A New Order

by Jacqueline Druga

  “I get it, kiddo, I wish the same thing. Just know, we’ll be around all the time. Checking in on you until you’re able to come out.”

  “Be like opening the fridge,” Frank said. “Looking to see what’s inside.”

  “At least.” Ellen looked behind her. “When everyone is better, this place is done. So we did our job. We stopped this from taking everyone.”

  “And I …” Dean said. “Will stop this from keep you from us.”

  Roy’s call out that it was ‘time’ was internally jolting to them. It wasn’t truly real until that moment.

  Jason left to join Lars and Catherine in the cryogenics portion of the lab.

  Clayborn, Mark, Ellen and Danny were placed in full hazmat suits and then decontaminated.

  Even though Roy was confident they were not contagious, the hallways of the clinic were cleared as well as the streets of Beginnings as they were escorted from the clinic, across the main square to the cryo tunnels.

  It didn’t stop people from watching, waving. In their own way, saying goodbye.

  This was it for Joe, he was putting away another part of his life. It made him tremendously sad but he couldn’t show it. He had to be positive, even though his gut was telling him they were a long, long time away from curing the virus.

  All of them looked ill. Mark looked the worst, not a single one wasn’t pale and on top of their sickness strewn faces was worry.

  They looked scared and worried.

  Joe didn’t blame them.

  He gave them the choice of whether or not they wanted to go into stasis. What it boiled down to was live in cryo stasis for an unknown length of time or die in Beginnings in a few days.

  They chose life.

  The door to the secondary lab was open. Joe recalled the first time he saw that lab. The table with equipment, the long wall of glass with the fifty-three frozen scientists. The suits were still there, the extension wires from the ceiling.

  They’d be sedated, then placed in the suits, suspended in the cryo portion, then when the room was sealed, they’d be placed in a frozen stasis.

  Joe wasn’t sure about the actual technical aspects of it, cut and dry layman's terms were enough.

  They’re vitals would be slow. Almost non existent. There they would stay indefinitely until a cure was found. Safe and frozen as long as the solar generator was still standing.

  Joe didn’t go in. He gave them all one last look individually as they went into the cryo room, then Joe stepped into the hall.

  He couldn’t watch.

  He wasn’t even sure if he’d even go back to the lab and check on them. It would be too hard.

  “Hey,” Frank said softly as he joined his father in the hall.

  “Not staying in there?” Joe asked.

  “I don’t want to see. I really don’t.”

  “Me either.”

  “Man, Beginnings without Ellen and Danny. No talking to El, none of her antics. No Danny rambling. Fucking sucks.”

  “Yeah, it does.”

  Dean stepped into the hall. “We talking about how bad this is?”

  Joe, hands in pockets nodded.

  “I’m going to do everything I can,” Dean said.

  Frank reached out and placed his hand on Dean’s shoulder. “I know that. We all know that.”

  “It won’t be the same thing as with Brian. Well, in our time. In this time,” Dean said. “We didn’t put him in there.”

  “You know, Dean, you know what not to do now,” Joe said. “It was tragic what happened with Brian, but we can take something from that.”

  Dean nodded sadly. “Just tell me you guys believe we’re doing the right thing.”

  “Dean,” Joe said. “We doing the only thing we can.” His head lifted when Lars, without the biohazard hood, stepped into the hall. “They’re under. It’s done. For the time being, it’s going to be a Beginnings without them.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  They were the ‘Goldie Locks and the Three Bears’ pictorial of drinkers. Frank, Henry and Dean sat behind Frank’s office around a small fire that they had built. Frank had a fifth of whiskey, Henry drank from a pint, and Dean sipped out of a tiny little bottle.

  “This sucks.” Frank took a drink. “And who the hell’s idea was it to lock up the booze on non-drinking nights. When is there a non drinking night in Beginnings?”

  “Used to be Sundays,” Henry replied. “That changed somewhere, but in this multiverse, the locking up of booze. All you.”

  “I suck in this time frame,” Frank said.

  “No.” Dean shook his head. “I suck in this time frame.”

