Long Ways Away  

“Run!” my brother Jack said right behind me as the town mob chased us out of our own town. “I’m running as fast as I can” I screamed. “John they are catching up” Jack said morbidly. “I know, wait for me I said desperately”. After running what seemed like a 20 mile marathon we had stopped. “I think we lost them” Jack said out of breath. “What makes you think that?” I said. “Because we’re in the middle of nowhere, does that ring a bell?”.  “We need to think” I told Jack. “How bout we figure out why the town people chased us out of my own town” Jack choked out.

“Okay let’s think back” I said. It was an early Montana morning, we were having breakfast  and are parents headed out to work, we went outside to play pass with the football and out of the nowhere we smell smoke. Then we turned around to see where it was coming from, but as we did we gasped in horror as our house was being burned to flames by a mob making up nearly the entire town, but before we could say a word, the whole town chased us into the middle of nowhere and now we're here.

“So now all we can do is walk back I pleaded. “John are you crazy what if they come after us again” Jack squeaked out. “What if they don't” I said determined. “Lead the way because I sure don’t know where we are”Jack argued. “See that huge mountain in the distance” I announced “we should climb it to see if we can see the town from on top of it”. “Okay” Jack said “but we need to be careful”. “I agree” I added as we started our long expedition. After climbing the jagged rocky slopes up for about 45 minutes we were starting to get tired. “This is hard to climb I said making my way up. “I need a break” Jack wheezed.“Okay let's take a break” I said. Fifteen minutes later we continued up the mountain.

“We're halfway there” I coughed. “Aw man this gonna take forever” Jack complained. “Shut up!” I said surprised by my own anger. “Excuse me?” growled Jack. I thought we were about to throw each other off the mountain when I heard something. “Jack you hear that?” I asked. There was a rumbling noise and Jack looked up.“JACK LOOK OUT” my throat screamed.
Jack jumped away from the boulder just in time, but not enough time to escape the rubble collapsing below his feet causing him to fall.

Then all I heard was a thud. “Jack are you okay” I mumbled. There was no reply. I had never been more scared in my life. “I’m climbing to you right now so hold on” I announced making my way down to him.
“Jack wake up please” I said, tears beginning to form. Then I heard a soft moan. I let out a sigh of relief. “Jack you're alive” I laughed. “Who?...”Jack said. “What do you mean who?” I said

uncomfortably. “Who’s Jack and why does my head hurt so much” he wined. “No no no this can’t be happening, I need you Jack”. For the next 2 hours I went in as much detail as I could explaining to the best of my abilities what had happened, all the while I couldn’t comprehend my life without Jack’s recollection our entire life. At this point all I wanted was to see my parents, they would know what to do. “This is crazy” Jack said. “I know” I said. “You have to tell me more” Jack said impatient. “Not now” I explained. “Fine” Jack mumbled. “Can we just get going up this mountain um? Joe?”. “ It’s John” I sighed. “Oh yeah” Jack said. From the top of the mountain we looked around. ”Do you see anything” I said. “Is that it” Jack said pointing at something in the distance? “Yea that’s it” I screamed.
“Okay let's go” Jack said excited. Were able to see the town and know what direction to go in. Heck if we weren’t so eager to get home we might have admired the view. The climb down the mountain wasn’t nearly as hard as It was going up. Once we reached the bottom we started walking

“We're almost at our town” I told Jack. “Okey Dokey” Jack said. As we approached the town. Jack whispered something in my ear “what!” I said. “Shhhh!” Jack shushed. “Don’t move” Jack whispered. “Why”.....that's all I said when I saw something in the corner of my eye. People, guards, and police they were all guarding the town waiting for us. I gasped. “Lets try to sneak through” Jack said softly. “Wow your a lot braver now without your memory” I joked while spotting something next to the town gate. Trash bags three of them but fortunately two of them were empty for some reason that put a grin on my face. I ripped two eye holes in both of the trash bags and hopped in mine followed by Jack. “When someone is about to see you tuck your feet inside the trash bag and act dead and wait till whoever it is goes away” I explained. “Simple enough” Jack confirmed. “Ok let's do this” I said not to loud. With that we started waddling to our Mom and Dad's workplace.

I turned around to see Jack wasn’t behind me. Where is he. I screamed in my mind then I spotted him far behind, and a guard was poking his bag with a baton. I panicked and found myself crawling out of the trashbag my heart pounding a thousand beats a second.
I need to find a rock I told myself It seemed like minutes but was only a few seconds before I finally found a rock and without hesitation I threw it not knowing what would happen next and dived right back in my bag hoping it distracted the guard. I peeked my head out of my bag and sure enough it did. The guard searched around to see where it came from and Jack started squirming and rolling towards me. When he reached me I knew now was our only chance to go so in an instant jumped out of my bag and sprinted to the factory door. I flew right in hopefully without notice. After John saw the coast was clear he got out of his bag and started running towards the door. “Phew” Jack said with a sigh of relief. “That was close” I said also taking a sigh of relief. “We made it, now we need to find Mom and Dad”. We ran through the building but couldn’t see any sign of people. “This place looks abandoned” Jack cried.

.
It couldn’t be abandoned my thought. All kinds of thoughts started bouncing in my head. Suddenly I heard a click we stepped on some sort of pressure plate and the floor started to move down. “Whats happening” Jack said slowly. Then it stopped and we landed in a white room so bright I had to shield my eyes. “la...la....lab...” Jack blurted out.
. “There’s people too” I said. Then I spotted my parents. This is crazy my parents have worked in this factory making shoes before Jack and I were born. “Shoe makers not scientists” I exclaimed.

