Restored (Part 3)

Guten Tag!
Wie geht es dir heute? Hopefully the answer is good, if not great.
Today I bring the conclusion of Restored. There's not much more to say about this tale that I have not already, so I'll just jump right to it. 

The car door opened and Richard stepped out into the cool spring air. The scent of the rain from the night before was still fresh. The memories were equally as fresh. Richard could not help the spring that came to his step as he walked to the lab. He had done what no one else in the history of the human race had done. Well except for a few debatable cases. This will be humanities greatest achievement. All of those things added to his joy, but even all of them together paled next to the true source of his happiness; his daughter was still alive.

When Richard had gotten back with Elizabeth, it was already closer to morning than midnight. He had found Margaret on the bed, tear stains on her cheeks. For a brief moment he had thought of waking her to tell his wife the news, but decided to let her sleep. Soon enough he joined her on the bed, and was lost to the world. Margret’s screams in the morning had woken him better than any alarm clock.

He had rushed out of his room, drawn to his wife’s screams before he was awake enough for his mind fully grasped what had happened. When he saw Margret staring at Elizabeth, it all came rushing back to him. Quickly, he took Margaret back into their bedroom and explained what happened to her. She was a bit shocked, to put it mildly. After he managed to calm down his hysterical wife, Richard went back to the kitchen. He had so much to tell his daughter, so much to say, but she was gone already. It was OK though; Richard now had a lifetime to talk with her.

Somehow, the lab building, normally a sterile, humorless place, now seemed to be the happiest place on earth. Richard walked past the other scientists, startling all of them with his smile as they walked past, lost in their own worlds. It was almost enough to make him laugh. They went on with their own silly projects, oblivious to the fact that the world had changed.

Finally, Richard came to his own lab and threw open the doors saying, “Good morning Jason! Why so glum looking? Sad that you won’t have a goal now that the Nobel is ours?” Richard had expected his partner to be almost more excited about their project than even he was. Instead though Jason seemed extremely worried and sweaty, two things that Jason almost never was.

“Richard, there, there may be a slight problem.”

“What, did you forget the password to the console again?”

“Ha. No, something a bit more important than that,” he scrubbed his hands through his short hair, which, while normally as manicured as a model’s, now seemed to be in serious disarray. Richard’s good mood evaporated like mist in the sun. “I think you should see this.”

Jason walked through their lab and into his second lab, with Richard following close behind. Whereas the two of them ran the lab he shared with Richard almost alone, this one was full of undergrads and graduate students, every last one of them looking sheepish as they stood around, trying their best not to be noticed. Richard was now deeply worried.  They stopped in front of the rat containers as Ben rushed up, wringing his hands.

“I didn't do anything professor, I swear! When I came in today they were like that, you have to believe me. Please don’t fire me, please, please…”

Jason rounded on the undergrad, “Ben get out of here now!” Jason turned to Richard and continued in a calmer, if not calm voice as Ben ran out of the lab, “Ben was right though. We found them like this when we walked in today. All of them were like that, everyone from yesterday.”

“What was like what? Jason you’re not making any sense. What happened?”

In response, his partner pointed to the cages of rats. “There, in the center left cage.”

Fear rising in his throat, Richard peered into the cage, expecting to find the rats that Ben had dropped into the machine dead. A breath that he had not known he was holding left him when he saw the cages inhabitants. The rats were dead true, but that was not surprising considering that these rats looked to be about five years old, a lifetime for a test animal. He took one out and examined it, and then another, and another. Each one displayed the characteristic signs of death by old age.

“These are just some dead old rats Jason. Where are the rats from yesterday, the ones that went into the machine?”

“Richard, those are the rats from yesterday.”

For a moment, nothing happened, and then all at once the tide came surging in. Richard nearly collapsed and would have too if not for the fast hands of Jason. Thoughts sped through his mind faster than Richard could focus on them. Fighting the flood of information, he managed to force out, “Are you sure?”

“You know I am Richard. Don’t you think I checked this as best I could? It’s them, they’re the same ones. Sometime last night they just started to rapidly age. Something is wrong with the machine. It does restore whatever is put inside it, but then it seems to make up for the lost time by the accelerated ageing. It even affected the rest of the fruits that we tried. They are all shriveled and rotten to the core. I am so sorry Richard.”

The torrent of thoughts continued to flood Richard’s mind, Jason’s words merely added to the deluge. Something was changing though. The torrent remained but now it was focused, all flooding into one channel. Regaining his footing, Richard began to run out of the lab.

“Where are you going?” Jason called, worry still painting his face.

Richard ran, not even slowing as he responded, “To find my daughter.”

#

In fifteen minutes, Richard made the half hour drive to Elizabeth’s school. Even that speed was not fast enough however. The squeal of his tires as he pulled into the school parking lot was not enough to mask the sound of the sirens already there. The building was painted in blue and red lights as Richard rushed out of his car, unheeding to the eyes that followed his mad dash up the steps.

Arms grabbed him, trying to restrain him, trying to keep him from his daughter. Those arms were nothing compared to his need to find Elizabeth. Like dry twigs, he broke free of their grasp and continued deeper into the school. Voices called to him, but they might have been the wind. He saw something in the corner of his eye. Turning, Richard saw a sea of white coming towards him, white coated bodies surrounding a white bed. They were rushing out nearly as fast as he was rushing in but the instant they passed time stopped. There, surrounded by the sea of white lay his Elizabeth.

Except, it was not her. Where once her face had been young and beautiful, like something out of the movies, now wrinkles and lines covered it. Her golden silk hair had been replaced by some brittle, pale substitute. Richard reached down to hold her hand, to let his baby know that her father was there, but before he could grab the winkled, liver spotted hand, the white sea moved on, hurrying out of the school.

The blue and red lights slowly faded into the distance while Richard stood there, unmoving. People had gathered around him, speaking at him, touching him. He didn't notice them though. Richard’s mind was already worlds away, back in his lab. He could fix the machine, make the process better, perfect it. He had already brought his daughter back to life once, how hard could it be to do it again?

And that, was Restored. Thanks for bearing with me and reading this drawn out story. Hopefully you enjoyed it. Either way feel free to let me know.
Not all of the stories I write end on such a bleak note. In fact, originally, the story ended with Richard thinking about how he had killed his daughter for a second time. This ending brings to light a bit more of the theme I was going for-which is stated perfectly (like most things) by Micheal Creighton in Jurassic Park.
"...Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
That idea that the march of progress may be going too fast I find very fascinating. It's something that becomes more and more relevant as technology gets closer and closer to science fiction. It's a strange and amazing world we live in.

-Me