The Turn
1805 Words
The clones moved as one.
Their eyes, blank a moment ago, now burned with cold purpose. They turned toward James, toward Evelyn, toward David and Harper. Dozens of them. Hundreds.
"Run," David said.
They ran.
The clones surged forward, silent, relentless. No shouts. No battle cries. Just the sound of bare feet on concrete.
James grabbed Evelyn's hand and pulled her toward the exit. Harper was ahead, Steven beside her. David brought up the rear, firing over his shoulder.
A clone lunged at James. He sidestepped, shoved it into another. They fell in a tangle of limbs.
The exit. The door.
Steven slammed the code into the keypad. The lock clicked.
They burst into the Nevada desert.
---
The van was fifty yards away.
Too far.
Clones poured out of the facility behind them, silhouetted against the artificial light.
"Keep moving!" David shouted.
James ran. His lungs burned. His legs screamed.
The van. David slid behind the wheel. Harper yanked open the side door.
James pushed Evelyn inside, then dove after her.
The engine roared.
Clones slammed against the van as David accelerated. One clung to the side mirror. Another grabbed the door handle.
David swerved. The clone on the mirror flew off. The one on the handle held on.
Harper opened her window and fired. The clone dropped.
The van fishtailed onto the highway.
Behind them, the facility grew smaller. The clones stood in a line, watching, not pursuing.
"Why aren't they following?" Evelyn asked.
"Because they don't need to," James said. "Zero has what she wants."
---
They drove until dawn.
No one spoke. No one slept.
James stared out the window at the empty desert. The sun rose red and angry.
"Where do we go?" Steven asked.
"Away. Somewhere she can't find us."
"There's no such place."
"Then we find a place she won't expect."
---
The safe house was an abandoned ranger station in the mountains of Utah.
No power. No water. But walls thick enough to stop bullets.
They gathered in the main room, exhausted and defeated.
"We lost," Harper said.
"We're still alive," David replied.
"Alive and running. That's not winning."
James stood up. "Zero wanted us to find that facility. She wanted us to activate the clones. It was all a trap."
"We know that now."
"Then we stop reacting and start planning."
He walked to a map on the wall—yellowed, outdated, but still useful.
"Zero's main facility is in Colorado. The backup is in Nevada. She has resources spread across the country. But she can't be everywhere at once."
"We can't be everywhere either," Evelyn said.
"We don't need to be. We need to hit her where it hurts."
"Where's that?"
"The children. The clones she's keeping in storage. They're her future army. Without them, she has nothing."
"Destroying the pods would kill the clones inside."
"Not destroy. Free."
---
The plan took shape over the next twenty-four hours.
Steven would hack into Zero's communication network, find the location of every storage facility. David would lead a team to disable the security systems. Harper would administer the antidote to the clones, breaking Zero's programming.
And James would confront Zero herself.
"That's suicide," Evelyn said.
"Someone has to distract her."
"Let David do it. Or Harper."
"Zero wants me. She's obsessed with me. If I show up alone, she'll focus everything on me. That gives you time to free the clones."
Evelyn grabbed his arm. "I'm not losing you again."
"You never lost me."
"I almost did. Twice."
James touched her face. "I'll come back. I always do."
---
The raid on the Nevada facility was a feint.
David and Harper approached from the east, making noise, drawing guards. Steven disabled cameras and motion sensors.
James slipped in from the west, alone.
The facility was quieter than before. Most of the clones had been moved—to where, Steven couldn't determine.
But Zero was still there.
He found her in the control room, watching monitors.
"James. I knew you'd come."
"You knew I'd come alone."
"I knew you'd come to die."
Zero turned. Her face was calm, almost peaceful.
"You've caused me a great deal of trouble."
"You've caused the world a great deal of trouble."
"The world was already in trouble. I'm just cleaning up."
Zero pressed a button. Monitors showed David and Harper, pinned down by guards.
"Your friends are about to die."
"No. They're about to win."
On the monitors, David threw a smoke grenade. Guards fired blindly. Harper slipped past them, toward the storage pods.
Zero's expression flickered.
"The antidote won't work on my clones. I've immunized them."
"We'll see."
---
Harper reached the storage pods.
Hundreds of them. Rows and rows.
She injected the first clone with the antidote.
The clone's eyes opened. Clear. Aware.
"Where am I?"
"You're safe. Help me free the others."
The clone nodded.
Together, they moved from pod to pod, injecting, awakening.
Zero watched on the monitors, her face tight.
"You're making a mistake."
"I'm correcting yours."
James stepped closer.
"Give up, Zero. Your army is waking up. Your guards are falling. It's over."
"It's never over."
Zero reached under the console and pressed a hidden button.
The floor began to shake.
"What did you do?"
"Self-destruct. The facility will collapse in ten minutes. Everyone inside will die."
"Your clones are inside."
"They're expendable."
Zero walked toward a hidden door.
"You're not."
James lunged.
He tackled her before she could escape.
