***SPOLIERS! I USE UNKNOWNS REAL NAME!***

We Are Independent: MC

We ate in silence at the lunch table. I looked over at Irene. She didn't look quite…normal. Well less normal than usual. It was as if she had known what happened to her husband. I looked over at the others. Everyone seemed completely still. Had they all seen the murder? Even the Flock were more quiet than usual. They quietly ate their food and looked at the Arc Members in…was it fear?

Melody slipped me a note as she picked at her food with little interest.

'Meet me right after lunch. I have something to tell you. Put the note in your drink.'

I slightly crumpled it. Taking a quick glance at the Flock than the Arc Members I quickly put the note into the water which started to rapidly dissolve. I glanced at Melody. I actually felt safe around her.

After lunch I met up with Melody near the daffodils. "What is it?" I mumbled as I began to pull out the weeds that were starting to sprout in the flower bed.

"I've found a way out."

"You-"

"I want to make sure. You want to get out of here right?"

"Yes of course." I nod my head vigorously.

"Good." She smiles. "Good…" She let's out a low sigh. "Me too. I want out so bad. I…I came to Paradise to escape an abusive boyfriend…but now I know, I didn't escape hell from him, I just ran in deeper."

I took her by the shoulders. "We can do this Melody…we still need to bring Irene and take her to a hospital."

Melody bites her lip and thinks it over for a second. "Right…okay." She hands me a small vile. "This is the perfume I gave you to keep that wretched smell out of the vents. Keep this on you at all times…and," she looks around before handing me a small pocket knife. "Keep this on you. You never know when you need it."

"Where did you get all of this?"

She smiled. "I've been using the Descendent's for a long time. Just for minor things like these oils to suppress the smell and some outside magazines. I never wanted anything more to do with them but now…now we need to get out of here. So I did some side jobs and with my regular standing with the boss I learned the secret exit."

"Side jobs?"

Her face slightly paled as she gripped her ANTI SEX sash. "Meet me back here at the Daffodils tonight. And tell Belial."

I nodded but would he even want to go? I mean… this beautiful place had him in a tight grip. Plus neither of us had built any sort of trust with each other. It was like a give and take between the us two. I write to the RFA he gives me information. I agree to bring them to a place like this, we agrees to keep me out of the regular brainwashing techniques. I wanted him to go with us. To be free from this place and take him to a hospital or maybe even a psyche ward and get him the help he needed. But…would he?

I looked over at him as he typed away on his computer. His back was hunched over and he was squinting at the screen. I stood up and grabbed his shoulders.

"What?"

I put the palm of my hand on his swing and helped him straighten out, there was a definite in his muscles and he let out a low sigh of relief. "Do you need glasses Ji Sung?"

"No. I'm just tired. My eyes have been feeling dryer lightly."

Now that he mentioned it, after what had happened to us after Charle tried to assault me, my eyes had been feeling itchier and a bit dry as well. I really hoped it was nothing. I reached up to touch my face when Ji Sung forcefully grabbed it.

"Stop." He glared. "You're seriously freaking me out. What use to me are you if you don't have eyes."

"But they're itching."

He frowned and started to look into his desk drawer as he kept my wrists together with just one hand. I started to tap my foot. Ugh, the itch was starting to become unbearable. It was like there was something moving in my cornea and it felt as if insect legs were crawling on my tear ducts. He started to push things around frantically until he finally found a near empty bottle of eye drops.

"Here." He stood up slightly looking down at me as he let go of my wrists and used his free hand to widen my eyes. I flinched as the eye drops fell into my open eyes and after just a few seconds I felt relief. "We better watch that more closely." He mumbles as he resumes typing on the computer.

"Ji Sung." I sit on the edge of the desk next to him. "Melody, Irene, and I we're-"

"Leaving soon I know. What happened to the blind husband?"

I swallowed… "He's…dead."

He looked up. "What? He's dead?"

"I heard he cut his throat out with some sort of outside knife."

His eyes slightly widened. "Cut his throat out… What did the knife look like?"

"I don't know. I just heard he did it. There were a lot of Paradisian's who saw."

"Shit." Ji Sung stood up and grabbed his leather jacket. "I'll be back. Lock the doors and DO NOT let anyone in. I will say the words Memento Mori and knock on the door four times. Understand?"

"Y-Yes, but where are you-"

"I'll be back." Ji Sung walked to both ends of the doors locking one and locking the other behind him. I sat down at the desk.

The chat was open. I felt my heart starting to pound.

