by J. W. Elliot
“Run,” Forrest cried. “Run!”
He sped downhill as fast as his legs would carry him. He screamed and waved at the little camp. He had to warn them. He glanced over his shoulder. The cloud continued to drift from the tree, spreading in all directions.
“Into the water,” Forrest cried. “Get into the water.”
Desperation filled his chest. He had to reach his family. They had sacrificed so much for so long. He couldn’t let them die now.
Forrest scooped up his boy, Cedar, and grabbed his wife’s hand. He plunged into the creek. The shadow of the black cloud passed overhead, whirled, and descended on them.
“Under the water,” Forrest yelled. He ducked beneath the water, grabbing hold of an old root to hold himself down. He rolled over to peer up as the black cloud passed. People fell into the water. They thrashed and splashed. Faces, twisted in terror and anguish, swimming in the water all around him. His child struggled in his arms.
Terror gripped his throat. His lungs burned. They were going to drown. The black cloud seemed to go on and on. Then, the clear blue sky reappeared, and Forrest surged out of the water, gasping for breath. His limp child dangled in his arms. The bodies of his family and friends sprawled in the dirt, thrashing about in their death throes or bobbing in the gently flowing stream. Where was his wife?
A sob escaped his throat as he lay Cedar on the grass and bent over him in a desperate attempt to resuscitate him. Fevered moments passed as he performed CPR on his little boy before Cedar sucked in a rattling breath and started to cry.
Forrest held him close as his own tears of desperation slipped down his cheeks. Then he rose and staggered about, checking each of the bodies sprawled in the green grass or bobbing in the water. His wife’s body was caught in a little eddy, revolving slowly in the current. He set Cedar on the bank and splashed out to her. Rolling her over and lifting her into his arms. Her eyes were black, and her face empty of life. A sob burst from him as he stumbled to the bank. He brushed the hair from her face and fell on her chest to weep. The end of the world had come.
He didn’t stir until Cedar crawled over and placed his little hand on his mother’s face. Then, a quiet murmur reached Forrest’s ear, and he jerked upright. The great tree shivered, and a new, smaller black cloud drifted from it, heading straight for him as if it sensed his presence. He snatched up Cedar again and jumped into the creek. But the water wasn’t deep enough here to cover them. The buzzing grew louder, and he spun about, searching for a place of retreat. But he was too late. The cloud was upon him, swarming around his face. Cedar cried again, and Forrest broke into a run, desperate to escape the clinging death. A metallic taste sprang into his mouth, and his eyes burned. He was going to die, just like the others.
Then the cloud was gone, drifting away on the breeze. His lungs burned, but he was still alive. Cedar wailed, and Forrest tried to calm him. How were they both still alive? He scooped water from the creek to wash their faces and rinse the metallic taste from his mouth. When he rose, he experienced the sudden realization that he would live. Whatever it was, it had tried to kill him and failed. He and Cedar would survive.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Tallahassee
The city of Tallahassee blinked and vibrated around them with the buzz of human activity. A hot wind blew over the rooftops, bringing with it the briny smell of the ocean, which had crawled over the Florida peninsula and swamped everything south of Tallahassee. The city survived because it had been raised up on stilts, like New York City. The lights of the sprawling megacity stained the darkened sky. Millions of natural humans crowded into this artificial island in a desperate attempt to survive on a dying planet. A great stench rose up on the wind.
Kaiden wrinkled his nose at the unpleasant smell and glanced at the gunship behind him, where it perched on the top of the skyscraper. He questioned again what he had come to do. Did he have the right to decide whether these people lived or died? Was TAP right that the planet would be better off if it were stripped of the billions of ravenous people who devoured resources without ceasing? He knew it was really only a few who stripped the earth of its capacity to sustain life in their reckless greed. Most people were simply trying to survive as best they could. What about those people? What did they deserve? Certainly not destruction.
Willow stepped up to him. “We better get going.”
Kaiden turned to her. Her face bore an expression of determined sadness. The wind blew her brown hair about her face. She was so beautiful standing with the lights of the city bursting around her body as if she were an angel. Kaiden reached out to clasp her hand.
“Is this the right thing to do?” he asked.
Willow studied him and then shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “I used to think the world could be saved if we could just destroy TAP, but now…”
“If we go in there,” Kaiden said, “we could all die for nothing. And if we succeed, we could be condemning humanity to a slow, painful death.”
Doubt slipped across Willow’s face, but she shook her head.
“Or,” she said, “we can give humanity time to correct its mistakes. Cloning may be part of the answer. I don’t know. But to sit by and do nothing while Noah murders billions of innocent people makes us equally guilty. And I would rather not live than know I allowed that to happen.”
Her words seemed reasonable. And yet, a nagging doubt that he was making a mistake still haunted him.
Willow stepped close to him. He could feel her presence. She peered up at him with a steady gaze. Her lips parted, and he suddenly wanted to kiss her. But it was wrong. He couldn’t do that to Jade. Somehow on the flight to Tallahassee, he had come to a decision without realizing it. He did care for Willow, but he also knew that he would never be able to overcome the conflicted feelings he had for her. It might not be her fault, but the constant war of emotions he had toward her would not be silenced. He had tried. Besides, Willow was too driven by her own goals for him ever to be sure if she was being straight with him.
