House of the Scorpion Fan Fic

Matt, still shocked from finding out about Tam Lin's death, walk home the left morning from the woods. "Mi Vida!" yelled Celia from across the courtyard. "Where have you been?" Immediately, she demanded him to take a shower and get dressed in "more proper" clothes. "Since you are the new El Patron," she said, "we have to keep you looking nice. Many people will still be sceptical." After Matt was dressed, he was immediately rushed off to a meeting to discuss his next actions. He had never liked being this busy, especially since the time Celia told him too hide if something "bad" happened. So, he rushed to the meeting room where Daft Donald, the Farm Patrol, and Tom were sitting. The room was huge with white and gold pillars every now and then, with a large birch table in the middle. It was surprisingly musty. "Why is Tom here?" Matt thought. "Actually, I don't want the farm patrol here either." But, Tom had become very high ranking after El Patron's death. He was dressed in white suit with formal boots. And the Farm Patrol had too much power to be resisted. They all wore black coats. Of course, his first action was to try to wake up the eejits, but he knew the Farm Patrol would try to stop him. He would need time to examine them, but how would he do that without the farm patrol seeing him? "Hello El Patron," said a member of the Farm Patrol in a repulsed way.

"Don't call me that." Matt ordered.

"What is your first order of business?" asked another member of the Farm Patrol

"Since when did we need to take order from him? Tom said rudely.

"Since when I had the power to have you escorted out of opium." Matt said.

"My father won't allow that!" Tom yelled.

With this remark, the Farm Patrol seemed upset in a manner, but did not take any action. Daft donald seemed furious, but did not have the power to do much. The rest of the morning and evening was spent speaking of things that Matt hardly understood. When the meeting finally ended, Matt went to his room and ordered an eejit slave. He had refused to move to El Patron's chamber, and stayed in his small apartment with Celia. After a minute, an eejit walked into his room. He was startled to see that the eejit given was Rosa.

"How may I help you, sir?" She asked.

Was it really a she anymore? Was it really human? It seemed that what made a human a human was striped out of her, and her blank eyes stared into nothingness.

"Wake up" Matt said.

Nothing happened.

"Become normal"

Nothing.

"Disable brian chip"

Nothing.

He tried some other things, but none of them worked. He decided that the best way to handle this was to program the brain chip to turn itself off, or take it out directly.

"If I take the chip out, will it cause permanent damage? Has it already caused damage? If I turn it off, will leaving it in the brain cause damage?" Matt thought.

Later that night, he told Celia about how he wanted to help the eejits. She told him that the people, and especially the farm patrol, wouldn't like the eejits being fixed, and would try to stop him. She told him to try to conceal his actions.

"Okay," he said.

He decided that in order to turn them off, he would need to study about them. It was too risky to try to disable one directly, and kill one. He also needed to do it in private because of Celia's warning.

The next day, he decided to go to the eejit pens. He wanted to examine if they had any other features that could help him determine at least where the chip was in the brain. The place still reeked of an indescribable smell, and the sludge pit dug in the sand still remained. After walking for a bit, he saw an eejit walking around. When the eejit saw him, it charged him and attempted to grab him. Matt pushed away the man, who had black hair, and the same lifeless eyes of Rosa. The eejit came at him again, and grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the sludge pit. His feet dragged in the slimy sand. He used all his strength and ripped the eejit off his arm, right before he was thrown in. Matt pushed the eejit into the sludge, and it drowned. After this, he decided to go home, and did not tell Celia what happened.

He pondered who ordered the eejit to attack him during dinner, but tried not to make it obvious he was thinking about something. He went to bed that night worried. He wondered if he should hide again. He told himself he was stronger than that, and that he could free the eejits.

The next day, he went to the huge collection of El Patron's books. The place was dank and dusty, and he could hardly see the walls from the piles of books. There was very little light in the room, but there was an old chair with stuffing coming out of the arms, accompanied by an old-fashioned lamp. He walked around the room for a while, and eventually found a book by "The Anti Slavery Association" titled "A Guide to Eejits." On the front of the book was a note saying "Make sure these stop being published, and burn the ones that already have been." In El Patron's handwriting. The book reminded him of the one Tam Lin had given him. Tears built up in his eyes, but he held them back. "No," He thought, "Ii have to be strong. He would have wanted me to be strong." He let out a quit sob, and tears hit the note on the cover. "He would want me to save them" he whispered. He turned to the first page, to find the table of contents. He looked through the chapter names until he found the one titled "How the Implants Affect the Brain" And the chapter after that, "How They could be removed." He turned to the page listed, but found that both chapters were torn out. He searched, but could not find them. He searched for hours until he came across the fireplace. It had not been used in years, but there was still ashes inside. He saw a page in the ashes. After pulling it out, he saw a diagram of the mind of the eejit, where the implant was, and notes on removal. All he needed to do now was find a trusted bunch of surgeons. This was nearly impossible, considering most of the best tried to kill him, and not help at all. As he walked out, he saw a small area near the roof that there were no books there. After closer examination he saw that it was a hidden camera. He ran from the room, and went to Celia. He told her that he knew how to remove it, but needed someone to do it.

"Over the border, there would be people willing to help," She said, "but we could never get there without people noticing."

He spent most of the night thinking, but could find nothing. He decided to finally go to sleep, and worry about it tomorrow. He thought that rest might help him think better.

That night, he was awoken by a wiring sound. He opened his eyes to see a light getting brighter, and it illuminated a black coated figure, a little taller than he was. He rolled of his bed and landed on the hard floor. The bed was blown to sinders by the weapon. The person realized that he had missed, and started to change the energy cell to fire again. Matt stood up, and nearly knocked over the virgin, and threw the nearest thing at the mercenary. Now he had realized had had thrown the book that Tam Lin had given him. He regretted his decision at first, but realized he had knocked the gun out of the mercenary's hand. The culprit ran, and Matt was left by himself. Celia came running into the room.

"Mi Vida!" She yelled. "Are you okay?"

The room was cleaned up the next day, and Matt found the bear he had treasured a long time ago. The right ear had been sewed back on before, but now it was charred some. He was glad to see it was okay.

The mercenary's gun was examined, and was found to have fingerprints from the farm patrol and Tom. Matt told detective about the eejit that attacked him, and they said that Tom or the Farm Patrol could have ordered it to attack him. He was told he had the rights to turn them into eejits.

"No," Matt said. "I would rather them help me fix them"

"They are guilty now," said the detective, "You can do what you want with them, El Patron."

"Don't call me that." Said Matt, "Please tell them of their punishment as soon as possible."