Near Death (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 1)

by Richard C Hale

  “Ok,” Jake said. “Sounds like the best option at the moment. Sara, I think we’re done here today. We’ll get you cleaned up and scheduled for the next session. That is, if you’re willing to continue.”

  “As long as I can breathe under that thing, I’ll come back as much as you like. Can I see some of the recorded video?”

  “Not just yet. We need to analyze it and see what we actually have first. We’ll want you to corroborate the video with your actual memory of the event, of course, but we’ll do that in a future session. Ok?”

  Sara nodded.

  Jake could see her disappointment.

  “May I bring my daughter next time?” Sara asked. “It would mean so much for her to understand what I went through. She’s heard the story all her life. To see it with her own eyes would be special for her. And me.”

  “She may not get to see much of anything at this point. We’re having issues with the video. Part of the sequence is distorted and the audio is malfunctioning. That’s the main reason I’m not ready for you to see the recording yet. I don’t think so.”

  “Oh please, Dr. Townsend. Just this once? She has so many questions about all of this. It would go a long way in answering them.” She paused and a sad look crossed her face. “She doesn’t believe me.”

  Jake looked at Teri.

  Teri shrugged.

  Jake shook his head but said, “Ok. Just this once.”

  He hoped he wasn’t making a big mistake.

  When Sara arrived the following week, a striking young woman with long red hair and startling green eyes walked in with her. Thin and tall, she carried herself with sadness and a burden that seemed to detract from her beauty ever so slightly. She did not smile and had a skeptical look in her eye as Jake and Teri greeted them.

  “Dr. Townsend, Miss Newton,” Sara said. “This is my daughter, Madison. Madison, this is Dr. Townsend and his assistant, Teri Newton.”

  Jake looked at Teri who bore the same expression that was probably plastered on his face. A look which conveyed surprise and recognition all at the same time. The same look you have when you already knew something, but were surprised to hear it anyway. This was the Madison of Sara’s NDE.

  Madison extended her hand and said, “Hello. Mother’s talked nonstop about you.”

  Flustered for a second, Jake hesitated, then took Madison’s hand in his own and said, “Hello. Very nice to meet you. Please, call me Jake.”

  She only nodded, and then proceeded to shake Teri’s hand as she said “Miss Newton.”

  “Please, call me Teri.”

  As Teri took Sara over to the chair to prep her for the experiment, Jake gave Madison a brief tour and explained what they would be doing today and what she would be seeing. She seemed interested, but skeptical and said very little, only nodding here and there.

  Jake told her to sit on a stool behind where he and Teri would be working. She should be able to see the monitors and remain clear of the work area.

  Sara lay fully reclined with the new body mold in place above her and seemed relaxed and comfortable.

  “This is much better,” she said. “I can see and breathe!”

  “I’m glad,” Jake said. “We’ll see if we lose any functionality with the adjustment to the sensors and the mold. How is the hay fever?”

  “Practically gone. I’ve been feeling better since Friday.”

  “Good. Then let’s begin.”

  As the system loaded and the cooling components spooled up, Madison perked up and actually looked a little worried. Jake reassured her that it was normal and everything was working properly.

  “Sara?” said Jake. “Humor us a bit while I show your daughter what Andee can do. I want you to think of a large, red, beach ball in a white, square room.”

  Sara laughed and said, “Ok.”

  On the monitors, a large, red, beach ball appeared resting on the floor of a white surface. Madison looked slightly amused, but unimpressed.

  “Now, Sara? Think of the ball bouncing up and down.”

  The ball began bouncing in place in the white room.

  “Now, make the ball any color you want, but don’t tell us what it is.”

  The ball turned purple, and then changed to yellow with purple spots. Jake chuckled and Teri laughed.

  “What color did you make the ball Sara?”

  “First purple, then I changed my mind to yellow with purple spots. Is that ok?”

  “Yes. Perfect!” Jake said.

