Ablaze »»DARKEST MINDS««

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
WISH WE WERE BULLETPROOF
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"What do you think Clancy's doing with Jamboree?"

"I couldn't tell ya. No idea what's going on in that bastard's brain." Dane hitches his backpack higher on his shoulder and glances at me curiously. "Why?"

I shrug as I step over an overgrown root. We're on our way back from a quick supply run for some food and water, plus whatever else we can get our hands on. Our supply at the house is running low.

In the last couple of days of traveling, we'd found an old farmhouse-like cabin secluded in the woods. It definitely beat setting up our portable campsite every night. The kitchen pantry was pretty bare, but for a day and a half we hadn't needed to go out to get anything. Now that our food has nearly ran out, though, it's time we start scavenging for something.

Today it's just Dane and me. Marcy, Bo, and Falcon are fast asleep at the house, perfectly hidden in the basement until we get back. We headed out this morning before the sun rose. It's still early morning, early enough where everyone is probably still sleeping.

"I don't know," I sigh in response. "I guess I kind of regret escaping so fast, without even gaining any information. At least I could've figured out a way to help the Reds who let me go."

"You wish you'd stayed with Clancy Gray? The psycho kid?" Dane repeats in disbelief. He slows his pace and turns to me, making me slow down, too. He looks at me with a serious expression beneath his unkempt brown mop of hair. "I'm glad you left when you did. We were looking for you, but the insect is hard to track, there's no telling how long you could've been stuck there. He could've tortured you if you stayed any longer."

"He already did . . . or I guess he tried to. Those days kinda blur together but I know I didn't let him go too far." I gulp, trying to block out his infuriating face and those painful days I spent in captivity. We start walking again. "Anyway, about Jamboree—"

"You want to know what they do, right?"

I nod.

His tongue runs over his bottom lip in thought. A wrinkle forms between his eyebrows. "Remember what Star said, back at the mall? About East River?"

I nod again, recalling her mentioning an incident at East River where Dane and Star first met each other.

"After everything with IAAN went down, my parents kicked me out so they wouldn't get in trouble with the police. I found East River and set up camp with a couple of other people there. There weren't many, but Star was there. We built a little society of sorts. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough for us and it worked for a while. We had only just started to really settle in—we even started assigning jobs—when Jamboree attacked." He kicked a rock as we walked side by side. We both watched as it skipped several feet ahead of us in silence.

I tried not to, but I couldn't help but watch his face as he talked. Looking at him made it harder not to get sucked into his thoughts, his memories, but I feel the overwhelming need to study him to make sure he's okay. If that means I have to work my brain a little harder to not be so nosy, then so be it.

"They burnt down our tents while we were sleeping. They killed most of us. My friends—" his voice broke. He cleared his throat, but his voice wavered. "Most of my friends died that night. I got lucky. I was out by the lake, couldn't sleep." He chuckles humorlessly and swipes a hand under his eye.