The Darkest Minds: Red

Eighteen

"I knew you weren't reformed," Chubs gritted his teeth, but Clancy ignored it with a laugh.

"You're Charles, right?" He shook his hand before directing his attention to Zu. "And you must be Suzume. Hi."

She waved at him and shyly smiled.

"Liam Stewart and Lily Anderson. The one who broke hundreds of kids out of Caledonia and the girl who stopped a group of PSFs. I'm impressed with the both of you." He said, turning to us.

I looked down to the floor, and my cheeks grew red from embarrassment. Liam looked everywhere but him but let out a small smile.

Clancy then looked at Ruby, an expression that seems to be a mixture of disbelief and awe. "Ruby Daly. The last remaining Orange other than me. It's an honor to meet you," He then looked at all of us. "I've read all of your files."

"Anything good in there?" Mike asked with a nervous laugh.

"PSFs have been following your every move," Clancy said, ignoring him. "Which means you need some place to lie low for a while, right?"

Liam hesitated a split second before nodding.

"You made a good choice coming here. You can stay as long as you need." Clancy rested his hands on his chest. "Now that I've managed to upset everyone, Mike, do you want to take them to a cabin and get them set up in the rotations?"

Mike nodded. "For the record, you didn't upset me, boss."

Clancy laughed. "Okay, good. Now, there's a lot to be done here and we really need some help. Cabin Eighteen is open. Ty and his guys went tribal on us. I don't know that anyone has gone in to clean it since they left, though, so I apologize if it's a mess."

               ********

"Do you guys think that he's up to something?" I asked the group as we settled into the cabin. 

"What do you mean?" Liam asked as everyone looked at me.

I sighed, lying on a bed. "I mean... he's read our files. He's the son of the president, for goodness sakes. I don't know, maybe Chubs is right. Maybe he wasn't reformed."

"Lily, no. I... I just let my emotions get the best of me." Chubs said as he sat on another bed.

"But why would he be up to something when he set up a camp, away from his father?" Ruby spoke up.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm overthinking this." I admitted.

I felt the bed sink as Liam sat down.

"Darlin',  we've come all this way to get here. Isn't that what you wanted? After everything we've been through, going back is going to be the most boring part of this adventure."

I let out a small chuckle as I sat up. Chubs, Zu, and Ruby looked at me with expecting eyes.

"Do you want to go outside for a bit? Take your mind off this thing?" Chubs suggested.

To be honest, I really wanted to. But before I could say anything, the sound of a cowbell rang, and we all stood up.

"Come on," Liam said, standing up and offering me a hand. "We can talk about it over dinner."