One-Shots [Boboiboy]

Red

This is technically a fanfic for the book The Darkest Minds. Anyway read it. It's awesome.

Characters included:
- The Seven Elementals

- BBB and Friends

- The Crew from the Collab [the OG]
- Female Elementals

Thurmond was never fun. In a world where all children were affected by IAAN, seventy-five percent of the young died whereas the others survived miraculously. The adults are afraid. But they didn't worry about the disease itself, though.

They were scared of the ones that survived.

* * *

Taufan was taken on his twelfth Birthday.

He could still vaguely piece the memories of his home, the sweet smell of honey and lavender; the colour of the rug and what his parents looked like. He had a happy, oblivious childhood, where he would be more concerned on the trajectory of his trip to school than kids around him dying.

The first death in his school happened nowhere near him, but he could recall the screams of horror, the cries of grief amongst the crowd.

Soon, children fell victim under the disease one by one, like dainty flowers being picked off by an inconsiderate pedestrian. The deaths poured in faster than anyone could count. What once was a lively neighbourhood was stringed with coffins and sorrow.

With everyone so depressed and anxious, he soon learned to hide from plain sight. He was the only surviving child of his neighbourhood. His presence alone was sufficient to bring a grown man to tears, mourning his lost child.

Children who survived gained abilities. Their brains have hyper-evolved to comprehend things that humans aren't capable of. Somewhere along the line of the escalation, they were no longer considered human. Humans weren't able to levitate cars with their minds. Humans are not able to set things on fire with a touch. Humans do not have the ability to control minds.

What once was a fantasy of powers, became an eternal nightmare for all. Their dream of supernatural had come true, but the price tag that followed had been too pricey.

The surviving children were whisked away into camps. It was deemed a "rehabilitation programme," where there was a pretty lie that would cover up its true nature. The outside world is led to believe that it was all sunshine and rainbows that lecture kids to return to the state of what they claim as "normal." As usual, it was all a façade. A lie. A cover-up meant to enslave the country's children and to keep them under the government's noses.

They were marked by colours, according to their abilities. Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Greens were extremely intelligent in Maths, and have a photographic memory. Blues had telekinesis. Yellows were capable of manipulating electronics. Oranges were literally masterminds—able to control minds and emotions and memories.

And as for Reds?

No one knows. Except for Cyclone.

He was one himself. One of the deadliest ones there is.

* * *

Thurmond can go suck a dick. The place was hell itself. Reds were segregated from other colours, all living in isolation. Even if Yellows and Oranges were also separated, they had some meek interaction with one another. Reds were like cats trapped on an island in the middle of an ocean.

Cyclone scrunched his nose, dirt caking between the wrinkles on his forehead. Grime coated his skin, the standard edition Thurmond uniform moist and uncomfortable. He hadn't washed it for weeks. He laid his head on the aged pillow, the once-white blanket hanging loosely by his bunk.

"So," he started, causing shuffling around the cabin. No one talked much, but if someone did, everyone would listen. "So, it's been four years."

Four years. Four years ever he came to Thurmond. He never bothered counting his age, but every second felt like a lifetime. He was surprised he remember the definition of a life at all.

His bunkmate from below grumbled in distaste. There were only seven minutes before lights out. Everyone else but them was asleep.

"Great," Blaze grumbled in discontent. "What are you gonna do next? Count how many seconds Thunder take to use the bathroom?"

"I can help you with that," Thorn, who was on the bunk across him chirped. "Sixty seconds."

They only had three minutes for each shower use, the automatic timer beeping down as the water turns on. It wasn't nearly enough time for anyone to do squat, but somehow Thunderstorm and Solar manages to freshen themselves out within a single minute. Perks of having abilities suited for your hygiene needs.

Five minutes until lights out.

Thunderstorm growled, his voice booming above Quake's bunk. He was the only one still had fight in him.

"Oh, looks like the kitty cat snapped." Cyclone yawned. "Any news in camp that we hadn't heard a billion times?"

Solar sneezed below Thorn's bunk. "Other than a bunch of Reds forming groups between genders and another group that crossed colours? No."

Blaze shuffled in his bunk, turning to Solar, who was in the bunk across him. "What do you mean?"

Quake sniffed. "You see those guys at the end of the cabin?" He didn't point it, but the rest craned their heads towards the end. There were multiple reds asleep, one snoring particularly loudly.

The kids he meant were no older than fifteen, younger than them. One was brunet, his hair starting to fade to white due to the stress of Thurmond. A peculiar streak stood out among the bush of caramel hair. Another had dark blue hair, his complexion Asian, and the final one was bald and chubby.

"They're part of it," Quake continued listlessly. "And as for the rainbow group—I don't know."

Two minutes until lights out.

"I know," Ice said, his bunk above the chubby guy's. He laced his hands on his chest, his gaze staring at the ceiling as if he was tired of waiting for the angels to whisk him away. "There's two Blues, one Green, one Orange and three Reds."

Blaze whistled. "That's a lot."

"They're from different Cabins. I saw one of their Reds when I was on kitchen duty," Cyclone agreed. "The guy didn't know how to cook. He got punished for it."

"That's stupid," Thunderstorm declared. "The other two Reds?"

"Sorry?" Cyclone didn't hear him at first. "Oh. They're girls."

Girls. The thought didn't comprehend. At Thurmond, girls and boys were strictly forbidden to interact with one another.

"I heard of an all-female group," Solar added. "They're also Reds."

"Why are there so many Reds all of a sudden?" Blaze muttered sarcastically. It was a fraud. There were three thousand kids in the camp, and the Reds' numbers was barely a contribution to the grand digit. There were only approximately 30 Reds, which was why they only interact with their own kin.

Besides, even Reds had distinct coding. The brighter your shade, the more dangerous you were. Cyclone and his friends were blood red. The unsettling fact was the most innocent and babyish looking kid with brown hair at the end of the cabin, who had bright red, almost blinding.