Time Department (Temp title)

Chapter 2: Our Intro is Over

"Everyone froze" doesn't mean they stopped in place on purpose, they froze like a movie would if you had paused it. Warren fixed his ball cap, waved away some still dust in his face, sneezed, then took a look around the surrounding area. Certain people were glowing green, some red. Warren sighed, "This is going to take a while."

  Warren spent time moving all of those who glew green at safe distances, and moving deadly objects out of their way. This process took time. He took a look at his stop watch, which was on '2 days 13 hours'. Warren had to do one last floor on the second tower, floor 1 (he'd always start at the top floor). As he continued work, he came across two children, whome looked quite similar. The young girl was standing beside her brother, both in startled positions, with terrified expressions. Warren stared at the two, the little girl was lit green, but the boy, who had quite the heart-gripping expression on his cherry-lit face, was glowing red.

    Most of the time Warren wouldn't be bothered at all by things like this, but for whatever reason, the sight of the two children touched something inside of him. No one would expect him to fall soft for someone, but these two did. He grabbed the little boy by his wrist. Pain began to sieze his own body as the boy's red aura flickered like a dying light, and the color returned to his body, and his once frozen limbs fell limp to the floor. The area began to glitch like he'd removed some kind of programming, or scratched the DVD that played the world. His elderly heart began to pump heavily in his chest as he'd come to realize what he'd done - he'd broken the most important rule he'd ever been taught.

  Never save the dead.

  Warren carried the little boy out of the building, to where without a doubt he would be safe. He laid him down on the ground while the area around them continued to shake and glitch. It was time for him to leave. Warren headed away from the towers and as he did so the boy opened his eyes and gazed around at the frozen area. He spotted Warren, who was heading through a portal. Warren looked back at the disoriented boy, the two making eye contact. Warren's heart stopped - he'd been spotted, but before he could do anything the portal closed.

   All Warren could remember from that day was that boy, staring at him. All hell was going to break loose by his arrival, and he didn't know how to prepare for it.

   Warren gasped as his eyes shot open and he returned to his mortal body. Amos, Ms. Serenity (his "boss" if you will) and Warren's nurses were surrounding the bed. As usual, Ms. Serenity was much less than serene, she looked manically frustrated. She grabbed Warren by his thick grey bangs, griping loudly "What did you do?! You cannot follow easy orders?!" Warren grunted, "I don't know what you're talking about." Ms. Serenity pulled herself closer to him while she sat in her seat by his bed. "Do you think I'm that stupid?!"

   Amos took a breath and sighed, adding "Radars and warnings went off when you began to move the child, why did you ignore them?" Amos was more soft spoken than Ms. Serenity, who was cold hearted and hot headed. Even so, Warren didn't reply.

   "This is punishable by execution, you idiot!" The steaming woman shoved Warren's head away from her hand and sat up.

   "Now now," Amos reasoned, "Let us not overreact. He's never slipped up to this extent, give him credit." Serenity nearly hit a pitch of volume that would be defined as screaming as she turned to Amos, "This is history! Slip ups like this cause more deaths, children to be unborn and generations of people not to exist! I'm supposed to ignore that?!" Amos adjusted his glasses and sighed, the middle aged man turned his attention back to Warren.

   "Proceed by answering my previous question, Subject zero." Both adults looked at Warren while the nurses refreshed his IVs and checked his vitals. It took a moment for Warren to answer, for he wasn't aware of the reason himself.