Enemy Chapter Sixteen
Enemy Me
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter Sixteen
“Pearl. I want to be known as Pearl.” Strawberry Blond Pete said.
The image of Strawberry Blond Pete displayed ‘Pearl’ as the caption.
Kent asked, “Anyone else?”
Pete Seven said, “Call me Megan.” Her new name appeared under her picture.
LP Pete cleared his throat. “Marty for me.”
“Morgan. Call me Morgan.” Black Pete said.
“Jackie,” Asian Pete said.
Everyone in the room turned and looked at Jackie.
Barbara said, “What’s wrong with Jackie?”
Everyone laughed.
Kent said, “Umm, dude. As in Jackie Chan?”
Jackie smiled and shrugged. “Jet would have been too obvious and Bruce . . .”
Tall Pete yelled, “. . . is my choice.”
Jackie continued, “Which is better than Morgan Freeman!”
Morgan replied, “Or Marty McFly!”
More laughter.
New names appeared under each picture until only two Petes, the teenagers, were left?
Both looked up. They had been whispering between the two. Teenager Male looked at Teenager Female. “Me, or you?”
Teenager Female said, “Sequenced.”
He nodded, took a deep breath, and said in German accented English, “Hi, my name is Hans.”
“And, I’m Gretel.” She said in an equally bad German accent.
Kent face palmed himself while everyone laughed.
Marty turned to Kent, “So Father . . .”
Kent interrupted, “of which I’m not sure I like.”
Pearl said, “No choice, Father.”
Kent groaned.
Gretel spoke up, “Okay, we’ll only call you Father in private . . .”
“Except for Gretel and myself, “Hans said. “We can get away with it.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Kent gave in. Then he laughed. It was slow at first. One hardly realized he had been laughing, then it crescendo rather quickly.
Becky cocked her head. “What’s so funny?”
Kent took a deep breath and relaxed. His eyes watered as he smiled.
Becky asked, “And?”
He looked up and over to Pearl.
She smiled and said, “Mother.”
Becky smiled, “I’m a lot younger than you think.”
“Oh?” Kent said. He scrunched his face up and thought hard. “Becky, I don’t know how old you are. Now that is odd. Didn’t George know?”
She answered, her grin turned sly, “I needed to keep some secrets.”
Brunette Pete, now named Carrie, said, “Guys, guys. The plan?”
Kent nodded. “George had worked out a plan years ago, but he only wanted to do it as a last resort. In a way, he didn’t want to wake you guys up. He . . .”
“Why?” Jackie said.
“Do I really have to explain?”
Jackie thought about it. “I suppose not. We are not what we expected to be. I’m warming up to the idea of not being Middle Asian . . . I guess.” He frowned. “No, I’m not warming up to the idea. As a matter of fact, I’m mad as hell. Pete fucked us in one way or another. This face I see in the mirror is not me.”
Morgan nodded, “I agree. I think we all agree. How in the hell am I supposed to act?” He suddenly looked exasperated. “I’m black. And I have a whole lot of baggage I’m not ready to deal with.”
Pearl said, “Deal with? Not ready? At least you are still male.” She stood up. “What about us?” She gestured toward the three women next to her and over to Gretel. “You want a life event change? Wake up a girl.” She sat down.
Gretel said, “Wake up a girl in her teens. What do we know about being female? You guys can fake it pretty easy. When I last went to the restroom I stood frozen for several minutes wondering how am I going to pee? Sit down you say? I got too many programmed years of standing up. How long will it take for me to realize standing up in a restroom is not an easy option? How long will it take for me to automatically wipe away instead of toward? And, dear God, what happens when I have a period? Cry me a river, huh? I’m with George. I got no choice, but damn, this day-dream is really a nightmare with the lights on.”
The room fell silent.
Kent nodded, sighed, and said, “I got a chuck of George’s memories. That part is strong. He really thought Pete Prime was a mothafucker for doing this. I agree. And, I have to say I am fortunate. I am still white. But I also had to learn that white is no longer an advantage in the World. In 2031 whites became a minority in America. And what a slap to the face that had been. One day we’re a top, the next we’re a reluctant forced bottom. White was no longer right. That was about several years of cold water in the face wake up. So, I got my own adjustments to do. Not nearly as rough as everyone else, of course, in this room, but I do get it. And, that’s the bleed out. But we do have the option to settle the score with the big picture now . . .” He stabbed his right-hand index finger toward the ground, “and later we can deal with the personal traumas.”
Bruce asked, “Father, we hear you . . . I hear you. What do we do?”
Kent looked around the room. Sullen and determined faces looked back. “After we do this, success or failure, we walk away.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Absolutely really. This is the last stand, but it doesn’t have to be in a blaze of muzzle flashes. We do it and we move on. How many of you want to spend a short life fighting a behemoth?”
No one said anything.
“I don’t want to die. And, I think that comes from the fact that they’ll never be another Pete look-alike again. You guys are proof of that. George saved his memory. He knew I would awaken and would source his memory. He knew there was another him coming. I don’t have that luxury. Everyone that matters is awake now.”
“The Big guy?” Marty offered.
Kent replied, “Is Doo-Ma-Uck-Up-Ge-Don.” He shook his head. “He scares me and that’s the option I don’t think I ever want to pick.”
“We can’t picket Alpha’s building . . . wait. Do they even picket these days?”
Becky said, “It’s still allowed, but you need a special permit.”
Marty continued, “We can’t picket Alpha’s building with signs saying evil monster.”
Kent replied, “We can but we can do something better.”
“Like what?” Morgan asked.
Kent smiled. “Think about it. We all have the same base gene.”
The room remained quiet for a moment.
Pearl laughed out loud.
Kent said, “That’s one. Who else?”
Marty looked around the room. All his brothers and sisters were in deep thought. Kent said, ‘. . . same base gene’. Marty repeated the phrase a dozen times in his head. They were all related . . . but the world didn’t know that. How could they? He smiled and laughed out loud.
Bruce noted that half his brothers and sisters laughed and giggled. How easily they figured it out . . . maybe? He knew what Transgenetics did. So, what was the connection? Same gene base meant related, yet how would the world know they were related by a common gene? We have the same last name . . . ha! The world doesn’t know that he thought. Early experiments and unofficial trials? That would be unethical! He looked Kent in the eye. Kent smiled and nodded. Silently he mouthed, “You figured it out?” Bruce nodded and gave the biggest smile he could muster. The world would see Forever Life as unethical, careless, and callous. Profit and greed above public safety interest. Unsanctioned early human trials. How many laws would that have broken? Maybe the uckin’ bastard Pete Prime had figured it out early or he was one goddam lucky sumbitch. Brilliant!
Kent said, “Transgenetics is entering human trials. George figured we can expose TransG as evil just by presenting ourselves as early clandestine drug recipients.” He let that linger in the air.
Marty stood up, “Wait, what? We expose ourselves? Are you saying . . . wait . . . I get it. DNA testing could show that our DNA had been “altered” to a common DNA and . . .”
Jackie stood up, “. . . exposes humans to eventual inbreeding . . .”
Megan said, “. . . in the very near future.”
The group spontaneously started laughing.
Becky cringed. They all had the same type of laugh. Every one of them. Uck! No, that was double uck and then some.