  Madison’s mouth hung open and she seemed to be paying full attention.

  Jake asked, “Can you think of something for her to picture in her mind? Something personal that only you and she would know. It could be a piece of jewelry, or a favorite book, or even a favorite song. Andee does sound too.” Jake grinned. He was showing off now.

  Madison thought for a moment and then said, “Mom? Think of our favorite restaurant in our favorite vacation town and the music that is always playing while we wait for a table.”

  She looked ashamed of herself, but Jake grinned.

  The yellow ball with purple spots disappeared and in its place a vision of a beachside themed restaurant with umbrellas, tiki torches, and ceiling fans filled the screen. The wall had a mural painted with a scene of cows dancing and frolicking in the Florida sun. Across the top of the wall was painted The Island Cow. Through the speakers of the workstation came the unmistakable sound of The Beach Boys, Surfin’ Safari. Madison smiled, her face glowing.

  “That is amazing!” she said.

  Jake turned and said, “I know you were having a hard time with this, Madison. I wanted you to see we’re not trying to take advantage of your mother or trick her in any way. We are conducting serious research in this lab with life changing possibilities and though this little exercise was a fun example of what Andee can do, the potential of this machine should be apparent to you now.”

  Madison became serious and nodded, saying “I never would have believed…” and trailed off in thought.

  “Ok Sara, let’s get to work. As before, let yourself relax and begin visualizing your experience as best you can remember.”

  Just before the screen changed scenes from The Island Cow Restaurant to the beginning of Sara’s NDE, a picture of a young man appeared. He was in his mid twenties, blond with blue eyes, and a goatee. He was smiling and standing in the stern of a fishing boat holding a large Mahi Mahi he had apparently just caught. The picture then disappeared and Sara’s NDE began.

  Jake noticed but paid no real attention to the brief vision as he had seen this kind of thing before with the normal test subjects.

  People’s minds did not always work in an ordered, cohesive pattern. Random thoughts and images often penetrated normal thinking patterns. This is what he thought this was; some random thought that had popped into Sara’s mind before she concentrated on the task at hand.

  Madison’s reaction behind him made Jake rethink this.

  It was as if she had been slapped in the face. She turned white as a ghost, swayed slightly in the stool, swooning, and then got control of herself, placing a steadying hand on the desk next to her. She glanced over at her mother in a jumble of wires and machinery and shook her head as a tear trickled down one cheek.

  Jake was unsure how to react. He felt like he was interrupting a private moment and quickly turned away.

  Sara’s Near Death Experience began as her first session had and as the monitors displayed her memories of it, Madison watched, enthralled. When the first anomaly showed up in the same spot as before, Jake was ready and adjusted the sound accordingly, applying some filter element in an attempt to clean up the audio.

  The adjustment had little effect on what they heard so Jake left it alone and would see what he could accomplish with the computer later. He didn’t want anything interrupting Sara this time.

  The video artifact showed up right where they expected it, but it looked clearer. The shapes were more human-like, with blurry eyes, noses, mouths and h
eads. One shape was clearly an adult, the other a child. If they were saying anything, it was indistinguishable from the noise that seemed to dominate the audio portion. Jake turned slightly and could see Madison’s intense concentration as she stared at the images. Her knuckles were turning white from the grip she had on the armrests of the stool.

  Jake watched intently as they approached the area in Sara’s vision where she’d had the claustrophobic attack and the experiment had been terminated. A larger distorted area began forming on the screen, only this time it was gaining brightness as it grew.

  Then, an amazing thing happened.

  Slideshow-like images appeared rapidly from nowhere and whizzed past eleven year old Sara with increasing speed. They seemed to head straight for the glowing area of lighted distortion and meld into it, causing it to grow.

  The images flew by so rapidly it was nearly impossible to distinguish one from the other. Jake could just catch flashes of blurry faces and objects racing across the screen, nothing distinct, and then they were gone.

