Lost Haven: Aunt Ruth
Aunt Ruth, or Batty as I liked to call her was a plump woman in her 50's, who was only ever comfortable with her feet up and the remains of a heart TV dinner discarded nearby. I had done chores on Dads farm my whole life so taking care of Batty was easy for me, after I learned enough about her kitchen to keep her satisfied. I had only been in the city for 2 weeks and only once left the small 2 bedroom apartment I shared with my late mother's sister in law. To describe a little about myself before I get to far into my tale I'm a sixteen year old farm boy thrust into a city life, I have dark hair that curls when I let it grow out so I have always cropped it off. I used to wear glasses until Batty insisted on getting me contacts, which I only wear to appease her. I was home schooled and my father completed a detailed and sufficient course load of maths socials and languages...in fact I could speak three. However he left Science out, as one could gather I knew small tads of information; but to someone leading a life as simple as mine...knowing that the telephone exists "out there somewhere" isn't the same as seeing one hanging from the wall inches away from my Aunt's sink.
It was a Friday evening, I gather most kids my age were out with friends or playing virtual reality video games on their hologram enabled video stations. Not that I knew of those types of things at the time. I spoke with a heavy southern accent that drove my Aunt nuts, for I reminded her too much of her late husband; my late mother's brother. I had just finished popping corn kernels into white fluffy things my Aunt seemed to enjoy eating when I heard the previews from the other room.
"LOST HAVEN EPISODE 1!!" The TV Rang out in full audio, "For All you eagerly waiting fans we have quite a treat for you!! This Season, we have used cloning technology to put real live human clones on the continent! Don't worry now...We have government permission, and we feel it's only fair to insure you that the clones don't have lives. They are without memory and for the sack of civil decency their pain receptors have been numbed. We have "programmed them" with a natural sense of fear. So they will run...hide...learn...and scream."
I stepped into the room and looked at the screen with a confused stare... "Bat....I meen A'nt Ruth....Whut ar' Klones?" She glared at me for a moment and tossed the TV remote in my direction, which I dodged and retrieved grudgingly... "I mean....Aunt Ruth What Are Clones?" I forced my accent to muffle itself and my words were choppy but clearer. She smiled and reached for the controller with a flakey palm. I handed it over and lowered myself to a seat on the soft carpet. Her TV was mounted on the wall and it showed a peaceful city...like the ones I had seen pictures of in My Moms old Scrap books.
Batty dimmed the lights and I settled in to watch the show...An announcer went on to explain that in every season one lucky Human winner would be able to submit a fantasy robot design, that would be built and entered in the ring with the "combatants" as he called them I didn't quite know what a robot was at that point, but I digress I thought it sounded cool. There was a 5 minute segment on the season's winner, a 7 year old boy who apparently had the Intelligence of a 30 year old with 3 degrees. His "Robot" as it was called was massive and made almost entirely out of reinforced steel plating. It came complete with a series of saw like weapons, and even a hydraulic crusher. I smiled and couldn't wait to see what they'd have the robot do, If I remember correctly I think I seriously thought it was going to chop down as many trees as it could in 10 minutes!
When the Episode began the legend of three Anthromorph tribes was told to us, explained as a myth made up by the network to manipulate the "other contestants." The Cameras rotated around and I soon deduced they were mounted on the ground on buildings looking far down at the street below and across the horizon. Some cameras seemed to be suspended way up in the clouds high above the city streets where only the spires of sky scrapers arched out past the sky; or so it seemed to me. Television and its realness never ceased to amaze me.
It was then the dull roar of screams echoed in Aunts living room, blasted in all around the two of us through her expensive surround sound setup. I looked around for a moment, wondering where the screams were coming from when my eye caught flickers of movement from the screen. A Wide angle shot showed hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from far down the street...a massive fur covered foot thudding down behind the masses. The camera shook, and different angle shots were suddenly shown. The Screams increased as the foot came down on a group of terrified "Clones" as they were called crushing them with a sickening squish and series of cracks. The "Clones" were people! Real live people! Being killed! I leapt up from my seat and rushed to the screen...near pressing my face against it yelling "RUN!! RUN!" Popcorn rained down on my back, covered by a sweaty white t shirt and I let myself thump back to a seat in terror. A camera zoomed in on a pile of dead bodies...flattened and crushed under that deadly massive foot. A nearby car had been impaled by a claw...which had severed it into two pieces....blood from the crushed drivers seat drained out onto the street.
