Echo

Mark looked at the cultivation tank. The boy inside was a bit younger than him, he had a long black hair, skinny arms and legs, almost no extra fat on his body, his face was perfectly clean without any marks or acne that would be common to people his age, he had long eyes and a small nose and if it was not for his junior's presence announcing his gender, Mark could easily mistake the boy for a girl.

(Good God, this is such a cheat, not only a pretty face but his tool is bigger than mine!)

As Mark looked back at the boy's face he couldn't help but gasp in surprise as the boy's eyes suddenly opened and looked directly at him.

"What!? You...are awake!?"

Mark suddenly felt a strange feeling of something connecting. It was a strange feeling as if he suddenly could feel, hear and see what another person was feeling and thinking. It was as if he had suddenly control of two different bodies at the same time. He tried moving his hand and the boy in the tank moved his hand as well, he tried moving his leg and the boy in the tank copied his exact movements.

(Puppet? They are making...puppets!? No! This is wrong! Stop mimicking me!!!)

His mind strongly rejected the feeling, creating a wall that divided himself from the other boy in the tank, but the connection had already been made and it seemed impossible to completely cut it out, part of his feelings and memories had flown to the puppet and while they were unable to create a whole copy of himself, they were just enough to serve as a basis for the creation of it's own individuality.

(Should I try talking to him?)

"What!?"

As soon as Mark gave form to his thought, forming words and then a phrase, it was like this phrase had been transmited and rebounded back to him in someone else's voice. Feeling quite surprised by the voice, Mark couldn't help but question in his mind.

(Is this guy reading my mind?)

(So you ARE reading my mind!)

Comproving his theory, the voice echoed again, repeating his exact words. Understanding what was happening, Mark decided to try communicating with the boy on the cultivation tank to see if he could learn anything at all.

(I am Mark. Who are you?)

(No, you are not, I am Mark.)

(Haaa....This sounds sily as hell...)

(You are you. I am me.)

His first attempts resulted in simple echoes. His thoughts were transmitted to the boy in the tank and reflected back to him. Their conversation was silly, to not say stupid. Mark felt like he went back to the time when he was a kid and they played imitating others just to make them mad.

Even so Mark didn't stop trying, as the two continued to talk through their minds, little by little Mark's knowledge was being transmitted to the boy in the tank and added to his individuality, at some point the boy in the tank started forming a conscience of his own and finally different answers started coming out of the boy's head.

(You don't have a name?)

(I don't have a name.)

(Then I will give you a name, from now on your name is Echo.)

(From now on, my name is Echo.)

(Wait a bit Echo, I will get you out of here.)

(Yes.)

Nodding to the boy in the tank, Mark installed a new monitor on the computer linked to the tank. The screen that appeared was asking for a password.

(Fuck! What now?)

(??)

(I was just thinking to myself, ignore me.)

Mark tried a few words, looked for a password on the table, smached the keyboard hard and even prayed to god for a revelation but unfortunately nothing worked out and the password box kept blocking him from having any access to the system to unlock the tank.

(Since the peaceful way doesn't work, let's try the hard way. Echo, position yourself to the side of the tank. Don't forget to protect your head.)

But Echo didn't move.

(...Echo, stop ignoring me and do what I said!)

Echo nodded his head and positioned himself on the side of the tank.

First Mark tried breaking the tank with a rifle's back part, but the strikes didn't even leave a mark on the glass.

Then Mark lifted a chair and tried swinging it against the glass. It was a foolish and risky move based on the Hollywood movies that would end up hurting Echo if he succeeded in breaking the glass, but luckily the results were still the same.

Finally, taking the rifle back on his hands, Mark aimed at the empty side of the tank and shot.

Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!

As expected the tank's glass was strong enough to resist some impact but it was still far from enough to resist a rifle's bullet. The glass shattered in little pieces as the bullets broke through it, the green water escaped the tank and spread all over the place and Echo was almost thrown out but because he was prepared he was able to hold himself close to the other side and not fall from the tank.

"Ehh....sorry? Anyway, Echo, put some clothes, grab a rifle, see if you can find more people who are still alive and free them from the tanks."

(Yes.)

After helping Echo get out of the broken cultivation tank, Mark walked to the next tank but as soon as he saw the boy inside he got surprised by how similar he looked to Echo. Mark couldn't help but compare the two by looking back and forth and his conclusion was that they was as identical as identical twins. Then he started paying attention and saw that all boys in the tank were identical aside from maybe the growth stage.

(Twins? No, these are clones. God damn it. Did I get transported to S.W. and I'm now in the middle of the clone wars?)

Mark joked at the thought but looking at the situation around him, the chances that something similar was happening were quite big.

(These guys must be watching too many movies. What the hell are they thinking!? How will the media react once such a thing is discovered!? I can already imagine the headlines!)

