Mari

I stood so still, I wondered if my legs would ever move again. Then it all hit at once. Linnie was there with an andriod's cold metal arms yanking her away. RiRi was reaching out to her, the younger Marilyn's sobbing cries the only reason the two androids hadn’t noticed me yet.

I breathed in, and out. Linnie was jolted around violently, her usually perfect Marilyn curls a mess of half-undone curlers. They tugged on her hair, ripping it from her scalp as the android grabbed her by the blond strands. They grabbing whatever was necessary for it to fill out the command given to it.

And their command was to take them. A blip filled the room as the other android managed to scan the wrist of a struggling RiRi. Her sandy brown waves stuck to the wet tears on her face.

“You can’t take my sister. She’s all I have,” RiRi cried out nearly incoherently, her little childish voice piercing right through my heart. It was hard because RiRi wasn’t one to cry. I had never seen her like this before. She, like the rest of us, always tried to be strong despite being so young.

I couldn’t move. I wanted so much to run to them and pull them away. Draw them both to me and somehow make them safe. But even if I could manage to untangle them from the androids grasp, there was no way I would be able to save them. The only reason I that wasn’t struggling with one myself was because none of the humanoid robots hadn’t noticed me yet.

A bang came from down the hall, and I knew there were more of them searching and scanning through the building. Any moment now, one would spot me.

The android holding Linnie tore her back again, nearly ripping one of her arms from the socket as she cried out.

She sagged in its grip. And I saw it. I saw the moment she gave in, gave up. It was more terrifying than anything else I had witnessed so far.

“Monsters,” she hissed. “Monsters that can’t even send in a real person to do the dirty work for them.” The words slipped out like venom from her mouth, the fire that I knew we all had inside ourselves appearing on her face. She might have given up, but that didn't mean she would go easy. It was not often that Linnie showed this side of herself, but I supposed, there was no point in hiding it now. There was no reason to try and pretend to be a good little clone.

It was over. We were being recalled. I didn’t have to look to know the back of the androids would have “ECCO” engraved in the metal of their skulls.

Another slam, a door around the bend of the hallway slamming then opening. In the room behind me, Meryl was silent as a ghost as she awaited the inevitable. She had known before me what was coming, and she had done nothing to fight it. She hadn't even tried to save the rest of us.

I would have felt bad for Meryl, but she had failed us all yet again. Had our world been a different one. Had we been able to afford the care and resources she needed, things might have been different. But right now there was nothing I could do. SHe had made he decision and damned us all in the process.

But the reality was, that I wasn't fighting this either. My legs still wouldn’t move, and I wasn’t sure where to direct them. My life might not have been anything glamorous, but… I just wasn’t willing to accept what was happening. Even as the harshness of reality unfolded before me, I felt like it wasn’t real. Like I was stuck in some V-World alternate reality that mimicked my worst nightmares. It all seemed so slow, yet so fast.

Finally, my mind caught up with the speed of the world. Another door slammed, closer still.

Any minute the other android would turn down this hall, seeing me where I was just barely concealed from the others. Panic gripped me as I watched them yank up a defiant Linnie. Just as she stood, her stormy blue eyes met mine. They widened in shock, then steeled over with her resolve. Her lips moved, barely discernible. The android shifted its stance, blocking her from sight as he pushed her down the rickety stairwell of the building.

But I know what she had said. And I didn’t need to be told twice. Energy filled my body as adrenaline coursed through me, heightened by my fear. I didn't want to do this. Everything screamed in me to stay and fight.

But this wasn't a fight I would be able to win. And if I didn't survive, there was no way to save my family. My sisters. I had a chance, but I couldn't wait one moment longer.

“Run.”

And run I did.