The Darkest Minds: Red

Sixteen

Two hours rolled right on by around us. Liam and I must have fallen asleep at some point, because by the time I opened my eyes, the condensation was shrinking against the glass, and a few rays of morning light had made it to the forest floor.

As I stirred, so did Liam. For a while, we said and did nothing beyond working out the cricks and kinks from the awkward position we slept in. When it came to finally let go of his hand, I felt the first touch of cold air work its way from outside.

"Wake up, team," he said. His shoulder popped as he reached back to slap Chubs's knee. "Time to carpe the hell out of this diem."

Less than an hour later, we were standing in front of the black minivan, watching as Zu did one last check under the seats. Ruby buttoned up her shirt up to her throat and wrapped a red scarf around her neck.

"Yikes," Liam said, looking at her outfit. "Are you that cold, Green?"

"You can't really call her Green anymore," I called out from my position in front of the van, waiting as Zu wandered the vehicle. I had my bag with me. Chubs was making the difficult decision about which books to abandon and which to take with him. He seemed to settle on three books and leaving behind three.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "No more Green..."

"All done, sweetie?" I asked Zu. When she gave me a thumbs-up, I took her pink bag over my other shoulder. "Any day now, Marian Librarian. I thought you were the only one that wanted to check out."

Liam let out an amused chuckle at my comment, which caused Chubs to give both of us the finger. He leaned forward, putting his full weight into closing the briefcase. I rolled my eyes at his actions. Ruby leaned over to help him, trying to avoid the look on mine and Liam's faces as we stood there staring at Betty's mangled black shell. Zu was crying without making a sound; I wrapped my arms over her shoulders, trying not to cry, and Liam held his hands over my shoulders in comfort. Even Chubs looked at the car with a rare softness, his fingers bunching up the fabric of his pants.

Liam had gotten us as close as he can to Lake Prince, but it was anyone's guess how long it would take us to walk there. 

"It feels like we should do something," he said. "Like, send her off on a barge out to sea and set her on fire. Let her go out in a blaze of glory."

Chubs raised a brow. "It's a minivan, not a Viking."

I was about to say something, but Zu pulled away from my grasp.

"Zu, hey," I called after her as she headed for the trees to her left. We all looked at her in confusion.

But when Zu appeared in our line of sight, she wasn't empty-handed. Clutched between her fingers were four small yellow flowers- wild weeds, by the looks of it. She walked over to the van, stood on her toes, and lifted up the closest windshield wiper. With delicate fingers, she positioned each flower in a row, keeping them straight across the cracked glass.

I couldn't take it anymore. Tears streamed silently down my face as I turned around, burying my face into Liam's chest. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into a hug, and rubbed my back. 

Ruby shoved her hands in her pockets and turned away, heading for the trees. Her fingers brushed against something hard and smooth in her pocket, and she didn't need to pull it out to know that it was the panic button. In the beginning, she had kept it because she wasn't sure she'd be able to protect the group on her own, and now... she had half a mind to drop it and let the ground claim it. Liam had confirmed everything she had suspected, but it seemed foolish to toss it then, when there was a chance for us to use them like they would have used us. If a PSF or skip tracer caught up to us now, she could press the button, and the agents that showed up would be more than enough distraction to get away.

But it still didn't make her feel any less ashamed of how relieved she felt to find it still there - to know that Cate, with all her promises to take care of things, was still out there, still only a touch away.