Clone Legacy: Book 3 in the Clone Crisis Trilogy

by Melissa Faye

  “Our team hopes you will look around at what’s really going around and join us. We already have one Chancellor on our side, a young clone who’s seen the flaws in his clone line’s plans. The Chancellors who will not join us in this work must be stopped. It’s the only way for us to enjoy the freedoms our ancestors had years ago, before the fertility crisis began.

  “To the Chancellor and his many clones: We are coming for you. Our citizens will only be free when we eliminate your control and return to a democracy. The change will be difficult, and we will have to make difficult choices as a nation. But working together, we will rid ourselves of the leaders who seek to sort us into groups and join as one in rebuilding our homes.

  “To the rest of our citizens, neighbors, friends, and families: we implore you to do what needs to be done to take back the country for the people. Look to each other for support and advice. Seek solutions that don’t result in violence and death. Join us and we’ll create a future where we’re free from the government that has taken away our choices. Join us and we’ll form a new society, one of peace and prosperity, where we’re not divided by career assignments or breeding status. If you’re not sure to help, turn to those around you. Our greatest power is in coming together as a community.”

  Chapter 26 – Yami

  Other Yami’s speech sent chills through my spine. It communicated the truth of our situation and our desperate need for the people to stand up for themselves.

  The people would need to decide what to do. Meanwhile, we would continue our own plans for destroying the many heads of the hydra at once.

  Rebels organized themselves into small groups to seek out each Chancellor individually. Stories returned to HQ of Chancellors captured peacefully and sometimes violently. Those of us who stayed behind created a tribunal to judge their guilt and decide what we would do with each one based on their particular contributions to the Chancellors’ work. Other Yami sent out a call to action to the entire country; we needed volunteers to help rein in the Chancellors and serve on their juries. Within a week, HQ was flooded with people from around the area, and within two weeks, half of the Chancellors were captured and HQ was overloaded with people from all over the country. We spread out to nearby communities, using volunteer guards and trained soldiers to watch over the Chancellors while they awaited trial.

  Another uprising took place when a group of guards protected a small group of Chancellors from a mob. The resulting fight killed dozens of people, including guards, citizens, and the Chancellors. When word spread, more guards stepped back from their assigned work and instead joined our group.

  Some of the Chancellors came quietly. Several were killed in standoffs with the rebels and citizen volunteers. Rebels traveled the country, shutting off collars and releasing them from the NBs’ necks. Charlie helped create a simple protocol for completing that work effortlessly, and we heard more and more stories about camps and communities overthrown by the people.

  Our work was not over. Other Yami called Charlie and myself to speak with her privately.

  “I’d like you two to go to the Chancellor’s main facility in the mountains. Yami, you know the Chancellor well, and both of you have already proven your ability to save NBs, fight off guards, and help communities rebuild after overthrowing their leaders. I have a large team assembled to infiltrate the Chancellor’s base. Will you join them?”

  I nodded before Other Yami finished talking. Charlie met my eyes and gave me one of his big grins. I hadn’t seen those in months. He wiggled his eyebrows and I wiggled mine back. I wasn’t a habitual smiler, but being here at HQ with Charlie, Other Yami, and Vonna, was softening me.

  And so we found ourselves loaded up into ten trucks with a long drive ahead to the mountains. I’d rarely seen the mountains and was awestruck at the sight. The weather quickly turned colder as our trek continued over two days. Charlie and I took turns driving our truck along with two other passenges, Violet and Hank. They were ten or fifteen years older than us, and they had worked with Older Yami for years. Their favorite game was asking me questions to see how similar I was to their de facto leader.

  “Are you a good listener?” Violet asked. “Do you like to take other people’s opinions into account?”

  “How would you describe yourself as a leader?” Hank asked. “Also, do you like grilled cheese?”

  Charlie snickered. “Yami is a poor listener,” he teased. “And she isn’t concerned with other people’s opinions unless they agree with their own.”

