The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  It was all Ellen needed to see.

  Robbie walked in, then Frank. The Slagel brothers stood, a family together. They were three in a row, so tall, a wall of strength. Ellen knew their abundance of size, power, and presence wasn’t all they were standing together to deliver. They stood together to deliver an abundance of bad news.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  December 21st

  Pain.

  How many more hits, losses, and strikes against him could he take? It was a hard community decision to swallow, but instead of a morning cup of coffee, Frank eased it down with a hard shot of moonshine.

  He never saw it coming, never expected it. Everything inside of Frank truly believed that Beginnings, a community Ellen founded, healed, and cared for, would never, in a million years, vote to make her leave.

  They did.

  Frank would have bet his life on it. He was in no way mentally prepared for the outcome nor was he physically prepared either. His eyes glanced to the calendar that hung in the Communications Center. He looked at it for two reasons.

  One, the date. December twenty-eighth. That would be the day Ellen left and she wouldn’t return for at least a month.

  The second reason, Frank supposed, was to smile.

  The ‘Dazzling Danny Day Deal’ always brought a smile to Frank’s face. It was a calendar courtesy of Danny Hoi. Everyone who wanted one got one and every calendar was complete with different Danny poses each month. Some were the action hero and some the suave model-type.

  Danny was one of a kind. His originality was never outdone and he always came up with technology that Beginnings never thought of bringing back.

  There was a lot of brightness in Beginnings that in Frank’s mind, would have been dark had it not been for Danny.

  But even with Danny persistence, arguing, and sweet talking, nothing made the Ellen situation bright.

  With one more sip if his moonshine tainted coffee, Frank knew he had things to do. One week wasn’t much time at all to plan his leaving as well. He knew somewhere Hal had found a place for Ellen and Danny hooked it up. Robbie and Elliott would do the security bit and Dan from Security would be an essential aid.

  There were many things that had to be written out and reported. Frank understood with the budding Savages and still loose SUTs, he was leaving at a bad time but he couldn’t let Ellen leave alone. He never had any intention of it. He protected her well outside of the walls once and he would do it again. In his mind, the task couldn’t be done by anyone else.

  Listening to the buzz of the Communications door, Frank flipped on the monitoring switch to the panel then turned his chair as Lenny walked in.

  “Any luck?” Lenny asked.

  “Nah.” Frank stood up. “George wasn’t there and neither was that transvestite. I’ll try back in a bit.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  Frank nodded with a smile, “Thanks and thanks for not telling anyone about this.”

  “I have a kid, too, Frank. I would do the same thing. It’s not wrong. You’re just being a father and checking up.”

  With another sad thanks, Frank left Communications.

  ^^^^

  “And, yet another . . .” Ellen said sadly walking with Joe. Her hand gripped tightly to his arm in their side by side slow walk from the school house.

  “I know it bothers you,” Joe told her.

  “Yeah, but not for the reasons everyone thinks.”

  “I know what reason,” he explained. “You aren’t mad.”

  “Not at all. I understand their decision. I understand what they are saying. Joe, I took a life. No, I took two. Contrary to what everyone believes, I do feel guilty. I will never purge this guilt ever in my life but if I pay some sort of dues, some sort of punishment, I can at least relinquish some of the guilt. Does that make sense?”

  “Very much so.”

  “Yet, they still won’t look at me,” Ellen sighed out.

  “It’s their guilt, Ellen.”

  “I know. Hey, at least I know there’s twenty-seven people in the community that will glance my way. Maybe my posting will help?”

  “Posting?” Joe asked.

  “Yes. On the ‘Joe Board.’ I knew this would happen, so last night I put up a huge note.”

  “What does it say?”

  “Something simple.” Ellen stopped walking. “It says, ‘It’s OK.”

  Joe smiled. “I hope it works.”

  “I do too.” She began their stroll again.

  “You know you don’t have to walk me. I’m not an invalid.”

