Love Revolution

Let's talk about the economy for a minute. Right now America is experiencing internal economic oppression. Most of us are at the bottom, struggling from paycheck to paycheck to pay the bills. Right? Do you know why we struggle so much? I learned recently that 1% of our population controls 40 % of the money. That means that there is enough money to go around, but it is poorly distributed. I'm not saying that the poor are entitled to other people's hard-earned money. I'm saying we need to educate ourselves and redistribute the money by making better decisions. It's difficult to do that when we're in a state of mere survival every single day. Throughout history when any group of people is oppressed by another, the former revolts against the latter. Do we need a revolution in America? I boldly say, YES. What kind of revolution do we need? A revolution of love. If we love ourselves and our fellow people we can learn to make better choices with the resources we already have. Here's how:

1. Buy within your means. Avoid credit cards which are designed to keep you in debt for life. If you have any credit cards pay them off ASAP! Read the fine print. If you pay the minimum payment every month, you're paying mostly interest. If you pay 3 times the minimum you could be out of debt in around 3 years. If you pay only the minimum, you're looking at around 30 years to pay your debt.

2. When prices go up, refuse to pay. Inflation is increasing significantly faster than income. How do we stop this? If everyone refuses to pay when prices greatly increase, we can force prices back down.

3. Do what's best for you, your family, and community. We have become a disjointed and self-serving nation. A strong nation is united. A weak nation is a target. How can we be unified if our families are not? Nourish your family and communities.

Love enough to make the change. We need all of us to do it. I humbly ask everyone to take a chance and make a change starting today. Let's unite one by one. Spread the word. Love revolution today.

The Immortality Experiment: Excerpt 8-C

Alex left his office early to get to the lab and start the procedure on time. He entered using the codes Charles had taught him. Easy as pie, easy as pie, he chanted to himself, and recalled the two little switches that Charles had shown him. He tried to remember which one to use for each phase, but was not certain anymore of the correct distinction. He thought he should use the top one for the third phase, the one he was supposed to operate today.


"They will be in the lab at 2 o’clock," Charles had told him, "so you just have to show up and flip the switch."

Easy as pie, easy as pie, Alex repeated trying to reassure himself. But it was not working. He was sweating bullets. He could easily use his Walkie-Talkie to ask Charles. He doubted, however, that Charles would continue to trust him if he could not remember such a small detail as which of two switches to use.


Worse than his worries about screwing up the experiment were his concerns that somehow his interaction with Charles would draw the pursuer after himself and his wife. He tried to shake this thought from his head. Perhaps this anguish was what kept him from remembering the proper switch for the third phase.

He breezed in the ground floor of the lab through the waiting area. Alex expected to see the volunteers waiting for him as soon as he passed through the second door. That had been the case the day he came with Charles. But this time the lab was empty. The devices rested alone in the center of the floor. The gentle humming of the lights was the only sound in that small room.

Alex took three short steps to the exit and cracked open the door to look past it. The hallway was quiet and empty. He scratched the short stubble on his round chin and glanced down at his watch. It read 2:05pm. Charles had insisted that they would be punctual.




So what could be the hold up?


Alex waited fifteen minutes, thinking they might just be running late. He grew impatient quickly and began pacing the room. He played with the clipboard, inspected the tiny bulbs that were the only source of light in the room, and examined the cabinets that he discovered were filled with odd-looking electrical equipment.

By 2:25pm, Alex had grown curious about the contraptions in the center of the room. He would have inspected them, but he could not wait any longer. Something had to be wrong. The volunteers should not have been this late.

Alex pulled out his Walkie-Talkie to page Charles.

"Come in Green Crocodile. We have problems at the swamp. Over."

He listened to the static for a response as he walked out of the building.

"Come in Green Crocodile. Repeat. We have problems at the swamp. Over."

The static sounded monotonously. No answer. Alex broke into a run. If Charles could not answer, maybe the enemy had already gotten to him. Then it would already be too late, but Alex still ran.

* * *

The Immortality Experiment: Excerpt 8-B

The same cryptic message ran across the screen in the back of Charles’ limo. Terrified, Charles jumped out the door and slammed it behind him, as if by not looking at the message he made its implications disappear.

