The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans

by M. Evans

  Shaun just looked around, up and down, and side to side. "If we get our parents called back to school anytime soon my dad would decapitate me. I wish I was kidding."

  "Well, I guess we'd better get back to our parents. God knows what trouble they're getting themselves into!"

  Shaun rolled his eyes imagining the things his dad was doing and hoped--no, prayed--that maybe his dad would let this one pass. Of course, only time could tell. They went back to the office, where Shaun saw his dad still leaning in on Ellie's mother, and, to make matters worse, he'd bet money his dad was currently pushing a pink piece of paper in to his khaki pants pocket.

  Frank saw them approaching and backed up a foot. He looked as if they were caught with their hands in a cookie jar. They both smiled at each other and as the teens approached. "Well, hey! It was great getting to meet you, Karen, and what a wonderful circumstance to do so in."

  Karen looked taken back for a second.

  Frank realized his wit went completely unnoticed. "I was being ironic. Sorry ... not a strong suit."

  Shaun snorted and laughed as he walked back down the hall. He called over his shoulder. "It was nice meeting you Ms. Randall! Ellie, text me later!"

  Frank jogged to catch up to him. "So, do you know anything about Ellie's mom?"

  "Well, I know if you decide to date her, my overall feeling about you might reach new levels."

  Frank grabbed Shaun and spun him by the shoulders to stare down at him. "Really, Shaun? You know, maybe when you're older you might realize I didn't plan for life to turn out like this. Making plans to move here was something that was meant to make our lives all easier. It's why I took this job and left the service. I'm sorry I wasn't here when your mom got sick. I was called back to active duty, and I was working on soldiers wounded in war. It wasn't like they could release me to come home right away. They had to replace people. The doctors I spoke with told me she would make it through the chemo just fine. What do you want me to say that I haven't already?"

  Shaun fought back tears thinking of his mother and pushed his dads hand off his shoulders. "That's the problem, dad! It's been nine years ... what exactly do you think you can do? You don't get it do you? There aren't do-overs in epic parenting failures! You can fall in love again, you can get married.... What in the hell do you think I can do? Do you think she'll be my fill-in mommy? You can't rewind time, Francis! When things are broke, what do you think repeating the same old apologies can do? I know you got called back to the Army, I get it, but try being in my shoes and explaining to a four-year-old who can barely spell 'chemo' let alone deal with his mother having to go through it by herself. She was like a walking corpse with her hair falling out, puking all the time! She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat ... she just laid around crying, waiting for her next session and the taxi to come get us and take us down to the hospital. For years when I slept that's all I've been haunted with. What's the fix for that, Francis!?" He turned and marched off through the car park.

  Frank was getting pissed off all over again. He had every intention of being back before the final days of chemo, thinking that there would be plenty of time to take care of his career and his sick wife. He thought that when you're young you always have one more day available. It's the reason his twenties flew by.

  He started walking quicker, yelling, "Shaun, you wait for me! God damn it, boy! Stop, I said!" He grabbed Shaun by the shoulder spinning him around to face him again and almost spun him off his feet. "Shaun, don't call me Francis! I'm dad, got it? You know that I'd never try to replace your mother. It's not possible. But you can't think that the two of us in that empty house can be healthy. It isn't easy for me either but you need more than just me in your life!"

  Shaun broke free, wiping a single tear, and dodged Frank's next attempt at grabbing him. Shaun got his temper from his dad and screamed in a rage at him. "The house wouldn't be empty if you were ever home! I wouldn't be by myself all the time if you weren't always in that stupid lab! I wouldn't be by myself if you were there for me! I don't need you to marry some new woman so that you can pawn me off on her, damn it! Don't think that our annual father-son trips where you teach me to kill things with guns and then gut them are something that is going to make up for the other fifty-one weeks a year I'm by myself! He wiped his face with his sleeve and ran for the doors pushing through them and out into the school commons grounds.

