Christopher rants to a group of ten or so people. Each person glares at Charlotte and I. My eyes widen when I see Dana listening to Christopher.
Charlotte and I freeze in the doorway. Neither of us want to go in there with Christopher. Charlotte's face turns bright red. She stutters, "Oh! P-Piper! I f-forgot! We need, we need, um...to do something quick! Uh, let's go." She quickly steps out the door. I turn to follow.
As a follow Charlotte down the hall, I hear a few snickers coming from the Eating Hall.
Charlotte turns a corner ahead of me and stops walking, leaning against the wall.
"I'm sorry Piper. I handled that offie terribly. Christopher scares me so much. He's always spreading rumors and blackmailing people about every little thing they do. See, he wants to be the next leader. Once Miranda dies, which will be a little over a year considering she's almost nineteen, there will be a new election. Christopher will probably win through his blackmailing. Plus he's the Council for the Fields. He's got that position through offie blackmailing too."
"Why doesn't everyone in the Unknown just, I don't know, agree to stop listening to whatever Christopher says? If everyone knows he's blackmailing people?" I ask.
"It's not that simple. There are 8,000 people in the Unknown. Sure, we all see each other every once in a while, but we aren't all Rebbies with everyone. The only people you really know well are the people in your Pros. Besides, we can't just go around saying, 'Don't listen to Christopher.' Nobody will take us seriously."
"But doesn't everyone know how horrible Christopher is?" I respond.
"Somewhat. Not really, I guess. It's just the people who work in the Fields and people with Pros who work closely with Fields, like the Kitchens and Odds, who understand how offie bad Christopher is. Everyone else believes his perfect, I-really-care attitude. Those people will vote for him and the people he's black-mailing will vote for him."
"Is it guaranteed Christopher is going to be the leader of the Unknown some day?"
"Pretty much. It's offie horrible, isn't it?"
I shudder slightly at the thought of Christopher being in control.
I hear more snickers and turn my head. Christopher and his group are walking past us. Fingers point and lips turn up in smirks. I see Dana's bobbing head in the group. She's purposely avoiding my gaze. Why would she be hanging out with Christopher? She hates him.
Shouldn't she be at her Pros in the Kitchens?
After the group is out of sight, Charlotte turns to me. "Wasn't that your old roommate, Dana?"
I nod slowly.
"Why would she be hanging out with Christopher?" She asks.
"No idea." I say. "She hates Christopher..."
"Shouldn't she be at her Pros?" I ask.
"She may have been able to slip away. She might have said she was going to the toilets or something. Or, today might be her day off. Every other week, people get one day off. Well, actually, it depends on the Pros. Kitchens get a day off every other week, but I get a day off whenever there are no Rivies. Which barely happens."
"It still doesn't make sense though. Dana hates Christopher. He was being mean to her yesterday."
I hear a beep come from my Notice. It's the first message I've received. I try to remember back to Miranda's lecture on which button to push. I just guess and press the green button.
Luckily, a hologram pops up with the message on it. It's from Dana. All it says is, "I'll explain later."
I click the same button again and the hologram disappears.
Charlotte looks at me questioningly.
"Dana." I say.
Charlotte nods even though it doesn't really explain anything. She seems to understand that I don't really want to explain.
"So," Charlotte says, clearly changing the subject, "Now that Christopher is out of the Eating Hall, do you want to go back in? I don't know about you, but I am offie starving."
I laugh, "Sure, why not?"
We walk back into the Eating Hall.
There are a couple other people in the scattered inside. Charlotte calls out to a group of five in the back of the room.
They smile weakly in response and wave us over.
"What's wrong?" Charlotte asks once we get over by them.
"Didn't you hear?" A boy questions.
"Hear what?" Charlotte frowns.
A girl answers nervously, "We got a new Eeke today."
Charlotte speaks, "What's so bad about that? We get Eekes all the time."
She swallows hard. "The Eeke, he was dead."
Charlotte reacts quickly. "What? We have never gotten a dead Eeke before. Ever."
"I know. Miranda is having an emergency meeting with the Council right now. They don't even know what to offie do.”
Everyone glances around, unable to focus on a single thing. Nobody knows what to do with themselves.
Charlotte bites her lip, "I thought the Ecru couldn't kill people. I thought they are only there to scare people."
"They can't kill. They never have before, anyway. They don't even attack if there is more than one person nearby."
A boy, who has been quiet up until now, says, "Ellen could have created a new type of Ecru that can kill. Or, maybe, the Ecru didn't kill him. Maybe the Windsors or an Official did, just to send a message to us."
Everyone's eyes widen. Which one is worse? A new type of Ecru that can kill or Ellen killing someone just to send a message?
Charlotte shudders, "Is it possible that the Eeke could have just died in the room after the Officials left and before the R.I. got there? Some Eekes are in terrible condition and..."
The same boy responds, "Martin, the Tech Council, and Camilla, the Nurse Council, looked at him. Together they confirmed that the boy had been dead for five hours. We know that Rivies are only in that room for an hour or so. The boy was dead when the Officials put him in the room."
A girl with black braids says, "But, Jake," She address the boy, "Why would they send him to the Unknown? Why not just dispose of his body?"
"That's why the Council and Miranda are having a meeting. Everyone who's heard the news doesn’t know what to think.”