  “I know. It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. Aside from you being the strongest and best looking man in Beginnings . . . I need to rely on you a little for some of that strength.”

  Joe leaned down to her and kissed the top of her head. “I wish there was something I could do.”

  “You are.”

  “I can tell you something?”

  “What’s that?” Ellen faced him.

  “This is gonna make you stronger. I think . . . I think a month sounds like a long time, but really it isn’t. You’ll make good use of this time. My only concern is the Savages that aren’t that far and we still don’t know what George is up to.”

  “It’s winter. No one is up to anything right now,” Ellen said. “Right? I mean, if history proves right, we’re safe from the Society until spring.”

  “You have a point. Things die in the winter in this world now.”

  Ellen winked. “Not me. I do plan on making the most of my time. I am going to write the next great book here in Beginnings.”

  “Oh, brother.” Joe smiled. “You’re gonna finalize it as a Slagel thing aren’t you? Hal has his Beginnings Times columns, Robbie his erotic adventures, and Frank’s ‘The SUT and the Word Fuck’ children’s book, and you will write . . .”

  Ellen was silent.

  “Ellen, you’re supposed to finish that sentence. What are you writing the book about?”

  “Um. I really don’t know. Danny wants an exposé.”

  “An expose on who?”

  Ellen shrugged.

  “You aren’t planning on writing an expose on me, are you?”

  “You did have the Casanova life.”

  “Christ.” Joe started to walk again. He spotted the clinic. “I guess this is where we part.”

  “Yeah,” Ellen exhaled. “Promise me no running around today.”

  “I’ll just be strolling.” Joe assured.

  “Joe. How are you? Really?”

  “Really?” Joe tilted his head. “Tired, Ellen. I know Dean did that laser surgery on the tumors, but I somehow feel like when he opened me up, he opened a Pandora’s box. Does that make sense?”

  “It’s worry,” Ellen spoke softly. “You’ll feel this way until after you’re first treatment.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right.”

  “I know I’m right,” Ellen said with certainty. “I’m very confident and I need you to be also.”

  “If you are . . .” Joe lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “I am.”

  “I love you, Joe.” Ellen kissed him on the cheek. “Just know, if you didn’t have to get these treatments, which you need, so don’t use this as an excuse.” She waved a finger in front of him. “If you didn’t have to, I would want you to be with me out there. I would seriously ask you to go.”

  “If I didn’t have this health situation, I seriously would go.”

  Looking Joe dead in the eye, Ellen smiled with an exhale. “See you later. Be good.”

  “Me?” Joe smiled. “You’re the mad scientist.” He took in another flash of a grin she gave him, one he knew was masking all that she felt and he kept strolling, slow and steady, until he made it to the ‘Joe’ Park.

  The park with the winding walking path was empty. Joe expected that. The work day was just underway and the park never had anyone until lunch. He made a mental note to contact Mechanics to toss some ash on the pathway. Though not comple
tely snow covered, the temperature was dropping and the last thing Joe needed was someone to fall on a slick path during a lunch time stroll. Of course, if the people of Beginnings were at all anywhere near normal, Joe supposed no one would even be at risk of slipping on that path because no one of a near-normal mind would even consider taking long walks around a winding path in a pseudo-park no bigger than an average living room.

  Planning on sitting on the wall for a moment to take one of Dean’s instructed sitting breaks, Joe hesitated. It caught his eye. Ellen wasn’t joking when she said she left a big note on the community board. Big was an understatement. The note was huge and the words ‘It’s OK’ blared in deep red ink. However the message somehow didn’t blare to Joe. No matter how big and how eye catching it was, in Joe’s heart and mind, the message erred. It wouldn’t be OK. It would never be OK, not to him. Not when his daughter, in such a short period of time, at the worst time of year, was having to leave the sanctity of her home walls.

  ^^^^

  There was an abundance of information laid out almost too perfectly and in order across the counter of the clinic lab.

  Ellen picked up a set of neatly stapled sheets and checked out the times and charts of what was titled a feeding schedule.

