Terminal

"Terminal" is the tenth chapter of Converge.

Night had fallen over Azla, and the fighting in country died down. As soldiers on both sides setup camp, so did Robert Darin and Joseph Cross.

"The house looks abandoned, and it's out of the way of main streets. We should be safe here for the night." Joseph said.

"Are you sure we should wait out the night? Maybe we should try to get out of the city now."

Joseph shook his head, "Neither of us are familiar with the area. We'll be stumbling around in the dark, and we could walk right into a trap."

They entered the house and closed the door behind them. Robert flipped the light switch, but nothing happened.

"The power grid is down." Joseph said.

It was almost pitch black, but they illuminated the area with their phones. Robert saw a fireplace, and noticed that there was a pile of wood next to it.

"Lucky for us." Robert said.

Ge placed the wood in the fireplace. He found a cookbook lying around and ripped some pages out. He stuffed them in with the wood. He then ignited the paper with his lighter. A few minutes later, they had a good fire burning.

Robert opened his medical bag, and found a bottle of aspirin. He opened it and took one. He then noticed that Joseph's hand was trembling.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Right now, yes. In the long run, no." Joseph looked up, "I have Huntington's disease."

"I'm sorry." Robert said, "When did you find out?"

"I've known since I was 12,  but the symptoms appeared recently."

Robert looked through his bag and took out a small plastic bottle of pills.

"The good news is, you still have about 20 years left to live." Robert said, "Here, this should help with the chorea."

"Thanks." Joseph said.

"You know, Clover hospital is currently doing a clinic trial on a drug for Huntington's. You should consider signing up."
"Where is this place?"

"Boston."

"I'll consider it." Joseph said, "I was wondering, how did you learn how to build that bomb from earlier."

"It was just chemistry." Robert said, "Combine alcohol, oxygen and heat, you get combustion. So if you combine a lot of alcohol with a lot of oxygen, you get an explosion."

Joseph nodded, and took out his phone, "The cell towers are still down."
"I'm not surprised. Who do you want to call anyway?"
"My sister, Katie. She's probably worried sick right now. My partner Thomas too."

"So where are you from, and what brings you to Azla?" Robert asked.

"I live in New York City and I came to Azla for a funeral."
"I'm sorry. Who died?"
"Back in high school, my sister was part of this foreign exchange program. She went to Azla, and this guy, Michael, came to the US." Joseph said, "So, what's a Bostonian doing here?"
"I'm part of Doctors Without Borders."
"How charitable of you."
"It's nothing."
Robert suddenly collapsed. He was struggling to breath. He tried to grab the medical bag, but it was just out of reach. Joseph quickly picked it up and dumped the contents in front of Robert. Robert grabbed a syringe and removed the wrapper. He then stabbed himself directly in the chest, and drew fluid out. He removed the syringe and continued to breath normally.

"Jesus," Joseph said, "What's wrong."

Robert spoke between heavy breaths, "I have giant cell lung cancer."

"I've never heard of that."

"It's an extremely rare type of carcinoma. My case is metastatic. I only have a few months left to live."
"I'm sorry." Joseph said, "You looked pretty heathy for a cancer patient."

"A lot of the sickness of cancer patients is from chemo. I didn't have any."

"Why not?"

"It probably wasn't going to work, GCCL is usually terminal. I've seen a ton of cancer patients over my career, and so many of them opted for dangerous and painful treatment that often only barely extended their lifespans. I prefer to just make the most of my remaining life."

Joseph looked at him puzzled, "So you only have a few months left to live, and you're doing charity work? Shouldn't you be doing what you enjoy?"

Robert shrugged, "I guess charity is what I enjoy."

"I once read a book that said sacrificing too much for others is not healthy behavior. Maybe you should focus on yourself sometimes."

"Maybe, but all my life, helping others is what I've always liked doing. It's why I became a doctor."

"Well," Joseph said, "I get why you rejected the chemo. I understand not wanting to live in pain. When my dad succumbed to Huntington's, he had some pretty bad last few years. Watching him go through that was really tough for us. And when my mom's symptoms started getting really bad, she decided that it wasn't worth it, and killed herself."

"I'm sorry." Robert said.

"It's ok. It was for the best, all things considered."

Robert realized something, "Hold on, both your parents had Huntington's?"

"Yeah, they met at a support group."

"What about your sister? Does she have it."

"No. She was lucky."

"How did she take the news? About your Huntington's." Robert asked.

"Well when I was 12 and she was 10, our parents told us about it. That they're lives would be much shorter than usual, as would mine. We were both upset by this, and Katie made a souffle to help me feel better."

"Impressive for a 10 year old."

"Yeah, she has a real talent for cooking. She's actually a chef at a fancy Frech restaurant. She's also married with three kids." Joseph said.

"Good for her." Robert said.
"What about you?" Joseph asked, "You haven't told me about your family."

"I never knew my parents. I grew up in an orphanage."

"That sucks." Joseph said, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It wasn't that bad actually."

"Well that's good to hear" Joseph looked at his watch, "We should get some rest. We leave at dawn."