Chapter 9 - The Final Seconds
The distraction was all Mark needed. With a roar of pure adrenaline, he lunged across the lab table, tackling the clone to the ground. The remote detonator flew from her hand, skittering across the slick floor.
"Elena, get Lily!" Mark screamed, wrestling with the clone as she clawed at his face with the scalpel.
I sprinted to the table, my heart in my throat. With shaking hands, I unhooked the unactivated tubes from Lily’s tiny limbs and gathered her into my arms. She felt so small, so incredibly warm against my chest. I held her tight, shielding her body with my own as I backed away toward the door.
Detective Vance dove for the remote, sliding across the floor and securing it just as the clone managed to slice the scalpel across Mark’s forearm. Mark cried out, but he didn't let go, pinning her arms to the ground.
"It’s over!" Vance yelled, his gun pointed directly at the clone’s chest. "Drop the weapon! It’s over!"
The clone stopped fighting. She lay on the floor, pinning Mark beneath her glare, but her energy was rapidly fading. The digital countdown on the main console reached zero and began to flash red: Sequence Expired. Genetic Degradation Incurable.
A look of profound, tragic acceptance washed over the clone's face. The manic energy left her eyes, replaced by a deep, hollow exhaustion. She looked at Mark, then at me, and finally at Lily, who had stopped crying and was looking up with wide, innocent eyes.
"The timer... is out," the clone whispered, her voice barely audible over the hum of the laboratory. "There is no more time for me."
She dropped the scalpel. Her breathing grew shallow, her skin turning an unnatural gray color as the terminal stage of her cellular collapse took hold, accelerated by the extreme stress and physical exertion.
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Mark scrambled backward, away from her, rushing to my side. He threw his arms around me and Lily, pulling us into a tight, fierce embrace. We stood together as the sound of police sirens and heavy footsteps finally echoed through the warehouse loading dock. SWAT had arrived.
The clone looked up at the ceiling, her eyes growing glassy. "I just wanted... to live," she breathed, before her eyes closed for the final time.