Jade, on the other hand, had always been transparent, honest, and loyal. She was intelligent, strong, and compassionate in a way few women were. Maybe Jade didn’t want him anymore. She had never tried to show open affection for him since he had refused to kiss her. But this was wrong. Willow didn’t deserve to be led to believe he felt more than he did.
Willow rose up on her toes. Her eyes glistened with the lights of the city. Her lips were alluring. Her expression was filled with longing and fear. Kaiden bent and kissed her on the cheek.
Willow blinked rapidly, and a tear escaped to slide down her face. Her lips trembled.
Kaiden squeezed her hands. “I care for you a great deal.”
She sniffled. “And I care for you,” she whispered.
A long pause settled between them as Kaiden struggled to know what else he could say. He shuffled his feet. Willow bit her trembling lip and wiped the tears away. Then she squeezed his hand, but the hurt never fully left her face. “We can do this,” she said.
Kaiden released her hand. “You saw them slaughtering people they claimed were clones. How do we stop the massacres once we save them from The Flood?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we can use the TAP records to get the laws changed and convince them to give us clones a chance.”
“You think the Sons of God will ever do that?” Kaiden asked.
Willow bowed her head. “Maybe not, but we can’t make our decisions based on the hatred of those who do not understand us. When will you accept that you are fully human? That we are human?”
Kaiden clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to believe her. He wanted to surrender to her acceptance of the fate forced upon them. She was like the others. They had all come to terms with it. Why couldn’t he? Willow’s arguments were so persuasive. She was right that he was being stupid. Those memories and emotions of the life before he h
ad been cloned were still strong, though they were now tempered by his recent experiences. Yet, it was so hard to let go of old prejudices.
“Maybe the naturals deserve to die,” he said.
“You know they don’t,” Willow said, “any more than we deserve what they did to us.”
“I remember her, you know,” Kaiden said. “The way she was before Rose died. It’s like I have these two drawers full of memories in my head, and sometimes I get lost in them. But I remember her singing to me when I was scared of the noises in the night. She would hold me and rock me back and forth and just sing. I don’t remember the words, but I can feel the melody. I used to play it on the violin.”
“Would your past self have deserved to die?” Willow asked. “Because that’s the fate that awaits billions of natural humans right now.”
Kaiden bowed his head. “I know.”
“My mother was all I had.” Willow scanned the landscape before them. “My father was power-hungry, and he drove my mother mad. She had this little teacup she used to talk to. I think that’s what kept her with it long enough to raise us. Once he finally abandoned us, she just quit trying to live.”
Birch sprang out of the gunship and raced over to them with Jade trailing behind her.
“It’s gone,” Birch said. “California is gone. Three megacities with all those people, just gone.”
“What do you mean, ‘gone?’” Willow asked.
“Earthquake,” Birch said. “It’s all over the news.”
“Wait,” Kaiden said. “Didn’t that guy tell us that they had shipped the nano-virus to California?”
“Yeah. He did,” Jade said.
“Is there word of any massive die-off?” Kaiden asked.
Birch smirked at him. “You mean other than the few billion people who were just crushed?”
Kaiden scowled. “You know what I mean.”
“Nothing yet,” Jade said. She gave Willow a wary glance, and sadness crept into her eyes. Kaiden needed to explain how he felt about her. Maybe he was too late, but she had a right to know the truth.
Kaiden’s wrist terminal buzzed. Another message from his mother blinked on the screen.
“They’ve arrived,” it said. “I can’t hold them much longer. Please stop us.”
A painful ache burned through Kaiden’s chest. His mother was pleading with him to kill her.
“Are we going to do this?” Kaiden asked.
The three women glanced at each other.
“Genocide in any form is unacceptable,” Jade said, “whether it’s the mass murder of clones or the mass murder of natural humans. It’s just wrong.”
Kaiden clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. “Then, let’s go.”
His conversation with Jade would have to wait.
The great, white dome of the TAP facility filled the center of Tallahassee. The files Flint discovered showed that it penetrated deep under the city through the lapping waters of the ocean into the living rock beneath. Down there in the bowels of the complex, Kaiden’s mothers waited.
“We’ve got clearance,” Flint said.
“Really,” Birch said. “I can’t believe that code worked. Either our rogue Noah really is helping us, or she wants us so deep inside we can’t get out.”
“Let’s hope she’s helping,” Flint said.
The gunship slipped through the hangar doors and settled onto the landing pad. Flint cut the engines.
“Hold up,” the voice of the controller came over the speaker. “Your ship has a red flag on it. Where did you say you originated?”
Flint glanced at Kaiden and raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t,” he whispered.
“This ship is reported stolen from Ararat,” the controller said. “I’m going to have to ask you to remain on board until your ship has been searched. Please have your IDs ready.”