  I huffed. He wasn’t wrong. But we didn’t have to share my personality flaws with the others.

  “I like grilled cheese,” I butted in. “A lot. It’s one of my favorites.”

  “What about the Chancellor? Does he really have it in for you?” Violet was more talkative than Hank, and asked endless questions even when we stopped for the night.

  “He’s approached me more often than most people, I think. He has it in for me, definitely. You must have seen what he did. That awful jumpsuit. Making me out to be a monster. It was humiliating.”

  “You survived though,” Charlie said. He held my hand while I drove along a rocky trail that took us further into the mountains. “You can survive anything.”

  “I’m not so sure,” I said. Other Yami was a hero. I wasn’t a hero. I was opinionated, and rougher around the edges than I needed to be. And much grumpier than Other Yami. “Have either of you met your clones?”

  “We looked them up,” Violet said. “Not everyone’s clone is registered in the Chancellor’s system. My clone was killed in a rebellion in her community. Hank’s clone lives in France.”

  Hank stared out the window at the scenery. “I bet it’s beautiful there. Like this.” I noticed he didn’t comment on not being able to see his own clone. It struck me how lucky I was to have met mine.

  “I heard you can have kids. Is that true? You were in a breeding camp?” Violet asked Charlie.

  “Yeah, technically. I have one of the mutations. I don’t know if I want any kids though.”

  I saw Violet frown in the rear view mirror.

  “Don’t get me wrong – it’s up to you.” She hesitated. “But if you can have kids, I think you sort of have to, don’t you? I mean, I know you’re with this Yami, and I know neither Yami can have kids, but we do need to make sure we keep the population up. Have you seen the latest data around predicted population rates over the next fifty years? If you can have a child, and you don’t, maybe you should –“

  She stopped suddenly. I tightened up and dropped Charlie’s hand. I didn’t want to think about the future and about Charlie having his own family. It might mean I would lose him again. It might mean I needed to leave him again. Charlie reached for my hand, but I held the steering wheel firmly.

  THE CHANCELLOR’S HEADQUARTERS were high up in the mountains. Even from afar, it looked like no other community I’d ever seen. It didn’t even look like the highly developed space HQ used. It was a monstrous sort of compound with beautiful trees, stately homes, and a mansion bigger than any I’d ever seen before. I pulled off to the side next to the other trucks joining us a half mile away from the compound. We stared up at the site of the Chancellor’s personal cloning facility.

  Guards lined the walls. Some circled around the exterior, but many stayed in one place at the main gate. Unlike the other soldiers we saw, they weren’t wearing Gray Suits. They wore all white, like something out of the future, and held what looked like tasers. I cursed under my breath. I expected this to be easier: Enter. Find and remove Chancellors. Destroy the cloning facility.

  “We need to attack carefully. If this is the Chancellor’s most sacred space, it’s likely that there are a lot more guards inside.” I found myself taking charge, inspired by Other Yami.

  “Do we have enough weapons?” a woman asked. “There aren’t that many guards, and we can sneak past them, but without the right weapons we won’t get far.”

  I studied the space. The group of guards by the gate
would be the most challenging to pass, though we outnumbered them two to one. We were loaded up on weapons, including a combination of guns and tasers, and most of the crew was highly trained in using weaponry. I spent over a month in Gray Suit training and was confident those skills would serve me well.

  “We have enough weapons,” Violet said. “We can get in through brute force. Run at them. Take them down.”

  “I don’t like it,” Charlie said. “We’ll lose people, including the guards. I don’t want them to be our enemies. They have to be loyal to the Chancellors, living out here alone with them, and we don’t want to start a battle.”

  “I’ll go in first.” The plan came to me as I thought aloud. “I’ll distract them. They won’t want to hurt me, so they’ll take me inside. The Chancellors will be thrilled to have me there. The guards all know my face so they’ll know better than to attack.”

  “No way!” Charlie exclaimed. “It’s too risky.”

