One Spark of Hope

by Campbell, Jamie

She grizzled but her eyes opened. “I’m sleeping.”

  “I know, but we have to go. Joseph has work for us to do.”

  Wren blinked a few more times before rubbing her eyes. Her arms stretched before she was really awake. “What are we going to be doing?”

  “I don’t know. We have to go and see.” I kissed her forehead, leading a trail of kisses down to her lips. Her gorgeous face lit up with a smile. Every little thing I’d done as a member of the Resistance was worth it just to see that smile.

  “Okay, I’m up.” She giggled.

  “You take the first shower and I’ll make breakfast.”

  Wren wasn’t going to argue with an offer that good. We reluctantly climbed out of bed and headed in opposite directions. I cooked pancakes for breakfast, stacking them high before flooding the flapjacks with syrup.

  Now that Stone wasn’t in charge, nobody in Aria was going to go hungry ever again. She always controlled the distribution of food, deciding to allow the rich to purchase the premium brands while the poor were allocated only the barest of minimums and basics.

  We would all be able to access sufficient food now we controlled the gate. Traders could come and go as they pleased, selling to anyone they wanted. It was a free market now, starting today.

  While I was cooking I received another message from Joseph. We were too late in checking in, he wanted us to go directly to the gate as soon as we could. I messaged back a confirmation.

  Wren looked absolutely stunning when she joined me. Her hair was being held back in a ponytail, the jeans fit her perfectly, and her white T-shirt hugged her small curves. She was still tiny but now she was no longer running for her life and Defectives had equal rights, she would improve her health.

  I would make sure of it.

  We ate breakfast quickly before I jumped in the shower and dressed in record time. I took the vehicle we had seconded last night and headed for the gate.

  In my lifetime I had never seen the gate open. Twenty years of living within the walls that surrounded Aria had felt suffocating and oppressive.

  The gate was being pulled down now.

  Teams of our men were working on one side, pulling on ropes that were flung over them. They heaved as one, breaking the gate at the hinge before it fell, crashing to the ground.

  They immediately began on the second one. A group of citizens had formed on the sidewalk, watching on curiously. I went over to stand in front of them, carrying out the mission Joseph had given me.

  “These gates are permanently coming down today,” I said to the sea of faces. “Our city is going to be opened up. You are free to go in or out as you wish.”

  One woman looked up at me, lines wrinkling her face. “Are you sure that’s wise? Anyone could come in. Bad people live out there. They say it’s full of monsters.”

  “What you have been told about the world is incorrect. The people out there are just like us,” I replied. “President Stone has lied throughout her entire term. Forget everything you know and embrace the changes. They will unite our city.”

  “Can I go out there?” a little boy, probably no more than ten, asked. He was thin, dangerously so.

  “You should ask your parents, but if they agree, you can go and come back whenever you like.”

  “Wow.” He was stunned with just the thought.

  I was too.

  I’d never been outside but I was eager to explore. Once everything settled down, I wanted to see the entire world with Wren. We could travel and explore until we were ready to settle down.

  I spoke to the crowd until they ran out of questions. Wren watched the destruction of the gate until there was nothing but a gaping hole in the wall.

  “It looks weird, doesn’t it?” I said as I joined her. My arm automatically went around her shoulders. I’d waited a long time to be close with her and I was going to take full advantage of it.

  “A few months ago I stood just back there with Rocky and we tried to work out how to get through that gate,” she replied quietly. “And now we can walk straight through. I can’t believe it’s really happening.”

  “You did this, Wren.”

  “No, I—”

  “You did. You inspired hundreds of people to join us in the fight. Without you, our army would have been so much smaller and we might not have succeeded. Don’t say you had no part in this.”

  Her hand rested on top of mine as it draped over her shoulder. It was going to take a long time to get used to seeing the hole in the wall. Eventually the whole thing would come down. But today we made a start with the gate.

  Everything would take time.

  But we would get there.

  “Are you ready to go?” I asked. Wren nodded and we tore our gaze away from the gap. I was itching to go outside but it would have to wait for another time. “How did you get back inside, anyway?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “You’ll have to tell me sometime.”

  “I will,” she promised.

  We returned to the vehicle and I drove us over to the warehouse. Citizens of the city were out today, walking around and going about their business. The eeriness from the previous day was over. It was nice to see Aria starting to recover already.

  At the warehouse the mood was still light and happy. Some people hadn’t even gone to bed yet, celebrating right through the night.

  Joseph was found in his office. “Ah, you’re back,” he exclaimed happily. “How was the progress at the gate?”

  “It’s down,” I replied.

  “About time.” Joseph was reveling in his new position as Aria’s temporary president. I doubted he had managed any sleep overnight. “Our prisoner has been refusing to eat. I was hoping you would have a word with her? Convince her to eat something?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  We stepped out of Joseph’s office and Wren’s face instantly showed her panic. “You aren’t really going to speak with Stone, are you? If she wants to starve to death, then let her. You aren’t going to get any information from her.”

