The Darkest Minds - "I'm a red,"

6.

I end up getting my wish to leave. But it's not what I'd imagined.

After three months of Thurmond time, countless blasts of calm control, and a dozen accidental fires, the camp controllers decide its time for a change.

So in the middle of the night when we're least expecting it, the lights to our cabin flip on and two PSFs storm inside. Every single girl is startled, none of us know what's happening.

"Up! Get up, now!" They command, pulling girls out of their beds by the hair.

I'm lucky enough to be on one of the last beds so I shoot out of it, standing before I'm made to stand.

All of us are disorientated as they chain us together like normal, pulling us out of our cabins before we can get our bearings.

But it's not just our cabin, it's every single red cabin in the entire camp. And the oranges. They're mass moving us all.

Instead of being led on our normal path, we're led to the front gate, where we entered this hellhole.

Waiting there are buses, already running.

We're led up the stairs and sat down on the seats, our feet and hands still connected to each other.

The oranges are given their own bus, our colours don't mix.

This is it. They're finally getting rid of us for good. I'm afraid, genuinely terrified that I'm going to die tonight.

Some of the other red cabins mix in with our cabin, our colour takes up two buses total.

And we start moving, out of the gates of Thurmond.

—

Cate checks the Thurmond camp database twice a week, making sure there are no terrible updates to Jia's profile, just that she's there, with her countless disobedience demerits.

But one morning, she's not.

She types the same name into the search bar, like every time she searches.

Jia Thorin.

No results.

Her face falls. That can't be right.

Thorin, Jia.

No results.

Red

No results.

How?

"You better get the director up here. There's something he'll want to know," one of the HQ support techs says after getting off the phone.

"What? What is it?" Cate asks, mind still working on why there are no results.

"Every single red and orange in all the camps have been moved. They're just gone. No records are left of those kids,"