Purple | Cole Stewart -VERSION DISCONTINUED

Chapter Twelve: Stowaway

Fire. 
I dreamt of fire. Consuming me, filling my veins.
And then I woke up to shouting, and a lone gunshot. Just your average Tuesday, huh?
“Stop! Don’t shoot!”
“LEE!”
“I know, I know! Said Liam, starting the van. “Zu, seat belt!” when Zu made no move to buckle herself in, I reached across her and did it myself.
“You okay-” I started to ask before I was thrown into the side of the van by a sharp turn.
“Zu, did something happen in the gas station?” Liam pressed.
We had been driving for about ten minutes now, and I hoped that we were well away from the guns, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Oh my god,more skip tracers? What, were they having a freaking convention? You realize what would have happened if we’d been caught dont you?” Chubs ranted. “And they were shooting at us! With a gun!”
Zu giggled at that for some reason, but I was a little busy trying not to fall over to think about why.
“Well I'm glad you think it's funny! Do you know what happens when you get shot, Suzume?” uh oh. Full name. “The bullet rips through-”
“Chubs!” Liam yelled sharply. “Settle down, okay? We’re fine. That was a little bit closer than I would have liked, but still. We’ll just have to try to make better mistakes tomorrow, right Zu?”
I snorted at how cheesy that line was. “Jesus Lee, you should really take up motivational speaking,”
“What, in this economy?” I laughed out loud at that. Liam turned his attention back to Zu. “Sorry about before. Next time I’ll go with you to get food. You’re not hurt, right?”
I shook my head. “No, next time I’ll go with her. You guys should have woken me up, I wasn’t that tired.”
Chubs snorted, taking a break from his groaning. “Oh please, Cara. you could barely walk straight.”
“Did it sound like they were looking for someone to you?” Liam asked, refocusing on the situation at hand.
“No, it sounded like they were shooting at us!”
Liam looked at me through the rearview mirror, silently asking for opinion. I shrugged. “Don’t ask me, I was asleep.”
Speaking of sleep, I was wrong before. I definitely was that tired, and could really use a few more hours. I felt my eyes start to droop.
“-a number of things,” Liam was saying. “But let’s try to focus on finding East River-”
My attention was drawn from the conversation at hand to a sheet that was laying on Betty's floor. It was moving for some reason, and I wondered if Zu had decided to adopt another stray cat. I turned to ask her, but the sheet in question was lifted up to reveal a girl, and all of my questions were forgotten.
I stared at her, not knowing what to say as Liam and Chubs continued to bicker in the front seats, oblivious of our stowaway.
“I can’t see out the back window when you-” Liam stopped as he did a double take.
Betty lurched to the right as he spun in his seat and turned the wheel with him. The movement was enough to snap me out of my surprised state. “Lee-”
Liam slammed on the brakes, and we all went flying forward, Zu and I into the seats in front of us, and the mystery girl through the space between the seats, in between Liam and Chubs.
Both boys were staring at the girl with about the same expression I had been earlier. The van was silent as the girl picked herself up off the carpet and tried to pull open the sliding door of the van. 
“Zu!” Liam cried, looking back and forth between her and the mystery girl. Zu just folded her hands in her lap, the picture of innocence.
“We all agreed- no strays.” Chubs shook his head. “That's why we didnt take the kittens!”
“Oh good god, not the kittens again,” I muttered to myself, metally preparing for the incoming argument I had had the privilege of listening to many times before.
“Oh for the love of…” Liam slumped down in his seat, pressing his face into his hands. “What were we going to do with a box of abandoned kittens?”
“Maybe if that black heart of yours hadn’t been willing to leave them to starve, we could have found them new, loving homes.”
“You’re never going to get over those cats, are you?”
“They were innocent, defenceless kittens, and you left them outside someone's mailbox! A mailbox!”
“Chubs,” Liam groaned. “Come on.”

