Death Defiant, by Cameron Onnen

            This was it.

            Bow finally has the chance to finish this fight. With malicious intent in his eyes he put one shell into his shotgun and loaded it getting ready to shoot. They both locked eyes with each other for they both knew what was to come. There wasn’t any escaping what was about to happen and Marco had seemed to accept that by the look in his eyes.

            Bow aimed the shotgun with one hand and “boom!” 

            It was the year 2078 and Bow’s life was starting to look up for once, he finally managed to leave his disgusting apartment and got a house. Even though it wasn’t the best house and needed some work done on it he had a start.

            To top it off his fiancé Stacey had just recently said yes to marry him lastly his factory job at the Helios facility had recently given him a raise so he was feeling like the king of the world. Even though he had all this, Bow needed to get stuff done like his house which still had an unfinished bathroom, kitchen, and basement. The basement however was the most dangerous so far with nails and sharp objects everywhere like one nail sitting right in the floor face up at the very bottom of the stairs.

            Bow had gotten off work and immediately started working on his house when his buddy John gave him a call.

            “You need to see the news now,” John said excitedly.

            Bow, curious to see what was happening, turned on the TV and switched to the news. On the news he saw that one of the main scientist nicknamed CV at the facility had just mastered technology which allowed him to clone himself 100 times.

            The news gathered around CV and the CEO of Helios, Marco asking questions of how they achieved this insane feat. Bow told John that “he didn’t see how it was a problem since they might not have to work as hard.” John then had to explain that “since one man is doing all the work they won’t need to hire more workers meaning they’ll get fired.”

            Bow never thought of that but before he could actually call the company he got a call from his manager. Bow knew what was about to happen with extreme hesitation he answered. His boss had called to tell him that they had to let Bow go due to money. Bow could do nothing but go to bed and plan for the next day. What Bow didn’t know is that while he was sleeping Stacey went out to Helios and caused a ruckus for the CEO trying to get him his job back.

            Bow woke up to find out that Stacey did what she did and he was furious. Not only did he lose his job but now he won’t have good references for other jobs he could have applied for. Before he could even try to start trying to look for new jobs even though it seemed useless then he got a call from the CEO of Helios, Marco. Marco told Bow that Stacey’s fire made him like her and that she was officially his now.

            Marco also gave Bow two options: either he could leave Stacey without a trace and move states or he could die. Bow furiously told him to “SCREW OFF!” and hung up the phone.

            He didn’t think that Marco was serious so he didn’t tell Stacey since they were already going through a difficult time.

            Later that night there was a knock on the door so Stacey went up to get it. The moment she opened the door several copies of CV barged their way in, two clones grabbed Stacey and the other five went in to take Bow out. Bow fought hard but wasn’t really a fighter sitting only at 5-9 and being fairly skinny. The fight eventually neared the stairs going into the basement where the copies threw him down the stairs. Bow tumbled down and ended up landing on the nail that was sitting face up killing him.

            Death, it’s the curse of all humans and even though Bow’s death wasn’t, there isn’t escaping due to it being a natural thing. Or is it? You see although Bow died that night he wasn’t truly dead. The next morning Bow woke up with his head pounding. He needed a second to remember what happened but when he remembered landing on the nail he became confused. He went back to check the nail only to see there was blood on it. With absolutely no idea on what happened he checked the spot he landed on only to find no holes in his head.

            Then he remembered what happened to Stacey and how those CV copies stole her. Bow not knowing what to do ended up explaining the situation to John and asked for his help and John had just the stuff. Bow headed over to his house and John grabbed a bunch of weapons that Bow could use to raid Helio, get Stacey back, and kill CV and Marco.

            John told Bow that he could use the weapons but he wasn’t going to go in with him since this wasn’t necessarily his situation. Although he wasn’t going in Helios to fight with Bow John gave Bow an earpiece and said he would be over the comms to tell Bow where to go to CV’s office and Marco’s office. Bow understood and he went out on his path that night to raid Helios knowing Marco and CV only stayed during the nights.

            Bow had his truck and all the weapons with him ranging from knives to guns and he was planning an all-out assault. While he was planning the entry of the attack while driving to Helios a deer jumped out into the road making Bow swerve out of the way crashing in a tree.

            As he hit the tree Bow got shot out of the windshield and ended up getting impaled in his stomach on a branch. Not being able to get off and grab his phone on the ground for medical help he sat there stuck on the thick branch and bled out.

            Two hours later Bow woke up once again with no wound in his stomach, not on the tree but on the ground next to the phone that he was several feet above. He knew what had just happened but didn’t know how he wasn’t dead.

            To Bow it seemed like he wasn’t able to die but he still wasn’t sure, even though he knew it was reckless Bow wanted to be sure. He went to his truck and grabbed one of the pistols and with trembling hands Bow loaded it and shot himself in the head. Bow once again woke up with no wound. Now he knew he couldn’t die, he didn’t know how or why, all he knew was that he couldn’t die and his mission just got a lot easier and Marco was in trouble.

            Due to the fact Bow crashed his truck and lost a lot of time he wasn’t able to reach Helios in time with all the weapons he had on foot. He was left with no other option than to just place the weapons all around the facility and arrive the next night. After Bow set the weapons around the Helios facility he waited till night came.

