Cheshire

Chapter 1:

We pass by so many people every day. People with their own problems and stories that would love to be told. I look up to see so many faces that I want them to know that I would love to just listen. Listen to their life stories because no one else will listen, listen to their problems so that they can have a load off their chest. I want them to know that I care.

“Go away,” a hard scowl from a woman in her mid twenties said to my eyes.
Her hair was wild and pulled back into a messy pony tail. She tried her best to look normal but her hard look, her tanned skin and sun bleached clothes told me that a story was to be told. I wanted to hear that story and why she was with a man. Were they related? Were they married? Who exactly were they.

“Come on, Noel,” a chuckle called behind me.

A strong hand took my own and started to pull me away. I turned to see the familiar face that I've seen every day for three years. His light blonde hair, almost looking white in the sunlight softly bounced as he picked up his pace with my hand in his. He was wanting me to get away from the strange people that I had found myself in front of. Not just because we didn't know them, but he knew that I had to get home. It was my brother's birthday tonight and the family was needing help with setting up his surprise party.

I turned around to see the woman and man stand from the bus bench that they were resting on. The woman stretched her arms high up in the air and they were soon back to walking the direction that I was coming from before. They were on the edge of the city where lots of fields of corn and wheat remained. It was almost an abrupt change from city to country side if you weren't paying attention to the landscape on a simple walk home. I was surprised to see such people in this part of the city usually they would be on their way towards the main city of Lyons, not in Patterson.

“Cecil, you can let go now,” I said trying to keep up with his large steps.
He slowed a bit but still kept a steady pace forward, “You need to quit doing that.”
I rolled my eyes, “Come on, Cecil, I told you before that I love to hear people talk-”
“Not if it means getting hurt!”
He snapped his head back around so that I could see the angry look on his face. He was a very happy person so sometimes it was hard for him to get his true emotion out for others to see. Though I knew it well. He was my boyfriend after all.
“Cecil-”
“Look, I don't mind that you want to be a journalist, or a councilor, or whatever, but you really need to start looking at people! Those people back there could have mugged you!”

I looked down to my clothes. I was wearing the school dress code clothes. We could wear whatever pants and shoes we wanted, but our shirts needed to have the logo sewn onto the shirt either at the sleeve or on front. Sure I went to a nicer school, but my dark jeans, old flats, and blouse weren't really “muggable”. What Cecil wore looked like it costed a lot of money, and it probably did.

We finally slowed down to a reasonable walk and the world around us began to fill with stocks of corn reaching high up into the sky. It was just about harvesting season out here so pretty soon tractors will be rolling around to cut all of the stocks. The road we walked on was mostly shaded from the stocks and we could hear a bird or two coo within the stocks of corn. Patterson, unlike Lyons or the other few cities by Lyons grew their food artificially and had many harvest seasons throughout the years. Patterson enjoyed things a bit more simple, especially the country side where we lived.

We kept things more organic and a lot like it used to be in the “old days” before Lyons invented all of their fancy equipment and transported devices. We still were bound by the eco laws of Lyons which prevented us from using some fuels that would damage the eco system and save our world. I've done the research, even if we were all to use the eco laws, there were other cities outside the “Powerful Three” that were doing far worse to their eco system. So protecting the world needed so much more cooperation from other cities of the world than just ours.

“Hey,” Cecil's voice broke the silence of the birds, “I'm sorry...”
“Aw, don't be, you're just looking out for me.”
“I promised your dad that I would never get you hurt-”

He stopped and I walked up to him giving his chest a hug. He was thin and I could feel those many long hours of heavy lifting on the farm come through his baggy buttoned up shirt.

“You don't need to worry so much! I'm a big girl! I even just got my license!” I gave a goofy smile feeling so happy to finally have that card in my wallet.

I had an old cherry red car that my brother has been working on for years waiting for me in the drive way. That car junky made an old rusty car into a beautiful masterpiece, and it was all mine. Cecil gave a smile and moved my bangs out of my face to give a small kiss on my forehead.

“Gramps needed a few things from the Vinnies down this way, do you think that you can get back on your own?”
I rolled my eyes again, “Didn't you hear what I just said?! I'm fine!”

