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she walked to the
platform, stepped up and went to stand beside the seated man. He
glanced up and she whispered in his ear.
    The man glanced down at Justin, then looked
at Mrs. Mallon and smiled. He whispered something back and waved
toward the back of the room. She turned away, descended from the
platform and walked past Justin. She smiled at him and he turned to
see her leave the hall.
    He suddenly felt very alone and cautiously
glanced around. Most of the others had resumed talking after he was
seated but one boy, sitting at the same table, was staring at him.
When Justin met his eyes, the boy grinned.
    “Hi, I'm Aaron. How ya
doing?”
    Justin shyly returned the smile. “I'm okay,
thanks. I'm Justin.”
    “Cool. Good to meet you.”
Aaron stood up, walked around the table and sat down again beside
Justin. He pushed his long blonde hair out of his eyes impatiently.
“Are you as freaked out as I am about all this?” he asked as he
waved his arm to indicate the room around them.
    Justin nodded. “As least. Maybe more. It's
too weird.” He looked toward the man on the dais, who was again
scanning through the pile of papers and lowered his voice. “Any
idea who that is?”
    Aaron shrugged. “He hasn't said a word to us
since I got here about an hour ago. I guess he's the boss. At
least, all the other adults talked to him as they brought each of
us in.”
    The man had returned to scanning the pile of
notes in front of him. Justin looked at him for a moment then
glanced around the room.
    He was fascinated by the tapestries hanging
from the walls. He saw figures hurling thunderbolts, flying horses
and lions, men and women waving swords and much, much more. Like
the carvings in the hallways, every inch of space seemed crammed
with details. Between the hangings, iron brackets held more of the
glowing stones that he had seen on the ceilings in the halls. These
lit the room as brightly as daylight.
    Aaron nudged him lightly. “I think
something's happening,” he said and nodded toward the dais.
    Justin looked over as the man at the front
stood up, walked around and leaned lightly on the desk behind
him.
    “Welcome. My name is
Alexander Fitzgerald. I am the head caretaker of this facility.” He
waved his hand, indicated the room around them. “We are called
Guardians and the name of this place is Sanctuary. You have all
been brought here because you were in imminent danger.” He
hesitated a moment. “This was a drastic move on our part. None of
you were meant to enter here for another ten years or more. By
then, you would have been adults and able to make an informed
choice as to whether to join us here or not.” He shrugged. “But
that choice was taken from you, and us, by our mutual enemies. So
here we are. I know that you all have a thousand questions. And
many of you are in shock, although you probably don't know it.” He
indicated a man wearing a gray suit and round glasses that was
standing to one side of the dais. “Doctor Smythe will be available
to any of you should you need his services. If any of you feel ill,
or dizzy or have any concerns at all for your health, please don't
hesitate to call on him at any time.”
    The doctor smiled and nodded at all of them.
Justin heard some noise from the back of the room and turned around
to see several people entering, carrying covered silver trays. Mrs.
Mallon was among the group.
    “Before we begin though,”
Mr. Fitzgerald continued, “I'm sure that many of you are hungry.
Please help yourselves and take your time. We'll speak again in a
little while.”
    The servers put down the trays on the
scattered tables. As they lifted the lids, Justin saw that some
trays held tall mugs that steamed. The smell of chocolate wafted
past him and he felt his mouth watering. It had been a long time
since breakfast.
    On the other trays were mounds of
sandwiches. Justin could see what looked like meat and chicken and
some sort of vegetables. Mrs. Mallon made straight for his