The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “He . . . he has the scent.” Dean scratched his head. “OK.” Not thinking any more about it, Dean just followed.

  ^^^^

  “Oh, Elliott.” Ellen slowly stood up as the last remaining note that rang out in the room. “Oh, Elliott, look.” She lifted her arm. “I have chills.”

  “You liked it then?”

  “I have chills.”

  “It could have irritated you like fingernails on a chalkboard.”

  Ellen just titled her head. “I’m speechless. That . . . that was awesome. You have to let Hal hear it.”

  “I’m a little frightened that if he likes it, he’ll make it a thing to be sung at all events.”

  “And why not? Why did you write it?”

  “For inspiration,” Elliott shrugged, “and a sense of patriotism that we will need when we go to . . . I mean should we go to war.”

  “Then all the reason to introduce it now. I love it. Along with the way you sing . . .” Ellen whistled. “You play so well.”

  Elliott’s hands hovered the keyboard. “I believe more so than skill, it is all in the touch. You have to feel it to play it. Does that make sense?”

  “Yes.” Ellen nodded.

  Elliott stared at the keyboards, then he started to play something soft as he spoke. “I once had a music instructor who told me when I sing, play, or write music, each step, each process of that should be treated with the soul and feel as if I were making love to a woman.” Elliott continued to play. “So in a sense . . .” He chuckled. “I get a lot of action.”

  “Elliott . . .”

  “That wasn’t a come on.” Elliott peered up. Ellen was right there.

  “It’s allowed to be.”

  “It’s not me.”

  “Elliott.” Ellen walked around and stood to his side. “I told you why Frank broke up the understanding, right?”

  “No.”

  “You.”

  Elliott stopped playing.

  “You,” Ellen repeated.

  “Oh my God.” Elliott closed his eyes. “It was not my intention. Trust me Ellen, the combination of Frank and Dean is a deadly one to cross. One will chase you down and catch you while the other injects you with a vile substance.”

  “Not long ago you pursued me with innocence and honesty. You also took me up on my offer of an understanding.”

  “Not long ago . . .” Elliott turned in his chair. “You were not involved with Frank or Dean.”

  “I’m just with Dean . . .”

  “There is no ‘just Dean’.” Elliott folded his hands. “It’s always Frank and Dean. I don’t understand why Frank used me as an excuse. The boundaries I crossed with you were innocent. I haven’t made any move toward you since the arrangement of those two.”

  “Don’t you want to?” Ellen asked.

  “I would love to.”

  “You said you would steal a night,” Ellen softened her voice. “This is the night, Elliott. Steal it.” She took his hand.

  “Ellen.”

  “You said it has been forever since you’ve touched a woman.” She led him to stand. “A woman is right here, Elliott.” Slowly she began to unbutton her shirt.

  “Ellen.” He closed his eyes.

  “No lines need to be crossed. This doesn’t have to even be sexual.” She guided his hands to her shoulders. “Let me give this to you.” With her hands still on his, she slid Elliott’s hands to rest flush just under her neck. She moved into him, lifting her mouth to be near his ear. “You don’t have to kiss me, just hold me. There’s no bike riding here, Elliott. Just explore something you haven’t had in so long, unless you don’t want to.”

  With his eyes fluttering, Ellen close to him, and her words beating against the skin of his face, Elliott stepped even closer. The thick nostril breath he released preluded the inching of his right hand. His fingers, with a slow apprehension, slipped just a small amount under her shirt. His hands stayed close to the nape of her neck and her shoulders as he pressed nearer to Ellen.

  “Freeze them fuckin hands right where they are, Ryder!” Frank blasted into the room.

  Elliott’s hands stopped then after a swallow, he opened his eyes and looked at Ellen. “I knew it.”

  “Oh, fuckin great!” Frank bitched. “Dean, if you don’t so something, I will.”

  Ellen’s eyes, still locked on Elliott’s, questioned, “Dean too?”

  “Hey!” Frank yelled. “Ryder, you can stop undressing her anytime you want!”

  Lifting his hands only enough to fix Ellen’s shirt, Elliott gave an apologetic look to her.

  Perturbed, Ellen turned to the pair. “What the hell are you two doing here?”

