The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1)

by David Kersten

  Teague seemed to pick up on this and chose his words carefully, “There was a third element in our effort to ensure the survival of humanity: looking for a cure for the virus. We have not found a cure, but we have found something of equal value, at least now that we found the facility in Montana. We have an immunization. You were immunized when you were brought back, and you can be assured that any child you father will be immune to the virus and able to have children of its own.”

  * * *

  At least one weight was lifted from his shoulders. He needed to be alone, to think about everything, to process and figure out how he felt about it all. Before he did that though, he needed to answer one more question.

  “Doc, tell me one more thing. Is this the only reason you brought me back? To have babies and spread my seed?”

  It was a legitimate question; one that Teague obviously wasn’t sure whether to answer. After a few moments, he said, “I won’t lie to you Jack. We are hoping that you are a solution to a problem, maybe even to a lot of problems. We select people to bring back based on both their potential worth to the community and the chance that recovery will be successful. We are trying to rebuild humanity, but in order to do that we have to survive first. Rest assured, Jack, you will have a lot of value to this community and quite possibly the whole world, but let’s just start out by worrying about tomorrow.”

  It was a vague answer, but good enough for Jack, at least for now.

  In some ways, he was disappointed. Even if he fell in love with one woman, it would be expected, hell, his duty, to be unfaithful to her. At some point he would need to consider the fate of his friends and family and mourn his loss, even though they lost him, not the other way around. And the memory of his wife and child were still very vivid and a part of his personality.

  However, there was some excitement brimming in the back of his mind at the thought of fathering another child, or even more children. Any fear of having to relive the horror of losing a child was surpassed by the hope of another chance to experience what he once lost. In fact, despite the potential challenges, he had a chance to experience love again, and that alone made it all worth it.

  For the first time in nearly two years, Jack was truly excited about his future.

  Part Two

  Chapter 14

  The past few days had been a whirlwind. He hadn’t even come to terms with having cancer, let alone everything since waking up in this strange environment. Before leaving him alone with his thoughts, Teague gave him one of the ‘clipboards’ he had been using. “I will show you more of how to use it later, but for now, if you want to make notes on any questions that you come up with, just write them on here as if it’s a piece of paper.” He showed him by writing a few words. As he wrote them on the surface of the pad, they appeared at the top of the page, neatly typed and even formatted properly.

  “Jesus Teague, make this thing answer the phone and you could eliminate secretaries altogether.” He said it offhand, but two things hit him as the words left his mouth. The first was that this was no longer 1966 and he would no longer be able to use that time frame as a reference for pretty much anything he thought he knew. Second, it dawned on him that he could probably not even comprehend the way society changed in the years immediately following his death, let alone the changes since the war. He voiced his concerns

  It was obvious Teague didn’t want to get into it right now. “Look Jack, you’ve been bombarded with information, and it will take some time for your brain to process it all. Just write down any questions that come up and we can talk about them later.” Teague then walked him down the hall to another room. It was a bedroom, about ten foot square, with a small bed, a table and chair, a small set of drawers, and a sink and mirror like the one in the restroom, only this one had regular water faucet. The mirror opened to reveal a small cabinet built into the wall. It was filled with toiletries. He showed Jack how to use the light switch, and how to control the temperature in the room. “Feel free to explore the complex, or just go back to your room and lie down. This is a small community, and for all intents and purposes, everyone knows everyone else. Most people like to meet the latest reborn, so don’t be surprised if those you meet are interested in getting to know you. Just carry your datapad with you; with it we can locate you if something happens or contact you if we need to talk. I would probably recommend just getting some rest if you can, however. It is amazing what the brain can do subconsciously to process stuff like this, especially when you are resting. If you need me for anything, just tap the icon I put at the bottom left of your datapad.” He pointed to a little symbol that looked like a stethoscope wrapped around a red cross.

  “Is that what you call people like me? Reborn? And this is called a datapad? And the symbol here is called an icon?” The terminology was completely new to Jack. “I can see that I’m going to be learning a new language.” He said it in a lighthearted fashion, but he knew it would be tough for the first few weeks.

  “Jack, I know it will be difficult, and the learning curve will be high, but I can assure you that not only will you pick it all up fairly quickly, but you will be a great asset to us. Is there anything else before I leave you? I have some work to attend to – saving humanity is a busy business.” Teague chuckled at his own grim humor but Jack’s attention was elsewhere. His mind was already wandering back to the many subjects they had discussed.

  “No, no, I think I can handle it. Thanks Teague.” He didn’t even notice the man leave.

  Jack sat heavily in the chair and jumped back up with a yelp when it started moving. A little freaked out, he stared at the chair as if it was possessed. Looking around the room as if he were making sure nobody was watching, he tentatively touched chair. It didn’t move this time. He set the datapad on the desk and slowly backed into the chair. The moment his weight was in the seat he felt the bottom and back begin to move. His curiosity kept him from leaping out this time, and after a few seconds the movement stopped. He was sitting rigidly, waiting for something more to happen. The foolishness of his actions sank in, and he relaxed back into the chair. It began to move again and he tensed, then forced himself to relax again. When the chair stopped moving, he was amazed. This was perhaps the most comfortable chair he had ever sat in. He tested it by leaning back, slouching, leaning forward, and then sitting back again, and each time he shifted position the chair adjusted itself to be just as comfortable. “Damn I could get used to this.”

