by Keegan Long
The two of them with all their strength moves the cannon slightly in the left direction and aimed to fire the cannon once again.
“Stand clear!” Joe yelled once again as he ignited the flame.
The cannon fired once again this time making contact with more soldiers than before. The Cerberus soldiers had now realized their casualties were too high and began to retreat from the museum.
“They’re retreating!” Sarah yelled as everyone joined in a big cheer.
The battle had been won.
10
The City That Never Sleeps
The rest of the night went pretty smooth. No more trouble and no more running into Cerberus. I can’t believe that old Civil War cannon actually worked. That thing must have been collecting dust for hundreds of years in this museum. In the end, it all paid off and I can’t complain about that.
That night when we were all settled after the day’s events we decided to get back on the road again but this time we would be bringing another passenger. Lindsay was now part of the team and was a great ally to have as we moved on towards New York.
Joe and Jill informed me that New York should be for the most part abandoned like Nebraska. There might be more Scavengers present there but said we should be able to avoid them no problem. Cerberus, on the other hand, shouldn’t have that big of a presence and if so it would be a very small force.
“Once we turn on the power do we have a certain plan?” I asked Jill as we continued on the road to New York.
“To build up an army,” she answered. “Once we turn on the power people will start to realize they now have a chance against Cerberus. My hope is that more resistance groups will start to form again and that we can unify them all together and then take back our country.”
“Sounds good to me,” I told her. “But we have one small problem still. They still outgun us with their drones and robots.”
“With the power back on we can start using our better weapons again,” Jill began to explain. “Our planes and helicopters will fill the air once again. The thing that will help us win in the end though will be unity amongst all of us. Remember one nation under God.”
“I will always remember,” I replied. “Never forget.”
The road trip continued on and it seemed like it would never end. McKenna continued to follow Lee wherever he went and would soon challenge him to another match of chess later on. Nicole, Bekah, and Sarah would stare out the windows the duration of the trip as they observed all the different towns and cities we would drive through. Even the small towns didn’t survive the war and were completely destroyed just like everything else.
I started too and doze off as I looked at the never-ending road and kept wondering if we were ever going to make it. Soon later though I was startled awake by Joe announcing that the city had come into view.
I rushed to the front window to examine of what everybody used to tell me was the most beautiful city in the world. People of all origins used to live here in this iconic American city. People used to fill the streets and subways so much that you could barely even walk. The lights of the massive skyscrapers used to light up the night sky for everybody to see.
Unfortunately, what I found was nothing like that. The city came into view but had no evidence of life. Many of the skyscrapers looked like they were going to fall apart at any second. Some of them were leaning on other buildings and many were just plain out destroyed and the debris filled the streets. The Empire State Building was still standing, too much of my surprise. Badly damaged with chunks of the building missing from its structure but still standing strong and tall. And that is where we were going.
Everybody’s mouths dropped wide open as they observed the destruction of New York City. It was too painful to even see as you knew all the death that resulted when Cerberus attacked the city. No one got out alive and bodies would flood the streets.
“Damn,” Lindsay observed. “I knew New York got hit badly but not this bad.”
“There’s nothing left,” Sarah said. “Poor people. Probably didn’t even make it one step out of the city.”
“Let’s just make this a quick trip,” McKenna suggested.
We all agreed on this. The sooner we got in and got out the better. Let’s just hope that we don’t run into any trouble like we usually do.
We made it to the entrance of the city but had to stop the RV once we got there.
“There are too many abandoned cars blocking the streets,” Joe told us as he shut down the RV. “We’ll have to walk the rest of the way.”
“Well, this sucks,” Nicole complained with a big sigh. “On foot once again.”
“Don’t worry,” Joe reassured her. “This time only bring what you need. Leave the rest behind. We can’t have weight holding us down in case we need to make a quick getaway.”
“Everybody have your weapons at the ready,” Mitch told us as he loaded his assault rifle with a new ammo clip. “We can’t afford to be caught off guard today.”
“And remember,” Jill interrupted as she got her gun ready. “Stay together no matter what. We are stronger as a unified force. We are all getting out of here alive today.”
“That’s motivating,” Bekah joked as she rolled her eyes.
“Let’s get moving then,” Joe said.
We all exited the RV and started making our way through the city towards the Empire State Building. Joe was right about the cars as they completely filled the streets. Most of them were yellow taxis that would never run again. The cars filled up the streets so much that we were forced to walk on the sidewalks which were not much better.
Shattered glass filled the walkway from local restaurants and shops. Trash also littered the sidewalk because trash service would never run again either. Death could be seen everywhere in the city as bodies could be seen piled up in dark alleys. Some of them had been there a while and some probably more recently.
“How much further we got?” Sarah asked as she stayed extra cautious as we made our way through the city.
“Shouldn’t be that much further,” Joe answered. “We got about another ten minutes if we keep up our current pace.”
