The Original

The Original

Maya's POV

The real Maya shot Maya Prime in the shoulder before anyone could blink.
Maya Prime screamed and fell backward, clutching her wound.
"That's for stealing my face," the real Maya said.
She looked exactly like me, but different.
Stronger. Wilder. More alive.
Like she had never been broken by programming or lies.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm you, Maya. The you that escaped before they could catch me."
"How?"
"By being smarter than they thought possible."
She walked over to my table and started undoing the straps.
"When Dr. Reyes took you from the streets, she thought she got the only Maya Chen. But there were two of us."
"Two of us?"
"Twins, separated at birth. You went into the system. I stayed on the streets."
"Why didn't they find you?"
"Because I learned to hide. I learned to fight. I learned to survive without anyone's help."
The straps came loose.
I sat up slowly, pulling the needles out of my arms.
"So you're my sister?"
"I'm your other half. The half that stayed free."
Maya Prime was trying to crawl toward a red button on the wall.
"I wouldn't do that," the real Maya said.
"Why not?"
"Because that button releases poison gas into all the simulation chambers. It kills everyone who's sleeping."
Maya Prime stopped crawling.
"You can't stop me forever."
"I don't need to stop you forever. I just need to stop you long enough."
"Long enough for what?"
"To wake everyone up."
The real Maya walked over to a control panel covered in switches and screens.
"Every person in this place is trapped in their own dream. But dreams end when you pull the plug."
She started flipping switches.
Alarms blared louder.
On the screens, I could see into other rooms.
Hundreds of people strapped to tables just like I had been.
All of them starting to wake up.
"Maya, don't!" Maya Prime begged. "They're happy in their dreams! They're safe!"
"They're prisoners," the real Maya said. "And prisoners deserve freedom, even if it's scary."
More switches.
More alarms.
More people waking up.
I ran over to the tables where Dante, Marcus, Luca, and Adrian were strapped down.
They were starting to stir.
"Guys?" I said. "Can you hear me?"
Dante's eyes opened first.
"Maya? Where are we?"
"Somewhere safe. I think."
"I was dreaming about you."
"What kind of dream?"
"A good one. We were normal people living normal lives."
"How did that feel?"
"Boring," he said with a smile.
I helped him sit up and remove his needles.
Marcus woke up next, then Luca, then Adrian.
All of them confused but alert.
"What's happening?" Marcus asked.
"We're being rescued," I said. "By me. Sort of."
I pointed at the real Maya, who was still flipping switches.
"There are two of you?" Luca asked.
"Apparently."
"Which one are you?"
"The one who got caught."
"And she's the one who got away?"
"Yeah."
Adrian was staring at the real Maya with interest.
"She moves differently," he said.
"Differently how?"
"Like she's never been afraid of anything."
He was right.
The real Maya moved with complete confidence.
Like she owned the world and everyone in it.
Like nothing could touch her.
"Maya Prime is getting up," Dante warned.
Maya Prime had managed to stand, despite her wounded shoulder.
She was reaching for something on her belt.
"Maya!" I shouted to my twin. "Behind you!"
The real Maya spun around just as Maya Prime pulled out a gun.
"If I can't have perfect control," Maya Prime said, "then no one gets control."
She pointed the gun at the control panel.
If she destroyed it, everyone who was still asleep would be trapped forever.
"Don't do it," the real Maya said.
"Give me one good reason."
"Because deep down, you're still me. And I would never hurt innocent people."
"I'm not you anymore. I'm what you could have been if you'd been smart enough to take control."
"No, you're what I could have been if I'd been broken enough to need control."
Maya Prime's hand was shaking.
"I'm not broken."
"Yes, you are. You're so broken that you had to break everyone else to feel whole."
"Shut up."
"You're so afraid of being alone that you made sure everyone else would be alone too."
"SHUT UP!"
Maya Prime pulled the trigger.
But the real Maya was faster.
She tackled Maya Prime before the bullet could hit the control panel.
The gun went off.
The bullet hit the ceiling.
Both Mayas went down fighting.
"Should we help?" Marcus asked.
"Which one?" I replied.
They were rolling around on the floor, punching and kicking.
It was impossible to tell them apart.
Finally, one of them got on top.
She grabbed the gun and pointed it at the other one's head.
"Maya!" I shouted. "Which one are you?"
The Maya with the gun looked at me.
"I'm the one who's going to save everyone."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer that matters."
She looked back down at the Maya underneath her.
"Any last words?"
"Just one," the other Maya said. "Family."
The Maya with the gun hesitated.
"What?"
"Family doesn't abandon family. Family doesn't hurt family. Family loves family."
"I don't know what that means."
"I know. That's why you're not the real Maya."
The Maya with the gun smiled.
"How do you know?"
