What secret? What could he be referring to? Bridget? Piper? Tooth’s death? My contacting with Marie while still in the Complex?
What else would there be that could be considered my secret?
Could he be lying, pretending to know more than he actually does?
Christopher says, “That’s right, I know your secret. Make sure you vote for me in the upcoming election.”
“When is that?” I ask.
“Three days from today. The day after the election, all the nineteen years will become twenty years and be sent to their death.”
I shudder slightly at the carefree way he says this.
I ask, “And what year are you?”
“Seventeen year, almost eighteen year. I’ll have two years as the Leader.”
“If you win the election.”
His eyes glint, “When, not if.”
His Notice beeps and his attention shifts away from us. He says as he walks away, “Lovely talking to you as always. I’ll be sure to continue this conversation later.”
Charlotte and I sigh in relief as he disappears. I can’t imagine someone as arrogant and spiteful as him working as the Leader. One of the main jobs as Leader is welcoming the Rivies and Eekes to the Unknown. If he was Leader when I came to the Unknown, my view of it might be drastically different.
I say, “He knew that you were a…?”
“Yeah, he found out a year or so go. I contact the,” she whispers the next word, “Officials through my Notice. He confronted me about some messages from them and I couldn’t lie my way out of it. I still don’t know how he found out.”
“Why didn’t he tell anyone? Wouldn’t he want to let people know? Please don’t take this the wrong way, but people would be safer anyway. I think he’d like the victory of getting you in trouble.”
“I know, that’s what I thought at first. But, I think that Christopher truly doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He’d probably enjoy someone being killed by the Heads for being caught rebellious by me than embarrassing me by telling everyone my secret. I think he also liked tormenting me about it.”
“That’s horrible.”
Charlotte nods and we finish our meal in relative silence, thinking over what Christopher just said. Piper did say that she was going to help me escape, but I don’t know when. Will I still be here by the time Christopher is elected?
Christina glances at her Notice and frowns. She reads something across the screen. “I’m sorry, Claire, I got to go. Something came up for another R.I. and I need to finish her Rivie’s tour. Since you’re not technically doing your Rivie Tour right now, the other Rivie comes first. I’ll make it up to you though. How about we start your Rivie Tour tomorrow? You’ll probably still be in a wheelchair, but I’ll take you to a Pros where you don’t need to stand. Sound good?”
“I would love that.”
“Great. I’ll take you back to the Nurses Wing for today. I’ll come back tomorrow to pick you up, okay?”
We finish eating and she rolls me back through the busy hallways to the Nurses Wing.
Michelle helps me back to my room and on to my cot. I spend the rest of the day lying restlessly around. Harry stops by to give me a Notice of my own. I fiddle with it, messaging back and forth with Charlotte. Her responses almost always make me laugh. Michelle brings me my Late Meal and I fall asleep shortly after.
˚˚°˚˚
I wake up to Charlotte lightly shaking my shoulder. I moan, wanting nothing more than to fall back asleep. Charlotte laughs, “Wake up. Stop being so offie lazy.”
A smile flits across my lips and I open my eyes. Charlotte helps me back on to the wheelchair. She says, “So, I’ve decided to take you to visit the Cleaners today. It’s a pretty easy Pros. Besides, since you are in a wheelchair, you’ll probably get out of most of the cleaning they make you do.”
“They make you clean on the tour?”
“They’re low staffed. Nobody really wants to be a Cleaner. The only reason most people pick that Pros is because they are kicked out of other Pros or they just want to be away from other people. I guess a few people like it but…”
“You can get kicked out of Pros?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t really happen that often. By ‘kicked out’ I mean they aren’t qualified to do that Pros or if they fail to do what they are supposed to.”
Michelle enters the room and helps me into my wheelchair. She says, “You’re recovery is looking pretty good. You should be able to get out of that wheelchair in a few days.”
Charlotte dramatically applauds. I roll my eyes at her antics. How can a girl so light and free be restrained under the Heads control? How can she be betraying everyone in the Unknown with such a bright smile always dominating her face?
How would she behave if she didn’t constantly have the Heads’ threat hanging over her head?
Michelle says, “Your friend, Marie, is she always that…opinionated?”
I laugh at her choice of words, “I don’t know, I never truly met her. She contacted me once through holograms, but that was all. I didn’t know she was that ‘opinionated’ either.”
Charlotte says, “She hacked the holograms?”
“She claimed it was untraceable.”
“Was it?”
I shrug, I still don’t know the answer to the question. I assume it wasn’t, Bridget told me I would be taken to the Unknown shortly after she contacted me. Was that just a coincidence?
Charlotte says, “Josh and Benson would love to talk with her, I’m sure.”
Michelle explains, “They’re actually coming in later today to talk to her. I’m not sure how they’ll get along though.”
