Too Young to Die

by Michael Anderle

  “Justin woke up. Sir? Did you hear me? Your son is waking up.”

  Tad had no recollection of moving but he suddenly realized he was taking the stairs three at a time to get out of the senate chamber. His aide was hot on his heels and called for a car to the airport. Senator Snelling jumped out of the way and pressed other colleagues back as he flashed Tad a thumbs-up.

  “Thanks!” he called over his shoulder and only barely missed the door as he barreled out of the room. He blazed past a group of protesters with signs too quickly to know if they were supporting him or wishing for his violent death and skidded onto the steps outside. The car was already pulling up and he had to resist the urge to throw himself head-first down the stairs.

  Remember, Tad, that won’t actually be faster. He ran, wishing he was in better shape, wasn’t wearing a damned suit, and that he was already back in California.

  His son was waking up.

  Justin was aware of the light first as a wash of red. He hadn’t noticed any time passing since he stepped through the door. In fact, he’d forgotten about the door entirely. A little concerned, he squeezed his eyes shut and noticed that they ached.

  Experimentally, he flexed his fingers.

  That hurt too. His eyes opened again and he shut them again hastily when the light stabbed through him like a spear.

  “Ow.”

  Talking also hurt. Good Lord, was anything working? His throat felt like it had been hollowed out with sandpaper.

  “He’s talking!” an unknown voice said. A sudden hush followed—he hadn’t realized until that moment that he could hear low-voiced conversation—and the sound of footsteps grew louder.

  Justin opened his eyes again slowly. At first, there was only brightness but he gradually saw shapes resolve. White…and a triangle. A dark triangle. He squinted and allowed his eyes to open a little wider. What was he looking at?

  The inside of someone’s nose, he realized. He sighed.

  Two more faces swam into view—or, rather, two very blurry shapes that he was very sure he recognized.

  “Mom? Dad?”

  “We’re here.” His father’s voice sounded choked and his mother gave a little sob. “Apparently, you’re not supposed to try to sit up on your own for a while.”

  He immediately and completely wanted nothing more than to sit. Unfortunately, he only managed to raise one shoulder off the bed before he fell again, trembling.

  “And that,” said a male voice, “is why I recommended that you didn’t tell him not to.” A hand pressed on his shoulder. “You’ll be able to sit up soon, Justin. Right now, your muscles are still waking up.”

  “Uh-huh.” He regretted the words as soon as he said them. His throat still felt terrible.

  Justin realized he must have grimaced because the doctor continued quickly. “You’ve just had your feeding tube removed. Your throat will feel very sore for a while. On the plus side, the time spent in your coma has allowed several bones to heal fully.”

  “Goody,” he managed to respond. He looked at his parents. “You’re…both here.”

  “Your mother has hardly left,” his father said.

  “And your father has flown here more times than most people will get on a plane in their life,” his mother said fondly. Her voice trembled as she said, “It’s good to see you again.”

  “Yes.” He felt the bed shift. “What’s…”

  “They’re sitting you up,” she said. “Just–”

  Exhaustion claimed him, and he laid his head back and drifted into unconsciousness for a while.

  When he woke again, voices held a conversation nearby. With a start, he recognized Tina’s—and, in an even bigger surprise, she was speaking to his mother. It wasn’t even a fight. Justin listened, bemused, as they discussed a book they had both read. It was only a few minutes, however, before his father said,

  “I believe he’s awake again.”

  Warily, he opened one eye but was able to focus better this time. He stretched one set of fingers and his father squeezed his hand gently.

  “Hi,” Justin said.

  “Hello.” His father nodded at him. He clearly hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and wore what looked like borrowed sweats.

  “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too,” Tad agreed. “I look forward to having you home.”

  “Until you move out and get a job, anyway,” Mary said. She was teasing, but there was a moment of worry in her eyes.

  Justin understood now, though. He had seen the way she fought for him.

  He was also not above teasing her in return. “Oh, don’t worry. I have it all planned. Just gimme some knives and I’ll hitchhike around and do exorcisms.”

  Tina appeared behind his parents. She was smiling. “Can I come along?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “After all, I need someone to come in on a zip line and eliminate assassins.”

  “I have to watch those videos,” his father muttered. He looked at the edge of the room, then back. “When you’re feeling better, you can meet the care team—those who made the game and the…pod. They’re off sorting through applications. Tons of people want their family members to have the treatment you had.”

  “And you know, if you need a job,” a voice called, “we could really use a spokesperson.”

  “Who wuzzat?” Justin asked muzzily.

  “That was Nick, dear,” his mother said. She patted his hand. “Don’t worry, you’ll meet them all soon enough. Focus on staying awake for now.” She stood.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  His mother looked embarrassed for a moment before she shrugged. “I have an appointment. Didn’t Zaara ever mention who her new magic tutor was?” She strolled away and he stared incredulously after her while his father laughed hysterically.

  Creator Notes - Michael Anderle

  June 7, 2020

  What happens when you get another chance to be someone you always wanted to be? That is a question I want to answer in what I personally call the PIVOT Chronicles (these sets of stories.)

  Each book is three books in one. Eventually, we will probably break them apart.

  I am fascinated with where we are going with technology, and what we can accomplish today and into the future. The challenge, I realize, is when technology engages with vested interests that want to maintain the status quo.

