APOCALYPSE

Chapter Eight

"Have you seen this place before?" Leo asked, his eyes scanning the room before he grabbed a black chair and brought it to the desk, near me. "I've seen this before" I pointed on the paper where a blue lake was colored in. My mind went back to the bittersweet memories of me and my little sister visiting the lake after I picked her up from school. 

"Look! ducks!" My little sister, Ruby, tore off a small piece from her croissant she carried around, wanting to feed the ducks "Ruby, don't do that. Bread is bad for ducks" I informed her as I took the piece of bread from her smaller hands "but everyone does it?" Ruby looked up at me with glittery eyes, wondering why people fed ducks poisonous food "Because they don't know better. Look, we'll go to the shop around the corner and buy them grapes instead"  Ruby's smile went to her cheeks at the thought of it "Yay!" She clapped her hand, making her croissant fall on the dirty ground "Aw." she frowned "I'll get you something sweeter." 

"Are you listening?" Leo got my attention by waving his pale hand in front of my face "yes I am" I pushed his hand down back on the desk, focusing my attention on the paper that sat on the desk. I started to explain how I knew the lake but was unfamiliar with the building "hmm" Leo hummed with his eyebrow raised while he scratched the back of his neck.

I reached over to the black pen with my arm and drew a circle on a building "I believe we're here" I said "Pff, that's not far away" Leo scoffed as he watched me draw "I don't know if we're here though" I said uncertain, Leo's expression quickly shifted to disbelief and muttered "You gotta be kidding me" I shrugged my shoulder in response, It was not my fault we didn't have a map.

"Enough with the map, who do you think hid this from us?" Leo questioned, grabbing the smaller paper with the coordinates. Without hesitating, I responded to him "Cleo"  Leo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he questioned me yet again "why Cleo?" he looked over at me, now his attention to me. With a sigh, I looked down at the drawer "Look in the drawer and you'll find out" Leo's eyes narrowed down, he put his hand on the handle and slowly opened it, revealing the green folder with his name written on it "why does it say my name?" He looked up at me with confusion "Open it" 

Leo did what I told him to, his brown eyes immediately  gotten wide as he read through it "what the hell?!" He quickly flipped the pages in shock from all the detail that the folder contained. "You remember when me and Cleo argued?" Leo didn't look in my direction because he was too busy reading the papers "It's because I found everyone's folder, like yours." 

"I can't believe this!" He slammed the folder on the desk in frustration. He sprung out of his chair, his hands running in his black hair, shocked that someone he trusted would betray him on such an intense level. "How did she get this much information? I never told anyone what happened,no one!" He questioned me, of course I had no clue how she got so much information about us "I don't know."

 "We need to confront her" Leo suggested, determination written all of his face "we should," I replied, nodding in agreement. It was quite surprising how me and Leo both agreed with each other, despite us arguing since we both met. "Where are the other files?" He looked through the opened drawer in hopes to find more, I copied him and opened the left drawer, where everyone else's folders were held. "let's go" Leo urged, he slammed the door opened and caused a small hole in the wall. 

"woah! Calm down" Shawn raised his hands up in a surrendering way as he entered the room "Where the hell is Cleo?!" Leo asked with his tone laced with anger, I stood behind him with the folders in my arms, watching him let his anger out. "I'm right here" Cleo answered from behind Shawn, a small vacuum cleaner in her left hand, she was cleaning the carpet before she heard her name called out. 

"What the hell is this?!" Leo held the green folder with his name in front of Cleo, making sure she had a good look at it. Her eyes widened, she nervously bit her lips before she responded "I don't know?" She lied between her teeth, it was obvious by the way she was acting. "Oh really? Funny because Ella has some too" Leo walked to me and snatched the other folders "looks like we have a snake in our group" Because he snatched the folders from my grip in such a harsh way, some of the papers fell out onto the carpet.

"Cleo w-what is this?" Shawn questioned, pushing up his clear glasses as he looked at Cleo, his expression being confused and disappointed.  Cleo fiddled with her hands "I can explain"

"What's going on?" Santiago woke up from the loud shouting, rubbing his eyes and yawned "Cleo lied to us all" Leo wasted no time before informing the curly headed boy "what?" Santiago questioned, now fully awake. Leo didn't answer him, instead he gave Santiago the file with his name on it. Santiago's eyes scanned through the pages, he gasped as soon as he finished reading it, surprised at the content. Leo then handed over Shawn's folder, he quickly opened it.  

"Cleo you might as well just admit what you did" I crossed my arms over my chest, looking at her with a stern face.   Cleo shifted uncomfortably at my words before admitting "Fine! Those are mine. Okay? I just wanted to know what you guys are like. I wanted to know if I was adding an alien to my group or not." 

Shawn sighed in disbelief, taken back at Cleo's deep secret. Leo scoffed while he watched them read their folders, Santiago's mouth fell open in shock while I maintained a neutral expression, knowing that she had something else she was hiding from us.

"Roll up your sleeves" I order her to do so "w-why?" Cleo asked, worry in her voice "Just do it" Cleo hesitated before she heard Shawn's deep voice "Come on Cleo, prove that you're innocent" He pleaded. She rolled up her sleeves, revealing a mark, a mark that a pink alien would have. "Ah shit" Leo jumped away from Cleo, wanting to keep a safe distance from the alien.

"I'm not dangerous! I'm on your side!" She tried to convince everyone, wanting them to trust her again, but no one listened.  "Get out." Shawn starred at Cleo, he had a strong hatred for her now when all the evidence came out about her secret identity. 

"Shawn come on-" Cleo had both of her hands together, balled up "Get out now" Shawn cut her off, not wanting to hear her excuses. "Guys please" Her blue and brown eyes filled up with liquid, her emotion getting to her. "Cleo no one wants you here. Leave." Cleo's shoulder slumped, without another word coming from her mouth, she left the hideout with sadness written on her face. 

Santiago threw the folder on the floor, not wanting to relive the horrible memories of him losing his family members. The whole room was filled with silence, not knowing what to do after what happened "We need a new leader for the group" I finally spoke up, getting everyone's attention on me "How would we do that? Rock paper scissors?" Santiago joked, trying to lighten the mood but instead no one laughed. "Raise your hand if you want Santiago to be the leader" No one raised their hand, agreeing that he would be a  bad leader "I don't want to lead everyone anyways" Santiago shrugged, not caring.

At the end of the voting, me and Shawn had the most votes with being tied "You know what? Ella can be the leader- i'm not matched to be the one to lead. I like being the doctor of the group" Shawn placed his large hand on my shoulder, a smile on his face "You'd be a great leader" I couldn't help but smile at his words, happy that I have the responsibility to lead.