  Eleven year old Sara and the two shapes beside her began moving slowly toward the growing and brightening distorted area. Sara’s face was so happy and peaceful. Suddenly, breaking through the audio distortion, a loud booming thump shook the room. Madison gasped and Teri flinched. The large, bright, distorted area on the screen wavered and shrank a little.

  Eleven year old Sara turned back toward the scene below her and watched a paramedic raise his fist, bringing it down hard onto her sternum.

  “Whump!”

  Even though the volume was turned down on the speakers, the sound blasted out of them and shook everything that was loose in the lab. Jake felt the pressure wave and took a deep breath. He watched Teri and Madison do the same, like a shuddering collective gasp.

  Jake hadn’t noticed it before, but the hum of the cooling system had increased and as he realized this, he glanced at the gauges and was surprised to see them in the yellow, rapidly approaching the red area.

  He was about to terminate the experiment when it ended on its own, but not without a dramatic conclusion. Just as Sara had described, as she rejoined the real world, her grandmother spoke two words as clearly and distinctly as if she were standing there in the lab.

  “Charlotte and Madison.”

  As the cooling machinery spooled down and silence enveloped the lab, Jake turned to Sara’s daughter and found her with tears streaming down her face, sobbing.

  “I never believed her. I never believed her. I’m sorry Mom, I never believed you.”

  * * *

  As all of them sat behind the console and watched the recorded session, Madison asked, “Mom. Why?”

  “Ryan?” Sara asked.

  Madison nodded.

  “I guess I wanted to make sure you were thinking of him through all of this. I know what awaits me at the end of this life and I wanted you to know what was waiting for you—Ryan.”

  “I think about him every waking minute of every day, Mom. That’s all I do.” She paused. “Will he really be there?” Madison asked, pleading as fresh tears sprang from her shining green eyes.

  Sara nodded, smiling.

  Not wanting to intrude on the moment, but unable to help himself, Jake asked, “Who is Ryan? Wait! Was that the young man we saw in Sara’s mind just before the NDE began?”

  Regaining some composure, Madison nodded and said, “Yes. He was my fiancé.”

  “What happened?” Teri blurted. Then, “Sorry—I mean if you don’t mind telling us.”

  “I’ll try,” Madison said. “It’s still difficult for me.” She took a big breath and began. “Ryan and I were to be married last fall. We had been planning the wedding for over a year and I was so excited. The ceremony was to take place on Jekyll Island, our favorite place. The place he proposed to me. But he was killed in a car accident three weeks before.” Her voice cracked as more tears spilled from her eyes. “He was coming home from fishing with his friends. He was talking to me on his cell phone, so excited about the big Mahi he had caught and I guess he wasn’t paying attention. The highway patrol said a logging truck drifted over too far into the oncoming lane and he didn’t react in time. He was thrown from his truck as it flipped. I could hear everything over the cell phone. Sounds I’ll never forget—and then the silence.” Sobbing now, she said, “If only he hadn’t been on his phone talking to me. I distracted him. I killed him.”

  “Honey,” Sara said, gently, “we’ve been through this. It’s not your fault. It’s a tragedy it happened, and it must have been horrible being on the phone with him, but the driver of the truck is to blame. He was the one driving drunk.”

  “No, Mom. If he hadn’t been talking to me he would have seen the truck coming and been able to get out of its way. I’ll never be able to forgive myself and I miss him so much.”

  “Madison,” Jake said, “you will see Ryan again. Just like I will see my wife. I won’t rest until we are able to see and talk with them again.”

  Jake watched Sara turn away, frowning.

  * * *

  Teri sat at her desk, worried.

  She wasn’t sure what had happened today and the more her mind tried to wrap itself around the events, the more it created excuses for what she had heard and felt. She knew Jake’s mind worked in its own way and most people could not even compete with him on his level, but what she saw today was way beyond anything even he could conceive. She glanced over at him and frowned.

