The Return of the Titans (23 page)

They entered the Court and found the usual
tables set up with trays waiting for them. They served themselves,
found an empty table and sat down to eat. Mr. Fitzgerald entered
part-way through the meal, made his way up to the dais and sat
down, his ever-present stack of papers in his hand.

Justin watched Mr. Fitzgerald. He had a
feeling that any surprise announcements would come from him. Nor
was he disappointed. When they had all finished up and their plates
cleared away, the man stood up and moved to his customary spot in
from of his desk.

“Good morning,” he said with a smile.

“Good morning, sir,” the teens
responded.

“Well, I hope you've had a productive first
week. Your teachers are generally pleased with your performance and
your attitudes.” He looked pointedly at several of the teens.
“There are a few exceptions but I'm sure with the right motivation
we can encourage everyone to do their best.” He glanced around and
his smiled broadened. “And I intend to provide that motivation. As
I'm sure many of you have guessed by now, Sanctuary is larger than
this one floor that you've seen so far. A lot larger. So today, I'm
going to show you around a bit.”

There was a general murmur of excitement in
the group. “About time,” Justin said quietly. The others at the
table nodded then looked back at Mr. Fitzgerald.

“Specifically I'm going to show you the
Atrium and the Arboretum. I think you will be impressed. However,”
he held up a warning finger, “these areas are only open to you
while you are accompanied by a Guardian. At least for now. Consider
these excursions as a reward for your hard work. Continue to do
well and you will not only be allowed to return there but we will
open up other areas of Sanctuary as time goes on.” He folded his
arms and looked sternly at them all. “Those of you who slack off,
on the other hand, will find yourselves restricted to this level
only. So I hope that will motivate you all to do your best. Now” he
stood up straight and clapped his hands together once, “if you are
all ready, follow me.”

The teens stood up en mass and waited until
Mr. Fitzgerald had reached the door. Then they began to trail along
behind him.

“I was wondering if they'd figure out a way
to get the slackers to work harder,” Norm said to them with a
smile.

“Slackers?” Gerry looked at Norm. “What
slackers?”

“Oh there may not be any right now, Ger,”
Norm replied with a superior tone. “But you know what happens once
things become routine in school. People get lazy. And I'm sure the
same thing will happen here in a few weeks.”

Gerry looked thoughtful and didn't
reply.

Justin stared at Norm. He really was smart,
Justin thought. And he's probably right too. Justin knew that he
himself had a tendency to coast along at school unless he was
pushed a bit. But he just couldn't see this place becoming
routine.

The group followed Mr.
Fitzgerald along the now familiar route to the courtyard. They
moved along at a brisk pace directly across the yard, past the
fountain and approached the cyclops Sentinel blocking the stairs.
Justin remembered
Mr. Denofrio pulling out
a pendant and ordering the Sentinel to move and he watched Mr.
Fitzgerald to see if he would do the same thing. To Justin's
surprise, he did not.

As they approached the Sentinel, it turned
slightly to look at them, almost seemed to jump a bit then hastily
moved aside. Mr. Fitzgerald didn't even glance at it, but swept
past and walked down the stairs. The teens hurried to follow
him.

“Wow, did you see that?”
Aaron said excitedly. “It almost hurt itself jumping out of the
way!”

Justin chuckled. “Well, it obviously knows
who the boss is, doesn't it?”

They all laughed and hastened downward,
Aaron and Justin hopping a bit to navigate the steep steps.

At the bottom, instead of turning left
toward the Ocular room, Mr. Fitzgerald led them straight ahead down
the wide corridor. It was featureless and went on a long way. Only
the lighted baskets hanging from the ceiling broke the monotony as
they trooped along behind him.

Finally in the distance they saw a glowing
doorway. As they approached, Justin realized that they weren't
walking toward a doorway. Instead, a sheet of water was falling
from the ceiling, across the entire width of the corridor. It was
pouring from a slit in the ceiling and fell through a similar slit
in the floor. Mr. Fitzgerald waited for them all to catch up and
then smiled at their puzzled faces.