  “We need to end this now.” I was adamant that this was the best way to do it. “I’ll draw most of the guards away from the gate, and you can follow me in a few minutes later.” Charlie practically growled with frustration. “They won’t hurt me, Charlie. The Chancellor wants me alive. He wants to play with his prey before he destroys it.” Charlie huffed with more anger. “I don’t mean that, Charlie. He won’t destroy me. He’ll just try to get in my head. And I’ve done it before. It doesn’t scare me.”

  “With fewer guards, we’ll have fewer losses,” someone added. “If you can lead them away, we can get in and subdue people faster.”

  The others were convinced. Charlie began to fight with me more, but I ignored him. We went over the plan one more time. I would go first. The group would follow soon after. The main goal was to destroy the cloning facility and remove all the Chancellors present. Secondary to that, we’d do everything in our power to limit injury and death counts.

  And so I snuck out from the wooded areas where we parked and made the trek alone towards the facility. I pointed my gun straight ahead of me and held it there even as the guards came into sight. If they saw me as a larger threat, they’d send more guards to bring me in.

  They pointed their weapons at me and yelled at each other for additional help. I walked with purpose. I would be taken in. Then I would take the Chancellor out.

  “Halt!” one of the guards yelled. “Put your gun down!”

  “We’ll shoot!” another guard said. “We mean it. There’s no place for you here.”

  As I approached, a murmur passed through the crowd of soldiers. They recognized me. Someone yelled at the others to keep their guns up but not to fire. Two soldiers approached me slowly, guns pointed in my direction. I didn’t shoot. I waited until they were within a few feet of me and lunged at the nearest one.

  Suddenly, at least five soldiers were on top of me. I found myself at the bottom of a pile of men and women in immaculate white uniforms. Some still held their guns with trembling hands, while others had dropped theirs to the ground in the melee. I grinned. The scuffle and dirt sullied their uniforms. Maybe they’d be in trouble for not being so perfect anymore. The Chancellors did enjoy having everything look nice.

  Hands pulled at me, and I was reminded of the way the Chancellor transported me to the Hideaway to blame me for the entire rebellion. I felt myself lifted off the ground, a guard holding each limb tightly. Someone else threw my gun to the ground, and two other soldiers kept their weapons pointed in my direction. One soldier accidentally shot his taser at me, and I shook violently. Not as bad as Buzzy, I thought with a grin.

  “What’s wrong with her?” one of the guards shouted to his team when he saw my smile.

  “She’s crazy!” Others nodded and laughed.

  “She’d have to be crazy to come here after everything she’s done.”

  I sneaked a peak behind me, watching for my allies. No sign of them yet. I was half carried, half pulled inside the gates. Someone sent a message on the updated B-Bands. I followed my captors mindlessly, curious as to whether their B-Bands were removeable.

  People inside the gates looked strangely happy. They’re actually happy being in service to the Chancellors, I thought. I noticed a large glass building off to my right: the cloning building. There were two Chancellors ahead of us, and they waved to my guards. Their jaws dropped when they saw me in the middle of the group.

  “Bring her this way,” one of the Chancellors called. “Zero will want to speak with her.”

  Chapter 27 – Charlie

  I was livid as I watched Yami walk away from us, alone with only one gun and the barest hint of a plan. Hank held my arm as if I was about to run, but I knew better by now. Yami was going to go through with this whether I liked it or not. And I had to admit, she’d gotten herself through worse. If it wasn’t Yami, I might even agree with the arrangement.

  Without Yami, there was a strange silence as no one knew who was in charge anymore. Finally, an older man stepped forward.

  “Let’s wait exactly ten minutes, then follow her inside. She’s pulling attention away from us, and we can get in with fewer guards to take down.” Others nodded in agreement.

  It was a tense ten minutes. My heart beat fast and even in the altitude and cold, sweat formed on my brow. I held my gun tightly. I didn’t have the training others did, but I knew how to aim and I knew how to pull a trigger. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to.

