One Spark of Hope

by Campbell, Jamie

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked.

  Joseph sighed, rubbing a hand across his bleary face. “It’s something we’ve discussed before. If the group get separated, they find a way to return. She’ll know what to do.”

  “You don’t even know where the escape tunnel led.”

  “Tunnels are two-way. They’ll come back.” I didn’t know how he could be so confident about it. I half-suspected he was only bluffing so I would follow him and do what he said.

  I changed the subject, looking for all the ways he could be deceiving me. “And what happens when we regroup? What’s the plan then?”

  “Then we continue on with our targets in Stone’s parliament. We focus on those individuals to either convert to our side or take out completely. You have to remember, Reece, taking out Foxtrot was a huge win for the Resistance. Now is the time we have to be smart about our actions.”

  I’d never exactly been happy with their plan. Killing members of Stone’s coveted inner circle wasn’t hurting our president herself. I wanted Stone’s head on a platter for everything she had done to Wren and the rest of the city.

  For what she had done to my brother.

  And the damage she had caused my family.

  “That’s going to take too long,” I pointed out. “We need to do something now while they are still reeling from the loss of a lab.”

  “Our members have already begun working. It’s not like we’re starting from scratch.”

  “Who are they?” Rocky asked as he tried to keep up with the conversation. I’d noticed him listening intently but I didn’t think he would want to get into the details.

  A memory tugged at my brain, something Wren had said when that very thing was discussed in a Resistance meeting. I turned all my attention to the clone. “One of them is your Maker, Xander Brown. He holds a powerful position in the parliament.”

  “No, that can’t be,” Rocky replied.

  “Yeah, it can. Wren recognized him, she said the resemblance was unmistakable. Looking at you now, I can see exactly what she meant.”

  Rocky shook his head, his disbelief written in every feature on his face. “No, my Maker is dead. I heard them talking about it in the laboratory. They didn’t know what to do with me because they couldn’t get permission to kill me. He had no family left in Aria so even they couldn’t give permission to dispose of me. They kept moving me around to different labs, but nobody wanted to be the one that decided my fate. It’s the only reason I’m still alive now.”

  “You must have been mistaken,” Joseph said. “Xander is definitely alive. We have been watching him carefully. We would know if he died.”

  “I’m not wrong. Whoever this person is you’re watching, it’s not Xander Brown,” Rocky shot back.

  He sounded so certain that I didn’t doubt his recollection. It was something he really believed, which made me trust his words. He had no reason to deceive us, no reason to share information, he had nothing to gain.

  He was also Wren’s friend. That spoke above all other evidence to the fact that I should trust him. If she placed her life in his hands, then I would believe him.

  “If Xander is dead,” I started, running after my trail of thought as far as it would go. “Then the man pretending to be him has to be a clone.”

  The faces of everyone that had been listening to our exchange turned to me, their mouths dropped open at the thought. As far as I was concerned, this really was the only explanation. Unless Xander had a twin, he must have been created from the DNA of the original man – just like Rocky.

  Except, something had gone wrong with Rocky’s creation. His arm was twisted and deformed, a very obvious reason for his classification as a Defective Clone.

  The man pretending to be him was older than Rocky, which made sense considering his appearance was so close to the original that nobody questioned his replacement.

  Humans could buy as many clones as they wanted to, unless they produced a Defective which then meant they must stop. Defective genes were the plague of humanity, according to the scientists. If your genes produced a Defective, you had no right to reproduce those genes into another clone.

  There could have been many versions of Xander Brown out there. All older than Rocky and all able to fool the public into believing they were the original.

  “A clone? That’s preposterous,” Joseph said, clearly expressing his distaste. “Stone would never allow clones in her parliament. And she keeps her advisors close, she would have to know if her ally wasn’t quite right.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t know,” I countered. “We know the clone must be almost as old as his Maker. It’s possible they grew up together and were close. The clone might know enough about the Maker that he could fool anyone.”

  “But why? If Xander is dead, why would the clone want to pretend to be his Maker?”

  “What happens to clones when their Makers die?”

  Joseph knew the answer, we all did.

  Clones were usually killed at the request of the family.

  “So he feared death and then what? He just started pretending to be his Maker and continued on like nothing happened?” At least Joseph was listening now and taking us seriously as we tried to figure out what happened. It would have been so much easier if we had the clone to ask directly.

  “He might have done. Except the scientists at the lab knew about it, which is how Rocky was waiting in limbo. If the scientists knew, then others must too.”

  “What about his steel bracelet?” Rocky asked, referring to the steel piece that ringed every Valid Clone’s wrist from the moment of birth. It was illegal for anyone other than a scientist to remove them.

  “The scientists must have removed it, for some reason,” Joseph replied. He shook his head slowly, as if he was unable to figure it out either. He had pieces of a puzzle but no way to put them together yet.

  Silence fell between us as we tried to play through all the different scenarios. Nothing seemed to make sense, no matter how many different ideas came to mind.

