The Potion: A genetic engineering thriller!

Chapter 4

Weeks had gone by since that miraculous night in Dr. Clark’s lab.

They continued with their weekly observations to track any signs of change, or rather, progress. James had no idea what kind of positive side effects he was going to experience after being administered the dose, and never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined how amazing he’d feel. He no longer suffered from fatigue or strained muscles, his metabolism was proving to stabilize itself to the point he wouldn’t get massively bloated if he ate a bigger meal or indulged in a beer or two. Scars from his younger years were fading to the point he could barely make them out anymore.

James Scott was no doctor, but he knew this experiment had been a raging success. Even Ronald, as humble as he normally was, had a spring in his step, too, likely on cloud nine from it all.

Although their newfound relationship was mostly entirely built on the massive medical secret between them, James did indeed consider Ronald a friend. He felt like he could tell him anything, not that there was a whole lot left he could hide at this point. Ronald practically knew every little detail from James’s life story, from his appendix tale to each and every little event in between.

However, it all did feel a little one-sided. Apart from knowing he worked at a prestigious research facility and shared the same love for classic cars, he hardly knew anything about Ronald. 28 What better way to get to know someone than by inviting them out for some burgers and drinks?

They were scheduled for their weekly appointment in a few more days, but James decided it would be nice to have a night off without tracking progress or sitting on the couch watching reruns all evening.

Reaching into his pants pocket, he pulled out his phone and clicked into his recent conversation with Ronald.

(5:34 p.m.) James: Hey, do you have plans tonight?

(5:39 p.m.) Ronald: I finish up at the lab at 6, and I was going to crunch some numbers at home, but other than that nothing. Why, what’s up?

(5:42 p.m.) James: I was thinking we could go grab a bite to eat in town tonight, my treat, as a way to celebrate everything we’ve accomplished. You in?

(5:46 p.m.) Ronald: Only if we can go to Rosie’s Bar and Grill. They have the best burgers you’ll ever eat in your life.

(5:49 p.m.) James: Sounds like a deal. I’ll meet you there at 9.

(5:55 p.m.) Ronald: See you then

“Hey, James, mind helping me move these tires up onto the rack?” Brad asked.

He waved James down from across the shop and pointed at the new shipment they’d just gotten in. Shoving his phone back 29 into his pocket he crossed the shop floor in a flash and started hauling tire after tire onto the bottom and top rack.

“Whoa there, big fella!” Brad began, but stopped after seeing how easily James was able to unload an entire skid by himself. “I was going to say slow down or you’ll hurt yourself, but clearly I was wrong. What’s the deal, have you been working out or something?”

James grinned as he placed the last tire onto the rack and dusted his hands off. “Something like that.”

“I didn’t peg you as the kind of guy who would actually work out,” Brad wheezed, struggling to lift the tires off the ground. “You ain’t exactly a spring chicken. What’s your secret? Steroids?”

“No secret,” James replied. “Just treating my body better. You know...food, exercise. Hell, it may just be something in my genes,” he eluded cryptically and ironically. “I don’t really know how that stuff works. Maybe you should lay off the sweets, it might help.”

“Genetics,” Brad snickered, shaking his head in disbelief. “Next thing you’ll be saying is you’ve taken some super-soldier serum like Captain America.”

James froze momentarily, but luckily Brad was too busy trying to get the two remaining tires into position to see his flushed face. The two of them laughed at Brad’s joke, but for James, it was more of a shrill sound to cover up the fact that his coworker was pretty much on the money. Ronald’s serum was a lot like something you’d see in a superhero movie, only, it wasn’t fiction—this was his new life. But he was no superhero. The thought grounded him.

Rosie’s Bar and Grill was a quaint little rustic pub on the edge of town.

James had never been there himself, but it wasn’t hard to find using his GPS. In fact, it was less than a fifteen-minute drive from his house. Although it was only a Thursday night, it was buzzing with people watching sporting events, enjoying drinks on the patio, and as Ronald graciously pointed out, gorging on their locally famous burgers. They were lucky they even snagged a table this late in the evening, but Ronald knew the owner, so they got a nice booth beside the bar. James didn’t mind all the hooting and hollering from enthusiastic fans watching football on the big screen. He thought it was rather amusing to see people get so hyped over a game.

“Hey, y’all.” The waitress greeted them within a minute of them sitting down. She placed two laminated menus in front of them before grabbing out her notepad and pen from her waist apron. “What can I get started for you boys tonight?”

“I’ll have a Heineken,” James decided. “I’ll need a few minutes to decide what food I’m going to get tonight.”

“And I’ll have a glass of your finest red wine,” Ronald said. “Same for me about the food.”

