Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

     Sky and thousands of her friends went to training every day. They were trained to use weapons. They read books and listened to videos about the greatness of their country and how bad other countries were.

     She was not sure how anyone found time for anything else, but she caught Hawk from the corner of her eye with a group of friends huddled together. Sky approached them to see what they were doing. They stopped and began to walk away.

     “What are you doing?” asked Sky.

     “It’s none of your business,” said Hawk.

     “If I can see you they can see you,” she said. “What are you doing?”

     “We haven’t seen the doctor in days,” he said. “We think he is dead.”

     “What makes you say that?” asked Sky.

     “He vanished after our leader came to see us,” Hawk explained in a whisper. “There is a new doctor.”

     “So?” Sky said. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

     “You know how you have nightmares?” asked Hawk. Sky looked around and nodded. “You are not the only one.”

      Star approached them, “What is the meaning of this? We need to get to class.”

     “Sky saw us in our meeting,” Hawk continued in his low tone. Star looked shocked. “It's okay, she’s with us. She just doesn’t understand what is going on.”

     “Did you tell her anything else?” there was a hint of a threat in Star’s voice.

     “I only told her that we suspect that our doctor was killed,” said Hawk.

     Sky held up her hand, “Wait, what you mean was I told anything else?”

     Star pointed at Hawk, “Don’t you dare!”

     “She hates them just as much as we do,” he stated.

     “You don’t know that,” said Star. “She’s probably just telling you what you want to hear.” The bell for class rang. “We need to get going.”

     They rushed to join formation with their fellow classmates. They marched to class and sat at their designated desk. It was movie day.

     As soon as the students were seated the big screen television lowered from the ceiling. The lights dimmed as the movie started. The lesson was the destruction of the enemy.

     “Wolfe had conveyed his arrogance once more and begged for war. Joowon Yoon our great leader grant Wolfe’s wish.”

     Footage played of soldiers boarding planes and taking off to head to America. The screen flashed from a nuclear bomb exploding. Footage of rubble appeared on the screen.

     Then a video flashed to smiling Joowon Yoon shaking hands with the soldiers. There was a parade and the crowd was cheering. The soldiers received medals of Honor at a ceremony.

     “The attack was successful and there was a celebration. This left the enemies groveling as Wolfe went into hiding. Concerned with the president’s return, troops were sent to capture him and assess the damage. They returned home with the spoils that remained and helped create our strongest generation of soldiers ever made.”

     “That generation is you. You will soon be on your way to defeat the enemies who retaliated from our attack on the United States.”

     The video faded out and the lights in the room turned on. The teacher stood and walked in front of the students.

     “We will once again need to return to finish what we started. If you succeed you will be rewarded. You will take other journeys to Japan and England.”

     Sky felt her heart clench at the sight of the war on the enemy. She could not understand why, but she felt angry with everyone. She could feel the pride, but she didn’t feel happy. Everything felt wrong.

     From the corner of her eye she saw Hawk and Star passing notes back and forth. They looked at her and stopped. They turned in their seat to face the teacher and acted like they were paying attention to class.

     After class Sky caught up with Hawk. Hawk sighed and glared at her. Sky crossed her arms.

     “What’s going on?” she asked.

     “Star found something really big,” he whispered.

     “Star is known for cutting class what would he know?” she pointed out.

     Hawk pulled her arm and led her to an empty room, “He found out that we are clones.”

     Sky’s eyes widened, “You’re kidding me. How would he know?”

     “I don’t know where and how he got the information,” said Hawk. “I don’t know if you noticed, but we do not have parents.”

     “So?” she wasn’t convinced that someone like Star would have relevant information.

     “He somehow got into the laboratory one day,” he said. “Do you ever wonder why we don’t have any family who visit? We don’t even have a name. They didn’t name us because they plan on eliminating us. We were made for only one cause and that is war.”

     “I’m still not convinced,” she said.

     “May as well not be,” a voice in back of them said. They turned around and saw Star standing there.

     “I’m sorry,” said Hawk.

     “I told you that nobody else must know,” said Star. “You betrayed me.”

     “She would have continued to ask,” he said. “Everyone is going to need to know at some point. How else are we going to be able to carry out our plan?”

     “What plan?” asked Sky.

     “Don’t!” Star hissed.

     “Sky, don’t you feel hatred toward the staff here?” asked Hawk.

     Sky felt guilty, “Yes, but how did you know?”

     “You’re not the only one,” he said. “By the way you look at people I swear you want them dead.”

     “Hawk, I’m warning you,” Star’s face was beet red with anger.

     “I came up with this idea,” said Hawk. “We are not going to fight for North Korea.”

     Sky gasped, “I don’t understand. I don’t get how any of this information is leading you to betray our country and our great leader.”

     “Because,” Star finally began to explain. “We were cloned from the DNA that was brought from America after they were bombed. That is why so many of us are sick with cancer. They cloned us from American DNA and they are sending us back to finish their dirty work.”

     “No,” she shook her head. “That is just sick and twisted. I doubt that they would leave this information around for anyone to see.”

     “They didn’t,” said Star. “I was walking through the halls during recess and the door was open to the lab. The doctor caught me looking around in the laboratory. I thought that it was going to be lab for the class and I asked the doctor. He told me where we came from and how we were created. He told me that what he said could not leave the lab.”

     “He told you just like that?” Sky was still unconvinced.

     Star shrugged, “What else was he going to tell me? Would he tell me that there is just a lab here that we are not using? I asked what the lab was for. He said that the lab is for a project. I watched those films about the attack and saw so many of us getting sick that I thought that our illness was a result of the attack. That was when I started talking to Hawk.”

     Sky looked at Hawk, “I thought you said this idea was yours.”

     Hawk looked down and then looked into her eyes, “I came up with a plan after Star told me what he heard. I’m sick, Sky. He is also sick. So many of us are sick that our leader became angry with our doctor and now our doctor is missing.”

     Sky remained quiet to take in all the information. She felt scared for her friend. If what he said was true, then his life was in danger. Her life was also in danger for discovering this information.

     “Come with me,” said Star. “I’ll show you what I showed Hawk. We must be especially cautious because many of us know already.”