Clones 4 u

You don't have to be unique.

Clones 4 u

I bought a clone of myself to have someone to hang out with.

It was the logical thing to do, once I realised how few people I still knew. Once the wormhole opened, most people sought a better life on the other side. Someplace where you had no need to worry about our modern world, you could warp yourself away to endless possibilities.

At first it was an object of horror, a swirling tempestuous vortex engulfing the whole of London. It was a horrific nightmare, a dark omen. Scientists observed tentatively, men women and children fled for their lives. Until, over time, more and more victims of the city started to gradually reappear. It was a paradise on the other side, they claimed. Sandy beaches spreading to eternity, endless fertile land, a chance to build anew.

Over time, people flocked away. Not billions of us, mind, but enough where you could really notice an impact. Fast food chains and postal deliveries were impacted as disgruntled workers took their chances. Some of my friends and family left, urged me to join them. But nobody noticed those that didn’t report back. Nobody asked where they were going, or where 

exactly they wound up.

So it was that I found myself alone. Society somewhat ticked along, but the local bank I worked at didn’t have enough staff to continue. Eventually, the branch closed. The economy faltered, I spent all day watching tv in my dressing gown with marmite on toast, occasionally promising myself I would check that days wanted ads.

I was lonely. After a month or so of this I had to order myself a clone, it’s a new online deal introduced a few years back of which I had previously been sceptical, apprehensive. My only regret was not getting one sooner. Suddenly, other company I’d kept seemed vastly inferior. I got to scratch my social itch and watch tv with a friend, have a few down the pub, without the inconvenience of a different opinion, or God forbid having to EXPLAIN something to someone. I’d think something, my clone would know about it.

We were the best of friends, but one day I had to know something. How did these clones come about? Were they test tube products? Secretly some kind of robot (I imagined not, unless robots were capable of clearing a plate of sausages like a human)? I tried just asking him, but his memories were just like mine. It was the old chestnut, which one of us was really 

real?

I chose to let it go. That is, until after relentless jobhunting I eventually got a job at the cloning company. After signing various nondisclosure agreements, I had an inside look into how clones were made, finally! They’d been getting more and more popular as time passed, the new trend, the tamegochis of the next generation. It had become difficult to find someone who didn’t have a clone or two knocking about. I was understandably excited.

It was my job to journey from the enormous, luxurious multiplex hotel wherein these were being “stored” like new HD TVs, to a mystery location some miles out of town. I was given a people carrier, a set of directions and was wished “the best of luck”.

Travelling solo through winding mountain pathways, I felt an unmistakable pull. A shift in climate as I approached my destination, an unnerving familiarity and apprehension. Foreboding gripped me, I began to wonder if I really wanted to know. If perhaps, I already did.

Approaching the terminus of my directions at the edge of a cliff, I pulled over, searching for something, nothing, anything. It was then, I saw. Smaller than the first, but large enough, certainly for a human being.

A second wormhole.

Jesus. So that meant...

Before I had time to think, the vortex whooshed, a very familiar man fell through the hole. Wouldn’t you know it, another copy of me, dressed almost the same, looking beyond bewildered, afraid. Barely acknowledging me, he scuffled off to the people carrier.

I couldn’t turn back now. Approaching carefully, I peered up through the hideous vortex. What I saw was a crowd, hundreds of thousands of people just like me. No, they were me. All chatting, arguing, bustling in to one another. I didn’t know whether to be confused, mortified, or amused. I suppose there really is a dimension for everything!

I started to chuckle, but it was then...the crowd turned. They saw me. I’d been told not to let myself be seen. Shouting indiscriminately, they shuffled, bustled like penguins towards me. I was caught in a wave of mad men, an uncontrollable mob rushed through the swirling rip in fabric and swept me away, trampled me in to the Cliffside and away over the hills.

I wondered if I’d ever be lonely again.

Reviews

[Great Aunt Astri]

I found this story really fascinating. Still not sure quite what the wormholes were but it made a very good read. I think i would go crazy if i had to live with others like me!!!!! Like you, I enjoy taking a 'science' idea, and making something up (mine, usually pretty non-sensical) Good story to read last thing at night ... i shall be dreaming of wormholes!