The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 9: Lightning

Dr. Lake was jabbering away in his Scottish accent, and bouncing around in his white converse sneakers. "The trick to cloning, boys, is you have to make sure the DNA is identical to that of the original person. Otherwise, it's not a clone."

"Do clones start out as children?" Harry questioned.

"No, they begin at the age the original is."

"Do clones act exactly like the original? Have the same thoughts, the same feelings?" I asked, curious.

"At first," Dr. Lake ran his fingers through his spiky hair. "But then after a couple decades of life, they branch off and become a whole other person themselves. Granted, the major components in the personality stay the same, and the looks are exactly the same. But as for feelings, what feelings are you asking about? Love?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, why not?"

"It's hard to say. Everyone here who has volunteered for the cloning program have never been in love, and have been alone, in case anything went wrong."

"Who all signed up?" Harry crossed his arms.

"That's confidential," Dr. Lake said. "But, we had gotten a bunch of recruits in the new physical combat wing at the beginning of October, and rumor has it, they're all clones."

Harry and I exchanged glances. "Why is there a physical combat wing at a science lab?" I wondered out loud.

Dr. Lake shrugged. "Got me."

"Where are the recruits from?" Harry asked gruffly.

"America. California, to be exact."

*****************

Air. I've taken it for granted all my life. Just taking a breath, and then exhaling. It was instinct, plain and simple. Nothing more. But now, I wanted air. I needed air.

Huge waves were crashing down all around me. Salt water splashed into my mouth and nose, and then finally, my hand broke free into the surface. I threw my head up, and gasped for air, rivulets of water streaming from my brown hair into my open mouth.

Gagging, I held up a stop sign to Skylar, and several feet away, up on a platform, she pushed a button. The crashing waves stopped, and the water lowered to a height where I could stand. I staggered out of the simulated beach area, and onto the sand. "Why are we doing this again?"

She sighed. "You don't know how to swim. You need to learn how to swim."

"But I'm tired! I'm hungry! I spent all day listening to Dr. Scotland jabber on about cloning, ate a bowl of soup for lunch, and then directly at 6:30, you grabbed me and brought me here after you found out I couldn't swim. We've been at this for an hour and a half! I missed supper because of you! And why couldn't we have done this in an actual pool? I'm sure they have one!"

"Oh, hush up! You'll get your supper, then you can go do whatever it is you do these days. And this simulated beach is fun," she said cheerfully. "Besides, you need to learn how to swim. It's an essential of being my friend,"

I sighed. "Turn it back on then. But if I die, Evie will murder you." I walked back into the water.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah,"

Waves began forming in the water again, and it deepened. I attempted to do what she had shown me, with little success. I made it a few feet before a big wave crashed down on top of me. I roughly plummeted down, and smacked my head against the hard ground.

Dazed, I attempted to fight my way to the top again, but I could barely see. The water was filthy, and I couldn't tell up from down, I was so disoriented. I could feel myself blacking out.

Skylar's POV

I sat up on a chair at a control panel, staring at the water. When I had found out my best friend David couldn't swim, I freaked. I found the nearest place with water, and started teaching him. I just didn't want another Jamie like accident happening.

My eyes searched the water for David, but I didn't see him resurface. I sat on the edge of the seat, and dug my nails into my thigh. Give it a few more seconds, I told myself. He can make it, he's strong. Just drain out the water, I thought.

But my thoughts and my actions didn't mesh. I dove into the surging water, and swan immediately towards the bottom. I tasted the salt water on my lips, and when I opened my eyes, they stung. I began panicking.

What if I couldn't find David? It was a fairly big simulated beach. The water was dark and strong. I cursed myself. Why hadn't I just pressed the damn button?

My lungs began burning for air, but I kept searching the bottom. He was most likely passed out on the bottom, and I would just waste more time going back up to the surface for air myself.

Just as my hand bumped into David's shoulder, the need for air became so great, I instinctively took a breath.

My lungs immediately filled up with air. I froze. What was going on? I hesitantly exhaled, and inhaled again. I was breathing through my nose, but no water was getting up it. Just air. I could breath underwater.

I grabbed David's arm and kicked off the bottom, but the water was already being drained. David sputtered and coughed up water. I looked up hoping against hope it wasn't Evie who pressed the button and almost witnessed me killing her boyfriend because of my stupidity.

It wasn't. It was Chester. I let out a huge sigh of relief, and he started for us.

David looked up at me. "Skylar?"

"What? What is it?"

He spat out a hunk of salt water, and croaked. "From now on we're practicing in the pool, and I won't tell Evie about this. Deal?

Chester wrapped a towel around my shoulders, and I let out a little laugh. "Deal,"