  “True.” Frank took another sip. “Now, Ellen is gone. Not dead. But not here. We could look at her whenever we want.”

  Henry shook his head. “It’s kind of weird, you know. She’s all gray.”

  Dean looked at Henry. “Did you see?”

  Henry nodded. “I don’t think I want to go back. She looks dead. Danny looks dead. Mark’s eyes are partially open, it’s like the one astronaut in Planet of the Apes who was taken and stuffed in a museum.”

  Frank cringed. “Ah, man, I don’t want to see that but you know my eyes will go directly to Mark every time.”

  “Time.” Dean tossed a stone into the fire. “Time is what did this. Time travel took this all from us. Robbie, Ellen.”

  “I can’t use my hand because of time travel,” Henry said.

  “Frank did that,” Dean said.

  “Technically Dean,” Frank argued. “Time travel did. I wouldn’t have had to break his fucking fingers if he wasn’t frozen from the eraser when I told the truth about him being Oliver’s dad.”

  Dean laughed. “That’s an obscure way to take blame away from yourself.”

  “When I became leader once and for all,” Frank said. “I’m outlawing time travel. Taking every working time machine and putting it somewhere never to be found again. So some asshole, can’t just whip it out like this …” Frank reached into his bag and pulled out the HG Wells. “And say, hey I think I’ll change this.”

  “Frank!” Henry shouted. “You took the HG Wells?”

  “Yeah, fucking Lars just left it laying there. No one even noticed. See what I mean?”

  “Why?” Dean asked.

  “Thinking.”

  Henry shook his head. “No. Every time we try to make something right, we make it wrong.”

  “And,” Dean added. “Is our time wrong or this time?”

  “This.” Frank said. “This is wrong.”

  “Are you saying that because I’m married to Ellen?” Dean asked.

  “No. Fuck, Dean, I don’t care. I mean I do. But we’re way beyond that shit now.”

  “I care that I don’t have Hector,” Henry said. “I mean we fight, but he’s the one solid thing in my life.”

  “And Nick,” Frank said.

  “Well….”

  “Henry, what the fuck, that’s your kid.”

  “I would be lying if I said these past couple days weren’t easier.”

  “Oh my God,” Frank said. “Well I love Nick. I love him to death. And Dean, no offense, I love your dad and your brother is cool, but I love Joey. Joey is not a part of this time line. Joline is. I mean, I guess I can start to like her, maybe if I teach her professional wrestling. Better yet, a skill. Man, gotta teach that girl a skill. You can be dumb and pretty. Or smart and unattractive, but you can’t be dumb and un …”

  “Frank!” Dean snapped. “That’s so not right.”

  “You haven’t met her Dean. Wait.”

  “That’s because you aren’t used to her,” Dean said. “you weren’t used to Joey either. I hear what you’re saying, Frank. I can’t … I can’t lose my father again. And I have a brother. A brother. Even if it is Henry’s kid.”

  “I am so glad I didn’t have to raise him,” Henry said. “He seems like a handful.”

  “They aren’t ours to keep,” Frank argued and took another drink. “We brought them
back. We’re the original time line. Not them.”

  “You’re drunk, Frank,” Dean said.

  “No. I’m not. We’re forgetting one other very important thing Beginnings is gonna have a hard time without.”

  “What’s that?” Dean asked.

  “Danny Hoi. Danny gives us life,” Frank said. “We need him in the great war.”

  “We’ll have him,” Dean said. “I’ll cure the virus.”

  “What if you can’t?” Frank asked. “Then they’re there forever when none of this would have happened if it was one day earlier. One day. You fucking heard Catherine. If we had the antibiotics one day earlier, they would be fine.”

  “We don’t know that,” Dean said.

  “No, we don’t. But what would we do if we had a choice?” Frank asked. “What would we do if we knew that one day would make a difference? If we had a choice on what to do.”

  “What are you saying, Frank?” Henry asked.

  “I’m saying.” Frank held up the HG Wells. “Let’s give us that choice.”

