Screams of dismay, shock, horror, and frantic attempts to locate their friends erupted through the crowd. Amy tried to move past the other clones blocking her way, because she could not have a moment's peace until she knew that all of her friends were alive. If they were alive.
"Who died?" an Andy yelled, coughing from the smell of a dead body in their midst.
"I don't know! It's an Amy," another Andy replied. "Oh God, please don't let it be One."
This quote made Amy's heart stop. Someone, one of her own sisters was dead. They would never breathe another breath, and despite all of her panic, Amy hoped that they were in another world, Heaven, the Astral Plane, something, but she had never been very religious, which made her all the more scared for her lost sister.
Amongst all the noise, and yelling, and tears from desperate clones trying to locate their friends and girlfriends, one of the men in military camouflage blew a whistle, and several more pointed guns at the group, to keep them from attacking again, or from running away.
"Can anyone identify this clone?" Cindy asked, pointing to the cold, lifeless Amy corpse on the ground.
"Look at her necklace," Amy suggested, mentally pleading for the dead girl not to be One, Five, Aly, or Eight.
"She isn't wearing one," another Amy pointed out. "She must have removed it when we changed."
"That's what I did," an Andy said.
"Okay, okay!" Cindy said, clearly angry with all of the clones. "We will do a role call! Whichever Amy does not respond is the one who was shot at. Amy One?"
"Here," One said. Amy could hear Andy Eleven breathe a sigh of relief for his lover, but she could not breathe one yet, until she knew who was gone. She still had Five, Eight, and Aly to worry about.
"Two," Cindy continued.
"Here," Two shivered.
"Four," Cindy said, skipping Three, since she had died in the hospital in New York, and everyone knew by now that Aly was not Three.
"Here," Four said, with tears in her eyes.
"Five?" Cindy called.
"Here," Five said, allowing Amy's concern to ease ever so slightly.
"Six," Cindy said. "Six?"
"Oh, me, sorry, here," Six said.
"Six!" an Andy said, throwing his arms around her.
"Number Seven?" Cindy asked, probably hoping that she would not answer.
"I'm here," Amy said, probably more loudly, and assertively than she should have.
"Amy Eight?" Cindy demanded.
Now, Amy's heart began to beat more rapidly as the next word spoken would be the difference between life and death for the girl. "I'm here too," Eight said angrily, glaring at another clone, who answered when Cindy called for Nine. Ten was there too. So was Eleven. And Twelve.
"Thirteen is missing!" Five said to Amy.
"Aly?" Amy asked. Her eyes began to well with tears, and as hard as she tried to hold them back; they sprang from her eyes, burning with love and loss for her sister, and with hatred for Number Nine, the murderer. Memories of Aly ran through Amy's mind. Seeing her for the first time at the Carnival. How excited Amy had been to finally meet a friendly clone, a sister, someone who was like her. Amy then remembered seeing Aly fall and skid at her skating lessons. She had known right then that Aly wasn't like the others. Despite Amy's desperate attempts to block out her feelings, more memories immerged from Amy's pictographic mind. Sneaking out of the house on wild teen adventures. Saving Aly from falling from the Ferris Wheel at the carnival. Amy had been willing to donate her own blood, and reveal her identity to the world to save Aly's life. She had even kept Aly's imperfection a secret from the Organization when they were on that awful island. She had been trying to save her life, her sister's life. There had even been one instance when she was about fourteen when Aly had helped save them all. And now the poor, sweet, frightened reject was gone, and there was nothing even Amy, with all of her perfection, could do about it. This was only one more factor to make Amy realize that she was not as strong as she had once thought.
"I'm going to kill you for this!" Eight shouted at Annie, knocking her down, and pinning her to the ground.
Of course, none of the Amys were willing to stand up on the murderer's behalf, even though no one knew which Amy was being attacked, so Nine had to defend herself.
Annie hit Eight with the barrel of her gun, not hard enough to kill her, but hard enough to get her off of her. Now, all of the Amys were glaring at both of them, Eight and Nine. Yet, only one Amy was brave enough to speak. "So, what now?" Five asked. "Are we still going to war?"
Cindy replied solemnly. "You will all be led to the main cabin, and kept under lock and key until we make a decision. I am afraid that some of your minor differences will have to be fixed before we can continue." The sting of Cindy's words struck each clone, and tore one to pieces. Poor Amy, Number Four frantically fell to the ground, weeping hysterically, and was dragged off before the rest of the clones.
An army man came to lead each clone to the cabin, but Amy was in too much emotional pain to resist. How could Aly be dead? It was Annie who deserved to be, but she wasn't. Tears continued to flow from Amy's eyes, and underneath all of her anger, and her tough front, they immerged from Eight's eyes as well. Even the strong, confident leader front was fading from Five's face, replaced by the shared tears of sorrow for the sister they had just lost.
Finally, when the Amys and Andys were in the cabin, with six bunk beds, the army men left, but locked the door, and put heavy boards on the windows. Two Amys went to their bunk beds, and just sat there, and one Andy joined them, but at this point it was difficult to tell who was who.
"Five?" Eight asked Amy.
Amy shook her head. "No, I'm Seven."
"God, I feel terrible. Aly was my friend, and I treated her like dirt," Eight sobbed. "I always yelled at her, and lost my patience when she asked us questions, and now I'll never be able to apologize."
"I'm sure she knows that you never meant those things," Amy told her, putting her arm around her, for sisterly comfort.
"Seven?" Five asked. "It's me, Five. I'm the one who should feel awful. I was the one who introduced Nine and Thirteen back on the island, I should feel bad."
"Did Nine even know who she was shooting at?" Amy asked rationally.
Five shook her head. "I don't think so. Actually, I think that she was aiming for either you or me. Aly must have rushed in to save us."
Amy nodded. "Unless this was some sort of payback for when Aly gave that awful Sebastien those dead batteries and ruined her defense. Actually, I don't think Annie cares who she hurts anymore. I think whatever happened with the Organization before we arrived broke her spirit somehow."
Eight continued to wipe tears from her eyes. "I can't imagine how Eric will take this," Eight said, remembering that Amy's old boyfriend was now with Aly.
"If we live to tell him," Amy reminded her. She looked around the room, and noticed that a few other Amys were crying, and a couple of Andys were too.
"Hi guys," a girl said. "It's me, One. Are you okay?"
"One?" Eight asked.
One nodded. "What do you suppose they'll do to us now? Now that they know we are capable of betraying our own sisters."
Eight shook her head. "They'll probably eliminate Nine."
"Yeah," Amy said sadly. Actually, she was feeling sadder that she was so willing to see Nine die, than actual regret for Annie. She couldn't have wanted anyone dead more than Annie right now, and she felt that Number Nine deserved it.
Five rolled her eyes. "You guys are so gullible! Do you really think they'd give up the mother of Marie and Monique when most of this is partially her fault anyway? I mean, really, she was the only Amy to truly side with the Organization for a long time. They wouldn't want to lose their most valuable clone!"
"You mean, they'll keep her around even after what she did to Aly?" One asked in horror.
Five nodded. "Definitely. Aly was my friend, but I don't think that the Organization is
going to kill Annie for this."
The clones all shrieked as the
door was slowly opened, and some men in military camouflage came in. "Okay.
Which one of you is responsible for the murder of Thirteen?"
Before One, Five, Amy, Eight, or Andy could speak, Annie spoke up. "It was her," she said, pointing to Amy. "Number Seven. I saw her."