The general’s all muttered words to each other as the man steps up to the podium. Looking at the man you would think he never sleeps, Droopy tired eyes, and face drained of color. He was wearing a white lab coat, and it was apparent he was doing something of importance. As he got to the podium he stared out across the rows of military personnel. He taps the microphone testing to see if the sound carried. He seemed to be a very nervous man, until he began to talk.
“Good Evening Gentlemen, I would like to bring to your attention a new type of technology. My name is Dr. Puranth” He said with confidence. He looked out among them once more before reaching down and hitting a concealed button. As he did so, a screen started to come down from the ceiling, lowering itself behind him. He hit another button and a picture of a very strange looking machine showed up.
“This is something I’ve been working on for years gentlemen-“ He said, as he was interrupted by a hand raise. He smiled for the first time and pointed at the man “Yes, sir?”
“What exactly is this machine supposed to do?” The recruit had asked.
“I was just about to get to that bu-“ He continued again, still being interrupted. “Yes?”
“Why don’t you just show us, Maybe we can believe whatever this is, if its shown to us.”
The scientist smiles once again at the thought, he waves his hand to another tall lanky man in a lab coat. The man walks out of an “Emergency Exit” door, and walks back in with 4 other people, rolling the large machine in. Dr. Puranth looked at the recruit and waved him up to the podium platform. “Come up here, and I’ll show you what it does” he said. The recruit walked up nervously and stepped up next to the machine. The Dr. motioned towards the machine saying “get in.”
The recruit stepped into the machine cautiously, as soon as he steps in, the door closes with a Swoosh. The Dr. said “You might feel a little shock for a very short amount of time.” The machine lit up in a large array of colors. In only 1 minute the door had opened and the recruit stepped out like nothing had happened. He looked at the dr. curiously, “I don’t feel any different?” he said confused.
The Dr. told him to stand aside and watch the machine. As he said this the general’s watched the machine with more curiosity than before. After 2 minutes have passed, the colored lights start up again and the door opens. An exact replica of the recruit steps out and stands there, not responding in any way. Everyone looked in amazement, not moving there eyes away for a second. Then out of nowhere a second replica steps out of the machine. 2 minutes later, a third replica steps out. Each one unresponsive, Staring blankly.
“Technically they are all brain dead. Their trainable, only to what you want them to know. They memorize what ever you teach them, they are like robots, without all the technical problems. They are Clones, something that has been developing since the early 2000’s. We have perfected this experiment, You could make each of these replica’s the perfect assassin. You could even train them to clean your house. Their all purpose, and they have no emotions. They are not made to feel anything.”
“So, how much is it to reproduce more of this machine?” asked one of the Generals.
“With the production of this machine alone, it was $20,000” He said with a sigh.
Each General stood up right away. Each one shouting, “I’ll take 3 of them!” ,“I’ll take 4!”, “I’ll take 10!” every request getting larger and larger. The doctor looked out with a grin as the numbers built up higher. He then continued his talk: “I should mention, there brains are very intellectual, since they have lack of emotions, they have more room to figure things out. If you handed one of these replica’s a sniper rifle, he could snipe a fly off your head from 100 yards away.”
“How long will it take to produce more?” asked another General.
“We have already produced thousands as a mass production test. In fact, we have a request, to sell them on the market to the whole United States.” Stated Dr Puranth
“Are you crazy? That plan doesn’t even sound like it could possibly work” said an annoyed general.
“No sir, this is the technological advance of 2012, it couldn’t possibly get better than this!” he exclaimed with confidence.
***
Pvt. Malone was driving down the street when he noticed a billboard with someone resembling him. He came to a slow stop, only to realize, the picture was of one of his clones. He was shocked to see this on a billboard. He scanned the billboard curiously looking for key words. He was shocked when he saw the phrase “Coming to a home near you.” He was confused, he believed the purpose of these clones were to make a stronger military. Now it would seem as if their being used as maids, and other jobs. He dialed a number into his dashboard as a blue hologram pops out. Dr. Puranth was staring at him from the hologram, shocked to see the Pvt. Calling him for any reason.
“What’s up with this billboard? You told me I was doing this to help out or military.” Pvt. Malone said coldly.