  Finally, the man gestured for us to hike towards the compound. There were around fifty of us, all armed, some with multiple weapons in holsters on their sides. My heart beat faster now as I imagined where Yami was. And if she was even still alive. I knew Yami was right – the Chancellor didn’t want her dead. I just didn’t understand how much he cared if she was lost in a fight, or if he wanted her kept alive until he could watch her murdered by his team.

  We divided into two groups as the compound came into sight, sticking to either side of the tree line. As we got closer, the man in charge whispered directions to us.

  “We need to get inside,” he reminded us. “We’ll have to fight our way through the guards. They may be aiming to kill, but we aim to take them out of commission. No kill shots if we can help it. These guards are uninterested in our cause after spending years protecting the Chancellors. But we still want them alive. We’re not like the Chancellors. We care about everyone’s lives, and we need to show the guards as much.”

  We sneaked forward until the man whispered a final direction.

  “Now!”

  I ran full speed towards the gate, surrounded by the other rebels. The row of guards was much smaller; many were likely with Yami by now. The air suddenly filled with gunshots, screams, groans, and the buzz of tasers. I struggled to keep track of my own team. The guards in white panicked at the sudden intrusion; they must have thought Yami was acting alone.

  One of the guards knocked a rebel to the ground and held her in place with his boot. He pointed his gun towards her face and I reacted on instinct. I shot him, aiming for his shoulder but hitting his arm. He screamed out, and the rebel woman threw him down and grabbed his gun.

  With so many weapons and both sides hesitant to shoot, many of the rebels were paired with guards and fighting in hand-to-hand combat. I found a soldier standing right next to me and we exchanged punches. My ear buzzed as he knocked me over with a punch to my face. I staggered around while one of the rebels attacked him with a high kick to his side. My ears still ringing, I followed with a swift punch to one of his ears. That’s what that feels like, I thought with a hint of retribution.

  We pushed ahead slowly. There were many more of us than them, and it didn’t take long to incapacitate the entire group. One of the rebels had come prepared with handcuffs, and a few people used them to snap the guards’ wrists to the gates. A few guards lay on the ground unconscious, but besides a few stray bullet wounds, everyone appeared alive. I surveyed my team as we headed inside. No serious injuries. Some hobbling and grimacing, but nothing life-threatening.

/>   The compound was surrounded by evergreens and incredible mountain overlooks. Someone identified the cloning building to the right and a group hurried over to destroy it. They would clear out as many people as possible, then unleash a series of bombs to bring the building to the ground along with the Chancellor’s genetic materials.

  The rest of us attacked anyone in our path. We ran into a few more Chancellors and easily overran them. They lay on the ground, yelling for help, while some were handcuffed and some were guarded over by rebels. We didn’t want to split up until later, so we’d have to wait to transfer them back to our trucks.

  The main building loomed ahead of us. The Chancellor always seemed to delight in all things regal and ornate, and this building was no exception. We charged towards it, splitting up and rejoining each other as we took out more guards. Some people were clearly scientists or workers, and two rebels herded them into an area by the woods. There were still at least twenty of us by the time we got to the front doors of the main building.

  The man who had taken charge paused us in front of the doors.

  “We don’t know what’s in there,” he explained. “We can all go in there, or we can continue taking down guards and rounding up civilians.”

  “Yami has to be in there!” I was desperate to get to her before someone decided she wasn’t worth anything to them.

  “Yami made a choice,” Hank snapped. “It shouldn’t change anything.”

  I looked all around. Others nodded at Hank’s comment. I looked past our group to the mayhem surrounding us. More guards lay on the ground. Some had to be dead; they laid in pools of blood. One of the rebels lay down, his arms splayed out to either side. His breath was rapid, and his face was contorted in pain. I had to look away.

  “We keep going,” the leader commanded. “We go in there as a group and we stay together. If this is where most of the Chancellors stay when they’re here, it’s going to be heavily guarded. Remember, we take them alive. If you need to, take them down individually. They’ll avoid getting hurt at any cost. A gun to the head should be enough to keep them pacified.”