Chapter 8:
The next morning, at precisely 9:45 AM, Thomas found himself back on the stoop of Cryotech, Inc. After Frank's last rant at the library, Thomas made sure he would be fashionably early rather than fashionably late. Doug let him in once again, making Thomas wonder if he was also the guard as well as the techie. They entered the basement and joined the others who stood by and watched while Frank lectured one of the test subjects who had already arrived.
"No, I told you already, you don't have to take your clothes off to enter the chamber, they can stay on, there will be no harm done to you or the clothes."
"Are you sure? I don't want to put myself at risk and mess my body up..."
"Yes, as one of the inventors of this machine, I'm positive that it'll be OK and we really don't need you to get naked to get into the chamber."
"Well ... if you say so... but if I--" The complainer was cut off by the arrival of another subject led in by Doug. Frank hurriedly ran to greet them, happy to abandon the first needy and annoying subject. Moments later, subject number three arrived and Frank was overjoyed to finally be able to begin. After arranging the subjects in a nice, straight row, he looked them over. There were two men and one woman: all were poster children for the word ‘average’. There was nothing extraordinary about any of them.
"Thank you very much for coming and, most importantly, being on time!" Frank beamed. Thomas, Vera, Doug, Ervin, and Flo stood looking on behind him. "I'm so glad you all could make it. Now you all know the basic premise of what we'll be doing here, but I'm going to tell you what to expect. First off, you do not," he said, looking at the first subject who had complained earlier, "need to take your clothing off. You can leave it on when you enter the chamber and no harm will be done to your person or the clothing itself. Simply enter and stand there at attention, as if you were in the armed forces. The freezing process is quick--quick enough that you won't be aware of it as it's happening anyhow. During the time you are frozen, you won't be conscious of anything at all, so you won't remember the time that's passed by. Basically, it'll be like falling asleep and waking up the next day; you have no idea what happened during the night--except in this case it'll be for a full week. When you're being revived, you shouldn't be conscious of that happening either, it’ll be just like waking up. That’s all there is to it. You’ve all signed the waivers so you’re all set and ready to go! Shall we proceed?"
The subjects nodded and Frank gave each of them an injection of the chemical compound that remained a mystery to Thomas. Frank then motioned them into the chambers. They entered, looked around almost simultaneously, seemingly awestruck by the design of the chamber they were now standing in. Flo walked over and attached the various wires and tubes, and Frank followed behind, doing the final inspection of each subject and sealing the doors. Frank walked over to the controls, and, after some fiddling, the first person suddenly stopped looking around and froze in place. A monitor above the first chamber flickered on and displayed numbers, figures, and charts that were very nice looking, but meaningless to Thomas. Shortly thereafter, the second and third subjects were also frozen.
Thomas looked on at the scene in front of him. It was very eerie to see the three people inside these strange looking chambers remaining absolutely motionless. However, the charts and information displayed on the monitors at least gave Thomas some encouragement that things were still OK, even though he wasn’t exactly sure what they meant. Frank stood there for a while, simply watching. He finally seemed satisfied and walked back to the group that had been observing all this time.
"Well, that’s that," he said. "Flo and I are going to stay here and watch the monitors. One of us will be here at all times to look for anything out of the ordinary. Why don’t you kids go out and enjoy yourselves, get to know each other! After all, you’re going to have to rely on each other once you arrive in the future, so you’d better become dependable friends fast." He smiled and walked away, his mind preoccupied with myriads of thoughts.
"Wait, it’s Doug, Vera and I going to the future?" Thomas said, surprised.
"Well someone who knows how to monitor these machines has to stay behind sweetie." Flo said in that sickeningly sweet tone. "Plus, Frank, Ervin and I--Ervin especially--are just too old to be going on an adventure like this. Who knows what the future will be like? You three are young and adaptable and will be able to handle whatever is thrown at you. Don’t worry about us. It’s important that you three take the big leap. Now go on, get out of here. Go to a restaurant or a bar or something, and get to know each other better!" Flo walked over to Frank and looked over some printouts with him.
"Well," said Doug, turning to Thomas and Vera, "there’s a great hot dog place over on the corner of 6th and 8th if that sounds good."
Vera lit up. "Wait, how about Italian instead? There’s an awesome place I know down on Mulberry Street!" They all agreed and ventured out of the lab to get some much needed sustenance. After ordering, they began to engage themselves in the strange social activities connected with getting to know someone you’ve only recently met.
"So," Doug started, "I know a little bit more about Vera's background, but don't have a clue about you, Thomas. Did you grow up here in the city or what?"
"I was born in Indiana, actually, but we moved here when I was just a baby, so I don't remember anything prior to the city. I'm an only child, so no siblings. My parents were only children too, so no aunts or uncles or anything. It was just mom, dad, and me. I've never met any of my grandparents... I assume they're all still living in Indiana--if they’re still alive anyhow."
"Are your parents still here in the city then?" Vera asked. Thomas hesitated.
"They're both gone now ... they died in a car accident about three days after I graduated from high school."
"I'm ... I'm sorry, I didn't know." Vera stammered.
"No, no, don't be sorry you asked, you'd have to find out eventually. At the time I was pretty shocked, but, well, they looked out for me, even in their death. They both had life insurance policies, and the money was enough to completely pay off the remainder we owed on the condo along with a few other bills, so I didn't have to worry about a mortgage at least. From that point I just worked my way through college." Thomas took a sip from his soda. Vera still looked anxious. "Don't worry about it at all, it's no biggie. When we do get frozen," he paused, double checking to make sure what he was about to say was accurate. "I basically won't be missed or looked for; otherwise I probably wouldn't be doing it. I assume you both have a similar situation. What I’m curious about is what Frank, Flo, and Ervin get out of all of this. We go to the future and they stay here and monitor things. Don’t get me wrong, that’s great, I’d love to not die while we’re frozen, but it seems like they’re not putting much into this otherwise."
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Vera shouted, causing half the restaurant to turn and stare. She turned red and waited for most of the onlookers to get back to what they were doing before continuing. "You don't even really KNOW anything about Frank or what he does, do you? Well let me tell you..."