(Headlines?)

(Oh, sorry boy, I was thinking to myself just now.)

Before he noticed, Mark had already made the mental connection to the boy in front of him and the boy was already assimilating his knowledge to use as his own, and maybe because this was not the first time, or because of the shared connection to Echo, the whole process was made faster than before and completely automatized.

(Step aside boy, I'm gonna shot the tank to free you from it.)

The boy inside the tank nodded and did as asked. After a round of shoots another boy was freed from the cultivation tank.

"Boy, you got a name?"

(No)

"That's what I thought.... Look, I don't have time to name all of you here, I will just number you and we can think of a name once we got out, understood?"

The boy nodded his head in agreement.

"Great, then you are number two. Go put some clothes and grab yourself a weapon."

As Mark pointed at the guard's corpse on the ground, he saw the other naked guard whose clothes had been taken by Echo.

(What!?)

Instantly noticing the similarities between this guard and the one before, he takes out the scientist robe that was covering him to check him again.

(They are also identical!)

Then, comparing Echo and number two with the dead guard...

(Fuck! I am really in some kind of clone war!!!)

While surprised by his discovery, Mark didn't allow himself to stay stunned for long and went back to the tanks to free more people.

(Clone war or not, those people are still people, they deserve a chance to live! And the more allies I have with me, the easier it should be to escape!)

As three worked together to free more people from the tanks, more and more people joined their group, multiplying their speed by multiple times and soon all teenagers had been freed and what was left were only the children who Mark was unable to connect with.

(Damn, what do we do now? These children are not even waking up... Should I still break the tanks and take them out? Or should I leave them here?)

The thought of abandoning the little children crossed his mind for but a second. He knew taking the children would make getting out of there a lot harder and riskier but the thought of leaving them to an unknown fate which could be worse than death just to save his own skin made him want to vomit in disgust of himself.

(Let's at least save as many as we can...)

Mark aimed his rifle at the tank's empty side and freed the kid inside. As the water escaped the tank, the child's body fell out, being taken by the strong water flow. Mark already expected that and grabbed the boy to ensure he didn't get hurt.

"Hey kid. Wake up!"

Shaking the kid a little, the kid woke up and looked at him with dead eyes like a doll.

"Can you hear me? Are you hurt anywhere?"

Mark tried transmitting his thoughts but the little kid didn't answer at all.

(Is there something wrong with him? No, maybe whatever they do to put knowledge in their brains was not done to these kids yet. Damn, this is a problem. If he at least acted like a normal kid it would give me some peace of mind, but having him act like a doll will bring countless problems in the future ahead when we go back to society...)

"Hehehe, who am I kidding? I don't even know if we will be able to get out of here alive and I'm already thinking about the problems that could happen later after we succeed."

Ridiculing his own thoughts, Mark shook his head and focused on freeing the other kids.

(Echo, you and the numbers go find some cloth, rope or whatever to tie each kid on each of your backs so you don't have to carry them on your own hands.)

(Yes)

Echo's answers was short and simple but his actions were anything but. Grabbing the scientist's cloaks, he used the knife from a dead soldier to cut it in strips and then tied them in a complicated way making a child seat that could be tied to their back like a backpack.

Seeing his actions, Mark couldn't help but praise him.

"Well done, Echo! You got talent!"

(Thank you.)

Echo answered while keeping his deadpan face that didn't leak a single bit of his emotions.

"You can smile now, you know?"

(Smile?)

"Ah... forget it. Let's leave it for when we are out of here."

(Understood.)

"And please use your voice to answer me."

(Too troublesome.)

Hearing his answer Mark couldn't help but laugh.

"Hahahaha. Echo, you are lazy in the oddest things!"

15 minutes had passed since the last group of invaders arrived, the sound of battle outside was getting less and less frequent, Mark felt that time was running out, so he decided it was time to split in multiple groups to start searching for a escape route.

(Numbers 2 to 6, spread out and look an exit. We don't know the maximum distance we are able to talk to each other so it's best if you don't go too far, if you feel you are losing the connection, retreat immediately and if you find trouble, make sure to ask help from the ones closest to you.)

(Understood!)

(As for all others, keep releasing the children!)

(Yes!)

Actually Mark wanted to send out more people, but the number of rifles and guns was limited, so he left half of them go and the other half would stay to defend the group until their return.

Mark kept working on freeing the children when his work was suddenly interrupted by the thoughts transmitted by their mind network. Stopping what he was doing, Mark ran as fast as he could to where the one sending him the message was.

"Echo, stay with everyone here and keep freeing the children, if I don't come back in 10 minutes lead everybody and find a way to escape even if you have to go without me!"

Not surprised by Mark's sudden action, Echo simply nodded and continued to work.

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