            It was time for the battle to begin for the night had come. John told Bow about a vent that he was able enter the building quietly with and then Bow proceeded to enter. Once he entered he went through a few hallways John wanted him to go through then he encountered his first problem. Five clones of CV were all working in a room building some kind of weapon. Luckily they didn’t notice Bow entering the room so he still had the element of surprise. He sneakily walked towards one clone with a sword and sliced it with his blade making the clone disintegrate into ash. Unfortunately the sound of the disintegration was too loud and the clones heard the ruckus.

            The option of turning back was officially over as the clones realized that Bow somehow survived the previous encounter they had. They all tried to charge bow at the same time but Bow now knew that one strike seemed to take them out and he had a sword with him. The clones didn’t stand a chance as Bow took each one out swing by swing. Once the room was cleared John had Bow go farther into the facility and eventually reached the third story. The fourth story of the building was CV’s area so the next two floors were going to be more difficult.

            Once he entered the second room of the floor he encountered another fifteen clones ready to attack him. Some of the clones were carrying knives this time and Bow wasn’t prepared for this many though he hit three clones destroying them then the others pinned him and stabbed him to death. Bow woke up gasping for air. All the clones had left his body except for one which was shocked when Bow woke up. The clone was about to warn everyone when Bow threw a knife at it, sadly Bow wasn’t too good at throwing knives and completely missed.

            The clones we’re all now on their way ready to take out Bow again but this time Bow had his AK-47 out and blasted all the clones away, taking out twelve clones. Bow decided to check out the whole floor to make sure he was safe, it was all clear he asked John where he needed to go but there was no response. Bow checked the time only to see that he was dead for a whole two hours, he then saw a computer that was tracking a location, and that location was John’s house.

            He realized that John was most likely at the facility by this point in time and he had to hurry to save not only his Stacey but now John too. He quickly looked around the third floor to the stairs and eventually found them. Once he got up the stairs a clone charged Bow and punched Bow right in the nose making Bow tear up and lose vision. The clone then pushed Bow back down the stairs while falling he landed on his ankle badly and ended up breaking it. The clone went to charge him some more but Bow managed to shoot it with his pistol.

            Now he had two options: either take himself out again and waste time possibly killing John since Bow won’t know when he will wake up or ride his injuries out for as long as he possibly can. Bow decided it was smartest to deal with the pain and keep going till he either dies or reaches the end. He got back up to the room and he saw CV’s office was right near the end of the hallway. Seeing that made Bow filled with the determination to overpower any pain he was feeling and make his way down to the room and sure enough he saw CV sitting on a computer oblivious to what was about to happen.

            Bow opened CV’s office door and CV turned around shocked and confused.

            “We killed you twice now, this can’t be real” CV said. 

            “Turns out I’m not too good at staying dead,” Bow replied.

            Bow noticed that CV looked extremely frail and skinny and so he asked him why he looked like that. CV explained that every time he made a clone it messed with his body and that he still had to work on the flaws. Bow told him that he wouldn’t be alive before he finished his project and then CV set off an alarm letting people know that he was in trouble.

            Bow quickly shot CV without even thinking what to do with him and prepared himself for what was about to come. He heard footsteps of lots of clones but since Bow had his weapons on him only 4 made it through the door. The problem was he ran out of ammo and didn’t have time to reload his guns so it just became a knife fight. Luckily he still had his sword and he was able to take out the rest of the clones with his sword.

            Bow made sure there were no more clones in the area then decided to head to the fifth floor where Marcos office was. He made his way up the stairs with a shotgun in hand ready to finish his battle. He went through the hallways looking for Marco’s office when a clone jumped from the ceiling of the room holding a screwdriver and stabbed Bow in the shoulder. Bow quickly blasted the clone into oblivion leaving Bow with only one shot in his shotgun left.

            He made his way to Marco’s office when he heard Marco on the intercoms telling Bow to meet him on the roof of the facility so Bow did just that. Still bleeding from his shoulder wound he went to the stairs to the roof leaving drops of blood in his path. Finally Bow had made it to the roof’s door and he got prepared for a nasty fight this time waiting for a surprise attack.

            Once he opened the door he saw an acid pit all around the roof with Marco at the other side of the roof. He also saw John and Stacey sitting in different cages right above the acid. Marco told John that he had two choices: either he chose Stacey to live or Marco would drop John in the acid or vice versa. Bow thought about what to do for a second and came up with a third option.

            “What if I jump in and you let both of them go,” Bow said.

            Marco laughed and asked Bow, “You have survived death multiple times, why would I allow that?”

            Bow explained to Marco that every time they killed him he still had a body but his body would disintegrate in the acid. Marco thought about it for a second and he agreed that it made sense. They came to an agreement and to make sure that Marco held true to his word he set up a camera on a livestream so everyone was able to watch. He got ready and jumped in the acid.

            Bow gasped for air and realized he was alive once again. He was confused on how and then he noticed he most likely came back from his latest drop of blood. He busted through the door and then grabbed his shotgun. Marco, who just let Stacey and John out, was in shock not expecting this to happen.

            This was it. Bow finally has the chance to finish this fight. With malicious intent in his eyes he put one shell into his shotgun and loaded it getting ready to shoot. They both locked eyes with each other for they both knew what was to come. There wasn’t any escaping what was about to happen and Marco had seemed to accept that by the look in his eyes. Bow aimed the shotgun with one hand and Boom.

            Bow told them he was ready to go home when three police helicopters came out from the sky.

            “Bow you are under arrest for the murder of Marco Parez,” one shouted.

            Bow looked around in shock, he had nowhere to go and no place to hide.