Chapter Text
A smartphone sounds loudly with a soft ding in the middle of a table, an alert calling out to its owner. A few seconds later, a second ding is heard, and immediately after, a third one. A young female with long brunette hair, wearing only a pair of short shorts and a tank top, runs across the room and reaches over to take the small phone, glancing at the name that pops up on her screen. With a huge grin on her face, she walked back to her previous place, responded to the message, and set it down next to the cup on the table to continue making her morning coffee. The phone beeps again. She picks up her phone and smiles as she reads the next message. Giggling to herself as she opens a link to a photo and grazes her finger over it, the photo that loads shows two people. In the photo is a dark-haired male with thick curly hair and pale skin, with his lips pressing a kiss to the cheek of a female, the same one holding the phone.
She soon responds with lots of ‘xoxoxo’ thinking for a long moment as she looks at the photo and then quickly rushes upstairs to pack her travel bag. Her husband soon joins her in the bedroom. Looking at her as she grabs the essentials.
“You've chosen him, haven't you?” He says with a bitter tone.
The woman stops what she is doing and pauses for a second, looking at him.
“Of course I have. We were a one-night stand, a short fling, and I just so happened to get pregnant. Then your parents made us marry, but he is the one… he's always been the one. You know this. And the fact he still wants me after what I did…”
The other man walks across the room, grabbing her arm tightly.
“Please don't leave me for that man. What about our child? We can make this work. Do it for her for our child.”
The woman flings her arm from his grasp, angrily glaring at him.
“It’s not her fault. So don't you dare try to use her against me. She will understand one day. But we are through. We don't even sleep in the same bed together anymore. I am not in love with you”.
“But- I married you!”
“For all the wrong reasons. You don't love me, I’m just some eye candy for your friends at the weekend. We do not even know each other. We have nothing in common but our child. I messed up, and I faced the consequences of my actions. But I have always loved him. And now it’s time I return. He has suffered enough. I need to be with him now!”
“But-”
“I've made my decision”
“But-”
“No! I’m going to be with him”
Once her short packing is completed, she rushes downstairs, slips on some shoes and steps out of her home. She plonks her bag into the back of her car, then stretches in the morning air and turns to her home as she hears someone's voice.
'Bye, Mommy!' A very young child waves their hand from the open window of their bedroom.
“Bye, honey, I’ll see you soon, I promise,” The woman calls back.
The female smiles at her child, then looks at her husband standing in the doorway. He has tears in his angry eyes. The woman turns away and gets into the car. Driving out into the main road area and answering a call in her earpiece.
“Hey, baby,” She grins. “I packed my bag… I finally did it, I left my husband… I'm coming to you. I'm coming to be with you if you still want me?”
She listens to the other person, who responds with excitement on the other end. She stops the car at a red light that is situated between large, grown hedges. The red light is taking a while, but she won't rush through, because anything could happen. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant truck came through the hedge on her left and smashed into the car, almost crushing the young female inside. The impact forces the overturned vehicle through the other hedge and against a nearby large tree. She is bleeding heavily, blood coming from every orifice as her partially crushed and mangled body weakly passes out. The voice on the other end of her earpiece is panicked. Screaming out her name.
It would be a few hours before she was found.
—
A young male sits up in bed, gasping heavily from the nightmare of his dream of visualising himself drowning in water again. Every night these past few days, he has had the same dream. A dream that felt so real, that his chest was aching painfully as if it was still drowning. The man has no idea where it is from. It feels like a memory, but the man doesn't even remember his life before this place.
Dreams are also not good, or so he was told. You are not meant to dream, so this is a concern for him. He blinked his eyes after rubbing them with his fisted hands. Looking around his room, his attention is caught by the white wall slowly brightening up and the words flowing across a screen, where he is greeted by those electronic words calling around the room.
“Good morning, Mike Echo 2”.
Then a collection of numbers appears below it. Calculating how many days it has been since he arrived here. Mike is officially known here as Mike Echo 2. Mike is his name. Echo is how long he has been here, which is five years in total. And the two… well, he isn't sure about that. Whatever it means, it’s all code for how he was found five years ago. He doesn't remember the end of the world, or the radiation and contamination outside. And he can barely remember who he was. But he was found, saved, put into recovery, and is now living well in this place that protects them from the dangerous outside.
