Chapter 8

Everyone was somewhat surprised by the size of the building that housed the medical supply business but also the fact that it looked closed. However, the open sign was flashing away as they got out of the RV. Cindy had been detailed to babysitting, so she took out some of the little games and toys that the girls had gotten so they could have a little fun.

Dan walked up and just opened the door, but then stopped and waited for the rest. He was working hard at being gentlemanly and let the two women go in first.

Cathy's first reaction when entering was that she was not going to find what she wanted, or if she did it wouldn't work. It looked to her that nothing had been touched in a very long time. Jen followed Dan up to the main counter as the rest fanned out to look around.

"Mr. Daley? You here?" called Dan, "Mr. Radcliffe, over at the Wal-Mart sent us over here. I have some people here that would like to get some things from you!"

Dan waited for a moment, listening. There was no answer.

"Mr. Daley? You have customers!" Dan tried again in a louder voice.

Jen was listening very hard, but she finally heard the shuffling of feet.

"Coming, coming! Just give me a moment. These old bones don't like to move as good as they used too," said William, as he came through the back door. "Well, hello there. Young, Mr. Janhket, isn't it? This is a surprise. What can I do for you this day?" he said as he took a seat on a stool behind his counter.

"Mr. Radcliffe sent them over. He thought you might have what they are looking for," answered Dan.

"Well, I can't think what he would send them here for, that he doesn't have over at the big store of his. But you more than welcome to look around."

"We were talking to him about a science project my friend was doing. She's a doctor but was studying plants and how pollution affects the DNA. There was a fire and she lost all her equipment. Luckily, she kept all her notes on her laptop and that never stayed at the place," supplied Jen.

"For that kind of project, I might just be able to help."

William pulled a book from under the portion of the counter that was not a glass display case, and started flipping through it.

Out in the shop area, Cathy was looking over everything that was there, that could be of used for the group or for her in general. So far, she had found some rather good stuff, even though it was either used or a generation behind the current equipment out in service.

Out of curiosity, Jen looked inside the glass display case. She saw what looked like antique medical equipment that some mad scientist might have had. Then she saw a small notebook. The writing on it looked familiar to her, somehow. As she stared at it, she was sure she had seen the same type of writing before.

"Can I help you get a better look at something, Miss?" asked William as he saw the young woman look intently at something in his case.

"Yes, please. That notebook. May I please see it? The writing is so strange, but ... I've seen some writing like it before ... I just can't think where."

William moved to the doors of the case, opened them, and took the little book out. It was one that he had forgotten all about, and hoped he could put it back, quickly.

"This old thing. Why, it's older than you are, my dear. But look to your heart's content," he said as he held the book out.

Jen took the book gingerly. She opened it, and then turned the first page. She then knew she was right. She had seen that type of writing before. The ink was badly faded, and it made it hard to read in places. Some of it was in what looked like some kind of code that had developed into what she had seen in a lab, several years ago.

"Sir, can I ask where you got this from? It's very important to me," Jen stated.

"It is? Well let me think," William had watched the girl with the book. With what he knew of its history, he knew it could be a lot of trouble if the wrong people knew he had it. "You know I'm not really sure when it came to me. It was many years ago, most likely again before you were even a happy thought in your father's eyes. It's really nothing special. I should have tossed it years ago, but I thought someone would like the binding and just toss the papers inside. You can't read them anyway."

Jen really wasn't listening as she looked very carefully at each page. Not only to commit them to her photographic memory, but to see if there might be a clue to any more information that she could get her hands on.

"Sir, do you know if you've got any other papers with this notebook ... anything with this kind of writing on it? It is really, really important to me," Jen asked with a bit more urgency in her voice, when she came to the end of the book.

"Look, I just don't remember. It's been so long ... and if I did, anything like that would have been tossed. Now if I can have the notebook back..." William held out his hand for the book.

Jen looked at the old man for a moment and felt he was hiding something. She didn't want to invade the man's mind to find out what he knew, but she would if she couldn't get him to talk. She looked around the place and saw that Dan was still standing near her and the storeowner.

