PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

LXXXI. She Didn't Deserve Any Of It

Chapter Eighty One:  She Didn't Deserve Any Of It

~~~

"Mae? What are you doing over here?" Ben asked as they approached her outside of a building, deep in the jungle.

"I... I'm quite busy. I can't talk right now." Mae tapped her foot impatiently, her moves antsy.

"That's okay, we're just looking for—"

"That's nice. You should probably get going so you can find it."

Eva's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Mae, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean, dear? Nothing is wrong."

"See, I'm getting that gut feeling I got with Mitch and Tiff, so why not explain what you're hiding in that building, and we can all be on our merry ways."

"Listen, kids, it's just not a good time because..." Firecracker ran into Mae, nearly slamming her to the ground. She fixed her glasses, then turned on Ben. "Ben, if you can't get Firecracker under control you should just put her back in the nursery pen!"

"What? Mae, how could you say that?"

"Doctor's orders," she insisted. "I don't have time to discuss it. Now please, go. I have important work to do."

The teenagers turned around, leaving dejectedly, with Firecracker in tow.

~~~

"Mae was acting weird, right?" Darius asked, the four moving through the jungle headed back to the compound. "I mean, Eva, you said your gut feeling was going off? Do you really think Mae is hiding something?"

Eva shrugged. "Wouldn't put it past her."

"Really?" Brooklynn said. "After everything with Mae, you're turning on her just like that?"

"B, I don't control my gut feeling. If it says something bad is happening, then something bad is happening. Man, I hate anxiety."

Also, she most definitely did not want to be betrayed again. She might finally lose it if any one of her friends gave up on her.

"'If you can't get her under control, you should put her back in the nursery pen!'" Ben mocked in a bad accent.

"It just doesn't sound like Mae," Brooklynn said.

"Well, accents have never been my thing," Ben defended.

"No... I mean, maybe she was trying to tell us to check out the nursery?"

"Then why not just say that?" Darius asked.

Ben gasped. "The nursery is where Kon locked up Kash!"

"Let's go!"

~~~

Brooklynn, Eva, Darius and Ben walked through the tunnels headed for the nursery in silence.

"We need solid proof that something is up before we can tell Kenji," Brooklynn said, breaking the silence.

Eva nodded in agreement. "I'm not breaking his heart for nothing."

"Let's get it, then. We can't let Kon get away with whatever he's doing," Ben said, determined.

They turned the corner and gasped upon seeing a BRAD-X scanning the hallway. They ducked back around the corner, just in time.

"A BRAD is guarding Kash now? It wasn't there the other day," Brooklynn said.