  Frank’s head flung back in dramatics. “Oh! You would ask that. You’re in God’s House. God’s House! Committing adultery. Dean! Do something. You’re her husband. Step in any time.”

  As he ran his fingers through his hair, at a loss at what to say after witnessing a situation for which he wasn’t ready, Dean shook his head. “What’s going on, El?”

  Frank spun a quick look to Dean. “That’s it? Fuck! Fine! I’ll handle it. Ryder . . .” Frank barged to Elliott.

  Ellen interceded and stepped quickly ahead of Elliott. “Frank! You have no right! Back off!”

  Elliott peacefully tried to get by Ellen. “Maybe I should go.”

  “It’s just like you to run!” Frank barked. “Run or hide behind Ellen!”

  “Frank!” Ellen screamed at him then calmed. “No, Elliott, you stay here because there’s no reason for you to leave.”

  Frank huffed. “There you go, standing up for him. What do you mean I have no right. I have every right!”

  “The hell you do. You broke up the understanding!” Ellen yelled.

  “Well I changed my mind!” Frank yelled back.

  “What!” Ellen shrieked in disbelief. “You can’t just change your mind.”

  “Ya-huh, Dean said.” Frank nodded and pointed to Dean. “Ask him.”

  Dean lifted his hands. “I said.”

  Ellen moved forward to the side by side duo. “You think just because you ‘said’, that means you dictate who I have the understanding with?”

  “Yes,” Dean nodded.

  Ellen laughed. “And I have no choice in the matter?”

  “No.” Dean saw Ellen getting ready to argue. “Let me finish. If I’m going to agree to share you, it has to be my decision on who I share you with.”

  “Again . . .” Ellen raised her voice. “You’re saying . . .”

  Elliott tried to intervene. “Ellen, maybe if we just leave . . .”

  “Elliott, stay out of this!” Ellen snapped.

  Frank snickered.

  Ellen continued, “Dean? You choose?”

  “Yes or there’s no understanding. That’s it. I’m your husband, El. I have the understanding say-so,” Dean explained. “And I say there’s no understanding, especially with Elliott Ryder.”

  “Elliott fuckin Ryder,” Frank corrected. “Or Sgt. fuckin Ryder if you want to give him some sort of respect in rank.”

  Grunting, Ellen grabbed Elliott’s hand. “Oh, screw both of you. Let’s go, Elliott.”

  Frank bodily blocked the path of exit. “You will not go with him.”

  Ellen rolled her eyes in sarcasm then looked at Dean, who stood pretty confident that things were being handled just fine by Frank. “You guys really piss me off. I’ll go with him, Frank, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

  “Try this.” Frank looked behind her at Elliott. “Ryder, if you walk out of here with her, you and I, we’re going head to head. I don’t think you want to go there, not with me.”

  Releasing a slow blink, Elliott moved Ellen gently aside. “The arrogance you have in your ability to encumber your every opponent baffles me. You’re far too confident, Mr. Slagel.”

  Silence.

  Dean inched closer to Frank with a whisper, “He thinks you’re too confident about kicking ass.”

  Frank lau
ghed then returned to seriousness as he stared at Elliott. “I have every right to be confident. You don’t know me.” Frank moved an inch closer.

  “I’ve taken your punch.” Elliott lessened the distance between him and Frank.

  “I never gave you all I had. You don’t want me to give you all I have. Trust me, Ryder. End this now, get out of my face, or like I said, you and I will go head to head.”

  “Your verbal warnings may work with some. They won’t frighten me. I don’t frighten easily,” Elliott stayed firm. A whisper’s breath separated them. “You’re just a man.”

  “No,” Frank corrected collectedly. “I’m Frank.”

  “And about this point in time, especially after the past few days, I’m pretty much sick of how you’re all that.”

  Frank scoffed, “I am and I earned that right. I’ve handled a lot of things no one else has during the course of my job.”

  “I’ve done your job.”

  “You haven’t scratched my ass as far as doing my job goes,” Frank graveled.

  “You know what, Frank?” Elliott smiled some. “Fuck you.”

  Ellen’s eyes widened. “Dean.”

