Everything was perfectly still. Not a sound was made. Only the wind as it bristled through the leaves and trees. It had rained the previous night and as the wind whisked by, raindrops would fall off the leaves and land on the ground or small mud puddles. Again, not a sound was made. Fog began to creep in. The white mist began to cover up images. Soon trees and bushes, and the grass began to disappear. The forest slowly camouflaged with the white surrounding. It looked like as she was walking on clouds. The wind blew gently. It blew in the girl’s face. She could barely see anything. Crunch! Crunch as she stepped on leaves or pine cones. She could only see the dirt, leaves, acorns, pine cones, or pine needles as she took a step at a time. She looked down hoping to find what she needed. Occasionally she would look up and make sure nothing was coming her way. Her long black wavy hair was pulled into a pony tail and it swished every time she moved her head. It reached all the way down her back. She wore a black trench coat, black sunglasses, black boots, black gloves, and a belt holding her long gun, bullets, grenades, and a few daggers. She clicked a button on the side of her glasses and the lenses became high tech binoculars. She could zoom in on an image, observe objects from a far or close range, and could find movement. She scanned the mist and looked back down on the ground. At last she found some fresh shoe prints engraved into the soil, but they weren’t the type of shoe she was following in the first place. She clicked a button on her ear piece and recorded, “Ray, I found shoe prints, but not the ones I’ve been following. I took a picture of the shoe prints and just sent you the images.”
“You, mean it’s not Garnish’s?”
“Yeah, unless his feet shrunk to girl size shoe. He must be trying to ambush or pull some trick on me. I won’t fall into it. I never do.”
“Yeah, Ace, from your pictures, those are not Garnish’s shoe prints. Well, you better start running in order to found out who this person is. Maybe the person can lead us to Garnish’s headquarters.”
“Maybe, I’ll talk to ya later,” she responded as she turned off the head piece.
She began to run and looked down at the prints to follow the tracks. They led her out of the fog into a picturesque meadow. The grass was lush and green. The wildflowers were gorgeous and the whole meadow was beyond imagining. She readjusted her glasses and saw a faint object in the distance. She quickened her pace and began to gain on the runner. The runner led her into a marsh. The soil was very muddy and damp. There was light fog but her surroundings were fairly visible. She shouted, “Come out and fight Garnish! Be a man and step up!”
A feminine voice replied, “You’re a bit too late. He caught a ride to our base.”
Her voice sounded familiar to the girl, “Come and show yourself.” Ace looked around and searched to trees and caught a glimpse of a figure resting on a very high tree branch.
The figure stood up, walked across the branch, jumped down and walked in Ace’s direction until she was within a couple yards away. Ace’s expression was priceless. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The figure wore the same clothing and the physical appearance looked similar to Ace. “Surprised, I know.”
“How were they able to make…” Ace stuttered.
“Make a clone of you. It’s a secret. I guess you will never find out.” She smirked and paced to and fro.
“You’re the one who’s been causing trouble. You’re the one who’s been stealing banks, ruining my life, and my identity of who I am.”
“Actually Garnish is.”
“Whatever, tell me where the base is. I don’t want to fight you.”
“You’re not going to get the answer. You’ll have to fight me.”
“Alright, if that’s the only way to protect my family and the rest of the community, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Very well. Just so you, know I’ve been watching you. So don’t think I’m like any other weakling opponent that you have faced.” She stopped pacing and clenched her fist. All of her knuckles cracked.
Ace stood there and waited for her opponent to make the first move. Sure enough the clone made a dash towards Ace. The clone tried to punch Ace but Ace grabbed her hand and twisted it around the clone’s back. Just as Ace was about to kick the clone, the clone hit Ace with the back of her head and the Ace’s grasp released the clone. Ace stumbled a bit but was still on her feet. The clone this time ran and swiped Ace’s feet right underneath her. The clone was about to kick Ace in the face, but Ace rolled and got to her feet. Ace punched at the clone’s face, but the clone dogged it. Then Ace made a combination of a punch, punch, kick. The clone dogged one punched but missed the other punch and kick. The clone backed away and then made her move. They both punched and kicked each other. The clone received a might kick in the face and her sunglasses fell off; Ace received a rock solid punch to the stomach. The clone spit some blood out of her mouth while Ace coughed and catch her breath. The clone was dizzy and couldn’t quite focus. The clone hit a button on her watch and a noise appeared. Ace looked up and saw a helicopter. The clone hit Ace in the head, but Ace turned around, grabbed the clone’s trench coat as the clone jumped to a tree limb. The clone fell down, but quickly wriggled out of the trench coat, and continued to jump from tree limb to tree limb to reach the helicopter. Ace watched for she could not do that. She threw down the trench coat. It was drenched with perspiration. Then she saw something hanging out of one of the pockets. She pushed a button on her glasses, “Hey, Ray, I found something.”
“Did you find out who the person was?”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“I met a clone…of me.”
“What, you found the person who causing all the trouble and you have proof that it wasn’t you.”
“Sort of. Hey, I have book. I think it’s some sort of journal. It has pictures and writings.”
“Pictures of what?”
“Pictures of me!” She sounded alarmed and continued talking, “This creep has been observing me every since I was born. He’s been watching me grow, go to school, and everything. Wait, the only way, a scientist can make a clone, is by using DNA. I must have known him or he must have known me when I was kid. He must have taken some of my DNA and created a clone of me. He knows everything about me, while I have no clue who I am.”
“Well, you’re certainly piecing the puzzle together. I’m sending a helicopter to your coordinates to pick you up. Even though you didn’t catch the clone, at least you have the journal. Looks like you found a good place to start you search for this mysterious man. You do know who you are, you are the best agent ever. You know about your parents… ”
“I mean my birth parents. I only know bits and pieces of the puzzle to my life, not everything. Journal or no journal, I could have done better. He probably made that clone as a distraction.” She kept skimming through the journal.
“You did well. You made progress. Ace, don’t get down on yourself for not defeating the clone. The journal will help you discover who you are and who the man is.”
“Still, it wasn’t good enough.” She turned off the ear piece, closed the journal, and walked back to the meadow. She paced in the vibrant green grass surrounded by colorful flowers as she waited for the helicopter.
The story is kind of personal story. I am Ace and Ace has the whole mysterious identity issue going on. She doesn’t really know who she is and this man name Garnish is making her life miserable. Garnish means to adore and beautiful but not everyone thinks of themselves from the inside out beautiful. I have hard time defeating that challenge. Ace is always harsh on herself, saying that she could have done better. I say that either on a test or sports and most of the time it’s true. I could have done better studying or practicing or pushing myself. The name Ace means to do well and I try my best in everything just like Ace did her best to bring down the clone but she failed. Sometimes I have hard time accepting failure. Ray is her accountability friend, and he tries to help her out, but she thinks she doesn’t really need his help, but she does. I always try to do almost everything on my own. The clone is me, but my obstinate side. The clone is exactly like Ace in physical sense but not in heart sense. Clones do not have emotions as humans do. I tend to hide my emotions and act tough because I’ve been taught not let things go to your head and I hold in my emotions. Ace fights herself and the journal she discovers, she learns more about herself and who she is. I guess, overall, my challenges that I’ve been facing all of my life is uncovering who I am, opening my emotions up, accept who I am, and learn to trust and ask others for help. I cannot do everything on my own. Everything of who I was, was very foggy and then it became clear of who I was. Sometimes I get into the doubt and uncertain areas of my life, but God leads me back to the green meadow where I do know who I am. I’m learning to defeat myself yet, rediscover who I am.
