“I received a message from an Official, telling me that they want us to send Sienna back to them.” Miranda whispers.
I struggle to comprehend what she is saying, “What?”
“The Officials want us to put Sienna in one of the Rivie Drop-Off rooms and leave her there, all alone, so they can take her away.”
“But…why?”
“I have no idea. This has never, never happened before. My only guess is that they realized that she wasn’t dead and Ellen is very angry that someone evaded her poison. They mostly likely want to do some testing on her, to see why it didn’t work.”
Why does Sienna have to go? Why can’t we just not send her? Miranda told me that the Officials never come into the Unknown. As long as she’s here, she’s safe, right?
Miranda seems to realize what I’m thinking, “No, Piper, it doesn’t work that way. Here’s something you need to grasp. The Heads are more powerful than us. The Heads have more resources than us. The Heads are always one step ahead of us. If we don’t send Sienna, there will be consequences. Maybe they will shut down some of our electricity, it wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe they will send us even more dead Eekes and Rivies. Maybe they will send Officials into the Unknown. The consequences will be worse if we don’t send Sienna, then if we do.”
I clench my hands into fists. “So, you’ll let Sienna most likely die just to avoid the possible consequences?” I nearly shout.
Miranda just calmly stares straight into my eyes and whispers, “Yes, to keep everyone else safe…yes.”
Tears rise in my eyes but I furiously blink them away. I’ve spend too much time crying in front of Miranda.
I want to laugh at my earlier naïve belief that Sienna would be safe due to her immunity. There are other ways to kill a person.
I whisper, “Does Sienna know?”
Miranda nods slowly, “The Nurses are telling her right now.”
“And then?” I ask.
Miranda struggles to keep her voice emotionless, “We take her back to the Rivie Drop-Off room, tie her to the chair, after that…leave. I’ll then have to send a message back to the Officials, telling them that she’s waiting.”
“Let me see her.” My whispered words come out raspy due to the tears climbing up my throat.
Miranda squeezes her eyes shut, “They…they are already in the Rivie Drop-Off room…tying her up. They might have already left.”
“What?” I whisper, near to hysterics. I say louder, “What?”
My voice cracks into a scream, “What?”
Miranda doesn’t even respond she just walks towards the door.
I stalk after her, shouting, “You are just going to walk away now? Aren’t you supposed to be the Leader? Aren’t you supposed to help people? You’re taking one of my closest friends to her probable death.”
Miranda slams her Notice into the scanner on the door. She glares at me, “They said that they needed her right away. Unlike you, I don’t put everyone at risks and mess around with Officials.”
The door slides open and Miranda strides out, leaving me to stumble after her. Charlotte wordlessly follows.
I taunt, “So, where to now? Are you going to lead Canton and Bridget to their deaths too? Or have you already done that and not told me?”
Miranda whirls to face me, right in the middle of the hallway. Plenty of people stare as she nearly snarls, “I am taking you to see Sienna, if we still can. I would have told you sooner, but you ran off with your old Complex Rebbie without telling anyone. Things would have gone a lot smoother, Piper, if you loved lying so much.”
I swallow hard. I don’t respond as Miranda turns back around and angrily stamps down the hall. I scurry behind her, wishing I could, for once, keep my mouth shut.
We arrive at the R.I. Wing. My mind screams faster, faster, faster. But I don’t know the way to the room, so I'm stuck at Miranda's too slow pace.
Miranda stops in front of a steel door. There’s a Nurse stationed outside. I recognize him as Harry, the Nurse who came with Charlotte and me to get Sienna.
Was that really just yesterday? Are the Heads that cruel? They give me Sienna as help and I get my hopes up. Then, after 24 hours, they rip her right away.
Miranda just simply raises her eyebrows at Harry.
He understands and nods. Sienna’s still here with Nurses inside.
Miranda slaps her Notice strap to the scanner and the door slides open.
I run inside, the tears freely sliding down my face.
Sienna is there, some of the Ecru blood still streaked on her face. Her arms and legs are bound, just like they were when she first arrived. She’s desperately trying to stay strong and hold herself together.
