"The Benevolent Doctor"
7. Hide & Go Seek
Sometime in New New York
It hadn't taken too long for Santana to convince Brittany it would be a good idea for them to follow the Brannigan cats and get to explore this futuristic city of New New York. The Doctor had told them to stay, which had only worked for so long before boredom had become a better incentive not to listen and to do what they wanted to do. There was still some amount of tension between Santana and half of those cats, but the other half was quickly warming up to the blonde, and it helped.
The Doctor and Martha were still in the dining room, talking to the cat man and his wife, after they'd all eaten, and they had no clue when Santana, Brittany, and the Brannigan children snuck out.
Something about showing the girls around the city and seeing their amazement at things that seemed completely normal to the rest of them had done wonders to get the cats relax some more around the pair of them, and Santana couldn't deny she was experiencing the same thing on their end. The further they went, seeing both the city and its people, she saw that cat people were only one such variety of strange and unimaginable creatures around them. If anything, Brittany and her were the ones who stuck out.
They went into this shop and that one, where the girls wished they had money to buy some of the things they saw, even if they knew they might not get to show any of it to the people back home. There were vendors and shoppers all around, signs on the walls that Brittany took some care to read as they went.
"If you meet anyone that tries to sell you some kind of mood, just tell them to walk away. You don't want to get mixed up with that lot. They were outlawed ages ago but they still try and move their stock to unsuspecting tourists," said Abigail.
"We're not tourists," Santana frowned.
"You look like one though," the girl pointed out. "Be careful, that's all."
The next shop they had gone into had been massive. The way Allen went on about it, between all the floors and the displays, it could take someone an entire day to see everything it had to offer. ("They've even got rooms if you want to spend the night. They serve breakfast and everything.") Somewhere in the whirlwind of it all, the group had split. Santana went off with Abigail and Alexander one way, Alice and Allen went another, and Brittany, Agnes, and Alfred went down a third path.
"What are those?" Brittany asked as they came off a lift on to the 56th floor. They had found themselves in front of a display of strange sort of chairs, strange to her at least.
"Car seats, for the motorway nostalgic out there," Alfred shrugged. Whether Brittany had heard him or not was hard to tell, as the blonde had already moved on, her curiosity taking her elsewhere.
"I could get this for my mother, her birthday is coming up!" Brittany picked up a round thing from a shelf and showed it to the two cats.
"Do you know what it is?" Agnes asked, smirking.
"No idea," Brittany shook her head, putting it back with a sigh.
"Hey, you three, no loitering," a tall man approached them.
"We're just shopping," Alfred looked to his sister and Brittany, who picked up the round thing, to appear as though she was thinking of buying it.
"How much?" she asked.
"Put it down and come with me," the tall man persisted.
"Do you work here?" Brittany asked, looking at him. All the 'stranger danger' warnings her parents had given her were flooding back to her.
"Do I need to call security?" the man looked as though he'd gotten taller in the last five seconds.
"Brittany, just put it back," Agnes warned, and she did as told. The man pointed, and the three walked, well across the floor, toward a closed door. The man stepped in front of them and opened it.
"In here," he told them. They looked to each other, debating.
"I don't like this," Brittany whispered to Agnes.
"Take my hand and don't let go," she whispered back. When she did, Agnes gave a nod. "Alfred, run!" she shouted, and she took off, trailing Brittany behind her.
They never made it to the end of the row. The tall man had help, and they came from the room now, grasping the runners and slipping something under their noses, which knocked them out on the spot.
"Take them back inside, prepare to transport them," the tall man said.
"What about the others?" asked one of the others.
"Those will do for now. Dr. Benedict will tell us if he needs more."
X
"No, I swear they said they were going to fifty-six," Allen said as he and his siblings emerged from the lift with Santana on their heels.
"We should go down to the lobby," Alexander told them. "That's what we're supposed to do, isn't it? They'll find us that way."
"Better that than to spend a whole day going from floor to floor," Santana frowned, hoping she might see a familiar blond head passing by.
"They have screens here, mostly for parents with misplaced children, but we might be able to find them. We come here all the time, they'll have us on file," Alice went to one and pressed her palm to a pad.
"Welcome, Alice Brannigan."
"I'm looking for my sister Agnes, and my brother Alfred." Almost as soon as she said their names, their pictures appeared.
"Floor 56."
"See, they are here, come on," Abigail led them away from the lifts. They went through every aisle, but there was no sign of any of them. Alexander had gone and stayed next to the lifts, sticking to his previous point of returning to a familiar place in the event that they might come by while the others were looking.
They spent two hours searching floor fifty-six, but it was useless. They weren't there. What was worse was that the screen persisted to claim that both Agnes and Alfred, and Brittany by association, were on this floor.
"Something's wrong, isn't it?" Alexander asked his siblings as they returned to him. Allen shrugged.
"We need to go home and tell Mom and Dad, they'll know what to do, them and the Doctor."
TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)