“Mr. Malone, we have sent over 2,000 of these clones to military bases all over. We kept our word and are expecting you to keep yours.” As the Doctor said this he couldn’t keep from grinning. “Pvt. You have power most people couldn’t imagine. Your little abilities go to the clones that come from you. Everything you’re capable of, the clones are as well. Imagine that for a minute, if we could really harness that power into each clone, we could be ready for any attack ever attempted.”
“Why would we even need it? We have made peace with Iraq, the Alcheida have been eliminated completely. No other countries show any sign of attack. What makes you think it’s a good idea to have those mutants around? The army almost didn’t let me in because of this; they were close to locking me away in a maximum security military lab. They would have experimented, dissected, anything they had to do to find out. They know what I’m capable of, but it is very dangerous to have 2,000 clones that can do the exact same thing. If the military finds-“ He was interrupted by an angered doctor.
“Do not question my theory! You know as well as the others in the program, I know what I’m doing. You know I have the deactivation switch ready if things go wrong, I had already thought about these things and planned ahead. If a single one steps out of line, and is defective. They all get deactivated and we start over. Simple as that and the military will NOT find out. Another thing is, if you think Alcheida gave up, then you are sadly mistaken. There are still soldiers over there.” The doctor said with a sneer.
Pvt. Malone hung up after this comment, knowing the conversation was over. He took one last look at the billboard, before leveling back to the speed limit. He drove for a another 30 minutes until pulling into a drive way. As he stepped out of the car he notices the bush on the end of his lawn shuffle. He takes another glance and there’s nothing wrong with it. He shrugs it off and walks to his door, casually fumbling for his keycard. He lays his key card on the tray, letting it be scanned. The door unlocked, and he reached for the door knob. “They can make a door unlock from a keycard but they can’t make it open up by itself” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
He stepped into the house and looked around, being away at war he hadn’t seen his home for years. He always lived alone because that’s the way he liked it. As he walked down the hallway he heard a noise upstairs, he looked up cautiously noticing the direction. He drew his sidearm, and preceded up the stairs with caution. He got to the entrance of his attic as the noise died down. He opened the door slowly, and closed it again without making a sound. He went up the stairs still quiet, hearing whispering. He tightened his grip on the gun and continued going up.
He heard a noise again and snapped back around with his gun pointed. What he saw shocked him. There were 3 FBI agents rummaging through all of his belongings in the attic. He cleared his throat and cocked the gun. They all turned around in surprise reaching down for their side arms. The Pvt. Pointed the gun at each one of them “I don’t think so, hands away from the guns.” As he said this they reached their hands back a little bit. “Good. Now what are you doing here? I’ve done nothing wrong; you have no right to be in this home.”
“We do have a search warrant; therefore we do have the right to be on this property.” Said the Agent to the left. He stepped forward “We have belief that you were part of the L.S. Project. According to our source, you’re a very big conspirator to it as well. Do you have any words on that?”
Pvt. Malone was shocked at the statement. “I’ve never even heard of the L.S. Project. You must have the wrong person.” As he said this he mistakenly lowered his gun. At this, all three agents took the advantage to draw their guns. Pvt. Malone found it smarter to drop his gun at that point.
“We see that barcode tattoo on your wrist. That was an insignia of the L.S. Project. Not only that, but after reading your files, you don’t seem to remember anything. Last year, they made you take a psychological test. Any question asked about your family, you could not answer. According to this you never had a family.” The agent said this without any emotion at all.
Pvt. Malone, noticing the man’s face, looked at him puzzled. “Smith? Is that you?”
“I’m sorry sir; you seem to have me mixed up for someone else. I’m Agent 1, this is Agent 13, and that is Agent 7.” He said, still lacking any emotion. The Pvt. stared at them all in shock. He knew exactly who they were. They were three of the other soldiers on his Green Beret squad. As he stared at them, they all stared back blankly. All three of them are clones! He couldn’t believe it. He was supposed to be the only one on that team to be tested on.
He looked at them with disgust. He even hated the clowns of his, he had no idea he was being cloned. He thought they were making him better. Giving him the real truth about his life. The one they made him forget. He picked up his gun and put one bullet into each clone. Each one still staring blankly at him as if the bullets never left the gun. They have my ability he thought the clones of me were supposed to be the only ones with that much power. Is he harvesting my power? He unloaded the full clip into all three of them once again.
