My sister fell and broke her leg, and her doctor performed an unnecessary amputation. My sister did not want to spend her life missing a leg and applied to the government for a leg. Within days, I saw my sister walking down the street.
"Hey kid!" I yelled playfully.
"Who are you?" she asked quizzically. Then I notice a scar I had not seen on her ankle. Her clone. "I am here to donate my leg."
She sounded so calm and passive about it. If someone was going to take my leg they wouldn't receive it so easily.
After that operation I was pained to see my sister with her silacrum's leg as the clone hobbled back to wherever she came from. I felt how wrong this was in my heart and involuntarily began hating clones. I felt awful because it was the newest kind of racism (clonism,) but I couldn't help it. I felt like a bigot and tried denying my hatred. It wasn't the clone's fault that she came into existence.
When cloning was first proposed we would have a time delayed twin. For example, when you are twenty, your clone would be ten. Yet now they clone you as soon as you are born so your clone will be relatively the same age as you. There are rumors though. I've heard that there are people so old and rich that they have ten or twenty, maybe even fifty clones. They even have some in freezers and take them out and let them live until they can use the parts. So they live forever, and forever is a long time.
This is how the wars began. Radicals and people from such political parties as the Green Party started breaking away from the U.S. claiming freedom from cloning. Actually, there was no such thing as freedom any longer. That idea died when the Constitution was burned and the government removed all books containing it. Everyone has chips implanted in their hand so that at every moment the government may track you. There is no such thing as a life anymore.
I'm trying to escape. I don't know where I'm going and I feel embarrassed that I'm running from my problems. It hurts me to realize what's happening to society and that poor people have no more worth in society. The world is slowly being divided and I know we'd never get it back together.
The expanse of sand along which I was walking was so long, oh so long. I collapsed as the sand whirled around my head. I started coughing and involuntarily inhaling dust. I started crying again because even as I walked they could track me and I would still be found. So I closed my eyes, not caring if I died right there.
If I had known my fate, I would have wished to die there. I awoke in a smoke filled hall. I could tell that it was marijuana, which half the population was hooked on. We'd forgotten that this stuff was addictive, and people took it for granted that when they trashed themselves they could just get new lungs and hearts, or whatever they needed. I saw coming in the room a sleek, hansome guy with a joint dangling out of his mouth.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey, yourself," I retorted. By his uniform I could tell he was some government official. He probably had enough clones to outlast his nasty smoking habit. "So why am I here?" I asked, not like it mattered anyway.
"Cuz I want you here," he smiled and the smoke drifted close to me so that I choked up.
"Well, if you want me here alive, second hand smoke kills buddy."
"I'm trying to help you smart aleck," he proclaimed, dropping his smoke and grinding it into the floor. "You're in an underground hiding place."
"Yeah, whatever. Don't try and pull anything over me!" I yelled, reaching for my knife. Gone.
"I took that," he smiled, sitting next to me.
"You reek of that stuff," I said, motioning to the ground cigarette.
"Can't help it as much as I'd like to. I've got AIDS." I didn't bother asking where he got that either. It was about as common as colds. Yet with a clone, you could always keep boosting yourself so you won't die.
"I don't, so don't infect me," I sneered, hoping he wouldn't.
"Don't want to," he said. "All I want to do is help you. God, you have a temper."
"I'm sorry," I relented feeling I could trust him. "I try to do this so people won't bother me."
"Don't worry about me, okay? I just want to help you."
"How can I tell?" I asked, tears glittering in my eyes.
"I want this world back as much as you do. I've been watching you. Only a few people know about this place, and fewer make it down."
"Please don't be lying, okay?" I gulped.
"I need to tell you something," he said, evading my question. "You're a clone."
"No, how do you know? God, no you don't. How do you know? I'm not!"
"I'm not fooling with you. So am I. This is a haven for people like us. My original copy wanted me just as yours wanted you, but I've managed to save you."
"No," I said, falling against him. "God, no."
"I removed the chip in your hand. You have to understand, okay? Do you get me? We've created a world for ourselves while the one above us is destroyed. And then, when they're settled, we'll emerge and create lives for ourselves." His voice took on a dreamy quality as he speculated on the future. Looking up at him, I realized he was around my own age. Maybe I could survive.
"You didn't die from the AIDS because you're a clone, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah, I figure," he said, reaching for another cigarette.
"Don't, we have to stay well for the future. I know you were lying about the AIDS, you're just ashamed. Kick the habit, okay?" I found myself involuntarily starting to like him.
"Future? What future?" he asked.
"Well, the future of the human race maybe?" I said, starting to feel sick. I couldn't believe that I wasn't a human being. I was a clone.
"Clones are human beings," he said eerily, completely reading my thoughts.
"How did you know?" I stuttered.