  Jake was at his desk, working like a crazed lunatic. She could see he was spooled up. Teri knew he hadn’t been like this since the subatomic cellular discovery and it bothered her. He must have felt her eyes on him because he looked up.

  “Everything ok, Teri? I thought things went well, considering.”

  Teri nodded her head but didn’t reply.

  “The anomalies seemed better, except for the sound,” Jake continued. “And Madison sure was convinced. I know we can help her. She seemed so distraught.”

  “Jake, what are we doing? Have you even been paying attention today?”

  “Of course. What do you mean?”

  “I mean that earth shattering thud during the session. The one that blew my eardrums out even with the volume turned down. The one that shook objects on the desk and rattled the teeth in my head. The one that scared the shit out of me! You did notice that, right?” Teri stood and paced. “Oh, and how about the temperature of the cooling system? What kind of energy causes that much heat? We’ve never seen that kind of consumption. I was worried the system was going to overload. And did you notice that neither one of those things occurred during the playback of the session? Energy levels and sound levels were normal and definitely not felt. What was going on?”

  She watched Jake study her.

  “I hear you. I don’t have an explanation for those things yet, but I think we should keep working on it until we understand it better. Don’t you?”

  “I’m not so sure. I know you’re excited about what happened but I’m a little scared. You’re so reckless when you’re like this. Maybe we should slow down a bit, take a step back, and see where we want to take this.”

  “I know where I want to take this. We’re getting closer and this is such a big breakthrough. I can’t slow down now, you know that. Beth wouldn’t want me to.”

  Teri couldn’t argue with him when he brought Beth up. She knew his dead wife was the sole reason this obsession consumed him. Not for the first time since she knew Jake, Teri wished he had never met Beth.

  4

  January 9, 2010 – 9:14 a.m.

  Present Day

  Orange Park, Florida

  In the lab, Peter was hooked up to Andee and ready to go. This was his third session with the machine and he seemed a little apprehensive and anxious.

  “Uh—guys? I need to go to the bathroom,” Peter said.

  Jake and Teri looked at each other and then Teri said, “Mr. Vargas, are you sure? You just went before we hooked you up. I mean, if you gotta go, yo
u gotta go, but it will take ten minutes to disconnect you and another twenty to hook you back up. You know this.”

  Peter hesitated, then said, sighing, “All right, I’ll be ok I guess. How long will I have to stay in here?”

  “For the length of your NDE and then ten minutes to unhook you,” Jake said. “It should be about thirty minutes total according to your last session.”

  “All right,” Peter said.

  Jake busied himself prepping the computer while Teri checked over the connections and Peter’s leads.

  Everything looked good to Jake so he said, “All right Peter, are you ready to start?”

  “Yes.”

  “Try and relax. Take a few deep breaths and then take us back to your experience.”

  Andee’s video screens showed a view of wide open desert with billowing black smoke in the distance. A battle was taking place and Jake knew this to be Iraq in the first days of Desert Storm.

  As the scene panned around, battle scarred buildings came into view. Mortar fire could be heard in the distance with the staccato of small arms fire punctuating the ‘whump’ of exploding munitions. Shouts and curses, along with radio static could be heard during lapses of intense firing. Wounded and dead Iraqi soldiers lay strewn across the area.

  The scene was intense, but to Jake it seemed less detailed and not as vivid as most of the other Near Death Experiences they had viewed and recorded. This is what bothered Jake the most about Peter Vargas. His anomalies weren’t like the others which showed up in the prior NDE’s. His were more like inconsistencies.

  Teri interrupted his train of thought. “Here, this is what I was talking about. See—this is different than the two previous recordings we have of Peter’s NDE. There was a tank right here. I remember because it was hit with some kind of bomb and it exploded.”

  “You’re right,” Jake said, looking over her shoulder at the monitor. “I remember that. Why does his memory of it change? Could his injuries have affected his recall?”