Mike sighs as the screen changes again, flashing a new statement of visiting the head Doctor that day. His sleep chart recording from the metal wristband he wears was showing as poor, triggering an automatic appointment with Dr Henry Creel, the man in charge of everyone's recovery.
The same morning alarm that blares every day goes off, and Mike climbs out of bed and visits his small bathroom for a quick shower and to sort his business. With a towel wrapped around his hips, he walks to a wall. Placing his hand against a square-like screen, which highlights his fingerprints. A small door suddenly pops open. As Mike presses another button, a small bar then slides out of the open gap, hanging from it are copies of the same outfit, seven in fact, one for each day of the week. They were all identical White tracksuits with a thick blue line around the shoulders, arms, and down the legs. Matching trainers were also below, with underwear and so on.
Mike takes the one outfit with the current letter of the day of the week on its wrist. W is for Wednesday. He does not take long to get dressed, replacing the hanger with his nightwear and towel. Once it is placed on the bar, it suddenly pulls back in, and the small door closes. The male checks himself in the mirror, glancing at his thin figure. His hair is a little messy. His dark, curly locks are getting a little long and need a trim. His skin was a little pale, making his freckles stand out more, but it was probably because he hadn't slept properly. This is evident in his tired brown eyes. As he steps from his room, he waves to a fellow person in the hallway who greets him. As neighbouring doors open, a few other males in matching white tracksuits with blue stripes step out.
An eight am sign appears on the screens lining the corridors around them. It’s breakfast time. Mike walks straight down the corridor, highlighted by a thin blue light, towards the double-door exit from the place where he stays. Coming through it, he is then faced with a mass of people also leaving their sleeping quarters. Making his way across the room, he goes and stands in the large queue waiting for his opportunity to receive his morning breakfast. He is one of many people saved here, and everyone here is named and coded. He looks around at them all. Male and Female. Some have another colour on their white tracksuits. There are people in yellow, green, red, orange and purple. As he reaches the breakfast counter, he groans at the only option given.
“Oh come on, Joyce, no bacon?!”
“You're not allowed it anymore!” the lunch lady huffs, turning a screen toward him with his details: “You're eating too much and making that body of yours a hazard!”
Mike rolls his eyes at her “Who cares, it's my body! I'm all skin and bones, there is barely any meat on me!” he slaps his hands against his body to show how thin he was.
“I don't make the rules, sunshine!” The woman Joyce bites back. “Take it or leave it, but it’s that or nothing”.She plonks some oatmeal in a round bowl and places it on the tray in his hands “Enjoy”
Mike walks over to a table, grumbling, dropping the tray loudly and sitting down in an angry huff. Beside him is another male. A sweet man named Dustin, with deep ringlets in his blondish-brown hair, known as Dustin Delta 1. He wears a white tracksuit with soft green stripes.
“Hey Mike”. He says. “You okay?”
“No, they won't let me have bacon, just this slop!” He groans, taking one scoop of oatmeal and letting it drip back into the bowl. ‘Ugh, this is disgusting!” He mumbles. “Why are they so cruel with our meals!”
“You seem grumpy. Did you not sleep again?”
Mike shakes his head. “No, I have an appointment with Dr Creel today”. He pushes the oat porridge away and stuffs his head in his arms. Letting out an annoyed and frustrated groan. Dustin seems to be watching him for a long moment, then continues to eat his own breakfast, which looks much better than Mike’s. He has lots of fruit and a yoghurt.
“Well, I am ready for this beautiful day ahead. I'm in good spirits. I think the lotto might be mine this weekend. I can feel it”.
Mike turns his head to look at his friend. “You say that every time.”
“And one day I will be right!” Dustin announces, holding a spoon up in the air to emphasise his point. Only to bring it back and continue to eat the yoghurt provided.
