“Clone mermaids?” Henric asked quietly. “Why would they make something like that?”
“Why did they make you?” Rick replied, staring at him. “Because scientists are always curious, and curiosity is the devil.” Rick replied.
“They throw ethics and morals out the damn window. Those mondos? Clones. They can barely keep them alive, only four were successful. Two males, two female. It was still pointless, they couldn’t get them to procreate. That’s not even the worse thing they did. The Janus mermaids… they are…” Rick shut his eyes and shook his head. “I saw them do the procedure once.”
“What’s a Janus mermaid?” Henric waited, watching Rick’s sick expression. He looked like he was about to vomit.
“They take someone’s body, presumably with permission, or waiver or something. The cut it open. Saw off the lower half and take the bottom half of a mermaid clone. They put it together. They cut open the chest and do something to the lungs. Finally, the lobotomize the person. They change them, make them forget everything from their past life, and put them into a tank. They’ve even done it to their own fellow scientists, all in the name of science.”
Henric didn’t know what to say. He could hardly believe him. He hadn’t seen any other mermaids besides the mondo ones. Then again, Seeing Eve alone should be proof of what Rick was saying.
“Wait what is that?” Rick moved past him towards the door. He pressed his ear against it but didn’t open it.
“There’s footsteps. Not human. They don’t have machines this big in the medical wings.” Rick told Henric.
“It’s probably Wireless, the robot I told you about. I mean, automaton.”
“It sounded like this when it walked?” Rick asked, wild eyed. “The medical automatons are lightweight, nearly silent when they walk. It wouldn’t be this loud.”
“Yeah. It was kinda big. It said it had to download new medical procedures and stuff, It didn’t know enough to help me.”
Rick backed away from the door and motioned for Henric to stay back.
“Please be a laundry bot. Please be a laundry bot.” Rick chanted, keeping his eyes locked on the door.
“Slowly, the door slid open, revealing the 6th foot tall robot Wireless, looked directly at Rick. Instead of white the eye indents on his face glowed a light blue. He looked at each boy and stepped further into the room, letting the door close behind.
“Henric McCathey and Henric McCathey. “It’s surprising to see that you are still alive.”
10
“What do you mean? You said I would be okay.” Henric replied, confused.
“Not you,” said Wireless, before pointing to the older one. “The real one.”
“You’re a security bot, aren’t you?” said Rick staying still. “Why are you surprised I’m alive?”
“You haven’t been seen since they replaced you.” Wireless glanced at Henric. Henric took a step back, but didn’t speak.
“Who’s here?” Rick asked the automaton. “Who’s giving you orders?”
“In my exploration of the facility since power was restored, I have not encountered any human individuals besides the two of you. I am not receiving instructions from anyone.”
Rick shook his head, furious. “You’re fucking lying, I hate that. It should be impossible. I hate you damn machines. That boy is a clone!” Rick pointed at Henric. “Even still, he is a minor. You cannot operate on a minor, clone or otherwise, without permission. WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION?!”
Instead of answering the eye indents on his face switched to orange and blinked.
Rick snapped his fingers to get Henric’s attention.
“This is the second floor, section C. I want you to go back down to F, but with my ID, not dad’s.
It doesn’t have access to the same areas, so it’ll send you to the museum. I want you to learn everything you can about this yourself and this place, then go to Dad’s office, the one in section D.”
Wireless walked towards Rick. He ran towards it head on, hoping to knock it over but it swung, smacking Rick into the wall. He got up holding his mouth, which was already dripping blood.
“Madison,” he said breathlessly. “That’s the password. Now RUN!”
Henric darted passed the automaton just as it turned to stop him. Rick tackled it from behind and Henric escaped the room.
“Don’t think! Don’t hesitate! Just Run!” Rick shouted just as he took a beating from the robot. Henric could hear the heavy-handed hits nearly all the way down the hallway as he rushed from the scene. He quickly got into the elevator and scanned Rick’s ID
He tried to calm down, staring at the ID that had his name. But not his face. An ID that belonged to the ‘real’ Henric McCathey. It didn’t make sense. He had a mother. He could remember almost all of his birthdays, the parties. He remembered Christmas and going out to parks. His Dad wasn’t always around, but he was there for the important things.
Henric dropped the ID and slid down, remembering how long it took the last time. Rick...Henric… he fought the robot so I could escape. Why? He thinks I’m a clone. He thinks I shouldn’t exist, but he stayed behind so I could escape. I don’t understand.
Sitting alone with his thoughts, he realized he was so shocked he didn’t even think about his leg. He didn’t feel any pain or numbness at all anymore. It was like he’d never broken it. He managed to take off the cast right before the elevator stopped. When it opened, it was nothing like the last time. Instead of a gigantic aquatic factory the ceiling was kind of low and the walls were covered with paintings and picture frames of various scientists. The floor was covered in dark blue carpet and the walls were mismatched black and white. The room the elevator led him into had a big check-in desk to the left, with signs pointing to different exhibits down the hallways. Henric hopped over the desk and looked for papers, keys, notes, anything that could help him find someone.
