Wake (The Runners, Part Four)

by Logan Rutherford

  “We worked hard, day and night. We had almost no sleep, and we never got to see our families. A small base secluded deep underground had become our new home. We had the fate of humanity on our soldiers; we couldn’t let people – our families – live in a world ruled by Kappa.

  “Finally, after months of building, and re-building; programming, and re-programming, we had it: the first Eden Capsule.

  “It was a programmer by the name of Marcus Wright who cracked the program. He created a whole new world were humans could live. Inside the world called Eden, we set the year to 2011, and Marcus programmed it to not allow technology to surpass a certain point, so what happened with Kappa would not be able to happen again.

  “We needed someone to test the capsule, but we faced a dilemma: Marcus said he had to be the one to test it first, since he was the one who programmed it. If anything went wrong, he would know what to do. But at the same time, if anything went wrong out here, we wouldn’t know what to do either. At the same time, CTTF had intercepted a device from Kappa. Kappa figured out a way to clone people. They would take what essentially was a person’s life, and tether it from one person, to the original. They would take the body of somebody who had recently died, and bring them back to life using “life-force”. As I said earlier, by this point, technology was very advanced, so they were able to reverse the decaying process. But the body had to be fresh; we weren’t that advanced. The CTTF brought the machine to us. We used it on Marcus, making two of him. His duplicate didn’t look like him, but he had all of the same memories. He knew everything that Marcus did. We were finally able to test the Eden Capsule. Duplicate Marcus went into the Eden Capsule, we were able to see everything that he saw. And what we saw was beautiful. It was a world that was primitive, a world that had promise.

  “We made hundreds of them in the matter of months. We built the Eden base that you are currently in, deep, deep, underground in the middle of the North Pole. We made it completely out of metal. We were too far away, too deep. The metal in the base made it impossible for computer waves to pass through. Plus, we had our computer defenses. Kappa couldn’t touch us.

  “Only a few hundred people were selected to be a part of the Eden project. The brightest minds in the world. Originally, the Eden program was supposed to allow humans to live freely, away from Kappa. But then, Kappa did something that literally destroyed the earth. CTTF was closing in on Kappa’s headquarters. They had barely an foot soldiers, since they were cyber-terrorism. They were no match for the armies of the world. Kappa knew that they were no match, so they self-destructed their base. But not only did it destroy the base, but they set off a chain reaction that overloaded every electronic device, making it explode; including nuclear missiles.

  “Eden was in its early stages. We were only a few hundred strong. But soon, we were the only ones left. Since we were far away, the chain reaction could not reach us. Now, Eden is keeping humanity alive, until the earth is suitable for life again; which will be a very long time. Once it is, though, we will start over. But until then, Eden is the only thing keeping the human race going. Eden is as real to the humans inside of it, as earth once was to them. They are going about their daily lives, living on. They will live, and die in Eden. Just like some of us will live, and die outside of it.”

  Adam sat there in silence. He was going over in his head all that Athena had just told him. It was all too much. He buried his head in his hands; he was so confused. “So,” he said, his voice cracking. “My entire life has been a lie. I’ve been living in some computer program my entire life?! How did I not know about this?”

  “Well,” Athena said, sipping some tea. “First off, Eden is not a computer program. It’s a new beginning. Would you rather live your life stuck in an underground base? Of course not! We’re giving people a chance to live their lives! Fall in love, get a job, hang out with friends, go see a movie. Eden is as real as it gets! As far as how you did not know about Eden…” Athena hesitated. She stared off in the distance. “This is very hard for me to say,” she began quietly. She let out a deep sigh. “Marcus,” she said hesitantly. “He was very…upset with us. He believed that since he was the creator of Eden, he should rule over it. We told him that it didn’t make any sense to have a ruler, but he argued continuously. Eventually, he gave up…or so we thought. He entered Eden, and was going to live his life there. The Wake team was going to stay out of Eden, and in headquarters, but he wanted to live inside his creation. While he was inside of it, he figured out a way to clone himself again. It shouldn’t have surprised us as much as it did. Eden was creation; he knew exactly how it worked. So, he was able to bend the rules. This time, he was able to clone himself to look exactly the same. He created a new version of Kappa inside of Eden. He was going to take over it, and rule it. He became the exact thing he had originally fought against. We destroyed his Eden Capsule, killing his body. But his clone lives on inside Eden, ruling Kappa, and always growing closer to taking over. We have been able to keep his powers over Eden to a minimum, but he is still somewhat able to bend Eden to his will. Now-”

  “Just stop dancing around!” Adam yelled, jumping from his seat. “What does this have to do with me?! How did I not know about Eden?!”

  Athena, not surprised by Adam’s sudden outburst, just smiled. “If you would please take a seat, Adam. I was only explaining the things that were necessary in order for you to understand why we did what we did.”

  Adam slowly sat down, and looked at the ground. “I am sorry. Please, explain.”

  “As I was saying, we knew that Marcus was a man who could not be trusted. He was a dangerous man. And so, we had to decide what was to be done with his clone that was here, outside of Eden. The clone was a only sixteen-years-old. We did not know this at the time, but the cloning process freezes the aging process of the clone, so he would be sixteen forever.