  “Ok!” Dean said upbeat, projecting his voice and body to the heated men whose tension reflected off each other in a pre-eruption manner. “Let’s just stop this right . . .” He watched the locked eyes. “OK, enough. All right. Stop. This has gone way beyond the original point of this all. I’m not kidding. Back off, you two.” He received no response. The mental instigation between the two was thick. Dean continued his pleas. “This was about Frank’s understanding with Ellen and Sgt. Ryder’s intrusion in that.”

  “Hey,” Ellen called out. “Frank broke it off.”

  Dean corrected, “He changed his mind. End of story. That is the reason for the start of this . . .” He indicated the frozen intense Frank and Elliott. “Now, can we stop this, please?” Dean laid his hand on Elliott. “Sgt. Ryder, just listen to me. For years, I never liked Frank.”

  “He hated me.” Frank added.

  “Um, yeah.” Dean nodded. “But I would never deny that Frank is all that. Don’t. OK. Don’t put yourself in a position others have been in and have fallen.”

  “I’m not others, Dr. Hayes,” Elliott said, his eyes never moving from the arrogant confident look of Frank. “If I do not stand my ground with this man, I will become nothing but another mere victory notch he can add to his ‘men he intimidates’ belt. If I need to take him up on his threats, his challenge, I am prepared to do so.”

  Ellen closed her eyes briefly, then interjected. “Um, Elliott. It . . . It’s Frank. I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Not with Frank.”

  For the first time in the entire stance, Elliott’s eyes moved from Frank. In a jolt of surprise and shock, his head turned to Ellen. “Am I mistaken or is that a lack of faith in my ability?”

  “It’s . . .” Ellen winced and pointed. “It’s Frank. It’s. . . Frank. I’m sorry.”

  Elliott nodded. “Then so am I.” He stepped back a foot. “Well, then Frank, I see no reason to stand here and make sure you don’t shatter my honor. It seems . . .” He moved aside and to the door. “It seems Ellen has done that for you. Excuse me.”

  Ellen watched Elliott not look back as he walked straight out. Her heart sunk. “Oh my God.”

  Not wanting to add any insult it injury, Dean tried the compassionate route. “El, look, it’s all right.” He looked at Frank and shrugged.

  “No, Dean, it’s not,” Ellen spoke softly. “What did I do?”

  “I’ll tell you what you did.” Frank gave a single upbeat clap of his hands. “You did a good job. Good job, El.” He released a loud sigh. “Ah. Carrot?”

  Curious and with her head spinning from the weird and out of place remark, Ellen popped open one eye, looked up to see not only a grinning Frank, but the long orange vegetable he extended with gleefulness before her.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  December 20th

  “Ah.” Frank smiled and nodded with approval and gratitude to Hector. “Thanks,” he spoke through the still early morning grogginess of his voice.

  “No, problem.”

  “It’s perfect, you know.”

  “If . . . if you say so.” Hector smiled.

  “You won’t tell anyone I was here, right? I don’t want anyone to know I was sneaking in Distribution.”

  “Nah.” Hector shook his head. “We call those mutants. They never make it to Distribution.”

  “Oh my God,” Frank said offended. “Well, pass them to me.”

  “I will.” Hector watched him open the green house door. “Enjoy Frank.”

  After giving a thumbs up, Frank pulled the door closed. He was going to wait, but his stomach churned in hunger and it was really just a snack. It was something he had been craving all night. Looking to see if anyone watched, Frank lifted it to his view. Small, and petite, the miniature head of lettuce fit perfectly into the palm of his hand. With a huge grin and a hungry belly, Frank chomped on that head of lettuce as if it were an apple as he walked from the greenhouse back to his rounds.

  ^^^^

  What had happened? What went wrong? Dean hadn’t a clue. All he knew was that he found himself down in the cryo-lab conducting a secret set of experiments about it. Finding not only the real cause, but a resolution was going to be a difficult task, especially since he couldn’t share it with anyone.

  Something told him not to be surprised when he peered into the Danny Scope. Dean didn’t need the technology of computers to identify what screamed out at him. His eyes and knowledge were good enough. And it did scream at him. Upon first glance, Dean stepped back, shook his head, and looked again.