“Excuse me!” I had almost forgotten that the mystery girl was there up until this point, way too wrapped up in trying to keep the peace between Lian and Chubs to worry about it. “Can you please unlock the door?”
At least she could shut them up.
Liam turned to look at the girl fully. “Are you the one they were looking for?” he asked. “Ruth?”
“Ruby.” Chubs corrected.
Liam waved his hand. “Right, Ruby.”
“Just unlock the door, please!” she said desperately, pulling at the door again. “I made a mistake. This was a mistake! I was selfish, and I know that, so you have to let me go before they catch up.”
“Before who catches up? The Skip Tracers?” Liam’s eyes began scanning Ruby and I did the same. 
We seemed to come to a realization at the same time. Liam voiced his suspicions first, and I could hear the horror in his voice. “Did you just come from a camp?”
Ruby nodded. “The Children's League broke me out.”
I looked at Liam as she said that, curious as to what his reaction would be as a former member of the Children's League.
“And you ran away from them?” I cut in for clarification. I looked to Zu for clarification, and she nodded.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Chubs interrupted. “You heard her- unlock the stupid door! We already have PSF’s and Skip Tracers after us; we don't need to add the League to that list! They probably think we took her, and if they put in a call that there are freaks roaming around in a beat-up black minivan…” he couldn’t bring himself to finish.
“Hey,” Liam said, holding up a finger. “Don't talk about Betty that way.”
“Oh, excuse me for hurting the feeling of a twenty-year-old minivan.” Chubs shot back.
“He’s right,” Ruby said. “I'm sorry, please- I don't want any more trouble for you.”
I shared a look with Liam. How do you want to play this? He was asking. And honestly, I wasn’t sure. A part of me agreed with Chubs. We definitely didn’t need to add the Children's League to our list of enemies. But at the same time, we couldn’t leave Ruby here to experience the same thing Liam had and spoke of with so much disdain. We had the chance to help someone, and if we didn’t take it, what did that say about us?
I gave Liam my answer in the form of a nod, and he seemed to understand what I wanted to do.
He turned back to Ruby. ”You want to go back to them?” he asked. “Listen, it’s none of my business, Green, but you have the right to know that whatever lies they fed you probably aren’t true. They aren't our angel network. They have their own agenda, and if they plucked you out of camp, it means they have a plan for you.”
Ruby shook her head. “You think I don’t know that?”
“Okay. then why are you in such a hurry to get back?” He didn’t mean it in a judgemental way, and I was sure Ruby could see that.
“No, but I can’t- I didn't mean to drag you into- I mean, I did mean to , but…”
Zu reached out for Ruby, but she jerked back before she could be touched. Zu looked a little hurt by that.
“Do you want to go back to them?”
Ruby looked down at her feet. “No,” she admitted. “I don’t.”
The van was silent as Liam shifted it out of park and we began rolling forward again.
“Lee don’t you dare,” Chubs began. “If the League comes after us…”
“It’ll be okay,” Liam said. “We’re just taking her to the nearest bus station.” I blinked. I was expecting Liam to offer a lot more, if I was being honest. But at the end of the day, I think this was Liam's decision to make.
“You don’t have to.”
I waved her off. “It’s fine, Green. Sorry we can't do more, though. Just can’t risk it.”
“Yes, you're right.” Chubs said. “So explain to me why we aren't taking her to one of the train stations, which are closer?” Well, he had me there. I waited for Liam to come with a hopefully decent answer, but he just turned back to Ruby, which probably wasn't a good idea, considering he was driving.
“Remind me again- Ruby, right? I’m sure you’ve caught on by now, but I’m Liam. The lovely lady behind me is Suzume.”
I scoffed. “What am I, chopped liver?”
Chubs muttered out a ‘yes’ from the passenger seat in front of me. I kicked the back of his chair.
“Sorry, sorry. The other lovely lady behind me is Carter.” I nodded in approval.
“I’m guessing your name isn't actually Chubs?” Ruby asked.
“No.” he sniffed. “Liam gave me that name at camp.”
“He was a bit of a porker.” Liam had a small smile on his face. “Turns out field labor and a restricted diet are better than fat camp. Zu and Carter can back me up on that.”
I nodded, looking to Zu to see if she was finding this as entertaining as I was. But Zu wasn’t looking at any of us. 
“Zu what's wrong?” I asked.
She answered by pointing out the front window, but at that point, she didn’t need to. Even if by some miracle we didn’t notice the tan SUV speeding towards us, it was impossible to miss the bullet that blew through the back window and shattered it. 

Word count: 1704