Chapter 9 - WHAT THE MEAT WAS FORThey went back to the ship.
Not because they wanted to.
Because someone had taken Ovidiu.
His motorcycle was found on the road.
His phone lay smashed nearby.
On the screen was one message.
SIXTY KILOS.
They entered through the same steel door.
The underground chamber had changed.
The refrigerated containers were gone.
The walls were clean.
The photographs had disappeared.
It looked as if nothing had ever existed there.
Then Lidia pointed to the floor.
"Here."
A circular metal hatch.
Under it was a staircase.
They descended.
This level was different.
No cells.
No containers.
No machines.
Instead, there were hundreds of steel bowls.
Rows and rows of them.
Pavel stared.
"Animals?"
Lidia shook her head.
"People."
Stefan nodded.
"The meat wasn't feeding prisoners."
"Then what?"
Stefan pointed to the bowls.
"It was feeding them."
"Who?"
He switched on a flashlight.
The light revealed the chamber beyond.
It was enormous.
Hundreds of tiny rooms lined the walls.
Inside each room was a person.
Some were old.
Some were young.
All were unconscious.
Each had tubes running into the ceiling.
Pavel stepped forward.
"What are these?"
"Copies."
"Copies of what?"
Stefan's face hardened.
"People."
Pavel felt cold.
"They were creating replicas?"
"Not replicas."
Stefan pointed toward one room.
Inside lay an unconscious woman.
Pavel stared.
She looked familiar.
Too familiar.
Then he realized.
She looked exactly like Lidia.
Pavel turned.
Lidia was standing behind him.
He looked at the woman again.
Then at Lidia.
"No."
Lidia closed her eyes.
"Now you understand."
"Which one is real?"
She didn't answer.
Stefan whispered:
"Neither."
The woman inside the chamber opened her eyes.
She stared directly at Pavel.
Then she smiled.
"Finally."
Pavel stepped back.
The woman spoke.
"You found the original."
Pavel's heart stopped.
"Original what?"
She looked at Lidia.
"The first mother."
Lidia began crying.
Then dozens of doors around the chamber opened simultaneously.
People inside began waking.
May you like
And every single one of them whispered the same name.
"Stefan."
