Those Damn Dirty Mutated Clone Slaves!

“Do you think they’ll come back?” Fiona asked. Her voice sounded dry and cracked.

Nate’s eyes scanned the dead, barren land that once held skyscrapers fifty stories high and had busy important people bustling by on the crowded streets coming and going to and from their busy important jobs. Now the land held the destruction of those skyscrapers.

“Most likely, which is why we need to keep moving” Nate answered.

“We should have never come back! I’m tired! I’m tired of moving, I’m tired of running I’m just tired!”

“Well, would you rather die?”

“Why does it matter what I want? It’s not like you listen to me anyways, besides death seem inevitable now”

“Don’t say things like that, it’s when you start believing you have no chance that you really have no chance”

“This isn’t a football championship, where some stupid little piss ass speech about thinking positive will help anyone”

“Well, what do you suggest Fiona?”

“Well…I suggested that we not come back, so obviously whatever I have to say won’t matter”

“Just tell me what you want to do”

“I want to talk about what happened”
“Just like a woman…talk talk talk, as if that will help anything. Talking is no better than football championship speeches!”

“Talking could help. It could help us understand what happened better. And if we understand what happened than maybe we could stop them”

“What is there to understand? Our mutated clone slaves got brains and got pissed off, nothing more, nothing less”

“But there has to be more than that! You know that! You’re a man of science. Don’t tell me it just all of a sudden happened, that one day they were mindless slaves and then woke up one morning and became highly intelligent beings capable of overthrowing their masters and creating a human genocide”

Nate, tired of arguing and seeing that they were following Fiona’s advice of ‘talking’, sat down on a piece of a demolished building (upon closer inspection he would see that this was his old high school ‘Nano and Micro Tech High School’). Fiona, seeing that Nate was not going to get up anytime soon, walked over to another piece of demolished building, brushed it off and sat down gently on it.

After several moments of silence, Nate pulled out a pack of “Marlboro Lights” took out a cigarette, pulled out his favorite lighter (the one with the beautiful, blonde and French Coco Lebon), lit the cigarette and brought it to his lips to inhale.

“Can you taste the cancer in that?” Fiona asked disapprovingly

“Why does it matter, according to you, we’re practically already dead”

“Well still, you’re in the presence of a woman, you shouldn’t be so classless as to smoke”

“I’d hardly call you a woman, and even if I was, I’m going to smoke. Especially since the end is inevitable as you so eloquently said”

“Well…we could still be saved, and wouldn’t it be just horrible to be saved from something like this and then die of lung cancer?”

“Saved by who, or it is whom? You’re a grammar Nazi, I’m sure you’d know.”

“Why are you being so mean?”

“Because…you know we have a fat woman’s chance of getting into a pair of size two jeans of actually being saved or even living. And I have to spend my final moments with you, an uptight grammar Nazi who complains about me smoking, even though I’m pretty much a dying man. It’s enough to make a man want to die”

“If you don’t stop being so rude, I’ll help make you dying a faster process”

“Good”

Nate pulled out another cigarette, ignoring Fiona’s loud sniff of disapproval. Running his hand through his greasy, unwashed dark brown hair, he put the cigarette to his mouth and lit up.

“If you don’t stop asking me questions and driving me crazy, I’ll smoke the whole damned pack and this is my last, I need to preserve them and make them last a while”

“You act as if it’s food, instead of a cancer causing stimulant.”

“Food for the soul”

The two sat for a while, not really talking, Nate smoking and trying to make the cigarette last as long as humanly possible, Fiona sighing loudly every time Nate inhaled, chewing on a hang nail and pretending to have coughing spasms every time he exhaled.

“You’re right, for once.” Nate said looking Fiona in the eyes “The “accident” with the mutant clones was foreseeable, it could have been prevented”

“How?”

“This “accident” was three thousand years in the making, what do you remember about the significance of the year 2007? I know you’re a history buff, so you should know this”

“That was the year we bombed Iraq and its neighboring countries with nuclear and atomic bombs”

“And…”

“And then...twenty-five years later the first military mutants were discovered. Apparently whatever survivors of the attacks were mutated by the nuclear in the bombs”

“Exactly”

“I don’t see how that explains anything. I could have told you about the origins of the mutated clones”

“But then we started cloning them, do you know why we started cloning them?”

