by CS Patra
“It’s pretty terrible,” he told Jackie. “A lot of guys and girls ended up dead because of some respiratory problems. A couple of them had asthma like I do. I just wonder if it’s because of all this that I got asthma. My mom has it too so I’m not sure if it’s from her or from Project 99.”
“You’re not the only one I’ve noticed with these problems.” Jackie coughed. “I can’t seem to get rid of this virus. I am doing a little better, but the cough is still there. At least I can hold down my food.”
“Well, that’s a positive thing,” he murmured. “Have you seen a doctor about it?”
“Everyone keeps telling me to do so, but I haven’t found time yet.” she murmured. “I’m trying to use over the counter medication. I have to take my medication for my ADHD and I don’t want to mix any medications right now.”
“You probably should ask someone about it,” he suggested. “Maybe there might be a cure for my asthma out there. I would love to get rid of it forever if I could.”
“I’ll look for something,” she promised. “Just hang tight for now and keep looking after yourself.”
It was so easy to tell him, but not easy for her to find a cure. She thought about it all night. Could people like this ever be cured? What if they died sooner than normal people? Sure, they might have been deemed perfect by the world, but what if they really weren’t? There had to be some consequences out there. She tossed and turned in bed as she thought about this. Sleep wasn’t coming to her as easily.
Jackie woke up the next morning with the worst headache imaginable. She wondered if it was because of what she had learned or if she was pregnant. The latter had to be impossible. Right before she went to bed, she did a little research on the fertility of Project 99 experiments. As it turned out, a good chunk of them were born sterile. No matter how hard they tried, they could not get pregnant. There were a few exceptions, but all of them had been born more than thirty-five years ago. As the project went on, things became more aggressive. The younger the experiment, the more likely they were to get certain diseases. She didn't know if she fell in this category or not.
Well, I have less chance of being pregnant so this migraine is probably from something else. She thought, taking some medication. She wouldn't take the ADHD medicine right now for fear of it causing a reaction. Her cold had gone down a lot, but she still didn't feel well enough to work. She had to go in though as she had not called in sick. There were patients who needed their medications filled.
Fortunately, Miguel was not around today and she had some time to go buy a pregnancy test. Then she went to the bathroom to check it out. She stared at the strip in hopes that no line would appear. A blue line meant that she was pregnant and nothing meant that she wasn't. She didn't want a baby right now. That would mean she would have to find out who the father was and what she was going to do about the child. She didn't even know if she wanted to have it or not. There were a lot of decisions to be made.
"You look a little better today, Jackie." Her boss said. "I don't hear you coughing as much today. Did you finally get medicine that works?"
"Yeah, I did." Jackie nodded. "I'm still a little under the weather, but I think I can pull through my shift today."
"That's good. If you do feel worse, just let me know."
She got behind the counter and started to work. There was so much medication that she dealt with on a regular basis. There were prescriptions coming in and she had to get them ready before the patient came to get it. She worked hard for the next three hours, trying hard not to cough on anything. She kept a bottle of water on the side as she worked. People came in and she was pleasant with them. Inside, she felt terrible. She was confused and didn't even know if she could trust anyone anymore.
During break, she decided to take the pregnancy test despite being sure that she wasn't pregnant. After waiting for some time, no lines appeared and she was relieved. At least now she knew that she wasn't throwing up because of pregnancy. Still, it was a little disheartening to think that she was infertile. Maybe she didn't want children now, but what about later? What about the other Project 99 experiments who wanted to have children? What were they going to do? How would they get through their issues?
Around lunch time, she got a call from Misty. She almost didn't recognize the phone number until she looked at the name. "Misty, what are you doing? Shouldn't you be in school right now?"
"I am in school. This is the only time I can use my phone to talk to people. My punishment isn't over yet. Anyway, there are some questions that I need to ask."
"Then ask away, but make it quick. I have to get back to work after lunch."
"Jackie, you work in the pharmaceutical area, don't you?" Misty asked.
"I'm a pharmacist, yes. Why?" Jackie wanted to know.
"Has a group called Genexis ever sent any prescriptions to you to fill?" she asked. "Did you ever notice the label?"
"I can't remember if that group ever sent anything. Do they have something to do with us?"
"It's entirely possible. I found my baby book with my hospital bracelet and apparently Genexis was part of my birth. I don't understand how because apparently they are known for curing people with terminal illness. A lot of cancer patients have gone to them and come back clean and in remission."
"Cancer patients?" Jackie repeated. Miguel had said something about many people being prescribed birth control as well as cancer patients. "I should really take a look at who is sending in these prescriptions. Let me see how many Genexis sent us today."
"In the meantime, I'm going to do some of my own research here." Misty said. "I'll let you go now. Take care, Jackie."
