Eternal Life Inc. Read Free

side, sliding in and out of the fog. They looked like tumbling, fluttering, black rags, without any distinctive shape, but full of dark menace.
    He wondered about them. They first appeared two deaths ago. At first, one or two hung on the periphery of his awareness so that he wasn’t even sure they were there. But last time, they had gathered in a pack, following him at a distance. Now, they paced him on either side. He could make out six, maybe seven. Slowly, they closed in. The sense of dark menace grew. In front of him, he saw the fog begin to glow with the sputtering, blue fire surrounding the spin-generators at Eternal Life. By now, their distant whine had risen to a high-frequency shriek. If he could just make it there, he would be safe.
    Suddenly, one of the black forms put on a burst of speed and broke from the pack. As it drew closer, it lost its fluttering, ragbag appearance and grew sharp teeth that snapped at him out of a feral, pointed face. Yellow claws slashed and tore inches away. Harry’s ka flared with energy as he pushed his awareness towards the spin-generator, letting it pull him in faster and faster. It loomed beneath him like a massive black hole surrounded by an event horizon of crawling blue flames.
    The pack snapped and snarled at his heels. As they closed in, they took on the forms of huge black wolves, their eyes burning with a terrible, inhuman intelligence. Harry fell through the event horizon of cold, blue fire. He was almost home-free when the lead wolf leapt at him. Its claws raked a trail of darknessthrough the flaring back of his ka. Harry screamed in agony and tried to shake it off. He could feel it trying to claw its way in, trying to become him.
    The impact of the attack started his ka tumbling. In desperation, he exaggerated the motion, whirling faster and faster like a top. He felt the claws tear free one by one until finally the thing lost its grip and centrifugal force hurled it away, shrieking with frustration. Moments later, he dropped through the black hole of the spin-generator positioned over his cloned body. Automatically, the machinery shut down, and Harry sank into and became once again flesh.
    His first sense was always a feeling of suffocating heaviness, of being trapped inside thick meat. It was never a pleasant feeling; but this time, he was grateful for the secure solidity of flesh. It was like slamming a solid oak door in the face of a ravening wolf pack. He could almost feel them snuffling and scratching at the edges of his ka. He let it sink deeper into flesh; felt the slow push of blood through arteries, the heavy rise and fall of lungs as they sucked in air. He began feeling all the minor aches and pains that usually hide just under the threshold of consciousness.
    Suddenly, he felt a terrible, searing pain rake across his back as if a memory ghost of the attack finally caught up with him and ripped its mark in his flesh. His eyes bulged open; his body convulsed, and he screamed in fear and pain. Foamy amniotic fluid sloshed over the edges of the glass cloning tank he floated in. He tried to force himself up and away, ripping through the maze of plastic life-support tubes and electrode monitor wires. His only thought was to escape the nameless terror that had set its claws in him. Firm hands tried to hold him down as he struggled to clamber out of the tank.
    “Harry! Harry, now take it easy!” He heard someone say, but he couldn’t see who it was. He blinked his eyes trying to clear them of amniotic fluid. His breath was coming in harsh gasps.
    “Harry, it’s me, Doc Jericho. You know me, Harry. Now just take it easy.”
    The familiar voice of the old man cut through the clawing panic. Harry blinked his eyes again. The concerned, bespectacled face of his old friend swam into view. Jericho made a point of being on hand whenever Harry resurrected. He was always a reassuring sight, and Harry felt himself calming down. He looked around wonderingly at the clean,