“On second thought, Mr. Sinclair, I think I will just walk,” he called out to the driver. Or run, he corrected as he sped out to the sidewalk at a quick jog.

Please be home, Alex, Charles entreated the air.

He did not know when or how, but it was evident that whoever had sent him the threat was in a powerful position. The invisible enemy had access to his technology and could strike at any time.

What could be their plan? he wondered, and hurried up the porch steps of his best friend’s home, grateful that he lived close. Why would they bother to send me a warning before actually taking me out? They must want something, but what? Charles knocked loudly and waited. He heard the handle rattle just before it turned and the door opened.

“Alex! Thank goodness you’re home!”

“Charles?”

“Yes,” Charles answered abruptly and pushed passed Alex. “Listen up; I have something urgent to tell you!”

Charles revealed the important details of the staggering account, careful to omit his personal crimes. Alex listened, apparently growing more speechless by the second.

“There is no clue in the message as to why I am being warned, no implication to stop—just an assurance that they know who I am and that they will come for me. Perhaps they just want to frighten me? If that is the case, it is working.”

Charles ranted and watched Alex struggle to digest it all.

“Do they want my technology,” he continued, “to use it for themselves? That is one of the reasons we have the Network. There is safety in numbers. But I have not told anyone, just Alex,” he paused. “Just you… the only way anyone could know.”
His eyes flared with dawning realization.

“You!” he shouted.

“Now wait a minute,” Alex said hurriedly, finally speaking. 

“Really, Charles. I appreciate the compliment, but who would I tell? I’m nobody. You’re the one with friends in high places.

“You’re right,” Charles admitted, instantly reassured. “That is giving you too much credit.” He thought a moment, and visualized his office. The image of his terracotta statue flashed in his mind and he remembered the Nigerian gentleman from the last meeting. Charles had never noticed him before that day. The man had acted so strangely and had focused solely on him throughout the presentation.

“Mr. Oluwa!” Charles exclaimed.

“Mr. Who?” Alex inquired.

“Never mind; now is the time that I’ll need your help. Can I count on you?”

“Yeah, Man. I got your back.”

“Great. This is why I’ve been training you. I need you to take care of my subjects while I figure this out. Can you do that?”

“Sure. No problem.”

“You remember how to run the experiment, right?”

“Uh, yeah. The little switches.”

“Yes!” Charles responded enthusiastically. “Great. Alright, now we just need a method of communicating. I definitely cannot go back to my residence. My cell is unusable, and I cannot just come running over to your office or the lab every time I need to talk to you.”

“No worries,” Alex said smiling. “Hold on a sec.” He disappeared for a moment and returned with two small black rectangular devices.

“Walkie-Talkies!” Charles cried. “That is perfect; another surprising advantage to retaining some of your boyish tendencies.”
He snatched one of the Walkie-Talkies out of Alex’s hands and inspected it thoroughly.

“Now all we need are code names. Whoever is after me has some serious technology and will probably be listening at every frequency for a clue that will lead to me.

* * *

The Immortality Experiment: Excerpt 8-A

Everything was ready. Dr. Charles Carr had never been more prepared for a meeting. He had practically memorized the report from his research team. His equipment was organized half an hour early with his monitor on idle waiting for input. He leaned back with his hands behind his head, congratulating himself for being prompt and prepared.

Charles closed his eyes and meditated. The memories of his parents prodded his mind, but he deftly pushed them away. In their place, thoughts of his experiment surfaced, reminding him that the current group was doing well thus far. Charles staved off more worries of getting caught. His current variation on the procedure had more promise than any he had tried on previous volunteers.

The last group might have succeeded if he had simply reversed the order of wave exposure. Charles had made the tragic mistake of transforming the outer layers of the body first, making them essentially impenetrable. The body’s inner layers were unreachable, and were powerless to reproduce and thrive under the newly impassable layers. Therefore, the subjects slowly deteriorated from the inside.

Charles was disappointed, of course. However, every progress thrilled him, and the experience and knowledge gained from each procedure was priceless. He made a concerted effort never to allow a setback to convert into discouragement. For this reason it was easy for the doctor to review past failures without disturbing his peace.

