Outcasts

Chapter 13: Omitted Detail

During the next few days Kian refused to leave his room for anything. Every meal time, Liam would take a small portion of food that was never fully consumed to his room before returning to the canteen solemnly. Every time we asked we got the same response: No, he didn't say a word.

Refusing to leave his room also left Liam alone in the tech lab. It seemed as if those two were the only ones to ever occupy it, even though the enormous space held enough equipment for a whole team to use. It seemed like I was the only one to ever visit, too. So most days I spent my time keeping him company with the occasional lesson in whatever super complicated thing Liam was an expert in.

Liam was probably my favourite person in The Outcasts – apart from Keegan and Emmy, of course.

During the days after what everyone had been calling 'the incident' I came to realise what everyone had meant about Acacia.

There were many things about Acacia Jensen that I did not like. For one, she was the most ditzy person I had ever met. I don't like to use the word stupid to describe people, but if I did I'd be describing her. Her constant airhead never failed to make me question how she managed to hold a gun the right side up, let alone fire it successfully. She was a rather good shot too, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group; being a good shot meant you were taken out on most watches. And though she seemed to do a good job while out on watches, she – for what according to Xavier was the ninth time – had Rhian show Graciella and Liliana around the base even though it was her job. Rhian never complained, though. She seemed to get along with everyone except for Acacia. Apparently Rhian was one of the best there was in terms of fighting, but I hadn't seen any evidence of that yet. She seemed too sweet to be able to pull a gun on a Republican, but that was just me being presumptuous.

The day after 'the incident' Liam began running checks on Graciella and Liliana. He had explained that they did this for all new members before adding them to their systems, Emmy and me being the exceptions because of Keegan dismissing that it was necessary.

Through the government files, Liam found out that Graciella had dropped out of school to become an Outcast, and she was eliminated from most sections of the files – mostly public services. The way the Democrats ruled made sure not a speck of attention was paid to you if you went against their rules; you automatically opted out of everything. Liliana had stayed with their parents for a year after Graciella left before joining her – she too was absent from a lot of the sections.

From what I had heard about the compounds, I assumed the Republicans had caught them living somewhere on the streets and saw them as having Republican potential.

Liliana became the youngest member of The Outcasts at thirteen years old, and that was also the youngest I'd heard of for an Outcast in general.

After the routine checks had been completed, it was finally time to add them to the systems, a fact that Graciella in particular was very happy about; constantly having to have doors opened for you was a real pain.

I was sitting with Liam when Graciella, Liliana and – to my surprise – Alex arrived in the lab. To my knowledge, Keegan and Ariana had agreed they didn't want him on their systems just yet – it seemed like Ariana was taking over Keegan's role as leader more and more by the day.

“Here we go then,” Liam said in an unusual sad tone for him. Since Kian's brother Darren died Liam hadn't exactly been his perky, funny self. I realised I had never asked if he had known Kian before the Republicans took over – their bond seemed close enough for that to be a possibility. I made a mental note to ask him at a better time.