Harvester

Chapter 2

Now that I think of it, the overseer was kinda cute. He had cropped blonde hair that was long on the top and closely shaved at the sides, grey gentle eyes, tanned skin, and a nice smile. His voice was a combination of patience and stern that was just right. He seemed rather nice but then again he could give me whatever punishment he wanted, even for something as small as a gap in the line. He carefully walked over to me slowly. Hurry up! I thought. The suspense was killing me. He walked over to me and held out his hand so he could unlock the shackles from my wrists and I placed my hands in him warm palm. He spun a keyring in his left hand until he picked a bronze colored key and placed it in the key hole.

I heard a click as the lock unsnapped. He did the same thing with my other hand and my ankles. I felt weird. Whenever I was punished, the overseers were so brutal and would yank you and drag you while this one was gentle and treated us like human beings.

"What's your name?"

"James. Why?"

Hmmm. Why did I want to know?

"I felt I should know the name of the one kind overseer."

"Oh. Well in that case...I'm sorry. I'm sorry that none of these people treat you like you are people. Any one of us could be in your place. I know your original, Morgan. She is so perplexed by you..." he trailed off.

Morgan? Wondering about me? I know that in the schools all the originals know all about the cloning process. How it works, what happens and why we do this. We get the same basic knowledge but it's as a group and we hear it every year in a huge gathering when we are allowed out of the fences to attend a huge program. it's simple;

They make us because before there were clones, there was limb eating diseases, infections of the flesh, cancer, tumors and all sorts of fatal or disabling things happening to humans that could be fixed by replacements or transplants. When they perfected the clones, they realized they couldn't live like the original. They were born to die. The originals couldn't handle the guilt so they locked us in camps and ignored the abuse. They couldn't live with the fact so they put it out of sight, out of mind.

But some originals didn't want to forget. Like Morgan. She felt for us. She knew of the abuse. I have met her on a few occasions. She would always question me on how we lived and how they treated us here. She was always shocked at the results.

"Well James. I don't want to be very demanding but,,.what do they plan on doing with me?"

He frowned at the question. He got to choose the punishment for me and I hope he actually had them kill me. I hated here. I hated living.

"I feel sympathetic towards you clones while you sit here and rot while your originals are out having the time of their lives. They are way too strict here and the punishment would have been much more severe have another overseer caught you but...I chose the easiest punishment for you and even that is over board."

He finished his sentence. Taking all this in I simply asked what it was. He bit his lip before continuing.

"You have been sentenced for 3 days in solitary confinement with no food or water and then after that, your meals for a week after, will be cut by half."

I grimaced. Wow. That is harsh. And he said that was the easiest punishment. I couldn't even fathom what the worst ones were. This was a lot to process.

"When does it start?"

"Tomorrow. There are too many clones there right now."

I gulped. James was being so honest. I trusted him that he gave me the least of the punishments but it was so ridiculous.

"James..." I trailed off.

"Yes?"

"Why are you so nice?"

He smiled and shook his head.

His shift was almost over so he had to take me back from the pens. I liked people like Morgan and James who actually had feelings and emotions who weren't complete douche bags. It was mid summer and sweltering hot after James led me back to the pen and I laid down in the shade of our pathetic little roof and savoured the solitude while everyone was eating their meager meals. I laid back and closed my eyes and thought about what would happen tomorrow. I drifted away into blissful sleep into pleasant dreams away from here, I wasn't 0741852. In my dreames I was whom ever I wanted.