“As you must remember, the Titans used water
as a means of transportation and communication. Because Sanctuary
is so large, they set up these portals throughout to speed up
travel from one section to the next. Only a Guardian can activate a
portal. So if you happen to run into one somewhere in the complex,
don't bother trying to use it. All that will happen is that you
will get soaked.”

Some of the teens laughed, as did Mr.
Fitzgerald.

“Now, this portal will take us to the
entrance of the Arboretum. Please wait until I join you before
entering.” He reached out and put his hand into the stream of
water. They all gasped as the clear liquid turned opaque and became
a milky white. “All right then, in you go.”

The teens at the front of the group
hesitated and Mr. Fitzgerald smiled gently. “It's quite safe, I
assure you,” he said and waved them on with his free hand.

Finally the first teen, a tall blonde girl,
plucked up her courage and walked forward into the falls. There was
a momentary sparkle and she vanished. The others followed
slowly.

When it was Justin's turn, he looked at
Aaron who appeared nervous but gave a shrug and nodded toward the
portal. Both of them walked forward and into the milky liquid.
Justin held his breath, just in case.

There was a quick sensation of vertigo but
before he could become truly dizzy, Justin found himself standing
in a rough stone corridor with the other teens around him.

The corridor looked more like a natural cave
passage rather than the smooth stone hallways that Justin had seen
in the upper level of Sanctuary. It was wide and high but instead
of glowing baskets, the walls were lined with brackets holding
flickering torches. The air felt damp and Justin could smell a
sweet scent of growing things. He breathed deeply and saw Aaron
doing the same. It was a nice change from the almost sterile air
he'd been breathing for over a week.

There were several popping noises behind him
and Justin turned just in time to see Mr. Fitzgerald and the rest
of the group appear out of thin air surrounded by small sparkles of
light that quickly faded. The man looked around as though making
sure that everyone was present then he smiled and motioned for them
to follow him.

Only a few steps from where they had
appeared was a large arch cut into one of the stone walls. Mr.
Fitzgerald walked through it and the group followed.

They entered an amazing area. They were
standing at the top of a long set of rough stone steps leading
downward. For a moment, Justin thought that they were outside. A
warm, damp breeze sighed past his face and ruffled his hair and the
light was as bright and warm as sunlight. But when he looked up, he
saw a ceiling hundreds of feet above them. Attached to the ceiling
were huge round lights that must have been dozens of feet across.
They shone as bright as the sun and Justin had to look away quickly
and blinked his eyes several times to clear away the
after-images.

He looked out over what was the largest room
he had ever seen. It was bigger than a football stadium and from
one end to the other was packed with plants and trees. The ground
was covered with grass and flowers were scattered all over, growing
in bunches and adding color and scent to the air.

Several of the girls sighed loudly and
Justin saw that Aaron, Norm and Gerry were all smiling with
pleasure. He knew he was too.

“This is the Arboretum,” Mr. Fitzgerald
said. “Here we grow our own fruits and vegetables. It is also a
favorite spot for many of the Guardians to spend time when the
weight of our life underground becomes too much of a strain.” He
smiled gently at all of them. “Please feel free to wander around.
If you wish to pick any of the fruits, you may. Just choose the
ones that are ripe.” He waved them down toward the plant-filled
room. “Off you go. I'll return later to collect you and take you
back.”

The group hurried down the steps and onto
the deep, grassy lawn. The feeling of the ground, the smell of the
earth and the grass, was almost intoxicating. Justin had not
realized just how much he had missed these simple pleasures.
Judging by the remarks from the others in the group, he wasn't the
only one who felt this way.

The teens broke up into groups and
scattered, wandering off deeper into the Arboretum. Justin and
Aaron stuck with Gerry and Norm and the four of them walked slowly
toward the center of the room.

They didn't talk much at first. Each was
enjoying the experience of walking among growing things again. Norm
kept sucking in great breathes and grinning at the scents around
him. Gerry was humming tunelessly, looking around at the trees and
bushes they wandered past. Aaron and Justin hung back a bit and let
the other two lead the way.