With his reassuring thoughts, the time before the Benefactors’ meeting passed so quickly that Charles was startled when his alarm sounded. He inhaled profoundly and rubbed his eyes in one firm motion. Then he yawned loudly, exaggerating the action. Stretching his arms and sides, he thought perhaps he would retire early that night. He seemed to be in need of a thorough rest.

With several minutes remaining until the start of the meeting Charles turned on his monitor. As usual, the screen transmuted from dark to light in seconds. He waited for his personalized background to appear, but it never did. Instead the monitor flashed between a light grey screen and a message displayed in red letters over a white background. The message read:

DR. CHARLES CARR,
WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE
AND WHAT YOU ARE DO.
WE COME FOR YOU.

Confusion was his first reaction though, as he frantically typed in attempt to expel the message, apprehension and fear quickly took its place. Immediately Charles reached for his phone and touched the keypad to make a call. Adrenalin surged through his veins when the same message from his computer appeared on the cellphone screen.

Whoever sent the threat must have access to all my communication devices. It’s finally happened. Someone has discovered my experiment, but whom? How long before they arrive?

The questions sent his mind into a blind panic. Charles’ lack of preparation for this moment astonished him. His only option was to flee. He had to find Alex.

* * *

The Immortality Experiment: Excerpt 6

Elaine Blanc had the most striking, gorgeous appearance, with a confidence that radiated brilliantly in her every move. She stood five foot nine, with green welcoming eyes. Her long strawberry-blonde tresses fell beautifully over her petite, yet voluptuous frame. A woman like her could have any man she wanted, and she knew it.

But she did not want just any man. She desired to be with someone unlike anyone else; someone impossible to find. She wanted the most intelligent man; someone who was precise, driven; someone who needed her, but not so much that she would lose her independence. Her autonomy was her most treasured possession.

Furthermore, she needed somebody who was rich. She was convinced that the only way a man would look past her money was if he had his own. She searched her entire young adult life for the impossible man and finally found him, or so she thought, in Charles.

Charles Carr was about twenty years older, but age was not a requirement for Elaine. He was perfect. He was everything she had wanted and more. Charles was tall and his panache set him apart from the crowd. It did not take long for the two to fall in love.

They found comfort in one another. They both had families from Western Europe. Both sets of parents had died young. And their ideals were practically identical. It was as if they had been made for each other. The couple had a beautiful engagement, a beautiful wedding and a beautiful child. Elaine Blanc became Elaine Carr.

Then without warning, Charles became withdrawn. With their child just over a year old, Elaine grew lonelier than she had been in her entire life. Her husband was incessantly buried in his work. He did not even sleep regularly. She had to beg him to come to bed. They were rarely intimate. For the first time in her life she felt completely unattractive. The only joy she had was in caring for their son, Spencer.

When the day came that even her one joy seemed like a burden Elaine asked Charles if things could ever be like they were before. In response he claimed that he had not been happy before and that he was content with the way things were now. He was adamant about it. For a week she mulled over his stabbing words and she watched helplessly as her son cried for the attention that his father would not give, and she knew what she had to do.

“Charles, I am leaving you and I am taking Spencer with me,” Elaine said. When Charles’ sole reaction was a stone cold expressionless face, her already fractured heart shattered. It was all she could do to keep from bursting into tears in front of him.

She would have stayed with him forever, but she had to protect her child. Spencer needed someone who could look after him and care for him. She wanted a good example for him: someone to give him a truly good life.

Elaine deliberately gave away almost her entire fortune to charities after the divorce, thinking that it would have only brought more unhappiness. She had failed to find a decent man who also had money, so she decided to look for someone in humbler circumstances, who could truly appreciate her. She knew she could not have attracted an honest man with that background and retained her fortune. So she reserved only enough for a modest retirement fund, nothing more. She did not even fight for alimony.

Now, as Elaine stood at the door of the mansion in which she had once lived, she thought it had all been a terrible mistake. Spencer was eight years old, and Elaine had never remarried. In her heart she still loved that socially inept recluse, Charlie.

It was a hopeless infatuation. She knew that he would never love her again, especially after she had left him.
Still, she kept his last name with the hope that Charlie would come to his senses.

