I lie on the cot, numb, staring blankly at the screen of my Notice. Thoughts slowly stumble through the blankness of my mind.
Miranda and Martin will have seen the message. Will Miranda let me escape with Officials or will she force me to stay here, to my possible execution?
Someone leaked information. But who? Is there a real spy in the Unknown? Did the Officials question the dead Eekes before sending them here? Did someone give away information? Are they interrogating Sienna right now? Did she give away secrets? Was it one of the rogue Officials? If it was one of the rebellious Officials, did they do it on purpose or on accident? Do the other rogue Officials know who leaked information?
How many rogue Officials are dead? How many more are going to die?
I could die.
An Official or even the Heads could question me. Would I be strong enough to not say anything? Would I be too weak and give away more people to their deaths?
They didn’t say anything about Brinn. Nothing. Has she already been executed? Is she being questioned right now? Is she dying right now? Is she still alive and will be executed tomorrow night? Will the rogue Officials that are left be able to sneak her out of the Complex? Will she escape with us?
I might be able to see Brinn again. If I do see her again though, there’s a chance she could be dead.
Where will we escape to? How do you escape the Heads? There are cameras everywhere, in the Unknown and the Complex. Would I be escaping my possible execution to a more likely death?
The door glides open to the room. I squint as light pours into the room. I can make out a dark figure against the bright light.
The lights in my room blink on and I peer into the glow to make out the figure.
My eyes slowly adjust and I see Miranda standing inside my room, the door now closed. I peek at my Notice, it’s half past the third hour.
She strides forward and gracefully bends down to take a seat on the floor in front of my bed.
She says, “I’m not going to waste time, Piper. I’m going to be blunt. Marcus and I were monitoring your messaging with the Officials. We saw what it said.”
She glances sideways at me before continuing, “Marcus doesn’t know what to believe. I know it’s hard for you to understand Piper, since you are still a Rivie, but here in the Unknown, we have a very poor view on Officials. So, the fact that some of them could be rebellious…most people here can’t even imagine that. It’s just too…unrealistic.”
The way she describes it, it’s going to be even more difficult than I thought to convince the Councils at the Examination to believe my story.
But, if I’m escaping with Officials, does the Examination even matter? Why does it matter what privileges I have here, when I’m not even going to be here? There is no point in having the people of the Unknown on my side. I needed them on my side so they could join with the rebellious Officials, but there aren’t going to be very many, if any, rebellious Officials left.
Miranda continues, “At the Examination, you can’t let anyone know that you are escaping tomorrow night. No one…they wouldn’t…it just wouldn’t go over well at all.”
“So you are going to…let me escape with the rebellious Officials?”
“My Pros as the Leader of the Unknown is to keep as many people safe as possible. If I can keep you alive by sending you and all the others with the rebellious Officials, I won’t hesitate for a second.”
“But…” I continue, “How are you going to explain my sudden absence to the Council? And…what if the loyal Officials ask you to send me back, like they did with Sienna? What will you say?”
Miranda shrugs, “I’ll come up with something, I’m sure.”
“But what if someone gets hurt?”
“I’ll make sure that nobody gets hurt. It’s my Pros.”
When Miranda sent Sienna, she listed a bunch of things that the Officials did to people in the Unknown if they did something wrong. Poison in the water, deadly toxins on equipment, I can imagine that the list goes on forever. What if my disappearance caused something horrible to happen to the people in the Unknown?
Miranda seems to understand what I’m thinking, “No, Piper, you are going. You don’t have a choice and neither does Dana, Bridget, or Canton. All of you are going to save your lives and I will save everyone else’s lives. Don’t worry about the people here. There is more than one reason why I was voted to be the Leader. I didn’t blackmail my way in like Christopher plans on doing. People trust me, Piper. I can protect them, no matter what it takes.”
I nod, “Okay, but I can’t say anything to the Council?”
Miranda gravely shakes her head, “No, don’t even hint towards it. I will tell Martin not to tell anyone. He trusts me, he won’t tell anyone.”