  All that was certain was that Xander Brown was a clone.

  The more I thought about it, the more I believed it was the only explanation.

  What I didn’t know was what it meant.

  Chapter 3: Wren

  Every tree looked exactly like the last one.

  And the one next to it.

  And the ones I’d passed hours ago.

  I think it was fair to say that I was completely, utterly, and hopelessly lost. I was just one clone, stuck in the middle of a universe where everything looked entirely the same.

  Perhaps that was how my life would end. Staggering around in a forest where the branches mocked me, the leaves pretended to ignore me, and the roots tried to trip me. At least it would be more satisfying than letting Stone have me.

  But something inside kept telling me to keep going. It was the voice of optimism, assuring me that there was a way out of the forest, that I would eventually be somewhere as long as I kept going.

  The voice was annoying.

  I had been trying to walk in a straight line but the thick brushes made it almost impossible. The fallen logs and holes made me walk around them, making my line into something more resembling a squiggle.

  My foot was numb now, making me feel like I was walking with only one. I knew it was there, of course. But every time it made contact with the ground I didn’t feel it. As long as I didn’t fall over, I didn’t care. I would hop on one leg if it brought me back to Reece.

  If the ex-trooper was walking with me, he would insist that we have a break. It wouldn’t be for his benefit because he could walk all day and night without a break. He would do it for me, but never admit it to either of us. He would probably rub my foot until I could feel it again, never once being repulsed by the ugly deformity.

  Reece was the only human that had never really seen my defect. He had seen my foot, and touched it, but he never made me feel like there was something wrong with it. He made me feel c
omplete and whole.

  Like a human.

  I had to find him.

  While my heart still found a moment to beat, I would search for him. Our story couldn’t end with that one kiss. It had to continue, find new chapters with which we could live. Our ending could not have been so abrupt.

  It just couldn’t.

  The sound of trickling water caught my attention, something I hadn’t heard before while in the forest. I hoped it wasn’t another animal, somehow managing to imitate the noise I most needed to hear.

  I followed it, my mouth dry and desperate for some water. I didn’t need food for a while yet, I knew how to live with aching hunger. But I did need water or I wasn’t going to survive for much longer.

  Pushing back leaves and snapping branches, I finally found the source – a small babbling stream. It was barely more than a trickle but it was clear, cold, and wet. I kneeled down and cupped as much as I could between my fingers, drinking greedily.

  The water tasted mossy, like it had managed to capture the entire forest in its essence before coming to my lips. It tasted a million times better than the water from the small well in the Defectives’ village. That always tasted like mud. This was refreshing, clenching my thirst like nothing else.

  Overhanging the stream were some green leaves, lush and as juicy as the water. I reached up and broke one off, testing it on my tongue before throwing the whole thing in my mouth.

  It tasted like grass.

  Which wasn’t an entirely bad thing.

  I broke off a branch and carried it as I walked along, plucking off and eating the leaves until it was nothing but a stick. It didn’t do my taste buds any good but it stopped the rumbling in my stomach.

  I’d eaten worse.

  My legs moved on their own accord now. They continued to march on without my brain getting involved. It was like I was a windup toy that had broken and was now unable to stop until someone destroyed me.

  On and on.

  Around and around.

  So far I had encountered no more monsters.

  They were silent while lying in wait.

  As the sun started to go down and make the trees look like soldiers trying to get in my way, I found a bush covered with red berries. They could have either been really nice or would kill me with their poison.

  I grabbed a handful, making a cradle with my shirt to hold them. Finally, I allowed myself to rest and sat at the foot of a tree. Its trunk was wider than me as I snuggled against its root system. They seemed to hug me, telling me they would keep me safe for the night.

  They lied too.

  I tested one berry, dragging it across my tongue first. When that didn’t burn, I chewed it slowly and swallowed. Then I waited. I waited for the nausea, for the vomiting, for the end to my life.

  They didn’t come.

  When it was dark, I ate the rest of them.

  Sleep beckoned to me, wrapping around me like the cold dampness of the forest floor. I lay down and closed my eyes, praying that I didn’t look like food for any of the forest creatures that might be lingering just out of my sight.

  There were plenty of noises out in the forest with me. Rustling, buzzing, slithering, crunching. They all remained just outside of my understanding, hovering there while I couldn’t put a name to what was causing it.

  Forests were not fun.

  I ached for my bed in the bunker. Even though I only slept in it once, it felt like I could rightfully call it mine. Reece had been with me, keeping me safe and protected while I could dream and rest. He made it into a home, even if for only one night.

  Even Stone’s cell bed was more comfortable than the base of the tree. I would never swap it, though. I would rather be at the hands of the forest creatures than the president’s. I knew which one was safer.

  The thought of seeing Reece kept my eyes closed as I drifted off to sleep.

  I rose with the sun as it pierced stubbornly through the canopy of the trees and threatened to burn a hole in my eyelids. It told me it was time to get up and get walking, because I had a long way to go yet.