  Frank rubbed his hands through his hair and shook his head. He looked up at the ceiling. "Do you see what you left me with? Jesus, this would be easier with you here, Marie! Two thick headed people in the same house without a mediator is dangerous!" He smudged away a tear of his own and slowly followed after his son.

  ****

  Ellie and her mother were walking towards Karen's green sedan. Unsure how to say it, she just told her the truth. "Ellie, I think you should know ... men can be assholes. They think with what's in their pants, and most of the time it doesn't make the greatest choices."

  Ellie looked at her mom completely confused. "Ew! Mom! Are you talking about Shaun? He's just a friend! Sure, he's cute but--"

  Karen started laughing. "No! No, not Shaun...! I was saying this won't be the only time you have boys harassing you. Unfortunately, a girl who's going to turn into a knockout is going to have more than one boy hitting on her."

  "Those boys weren't hitting on me! They were just being stupid! I don't even know if they knew what they were talking about!"

  "Well, those boys either didn't know any better or were never taught how to talk to a young woman in the first place. There's nothing wrong with Shaun. I didn't mean anything at all about him. Although ... what do you know about his dad, honey?"

  Ellie rolled her eyes. "Mom, seriously!? There's sixteen thousand people in this town! Is there a reason that you need to hit on my friend's dad? Yes, I know about him, he's some sort of scientist. He used to be a doctor or something in the Army but left to work at E&T. He is single, he is a widower or whatever you call it, his wife passed away like years ago when Shaun was only four or five?"

  Karen thought about it and smiled. She was thinking about Frank--doctor, ex-Army, good looking. She'd have to make sure she took him up on that coffee. They got in the car and started the short drive home.

  "You know I could walk home, mom. I'm sure you need to get back to work."

  Karen shook her head. "Let's just get you home for the night. I just need to run back and finish up a couple things at the office and then I'll be home later. Is that okay with you?"

  "Do I have a choice?"

  Karen gave a noncommittal look. "We'll try and do some mother-daughter stuff this weekend. Maybe we could go get a pedicure and lunch. How does that sound?"

  Ellie smiled holding out her rainbow painted fingers. "Um, like a deal!" She looked out the window as they exited the parking lot and saw Shaun halfway across the grounds running hard. She bent her neck back around further towards the school doors and saw Shaun's dad walking slowly and defeated. She pulled out her cell phone and texted Shaun: "If you need to talk, shoot me a text later xoxox."

  ****

  Later that evening as Frank was wrapping up his experiments, he looked around and saw how empty everything looked. After thinking about Shaun all night he barely was able to get anything productive done. He was really feeling alone at that moment and felt even worse about Shaun being by himself at home. What was he thinking about his father? He put some notes away and backed up his research for the day, locked everything, and stuffed his wallet and keys into his pocket. He felt a slip of paper in there and immediately thought about Karen. He knew he should get home, but at the same time was thinking there are only so many opportunities in life. He knew, after Marie, you shouldn't waste one day without being with the girl you love. Not that he was in love with Karen, but there was no point being alone...

  He used his computer to search the employee directory for Randall and then narrowed it down to Karen. She was located in the middle of the building towards the entran
ce. He was on his way out anyway and thought he might as well take a gamble. If she wanted to hit a café on the way home, he'd be happy to treat her, and it would be harder for her to decline if he asked in person.

  He hadn't dated regularly in years and this was out of his comfort zone. He found what looked like a empty accounting department except for the tap, tap, tap of different keys sounding like they were being hit with machine gun rapidity. As he poked his head around the corner, Karen stopped typing abruptly and screamed.

  This was not the reaction Frank was shooting for. His eyes grew wide, and he held his palms open. "I'm sorry! So sorry! I just--I just ... coffee! Yes, coffee! That's why I'm here! To drink or offer to go get some!"