  <><><><>

  “You woke me to tell me this?” William asked.

  “Just … just in case it works,” Dean said. “I won’t see you.”

  “I won’t know.”

  “But I will. Please know that I love you.”

  “You know …whether or not this works, Frank is right, this is a multiverse, you’ll be drunk Dean tomorrow.” William rested back in his reclining chair and closed his eyes. After a beat, he opened one. “I love you, too, Dino.”

  Dean’s conversation with his father, stayed with him on his mind the entire trip to the Bowman Air Field. He wondered if they were doing the right thing by trying to make things right or at least, give their pre-Vegas selves information that was needed.

  They parked the truck a mile from the little airport, set the HG Wells and went back.

  It didn’t seem different and there was question in Dean’s mind if they even traveled back. Until they arrived at the Air field and saw the field house.

  “There I am,” Frank pointed to his past self standing outside smoking a cigarette. “Man, am I putting on weight.”

  “Yes.” Both Henry and Dean answered.

  “Fuck, Henry, you have room to talk. You weigh a ton. That’s why I dropped you.” Frank said.

  “Please, Frank, I’m very svelte.”

  Dean laughed.

  “What?” Henry asked.

  “Shh.” Frank told them. “Remember the plan. No mentioning specifics. No saying to Henry not to sleep with Dean’s mom. No telling me to double check the eraser.”

  “Um …” Dean said. “Yeah, let’s tell pre-Vegas you that.”

  “You sure?” Frank asked.

  Dean nodded. “I think Beginnings has enough doctors.”

  “Duly noted.”

  “I agree,” Henry said. “Catherine is bossy.”

  “Okay so we know what to say and what not to say?” Frank asked.

  They nodded.

  “Let’s do this.”

  They waited until pre-Vegas Frank went back in and they inched their way to the door. Setting down the HG Wells just outside for a quick escape.

  They could hear the voices coming back at them.

  “Oh Fucking weird,” Frank said. “My voice sounds high.”

  “That’s Hal,” Dean said.

  “Really? We sound that much alike?” Frank asked.

  “Yep. You’re brothers,” Dean said. “Which I probably won’t have when we get back.”

  George’s voice carried out. “What if we didn’t stop or halt the Great War, but changed it,” George said. “What if we are already in the Great War.?”

  “Fucking Deja vu,” Frank said.

  “I don’t remember this conversation,” Dean said.

  “You were sleeping.”

  “Oh.”

  “What do you mean?” Pre-Vegas Frank asked.

  “Oh, that’s me,” Frank said. “I hear me now.”

  Henry shook his head.

  “What if by going to the future,” George said. “By discovering the twenty-four hundred, my presence, all that switched things up? What if now the invader isn’t tens of thousands of soldiers, but rather a germ? A bacteria. A battle we need to fight. If our Great War now is a germ, then Robbie was indeed the first casualty.”

  “When are we going in?” Dean asked.

  “Wait for it.” Frank walked to the door. “Wait …”

  “And Dean and Ellen would be in the battle zone helping people,” Pre-Vegas Frank said.

  “But just like we wanted to do all along,” Hal said. “We can stop it. Or try. This trip is important. It is not the first time you used time travel to stop an illness from wiping us out.”

  “Man, he sounds like a younger me,” Frank said and reached for the door. “Ready?”

  “It’s risky, Frank,” George added. “It really is. Going back that far, interacting, and trying to secure that much medicine. If we…”

  “And that ..” Frank said as he walked into the field out. “Is why we’re here.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Pre-Vegas Hal said. “What screwed up.”

  “Fuck!” Pre-Vegas Frank blasted. “I’m here. You’re here. Fuck.” He cleared his throat and nodded at present Frank. “I think I may watch how much I eat at that buffet.”

  “Yeah, we’re getting thick in the waist.”

  “Stop!” George said. “What happened. Why are you here?”

  “Where am I?” Henry asked.

  Pre-Vegas George, Hal, and Frank answered, “Sleeping.”

  “Frank?” Hal questioned.

  Both Frank’s answered. “What?”

