Mindless

Chapter Twelve - Yuli

Trust. Such a hard thing to fathom. As is the fact that there were people in the moon Bases this entire time, and we didn't even know. I mean, we knew there were people, but survivors? No. We made one search mission every fifty days but carefully...

We checked all their files. There weren't even any reports of free minds, nothing abnormal. Not even high risk rates. Strange.

How could we not see this? It was right in front of our faces?

How could I not see this?

I think back to the day I found out what Operation Reset really was, how hard I tried to protect people, fought, screamed, cried, begged for something to change.

"Daddy?" I call out, my feet making a little thumping sound on the floor in my nice new shoes. I love these shoes, and the little lights on the bottom that flash when I walk. "Daddy-" I ask again, then get really quiet. I hear him talking.

But it's late? Why is Daddy up so late? I want to go to sleep... but where are my pajamas?

I forget my question as I hear another voice join Daddy's. He's talking with someone.

"...the entire human race? Really, Darren-"

"Rob, you know what happened to me. You know why this is so important."

"I do, and I'm with you, but congress will never agree, much less the council."

"I'll make them agree."

"Darren, what are you suggesting?"

"If you don't stand with me, you stand against me. So are you with me, or against me, Rob?"

I've never heard Daddy speak like this before. He never makes threats... he's always smiling, and complimenting people, and making jokes-- and he would never hurt Rob. They've been friends since high school!

"I'm with you, Darren, but--"

"Good. Get this through congress so I can speak with the council in two days time."

"And what should I tell them?"

"That we are going to reprogram the human race."

I know what reprogram means. But that's when... when you wipe a computer free of all previous info and rewrite its function. But you can't reprogram a human...

"Yulianna? What are you doing out here? It's late."

I look up to find myself in Daddy's tall shadow as he stares down at me questioningly. "I- I can't find my pajamas. Do you know where they are?"

He pauses, as if considering my response, the stuttering, the way I put all of my weight on one foot when I've been standing somewhere for too long, and wide-eyed look I give him. If you know me, I'm a terrible liar.

"Yeah, they're in the wash. I'll grab them for you," he says. There's a new coolness to his voice I've never noticed before.

...daughter of President Darren has been diagnosed with schizophrenia...

It's been five years since that day. I'm not allowed to speak publicly anymore. I've developed a 'mental disorder' and my word can't be trusted. This is all Father's doing.

I tried to warn the people. For years I tried to warn the people, until finally one day I was labeled as a mentally-ill teenager and oh, what a shame it is, and oh, she had such potential, and oh, we're going to be brainwashed but we're all to blind to see it because we have some pointless trust in our president.

I quietly pick the lock of my bedroom window, which has since been locked tight. I tried bribing the guards, once-- they took my money and then ran off to tell Father I'd gotten out and collect a sum from him, too. Traitors.

With one final click the lock falls away and I slide the window open. It's a daunting drop, but I have no other way. I've tried everything.

I grip the windowsill tightly and swing out of it, landing on the window on the floor below. I quickly open the window, jump inside the building, and close it again, all but running my way to conference room 24B, where they discuss the details of the operation. They're finalizing the mental chips. The things that will control us all.

I burst through the door as Father begins to speak. He stops and stares at me for a second, then yells, "Guards!"

"No, don't listen to him!" I cry, trying to run as a strong pair of arms grabs me from behind, and another trains a stunner at my head. I struggle against the brute force, but it's no use. They begin to drag me away.

"He's going to brainwash everyone! Don't you see this! How is this ok? Think about your families! Think about the entire human population! WHat will this do to us?" I scream as the guards pull me away, out of the room.

"I apologise on the behalf of my daughter," I hear Father say as I am ripped away from the room. "She doesn't understand what she is saying." He glares at me from the corner of his eye, a coolness that makes me shiver. And to think, this man was once "Daddy" to me. Now, he's just a bad man who I need to stop, even if it gets me killed.

I shiver now. I escaped, but nobody else did. I built my base out of nothing, lived in a shuttle for weeks. And I tried, I really did, but I failed.

And now it looks like I've failed again.