Blink of an Eye: Beginnings Series Book 8

by Jacqueline Druga

  Joe was so ill, he could barely stand. He had to lean on his desk in order to stand up. “This has to be Frank’s decision too. Do you realize what you have done to this community? Do you?” His ill tainted voice rose in anger. “Our community is dying.”

  “I tried to stop it. That’s why I did what I did. Don’t you understand. He lied!”

  Before Joe could say anymore, his office door burst open. “Ellen.”

  “Joe.” She raced in.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Looking for him.” She pointed over to John, stormed to him. Grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back. “She found you out!” Ellen screamed at him. “She found you out and you gave Jenny the virus. Didn’t you?”

  “No.” John shook his head as he lifted it. He looked as sick as everyone else in Beginnings. “No.”

  “You have to give it to me, John. If you even have a drop of it left. Give it to me,” Ellen pleaded in anger. “We can beat this if we have the host virus. I know you have it.”

  “I don’t.” John sprang up from his chair and swayed. “If I did, don’t you think I would hand it right over. I don’t have it.” He breathed heavily. “I wish I did. But I wouldn’t give it to my wife!” He looked at Joe then Ellen. “I love my wife and I love my daughter and they have this thing too. Everything I did, I did so they would never have to face this,” he cried again, weakly stumbling to his seat. “If I did so much wrong, if I betrayed my community for them. Why ... why would I give them the virus.”

  Ellen stood baffled listening to his heart wrenching reason. “He had ...” Her hand crumpled the fax as she stood so puzzled. “He had to have, right. Right, Joe?” She looked to her father for answers. “Joe. Joe!” She tried to reach out for his stumbling body, but it was too late, Joe’s head went back and he fell face forward to the floor.

  <><><><>

  It was a phone call Frank did not want to receive, but one he felt would come. So sick Josh sounded on the phone when he called Frank for help, telling him that he and Denny couldn’t watch the kids anymore.

  Frank expected the two teenagers to be down when he walked in, he didn’t expect to see what he did when he walked in to his house. Little Katie stood with a cloth running it over Denny’s head. “Katie,” Frank called to her then coughed.

  “My brother’s sick.”

  Frank ran over to Josh who sat in the chair, his head forward. “Josh. Hey Guy.”

  “Dad.” Josh couldn’t keep his eyes in focus. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  Frank closed his eyes and turned to the steps at the sound of Nick’s loud crying. He raced up the stairs and Billy stood at the top. “Billy.”

  “Frank, we’re trying. Me and Katie tried. But they’re all sick,” Billy told him. “I’m scared.”

  “I know. Go down stairs.” Frank turned to the bedroom where Nick was at, and his legs weakened when he saw Joey laying on top of the covers. Joey lifted his head slightly and plopped back down. Frank grabbed his radio. “Robbie. Robbie, I need your help at my house.”

  “I’m at the clinic with Dad, Frank. He’s down.”

  “Robbie, please come to my house. Please. And don’t say anything to Ellen.” Getting an agreement from Robbie, Frank moved to Nick’s crib. “Give me a second. Please,” Frank pleaded with the newborn placing the pacifier in his mouth. “Just ...” Frank’s head turned to the sound of Brian crying. “Oh God.” He hurried to crib, he wasn’t in there. “Bri!” Frank called out, following the crying. He ran into the next bedroom and he saw Brian laying on Alexandra’s bed. He curled in a ball holding on to his blanket for security. “Bri.”

  “Da-da.” Brian lifted himself holding out his arms to Frank.

  Frank’s eyes closed tightly when he took Brian into his arms and felt the hot, dry feel of his skin. “Oh God.” Frank started to breathe even heavier. “Alex.” Where was she? “Alex,” he called louder as he ran out into the hall still holding Brian. “Billy, where’s your ...” Frank saw her, she lay on his bed. Hurrying into his room, he ran to Alexandra who curled up with Ellen’s pillow. Her already thin, tiny body quivered. “Alex.” Frank sat down on the bed next to her, running his hand down her fevered forehead. “Sweetie.”

  “Daddy.” She started to cry. “Daddy, I’m so sick, Daddy.”

  Frank scooped her up into his arms as well, holding her tight. Her legs wrapped around him and she cried uncontrollably, coughing a deep echoing cough that sounded as if it should come from a man. “You’ll be OK.”

