The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “You knew?” Joe looked at his son. “You knew?”

  Franks’ lips moved, his hands went up, and his head bobbed from side to side. He then glared at Dean “You’re dead.”

  “Bite me.” Dean sat back down.

  “Blow me.”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Boys!” Joe yelled out. “Knock it off. Now . . . before we continue on with trying to figure out what the hell we’re supposed to do about this . . .”

  “Nothing,” Ellen said. “Absolutely nothing. It’s science, Joe. It’s our work and our lab.”

  “Ellen, it’s desecration and you three have crossed the line.” Joe pointed. “Danny, get Henry on the radio. Tell him I need him down here.”

  “Sure thing.” Danny grabbed the radio.

  “Now, as I was saying. Before we go any further, is there anyone else involved that I should know about?”

  Frank, Ellen, and Dean just looked at each other and it wasn’t a split second later that they heard whistling. They all turned to look when the cryo-lab door opened.

  Jenny Matoose stopped whistling a happy tune the second she stepped in. With her mouth still puckered, her eyes shifted about. “I think I came at a bad time.” She turned to make a hurried escape.

  “Hold it,” Joe called out. “Why are you down here?’

  “Me?” Jenny laughed nervously. “Are you talking to me?”

  Joe had a mocking sarcastic tone. “Yes, I’m talking to you. Why are you down here?”

  “I’m nosey,” Jenny answered.

  “You’re being nosey?” Joe asked. “Your husband is clinging to life up above and you decided to come down to the lab to be nosey?”

  “Um, yes. I’m always nosey down here, especially this time of day.” Jenny looked at Ellen. “Isn’t that right?”

  Ellen, seated next to Dean with her hands folded, only raised her eyes to Jenny. “He knows.”

  “He knows what?” Jenny asked.

  “He knows,” Ellen reiterated.

  “I know,” Joe said.

  Jenny hurried and looked at Dean. “Dean?”

  “Oh, boy does he know,” Dean nodded.

  Frank held up his hand. “Hold it. Are we talking about the same thing, because I don’t want to be lost or . . . ow!” Frank grabbed the back of his head after the loud smack rang out. “Dad! You hit me.”

  “Yeah, Frank, I did. You asshole. What the hell did they do to you out there? You’re worse now than you ever were.”

  “What?”

  Joe grumbled.

  Dean shook his head in a pacifying manner to Joe. “The head injury was bad. He’s still recovering.”

  “It’s no excuse for stupidity,” Joe stated.

  “Medically speaking, Joe, it actually is,” Dean said. “See, the portion of the brain has …”

  “Dean,” Joe snapped. “Shut up.” He turned. “Jenny, how long did you know?”

  “Know what?” Jenny played dumb.

  A long, deep growl came from Joe. “Jenny! How long did you know! From the beginning?”

  “Um . . . yes.”

  Ellen looked up to her and whispered. “Grab a seat. We’re about to be chastised.”

  “Ellen,” Joe called her. “You don’t get it, do you? You don’t understand how demented this is. Now, this isn’t the leader of this community talking. It’s your father and a grandfather.”

  “But Joe . . .” Ellen shook her head.

  “Don’t but Joe me. All right. Wait a second.” Joe held up his hand and looked to Jenny. “Why do you know?”

  “Caroline is in there,” Jenny answered.

  “Oh my God! Caroline’s in there too?”

  Jenny looked at Ellen. “I guess he didn’t know that one.”

  “It’s starting to make sense to me.” Joe took a second to calm down and then stared at the four before him. “I . . . I understand the loss that you four suffered. To lose a child is . . . it is the most terrible loss. But we move on. As hard as it is, we have to. We can’t hold on. We can’t keep our dead . . .”

  Frank’s fingers snapped loudly as he released an ‘oh’ and turned to Ellen. “Speaking of the dead, what did you think about what I told you, El?”

  “About?”

  “About my brother Jimmy’s ghost yelling at me.”

  “You really saw him?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Wow.”

  “Can you believe that?” Frank said amazed.

  “And he really yelled at you?” Ellen asked.