“Welcome. What exhibit would you like to see?”
Henric jumped up and raised his hands. “I’m not trying to steal anything I swear!”
“Welcome. What exhibit would you like to see?”
Henric looked and saw a woman standing at the desk. She wasn’t facing him.
“Mam?”
She didn’t answer him. He walked closer and tried to touch her shoulder, but his hand went right through it.
“Welcome. What exhibit would you like to see?”
Henric looked above him and noticed a little projector on the ceiling.
She’s a hologram. Henric thought. A really good one too.
He hopped the counter and looked at it from the front. The hologram was really well done. Henric stared at it for a while, and he still couldn’t tell it was fake. The model was a short woman, but she was still taller than Henric. He thought it might have been the heels but remembered it was a hologram, high heels didn’t matter. The woman was brown-skinned with short curly hair and dark eyes. She wore red lipstick and had a smile that made Henric happy, even though he didn’t know her.
“May I speak to... uh, a curator?”
“No curator is available to speak to you at this time.”
She continued to smile and stare right through him.
“Okay… May I speak to a representative, or an assistant?”
“No representative is available to speak to you at this time. No assistant is needed to explore the exhibits. Please, take a pamphlet and enjoy the experience.“
She pointed at the desk where there was a set of pamphlets for each of the exhibits.
Mermaids, Humans, Automatons, and Machines.
A human exhibit? Henric wondered. He knew they wouldn’t be showing basic anatomy there. There were four hallways that led into the exhibits and a big navy blue door in the center of the room, with no label around it. He grabbed one of each and spoke aloud. “I’m going to all the exhibits.”
“Please proceed to the exhibit of your choice.”
Henric opened the one about mermaids and walked towards the exhib
it. The hallway was pitch black and there was a stand with a bunch of shades near the entrance with a sign that said take one. Putting on the shades, the entire hallway illuminated blue. Both walls were aquatic displays filled with water, rocks, and a few sparse plants. Why was it so empty looking?
Suddenly a blur swam past quickly and hid under a rock. It was a very long, dark creature, Henric could only see part of its tail. When he got close to the glass, the hologram lady’s voice popped up on the intercom.
“Welcome to the mermaid exhibit. We have a selection of exceptionally rare and unique creatures at our disposal. Every mermaid in our exhibit has a unique habitat, they cannot survive in the same temperature of water. Of all the mermaids in this exhibit, Hadal Mermaids are the only ones given to us solely by mother nature. Hailing from the Hadopelagic zone, these mermaids come from the deepest trenches of the ocean. They are a far cry from mermaids in the popular media. Their skin and scales resembles that of an anglerfish, and they do not need oxygen to breathe.”
Henric was staring at the sign that said Hadal Mermaids when he saw something else dart past the glass. He tried to keep up with it, but it was way too fast. It swam into a little cave, preventing Henric from getting a closer look.
“Come on.” he whispered, face pressed against the glass. “Come back out.”
There was a button on the glass with a speaker grill next to it. Henric figured it was to ask about the mermaids, not to speak to them, but he pressed it anyway.
Surprise surprise, nothing happened.
Henric waited as he saw a small green glimmer from within the cave. He tapped the glass once, twice, three times and finally a blackened demon creature swam out of the cave, lashing out at the glass.
11
“Hadal mermaids have special eyes to see in the dark but are not used to a lot of movement. They food selection is rather small, feasting mostly on pearlfish and eels. In extreme cases they survived by eating marine snow, but it is not known how long a creature of its size can subsist on such a small serving size.”
The dark little creature continued to butt it’’s head against the glass, staring at Henric maliciously. It… kinda looks like a human. Henric thought. Barely.
The weird creature was short and slightly humanoid with their lower half being a fishtail, like most normal depictions of mermaids. But it still had very big differences. It was a leathery black with shiny scales, looking like a fusion between a bat and a fish. It’s upper body was small and emaciated, like a person with severe anorexia. It had no hair on the top of it’s head, but small fins and ridges that looked like strands of hair. It’s eyes seemed to fade from green to blue, and it had no pupils.
A small eel tried to swim past the mermaid creature but failed. As soon as the mermaid sensed its presence it lost all interest in Henric. It dashed towards its prey and caught it in its mouth, swimming in circles while stirring up dirt with its hands as it ate. Henric moved along to a door with a sign that read, “Please Remove Your Sunglasses Before Continuing.”
He took off the glasses, momentarily plunging himself in darkness before opening the door to the next exhibit. This area was more like the aquatic factory. The walls and ceiling were all glass panels and fish could be seen floating around. Unlike the tanks at the factory, these huge aquariums were perfectly clean and so brightly lit Henric had to squint for a moment. The underwater flora was so multicolored and beautiful Henric almost forgot what the exhibit was for until he got close to the glass.