  He leaned back and started mentally reviewing the last twenty four hours, beginning with the latest information and working his way back. He jotted notes as he went, and soon, all the questions he wanted to address were written down. The list was substantial, and he knew getting answers would only lead to more questions.

  He settled back in the chair a little further and, while pondering his fate, drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  Jack woke a few hours later, slowly easing himself out of the chair, fully expecting to be stiff and sore. Somehow, he wasn’t all that surprised to find he felt no different than if he had slept on the bed. His internal clock told him it was dinner time, and the sound of his stomach rumbling confirmed it.

  He found the kitchen empty. He didn’t even know if people here ate meals in the same intervals as in 1966, so he wasn’t really surprised. It also dawned on him that maybe the rest of the residents didn’t eat in a community kitchen or even live on this level. He didn’t even venture to guess. There was a bowl in the cabinet, and he used the food dispenser as he had seen Teague do it earlier today. This time it tasted of meat loaf – in an odd sort of way. He was about to fill his cup with water when he remembered the ‘beer’ in the refrigerator. There were fifteen bottles in there, and he felt a little guilty as he took one, remembering how Teague had said it was in short supply. “Bah, screw it. I need a drink after all this anyway.” He said it to nobody, as nobody was in the room, but it alleviated his guilt just enough for him to open the bottle and take a sip. He grunted as it h
it his mouth. It was far from beer, there was no doubt of that. It was heavily carbonated and almost went out his nose. He sputtered and coughed after swallowing, and said, once again to nobody in particular, “Smooth.”

  “You know, drinking that stuff can decrease your sex drive.” The voice startled him and he almost dropped the bottle. He turned around to see Wendy standing there, wearing the typical casual attire, which looked like surgeon’s ‘scrubs’. She walked into the room, took the bottle from him and took a long pull.

  “Christ Wendy you scared the shit outta me.” He took the bottle back and sat down to eat. She sat across from him, watching him eat. He decided you didn’t so much ‘eat’ this food as you ‘gummed’ it. He looked at her after swallowing and asked, “Are you stalking me?”

  “Not at all” she said, “I was just out looking for a good lay, and came across you.” Jack choked on his food at that comment, coughed a few times, and took another drink to clear his throat. Wendy laughed, and he realized that she was just pulling his leg. “Actually I was sort of waiting for you to come in and eat. I didn’t want to interrupt your rest, I figured you needed it. The first couple days can be a lot to take in and can really wear you out. I mostly slept my first week.”

  Jack was happy she had come to visit with him. He was not entirely comfortable with the idea that she wanted to have his baby or that other women would be wanting, even expecting, the same thing, but there was a familiarity about her that he did find comforting. On top of this there was that feeling that he hadn’t felt since the day he had met his former wife, or since the day she had died. He wanted that feeling to last. Jack was a bit old fashioned, and although he never had a hard time getting women, he had never abused that ability and slept around. In fact, he had only ‘been’ with a half dozen women in his life. There was his wife Jenny, Wendy of course, a girlfriend when he was sixteen that he had convinced to take his virginity before he went off to die in the war, a couple flings in the military before he met Jen, and one young Japanese woman that he had hired to do his housework when stationed in Japan before Korea. He had been pleasantly surprised that housework was not the only thing she did for the monthly pay. He felt a little odd at first with that one, but it wasn’t like she was a prostitute off the streets that he had picked up one night, so he didn’t feel too bad about it. When he was a young enlisted man, he saw too many of his buddies come back from leave with diseases brought on by their need to satiate their pent up lust. He never felt the risk was worth the embarrassment of having to face a military nurse with a sore penis, not to mention the possibility of having to live with some disease for the rest of his life. He’d had a handful of girlfriends with whom he had not slept with throughout that time, but he was never really good at the relationship part, so without the sex, those didn’t last too long, at least not until Jenny.

  “So you’re one of us Wendy? A ‘reborn’?” He didn’t know anything about her, aside from the carnal knowledge he had acquired the night before.

  “Yes. I was brought back four months ago.” She opened her mouth to continue, but stopped, her brow scrunching up. Hesitantly, she said, “I still feel awkward referring to my death as a point of reference in my life, and it’s even worse in conversation.”

  He understood. “So how did you die?” He wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to ask, as it might be a very personal thing for some people.