  “Fuckin rambled on and on and on too.”

  “Why?” Ellen asked. “You would think if his ghost appeared, he would rather talk than yell. Are you sure you just didn’t misunderstand . . .”

  “Hold it!” Joe screamed out. “Beside the fact that you Frank have careened way off the goddamn subject . . .”

  “Not really.” Frank held up a finger.

  “Shut up. What the hell are you talking about? Are you saying you saw your brother Jimmy’s ghost?”

  “Yes, in my office today.”

  “Oh brother. “ Joe growled out and looked at Dean. “You’d better check his head.”

  “What!” Frank defended. “You don’t believe me?”

  “No,” Joe answered.

  “I saw him.”

  “Jesus Christ, Frank, you didn’t see your brother’s ghost!”

  “Yes I did and he was bitching because we don’t talk about him.”

  “Well then he’s gonna have to bitch some more, because we’re moving off the Jimmy subject.”

  “Then you deal with him.”

  “I will.”

  “See, you believe me now.”

  “Frank!” Joe was about as near a stroke as he could get. “Enough! Dean!”

  “What did I do?” Dean jumped.

  “Check him the hell out before I put him back on full perimeter watch.” Joe let out a breath. “Please.”

  “Joe,” Dean snickered. “Honestly, he’s fine to do his job. Instincts drive Frank, not brains. God knows if Frank was intellectually driven to protect this community, we’d all be dead.”

  “Be that as it may,” Joe said, “check him out. Do a full brain scan or something.”

  Dean nodded.

  Buzz. The cryo-lab door opened and Henry walked in. “Hey, Joe. You called for me?”

  “Yes,” Joe stated in relief. “Yes I did. We have a problem.”

  “Oh my God, we certainly do!” Henry barked out and moved across the lab to the hybrid in a jar. “What is this, Dean?” He spun around. “What are you doing to animals?”

  Dean was at a loss for words. “It has to do with a series of genetic experiments Ellen and I are working on. We’re getting there.”

  “This is sick.” Henry pointed. “Is this why you called me, Joe? Is Dean being the mad scientist again?”

  “Yes, Henry, he is,” Joe explained. “But it’s not about the hybrids. It’s worse.”

  “Worse?” Henry questioned.

  “Worse.” Joe had to take a second to put it into words. “It appears . . . it appears that Dean, Ellen, Frank, and Jenny have Brian and Caroline’s bodies frozen in the freezer case we’ve been so protective over.”

  “Well, Joe.” Henry acted very calm. “They are their children. They really can do with them what they want.”

  “What!” Joe blasted.

  “There you have it.” Ellen stood up. “Let’s go. I have patients to check on and things to get ready for my trip to Bowman.”

  “Hold on, Missy Jane.” Joe kept his eyes on Henry. “Hybrids offend you but dead babies in a freezer case don’t.”

  “Oh, Joe,” Henry cringed. “Have some tact.”

  “Tact! Tact?! You tell me to have tact when they have Brian and Caroline in a freezer case?”

  Henry held up his hands. “Calm down Joe. They aren’t dead. They’re only . . . only . . .”

  “Only what?” Joe stepped to him. “And how d
o you know what they are when you just found out?”

  Henry hunched. “Because I knew from the beginning?”

  “Oh Jesus Christ.”

  “May I?” Dean slid from his stool. “At first, O.K., I understood your being upset about this. But, Joe, this is my laband my experiments. I can conduct them as I see fit for the better of this community.”

  “Lab experiments?” Joe questioned “Dean, this is your son.”

  “My son,” Frank corrected.

  “Frank’s son,” Dean pointed.

  “Yeah, Dad,” Frank said. “You’re thinking of that one time frame that you knew about when you were there but forgot about when we changed it. That was the time frame that Brian was Dean’s son, not this time frame.”

  Very calmly Joe faced Frank. “Thank you for clarifying that.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Joe looked at Dean. “Why are you experimenting on Brian?”

  “I’m not experimenting on him, Joe. I’m . . . I love him. He was a big part of my life and I have every intention of watching him walk, talk, and grow up. I promised Ellen. I promised her she would never lose another child and she won’t.”