We both laughed and he turned down to a different road. A few cars were coming so we stepped out of the way. After a quick kiss good bye he started to make his way down the other road. I smiled and gave a long stretch like the woman did before and marched off down the main road that would soon break off to my humble home.

The corn fields changed quickly in height on my left to a few feet tall. They were growing beans. I stopped briefly to enjoy the view that the field let me see. Besides the corn, I could see the few tall office buildings of Patterson and then the trees that separated Patterson from the main highway to Lyons. Lyons was a good three hour drive away, but I could faintly see a few tall buildings off past the trees. No one could miss the Lyons skyline. It was one of the largest remaining in the hemisphere.

I couldn't help but smile and look up at the sky, everything was so simple here, it was hard to think that there was so much destruction in the world. I knew the stories, and my parents remember what happened well, but a lot of that seemed like a distant memory just because we lived in this wonderful place. I looked down to my watch that hung loosely on my wrist. I turned, pushing a few locks of brown hair out of my face from the wind, and picked up the pace. I needed to get home and prepare for my brother's birthday party.

I had the perfect gift. It was hidden in my closet where no one could find it, not even him. Seriously, even if he was turning twenty, he acted like a five year old when it came to presents. I found him snooping around in my room the other day trying to seek out my gift to him! I smiled and turned my fast walk into a slow jog. My bag pounded lightly across my back with this weekends homework. Being a sophomore isn't all that its cracked up to be, but I was happy that I had a good weekend to look forward to.

I looked up to the sky noticing a slight shadow fall across the road. The corn was starting to rise back up again from the beans and wheat, but this was something different. I slowed down and squinted at the mid afternoon sun to see a faint outline of something flying in the air. It almost looked like a bird. Then suddenly a loud noise filled the air and in the matter of seconds sharp objects started to hit across the ground. Thousands of objects that sounded like bullets hitting the cement road.

I screamed and dove down into the soldier of the road and tumbled under the cool shadows of the corn. That was no bird! I looked up briefly hearing more gun shots, but that weren't fired at the ground. Two flying vehicles, one was in a cloud of dark smoke trying to keep a steady balance in the air while the other kept firing at the other. I couldn't tell who was flying them or what was going on, but suddenly the one that was in smoke bursted into flames. A loud noise of an object hurdling through the air filled my ears and I covered my head feeling the crash somewhere within the field behind me.

I stood up once I smelled the smoke. I pulled my shirt up to my nose and ran into the field to see if the person who crashed was alright. I heard coughing and a little moaning as I grew closer to the smoke. There was a large crater in the ground where some good crops used to lay. A flying vehicle similar to the ones in Lyons was upside down and broken into peaces around the crater. I stomped on the ground where a few flames were and looked up as I saw a person slowly crawl out from undernieth the vehicle. I ran over to the man unsure if I should help him or not.

“Sir! Are you-”

Suddenly another sound filled the air. I turned slightly to see another vehicle hover above the field. The one above belonged to the police. I then felt two hands grab my body and pull me close. One wrapped around my mouth while the other took my arm with a gun in his hand. I screached knowing I was bug eyed in the sudden scenario. I saw a man with dirty hands and wild dark hair like the woman I saw before. However, he was dressed in fine clothes similar to that of the city. However it could have been a costume.

An officer hopped down quickly from his vehicle and had his gun out and ready. He was rather young, but then again all of the officers looked young. They were all the same people cloned again and again. No need for casualties in the officer force. They would just make a new one to replace him the next day. The officer shouted to the man who had me hostage to let me go and a whole bunch of other things that was programed in their minds from an officer's creation.

Patterson was different in just about everything from Lyons. Thats probably why we all hate each other so much. We kept things how they should be, not processed in a lab.

“Let her go, Ellis,” the officer growled again.
“Come on, you want to ruin the anniversary? Today would mark the twenty fifth time I got away from you, but you just keep being so darn stubborn,” Ellis said behind me.
His tone of voice was joking, but his body posture kept me close. He was scared. He didn't want to die. I gave a muffled scream but he pulled me tighter. He pulled me close and whispered in my ear that he wasn't going to hurt me.
“He never shoots, he may look all tough but he's just a scaredy cat-”
The officer shot at our feet.