Miranda yawns and glances at her Notice, “Piper, as much as I would like to continue talking to you, I have to be getting to sleep. It seems as though I’m going to have to not only attend a stressful Examination, I going to have plan a way for you to escape with two Eekes and a Kitchens.”
She leaves and I lay back down in bed.
Even though I’m anxious, I’m also exhausted. I can’t help thinking that by tomorrow night I’ll no longer be in the Unknown, and instead hiding from the Heads with rogue Officials.
˚˚°˚˚
When my eyes finally open to glance at my Notice, it’s half past the ninth hour. Alarm shoots through me. I glance around the room, it’s empty except for a tray of oat meal. I eventually relax. No Rivie Tours today. Miranda wants me to just stay in here until the Examination. My hands immediately begin sweating at just the thought of it. Even though it doesn’t matter what is decided of me, I don’t want to spend the evening with Christopher slandering me in front of the Councils and Miranda. I certainly don’t want to spend my time futilely trying to defend myself.
As much as it doesn’t affect my future, I still want people to think of well of me. I don’t want to be that lying little Rivie.
I spend the morning watching the minutes tick away to hours on my Notice. Charlotte comes with my Mid-Day Meal.
I smile as she walks through the door, “Hey Charlotte.”
“So, Piper, I heard you’ve gotten yourself in a lot of offie trouble.”
I roll my eyes as the door closes behind her and she sits on my bed, “So you heard?”
“Miranda told me everything, the Examination, Christopher’s offie jerkiness, how she believes your past. Didn’t I tell you she would see the truth eventually?”
I nod, “Yeah, yeah, you were right.”
I notice how she doesn’t mention my leaving the Unknown tonight. Did Miranda not tell her? I thought Miranda told her everything. But, if Miranda didn’t think it was a good idea to tell Charlotte, I won’t. I trust Miranda’s decision more than anything.
I ask, “Do you think I can convince the Council to believe me at the Examination?”
“Of course you can. You just have to be honest. If you managed to convince Miranda, you can convince anyone. Besides, you have Miranda on your side, and Miranda has a lot of Councils on her side. You’ll be fine, I promise. And if not, even if you’re publically disgraced, I will still be your Rebbie, even if people start to hate me after a while. I’ll be your Reb until I’m twenty and dead.”
Her words confirm that she doesn’t know about my escaping. She wouldn’t promise to be my Reb if she knew that I was leaving. She would know that it would be useless, that I will never see her again.
Sadness slowly sinks in. I won’t ever see any of these people again. It’s just like when I left the Complex. I’ll be leaving behind Charlotte, I’ll never hear her crazy giggles and see her tight red curls frame her face as she grins. I will never see Miranda again either. Even though she has seems to always be mad at me for something, I can tell that she cares for me. I’m going to miss her guidance on everything.
I think of all the people I have just met, started to build friendships with, only to leave those people, Marcus and Camilla, who both comforted me over Josh’s death. Harry, the Nurse who was with us when Sienna arrived and helped keep her alive. J., the Kitchen’s Council, who just showed simple and trusting kindness as she allowed Dana to leave her Pros a couple of times in order to meet with me.
I will see none of them ever again.
Charlotte mistakes my silence as concern for the Examination, she assures me, “Oh, Piper, don’t worry about it. What happens, happens. You have to decide what’s worth worrying about. Just do your best, so that when you look back, you have no regrets. You can’t ask for anything more. But, in order to do your best, you need to offie eat something.”
I smile despite the anxious feeling in my stomach and grab some crackers. As I eat, Charlotte begins her mindless chatter. I relax, allowing my brain to rest from its worrying, and just float along with Charlotte’s babble.
After an hour of pleasant chatter, Charlotte embarrassedly explains, “I’m sorry, Piper, but I got to go. See you later.”
She stands from my bed and begins to walk towards the door. She pauses, “Oh, I’m supposed to tell you, the Examination has been moved up to the 3rd hour. I will come and get you a little earlier than half past the 2nd hour. That way, you can go to the Showers to clean up and have plenty of time to prepare. After that, Miranda wants to talk with you quick, and then we’ll be off to the Examination.”
