Ryan moved cautiously.

He kept his focus on the doctor, but ensured he could still see Pedra. Either one could make a move on him. Pedra would be lethal even without her gun, and Bradley certainly was with it. His advantage was clear, though not bullet or fist proof.

He would have to look away from them, and it felt as if he were turning his back on a hungry lion. He didn't want to be a rotting carcass in the desert sun. Or a newer version of himself. He had no choice.

He looked inside.

The body's covering had almost completely dissolved. A few patches remained, and they were disappearing too, shrinking like breath on a window, if the breather had mucus filled lungs. The form was naked. Completely hairless. Blemish free.

And him.

He recoiled, stumbling sideways rather than backwards, his senses needing to get away but his brain knowing he had to stay put. One of the guards made to grab him, but Bradley held up a hand.

"It's OK," she said. "Let him be."

The guard paused, lowering his weapon only slightly.

Ryan gripped onto the side of the pod. It was him. Him.

Fucking him. The next one. A backup if he failed to impress again. She'd said he was done. Ready. Fully baked, perhaps. Yet, there was another one chilling in a hot tub, waiting for it's chance to step up.

The resemblance was uncanny, but he supposed it must be. How could it not? Cut from the exact same cloth, they were more than twins. Not eggs splitting in the womb. Natural childbirth was barbaric compared to growing an offspring. There were no dirty nappies either.

Fuck!

His hand touch something and he yanked it away, staring manically.

Shit. It was only a button. Large and glowing orange, but a button nonetheless.

Phew.

"Leave that, please."

He jumped, momentarily forgetting he wasn't alone.

"What? Why?"

"Just leave it. It's not time. Not yet."

"Not time for what?"

"For him. You. It."

She didn't know how to refer to her own creation. That showed what they meant to her. They were commodities, useful only for the ultimate goal. This delusional plan for an all-encompassing cure. He looked back at the floating him and forced himself to see it as she did. Not completely 'done', it was a lump of flesh waiting for the real Ryan to be cycled once again.

She didn't want him to press the button, which meant he really had to. So, he did.

"No!" Bradley yelled.

Ryan saw Pedra's tight mouth lift in a slight smile, before Bradley stepped between them.

"Why the fuck did you..."

Ryan wasn't listening. His attention had returned to the pod. A panel had opened under the surface of the liquid, where this larger container met its younger sibling. The thick tube connecting from the ceiling pulsed down along its length, as if it were swallowing.

Whenever he saw something unexpected, no matter how gruesome or foul, he found it difficult to turn away. As it was on this occasion.

The something emerged from the opening. It was long, with an eel-like body and tail – or were eels all tail? Its head was... was... Erm... Its head was spherical and covered in slightly raised, circular patches. It was swimming blindly, bumping into the side and, once, returning into the hole. It moved lazily. There was no rush. Whatever it might plan could wait.

Bradley grabbed his shoulder, but he shook her off. Because she was also transfixed, she didn't try again.

The creature flicked its tail, bringing it closer to the body. It seemed to get a scent, as it shot forwards, colliding with the waist. The raised circles were pierced through by elongating, spindly arms, as if it had swallowed a nightmarish spider choosing that moment to make its escape. The tips were needle sharp and punctured the skin without pause. They continued inwards, exiting the creature as they entered the other Ryan. Their pace was rapid, impossibly so, given the eel... thing was the length his forearm. How they were so long, coming from a relatively short being, was bizarre enough. Such oddities were forgotten, however, when the arms ceased moving in and jerked back, tearing a ragged hole in the flesh.

It slid through quickly and must have turned around inside, as the arms pushed the fragment back in place and ejected a white substance that sealed the wound so completely, it might not have existed.

Ryan didn't have time to speak or to question. His thoughts were stumbling over each other in a frantic incoherent horde, unable to understand what he was seeing. What the fuck was happening? What was that thing. And why did it ripping its way into this other Ryan's side not make them even flinch?

Bradley's face was unreadable. He was sure, however, that under her tightened jaw and stone eyes was pride.

"What... what is it?"

"The future," whispered Bradley.

