Subject Zero — Roleplayer Guild

Alone In The Crowd

It took a while but, eventually, the noise stopped. The voices faded. Or rather they merged into one. The chaotic mess of sound and thoughts was once again his own, solo, internal monologue.

When Nate finally came to his senses, he was standing in a hallway with his head pressed against the cold tiles on the wall. He stared at these tiles for a moment, utterly confused by them. Then he blinked and looked around. He was standing in the small lobby of an apartment building that was definitely not Jennifer's. This lobby was little more than a hallway at the bottom of a flight of stairs with mailboxes on the opposite wall. Nate noticed a taxi drive past through the glass door and he stared out onto the street for another long moment. His mind was still clouded. He couldn't even remember how he had gotten here. Hell, he didn't even remember leaving JJ's place.

He blinked a couple of times before pinching the bridge of his nose to try and abate the dull throb in the front of his head. He had no idea what was going on. Had he blacked out? That was weird. That normally only happened after celebrating the Lakers win and he was pretty sure they weren't even playing today. Had someone slipped him something? If  Vin had roofied him there was going to be hell to pay.

Shaking his head to get rid of the cloudiness, he looked up at the stairs and wondered if he had come here to see someone. The place didn't look familiar but maybe he had gotten a call from someone who asked to meet him. He pulled his phone from his pocket but noticed there had been no incoming calls for a while. No text messages either. Weird.

He didn't like this at all. Not knowing what had happened made him uneasy. He knew enough about medical science to know that blacking out was never a good thing and he worried that something may have been wrong. He wondered if all of this had something to do with why his clone had vanished earlier. He knew there were others out there. Clones he had left in the world for some purpose. The one he had sent to retrieve Vin's phone at the crime scene. The two he had left to clean  up the mess Vin had made at the second crime scene....Boy, Vin was really on a tear. Maybe leaving him with JJ was not the best idea. But he didn't exactly have a say in the matter....Not that he remembered anyway.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard an incoming text on his phone, which read;

797 Cypress Street.
Meet me there.
Got the package.
Bring chicken.

Well apparently not all of the clones had vanished. This one at least was still around. Maybe whatever whammied him earlier only affected the clones within a certain radius. This one seemed to be far enough out to have avoided it. And maybe that was all nonsense. Nate had no idea. He couldn't rap his head around it and so he wasn't going to try.

The clone had sent an address for a meet and so Nate headed for the door. Maybe if he took Vin's precious phone back to him he'd stop whining about it.

Nate stepped out into the street and looked around, realizing that to get to the clone, he'd first have to figure out where the hell he was.

A short while later, Nate arrived at the address, realizing then that it had been somewhat vague. It took him a minute or two of wandering around to figure out where his clone was hiding. Down a driveway between two apartment buildings there was a gate which lead to a courtyard in the middle of one of the buildings. In the middle of this courtyard was a swimming pool. And sitting by the side of this pool, dangling his feet in the water, was the clone. He looked like he didn't have a care in the world as he sat there, bobbing his head up and down and humming to himself. Nate had a truly surreal moment as he saw himself the way others must see him all the time.

Just then, the clone turned his head to see Nate, raising an eyebrow when he saw him just standing there. “You okay?” he asked, which snapped Nate out of his thoughts.

“Um...Yeah.” Nate informed him, wandering over but not looking the clone in the eye as he asked “Where's the phone?”

The clone stared up at him, eyebrow still raised as he responded “Where's the chicken?”

“Kentucky.” Nate said, obviously in no mood.

The clone picked himself up from the edge of the pool and complained “Come on, man. I haven't eaten all day!”

“Neither have--” Nate stopped his sentence short as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, realizing how absurd it was that he was having this argument with himself. “Just give me the phone.” he said, holding out his hand.

“Fine.” said the clone, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Vin's phone. He didn't hand it to Nate though. Instead, he held it up and asked “Do you have any idea what I had to do to get this?”

“No.” Nate told him “But I'm about to find out.”

Nate grabbed the clone by the shoulder like he had done every other time he reabsorbed one of his duplicates. Only this time nothing happened. The clone looked from side to side as Nate furrowed his brow in confusion and let go. He thought about it for a moment then grabbed the clone again, this time on both shoulders.

Still nothing.

Nate let go of the clone go again, looking increasingly aggravated. “This normally works.” he said, rubbing his forehead.

“That's alright, buddy. Everyone has performance issues every now and then.” the clone joked, giving Nate a playful tap on the arm. “Everything o--?”

He didn't get the chance to finish his question as Nate grabbed him by the shirt and tried physically pulling him back into him. All that resulted in was their faces being smooshed together. His face pressed against Nate's, the clone did his best to say “Kay, this is getting a little awkward.”

Nate let him go and stepped back, looking thoroughly confused. As the clone straightened his shirt, Nate said “I don't know what's happening. I was at JJ's place and the other me...you...he just sort of...vanished.....Like into thin air. I don't know what happened after that. I kinda blacked out for a while and now it's like these powers that I had are just...gone.”

The clone stared at him for a moment, pondering what all of that meant. Gone? Forever? What did that mean for him? Was he going to be a separate person now? He wasn't sure if he liked that idea or not.
Nate sat down on a nearby sun lounger, looking tired and confused as he said “It's weird. I never wanted any of this. I didn't want clones. I didn't want voices in my head. But now that they're gone...”

Watching Nate, the clone's face began to mirror his. He knew exactly what Nate was thinking. He was Nate after all. There was a long, quiet moment where neither said anything. They simply stared into nothing. But then the clone perked up and said “Don't worry, man. You've still got me.”

There was a huge smile on the clone's face but Nate just looked up at him and said “...Great...”

There was another long silence as the clone's smile slowly faded. Eventually Nate picked himself up and motioned with his hand for the clone to follow him. “Come on. We should get going.”

Nate wandered off and the clone watched him go for a moment. He then picked up his shoes and trailed after him. As he caught up, he said “You know Vin's boyfriend seemed pretty pissed off when he called...Especially after I told him about all the butt stuff we were doing.” Nate actually laughed at that one. “Do you think we ruined their relationship?” asked the clone.

“Probably/” was Nate's only response.

They continued to walk in silence then, until the clone declared “I still want that chicken.”
Subject Zero Member

King of the monkeys.

Status

Recent Statuses

Bio

Most Recent Posts
