Chapter 10 - The ChoicePeople flooded the underground halls.
Security officers.
Doctors.
Men in gray suits.
Sarah's father pulled her away from the chamber.
“Move.”
“What about her?”
“You can't save everyone.”
Sarah stopped.
“I can save her.”
“No.”
He grabbed her shoulders.
“That's what they want.”
She looked at him.
“Who am I?”
He said nothing.
“Tell me.”
“You're the daughter of a woman who disappeared.”
“That's not an answer.”
“No.”
“Then give me one.”
Her father's eyes filled with tears.
“You were created.”
Sarah froze.
“Created?”
He nodded.
“The Foundation needed a child who could survive a procedure.”
“What procedure?”
He couldn't say it.
Sarah's mother spoke from behind them.
“The transfer.”
Sarah turned.
“Transfer of what?”
Her mother whispered:
“Memory.”
Sarah laughed once.
A broken sound.
“You're telling me people can transfer memories?”
Her mother nodded.
“They've been doing it for decades.”
The woman in the glass pounded on the window.
Sarah looked at her.
She suddenly heard a voice.
Not through the speakers.
Inside her head.
Sarah.
She gasped.
The room vanished.
For one second she saw another place.
A hospital.
A woman screaming.
A baby crying.
Richard standing beside a machine.
Emily strapped to a bed.
Then Sarah saw herself.
But she wasn't a baby.
She was twenty-three.
And standing beside Emily.
Sarah returned to reality gasping.
Her mother caught her.
“What did you see?”
Sarah stared at Emily's image on the monitor.
“She remembered me.”
Her mother shook her head.
“No.”
Sarah whispered:
“I remembered her.”
The realization hit everyone at once.
Emily's expression changed.
Richard's smile disappeared.
Her father stepped back.
Sarah looked at the chamber.
The woman inside was no longer pounding on the glass.
She was smiling.
Sarah whispered:
“I'm the copy.”
The chamber opened.
The woman stepped out.
She walked directly toward Sarah.
They stood face to face.
No one moved.
Then the woman whispered:
“My name is not Sarah.”
Sarah swallowed.
“What is your name?”
The woman smiled.
“Evelyn.”
Richard's voice exploded through the speakers.
“Kill them.”
Gunfire erupted.
Sarah's father pushed her to the ground.
Glass shattered.
Her mother screamed.
Evelyn grabbed Sarah's hand.
“Come with me.”
Sarah looked at her.
“Why?”
Evelyn replied:
“Because you're not the copy.”
“What?”
Evelyn's eyes filled with tears.
“You're the original.”
Sarah stared at her.
“Then who are you?”
May you like
Evelyn whispered:
“The girl they made to replace you.”
