Remainder Read Free Page A

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Chapter Three
     
    The next morning, I am too anxious to eat. My breakfast wasn’t delivered by Alden, but by a thin mousy-looking girl instead. I hope Alden didn’t get in trouble by that guy he called Roderick. My door opens and a tall man dressed in all black military garb with a gun holstered to his side walks in. He is young, probably in his mid-twenties, with dark brown hair and light brown eyes. His long hooked nose and thin lips don’t make him look pleasant. The stern look on his face makes him appear to be unapproachable. He stands straight and tall, as if he is trying to be intimidating on purpose.
    “Time to go,” he says with authority and I recognize his voice. He is Roderick.
    I walk outside of the room into the hallway and see more people in red, like me. Most of them cast their eyes down, probably terrified of making eye contact with Roderick. There are more men dressed like Roderick with guns holstered to their sides. No one speaks. The silence is almost too much to bear until Roderick breaks it.
    “Listen up everyone,” Roderick demands. “Follow me and don’t say a word.” He looks at me with cold eyes.
    “Not one word.”
    It is a short walk down a couple of hallways until we reach a door. Roderick opens it and leads us into a room that looks like an auditorium with stadium seating.
    “Everyone file into the first three center rows,” says Roderick.
    We all obey and file into the seats. Scanning the people around me, I can tell there are about thirty of us. I am sitting on the second row in the center and have a good view of the stage in front of us. A single table and chair occupy the large stage and a large white curtain, spanning the length of the stage, sits behind the table. I eye the nape of the boy’s neck who sits in front of me, thankful for his short hair. I lean in a little closer to really look at the brand that decorates his neck and mine. The brand is a simple “s” shape that is slightly diagonal. It is big enough that one could see it from a distance, however, not too big that is spans the length of the entire neck.
    “Hi. I guess you are new here too,” speaks a sweet voice beside me. The girl sitting next to me has a pleasant smile and hopeful eyes. She’s attractive with long light brown waves that match the color of her eyes.
    “Yeah, I guess I am,” I respond, not sure of what to say.
    “I would tell you my name if I could remember it,” she says and then laughs nervously. I laugh too. I appreciate what she is trying to do. She is attempting to keep the mood light, although, from the way her beautiful face contorts, I can see that she is just as uncertain as I am.
    We hear the sound of a door opening and then slamming shut. Dr. Kendall walks up to the front of the room and climbs the stairs, her heels clanking with each step.
    “Good morning everyone and welcome to Training Day,” says Dr. Kendall like she is ready to get down to business. Without missing a beat, she continues.
    “Fifty years ago a deadly disease wiped out the majority of the world’s population. In order to preserve the human race, the survivors of our city, the ones who remained, discovered a way to help heal the population and future generations. The Remainders, as we like to call them, brought us out of the darkness and into the light. They created a new world for us to prosper...to survive. Identical human genetic reproduction, or cloning, was and is the solution." Dr. Kendall speaks without faltering, like she has said this same thing a thousand times before. She scans the room, looking at each one of us. I guess she is studying us to see our reactions. Just like a scientist, always studying everything. She continues.
    “You are all clones and the person of whom you are a copy is your pure blood. For the past eighteen years, you have been in a cryogenic sleep. That is why you have no memories before the present. You