She slips out of the door and leaves me. Without her gossip to keep my mind occupied, the nervous thoughts and questions begin to once again rise.
I glance at my Notice. Just a couple minutes past the 1st hour of the afternoon. Only a little more than an hour, I tell myself, then I will be back with Charlotte.
I lie down on my bed again, lacking anything better to do. I once again watch every second slip into minutes. I can’t help thinking that every second gone is one last second that I will have in the Unknown. And how am I spending those precious, limited seconds? By just lying on a cot, all alone.
I sigh out loud with relief when Charlotte enters through the door at almost half past the 2nd hour. Charlotte gives me one of positive grins and motions me to follow her out the door.
I grow self-conscious as we pass people in the halls. Most of my hair has fallen out of my pony tail and I’m pretty sure it’s hanging haphazardly around my face. My skirt and shirt is wrinkled. This is how I likely look every morning, but that is how most people look. They don’t both to clean themselves up until they get to the Showers. But now, it’s the 2nd hour, nobody looks like that anymore except for me. I just hope nobody passes us that I recognize.
When we do finally reach the Showers, I slip gratefully inside. There is nobody in there, which makes sense at this time of day. I quickly shower, get dressed, and dry my hair. Charlotte is waiting in the Eating Hall for me, and I’ve never learned to properly do my hair. I struggled every day to attempt a pony tail, but Charlotte always ended up having to fix it. I decide to just brush it out and leave it down. I part it on the side, similar to Charlotte’s. I hope she doesn’t mind my borrowing of her hair style.
I walk hurriedly back to the Eating Hall, terrified that I might run into Christopher in the halls. Would he make me talk to him? Would he just coldly, arrogantly walk past?
Luckily, I make it to the Eating Hall without incident. Charlotte smiles when her eyes land on me, she makes her way towards me, “Now, to Miranda’s office.”
As I follow her through the halls, she says, “I offie love how you have your hair, Piper. It makes you look so much older.”
After a couple of minutes of listening to her continuous praise of my choice of hairstyle, we arrive at Miranda’s office.
Charlotte slaps her Notice strap to the scanner and ushers me inside, saying, “I’ll wait out here.”
Miranda waits at her desk when I enter, focused on a hologram floating above it.
It reminds me back to when I first met Miranda, during my Rivie Test. I was so terrified, Miranda was screaming at me, saying she was loyal to the Heads and I was sure that the entire rogue Officials’ plan was ruined.
Miranda glances up at me and talks quickly, “Okay, Piper, I don’t have much time to talk. There is a lot to plan out yet for tonight. I just wanted to remind you. Tell the whole story of your past, all of it, including knowing the dead Eekes, Sienna’s immunity, the rebellious Officials meeting and showing you parts of the Profession Tests, even the part about them messaging you on your Notice. However, do not, under any circumstance, tell them about escaping tonight.”
I simply nod.
Miranda smiles, “Good luck, Piper. I won’t be seeing you again until the Examination. Let me warn you, I may not be the nicest. Don’t take it personally or too seriously, I need to make sure that no one can make the claim that I am showing favoritism to you, okay?”
I simply nod again, trying to ignore the panic rising up in my throat and the dread sinking into my stomach.
Miranda stands, “Well, then, I have things I need to do. I need to talk to Charlotte quick, and then you are going to have to go with Charlotte to the waiting room for the Examination. Once again, good luck.”
I nod and make my way out of the office. It’s probably the last time I’ll ever be in here.
Back in the hallway, I inform Charlotte that Miranda wants to talk to her. She slips inside the office for only a few minutes before rejoining me back in the hall.
Then she clears her throat, a tear glistening in her eye, “Well, we better get going. You’ll want to be in the waiting room for a while before the actual Examination. You know, to mental prep, or whatever.”
I don’t spend too much time worrying over why Charlotte is nearly in tears, anxious thoughts of the Examination take over.
I press my shaking hands and make my way with Charlotte to the Examination.