But that was not the reason she was here now. Elaine was here this day for Spencer. She was too proud to come and speak to her ex for herself. She was here because she knew that without Charlie’s help, there was no way to save her son.

Elaine took a deep breath for courage. She raised her small fist and knocked loudly, then immediately rang the doorbell to be sure she would be heard. After a brief moment passed, the large wooden door opened inward, revealing the aged and well-dressed butler.

“Hello, Mr. Williams,” Elaine greeted her old friend.

“Good day, Ms. Elaine. Is Mr. Carr expecting you today?”

“He should be. I’ve called several times and I took his reluctance to speak by phone as an invitation to meet in person.”

“Well,” he replied in a surprised tone. Then he winked and smiled sportively. “I will just run and get him. Come in, will you?”

Elaine gazed around at the familiar décor, or absence thereof. It had been years since she had lived inside the mansion, yet she remembered every detail as if she had never left. She was only slightly perplexed that Charlie had left everything the same for so long. After all, he took no interest in anything except his science.

Elaine could hear Charles complaining before she even caught a glimpse of him. At least I didn’t have to wait long, she told herself.

“Why would you let that woman in here?” Charles asked angrily as Mr. Williams escorted him into the room.

“She is your guest, Sir,” the butler uttered under his breath. “I suggest you treat her as such.” He nodded in turn to Elaine, then to Charles and departed briskly from the room, leaving the two alone in the large foyer.

Elaine was taken aback by the rush of attraction that overcame her. She had forgotten the surge of energy she felt around Charlie. Despite his flaws, he was somehow compellingly charming. She was disheartened as she observed that her ex hid any sense of magnetism he might have felt toward her.

Charles cleared his throat and stared at Elaine through ill-concealed hostility. All she could do was veil her feelings, and hope there was some spec of humanity hiding behind that hateful glare.

“I will just stand since we both know you aren’t going to invite me to stay. Why haven’t you returned any of my phone calls?”

“I only return important calls,” Charles replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “And you were not invited in the first place.”

“Didn’t you listen to any of my messages? How could you think that it wasn’t important?” Elaine protested.

“Elaine, please. It was as obvious to me then as it is now that you were dramatizing the situation. Nothing is ever that serious,” he said complacently.

“You cannot be serious. The life of your son is depending on you!”

“Elaine, this is exactly what I am talking about. The life of your son,” Charles mimicked in a high pitch. “Is that code for, I need your money, but I am too ashamed to just come out and ask for it?” he asked in the same mocking voice.

Elaine tried to ignore his belligerence. “So you have listened to my messages. I assumed you had just erased them all,” she countered soberly. “Why didn’t you ever call me back?”

“As I implied at the start of this pointless conversation, I have more pressing matters to attend to.”

“Matters more important than your son?” Elaine persisted. Maybe he’ll get off his high horse and actually listen for once if I keep on talking.

“Oh, please. You are just using him to cover up what you really want. I already set up a trust fund for him. That should be good enough. What are you really after, Elaine? You want the money for yourself?” Charles raised his voice. “Yes, you gave away your fortune, like a good little nun. But I know you saved up a nice chunk for retirement and more for the boy’s education. There must be plenty there for whatever help you think he needs.”

“Spencer needs more, Charles! And he needs it now. You set up the trust so it isn’t available until he’s twenty-five. He could be dead before then! The doctors don’t even know what’s wrong with him. He is really sick, and we already used all our savings. The insurance barely makes a dent in the expenses. I have nothing left except for my measly salary and a little child support, and that is a pathetic amount compared to the medical bills. Please listen to me. Please help your son!” She screamed the last plea in desperation. Elaine had completely lost control of her emotions.

Charles’ antipathy softened to simple contempt. “You know,” he said quietly and coldly, manipulating the atmosphere of the room. “I gave a lot of thought to the slew of complaints you threw at me before you left seven years ago, and I took you seriously then. You said you would be better off on your own, and I believed you because it was the only way I could be happy without you. Elaine, you made the choice. You are the one who left. I didn’t leave you. So you can leave again now, since you’re so good at walking out.”

He gestured to the door and turned to exit the room.

