The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series

by Jacqueline Druga

  Dean moved into the next examining room. Jason was standing over the man whom Robbie found at the front gate. He was attaching the tube from the medication into a shunt in the man’s arm. “What do we have Jason?” Dean walked closer to the table.

  “See for yourself.” Jason handed Dean the chart. “It came attached to him when Robbie found him.”

  “What is this with the patients being dropped off at the gate like we’re some kind of emergency room?” Dean began to read the handwritten note. “Five days ago the patient returned home with a two inch laceration. The cut exhibited signs of infection. All attempts to control the infection with natural remedies has failed. The patient’s body temperature continues to rise and he has now become lethargic and unresponsive at times.” Dean set down the chart. “Did you clean it?”

  “Yep. Everything is finished. I gave him a complete look over for you. The orders just need signed.”

  “Thanks.” Dean walked to the other side of the table and pulled out his pen as he reviewed the chart. “Jason, I have a ton of blood work to catch up in the lab. Can you do me a favor?”

  “Sure.”

  “Andrea is busy with Robbie. Can you run over to Henry’s and check on Ellen? I think that's where she is.”

  “I can do that. Should I check for weakness, headache, staring, numbness, and such?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll get back to you.” Jason looked once more at the new patient. “He looks like he’s waking.” Jason walked out.

  Dean grabbed his pen light, raised it to the eyes of the man, and shined it across the eyelids.

  The man groaned. “The woman. The woman. How is the woman?”

  “What woman?” Dean asked but did not receive an answer. He proceeded to return to the chart and the paper work that needed signed.

  ^^^^

  “You’re supposed to be at Henry’s.” Jason said as he stepped into Joe’s house. “Are we playing musical homes, Ellen?”

  “No.” Ellen walked into the living room. “I’m helping Joe babysit.”

  Jason looked to Joe who sat on the couch,. “Is she helping.”

  “Nope,” Joe answered. “How’s my son?”

  “Good. Dean just finished stitching him. The new guy just has a bad infection. We should be able to control it.”

  “Which new guy?” Ellen asked.

  Joe answered. “The one that was dropped off at the front gate with a note asking for our help.”

  “Oh my God! Proof.” Ellen hurried as best as she could to the door. “The cavalry.”

  “Ellen . . .” Joe stood up but Ellen was gone. “She shouldn’t be doing that, should she?”

  Jason shook his head. “I think she’ll be fine. She may find herself in a bad episode of the F-Troop but otherwise she’s fine.”

  Joe plopped back down on the couch. “The F-Troop.” He snickered. “Hey that was funny.”

  ^^^^

  Nashville Tennessee

  George sat behind an old desk, rubbing his eyes as he spoke on the phone. “All of them?” He asked Jeremy.

  “Just about sir. When they went into the next phase of the DNA enhancement of the embryos, they lost the whole batch.”

  “Damn it!” George huffed angrily. “I want to move this along. We need to move this along.”

  “The other scientist are trying to compensate.”

  “I realize this but they can’t compensate for the loss of the four that were in the genetics field.”

  “Perhaps they weren’t as good as you thought they were. Their own creation killed them.”

  George snarled and his top lip curled as he mocked Jeremy. “Perhaps they weren’t as good.” George huffed loudly. “I’ll know when I get to Alabama tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll give me news. What’s their latest report?”

  “They sent out the troops to Arizona as expected and . . . still no change.”

  “O.K., I’ll check back in a few hours.” George disconnected the call and his fingers stayed on the phone. He paused for a moment then began to dial a number he called often... a Beginnings number. “Hey, it’s me.” George smiled. “Good. I’m good. And you . . . . I’m glad. Just wanted to check on you and let you know I’m thinking about you. Well yeah . . .” George leaned back. “Getting there. I’ll know more tomorrow. Of course I’ll let you know. I’m gonna get going, I’ll call you tomorrow. Be careful . . . Thanks.” With the smile still remaining, George ended his call.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  Grateful to Henry for driving her to the clinic, Ellen, not wanting to get in any trouble with Dean, sneaked passed the lab, and walked slowly to the patient rooms. Even though the distance was not that far, Ellen’s body didn’t want to move. She did feel better today, but not yet herself.

