John MacDugal didn’t see himself as a religious man. In fact he didn’t even go to church. So the fact that he was now having “experiences” seemed to be rooted in something other than the supernatural. Anxiety? Some irrational fear? Maybe a work related exposure to some drug? None of that really mattered right now though. What mattered right now was hope. John’s greatest hope right now was that the blinding image of a man before him was a dream or a hallucination and that he really wasn’t losing his mind.

85 Years Earlier - 2012

“…over the last one-hundred years, we have institutionalized death, made it something that happens in nursing facilities, retirement homes and out of the eyes and ears of our children.” Professor John MacDugal glanced up from his notes and addressed the audience in a solemn voice.

“The flipside of this has been noted in the way that the last few generations have viewed death. In short, they fear it and see it as something that should be avoided at all cost. We have never seen such an interest in the prolonging of human life as we have in the last fifty years. We have materialized a stigma that anyone who is no longer healthy or expected to live much longer should remove themselves from society, away from the eyes and ears of the young. The very efforts we have put in place to make them live longer has brought them to a place where they are imprisoned in homes away from loving families, caring friends and outside of our comfortable society where they no longer seem to fit.” The stern voice seemed about to crack with emotion.

“What we have done is alienate the very people with the wisdom to make us see death as something other than the end to life and we have inflamed the notion that we must live for eternity. The biomedical technology now exists that we can not just clone our own selves, but regrow the very tissue that is deteriorating where it is through the injection of your own cloned stem cells. We can regrow the human heart overnight. We have materialized a fix for many of the problems that plague mankind through a genetic switch that remained hidden for years. That just by changing slow twitch muscle into quick twitch muscle we no longer have the problems of obesity, diabetes, and can fight off most viral infections quickly.” John gazed slowly over the audience as his words sank in.

“My friends, we have found the keys to eternal life and there are many different shapes and types of genetic doors that must be unlocked to make it possible, but it is now possible to live forever this side of eternity without the need for locking away our loved ones like they are diseased, like they no longer should be a part of society. Only when they have decided to move on, they can, when they choose, not just when their body falls apart.”

A hush fell over the crowd before the audience rose to their feet as one in standing ovation. Then just as quickly the questions started coming… shouts, each reporter yelling above the next, and flashes blinded John. Then everything went dark…