“Ugh!” Elaine shouted furiously. “You narcissistic failure!” she spat.

Charles stopped walking. Elaine’s words continued, fueled by the evidence that they were affecting him.

“You left me before I ever thought of leaving you. You were here physically, but your mind was somewhere else. You closed yourself off in your little hole of a lab, like a rat! You never played with your son! You haven’t seen him once since the divorce. Now all I ask is a little help to keep him alive: one little signature on a check, and you are holding such a grudge that you won’t believe I could possibly be honest with you about the health of your son! What is wrong with you?”

Charles whipped around to face her. “No, Elaine. You’re the one with the problem that you have to come up with such stories. It is truly appalling to me. Have you no self-respect anymore? You cannot put all the blame on me. I was living my life perfectly well until you came along.”

Elaine was fuming now.

“You miserable creep,” she growled through her teeth. “You have actually changed, and for the worse. You know what? Forget it. Forget we ever met, then. And you can get back to the way your happy little life was, if that’s what you call it, and I will find a way to help your son without you.”

She sped to the door in a fraction of a second. With her hand on the knob she turned back and added, “At least I can live with myself. But you—whatever you do with your precious time and money—it is so pathetic that it cannot possibly count as living because you are destroying people, Charles. It may be indirect, but that is exactly what you are doing to Spencer. You are killing him with your neglect. If that makes you happy, then you can literally go to Hell.”

Elaine stormed out and down the steps without looking back. Her feet were moving just as quickly as her racing heart. Adrenalin rushed throughout her body as she analyzed the conversation repeatedly in her mind. Charles behaved so monstrously to her, crushing her pure intentions. She had expressed the situation as clearly and as forcefully as she could, yet somehow her words would not move the soulless man she left behind.

Elaine thought that she would feel worse, that Charles’ refusal to help would have weighed down her already heavy heart. Instead it was strangely liberating. She was finally free of the spell that had bound her for so long. For the first time in years Elaine believed that it might be possible to love again. Even more wondrous was a comforting sense that there was still a way to help Spencer, but she dared not dwell on an expectation so great that it could only be an illusion.

* * *

The Immortality Experiment: Excerpt 7

Trevon was the first to recover from the sedation, just as he had hoped. He figured that because of his large stature the chemical was likely to wear off much faster for him than for the others. Trevon thought that Michael was practically as small as the girls, so he probably had plenty of time before any of them would wake up. Grateful for the solitude, Trevon crept away from his device and out of the lab as quietly as if he were trying to escape from prison.

Once the door was closed he let out a deep sigh of relief and hurried to the elevator to get back to the second floor. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the double doors to
open. Finally! The ding sounded and Trevon was in and out of the elevator again before the doors could open entirely each time.

Not a moment too soon he reached his destination: the library in the laundry room. His eyes moved directly to the upper right corner of the shelves, where he focused on the small physics book, Quantum Electrodynamics.

“There you is; right where I left you,” he said smiling. The book was the only one that seemed out of place to him. It had to be the key to whatever they were looking for.

The top shelf of the bookcase was so high that Trevon, tall as he was, could not reach it from the floor. He pulled over a plastic chair and carefully climbed to stand on it. Trevon raised his hand deliberately to pull the book off the shelf. Since all the books were packed so tightly, this action was a bit more difficult than Trevon had expected.

He grabbed the top corner and pulled the book down at an angle with much more force this time. No matter how hard he pulled after that, the book would not move any further from its place. Instead, after a moment, a creaking sound echoed through the room. If Trevon had not held to the case, he likely would have fallen from his chair.

He whirled around to find the source of the mechanical squeaking. One of the washing machines was moving straight out from the wall. Confused, and relieved that he was still alone, Trevon dismounted his chair and stepped toward the washing machine to investigate. The machine had rolled forward to reveal a small opening between it and the wall behind it. There was a space a few feet wide when the machine stopped moving. A gaping hole in the wall lay behind it. Trevon was now breathing rapidly, and he could feel his heartbeat racing. He had seen a lot of crazy things in his life, but this was especially strange.

After catching his breath, Trevon looked back over his shoulder, and bent down to see if he could fit under the dryer that hung suspended above the washer’s original position. He scooted forward in a crouch to enter the passageway behind the laundry room wall.

