There were too many people in the room. Jared knew it before he even set foot in the room, but he was compelled to enter anyway. And he regretted it the moment he did. He avoided looking at anyone. Instead, he shuffled to one side of the room and took up a spot along the far wall. Only then did he chance looking at anyone else.

And he regretted it the moment he did.

Because everyone in the room looked just like him. Shock washed over Jared like a tidal wave. In hindsight, he shouldn’t really have been surprised, but he was still caught flat footed.

He shouldn’t have been surprised because Jared lived in a research facility that specialized in cloning. Every inhabitant gave up a little of their DNA upon entering the facility, with the knowledge and expectation that that DNA would be used for experiments and research. But Jared hadn’t expected that the facility’s research had already extended so far.

He looked around the room again, this time not avoiding the gaze of the others like him. His stomach clenched as he thought through the implications of what he was seeing. Someone could easily murder him and dispose of his body, and no one would ever know because there was a roomful of replicas that could stand in and replace him.

Jared bolted from the room. Or, he would have if the door hadn’t been locked.

“What’s going on?” he shouted.

There was no answer, but now all the replicas were looking at him. It was a very unnerving sensation.

“What’s going on?” he asked again, more plaintively. His voice was almost a whimper now. No one replied. For all he knew, the replicas were all blank slates, devoid of personality and other identifying features.

Jared tried the door again. Still locked. He banged on it with his fists.

“Let me out!” he screamed. Nothing. He was trapped in here, and he had no idea why.

Instead, Jared turned to face the room. All the replicas were still looking at him.

“Hi,” he said to them. “I’m Jared, but I suppose you all already know that.”

“Jar. Red,” one replica near him said. “I’m Jar. Red.” It smiled then, like the smile of a small child who had just done something correctly.

“That’s right,” Jared said. “Jared.”

Within seconds the other replicas were muttering the name around the room.

And now Jared understood why he was locked in here with them. The powers-that-be wanted him to imprint in the replicas, pass over some of his personality traits and identity to them.

Well, he could do that. So long as someone didn’t try to murder him first. And so he began to share little bits of himself with the replicas.

It was going to be a very long day.

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