  “I’m sick.”

  “I know.” Frank closed his eyes tightly, and rocked her. “I’m here.” Hearing the sound of Nick crying, Joey crying, Frank wished at that moment his arms were big enough for all of his children, because at that moment, all of his children needed him. And Frank was at a loss.

  <><><><>

  It was the only thing that made her smile on this day, Danny Hoi telling Ellen that his luck hadn’t been so good since he arrived in Beginnings. She chuckled at how he kept his spirits up despite the fact that he was so sick. But even with the multitudes patients that now filled the clinic. Patients now spread past that east wing into the main hall, Ellen found time to go back to Joe.

  She stood above Joe who was unconscious, wiping him down, reflecting on that special dance they had not two days earlier. In her sadness, she felt the comforting arms wrap around her from behind. She felt the softness of his hair brush against her cheek, and Ellen fell back into his hold. “I can’t watch him like this.”

  “We know he makes it, Ellen.” Henry spoke softly in her ear. “We know Joe makes it.”

  “Everything is different now, Henry.” She turned around and buried her head into his chest. “I never wanted to go through this again in my life. But here we are.”

  “I wish there was more that I could do.” Henry held her.

  Ellen pulled back to look at him, when she did, she saw Dean walk solemnly into the room. “Dean? Dean, what is it?”

  Dean stood leaning on the door way. His hand lifted the papers he held, then dropped it. “She doesn’t have it.” He spoke with so much pain. “Jenny doesn’t have the host virus.” With another slam of his hand to his thigh, Dean left the room.

  Henry looked at Ellen who just stood speechless. He kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back.” He walked with a quick pace from the room, and to the lab. Dean leaned on the counter his hand across his face, his hair sprawled through his finger tips. “Dean.”

  “I’m sorry.” Dean stood up.

  “How can this be?” Henry asked. “In the future she had it.”

  “She doesn’t now.”

  “But ...”

  “She doesn’t now!” Dean called out with fierce emotions, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a tube of blood. He chuckled when he looked at it in a mad way. “When I took this tube, I had such high hopes.” He clenched it wanting to throw it. “She doesn’t have the host, Henry.” Dean looked at Henry so lost. “And if someone doesn’t come up with it.” He opened the fridge and placed the tube of Jenny’s blood in the rack. He paused in his talking to look at the eerie sight. The rack of blood labeled was like everything else that surrounded him, so much like a vision he had seen before. The future they had visited no long ago. “We’re all ...” Dean slammed the refrigerator when he heard the anguished scream of Ellen echo toward them. With Henry he raced into the hall.

  “No!” Ellen screamed grabbing Alexandra from Frank’s arms. “No.” Her head flung back then forward burying it to her daughter and spinning to Dean. “Our babies are sick.” She started to cry, then weakly fell into Dean’s arms when he joined her. “Our babies are sick.”

  <><><><>

  Frank had finally stopped doing anything. And it wasn’t his sickness that made him stop, it was the fact that his children were sick and he wanted to be with them. He wasn’t going to leave their sides, of that Frank was certain. In that room was where he belonged, it was where he was needed most, and in the room with his children wa
s where Frank would stay.

  It was well after midnight when Ellen returned to the larger room where all of her children, even the healthy ones were and slept. Dean was there, he held Brian. Frank sat in a chair cradling a sleeping Alex, and Robbie paced with a restless Joey. They all had to be there, because there had to be enough arms to hold the children who so desperately needed comfort.

  She kissed all of her children, then dropped so tired at Frank’s feet, leaning on his legs and grabbing Alexandra’s tiny hand in hers. “Henry says it’s quiet for a while.” She nuzzled to Frank’s knee.

  Dean rested his head against Brian’s. “For a while.”

  Frank ran his hand down Alexandra’s face, speaking to Dean and not taking his eyes off of her. “You’re gonna keep trying, Dean, right? You’re gonna keep trying to help our kids.”

  “With my heart ...” Dean hesitated and took a deep breath when his emotions started to take over him, he held Brian tighter. “With my heart and soul, Frank. I’ll give it everything I have and more.”

