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

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Why are you wearing earrings? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear them.”

  “Alex.” Ellen looked around. “She asked me this morning why Jenny Matoose wears earlobe decorations and I don’t. She said Jenny told her you have to be feminine to wear them and maybe her mother wasn’t feminine.” Ellen tossed her hands up and plopped to her backside. “I can’t find it. I’ve been under here for ten minutes. I know it’s these tiny speckles on the floor that’s confusing me.” She watched Dean sit on the floor as well. “Why are you here? I thought we were fighting.”

  “I don’t want to fight. I come in peace.” He brought from behind his back, the rose. “For you.”

  Ellen’s eyes lit up when she took it. “Oh, my God. Did you . . . did you steal this.”

  “Kind of, so don’t let Andrea see it. You know how she is about those bushes.”

  Ellen sniffed the flower. “What a turn on, you being bad.”

  Dean smiled. “Even though I like that notion,” He reached out and took the flower from her, ‘that’s not why I brought it. I was wrong last night. Wrong for getting mad because you didn’t talk to Frank. Wrong for opening my mouth about the money. I was bitter. I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, Dean.” Ellen leaned into him and kissed him softly. “It’s all right. I said some things too that weren’t real . . . they weren’t right. I’m sorry too.”

  “I just love you, El.” Dean tickled the rose lightly down her cheek. “I want you in my life more than we are. But . . . I have to understand that right now you’re confused on . . . El? Look.” He pulled a strand of her hair to show her the back of the earring twisted within it.

  “Dean you found it. Is it stuck in there?”

  “I think. I’ll get it.” After reaching back and placing the rose on the desk, Dean began to maneuver her hair. He laughed on how such a tiny object could be interwoven in her hair.

  “Dean, ow. Quit.” She laughed with him. “Quit playing around with it. Either leave it in or take it out.”

  “I’m getting it out. One more minute.”

  “Just pull it out quickly.”

  “It’ll hurt if I do that.”

  “Just pull it . . .” An ear piercing bang on Ellen’s desk, rattled all of Ellen’s objects on there. “What was that?

  Squatting down to their level was Frank and he did not look happy. “Isn’t this the cozy fuckin picture?”

  Dean turned his head back to look. “Frank.”

  “Dean . . . El?”

  “Hi, Frank,” Ellen said quite chipper. “Dean was helping me with the back to my earring.”

  “Really? That’s what I thought I heard.” Frank stood up.

  Ellen crawled out from under the desk. “How come you’re here Frank?”

  “Well it isn’t to see the floor show you two were putting on,” Frank snapped. “It’s to get him.” He pointed to Dean. “It’s time. Bikes are done. Let’s go. Mock run. I’m gathering everyone.”

  “Now?” Dean asked. “I have things to finish up at the clinic.”

  “Yeah, it looked like you were doing that.” Frank looked quickly at Ellen who giggled. “Go finish them up, Dean. This run is taking almost three hours.”

  “O.K. El, if I don’t get to them can you do Hap’s sugar levels” Getting an agreement, Dean headed to the door and stopped. “Frank, I do have a helmet, don’t I?”

  “Yes, Dean.” Frank rolled his eyes. “I know you’re a wimp. I got you a helmet.”

  “It’s not being a wimp. It’s being safe,” Dean said. “Not all of us have the hard head you have Frank. We all can’t be secure in the fact that if we crash head first at fifty miles an hour and wake up an idiot, no one will notice.”

  “Real fuckin funny, Dean. See how funny you think it is when I leave your ass back in time ten years ago.”

  “How do you know I won’t leave you, Frank?”

  “Because I’ll hunt your past self down and take you out. What the hell do I have to lose, the other me will still be around.”

  Ellen looked to both of them “Joe and Jason actually trust you two?”

  “Both of you are just the funny people, aren’t you.” Frank shook his head.

  Ellen gasped, “What the hell is with the bad mood?”

  “I’m chasing his skinny ass around, looking for . . .” In the midst of his complaining Frank saw it. Around Ellen his arm, he reached and lifted the rose from the desk. “Who ripped off Andrea’s roses bush?”

