Virus | The Darkest Minds Ψ

Pick Your Secrets Wisely

Chapter XVI

I leaned back into my seat and closed my eyes as the car rumbled to life. I tried not to dwell on what I'd heard in Ruby's mind, but I kept coming back to one thing.

What would we regret?

I had already known Ruby was hiding something; we all have something to hide, but could this thing put us in more danger than we already were? For the tenth time I thought it again: who was Ruby?

Liam exhaled as he cut a diagonal path through the parking lot. He didn't seem to know which direction to turn when we finally found the road.

"Where are we going?" Ruby asked from the back seat.

He was silent for a moment, scratching his chin. "We're still headed to Virginia, if I can find it. I think we crossed the state line a while back, but I don't know where we landed. Not too familiar with this area, to be honest."

"I knew we should have used the map," I muttered.

"I can figure it out without it," Liam insisted. He kept swivelling his head back and forth, like he expected someone to appear and guide him in the right direction with road flares and fanfare.

Five minutes later, the map was spread out over the steering wheel, and I was smiling to myself in the seat beside Lee. Ruby leaned forward from behind us, her eyes scanning over the pastel colours and crisscrossing lines on the flimsy, ripped paper.

Liam pointed out the boundaries of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina.

"I think we're about... here?" He pointed to a tiny dot that was surrounded by a rainbow of of crisscrossed lines.

"I don't suppose Black Betty has a GPS?" Ruby said.

Liam blew out a sigh, patting the steering wheel. He had decided we were going right. "Betty may drive the straight and true path, but souped up, she is not.

"I told you we should've taken that Ford SUV," Chubs said.

"That piece of—" Liam caught himself when I raised my eyebrows at him. "That box on wheels was a death trap—not to mention its transmission was shot to hell."

"So, naturally, the next choice was a minivan," I teased.

"Yep, she called to me from the parking lot of abandoned cars. The sun was shining through her windows like a beacon of hope."

Chubs groaned. "Why are you so weird?"

"Because my weird has to cancel out your weird, Lady Cross-stitch."

"At least what I do is considered an art form," Chubs said.

"Yes, in ye olde medieval Europe you would have been quite the catch—"

"Yeah, but Chubs doesn't talk like cars are what gave him his life," I reasoned.

"Might I remind you, Aspen, you wanted to bring an entire box of kittens with us," Liam said.

"Hold on! It was inhumane to just leave them—"

"Anyway," Ruby cut in, "we have to be close to Winchester." She pointed to a dot on the western end of Virginia.