"Dan will you do me a favor and go out and check on the girls? Not that I don't think Cindy can't handle things, but you are a bit taller. And the little ones do seem to like you."

Dan thought that was a funny request, but it was ok. He did like the girls, and they made him want to smile.

"Sure, that's no problem," Dan answered, then turned and walked away.

Jen watched him, and then turned to where she knew Jon was in time to catch his eye. She gave a gentle touch with her mind and asked him to come to her. Jon smiled and walked over. Jen turned back to the storeowner.

"How much to buy the book? It really could be a matter of great importance."

"Look Miss, it's not for sale. Now please give it back, or I'll ask you all to leave."

Jon had heard this and tilted his head, "Sir," he turned his head a bit to look at Jen. She nodded her head just a bit. "Sir, please, I know this is asking a lot, but I need for you to trust us. We have a lot more to fear than you do, about what's in that book."

"Look it's nothing. Now give it back!" William demanded.

"Sir, please. I know your frightened and thinking that this is going to come back to hurt you, but I promise we will do all that we can to keep that from happening," Jon started.

Jen continued, "The date on this book tells me that it's from around WWII. The governments of several countries were doing some odd things back then. They're still doing them now. A few years ago, I saw a lot of papers with some of this same coding on them. Something terrible happened at the time that I saw them, and I need to find out what it was we may have been exposed to."

"There are too many things to go into right now that has happened to us lately, but we know it has to be from that exposure. We need the information that this book and you may have, to save ourselves," Jon finished.

William looked at the two people in front of him then looked around the store. The other lady was looking at equipment and not paying them any attention but the other man was looking right at him and nodded his head.

"How do I know your telling the truth? Just give me back the notebook," demanded William again.

"We will let you decide with your own mind, William, if we are telling the truth or not," Jen said, "Do not be afraid of what you see, we will not hurt you and when it's over if you still want us to go, we will."

Jen dropped her head and opened her mind. When she looked up her eyes had changed.

"We were on a top secret mission and we think we were exposed to something in a lab we were sent to investigate. Whether it was intentional or accidental, we are not sure; but it happened, nonetheless. We have to study what happened to all of us to see if it can be undone, and if it will hurt any children we might have," Jen said in that strange far-a-way voice that she would get when in her trance like state, "Please, can you help us?"

Jen dropped her head again and closed herself off though not before quickly touching all the girls in the RV with a mental tickle. When she looked back to William, he had gone white.

"He said they might continue, even without what he had," William said under his breath.

"Please, is there more than just this important notebook?" Jen asked.

William looked at the little lady in front of him and found her not so scary any more.

"The book belonged to my cousin. He brought it and a box of stuff, saying it would get us both killed if anyone found out he had taken it from the base he was working at. He wouldn't tell me what it was all about, but later when he came back. I could tell something had happened, and he was never the same. He knew things; you see ... things that no one should be able to know about another person. One day he came and did what the little lady just did. He told me that others would come and I would know them by the powers they would show. Then he died. The military came to where I lived when I called it in. When they took his body away, they searched everywhere, but I had hidden the stuff he gave me very well. I'll have to tell you how to get it. I can't get into the space anymore," William said.

He was feeling very tired at that moment and just wanted to lay down. William had been feeling a lot more tired than he normally did. But then, he was seventy-eight years old, and old people got tired more than young people.

He gave the instructions to the two men, so they could get the box of stuff, and then excused himself to go and rest a bit.

Jen was going to say something to the old man but then Dan came back in. She then asked him to follow the old man, while she took a look around. He smiled and agreed.

Dan followed the old man into the back and watched as he dropped into a chair. As Dan looked around, and noticed that the place was full of garbage and old food containers. He also noticed the smell; the place was starting to get ripe.

He walked over to the old man and saw that he had fallen asleep rather fast. Dan looked around again and then back to Mr. Daley. Dan thought the old man just didn't look very good, but it could have been the light, as it was low.

Dan reached out to shake the old man's shoulder gently, to wake him and ease his conscience. Mr. Daley didn't respond so Dan shook him a little harder. He still didn't wake, but he did groan and took a deep ragged breath, and then his breathing became very slow and shallow. Dan didn't think that was normal, so he ran back out to the store.