I muffled again feeling my blood pressure rise. Ellis swore and demanded to know what that was about. I looked over to the man. There was something wrong with him. His look seemed to be as if he was in pain. His eyes were large as if his brain was working a thousand commands per second. He didn't want to hurt me, but if he had been chasing after this Ellis guy for a while, then who knows how many commands and orders he had to capture him.

At that moment.

That very moment.

All three of us didn't want to be there.

Yet we were.

A buzzing noise filled the air. It didn't just ring our ears, it burned them. The sun seemed to shine so much brighter and only the three of us could tell what was going on. The world around us seemed still like it was, yet the heat and noise was messing with our senses. Ellis released his grip on me because of the noise and I tried to run. The officer even through the pain of the noise tried to grab my hand to help me get away from the man. I felt two hands grab both of my arms. One trying to keep me back and the other was trying to pull me to safety.

The world around us was suddenly filled with a white light and after that... a cool breeze.

Loud crows called to each other in the trees above me. The sun was setting... or was it rising. I couldn't tell in my haze. I was laying on my stomach and my back felt cold. It felt as if I had seven headaches at the same time, or as if I was drowning in water and was slowly waking up from near death. I saw a person jog off towards the sun and disappear on the other side of a hill. I couldn't tell who it was but they were running away than coming to help.

It took me a while to fully wake. By the time I felt my eyes truly open, the world around me was a dark purple blue. It was night time. I coughed and slowly tried to sit up. I blinked several times trying to see in the dim light left from the setting sun. I was wondering why I only felt cold on my back. I was laying on someone.

I fell onto my butt and tried to shift away from the unknown person. Until I felt another person on the ground. Even in the dim light, I still remembered the clothes. It was that Ellis guy. I turned my attention to the other guy I was laying on. He stirred slightly in the tall grass because of the sudden heat change. I noticed the uniform from the officer that I ran into before. He looked different up close. His uniform looked more decorative and I could see his short hair. It looked as if he recently had it cut.

I tried to move my hand and poked at his face. I never met a clone before. Everyone talked about them in Lyons. They're everywhere there. When we toured the city in grade school, I didn't know much about what the word “clone” meant. As a child I always thought of a clone as a person that was not really a real person. Like they were meant to be disposable. In a way they were, but this one looked much different. He didn't look like he was created the other day, he had bags under his eyes from staying up late on the job.

Suddenly his eyes shot open and I fell backwards onto Ellis. Ellis whined in pain in his hazy waking mode and pushed me off of him. The officer then acting in protocol stood up shaking off the hazy feeling and raced over to us. He grabbed Ellis's arms forcing Ellis to wake. Ellis tried to break free and stand. He knew if he could get to his feet he would have a chance to escape but the officer proved to be stronger.

“Are you alright?” He asked me attempting to sound in control.

I watched him and nodded slightly. The officer then pinned him to the ground and tried to reach for handcuffs that weren't strapped to his belt. I tried to help but the night grew too dark. An owl in the tree above us hooed loudly breaking the three of us away from the current situation. We weren't thinking for a second. Yellow lights from a street close by the hill we were on lit up the land around us. We were no longer in the field that we were in before. There weren't anything resembling corn around us.

There were hills and trees all around us. The street that had the lights glowing was actually a side walk separating a cementary to the woods behind us. I looked all around me. I couldn't help but notice the difference of our surroundings.

“Hey!” Ellis growled to the officer who was sitting on top of him, “get off of me!”
Ellis then kicked the officer off who wasn't paying attention and sprang up to his feet. However, he himself stopped to noticed the difference in land scape.
“Where... are we?” I asked not sure what else to say.

The three of us looked at each other for a moment. The next we were walking down the lit road to find an exit from where we were at. I turned around to see the two men. The officer was keeping a strong grip on Ellis's arm waiting to find another officer to take him into custody. Ellis however didn't try to fight back. He was even scared of trying to run off by himself. Wherever we were, we knew one thing that separating now would be a bad idea.

We walked through the night following the sidewalk deeper and deeper through the cementary. I couldn't help but shiver at the thought of so many dead bodies around us. I just wanted to go home. Mom and Dad were probably ticked that I didn't come home to help with the planning, and judging how dark it was, my brother would have been home already.

“Look,” the officer said noticing a sign up at the fork in the road.

