Chapter 17
The walk was uneventful.
We were quiet the whole time, neither of us saying a word. I would open my mouth to ask Varian about how much further we had to walk, but the words would never make their way out. I didn’t want to hear Varian’s sharp tongue again. I wouldn’t tell him, but his tone had hurt me.
Varian was the only person to talk to me without formality or disappointment. I understood why he didn’t speak with formality. He wasn’t a lab coat and therefore he wasn’t superior towards me. Once, He’d told me that although the lab coats were condescending towards the experiment, they weren’t much higher up on the ‘food pyramid’. In fact, he told me some considered them below us. If a lab coat made a mistake in front of an experiment they were never seen again.
He’d also told me that the Outsiders were steps below experiments. Whilst experiments were treated with care and formality, Outsiders were treated with disgust and avoided unless it was absolutely necessary. He’d made sure that I understood how Outsiders were inferior to us. If He was correct, then Varian was inferior to me. But I was starting to question everything He’d told me.
Varian had never acted inferior towards me. If He was correct, then Varian and I were supposed to have a relationship parallel to a lab coat and an experiment. But we didn’t. Varian talked out to me, but I never punished him. Varian didn’t seem to find anything wrong with speaking out either. But why did I always feel miniscule when I spoke out towards him? Did that make Varian superior towards me?
“I think we’re almost there.” Varian spoke, breaking the endless silence. His eyebrows were furrowed with confusion, like he couldn’t remember. I understood slightly why he might be confused; all the buildings looked the same. They were all bricked and unusually dirty. They clearly weren’t sterilized like the lab was.
But if he’d lived in this area all of his life, shouldn’t he know where we were the way an experiment was built to remember their number? It came naturally to add my numbers to the end of my name. Arcelia 14786: it seemed to flow. I’ve known it my whole life at the Lab just as Varian knew his area.
Of course, I didn’t voice my opinion. I wasn’t ready to have Varian snap at me once again, leaving me confused and hurt.
Suddenly he stopped, his eyebrows furrowing further. His eyes closed and I just stared. Varian closing his eyes wasn’t going to increase his chances of remembering where he wanted to be. But I didn’t tell him that. Instead, I kept staring, waiting for him to come to the realization we might be lost.
“I think we take a left here.” He murmured, walking off again, not bothering to check if I followed. I sighed mutely, but continued trailing after him only because if I stayed alone there was more than a fifty percent chance I would end up dead.
He stopped again at a lone building that stood all by itself. It didn’t look as stable as the other buildings we had just passed and not near as clean as the lab. It clearly looked abandoned making me sure that no one inhabited it. Varian seemed to think otherwise as he turned towards me.
“You’re going to stay behind me the whole time, understand? Don’t say a single word.” He said, his confusion gone, replaced with a mask of seriousness. I nodded, thinking myself capable of the ability to remember a few simple commands. He sighed before nodding to himself and stepping inside the building with me right behind.
The interior of the building was even more isolated than the outside. It held nothing except for the few pillars that were there to support the structure. Otherwise, the floor was dusted with dirt that had probably blown in and never found its way out. I could hear rustling of what sounded like the rats that used to escape from their testing environment occasionally at the Lab. Other than that, it was completely silent.
Varian was looking around also, but unlike me, he didn’t seem ready to go. His lips suddenly shaped themselves before they made a bird-like noise. I looked in amazement and jealousy, wondering why the lab coats hadn’t programmed me to do that also. Was it something that came with the Red Virus?
I turned my head, hearing someone make a bird-like noise back before seeing their silhouette next to the farthest pillar. I could only make out their shape and towering shadow, nothing else. I glanced at Varian who was smiling, seeming genuinely pleased.
“I knew you’d be here.” He called, his voice bouncing off the dirty walls and making their way to the unknown stranger. They laughed, and it travelled to me, managing to sound bubbly and humorless at the same time.
“I’m surprised you remembered the whistle. It’s been ages since I’ve used it, let alone heard it.” A feminine voice replied. I could heard the padding of feet as she drew closer and I found myself blinking in surprise when I finally saw her. She was beautiful.