Mike looks up as he spots another person in the breakfast queue—a female winks at him. She has brunette hair that falls just past her shoulders and a very beautiful frame that Mike wouldn't admit to, but finds very attractive. Mike then watches her sweet-talk the breakfast lady, Joyce, who absolutely adores her. Claiming she is the sweetest as she pinches her cheek. She gets given extra bacon. And whatever else she requests. Then she makes her way over, sits next to Mike and puts the bacon on his tray.
“I'm only doing this today!” She whispers.
Mike grins at her, leaning on his fisted hand. “Good morning, El, sleep well?”
“Always”, she grins back, “I didn't want to wake up”
El wears a white tracksuit with bright purple lines across her shoulders, arms and legs, a colour that suits her well. El is also known as El Delta 1. She and Dustin were both found around the same time. Mike remembers when they arrived. And he actually helped both of them to recover the best he could, considering he had only been here a year himself at the time. He knew the struggle, as every survivor began their first days almost like a confused child. They said it was something to do with the contamination outside. But because Mike had been their support, they were all practically best friends.
Mike was so thankful to El for giving him bacon that, when he took a bite of one of the pieces, he gave her a side hug in thanks, but a gentleman guard in full black, wearing a face mask and carrying a gun in his arms, stepped over.
“No hugging! Your proximity is too close. Delta! Echo!”
Mike rolls his eyes. “Delta, Echo!” he mumbles under his breath. He hates all these rules. Is it really that bad to hug your friend?
All the screens on the walls around them suddenly change from the current time with its simple morning announcement to that of a giant face, a live recording of a young man who once graced the corridors in this place, his name is Steve Bravo 1. He is smiling happily
“Hey, guys, I'm just so happy I won the lottery last night! It was the best day of my life, and today I will go to that perfect island! I hope to see you all there one day! I know many of you will miss me, but I promise we shall see each other again. I will miss you all so much-”.
As the live video continues, Mike sighs, thinking about the Island. Everyone knows about it. Everyone hopes to go to this magical and amazing place. A place where so few have actually gone. But it’s apparently the perfect paradise—a place with fresh, clean air and no contamination. You own your own home, and all the things you could dream of will be there. Mike’s dream is to eat food that tastes better than it does here, yet very few actually get to go there. Now and again, there is a lottery among the people, and the winner is chosen to leave for the Island.
But in some other circumstances, like the survivors who are found to have arrived pregnant, they also get to leave when the baby is due to be born. But it is a deep desire among many living in this place to go there. People applaud the male on-screen as he finishes his speech and disappears, and Mike jumps at a woman who sits down angrily in front of him, slamming her hand against the table. She also has a white tracksuit with a red line that seems to contrast with her soft ginger hair.
“That lottery is fixed. He has been here for two years! I have been here for seven years, seven!” She shrieks.
“Good morning, Max”. Mike responds. “Sleep well?”
“Why can't I go!” She whines instead. “I hate this place!”
“Aw, but we need you!” El laughs at her. “Who else will laugh with me when Mike trips over his own feet?”
Mike turns to her and glares.
“That was one time”
“I’ll laugh with you”, Dustin responds.
Mike turned to him, “Hey, just cause you two Wonder Twins arrived at the same time doesn't mean you can bully me!” He looked at Max, “But El is right, we need you, Max, life would suck if you weren’t here”
“Need me!” Max scoffs, “I've done my time here! It's like a prison sentence! Eat this, do this, ugh. I hate it. Everyone who arrived with me has gone to the island, but I haven't. I am still stuck here like a criminal!”
Mike pats her hand against the table in sympathy, but a black-clothed man steps by again, “No touching Echo! Golf!”
Max turns and stands up in anger, but Mike and El reach over to pull her back down. She sits and glares at the man who warns the three for touching. “No touching Echo! Golf! Delta!”
Max glares at the black-dressed male as he walks away. She then turns back, eating her fruit from a tray. “I hate melons!” She whispers as she eats another piece. Max, known here as Max Golf 1, is never allowed to eat what she wants, either. Her diet is so strict that she finds herself very thin. But she also had been here for much longer than anyone else. She says she has no idea why, but she hates it. Mike is kind enough to slip her a few pieces of bacon from his plate. Which she gladly accepts.
