The Institute

Tim is tall and broad-shouldered, with Security Chief Trevor Stackhouse describing him as the embodiment of a hero—bar his glasses. However, Superman’s secret identity Clark Kent wears glasses too. Whenever Tim is confronted with the opportunity to be a solitary hero, he instead chooses to help, to be a guardian. Tim has the qualities of a natural leader—courage and compassion—but has no desire to dominate and is satisfied with his role as DuPray’s “Night Knocker.” He is a healer of both bodies and hearts, as he demonstrates with Annie, the injured clerk at Zoney’s Go-Mart, and the traumatized Luke and his friends.

Tim’s moral compass always points toward compassion for the weak, and he shocks Mr. Smith by saying that saving the world is not worth the life of even a single child. To him, a society that tortures and sacrifices children has no right to continue.

Twelve-year-old Luke’s intelligence isn’t just off the charts—it’s impossible to chart. One of Luke’s teachers likens the experience of teaching him to that of church elders being taught by a young Jesus. Apart from his hunger for knowledge, Luke is self-assured, self-aware, and overall, a normal boy. His empathy and social skills help him bring the Front Half children together as a found family.