JAA Ch. 02: Time and Again

"Hi, beautiful," he rasped.

"How are you feeling?"

"Okay, for now, I guess. The pain is still there but not as intense."

"I'm sorry, it will be a while before we can help you. Shelly had to go to the store to get some of the ingredients."

Gently as I could, I slipped in next to John. He smiled as I snuggled up next to him and put my arm across his chest holding him.

"That feels nice."

I pressed my forehead to the side of his head.

"John, what happened in the future? What happened to Miles? How did the war come about?"

"Miles. I told you in the letter how proud I was to know him. He was a brave man and died with honor. From what we were told, he saved over fifty children and his entire squad before he died."

"Oh god," I cried. Tears were streaming down my nose to drop off onto the sheets.

"As for the future, when Shelly returns and I have had a drink of that potion, I will sit with you two and tell you all about...what happened."

Still weeping I held John gently. He relaxed into me as the tears finally stopped rolling off my face. We lay like that for a long time. I think the warmth of my body next to his eased his pain a little. He was asleep after a short time. Slowly as I could, I slipped out from under the blankets. As I was pulling the covers over John, I heard Shelly come in the back door.

I rushed downstairs and joined her in the kitchen. She was just laying all the things she had bought, out on the counter. I took the paper from where she had set it down and started to read. We then made what John needed to relieve his pain.

After cooking up the elixir, we had to let it cool, so we placed it in the freezer for a bit. Susan went up to check on John while I reread the letter from my husband.

'My Dearest Shelly,

I know this is going to sound crazy and I really don't quite grasp the concept myself, but John has told us that you, in the past, will get this.

First I just want to say, that I have loved you since the first time we met what seems so long ago from where I stand today. You are my guiding light through the darkness. I love you my dear and I'm glad we spent all our lives together.

Now, down to business, John says to tell you something only you would know back at the beginning of the twenty-first century, so here it is. You miss-carried our first child in the first trimester, so unless you have told someone else other than Susan, you know it's me.

Susan. Be gentle with her dear. Here in the future Miles is no longer with us. He died in the battle for Atlanta. That's right; there is still war in the future. In addition, the one going on now is truly horrible, but John has kept us alive and you have kept him on his feet, along with Susan and me.

Also, the code is 998119. Again, only you and I know.

Now you are going to say a few words to you.

I love you,

Gerry'

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I read all that to myself. Gerry had never been very forthcoming with his feelings. He had told me he loved me when we were making love and every night before we went to sleep, but he had never told me any other time and never in public. Also, the news that Susan would lose Miles shocked me again. I started to re-read the next page, the letter from me.

'You beautiful woman,

You are you know. However, no matter how many times people tell us that, you and I don't think so. Listen to me dear, the future here is grim, help John with whatever he needs. Keep him as healthy as you can. I have included some things that will help you get him up and on his feet. He thinks the world of us and tells me every day how beautiful I am.

By now, you know this is you talking, as I know you have thought the things I just wrote a thousand times before. Here, where you are now, I, we are coming to grips with being beautiful in an ugly world. You heard right, the world in the future is an ugly, cold, place. Not a place for children, our children...I won't, I said I wouldn't...at all. John, bug off. Now, where was I, we.

The children here are our future more than at any time in the past. The human race is...dying. Unfortunately, I, we, will live forever. There is only one way out of this and I, we, are not that desperate. John will fill you in on the rest. Please help him, right this wrong that has occurred, if not for me, you, for the children.

I will say good-bye now. Good luck and remember, Gerry loves you, he has always loved you, me.

Stay healthy,

Me.

P.S. His name was going to be Sean. Only you, I, know that. Help John.'

No weeping for me this time, just questions, lots and lots of questions, some for John others for myself, looking at my watch, I saw it was time to take the potion up to John. Hurrying into the kitchen, I pulled the jug of...whatever it was, out of the freezer, grabbed a glass and headed upstairs.

I was waiting in the bedroom for Shelly to come up with the cooled potion. John was asleep, but I could see the grimace cross his face as the pains shot through his body. Shortly, Shelly was standing beside me with the jug and glass. I took the glass she handed to me. Bending, I shook John gently.