I decided it was a waste of time to tell Jack but I could tell he knew something was up. “Well that explains why I have so many toys” I thought bitterly. I waved Jack over to follow me. My parents are mixing all kinds of tubes with strange liquids in them. “Is that them” Jack said. “What” I responded impatiently. “The man and woman you’re staring at, is that your parents” Jack asked. “No Jack that is our parents” I whispered. “What are they making?” Jack urged “Looks like some kind of weird potion” I said.

“Jack let’s try to sneak over to our parents” I whispered. “Oh and maybe they can get my memory back” Jack said hopeful. We slithered around chairs, tables anything that wouldn’t make us visible. Then we eventually made it under the table are parents were at. “Now what” I whispered. “Maybe we should tap them on the foot” Jack insisted. “I guess” I said slowly. Jack was just about to tap one of them but then suddenly I heard “HMMMMM”. Out of nowhere Our Dad had to step right in the middle of Jack's hand.

Tears started to burst out of his eyes but he didn’t dare to make a sound when he finally lifted his foot Jack didn’t wait a second to free his hand when he showed it to me it looked somewhere in between purple and blue. However Jack's face quickly changed from being in pain to worried and when I faced his gaze I knew this had to be a dream. “Where is everybody?” I said aloud. John didn’t look like he knew what to say either. Had we not realized that everyone had left because of the dilemma with Jack’s hand? I crawled out under the desk to see where are parents had been working on.

when I looked I saw a screen that showed a security camera but when I saw who was on it I knew we were toast....... “What the” Jack said. Words couldn’t come out of my mouth. “This can’t be right, John are you seeing what I’m seeing” Jack questioned. “yes” I said weakly. We were on the camera. but it showed us outside but we were not outside and all the people in the lab were there too, coming after us but it wasn’t us. Then I noticed something in the other Jacks hand on the camera this weird pen thing was in the boy identical Jack’s hand that said memory on it and when Jack saw it he went crazy “memory!” Jack squealed, and with that Jack started running towards the exit.

“Wait for me” I yelled. While I was catching up to him I kept thinking about us on the surveillance camera. Maybe our minds were playing tricks on us, at least I hope. Unfortunately my hope was soon about to end. Then I saw our parents and I knew if I was going to talk to them it might as well happen now. “What do we have to lose” I assured myself then I had a flashback of how angry and vicious the town people looked as they chased us. “Wait where is Jack” I thought. I knew I shouldn’t of stopped to think but it was true what we saw. On the camera they are clones of us but how?

It buzzed in my brain. How is there clones of us and why? So I just figured I’d pick up a stick and chuck it at my parents feet and surprisingly it hit. They started coming in my direction I really did it! Then I realized something was breathing on my neck but I did not want to turn around at first but when I did. I thought it was a mirror but it wasn’t. It was me so I did the only logical thing which was to run but something was pulling me back. He was pulling me back! Then I knew I had to talk so I blurted out as many questions as I could “who are you, why are you, how did you, Why do you look like me?” All those questions were going to have to wait because I can’t talk because my lips would not make a sound because of how scared I was. Then Jack came out of nowhere and jumped right to my rescue and as he pulled me out of other ME's grip I felt like I was getting loose then I popped out of  his grip and tumbled to the ground but quickly recovered to my feet. “John it's not a memory device it's a memory wiper it takes your memory away” Jack said sadly as we hurried away from my other self. “Sorry” I said. It’s Okay I guess”  Jack muttered.
“Hey,” said a person behind me “Ahh!” I screamed I jumped away to see who it was. “Mom, Dad” I said racing towards them. “We're sorry we did not tell you about this. it was going to be a surprise, but this happened, the important thing is that you are all right” are Mom and Dad explained. “Then why didn’t you come back for us when they chased us” I yelled. “Two reasons” my Dad said “1. The town people would not listen and when we tried they wouldn’t let us 2. We put you two on a tracking device so we knew where you Were just in case.

“Mom, Dad Jack lost his memory and he needs it back so if you really are scientists then fix Jack's memory. I cried. “what” our parents said at the same time. “We're so sorry Jack are you okay dear the only thing we can do is show him some pictures to maybe jog his memory” my Mom told me. “But your scientists” I wailed. “I’m afraid we don’t have that kind of technology with us yet” she said. Then the trouble happened. “John look” Jack pointed out. “Its them” I said hoping they wouldn’t spot us. However they did. Then I saw the beam coming right at our parents then ZAP! “No!” I cried not them!” They looked all confused and dizzy and I knew there wasn’t that much time till my memory was gone then I looked over my shoulder and stared in disbelief at a dizzy confused town. “Oh no” Jack said. Then I saw the red beam coming at me and the only thing I could do was nothing I was too shocked to move and closed my eyes. Then it hit....

“Where am I what just happened” Then I saw this boy shoot his twin brother with a laser thing and he seemed to just grin then he screamed “John my memory is back I remember everything” then he started running up to I guess his twin and taking this laser pen right out of his hand and pointed it at me.
ZAP! “Huh what I’m back It worked” I screamed then went running to Jack and he zapped our clones and then the whole town eventually got their memory back. Police immediately put the two clones in jail then we all promised to never use the laser and destroyed it in our parents lab. Later on I was sitting on my front porch of my newly constructed house and thought of something. If Jack and I had clones then maybe the whole world had a clone. Then I saw something in the sky...... a planet…... and then I knew we were in deep trouble now.