After breakfast, a new alert on the screen says it is time for work. The four then move to their workplace rooms. This job consists of them taking a needle syringe and sucking up a red liquid from one container, then injecting it into small clear silicone tubes with clear liquid that travels along their tables and through the wall, and down back underground. They have no idea where it comes from and where it goes. But a job is a job here. The better they do, the more credits they get for receiving room gift tokens. Like a small shelf decoration or a toy, though, Max says that since you are only allowed five items total, you get the same items each time.
Max is so bored with this job now that she is not working as hard as she used to. “I want to know what I’m injecting. Why is it that for seven years this is all I have done!” She sniffs it, then injects the tube, forcing the liquid in quicker than her workmates.
“Maybe it feeds the animals we eat”, El suggests. “They were infected, too, right?”
“Most likely”, Dustin responds, injecting another tube.
A bell rings out, and a guarded male in black takes a printed note from a wall machine, “Mike Echo 2?”
“That's me?”
“You're late for your check-up appointment!”
Mike jumps up in surprise, “Oh yeah, coming!”
“Are you alright?” El asks with concern.
“I didn't sleep well again. I keep having that dream about a boat, and me drowning”. Mike replies as he takes off his gloves and goggles.
El looks into his eyes, she knows when Mike lies, today he isn't.
“Mike Echo 2, you're late!”
–
“So you are Mike Echo 2”
“The one and only”
“And you are not sleeping again, right?”
Mike looks at the man before him, Henry Creel. A young blonde-haired, fairly attractive scientist who claimed to have hidden in a bunker with a few others during the contamination radiation fiasco. He was the one who built this facility and saved many people. Mike owes him his life. This man is now the head of the building and sees to it that his survivors are healthy.
Henry watches as Mike gets up and paces the room. “I have that same dream—every night. I am in a boat, and I fall into the water, and I'm drowning. My chest hurts, and my lungs feel heavy and then- I wake up!”
Henry hums, taking note as Mike walks behind his desk. For a moment, he spots El's picture on his computer desk screen. He doesn't get a chance to read it before Henry clicks it off with his finger flick. Bringing Mike’s file up instead. Mike sits down again. “What does it mean? You said that dreams are dangerous?”
“It is very dangerous, I need to do some tests, please follow me”.
He takes Mike into a side room that holds a long reclining medical chair. Mike has been here before, so he sits on it immediately. The Dr takes out a needle. But before he can administer it, he presses a button that straps Mike's ankles and wrists to the seat. Mike swallows.
“This won't hurt… much”. Henry says.
He drops three drops of the liquid near his eye, where tiny metal creatures form as they spew out and climb up his face and into his nose and eye socket. Mike wriggles and cries out, unable to move, “It hurts!” He whines, “Ouch! Ouch!”
“Almost over!”
Once all metallic bugs have gone, Henry smiles, “Okay, they will scan your brain for me, and you will urinate them out in a few hours or so”.
Mike’s legs and arms are then freed, and he stands up, rubbing his irritated eyes. He sighs. “May I go now?”
Henry nods. “Yes, and I hope you don't dream tonight. We shall meet again in, say, three days?”
Mike nods, “Sure”.
Mike rubs his eyes as he goes back to his workroom station. El, Dustin and Max are still injecting the tubes as normal, only now it’s some green liquid. El smiles at Mike as he sits down, but can tell his eyes are weeping from whatever has been done to him. Mike brushes it off as nothing, pulling on his gloves and goggles and continues to work. Looking over, he sees a recent survivor. His name is Jonathan Alpha 1. They are being shown how to do the job, but he is struggling; his hand-eye coordination is so off. Beside him is another new starter. Robin Alpha 1. She, too, is struggling. But some colleagues are showing them patience, as Mike had also done with Dutsin and El.
Max scoffs at them. “Where are they even finding these people! How are people still alive! There is something wrong with this place, I know there is!” She hisses.
“Max, shut up whining,” El complains. “You always make our work lives so dull! Why can’t you sing or something like you used to?”