  “Oh, shit,” Dean said softly to himself. “How? How?” He shook his head. “How in the world is this possible? No.” He took a calming breath. “Maybe something happened. Maybe this slide wasn’t a clean slide. God knows Ellen does that to me all the time.” Not that Dean wanted to find an excuse for his observation. Actually Dean, even though it was wrong, hoped his scientific result was valid. It was too awesome, and in the old world it would have sky rocketed him to the top of the DNA expert chain.

  With his hand tapping in thought on the counter, Dean had to double check. He knew somewhere in the lab he had a blood sample done prior to any of the changes. That was the sure fire way to see if the ground work findings were accurate. Go to the original source. On his way to the back of the cryo-lab to retrieve that source, Dean stopped at the long line of animal cages to retrieve another.

  ^^^^

  The irritated snap Hal gave to Ellen’s name mixed in with the slam of the filing cabinet in Joe’s office. “Ellen.” With a file in hand, Hal walked back over to the desk. “Haven’t you anything better to do than to pester me at nine in the morning?”

  “No, Hal, I don’t.” She stood before the desk. “What did he say?”

  “Who?” Hal asked as he sat down.

  “Elliott. It’s been two days and he hasn’t spoken to me. I haven’t seen him . . .”

  “He went back to New Bowman yesterday.”

  “I know this, but what did he say about me? You have to know.”

  Hal lifted his hands. “Ellen, I assure you I haven’t a clue what he is thinking about you. I haven’t gotten into matters of a personal nature with him.”

  “So you don’t know what happened?”

  “I haven’t a clue,” Hal answered. “Would you like to tell me?”

  Ellen laughed in ridicule.

  Hal raised his hand and dropped it to the desk. “Please do not tell me you’ll be this bad when we are out beyond the wall during your temporary ousting.”

  “We?” Ellen moved closer to the desk. “We.”

  “We?”

  “Right, Hal,” Ellen scoffed. “You and your anal ways would be unbearable out there. You’d make me clean.”

  Hal gasped. “My God, how horrible.”

  “Besides,” Ellen folded her arms tight. “I have
no intention of going with anyone.”

  “No one, huh?” Hal asked with sarcasm.

  “Nope. No one. I’m going alone.”

  Holding back a laugh, Hal swiped his hand over his face to present an air of calm. “And where, Dr. Hayes, will you go?” he questioned knowing full well Ellen wasn’t aware of the prepared house.

  “I’ll find a place. Hal, please, this is the apocalypse. There are lots of houses.”

  “True. What about water?”

  “I’ll head up near the lake.”

  “Heat?” Hal questioned.

  “I’ll chop down trees.”

  “Food.”

  “I’ll hunt.”

  “Christ, Ellen, give me a break. You don’t even fetch your own milk from Distribution. You believe you’ll traipse through the woods hunting?” Hal rocked some in the chair.

  “What if, at the end of a month, they vote to make me stay the full sentence? What then, huh? I’m not that strong What if I want to have . . . sex?” she whispered out the last word.

  “It’s me, Ellen. I should think with me that wouldn’t cross your mind.”

  “Believe it or not, Hal.” Ellen fluttered her lips. “You’re pretty hot.”

  Hal smiled and stopped rocking.

  “However . . .” She lifted her finger. “You’d be impossible to have sex with.”

  “What?” Hal huffed.

  “Oh, yeah, I can hear it.” Clearing her throat Ellen proceeded to do her best Hal imitation. “Heavens, Ellen we’ve wrinkled the bed. Must it be this messy? For medicinal purposes could we not . . . kiss.” A loud Hal-style gasp came from Ellen. “Good God, Ellen, you want me to put my mouth where!”

  Hal’s top lip curled in utmost disgust and offense.

  Ellen breathed out a laugh. “Look at your expression. You’re sitting there, trying to be so pious, rocking back and forth, arrogant . . .”

  “All right,” Hal snapped. “Enough. Is there a reason you’ve decided to go on an insulting binge with me?”

  “Yeah!” Ellen screamed.

  “What!”

  “You won’t tell me what Elliott said!” she yelled her loudest.