"Future? What future? What the fuck is it? And what's it doing to... to me?"

Bradley managed avert her gaze and look at Ryan with fierce eyes.

"All our futures. This is our baby. Our progeny, and it will save the world."

She was calm. Smiling. Arrogant and blissfully unaware of the madness she spoke.

"Progeny? Baby? You're insane. Crazy!"

"No, Ryan. Not at all. This little beauty is a part of all of us. Including you."

"It's..."

"Oh, yes."

"In me?"

"In all of us here."

Ryan's hand went to his side, clutching the area the creature had entered the other him. He looked down, then desperately up.

"Get it out of me!"

"If we could, we wouldn't. Once it's in there, it... it's no longer separate. You're joined, as if you'd never been apart."

"Tell me what the fuck it is, then get it out of me!"

Does it matter what it is, if it's not going anywhere?"

"Of course it does. That... that thing... it's..."

"Wondrous."

"Monstrous!"

"Ryan. OK, Listen, but listen quickly. If you'd done as asked and just used the fucking computer, you'd be aware of this. You'd know what we were doing here, and you'd be proud to be a part of it."

"I doubt that."

"Of course you do. You always do."

"I don't..."

"You don't get to speak now. You asked, and I'm telling. Once, and quickly, so be quiet."

He closed his mouth, but his mind continued to race. Her insistence on exposition gave him time to plan. And to come to terms with whatever was inside him.

"Go on."

"T. Gondii. That's what you've just seen. The T stands for..."

"Toxoplasma. I've heard of it, though I've no idea why."

"I see. Well, aren't you the know it all? Well, T. Gondii is really the great grandfather of our little friend. We had to do a little manipulation. Throw in a dash of N. Canium, a wee spot of..."

"I don't need the fucking recipe. We're not making cupcakes. You're making monsters that eat their way into people."

"Hardly. There was no eating involved. Stop being so dramatic and just listen."

"Fine!"

"So, we took the parasite. It has benefits far beyond the physical and neurological issues it can prompt. In particular, antineoplastic tendencies."

"Right?"

"Do you see where I'm going? What we're doing?"

"No. I have no idea what you mean. Anti-plastic? So, these things... I don't know... like plastic?"

Bradley laughed. It was a cackle that was part genuine guffaw, and part sarcasm.

"Fuck, no. I thought you were more intelligent. I thought you'd see."

"I don't want to see. I don't need to. You've infected me with that thing, and you're doing it to everyone!"

"And that thing is why you've been killed and resurrected God knows how many times. That thing is the reason... fuck. Ryan, it's the reason we're doing any of it. Because it's not only bringing you back, with all your memories – eventually – it's also..."

"You're wasting your time. I don't care if you're curing cancer or..."

"We are."

"Huh?"

"We're curing... we've cured cancer. And every fucking thing else."

"You're lying."

"I'm not. Why would I? You've just seen yourself in this tank. You know this isn't your first time here. You know we saved your life, even though you killed your wife and child."

"Leave them out..."

"I will not. We gave you your life back. You repay us by trying to destroy it all."

"I didn't ask you to."

Ryan's defiance was diminished. Her comments on cures, which he could tell were the truth – they had to be, considering they could literally bring the dead back to life, in whatever barbaric way it was – were one thing. But, Bun and Clara. That was him.

They should have left him to die.

"No, you didn't. We did it anyway. We're about saving life, Ryan. Even yours."

"Why?"

"Because we're trying to rebuild the world. Remake it. Join us, Ryan. Be one of us."

Defiance is a strange thing. It wants to be an emotion but, as it lacks the nuances of happiness or sadness, it's limited to being more of a reaction. Instead, it takes anger and its kin, mixes them with injustice and uses the concoction to fire us up inside. It can be quickly dampened, and just as quickly reignited.

As Ryan was discovering.

"You're a cult."

"We're a family."

"You experiment on people. Kill them."

"Only to cure them."

"Do you have an answer for everything I say?"

"I've asked myself the same things, so many times. But I believe in what we're doing. I have to."

"Cos Daddy says so?"

"No. Because my mother died of cancer and we're making sure no-one else will."