The air began to rumble once again when the sound of a drone approaching could be heard in the distance. This time we were prepared though and we quickly rushed for cover to avoid detection from the drone.
“Everybody get to cover!” Kevin yelled to all of us. “And don’t move a muscle.”
We all found the nearest hiding spot to us and for me, that was right under a yellow taxi.
The drone quickly appeared over our location and began surveying the area. Blue holographic lights illuminated from the eye of the drone as it spectated to see if it could find what it was looking for. I began holding my breath and praying to God that it couldn’t locate me under this car.
I then saw the rustling of a nearby trash can in the distance and someone had started running. The man must have been hiding in the alley but decided to take his chance and run for it. Unfortunately, the man had no luck and the drone quickly fired its machine guns while making multiple contacts with his body. He was dead within seconds. The poor man didn’t even make it down the street. Cerberus had claimed another life today.
After continuing to spectate the area the drone soon moved on to another area of the city. Once the area was clear we all got out of our hiding places and regrouped.
“Didn’t even stand a chance,” Sarah said as she looked towards the man’s body that now littered the street. “He should’ve have stayed hidden in the alley.”
“Fear got hold of him,” Jill explained. “And when fear consumes you too much you don’t think clearly and make the wrong decisions.”
“We already wasted enough time,” Joe interrupted. “We best get moving again.”
We soon later finally made it to the entrance of the Empire State Building and made a quick stop to get ready before we made our way in.
“So here’s the plan,” Joe began to explain. “
We are going to make our way into the basement and towards the computer lab. When we get there I’m going to get on the main computer and upload the hack. Once the hack is in place the power will be turned on moments later. Once the power is turned on we need to rush out of here as quickly as possible because Cerberus will no doubt have picked up our location and send their forces headed our way.”
“We can do this,” I encouraged the group. “We are the face of the New Revolution.”
“No matter what happens,” Joe began to speak. “We stick together. No one will be left behind.”
“So far, all signs are looking good,” Lee spoke. “No signs of Centaur signals are being detected from inside.”
“Sounds good to me,” Nicole said. “Let’s turn that power back on for good.”
“Everybody's counting on us,” McKenna said alongside everybody else.
We made our way inside with our guns drawn. The first thing I noticed was the main lobby had been completely destroyed. Bullet shells covered the floors and bullet holes could be found all over the walls. There must have been a huge standoff here when the war went down but by the looks, it didn’t end that well.
We made a turn around the corner and started making our way down the stairs. When we got to the basement it was cold and completely silent. It reminded me of the basement back at the Cerberus prison camp I was being held up in.
We walked down the long dark hallway and made it to a big room with several computer monitors filling up the room.
“Joe, how do you expect to use a computer with no power?” I asked realizing that all the computers were completely dead.
“I brought a battery pack that I made back at the base,” he began to explain. “I’ll hook it up to the computer and it will give it power but only temporarily so I have to do this fast.”
With that being said Joe quickly put his gun down on a nearby table and began his work. He grabbed the battery pack from his bag and hooked it up to the computer. The computer instantly came to life as it started projecting on the monitor. Joe had to rub the dust off the computer monitor just to see.
“This should take me only about five minutes,” Joe told us. “Then we are dashing out of here.”
Joe quickly began typing on the keyboard as the computer monitor began to display what he was typing in the command module. Like Joe promised five minutes later he was finished.
“Once I hit the enter button everything will change,” Joe explained. “All you all ready for this?
“I was born ready,” I answered with determination.
"Let's give them a taste of their own medicine," Lindsay spoke.
“We can do this,” Jill said. “Do it.”
Joe followed Jill’s command and hit the enter button on the keyboard. There was a long pause of silence but then everything changed. The earth began to rumble and the lights soon later flickered on. The power was finally back on.
We had done what I thought was impossible. We turned the power back on.
“Congratulations Joe,” a man’s voice appeared behind us as everybody quickly turned around to see who it was. “You finally did it. You turned the power back on.”
As I looked around I saw the man and instantly my stomach dropped because I knew him. The man behind us looked exactly like Joe. Completely identical with nothing separating them apart but their outfits as the clone was wearing a full piece black suit.
This man was a clone of Joe. Cerberus had finally accomplished the impossible. Project Alpha is now active.
11
Project Alpha
Well, I’m officially freaked out right now. When I thought everything was finally going our way for once then we get this. Cerberus has officially succeeded in making the world’s first ever human clone.
“I have to say,” the man began to speak. “I hadn’t planned on you turning on the power so quickly. I underestimated you Joe but trust me when I say it won’t happen again.”
“How did you know I was here,” Joe asked as he pointed the gun at the man’s head.
“I spotted you with a drone,” the man began to explain. “I rushed over here to try and stop you but I was too late.”
