Forbidden Science

Who were these men? The castle had been very quiet until they got here. The masters had left him all alone. That woman never gave him food anymore, and he had to eat fruit off the trees outside, which was hard to find. Not even Master Rickado came to see him anymore, or to give him jobs to do. He had thought about leaving the castle several times, but he looked out into the lands outside and couldn't do it. He didn't know where to go. This all started when the dolly got away from him. The dolly did this to him. She hurt him badly, and he was still injured from the big light. He'd tried to be nice to her so she wouldn't hurt him again, but now everybody was gone. But that woman came back. He saw her in the hall. She looked a little different, but he knew it was her. But she didn't give him any food this time. She wanted to leave. She was abandoning him, just like Rickado and everybody else.

He was hidden in the shadows as the men ran by, speaking to each other and searching the castle. He knew that if they found him, they would make things even worse for him, just like the dolly did. He stayed away from the evil men, clutching his doll for comfort. This dolly wasn't as good as the one that got away. But this one always stayed with him, it didn't run away or call a mean doggie or drop a light on him. And he stayed there, out of sight. Unnoticed. Just like it had always been.

It had been at least a few hours since they had started looking around. They had since left the castle, and were now in the mansion behind it. They had witnessed some strange things since they'd come, but no indication of any imminent danger, or where that girl could have come from. Weston was getting tired, and he'd spent far more time here than he had planned. He began to think that maybe all these things, the call they'd gotten, the car accident, and the girl... maybe it had all been one big coincidence. Maybe there was nothing here. Suddenly, a voice called him.

"Jack... Jack!" came Gado's voice, from a room down the hall. "I think you'd better come see this!"

He hurried down the hall, and into the room. What he saw next was beyond his comprehension.

Inside the room were four large, red holding tanks. Two of them had apparently been smashed and were both empty, but there were two more, filled with some sort of fluid. Inside them were what appeared to be... people. They looked strangely deformed, extremely small and wrinkled with huge heads, but there was no mistaking that there were human beings inside these tanks. Each of them had strange tubes sticking out of their bodies, and... they were alive. Weston could see them breathing. They looked more or less the same.

And he realized that, although the girl he found on the front lawn had different features, although she'd looked like a normal human being, she had been in the same state that these... things were in. Although she didn't look anything like these horrendous creations, she was bald, she was covered in some substance... and... those holes in her back. She must have had tubes inside of her as well. What could this possibly mean?

"My god..." said Meier, who had come in with Weston. "She was telling the truth. They're clones!"

"Clones? What?" Weston spoke incredulously. That wasn't possible. "Come on... there's gotta be a reasonable explanation."

"That girl... that Fiona," said Meier, sweat froming on his brow. "She said they were growing humans here. She said... they were creating clones. That's what this is... who would commit such an unholy act..."

"Just fuckin' stop it, all right?" Weston had to yell. They couldn't panic at a time like this. "Listen, calm down. If... if they really are clones, we have to report this immediately. We have to tell HQ..."

"We have to kill them," said Rivers, his dispassionate voice putting Weston slightly on edge.

"Well, let's not jump to conclusions, here..."

"Come on, Jack," replied Rivers. "We both know that there are people who won't want something like this getting out to the public. Powerful people. You can call it in, but they'll just tell you the same thing. These abominations have to be destroyed."

"We're still not sure what they are yet, so just wait, okay?" Weston was beginning to lose his patience. "I'm going to go back and call control, tell them about what we've found. You should all just stay here and investigate further... but don't do anything to them until I get back. Am I clear?"

Each of the others nodded solemnly. They had encountered something that before they never thought was possible. Maybe this was all just a nightmare. Weston just wanted to go home and forget about all of this. But he knew that what he had seen was something he would never forget...