“I’m a history geek, not a science nerd, you tell me”

“They couldn’t reproduce with one another, meaning that the mutants would eventually die out and we couldn’t have that since we were starting to use them as military slaves. Then they became slaves to the general public. And of course people started mistreating them, because while we are humans we have no humanity”

“But they never displayed higher intelligence; they were big, strong and stupid. Perfect for the military and other jobs that need people who can follow commands and are strong.”

“That doesn’t make our mistreatment of them right”

“But they didn’t know they were being mistreated”

“Fiona look around! Of course they knew, they destroyed us, they didn’t do that for fun. They did it for revenge”

“But they were stupid! How could they have done this?!”

“At first they were stupid, but then, after each new cloning, the DNA evolved, the mutant became smarter and smarter, and they were no longer ignorant to the injustice and cruelty that we put them through”

“Ignorance is bliss” Fiona whispered finally understanding what happened.

“Bliss for us anyway” Nate said, nodding his head.

“So the mutants evolved and started developing a higher intelligence. How come we never noticed?”

“It was a gradual process, happening over many generations”

“Wasn’t the Government regulating this? Weren’t they supposed to watch for signs of higher intelligence or defiance? Didn’t the president assure us after they started using the mutant for military work that they’d be monitoring them? What happened to that?”

“What the Government says and what it does are two completely different things, they just wanted fast, free labor that would help them build their Empire. You know, Europe used to be a separate continent from us, made us of many different countries, same with Asia. People used to speak many different languages all over the world. Now it’s just one language and one country, The Empirical Nation of America.”

“I’m not quite getting your point”

“My point is the America used to be a democracy, now the democracy is dead. There are no elections. The Emperor chooses his successor and he chooses the congress and Senate, who are merely his lackeys.”

“What are you saying; you keep jumping from one topic to another. First you try to explain the mutants, now you’re discussing politics”

“The mutant and politics go hand in hand. Before the mutants we were free, we had religion and freedom and speech and spoke differently and could express our ideas openly. After we found the mutants and realized their potential, we became power-hungry. The mutants already destroyed us in the symbolic sense. Now…they’re just destroying us in the literal sense.”

“Are you suggesting that we somehow deserved this?”

“No…what I’m saying is that we’ve been slowly planning our own genocide for thousands of years.”

Fiona’s hazel eyes looked upward, almost directly at the sun as she processed what Nate has just said.

“Pride cometh before a fall” Fiona said, still looking upward. “I read that in an old Bible once. I don’t know where I found it, maybe in the attic. I remember showing the Bible to my mother and her becoming hysterical, screaming about being executed. Later that night, she burned the bible to ashes and told me to never speak of it again. I was only nine, I didn’t know anything about religion…I still don’t. I just know what I’ve heard from other people and who knows if it’s true. Religion sounds like a beautiful concept though. Do you think they would have really killed us if they knew we had the Bible?”

“Most likely” Nate said after a long pause “Religion is considered dangerous, that’s why it was outlawed nine hundred years ago by the Empire. Religion gives you ideas. Ideas are bad. You could have started a movement against the Empire.”

“Instead our mutant clones slaves created a mass genocide against the Empire”

Nate almost felt like laughing, it was too outlandish a notion, but as he looked around at the demolished city that used to be home his laugh got caught in his throat and he felt like he was choking. He was at the almost literal point of not breathing.

“Am I really annoying?” Fiona asked abruptly, bringing Nate back from his thoughts.

“No, not really, sometimes you are but sometimes I’m a dick. It all evens out in the end”

“You are a jerk sometimes” Fiona said, her light brown hair swishing back and forth as she nodded her agreement. Nate pulled out another cigarette and started smoking, keeping a firm eye on his Coco Lebon lighter.

“I absolutely can not stand the smell of that. It’s like the smell of the torment and Hell” Fiona complained

“Isn’t it funny how we have lost Religion and everything good associated with it, like Heaven, but Hell is still part of our everyday vocabulary?”

“Do you think there is a Heaven?”

“I have no idea. Maybe. It’d be nice.”

“If there is, do you think I’ll go to Heaven?”

“Of course, you’re Fiona; you’re the lost Saint of our times”

“I think you’ll go to Heaven too”

“Me? Even though I drink, and smoke and sleep around?!”