  “This is a nightmare,” Hal partially closed his eyes. “New Frank. The one that just walked in. Why are you three here. Things changed.”

  Frank nodded. “It was all innocent. We’re not giving you specifics.”

  “Why?” Hal asked.

  Dean answered, “Because some things are better, some are not. All we are here to say is, you don’t need to go to Vegas. There is an easier and faster way to get the antibiotics. We didn’t think of it. We should have.”

  “What is it?” Hal asked.

  “We can’t tell you,” Dean replied.

  “Oh, for crying out loud. Just tell us,” Hal said.

  “Fine,” Frank said. “There’s a warehouse in Billings ….”

  “FRANK!” Dean and Henry yelled.

  Present Frank talked super fast. “If you go right after the original plague the warehouse will be full.”

  “Gotcha.” Hal nodded.

  “No,” Dean said. “Actually you don’t.” He lifted the eraser from Frank’s back pocket.

  “Actually …” Present Frank took it. “You don’t. Pick my pocket. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “I knew you’d say something you shouldn’t,” Dean argued.

  “Okay, Gentlemen,” George said. “Not a big deal. If we do this easier and faster way, would the trip to Vegas be okay? Dean wants to see his father.”

  Dean answered. “Maybe … maybe not. The choice is yours.”

  Present day Frank lowered his head with a sad exhale.

  “What is it?” Dean asked.

  “This isn’t right. It’s not,” he looked at Dean. “It feels wrong.”

  “I agree,” Henry said.

  “And you know,” Present day Frank said. “I can live with Joline. She may eventually get out of that gawky phase. Hal did.”

  Hal’s mouth formed a circle first before words emerged. “What the hell are you talking about? Joline?”

  “Fuck,” Pre-Vegas Frank blasted. “I fucking have a wife named Joline?”

  Present Frank shook his head with a smile. “Fuck it.” He lifted the eraser and set it off. “Let’s go. Hurry.” Frank moved them toward the door.

  “Frank?” Dean questioned as he hurried out.

  “It didn’t feel right.” Frank lifted the HG Wells. “Eraser is set for f
ifteen seconds. They’ll remember us being here. They won’t remember much else. That is enough.”

  “You think?” Henry asked.

  “We’ll find out. Hands on the HG Wells.” Frank waited until they touched it. “Let’s go back.”

  As with the trip back in time, upon return, not much was different. They didn’t say much except for Frank explaining in more detail why he used the eraser on them. The point in going back was to give them a choice. A chance to know something went wrong. Their presence was enough for that. Frank knew himself and Hal, they would be racking their brains going over every possible angle. And while they weren’t positive, they were sure the first information about the antibiotics was outside the fifteen second memory erasure.

  Upon returning to Beginnings they didn’t go home, they went directly to the Stasis portion of the cryo lab.

  “Lights are on,” Henry said.

  “Doesn’t mean anything,” Dean replied. “Freezing the virus victims was on my mind and I opened this up.”

  “One way to find out,” Frank walked in. The computers were on but the faux wall that covered the glass was closed. “Open it, Dean, we need to see.”

  Dean reached down to the controls. After a slight buzzing, the faux wall slid open. It slowly exposed, Mark, Clayborn, Danny then Ellen.

  With a heavy sigh, Frank’s head lowered.

  “It doesn’t mean anything,” Henry said. “Dean said. The one day thing may or may not be true.”

  “That’s right,” Dean replied. “I mean we may have gotten the antibiotics early. Who knows. They may have been destined to be behind this wall.”

  “This may be the only thing that stayed the same,” Henry said. “What do you think, Frank?”

  “I don’t know. It didn’t feel right,” Frank said. “Changing things didn’t feel right. Forcing it. So, who knows if what we did worked or didn’t work. We’ll find out, we have no choice but to find out.” He walked closer to the glass of the cryo room and stared at the four in there. “I’m sorry El, Danny, Mark, Clay. I really am. For now, we have to say goodbye. One day soon. One day.” After another heavy exhale, Frank turned from the window. “Close it, Dean.”