Purple | Cole Stewart -VERSION DISCONTINUED

Chapter Six: out of my comfort zone

“So, where are you headed?” I asked hesitantly. We had been driving for a few minutes now, and the silence was getting to be too much for me.
“I’m looking for my Mom and my stepdad, actually. I already went to our old house and no one was there, so I’m not really sure where to go next, but I have a goal, so,”
I nodded awkwardly, not sure what to say to that. “And um, what’s the short term plan?”
Liam shrugged. “Just survive, I guess. We can sleep in the car, which is nice, and we’ll collect food as we find it.”
“Cool, cool.” we faded into a more comfortable silence after that, when Liam turned on the radio. I leaned my head on the window and before I knew it, I was falling asleep.
Liam and I grew close quickly. He told me that he had never been to a camp, but he was running away from something called the children's league. I told him that I was being moved to a new camp because the one I came from was full. Only a small white lie.
We discovered that we had the same taste in music, and he told me about his brother while I told him about the time I hunted a deer during my time alone.
We were eventually joined by another kid we ran into, named Felipe Marino. He was a yellow. We became good friends, the three of us. Liam was the leader of the group, obviously. He was the one who had brought us together. Felipe was the entertaining one, and he always kept us from getting too depressed when we were having bad luck. And I was the voice of reason, apparently.
All in all, it was a pretty good life. 
Until all of a sudden, it wasn’t.
“Lee we have a problem!” I yelled as I watched a large black SUV pull into the parking lot of the Walmart we had claimed as our home.
I continued to observe the silhouette of the person inside the SUV, who was making no move to get out of the vehicle. Somehow that managed to put me more on edge than a direct attack would.
I could feel Liam running up behind me as the sound of his footsteps approached. “Skip tracers?” he panted, running into my back as he tried to look out the window of the small office we were in.
I nodded. “Definitely. What should we do?”
Liam shook his head. “I don’t know, Cara. I don’t think we can run from this one.” his voice was grim.
I nodded, trying to stay calm. “Okay. you go find Felipe, I’ll tell you if they make a move.”
Liam nodded before running off to find Felipe. I bit my lip. I can’t go back. I just can’t. 
But we won't get out of here if we run.  We have one option here, and that’s to fight.
The car still hadn’t moved by the time Liam and Felipe came scrambling up the stairs. 
I turned to the two of them, knowing they wouldn’t like the conclusion I came to. “We’re out of options guys. The only way out of this for us is if the skip tracers outside don’t make it out.”
Felipe hung his head and let out a sigh, like he knew I was right, but didn’t want to accept it. I didn’t want to accept it either.
Liam ran a hand through his hair, considering my words. We were all silent for a moment,  just looking at each other.
“How-” my voice broke. I don't want to go back. “How do we want to do this?”
“You could try to flip the car? Do something big, Carter. It has to be big.” Felipe offered.
I nodded. “In case-” tears filled my eyes. “Um,  just in case this is it, I want you guys to know that I love you, and I’m sorry.”
Felipe let out a sob and stepped forward to hug me. Liam joined us, and we just stood there for a moment, appreciating each other for what could be the last time.
“Awww, isn’t this sweet,”
The three of us jumped back in unison to see a red headed woman pointing a gun at us.
“Terribly sorry to break it up,” she sneered as she walked closer to us. “Now, don’t move, or get shot. your choice.”
None of us moved.
“Good choice,”
She reached back with her hand that wasn’t holding the gun and pulled out a taser.
I was barely able to mutter out a “fuck,” before I was shot with the taser and everything went black.

When I woke up, I was lying in a bunk bed in a small room, by myself. No.
No.  I couldn’t be back here. I just couldn’t.
I sat up and swung legs over the edge of the bed before standing and running to the door. There was a small window in the door, so I looked out and into the hallway outside. 
I… wasn’t at Thurmond?
I guess that made some sense, given that I was being taken away from Thurmond when I first escaped.
My head was pounding from trying to understand everything that was happening. I trudged back to the only unmade bed in the room, the one I woke up in.
There were a lot less beds in this room than there had been in the old cabin at Thurmond, only 4 sets of bunk beds.
Even though I was laying down, my headache was getting worse. Not knowing what else to do, I laid back down and fell back asleep.

“Hey! Hey wake up, come on,”
I opened my eyes to see a girl looking down at me. I yelped and scrambled back as I sat up.
She looked to be around my age, with long brown hair and kind eyes. To put it simply, she was really fucking attractive. But don't ask  me why that was the first thing I noticed whenI woke up in an unfamiliar place.
“Woah there, calm down. We aren’t gonna do anything to you. This is Caledonia. You’re in camp, but everything’s going to be fine,” this came from the girl who had been leaning over me when I woke up.
Caledonia. Not Thurmond.
When I didn’t respond, the girl continued to speak, probably thinking I was just scared. Not that I wasn’t, but I would call what I was feeling a little bit more shock than fear.
“You’re here because you’re what we call a ‘blue’, did you know that? All of us in this room are blues. You’re just like all of us, its okay,”
I had finally caught my breath by that point. “Thanks.”
All of the girls in the room smiled at that. “No problem. What’s your name?”
“Carter.”
And so my nightmare began again.

Word count: 1153