  “It was decided that we would wipe his memory, and insert him into Eden under the watchful eyes of the agents we have on the inside. Every year, we would wipe his memory, give him new ones, and send him to a different family. We kept him moving so Marcus would never be able to find him. But one day, he did.”

  “I don’t,” Adam began to say. Then he realized it. He realized what it was Athena was trying to say.

  “Adam,” she began quietly. “You are the clone of Marcus Wright.”

  Chapter Seven

  The beeping of his alarm clock echoed throughout the room. Adam hit the top of the alarm clock, turning it off. He groggily sat up, rubbing his eyes. He looked at the clock. Its red numbers said 4:30. He threw his sheets off him, swung his feet of the side of his bed, and stood. He fumbled in the darkness, searching for the doorknob to the bathroom. He groped the wall, until he felt its cold metal touch his hand. He grabbed it, twisted, and pushed it open.

  He felt around the wall for the light switch. Once he found it, he flipped it on with a satisfying click. The sudden light blinded him. He rubbed his eyes as the adjusted to the light. He looked around the bathroom. It was small, and like everything else here, was made of metal, and had florescent lights across the ceiling. In the hurry that they built this place, style really wasn’t an option. In the corner, was a small shower. Next to it a toilet. Across from the shower, was a sink and mirror. Next to it, was a cabinet, that had clothes in it.

  Adam turned the shower on as hot as he could stand, stripped down, and hoped in. He did the same thing that he did the day before; he let the water wash away every thought that he had. This, after the revelation that he had yesterday, was hard to do. But, eventually, the water won out, and washed everything away, and down the drain.

  After he was done with his shower, he threw on a grey t-shirt that he grabbed from the cabinet, along with underwear, a pair of sweatpants, and some socks.

  He walked over to the sink, and began to brush his teeth. He spit the toothpaste out, which had a pink tint to it.

  Adam let out a deep sigh, and leaned his hands on the sides of the sink. He w
atched the toothpaste slowly make its way down to the drain.

  But finally, after avoiding it as much as he could, he looked up into the mirror. Staring back at him, were a pair of brown eyes that were not his own. They were full of regret, sadness, and shame. He did not want to even look at himself, but his eyes would not budge. He was a monster. He was a man that tortured people, killed people, tore people’s lives apart. His selfishness was the reason that he was here. If it wasn’t for him, Eves dad would still be alive, Twi’s brother would be, too. And his mom…was she still his mom? He had all of these memories of things that the two of them did together, but most of them were fake. But still, he mourned her. She was the closest thing to a mom that he ever had…at least, from what he could remember, it was. The only memories he could trust were the ones that started with his sixteenth birthday…the day of his surprise party. Were those people that were there really his friends? He doubted it. They were probably people that Wake had put there just to act like his friends. He stood there, staring at the mirror, reminiscing about the party. That was the first time that he remembered being happy. Now that? That was for real. It was not some fake memory that Wake had put in his brain; he felt true happiness.

  He took that memory – the feeling it gave him – and he bottled it up. One day, and probably soon, he was going to need it.

  He was going to get his revenge on Marcus; on himself. He may be alive thanks to him, but he was nothing like him. He never wanted this. He was dead, and brought back to life against his will. He didn’t want to become this. A monster. A monster of a man.

  A tear rolled down his cheek, as he thought about who he was, and what he had done. “I’m sorry,” he cried, asking himself for forgiveness. “I am so, so sorry,” he was sobbing now. “I’ll make it right. I’ll make everything better.” He was feeling remorseful. The other Marcus’ may have not been forgiving. But he was. “I never wanted this. Please, forgive me,” he cried. He fell to the floor. He curled up in a ball, crying, and asking himself for forgiveness.

  ****

  Adam was sitting at a round table, while in the middle of a meeting. To his right, was Eve. On his left side, was Nick. Adam learned that by ‘They’re gone,’ London meant that Nick and Felix were taken out of Eden, and brought to Wake.

  “…they are finding our safe-houses. They are getting bolder, and stronger. Soon, they will be unstoppable,” Athena was saying. She was speaking to the head counsel members of Wake, which were the original members; the ones who helped make the Eden Capsules. Felix, Eve, and Nick were present, because they were giving their accounts of the attack. Adam was there because, one he was also present for the attack, and two; he was technically, one of the council members.

  “I have prepared a plan that will allow us to take down Kappa once and for all.” Everybody’s ears perked up, as the leaned in close, absorbing every word that she said, afraid to miss a single detail. “We are going to kill Marcus.”

  Whispers broke out among the council members. “Athena,” said one man. His face was very wrinkled, and he was bald, and Adam didn’t think it was because of the Eden Capsules. “You say this like this is something that we have never tried before. But do you forget that we have been trying for years? In case you do not remember, Marcus has used his control over Eden to conceal the Kappa base. We have no clue where they are!”

  Cries of agreement escaped from the mouths of some of the other council members.

