274 (Complex Series, #4)

Chapter Twenty-One

 “How can I remember then?”

She’s not making any sense. The red shot doesn’t wipe away my memory. I can perfectly remember every single person who rebelled, every single time I got that shot. What memories are they erasing?

Piper nods, “When you first arrived at the Complex, someone injected you with a different shot. That made it so that all the other injections don’t work on you.”

I stare at Piper. Should I believe this? I can remember everything. Why would someone choose to make me immune to the injections?

Piper becomes grave, “If the Heads were to find out that you were immune, you would be tortured and killed.”

“What?”

Piper presses her lips together, “Yeah, it happened to my friend. She…she was immune. The Heads found out, experimented on her, tormenting her, and then killed her.”

I could be experimented on. I could be tormented. I could be killed.

All because someone decided to randomly choose me and inject me with something. I had no choice in it and I could die because of it.

Piper takes a deep breath, “There are more like you. There are at least two other people here in the Unknown. I’m going to save you.”

“What? How?”

 “I’m going to help you escape the Complex.”

Disbelief morphs my features, “What? You can’t do that. You can’t escape, there’s nowhere to go. If you were to leave, you would be infected by the Disease.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Almost everything the Heads told you were full of lies.”

How can she so openly deny the Heads? Especially since she’s an Official.

Piper sighs, “I know this is a lot of information and I’m sorry. I won’t be able to come here often, so I’m trusting Miranda to tell you the rest when the other Eeke comes in.”

“What other Eeke?” I ask.

Piper glows with pride, “There are only three more of you that need to escape yet. We’ve helped every other immune child escape. We’re just waiting for the last Eeke to come back from her time with the Ecru.”

A loud knock echoes from the door at the front of the room.

Miranda and Piper share an alarmed glance. Piper darts out of her chair, slipping through a different door at the side of the room. Miranda presses a button on her desk, causing the front door to slide open.

A boy saunters in, his chin lifted high. He glares at me, before turning to Miranda, “Really? You have the time to meet with her?Do you even do anything?”

Miranda stays calm, “What do you need Christopher?”

Christopher moves closer, “Oh, nothing, nothing. I was just figuring out what I’m going to change in this office. It is going to be mine in a couple of days.”

 “You don’t know that for sure. You never know what the election will decide.”

Christopher smirks, “I’m pretty sure what the elections will decide. I will be elected as the new Leader and make some serious changes.”

Miranda sighs in frustration. It’s obvious that they’ve had this conversation before, “If you become the Leader, you need to do what’s best for the people in the Unknown.”

“Of course I will. But, only after I do what’s best for myself.”

“Do you want to win only by blackmailing people into voting for you?”

“If that’s what it takes. You see, I’m going to be dead in two years. Once I’m dead, does it really matter who I make angry or hurt? All that truly matters is getting what I want.”

 “No, you have completely wrong. Why do you matter so much? What about everyone else?”

 “I’m already bored with your compassionate, oh-so-caring attitude. You see, your opinion doesn’t really matter to me. In fact, in only a couple of days, you’ll be dead. And I’ll be the Leader. There’s really nothing you can do about it.”

“Leave.” Miranda commands.

Christopher raises his eyebrows mockingly, but strides out of her office. He calls over his shoulders, “I needed to leave my soon to be office anyway.”

He snickers all the way to the door. It closes behind him. I avoid looking at Miranda, I don’t know what to say. My eyes scan the room. It’s about ten paces long and five paces wide. There are doors lining the length. Her desk is placed in the back of the room. The door that Christopher left through is exactly opposite of where she is sitting.

I run out of places to look at.

I glance at her and my eyes widen. She’s glaring at her lap, desperately trying to keep tears out of her eyes. She fails, a tear slipping from the bright blue eye, squeezing between her eyelashes. It slides, slowly and gracefully, down her pale cheek. She blinks and raises her head to look at me. A tear clings to her long eyelashes, dangling above her dark brown eye.

I don’t know what to say.

Miranda sniffs, “I’m really sorry about, well, you know. It’s just…I’m going to die in a few days and…”

She slowly starts shaking her head. Tears gather back into her eyes.  Her voice wavers, “I haven’t quite…come to terms with it.”

A small sob escapes her. Two twin tears fall out of her eyes, traveling down her cheeks. She doesn’t bother wiping them away.

She whispers, “It’s not so much dying. I always knew that I was going to die. It’s just…leaving everyone behind. Christopher is probably going to become Leader. I can only imagine everything he’s going to ruin. There’s nothing I can do about it. I feel like…like I’m abandoning them.”

“Why can’t someone else be Leader?”

Miranda smiles sadly, “Someone else could be the Leader, but they would have no chance against Christopher. Few people know how rude he actually is. All these years he’s done whatever it takes to get people’s vote. Acting to be kinder than he is, lying, blackmailing. He’s got at least half of everyone’s vote and that’s all he needs.”

“Do you know what he plans on doing?” I ask.

Miranda shakes her head, “No, that’s the thing that scares me the most. I have no idea what he has in store. I doubt he will try to restore the Heads power over the Unknown or anything similar to that. He wouldn’t want to share his power. But, I really have no idea. He currently has a small amount of power, and his misusing that. He barely does anything but bossing people around.”

 “Why don’t you just remove him from power?”

Miranda shrugs, “That’s the beauty of the Unknown. One person can’t make the decision. At least half of the population has to decide who is in power. It can incredibly fair or unfair. It all depends on whether people know the whole story.”

Miranda wipes away the last of her tears, straightening in her chair. I don’t think she’s over her guilt and sadness, but she’s got her emotions back under control.

Miranda glances at the black strap on her wrist. She reads something before saying, “I just got a message from Harry. He wanted me to tell you that the girl you asked about, Marie, has come in from the Ecru.”