“Yes. There is more to you than being a complete and utter slime ball”

“No there isn’t”

“Yes there is”

“Why do you think this?”

“You saved me.”

“That wasn’t planned”

“It doesn’t matter, you still saved me”

“I was trying to steal your car to get the hell out of here; you just got in the way”

“Well…still. You would have left me by now if you weren’t a good person”

“The only reason I suggested we come back here is so that you would say no and we could go our separate ways. I was trying to ditch you.”

“You said that you wanted to come back to help other survivors”

“I lied”

“I don’t believe you. I believe that you are a good man inside”

“Well how about this? I knew about the Mutated Clones evolving intelligence, I worked with the Government agency that handled them. And the only reason that I didn’t tell the general public was because they were paying too good to keep quiet about it.”

“Everyone makes mistakes. You somewhat made up for yours by saving me”

“’Saving’ one person doesn’t make up for a whole world of people”

“But I’m a near Saint, as you so said. So my one life is equal to about a million normal lives”

“You really want to see me as some sort of hero, huh? Well I’m not”

“Yes you are”

“What does it matter anyway? As far as I’m concerned, we’re both screwed.”

“What happened to your optimism?”

“It was a façade; I was just trying to comfort you.”

“I don’t need comforting”

“All women need comforting”

“You aren’t nearly as suave as you think you are”

“And you aren’t half as feisty as you think you are”

“That isn’t very comforting”

“You don’t need comforting”

Nate pulled out another cigarette and starting smoking.

“I’ll be glad when they’re all gone” Fiona said

“I’m saving one for you, so me and you can have a final smoke together”

“Don’t bother; I think smoking is completely classless”

“You like to change your mind a lot huh? One second I’m your savior and the next I’m a classless bum”

“I never said you were my savior, I merely said that I think you are a good, kind person deep down. Way deep down. And stop doing that”

“Doing what?”

“Twisting my words around to make me sound like some kind of naïve country farm girl.”

“I find it amusing when you get frustrated. And you get frustrated so easily”

“Yes…well…you smell horrible, like rotting goat feet.”

“So do you”

“No”

“Yes”

“No I do NOT”

“When is the last time you bathed?”

“I have never, nor will I ever smell bad. It’s impossible for me to smell bad”

“Oh it’s possible alright. You have defied the odds.”

“Even when I sweat I smell good. I get compliments on how nice I smell all the time.”

“Ohhhh…I bet.”

“What are we, teenagers?! We are two, mature adults, we should not be arguing over who smell the worse”

“Hey…it passes the time”

“So does knitting, but I don’t think you would ever do that to pass the time”

“Well knitting sounds more fun than having a conversation with you”

“Stop antagonizing me!”

“Antagonizing, huh? Now that is an SAT word to the max, who’s the teenager now, huh?”

“Still you and you’re oh so intelligent ‘huhs’”

“Oh now that was clever. So much more clever than I could ever hope to be”

“Sarcasm will get you no where in life. It just displays how self conscious you are about yourself”

“I was being completely serious.”

“Uh-huh”

“I was!”

“You know Fiona; in all honesty, I think you’re a great. Smart and not attractive in any way is the way to go after a near genocide of the human race”

“Are you implying that I am ugly?!”

“No…I’m telling you that you’re ugly.”

“Do you really think so?”

“No”

“Really?”

“No”

“So do you think I’m ugly or not?”

“I think you’re great!”

Their conversation was cut short by the familiar whirring of a helicopter. They both looked at each other; both of them had momentarily forgotten that they were supposed to be running to escape the mutant clones that pretty much killed off their entire race. They both knew that it was the mutant clones coming back to the area in search of survivors.

“Maybe it’s help.” Fiona said trying to convince herself as well as Nate, but knowing otherwise.

“Most likely…I mean we can’t be the only survivors right?” Nate knew this was the time to comfort her.

“Hand me that cigarette, I want to celebrate our being rescued”

“I thought they were classless”

“Screw class, this is the time for a celebration”

Nate handed her the cigarette and took one for himself. He lit both cigarettes with Coco Lebon, his hands shaking. And so they sat, both pretending to celebrate and both knowing this was their good bye. Or maybe not. Maybe they were really being saved.

“I think you’re great too, Nate” Fiona said. Nate nodded, understanding that this was their final good bye or perhaps their new beginning.