For clarification:
"Since Clone is a story-driven album, we've decided to release it a section at a time, one each week. Kinda like the old "Tune in next week to find out what happens to our hero!" radio serials. There are six acts total. We will be taking preorders for the thumbdrives and physical over the course of this unveiling, for those of you who would like to actually own the album."
The first act comes out on the 23rd, and a new act will come every week. When all acts are out, the USB drives with the album on them will be shipped.
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Subject 006 comes online. Life-support machines and vitality monitors beep and hum. Heartbeat is consistent. Breathing is normal. He experiences pins and needles from head to toe as his senses become active.
Feel the fluid building. Feel it hum beneath my eyes. Feel it drip and rest beneath the cradle of my brain. Feel my fingers twitching. Feel the static in my toes. Blackness changes to light. I now have eyes.
Subject 006 opens his eyes for the first time. It's painful. Through squinted eyes he looks down at the straps that bind him to the bed, the wires and patches on his skin. He removes them.
Lightness turns to colors. Filling space between shapes and lines. Blurry spots are fading in and out. I don't know why. Find the straps that hold me. Pull the wires from my skin. Sit up and turn. It's time I learned. Take a breath.
Subject 006 walks for the first time. His movements are awkward and unsure. His muscles burn from lack of use. Despite the pain, he's exhilarated.
I can go anywhere! Over here, over there! By the door, down the stairs! I'm light as a feather!
Subject 006 is lightheaded from the exertion. He holds onto the walls as he walks to the door. He suppresses vomit.
Subject 006 steps out into the hallway. It, like the lab, is abandoned. Small red safety lights that line the hall pulse slowly. The rooms are all dark. He turns left and it feels familiar, as though he's walked this way many times before.
The hall leads to one of the larger facilities in the building. The facility is full of complex machinery, charts, and recently abandoned experiments. A large blinking light on the adjacent door catches his eye. He presses it.
Endless blinking lights and doors and walls. Going on, and on, and on, and on. Rows of locks all paired with silver handles. I wonder what's beyond this hall. Walking underneath fluorescent sky. Hand to handle, turn and open wide. Step inside and now I see a single light's allure for thumb against the switch.
Lights turn on. The machines return to their former operations. Subject 006 is frightened by the movement. He questions whether they mean him harm.
There's something wrong. What have I done? The room is waking up. The hum is swelling. Oh, the metal arms move on their own. I don't know why, but I feel something's wrong. Do they mean me harm, or do they have an agenda of their own? Am I overreacting?
Subject 006 stumbles into an adjacent room. It is intensely familiar. He looks into a mirror for the first time. He then notices photographs of a scientist and his family on the desk. He and the scientist, Atticus, share the same face. Subject 006 investigates further, finding charts of his development, and how he came to be. He looks again at the photographs on the desk. He smiles. Atticus is his father.
Subject 006 peers behind a curtain that divides the room. Behind it are five large glass tubes. Each contains a man suspended in amber liquid. Their appearances are similar, only deformed. Subject 006 realizes these men are former, less successful versions of himself. They were shelved due to defects, but continue to be studied. As Subject 006 approaches, he notices they are awake. The most recent version and highest functioning of the group, Subject 005, communicates with him through the glass via body language. He convinces Subject 006 to use the panel near their tubes to drain the fluid.
Rows of people just like me, afloat in tubes of glass. All their faces fixed on me. I am them. They are me. Then one moves its hand and mouths, "Please save us. Please save me." Why are they all smiling?
The liquid drains from the tubes. From The Defects' (Subjects 001 - 005) expressions, Subject 006 feels uneasy.
The Defects pound on the glass, shattering the tubes. Some are more efficient than others. An alarm sounds. It is deafening. The lights around the room flash red. The Defects crawl toward Subject 006. He runs, back through the room with the metal arms, out into the hallway. The Defects begin screaming.
Subject 006 runs out the entrance to the facility. He is blinded by his first glimpse of sunlight.
