A Future Sooner than Tomorrow

Bizarre Present

Barry must have fallen back asleep at some point because when he wakes up, it's as quiet as the grave. The room is dark without the lights on and completely colourless. Kid Flash is still tucked into his side but the child's grip has loosened to nothing.

He runs a hand over Kid's head, back and forth like he'd do for hair. Then he slowly shifts to sitting, slides Kid's arms to the pillow and attempts to get up.

Pain throbs in his lower legs. His feet are mostly numb.

Barry takes it as a good sign. Throbbing pain is preferable to stabbing pain.

His stomach growls hungrily. He hasn't eaten all day, which is decidedly not productive to healing when one has an inhanced metabolism.

Still, this level of pain isn't going to allow him to reach the kitchen.

Barry thinks for a moment before looking back at the bed.

He kneels down painfully and reaches underneath the bed.

He's mostly relying on the idea that alternate batman is as prepared as his own but...

There! His hand closes around a handle. He pulls and out comes an adjustable crunch. He puts it off to one side and then reaches again. He gropes around and he finds the foot of the other crutch. It only takes a moment to slide it out from under the bed.

He squints at the crutches. The outline of their main body in the dark is mercifully clear but the handles and feet blur with the dark floor. Barry feels the crutch, trying to get an idea of what kind of crutch it is.

The main body is light and one solid rod. The handle is roughly a quarter the way down the crutch and is molded to the shape of fingers wrapping around it. Then at the top there's a ring of plastic.

Forearm crutches, then.

Barry slides his arms into the rings and grips the handles. It only takes a moment to get them to the height he needs them. He broke his left leg once as a kid and had to use similar but smaller crutches.

Soon, he's up off of the ground and making his way to the door of the infirmary. His crutches tap quietly across the floor and his feet fall close behind.

He opens the door. The lights in the hallway begin to slowly start up. Kid Flash whines in his sleep, burying his face into the pillow. Barry quickly exits the infirmary and closes the door behind him.

Barry walks through the hallway as it steadily brightens. Upon walking under the next set of lights he realises it's only the infirmary hallway that gets a gradual wake-up call.

The set of lights above him immediately goes from inactive to blinding.

Barry flinches slightly and squints downwards as he waits for his eyes to adjust. He flexes his fingers around the crutches' handles. They're a dark navy blue in contrast to the silver metalic body of the crutches.

Once his eyes have adjusted, Barry resumes walking. Walking on crutches, for all his familiarity with them, is a slow going process.

He's in the hallway perpendicular to that of the kitchen's when he realises something odd. The light in the kitchen is on, spilling through the open entryway and faintly illuminating the walls.

Barry hesitates. He doubts anything or anyone dangerous has gotten into the Hall of Justice but if hypothetically, it has...

He's on crutches. Significantly slower than his regular speeds and even mildly slower than the average person. He's also injured pretty badly, a pointed hit could bring him to his knees. The rest of the team are not with him to back him up if things get ugly. Everything points to it being a bad idea for him to enter the kitchen.