“Limited information is available for the remainder of the exhibit.” the hologram guide spoke from the intercom.
The sign for this area said H-Mermaids, Specimens #7 & #8 M:1 F:1
Henric looked around but didn’t see any mermaids. He turned around and went to the other side of the glass, hoping that would prompt the hologram lady to speak, but she said nothing. He pressed the button on the screen and spoke aloud, “Where are the mermaids?”
“The mermaids in this aquarium were provided by Bickerstaff Labs.”
Bickerstaff? Henric had never heard that name before. His dad had never mentioned them. Then again, he never told him about Rick, or the mermaids, or this entire floor of the building.
“There are no mermaids in here.” He spoke, holding the button.
“If you have any questions about the exhibit that have not been answered by the information already provided, please press the button and repeat your query in an interrogative sentence.
You didn’t say anything at all about this exhibit. Henric thought, annoyed. He pressed the button again and tried a different question.
”What type of mermaids are these?” He asked and waited.
“These are variations of the Hadal Mermaids transferred from Bickerstaff Labs. No more information is available at this time.”
Henric walked to the next exhibit hoping there was something to see. This lab was similar to the one before, except the ceiling wasn't connected, it was black with two long fluorescent bulbs in the center. The glass walls went up to the ceiling, but the water didn't. It stopped slightly above the halfway point, but this area didn't have a bed of sand at the bottom of the glass. It continued further down where Henric couldn't see. The door to the next exhibit had a poster on it with a drawing of two mermaids, one was the length of the entire poster and the other was as small as the bigger ones fin. The poster was light blue and artsy, with a caption that read, “If you thought those were cool, wait till you see what’s next!”
Henric thought about Eve and the other mundo mermaid he saw rotting away in a test tube.
I’ve seen enough of them.
He turned to leave the exhibit and it happened.
He turned to his right and a man was watching him. Or, half of a man. His lower half was almost like Eve’s, a beautiful fish’s tail with a metallic shine glancing off the scales. It shone from blue to green. But it wasn’t like Eve. He wasn’t like Eve. The point where the fishtail and torso meet was red all the way across, with sutures holding them together. It was puffy and swollen, it looked infected. If the man felt any pain, he didn’t show it. He had dark bags under his eyes and could barely keep them open, even while he was staring at Henric. Henric ran to the glass and knocked, waving frantically.
“Hey! Sir! Can you hear me? Can you read my lips?”
The merman blinked slowly and mimicked him, waving back. Henric noticed a medical identification band on one hand and a medical bracelet on the other. He looked weary, maybe even drowsy. They were four red slits on the side of his neck, clearly not healed completely. If they were helping him breathe, they weren’t doing much. He did not look like he was supposed to be in the water. Henric started motioning upwards towards the surface.
“Hey! Swim up! Up!” The guy gave him a confused look before yawning. He yawned. Underwater.
Instantly he began choking violently, eyes bugging out in shock.
“GO UP!” Henric shouted. “UP!”
He pressed his face against the glass and looked both ways. He couldn’t see any land for the merman to land on. He ran through the giant mermaid door but to the left was a massive concrete wall that stretched so high up Henric couldn’t see.This was like his dad’s area, which meant he wouldn’t be able to access anything that would get him inside an aquarium. Especially not with Rick’s ID. He rushed back to the area where the mermaid was choking just in time to see his sutures rip apart, the man’s abdomen away from the fish tail, clouding the water with dark red blood.
12
Henric was on his hands and knees back at the lobby, trying to vomit. He gagged several times but couldn’t puke. He couldn’t get the image out of his mind. It made him sick.
When was the last time I ate something? He thought. Then another question entered his mind.
How long have I been in here?
Henric tried to block out the image when the hologram reappeared.
“Thank you for visiting our Mermaid exhibit. The next exhibit is to your right.”
> He sat there in silence, breathing heavily.
Why did Rick tell me to go here first? What was I supposed to be learning? Henric laid against the lobby desk for support. He hadn’t learned much about this place, and Rick had already told him about the different mermaids. Rick also told him that he was a clone. When Wireless said he was surprised to see Henric alive, he wasn’t talking about Henric, he was talking about Rick, the ‘real one’. It still sounded unbelievable, it sounded insane. If Rick wasn’t lying about the mermaids he probably wasn’t lying about Henric. He stared at the pamphlets in his hand and opened the human one. It was a lot thicker than the others, he wondered why he hadn’t noticed that before. There were dozens of drawings inside, but no actual photos of a clone. No way to tell the difference between a clone or a human. Henric checked his arms and wondered if he had a serial number somewhere.
I need to stop wasting time. He thought as he got up and walked to the human exhibit. Unlike the mermaid one, the hallway for the human exhibit was was extremely bright with glass walls on each side. Both the floor and the are behind the walls was white, and it look like something was supposed to be on display back there.
Glass Back Page 4
