Prologue

INSIDE THE SEEMINGLY LAST STANDING FUNCTIONING BUILDING THAT CONTAINS THE LAST OF THE RADIATION-FREE HUMANS: One of the five islands of 'The Nation' after the nuclear war. 

Las Islas Amerindias Unidas 

Biomedical Lab 

Time; 23:55

Year; 2085

A loud annoying-sounding alarm goes off.

“Just jury-rigg the darn thing,” the youngest member of the team in Triangle Control Room, folds his arms across his chest as he speaks but a cocky one is never welcomed much, especially when they think they’re smarter than the rest.

His teammates, who have been there months and most of them years before him, ignore his boasting as they already know what their job details are.

“Check the power output,” the other man, Luke, returned, ignoring him as he instructed the man seated in front of one of the main screens.

“Aculator-”

“Would someone get this guy to shut the-” another man gritted his teeth.

“Shut it, newbie,” the man with the long-plaited hair and pierced left nostril mumbles almost like an afterthought, moving the ball in his hand from over the seated man’s shoulders to navigate the huge screen. Newbie is what they called him despite knowing his name Li because he needed to know his place. It’s been two weeks of putting up with his know-it-all attitude and the older ones get it. He’s excited to be here…they all were when they signed up for this section.

It’s like the ancient Harvard but in the ending times after destroying the world. Getting in here is like bragging to everyone else you’re smarter, brighter…better than them. But Axel didn’t go around bragging like him. He just held his head up a little higher than the rest of the members here in S.E.S.A.

The atmosphere is not a panicked one but a bit concerned for the teams are accustomed to alarms blaring off at all hours even when something is a decimal off.

“Containment clear,” the computer voice stated monotonely, alerting them of the captain entering the room. It was automated to be female sounding as the softer tone is thought to be calming.

The walkie-talkie beeped that was in the captain’s hand was followed by, “Alpha 3 here, Alpha Team 1, come in, what seems to be the problem, guys? Over.” The only female voice in this conversation.

The redhead man pressed the button and replied, “Alpha Team 1, here. The reactor but we’re on it, no worries, Alpha 2? Over.” The captain was a tall burly man.

“Alpha 2 here. Coolant and core pressure are messed up, checking it. Over.”

Static over the radio.

“Team Alpha 5, Circle is under ra….beep…static…I repeat radiation leak in circle…static…”

A three-second pause. Then, “Alpha 2, 3, 4 did you get what Alpha Team 5 said?”

“Yeah, radiation leak in Circle. Alpha 3. Over.” The shapes were the names of the rooms they were in.

 *static*

“Square? Over,” comes from the captain again.

“Lethal…static…” Comes from a panic-sounding young man.

Silence follows while the man in Rectangle tries to radio the other teams for an update, on edge.

Then full panic mode on all of the men when they hear, “Alpha 3 here, Square is 1300 F. Over.”

“Team Alpha 4, high radiation breach…static…primary…static…beep…over.”

“With maintenance crew, update soon, Alpha Team 5, over.”

Four minutes later…

“Alpha…beep…dam…breech…”

“Alpha Team 1 here, can you repeat?”

“One of the…beep…static…escape…”

A naked, bald, female figure is seen jumping from the height and into the dam below from the screens of two cameras that are angled differently.

An alert goes off in the distance echoing throughout the crowded corridors, followed by the automated voice. “Happy New Year 219-” a single-beep alarm went off. “-may the year ahead treat us well. Please proceed to Central Hall. Remember, we are all in this together.”

An injured man and two security personnel in olive green short-sleeved coveralls, look from the end of one of the tunnels above looking down as the body hit the water and the figure disappeared. The lights at the back of them flickered then went off completely for a minute but the men didn’t move as their eyes adjusted and they peered into the deep water, waiting to see a sign of life emerging.

Nothing.

Three others come rushing in then, one in a long white lab coat and two others, dressed in charcoal grey coveralls.

The generator’s humming came on and so did the power with it but still, no body surfaced.

“Sharp,” one of the tall, slim-built men, in thick grey coveralls, slaps his shoulder as he speaks. “It’s a goner, come on, we have some cleaning to do.”

Marcus Sharp, of similar build and height and dressed in the same thick long-sleeved white uniform, still peered out into the darkness, nodding his head silently, blood soaking unto the front of the material of his shoulder. Inside the heavy material, his entire chest and stomach, wet and sticky- soaked in his own blood.

The doctor is accustomed to seeing the red blood stains, so it does not affect him much. Besides, even if he loses a limb, this is what his job entitles him- growing human parts. And he already has a replica of his body in storage.

Not one of them had anticipated the female body would make a run for it but he figured with the new system in place, the memories of her human would be confusing for her to deal with so suddenly. Hmm, he thinks as he peers over the cliff, he should probably play the memories over in the brain for a few weeks before waking her. The scientist ponders on that for a moment before he goes back into his lab.

Five years would go by, and the very same thing happened again.  

With the same female too. Why, the scientist Marcus Sharp frowns deeply as he once again looks over to where she had jumped off.

None of the other replicas had ever done so before and the digital consciousness had been a success in the past year.

Normally their vitals would be checked, and they would answer some questions, asked by the doctors then medication, eat and sleep. Then they sleep, wake up; shower then get dressed and the doctors would help guide them along the way for the next couple of weeks until they can function on their own. It was routine for them after being created.

Simple routine really- so what went wrong this time- again? And why her again? Or what triggered off an escape route from the only safe harbour remaining since the nuclear war? Of course, she wouldn’t know this bit of information yet as they would have explained that to her had she not grabbed a knife and sliced him across his arm. What the f*ck was a scalpel doing there in the first place anyway?

What affected C-3?

Sharp, a man built to not understand emotion, twisted his head to the side as a body floated up a little way down, hours later. Dead- again. He could tell by the way the body was unmoving- face down. Most likely drowned after hitting some rocks and perhaps bleeding out underwater even before she surfaced, just as the last time.

This is peculiar indeed, he thinks, his forehead creasing between the eyebrows in two vertical lines.

Squinting his eyes slightly, his sharpened gaze took in the bruised pale skin of the female clone. Twisting his head, a bit to the side, he wondered what her last memory had been. Was it Marcus? Or was it all built on what she'd just done?

Escape.

A failed attempt but still an escape. Aren’t they built to make precision moves? So, what is this scattered brain very human-like panicked move?

Interesting indeed. Oh well, onto another.