Triple Point

Chapter 97: Unboxing

Camilla

After all of the information that came to light in the morning's meeting, Camilla's group was understandably exhausted as they blindly followed Camilla to her room. Once there, the metas scattered themselves throughout the space to mull over the news in their own ways, while their non-meta friends stayed close for moral support.

Camilla and Elsie sat together on their bed, with Camilla wedging herself securely in the corner against the walls. While Camilla wasn't in the mood to talk, she welcomed the gentle touches that Elsie provided her, from gently holding Camilla's hand to running her fingers slowly through Camilla's hair. The saving grace was that the brief hadn't gone too deep into "forbidden territory" as Camilla feared it would. Had they delved further into what Stein's experiments entailed, she wasn't sure where her mind would have gone.

At the opposite corner of the bed, Mack kept mostly to himself as he slumped over on the floor, leaning against the mattress with an exhausted sigh. Naturally, Jordan sat on the bed behind Mack, and he immediately began massaging Mack's shoulders and neck while striking up a conversation with Minyoung about how the room smelled much better than their own. Without anything else to do, Minyoung grumpily continued the conversation, taking the seat next to Hitomi on her bed when she offered.

Hitomi, as expected, was unfazed by what the meeting had to offer. She had already known the gist of what happened to Camilla at Farallon, and she never had much faith in US politics to begin with. As a result, she was happy to chime in to Jordan and Minyoung's conversation, offering her own commentary whether they wanted it or not.

Bev and the kids trailed in last. Nakia seemed the most out of character, and they immediately climbed up to the bunk above Camilla and Elsie's without a word. They had approached Senior immediately after the meeting was dismissed, desperate to know more about their sister. Nakia looked heartbroken when Senior confirmed that Captain Pala condemned Camilla's squad and everyone else that deserted the Org, and there was nothing Senior could do to convince her otherwise without risking the safety of the entire Alliance.

But while Nakia was silent and reserved, Finn wouldn't stop talking. As he continued to ramble about things like how it was possible for the Org to get away with their crimes for so long, or if they were all destined to be part of the zombie army, Bev did her best to keep him in line and relatively subdued. She sat on the floor in the middle of the room, and Finn automatically followed, not stopping from expressing his theories on the likelihood that other countries were doing the same thing as the US.

As expected, it didn't take long for the feeble conversations to wind down, leaving only silence. What Camilla didn't expect was how much she disliked the lack of chatter that normally came so easy between her friends. A year ago, she would have preferred the quiet and anti-social atmosphere; now, it made her uncomfortable.

"They can't keep getting away with this," Camilla suddenly announced. Immediately, all eyes turned towards her, somewhat surprised, but she continued. "If Hester's really trying to make a brainwashed army, and the Org is willing to sacrifice guardians and innocent civilians to do it... we have to stop them."

After a moment of silence, it was Mack that answered first.

"AJ had mentioned there were dozens of other metas that went through Farallon that she lost track of. Who knows how many metas are still under Hester's control?"

"But where do we even start?" Finn asked, worried. "Even with the Alliance, we're up against the rest of the Org guardians and potentially a zombie army. Not to mention, the whole country thinks we're fugitives."

"We need to find more evidence," Hitomi said, then let out a long sigh. "And if what your Senior Chief says is true, then that will be hard to come by."