GLASS BACK [COMPLETED]

17

Colter held onto the railing with his left hand and shot the stairs above him with his right, trying to break them apart.

"Got a plan?!" He shouted. "Anybody?!"

"We could try to jump onto one of these doors!" shouted Rick. "But they probably wouldn't budge, plus we could get flattened by the stairs above us!"

"So this is it? This is how we die?!" David screamed, holding on for dear life. Henric was petrified, his eyes were closed and he didn't even make a sound.

"Have any of you taken the serum?!" Colter yelled down at them.

"What serum?" asked David.

"Yes!" Rick replied.

Colter stopped shooting and dove off his staircase, landing on David's. He threw himself off of it and landed next to Rick, who helped him regain balance.

"Are you serious?" Colter asked him, staring directly into his eyes.

"Yeah. In pill form."

Colter shook his head. "One little pill doesn't-"

" Oh it was way more than one. I damn near died. Kinda like now, so if you have a point GET TO IT!" He screamed.

"We might be able to tank this. We could shield the others-"

"I'll stop you right there. I don't give a damn about the rest of you! If you hadn't followed me this wouldn't have happened!"

"But it has happened, so help me think of something!" Colter barked at him.

Rick looked down and caught vertigo. It still looked like an empty void but the red exit signs and rushing wind made it worse. He had been handling it well up until now. He could fill his stomach churning as he leaned against the railing.

"Okay, okay. This is obviously very long, we've been falling for a while. Maybe, if we find a way to climb back up, all the stairs will pile together. We won't be crushed by anything and we might not be flattened by fall damage!"

Colter nodded. "It's worth a shot." He pried Henric off the rail and motioned for David to catch him. Henric screamed as he flew but David managed to catch him.

"Now how do we get back up?" Rick asked Colter.

"I can jump it, but I take it you never trained for anything?"

"No. I took those pills today."

Colter's eyes widened. "How the hell are you standing?!"

"HEY SOLDIER BOY!" David shouted. "WE GOT MORE PROBLEMS!"

Colter and Rick looked up and saw a bright white light at the edge of the gaping hole. It was the ghost man, and he didn't look happy. He extended his hand and began siphoning the boy's light from him. Instead of attacking, the boy surprisingly ran. He floated down to one of the staircases and began running down hopping from one staircase to the next.

"No No NO! Take the the clone back so I can jump!" David shouted. Henric was still too terrified to move.

Colter caught him and David and the other clone jumped together. Colter pulled off his last grenade to throw it when the ghost man materialized in front of him.

"SShhhhhit!" Colter fell backwards down the steps dropping the grenade. The clone caught it in his left hand and Rick stopped Colter from falling. When the boy saw the man he stopped and tried to run back but it was too late. The child was pulled in like a tractor beam, lifted off his feet and suspended in air. His face was expressionless and his light continued to fade. The ghost man raised his hand and placed it on the boy's head. In a fraction of a second, they both disappeared and suddenly they were rising back up, all of the stairs flying back to the way they were before. Everything clicked back together like dusty legos and the lights flickered back on. Everyone laid down on the stairs to rest.

"I'm not sure if I even want to know what just happened." said Colter. "But I'm glad I'm not dead."

"Yeah well, I got about two hours." said the clone, staring longingly at his wrist. "Hey kid," he looked at Henric. "What's your number?"

Henric still a little shell shocked, frowned. "I don't have a phone number."

David and Colter chuckled to themselves as the clone tried to explain what he meant.

"No, I'm talking about the number that they identify you as in the lab. Your duplicate number."

Henric stared at him blankly. "/i don't know what that is. I've never had one."

They sat in complete silence for a while, too exhausted to move. The entire time, the clone was fixated on Henric's bracelet.

"If you don't mind, could I see your bracelet?"

Henric obliged, showing the clone his wrist.

"Ah. I see." he backed away slowly and put his head against the wall, closing his eyes.

"What? Is there something wrong?"

"No, it's just... you're not like me. I mean, yeah you're a clone but you were actually born. You came out of a womb, I came out of a test tube. You technically don't need a bracelet. You'll live a full life."

"What about you? You can't?"

The clone shook his head. "That's why these bracelets were made, to tell us and our superiors how much time we had left before our bodies give up on us. Some have heart attacks, some have strokes. Some die peacefully while others beg to be put down. That's just how it is."

They heard some shouting above that put a pause on their conversation. Colter reloaded his gun and got up.

"I'll check, make sure we aren't being followed." He started jogging up the steps like he was preparing for a marathon.

"Is there anything to do? Like medicine, or a procedure that extends your life?" Henric asked him.

"There is one drug that they use, but they only use it on clones trained in combat special ops. It's provided by the military. It's too late for any of that though."

The clone started breathing heavier, struggling to breathe. He slid his right arm under his leg.

"Hold on, wait, how much time do you have left?!"

The clones eyes started to droop, like he was getting sleepy.

"I don't want to know," he muttered, closing his eyes completely before Henric shook him.

"Stay awake, come on, my dad worked in this lab, maybe he could-"

"What's your name?"

"Huh? It's Henric. Henric McCathey. What's yours?"

The clone laughed a little, still swooning.

"I told you. I'm just a number. I was never given a name. I'm not important enough."

"In my dad's office, didn't you say you had three hours or something? It hasn't been three hours, there's no way!"

"That's the biggest flaw in these bracelets." the clone mumbled, practically gone. "Their accuracy's a little off."

The door above them slammed open and they looked up in time to see Colter's head get shot off, chunks of brain and blood raining down on them.