  “Oh, you’re here,” Dean said surprised as he walked into the lab.

  “Dean?” Ellen set down the chart. “What is all this?”

  “Preparation.” He walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek.

  “For?”

  “Things have to be settled with the lab stuff, meds, research, and everything before . . .”

  “I get it.” Ellen held up her hand.

  “So you’re OK with this?” Dean asked.

  “Preparing?” Ellen nodded. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “I thought you’d be upset.”

  “Dean, please. It would be highly irresponsible if an alternative means were not derived.”

  “I’m so glad you are thinking that way. I thought for sure you’d argue.” Dean smiled.

  “Nah.”

  “Good, because I was working on a plan for the kids. I was thinking of just telling Frank to stay.”

  “He does anyhow.”

  “True,” Dean said, “but as far as help for him, Andrea is right next door.”

  “What about you?” Ellen asked.

  “El?” Dean chuckled. “I’ll be with you.”

  “Dean . . .”

  “Why else would I be doing all this?” His hand motioned out toward the papers.

  Ellen opened her mouth to argue, but then she closed it with a smile. She didn’t want to deal with it, not at all, and she had time before she relayed to Dean the impossibility of him leaving. The community and kids relied too heavily on him. Dean was reasonable. Ellen knew he would see that, but hitting him with an argument in the wake of the reality of her leaving would only breed a hostile reaction.

  “El?” Dean spoke her name with question as she paced from the counter. “What is it?”

  “Oh, nothing.” she wisped out. “ I just have a lot on . . .” Ellen paused by his desk.

  “What?”

  “Dean?” She lifted a sheet of paper. “Twenty-seven bushels of carrots?”

  “Uh . . .” Dean cringed. “Yeah. That’s unofficial.” Dean took the sheet. “Hector’s been keeping count.”

  “Twenty-seven bushels of carrots in how long?”

  “The past few days.”

  “Twenty-seven bush . . .”

  “El, I know,” Dean stopped her, “amongst other reported obscurities.”

  “When are you gonna do another level check?” Ellen questioned.

  “I did one this morning. It looks steady now. No more changes. But the mutation . . .”

  “Is still there?”

  “And probably will never leave.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  “He’s mutated.”

  “Thank God it’s not physical,” Ellen commented.

  ‘Yet.”

  “Yet?’

  “Maybe not.”

  “Maybe?’

  “I don’t think.” Dean lifted his hand. “No, I’m positive. I think the physical changes won’t be anatomical. They’ll be characteristic.”

  “Do you think Subject Two has a clue?”

  “Not a single one,” Dean stated. “But . . . I can’t . . . I can’t hold back. I have to tell him. I have to. Not just for him but for me. There’s a lot I can learn.”

  “And a lot you have to test.”

  “Eating habits. Physical changes. Behavioral . . . El?”

  “Hmm?” Ellen peered through the data.

  “Has, um Subject Two demonstrated any weird, I don’t know, sexual impulses toward you?”

  The paper dropped from Ellen’s hand at the same time her mouth dropped open.

  “I’m curious as to . . .”

  “No!” she snapped.

  “I was just wondering.”

  Ellen picked the data back up, and with an ornery smile, peered at Dean. “But it could be interesting if he would.”

  Dean grumbled.

  ^^^^

  “I spy.” Danny Hoi swiveled a little back and forth in the chair in Communications. He held Robbie’s inner bionic arm, touched it with a small probe which made the fingers clench. His entire bionic arm set up was across the counter. Not only did Danny have to be there for a meeting, but Danny preferred to take a shift in Communications to work on the arm. There were limited interruptions.

  “That is amazing,” Hal stated as he watched.

  “No, the grip is amazing. Watch.” Danny laid the arm on the counter next to a laptop. He fixed the wires that came from the port. “Now, this connection is a simulated neurotransmitter from the microchip in Robbie’s brain.”

  “So you have a pseudo-chip in that laptop?” Hal asked.

