The Anomaly Project

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

TODD

I'm not sure about how it normally goes, but I don't think girls are supposed to jump up and run away after you have a Moment with them.

And I was so sure she liked me, too.

I sigh, pushing my fingers into my hair. There must be something that I'm doing wrong.

Autumn's been completely avoiding me after The Talk last night. She won't talk to me, look at me, even stand near me. Whenever she sees me coming she escapes to some other part of camp. But sometimes I'll catch her looking at me with an expression on her face that makes me wonder if I wasn't right about her feelings for me.

Whatever, I think, somewhat angrily, as I drop onto a log by the fire. We've got bigger problems on our hands. Immediately, I wince, thinking about how Masato just told me those words a few days ago.

Brooke is still taking his death very hard. She's talking to us now, but not very much, and she still isolates herself at night, pressing herself into the corner. Sometimes she'll disappear into the woods alone, most likely to grieve in peace.

My cousin slides onto the log next to me. "Travis is telling everyone to meet here in a few minutes," she says. "He wants to figure out how to go about taking Forrester down."

I nod, poking at the waning flames with a stick. Tessa watches me. "Something's wrong. What's on your mind, cuz?"

"Well, last night—"

I stop in the middle of my sentence as I see Autumn and Noah approaching the firepit. They sit across from us, about as far away from me as they can get. Autumn is looking at her hands, refusing to meet my eyes. Tessa nudges me, lifts an eyebrow. I shake my head at her in an I'll tell you later gesture.

The other five join us at the fire, and Travis takes over. The way Masato used to.

Stop it, Todd; you'll just bloody ruin yourself.

"Okay, guys," Travis begins. "I know you're all upset - I am too – but we've got to start thinking. If we're going to do something about Forrester, then we have to figure the what and when of the operation."

David spreads his hands. "Let's just bust in there and take him down! We're superhumans, aren't we? It's nothing we can't handle."

"I don't think it'll to be that simple," Colton says slowly. "Forrester's not going to let us just waltz in again. He'll have changed up some things to make it harder for us."

"Harder, maybe, but not impossible," says Travis optimistically.

"I don't think we should go and storm the facility all at once," Haley puts in thoughtfully. "I think we should send in a scout team first to check things out, figure out where everything is and how things work around there now, and then we can go from there. We need to take things slowly."

Noah nods. "I agree. We have to think this through; otherwise we'll screw up somehow and lose someone else."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Brooke recoil slightly at the mention of her dead fiancé.

"I'm fine with that. But the scout team should be a maximum of four people," Travis instructs. "This isn't an attack. It's a reconnaissance mission. Any more than four would attract too much attention."

"Got it." I stand. "Well, I'm definitely going; I'm ghost boy superspy. Who else is coming?"

"'Ghost boy superspy'?" David snickers to my left.