"Thanks. I'm relieved to know I'm not pregnant, but I need to figure out what's really wrong with me. You know, I have not been able to keep down any food for longer than a few hours. I have a feeling I need to see a doctor about this."
"Yeah, you do." Misty said. "Be careful out there, Jackie."
"Thanks, you too."
Jackie hung up and thought about her illness. Despite working as a pharmacist, she hadn't taken medication in the past couple of years. It was hell to get her to go to a doctor. The only times she really went was to get her physical done. However, this cold was getting much worse and it was affecting everything she did.
She took the next few minutes to fill prescriptions and read the labels that came from them. Three had come from Genexis so she took a few seconds to read up on that company. Misty had been right. They were a part of the Bradley Institute and helped out others who needed it. So many people had gone to them for a cure. She didn't want to research some of these names, but she had to do it. She wrote them down and put the piece of paper away. She hated to look them up, but she needed to know what kind of people they were. Why were they trusting Genexis? And where was Genexis actually located? These prescriptions couldn't have been coming from far away.
Her mind went back to the man who killed himself at the battle of the bots. Why had he chosen that place to end his life? What kind of message was he trying to send? Above all, who was he? This couldn't have been the reason that the woman sent her to this place. She was supposed to find something else out. She was supposed to learn something. She ended up learning more than she wanted to know.
So far, she had not been able to bring this up with her family. It was hard to talk to them after she came out of the closet. They took their time to accept this, but she was sure they had come around. This was something else though. She would try to bring it up at dinner tomorrow evening. She was supposed to meet up with them and tell them what was going on in her life. They were concerned when they heard that she wasn't feeling very well.
Can I wait that long though? She asked herself. I need to know now.
Once she got off work, she decided to give her mother a call. "Hi, Mama, it's me. I was just wondering if you have any time to talk."
"A little later, Jackie." Her mother said. "I'm getting to ready to go out.
"
"I just need to know one thing." Jackie coughed. "Was I ever adopted?"
There was a small pause at the end. "Of course not! Why would you think that?"
"It's just... some things have come up and I'm curious." Jackie admitted. “I have been wondering about my past and I’ve been really sick lately.”
“Well, I can assure that you are not adopted.” Her mother said. “Yes, we had a little complication when I first got pregnant, but that was taken care of.”
“By who?”
“It was a group known as Genexis. They’ve probably dissolved by now, but I went to them because we were having trouble giving birth. We needed a little help, but that was all. You were born just like any other child.”
“What kind of problem were you having?”
“Oh, your father was struggling and so was I. Genexis helped us understand each other.”
“I see.” Jackie said. “Anyway, I’ll let you go now and I will see you at dinner tomorrow night.”
She hung up, but it felt like she didn’t get the straight forward answer that she wanted. Her mother answered like this was supposed to be common knowledge. She acted like Jackie should have known about this much sooner.
I didn’t know any of this beforehand though. Jackie thought. I have no problem if I was born through in-vitro. I don’t care how it all happened. I just want to know what all this has to do with me.
She went to the bathroom to take her medication. It would be terrible if she skipped out on a day. She had skipped medication before and it made her feel terrible. She could not concentrate on anything. It was enough for her to stop working and go home. At the same time, she didn’t want to overdose on medication either. That had also happened in the past and it almost led to disastrous results. She didn’t want to go through anything like that again.
Her family was devastated at first when they found out that Jackie had ADHD. She struggled a lot in school and could not concentrate on anything. Her mind would wander often and teachers were concerned about it. Her grades were also slipping, because she could not focus on a damn thing. They all thought that something was wrong with her. Perhaps she needed to be taken back a grade. Her parents, however, felt that Jackie was capable of keeping up with her classmates. The problem wasn’t in Jackie, but it was in the way things were taught to her. At home, when she was able to concentrate, she did perfectly fine. They decided it was probably a smart idea to take her to counselor and see what the problem was.
The counselor was able to pinpoint it right away; Jackie had ADHD. A psychiatrist was able to prescribe her the medication that she needed and her focus came back. She caught up with everyone else and was able to graduate from high school on time. She got into pharmacy school, graduated on top, and got her first job shortly after it. Becoming a pharmacist didn’t take her very long to do. As long as she kept her ADHD in check, she would be fine.
Still, ADHD didn’t sound so bad to her now. A lot of people had it and took medication for it. She was a special case. She wasn’t like those other people and now she was starting to see it.
It wasn’t going to take her very long to realize how special she truly was.
Chapter 12 – Doug
Doug felt it was a great coincidence that the key he found in the book belonged to a vault that was in the same bank that he used. It was also a good thing, because he wanted to go to his own vault and see if he could find something that might have been hiding there. Perhaps his real birth certificate was hiding in the depths of that vault. He began to wonder how he found this key and what else was hidden from him.
