Only mine | The Darkest Minds fanfiction

Chapter 4 - the green tribe -

I awoke to someone stroking my hair. Expecting it to be Liam, I smiled when I opened my eyes. But it wasn't Liam. It was Zu. I jumped a little out of surprise when I saw her.

She took back her hand quickly. I must have startled her. „Hey. I'm sorry. Thank you for waking me up. I hope, you are doing good." I smiled at her and got up. She hugged me to my waist and I couldnt help but truly like her.

„Good morning" Liam said with a hoarse voice. He still looked tired. Had he slept at all?
„Good morning" I smiled at him.
„Hey little love birds, go get a room" Chubs laughed.

Chubs came to me. „I'm Charles by the way. But you can call me Chubs if you want to. May I ask what your name is?" he asked. „Oh I'm sorry! You saved my ass multiple times and don't even know my name. I'm Annalise. Anni for short. Sorry, I totally forgot."

Liam and Zu smiled at me but Chubs didn't. „And what are you?" he asked forcefully. „Chubs. It's enough." Liam warned him but Chubs just brushed it off.
„Uhm. Blue. But I can't do anything really. Never tried to and to be honest I don't even want to." i answered. I felt that I had to tell Chubs the truth in order for him to trust me.

„Where are you from? Which camp? You were at ours for maybe 2 weeks. But you had camp shoes on when I first saw you." Chubs asked sternly. He looked quite hostile. What happened to the guy that saved me?

„Thurmond." I quickly responded. His eyes widened. „Thurmond? Really? Wow. Do they still do those Frankenstein experiments on you? I heard lots of terrible stories from there. No wonder you've been so off when you came to our camp." Chubs rambled amazed.

I didn't want to talk about any of that. It was none of his business. I didn't want to relive anything of the horrors that happened to me and my friends back there. We were yelled at, tortured, abused and worse things. We had to obey no matter what or the White Noise went off. And there's nothing as bad as that. Nothing that I knew. I was terrified and I felt that it would haunt me forever.

I was paralysed. „Enough." Liam sensed my discomfort and stepped between chubs and me, hiding me behind him. I felt thankful once again.
„She doesn't want to talk about it, don't you see that?" he yelled at his friend.

My hands started shaking lightly from all the stress around me. I turned away quickly to grab my water bottle and gave one to Zu who packed one of the backpacks, trying to overhear the boys' argument.

__________

We were wandering for about 4 hours when we reached a clearing. After the boys had stopped arguing we quickly put out the rest of the campfire and headed towards north to the streets.

We sat down there to drink something. „I'm starving" Chubs whined. „third day without any food. What are we supposed to do?" he said to the group and laid back, defeated. Zu's stomach rumbled as well and she looked sad at Chubs. Liam sighed.

It was Febuary. There were no wild berries or nuts anywhere. No river to catch fish. Nothing. We really needed to find the streets and shops soon.

I gave Liam a reassuring smile when we heard some twigs snap. I turned my head in that direction. Zu and Chubs came up to me and Liam stood in front of us. „Hello?" he said into the woods. „Who is there?" he was concerned. Did they find us? I started panicking again, my whole body tensed and I hugged Zu closer to me.

„They are kids. Come on guys! It's alright!" we heard a voice say. Soon the clearing filled with 8 boys around Chubs' and Liams' age. They didn't look as malnourished as we did, they were pretty muscular and looked healthy and clean.

„Well well. See who we have here. Who are you? What are you doing out here?" the guy asked. It seemed like he couldn't directly see us behind Liam because he blocked the way.

„I'm Liam. Theres are my friends. We are looking for some place to stay and some food. Maybe a shower. Do you happen to know, where we can find that?" he asked poised.

„are you from a camp?" another boy asked Liam, looking at out clothes.
Liam didn't say anything.
„we have food. We'll share for some information about where you are from and how you got out." the first guy, probably their leader, said.

Soon we all were sitting together in a big circle. I was sitting between Liam and Zu, Chubs right next to Zu and we were eating our first sandwiches in years. It tastes heavenly. After that, we had some cookies and chips. And soda. I could have cried out of joy.

„So. Where are you from?" the leader asked again.
„Caledonia." Chubs replied, not wanting to give away too many information.

„We heard about the break out. Respect for that. You made it. Care to explain how?"
And so Liam and Chubs started explaining. I drowned into my soda. I didn't want to experience that horrible night all over again. All the dead kids. All the others that couldn't make it. Liam seemed to sense my discomfort and put one of his hands on my leg. It did help. I felt better again.

„Where are you from?" I asked them. „Do you have your homes here?" all the eight boys looked at me. Some grinned, some just smiled flirty at my. I was disgusted by that.
„Well, sweet lady. We come from a beautiful place. A place for children like us. Children with abilities."

Liams eyes lid up at that. „What? Where is that?" he asked excitedly.
„East River. It's where the slip kid rules."
„Slip kid?" i asked curiously.

„He slipped. Out of four camps. All of them have tons if respect for him. Don't want to get too near to him. He's an orange and a brilliant one at that. Theres food, a bed for everyone and safety. It's great." he said.
„just the right thing for a lady like you. If you'll find it, we may be coming back. There aren't many snacks like you are." the boy opposite from me said and grinned lustrous at me. I felt unease.

Liams hand on my leg tensed. „Where is that place? How do we find it?" he asked, trying to ignore the disgusting comments the boys made toward me every now and then. I was happy he and chubs were there to protect me.

„That's something we cannot tell you, dear Liam." the leader said. „Well. We may could slip a few hints if you would let us have some fun with that peach next to you. She really is pretty. I wonder what she tastes like." the boy opposite to me said. I felt sick.

Liam wanted to stand up, he was filled with rage but I held him back. These kids were our chance to go somewhere we may belong.
„Don't worry" the leader laughed „there is a hint we can give you. But only one. E - D - O."

EDO? Well. Nothing more? EDO?
„What is that supposed to mean?" Chubs asked. „Find out. Thats the only hint we can give anybody. It's great because it's secret." the leader said smugly.

„And why did you leave? If it's so great?" chubs asked. He had a good point there. Why leave a place that is amazing?

„You know. The best part there is that we have a choice. We can decide what we want to do with our lives. It is great there. Really. But we want to see the world. We're eighteen now and we haven't seen much of it. Travel, meet new people, celebrate, work, everything." he answered and Chubs seemed to be okay with that answer. He leaned back and grabbed another cookie.

The conversation turned much lighter from that on. They were talking mostly about some sport stuff I had no idea about and I soon dazed off, feeling very tired again. I leaned agains Liam and tried to keep my eyes open. He rubbed the small of my back a little for comfort before calling it a day and negotiated about something for some more food, water and some money.

The group left us some of that and told us where we could find the nearest city.
We soon said our goodbyes and separated again, I took Zu's gloved hand in mine and stumbled behind the boys through the forest.