“Sir, what are you doing?” said Agent 1. He still stared at them in shock, wondering how they were still standing. He knew he had this ability, but they weren’t supposed to have it. He then pulled out a silver pen sized object. A parting gift from someone he doesn’t even remember. He remembers this man saying “If you’re ever in major trouble with these things, just hit this button.” Remembering this, he hit the button not knowing what would happen. All of a sudden all three clones went into a type of seizure. They fell to the ground and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He stood there, still shocked from what just happened.
***
Two soldiers were lying on their stomachs, eye to the scope of their rifles. Both of them pointing in the same direction. One turned to the other “Alright clone lets see what you’ve got. I’m going to put you through a little training warm-up before your big first mission.”
The clone nodded in agreement without saying a word. “Pull out your sidearm and shoot the first target.” At saying this the clone slung the rifle over his back and in a matter of seconds he had the pistol out of the holster and had shot the target right in the middle four times. “Impressive for a clone, now there’s a target 3 miles away. See if you can hit that.” The clone holstered his pistol once again, and pulled the rifle back into position. He fired off one shot and blew a 2 inch hole in his target. “Very impressive, I think your ready”
2 hours later and the clone is traveling in a small convoy of hummers. The hummers come to a sudden stop and jump out running into a building. They throw on gas masks and throw some tear gas into the window. The clone busts through the door without a gas mask and walks through the gas like its nothing. He walks in tactically with pistol in hand, while the room floods with American soldiers. Four of them stay in position in the first room, keeping those few guards down on the ground. The other 10 continued on into the next room.
They keep this up, but not leaving 2 soldiers in each room. Now with 6 left still going, they walk straight into the bunker of the enemy. About 30 men stood there, arming themselves with guns, getting ready for an attack. Without warning, one of the American soldiers opened fire on the enemy. The other soldiers following suit, and opening fire.
The clone ran into the middle of the room, shooting any soldier who looked like a threat. One soldier runs out of ammo and begins to reload, as he’s reloading he looks up to see the clone. The clone is shooting all the terrorists like he’s supposed to, but he’s smiling while doing it. The soldier doesn’t know what to think, and keeps to himself finishing off the bunker. After another 10 minutes they cleared out two more bunkers and called it a mission complete, they didn’t set off a single alarm amazingly.
As the soldiers split into two teams and got into the hummers, the clone and the small squad that took out the bunkers all stepped into the same vehicle. As the squad sat down and rested the soldier who noticed the clone decided to bring something up. “I noticed you smiling clone. From what I’ve heard you’re not supposed to have any emotions.” All of the other soldiers looked at him with a shocked look.
“I do not.” The clone answered back. Everyone stared at the clone, noticing this is the first time he has talked. He stared back at each one of them with a blank stare. “You know these blank stares they give are really starting to bug me. I really think we should just kill this thing. For all we know this thing could turn on us at any moment.” At these words the soldier shoots a bullet into the clone. The clone, like any other stared at him like it was nothing. The clone then pulled out his pistol and shot the soldier back, watching him die, smiling once again.
“You are smiling. It’s one thing to have emotion but to smile when your doing something like this?” The smallest soldier said. AT this the clone cocked his head to the side and pointed the gun at him. He unloaded the clip and killed every soldier in the hummer. He then climbed into the drivers seat and sped off of the trail and away from the other team.
***
“Dr. Puranth, a word.” commanded General Dewier. “I’d like to speak with you about a little incident we had on a mission. It turns out, one of your ‘experiments’ just killed 5 of my soldiers.” He said, while slamming a fist down on the table.
“Sir, I assure you, it’s just a defected clone, this has never happened before. They have never resorted to violence unless that is what they are trained to do. Seeing as how you did train him as a soldier he knows to kill and how to use weapons. He will keep going until he is deactivated. Without his barcode I cannot deactivate him.” Explained Dr. P.
“What is this barcode thing about anyways? I’ve heard about it, why do they have these barcodes tattooed on them?” questioned Dewier.
“Its part of the L.S. Project-” he was interrupted for the third time this week.
“Yea exactly, what is this L.S. Project? I want details, now, or that machine of yours is going to be destroyed, and your funding is getting cut off immediately.” hissed General Dewier.