"I could see it in your eyes." I tried to keep my jaw from falling open at the realization that my face was that readable.
"Okay, anyway," I blushed. "Why are you wearing that uniform?"
"Oh, that's just who I was cloned from. The guy likes this sort of stuff," he sneered. "I thought you might be more comfortable with a government official."
"Yeah right," I said. "Anyway---"
Then, suddenly, the whole place shook. I fell against him again and he caught me as we fell down on the ground.
"What the hell was that? " he whispered.
"Beats me," I whispered back, and then we shook again.
"Holy sh--"
"Shhhhh," I softly said as I tried to listen. I could hear a faint buzzing in the distance.
"It's what I thought. We gotta go. Don't ask, just move!" he yelled, grabbing my arm and whisking me off the floor.
Before I knew it we were racing down dark tunnels toward a faint light. Once, I tripped and collapsed in his arms and we both stood there looking at each other. We were just leaning towards each other when we shook again and got knocked out of our dream land. Finally, we neared the light and I saw what it was. A spaceship!
"What is this for?" I asked.
"No questions!" he yelled. I could hear bombs dropping up above, and the ground shook with such intensity that I could feel it in my bones.
"Get in!" he screamed above the din.
"Into that!?! Where are we going? I don't even know your name!"
"Adam! Now get in!" He was screaming so loudly he made my ears hurt.
"Adam, I don't know the first thing about spaceships," I yelled.
We were entering the spaceship and I saw two suits hanging on two pegs. Suddenly, a huge boulder crashed onto our ship and made a dent.
"Don't cuss," I said, knowing him well already.
"Just hurry," he said, ignoring me. He made me step in the suit and zipped it up. He put on my helmet all the while making me feel like a baby. Then he quickly put on all his gear and showed me how to remove the helmet's shield by pushing a button at the side.
"Okay, get in your seat and I'll strap you in." Beads of sweat were collecting on his furrowed brow.
"What is this? I like you," I blushed. "Okay, I like you alot. But what's happening?" My stomach was churning as was my head.
"You've gotta trust me. This civil war is going to end in the Earth's destruction. We're going to make a world on the moon. We have all the necessary items for a biosphere. We're going to the moon."
"So human beings are all going to be survived by clones," I sighed.
"Yeah, nothing's wrong with that."
"Can clones have," I gulped, "babies?"
"We could find out," he smiled. I quickly turned away from him so he couldn't see my red face. I felt light headed and I realized it wasn't just from his comment but the fact that we were lifting off. Something within me felt sick as I realized we were leaving the earth.
I saw out of the corner of my eye other ships leaving.
"Those are the chosen few," Adam whispered, turning away from the control panel.
"Drive the ship, okay?" I said.
"It's on auto pilot," he said coolly.
"Well, you're making me nervous, alright?" I said, my stomach turning aerial flips.
"A little jittery are we?" he asked. "It'll take about a week to reach the moon, so you're just gonna have to control all that scaredy cat stuff."
"Whatever," I retorted, staring out of the small porthole window into space. I felt so sad and crestfallen that we were leaving, and I felt lost in the gigantic size of space. I leaned back against my seat all the while, staring at my poor Earth.
Then something happened that I will never forget. As I continued watching, I thought I saw a tiny flame appear on the earth. I realized that this high up, that tiny flame must be huge.
"Adam," I whispered.
"Just what I thought," he said, looking out of the window with me. I saw fire engulf the earth quickly, burning it into a charred cinder---- then it exploded.
"That's gonna hit us!" I yelled. "Floor it!"
"There's no such thing in a spaceship," he remarked.
"I don't care! We've got to get out of here!" He just sat there and I was too mortified to take control of the spaceship myself, so I just sat there clutching myself and shivering. Then I realized that by now the explosion would have rocked us. Actually, more like sent us flying like a bat out of hell. I turned angrily towards Adam, and he smiled with pleasure.
"We're protected from that sort of thing," he smiled.
"Well, you could have told me sooner! I practically died from worry much less what I thought was coming!" I screamed.
"Calm down," he said, and, as an afterthought, added, "you're gonna have to learn to live with me."
"Yeah, since you're one of the only people still alive. God, I can't believe the whole Earth is gone. Just like that. It's been here so long, in a more delicate balance than we realized. We should have appreciated it more than we did. Oh, my family, my friends, my people."
"You have me," he said, and I realized that he was about the only thing that I did have right now.
"So we're gonna go to the moon and start over?" I sighed. "Are we gonna just trash the moon? Are humans gonna be any better than they are now?"
"They're gonna be our kids, and we'll make 'em better." I suddenly realized that the whole survival of humans was now dependent on us.
"What are we gonna do, Adam?" I said.
"We could think of something, Eve," he whispered and smiled.
The End