  “Yes. Now . . . let me . . . here.” Danny reached into his tool box and pulled out a wrench. “I can get Lou to fix it again.” He laid the wrench in the palm of the bionic arm.

  With an odd smile, Hal watched.

  Danny typed into the laptop. “The words are basic. The chip will be more complex to work on reaction and thought as if Robbie is thinking about making the movement on his own.”

  “I know that.”

  “OK.” Danny typed. “Grip.”

  The fingers clenched fast and with a slight ‘squeal’, the wrench began to bend.

  “Holy shit!” Hal almost rose from his chair.

  “Pretty cool huh?” Danny freed the wrench and took a hold of the arm. “Of course at first, how tight the grip is will have to be a conscious thing. If it isn’t . . . well, look at the wrench.”

  “What exactly are we waiting for? Why can’t my brother have that arm?”

  “Dean has to finish the skin sleeve,” Danny explained, “and the chip has to be perfect. It isn’t yet. Plus, there are a ton of other movements this arm has to be able to make naturally. I don’t want it to feel like a prosthetic. I mean we’re putting sensors in here. Robbie will know hot from cold, so why wouldn’t the motions he makes be as natural as his real limb? It has to jab in a punch and lift. The grip is good. Also, the wrist isn’t mobile enough yet.” Danny grinned. “Robbie specifically told me he wants good wrist action.”

  “Dear God, after seeing that grip and knowing it has to be controlled consciously, the thought of ‘good’ wrist action would frighten me.”

  “Or inspire you.”

  Hal chuckled in amusement but cut it short when the buzzer for the door rang.

  “Speaking of wrist action.” Danny pointed to Robbie who walked in with Jess.

  No more needed to be said or explained. Robbie flashed that ornery grin, waved high then brought down his hand in a motion for Jess to go on in first. “We can’t be too long,” he explained. “El’s at Containment. She’ll start asking if he doesn’t emerge from their bathroom.”

  “It won’t take long at all.” Hal shook his head as he watched Jess
take a seat. “You know what to do, right?”

  “Yes.” Jess sat down.

  “You know what to say?” Hal asked.

  “Cut it short. No info. This is just to touch base.”

  “Exactly.” Hal laid a hand on Jess’s back and brought the phone forward. “The Society needs to hear from you. Just do a check in.”

  It was a ‘ness’ feast. Frank’s voice was unexpected, abrasive, and loud. The ‘ness’ of all those made everyone freeze when he shouted. “What?”

  After the initial shock, Hal looked calm. “Oh, Frank.”

  “What the fuck, Hal!” Frank blasted in the open doorway. “Tell me I didn’t hear correctly.”

  “It depends. What did you hear?” Hal asked

  “That you plan on having him call the Society.”

  With a single tilt of his head, Hal gave a closed mouth nod. “Then you heard correctly.”

  Frank’s head bobbed a few times in a nod of knowing silence. Then with his head lifted, he tossed out a cocky smile. “I’m telling.” With a turn he walked out.

  Silence.

  All eyes were on the door.

  Robbie’s mouth opened and closed and he pointed at the door, looked at Hal, and then pointed and shrugged.

  “Telling?” Curiously, Danny rose from his seat. “Did he just say he’s telling?”

  “I believe so, yes,” Hal responded.

  “Telling Dad?” Robbie asked.

  Hal rolled his eyes.

  Jess stood up. “Look, Hal, the last thing I wanted to do is get you in trouble.”

  “People,” Hal scoffed a laugh. “Consider the source. Really. What is he going to do? Run to my father, tattletale, and have my father blast in here all so he can say childishly, ‘You’re in trouble. You’re in trouble’? I don’t think so.”

  “You’re in trouble,” Frank whispered in his pass behind Hal.

  “Hal!” Joe blasted. “Are you listening?”

  “I’m sorry. No, I had a pest of an insect buzzing by my ear,” Hal said as he sat in the chair. “Continue.”