Chapter 13 - The First OneSarah couldn't speak.
The child’s voice echoed in her mind.
I'm the first one.
She looked at the others.
“Someone is alive.”
Her father shook his head.
“There were no other survivors.”
The phone rang again.
Sarah answered.
“Who are you?”
The child whispered:
“Find the room beneath Room 17.”
Sarah looked at Evelyn.
“There is another room.”
Evelyn nodded.
“I knew.”
Sarah stared.
“You knew?”
“I saw it in your memories.”
“My memories?”
“They are not all yours anymore.”
Her mother's face went pale.
“We have to stop the server.”
Sarah ignored her.
“Where is the room?”
Evelyn pointed toward the tunnel.
“Below us.”
They ran.
Behind them, alarms began screaming.
Security teams were moving toward the basement.
Sarah's father stayed behind.
“Go!”
Sarah turned.
“Dad!”
“I'll hold them.”
Richard's voice came through the speakers.
“You really are sentimental.”
Gunshots followed.
Sarah's mother pulled her forward.
They found a spiral staircase beneath the central server.
It descended far deeper than the mansion should have allowed.
At the bottom was a circular room.
In the center stood a glass cylinder.
Inside was a little girl.
Sarah stopped.
The girl looked six years old.
She had Sarah's eyes.
The girl opened them.
“Sarah.”
Sarah approached.
“Who are you?”
The girl smiled.
“I told you.”
“The first one?”
The girl nodded.
“I was the first memory.”
Sarah frowned.
“Memory?”
The girl pointed toward her own head.
“I never had a body.”
Sarah stared.
The girl continued.
“They kept me in the machine.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“This is impossible.”
The girl looked at her.
“No.”
She smiled.
“You were built from me.”
Evelyn froze.
Sarah looked at her mother.
“Tell me that's not true.”
Her mother said nothing.
The truth became obvious.
The first successful consciousness had been trapped inside the system.
Every later copy had been built from fragments of her.
Including Sarah.
Including Evelyn.
The girl spoke again.
“Richard wants to erase me.”
“Why?”
“Because I know everything.”
Sarah touched the glass.
“What do you know?”
The girl smiled.
“Who killed your father.”
Sarah's stomach dropped.
“My father?”
The girl nodded.
“Not the man you call Dad.”
Sarah stepped back.
“What do you mean?”
The lights went out.
When they came back on, Sarah's mother was gone.
Evelyn stood beside the cylinder.
And the little girl was smiling.
“Your mother took her.”
“Took who?”
The girl answered:
“Your real mother.”
Sarah looked at Evelyn.
“Where?”
Evelyn stared toward the ceiling.
“She went upstairs.”
“Why?”
Evelyn whispered:
“To finish what she started.”
The server alarm changed.
Thirty seconds.
Sarah looked at the countdown.
The screen displayed:
UPLOAD BEGINNING.
Then every monitor in the room showed the same face.
Sarah.
But smiling.
May you like
A voice whispered:
“Hello, original.”