  “I’m only going to have a chat with her. I’ll be fine, I promise.”

  “She’ll lie. About everything.” Wren was cute when she was worried but she had nothing to worry about. Stone was behind bars, she was now powerless.

  “I’ll be right back,” I assured her.

  Wren watched me walk all the way to the door before I slipped inside. Joseph only built a small cell, not planning on taking any prisoners unless he had to. Stone was the only occupant.

  She was still dressed in the expensive suit she was wearing in Aria Square more than twenty-four hours ago. The fresh set of clothes she was given was still sitting on the floor, untouched. Along with her tray full of food.

  “Not hungry?” I asked, unable to keep the contempt out of my voice.

  Stone looked at me petulantly. She obviously wasn’t in the mood to talk. She sat on the single bench that was supposed to double as a bed. It had a mattress on it, along with some blankets and a pillow. We offered her more luxury than she offered her prisoners.

  More than she offered Wren.

  “I hate you, you know,” I said. All the things I wanted to say to her suddenly flooded my head. There were so many things I’d always wanted to tell her. “If it was me holding that gun yesterday I would have shot you through the heart so you could never hurt anyone again.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” she said.

  “Yes, I would. I would do it right now if my orders weren’t to keep you alive. I hate you. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate you.”

  She shrugged, like it was water off a duck’s back.

  It only made me angrier. “You killed my entire family, you made Wren’s life a living nightmare, you allowed people to make clones just to kill them, and you continually make your people suffer needlessly while taking care of your friends. You are the very definition of a monster. They aren’t outside the wall, they are here now in this cell.”

  “I made sure people go
t what they deserved.”

  “You never had a clue what people deserved.” I glared at her while she stared back defiantly. “Why aren’t you eating?”

  “That’s not real food.”

  “It’s more than what most of your citizens survive on.”

  “I deserve better.”

  “You deserve nothing.”

  We stared at each other in silence for a long time. Neither of us was willing to be the first one to look away. Stone was wrong before in saying I wouldn’t have shot her.

  I would have.

  Without hesitation.

  And I wouldn’t have felt bad about it afterwards. If it wasn’t for Stone I would have my brother and my parents still with me. They would be rejoicing here today with the rest of us.

  My family would have been proud of me.

  I finally had the chance to avenge their deaths.

  I was fine with it if she wanted to starve to death.

  “I knew what you were up to,” Stone said in the silence. “When I promoted you to join my personal guard, I knew you were part of the Resistance movement.”

  “Sure you did.”

  “I wanted to keep an eye on you so I decided to keep you close. You were being monitored every minute of the day. I probably should have just had you killed but I was curious about what you’d do. Curiosity was always my downfall.”

  “You knew nothing.”

  “No? How’s your brother doing? Or your parents? Oh, that’s right, they’re all dead. Silly me.” She laughed and it was the most evil cackle I had ever heard. “What was I thinking?”

  My fingers flexed into fists at my side. She was lucky there were iron bars between us. Otherwise I might not have been able to control myself.

  “Don’t you dare talk about them,” I warned through gritted teeth. How could this one woman cause so much damage in our city? How could she have held so much power and used it to twist to her sick whims?

  “Would you like me to talk about Wren instead? My Def was definitely a disappointment. I had such high hopes for my clone, I was going to train her to attend all the boring functions for me. We were going to be great friends. If it wasn’t for that horribly ugly foot…”

  “Wren will always be something you’ll never be. Kind. Compassionate. A human being.”

  Stone laughed again. I hated that she was finding humor in the conversation. “Wren is an imbecile. I should have killed her as soon as she was old enough to donate her organs.” She laughed so hard she started coughing.

  I waited until she had caught her breath again. “You’re never going near her again. You will never be able to inflict any harm on that girl ever again.”

  “Why? Because you love her? You’re just as much of an imbecile as she is because you can’t see it. Wren is going to grow up and be exactly like me.” She sneered. “All those pathetic qualities you love about her will fade away until her heart is cold. You forget that we are the same person.”

  My head was shaking even as she was talking. “No, you’re wrong. She will never be like you.”

  “You can’t change genes, Trooper. Wren will always follow in my footsteps.”

  “She won’t.”

  “Your love is making you blind to the truth.”

  I’d heard enough. Talking with Stone was only fueling her amusement. I shoved her food tray further into her cell. “Eat or starve, I don’t care.”

  I stormed out of the prison and slammed the door after me. It took a few deep breaths before I was composed enough to talk to regular people again.

  “You alright, buddy?” Dwyer asked, breaking away from the small group he was talking with.

  “Yeah, just… Stone.”

  “I bet she’s not being helpful.”

  Now it was my turn to laugh. “Not exactly, no. Hey, thanks for your help yesterday. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without your assistance.”

  Dwyer shrugged nonchalantly. “It was nothing. When it came down to it, I knew I was fighting on the wrong side. Helping you was the right thing to do.”

  “Well, I appreciate it.”

  “Thanks, buddy. It’s nice to believe in something again.”