Unknown has logged into the chat

? ? ?: Melody

With a low sigh I backed away from the Civic Ward. They were about to do a massive de-cleansing to completely eliminate the image of Joseph. I was NOT going to be a part of that. Slowly I made my way to Belial's office. She was there so maybe I could take refuge there? Hmm well I could also- no it was better to be by her side.

I walk closer to the door, Belial storms out and jogs towards the Civic Wing. Before the door can fully close I slip in. I can see the basement that leads to The Underground. There's a metal door in front of me. I walk towards it and turn the knob. Locked. I look around before knocking. "Are you in here?" I call out her name.

"Melody?" Her soft voice calls back.

"Yes. It's me can I come in?"

There's a moment of silence. I hear a computer chair push back and slowly the door opens. She peaks out, her turquoise eyes blink then squint. "Okay…just be extra careful."

She let's me in and I see the regular row of computer monitors with images and words that I have no idea what it means. She locks the door behind us. "Okay…when Ji sung comes back leave through that door. He can't see you."

"Got it." I nod. Something catches my eye. "What's that?"

She tenses and squeezes her hands tightly together. "That…is the RFA. I've been helping Ji Sung bring them here."

"Oh…the special guests."

"Yes." She looks down. "They…were like my closest friends. Well kind of. I mean, I'm talking to them right now. I want to tell them everything that's happening here but I can't get myself to type out the words." She looks like her hearts in turmoil.

"What's that?" I point to the coordinates on Belial's table.

"Ji Sung had me give them those."

I look them over. No…no that's not right. "Here. Let's put these in instead. 42.9023 N, 300. 9283 E."

"Wh-what are you doing?" She tries to stop me but I've already pressed send.

"Good." I smile. "Now you're friends will be waiting for us. They can take Irene to the hospital and we can go get the police."

"Where did you send them?"

"It's a safe spot where the Defectors get their supplies." I smile at her.

She doesn't look entirely convinced but she nods anyways. "When do we leave?"

"Tonight. Probably 2 in morning. That's when most of the lookouts change their shifts." I tap my hands against my wrist. "After dinner I'm going to introduce you to the boss."

"Why haven't the other Defectors done what we've done?"

"The entrance is extremely dangerous. One wrong move and it'll collapse on us and we'll be crushed to death. Only one's person tried and he almost died. So they deemed it to dangerous. They use a sort of pulley system to transfer things back and forth."

"And why hasn't the person on the outside done anything?"

"He makes too much profit off of some of the brainwashing narcotics they use here. Why get rid of his supplier?"

She shakes her head clearly disgusted.

"That's life." I shrug. I feel the same way but…well there's no helping it. "Oh?" I look at the screen. "Looks like that 707 guy got the coordinates."

Welcome to Paradise: Saeran

I could've sworn I smelled something like blood when I left my office. Must've been the The Underground. Rumor has it that Hell Spawn smashed her head against the rocks and actually died. I make my way up to the third floor. "Hyun." I see my old 'friend' leaving his room.

"Hello…Saran." He says carefully. He looks like he's just seen death.

"What's your problem?"

"I…got re:REJUVENATED the other night." I cringe. "What if…what if that turns me into a-"

I slap his face. "Snap out of it." I glare. "If that one guy hear's you say that."

"The High Priest? Yeah…yeah your right. Saeran I felt pain again last night. They gave me a reverser and I felt pain. Not just in my eyes but my whole body. It all just started rushing back to me."

I looked down. Yeah without pain we were all rough on our bodies. "Listen about that guy-"

"Yeah…we think Mortician killed him. It's his methods after all. Plus it was his surgical knives we found."

"Tch what the hell? Is he going rogue?"

Hyun shakes his head and puts on his mask. The distorted voice fills the dark room. "No. We really don't know why he did it. But the High Priest isn't worried so we aren't either. He said Savior is waiting for the new guests and that's all we should be focused on."

I feel myself calm down. "Yeah. Okay." As long as Savior wishes it then I don't think I should be worried either."

We Are Independent: MC

It was nearing dinner time. Ji Sung returned and didn't seem to notice what we had done. My heart was in my throat the whole time. He seemed calm and more than once did he just stop what he was doing and prayed. We continued shoving false information to them, things about Paradise, the security of the place, the way they treated people, well not all of it were lies. I really did think Paradise was a beautiful place.

I reached up to touch my eye but stopped myself. It felt worse but I had to bare it. Although… I looked at my dinner plate. The spoon could just stop the itching if I took out my eye. I shook my head. No! I'd just have to deal with it. I pushed my food away and glanced at Melody. I can't believe she gave them new coordinates. How did she even know where to go? Maybe the Defectors gave it to her? She said she had to do some things and I'm pretty sure she slept with some people.