  “Dean.” Ellen pointed to him.

  Frank smiled.

  “Aw, look Dean,” Ellen said, “Frank thinks that was sweet.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Frank said in awe, “real sweet.” He held up the rose. “It’s even gonna be sweeter watching Andrea go off on him.” Holding the rose, Frank walked to the door. He grinned widely at Dean. “And I’m telling.” He winked and took off.

  “Shit.” Dean flew out after him.

  “Hey!” Ellen called out as she stood alone in her office. “Great. They took my flower.” Tossing up her hands in defeat she went back to sit at her desk.

  ^^^^

  So serious, as if the beginning to an interrogation, Joe approached Cole who stood before the doors to the field house. “He still in there?”

  Arms folded, Cole nodded. “Thirty-five minutes now.”

  Joe took a deep nostril breath. “No wonder we couldn’t find him for this meeting.”

  “I’m frightened Joe,” Cole stated. “If you need a new logisticalizer for the time trip, I’ll go.”

  Joe gave a swat to Cole’s arm. “Thanks for the offer but I’m sure it’s not a repeat of the wall. He probably lost something.” Confident, Joe walked into the field house. But he soon started to get sacred when he only saw Henry’s lanky legs extended from behind a storage hatch. “Cole said you’ve been crawling around in here for a while. We need you for that mock run.”

  The clank of Henry hitting his head on the metal, sounded off first before emerged. “Oh, hi. Joe.” He dusted his hands off. “Just doing the rodent check.”

  “Rodent check?” Joe asked. “Why?”

  “To make sure they aren’t a problem.” Henry smiled. “Don’t want that.”

  “No.” Joe shook his head. “And why are we suddenly concerned with rodents being a problem.”

  “Since the mystery mouse.”

  “What mouse?”

  “You remember?” Henry chuckled. “The one I chased, but Frank found, stepped on then carried for fourteen hours dead in his pocket only to put it in my fridge before finally sticking it in my . . . Joe? Why do you look as if you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about?”

  “Because I don’t Henry. There haven’t been any mice before the plague.”

  “Sure there has Joe. Oh!” Henry snapped his finger. “Forget it. The Dean is dead history. And I guess my theory is right. Oh good. They’re still trapped.”

  “Trapped where?”

  “Underneath the cryo-lab. I thought that’s where he came from, you know with the explosion, but since there was no explosion, no mice. Great.” Henry grinned. “I feel so much better. We better get to that mock run.” Upbeat and looking as if the weight was lifted off his shoulders, Henry walked out.

  Joe just scratched his head.

  ^^^^

  Former Quantico Marine Headquarters

  “Quite impressive,” Sgt. Doyle told George. “Ten percent causality. Ambassador Lange was the last to report in.”

  “So Reading, Pennsylvania went well?” George asked sitting behind the desk that used to be the Commanding Officer’s of Quantico.

  “Very. He requested another truck to bring the greenhouse supplies down. We need those. Population is growing.”

  “So what are our totals from this sweep?”

  Sgt. Doyle looked down to his paper. “The four ambassadors report no society injuries and a survivor sweep total of twelve hundred and sixty-three. We expect better next week when we move more southwest.” He handed the sheet to G
eorge. “We’re making preparations now for those sweeps.”

  “Thank you. We’ll have that army yet for you.”

  Sgt. Doyle smiled a little. “Oh, I have plenty for a small army. However, I haven’t anyone to help me train them.”

  “Cyborg enhancement says not long.”

  “Good to hear.” Sgt. Doyle stepped back. “If you need me…”

  “Sgt. Doyle,” George called out before Sgt. Doyle left, “just curious. How many of these people can we expect to be defectors?”

  “We’ve been doing these sweeps at full force for two months and by what we’ve seen, less than one percent, if that. They’ll trail out here and there.”

  “But that’s not the case lately.” George lifted his glasses and put them on. He pulled a stack of papers to before him and thumbed through them. “Four days ago, twenty-four. Two days ago, six. Last night, twelve?”

  “That’s what the camp master counted.”

