Ruin // Danger Days (Book 3)

22.

The next day, Alien's social media was blowing up. Everyone was messaging her and sending her photos of the list of grievances, asking if she'd seen it. Of course, she didn't want to be arrested for treason, so she replied with various forms of "Oh my god, really? That's awesome! I wonder who did it?"

Sara and Frank went to school that day, and Alien didn't. She was thinking she shouldn't have stayed home because they might suspect her, but she couldn't go to school with her hair after they told her to do something about it.

After school, Sara and Frank came over and relayed the day's events back to Alien. They were clearly freaking out.

Sara started the story. "So I got to school, right, and the first thing I saw was a giant crowd of kids around the main bulletin. Then I got close enough to hear them, and they were talking about the list!"

"Eva asked me if you had done it," Frank told her. "Jessie too. I told them you didn't, and if you did, I didn't know anything about it. Then, they said that they were all really good points!" Eva was Frank's girlfriend. They'd met through the foster system; they'd been in the same house once, and had gone to the same school for ages. Jessie was their best friend who they'd just met recently. Her and Eva were in the same foster house at the moment. Alien knew them both, but not very well.

"Homeroom was crazy," Sara added. "Everyone was asking us if you had done it, or if one of us had done it. We said no, obviously. And everyone was showing Miss Ford the list and asking if she knew who it was. She said no. But her face didn't look surprised at all when she read the list. She looked happy. It seemed like she was waiting for this to happen!"

"All my teachers were the same," Frank agreed. "Obviously they wouldn't say anything because they're being watched, but they seemed like they liked it. Oh, and the kids definitely liked it! People were talking about it all day, and showing everyone that hadn't seen it. People were actually talking about which one was their favorite."

"Really? Which ones did they say?" Sara asked excitedly.

"There was an overwhelming amount of 'number eight'."

"Which one is that? The tolerance one?"

"The tolerance one."

Alien beamed. "You really mean it? People liked our ideas?"

"Yeah!" Sara smiled. "It seemed like the only people who didn't were the officials. By the end of the day, they'd taken down all of the lists, but everyone had either seen them already or taken photos of it and sent it to their friends."

"I have a feeling that the principal or someone is gonna come on the loudspeaker and tell us to disregard it," Frank said. "Then he's gonna say that if we know anything about who posted it to tell him or an official so they can find them and punish them. You know, the usual."

"But no one's gonna disregard it," Alien said. "It's gonna be in their heads forever, and they're gonna start noticing that it's all true! And then they'll rebel! And we all know that most rebellions in history tend to work. The Protestant Reformation, of course, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution..."

"The Hunger Games," Sara added.

"Well, that was fictional, but yeah," Alien replied. "How'd you get a copy of that?"

"I stole it from you guys' secret bookshelf," Sara said deviously. "It was really good, I finished the series in like two days!"

Then, Sara's phone rang. She answered the call, and when it was over, she looked at her friends sadly. "My mom wants me to go home."

"Damn, that means I have to go home too," Frank said.

"It's okay," Alien tried to lighten the mood. "Y'all can still come over tomorrow after school."

The three friends said their goodbyes, and Sara and Frank left in Frank's truck.

Alien made to go back to the basement (where she'd been spending most of her time) but her dad called her from his office.

She stood in the doorway of his office, and saw him still sitting at his desk. "Hey Dad, what's up?"

"I got an email from your school today," David told her. "It's about that list you and your friends made. It wasn't specifically addressed to me, but it was saying that whoever posted that list committed an act of treason, and if anyone knows who posted it, they should turn that person in immediately." He sighed and looked at Alien. "The fact that you didn't go to school today is probably making the officials suspicious. You're gonna need to go back soon."

"But I really don't want to change my—"

"Well, you're going to have to," David raised his voice. "Would you rather change your hair color or go to prison for the rest of your life for treason?"

"You don't understand!" Alien yelled. "It's about standing up for what you believe in! They're not being fair! I want to stand up for myself!"

"El, I'm trying to help you," David said softly. "I know you're just trying to help, but I won't have you taken from me again."

Then, Alien had an idea. "What if we escaped? What if we went back to the Zones?"

"El—"

"We'd be safe there! I could take my position back—well, actually, the election already happened. Let's hope Storm got elected—we'd be free to do whatever we wanted, you could meet my friends, it would be awesome! You'd need a name, of course... Oh, Frank and Sara could come too! We could help take the country back! Then we could reform everything—"

"Elizabeth!" David shouted.

Alien got scared for a second. David almost never got angry, but when he did, it was bad. But she stayed silent.

He sighed. "It sounds like a good idea on paper. But there's still a chance that we'd get caught. How would we defend ourselves?"

"I have a couple of guns stored in my van," Alien smirked. "The officials didn't get them, I checked. They also didn't get my CD collection, so that's good. Come on, it's an awesome idea! We could do it!"

David sighed. He thought for a moment. He knew he had to have faith in her; she had been the general of an entire army, after all. But she was still his daughter... no. he couldn't think like that. She was an adult, and could think for herself. If she wanted to take the risk, he should let her. But he didn't want to lose her again...

He had no choice.

"Let's do it."