lost ~ the gone series

ten

"He wants us to go to the power plant? Alone?" Quinn stared at the three of them in disbelief. 

Sam shrugged. "I think it's a good idea." He didn't trust Caine very much, but he thought he seemed like he knew what he was doing. Although going to the power plant seemed like a stretch. Frankly, the place creeped him out. 

"Oh, so you're agreeing with Caine now? And Mila?" Quinn accused, waving his hand around the small area of Mila's bedroom. They had wanted to meet up somewhere, but the plaza was too crowded, nobody knew what to do at the fire station, and everyone else's house was just too depressing. 

"Have you ever heard of not shooting the messenger?" Mila flopped down on her bed. 

Quinn glared at her. "Have you ever heard of not working with the enemy?" Sam watched him from his spot on the carpet. Quinn seemed to have gotten over the whole "God hates me" thing and moved on to "I hate Caine". 

"He may not be the enemy. Don't get mad at him just cause he didn't assign you to work with Aspen." Karis laughed, then looked to Sam, Quinn, and Mila and saw that none of them were laughing. 

Quinn, however, escalated his bitterness. "He shouldn't be 'assigning' people at all! What happened to the First Amendment?"

"What does the freedom of speech have to do with this?" Sam mumbled, but nobody heard him. Everyone was too busy staring into space. Nobody made eye contact. Everyone had felt weird since the Coates kids had arrived a couple hours ago. It was quiet, but it almost felt like it shouldn't be. Like the silence was unnatural. 

Mila broke the unnatural silence. "Y'know this sounds like Vladimir Lenin coming to Russia to seize the means of production and starting the Bolshevik Revolution."

"I can't tell if you mean that to be a good or bad thing," Karis said, "but I think it's more like England coming over to colonize America and then making us do all of the work."

"In that case we should definitely write a Declaration of Independence and start a Revolutionary War." Sam said, meaning it to be sarcastic. 

"That's exactly what we should do!" Quinn looked at Sam like he had just invented the light bulb. "I call Thomas Jefferson."

"I call George Washington!" Mila laughed. 

"Shut up Mila, you're a Loyalist," Quinn argued. Karis laughed and nodded her head in agreement. 

"Oh my God, can you guys shut up?" Sam interrupted, and the laughter died immediately. "Caine wants us to go to the power plant for a reason. Maybe we'll find something."

Quinn rolled his eyes. "Oh, we're back to this." Sam glared at him. 

"Or maybe we'll get radiation poisoning." Karis said. 

"Either way it sounds like a blast." Mila rolled her eyes, although she was the one who signed up to work with the Coates kids in the first place. 

Since yesterday's apartment fire happened, Sam hadn't been able to stop thinking of Mila. Because after she lied about the blast of light to Quinn, Sam woke up in the ambulance and all of his friends were sitting in the plaza like nothing had happened. He was fine, of course, no injuries from the accident that couldn't be quickly healed, but the long-term effect was that he couldn't trust Mila. 

If Mila knew about his power, she could tell Caine. If Caine knew, he might see Sam as a threat. Then he would have to eliminate that threat. 

"Sam, are you listening?" Mila herself shook Sam from his thoughts about her. At that point, Aspen had entered the room, now sitting next to Mila on the bed. She had changed out of her bloody clothes from the Cookie incident, and now seemed recomposed, wearing her usual jeans and some shirt she got from a church camp.