  Her chest was rising and falling, definitely accenting the lines of her breasts under her cream colored silk blouse. Her suit coat was hanging on a coat hanger by a filing cabinet. She took a few heavy deep breaths before speaking. "Yes ... coffee is good. Hell, you scared me! You were like a ninja, Dr. Fox!"

  He smiled, doing a very cheesy impersonation of what he thought a ninja move would be. "I am so sorry. And remember, it's Frank." She nodded. "Let me save my work and get a few things put away, and we can maybe go to a coffee shop--my treat."

  He shook his head. "I just scared you half to death, so it's on me. I'll even buy you a cookie if you play your cards right! You take your time.... I'll go wait in the lobby. I'm in no rush."

  As soon as he rounded the corner she quickly shoved everything in a frantic mess into her desk. She hit the lights while sliding on her suit coat and ran with effort to the bathroom where she made sure her hair was in place. She pulled out some essentials and did a quick update on her makeup, putting on fresh lipstick and mascara. She sent a text to Ellie telling her not to wait up as she was probably going to be out for just a little while. She checked her ensemble one more time and headed down to the lobby to meet Frank.

  She tapped him on the shoulder, surprised that he didn't have his nose buried in a cell phone. He looked up at her with that gorgeous smile. "Ready to get that coffee, Karen?"

  She nodded, and they headed to the front entrance. Passing the night security guard, they walked out to the parking lot.

  "How about you ride with me," Frank suggested. "No reason for us to both drive right?"

  She agreed and he opened the truck door for her, waited for her to get situated, and shut the door.

  He trotted back to the driver's side, got in, and turned the key. The radio came on blazing over the speakers. For the second time tonight Frank had scared the ever-loving hell out of her. She jumped, and he fumbled for the power button to the radio, having scared the crap out of himself as well. She laughed at being so jumpy tonight. "Rocking out on the way here, Frank?" she managed when he finally switched it off.

  He smiled. "Oh, you know it! Shaun and I didn't see eye to eye back at the school and I lost myself in music for the drive back. I don't want to bore you with it.... So, how long have you worked at E&T? Have you lived in Adel for a while?"

  "I've been in accounting for the last six years. I got my degree to be a CPA and have been thankful for such a good job ever since I graduated the night course program. We've been in Adel forever ... my dad lived here, and his dad before him."

  "Did you work right out of high school then?" Frank asked as he drove down to Main Street where the coffee shop was located.

  She looked curiously at him. "Okay, Mr. Twenty Questions, but after this you're all mine, and do I have questions for you! No, I didn't work right out of high school. I became a young mother by having Ellie at the age of nineteen, and then after she was two, I went back and got my high school diploma so I wouldn't have a dead end job. It took me twice as long as it should have due to working part time and taking care of Ellie. When I was able to graduate I did so with honors."

  "Well ... that kind of makes you Mom of the Decade."

  "No, Frank, that makes me done answering your questions!" she finished with a smile.

  Frank held up his hands. "Well, I'm just a little terrified now!"

  He pulled into a parking spot and went into the shop. Karen and Frank each ordered Frappuccino before they found a quiet booth to wait for the barista to call their numbers. After they were served, Karen lifted the coffee up to her mouth to give it a test, but judged that it would burn her and put it back down. She stirred it slowly with the little plastic spoon. "So, walk me through how someone becomes a biochemist at E&T."

  Frank looked at his coffee for a long moment and then back up at her and told her the story of how he joined the Army after getting his bachelor's degree. With his science background, he started in paratrooper school. After his application was accepted to train as a biochemist in the Army, he enjoyed the next step of his life. He explained how he'd fallen in love, married Shaun's mother, became a reservist, and, just as he was to start this job in Adel, he got called back to duty. He'd been taken back to work for a few years in the Army's special bio team. He explained how he had received orders at the most inopportune time. His wife was dealing with chemo and his son was too young to take care of her, while he and a team of nine other scientists had all been working endlessly day and night, miles away from Iowa.