We walked up to the sign that pointed towards the entrance of the cementary. The trees were thick by the sign so we couldn't see where the end was, but we followed the path to a large metal gate that was thankfully not locked. I pushed open the screechy gate and the officer closed it close behind. We looked out and saw that we were on top of a large plot of land. The road perpandicular to the cementary gate continued on towards the right into a dark woods, and to the left took us down a hill. We decided to follow the hill down.

What seemed like hours later, we finally reached the bottom of the hill. During that time, the officer didn't let go of Ellis and Ellis was slowly drifting to sleep. Music filled the air and we looked up to see a truck stop. Trucks from all three cities each unique to their own city, were parked on one side of the road with the gas staions, while a row of truck stop needs were on the other side.

The music was coming from the bar and we noticed a small hotel close by. It was far too late to keep walking, so it was reasonable to stop at the motel to figure out where we were. The night's dropping heat was finally starting to get to me as I felt the wind snug at my white blouse, which felt tighter for some reason.

“May I use your phone?” the officer asked to the receptionist at the hotel check in.

She was a larger older lady with big dimples and short gray hair. She looked proud to own such a facility and was happy to help anyone. She pointed nicely to the phone in the corner of the room. The officer forced Ellis along with him who whined that he was being rough.

“Girl, what on earth are you wearing?” the woman exclaimed.
“Huh?” I looked down to my clothes, “clothes?”
“That are covered in mud and a size too small for you! Come let me get you a fresh pair of clothes!”

A size too small? I just bought these pants yesterday. They were feeling a little tight, but I thought that it was just the damp grass we were laying in before. She lead me to another room and pulled out some clothes that probably belonged to her daughter. Judging by the woman's age, her daughter was probably out of the house.

“Here, try these on! No young woman should be traveling around with two men dressed like that.”

I wasn't really traveling with them. We all just had no idea what was going on. I heard a grunt and chuckle from the other room.

“Ma'am, I think your phone is broken!” the officer said.
“Maybe you should try standing on your head. You haven't tried that yet,” Ellis smiled enjoying the officer's angry expressions.

The phones we used at home were nothing like the one he was trying to use. It took me a moment to realize that he was using a long distance phone. Any calls outside the city were done long distance for security purposes. The phone card used for the long distance phones was attached to one's license so that the law could verify every time who exactly was calling each other. Your license was everything in the “Three Cities”. It had all of your information, electronic banking, and family photos on it. There was no need for a wallet, everything was on your license.

“I just used it this morning, it should work,” the woman said taking out her own license.

She swiped her card into the machine and registered quickly as her own. She logged out and he tried again, with an error code coming on.

“I don't understand! My card never has done this before!” the officer exclaimed.
The woman smiled trying to calm him down and asked if she could see his card. She took it to her computer by the reception desk and swiped it into the computer.
“David, correct?”
“Yes,” he scratched at his neck.

I was still watching them from the other room. I should change but I wanted to know what was going on. I noticed that his uniform looked a little tight. The top few buttons weren't even buttoned. I spotted a tattooed number on his neck hidden underneath the top of his collar. He scratched slightly at the number which I could make out to be 23.

Ellis threw an elbow on the counter. Even if David wasn't even holding onto him, Ellis didn't leave. I couldn't tell if it was because there were tough looking truckers outside smoking or if he wanted to know what David was going to do next.

“I'm sorry, David, but the card has been swiped clean.”
David was quiet for a moment, “E-excuse me?”
“It seems to have been erased for two years now.”
“Thats impossible! I just added money into my account just yesterday!”

The woman looked up with a look of compassion and confusion on her face. She showed him the computer and that nothing was on it. Ellis then shifted his position and noticed something to his side. His eyes grew large and he rolled off the counter and dropped down to a small news rack to his side.

“Uh... guys...” He said pulling the paper out of its rack.

I cautiously came over and so did David. Ellis looked up to us and showed us the picture on the front page. Three figures dressed in stripes and pink all three wearing masks with a happy expression were looking at the camera. Two males and one female, each dressed in their own way with their own creative hair cuts with a label over their heads saying “The Cheshires... where did they go?”.

Ellis straightened up and the tree of us looked at each other and then back to the paper. Even though the picture was fuzzy and no one could tell who was beneath those masks, we knew.

We just knew.

That those three were us.