"Oh god," he croaked.

Shelly put the jug on the dresser and came over to help John sit up. Once he saw what I was holding he literally lunged for the glass.

"Whoa there mister, just take it easy..." I didn't finish as John pulled the glass from my grip.

Watching in amazement, I couldn't believe the speed with which John gulped down the potion. Then he held the glass out for a refill. I got the jug and poured him another glass. This glass he drank a little more slowly. When he was finished, he handed the glass back to me relaxing back into the pillows with a smile on his face. Astonished by how fast the elixir worked I took my finger and dipped it in the little that settled in the bottom of the glass. As I raised it to my lips, John was up and holding my wrist with a speed, I could not reconcile with his apparent age.

"Don't! Don't ever let that potion touch your lips. Is that clear?" John almost shouted. "Please promise me you will never, ever taste this. And when you are cooking it, from now on wear gloves, masks, and eye protection, please?"

"But...yes, I promise...but what harm could it do, if I just tasted..."

"No! Never, ever, do that, you hear me?" John said quietly.

Now I was a little scared. Shelly was now alongside me, her hand on my shoulder. She squeezed gently, then whispered.

"Please don't quarrel, from what I tell myself, it's not a very nice place where John comes from. Maybe he can tell us about it and we will understand about the elixir."

I nodded, looking into John's sad eyes. Never had I seen those eyes filled with such sadness.

"John, tell us why you have come back and what it's like in the future."

Susan had just asked the question I had been dreading to answer. I knew it had to be done, had to be answered, so they would know.

"May I have some water please?"

Susan nodded, turned and left the room. Shelly turned to follow with the jug of elixir.

"I will put this in the fridge and be right back," she told me as she left.

Sitting there, I thought about what I was going to say. Would they believe me? I had to convince them. I had to stop the madness that was the future. It was a while before they both returned. Susan handed me a cold bottle of water, which I drank from hastily. She had brought two and now handed me the second. When Shelly came back in the room, I cleared my throat taking another sip of water.

"What I am about to tell you will seem like a fairy tale created by a madman, but it's true. Believe your future selves and me when we say the future is not very bright, nor is it safe.

"On March 10, 2013, Doctors Fleming and Wizicoff announced a discovery of biblical proportions. The two doctors had spent their lives working on a cure for, of all things, old age. On that date, they announced they had found it. For a year, independent studies were conducted and the conclusion...the outcome...well, let's just say the scientific community and medical community were rocked.

"These two had found the cure for old age, including dementia and all debilitating physical ailments associated with old age. The world proclaimed them heroes of the twenty-first century. The country, the world rejoiced.

"Now flash forward to 2015, February to be exact. On February tenth, the first of the test subjects came in to see his doctor. The man had been thirty-five when treated in 2013. His hair had been dark brown. Now it was pure white, like mine. A small side effect of the serum the doctor told him. Then he explained to the doctor how he had these cravings for raw meat. The doctor told him it was just protein cravings brought on by the serum rebuilding muscle.

"Then the patient attacked the doctor, bit his neck and sucked as much blood from him as he could. He then went on to kill ten more people at the clinic. The police showed up and shot him fifty times before he even fell once. Finally, a sniper made a headshot that put him down long enough for him to be restrained. More and more reports like this spread across the country, then the world."

I paused to let what I said sink in and to take a drink. Neither of them said a word.

"More and more attacks were reported. The CDC started looking into the side effects of the serum. What they found was not pretty. The first thing they found was that three percent of the population was allergic to the serum and died within twenty-four hours, most deaths occurring within ten minutes of inoculation. It was a horrible, gruesome death that I won't go into unless you want me too."

"No, not now, maybe later though," Susan told me. Shelly nodded in agreement.

"The next thing they found was it had no effect on ten to fifteen percent of the population. Thirty-five percent of the population would benefit from the serum and lead long productive lives, possibly forever, barring unforeseen circumstances. The rest were like that first man. Their hair turned white and they became modern-day bloodsuckers. Vampires are what they started to call us. We were despised and hunted."