  Chapter 2

  Day -3164: September 30th, 2008. World Population 6,696,637,725

  A much younger Dr. Fox punched the keypad to enter an airtight, heavily secured lab room. He passed two rows of four young Marines wearing Kevlar vests, gas masks, and holding firmly onto gleaming black assault rifles. If anything went wrong here or anyone tried to get in, he felt he was in good hands. He saluted them and much like the guards of the British Royal Army, they did not even acknowledge his existence.

  When Dr. Fox looked around his laboratory, anyone who walked in here could tell he and the other eight doctors had been hard at it for days. They all had one goal and they all wanted to be the first to say they had solved the problem at hand.

  The soldiers of the Iraqi Army were using illegal chemical warfare. The Iraqi government, it would seem, felt that the rifles, tanks, planes and the hundred other ways they had of killing and maiming someone was not good enough. The number of casualties the chemical weapons were causing were catastrophic. It was incurable, currently, with no hope. Morphine and a quick death was all that could be promised to soldiers who had inhaled the gas. The chemical suits the Army had weren't able to keep the dangerous substance out of their lungs. It was the most painful way a soldier could die.

  They were trying to cure the effects of the gases which would eat tissue and muscle from the inside. Dr. Fox was the only one who wasn't worried about a Nobel peace prize or the Medal of Honor. He was solely doing it for the soldiers. He had an added incentive that if he could get the preventive cure to work, he could go home, but he was in it for the long haul if need be. He couldn't be there for his wife or young son, but he couldn't possibly be so selfish that he could allow thousands upon thousands of soldiers to die for his own peace of mind.

  The team of scientists put together had been hand-selected from the brightest, most talented team that the military had to choose from. The research was to design a vapor drug that would act as a rejuvenation drug. A drug to reproduce cells and tissue while counter-acting all of the horrid side effects. Taking care of the toxins was very important. Once inhaled, without a cure, the men were dead in a short time. The vaccine also had to keep the soldiers in fighting shape. If they were lying around fighting the effects, they'd be shot when found.

  A well-educated eastern toned voice shouted, "Dr. Fox! I think we made a breakthrough last night! Take a look at this sample and tell me what you think. We're finally close, we just have a few issues to work out. I think your vitamin supplement you infused with the strands was the key!" Dr. Christopher was clearly excited.

  Dr. Michaels came up and patted Frank on the shoulder and shook his hand enthusiastically. "It's true! Look at the blood samples where you infused your vitamins with the other part we came up with."

&
nbsp; He pointed to a chart with a graph showing how well it had worked. He showed how the two fused together the 74th strand, the latest attempt at getting it to work. Mixing the vitamin with the X-74 vapor could be the breakthrough they had been fighting so hard for. The doctors all patted each other on the back, smiling because they had made a marvelous discovery.

  They were already scheduling test subjects--the white furry kind. They made a massive first batch to distribute if everything worked out. Frank made the final notes in his personal medical journal and the next week was going to be the longest of his young life.

  A telecom message came into the research lab. It advised Dr. Fox to come to the Major of Science office. Dr. Fox promptly reported to the Major's office and saluted.

  The Major looked up, motioned for him to come in, and snapped back a quick salute. "Please have a seat, Dr. Fox. We need to talk."

  Frank got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Is something wrong, sir? Did something happen?"

  The Major motioned again with tired eyes for him to sit he said. "You are what happened ... you and the other scientists potentially came up with a way to finally fight the deadliest ground chemical agent we have ever had to deal with. The results look promising if we can keep the initial dose from slowing down the heart. They should be able to perfect it in a few weeks when they finish things."

  Frank stared. "Sir, what exactly do you mean, 'they'll finish things'? I've been here even while my wife is fighting for her life! The reason I agreed to stay was for the long term goal of saving lives, and maybe we could introduce this to the civilian sector medicine to try and save lives of sick individuals! I wouldn't be here without my wife's blessing, and now you tell me I'm off the team!?"