Selected

Twenty-Ninth

"Excuse me?"

Mal folded her arms, "They're clones. God, do I have to spell it out for you?"

I needed to sit down somewhere, I found a chair and plopped down into it. Vox and Lincoln were the same person. My love for Vox suddenly grossed me out. If Vox was just a young version of Lincoln, did that mean that I slept with Lincoln Bly?

Oh God. I had to get that image out of my head. I literally shook my head to get rid of the thought. I was just in shock. I thought about the time he snuck me onto the Selection building's roof. There are perks to having my father's eyes. He literally had Lincoln Bly's eyes. This was unreal, I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. I noticed how similar they looked, but I never imagined that they would be the same person.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I just, uh, I need a minute to process all of this. It's kind of a lot to take in." I paused, then the questions started pouring in my head, "How is that possible?"

Her tone turned patronizing, "Well, you see they take a DNA sample of the subject and then-."

I held up my hand, "I know how it's done, I just meant, I mean isn't it illegal?"

Mal rolled her eyes, "Please, do you think a few laws would really stop the Blys from doing what they want?"

She had a point. "Does Vox know?"

"Yeah, he found out when we were like 13, went through a whole existential crisis. He's fine with it now, I mean he understands."

I stood, "Okay, well, make me understand. Why would Mr. Bly do it?"

Mal shrugged, "I don't know, I wasn't privy to those details."

"Well, how did they keep it so hush hush? I mean wouldn't someone notice that Vox wasn't actually born?"

"That's easy, Sixteen. When it was becoming noticeable that she wasn't showing any signs of pregnancy, they sent Mrs. Bly on like 6 month spa vacation in the African Federation. When she came back, she had a baby. With his position, Lincoln was able to just make a record for him."

There was a knock on the door before it opened, "Emmary?" Hal appeared through the doorway, "Oh good, I found you." She noticed who I was with, "Mal?" She looked confused and then ignored it. She was flustered and in a panic, "You two have to see this."

She dashed out the door and we followed her. The music had gone quiet, in fact the whole house was silent except for one man's voice that floated down the hallway. "-under South Congress St., causing the Capitol building to collapse." When we reached the living room, all the guests were gathered around the living room television. There was a quiet awe that encompassed everyone.

"We do not have any more information on the status of the people inside. We do know that the Sector Representative meeting was being held inside this building in Sector 1A. Every representative from around our great nation was gathered for this annual meeting, along with the president and vice president. No deaths have been confirmed, but as you can see from the footage from our helicopter, this is a national disaster and a tragedy that will undoubtedly be a great blow to our country."

The screen changed from the news anchor to what used to be the capitol building. The building was collapsed in on itself. It looked like it had sunk into the ground a few feet as well. Fires were burning all over the scene. Red and blue lights surrounded the perimeter. "This is live footage from the bomb that just went off under the capitol building. As you can see the building as collapsed. The president, vice president, and the sector representatives were inside when the bomb went off. The number of casualties is still unknown, but is expected to be great. This is-."