  “Found him,” Henry whispered and pointed into a room.

  Ellen stood by the nurse’s desk. “I have his chart.” She held it up and walked to Henry. “You should go fix our tracking now, Henry. We don’t want to get attacked.”

  “I’ll come back for you. How long?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll just walk home really slow.”

  “I’ll check back.” Henry kissed her on the cheek. “Wish me luck.”

  “Good luck fixing the tracking.”

  “No, not that. I need luck working with Danny. He wants everyone to call him Neville.”

  “He can’t be a Neville nominee. He’s Asian.”

  “That’s what I told him.” Henry tossed up his hands. “But he said heroism has no racial boundaries then he lied and said something about the original Neville was Bruce Lee and it was switched at the last second before shooting.”

  Ellen smiled. “Danny’s cute. O.K., I’m going to check on this guy. If he’s one, he may know about Frank.”

  Henry opened his mouth to say something, but he didn’t. He figured if Ellen kept her spirits up by hoping Frank was alive, then who was he to dampen them. He just smiled and walked away. He was in a good mood and confident they could fix the tracker with limited problems. To ensure he didn’t have any bad luck, Henry ran as quickly as he could from the clinic the moment he saw Bev walk in.

  Ellen recognized the man as soon as she walked in the room. “Hey,” she called to him softly. “Are you awake?”

  His eyes opened some and he watched Ellen come into a blurry focus.

  Ellen leaned closer to him. “I know you aren’t well. Remember me?”

  “The woman.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m glad . . .” he spoke weakly, “I’m glad you’re fine.” He closed his eyes again.

  Ellen looked at his vital signs monitor and to his bandaged arm. She checked his IV which wasn’t placed in as well as she knew she could do it. Following the tubing up, Ellen tilted her head in wonder. She read the label. ‘Kenyan-2'. She then looked at his body temperature. “Level two?” she questioned out loud and then opened the chart on the bed. “Dean?” She said his name to herself and moved to the bandaged arm. Slowly she lifted the adhesive and then the bandage to examine the wound. Her eyes went from the chart, to the wound, to the IV, and finally to his temperature. “This isn’t right.”

  Quietly, with her hands behind her back, Bev sneaked into the lab. She stood there watching Dean move about then settle into one place at the counter. With an ornery grin on her face, she moved closer to him and to his back. She bit her bottom lip and inched her way to Dean. Softly she laid her hands on the side of his thighs and pressed her chest to his back as she ran her hands up his legs to his chest.

  Dean smiled and let out a breath of relief. It felt good to have Ellen touch him. He turned around and his eyes widened to see Bev. “What . . .”

  “Hi Dean.” Bev smiled, laid her hands on his face, moved right against him, and kissed him.

  It wasn’t a situation Dean wanted. Reacting quickly, he grabbed her hands and pushed them away at the same time he pulled from the kiss. “What would . . . Shit!” He moved Bev aside and raced ac
ross the lab when he saw Ellen standing at the medicine cooler. “El.”

  “You made a mistake.”

  “No see . . .”

  Ellen’s shutting the cooler and grabbing an IV bottle shut Dean up. She moved across the lab, ignoring the gloating look Bev gave her. She picked up a empty requisition from Dean’s stack, stuck it in a phlebotomy tray, and carried the medicine and the tray from the lab.

  Dean started to follow, stopped and ran back in his lab, pointing at Bev. “Get out of my lab before I kill you.” He banged his hand on the archway and took off after Ellen. “El, wait.” When Dean caught up to her, she was walking into the new man’s room.

  Ellen smiled as Melissa left. “Thanks.” She checked the oxygen Melissa set up on the man and adjusted the back of the bed up more.

  “What are you doing?” Dean asked as he walked in.

  “Fixing a crucial error you made.”

