Just in Time

“Aw, he's so cute.”

“Really girl, he's no older than your brother.”

“But look at that sleeping face, he's like a little baby. Can we keep him? Every hero needs a side kick!”

With drool falling down his face and bright natural light spilling into his view, Thomas slowly woke with the faces of three different girls staring down at him. He gave a little scream as he kicked about his covers and fell off the edge of the couch. The girls gave a laugh as they peered over to see if he was okay. Their ages ranged from mid twenties to mid thirties. One had half a pop tart in her mouth, the other two were holding breakfast smoothies.

He stared as they all smiled and waved at the boy.

“What is something on my face?”

“Besides that disgusting artificial thing in your mouth?”

“Don't judge me. Poptarts are a way of life.”

“Okay okay, ladies! Don't bug the boy,” Dr. Kennedy's voice filled the room. The french doors that lead out to the foyer were wide open. Some people were moving around on the opposite end of the foyer and he could hear faint music playing from somewhere.

The ladies all ignored Thomas after that. They hopped down on the soft couch, ruining what once was his bed and turned on the TV that hung over the fire place. Dr. Kennedy waited by the door with a warm smile and hands in his lab coat pockets. Compared to last night, he truly looked like a doctor. Even had one of those stethoscopes around his neck. Thomas scratched at his hair and gave a little stretch before finally joining him at the door.

“I do hope you were comfortable last night. We would have given you a proper room, but some of the house keeping staff are still recovering from the infection themselves. The others,” he motioned to the ladies in the living room, “aren't really aloud to enter the infected's room.”

The marble foyer floors felt cold on Thomas's bare feet. He was given a shirt and shorts to wear while his clothes were taken to be sanitized. Ug, the word made him cringe. He almost felt that he should be walking around in a hazmat suit than someone else's pajamas. However, seeing others walking around just the same They continued down the foyer and Thomas could notice more of the features of the house. The natural light seeped in from the windows of the tall foyer casting light hues on the chandelier and the decorations that were spread out across the two floors.

A man passed by looking at something on his smart phone. Thomas stared as the man joined some others in the opposite room. Dr. Kennedy glanced down at the boy and asked him what he was thinking.

“I...don't know. Many things. It's just weird to have thought that this place was abandoned.”

Dr. Kennedy shifted the stethoscope around his neck and glanced towards the grand staircase of the foyer, “Well, we kind of are. Normally we have three times as many people rushing around to get food in the dining hall. The whole first floor is usually a mad house. Right now the only ones out of their rooms are the staff and a few others who got over this nasty bug already.”

“Am I at a school or something?”

The doctor turned back towards Thomas with his smile fading. Thomas kind of knew that wasn't the right answer, though it didn't seem to be a wrong one either. Most of the people he noticed so far were much older than he was. Audrey's comment as well kind of verified this for him.

“Where do you think you are right now, Thomas?”

“I... don't know. When Audrey mentioned about ion rays, all that came to mind was the war with Alliance those years ago. I was just a kid when it happened, but I knew that much at least. I figure everyone kind of knew about it.”

Goodness, thinking back now, that war started when he was eight. It lasted nearly three years and it disappeared as soon as Alliance disappeared from battle. He remembered some people talking about how there were some investigations after Alliance's supposed defeat, but after that there was nothing. Entering middle school also at the time meant masking any interest of child hood. Even if they included super soldiers and people who could walk through walls.

Thomas stared at the floor and thought back to what he saw last night. The girls just slipped right through the wall as if it wasn't there. He gave a small stale chuckle thinking his thoughts were silly. Dr. Kennedy asked him what was so funny with a laugh of his own.

“It's just that is impossible. Everyone who fought in the war with Alliance those years ago, also disappeared soon after. No one knew what happened to them.”

“Well, where do you think they disappeared to?”

