Yesterday's Tomorrow People

Parallels

Heat. He only felt heat. Nothing else. He saw nothing more, felt nothing, heard nothing.

----

Jed jumped out of the car. He ran to John who was lying passed out on the ground a few feet from the drive. John was sweating and shaking lightly. John lied on his stomach his head facing the building. His breathing was uneven, staggered, and not full. "Charles!" called Jed to the driver. The driver exited the vehicle and ran around the front to John and Jed

"Help me get him in the car," Jed demanded.

"Shouldn't we--"

"We are bringing him back to the house, but we must hurry. I thought this might happen. If we didn't try it out, we wouldn't know anything."

Together they rolled John onto his back. Jed grabbed the gun from John's jacket. As they were doing so, two Rogues came running out of the Refuge. They yelled, but Jed and Charles were unfazed.

Cara and Stephen stopped at John. Jed held up the gun. He pointed at Cara. They both took a step back. Stephen took a step to cover Cara.

Jed breathed in deeply. "You two need to leave. He's none of your business. Go back and hide in your Refuge."

"Jedikiah," Cara spoke up, "what's happening to John? Where did you take him after the train? What have you been doing?"

"John needed a break from the excitement of human life. Stephen's friend, Astrid, was making him think he could live a human life. He talked about how wonderful she was, but he wasn't made to live a human life."

Stephen looked back and forth between Jedikiah and John. "Astrid's been looking for him for weeks. And Cara. Cara felt John break out again. That's impossible, but she saw him teleport outside."

Charles began carrying John under his arms. John's head hung swinging in the motion as Charles pulled him into the car. Jed stood up and walked in front of Cara and Stephen. "John will not be returning to your league of delinquents. It was his own choice."

"Just tell me what's wrong with him!" demanded Cara.

By then the back door of the car was shut with John inside. Charles made it into the car and started it up again. "He's fine. Just tired," Jed said uncaring. He climbed into the car gun lowered.

Charles shifted the car into Drive. "Why?" Cara shouted. Charles drove off.

Cara was about to teleport, but Stephen stopped her before she could.

Jed turned to unconscious John on the back seat. "Be careful driving. Don't want him worse than he is now," he directed Charles.

----

Heat. John heard the beginning of muffled a conversation. Two, maybe three voices, spoke or argued about something. He only heard the muffled nonsense for a short while. He faded in and out. It was all dark and nothing changed.

When the muffled voices stopped, he truly faded out.

John felt himself shaking and cold. He felt as if he was sweating buckets. He woke up on an old couch in the middle of a dusty room. A large door was to his right about 10 feet away. The glass was frosted, and he saw the shadows of people pass by. He sat up and swung his legs over the side. Voices and other noises rose from outside the room.

He stood to see more of the room. There was a long rectangular table covered in miscellaneous parts of machine close to the far wall. Bookshelves of technical equipment lined the wall. Another smaller table was in front of the couch scattered with books and pamphlets that had nothing on them. John walked to the rectangle table. He picked up some parts, examined them, and placed them back as they were.