Drone Wars: Chapter 2

by Drew Glitch –

“Yes, there’s been a containment breach.” A familiar voice resonated down the tunnel towards Molly and me.

“Shit, my mom’s here” I hissed, pulling Molly to the side.

“Jenna look!” Molly pointed to the broken tube that led us down here to begin with. Green liquid flooded the ground around it and keeled over on the floor was one of the me’s. Yup, there are multiple me’s… still getting used to that one. “We have to help her.”

“Her?” I scoffed.

“Yes, Jenna they may be clones but they are still people” Molly said.

“Maybe…” I sighed.

My mother finally emerged from the entrance into the lab. Her phone was pressed against her ear and she moved towards the computer with a purpose. “4456 broke the glass on her containment. Yes, it looks like she has expired, I’ll need a clean-up crew tomorrow. We have bigger problems, 3878 made her way to the basement. I understand, I will find her and exterminate her. Yes, sir, I know you warned me about keeping one for myself, but- yes sir. I’ll take care of it.” My mother hung up the phone and placed it on the desk next to her.

“Jenna… Jenna we have to get out of here.” Molly whispered.

“She- she called me 3878.” I felt tears welling up in my eyes. My mother, the woman who raised me and who I thought loved me unconditionally, said she would exterminate me.

“Jenna, I’m sorry, but we really don’t have time to-”

“Jenna!” Called my mother, cutting Molly off. I clung to the concrete wall behind me, scanning the large space for hiding places. I noticed a small set of stairs leading off the metal platform and onto the main floor with all the tubes.

“If we can get to those stairs, we can hide behind the tubes.” I said, gripping Molly’s forearm to grab her attention.

“Great, so we’re running.” She huffed pulling off her heels and clutching them in her right hand, “Allons y” she smirked. With that we bolted for the stairs, ducking to try and remain as unseen as possible. I could see my “mother” scanning the room, but she was looking the wrong way.

“Jenna, listen sweetie, I can explain everything.” She yelled out over the lab as we ducked behind a tube. “I know it looks bad, but if you’d just trust me-”

“How am I supposed to trust you?” I called out. She whipped her head around trying to discern the origin of the shout, but she couldn’t see. She began to walk down the very same stairs that led us to where we were and approach us.

“What are you doing?” Molly hissed.

“I have an idea, the tubes, they’re reflective.” I started.

“Yeah, they’re made of glass.” Molly raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah! So you know in movies when the protagonist gets chased into the funhouse and the use the mirrors to confuse the villain?”

“Yeah, but-” she started, but I had already run off, “Jenna!” I ran behind a group of tubes and watched as my reflection ran through all of them.

“Mom!” I yelled. Through the glass I could see her spin around towards me. When she saw my reflection, she smiled.

“Oh, Jenna, there you are. Listen sweetie, you have to understand. I did all of this for us.” She started towards me.

“Oh, give me a break.” I huffed. My mother approached slowly, but she approached the wrong reflection. She smiled as she got closer and closer, but when she rounded the corner, I wasn’t there.

“Oh, you clever girl.” She sighed, “Unfortunately, I’m smarter.” a wicked grin crossed her face as she raised a pistol and started firing at all my reflections. I ducked as a bullet hit the tube in front of me, shattering it. A limp body fell on top of me and pinned me down. I squeezed my way out from under and looked back. The bottom of the tube read “8769” and laying behind me, was yet another me. I scrambled towards the nearest tube and rested my back against it. My mother made her way around the lab, glass crunching under heels as she walked. The crunching got closer and closer as she walked.

“Such a waste of R&D. No matter, they are replaceable. As are you.” She whipped around the corner to where I was sitting. With a shriek, I scrambled to my feet and made a break for it. Bang. Another gunshot resounded throughout the lab, followed by a volley. Bullets whizzed by me, just barely missing the most vital parts of my body. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Molly dash towards the console. You go, Molly I thought I’ll keep her occupied.

I weaved between tubes and the sound of shattering glass followed me wherever I went.

“You stupid girl! You’re going to get me fired!” The gun-toting maniac formerly known as “Mom” shouted from behind me.

Finally, I made my way behind a tube and Dr. Vasquez, it seems inappropriate to continue calling her mom at this point, went in the other direction. Gasping for air after the marathon I felt like I had just run, I turned to look at the tube I rested against. This one, however, was empty and labeled on the base was “3878”.

“Oh my god,” I threw my hands over my mouth to quiet my outburst, “It’s my tube. I- I.”

Chills ran up my spine as the warm barrel of my mother’s pistol stabbed into my back. “You were never born, never raised. You came out of a tube just like all the rest of them. You aren’t special, you just got lucky.”

“Then shoot me. Just kill me, what’s the point.” I sighed, accepting my fate.

Just then, an automated voice resounded, “Security systems activated.”

“What?” My mother looked up towards the ceiling.

The automated voice continued, “Target acquired.” With that, red lasers started firing towards me. I bolted out of the way, but the laser didn’t strike me. As my mother tried to dodge the bolt, it hit her directly in the leg. She screamed out in pain and I looked up at Molly, who was giving me a big thumbs up. I ran towards her, but my mother grabbed my ankle and tripped me.

“You’re not going anywhere, 3878!” she wailed.

“Her name is Jenna!” screamed Molly, holding my mother’s pistol. With a final BANG! a shot fired directly into her forehead. Molly dropped the gun and helped me up. “It’s ok, we’ll be-” I cut off with a kiss. Her hand nestled into my hair on the back of my head and held me close. She pulled away and met my gaze, we stood in silence for a moment. A beautiful moment. “I’ve been waiting for you to do that.” She smiled grabbing my hand, “Now let’s get out of here.”

“What about my mom?” I stopped suddenly. Even after she tried to kill me, I still was kinda sad about her, you know, dying.

“Oh, yeah don’t worry. She’s a robot.” Molly smirked casually.

“What?” I gasped.

“Oh yeah. Your real mother is in Chicago, like she was supposed to be. That robot was sent here by her to deal with the containment breach. It’s all there on the computers.” Molly led me towards the main console. “There’s something else you should probably see too.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you being a clone comes with some, uh, special powers…” Molly turned on the console. “Apparently, the whole point of this project was to create a-”

“Police Force?” I interjected in awe.

“Yeah, sure, I was gonna say that, but you can take my moment its fine.” Molly sighed.

“So, what does this mean?” I stepped back.

“It means we’ve got some bad guys to find.” Molly smirked, taking my hand, “Allons y!”

Clone Wars first appeared in Owl Light News on August 10, 2018.

Chapter 1 can be found at www.owllightnews.com/clone-wars-chapter-1/