Thomas stared at Dr. Kennedy wondering if he was joking. When his smile didn't leave his face, Thomas's look of disbelief turned to a wide eyed shock. Though before he could even respond to the remark, a loud grand father clock sounded from the floor above. The noise echoed throughout the entire room signaling the time to be eight o'clock. The cool light of morning turned brighter and warmer as the sun started to push past the windows.

A cry of fear came from Thomas's mouth. It was Monday and school started thirty minutes ago. He turned about to race back to his makeshift bed for his things, only to realize that everything of his was taken. Dr. Kennedy's look changed as he tried to figure out how he could stop the boy from his raising anxiety. Thomas bit his thumb nail trying to figure out what he was going to do.

“Thomas please-”

“I've been out here all night and school just started Dr. Kennedy! I have no idea what my friends even told my parents, let alone police!”

“Thomas, you know you can't leave. It may be another few days until everyone here is well and we can't let this pathogen leave the confined area.”

“If you're saying that this infection only affects those who are... are...” he couldn't believe he was going to say it aloud, “superheroes, then what Audrey said is right. All that originally happened eight years ago and no one has tried to do something like that again.”

Dr. Kennedy wasn't buying it. An order was an order. He couldn't just be a man that listens to orders and that's it. He had to realize that his friends would have tried to tell someone. Unless they were too scared, which would have been true. But he was still stuck here and who knew what his parents would have thought if they came to them. If Dr. Kennedy thought that Thomas had anxiety issues, his mom was worse.

Thomas just needed to get in touch with the right person. Even if Stan terrified the boy, at least he would understand the logic behind missing persons and a terrified mother. A moan came from the second floor as Audrey came into view. She was no longer dressed in all pink, but wore a bright pink zip up with gray work out pants. With her hair thrown into a long pony tail she marched down the steps towards us.

“You guys are just so loud! Come on,” she grabbed Thomas's wrist and dragged him towards the hallway that went underneath the stairs.

“Audrey, we can't risk leaving!”

“Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Kennedy! It's just a very bad cold. If anyone outside of here could catch it, well I think we would finally figure out just who is probably working for Damon or Nevermore would we? Besides, I need to get out of this stuffy place.”

“But-”

She stopped and started counting with her fingers, “one, my clothes and his are all sanitized. Two, we can't allow any investigations out here on our property. The Feds won't allow it. Three, we're running low on food and supplies, I can make a few runs and calls while I'm out. Four, if I hear one more cough I think I'm going to go insane!”

Her shoulders dropped and Thomas could see a compassionate look on her face. She just wasn't full of sass. It was almost like she had to be this person. Thomas wondered why.

“I'll bring him back at the end of the day, Dr. Kennedy.”

She turned and dragged Thomas to the back of the building. In the matter of moments she came out with a fresh pair of clothes and a tooth brush. Thomas couldn't believe how fast he got ready. This wasn't just the “we forgot to set our clocks back for daylight savings” fast either. He was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, however was given a different jacket. The torn one was found in the basement but was more damaged than he thought. Which stunk because that was his favorite jacket.

Audrey threw him a bag of Poptarts and the two of them ran to the garage. Four nice cars were parked in there. Clearly expensive and he was too scared to touch them. Audrey grabbed a pair of keys off of a hook by the door and unlocked the Mercedes. He just stared at the blinking lights. His bike was still resting by the gate outside. He tried to tell her that he could just take that, but she was already in the car. It wasn't until she honked the horn did he finally made his way to the front seat.

It took minutes for her to get out. A stupid alarm started to go off once the garage door opened. The girl cursed and quickly got the car into gear with no regard to the bright untouched snow outside. After not being driven on for a week and the house still in a lock down, pretty soon I could see Stan's face appearing in the windows. Audrey's cellphone went off in the cup holder but with one toss into the back she was off. Fear flooded into Thomas for a new reason today. The fact that such a small girl was able to drive such a wide car so easily scared him, but how recklessly she drove reminded of his own sister's driving. He was going to die before he even got to school.