The Potion: A genetic engineering thriller!

Chapter 3

Sunlight peered in through the slits in James’s curtains, but he had been awake for hours.

In fact, he’d barely slept a wink that night. How could he when Ronald had dropped the bomb of creating a serum—The Potion--—as he called it, that had the ability to cure a person of injuries, illnesses, deadly viruses, you name it. He barely even remembered the drive home. Ronald had mentioned that he had to keep this a secret—that companies and organizations would go to extreme lengths to get their hands on his data and research, so he couldn’t tell a soul what he’d seen or been told. Of course, James agreed without hesitation. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to Ronald because he opened his mouth to the wrong person.

Even so, James couldn’t help but wonder how much good could come of bringing this serum into the light. So many lives could be saved with a single dose. His mind always went back to Amelia, watching her body shut down until she was nothing but a body in a hospital bed. And that rainy afternoon when he laid her to rest. If only he’d known about it sooner, maybe they could’ve worked something out together. James would’ve paid Ronald anything to try it. However, from what Ronald had explained on the ride back to his house, he had never tested the solution himself. There was a very good chance that it was a dud. That his numbers had been wrong, and he didn’t manufacture some super antibody that would reset the cells in a person’s body.

What Dr. Ronald needed was Patient Zero. A guinea pig, someone who had nothing to lose. Someone like James.

Rolling onto his side, James reached over for his phone on his nightstand and re-positioned himself on his side of the bed. He couldn’t bring himself to sprawl out in the king-sized bed, even if it were just him now. Squinting at the bright screen, he didn’t have any messages or missed calls, which wasn’t anything new. He had to get up for his shift at the auto shop in an hour, but that was still plenty of time to throw on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and head out the door.

Clicking into his call history, he found Ronald’s number and pressed the dial button. It didn’t even make it two rings before the other line clicked on.

“Hello?”

“It’s me,” James said before clearing his throat. “I, uh, wanted to talk to you about last night.”

“Hold on a minute.”

The line went completely silent for a few minutes, and James started to sweat in anticipation. He got so hot he furiously kicked his blankets off until he was laying on top of them in just his boxers. For a second, he wondered if Ronald was going to simply wait for James to hang up himself, but then it clicked on again.

“So sorry about that, I’m at work right now and I didn’t want anyone to overhear our conversation, so I went out to my car,” Ronald wheezed. James bet he probably ran the whole way there. “What’s up?”

“The serum, you said it’s never been tested before. Why not?”

“Well, for starters, I only perfected this solution a few days ago. I’ve been going over all the data with a fine-tooth comb to ensure I didn’t brush over any errors. The tiniest mistake could mean life or death for someone.”

“But so far you haven’t found anything wrong, right?”

Ronald hesitated briefly before speaking. “No, everything is as it should be. James, what’s this all about?”

He scratched his beard that he desperately needed to shave, trying to find the right words he’d been thinking about the last half of the night.

“I want to be your first test subject,” he blurted.

Ronald laughed, the kind of awkward laugh someone does when they’re nervous. James remained quiet, and that was when Ronald stopped laughing altogether, likely piecing together that James was being completely serious.

“James, no, that can’t happen,” Ronald began. “My work...this research is purely hypothetical at this stage. There are so many risks to take into consideration, things that I don’t think I want to be liable for.”

“I’ll sign whatever you want me to sign, do whatever you want me to do, I don’t care, I want to do it. I need to do this.”

“You could die.”

Ronald’s voice brought a chill to James’s spine. Even with the possibility of death hanging in the balance, James didn’t care. He had to do this. He couldn’t fully explain why, perhaps he was losing his mind, but there had to be a reason why Ronald had decided to show him his lab. Perhaps it was fate, destiny, 20 or whatever other spiritual signs are out there in the universe, but James knew in his heart this was the path he was meant to take.

“There’s a chance I could live, too,” James pointed out. “So, what do you say?”

“Alright,” Ronald murmured. “But we must be diligent. Come to the brownstone at midnight so I have time to prepare. Remember, you can’t tell a single soul about this. Can I trust you?”

“Absolutely. I’ll see you tonight.”

It was absolute agony waiting for midnight to roll around.

Fortunately, the shop had been busy, so James was preoccupied for the full eight hours of his shift. It was the waiting afterward that was the gut-wrenching part. He sat in his living room in complete and utter silence for hours just staring at the front door, waiting for the evening to turn into night.

He’d set an alarm on his phone for 11:30 p.m. When it chimed its usual tone, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Already with his keys and wallet in hand, he bolted for the door without looking back. A part of him feared if he slowed down to think about what he was getting ready to do he’d chicken out, and he didn’t want that. The less he thought about the consequences, the less his anxiety reared its ugly head.

Slipping into his daily-driver pickup, he punched Ronald’s address into his GPS and sped off, his brain a jumbled mess.

It was a short drive to Ronald’s place where he found all the lights off. Ronald had told him that he’d be waiting at the door for him. How clandestine, James thought. Sure enough, the second he made it up the steps, Ronald cracked the door open and ushered him inside.

“You’re sure no one followed you here?”

James pinched his eyebrows together. But his friend couldn’t see his derisive expression. “Why would someone follow me? You’re being a little paranoid, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m being cautious, they’re two completely different things. If word gets out...then I’ll be paranoid...for good good reason, thank you,” he answered impatiently. “Now come on, we’ve got to get you set up.”

James followed him down the stairs just like he had the day before. This time it felt different. He knew what he would find in the basement—a highly sophisticated lab where he was either going to face his new life as a newly reset man, or perhaps take his final breath. Strangely enough, he wasn’t scared of the second option. Perhaps that would mean he’d be reunited with Amelia.

