by Melissa Faye
We walked in casually. The bar was a small place with too many booths and tables squished inside. It looked like it had once been nicer than it was now. Most of the public buildings in the community were flawless and pristine, but this place was covered in a layer of dust. There clearly weren’t enough people to bus tables; used plates and napkins were scattered around. We sat at the bar, hoping it would give us a better view of the room and more people to talk to. The ordering screen was broken, so a waitress came over to help us. Waitresses, Bronzes, were in low demand in communities since most people used vending cylinders. But in a place like this, they were a necessary commodity.
“Have you been in here before? I usually remember everyone,” the waitress said. She looked to be in her forties, with blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail and more make-up than I usually saw on women her age. Her nametag read Henny in a fancy script that matched her Bronze insignia.
“No, it’s our first time,” I said. “We were going to cook and save money, but decided to splurge. Try something new. Have you worked here long?” Henny looked at our insignias and frowned. I hoped if we pushed through some charm, she wouldn’t be too alarmed by Golds and Grays socializing like this. I kicked myself silently – I should have borrowed Etta’s stuff.
“Of course I have,” said Henny. “Since high class. I suppose some retail people move around, but I wouldn’t want to. I don’t need that hassle.” I nodded. “What do you do?”
“Well, I just finished my internship. Repair.” Breck and I had thought through which internships would be most relevant to political activists, and realized any Gray career would fit well.
“I work in Leadership and Records,” Breck said. “But I haven’t had much luck learning about Leadership yet. Mostly the council members and Chancellor run everything and the rest of us stay quiet.”
“Mhmm.” Henny didn’t seem interested. A Bronze wouldn’t want to hear too much about what a privileged Gold thought about his job.
“I mean, do you know anyone in leadership? Maybe we have some friends in common.”
“Nah,” said Gianna. “I don’t ever talk with Golds.”
“You know,” I said, “I heard the craziest thing today.” I had practiced my set-up lines in my head, and now I realized that the practice had not helped me sound less robotic. “Did you know there are groups of people who are against cloning? At least there were as of a few years ago. No one seems to know if they still exist.”
“Why is that?” asked Henny. She seemed to be half-listening while half-staring at a bunch of high classers sitting in the corner who probably shouldn’t have been there.
“A lot of them had to go underground,” Breck said. We had intentionally placed the word “underground” in his script to see if anyone would recognize it. “They were causing trouble for the communities. They would hold demonstrations. Community leadership had to get involved. They got in some trouble. Some of them left their communities, but some stayed.”
“You know,” said Henny, “I think I did hear about that some years ago. Crazy, right? Why bother fighting it? It’s the only way we keep going.”
“Definitely,” I said. “Then again...Maybe they have a point! Cloning isn’t really doing much for us. We’re no closer to the Big Goal than they were a hundred years ago. Plus, I don’t like doing repair work all day long for so little money just because someone says I can’t do much else. Cloning hasn’t set me up for much of a life.”
Henny nodded. Good, I thought. She was getting interested. “You know, I think I heard a guy talking about this several years ago. He called them ACers. You know, Anti-Cloners. He claimed he had met one of them. That it was a friend of his. I didn’t believe him. I think he was just looking for a good lay.” Henny smiled at her joke, so Breck and I did too.
“How do you know he wasn’t telling the truth?” Breck asked. Henny leaned over the counter towards us. Good, I thought. Now we were conspiring together. Maybe this would actually work out.
“Well, wouldn’t we have heard about that? If this was such a big deal, people would know. Communities are open sorts of places. No secrets here.” Henny spoke quietly now, maybe because she didn’t want to be heard her talking about this. I wanted more people to hear us, though.
“I think the government has secrets. Of course they do!” Breck spoke louder than he needed to. “I worked with a few community council members this year. They don’t tell us much of what they know. Plus, there are many examples of this on record. Leaders being found out for how they negotiate cloning deals. People running into their clones. Citizens getting reassigned to lower tiered jobs because of supposedly criminal activities. Stuff gets covered up, but people find out about it eventually.” Henny had brought us glasses of water, and I played with my straw.
“It’s interesting, right?” I wished I had taken acting lessons. My voice felt stilted. “I wouldn’t mind talking to one of these ACers. I wonder what they’re thinking.”
Henny pursed her lips. “You know, we have a guy come in here some nights. Otis. He’s a bit older but in good health. He always says he’s been around forever and seen everything. He likes to argue with anyone who’s talking about the government. Most people ignore him, and sometimes he gets kicked out. You might see him tonight if you wait around long enough.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Breck said. “I’m not sure how long we’ll stay.” Oh, we’ll be staying for this, I thought.
“Well, if I see him, I’ll point him out,” said Henny. “Now what do you want to eat? I sure got off topic there.”
“I’ll start with a plain house salad, thank you,” I said. Breck ordered the same. Henny walked off in a huff; tips would not be good tonight.