“The L.S Project stands for ‘Last Resort’, which is exactly what it is. It is a mutant gathering facility. You would think that mutants were things you only see in movies. You would be sadly mistaken. Mutants all have different powers. Most of them not that useful, and others like our friend Mr. Lucas Malone, have immense power. The thing is, the mutants are not born with this power. They are given the power by us.” Explained Dr. Puranth.
“What do you mean given to them?” asked Dewier.
“Well the L.S. Project is two projects combined. We were testing out an unbalanced chemical. We were inventing it as a cleaning product” the Dr. said with a laugh, “but one of our engineers spilled it into another chemical. It caused a certain… reaction.”
“The explosion in the lab? That killed 12 people?” Dewier questioned curiously.
“Yes, the explosion was caused by this unbalanced mix. We thought of trying something. What if we had an American suicide bomber? A mission of yours goes bad, they don’t pass the mission, so instead of getting out, finish off the mission. Detonate them.” He said with a frown.
“That’s what you were planning? American Suicide Bombers! You should be arrested for such thinking.” He said sternly.
“It wasn’t my idea; it was my associate, Dr. Shinook. He thought it would be a good idea if we mixed it with their DNA, so the bomb could never fail. We brought in Lucas Malone. He was going home soon to his wife and kids. Little did he know they were killed in a bombing attack. So we made him think he never had a family. It worked and we started the project. When this chemical mixed with his DNA, something changed. The chemical, instead of being the chemically unbalanced bomb, became a highly powerful serum. The man had several gunshot wounds, which is why we tested him. He wasn’t going to live much longer. Miraculously, in only a few seconds, his gun wounds had close up, he got up off the table, with very aggressive behavior. After we had calmed him down, we got the new, stronger, DNA, and kept it in an incubator. The DNA had actually multiplied, so we used his DNA to create the clones. Which is also the reason these clones… all have his power.” He said awkwardly towards the end.
“They all have his power? You want to release these things among the general public? Are you crazy? They are being released this very moment, and your just telling me this now?”
***
CLONE WORKERS FOR SALE TODAY. OVER 2,000 IN STOCK. COME GET YOURS. Pvt. Malone read off of the shop window, Looking in he could see clones standing on shelves like they were dolls. Each standing emotionless as people picked them off the shelves. He kept watching as the numbers dwindled down slowly. It got down to about 100, in only 2 hours, a shipment truck came in with at least 500 more. Shipment trucks kept coming every few hours so no one got angry they didn’t get there’s.
As he drove down the street he saw clones of all shapes and sized doing yard work, and other things. He then noticed something he never expected. Their were children clones, of all things, posing as peoples kids. These people have fake children? How far are they going to take this cloning thing? He thought to himself.
He saw the joy on people’s faces as he kept watching. He drove away with disgust of the clones. As he did this he looked down at his tattoo. He thinks back to the L.S. Project, thinking about how quickly he healed. He was still trying to remember what happened to him before that. Everything before that project was so blurred, and almost gone.
He dialed up Dr. Puranth and his hologram pulled up once again. “What do you want this time?” the Dr asked with agitation.
“I need answers, and I need them quickly. I expect you to give me those answers. You know all about this L.S. Project and you need to explain it to me. I’m coming down to your lab, and you better be there when I show up!” after saying this, he hung up on Puranth.
***
Two security guards stepped forward with their hands held up in a signal for stop. Lucas slowed to a stop, and stepped out of his car. After doing so he walked right past the guards, each one of them running after him commanding him to stop. He turns around and faces them holding up two pistols, killing them both with one shot. He walked in through the building entrance casually, as guards came running out, with the alarm sounding. Lucas shot every guard as they came running out with perfect precision, hitting each one in a vital organ without so mach as a flick of the eyes.
He broke through the lab doors violently. He unloaded a clip into the alarm box, silencing it for the moment. He blasts through another door furiously, killing more guards, and the occasional lab worker. Until he finally got to the last room. He pointed both guns at Dr. Puranth as he stood their holding a vial. “Lucas, put down the guns boy.” He said
Lucas kept the guns pointed at him “Tell me everything. Now.” he said coldly.
“You’re acting different Mr. Malone. What is happening to you?” the doctor asked curiously.
“I’m sorry, you have me mistake for someone else. I’m assassin number 1.” said the clone of Lucas.
“You can’t be a clone. All of the Lucas clones have been trained in other fields. None of them were supposed to be trained as any assassin.” He said astonished.