  “Any connection between the first twenty-four and the last eighteen? Could they have all come from the same sweep?”

  Sgt. Doyle took a moment to think. “Off hand, I couldn’t give a good answer. There are twenty-seven hundred men living in that sector of base. In order to pinpoint an answer, we’d have to check records.”

  “Do that for me,” George ordered, “and get back as soon as you can.”

  “Yes, sir.” Sgt. Doyle started to leave but stopped. “Sir, in comparison to what we have built in numbers here, those forty-two are minimal. They’re nothing to be concerned about.” With an assuring smile, Sgt. Doyle nodded and walked out.

  “Nothing to be concerned about huh?” Georg spoke to himself. “So why am I worried?” George lifted the defector statistic sheet and just shook his head.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  “Why am I the only one here?” Frank asked looking at his father and Jason in the quantum lab. “Here’s the bikes. Here’s the time machine. Where are Henry and Dean?”

  Joe looked down at his watch. “Just give them a few more minutes.”

  “Sorry.” Henry opened up the door. “I had to find a book.” He held it up as he walked in. “You know . . . if I’m going to waste three hours of my day.”

  Frank grabbed the book. “You are gonna read for three hours?”

  “Yeah Frank.” Henry took it back.

  “God, how can you do that?” He shook his head and he saw the lab door open. “Oh look, it’s Dean. Dean, don’t you ever show up on time for anything?”

  Dean closed the door. “Don’t you come equipped with a volume level or something? And I wouldn’t have been late had Andrea not been yelling at me and pelting surgical supplies at my head.”

  Frank laughed, “She wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t steal her flowers to give to my wife.”

  “I had to give your wife flowers, Frank,” Dean smiled arrogantly. “We have that special bond on a higher mentality level that you could never reach.”

  “Bite me, Dean.”

  “Boys!” Joe stopped them. “Please. It’s already eleven o’clock, can we do this?”

  Henry held up his hand. “May I say something Joe? This is a mistake. A big mistake. Don’t send these two. You go.”

  “No Henry, they worked fine together before. They’ll do fine,” Joe insisted.

  “Sure Joe, but that was before Frank found out that Dean and Ellen slept together.” Henry felt the hard nudge to his back. “Ow, Frank. What was that for?”

  “For reminding me. Thanks Henry,” Frank barked.

  Jason shook his head as he took his pseudo stance at the time machine. “I think I saw this episode on the three stooges once. Can we begin?”

  Henry shaking his head opened his book and sat in the designated chair by the time machine. With one more audible ‘mistake’ he sat down and watched Dean and Frank go outside to their motorcycles. The mock run was underway.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Stepping into Miles City was a lot harder than Dean thought it would be. That street he walked down brought back painful memories he so much wanted to forget. Standing before the library door, just about to go in, Dean vividly remembered that day when he saw Andrea’s son die brutally at the hands of Robbie Slagel’s men. A thirteen year old boy Dean was powerless to save. It was a heartache Dean had buried so deep that he wasn’t ready for when it resurfaced. And it did, the moment he walked back into Miles City, the place where Robbie held him and some of the children of Beginnings against their will.

  Knowing that his time trip to Miles City would be better, it wouldn’t look like it did now, Dean walked into the library and flicked on the flashlight. “Man, is this weird.”

  “What did you say?” Frank stormed in.

  “I was talking to myself.”

  “I hear people do that when they have no one that will listen to them. Boring yourself yet Dean?”

  “I was actually waiting to bore you. Look Frank, this is a library.” He walked in further. “These tall things are shelves. They used to contain things called books. Books Frank. Can you say . . .”

  “Shut the fuck up Dean.” Frank looked around. “All right, I’m done out there. I just needed to see how long it would take me from that pay phone I found to get here.”

  “Did you find the store and a fax number?” Dean asked.

  “The store, yeah. The fax was the hard part. But . . . I did find one. I found a place about a block from the parking lot where we’re leaving the bikes. I think it was a copy place.” Frank shrugged. “I’m pretty sure. Anyway, I got the fax number from the machine.”