“Me! Sing! while I am suffering in this horror of a place. I want to go to the Island today!”
Suddenly, one of the people within the room drops her tray of liquids. Known as Nancy Alpha 1. She is heavily pregnant and gasping as she sees water pooling around her ankles. “I think it’s time!” She says to everyone who is looking at her with a big grin. “My baby is coming!” People start to cheer for her. She will automatically go to the island once the baby is born. A benefit of having an infant is being able to join the newborn on the Island.
Max scoffs, “This is not fair!” She whines, flopping her head on the table.
“Calm down!” El says as they watch the female being led from the room. “She deserves it; that pregnancy has been hard on her”
“Look, I have been here seven years! She has been here for nine months. She is a survivor who was pregnant! That baby could be poisonous to everyone! It could infect the whole island! Why is no one listening to me! I know that something is wrong with this place. I just know it!”
Max is so furious today that she is making the other people in the room look at her.
“Oh, give it up, we get another lottery soon, it might be you”. Mike says. “Have hope”
“Hope! It's never me!” Max snaps. “I am going to die in this horrible place”. She stands up, “And I hate it here!” She screams.
A guard shouts at her to sit down and shut up, before she is sent to the reflection room—a room with no lights and no windows. Max obeys as she doesn't want to go there. She had gone more times than she would like. Tucking her head into his arms, she starts screaming in frustration against the material. She wasn't always like this, but today it just seemed she wasn't in the best place mentally. Probably because it was almost like a birthday coming up, only it was a day she despises. In a few weeks, her name will change to Max Hotel 1, and she will have been here for eight years.
Mike then looks at El, remembering what he saw in the doctor's office. “Are you alright?”
El nods with a smile, “Yeah, I’m fine, why?”
“It's just I saw your file on Dr Henry Creel's screen. You sure you're okay?”
El nods, “As far as I know, I barely ever have to see him. My last health check, I was 100% perfectly healthy”. She feels proud of that information.
Mike smiles, pleased to hear it. He fiddles with his key card, which is used to open drawers for the extra injection needles, then jumps up a little dramatically, “Oh no, it’s not working again”. He says.
El rolls her eyes “You are so bad!”
Mike grins at her and walks over to a gentleman guarding the door. “I need to see Lucas, my key card is not working again”.
El and Max suddenly start play-fighting, touching each other across the desk, alerting the guard at the door. Dustin laughed at the two and joined in. And the guard is now torn, he quickly places a special key card in Mike’s hand, “Be back quickly, I need to sort out these three”. Mike takes it from his hand and steps out, smiling at El, thankful for her help. She winks at him while being scolded by the guard.
Making his way along the corridor, Mike uses the Key to step into a zone with unauthorised/staff-only signs. He makes his way past a guard, flashes the key card and asks to be directed to the dingy area at the centre of this building. Where Lucas Sinclair will be working, he is shown in the right direction. Mike takes a few steps down to level three, eventually ending up in a very dark, miserable area full of pipes and metal, and it’s very cold there. Not exactly appealing to the nice panelled and painted walls he usually sees.
He spots Lucas, a handsome man with dark features and strong biceps. Wearing a full black outfit. He wore a pair of magnifying goggles as he read something off a pipe, taking notes on a small notepad. Mike steps over. Leaning closer to see what it is. He then leans closer to his ear.
“Do you have any of that stuff again?” He asks.
Lucas jumps, almost dropping the pipe, which flips and clangs against him. He turns to look over and see Mike, and sighs, a hand to his chest. “Dude! You are going to get me into big trouble one day!”
“Me? Never,” Mike grins. “I want to try some more of that flavoured juice”
Lucas sighs, takes off his goggles and directs him to his little setup, where there is one camping chair and a footstool, with a couple of flasks and some lunchboxes. Mike sits on the footstool as Lucas passes him a flask. “Two sips, or you'll be wasted!”
Mike drinks the substance. And smiles, then takes another drink, “One more?” He asks as he really likes it. Lucas takes the flask away. “No!”