“Is this amazing or what?” Aaron said
dreamily. He stopped and quickly took off his shoes and socks. He
stuffed the socks into a shoe, tied the laces together and hung
them over a shoulder. As he began walking again, his smile widened.
“Ah, I've missed the feeling of grass on my feet.”

It seemed like a great idea and Justin was
soon walking barefoot as well. “I'm not surprised the Guardians
like to come here,” he said to Aaron. “It really is relaxing, isn't
it?:

Aaron just nodded. He began looking closely
at the fruit trees they were passing. “Wow, good variety,” he said.
“Apples, pears, plums. They must have fresh fruit all year
round.”

He stopped and reached up, picking a bright
red apple from a low-hanging branch and tossing it to Justin. He
took another one for himself and they began walking again, happily
eating the crisp fruit.

“Ah, this is nice,” Justin said, as juice
ran down his chin. “Has to be organic. It just tastes too good to
be covered with chemicals.”

“Probably is,” Aaron replied. “I mean, they
wouldn't have problems with bugs and stuff underground, would
they?”

“Good point.”

Norm and Gerry were soon out of sight as
Justin and Aaron stopped to look at some of the other trees and
bushes. Aaron shared a story about going berry picking with his
folks when he was little and insisted that they were passing
blueberry bushes. Justin shrugged.

“If you say so,” he said with a grin.

Suddenly from up ahead, they heard Gerry
shouting loudly. They looked at each other with surprise then
hurried through the brush that their two friends had passed through
a few minutes earlier.

Gerry kept shouting and Justin realized that
he was also laughing. He looked at Aaron who seemed puzzled.

“Doesn't sound like he's in trouble, does
it?” he asked Justin as they tried not to stub their toes on
protruding roots and fallen branches.

“Nope. I wonder what he's yelling about?”
Then Justin gasped as they emerged into a clearing that must have
been close to the middle of the Arboretum.

Spread out before them was a large grassy
field leading to a small lake. Norm was standing near them watching
Gerry and some of the other boys running across the field kicking a
soccer ball.

“Where the heck did they get a ball?” Aaron
wondered aloud. Norm heard him and turned back toward them.

“Hey guys! One of the Guardians was here.
Some guy I haven't seen before. He just threw the ball into the
field, waved and left.” He looked back at the guys chasing across
the grass. “Gerry the Jock is thrilled, as you can see.” He
chuckled quietly.

Justin and Aaron walked over to stand next
to Norm. “Aren't you joining them, Norm?” Aaron asked.

Norm shook his head. “Told you, I'm not a
sports guy. I prefer watching from the sidelines.” He looked at
them. “What about you two?”

Justin sat down on the thick grass and
stretched out his legs. “I don't do soccer. Now if they had a few
hockey sticks and a tennis ball, I'd jump in but I think I'll just
watch with you, Norm.”

Norm sat down next to Justin. Aaron tossed
his shoes onto the ground. “Well, I'm no jock either, but I'm
willing to jump in!” He waved at them and jogged toward the
players.

Justin and Norm watched as the boys
organized themselves into teams, put a couple of branches into the
ground at either side of the field as goal posts and began to
play.

“Actually, Aaron's pretty good,” Norm said
as the game progressed.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Justin answered. He
wasn't much of a soccer fan and eventually lay back and stared at
the far-off ceiling with his eyes half-closed.

“Hey Just. Justin!”

He sat up with a jerk and looked around
wildly. Aaron and Gerry were standing close by, grinning down at
him.

“You dozed off, bud,” Aaron said. “Mr.
Fitzgerald is here. He says it's time to head back.”

Justin blinked his eyes several times and
rubbed his face. “Yeah, right, okay,” he mumbled as he tried to
wake up. He looked around and grabbed his shoes and socks. As he
began putting them on, he could see Mr. Fitzgerald out on the field
with a group of the teens around him, talking and laughing. It
sounded like everyone had a good time.

“Hey Just, did you see that last goal I got
in?” Aaron asked eagerly as Justin scrambled to his feet.

“Nope, sorry Aaron. I must have fallen
asleep right after you guys started playing.”