The tunnel was pitch-black from the outside, but as soon as Trevon entered, a row of dim lights ignited. His heart skipped a beat, instinctively suspecting he was being followed. He held still in his crouched position a few minutes. Then, when nothing else changed, he realized these must be sensor lights.

The little bulbs formed a row high along the wall of the cave. Trevon stood up straight and followed the lights. They began to curve and quickly led to a downward spiral staircase. He took each step prudently, afraid to take a fall in this dark, eerie cave. A strange smell assailed his nostrils and became more evident to him the further he descended.

As he rounded the last turn at the bottom of the stairs, Trevon found himself in pitch blackness again. He stepped forward, thinking that perhaps there might be another set of sensor lights in the new area. Besides a slight echo from his shoes tapping the floor, nothing changed. He waved his arms around; still nothing.

The smell was much stronger here. It reminded him of his high school biology class the week they had had to dissect a worm and a frog. Trevon covered his nose in his shirt sleeve as
the scent of formaldehyde grew unbearable. He felt around aimlessly until he found a light switch at last.

Several long rows of fluorescent lights flickered on. Their glow from the ceiling nearly blinded him after his long minutes in darkness. His eyes took several seconds to adjust. He blinked a few times to be sure he was seeing properly, for the scene that lay in front of him was harsher than the glaring lights above.

Columns of bodies lay in open chambers, similar to the devices used for the experiment, organized throughout the room. Trevon stood vacillating at the edge of the stairs, deciding whether he should investigate or leave. He pulled his collar over his mouth and took a deep breath. His curiosity finally motivated him beyond his fear, and he stepped slowly toward the morbid array.

The corpses were not all alike. Some were pale and appeared almost typical of a dead body. But there were others more disturbing: bodies pitch black like charcoal, some that seemed to have turned to jelly, and still others that were completely unrecognizable. One pattern was common for every group; there were four of each.

Trevon’s stomach turned and wrenched into knots. With the looming awareness of the predicament in which he and the other volunteers were now ensnared, he frantically considered options for escape. He had a strong urge to race upstairs and out of the building. But Dr. C may have anticipated an attempt by a volunteer to leave, and would keep the doors locked.

Even if there were a way to escape, Trevon was already involved. He could report what he had found to the police, but he knew that, as an ex-convict, he would be immediately implicated as a suspect. If he left, then ignored the incident and pretended not to have even known about the experiment he would still inevitably run into trouble. There were, after all, written records which he had personally signed.

The doctor was a rich man, much more powerful than himself, and would undoubtedly set him up as soon as he was found missing. No, Trevon could not escape, but he could not participate in the experiment any longer either. He had to devise an intricate plan if there were any way to get out of this mess; a plan that would salvage both his life and his freedom. He had already been without the latter for too long.

Trevon returned his attention to the abhorrent open chambers. He pulled his collar further over his face in a vigorous effort to block the smell. Almost of an independent will, his arm moved out from his body toward one of the lifeless figures. He did not want to touch it, but his interest somehow overpowered his instinct.

The body in front of him was one of the charcoal-skinned corpses, very dark in comparison to his own brown colored skin. Trevon could not tell whether the person was a man or a woman, it was so badly disfigured. He watched his hand, like a separate entity, touch the arm of the blackened victim, and reflexively pull back to his chest. The body was like ice.

Trevon examined his index finger and found a round pink blemish where he had touched the victim. The body was so cold that it had burned him. He held his hand a couple inches above the corpse and noticed that the air above it was also freezing.

He moved over to a more natural-looking corpse, this one recognizable as a man. Trevon performed the same test. But when he touched the skin of this victim, it simply felt cool as if this person had had a normal death.

Trevon’s hand was still hovering over the second body when he heard a bloodcurdling shriek. He nearly jumped out of his shoes and bumped into the chamber behind him. He whirled around to see Lilly grasping onto the wall at the staircase. She continued to scream, horrified.

“Shh!” Trevon furiously raised his index finger in front of his lips as he moved steadily toward Lilly. He covered her mouth and embraced her. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he soothed. “Let’s get out of here.”