  “What are you talking about? What’s the problem?” Dean asked as he watched Ellen remove the intravenous and switch bottles. “What are you giving him?”

  “A higher strength dose of Kenyan.”

  Dean noticed the level of it. “He has an infection. That’s too strong.”

  “No Doctor, he has chronic tetanus. Did you not fully examine this man?” She slammed the chart into Dean’s chest.

  “First of all I . . .”

  “You disappoint me,” Ellen spoke with edge.

  “I what?” Dean ran his hand down his face.

  Ellen attached the new medication then reached into her phlebotomy tray. “I promised this man’s people that if they needed medical treatment or care they would get the best from us. And he will, even if I have to give it to him. I can not believe you missed this.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You did. The extremely high temperature,” Ellen said as placed the tourniquet on his arm, “and the slight twitching of the sternocleidomastoid are consistent with early slow phases of lockjaw. His left hand twitches. You didn’t notice? His wound has failed to heal,” Ellen placed a needle in the man’s arm. “Yet the chart states he was injured five days ago.” She filled up the tube and after removing it, filled another. “His mind is clear. He’s just sleepy, not lethargic. He remembered me.” She removed the needle and tossed it in the bin. “Tetanus.” She handed Dean the tubes. “I started a heavier antibiotic. Test those for tetanus and his resistance to the tetanus antitoxin we have. You’ll see I’m right then maybe you can give him a muscle relaxer so the man doesn’t asphyxiate when his neck muscles try choke him to death.” Ellen grabbed the tray and left a bewildered Dean.

  “Ellen.” Dean ran from the room after her. “Stop.” He grabbed her arm. “First of all, I don’t make mistakes like that.”

  “Like that. No.” Ellen started walking again.

  “Look El, I need to talk to you about what you saw when you walked in the lab.”

  “I’d really rather not talk about what I saw. I don’t care what I saw.” Ellen pulled away. She spoke calmly. “I ignored what Alex told me about Bev coming to the house and her being your special friend.”

  “Ellen.”

  “Let me finish, O.K.? I can’t get mad at you about being with Bev. That’s your right but I can get mad at you about you blowing off that guy.”

  “I didn’t blow him off.” Dean got angry. “The level of Kenyan that was given him would have been sufficient enough to subdue the tetanus until I ran tests on the blood taken. Thank you very much.”

  “Oh really. What blood work was taken?”

  “The blood . .” Dean opened the chart. “Ellen, I didn’t examine him. I would have noticed we didn’t have blood work. I’m backed up. You aren’t around.”

  “So it’s my fault.”

  “No. I’m just defending myself as a doctor here.”

  “You signed the orders.” Ellen stepped back and pointed to Dean’s signature. “I’m assuming you examined him.” Ellen walked away.

  “No!” Dean shouted at her. “This has nothing to do with this patient does it? You’re pissed off at what you saw, so instead of talking to me about it, you bash my ability as a doctor. Don’t walk away. Ellen.” Dean chased her. “I’m talking to you. This is bullshit. O.K.?”

  “No, it’s not O.K. Dean. It’s not. I don’t want to be angry with you. I just want to say screw it.”

  “Screw it. Explain screw it.”

  “Screw you. Screw us. Screw everything.”

  Dean started to laugh. He couldn’t help it. “This is stupid. You saw . . .”

  “I saw her touch you. I saw you two kissing, did I not?” Ellen started to walk again.

  “You saw her kissing me. Big difference. She’s starting trouble, Ellen. Don’t give this one to her. And . . .” Dean tossed his hands up following her once more. “I’ll say it again. This is stupid. For some ridiculous reason, she’s decided to chase after me.”

  “Well guess what, Dean. She can have you.” Ellen opened the doors of the clinic and left.

  Dean kept up with her. “Don’t you think that might be a problem considering I don’t want her. I want you.”

  Ellen stopped walking and faced him. “I don’t care.”

  “You don’t care?” Dean shook his head.