I knew it was hard for people to get caught up in politics when the communities themselves ran so smoothly. Even thinking about it in that bar, I felt homesick. So what if people in power were up to some weird stuff? For as long as I could remember, I had a warm bed, tasty food, a good education, and endless support from my fellow community members. That is, of course, until they went after my friends.
And now there was Otis. Could we really be so lucky? I thought. I strummed my fingers on the bar as we waited for him to arrive. “Do you think Otis is the contact?” Breck asked. “He must be, right?” I shrugged. I was getting exhausted talking to so many people and pretending to be nice. I could stand for some silence while we waited.
At around nine, I saw Otis walk in the door. I didn’t need Henny to introduce us, though she nodded in his direction. He was in his seventies with a full head of white hair that seemed to have a mind of its own, flying in every direction. He wore corduroy pants and a sweater and had a shiny Bronze insignia. I felt jealous for a moment that I was Gray, not Bronze, then remembered that I had bigger problems to worry about.
Otis announced his entry by greeting people in the room, saying hello to some and randomly calling out the presence of others. Some people waved back; others pretended they didn’t see him.
Otis sat at the other end of the bar and Henny took his order. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. We couldn’t just walk up to him; we needed some sort of in. It didn’t take long for one to appear.
“How many other Otis’s are out there, Henny?” he said loudly. He was playing with the glass in his hand, shaking it around and slamming it on the bar occasionally for emphasis. “I haven’t had much company at my place in a while. Do you think they have companions? I bet those assholes have all the girls they want. Screw them. Screw all the Otises! Especially the Gold ones. Those Otises are probably the worst of the lot.” He raised his glass as if toasting them.
I had to take advantage of the anti-cloning rhetoric. I walked over and sat next to Otis. “You know, I wonder where the other Erica’s are as well,” I said. “How old are they? What are they doing? I mean, if there’s another Erica, where is she? I always hear I’ll never meet her. It’s like she doesn’t exist. If I’m not the only one...wow. I mean, it’s messed up, isn’t
it?”
Otis seemed thrilled to have my company. Breck came over to join us. “Yes! I didn’t know young people like you would agree with me. The government knows where they all are. And they’re not telling. You know I once went to the beach with my girl, and I swear I saw an Otis! Right there, lying on the towel next to me! He avoided me. Then he disappeared, just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “Don’t you kids trust those guys. Things are happening up there in the capital. They know more than we do. It’s not right, I tell you.”
“Is that true?” Breck asked. “I guess they must know where my clones are. But why don’t I know? And who even told them they were allowed to clone me? I didn’t give them permission. I bet they didn’t ask any other clones for permission either.”
Otis slammed his drink down. “You’re right! That’s exactly right.” He pointed his finger right at Breck’s face. He leaned in towards us, and I could smell the alcohol on his breath. “You are smarter than your associates, boy. No one asks any of us for permission. They take our cells and make a copy. Then they set us up for years stuck in one lousy job, unable to save enough money to look for our clones.”
“It’s sick!” I said, leaning forward towards Otis to match his tone. “Don’t you think? The whole community system is messed up.”
I was laying it on thick, or so I thought. Otis had a big grin on his face.
“It would take a Gray to figure that out!” Otis laughed. He frowned at Breck. “Golds, they’re fine with what goes on. Just fine. Nice lives those Golds have. I wouldn’t mind it, I suppose. Except that they’re all stick in the muds. I wouldn’t mind one of those nice houses...”
“It’s not fair,” I said. “My apartment is roach-infested, no matter how many times we’ve complained. It’s disgusting.”
“It is!” he almost shouted. Other people were openly staring now. “What are those assholes doing? Who do they think they are?” Otis leaned back on his stool. He talked loudly; he clearly didn’t care who heard him or what they thought of his opinions. “I used to know more people who understood this, you know. They didn’t put up with this nonsense. People used to say what they thought. None of this community-this, community-that. My good friend knew what was happening. He led the charge. But your generation is missing something.”
“Really?” Breck asked. “People really shared their opinions like this? I wonder what happened. Are there other people like that here? In your – our community?”
Otis shrugged, but his eyes became misty. “I don’t know. I wish I knew.” He shook his head and stared straight ahead at the rows of liquor behind the bar. “Probably the government went after them. Killed them all. A massacre. That’s it!” He perked up. “They came in and took them all! They couldn’t get me, though.”
My heart dropped. I couldn’t believe the government would kill people publicly. If people Otis’s age saw it, they would say something. Even if somehow this did happen, people would have survived. Suddenly, Otis didn’t seem like much of a lead.
“That’s a shame, Otis,” I said slowly. It was hard to feign any more interest. “Do you really think people were killed?”
I saw tears in Otis’s eyes, but couldn’t tell if they were from anger or sadness. “I saw some of my best friends taken. They didn’t stand a chance. Taken right in front of me. They tried to run, but they couldn’t.”
“You saw it? Terrible.” Breck shook his head in sympathy. I wasn’t buying it.
