Clarkesworld, February 2026
Mars is a genetically modified soldier fleeing military pursuit in Windhoek, Namibia. Born with a congenital inability to feel pain, he was selected as a child for experimental procedures that gave him an “immortal organism”—a symbiont that makes him nearly invulnerable by rapidly healing injuries. After years as a weapon for the Sub-Saharan Alliance, Mars attempted suicide by stepping in front of a truck, but changed his mind at the last moment. The collision tore his body in half, and the organism’s desperate drive to survive created a second person from the remnants: Balarabe, Mars’s clone-brother.
The twins now hide in Windhoek’s quickcrete hives, pretending to be one person while waiting for forged documents to reach South Africa. They alternate “out-days” to maintain their cover, but Balarabe’s poor memory and growing independence create friction. When Mars discovers his brother has carelessly visited the same street vendor twice, he worries about their exposure.
His fears prove warranted when a military butcher drone attacks their capsule. Mars fights it off with a nanoknife, destroying the drone but suffering catastrophic injuries including a broken spine. Despite his body’s miraculous healing, he’s terrified that Balarabe might have been targeted by other drones. Unable to reach his brother by phone, Mars frantically searches the city, eventually tracking him to a movie theater where they’d planned to watch films during the rainy season.
At the theater, Mars is cornered by local police equipped with military-grade weapons. Before violence erupts, Balarabe crashes through the skylight to rescue him. In the chaos, the brothers disable the police using their enhanced abilities and nanoknives, leaving civilian casualties. Balarabe carries the wounded Mars to safety, and they escape through the flooded Gammams River.
As they trek south on foot toward the South African border, Mars confronts a painful realization: Balarabe never chose to exist and was born from Mars’s suicide attempt. He apologizes for bringing his brother into a life of pain and violence. But Balarabe reveals a profound perspective—his life began when Mars chose to leap aside from the truck, “shunning death, not seeking it.” Despite the world’s cruelty and his fragmented memories, Balarabe experiences moments of wonder: sunsets, movies, the miracle of his own living body.
The story concludes with the brothers walking together toward an uncertain future, no longer pretending to be one person but accepting they will “both be better for it.” They find sustenance at a charging station, sharing vat-grown meat and taking comfort that unlike them, these cultured cells “never suffered, not even for a moment”—a poignant contrast to their own painful existence and a hint at hope for gentler futures.
Rich Larson was born in Niger, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic, and is currently based in Canada. He is the author of the novels Annex and Ymir, as well as over two hundred and fifty short stories—some of the best of which can be found in his collections Tomorrow Factory, The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches, and his latest book, Changelog. His fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages, among them Polish, French, Romanian and Japanese, and his Clarkesworld story “Ice” was adapted into an Emmy-winning episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS.