The reprisal women (ONC 2022)

Chapter Six

Jason could barely get the keys out of his pocket. It wasn't every day that you find out that your former girlfriend is probably one of many clones. Not born from a laboratory, because of course, that would make too much sense, but from some sick kind of ... birth? Mitosis, the scientists would call it. As if it makes him feel any better about his dire predicament. 

"You really sure we should stick with him?" another of those voices said out. Who was it from again? Marie... Sally. Those girls really took a dent in his already fractured mind. How many names must he memorize?

"I've already said. We can trust him, Sally," Marie replied back, who had just gotten into the passenger front seat of his car. At least Marie sounded much more coherent among the girls. The two of them whom Jason saw split merely hugged each other, their bodies shivering as they closed their eyes. Jason probably never heard a word from those two alone, as he got into the car silently.

He saw his sedan being stored away, as one by one, the Tatianas all went inside the white SUV. He gritted his teeth as he forced himself to the driver's seat. "You sure my car will be taken care of?" Jason added in.

"I already said, your car is fine," Marie said affirmatively. Her voice, despite sounding exactly the same as her sisters, is distinctive to Jason's ear, as hers was very commanding as it admittedly appeals to his militaristic nature. "Are you?" she then asked.

"I guess so," Jason slammed the car door. Two quick, sudden gasps were heard from behind, as Jason saw the two split girls shivering with each other.

"Could you be quieter, damn it!?" Marie hissed at Jason. "When we split, it takes time to adjust to our body functions."

Jason shook it off, he had enough trouble as it is. A far cry from Tatiana of course. The latter would never be so quick to raise her voice at him. Jason had to remind himself again that he was not talking to Tatiana, or rather an army of Tatianas. No... Tatiana was not here anymore. Just a bunch of women who shared her face. 

"Alright..." Jason sighed as he simply nod at her. "No shouting got it," 

And in an almost scripted way, his flip phone suddenly rang all of a sudden. As soon as Jason saw Natalie's name, he almost cursed as he whacked the steering wheel hard. 

"Is it your wife?" Marie asked.

"Yup, and she's definitely pissed, no doubt," Jason replied as he could barely bring himself to press the "accept" button. Jason shrugged as he placed the phone slightly nearer to his ear.

"Jason... where are you?" Natalie's voice said, Jason stared blankly at thin air, trying to come up with a proper excuse. 

"I... uh..."

"What does that mean?" Natalie said, not taking that as a joke. Jason sweated nervously, not to mention that Marie was already looking at him, her green eyes distracting him all too well. Jason took a few moments of silence, as he wasn't very imaginative in coming up with excuses.

"Well, Jason?"

Just then, a soft gasp could be heard. Two soft gasps actually, that sounded like one. Jason looked behind, as the two copies kept coughing. "Amber, can you take the blanket and cover them?" Marie said as the 'Tatiana' at the back got the blanket at the trunk, covering the two newly split copies.

"What's that noise?" Natalie asked as Jason widened his eyes frantically. 

"Uhh... remember Tatiana..."

"Marie, what do we do?" Sally said to Marie without any form of discretion. It didn't help that her voice was all too similar to 'Tatiana'. 

"Is Tatiana with you?" Natalie's buffered voice was raised as Jason nearly dropped his phone. "Why is she with you, Jason?" 

"Can you keep your voice down?" Marie whispered to Sally. Except that Jason knows that Natalie could still hear that too. 

"Did she just tell me to keep my voice down?" Natalie replied back sharply. "You tell that woman she can shove her words up her..."

"No, she didn't!" Jason raised his voice, perhaps too high to Natalie. It wasn't every day that he raises his voice at Natalie, which predictably, led to her belief that he was up to something.

"Jason... what are you doing with her?" Natalie's voice said in a deadpan tone. Jason felt the urge to crumple the phone but is rather too tired to even give a damn at this point. The revelation was already too hard to bear with. 

"Jason... I am talking to..."

Jason pressed the red button on the phone, as he chucked it to the side. He breathed in heavily several times. He had enough as it is. He didn't even care that Natalie would give him hell for this. This whole charade was truly getting him insane. The starting of the engine was barely noticed by him, as the car gently went off from the bar.

"Alright..." Jason muttered under his breath. He looked around to see the five clones still sitting down, their eyes closed with their mouths shut. It was like that for five minutes since he started up the car. And the silence was already making him sick.

Jason swerved the car to the right lane. They were only a few miles away from the city, thus when Jason pulled out a gun, no one else could stop him. 

"What are you doing?" Marie yelped in a staccato manner.

"Who the hell are you all?" Jason said angrily, but also weakly. He put his safety on, but know that the girls wouldn't realize that. Jason could hear the girls gasping in shock, as he could see their reactions from the mirror alone.

"Jason... calm down..."

"You expect me to calm down?" Jason replied bluntly. "If you're gonna drag me into your mess... at least give me your names," 

The identical girls looked at each other, their fingers trembling as they did not know whether to answer or not. 

"My name is Marie..."

"I know that," Jason gestured with his gun to the girl at the front seat. "You! The one sitting on the left! What's your name?"

"Sally, why the hell would you care?" the girl sitting on the left who looked terribly scared by him replied. Jason then turned his head to the backseat, still seeing that there were three more left.

"You! What's your name?" Jason demanded to the girl caressing the split copy's hair. Her eyes merely stared at his. But this time, Jason had enough of those eyes.

"Give me your name, damn it!"

"She can't speak!" Sally cried out. Jason looked at the left, as the girl on the right snapped her fingers at him. 

"Her name is Amber," Marie added in. "I don't know why, but her tongue didn't split off properly,"

Jason cringed at the thought of her non-existent tongue. Amber merely sat there, still staring at him with her green, charming eyes. Exactly what Tatiana would do. 

"My name's Kara," the girl at the second row said as she raised her hand. Jason saw as she has already woken up. Her body-calming herself after she just split. Jason then saw the new clone, who is still shivering.

"I take that she doesn't have a name yet?" Jason said as she coughed out a bit. 

"It takes time for a new copy to get used to their senses. It's the older one that gives the name," Marie said back, her voice much softer. "How is she, Kara?" 

"She's... warm," Kara said, as she adjusted the new copy's head to her shoulder. Kara's eyes grew a tear as her own face soothed her mind. 

"Lara... that's her name," Kara whispered as she smoothly hugged her. Jason then put down the handbrake as he shook off his worries for a while. At least he knew their names. 

"Satisfied now?" Marie asked, her eyes tired and seeking a feeling of temporary peace. 

"For now," Jason replied.