  Athena kept her trademark smile on her face, and spoke. “Yes, I do remember. We have tried for many years to topple Marcus from his Kappa throne, and for many years, we have failed. Now, we have no other choice but to use Adam.”

  All eyes turned on him. Adam shrank back in his chair, avoiding eye contact with the people the he had once known, but now has no remembrance of them.

  “We believe that since Eden is a part of Marcus, and since Adam is Marcus, than he has that same power.”

  “Why have we not tried this before?!” Yelled an old woman that was sitting towards the end of the table.

  “I did not know what would happen. These things are…unpredictable. I did not, and still do not know what would happen if Marcus was able to come face-to-face with Adam, since the two of them are one in the same. Marcus could talk Adam into joining him. Could you imagine what would happen if there were two Marcus’ terrorizing Eden? With their combined powers, they could easily destroy our defenses against them. The two of them together would be…unstoppable.”

  Adam hated how they talked about him like he was not in the room. But even more than that, they talked about him like he was Marcus. That monster.

  “He is a wildcard, but he is our only card.” Athena finished.

  A silence fell across the room.

  After a few moments, Eve broke the silence. “Athena,” she said slowly. “I’ve studied a bit about cloning, and if I remember correctly, if the original dies, than the clone dies, because they are the same person. We all know that the reason the Marcus inside of Eden is still alive is because he was cloned inside Eden, which at the time, the original Marcus had complete control over. The original Marcus knew that he would be killed, so using his powers over Eden, he was also able to make Adam – who was also in Eden at the time – tied to the new, Eden Marcus. So, my question is this: what happens to Adam if he kills Marcus? The Marcus in Eden is now, basically, the original Marcus.”

  A silence, even stronger than the one that was in the room just moments before, came over the room. The silence was deafening to Adam. A pit grew in his stomach. He started shaking, afraid at what Athena was going to say.

  After a few minutes, Athena spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. “If Adam were to succeed in his mission – if he were to kill Marcus, freeing Eden from the tyrannical grasp of Kappa – I am afraid that it would also mean the death of him.”

  Chapter Eight

  Shouts and cries filled the room. Some people were trying to talk to Adam, but he did not hear any of it. All he could hear was the howling of blood rushing through his ears. He was going to die. He thought back at his life, but then, he realized that he could not remember it. He knew that he had once had one, many, actually, but he could not remember them. He was glad that he could not though, because he wanted nothing to do with Marcus. With himself.

  “I’ll do it.” He yelled, making his voice heard over all the noise. Silence once again filled the room.

  “Adam,” Eve began to say.

  “No, Eve,” he turned and looked deep into her eyes. “I have to do this. This is my one chance at redemption; don’t deny me of it.”

  “That is very noble of you, Adam.” Athena said. “You will be a hero throughout Earth – both of them.”

  “So,” he said, ignoring her praise. “How am I supposed to “control Eden”, or whatever?”

  “I believe that once you enter Eden, armed with the knowledge of who you are, it will come to you. If you find that difficult, then you will meet up with Brutus. He will teach you what he knows. Usually he is here, on base, but right now, he is in Eden. You will meet him there. Although, he already knows you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The sudden knowledge of martial arts? The sudden knowledge of how to use a gun? That was Brutus. He was, well, I guess you could say, “Downloading” that information into you. He is our brightest programmer, and he has figured out how to manipulate a very small amount of Eden, he cannot manipulate near enough as Marcus can, but he can still do some.”

  While some of the council members were talking, Adam leaned over to Nick, whispering. “Look,” he began. “I know you don’t really like me, but I promise you, I will get Twi, your family, and everybody else’s away from Kappa.”

  Nick, who was looking straight ahead, let a single tear roll down his cheek. He nodded his head.

  “Alright,” Adam said aloud. Everybody in the room went silent. “When do I leave? You don’t want me sitting around, talking myself out of doing this, do you?”

/>   Some people mumbled “No” under their breath, while others said it aloud.

  “You will be leaving as soon as possible. Kappa’s power grows by the minute. We want them stopped as soon as possible.”

  Adam stood from his seat. “You got it, Captain.” He walked out of the room, leaving everybody shocked by his sudden dismissal.

  “He listens a lot better than the original Marcus did.” Adam heard somebody mumble as he walked out of the room. There were some grunts of approval.

  He was walking down the hallway, making his way to his room, when he heard Eve shouting behind him. “Adam!” She yelled. He turned and saw her running towards him.

  “Eve, don’t try to stop me. I have to do this,” Adam said, shooting down any argument she was about to present.

  What she did completely surprised him. She stood up on her tiptoes, and kissed him on the forehead. His face flushed red, and he felt warmth start in his stomach, and grow outwards from there. He was warm, but still, goose bumps sprung out across his body.

  “Go get ‘em, Tiger,” she said, smiling, but crying.

  Adam reached out, and pulled her into a deep embrace. She her body started shaking with sobs. Adam began crying, too.

  “Don’t do it. I don’t want you to go.” She said, through sobs.

  “I have to. I’m doing it for redemption, for Eden…for you.”