“Well it’s over,” Joe told him. “I turned the power back on for good and there’s not getting through my firewall to turn it back off.”
“To be honest I’m not that mad about it,” the man said. “When I saw you had been spotted by the drone I knew I had to come see you myself. My creator.”
“I’m no creator,” Joe spat back at him. “You made me do it unwillingly. I have no part in this.”
“You can deny it all you want,” the clone replied. “But you are part of it, Joe. You’re the original.”
“How many of you are there?” Joe asked as he gripped the handle of his gun even harder.
“It’s only me,” the man answered with a sinister smile. “I was the only successful test subject to survive. Don’t worry though when I bring you back in we will create more.”
“You’re not taking him anywhere!” I yelled at the clone.
“He’s coming back with me to Cerberus headquarters,” the clone replied. “The President awaits anxiously for his return.”
“Why Joe?” Nicole asked. “Can’t you just clone some other person there?”
“For some reason, Joe has been the only host who’s been able to provide clones,” the man answered. “There’s something in his DNA that allows this and we must figure out what it is.”
“Like hell,” Jill said as she stepped forward in front of Joe. “You’ll have to go through me.”
“There is no need to be violent Madam President,” the clone protested. “Sorry, former Madam President.”
“Give me the order and I’ll end him right now,” Kevin said in frustration as he too now stepped forward next to Jill.
“What’s your name anyway?” Lindsay asked in curiosity as you could see she had a hunch about something. “What do they call you?”
“I’m Subject 6272,” the man answered with an evil grin. “But I gave myself the name Tyler.”
“So it was you in the half report I stole,” Lindsay realized. “You’re Subject 6272.”
“The one and only,” Tyler replied.
“But how are you as old as Joe?” Sarah asked. “He was prisoner only about five years ago.”
“Cerberus has developed technology beyond your imagination,” Tyler explained. “They were able to produce a clone that would grow faster than any human ever alive. They can’t wait for clones to grow old. They need an army. And once clones reach a certain age they stop aging. So for me, I have stopped aging now.”
“My god,” Mitch commented in shock.
“Now that I have let you turn on your precious little power back on it’s time you come with me now,” Tyler commanded. “There doesn’t have to be any death today as long as you come with me, Joe.”
“We all came here together,” I spoke. “And we are all leaving here today together.”
“Right!” McKenna joined in. “We outnumber you anyway.”
“Is that what you think?” Tyler said with his evil grin.
Tyler reach down to his wrist and pulled back his sleeve to reveal some sort of touch pad on his arm. With a couple of taps, he commanded three Centaur robots to appear in the room with their guns pointed at us.
“Don’t blame your robot,” Tyler said as he looked at all of us in shock. “These are newer robots that run on a different frequency than most of Cerberus’ robots. Your robot would never have been able to detect them.”
Within a few seconds, the tables had turned drastically and unfortunately not to our advantage.
“You have miscalculated,” Tyler said. “You’re the ones outnumbered here.”
“So, you’re just going to kill us then?” Bekah said as her teeth began to tighten.
“Since you won't hand over Joe,” Tyler responded. “Yes, I’m going to kill you.”
Joe suddenly turned around to face
us all but this time with a face I have never seen on him before. It was full of sadness and depression as if he had given up.
“Maybe I should go,” Joe suggested. “I can’t be responsible for all of your deaths.”
“No Joe this is not the way,” Jill protested. “We promised we were all going to leave here today together as one.”
“Alive,” Joe replied. “I need to see you all out of here alive. I couldn’t live with myself knowing that you all died because of me. I’ve already lost my family in this war. I refuse to lose another one.”
“Joe, don’t listen to him,” Kevin began to reason. “The moment you two leave this room he’ll order those robots to kill us anyway.”
“We’ve been in some pretty bad situations before,” Jill added. “We’ll get out of this one just like we did with all the other ones.”
“Don’t worry Joe I won’t kill them,” Tyler interrupted. “You have my word.”
“Don’t listen to him Joe,” I argued. “You’re a part of something bigger here with us. You’re part of the new revolution with us. You’re a part of the United States of America.”
There was silence and I didn’t know what was going to happen. In the end, it was going to be up to Joe on if he went or if he stayed. I’ve never been so unsteady in my life but my heart began to pound so fast it felt like it was skipping beats.
“It’s time for you to decide Joe,” Tyler began to spoke. “What is it going to be?”
Suddenly, there was the sound of a pin drop in the hallway just outside from us. Next thing I hear was the sound of a grenade hitting the floor from being thrown in from the outside hallway.
“GRENADE!” Kevin yelled at all of us to take cover.
The grenade made its way to where we were standing and I quickly jumped to cover behind one of the computer desks in the room. Seconds later there followed an explosion as papers and parts of computers began to fly across the room. My ears began to ring a high pitch in result of the grenade explosion.