  “But Dean, he died,” Joe told him.

  “No, Joe he didn’t. He’s not dead in that case. He’s cryogenically frozen, he and Caroline both. They are in suspended animation.”

  “Did you bring him back to life?”

  “No, he never died.” Dean took a long breath. “How did you find out he died?”

  “When I came to in the morning, you told me.”

  Dean shook his head. “In our time frame.” He held his hand in a motioning manner to Frank, Ellen, Jenny, and Henry. “He died in his crib and you walked in one minute later.”

  Joe’s eyes widened. “In your time frame?” He looked behind him to a silent Danny. “You know who to call.”

  Danny gave a thumbs up.

  “You . . . you went back in time to change it?” Joe asked. “You stole the time machine?”

  Ellen stood back up. “Joe, Frank was bad. Dean was bad. I couldn’t handle it. Jenny, Jenny couldn’t handle it. We failed to beat something we knew was coming. I had failed to save my own son.”

  “What in God’s name made you come up with turning back time?”

  Ellen looked to the faces in the room and they recalled the exact conversation . . .

  “It’s still no consolation!” Dean emotionally slammed his fist into the counter of the lab. He turned and faced Frank and Ellen. “I can’t take it. I just can’t.”

  Ellen was at loss for words to help Dean’s guilt, his quietness, and his complete feeling of failure. “I want him to be alive too, Dean. I wish to God we could have realized it sooner.”

  “Stupid.” Dean closed his eyes tightly. “How did I miss something so obvious? What I wouldn’t give to go back and tell myself to check the mice.”

  “Dean.” Frank’s voice spoke up softly. “Did you hear what you just said?”

  Dean raised his eyes. “No, Frank. No.”

  “Yes.” Frank stepped closer to him. “We can.”

  “We can’t.” Dean argued. “What happened, happened.”

  “And five miles from here, in an isolated sector of Beginnings, is a way to change what happened.” Frank spoke intensely. “Dean. I want Brian alive. We’ve done it before and we can do it again.”

  Joe shook his head. “Did any of you even realize though, how selfish a choice that was? Six other children died that night.”

  Henry interjected. “We knew Joe and we had every intention of changing that as well.”

  “What?” Joe seemed shock.

  “We had it all planned,” Dean said. “We went to Henry because he would know how to work the time machine. We were going to tell me, my past me, about the mice. That’s it. We figured past me could come up with the antiserum earlier and then give it to Brian and the others that died. Frank, Ellen, and I would go through the time machine. I would go to myself and they would go to whoever else needed to know, probably Henry. Our intentions were to stop the losses.”

  “What happened?” Joe asked.

  Dean nodded to Henry.

  Henry answered. “Jason had rigged the time machine to stop just what we were going to do, take the machine to make time as we wanted it. Instead of being able to pick a day, date, and time, we had to calculate hours to go back.”

  “We calculated wrong,” Ellen said. “Or at least that’s what we think. There could have been something with the time machine as well. But when we got there, we arrived at five in the morning on August 19th. At that point Dean had already discovered the anti-serum. It had been given out and the children had already died, all except Brian and Caroline.”

  “So you took them,” Joe said.

  “We took them,” Dean answered. “We didn’t have any anti-serum with us. Besides, we knew that Brian and Caroline did not react to it anyway, so we brought them back but only after we told past me, Ellen, Frank, and Jenny. It was the only way, Joe. They’re still alive.”

  Slowly Joe began to pace, his hand running over his mouth. “What do you plan on doing with them?”

  “Keeping them frozen for a while,” Dean replied. “We have to. I remembered we had those animal cryo-cases and they worked in our favor. Right now, they are building strength back up and El and I are working on a stronger anti-dote. But even if we come up with it, we have to still wait at least six months until they are strong enough to release them.”

  “So you see, Joe.” Ellen had an innocent tone. “We tried, but we failed. We don’t want to fail this time. It’s not all that bad what we’re doing. And, you know, it’s really throwing whoever is working for George through a loop. They think the embryos are in that case.”