We asked Otis more questions about what he saw. The story started falling apart. Sometimes he said it was his friends, sometimes he said it was an older generation. The story turned into the government taking him out of his home at night, threatening him, and sending him back home. Otis became more and more riled up as he talked to us, and I worried about how we would get out of this conversation without drawing more attention.
Otis seemed to be near falling asleep an hour or so later. People were still looking at us out of the corner of their eyes. We pretended that we needed to go back to our seats to eat and walked away. Otis stared at us as we left, but I noticed that he quickly switched to talking with a different customer. His ranting was as loud as before. He didn’t care who he talked to as long as he had an audience.
It didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t believe Otis’s story, and now we had hit a dead end. An evening wasted. What would we do now?
I ran to the restroom before we left. As soon as I walked through the swinging door to the ladies room, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped.
“No! It’s fine,” someone said. I turned and saw Henny still holding onto me. She looked at her hand and pulled it away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Then what are you doing?” I said with a huff. I backed away from her towards the sink. Adrenaline flooded my system. Henny was standing between myself and the door.
“I heard you talking to Otis. I know what you’re looking for.”
This gave me pause. “What are you talking about?”
“A Gray and a Gold don’t walk around together unless something else is going on. You were trying to see what Otis knows. You’re looking for the ACers. I know where they are. I can tell you how to find them. But first I want to know why.”
I considered my options. I could refuse to say, and lose out on the information. I could tell the truth, and risk Henny freaking out and telling someone. I could lie, and hope she couldn’t tell.
“I...I have to find them,” I sputtered. “We want to understand them. I’m unhappy with how cloning works, too. We want to...join the resistance.”
“What else?” Henny said.
“I don’t want to say,” I said. “I swear, it’s important for me to find them. But if I tell you, you could end up in trouble just like I am.” Henny raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything. I felt her eyes stare at me while she waited for more information. “We had...a situation. A run in with authorities. I need the ACers’ help. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Henny seemed reassured enough and nodded. “Do you have a map? Where’s your TekCast?”
I pulled it out. Henny tapped through to the map program. She took her finger and marked an X on a blank space in the region on my holoscreen.
“That’s about where you need to go,” she said. “I’m sorry I can’t get the location more exact. It’s right around there. I’m sure you’ll find it.” She looked at me suspiciously. “You know, several people asked me tonight who you two are. They know you don’t belong here.”
“I don’t know what you’re –“
“I don’t care, Erica. You need to find help for some reason. Whatever you’re hiding, it’s probably better I don’t know. But you need to be careful.”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t look Henny in her eyes. I traced the edge of the counter with my finger. I felt her staring at me as she continued.
“Whatever you’re up to, stay away from other community members,” said Gianna. “Otis doesn’t know much, but what he talks about is usually rooted in truth. There are more secrets than we realize, and a lot of people want to make sure those secrets don’t get out. Once you came into Glenwood Pines, you risked getting yourself into more trouble. I hope you’ve thought about what you’re doing.”
I nodded slowly. What were there other options?
None. This was the only way to stay safe.
“Ok, get out of here,” said Henny. She left the bathroom, and I followed a few minutes later.
By the time I returned to the bar, Breck had paid for the food and was cheerfully thanking Henny for our meal. I pulled him out of the bar quickly. “Thanks so much, Henny!” I called behind me.
Breck stepped outside and brushed his fingers through his hair, shaking his head back and forth. “What a waste –“
“No, look.” I showed Breck the map. “This is something. This is what we do next.” I forwarded the map to Ben. Breck’s whole demeanor changed as he studied the map.
Something incredible had
happened. We had a victory under our belt. I looked around us. The street was still crowded with couples going on a walk in the chilly winter air and high classers who were in a hurry to get back to the dorms before curfew. I wanted to run full speed back to the apartment, but Breck made us walk at a reasonable pace.
As quickly as our triumph arrived, it disappeared. Suddenly the air changed around us, and I saw people looking at us more closely.
“They’re staring at something on their TekCasts,” Breck said, nodding to the nearest couple.
We picked up our pace. Something was making people suspicious of us, and we needed to get out. Now.
Chapter Fifteen
We took off in a sprint to the apartment. When we burst into the door, we found Ben and Etta frantically repacking our bags.
“It’s done,” Etta said. “They found us!” She shoved the medical book back in the bag. Breck added our new supplies to his bag. Ben was packing my things for me.
“How do you know?” I asked. I peeked out the window and saw more and more people gathering on the streets.
“Look at that,” Ben said, gesturing towards the oversized screen on the wall in front of the couch. There was a flashing image covering the bottom half, covering part of some loud, obnoxious game show. “DANGEROUS CRIMINALS. PLEASE REPORT TO AUTHORITIES.” Our pictures lined the bottom of the message.
I grabbed my bag from Ben and shoved his into his arms. We were lucky Ben and Etta had the screen on. I wondered who had discovered us. Was it Jeannie from the community center? Someone from the bar? Were our TekCast disguises no longer working?