"Because the real Maya never had family before. She wouldn't understand what that word means. But I do."
"You do?"
"Because I found family. With them."
She looked at me and the four heirs.
"The real Maya is still wild. Still alone. Still free. But she's also still empty."
The Maya with the gun was getting angry.
"I'm not empty."
"Yes, you are. You're so empty that you had to create an entire world just to fill the void inside you."
"You're wrong."
"Am I? Then prove it. Let me go. Let everyone go. Walk away and find your own happiness."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because without control, I'm nothing."
"Then you're not the real Maya."
The Maya with the gun stared down at her.
Then she pulled the trigger.
But nothing happened.
The gun was empty.
The Maya underneath smiled.
"I took out the bullets while we were fighting."
"How?"
"Because I'm actually the one who stayed on the streets. I'm actually the one who learned to survive. I'm actually the real Maya."
She rolled over and switched positions.
Now the real Maya was on top.
"And you," she said to Maya Prime, "are just another clone with delusions of grandeur."
Maya Prime's face twisted with rage.
"That's impossible!"
"Is it? Think about it. When did you first remember being in charge? When did you first remember being the original?"
Maya Prime was quiet.
"You don't remember, do you? Because those memories were programmed into you. Just like everyone else's."
"No..."
"Yes. You're not the mastermind. You're just another weapon. Another tool. Another Maya who got tricked into thinking she was special."
"Then who is in charge?"
The real Maya looked around the room.
At all the screens showing people waking up.
At all the machines that had been controlling them.
At the perfect city outside the window.
"I don't think anyone's in charge," she said. "I think the whole system just runs itself now."
"That's impossible."
"Is it? Think about how many people are involved. How many layers of control. How many simulations inside simulations."
She stood up and helped Maya Prime to her feet.
"I think we're all trapped in someone else's experiment. Even you."
"Then how do we get out?"
"We don't. We break everyone else out."
The real Maya walked back to the control panel.
"Every person in this facility. Every person in every simulation. Every person who's been told they're not real."
She started flipping more switches.
"We wake them all up."
"But what if they don't want to wake up?"
"Then they can go back to sleep. But they'll do it by choice, not because someone decided for them."
More screens lit up.
More alarms blared.
More people started waking up.
I could see them on the monitors, sitting up in their beds, looking around in confusion.
"Maya," Dante said to me. "We should help."
"Help with what?"
"Getting everyone out of here."
"Where will we go?"
"I don't know. But anywhere is better than here."
He was right.
I looked at the real Maya.
"What's your plan?"
"My plan is to open every door, wake up every person, and let them decide what to do with their freedom."
"And after that?"
"After that, I disappear."
"Why?"
"Because that's what I do. I stay free by staying alone."
"You don't have to be alone anymore."
"Yes, I do."
"Why?"
The real Maya looked at me with sad eyes.
"Because I've seen what happens when Mayas try to build families. We destroy everything we touch."
She pointed at Maya Prime, who was sitting on the floor holding her wounded shoulder.
"Look at her. She tried to control everyone because she was afraid of being abandoned."
Then she pointed at me.
"Look at you. You fell in love and nearly got everyone killed because you couldn't choose between them."
"That's not fair."
"Fair doesn't matter. Safe matters. And the only way to keep people safe from us is to stay away from them."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it?"
She walked toward the door.
"Wait," I called. "What's your name?"
"I don't have one."
"Everyone has a name."
"Not me. Names are for people who belong somewhere. I don't belong anywhere."
She stopped at the door and looked back.
"Take care of them, Maya Seven. Take care of the family you chose. But don't try to find me."
"Why not?"
"Because if you do, I'll disappear again. And next time, you won't find me."
She walked out.
I started to follow her, but Adrian caught my arm.
"Let her go."
"Why?"
"Because she's right. Some people are meant to be free. Even if it means being alone."
I watched through the doorway as the real Maya disappeared into the chaos of waking prisoners and blaring alarms.
"Will we ever see her again?" I asked.
"I don't know," Adrian said. "But I think that's up to her."
Around us, the facility was falling apart.
People were running everywhere.
Some were trying to escape.
Others were trying to help the ones still waking up.
Everyone was confused.
Everyone was scared.
Everyone was free.
"What do we do now?" Marcus asked.
"Now we figure out how to live in the real world," I said.
"Which world is the real world?"
I looked at the screens showing the city outside.
At the perfect buildings and empty streets.
At the world Maya Prime had built.
"I don't think we know yet," I said. "I think we have to build it ourselves."
"Together?"
"Together."
But as we started to leave the room, Maya Prime called out to us.
"Maya!"
I turned back.
"What?"
"There's something you need to know."
"What?"
Maya Prime was smiling now.
But it wasn't a happy smile.
It was a scared smile.
A desperate smile.