Ronald pushed through the plastic curtains and walked to the other side of the room and put on his crisp white lab coat. It all felt very cliché, but James didn’t say a word. He got up onto the metal gurney, the disposable plastic sheet crunching underneath the weight of his body.

“Before we get started with the actual serum, I’m going to be taking your vitals, your weight, all that stuff just so I have records of it. We’ll do some x-rays to compare the progress over the next couple of days and see if there are any changes. Sound good?”

“Whatever you need to do,” James nodded. “I’m your guinea pig, remember?”

“You have to stop calling yourself that,” he chuckled. “I actually have a guinea pig upstairs in my bedroom. His name is Beaker, but I may change it to James,” he laughed. James roared in laughter, as well.

The next hour was a blur. Ronald did exactly as he said he would, starting with checking James’s heart, taking his weight and BMI, his blood pressure, and running several diagnostic scans which James didn’t have a clue what they were. It wasn’t long before he was laying on his back with his shirt off, multiple wires attached to his body tracking his heart rate. He stared at the fluorescent light dangling above them before glancing at Ronald out of the corner of his eye. He stood at the table next to him, prepping a dose of the serum into a needle.

Once everything was prepped and ready to go, Ronald stepped up beside him, his thumb positioned on the plunger. “Looks like we're all set,” he said in a low voice. “It’s not too late to back out, you know. I wouldn’t be offended.”

“What’s the matter, Doc, don’t have faith in your work?” James joked.

Ronald scrunched up his face in offense. “Of course I do.”

“So, what, you don’t have faith in me?”

“I don’t want to see a good man die on my table because everything wasn’t perfect.”

James placed a hand on Ronald’s forearm before meeting his gaze. “I’m not afraid. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen, there’s no point in prolonging it. The only way you’re 23 ever going to know if this works is by testing it out, right? Right. So, let’s do this. Together.”

Ronald nodded. Grabbing James’s wrist, he pierced the skin with the tip of the needle and slowly injected every last drop of the serum into his bloodstream. James clenched his jaw at the pressure of the needle but didn’t dare flinch, not wanting to mess anything up. Within seconds, Ronald pulled the needle free and immediately went to the computer to watch James’s vitals.

He laid there silently, waiting for something to happen. Seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours, but Ronald didn’t move from his station. His eyes moved at a rapid pace, staring intently at the readings.

“No signs of a stroke or heart attack, which is what I feared the most,” he murmured under his breath. “Heart rate is normal, blood pressure is dropping, but not at a dangerous rate. So far, everything looks good. Your body is not rejecting The Potion.”

“Yet,” James cackled.

“I’d like to keep you for another hour to make sure nothing drastic changes, but after that, you’re free to go home and get some sleep. I would like to set up an appointment for you to come back to the lab in a few days so we can track any progress if that’s alright with you.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

***

James wondered if it was a placebo effect of knowing that something might be different about him, but he felt...rejuvenated.

He was scheduled to go see Ronald that night, and over the last couple of days, he noticed subtle changes. The bags under his eyes were not as dark and less puffy as they used to be. His Crow’s feet were gone. It couldn’t just be because he was sleeping better—skin didn’t repair itself that fast. His muscles didn’t ache as much after a long day of fixing cars. Usually, he needed to soak in a hot bath after an intense shift at work, but now, it was like he could go on for days without feeling fatigued. A cold beer was just a cold beer again, not also an ice pack for sore, cramping hands.

Ronald had given him a journal to write down any changes he noticed, no matter how big or small, so he could check them over once he went back to the lab. He felt silly at times writing down the things he thought were different, fearing it was all just in his head, but he wanted to take this seriously, so he didn’t hold back. “It feels great to sleep through the night without having to pee!”

They set a schedule of regular exams, always in the evening, where there would be minimal traffic in the city. Ronald was convinced that someone was onto them, but James assured him no one knew what they were doing. As long as they were careful, they had no reason to fear some secret government organization was going to hunt them down and kill them. This was reality, not some action movie...right?

Parking in Ronald’s driveway, he jogged up the front steps and the door opened as soon as his foot hit the threshold. As usual, all the lights were off, even the one outside.

“Well, well, you sure have a spring in your step,” the doctor observed.

“What can I say, I feel like a new man.”

“I hope, for both our sakes, that is true.”

James pushed past him and made his way down the lab first, having become accustomed to the layout of his place now. The bright lights no longer bothered him, and he settled onto the metal bench once more, ready for Ronald to do his testing.

“We’ll start with the basic stuff before moving onto the x-rays and genetic testing,” Ronald explained.

“I brought the journal with me, too,” James said. He held out the small notebook and Ronald took it happily, tucking it underneath his arm as he listened to James’s heart.

“Everything sounds wonderful,” he concluded. “And you haven’t been experiencing any discomforting symptoms?”

“Nothing. I feel like I did when I was in college, if I’m being honest,” James admitted.

“Interesting,” Ronald nodded as he went about his business. “Let’s do a scan to see what’s going on inside, shall we? Lie back for me.”

James did as instructed and tucked a hand beneath his head to use as a pillow. Ronald put on his radiation protection suit before using the x-ray machine, and after a few shots of his torso, returned to the room. He moved to his usual spot in front of the main computer screen, waiting for the results to pop up on the screen.

He gasped and James nearly fell off the table, fearing the worst. “What is it? Something gone wrong? Am I dying?”

“Nope.” Ronald turned slowly; his eyes so wide James thought for sure they were going to pop out of his skull. “You said you had your appendix removed when you were a teenager, right?”

“Yeah...” James said, unsure why he would ask such a question. “Senior year of high school. Why?”

Ronald turned the monitor to show James the x-ray. “Looks like you’ve grown it back.”