  “Well, according to my records, I went down in an Apache.” She saw the confusion on his face and explained, “It’s a helicopter. I was a helicopter mechanic in the Army, and I liked to go out with the pilot after fixing the aircraft to make sure things were working correctly. The first time I went up, the pilot had been raising a ruckus after learning that a female mechanic had been the last one turning a wrench on his bird. I confronted him, and in an effort to get him to trust my work, offered to go up with him on the first flight. Once we were in the air and he had done some maneuvers to assure himself that everything was as good as new, he decided to show off. He did some light aerobatics, put us into a couple dives, and finally put us back on the tarmac as gently as laying a baby in a crib. I fell in love with flying that day, and used the whole ‘test flight’ idea to get up in the air as often as I could. It wasn’t hard to get what I wanted from the pilots, and soon I had them teaching me to fly. I took some ground school courses, and eventually got my pilots license.” Wendy stopped suddenly, as if she hadn’t meant to open up like that. Jack was engrossed in the story and motioned for her to continue.

  “Being a female, the male pilots were keen to show off their piloting skills when I went on flights with them. Although the details in my record were a bit vague, I figure it was most likely that one of these pilots was trying to impress me and got us all killed. Of course, anything could have happened. For all I know, I may have been sneaking some stick time, and made a mistake. The military saw fit to just call it a mechanical failure, with no further detail. The pilot survived, I made it to the hospital but died from severe internal injuries.”

  The concept of female enlisted mixing with the male enlisted in typical military roles was foreign to Jack. There were women in the military when he was around, but mostly as nurses or secretarial staff. He didn’t want to offend her by asking the wrong question, but he really wanted to know how that worked. “It must have been hard, being a woman in the Army. During my time the only women that were enlisted were basically secretaries and nurses, and they had it rough enough. I can’t even imagine one being in the common ranks with other men.” He hoped he didn’t sound too chauvinistic with that comment. The women’s liberation movement had just gone mainstream in ‘66, and Jack was sympathetic to their cause. He knew there were plenty of women qualified to do more than type and look pretty, and they should have their fair shake. He wondered if they were allowed to be regular soldiers too.

  She smiled, and Jack got the sense she recognized his consideration in choosing his words carefully. Despite his interest in the conversation, it was hard work paying attention when she smiled like that. He felt like he could spend the rest of his life just watching her smile. “It wasn’t too bad by the time I joined. There were seven women in my platoon. Women were allowed most jobs, but not overseas combat soldiers. They always thought the enemy would use us against the men, either by targeting the women or by capturing and using us as bait. I joined to get money for college, and found myself on my third re-enlistment getting prepared to go to Iraq as a behind the lines support mechanic, but I guess I never made it there.”

  The only woman Jack had ever met who aspired to be a mechanic was a beefy, butch dike. Granted, in his time if a woman was interested in that sort of thing, she was ridiculed. Learning that Wendy was passionate about roles which, in his time, were exclusive to men, fascinated him. On some level, he probably suspected this was just an infatuation brought about by his recent hormonal changes combined with the need to latch on to someone emotionally after all the trauma he had been through in recent days, but right now, he wanted nothing more than to continue this conversation. “So how old were you when you... uh –”

  “Died? I was twenty seven. I liked the military and decided to stick with it. It was a much more peaceful time than when you were in the military. I never expected I would have to go to war. When I was told I would be going, it seemed unreal to me. I knew the chances of seeing any real action were slim, but it definitely made me see my military career in a whole new light. I went through the same combat training everyone else did, and I was pretty sure if it ever came down to a fight I could handle it, but even at the time I never thought it would happen.”

  “What year was it?” Jack had no sense of the time line after 1966. Teague had mostly breezed over the years before 2012.

  “2009, March. I was born in 1982.” She was watching for his reaction, and despite trying to make light of it, he felt himself pale a little.

  “My god I robbed the cradle. You might have been friends with my grandchildren!” He was trying
to tease her a little, but his words reminded him of his daughter. If only Ally’d had a chance to live that long. He had spent so many nights thinking about the what-ifs, but now that he knew what her future would have held, he wasn’t so sure that he would have wanted her to live through it all.

  Wendy saw the change on his face and asked, “What is it Jack? Did that really upset you? I wasn’t trying to – I mean I was just giving you some crap.”

  Jack hastily said, “No, I just... I was thinking about my daughter, that’s all. She would have been almost fifty when you died. I’m beginning to think maybe her death was a blessing. She didn’t have to watch me die of cancer, and she didn’t have to suffer the war, potentially losing her own children – or grandchildren.”

  “I don’t believe that, Jack, and I don’t think you do either.” Wendy put her hand over his. “I think, despite what hardships her future might have brought, getting the chance to live would have been a wonderful gift. I am truly sorry for you and your daughter – that she didn’t get to experience life. It does, however, make me even more grateful that I – we – were given a second chance at life.” She had teared up a little, and Jack squeezed her hand.

  “Thank you, Wendy. It’s good to know you care. Let’s change the subject shall we?” Jack was getting a little emotional, and while her empathy towards his daughter made him feel good, he didn’t want her to see him blubbering like an idiot. “Tell me everything about the time from 1966 to 2009.”

  Wendy laughed. “Everything? Trust me, you don’t want to know everything. How ‘bout I give you the highlights, and if you really want to know about the bad stuff you can talk to someone else about it.” He sat back to listen to her talk, enjoying every minute of it.

  * * *