Ultramarine | The Darkest Minds Fanfic

Chapter 21, Cole

In the computer room, half of the kids that stayed behind surrounded me and Nico. It was late, very late—most of them should've been in bed if we still run things in the League's schedule, but of course, most of them weren't thinking about sleeping, not when something like this was happening.

　　Liam was not here; he wanted to go out and find some of the Blue kids he knew from East River. I was kind of surprise that he'd choose to go out when Ruby was on an Op—I thought he would want to be here to see her through, but apparently not. I knew something was going on between the two of them, but honestly, I hadn't got the time nor the energy to care.

　　Recently, Liam had pushed me so close to the limit of my sanity that just by looking at him made my stomach hurt. He fought and argued against almost everything I said, and rallied a group of kids to his side in the garage. In a way, I wasn't all that displeased about him fussing around in there—he could play there with his toys, as long as he let the grownups do the actual work. What actually bothered me, was that Sheena was spending her time in the garage, too, and every time she came out of it, she was smiling in a way I hadn't seen her smile in a very long time.

　　I'm jealous of my little brother. I have officially become the most pathetic person I know.

　　Sheena was in here, but somewhere further back, behind the other kids. She had been putting me somewhere further than an arm's length recently, and it was very uncomfortable, to be honest. I can't really blame her—it was my doing that brought us to this—but knowing the fact didn't make it feel any better. I still want to talk to her, make her smile or laugh, but I guess I just don't know how to do that anymore.

　　Nico patted me on my arm, and pointed to the numbers on the corner of the computer screen. It's time.

　　"Status?" I asked into the headset connecting to the radio—to call it a radio was kind of misleading, since it didn't work on the same bases as a traditional radio, but it functioned like one, except it carried signals much further. I didn't really care much about the rest.

　　"Same as an hour ago. Nothing so far, over." Ruby's voice came from the earphone, settling a stone hanging in my chest. Knowing Ruby was on the other side of the radio was all the reassurance I need—I don't think there would be anyone else that could carry it out so smoothly. She has almost everything it take to be a good soldier—she's calm, she's determined, and she's smart. All that, combined with her ability as an Orange, made her almost invincible.

　　About ten minutes later, she radioed in another status. "We have our ride, over."

　　"Fantastic. Proceed with Second Phase." I said.

　　When they reported that they had gotten in, I started the ten-minute countdown.

　　For a while, there was nothing. This would be where they disabled the Control System in the camp, and I imagined they wouldn't have time to report back until it was done.

　　I held my breath, and watched the seconds ticked away on the clock.

　　"Control is out of play, over," came Ruby's voice, and I let out the breath.

　　"Roger that," I replied. "Proceed upstairs with the others."

　　And then, nothing. For a precious minute, nothing at all. What happened? It shouldn't have taken them so long—

　　"Status?" I asked, nervousness edging in my voice, "Gem—status?"

　　Still, nothing. I tried again, gripping at the side of the headset, trying not to let the stress in my voice escalated into panic. I felt my hand twitched, a trickling heat starting to spread.