"Are you sure it's okay to look into this person's vault?" Susan asked him. "What if they've set a trap for you or something?"
"I don't think they would do that." Doug said. "Someone wanted me to have this book for a reason. They knew I would buy it. They knew I was going to find out and get it. All the same, I'm going to call someone up and tell them what I'm doing."
"Just be careful out there. I don't want to hear that you've been arrested or killed or something like that just for snooping around."
"Hey, I will be back." he promised. “I’m not doing anything dangerous out there. I just need to know answers about my past. I love you and the kids and my life. I just have to figure some things out.”
“I know,” she nodded. “Once you do figure them out, will you tell me?”
“Of course I will. Just let me get through this right now, okay?”
“Okay. Come back safely.”
Once out of the house, he called Nikhil. "I need to see you today if possible. I'm going to the bank to open my vault and find some information."
"Yeah, that's okay." Nikhil said. "I'm at work right now, but I will be around in the evening. What makes you think you'll find information in your bank?"
"I have no doubt my real birth certificate is probably there and I also have a key to another vault." He explained. "I found it in my copy of Fahrenheit 451. I have a good feeling that someone knew I was going to buy this. They saw me in the bookstore and planted the key in here because they know I'd buy it."
"That's a little extreme." Nikhil said. "I can't see why someone would go through the trouble of putting a key in your book. What if you didn't pick that book up? What would happen then?"
"I don't know what would happen. I just know I have this book for a reason. Anyway, I will call you as soon as I get out of the bank."
Doug went into the bank like normal and told the woman in front that he wished to go to his vault. She allowed him to go and he punched in the numbers to open the door. Once inside, he went to the other vault first and opened it up. Then he pulled out the box from his vault and took them both into the room to check the contents. His fault had a lot of the usual stuff; bonds, deeds, some jewelry, and a lot of cash. Digging through it, he also found his passport along with the old passports of his wife and children, birth certificates of his children, and other important documents. He found his birth certificate, but nothing seemed out of place in that. His parents were still labeled as his parents and nothing had been doctored.
I don't understand. He thought, starting down at it. Something was wrong with this whole scenario. This couldn't be the truth. He pushed aside the contents of his vault and opened up the other box.
This was filled with papers and files. He looked at one of the files and stared at the name; Jana Brinker. She was born around the same year that he was, but she died at twenty-two by jumping off a bridge. Prior to her death, she was on anti-depressants and other medication to treat her anxiety. There was no mention of who had prescribed the medication. He opened up another file of an Ira Brown who had also committed suicide. Like Jana, he was also born the same year that Doug was and he was also on medication when he died. File after file had people born in the same year and dying young. All of them had some sort of history with mental conditions. However, one of the files had an autopsy report. It belonged to a woman named Daniella Dutch and they were looking to see what had caused her death. The official word was that it was respiratory problems.
Or maybe it really wasn't. He thought, looking at a sympathy note that had come from her psychiatrist. He was sorry that she had killed herself, because he was sure they were making progress. Prior to her death, he had lowered her dosage because she didn't really need it as much. She had even told him that she was in a better place. That didn't sound like the words of someone who was suicidal.
He needed to take this file back and show Nikhil what he had found. What was also interesting was that her birth certificate was there and it looked a lot like the one that Doug had. She had only been born in August, just one month after he was born. The doctor that delivered her was the same one that delivered him; Dr. Lewis Hanson. This was a little too eerie.
"Okay, now I know something is wrong." He murmured to himself, closing up the boxes and taking the file with him. He put everything back where it had been and locked them up. He needed N
ikhil to take a look at both birth certificates and see if Dr. Hanson was indeed part of the Bradley Institute. Then bits and pieces would slowly start to come together.
Once out of the vault, Doug thanked the people at the bank and decided to look up more things in the file while he was in his car. He flipped through her birth and death certificates and found some pictures in the file. It was scary, but a lot of those photos reminded him of his daughters. Daniella Dutch looked a lot like both of them at those ages. She also had some of his features as well. Things were getting a little too eerie as he found the newspaper clipping of her death. He began to read the first couple of sentences to himself.
Daniella Dutch didn't sound like someone out of the ordinary. She had grown up in a nice family and was a good student at school. She had graduated from college with double degrees in French and psychology. She had gotten a nice job on campus, but was feeling pressure from peers. That was the main reason she had gone to see a therapist. She was starting to fall into depression with everything that was piling up on her. The medication she took was a small dosage and everyone confirmed that it wasn't the reason she died. She had some complications with her lungs and that was what killed her.