  Ellen looked up at Dean. “How are we going to do this? All of these people are sick. We have to work on a cure. We have to help these people. Medicate them. How are we going to do this?”

  Robbie stopped in his pace, his head lifted in a thinking look, then saw Dean sway his head so at a loss. “We’ll figure something out,” Robbie said. “But can one of you tell me, how many, how many in Beginnings are sick? How many are we looking at caring for?”

  Ellen lifted her head. “Maybe it would be easier to ask, how many in Beginnings aren’t sick?”

  Dean saw them look to him for an answer and he knew it. “Not including those of us immune?” He swallowed harshly. “None.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  AUGUST 18

  Henry heard the commotion at the end of the main hallway even through the early morning moans that came from those suffering from the new plague. Dropping the needle he was getting ready to inject in Danny Hoi, he headed with haste to the arguing that entailed. “What’s going on?”

  Dean stood facing off with Robbie. “Tell him, Henry, get them out of my clinic.”

  Henry looked to the large group of men who stood behind Robbie. “Robbie?”

  “Tell him to pipe his ass down. We had a rough night. He needs to work on the virus. We need all the help we can get. Here are twenty-seven healthy and immune hands, ready and willing to help out.” Robbie pointed to the Society defectors he brought in two days earlier. “They volunteered. Let them help.”

  Henry looked to Dean. “We need help. They can wipe down. They can change bedclothes. They can do the work and care so you can beat this thing, Dean.”

  Dean tossed his hands up. “All right,” he said strongly then pointed to Robbie. “If anything goes wrong. If they do anything wrong. It’s on your head.”

  After Dean disappeared into the lab, Robbie flipped him off. He faced the twenty-seven men. “OK, you know what to do. You know what I told you. Any questions, find the little blonde with the big mouth and she’ll tell you what needs done. Move it out.” Robbie waited until they all rushed down the hall by him and he smiled at Henry. “Thanks.”

  Henry couldn’t think about what was going on, his mind was elsewhere. But now he had more help. That’s what mattered, that and the people of Beginnings. So Henry returned to doing what he had to do. And that was helping the people he lived among.

  <><><><>

  “Come on.” Dean beckoned with emotions as he tried with everything he had to revive little Kimmy. “Breathe.”

  “Dean.” Ellen pulled him back. “She’s gone.”

  “No.” He shrugged her away.

  “She’s been gone for nine minutes, Dean,” Ellen spoke strongly in his ear. “She is gone. Let ...” Ellen’s voice dropped with emotions. “Let her go.”

  Letting out a long grunt, Dean’s hands slammed down hard to the edge of the bed rattling it. He pulled harshly in a spin from Ellen, Held up his arm and stormed out of the room.

  “Dean.” She followed him as he made an enraged dash to his lab. “Dean.” Just before she stepped inside, she heard the loud crashing and banging. She walked into see Dean clearing things from the counter. “Stop it.” She rushed to him. “Stop.”

  “We’re losing.” He looked at her, his face red.

  “We’re still fighting,” Ellen spoke almost afraid of the expression on his face.

  “But we’re losing the battle! The symptoms are taking over, El,” Dean screamed out stepping away. “Our children. Our children, Ellen, are dying. And there is nothing we can do about it. Nothing. We had this thing.” His hand slammed on the counter. “We had this thing and we failed to do with it what we should.” With a hard swing Dean sent a stack of folders flying outward spraying their papers about the lab.

  “And do you think, throwing things is gonna save them? Do you think screaming about it is gonna help.”

  “No ... yes.”

  “Yes?” Ellen said stunned.

  “Yes.” He stormed to her. “Maybe if I shouted loud enough, maybe the powers that be will hear me!” He looked to the ceiling. “Maybe he’ll get off his ass and help us this time. God damn you.” He pointed up throwing his body with it. “God damn you for letting this happen again. This is your world. How can you let it die all over again.”

  “Dean.” Ellen reached for him as he gripped the counter and dropped his head. “Come on.”

