Only Human (9 page)

‘
Uncle, my mother and father? Oh and poor Zak? What has happened to them? Is there any way we can rescue them and bring them here? What has happened to the rest of the clan? Are they safe?’

As I am speaking to him I can see that he has minor burns on his face, his skin is more yellow in colour
, and his eyes are red rimmed, sore, as if he had been crying. What did they do to him? I can feel the flame of anger that I never knew existed within me, begin to inflame my soul, but before I can explode my uncle takes my hand.

‘
Calm yourself child, I am fine; the whereabouts of your parents, Zak, and some of our clan are unknown as yet, but you will be the first to know.’

‘
Some of our clan? Weren’t they all interrogated together? I thought when one member was criminalized or shamed, the rest of us bore the consequences, no exceptions!’

‘
No exceptions, unless certain of our clan members decided to co-operate, and help the Elders find the answers to their questions!’

‘
Gita!!  That big nosed bitch! She was always jealous of mother, I’d like to….’

‘
Aecia! What has happened to your language? Don’t allow recent events to change you into someone hard. That is not you.’

‘
No, it wasn’t but look where that got me? I have to change if I want to survive Uncle, and I want to survive. Yes I do, if only to wreak havoc on the Vampires that have hurt me and the people I love, for simply protecting me. I want them to pay.’

‘
You have a lot to learn.’

‘
Yes I do Uncle, and I want you to teach me, teach me how to kill the Elders and all the other Vampires that have enslaved the Humans. It is disgusting what they have done to us! Sick and barbaric!’

‘
I am Vampire, will you kill me? Your mother and father?  Zak? Your rage is blinding you child. If you seek revenge, then you must dig two graves, for Aecia will die as well as her victim. I will not help you to destroy yourself. I didn’t help Garok to rescue you for that.’

Garok
’s name being brought into the conversation is doing nothing to help the simmering volcano that is my emotional state at the moment.

‘
Garok is a snivelling, lying barbarian and I hate him!’

‘
You would still be at the Clone farm if it wasn’t for him! He came to me, not the other way around. His guardian is one of my colleagues, and part of our rebellion, of which you know nothing about as yet; he overheard my name, he could have been wrong, but he risked his life and asked for my help none-the-less. We hired a truck and broke in during daylight hours to rescue you, and as many as we could fit in the truck.’

‘
But he tricked me Uncle, he gave me to them!’

‘
He hasn’t told you? They had his sister; they threatened to torture her if he didn’t help to capture the children suspected of being human. He was forced to work for them.’

‘
Is that how you received the burns on your face? You were out in the daylight?’

‘
Yes, but don’t sidetrack from the issue of Garok! He is your friend. He is lost and alone, and carries so much guilt for his betrayal of you. He is also in mourning now for the loss of both his guardians and his sister!’

‘
They are dead?’

‘
Yes, they were Vampires and they were burned yesterday at sunrise; an example for all who dare to antagonize the Elders.’

My
uncle is looking at me with a mixture of fear, love and disappointment on his face. He wants the old Aecia back. She is gone forever, but he is right, I want to keep some of the goodness that was there. I don’t want to hate, but I’m just so confused and enraged by everything.

The
Clones have come over, and are sitting as close to my uncle as possible. They adore him, and it is heartwarming to see. Will my heart ever be warm again? I wonder, as I look at them. The one called Number One, (Anne and I plan to teach them their new names this evening), has come to sit next to me, and has linked my arm. She has crossed her legs to mirror how I am sitting. No hatred in her, just gratitude and love. Maybe I could learn something from her, and all the other Clones. I think Amica that I am going to have to try.

Uncle
has left me some writing paper and some pens. Not that I need it, I talk to you, with or without it, but I think it is important to document what is happening to all of us during this time. The world is changing again, and I should be honored to be a part of it. I am, but I am also frightened, and uncertain of the future.

Blast, I didn
’t even ask Uncle where he is hiding out. He must be a wanted man, and what was he saying about a
rebellion
?

Wow! Number One
has picked up a pen and a piece of paper. She is holding it wrong, I’ll just show her the right way. This is immense! She is drawing, trying to copy some of my writing. What if we can teach these Clones to write? Of course we can, we can teach them our language, to read and do maths. They copy everything we do already; they are children, ready to absorb everything we can teach them. This is how it starts! Where’s Anne? We’ve got a lot of work to do!!

24.01.3012

I have had the most fulfilling and purposeful day in my entire life today. Yes, I did say,
day
, and not,
night
, friend. The timetable of my life has done a complete about-turn. My days are in daylight and my nights are at night-time!

Not a spectacular achievement for some, but to me; I am reborn! When I wake I can tell it is morning even with my eyes closed; the light shines through my eyelids and wakes up my brain
, as good as any alarm clock! The zillions of birds I have discovered also play their part in the waking up procedure, their incessant chirping is surprisingly stimulating, and gives an even greater incentive to get out of bed, fill their beaks with bread, and shut them up! I am kidding; I have longed to live among animals, birds, fish, even insects. I want to experience everything the human world has to offer, but it’s just I wouldn’t mind experiencing the birdsong a little bit later than five o’ clock in the morning!

Everything is drenched in colour when you live in daylight. Not just greens, blues and yellows and so on
, but a million other shades within each colour. Each time I blink I open my eyes to myriads of new rainbows and my heart is filled with awe.