"Hey! I think something's wrong with Mr. Daley! I can't wake him up!" yelled Dan.

Cathy was looking at a nice battery powered defibrillator that she thought might be very good to have, as it also had the monitor connections, when she heard Dan yell out. She didn't even stop to think. She just grabbed it.

When she made it back to the old man, she knew just from his face that things weren't good.

"Dan! Run out and have my daughter give you my big medical bag. Don't drop it, I have meds in there, and we need them," Cathy ordered.

Dan took off, and moments later, he was back. Jason, Jonny and Matt were following. There wasn't really anything they could do but stand by and wait for Cathy to issue any orders that she might have for them.

Cathy was busy as she hooked up the old man to the monitor. It showed that his heart was beating very slowly and erratically. When her bag got there, she took the man's vital signs, they weren't good. The good part, though, was that the man did respond when she shook him hard enough. The bad part was that he still didn't wake. As she opened his shirt to attach more leads to his chest, she saw the scar that told her that the old man had a pacemaker. She looked at the readings again, and came to the conclusion that the pacemaker was failing.

Cathy racked her brains to see if she could remember seeing anything that might work out in the shop, but she couldn't remember. All she could do was start an IV and give him some meds that should help his heart beat better and have someone call an ambulance.

"Jonny, Jason, go back out into the shop. Look around for anything that might say pacemaker on it. Mr. Daley's is failing and he's in need of help. Dan, call an ambulance," Cathy ordered.

Dan was wide eyed and answered, "It will take about an hour for one to get here. I'll call them, and then we can load him into the back of my truck, then we can meet them. The sheriff might come out too, and if he thinks it's bad enough, he might get a chopper to take him from the high school."

"Do it! Matt, go to the girls in the RV, and stay with them. Tell them we'll be back after we help Mr. Daley."

Matt took off and didn't look back either. He knew there was nothing he could do, and making the little girls smile was always fun.

Just then, William opened his eyes. He felt terrible, but he had to admit that the vision of loveliness that was before him meant he must have died and gone to heaven.

"Mr. Daley, can you tell me where you are?" asked Cathy when she saw him open his eyes.

"With a question like that it can't be where I was hoping to go. And here I thought I was looking at a very beautiful angel," William said with a soft smile, but found he wanted to close his eyes once more.

"Oh, no! You need to stay with me, Mr. Daley," Cathy said giving him a pinch on the hand.

"Hey, now! Let an old man have his nap, will ya."

"Mr. Daley you don't need a nap. You need a new pacemaker. We've called for an ambulance. We hope it will be here, soon."

"Na, I'll be fine in the morning after a good rest. Besides it'll take them forever to get here," William finished, and then his eyes closed.

The machine he was next too started making beeping noises and when Cathy looked, she saw that the rhythm being displayed was faltering. The man was dying.

"Jason! I need you!" Cathy yelled, "Jen, get some blankets and make a bed in the back of Dan's truck we have to move him now or we'll lose him!"

Jen ran and grabbed a stack of blankets then ran out as Jason ran in.

"Jason, pick him up and take him out to the truck we'll have to meet the ambulance if he is going to make it."

Jason didn't even stop. He tossed the IV from the high back of the chair, onto the man's lap, and scooped him up. He was surprised at how light the man was, and realized that he might not have been taking care of himself very well. Jason then turned and walked out through the shop and out the front door. Cathy was following close behind with her bag and the machine that was still hooked up to the old man.

Jen had all but one blanket set and ready for Cathy to bring Mr. Daley out. She watched as Jonny stood at the back. When Jason and Cathy got close, he took the machine from Cathy then helped Jason into the back of the truck.

When they had Mr. Daley situated, Dan came running from the building.

"The sheriff said to wait here. He's coming. He said if Mr. Daley's bad, he'll take him. How is he?"

"Not good. We need a chopper. Hell, if we had even a portable pacemaker it would give him more time, but I didn't see one," said Cathy.

"Left corner, behind an old looking bed frame. Or at least that's where it was the last time I was looking for something else," supplied William in a weak voice, "But it needs to be plugged in. It doesn't have a battery system."