Charlotte laughs in agreement. Michelle messes with a few more things before Charlotte takes me away. We go to the Eating Hall first, eating a quick meal before heading off to the Cleaners Wing.
Charlotte says as she pushes me along the hall, “Just remember, don’t get too affected by their attitude. They can be offie depressing at times, but you have to keep it from bothering you. They almost always give the self-pitying speech of how miserable it is that they don’t have enough Cleaners. And, please have some compassion on us and join.”
“How depressing?” I ask, unsure of what I should expect.
“It depends on which people you meet. Just…keep it in mind.”
I frown at what she says, wanting to ask more but we’ve arrived at the Cleaners Wing. Charlotte slaps her Notice to the scanner at the door. We slip through the opening doors which close behind us.
The set up is the same as most Teachings. A small lobby area with two or three people sitting behind the counter. Except, here in the Cleaners, there’s only one disheveled looking girl sitting there, worriedly reading something on a hologram.
Charlotte forces a smile, “Hi, we’re here for a Rivie Tour. Is Janice here?”
The girl’s dull eyes sweep over us. She sighs and glances at her Notice, before nodding, “I’ll send a Notice for her to come. She was just helping out with our morning routine. We don’t quite have enough people to help, you see.”
Charlotte raises an eyebrow at me to say ‘didn’t I tell you?’ I force away the grin twitching at my lips.
Charlotte wheels me away from the door and to the far side of the room. The girl returns to her anxious reading of the hologram.
A few minutes pass and the door slides open. A girl stumbles inside, her face hidden behind a tower of blankets balanced in her arms. She totters to the counter where she sets them down. The receptionist carries them away through some door.
The girl, presumably Janice, turns to face us. Her thin brown hair hangs in strings and snarls around her head. Her brown eyes sweep over us, a tiny bit of light gathered inside.
She smiles tiredly, “Hi, Charlotte. I’m Janice, and you are…?”
“I’m Claire.”
“Claire, nice to meet you.”
“Same to you,” I say.
Janice presses her lips together, “I don’t know how much of the tour we can do since you’re in a wheelchair, but I can show you some of the basics, okay?”
She strides to the other side of the room, and opens a different door. Charlotte and I follow, moving into a hallway. Janice says, “As Cleaners, we have a lot of work to do. We have to wash all the blankets that were used the previous night. We also have to wash all the trays from the meals. Any spills or major clean ups are taken care by us. We also routinely have to go through halls and rooms to scrub them down. There are other odd jobs we have to take care of, creating a lot of work. Sadly, there aren’t many people aspiring to be a Cleaner, causing our numbers to be low and our work per person to be high.”
Charlotte once again sends me be another look. I barely control the smile on my face.
Janice leads us through a door, into another room. Square machines line the walls, vibrating with force. Loud, pounding noises echo around the room.
Janice raises her voice to be heard, saying, “These are the washing machines and tray washers we use to clean the blankets and trays. Luckily, we have just enough space to do all the loads by the end of the day. However, since the Unknown numbers are growing, so is the amount of mess to clean. We don’t know how much longer we will be able to keep up with the work.”
She leads us back out of the room. Charlotte glances at her Notice and mutters something under her breath. She says to Janice, “I’m really, really sorry, but Claire and I have to go. Miranda wants to meet with us and…”
Janice sighs, “And since the Cleaners aren’t that important, you think you can leave.”
Charlotte says, “No, that wasn’t what I was saying at all. It’s just that I’m really close friends with Miranda and,” Charlotte’s eyes tear up, “and I just can’t get the idea through my head that she will be leaving soon. Any time I can get with her, I use.”
Janice gives in, “Okay, okay. Just come back to finish the tour, right?”
Charlotte nods and speeds down the hallway.
We fly through the halls. I ask, “What’s so important with Miranda?”
“Not Miranda, Piper. She says this is probably the only time she’s going to get to talk to me today. I want to use it. She’s the only one, besides you, who’s on my side. She’s only able to meet for a few minutes though.”
“Is it still in Miranda’s office?”
“Yeah, Piper must have gotten her to leave or something.”
We arrive at the door to Miranda’s office. Charlotte presses her Notice strap to the scanner, pushing us inside.
The second the door closes behind us, Piper stands up from behind the desk. She hugs Charlotte saying, “I’m so glad you could make it. Thank you for coming at a moment’s notice.”
Charlotte says, “Are you kidding me? I’m just so glad that you’re still alive. I thought I killed you all a couple years ago. I know I told you not to tell me anymore, but is everyone still alive?”
Piper takes a deep breath, “No, not everyone. Sienna died a couple days after she was sent back to the Unknown.”
Charlotte’s feelings are conflicted as they flit across her face. She says, “Is that all?”
Piper shakes her head, tears springing into her eyes, “No. A couple months ago Dana was caught helping three rebellious kids. She was executed immediately by Ellen herself.”