It is so bright sometimes that my eyes begin to ache and I have to come into the cave for a while. Anne and the
Clones are even more sensitive to all the changes in our living environment than I am. Anne had never left the basement except when she was put in the Clone farm, and the Clones, well they had never even moved before now! Uncle says our bodies will adapt over time; after all, this is our natural habitat, we were born to live this way.

Oh, speaking
of the Clones, I must tell you the names we have chosen for them.

1.
         
Orianna

2.
        
Leandra

3.
        
Sebastian

4.
        
Baran

5.
        
Lupe

It looks really cold, the way that I have listed them there friend, they are not objects I know. It
’s just easier for me to remember that way as my mind is still sluggish. Each name has a meaning and we have tried to suit the name to the person. For instance, Lupe means wolf and our little Lupe (the smallest female Clone) is ravenous all of the time, and doesn’t have a great many table manners!

Leandra is like a lioness, Baran is a form of star
, and Sebastian, I’m not sure of, but I think Anne just likes the name. I have named Orianna (formerly Number one) and her perfect name means,
sunrise.
I would pat myself on the back for that one, if my arms were long enough friend.

I feel closer to Orianna than to anyone else here, even than to Anne. There is something in me that reaches out to her
, and I presume she feels the same because she barely leaves my side. I haven’t a clue how old she is because it is impossible to judge any of their ages.  They were grown, not born, and who knows how long each of them were being simultaneously fed and drained.

There are no lin
es on her face and she is human; she would age, so I think she might be in her twenties. I am only talking about her physical appearance, in her heart and mind she is a lot younger than I am. She is not stupid though, none of the Clones are, and that makes the way that they were treated by the Vampires even more horrific! They must have been in physical and emotional agony! I can’t dwell on that for too long or I start getting angry and wanting to kill all the Vampires again. I lose myself in burning hate.

Back to Orianna, well another reason for her name is her glorious mane of golden hair. It is exactly the same colour as yours Amica
, but she has deep brown eyes, not blue. Her skin is changing from sickly white to pinky brown, and she is beautiful.

All of the
Clones are very skinny, with very little muscle tone, because they never used their muscles before now. It is amazing how quickly they are adapting, and becoming more mobile as they do. Hunger is a great motivator though and I think their hunt for food has been there greatest incentive.

Their hunger for knowledge has had the same effect and they are learning to speak at twice the speed of a normal child. It is almost as if they know that they need to catch up and have missed out on so much of their life already.

My father was so wrong in his description of them, or maybe he told himself they were incapable of feeling and reasoning, in order to allow him to work on the farm. I don’t blame him, there was nothing else he could do, or his own family wouldn’t have survived. It is a cruel and barbaric system out there and I hope I live long enough to see it all change.

Orianna is sitting next to me at the moment
, and watching as I write to you. For once, she has not picked up a pen to write herself. She is playing with my hair, and combing it this way and that.  She is humming, but not the melody of any song (the Clones haven’t experienced music) it is the birdsong in the morning, that she’s imitating. I have to try not to laugh because it is TERRIBLE! If she had a microphone, I’m sure the cave walls would collapse and bury us all! No, Orianna is not destined to be a singer, bless her.

Anne has prepared us some dinner Amica
, but I will write some more afterwards.  Yum, that was delicious; some kind of vegetable broth with some bread rolls baked by my multi-versatile Uncle. He never ceases to amaze me, and food never ceases to delight me!

I mus
t tell you about the others; Leandra, Sebastian, Baran and Lupe. Sebastian and Baran have become a double act. Maybe they realise that they are the only two here sporting an Adam’s apple, or could they realise that the rest of us have bumps that they don’t possess? Whatever it is, they have decided that they are different, and stand a little way back when the five females occupying the cave come together during mealtimes. I’m sure I would be the same in a cave full of men.

When
Uncle arrives, (which he tries to every night) they practically leap on him, and he devotes much of his time teaching them the language. I think he is already instilling in them their duties to protect all of the weaker females living with them in this cave. I think not Uncle! Just because we are living in a cave does not make us cavemen and women. No-one is dragging us by our hair, and hitting us with clubs if they don’t like their dinner! We are 31
st
century cavewomen and we have rights!

Seriously though
, we all do have to play to our strengths, and if the boys can carry a bigger boulder for a door to keep us safe at night, then carry it they must. We have our own talents.

Going back to tell you about the others Amica
, there is Leandra and Lupe. Leandra is timid; I think she is the oldest Clone out of them all. She must have suffered the most, cocooned in that warehouse, half alive. She sits alone, unless we physically get her, is still very weak, and has little enthusiasm when we try to teach her. I worry about Leandra. Lupe on the other hand, is a bundle of nervous energy. She can’t sit still, is constantly hungry and demands so much attention. It is a relief when she sleeps, and it is a mammoth task to get her to do that small thing! Lupe appears to be the youngest, though I think she is older than me. She has fire in her belly, but she is kind. She is the rocket, that fires us all out to face a new day, and every group needs one of those. I love them all, and I yearn to give them the quality of life they deserve and in doing so, I feel the benefits myself.

Anne is the woman I should feel closest too
, but somehow, I don’t. She has told me little of her life, except for what she divulged when I first regained consciousness. To be fair, I haven’t told her that much about mine. Maybe we are both too damaged to be able to trust one another yet. I don’t know; something doesn’t feel right with her.