Eugenia part 24

Read part 23 here!

And so I did. That night, against Decklan’s better judgement, Julie and I tagged along with he and andy when they visited Ian’s darkened house. At 18, he was still living at home with his parents. Decklan produced several colors of spray paint from his backpack, handed them out, and the four of us covered every square inch of the house in the word “coward”. Juvenile though it was, it was satisfying.

Panting from an adrenaline high, I turned to face a blank wall behind the house. It looked so clean next to the mess we were creating, and that didn’t seem right to me.

Inspired by the last person to betray me, I began to write.

To Asher Rose and Ian Sheldon,

Where did you go, the one I knew?

You’re gone, you’re not here anymore

Because who I knew would ignore reason

Ignore society’s restrictions

And fly with what his heart comprehends

Love, Meg Carroway

By now, the other three had drifted over to see what I was doing. Decklan took my free hand and Andy ruffled my hair affectionately. Julie, however, had other things in mind. Relieving the rest of us of our paint, she took to drawing a rushed, yet stunningly accurate, portrait of Emma before signing her name in florescent pink.

No one said anything for a while. We just stood there, admiring the work.

“We should go.” whispered Decklan, without letting go of my hand. Silently, we wandered back into the night.

><THIS IS WHERE THE BREAK SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUT THIS WAS A BIT SHORT SO YOU GET MORE. YOU’RE WELCOME><

“The Resistance” proceeded more carefully after Ian’s betrayal, deciding that before another was made on finding the list, we needed to find out more on Bluff himself.

While Emma, Julie, and I stayed safe withing the confines of the small apartment, the rest of our confidantes gathered surprising amounts of information in a short amount of time.

Bluff was elected almost exactly a year after my escape. He was only 25 at the time, and already a practiced charmer.

He wasn’t a particularly attractive man, but everything about him exuded confidence, no doubt yielding to his three reelections and his just as many marriages.

A dedicated worker, Bluff managed to make it into his city office every day of the week, although sometimes only staying for a few hours. He rarely used his office’s desktop computer, preferring to work on his personal laptop. We decided that if he was keeping the list anywhere, it would be there. Unfortunately, he never let it out of his sight.

Andrea found the most interesting piece of information by far, however. It seemed as though the Senator went to the bathroom on a schedule. Every day at 2:35 pm, he left his office -and his laptop- for exactly 7 minutes. Although his door was locked, on a warm day he left his window cracked.

Hank, the skinniest 19 year old boy I’d ever seen, was chosen to take advantage of this 7 minute gap. He wasn’t very tall, and what he lacked in height he made up for in speed.

This time, the plan worked. Hank arrived at the apartment fifteen minutes past 2:35, waving a jump drive in the peep hole and knocking on the door furiously.

I let him in hurriedly and we sat down at Andy’s laptop. Hank plugged in the small device and we waited impatiently for it to load.

Daniel Gruber, aged 34, deceased

Leanne Davis, aged 30

last known location- Colorado

Suri Archer, aged 28

last known location- Washington state

The list had a picture next to each of the names, although most were of the the person at thirteen, not having had the opportunity to photograph them since. Four people were last seen near New California, three very near New Diego, the town I lived in.

“Great job, Hank. This is just what we need.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t too hard to find. Weird that no one is older than this Gruber fellow, eh?”

I nodded, a little choked up. “Maybe before him they actually did send everyone to work camps.”

“So what changed?”

I shrugged and put my arm around Julie, who had come up behind us. “Gruber? Isn’t that you friend?”

Hank looked up in surprise. “You knew him?”

Nodding again, I sighed. “He was the person who helped me escape. Or at least… survive afterwards. He taught me to farm and to steal from supermarkets…” My eyes watered at the memory.

“So did he ever say anything?” Hank asked, staring at the list.

“About what?”

“About why they started killing people?”

“I doubt he knew. I suppose he just assumed that it had been going on for ages.”

“I just assumed the third test was normal,” Julie put in, frowning. “Speaking of which…”

“I know, I know.” I rubbed my head. “We have a lot of things to do.”

“Shouldn’t reconnaissance be our first priority, though?”

“Julie.” I stopped rubbing and just sat with my hand to my forehead. “We can’t just drag these people out of their regular lives to go an a fact-finding mission. Plus, we have to wait for a scrapping tour anyways.”

She knew I was right, but didn’t say anything. “So what now?”

“I have no idea.” I said honestly. “But somehow, we have to find these people. As many as we can.”

“And I think I have an idea.” Jon entered the room, making us all jump. “You guys really need to be paying attention. What if I was Bluff?”

Sheepishly, we shook our heads and mumbled excuses.

Holding up his hands, he grinned. “Just be careful.”

“You idea?” Julie asked, arms still folded across her chest.

“Oh! Right. My idea. Ok, so I’m a radio news anchorman, right?” We glared at him, so he continued. “Don’t look at me like that. There’s an interview slot every Thursday, and this week the only people who I’ve got are a couple of Nicks whose child just got a 170, and let’s be honest, who cares? It’s a genetic slot machine. Not that special.”

“Where are you going with this?” I didn’t like the path Jon was paving.

“Isn’t it obvious? I want you to be on my radio show!”

Continued in part 25!