Both women were now looking at me wide-eyed, mouths slack, pores exuding fear in every direction. I smiled and licked my lips. Their eyes became wider with fear. I laughed as I watched the smiles return to their lips.

"Everything I just told you is true," I yelled, scowling at them.

Their smiles disappeared in an instant.

"I will not harm you; your future selves told you that. As long as I have that elixir I just drank, I will not attack you. You have seen what happens when I don't have it, I go mad with pain, then after the pain, I go mad with a lust for blood. As long as I have a supply of that elixir, I will not have the desire to kill and maim for blood. But I will require some raw beef."

I stopped, all of a sudden, tired. I needed to eat. I needed protein, raw bloody protein.

"Oh, god, you mean now," Shelly exclaimed.

"What?" Susan asked, surprise in her voice.

"Yes, please. It has been a long time since I have eaten properly.

"Of course, of course, it says that we should get you to eat raw meat. Susan, do you want to go to the store or should I?"

Susan looked at her friend then at me, then back to Shelly. She walked to her dresser, pulled a pair of jeans from a drawer, and put them on. She hurried out the door and was down the stairs before anyone could stop her. Shelly smiled at me as she got up.

"I'll be back in a minute. What kind of beef would you like?"

"Eye of the round will be just fine, thank you," I told her smiling weakly.

She walked out the door shaking her head.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" I shouted after Susan.

"What's wrong? You ask me what's wrong and there is that...," her voice lowered in volume, "thing up in my bed?"

"Susan, John is in your bed. He came here for your help. He is what he is through no fault of his own. So what's the matter?"

"I..." Susan collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table. "I...I really can't say. I know he is basically the same person. I know he hasn't attempted...to...to...hurt us, but...I guess I'm just scared."

"And we should be. My future self told me that the future is not a nice place to live. She called it ugly and cold, not a place for children. And John wants to fix whatever it is that happened. Though we know what happened, those doctors created the future. They did what has happened to John, to us. Now go get him something to eat. He says eye of the round will do, so get a big eye of the round roast."

I stepped up to her, pulling her from the chair and into my arms. She hugged me fiercely.

"Just hold me for a second or two, Shelly."

"I'm not going anywhere," I told her as I hugged her back. "Here take my car, it's blocking yours anyway," I told her holding out my keys as we backed away from each other.

"I'll be back as quick as I can," she told me grabbing her coat and heading for the door.

"Hey, get us something to eat too," I yelled after her.

She waved her hand in the air in acknowledgment as she closed the door behind her. Turning I went back upstairs. Walking into the bedroom, I saw that John was still sitting up and smiling.

"What are you smiling about?"

"You are beautiful," he said.

"Do stop that," I replied feeling the blush of embarrassment rush up my face.

"Do you know how long it took me and Gerry telling you how beautiful you are before you finally stopped blushing?"

"No how long? And what are, were you telling me I was beautiful for?"

"Oh, Miles helped when he was still with us. Susan and Jenny didn't blush when told, so Gerry enlisted our help in breaking you from being embarrassed when told you are beautiful. We all had fun making you blush all the time, until one day you didn't. On that day I stopped telling you when Gerry was around to tell you."

I could still feel the heat in my cheeks as he told me this.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did Gerry want me not to blush?"

"Because it would give away that you weren't one of us."

"What?"

"You dear Shelly fell into that thirty-five percent who would live forever without the gruesome side effects. Your hair never turned white as Susan's did. Susan looked glorious with white hair. Gerry's did too as did mine."

"What?"

"Shocking isn't it? To find out you are among the small percentage of humans that the serum worked for."

"But it didn't work for Gerry?"

"No. He along with Susan, Jenny and I turned pure white. Then the pain came, the pain of unbelievable proportions, intense, searing pain over your whole body. You tried all sorts of painkillers, some worked, most didn't. Those that did, didn't for long and we were right back where we started. It took you and several other doctors' months to find the elixir. At first, you tried injecting it. When that didn't work as well as you thought, you added water and had us drink the potion.