  “Good.” Dean moved to the door. “Because I’d like right now to get out of this place.” Quickly, he stepped outside and stopped, staring up the street.

  “Dean.” Frank snapped his finger in front of him. “What’s wrong with you? You seem weirder than usual.”

  “I can still see it Frank.” Dean held his hand out. “I can still see them beating Denny. I tried. I tried with everything I had to help him. But there were just so many of them.”

  Frank lowered his head. “Denny.” He let out a long breath. “I forgot this is where it all went down.”

  “Unfortunately I didn’t. And it happened right here on this street.” Solemnly, Dean began to walk. “Let’s just get back to Beginnings.”

  ^^^^

  It didn’t take much convincing to Joe that it was time. His futile attempts at a half decent conversation with Ellen, while waiting for the end of the mock run, pushed him over the edge. So during the time frame where he waited for Dean’s and Frank’s arrival back, Joe read through the ‘Marcus baby’ research and the three hours flew by for Joe.

  Hearing the motorcycles as he pulled up to Jason’s lab, Joe stepped from the jeep and went into the lab to join Jason and Henry. “Henry how’s that book?”

  “Boring, Joe. I had other things I could have done.”

  “Sure you did. Like looking for rodents we don’t have?” Joe laughed. “Think of it this way, now you’re well practiced for sitting for three hours and doing nothing. Jason, did the small tests of the machine go well?”

  “Yep,” Jason answered. “Did you get the history disks?”

  “I spoke to Trish,” Joe said.” She is putting in today’s mock run, tomorrow’s time trip, and two other things. I’ll pick them up from her tonight. She’s gonna run a complete print out in the morning so they can check it out if need be when they get back.”

  Jason crossed his fingers. “Hopefully Henry will pick up the history and merely turn it over to the school as scrap paper.”

  “We’re back!” Frank opened the lab door and made his loud announcement. “An hour and a half in town alone with Dean was an hour and a half too long.”

  “I enjoyed it too, Frank.” Dean followed and closed the door. “Especially your little motorcycle tricks you were doing.”

  Joe checked out the time. “Timing is good. Now tomorrow, remember when you pull out onto that interstate, there wi
ll be a flow of traffic. Trees and weeds won’t be the only thing you see, so be careful.”

  Frank nodded. “I know, I know. Is there anything we need to discuss now? I want to take my bike to the garage.”

  Joe looked to Jason. “Anything you want to add?”

  “Um, let’s see.” Jason ran down a list in his mind. “Just make sure tomorrow, you two clean up really well and try to look presentable.”

  Frank scoffed at that. “What for? I always look good.”

  “Oh but of course,” Jason chuckled, “but Frank, if you don’t clean up and wear normal clothes, when you two post-apocalyptic time Regressionists step into Miles City, you’ll look like Mad Max meets the Brady Bunch.”

  Dean looked oddly. “I understand the Frank comment to look presentable. But I don’t think I look quite like Mad Max.” He snickered but saw Jason didn’t. “I do?”

  “Don’t get me wrong Dean, you look almost normal.” He saw Dean comment silently ‘almost?’ “But you people have to remember I was frozen for six years. I am far the best judge on if you look like you fit into society. When I saw you Dean, I suspected something was up by the scars on your face and a sort of roughness to it. But the second I saw Frank, the second he walked in the room, I knew the world had been over for quite some time. Quite honestly Frank, you scared the hell out of me.”

  Dean raised his hand. “There you have it, Frank. Proof that you are not an attractive individual.”

  Though Jason did think Dean’s comment was funny, he had to elaborate for the sake of not being rude. Covering his mouth to wipe the smile that crept on him, Jason continued as he looked at a stunned Frank, “What Dean said isn’t the direction I was going. Frank, people just don’t look like you and they didn’t ten years ago. I remember that more than any of you. You have a look of mean on you Frank that can only be brought on by hardship and hard work. Your face, your scars, your body, everything about you was made in this world we live in now. And it was evident to me. So for the sake of Miles City, and to just eliminate the risk that the local police aren’t going to see you and think your some criminal wandering into town, you have to try to look normal. Just clean up, wear jeans and shave as close as you can.”