Walking Amongst Them (Among Us, Book 2)

CLARKE

Sam was denied his request to help in the infirmary.

Instead he was asked if he would be willing to help train some of the people to shoot. They had air soft guns with plastic balls that served as ammunition. He'd agreed, if only because he was the only one of us left not contributing.

Adam had decided to help out at the school, none of us wanting Abby to be out of our sights. Trish was already helping them, and I'd been invited to the gardens shortly after we moved in to the more permanent residence we'd been provided.

I hadn't wanted to seem rude, and so I'd accepted. Within the hour I was given a volunteer schedule and told it was fine if I got my contribution hours elsewhere, but that I'd need to go and get it approved. I was still wondering when I'd signed up for this job when they finally let me go, saying I'd done hard work for my first day.

We all noticed that our shadows hadn't left us. It became clear with each passing moment that the discord among the people of this community ran deep. Adam had made a few friends at the school, mostly parents of children who were worried for their children. But there were others too, I overheard some girls at the garden musing over one of their friends who they were missing.

It seemed that sometimes people just went missing.

The people in charge shrugged it off as runaways, most of the people who didn't come back were people who had gone out on a sort of run. For supplies or other things. The bulk of these people were lone travelers, but like the girl that the garden workers worried about, some of them weren't.

It had been two days since my meeting with Raya, which had gone nowhere. I'd walked in and she'd been in the middle of eating a meal. As if I were the one to schedule the time of our meeting, and I'd interrupted her free time.

I'd sat down in the chair across from her desk.

The action had strangely reminded me of what it felt like to be at school. Getting into trouble and finding myself across the room from the principle as he struggled with choosing between calling my parents or just kicking me out of school altogether.

He always settled for calling my mom. My grades outweighed my shitty attitude, and that was something he couldn't say for most of the other students in his school.

He needed me.

Raya did not.

I was far more uncomfortable sitting across from her.

I couldn't even begin to guess the options, if any, she was weighing in regards to my future.

When I'd walked out of the meeting and Sam had asked me what we'd spoken about, I couldn't even give him a proper recollection. I knew that I'd started off strong, demanding that we get to see Michael. But after that it had fallen a part, she'd talked about Trish and the logistics of the trip. She'd moved on quickly to other topics, speaking so quickly that I had no chance to interject much less process it all.

She spoke around eating her meal even, and when she finally dismissed me, I was as confused as her meal was finished.

I'd walked back to the temporary house, going as far as to try the already locked door.

Being denied entrance brought me out of my stupor a bit, and when I turned to correct my path, I noticed a small girl watching me from across the road. When I turned she jumped a bit, hunching her shoulders and continuing on with a speedy pace.

It wasn't the last time I saw her that day, and she wasn't the only one I noticed had been tasked with watching me. I wasn't the only one though, we were all being watched. We couldn't get mad or call them out on it though, we decided.