Her skin was evenly toned and smooth, not a single trace of a scar or freckle. I was almost fooled into believing she had been introduced to the Perfection, but the raggedness of her clothes stopped me. There wasn’t a way for her to afford something like that. If she could she would have been wearing the latest designer dress, not a dusty shirt that barely hung onto her.
Her hair stopped just above her waist, the dark blonde strands hiding themselves in the tangle of white-blonde ones. It gave her an almost angelic look, but the ominous green eyes gave her away. They were a dark green, seeming to be filled with secrets she held locked up. I found myself staring, envy sweeping through me all too suddenly.
I knew I was more beautiful than her. But I only was because of what the lab coats had done. I was only more beautiful than this mere girl because of thirteen surgeries that had been carefully chosen and performed on me. Without them, did my beauty even compare to hers?
I couldn’t remember how I looked before the surgeries. I didn’t even know what color my hair used to be. Was it a light blonde like hers or a silk black like Varian’s? I had tried asking Him once only to get punished because we were supposed to be looking forward, not at our past. So I stopped questioning Him about me after that incident.
“Of course I remembered it Diana.” Varian replied, flashing her a dazzling smile and I found a frown settling on my own face. He seemed more relaxed than he had ever been since we had been Outside. Was he that uncomfortable around me or was he just that much more comfortable around her?
Diana’s eyes glanced at Varian before they lazily settled on the shocker around his neck. Within a second her whole posture changed. She grew stiff as she took a step back and her face grew whip-like.
“What the hell is that?” She spat angrily and Varian’s smile fled, his own posture coiling a little. They both stood, watching the other warily as the tension grew thicker and thicker until it was palpable.
“You know what it is.” He said softly, but it didn’t cause the tension to lessen any.
“I want to know what it’s doing around your neck.” She said right before she glanced at him again, seeming to check for something and her eyes landed on me. Her posture grew even tighter if it was possible.
“Who’s that? Did you bring one of the freaks?” She snapped and I frowned, but didn’t snap back. I knew I wasn’t a freak, but an experiment.
“I came here because you’re the only one I know who can take it off.” Varian started, his voice tinged with need as he ignored her question.
“Get out.” She said, her voice wavering between calmness and anger.
“I can’t Diana. I can’t leave until I get this thing off. I wouldn’t have risked it if it wasn’t important.” He pleaded and her eyes flickered.
“What are you even going to do after? Run off with the freak and hope they don’t find you? Varian, I know you aren’t that idiotic!” She said, seeming to plead him in her own way. But I couldn’t understand what she wanted.
“We’re going to go to a place I heard about. If it’s real then we should be safe.” Varian replied without hesitation. Diana sighed, running a hand through her hair, seeming conflicted. I stayed quiet, not wanting to become involved.
“If I take it off, what do I get?”
Varian’s eyes coated with frost and his lips tightened. “I should’ve known.” He snapped back, fury surrounding him. He hadn’t been as mad when Leo asked for something.
Diana shook her head before saying “I don’t want anything you have Varian. I don’t even want anything from you. I just want to help.” Her voice softened at the end along with her expression, but Varian remained like a piece of steel.
“I don’t have time to play games Diana. Just tell me what the hell you want so we can get this over with.” He replied and Diana stared at him for a second before answering.
“I want to join you.”
Varian frowned, but not as deeply as me. He wouldn’t say yes would he? She couldn’t come along. She didn’t understand what was going on. Even more important, I didn’t trust her. She might be an acquaintance of Varian’s but she was a stranger to me.
“Diana-” Varian started slowly, but she interrupted him before he could finish.
“Look Varian, you really don’t have an option. You won’t find anyone else willing to talk to you with that thing on, much less take it off. I’m also willing to bet the freak doesn’t know how to defend herself which means you could use another person to help with the combat. I’m going to be a helper, not a burden.” She reasoned and her eyes trailed to me pointedly as she said the last sentence. I looked down instinctively, hating the Lab for its effect on me immediately after. I felt anger grow within me.
“No.” I snapped, lifting my head to meet a pair of startled blue eyes and a pair of angry green ones.