Chapter 10

"JD's Rings"

June 30th 1988

Brian sighed and scratched the stubble on his chin, then on his cheek. He leaned back in his chair and let out a yawn, not expecting a steaming mug in his face when he reopened his eyes. After letting out a yelp of surprise and grabbing onto his chest, Brian looked up and saw Jay, who was smiling and still holding out the mug.

"Sorry," Jay said, "Didn't mean to scare you."

"It's alright," Brian told him and accepted the offered beverage, "What is this?"

"Hot cocoa."

"In June?"

"It maybe hot outside," Jay said as he took a seat next to his friend at the worktable, "But it's fucking freezing down here."

Brian nodded and carefully took a sip from the mug, "That a new ring?"

Jay looked down at the center finger of his right hand, where a silver ring rested, "Yeah, I made it myself."

"Impressive," Brian said.

"I thought you might say that," Jay said as he pulled two more silver rings from the thigh pocket of his camouflage pants, "So, I made you a couple."

Brian sat his mug on the table, took the rings and studied them in his hand; "I only need one."

Jay shrugged, "Give one to someone you care about. It don't cost me anything to make."

Brian held the rings closer to his face and saw that a section of medal had been cut out of them so they could be adjusted. He also noticed a strange smell coming off of them, which his brain told him was the smell of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur.

"Why do they smell like gunpowder?" Brian asked his friend, who grinned and laughed.

"That's because they're made from .50 caliber shells. I just cut a small section from the shell, then cut out an area in them so they can be widened to fit your finger. I used stainless steel shells for these rings."

Brian blinked and looked at his friend blankly, "You have way too much time on your hands."

Jay couldn't keep from laughing, "What? Are you kidding? This is GI Jewelry. I also made a necklace from deactivated 5.56 millimeter bullets."

Brian blinked again, "Way too much time on your hands."

Jay laughed and looked at the microscope, then at the notes scattered around, "You workin' on the T-Virus?"

Brian looked at the microscope, which had a sample of the female subject's blood. He was about to introduce a drop of XCL-2 into the blood, then repeat the procedure with a drop of XCL-1. He needed to record the difference in healing times between the two anti-viruses in order to get an idea of the real effectiveness of XCL-2.

Brian thought for a second about telling his friend the truth. That he was trying to find a cure for the female subject. He even considered telling Jay everything, all his ideas, all his plans. Then he decided that he would tell Jay only enough to ensure his help, but not enough to jeopardize his plans. There was still a chance that Jay would either tell the wrong person by accident, or a smaller chance that he would spill his guts to the wrong person on purpose.

"Jay, do you remember when you asked me how I felt about what we're doing down here?"

Jay thought back, then nodded, "Yeah, you said that it's not right."

"Alright. Meet me in the female subject's room tomorrow after ten o'clock. I'll tell you what I'm working on then."

"Okay," Jay said as he got up, "Have fun with your germs."

Brian took a drink of the cocoa that his friend brought him. Deciding to put the experiments on hold for a while, he put his notes away and disposed of the samples of the female subject's blood. Brian turned on the radio, which was playing a song from the 1960s. As the song progressed, so did Brian's urge to get up and dance, which he did after a time. Getting up, Brian started head-banging and strumming an air guitar. He started making a bigger ass of himself when he jumped on the chair, spun around three times, jumped from the chair and slapped the hanging lighting fixture. He then ran off to his room while singing, "I can't get no! I can't get no satisfaction, I can't get no girl in action!"