Will to Survive

Switching Parties

The next day, Mike called the party to the park to talk. He and El had talked it over and they decided to tell the rest of the party, especially with new information from Robin. The rest of the party needed to know what was going on before they trusted Evelyn too much. He also told Nancy and Jonathan to come too so they could have more teenagers knowing.

The party, plus Nancy, Jonathan, and Reyna, all met up at the park and sat down in the field. Keelan had joined them as well, along with Delilah. They had no idea what Mike had called them for, but they were all curious.

"So, Uh, you guys know Evelyn right?" Mike began. Everyone nodded, but Delilah was concerned by the question. Had she been found out by the others? "El, Reyna, and I think she's an evil experiment from the lab," Mike told them. Then he went on to explain everything, with El and Reyna adding in some details. Delilah cursed Evelyn in her head. She was warned to wear long sleeves or something to cover up her tattoo. She disobeyed orders, and now the plan wasn't going to work.

Delilah was surprised when she noticed Dustin looking angry. "Seriously Mike?!" He yelled. "You really don't like any girls who join our party. First Max, who did nothing to you and you excluded her from the party, and now Evelyn, who has also never done anything to you and now you, El, and Reyna make up all this bullshit!" He said.

"Dustin, we're not making this up! You can see her tattoo on her arm!" El said, defending her boyfriend. "Friends don't lie. You know that." She added in. 

Lucas looked over at his angry friend. "I have to believe them too. I saw a marking on her arm too, but I thought it was just my imagination," he said. "If Mike, El, and Reyna saw a tattoo, then there's no way that can be a lie."

Max nodded in agreement. "Dustin, we all know you like her. But you have to believe them. Why would they, especially El, lie about something like that?" She told her friend.

Dustin shook his head at all of them. This whole thing pissed him off and was unbelievable to him. "From what you guys said, the experiments went from 001 to 012, 001 being Damien and 012 being Max. There were no others in that shitty lab. How could there be a 015 if it only went up to 012?!" He said.

"We don't know, Dustin," Reyna said as calm as she could. "That's what we're trying to figure out. If Evelyn is planning something evil, then its the end of the world as we know it. And what if there's more experiments like her? She was obviously talking to someone when El saw her with a wallow talkie. And with these devices that Robin told us about, then something could be happening again."

This worried Delilah deeply. They were going to figure out everything that they were going to do. She tried to not let her worry show as she listened in to the whole conversation. She couldn't tell Quinn about this though. Evelyn would be punished brutally, or maybe even mortally. Delilah wanted to follow through on this plan, but she wasn't the type of person to let a child die, even if they were a clone. In fact, did she even want to follow through on the plan? She was growing to like everyone who she had met and saw that the town was just a small town. The only bad people were the ones who had created her and the others. 

Dustin had stormed off, leaving the other party members. He was frustrated with them because this whole thing was over, whether they liked it or not. There was no way that Dr Brenner's project was around because they had managed to shut it down. Why would Evelyn be evil anyway? She was so nice to him and he started liking her. A lot. Just like how he did with Max before she chose Lucas over him, but maybe even more. He just couldn't believe that his friends would want to ruin his chances with her.

"Hey, you okay?" A voice asked him. Dustin looked over and saw Evelyn coming up to him. "You look upset."

"Hey Evelyn. It's just my friends being really annoying. It's nothing, we get into fights a lot and then we end up making up," Dustin told her. He didn't want to tell her about what the party had said about her. It would make her feel unwelcome and he didn't want her feeling that way. 

Evelyn smiled at him. "While you cool off, maybe we can hang out? Go to Starcourt mall and just hang out at Scoops Ahoy?" She asked him.

Dustin smiled back at her and nodded. "Sure. I'd love to."

...

After the party discussed Evelyn some more, they had all gone their separate ways. Keelan and Delilah were walking together out of the park. They had become fast friends quickly and they liked hanging out with each other. And it wasn't just Delilah spying on her either from Quinn's orders. She genuinely liked Keelan and liked hanging out with her.

"Hey, Delilah, I noticed that you looked a bit weirded out during that conversation," Keelan said. "Why's that?"

Delilah sighed. "It's nothing really. I'm fine," she said. Truth is, she wanted to tell Keelan everything. But that would cost her whole life and Keelan's life. She wasn't supposed to tell anyone anything about where she came from. But Keelan was different. Delilah didn't know how, but she just was.

"Okay, I'm lying. Follow me," Delilah said. She lead Keelan into an alleyway in the town and they went up against the wall. Then she lifted up her sleeve, showing her a 003 tattoo on her left arm. Keelan's eyes widened as she rolled up her sleeve to reveal her own 007 tattoo. The two girls looked at each other in shock. "You're like me too?"

"I am, I guess," Keelan said, still in surprise. "I escaped a few months ago with the help of my friends. But, I thought 003 died during an experiment? I saw her die since I was in the room when it happened." She asked her in confusion. 

"I'm a clone of 003," Delilah told her. "I have her DNA in me, and the same powers as her. Mind manipulation. She died when she had to go across the world to read the mind of a Russian, right? And you were in the room because you two were planning to escape and you were invisible. But it was too much for her since she was still weak with her powers that it killed her. I know this because I have her memories in my head due to the same DNA. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but I can promise you that I'm telling you the truth."

Keelan gave her a small smile. She was best friends with 003 when she was in the lab. She would sneak out at night and visit her in her room and they would talk all the time. Due to her mind manipulation powers, both her and 003 learned vocabulary words together so they could talk in full sentences. 003's death upset her so much that it brought her to the brink of despair. It made her not even care that she was being tortured in the lab. The fact that she saw her friend in pain and couldn't do anything to help her just made her depressed. Now that she was out of the lab, she drank away her sorrows. It was the worst moment she had ever experienced in the lab.

"I believe you. I missed you so much 003. I knew there was something familiar with you, and that's probably why we're already friends. You were my best friend in the world," Keelan said, hugging her tight. Delilah took this by surprise, but she hugged her back. She had never felt this kind of affection before, but it made her feel good. With 003's memories, she could remember all the moments she had shared with Keelan, also known as 007. It felt comforting to her, knowing that she had a genuine friend in the past.

Now Delilah knew that she couldn't follow through on Quinn's plan.