Perfect

Flashing Yellow Things

I had a good sleep, but was once again awaken by Alexa's alarm. It must be half-past nine. I was not off today, and had to report for testing, so I needed to get up and get ready.

"Good morning, Alexa."

"Good morning. It is currently ten degrees Celcius. Expect a high of fifteen degrees with a slight chance of showers. Here is your news brief..."

As Alexa read off the news of the day, I continued to get ready to start my day, and I had a lot of questions for The Professor and Sam.

After I was ready, I walked over to the door to open it. Behind the door stood Sam. She was just about to knock. 

"Sam.? What are you doing here?"

"Um, I just wanted to tell you that we are in lab 406 today."

"Really? Don't we just normally meet in the lobby?"

"Well..."

"I was just about to head down for breakfast. Join me?"

"Um, sure."

Things were quiet between Sam and I all the way down to the cafeteria. She knew something was up and that I was onto it.

We both pickup up our trays of 'special' and found a table.

Sam looked like she didn't want to talk, so I began.

"What the hell is going on around here?, and don't feed me bullshit."

"About what?"

"About everything."

"First of all, when we take that 'long trip' into the city.  The city limits is only a couple of minutes away. You are taking the long way around to make it seem that we are further away than we really are, aren't you? You turn right onto the highway instead of left, and then go around the city and enter from the opposite side. Why?"

"Well."

"Well, what?"

"We wanted you to think we were far from the city so that you wouldn't try to go there on your own."

"Why? I'm not five!"

"...but you are not from this time, and we feared that you might not have been able to handle it."

"Okay, well, now I know, so you can stop playing games."

"Okay, sorry."

"Another thing, why did neither of you tell me my son worked here?"

"Same reason, but we figured that you would find out eventually."

"I did. Yesterday...and what about that fence appearing out of nowhere?"

"What fence?"

"The one keeping us from going out back. It wasn't there before. Closing the patio for the season...in September? Do you think I was born yesterday?"

"Well, uh, we are trying to protect people."

"From what?"

She paused for a long time as if she didn't know what to say, or didn't want to say.

I spoke for her, "You mean that flashing yellow thing?"

"You know about those?"

"Of course, I've seen it, wait, those? There is more than one?"

"Yes. Three have been spotted."

"What the hell are they?"

"We don't know, and that's why we can't allow anyone back there. We are dealing with people who have phsycological problems. Right?"

"Okay, but we can still see them out the windows at night."

"Seeing them is one thing, but interacting with them is something else. We can make up something. Photography drones, or something like that."

"Photography drones? I kind of know about those, but at night? That excuse is not going to work."

"You're right."

"You want answers, I want answers. Instead of sitting in a stupid lab all day, why not try to figure this out?"

"What's your idea?"

" I say we study the woods to see if we can find anything, some clues."

 "That is a really good idea. I'll get Professor Ootrub and you wait for us at the patio door."

"Done."

Sam left to get The Professor as I made my way to the rear patio door.

A few minutes later Sam returned with Professor Ootrub and he had a key. He didn't say anything, but quickly unlocked the patio door and we all filed out.

We walled along the patio area and to the grassy area just before the forest. It was where I saw the flashing yellow thing last night, but none of us saw anything unusual, so we decided to walk into the woods.

We searched the wooded area for a while but could not see anything except for what one would expect to find in the woods. It was after noon, so we all decided to call it a day and go in for lunch.

When I got to the cafeteria, I saw Jason in there having his lunch so I decided to sit with him.

"Jason. Good morning."

"Dad.", he said in a 'before morning coffee' voice. "How is everything?"

"Boring."

"Boring?"

"Do you have any idea how boring it is to be good at everything?"

"I thought it would be great."

"No. Life without challenge is boring."

"Well, that is why you are here."

"To be someone's science project."

"To find out what happened to you."

"Do you know about those things out back?"

"Yes. All of the professors know, but we are try our best to keep knowledge of them away from the subjects. We don't know how to explain it to them, and some of them will get upset."

"I think they only come out at night. Have you seen one in the day?"

"No. That is the good part. When they do come out most of the subjects are asleep and for the rest, we have just told them it is someone playing with drones."

"Yes, I was already told that., but what are they really?

"We don't know."

"I'm going to find out", at that, I got up and left the table.