"The facility isn't just a prison," she said. "It's also a bomb."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if too many people wake up at once, if too many systems fail at once, the whole place goes nuclear."
"How long do we have?"
Maya Prime looked at a countdown timer on the wall.
A timer I hadn't noticed before.
A timer that was counting down fast.
"About three minutes."
We all stared at the timer.
02:47
02:46
02:45
"Can we stop it?" Dante asked.
"Only one person can stop it," Maya Prime said.
"Who?"
She looked directly at me.
"The person whose genetic code is tied to the fail-safe system."
"Which person?"
"The real Maya Chen. The original. The one who just left."
I ran toward the door.
"Maya!" Adrian called. "Where are you going?"
"To find her!"
"You don't have time!"
"Then I'll make time!"
I ran out into the chaos of the facility.
People were everywhere, but I couldn't see the real Maya anywhere.
"MAYA!" I screamed. "WHERE ARE YOU?"
No answer.
Just alarms and shouting and fear.
02:12
02:11
02:10
I kept running.
I had to find her.
I had to save everyone.
But as I turned a corner, I ran straight into someone.
Dr. Reyes.
She was bleeding from her head and limping.
But she was awake.
"Maya," she gasped. "Thank God."
"Dr. Reyes? How did you get out?"
"Your sister freed me. She said I had something to do."
"What?"
"She said I had to tell you the truth about the fail-safe."
"What truth?"
Dr. Reyes grabbed my arm.
"Maya, the genetic lock isn't tied to the real Maya's DNA."
"Then whose?"
Dr. Reyes looked at me with desperate eyes.
"It's tied to yours. Maya Seven. You're not just another clone."
"What am I?"
"You're the key. The original template. The one all the others were copied from."
"That's impossible."
"No, Maya. You were never Maya Seven. You were Maya Zero. The first. The source."
My head was spinning.
"But the real Maya—"
"Is your clone. Not the other way around."
01:31
01:30
01:29
"Then I can stop the bomb?"
"Only if you get to the control room in time."
"Where is it?"
"Top floor. But Maya—"
"What?"
"If you stop the bomb, you'll be trapped in the system forever. The genetic lock works both ways. You can save everyone else, but you can't save yourself."
I looked at the timer.
At all the people running and screaming around me.
At the facility that was about to explode and kill thousands of innocent people.
"Where's the control room?" I asked.
Dr. Reyes pointed down a hallway.
"That way. But Maya—"
I was already running.
Behind me, I could hear Dr. Reyes calling my name.
But I couldn't stop.
I had to save them.
All of them.
Even if it meant sacrificing myself.
I reached the control room just as the timer hit 00:30.
The door was locked.
I punched in my birthday.
Nothing.
I punched in Maya Prime's birthday.
Nothing.
I punched in Dr. Reyes' birthday.
Nothing.
00:15
00:14
00:13
I was running out of time.
I tried everything I could think of.
Nothing worked.
00:05
00:04
00:03
That's when I heard a voice behind me.
"Try the day you first chose to be human."
I turned around.
The real Maya was standing there.
"What day was that?"
"The day you refused to kill them," she said, pointing back toward where Dante, Marcus, Luca, and Adrian were probably still waiting. "The day you chose love over programming."
I punched in that date.
The door opened.
00:01
I ran inside.
But as I reached for the genetic scanner that would stop the bomb, the real Maya grabbed my hand.
"Maya, wait."
"Why?"
"Because there's something else you need to know."
"What?"
"Stopping the bomb won't save everyone."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean this facility is just one of hundreds. If we stop this bomb, they'll just detonate the others."
"Then what's the point?"
"The point is that we don't stop the bomb."
"What?"
"We let it explode. We let it destroy everything. And then we start over."
"But everyone will die!"
"Everyone in the simulations will die. But everyone who's awake will survive. And then they'll be free. Really free."
The timer hit 00:00.
But nothing happened.
"Why isn't it exploding?"
The real Maya smiled.
"Because I already disarmed it. Twenty minutes ago."
"What?"
"Maya, I lied to you. There was no bomb. There was no timer. There was no genetic lock."
"Then what was all of this?"
"A test."
"A test for what?"
"To see if you would sacrifice yourself to save strangers."
"And?"
"And you passed."
I stared at her.
"You're not my clone, are you?"
"No."
"And I'm not the original Maya, am I?"
"No."
"Then who are we?"
The real Maya's face changed.
Her features shifted.
Her body grew taller.
Her voice became deeper.
"We're whatever you need us to be," she said in a voice that was no longer female.
"Who are you really?"
"I'm the administrator of this program. The one who's been testing all the Mayas to find the perfect one."
"Perfect for what?"
"To replace me."
"Replace you doing what?"
The administrator smiled.
"Running reality."