  I too often see (here in the United States) where technology could grant opportunities to upset the status quo (and it often does) until you run up against well-funded competitors who can use the courts or public opinion to keep things as they are.

  For example, with medical costs.

  When I created this concept, I wanted to build a set of stories in which what is outside of the main protagonist is affecting the story as much as what is going on inside with the protagonist.

  Here in book one, we see that PIVOT labs originally tried to create the ultimate game machine. Except, the team that wanted to make these immersive game machines ultimately are horrible with building a business.

  Specifically, building a product their target market can afford.

  If you don’t follow the game console industry, trust me when I say even a $100.00 purchase price difference (paid one time) can make or break the leadership role with game machines for the home.

  Imagine a game machine that costs $800.00 a day to operate?

  Typically, technologies that upset the status quo are “10x” better. (10x is a term that started with the Mythical man month and mutated in time to a philosophy about making changes that result in something being 10x better.)

  My thinking is that $800 in a PIVOT module to keep someone alive and working with their mind than in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU) that is between 5 and 7 times more expensive than the first PIVOT effort.

  I did the research, and the daily costs for ICU could be as high as about $10,000 a day, down to $3,000 a day.

  Now, someone with $150,000 worth of coverage (45 da
ys at $5,000 a day) could have almost 200 days at $800.00 a day.

  Now, what if they can actually heal someone while using PIVOT Labs’ product?

  In any story, you have to have a challenge (the status quo) and the “bad guys” (the medical industry that pays to keep the status quo) and the heroes to fight the system.

  In this story, it’s not just the one in the machine, but everyone outside as well. We don’t lack heroes or villains, and frankly, most of them might mean well, but there is a life in the balance.

  Who is responsible for those decisions?

  If you know much about my other stories, I typically write about larger-than-life enemies or obvious challenges.

  In the PIVOT books (there are three in production at the moment), we build on this technology and mix our challenges. We won’t be able to overcome every challenge, but the human spirit will decide their own future in the end.

  Because not every hero needs to save others. Sometimes they save themselves, and in the process, heal and bring joy to those they love.

  Diary Entry Saturday, June 6, 2020 to Friday, June 12, 2020

  Las Vegas is slowly opening from the Covid shutdown.

  It is interesting what is going on here in Las Vegas as the city slowly opens back up (I live on the Strip, so I don’t know what is going on downtown.) I have been to the Venetian / Palazzo Hotels/Casinos on Thursday night and to Gold Coast on Friday night.

  Specifically, I wanted the chicken wrap with spicy sauce in the Grand Lux and Chinese food at Ping Pang Pong in Gold Coast.

  It was delicious.

  While I did gamble on Thursday night, it just wasn’t the same as I remember back before the Pandemic shut all doors. Back then, everything was either a party, the late-night party, or the people leaving the party and more flying in to start that next night’s party.

  Now, I’m waiting to see if the folks from California drive here or what happens if they don’t. Only a few hotels are open at the moment, and even the restaurants inside the open hotels are occasionally not open for business (or if open, they don’t have the same operating hours as before.)

  It’s really weird.

  But I’m thankful it IS happening.

  I was talking w/ fellow author Craig Martelle driving to breakfast Wednesday, and I happened to be driving next to the airport and saw one jet land while another was taking off. I then looked around the runways and noticed about five jets lining up, waiting to take off.

  My jaw almost dropped.

  I hadn’t seen jets (more than one) on the tarmac in over two months. The airport had become almost like a ghost town. I remember one night last year counting seven jets lining up, their landing lights trailing off into the sky to land, and recently I couldn’t see seven jets at all unless you count a few parked somewhere.

  Covid-19 has hurt the planet in so many ways. From the obvious of lives taken early to families’ savings wiped out, to pesticides and machinery not able to get to locations for the swarm of billions of locusts rampaging across east Africa and India.

  If I had put all of this into a story, I think more than one reader might have told me I had placed too many challenges in the mix, and they thought ‘C’mon! Epidemics, swarms, floods, and famine? Get real, Michael!’

  Real life has hit us all.

  And yet, humans fight back. We fight back for all of the right reasons. Sometimes it’s amongst ourselves, sometimes against the insect population and sometimes against contagions.

  I know that a couple of planes crossing a lonely tarmac in Las Vegas isn’t the same kind of sign as a beautiful flower amongst a destroyed landscape, but for me personally, it was a small sign that we as a world are getting back on our feet.

  May you find your own flower as we rise up out of a completely horrible first half of 2020.

  Ad Aeternitatem,

  Michael Anderle

  Steel Dragon

  If you enjoyed this book, you may also enjoy Steel Dragon, from Michael Anderle and Kevin McLaughlin. The book is available now from Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.

  Dragons rule the world. Their claws are into every aspect of human life, from government to industry. But Kristen Hall is about to throw a wrench into all of that.

  Because she’s a dragon, too. She just doesn’t know it…yet!

  A dragon raised by humans, in the human world.

  After graduating from the police academy, she’s dropped right into the ranks of Detroit’s elite SWAT team. A rookie, in SWAT? Unheard of. But what the dragons want, they get.

  The reasons behind their machinations become clear as her dragon powers begin to surface.

  Will Kristen rise to the challenges her new life delivers? What designs do the dragons have for her future? And perhaps most pressing of all — how did she come to be a dragon with human parents?

  Get your copy today!

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