  The sun could never be ignored.

  It was stubborn like that.

  It was good to see the berries hadn’t killed me so I took more when I chanced upon them. Every time, I filled my shirt with them and munched as I walked. My foot wasn’t so much numb now as tingling. The berries took my mind off the burning sensation.

  A large mass came into view in the distance. It was dark and brown, only shaping into something recognizable when I was standing in front of it.

  Thickets.

  A wall of tightly woven thickets were standing in the middle of the forest. It went on for as far as I could see in both directions. Unless I wanted to walk left or right for hours more, I was going to have to find a way to get past them.

  The wall went as high as I could look, impossibly tall and imposing for something nature created. It was testing me, making sure I really wanted to get back to Aria.

  If Reece wasn’t in there, I would have turned back.

  But I had to tell nature that nothing would stop me.

  The thickets had thorns, sharp and pointy in amongst its dried leaves and strong branches. It wove together so finely that it was like trying to undo a knot just to pull a few branches apart.

  I had no choice except to go through it.

  I took off my coat and wrapped my hands in the fabric. Only then did I start making a hole for myself to go through. Every time I snapped a branch it was the sound of satisfaction, of gaining a little more room to make my escape.

  Sweat pooled on my forehead as I worked. Time crept past as the sun changed positions in the sky, mocking me about my slow progress. I eventually managed to make a small space that I might be able to squeeze through if I made myself as tiny as a mouse.

  I slipped my coat back on, finding new holes where it had snagged on the thorns. Crouching down, I covered my face with my arm and wormed my way through the hole.

  The thorns took it upon themselves to hold onto me. They pushed and tugged at my clothes and skin, screaming at me to go back and leave. Maybe I should have heeded their warning but they didn’t know about Reece. They didn’t know I left him in the city and had to go back for him.

  The thorns didn’t know that I loved him.

  Maybe if they did they would curl in on themselves and make room for me, let me pass in one piece without all the scratches on my skin and the holes in my clothes.

  I crawled through until I was finally free of the thickets. They remained holding onto pieces of my hair and shreds of my coat but they couldn’t stop me.

  Standing, I took in my new surroundings. Everything was different now, like the forest had formed the wall of thickets just to stop anyone leaving. Because now I was outside all the trees and berries and streams.

  Now I was outside Aria.

  The concrete wall stood on one side of me with the wall of thickets at my back. Both told me not to come in, both said they wouldn’t allow me passageway.

  I ran to the wall and felt it, a part of me that I called home for first eighteen years of my life. I wondered what would be home for the remainder of the time I continued to breathe? Would it be Aria, or would it be someplace else that I couldn’t fathom right now?

  Whatever it was, I hoped I managed to live there for a very long time. Maybe one day I would die of old age instead of someone taking my life from me. It was more than a clone could ask for, I knew that with certainty.

  The wall surrounding Aria stretched around the world. It was so long that I could see it everywhere, standing tall and warning me to leave it alone. The wall screamed that this place was not friendly, it yelled to stay away, it whispered to come in.

  There was one gate in and out of the city. I knew this from my nights spent with Rocky when we would watch it. I was looking for a way out then, needing to flee from the city so we had a chance of staying alive.

  And now I wanted to go back in?

  I was insane.
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  I was in love.

  They were the same thing.

  My feet started their uneven pace alongside the concrete, warmed from the sun. The troopers didn’t have security cameras set up around the outside of the fence, they didn’t expect people to break in, only out. All cameras were focused on the other side, watching their own citizens for acts of rebellion.

  President Stone always saw her citizens as the enemy.

  Nobody dared to fight her.

  Except the Resistance.

  At the top of the fence was a series of barbed wire, electrified with a constant hum that would kill anyone with the slightest touch. If someone was agile enough to reach the top of the wall, they would have a swift zap back down again. They would be dead before they hit the ground.

  I walked and walked, following the concrete until I wondered if I was just going around in one huge circle and had imagined the idea of a gate. The thickets remained on my right side, another wall just as deadly as the concrete one.

  Aria was a big city, large enough to cater for the hundreds of thousands of residents and their properties. Not to mention the clones and the tiny village we were given – before they took it away and burned it to the ground. The wall circled it all, keeping the residents in and the rest of the world out.

  There were history books that mentioned a time before the wall was built. It spoke of how horrible and scary the world was and of all the danger the citizens constantly lived in. Erecting the wall was supposed to protect them, keep them safe in the arms of the government so nothing could hurt them.

  In fact, it had done the opposite.

  Maybe in the beginning it was a relief, that the people felt secure for the first time in their lives. Now, under President Stone, only the rich had that luxury. Everyone else, especially the clones, were in constant fear and hunger.

  The wall had done us no favors.

  It was time for it to come down.

  If I had a barrel of dynamite I would have done it myself. I would have set the detonator with a fire made from friction and watched it explode. The showers of concrete and steel would have been very satisfying.