They struggled. Zero was strong, trained, desperate.
She pulled a knife.
James grabbed her wrist.
The knife hovered between them.
"Kill me," Zero hissed, "and you'll never find the original."
"The original what?"
"The original Evelyn. The real one. She's still alive. Hidden. Waiting."
James's grip faltered.
Zero twisted free and ran.
---
The facility shook.
Alarms blared. Ceilings cracked.
"James!" David's voice through the earpiece. "We need to go!"
"The clones—"
"They're out. All of them. Let's move!"
James ran.
Through the control room, past the monitors, through the corridor.
The exit. The desert.
Behind him, the facility collapsed.
---
They regrouped at the ranger station.
The clones—hundreds of them—huddled together, confused and frightened.
Harper moved among them, calming them, explaining.
"Who are we?" one of them asked.
"You're survivors," James said. "You're free."
"Free to do what?"
"Free to choose. Free to live. Free to be whoever you want to be."
The clone looked at her hands. At the other clones. At the sky.
"I want to go home."
"Where's home?"
"I don't know. But I'll find it."
James nodded. "Yes. You will."
---
That night, James sat alone on the ranger station's roof.
The stars were bright. The air was cold.
Evelyn climbed up beside him.
"You did it."
"We did it."
"Zero is still out there."
"I know."
"And the original Evelyn."
"I know."
James looked at her.
"Do you want to find her?"
Evelyn was quiet for a long moment.
"I don't know. She's not me. I'm not her. We're different people now."
"Different how?"
"She lived a life. Made choices. Loved people. I was created. Programmed. I'm learning to be human."
"You're more human than Zero will ever be."
Evelyn leaned against him.
"Thank you, James. For not giving up on me."
"Thank you for not giving up on yourself."
---
The next morning, Steven had news.
"I traced Zero's communication signal. She's in Chicago. At the original Mercy Hospital facility."
"She's going back to where it all started."
"Probably to destroy evidence. Or to retrieve something."
"Or to hide."
James stood up. "Then we go to Chicago."
---
They drove for two days.
The convoy was large now—hundreds of clones, dozens of vehicles. They moved at night, stayed off main roads, avoided attention.
Chicago looked the same as James remembered. Skyscrapers. Traffic. Crowds.
But Mercy Hospital was different.
Abandoned. Fenced off. Guarded.
Zero's people.
"How do we get in?" David asked.
"The same way we always do. Through the basement."
---
The service entrance was still there. The same door Mary Taylor had used.
But the locks were different. Newer. Stronger.
Steven worked for twenty minutes before the door clicked open.
Inside, the corridor was dark. Silent.
"Stay close," James whispered.
They moved through the basement, past the records room, past the procedure rooms, toward Ellsworth's old office.
The door was open.
Inside, Zero sat at the desk, waiting.
"James. Welcome home."
"Where's the original Evelyn?"
"Safe. For now."
"Let her go."
"Can't. She's the key to everything."
"The key to what?"
"The future."
Zero stood up. She walked to a hidden door in the wall and opened it.
Behind the door, a staircase. Descending.
"Follow me. Or don't. Either way, you'll never see her again."
Zero disappeared into the darkness.
James followed.
---
The staircase went down farther than he expected.
Level three. Level four. Level five.
Level five was different. Older. Built before the hospital existed.
A tunnel. Lit by torches.
"The original Mercy Hospital," Zero said. "Built in 1870. Abandoned for decades. My great-grandfather was a doctor here."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything. This is where the research began. Where the first memory experiments were conducted. Where my family's legacy was forged."
Zero stopped in front of a steel door.
"The original Evelyn is behind this door. Help me open it, and I'll let her go."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't. But you have no choice."
James looked at the door. At the keypad beside it.
"What's the code?"
"Your daughter's birthday. The real one. Emma's."
James typed the numbers.
The door opened.
---
Inside, a room. Sterile. White.
A bed. Machines. Tubes.
And on the bed, a woman.
Old. Wrinkled. Gray hair.
The original Evelyn.
"She's been here for forty years," Zero said. "In a coma. My father put her here after she tried to expose the protocol."
"She's alive?"
"Barely. Her body is failing. But her mind is intact. She remembers everything."
James walked to the bed. The woman's eyes were closed.
"Wake her up."
"I can't. The coma is medically induced. Only my father knew the antidote."
"Then she's useless to you."
"Not useless. She's a symbol. A reminder of what happens to those who oppose us."
Zero pulled a syringe from her pocket.
"I'm going to end her suffering. And then I'm going to end yours."
She raised the syringe.
James grabbed her wrist.
"You won't."
"Watch me."
They struggled.
The syringe fell.
It shattered on the floor.
Zero screamed with rage.
She punched James. Kicked him. Fought like a wild animal.
But James was stronger.
He pinned her against the wall.
"It's over."
"It's never over."
Zero's eyes glazed over. Her body went limp.
Poison. She had a capsule in her tooth.
James let her fall.
- Writer