“We escaped during the battle,” Flint said into the mic. “We’re bringing refugees from Ararat.”
“All the same,” the controller said, “do not exit the craft for any reason. If you are armed, you must surrender your weapons to the security personnel.”
“So much for the element of surprise,” Willow said.
Kaiden peered out the window. A line of security personnel clad in black made their way toward the ship.
“This is going to get real complicated,” Birch said.
Flint glanced at Kaiden. “We do have some nice-sized guns that are pointed right at the control station,” he said.
Kaiden nodded. “Do it, but give us a chance to get ready. The rest of us will give them a little surprise. Then, we have to run like mad.”
“Don’t get too far apart, or the cloaking software won’t cover us,” Birch said. “It’s still centralized from my WT.” She glanced at Flint. “You need to extend the range on this thing or just put it on each of our WTs.”
“I ran out of chips, and I’m still working on the power supply problem,” he said.
“Have you got the bots ready?” Kaiden asked.
“Yep,” Birch said.
“When we start shooting,” Kaiden said, “light ’em up.”
Flint grinned. “I love explosions.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
My Brother
As Kaiden positioned the laser cannon so that it would shoot directly through the bay doors, he suppressed a twinge of guilt. These clones were just doing their jobs. They hadn’t received Willow’s memories. They didn’t know. But he couldn’t let them stop him. Not after all they’d been through. A few lives might have to be lost to save billions.
That thought gave Kaiden pause. That was virtually the same argument Oakley had used. How had he come to this? Who was he to decide who lived and who died?
When the guards pounded on the bay door, Kaiden hesitated. He glanced at Jade, Birch, and Willow, and the other six TAP clones—Aspen, Sierra, Blaze, Basil, Pearl, and Stone—who were still with them. They could all die in here, and they all trusted him. But what choice did he have?
He nodded to Jade, who keyed in the code to open the door. It slid open to reveal a squad of security who stared in shock at the laser cannon pointed directly into their faces. The laser cannon blasted into them, and they scattered. Their clothing ignited. Men and women screamed and fell, writhing, to the floor. The stench of burnt flesh and hair filled the bay.
At the same instant, the ship’s guns roared and ripped into the glass and metal of the control station.
“Go! Go!” Kaiden shouted.
Jade, Birch, and Willow leaped over the writhing guards, followed by everyone but Flint. The ship’s guns rattled again. Something exploded.
“Stop playing around,” Kaiden yelled into this mic as he raced after the others. “Get down here.”
“You spoil all the fun,” Flint said.
Kaiden reached the others as they crouched behind a loading truck while Jade set the charges on the door. A few more guards raced into the landing bay, but Kaiden, Birch, and the other six clones made short work of them. Flint dropped next to Kaiden. Billowing smoke poured out of the control station, carrying with it the caustic reek of burning plastic and hot metal. Emergency lights flashed and a siren wailed.
“I think they know you’re here,” Flint said. “Might want to pick up the pace a bit.”
Jade raced back to them and dove behind the vehicle. The wide loading doors erupted in a spray of metal that showered the vehicle and skidded and skipped across the floor. Flint leaped up, rushed ahead of them, and disappeared into the smoke.
“Idiot,” Birch called after him as the rest of the team followed him through the ragged hole where the doors had been.
The corridor beyond was empty. The emergency sirens blared more loudly in the narrow space. Flint paused in the middle of the corridor, where three other corridors converged, peering at his porta
ble computer.
“Birch?” Kaiden said.
“I’m on it.” Several nano-bots lifted from her wrist terminal and disappeared into the corridors. A blue holographic screen flickered into existence in front of her, showing the corridors in front of them.
“That’s a new addition,” Kaiden said, gesturing to the screen.
Birch smiled. “Makes it easier to run.”
“We’ve got to take that corridor on the right,” Flint said. “That’s the quickest way to the elevators.”
“How do you know that?” Willow asked.
“Because I studied the schematics,” he said.
“Looks clear,” Birch said, “for now.”
“Is the cloaking software on?” Kaiden asked.
“Here goes,” Birch said as they stepped down the corridor. “I haven’t had time to improve the system much with all the fun we’ve been having. Eventually, you won’t need to stay close to me, but for now…”
Kaiden took the lead while Jade brought up the rear. The walls and floors of the Tallahassee TAP complex were polished steel, unlike the white walls of Ararat. The pale reflections of the team disappeared as Birch engaged the cloaking software. Like before, the software made those within its range invisible to anyone outside, but those inside could still see each other.
“That’s a little freaky to see your reflection disappear like that,” Flint said. “I feel like I just lost my body.”
“All we need is your head,” Birch said.
“Well, that hurts my feelings,” Flint said.
“Will you two can it?” Jade said. “Disembodied voices defeats the whole point of using cloaking software.”
“Incoming,” Birch said.
The pounding of booted feet on the metal floor grew near. There was no time to dive into a side room. And they couldn’t afford to get locked into a fight. Kaiden waved them to the wall. The team flattened themselves against the cold steel, keeping their weapons ready.