“Is this place sweet or what?” Brian asked, all but tugging his friend to the front door.

“It’s definitely an upgrade from our dorm room,” Noah agreed, thinking about Paul and worrying for a moment that he’d get lonely, but then realizing there was a good chance that the kid once again failed to realize that Brian and Noah had temporarily moved out.

Noah glanced over at the girls unlocking their own door and they all waved at each other before entering their respective units.

Inside, they were met with a surprisingly spacious sitting area immediately to the left of the entrance, and a staircase disappearing up to the second floor on their right. At the rear of the sitting area, against the far wall, was a kitchenette with a window overlooking a pleasant view of a meadow ringed by dense woods. The color palette was mostly shades of gray with a few red and orange accents. Noah observed there was a complete lack of carpeting, and that even the cushioned seats in the sitting room had a plasticky appearance.

Noticing a horizontal coat rack attached to the wall behind the door, they hung both their keys on one of the hooks. Noah found himself irrationally wishing he had a jacket or something to hang up.

“I want to see our rooms,” Brian said, immediately setting up the stairs.

“Alright, me too.” Noah followed him to the second floor, which had a short hallway with three doors. Brian was already going down the line, opening each one and peering inside eagerly.

“Bedroom, closet, and… bedroom. Nice, both bedrooms have a balcony. The bathroom must be downstairs.”

Noah looked inside the second bedroom and saw it was furnished with a twin captain’s bed and a small desk with a piece of beige paper folded to stand upon it like a tent. His name was printed on it so as to be clearly visible from the door. The closet was open to reveal shelves stocked with a couple sets of clothes. The back wall was almost entirely made of glass, with a door leading out to a view over the meadow behind the housing unit.

“Hey, I think this room is supposed to be mine,” Noah called to Brian, glancing at the namecard. There was no response, so he took that as agreement and walked over to the closet to investigate its contents. No way these are actually my own clothes that they took from my dorm.

To his vague relief, it turned out to just be a few brand-new outfits from the local clothing store. All the tags were still attached. They weren’t his exact size, but they were close enough that Noah suspected whoever had picked them out had been informed of his approximate weight and height.

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“Wow, free clothes. Looks like my college tuition is finally starting to pay for itself,” Noah said to himself. He closed the closet and wandered out to the balcony.

Brilliant midday sunlight streamed down, putting a smile on his face. He looked out over the meadow and saw it was divided into four sections by a couple rows of bushes extending a short ways from the building. Out in the open meadow beyond the bushes, a picnic table was positioned near the center of the lawn.

Noah tilted his face towards the sun and closed his eyes peacefully, only to slowly frown. He silently rebuked himself for expecting to feel any warmth, and with an unhappy sigh, he returned inside.

He walked back out into the hallway and poked his head into the other bedroom to see Brian lying spread-eagled atop his bed. His eyes were open, and he turned to look at Noah when he noticed him hovering by the door.

“So, what do you think of this place?” Noah asked his friend.

Brian shrugged. “It’s awesome. Did you see the clothes in the closet?”

Noah nodded with a faint smile. “Yeah. It’s kinda weird, somehow.”

“Oh, so it’s not just me, then. It feels awfully strange for some rando to have picked out the clothes I’ll be wearing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that I won’t have to wear this same outfit for who knows how many days straight, but they could have at least let us get some stuff from our dorms.”

Noah walked over to sit down at the desk. It had Brian’s name on a card upon it, printed just the same way as the one in his own room. “I don’t think you realize the harm that even one quick trip could do.”

Brian shrugged again, looking tired. “Sorry if I’m not showing a high enough level of concern for your taste.” He turned his head to look up at the ceiling. “I know you’re not going to want to hear this, but it seems like everyone’s sort of overreacting. I mean, yeah, nothing about what’s happening makes sense, but it’s not bad, per se. It’s not as if we’re in pain or anything. So when I see everyone rushing around to make stuff like this happen- stuff like getting us our own private townhouse- I can’t help but feel like we’re taking advantage of our position, somehow.” He looked back at Noah. “You know?”

Noah blinked. “The reason all this is happening isn’t because of the symptoms we’ve shown so far, necessarily. I think it’s more because it’s something new. Its potential is totally uncharted in every way. If anything, I believe people are underreacting. They should be trying their best to gather up everyone we’ve come into contact with this morning and treat them all as carefully as they’re treating us.

“I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t think you should be worrying for that reason. I’m sure everyone will be quite pleased if all this blows over, not upset we exploited them somehow.”

Brian sat up with a pensive look. “That makes sense, I guess. You’re probably right.”

“Oh, I know I am,” Noah grinned. “C’mon, let’s see what they have for us downstairs.”