RIFT Anthology: Book 4: ZoiTech

Recurring Nightmare

On his walk home, he's talking to Emma on the quantum communicator Red Sun had made for them.

"How is it between you two by the way?" Emma asks.

"Eh, it's fine. She's not as intense as she used to be. Probably just trying to accept me and her won't be."

"It is an awkward situation. Probably gave her mixed messages about sponsoring her child."

"Yeah, true but I couldn't just let them starve. Anyway, we have an understanding with each other now."

"Well, at least that's something."

Suddenly a figure drops down from behind Rift and people scream. Rift turns expecting Outlet but finds something even more startling.

"What the fuck?!" he shouts.

"What? What happened?" Emma worryingly responds.

The figure shoots a projectile at him and he's able to duck out of the way. The sharp projectile jams into a street bin. Rift glares back at the sharp object sticking out of the bin in fear. It's a large mutated red thorn.

"No. How?"

As the figure runs at him, he stumbles back, falling over and dropping his phone. Emma can be heard calling for RIft on the other side. Rift is pounced on and his shirt is gripped, slowly tearing. Rift sees her face. She looks exactly like Kerys Roze but heavily scarred and augmented. The left side of her face is cybernetic and both of her eyes glow in red. Rift realises it's not the real Kerys within these few seconds and punches her across the face. He then grabs her wrist which is clutching him and releases her grip. He strikes her again and shoves her back. He picks up his phone and runs for it.

The cyborg clone of Kerys fires more rounds of thorns at him and he jumps through a portal to escape. Rift lands on the floor of his hideout panting and in shock. He winces in pain as he realises his hand holding his phone is bleeding. He didn't notice at the time when he grabbed her thorned wrist, it gashed his palm. Emma then calls back, worried for him.

He answers, "I'm okay, I'm okay."

"Jesus, Ronan, what the fuck happened?!"

"I, eh... Fuck."

"Ronan!"

Emma was scared as she knew not much terrified Rift. He was speechless trying to catch his breath.

He finally gets words out, uttering, "It was a clone."

"A clone? A clone of who?"

"Kerys. It was a cyborg clone of her."

"What? That's impossible... right?"

"I don't believe it."

"That's like, what? 6000 years from now?"

"Yeah. There's no chance it's the same Kerys."

"Are you hurt?"

"Just my hand."

Rift then gets up from the floor and makes his way to the medkit and starts to bandage his hand.

"You're lucky," says Emma.

"I'm just worried it'll find me here. I don't know how these people keep finding me."

"Maybe they have a DNA sig' on you, if that's a thing in the future."

"It is, though, I don't remember anyone taking my blood."

"Probably cuz you get knocked out all the time."

"Okay that's a fair point. Shit, it could be Dusk."

"I doubt it's her. She's more by the books. I couldn't see the Crime Assault Corp using clones of Enhanced. Seems hypocritical for them to do that."