  “No. See, it’s hard to find someone that really cares. It’s like, if you only have apples to eat, then you eat apples but as soon as something else comes along, you have a choice. I was your only option for awhile. Dean, you have a choice. Actually, no,” Ellen shook her head, “you don’t because I’m not in the choice category anymore.”

  “I can not believe you are getting upset with me because Bev is hitting on me. I’m the innocent here. You should know I would never do that to you.”

  “No I don’t. There is only one man who would never do that to me.”

  “Yeah I know. Frank,” Dean spoke with edge. “Well if it was hard to compete with him before, I guess I’m gonna have one hell of a time now, aren’t I?”

  “We’re finished with this conversation.” Ellen walked backwards, spun, and moved on.

  “El.” Dean grunted, cutting his hand in the air in anger. “Damn it.” He bit his bottom lip. He turned to go back to the clinic, further away than he thought. He was totally disgusted but confident he would straighten out the mess. Ellen was going through a hard time, Dean kept tell himself over and over. He stopped walking and closed his eyes, holding back any words when he saw Bev walk by him.

  Bev smiled, slowing down near him. “Mark my words, Dean,” she whispered. “You’ll come to me. Mark my words. A man can’t go that long.” She moved on.

  What was her angle? What was her game? Dean had to wonder and he would work on it, especially since later that evening they would be discussing Bev as a suspect. The thought of that made Dean smile.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Bowman, North Dakota

  “Thirty maybe.” The man who just arrived back from Beginnings told Hal in his office. “The three of us handled it until the Beginnings men came out shooting.”

  “I see.” Hal rubbed his chin. “Did you speak at all to the Beginnings people.”

  “No, sir, I rode off as instructed and I wasn’t in uniform, under your orders for safety reasons, so they haven’t a clue.”

  “Good. I want to keep it that way at least until we make our approach to them.” Hal looked to Sgt. Ryder who was also in the room. “What do you think?”

  “I think that’s an awful lot of savages and they aren’t as dumb as we thought since their tracking was hit with a spear. They obviously they knew to take it out,” Sgt. Ryder said.

  “I agree.” Hal turned back to the man. “That will be all. Excellent job today.”

  “Thank you sir.” He stood up, saluted, and then left.

  “Elliott.” Hal sat down at his desk. “Thirty?”

  “Thirty they think.”

  “Something is not right. They randomly strike. They don’t plot. Spearing the tracking is plotting.”

>   “They obviously know it’s there,” Sgt. Ryder commented.

  “I think you and I ought to sit down and discuss the possibility of a community of them somewhere, not just packs here and there.”

  “You mean sit down to just discuss or sit down with the intention of finding them?” Sgt. Ryder asked.

  “Finding them.”

  Sgt. Ryder let out a long whistle. “Can you image if we do? Can you imagine if there is a community?”

  Hal chuckled a little, but not in fun. “Could be scarier than a community of the society soldiers.”

  “You know it. The society take prisoners. The wild cats just kill you and eat you.” Sgt. Ryder raised his eyebrows up. “So do we really want to send scouts out looking for them?”

  Hal drew up a serious look. “If there’s that many out there, we have to.”

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  There were two things in Robbie’s house that could have gotten Dean’s attention when he walked in, Joe sitting with Ellen at the dining room table, looking perplexed, or the smell of warm corn flour baking. The later of the two was what got Dean when he arrived that evening for the meeting. “Whoa. What smells so good?” He sniffed and walked into the dining room. He waved to Joe, smiled at Henry, and took a chance by leaning down to kiss Ellen. She moved her head. “Still fighting with me?”

  Ellen didn’t answer.

  But . . . Henry did, with a loud, excited. “Yes!”

  Dean shifted his eyes to Henry and sat down. “What are we talking about?”

  “The cavalry,” Joe answered then faced Ellen again. “Sweetheart, I asked the new man. He hadn’t a clue what I was talking about.”

  “He’s sick, Joe.”

  Dean interjected and he shouldn’t have “I thought you said his mind is clear, El.”