  His group brought me into their conversation and we all shared our battle stories from the day before. It was just what we needed, letting off some steam among friends and comrades.

  Exactly what we needed.

  Chapter 21: Wren

  I had vowed never to return here again.

  Stone’s mansion was not somewhere I wanted to spend any more time. Yet when Joseph asked me to go on the mission, I found it difficult turning him down.

  I’d reasoned that perhaps it would be cathartic, confronting the demons from my past and all. But really, being back in her mansion gave me a creeping feeling of doom. I expected guards to jump around every corner and arrest me.

  Our group was ordered to go through Stone’s house with a fine tooth comb and uncover any secrets we could find. We wanted proof of her crimes against her citizens more than anything. We needed to show her faithful loyalists how evil she really was.

  We would carefully tear apart her possessions until we found whatever she was hiding.

  I was in her bathroom because I wasn’t ready to face her bedroom yet. It seemed like a safe place to begin my search on this floor.

  It was no surprise her bath and basin had gold faucets. The tiles were also swirled with the expensive metal. Her towels were fluffier than I ever thought possible. It was like they were made from clouds.

  I knocked around on the walls but there didn’t seem to be any hidden compartments behind them. The only real part of the whole room where things could hide was the medicine cabinet above the vanity.

  It opened with a slight squeak.

  The cabinet was packed, absolutely stuffed full of medicinal bottles. I took one out, reading the label in full. It was prescribed to Portia Stone by Dr. Wagstaff. It had a really long name that I couldn’t pronounce.

  Images flashed into my mind from my time with Stone. She had coughed up blood when I saw her in her office once. I was quickly removed before anything else happened.

  There had to be at least a dozen different medications in the cabinet. All written for Stone and none completely full. The dates on the labels were all only a few months old.

  Stone was really sick.

  No wonder she had tried so determinately to kill me. It wasn’t just because she could, but because she needed to. Stone needed my organs and she needed them soon.

  I packaged all of the medications into a box so I could take them to her. If she was as sick as I suspected she was, she would be needing them sooner rather than later.

  The next room I had to deal with was Stone’s bedroom. It felt like I was stripping the woman down to her bare bones, discovering all the things she didn’t want others to know. I was slowly taking away her power as she turned into a real person rather than a tyrant.

  Her bedroom held the same amount of luxury and sumptuousness as the rest of the house. Her bed was a big four-poster, lush fabrics draped around it. I checked under her mattress and found nothing. A part of me suspected we never would learn all her secrets. She was too good at hiding things.

  I needed to think like her.

  Become Stone as I looked around the room.

  Where would I hide my secret things?

  I went into her walk-in closet and felt around behind all the clothes. My hands gripped onto something – a handle. Pushing back the clothes, I found a small door that opened easily. It wasn’t even locked.

  A bunch of paperwork was inside, a few files worth of documents. I dragged it all out and spread the papers across the bed. The first one I opened was enough to make me gasp.

  They were orders for the laboratories to create clones.

  Clones of every one of her parliamentarians.

  She was Dwight Edgar.

  Stone had replaced her entire parliament with clones that she could control. It instantly mad
e me wonder what had happened to the original versions? Twenty-four people made up her government. Did she kill them all?

  I wouldn’t put it past her.

  It sickened me to think that woman was my Maker. She was responsible for my existence, we shared identical genes. How could her actions be so wrong?

  The files were all largely the same, except for one at the back. Its blue color was faded, the paper inside yellowed and aged. I went through them, my eyes eagerly scanning the pages with intrigue.

  The first page was a birth certificate.

  Portia Stone was listed as the mother.

  I gasped in the empty room, grateful nobody else was there to hear me. The child was born almost twenty years ago, a little girl name Mabel. The father was listed as Peter Stone.

  The president was married?

  In my eighteen years I’d never heard of a husband or a marriage for Stone. And especially not a baby. I couldn’t imagine her as a wife or mother, I didn’t believe she was capable of that kind of love.

  What kind of person could love her?

  Flicking through the rest of the pages, the story of her past came alive. After the birth certificate there were two death certificates. Her daughter and husband died on the same day. Mabel was only four months old. The reason given for the cause of death was a sudden illness causing fatal internal bleeding.

  At the back of the file was a clipped newspaper article – back from the time when the newspaper used to be only in print and not able to be downloaded digitally. Only a few newspapers still used the old print version. It had to be really old on that basis alone.

  The article was about a new disease, one that was sweeping through the city. The doctors and scientists were baffled about how it started or how it was transmitted. They were racing for a cure but they weren’t hopeful. People were dying by the masses every day and they couldn’t stop it.

  Another article following it was about Stone. She was opening the first dedicated research laboratory in Aria. She recruited the most elite scientists she could find and set them to work.

  Their first mission was to cure the disease that had stolen her daughter and husband from her.

  Once that was accomplished, she threw everything she had at perfecting the cloning process. She didn’t want anyone else she loved to be lost because of a disease. She wanted the guarantee of replacement organs.