Diverse (The Darkest Minds)

Chapter 10

Every day was the same. We woke up, had our meals, and worked at certain times. Chubs explained that it was similar to being at the camps. He had a point there. He too hoped to use the laptop to get in touch with his parents and let them know he was safe. Ruby promised him and me that she would ask Clancy if he would let us use the laptop. I imagined Hilary worrying over Azel and me as she searched the area, even the whole state for us.

Zu decided to leave the camp with Hina and three other kids who wanted to reunite with their families. In Zu's case, she would be reuniting with her aunt and uncle, since her parents turned her in after short-circuiting their car when her Gold ability manifested. I understood her choice to leave us but knew that we would meet her again someday.

Thankfully, I didn't have another lone meeting with Clancy. Ruby taught me how to block my thoughts and emotions if I ever encountered another Orange kid who managed to avoid execution.

Azel and I met up by a lake once we got a break from our work duties.

"It feels like forever since we last talked," Azel expressed sighing as we started skipping stones by the lakeshore.

"I know," I nodded feeling the same, "Chubs told me that this whole arrangement here was like in the camps he and the others were in."

"He told me the same thing. It was like being in a Nazi camp."

"The more it makes me glad Mom and Dad didn't comply with the law. If Grandpa were still alive, he would've felt the same as them about all of this."

"He would've kept us hidden at the cabin. I just wish we were back there."

"Me too. Though we wouldn't have met Ronnie and the others and reunited with Ben and Savi."

"You like Ronnie, don't ya, Em?"

My cheeks warmed up at the mention of his name, "Oh, stop, Az," I shook my head smiling at my little brother, "We make a great team along with the others."

"I'm not kidding," Azel gave me an expression as if telling me something important, "Whenever he's off duty, he would ask about you whenever you were doing kitchen or laundry duty with Savi and would wait until you were done, even though it would be around the time everyone went to bed."

Knowing my brother wasn't joking made me realize Ronnie liked me for me, not caring if I was diverse in the color category, and that we had only known each other in a short amount of time. All of us had a lot to worry about. One was figuring out how to get a hold of Hilary without Clancy suspecting anything. And two, meet up with our aunt, the Children's League and finally expose the camps' true colors to the whole nation.

I was woken up by Ruby and Liam who also got Ronnie, Chubs, and Azel to wake up. It was the middle of the night. I detected that something was wrong. I thought of reading Ruby but held back wanting her to tell all of us if she felt ready and comfortable. Noting her and Liam's expressions, we were no longer safe as we thought. It meant we would head out to find Hilary once we figured out a way to contact her.

"Chubs, Ember, we gotta go," Ruby informed us.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Chubs remarked sounding surprised, "Did I miss something?"

"What's happening?" I wondered through a yawn as I sat up from the bunk.

"The six of us are leaving right now," Ruby explained.

"It's about time!" Chubs sounded relieved to be leaving what was supposed to be our haven but turned into a prison.

"We gotta get Ben and Savi," Azel suggested as he got up and grabbed his backpack, "They'd wanna come with us too."