Restored (The Missing: Book 9) [Formerly Titled Rescued]

Chapter Four

"Our Elucidator wasn't supposed to be able to time travel unless somebody's life was in danger."

Before Jonah or Chip could respond, they reached the part of their trip where everything sped up, and their bodies felt as if they were being ripped apart atom by atom. Thinking became impossible. Everything faded into darkness.

The next thing that Jonah was aware of was that he was lying on some sort of hard, flat surface.

Jordan...JB...danger...must help, Jonah's groggy brain thought.

With a feat that seemed superhuman, Jonah forced his eyelids open. At first, all was blurry, but after blinking a few times, everything started to come into focus. Just boring beige walls that seemed to form a hallway and, after propping himself up on his elbows, Jonah could tell that the floor was solid white. It reminded Jonah of the tile flooring in the basement of his church, except this was one solid piece, not divided into square.

"Where are we?" he mumbled, unsure if his words were intelligible because of his numb tongue.

"You mean 'when' are we?" Katherine corrected, her words slightly slurred together. She forced herself up onto her elbows as well, not to be outdone by Jonah. "Because right now, we're at the end of a hallway."

"It reminds me of the future," Jonah mumbled, thinking back to their most recent time trip.

Katherine nodded, but didn't respond verbally. Instead, she turned to Chip, who had rolled onto his side.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"Time sick," he moaned in response.

"Where are Jordan and JB?" Katherine asked, thrusting herself up into a proper sitting position.

Jonah tried to do the same as Katherine, but he felt a sudden wave of dizziness hit him. Instead of sitting up, he slipped back and banged his head against a door.

"Ow," he muttered, more so out of habit than actual pain.

Then, the door disappeared and was replaced by the figure of a man. He kneeled down to look at Jonah, his dark brown hair flopping onto his forehead.

"Are you..." Jonah began, looking up at the familiar handsome face.

"JB!" Katherine finished for him. She jumped up and wrapped him in a tight hug, obviously overcoming her time sickness. "We've missed you."

"But we think that you're in danger," Jonah added, successfully scrambling into a sitting position.

"I'm aware of that," he replied quickly, the tension in his voice practically tangible as he hugged Katherine back. "Are you three alright? When Jordan showed up, I was so worried. I thought you were in danger and were forced to use the Elucidator, but somehow Jordan was the only one to make it here... I was looking you just now, extrapolating from the last known moment Jordan was in the twenty first century, but I couldn't find you three." He held Katherine out at an arm's distance and looked her up and down before turning his attention to Jonah.

"Can you stand?" JB asked, extending his hand to Jonah to help him up. "Are you alright?"

Jonah took it and, with JB's help, pulled himself up. Surprisingly, after he was on his feet, JB continued pulling Jonah into a hug. When JB had hugged him in the past, Jonah had pushed him away because he'd wanted to show everybody how brave he was. But now, he returned the hug. He'd been so afraid that something bad had happened, and that he would never get to see JB again, that the hug was comforting.

"I'm fine, but are you okay?" Jonah asked JB, breaking away from him. When Jonah had commanded the Elucidator to take them here, he had assumed that they would find JB and Jordan inches from death. But JB looked fine to him. Stressed, but alright.