  “No.” He pulled away. “No!” He ran his hand harshly through his hair. “Kimmy was the first to die. In this time and in the future we went to. You wanna know who’s gonna die next. I can tell you. Cole.” Dean picked up a folder. “And not because I’m a psychic but because it was all given to us. Every single thing that would happen was documented, Ellen.” He slammed the folder down. “Look around. Look at the cots. The number of people. We ignored it. We hoped it wouldn’t get to this. But all the hoping it the world couldn’t stop it. Did we cause it to happen faster? Look at the fridge.” Dean walked to it and opened it. “This scares me. This is the same sight I saw when we opened that fridge in the future.” He slammed it closed. “When we came to the future we saw Robbie walking around. Maybe had we pulled the notes from further back we would have seen the reason for his beating the virus. Robbie probably had it before anyone else in that future too. Look at who is not sick. You, me, Henry, and Johnny. Billy?” Dean laughed in disbelief. “Not only are the survivors the same but we played right into the future’s hand. We secured it. We gave ourselves the vaccination to ensure we’d beat it. And when I heard Billy’s name pulled ...” He swayed his head. “I should have known. Billy beat it in the future. We never were stopping this, El, we were just living what was meant to happen that’s all. The only difference is we had a big preview.”

  “No!” Ellen shouted at him. “You are wrong. There are things that are not the same.”

  “That is true,” Dean spoke with edge and anger. “How about the fact that instead of the virus hitting in strains two, then one, then three. The virus hit us in the strains, three then two, but no strain one. How is that? How can we have strain twos without ever having a strain one invasion? I can see if they dropped it on us like they did with the third strain. But they didn’t. These people that have strain two, they were exposed a week ago. A week. What happened, El? Did we miss it?” Dean threw his hand up walking to her. “We did, didn’t we? We had to have missed the invasion, the exposure.”

  “Dean ...”

  “No, El, think about it. Think.” He pointed to his temple while bracing her shoulders. “We’re missing it, we’re missing it and that is our key. How did they get exposed? Who was the host? Someone brought it in. Something brought it in here a week ago. What happened a week ago that was different than any documentation we had from the future. What is different? What is it that we’re not ...” Dean went silent, his eyes widened, “... seeing.”

  “Dean?”

  “No.” He closed his eyes. “It can’t be that simple. Yes
it is.” He opened his eyes and turned from her. “The food supply. Lace the food supply. So unsuspecting.”

  “Dean?” Ellen watched him walk to the counter. “What are you ...” A loud slam of Dean’s hand caused Ellen to shriek. “Dean!”

  “Can you be it?” Dean’s eyes raised at the same time he brought into his view, wiggling in his hand, a furry grey mouse. “There’s one to find out.” In one sweeping motion, Dean slammed the mouse back down to the counter, reached into his pocket, pulled out a pen, raised it high, then stabbed it with force into the body of the mouse. The mouse squealed loudly as the pen went through him, pinning him to the counter. “El, get me a slide.” Dean held his hand out keeping his eyes peered to the mouse. The second he felt the slide touch upon his hand was the second his eyes focused in on the trickle of blood that flowed from the mouse. And unwillingly doing so, Dean’s gift from Henry kicked in with his focus. The small trickle grew closer to him. Engulfing his vision first in all red, then deeper red, then white, then circles of molecules, cells moving about, and then ... the virus. Dean concentrated harder. In his vision it was like he himself was standing inside the blood of that mouse, it swam in his peripheral vision. And the closer Dean focused in on it, the more Dean could see it. And with a huge grin and excited slam of his hand with a ‘yes’ Dean spun around to Ellen. “We got it!” He grabbed her and kissed her hard. “We got it!” He ran out of the lab racing down the halls. “Robbie! Robbie!”

  Robbie came out of a patient room. “Dean, what is ...”

  “Where are the twenty-seven men you brought in?” Dean asked him.

  “They’re helping out. Henry said they could.”

  “Get them. Get them now. You get them and you send them back out, you join them too, get Henry. All of you go out and find me every single mouse you can. Gather them up and bring them in. We got it. We got our host. We’re gonna beat this thing.” He spun from Robbie and raced down the hall. With a loud, screaming ‘whew!’ as he skipped up in a jump, Dean grabbed hold of Ellen who stood in the hall, lifted her in a hug, spun her around, kissed her excitedly and set her down. He then grabbed her hand, pulling her back into his lab to begin their work. And they would start by taking advantage of the sacrificed rodent who bled upon their counter. His blood was still fresh, it held the host virus, and most of all it was a quick start to the end of it all.