A couple of Nurses scurry around the room, securing the bonds and checking some medical equipment that is still connected to Sienna from her recovery. A tube sticks out of her wrist and some type of contraption clipped to her finger.
When Sienna sees me, all she gives me is a sad smile.
I run forward and give her a hug. It’s a completely Unknown-like thing to do, but it feels right. She seems surprised at first, but relaxes. It’s awkward, considering her hands are bound to the sides of the chair.
She whispers into my ear, “I told Miranda everything I knew about how the Officials brought me to the Unknown, everything. Just…tell Brinn everything. Tell her I’m sorry and that I’ll miss her and that…”
She takes a shuddering breath, “And don’t forget how much I’ll miss you too. I wish…I wish I could have done more to help you and…” Her sentence trails off but I know who she’s talking about. She wishes she could have done something more to help the rebellious Officials, to make a difference.
She looks me in the eyes and asks, “Can you do it for me? Can you…I don’t know, just make me proud, okay?”
I nod and release her from the hug. I say, “Sienna, I…I wish there was something, anything I could do to help you. I just…”
Sienna tilts her head to the side, “You know what…if I could undo everything I did, the sneaking out at night, the meeting you and Brinn…I wouldn’t. I would rather fight and die for freedom then live in the Complex, desperately wanting to do something, but not having enough courage. It was all worth it, you know.”
Miranda interrupts, “I just got another Notice from the Officials. They say they want you within five minutes or there will be consequences.”
Sienna nods briskly, tears threatening to spill, but she somehow manages to hold them in, “Okay…thank you for everything...everyone.”
Everyone slowly begins to file out of the room, giving Sienna their words of encouragement and sympathy. In Sienna’s short stay here, she’s managed to befriend many of the Nurses. I trail out last and stand in the hall, just outside of the doorway.
Sienna’s eyes stay on me and a single tear slowly traces out of her light, light blue eyes. It curves down her cheek and drips off her chin. It lands on her contrasting colors of light and brown her hair. She repeats the same words she repeated when she saw Annie dead.
At every word, her voice cracks deeper and deeper, “Oh Piper, what did we get ourselves into?”
The door slides closed, leaving me with only steel in my vision.
I turn, leaning against the now closed door. My back slides down until I’m sitting down on the floor.
The hallway is filled with the eerie silence of anticipation. I can’t hear anything over the terrible ringing in my ears.
Two dead Eekes delivered to the Unknown. A girl surviving the poison of the Heads. A girl send back out of the Unknown, once again into the hands of the Officials and Heads.
All things that have never happened before here in the Unknown.
All things that I have had a part in causing.
Have I ever caused anything good to happen? Have I brought anything good to the Unknown?
When we joined up with the rebellious Officials, I thought we were going to make a change for the better. I thought Josh and I would be considered the heroes that brought freedom to everyone in the Unknown and Complex.
It turns out that all I have brought is death and problems.
If I was Miranda, I would hate me too. I would probably be a lot meaner to me than Miranda has been.
I hear a muffled shout from inside the room. I start to cry even harder.
Someone sits beside me. I open my eyelids. I wasn’t even conscious that they were closed until now.
Charlotte’s fiery red hair flits into my vision from her seat beside me. She wraps her arms around me and doesn’t say a word. I don’t respond, just continue crying covering my face with my hands.
It bitterly reminds me of the same hug I gave Sienna. That just makes me sob even harder.
I know all the Nurses and R.I.s in the hallway must be staring at me, but I don’t care. I don’t care about anything anymore.
Chances are tomorrow Brinn will be delivered as a dead Eeke and there will be no one left who snuck out at night, who joined the rogue Officials with me.
I will be all alone.
The door moves behind my back. I’m thrown to the side, against Charlotte.
The door is sliding open.
My first, irrational thought is that it is Sienna, who had somehow escaped.
Instead I see the room completely empty. Sienna is gone.
All that's left is the medical equipment that used to be connected into her living body.