  Joe gave an agreeing look then looked up when the cryo-lab door opened once more bringing in Jason Godrichson. “Jason.”

  “Hey Joe. Ellen, your patients are waiting up there, all two of them.”

  Ellen rolled her eyes at Jason’s sarcasm.

  “Jason,” Joe spoke. “There is something you need to be aware of.”

  “What’s that, Joe?” Jason asked.

  “These . . . these five used your time machine. They took it and used it. They broke into your lab, went back and changed time because of Brian and Caroline’s death. I thought you’d want to handle it.”

  Jason slowly nodded, placing his hands in his lab coat. He looked at the faces in the room and then back to Joe. “Remember one time I told you I may be guilty of a lot of things in Beginnings, but helping George was not one of them?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, this is one of the things I’m guilty of. I helped them go back in time and I was there when Dean, Frank, and Ellen came through with Brian and Caroline.”

  Joe said nothing. He just walked to the door.

  “Joe,” Henry called out. “Where are you going?”

  “Before I get even more pissed off, before another person walks through this door that knows about this little cover up . . . I’m going back to work.” Joe opened the door and left.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Ellen hesitated turning on the coffee pot that evening when a loud bang from the living room vibrated the floor beneath her feet in the kitchen. “Frank!” she screamed out in warning then turned on the coffee pot. Another bang made Ellen spin and race into the living room. Alexandra and Joey sat on the floor. Billy was on the couch. “Where’s Frank?”

  Six year old Billy peered up from his book and pointed.

  As Ellen turned to look behind her, Frank, who had his back tight against the wall, grabbed her.

  “Frank!”

  “Oh no.” Frank did a commentating voice. “She’s struggling to get free from the champ.”

  Alexandra and Joey laughed.

  “Frank, knock it off.” Ellen kicked her legs as he braced her around the waist.

  “Going for the pin.” Frank kicked out her legs, brought Ellen down to the floor, and got on to
p of her. “I need help! She won’t stay down!” Frank moved Ellen’s leg up and down mocking a kick. “Help.”

  Alexandra and Joey took that as their sign to dive right in and they jumped directly on top of Frank’s back.

  Ellen grunted from the extra weight. “Frank, let me up.”

  “El, I can’t. They got me.” Frank smiled. He wasn’t in the usual wrestling pin position, He was in more of what he would call a ‘missionary pin position’. He tilted his head and brought his lips closer.

  Ellen snickered. “What are you doing?”

  “Kiss me.”

  “No.”

  “El.”

  “No.” Ellen laughed and moved away from his searching lips.

  “Dean’s not here. One kiss. A little one. Come on.” Frank tried again.

  “Frank . . . get off.”

  “El, please. Not right now.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “There are little children in the room.” Upon Frank’s words, the front door opened and Dean stepped in. Frank looked up. “And speaking of little.”

  Dean looked down to Frank and Ellen on the floor. “Swell.” He shut the door.

  Rolling her eyes to see an upside-down Dean above her, Ellen reached up her hand, “Dean. Help.”

  “Frank, get off my wife.”

  “She’s not your wife. You cheated.”

  “Whatever.” Dean grabbed Ellen’s hand. “Billy, has he been like this all night?”

  Billy turned a page in his book. “This is the first time he’s tried to molest your wife.”

  With a ‘huh’, Frank scratched his head and lifted off of Ellen. “Dean, you need to tell him he’s a kid. I bet any money you were the exact same way.”

  “I was.”

  Ellen rolled to her knees, stood up, and took Dean’s hand. “I saved you dinner.”

  “Thanks.” Dean kissed Ellen on the cheek, ignored Frank’s ‘uh!’, and walked to the kitchen with her. “You made coffee too.” Dean walked to the stove and peeked at the plate. “This looks good.”

  “Frank cooked.”

  “Frank cooked?” Dean poked his finger in the gravy and tasted it. “Frank can be of some use.”

  “How’s John Matoose?” Ellen asked.

  “We got the bleeder. Hopefully, we won’t run into anymore unexpected surgeries with him.”