Mike met Lucas a few months ago when he came to fix something in his room. And somehow they instantly clicked. Mike asked a lot of questions, and Lucas answered some, though that only intrigued Mike more. And for a while, he became obsessed with finding him. Now he occasionally sneaks out from his job to have a few seconds with Lucas in this dark place.
“Is it fun working down here like this? Are these pipes safe or dangerous? What is the point of all this? How come you guys don't have to wear the same outfit as us? Why are you always in black?” Mike looks at his clothes, then at Lucas' clothes. “I wish I could wear that too? Do I have to request a job to get them?”
Lucas shakes his head at him, “You always ask too many questions”.
“But-”
“Look, all of you here are special”. Lucas says. “Very special”
“But why are we special?” Mike asks.
Lucas brushes his hand over his head “Just because, now go back to your place before you get into trouble. Here is a mint”. He throws a small paper box containing one mint. Another thing Mike likes to eat. He also likes these little treasures. Lucas had given him many little things that he kept hidden in a small box under his pillow. Mike carries it in his hand when he leaves Lucas behind to return to his work.
As he walks to the exit, he spots something near the level 3 signs. He walks closer, and his eyes widen. It’s a bug. A floating living bug. Bugs are meant to be extinct. He takes the mint out of its box and eats it, then catches the bug and places it back in the box. He then hides it in the waistband of his tracksuit and returns to work.
When he does, an even newer survivor has arrived, but this one is not cooperating with the guards and is trying to avoid sitting down. Max is glaring at him. At the same time, El and Dustin look at him with sympathy.
“I bet this idiot wins the lottery before me”. Max mutters.
“He looks afraid and scared and can barely follow a simple task”. El frowns, watching “I wonder how stupid I looked when I arrived”.
Max grins at her, “Very stupid,”
El playfully punches her. They look for the new guard to demand they stop touching, but he’s too busy observing the new survivor to react.
Mike looks down at the key card, which he was unable to return to the old guard, for the guard has now gone elsewhere. He looks around and then slots it into his pocket. It’s a decent key card to have as the group continues to inject the tube, linework continues throughout the building and below deck. Burying deeper and deeper into the basement of the facility.
At the bottom of the building, Dr Henry Creel walks around with an older man following him. With white hair and wearing a long white jacket. The man who is in charge of keeping an eye on what is secretly going on down here.
“Dr Brenner, how are the clones this week? My updates indicate that their abilities are much weaker than those of the older batches?”
“I’m not sure, some of these issues may be due to the lack of blue serum we used to give them”.
“Well, we had to stop that because those clones were growing extra toes, and they needed to be perfect. People pay millions for these clones”.
“Yes Dr Creel”. The man responds, “I am aware”
“I will have to see what of the old substance I can still use”.
Walking along the base, Henry then walks around to another hidden area where multiple bodies are forming and growing in silicone bags filled with liquid water, resembling infants in the womb. Also being added to the bag of fluid are the red and green serums, travelling down tubes and into their liquid, which the clones consume to help them grow.
Lucas, arriving in the area, comes over to use a nearby computer as Henry and Dr Brenner release another person, a bald man choking deeply; as an air apparatus is placed on his face for a couple of minutes, which is eventually removed, and the clone breathes and cries like a new-born. Henry checked him over and then moved to another room. Asking Dr Brenner to finish off and put him under the screens.
In another room, just next door, many clones of people are lying down on beds, eyes pulled open and being forced to watch a repeated video, making them brainwashed to believe the lie they are told. Telling them on a constant loop of the contamination virus that killed many, and following that, they had been saved by Dr Henry Creel himself and now must continue to live here for their safety. Rules and regulations brainwash them, but also by the hope of one day going to the island. A paradise that does not exist.
Lucas walks over and looks to the newest member as he is set up to watch the video loop. He presses the button to start it going. Dr Brenner walks away, and Lucas sighs as he looks down at the person below. They look familiar. Lucas thinks he might know who he is a clone of. The new person’s eyes widen as the brainwashing video flashes into his eyes.
Lucas watches them for a long moment, then sighs, “Good luck”. He whispers.