She did all this so we could get out. As long as this secret passage didn't collapse then I think we'll be okay. I look at Irene. Again she just looks dead inside, more so than usual. She must know that Joseph killed himself. I shudder. Why…why did he do that? How far had they pushed him?

After dinner Melody pulls me aside and takes me to see an old woman. She looks up and smiles. "Melody. How are you today?"

"Good!" Agh. That tone again?

"And has the sun risen brightly today?"

"Brighter than the moon."

The old woman's kind smile turns sour. "So what do you want?"

"This is the girl that I'm helping escape."

"Tch." She scowls. "Good luck. I'll be happy to see your corpses mangled inside when I get my goods."

Geez. Melody chuckles. "We'll see." She smirks. "We promise to bring the drugs when we come back."

"You better." She glared.

Drugs? What?

"Then…"

"Yes yes, tonight you stupid bitch. Meet us in the Basement Civic Wing."

The old woman smiles brightly and pushes past us. "What nice young ladies." She nods and walks off like she's a frail old woman.

I scoff. "She's pleasent."

"She's the boss." Melody sighs. "Let's go!" She smiles. "It's time to give the flowers some fertilizer!" As Melody passed me I suddenly got a whiff of something. It smelt like rusted metal.

E-S-C-A-P-E

"Ji Sung?" I walked into his office. All the monitors were put to sleep and if I tried to move the mouse everything required a password. I looked around and saw a note on the desk.

'Back in 2 hours doing some maintenance' in that tight handwriting of his.

So what was I supposed to do then? There was a knock at the door. Melody walked in without waiting for an answer. "Hello." She smiled. "Oh? I was hoping Belial would be here."

"He'll be back in two hours."

"Oh…well I wanted to let you know that Boss wants to speak to you. They're just gonna show us the path then scatter. In the morning they're gonna see if we're crushed to death. They got bets."

"Is it really that dangerous?"

"The probability of us coming out alive is 20%."

I swallowed. It was worth it. I'd rather die trying then die in this hell. "Fine. I can handle those odds."

Melody let out a sigh of relief. "Good. So can I." She looked back. "They're about to do a mass brainwashing. I gotta be there." She put in some weird contacts. "I'll see you."

Rescue Her: RFA

Seven gripped the wheel tightly as he drove down the winding path. He could see Yoosung gripping the seatbelt in a tight vise grip. He would check his phone every ten minutes and mumble "She's not in there." It was almost midnight. They'd been driving to some strange place for a long time. Any lead was a good lead at this point.

"Back there," Seven points to the back seat, "is the binoculars. They're night vision. Once we get to the destination we're going to abandon the car and walk five miles east."

"Got it." Yoosung looked determined. His grip on the seatbelt tightened making his hands turn red.

Seven chuckles. "Am I that bad of a driver?"

"No…I'm just really scared. What if…what if she…"

Seven knew he didn't want to say it. "We're gonna find out soon." He stretches his hands and places one after the other on the air vent trying to cool them down. "We're here. Let's grab that bag and those flashlights. Get the night vision goggles."

We Are Independent: MC

I had left Ji Sung a note. I told him to meet us at the desired place if he wanted to leave with us. It was nearly 2 in the morning. I felt my heart pounding and more than once did I almost slip off the ladder. We carefully tied Irene, who was looking closer to death per hour, to a rope and carefully took her down. Once she was safe in my arms Melody climbed down. He helped her walk towards the back end of the basement Civic Wing. I could feel a freezing draft coming from back here.

The old woman stood at the end. Her face grim and she looked annoyed to be up at this hour. She raised a hand and two of her lackeys picked up a portrait of Rika and moved it over. There it was. The pulley system. The entrance was extremely narrow and suddenly I was starting to doubt getting out here. Melody held Irene by the shoulders. "We can do this." She said soothingly to her. Irene gurgled and started to shake.

"Hey you." The old woman pulls me aside so we're out of earshot. "I know you want out…but I got a bad feeling about this. So I got a deal for you. You can go on with your stupid plan or you could help me and…" She produced a knife. "Get rid of this Melody girl. We'll make it worth your while."

"What?" I glared.

"Something ain't right about her. Now help us or help yourselves." She shoved the knife into my pocket. "Move out." She calls as her lackeys bow and run off to their respective rooms.

I stared at Melody….was it…really worth it? She helped me so much…

Ally with her and escape? Or betray her and stay here?