Too young for war

Imagine me 2

Ella is sleeping now.

She seems so close to death Im having a hard time looking at her.

Her skin is so white it's blue.

Lips so blue they're purple.

I can't look at Aaron either. He is pale, looks sick and has also been very thoughtful.

He's become impossible to talk to, Kenji tried, I didn't as I know he wouldn't really answer me either.

Instead, I took my hand over his.

The room smells like chemicals. I don't like being here, as I'm feeling a little uncomfortable with so many people in the room, but I don't want to leave Aaron or Ella.

Sonya and Sara have helped Ella to make her body settle, which is good, and it is working well I would say.

It's very quiet, then I see kenji sigh hard as he drags a hand down his face.

Nouria finally breaks the silence.

Gently, she clears her throat. A couple of people lift their heads. Aaron still glaring at the floor.

"Kenji," she says softly, "can I talk to you for a minute? Outside?"

"Um"—He scratches his head—"maybe we should talk in here," he says. "As a group?"

"Outside, Kishimoto." Nouria is on her feet, the softness gone from her voice, her face. "Now, please."

After a while of Nouria and Kenji talking, Nazeera goes out, then they talk, and others join them.

And then suddenly I hear Castle say: "back inside. All of you. Now."

Nazeera claps her hands together, hard as they walk back in, "All right," she says, "no more
interruptions. We need to talk about strategy before we do anything else."

Sam frowns. "Strategy for what? Right now, we need to discuss Emmaline. We need to understand the events of the morning before we can even think about discussing the next steps forward."

"We are going to talk about Emmaline, and the events of the morning,"
Nazeera says. "But in order to discuss the Emmaline situation, we'll need to talk about the Ella situation, which will necessitate a conversation about a larger, overarching strategy—one that will dovetail neatly with a plan to get the supreme kids back."

Castle stares at her, looking just as confused as Sam. "You want to discuss the supreme kids right now? Isn't it better if we star—"

"Idiots," Haider mutters under his breath.

"How are you so unable to see how these things connect? The Reestablishment is looking for us. More specifically, they're looking for Ella. We were supposed to be in hiding, remember? But Emmaline's egregious display this morning just blew the cover on our location. We all saw the news— you all read the emergency reports. The Reestablishment did serious damage control to subdue the citizens. That means they know what happened here."

"Emmaline just led them directly to Ella," she says. She says this last sentence really slowly, like shes afraid.

"they're much closer to finding us now than they were a few hours ago." Haider says realising.

"You really think they know where we are?" I ask as everyone turns their head towards me.

"I knew this would happen," Sam says, shaking her head.
Castle stiffens. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We took an enormous risk letting your team stay here. We risked our livelihood and the safety of our own men and women to allow you to take shelter among us. You're here for three days and already you've managed to disclose our location to the world."