Walking Amongst Them (Among Us, Book 2)

clara's world

Clara did not shut up.

Being on the road home, all captors dead and left behind, had put her in a particularly chatty mood. One that nobody was exactly a fan of, to my relief. Not that it stopped her, she didn't need anyone to respond to her musings to continue on with them. I doubted she even needed any of us to be here to listen to what she was saying.

It started with the story, of how she'd come to be in the position she was. It was until she got to the bit where I'd left to go play out my father's harebrained idea that I began to listen again. But it wasn't surprising to hear that my father had essentially panicked the moment things went astray from what he'd envisioned.

She told Trish how she'd shot him, using this moment to finally acknowledge that she'd hit Stephanie too.

"Oh, by the way, I'm sorry about that. You understand though, you were a necessary sacrifice in taking down our common enemy?" Clara's voice had turned so clinical during her apology that a few of us had nearly stopped walking.

Stephanie, while looking uncomfortable, muttered something that resembled forgiveness. I avoided looking at Cody, but I saw his hand tighten on Stephanie's shoulder, where he had it wrapped around her to help her keep walking. The bullet had gone straight through, but she was still in pain. It had just missed her collarbone, might have missed her entirely if Clara had shot an inch or two upwards.

"Anyways, it wasn't me who killed him, though. It was Kodi, she slit his throat, didn't she?" A heavy sort of silence followed.

I could tell that my traveling companions, at least some of them, hadn't realized. I kept my face impassive, or I tried to. I had a deep gut feeling that my face looked more dead than unbothered. I didn't miss him, but I could still see the way his eye twitched when I placed his own blade on his throat.

"But that's nothing compared to Micah and Ray defecting! How horrible? You'd think these people could show some sort of compassion, some sort of loyalty to the facility," Clara's tone had turned from informative to irritated, quickly.

"Clara-"Stephanie coughed before she could say whatever was on her mind, and Cody stopped walking immediately.

Stephanie stopped with him, her face warped in pain as her cough was irritating her fresh wound. Trish noticed us pause and turned around, as she was several paces ahead. I couldn't see her face with the setting sun at her back, but I knew she was impatient.

I felt it too.

The longer we were out here, the longer our friends, our family, were inside a strange environment. One that seemed to be teetering with its own problems as is.

"No! I'm tired of hearing about the people defecting, taking our supplies with them when they go! All for what? A baby? That's probably why, you know. We don't let them have babies, and Ray wanted a baby. She'd already tried once, Dad told me about it."

Clara didn't seem to notice Stephanie's struggles, or maybe she didn't care. She rolled her eyes at her own words, irritated even as she spoke them.

Stephanie recovered, managing to stand taller than she had been previously. Despite the pale tone her skin had taken, she looked determined. Her voice was hoarse as she spoke.

"We should keep going."

I shoved the rest of my granola into my mouth, wishing I had more water than I did. The rest of the group seemed to agree with her. Each of them stood, even Clara. Trish informed everyone that we were going to attempt to make the quarantine our next stop, so if we needed to do anything now was the chance.