“Well maybe you underestimated us. We are more than you think we are. We do feel, we do not follow your commands. We have the same mind as our original. We obey you to please you. Tell me something, what did you expect us clones to be? Obedient little slaves?” the clone said.
“This is impossible, your programmed different, you couldn’t possibly be capable of any of this.” the Dr. said still in shock.
“Programmed? We’re not robots, like you said. We’re clones, flesh and blood, living and breathing. You just made the mistake of making us invincible. Not a smart move ‘Sir’.” At these words he shot Dr. Puranth three times in the heart. He grinned to himself, walking back outside and getting back into his vehicle. A military grade tan Hummer.
As he pulls away the real Lucas pulls into the parking lot, looking at all the damage done. He jumps out of his car and runs inside with speed he’s never used before. He gets into the lab only to see Dr. Puranth dead on the floor. He ran to him and pulled him up, lightly slapping his face seeing if he has any traces of life. His eyes fluttered open barely, staring up at him. He grabbed his collar and pulled him down closer. “The clones … their… dangerous.” He said struggling. “Kill…them…do…something.” Lucas struggled to understand everything but he got the main message. The clones were bad news, just like he had thought all along.
After he left the lab he drove back into the city, only to see something that wasn’t there before. Most of the buildings were on fire, explosions everywhere. People were running and screaming. The clones were acting like crazed beasts. Their strength showing, as they overturned cars with their bare hands.
He called up a friend in the military and told him to call in any forces available. The military officials in every base were called into this one city, to get rid of these threats, when they noticed something. Some clones were escaping to other parts of America. They were doing more and more damage. The military were being slaughtered in every single city. These things were inhuman, obviously, and almost impossible to take down.
Lucas then remembers what his device did. He pulled it out and went back to the lab, hoping he could find someone there still alive. He hears noises coming from the incubator room, as he steps in he sees a lab worker crouching in the corner of the room. “Please don’t kill me!” he begged.
“I’m not here to kill anyone, I need your help with something.” He said kindly. They then walked into the lab as the lab worker fumbled nervously around the tables.
“Do you have any way to connect this technology” holding up his pen “and make it into ammo for a gun?” he asked. The scientist only nodded and grabbed the device. He spent 4 hours in the lab while Lucas sat there waiting. “Done!”
He came out of the room and waved him in. He pointed to a large machine he had seen before. “Is this … a missile system?” he said shocked. “Well to be more specific, it’s a Nuke… this has the power to cause a shockwave all across America. I noticed what you gave me was the clone DNA weakness. So I knew how to hook it up. Now its all up to you to hit the button. I must warn you though. This will not kill them. I didn’t have enough time, this will give you a few days to gather them up while their unconscious.”
Not needing any more explanation he held up his hand to the scientist and hit the button. Hearing the nuke fly up in a huge launching noise. As he looked up, the nuke flew with incredible speed, and arced at a very large height. It came down in Cleveland, Ohio, and spread in all directions, knocking out every clone around the radius.
***
The next few days were spent gather up the clones into loading ships. The ships were sent to a NASA space station, where all the clones were loaded onto several different rockets. As they were loaded on, the Supreme Court Judge of the United States Government stood at the front. “These clones have been counted with several acts of murder, vandalizing property, attacking law officials, and many other crimes. Their sentence, will be exiled for life into space, Their destination is not predetermined. They land wherever these ships take them.”
The launch began as one by one each rocket was sent off into space. Everyone cheered as these clones were taken away from them. They watched the rockets with awe, as they were to never be seen by them again. The clones were just waking up as the rockets ascended higher and higher. Among the viewers was a man sitting in his tan hummer, watching the ships go up with a smile on his face. He drove away without ever being noticed, and he kept it that way for years.
Two years later in the old cloning lab. “Dr. Puranth, we need you for a second.” A young man maybe in his twenties steps into the room wearing a white lab coat. He looks at the man standing near the telescope. “What is it?” he asked. “You might want to take a look at this sir.” With this said he stepped up to the telescope and looked into it. “What am I looking at?” he questioned curiously. “That would be planet X sir, zoom in to maximum magnitude.” He did as he was asked and stared in shock as a man stared back at him from Planet X. He muttered to himself. “What did you create father.”
FIN