“Excellent, I’ll go grab those for you and be back in a jiffy,” the waitress beamed before disappearing into the crowd.

“She was cute,” James smirked. He nudged his foot against Ronald’s beneath the table, a subtle hint for him to make a move.

“This is supposed to a guy’s night out,” he mused, not looking up from his menu despite the fact that he had said he’d been here close to a hundred times. “Besides, I don’t date.”

“Why not?”

Ronald let out a deep sigh before placing his menu down on the table. Romance and relationships were never really a hot topic of conversation between the two of them, but James had to admit, he was genuinely curious. Out of all the times he’d been over to Ronald’s lab, not once had he ever spotted even a speck of evidence that he’d had a girl over.

“It’s not that I’m not interested in women,” Ronald started. He twiddled his thumbs on the table trying to find the right words. “I was engaged, once. A really long time ago. Unfortunately, my work, it well, it comes first, and I don’t want to start something with someone and let them down.”

“Oh,” James blinked. A long time ago? You lost someone, didn’t you? I get it, he thought, but chose not to say.

He couldn’t even imagine being alone for the rest of his life. After Amelia passed away, he feared he might be, but he’d come to the realization when he agreed to be Ronald’s experiment that life was too short to do it by yourself. There was a very good chance Amelia was his soul mate, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fall in love again.

“Let me guess, that wasn’t the answer you were expecting?” Ronald asked.

“No, it’s not that, it’s just, I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t...be alone.”

“I’m not alone. I have you, my work colleagues, my family...somewhere,” he shrugged with a grin. “For me, that’s enough.”

James dropped the conversation and resumed looking over the menu. There were lots of options, most of which involved something on the grill. He decided to take Ronald’s advice and try their house burger, as it was the most popular item on the menu. As if on cue, their waitress returned with their drinks.

“Sorry about the wait,” she huffed, brushing some stray hairs from her face with the back of her hand. “Have you decided what you want to eat?”

“Yes, I’ll have the house burger deluxe with a side of fries, please,” James chimed.

“I’ll have my usual,” Ronald smirked. He took James’s menu from him and handed them over to the waitress, who tucked them underneath her arm.

“Right away, Dr. Clark.”

Once again, she zig-zagged through the crowd of drunk customers with ease. James leaned back into the booth a little bit, allowing himself to get comfortable. With their orders in, he figured it would be at least half an hour until they got their food, especially since the place was so packed. That would give him plenty of time to get to know Ronald on a more personal level.

“So, besides work and cars, what do you like to do in your spare time?”

Ronald raised an eyebrow but took a second to think about it. “I’d say photography. I’m an amateur and that’s pushing it, but 33 I love going up to the mountains every summer and walking the trails. The view is fantastic if you’re willing to put in the work.”

“Well, now that you made me a new man, I’m sure I’d be up for a little hike in the woods.” James flexed both of his arm muscles, earning him a few glances from some of the ladies at the bar.

“Keep it down,” Ronald whispered. He leaned in closer to James before saying anything else. “Someone might hear you.”

“Everyone here is either drunk or on their way to being drunk,” James replied. “No one is paying any attention to us.”

“That you know of,” Ronald remarked.

James exhaled through his nose, knowing that this conversation was always going to end the same way it always did. He just couldn’t get Ronald to budge, no matter what angle he threw at him.

“I just don’t understand why you don’t team up with some of your colleagues. Surely, they’d feel the same way as you. And if you present a unified front, you’d be safe together.”

“That’s a horrible idea.”

“Helping save lives is horrible?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to help people, because believe me, I do, but there’s a time and a place for these things,” he muttered. “You just wouldn’t understand. You don’t know what the higher-ups are like. They’re cutthroat. You ever see those movies where the scientist disappears in the middle of the night? Yeah, that’s more or less accurate for our field. If the 34 wrong person found out what I had done, what we had done,” he pointed between the two of them, “we’d be putting a massive target on our backs.”

“We?” James swallowed a mouthful of beer. He’d been under the impression that it would only Ronald would be the one in the hot seat.

“You’re the only person who has ever had a dose,” Ronald whispered. “Patient Zero, remember? It’s in your body, in your blood as we speak. You don’t think they’d come after you too to get their hands on the formula?

James slowly lowered his empty beer bottle on the table just as the waitress came with their hot plates of food. She placed identical meals in front of the two of them, and James barely remembered her asking if they required anything else. Ronald, noticing the dazed look in his friend’s eye, informed the waitress they’d just like another drink for the two of them before she left. The rest of the night became a blur of forgotten conversations and delicious food. All the while, James was lost in his own little world, realizing that perhaps Ronald was right about keeping this a secret. The more he thought about it, the more he feared if The Potion was going to cost him his life after all, just not in the way he pictured it.