Orange is a burning color

Goodbyes

After Chubs had sewn up Ruby, I let myself breathe. She was still pale but now less so.
I opened my bag to grab another, non-blood soaked shirt. I pulled out a sweatshirt and out came tumbling a black box. We'd been driving for a good thirty minutes at this point and all I was able to hear was Chubs and Liam's muffled arguments. I opened the box to find the back up hearing aids the nurse gave me.
"Yes," I muttered as I put them on.
Chubs turned around. "I thought Lady Jane crushed them," he said perplexed.
"She did, these are backups, luckily," I said happily.
"Nice to have you back in the conversation," Liam tried to joke.
"Good because I have questions," Chubs said still looking at me.
I knew what he was going to ask. I knew his questions, I knew they'd boot me and Ruby for sure when they find out what we are.
"Shoot," I said checking on Ruby again.
"Did you know Ruby was an Orange,"
I hesitated. "Yes," I said slipping on the sweatshirt.
"So there were Oranges at Thurmond and Ruby lied to us?" Chubs poked some more.
"No, the Oranges,Reds, and Yellows were taken from camp," I said defensive.
"So what's your story then," Chubs asked.
Here goes the end. "I'm also an Orange," I admitted.
"But how did both you and Ruby make it through detection?" Liam asked.
"I don't know about Ruby, but I made the doctor think I was a Green, I didn't want to be an Orange, it just happened," I explained. "Are you done with questions because I'm more worried about Ruby right now."
The minivan feel silent again.

Chubs and Liam had began their arguments again about how black Betty was too obvious. Chubs was saying they needed to get rid of her while Liam was disagreeing. I looked at Zu and smiled.
"You don't talk much, do you?" I whispered to her.
She shook her head and grabbed for her notebook.
"I could teach you ASL if you'd like, much faster then writing in a notebook," I offered.
Zu looked at me with wide eyes then scribbled something in the notebook. You would do that?
"Yeah, it's no problem for me," I said with a smile.
For the rest of the ride I showed Zu the basics, like how to ask simple things and how to spell her name and the alphabet. She seemed to like it. After a while Liam pulled into a wooded area off the road.
Liam turned on some music to make sure Ruby knew we didn't leave her. Chubs and Liam went to argue and I took Zu to go pick some flowers so we didn't have to listen to said Arguments.

When me a Zu got back, we helped pool together the rest of the food. I added my few bags of chips, chocolate bars and two bottles of water. Liam and Chubs were doing the fifty questions they did with me on Ruby, Ruby basically knew as much as I knew.
"So now you see," Ruby said, "what a mistake it was to let me stay."
"You'd think they'd let me stay if you weren't here?" I said with a slight laugh.
"Try to imagine where we'd be without you, darlin," Liam told Ruby quietly, "and then maybe you'll see how lucky we got."
I ignored how much Liam sounded like his brother and focused on counting the food.

The next morning I woke to Zu shaking my shoulder. Liam had apparently already told everyone to wake up but a mixture of bad hearing and exhaustion had kept me from getting the memo.
"Hey Elliot, you should let chubs check out your cheek," Liam suggested.
I nodded and headed over to Chubs. "Hey Charles, Liam said you should check out my cheek before we leave," I said as I got close.
"Huh? Yeah sure," he said gesturing for me to sit next to him.
I sat there as he pulled the makeshift bandage from my cheek. "This is pretty well made. We're either of your parents in medical?" He asked examining the wound.
"My mom was a nurse," I said as he started to sew up my cheek.
"What you did was really nice, you risked you life for me and Zu back at the rest stop," Chubs said, being nice for the first time ever.
"Thanks Charles, but I was only doing what anyone would've done," I said getting up.
"Chubs, you can call me Chubs," he said before getting up and going to continue packing.
I followed back to the van and packed everything back into my backpack. I was picking up the blanket I'd shared with Zu when I saw something black roll from under it. I moved my bag and looked behind the seat to see Lady Jane's gun. Liam must've just thrown it in the van and forgot about it. I grabbed it and check how much ammo was in it, it was full. I made sure the safety was on before putting in my backpack's side pocket.
I stepped out of the van in time to hear everyone discuss Ruby's nickname.
"Any day now, Marian Librarian. I thought you were the one that wanted to check out," Liam joked.
"Hey those some pretty good books, it's hard to abandon some," I said in Chubs' defense.
Chubs gave Liam the finger as he closed the briefcase.
I walked off in the direction that Zu had gone off in, I hadn't been in Betty long at all so I didn't feel any connection to her. I thought going to check on Zu and giving everyone else the space to collect their feelings was a good idea.
I saw some little white flowers and picked them up. I saw Zu heading back this way and met her halfway. We walked over to the van and I helped Zu put the flowers she picked under the windshield. I did the same.
Everyone turned and started to walk towards the road.
"Wait if y'all are going to stop calling Ruby Green, then can I stop getting called League?" I asked.
Liam laughed. "This is a serious question Stewart," I said crossing my arms.

We'd been debating on whether Chubs had broken his toe or not when the sound came. The wail of a truck shattered into silence.
We all jump and my ears started to ring. I tried my best to cover my ears. The way the tires squealed was like the warning signal before the White Noise.
Liam said something muffled and I removed my hand to hear the rest. "You guys watch the bags," he said and him and Ruby started for the noise.
We had been waiting there for maybe five minutes when I heard Ruby scream. I took off my backpack pulled Lady Jane's gun from it.
"Stay here!" I ordered and ran in the direction.
I saw Liam and Ruby on the ground with people in all black around them. Before I could stop myself I had angled myself opposite of them.
"Let them go!" I threatened, turning off the safety for extra effect.
"Drop your gun!" One of the guys yelled.
"You first!" I yelled back.
Before I knew what was going I felt the weapon fly from my hand and I was flung towards Ruby and Liam brought to the ground like them.
"They're Psi," I figured.
"I told you to watch the bags," Liam said annoyed.
"Shut it!" The boy yelled again. "Where was I in my reading? Ah yes, Doctor Charles Meriwether, 2775 Arlington Court, Alexandria, Virginia. George Fields—"
"Charles Meriwether?" another voice said. "George Fields—like Jack Fields?"
"Yes! Yes, we're Psi, please—we're Psi like you!" Liam yelled.
"Lee? Liam Stewart?" There was a shuffle of feet running towards us.
"Mike? That you?" asked Liam.
"Oh my God...stop,stop!" Mike yelled. "I know him—that's Liam Stewart! Stop! Hayes, get off him!"
"He saw; you know the rules!"
"Jesus are you deaf? The rules apply to adults—they're kids,you asshole!" Mike yelled.
I felt the force holding me down let go and I got up. Thank god for family reunions.
"Use your abilities on me again and I'll make sure you only have one hand," I said snatching my gun back from Hayes.
I was wiping the dirt from my jeans as two boys pulled off their masks. One of the boys, Mike, was pressing the letters against his own chest.
"Lee,man, I'm so sorry. I never thought—" Mike chocked up. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Liam took the letters back from Mike and said something to Ruby.
"God, Lee," he said, wiping the rain off his face. "Oh my God, I can't believe you actually mad it out."
Mike and Liam continued to reminisce before their watches went off and the bigger guy called time. Liam and Mike talked a bit more before Mike shouted, Where are you guys headed? You should come with us!"
"We already have our own tribe,thanks" Liam said.
Mike's brows furrowed. "We're not a tribe. Not like that, at least. We're with the Slip kid. You heard of him?"