"That worked so well, you all thought you had the cure. That is until the pain returned. You know I should wait for Susan to get back to tell the rest."

"She's listening," I told him holding up my phone. "She's been listening since she left."

"Oh! Hi, Suzi."

"Don't call me that," her tinny voice came from the phone in my hand.

I was smiling at him as I shrugged my shoulders. I knew she hated that version of her name, hated it with a passion. The only person she let call her that was Miles.

"Please wait until I get back, I'm leaving the store now and will be there in a few minutes."

"We will dear, I promise," I told her. "See you soon."

"See you."

I closed my phone and tossed it on the bed next to me. I slid up the bed and sat beside John. I propped myself up on some more pillows and just looked into his eyes. Leaning forward I kissed his lips gently. Then pulled back quickly, they were ice cold.

"Are you cold?"

"Ah, no, not really, or should I say I don't feel the cold as you do."

"What does that mean?"

"Does Susan have a stethoscope in the house?"

"Of course, why?"

"Go get it. I have been here for two days and neither of you has listened to my heart. Go get it."

I rushed downstairs and found her bag in the living room where she had left it when we were cleaning up. I pulled the stethoscope from her bag and rushed back upstairs.

"Hi beautiful," John said as I entered the room.

I blushed of course but went right to the bed standing beside him and pressed the stethoscope to his chest, nothing. I moved the instrument around, still, nothing. Dropping that end, I grabbed his arm and felt for his pulse, nothing. For all intents and purposes, he was dead.

"What the hell?" I yelled in shock and dismay.

"What's wrong now?" Susan asked from behind me.

"Shelly, you didn't listen carefully enough. She thinks I'm dead," I told Susan laughing.

"What do you mean I didn't listen carefully enough? I listened, I didn't hear a heartbeat."

"Come here," I took the end of the stethoscope and pressed it to my chest. "Now listen very carefully, it won't be as loud as you are used to because it no longer needs to beat as hard."

The look on her face turned from dismay to surprise. Then a smile crossed her lips.

"Nor does it beat the same way you are used to. It does everything all at once, kind of."

"That's amazing. How? How does it work?"

"Let me listen," Susan said stepping up beside her.

Shelly hand the stethoscope to Susan and stepped aside. Susan placed it in her ears and pressed the other end to my chest. Then, looking down she raised the earpiece. Nodding she continued to listen, intently.

"Amazing, I have never heard anything like that before. It seems so effortless, so simple. How?"

"I'll tell you all that when I continue my story, in the meantime...ahem...food, please."

"Oh, yes I'm sorry, of course. Would you like to, do you feel up to, coming downstairs."

"I do, but I should really eat alone, it might freak you out..."

"Ah, okay then, I'll be right up with it. Shelly, give me a hand?"

"Sure, sure, see you in a little bit."

Both women left. My stomach was growling for something. I closed my eyes and tried to think of pleasanter times.

Hurrying downstairs, Shelly and I started to pull the groceries out of the bag I had put on the counter. I grabbed one of the roasts I had purchased, unwrapping it I placed it on a plate. I grabbed a knife from the block on the counter and a fork from the drawer. I went back upstairs to give this bloody, cold piece of meat to John.

As I entered the room, John's eyes popped open and a look of pure lust flashed across his face. I placed the plate on the bedcover on his lap. He looked down at the plate then up at me.

"Is everything okay?" I asked.

"Yesh, it ish, could you pleash leave. God, I'm sho hungry."

His speech had changed. I noticed his mouth was now watering and his lips were being pressed out as if his teeth were growing in his mouth.

"Leave pleash, ShuShan."

I turned and left, closing the door behind me. Standing outside the door, I listen intently. I heard growling and then a moan of contentment. I jerked when I heard Shelly calling my name from the kitchen. Turning I rushed downstairs.

While Susan took the eye of round roast up to John, I threw together what she had gotten for us. Salads and some pre-cooked chicken. I was just putting the first bite into my mouth when she returned. She sat down and dug in. We ate in silence. Just as we were finishing John appeared at the foot of the stairs wrapped in a bathrobe.