The Camera from the sky began broadcasting and I saw from high above the devastation. The clouds had cleared slightly and I could see this city go on for miles and miles in every direction. Black smoke plumed from scattered spots and slowly the camera zoomed in on the city centre...The robot and a massive tiger were wrestling in the rubble of a massive office building. The Tigers huge tail swung and crumpled the side of a church with the force of a wrecking ball. The Robot had delivered deep gashes in the muscular Tigers body but the Tiger fought on eyes ablaze with fury. In the background the camera zoomed away to glimpse a sight of the huge grizzly bear sitting on his rear three blocks away, having the bulk of a sports stadium between his legs. His huge paws dipped into the bowl shaped building and scooped out hundreds of wriggling thrashing people which disappeared into his mouth and deadly jaws.
The announcer's deep voice boomed over the screams and explosions in the surround sound. "Looks like Yorkie [The bears given name for the show] needs a little nourishment! The show cut to commercial and I felt my throat tighten and close slightly in disgust. I felt the need to puke and my body was shaking. Drenched in cold sweat I was interrupted from my stunned silence by my Aunts foot kicking at my back. "Get me a soda Boy." She demanded. I ran to my room
Before I can skip ahead to present day it's important to note some of the resulting improvements made to the "Lost Haven" TV show in the four years it's been since I first watched it. Season four the bear won the fight with little competition, it was determined that the nutritional value human clones provided was unparallel and caused a blood lust that increased the killing ability of any anthro who ate enough of the clones. In Season five the tiger species won the battle, the bloodlust that overtook the animals made the robot barely a contender. As a result, the scientific advancements made in robotics were applied to make the robot more deadly, equipping it with explosives and a much better AI. However by increasing the intelligence of the robot they wee then forced to somehow modify the intelligence of the anthros. The major selling point for the sixth season was the fact that the competitors from each species had had the brain chip removed and a procedure done to increase brain productivity and use. Complete with the ability to learn and think more clearly. Fighting on the sixth season was increasingly vicious; buildings that were mindlessly crushed were now used as weapons, traps set, and stealth used. It was a bloody fight....clones were kidnapped and stored for use when needed, as the macros were intelligent enough to realise their benefits.
The wolf on that season was the victor and returned to his island with the glory...and to reproduce. Unknown to the scientists was that the wolf's offspring inherited their father's intelligence, and were quite advanced on the tiger and bear species for season seven. [The tiger and bear that had increased intelligence died] His pup that year just so happened to be the selected wolf for Season seven and would attempt to relive the glory his father had won the previous year. A season they promised would be the best one yet.
It was also this particular seventh season that HUSTA put its radical plan into effect. In order to fully understand the intricate plan it's necessary to describe the networks activities before every season began. Now that the clones had become such a valuable commodity to the battling anthros...many more of them were needed. The network couldn't just clone the inmate population of world prisons anymore, [as it was damaging to clone a person more than once each year.] so they turned to the civilian public. At first response was diminished, at least until a clever network exec thought of some incentive. The way the network advertised it was as a sort of lottery, rewarding 5 million dollars to the civilian whose clone survived a full season on Citadel. The network didn't believe there would be a single survivor so it was a clever selling point. As the previous season yielded no survivors, the network advisors believed that the anthros were good enough to smell out and actively seek every single clone put on the island. The civilians in cities all across Earth leapt at the chance for an easy 5 million dollars, after all it wouldn't be them being sent to the slaughter...just a copy of them.
Volunteers flooded hospitals to get DNA extracted for the show, with them five high ranking HUSTA members including myself. It was getting cloned that the HUSTA members had found a flaw in the network security. If a clone and the real person were to be switched before Earth departure, no one would be able to tell the clone from the donor. Eric Symmons, Serena Jackie, Lucas Muse, Candy Reynolds, and I were chosen to complete this all important mission, knowing that chances of success or even survival are minimal. Once on the planet we plan to somehow sabotage the satellite uplink, or the factory on the fourth mysterious island. I have little left on this planet so I don't mind leaving my life behind in case I should die. However, if my mission succeeds, or if I die in glory of defending a cause...I want my legacy to be recorded somewhere. For now this Letter will have to do.
Jake Andrews
PS. Aunt Ruth...I left some dinners in the fridge for you to microwave...and my apartment code key is under my mattress. Don't pawn my things.