The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) Read Free Page B

He stood up and now he was yelling, “This is
bullshit doc! What the hell kind of crap are you pulling here?”
    Bill leaned back a little in his chair almost flinching, but
it was obvious he expected Jack to get emotional and he held his composure. “Jack,
I know this is hard, please calm down.” His hands came up almost in a pleading
gesture. “Look, I will tell you what I can but you need to calm down! Please!”
    Jack sat down heavily. His mind wasn’t working right. His
reaction to the fear was to fight, but there was no enemy here. His heart was
pounding and heat had flooded his face. Then all of a sudden, the numbness
slammed back into him and he withered in his chair.
    “Aww shit! I’m... Geez I’m sorry doc... It’s just... SHIT!” He
was looking down at his hands as if some answer might be there. He could feel
the weight of depression and despair starting to push down on him again. He
opened his mouth, but nothing came out, so he just sat there, staring at his
hands.
    “Look, Jack, I’ll tell you what I know, but we’ll have to
wait until I hear back from the Mayo Clinic before I can give you a definite
answer. I want to do a biopsy and send them a sample so we can be sure. Let’s
schedule it for Wednesday.” Bill jotted something on the calendar that lay flat
on his desk, then looked Jack in the eye. “Jack, if I wasn’t damn sure, I
wouldn’t have dragged you in here like this.” Jack studied Bill and something
told him the man was right. “Like I said, they’re doing some things with
radiation and chemicals now. It’s no picnic, but at least you can fight it. If
you just decide to give up I don’t think you’ll last six months.” Bill
attempted to look encouraging, then, knowing it wasn’t working, slumped down in
his chair. “I’m really sorry Jack.”
    Jack looked up at him, but the only words he could find were,
“What time on Wednesday?”

               Chapter 3
    He was back to the void and nothingness. If he had a body,
he would be gasping for breath and sweating, but if he had a body, he couldn’t
feel it. There was only the knowledge of existence and now a memory. And that memory
had been so vivid it was as if he was there again. At the same time though, it
felt foreign and detached, more like he had been a puppet in a play.
    As he pondered what it meant, he realized that the re-living
of that day brought back a lot of the background memories leading up to it. Before,
he was just aware of being ; now he was aware of his life . Did
this mean he was dead? Maybe he was sick from the cancer and this was all just
a side effect. Or maybe it had killed him. Perhaps the answer was in the
memory. He focused again, and after a time, his consciousness shifted back to
that day.
     
    * * *
     
    The rest of the day, Jack went back and forth from his
garage to his living room, drank a few beers, listened to the radio a bit, and
even went for a cruise in his car, but his mind and heart were elsewhere. He
went to bed early that night, after attempting to eat a little dinner. Sleep
was as far away as his appetite, and mostly he lay there thinking about Jenny
and Ally. It would be two years in January...
     
    * * *
     
    Jack had hit the twenty year mark back in July, and with the
war brewing in Vietnam, he decided to get out while he still could. He had
joined the army at age 16 using a forged birth certificate he bought from a guy
he worked with at a local garage. He did it to get away from his foster family,
and just like any teenage kid he was hoping to get a chance to fight the
Germans or Japanese before the war ended. By the time he got out of training,
the war was pretty much over. He made it to Germany in time to help liberate
some death camps, but he never saw any real action in Europe. He re-enlisted
after his first four years, and a year later, he went to Korea. Jack was good
at being a soldier, his bravery earned him a reputation as a fearless soldier
and a nickname