"Ok class, what have we learned so far today?"
Teacher Two's monotone voice bounced off the tiled walls as he stood by the whiteboard, pointing at the diagrams of family trees.
I looked at my classmate, the only other student in our school. Her brow was furrowed, trying to make sense of the information overload we just endured.
"That we have something in our blood?" I asked, unsure.
I thought I had a basic understanding, though it was kind of confusing. Teacher Two shakes his head.
"Quite the opposite…Your blood is special."
"But I thought our blood was normal?" I asked, desperate for some clarity.
"Precisely. That's what makes it special." He turned back to the whiteboard, flipping it over to reveal the timeline he drew up that morning. The two of us groaned, which the teacher ignored as he restarted the lesson from the beginning.
"Ok kids, listen up. This is the last time I tell you before the quiz, so have your notebooks ready. Event One in the timeline. What is it?"
My classmate perks up, she knows the timeline better than I do.
"World War Four, sir. That caused the 'under-pobulation' crisis." she said proudly, despite mispronouncing 'population'.
"Very good... It's true, there were very few people left in the world after the catastrophic war. Luckily, our trusty government did…what?" He pointed at me, it was my turn to answer.
"They uh…Cloned people?" I asked, hesitantly. It still doesn't sound real. The teacher clapped his hands in triumph.
"Yes! But, what else did they do?" he asked as he pointed to the know-it-all across from me.
"They modified the gened…generic-"
"The genetic sequence! Good try!"
She pouts, frustrated with herself. The teacher ignores her and continues.
"Yes, the twelve government scientists who created the cloning technology found a way to make people who are just a little bit better than normal people. They worked harder for longer, they were nicer to everyone, they were always really good at whatever they wanted to do."
Not like me.
"They were made to rebuild society- and they sure did a great job, because the crisis went away! Normal people started families with cloned people, and had little half-cloned babies, and some of those babies were cloned too! Now, centuries later, everybody you ever meet has at least a tiiiiny bit of modified dna, from somewhere in their family tree."
It was a lot to take in, no matter how many times I heard it. Everybody has that clone stuff in their blood? At least a little bit.
"But not us two, right?" I asked. "That's why we were brought here?"
Teacher Two clapped and pointed at me emphatically.
"Precisely! Like I said, your blood is special because it's normal… Not a single clone in your family tree! And how do we know that kids?"
Her bright blue eyes light up, "Our eyes!"
"That's right, an easy way to tell if someone has zero cloned DNA is if their eyes are blue. None of the original clones had blue eyes." He pointed to the eye colour chart on the wall, I still didn't fully get it.
"But can't there be normal people with brown eyes as well?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, of course, as long as there are no traces of cloned DNA in their system. They are just extremely rare, and much harder to find because they blend in with society. Lucky for us, blue eyes are an easy guarantee that the person is clone-free."
I looked at the girl across from me, she shot me a look that tells me it was a dumb question. Maybe to her, at least. I thought it was pretty smart to ask.
My head was starting to hurt, but the teacher moved us further down the timeline.
"Which brings us to why we had to bring you guys here…can anyone tell me?" he asked, as he turned back to face the lonely class of two children who were taken from their parents.
"Because our blood can save everybody?" asked the brave little girl.
"Because the clones are bad," I added.
The teacher nods solemnly, "Correct. After so many generations, the cloned DNA was being more and more diluted. That means there was less and less in each new person, and the cloned DNA… got scared. It started to mutate, trying to keep itself alive."
"And now all the clones are being bad?" I asked.
"Not all of them…not yet…But the bad clones are popping up more and more. They were made to be model citizens, the best a person can be. Now some are mutating to simply survive…by any means necessary. Some of the scariest people you will ever meet." The teacher was putting it nicely, to say the least.
"I'm not scared." the girl chirped, arms folded in defiance.
"You totally are!" I teased, giggling at my incredible one-liner that absolutely destroyed her. She sticks her tongue out at me in retaliation.
"Enough!" The teacher snapped, causing us both to sit straight in our chairs. I didn't want to make them mad again.
"Sorry, sir."
"...Good. You will both be tested on this tomorrow. Now head to your rooms, we will be taking more blood shortly-"
"Not again" groans the girl. She hated all the needles.
"-yes again. We are doing important work, and you two hold the keys to saving all those people out there. Without a way to stop the blood from mutating, the last of humanity will tear themselves apart. You don't want that, do you?"
Our blue eyes meet, guilty and terrified.
"No, sir" we said together.
"Good. Class dismissed"
Many years passed in that facility, and the testing we endured slowly escalated. History quizzes turned into brainwashing experiments. Blood tests became pain tolerance tests. We were told they were making an airborne vaccine with our blood, and that all the data they were gathering was completely necessary. It sure didn't feel like it. When we both turned 18, they prepared us to re-enter society. We were extremely educated for our age, and taught a variety of high value skills for the workplace by the government's finest professors. The only thing we needed in order to blend in with the general population was brown eyes.
I don't know why they needed to surgically replace them. We could have just worn contacts, we knew how important it was to avoid unnecessary questions. I guess they didn't want to take the chance. Or maybe they were just collecting rare parts.
All I know is they won't take our baby, I won't let them hurt her.
Need to get her somewhere safe, away from the eyes of the government.
The Doctor knows, He's going to help us.