6 One More Year

Jack probably didn't really think his whole travel through. The hospital was quite a ways away, and he probably should have told those two scientists, or any of the other scientists even, that he was gonna go somewhere. But he was already traveling, so might as well go through with it. Walking through the city that's pretty crowded is very difficult. But so far, he's doing pretty well...

*RING RING*

Jack's phone was ringing. Answering it, he gets "Where are you right now? You just disappeared," from one of the other scientists. Paul was his name, Jack thinks. "Look, we need to tell you something-" "Tell me on the way," Jack interrupted Paul. "...Fine. According to your genetic structure, your DNA had a recessive trait that was activated in you." "What? Why?" "Well, a few theories have been crafted, with the favorable one being that it activated when you were in mortal danger." "Hmm, but that isn't really how genetic things work, right?" "Well, I said it was the favorite, not the most plausible. Another is that it works like lactose intolerance. It will start infinite telomere production at adulthood, sort of like how most animals stop producing lactase when they reach adulthood." "Sounds much more plausible." "It does. And, get back here soon. Your parents gifted us a gift basket full of stuff." "Just leave it in my room."

*CLICK*

After the quick conversation, Jack takes another look on his map, and heads towards the hospital. After an hour or so, he reaches it. Saint Carol Hospital. Walking inside, he heads immediately to the reception area. "Hello, welcome to the Saint Carol Hospital. How may I help you?" "Hello, I'm here to visit someone named Susie?" "Ah, a friend? How nice for her. She's been receiving many visitors. She's in Room 405." "Ah, thank you." After the pleasant conversation, Jack headed for Room 405. On the way though, he runs into Marie. "Oh, Jack!" She exclaims, her hazel eyes wide. She no doubt heard about him from Michael, but never saw him. "Oh, hi, Marie," he replies. "What are you doing here?" "Oh, yeah. I was gonna go visit your sister." "What? How did you know that?" "Oh, Michael told me about her. Said she wasn't doing too well." "Oh, he told you. Yes, she's not feeling too well. She doesn't really have a lot of time left." "Oh... I'm sorry to hear that. What's the disease?" "Oh, it's... It's not much, really." She said. Not much? Right. She wouldn't have 'not long left to live' if it wasn't much. "Alright then. Well, goodbye," Jack said. "Goodbye," replied Marie. The two of them then went their separate ways.

Continuing on to Room 405, Jack encounters the door. Raising his curled hand, he knocks on the door. A voice calls out from the inside. "Come in!" the voice yelled. Jack then opened the door, and came into the room. He saw Susie, just lying there on the bed. She looked very similar to her sister, with the only difference being her hair being jet black, and shorter. She's hooked up to a heart monitor, which is beeping very fast. "Oh, who are you?" Susie asked, looking out of breath despite only lying around all day. "Hi, I'm Jack. I guess you can call me a friend of a friend of your sister." "Oh, really? Well, I'm Susie. Nice to meet you. What brings you here?" "Oh, uh, I'm here to check up on you." "Really? Well, I'm perfectly fine. Sis just visited me, no need to check on me." "Yeah, I don't buy you being alright. You're in a hospital bed with a heart monitor that says its beeping at about 180 bpm. What's going on?" Jack said. "Well I meant that relatively, but alright. I... I have heart cancer." "Heart cancer? Oh, I see..." "Yes... The doctor told me that without treatments, I would only last about 9 more months." "Oh. And with...?" "With? About another year." "That's not much longer." "It isn't, is it? Needless to say, I would like to stay alive a bit longer, if only to see Marie move on up a grade." "Don't you want to find a way to live longer?" "Of course I do. But heart cancer is very dangerous. And the cancer would most likely come back." "You'd give up? Already?" "Well, there's not much I can do." After she said that, Jack was convinced to help her. If he got superhuman abilities when he turned immortal, then surely his ability to suppress and destroy illnesses got a massive buff as well! It might even cure the cancer! "Well, I think I know how to help you. Now, you might call me nuts..." "Considering that you think you can help get rid of my cancer, I will call you nuts." "Now hear me out..."

"I'm convinced. You ARE nuts." Susie said to Jack, after hearing his idea. "I mean, you? Immortal? What a load of nonsense." She continued. "Look, I know it's hard to believe, but it's very much true." "Even if you were immortal, what if I get that immortality?" "Then you'd probably also live forever, as long as you don't sustain too many injuries." "But I don't want to live forever!" "Huh? Why?" "Because I want to actually live with my family." Jack wasn't very smart when it came to anything other than computers. Why wouldn't you want to be immortal? You can still live with your family.is he really being shortsighted? He'll find out soon enough.