provided clothing, she stepped outside of the door to see Jake drawing in a notepad.

"You just had to splash cold water on me, huh?" Odessa glared as she walked beside Jake. She nudged his wheelchair. "Huh?"

"You wouldn't wake up." Jake simply answered as they neared the link room where they would start a new journey. "And you'd be late if I didn't. Think Grace wouldn't have sent you back if you didn't show up on time?"

"Grace can't tell me what to do." Odessa simply answered as she stepped into the link room, heading straight for Max and Norm. "Hey, the avatars have been taken from their tanks?"

Max chuckled. "Did you think that's where you'd wake up?"

Odessa didn't say anything, only quickly sending him a glare until Grace walked up to them, stopping right in front of Norm.

"So, how much link time have you logged?" Grace asked Norm quickly, leading him towards his pod.

"Uh, about 520 hours." Norm answered, stepping into the small area by his pod.

"That's good." Grace nodded surprised. "You're in there."

Grace was quick to lead Jake to his own pod. Asking him the same questions as she had asked Norm. Only she was much more frustrated with Jake and his answer this time.  Jake had told her he read a manual, and that was all.

"And you?" Grace crossed her arms over her chest, eyeing Odessa as she poked the foam in the pod.

"Just like Jake. We read the manual together last night." Odessa shrugged as she sat in her pod, looking over her shoulder to see the door close of Jakes pod.

"You can't be serious. This is a joke, right?" Grace said, her tone of voice was full of disappointment. "So you and Jake just figured you'd come out here, to the most hostile environment known to man, with no training of any kind whatsoever, and see how it went?" She asked her seriously. "What was going through your guys heads?"

"Jake was definitely sick of Doctors telling him what he couldn't do." Odessa shrugged. "And I wanted to live through the stories she told me."

Grace turned and looked at her with a raised brow. She wasn't so sure she liked the mouth on either her or Jake. She was starting to think it would be the death of her.

"Biometrics look good." The link scientist said as she watched the screen in front of her.

"Link three is ready." 

"Keep your arms in, hands in, head down." Grace lightly pushed Odessa's head once she had gotten into the pod. Odessa looked up, her forehead hitting a metal contraption they helped hold her head down. "Down." Odessa grumbled something underneath her breath.  "Let your mind go blank."

Odessa was left inside the pod as it moved back into position. She had felt it move, which had scared her in the beginning. She looks around the dark pod, gazing at as much as she can see, only a few dim lights from the metal mechanism that laid over her body was what she could see.

Odessa closes her eyes, allowing her body to relax.