She nodded as Trevon half carried her over the first few steps. When she began to move on her own he let go. The poor thing was so sheltered. She had probably never seen anyone die before.

“What was that?” she asked at the entrance to the tunnel.

“No idea. That was like some kind a science graveyard or somethin’. How’d you get down here?”

“I found the opening in the laundry room.”

Trevon sighed and shook his head in frustration. “What about the others?”

“No one else is awake that I know of.”

“Good. Let’s go, we gotta hurry,” he said, though they were already running.

“Where?”

“Your room, my room—some place where we can talk in private. Nobody can know about this, understand? Nobody.”

* * *

The Immortality Experiment: Excerpt 5-C

“Great to see everyone is prompt and geared for the second phase,” Dr. C addressed the group as he breezed in the laboratory door.

A rotund Italian man followed close behind him.

“Don’t mind Mr. Lucido, here. He will be observing us today and likely in the future. The second phase is the easiest of the four.”

Dr. C walked assiduously to one of the brown cabinets and pulled out a small white bottle.

“You will each take this supplement,” he instructed as he dropped a pill, one by one, into the volunteers’ hands. “Then you will lie down in the device again. The straps will be unnecessary this time because you will all be sedated. The sedation allows the supplement to work. It softens the interior of your body sufficiently in order for the treatment in phase three—the dry cream again—to penetrate the skeletal and most other interior organ systems, such as; digestive, cardiac, and nervous systems.

“The cream prepares your body for the final phase in each stage: the Zeta wave exposure. Without the softening, the Z-waves could only contact the outer layers of your body. And, believe me, the results of that are not pretty.” Mr. Lucido gave the doctor an inquisitive look after the last statement.

“Is everyone ready?” Dr. C asked. “Okay, then swallow your pills and take your places. Mr. Lucido and I will wait in the room a moment, to make sure that you are all asleep and properly sedated.”

Trevon noticed that this time the doctor did not ask if anyone had questions. I bet he tired of our questions—or intimidated.

“My presence will be unnecessary following this phase. Ergo you are all free to leave whenever you wake up.”

Kiera, who had already swallowed her tiny pill, asked, “Don’t you need to insert a needle in our veins to get us to pass out?”

“No, Subject 3. That is the beauty of technology and science. The medication to sedate you is formulated into the softening pill already,” Dr. C said, smiling.

Kiera grimaced, and Trevon wondered if her expression was because the doctor addressed her by a number or because she was bothered by the idea that she would be sedated by a pill.

“You will be out within a minute, so if I were you, I would lay down immediately.”

Kiera paused then rushed over to her assigned machine. Michael and Lilly did the same. Trevon studied the white pill for a moment. At the thought that he had done riskier things, he popped the pill quickly as if it were nothing but a breath mint. It was no bigger than a tic tac anyway.

Trevon was the last to lie down. He could hear the others’ heavy breathing, indicating they had already fallen asleep. Dr. C wasn’t exaggerating, Trevon thought. He looked back at the two figures standing in front of the doorway, then lowered himself into the contraption and stared at the square patterns on the ceiling until the lines blurred together and disappeared as he lost consciousness.

“For the next phase I simply flip this switch, here, after closing the door,” Charles indicated, unlocking the clear plastic cover over the small white button. “Then I flip it back upon my return. I use the black switch above it for the fourth phase. That’s it! Easy as pi.”

Alex nodded. “How did you configure it all to work so smoothly?

“Years of design and practice,” Charles said thoughtfully. His mind wandered to the succession of volunteers who had not survived the experiment. He looked back at Alex, discreet not to divulge those details.

“Remember your promise: don’t tell anyone, and I mean absolutely no one.”

“Not even my wife?” Alex protested.

“Especially not your wife. You tell a woman a secret, pretty soon the whole world will know.”

“Okay,” Alex agreed with a chuckle. “And we don’t want that.”

“No.” Charles echoed with emphasis, “We don’t want that.”

Charles’ nerves calmed slightly now that he had a backup in case anything were to happen to him. He could not shake the feeling that he was running out of time. Perhaps it was paranoia, but that was unlikely since he was not guilty of an actual crime.

* * *