I speak, for the first time, "Maybe that's exactly what Ellen wanted to happen. Maybe she just wanted to scare people away from getting too confident or she wanted to keep us on edge. Maybe she's just trying to mess us."
Everyone seems to consider this. Beeping echoes across the room. Everyone looks down at their Notices. A message has appeared from Miranda on my Notice.
The girl with black braids asks, "Is everyone else's message from Miranda?"
All the heads around the table bob together.
I press the green button on my Notice. The hologram pops up. It says in bold letters: Emergency Meeting. Everyone's attendance required. Eating Hall. 6th hour.
Jake speaks, "There are about 8,000 people in the Unknown. Will we even all fit in here?"
Charlotte shrugs, "This room holds about 1,000 people sitting."
"So," A boy with short blond hair says, "We are going to be packed together in a room, when everyone hears that Ellen sent us a dead Rivie. They’ll be luck not to have a riot on their hands. I'm considering not attending."
Jake rolls his eyes, "Your attendance is required."
The boy responds, "There are going to be 8,000 people packed in here. I doubt that they are going to realize one person is missing."
"They have a tracking system embedded in the Notices, you know that. They will review it after the meeting and see who wasn't there." Jake smirks.
"How do you know?" The boy asks.
Jake raises an eyebrow, "I'm an offie Tech. Believe me, I know."
The boy rolls his eyes and says in a mocking tone, "I'm an offie Tech. You Techs are always-"
Charlotte cuts into their bickering, "So, are we just going to wait in here? We may as well get some good seats so we don't get squashed by the crowds."
Everyone nods and stands up. The girl with black braids says, "Where do we want to move to?"
"Somewhere in the front?" Jake suggests.
The group heads up to the front of the room. I follow slightly behind.
After we are seated, everyone continues to throw theories and ideas around. As time ticks away, more and more people come in. Worry tightens everyone's faces. I have a feeling these emergency meetings don't happen very often.
I see Miranda slip in the crowded doorway and elbow her way through the crowd. She climbs on top of the food counter and stands. I glance around. It's packed in here but there is no way that this is 8,000 people. All the seats are taken and walls are lined with people, but it is not 8,000.
I check my Notice. It is the 5th hour. Where is everyone?
Miranda raises her voice to be heard over the people nervously talking, "You are probably wondering where everyone else is."
Every head turns in her direction. She has everyone's rapt attention.
"There was no way that everyone was going to fit in one location. So, we split up everyone into a couple different groups and other Council leaders are speaking to them. Everyone is hearing the exact same thing, so don't worry about missing information."
She pauses. Everyone is silent waiting for her to speak.
"I'm afraid," she says, "that what I have is not good news. The Council and I honestly aren't quite sure what to make of it. After listening to what I have to say, if you have any plausible theories, please, do send them to me through Notice with the title Theory. We will have another meeting like this one as soon as we figure out the answer."
She pauses once again, allowing everyone to process this information.
"You may or may not have heard rumors about what happened. I will now tell you fact for fact what happened."
"An R.I. went into a Rivie drop-off room. We knew it was an Eeke, so she had a Nurse with her. When she went into the room, the Eeke was already dead."
A collective gasp goes through the crowd.
"The Nurse called in more Nurses but there was nothing they could do. Martin and Camilla, both of them are on the Council, did research on the boy. They discovered through an autopsy that the boy was dead before the Officials put him in the room. The Windsors and Officials have purposely delivered us a dead Eeke. We don't know why."
I think everyone's face turns a shade whiter.
"Questions?" Miranda asks.
I expect everyone to begin shouting out questions, screaming for answers. Instead, almost everybody raises their hands silently.
Miranda points at a boy in the front row. He says, "Do you know the Eeke's name or Complex number?"
Miranda nods, "It's possible. We are still investigating that. We have some leads but they are remaining secret until we are sure."
A lot of hands go down after this question is answered.
People continue asking questions and Miranda answering the best she can. It's clear how little she knows about why this happened.
Finally, after all the questions are answered, Miranda begins to conclude, "Like I said, if you have any plausible theories, please send a Notice to me with the title saying Theory. We will most likely have a meeting in a couple days to re-discuss this and add any new information. You may now exit. Thank you for your time."
Loud talking fills the room as people leave. Everyone is discussing their ideas.
I glance at Charlotte. Her hands are trembling. "Charlotte, are you okay?"
She shakes her head, "Yeah, yeah. It's just that, I'm an R.I. I might stumble across a dead Eeke."
I don't know how to comfort her, "But this is the first time this has happened. It might never happen again."
She shrugs.
The other three people that we were with stand, "We have to get back to our Pros. We will see you later, Charlotte."
Charlotte smiles weakly and waves. They slip into the crowd.
"Do you want to get something to eat after everyone clears out?" Charlotte asks.
I nod although I've lost most of my appetite.
I glance up to see Miranda making her way towards us, her lips pressed tightly together.
She grabs me by the wrist and begins pulling me back by the counter. She vaults easily over the counter and motions me to follow. Memories come flooding back. All the nights I snuck out with Brinn, Sienna, and Josh, we always vaulted over the counter.
I realize I have stopped moving and begin to swing my legs over. Once I'm on the other side, Miranda leads me out through a small door and into a deserted hall.
I look at her questioningly. "What is it?"
Miranda bites her lip, "I think I know who the Eeke is."
I motion for her to tell me more, "Who?"
She speaks one word that sends dread tumbling into my stomach.