Ultramarine | The Darkest Minds Fanfic

Chapter 15, Cole

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

　　She warned me. Last night when she came to my office—Alban's office—Liam offered to help. I should've seen it as the red flag it was. Liam offered to help.

　　Help. My. Ass.

　　And of course they have to go out without a burner phone. Fuck. My right hand gave out a sharp twitch. I tucked it into my back pocket.

          　　I am in control. "Do not go outside until you've had the training you need to survive, and until we're stocked with weapons." I said to the entire group of kids in the rec room, "I'm going to take care of everything, and we're going to take care of each other, but you have to listen to what I tell you, otherwise this won't work. All right, guys?"

　　The kids nodded. Some voiced their affirmations.

　　Ruby was back to business before I really calm my head down. "—The flash drive containing the research Cole stole from Leda Corp, about whatever caused IAAN, was wiped by the EMP."

　　The only kids that didn't look devastated by the news were those in Ruby's immediate circle. The rest of them—ah, those faces—I'd gladly go back to Leda Corp again just to wipe that desperation away.

　　Ruby went on to explain our next moves—setting up the plans for freeing the camps. At the moment, half of the remaining Project Snowfall file had been safely store away in our only laptop, and the other half in my room. I reminded myself that I'll have to tell Sheena she could use my room as her own when she needs to do research.

　　Now, the kids had started brainstorming in group. I gave Ruby a pat on her back, threw in an approving smile, and started taking rounds around the kids.

　　Pushing Ruby to be the leader was the right call after all. As an "adult", I could never get the trust she could with these kids, not in the same way. And she's a natural. She might not be loud, or over-confident, but there's something to her... a kind of warm earnestness, that you'd know when she said something, she meant it, and she'd work her ass off before she fails you.

　　But her friend clearly didn't buy that. Chubs the four-eye—four eyes again, somehow—was currently having a low-key argument with her, which, I didn't need to hear the content to guess what it was about.

　　Liam. My jerk-ass little brother who thinks he's better than everyone else.

　　Too much of a saint to hold a gun. Too much of a moron to keep his ass out of troubles. This is why he's a shit soldier, why he couldn't even stick through the training—he couldn't keep his head down and follow the simplest order. Gosh, how many more times do I have to get him out of trouble? And how many times had he gotten me into trouble?

　　"Cole," Sheena's voice broke my train of thoughts. "Are you okay?"

　　I looked at her, and realized that she was holding my hand. It must have been shaking again.

　　"I'm fine." I said, pulling away. This doesn't look good in front of the kids.

　　"If you say so." She stepped back, almost unemotionally.

　　Just like that, she pulled that veil on me, like we were back to the nights we spent running and hiding from Gray's pawns. She meant well, and I get that, but me looking vulnerable in front of these kids would help no one. They need something solid. Someone solid. Not to mention if one of them picked up the signs and figure this out...

　　"Don't you want to join the discussion?" I asked.

　　"I think I'll be more useful elsewhere." She said, voice betrayed none of the anguish she must have felt—or was it just me? "If there's nothing else, I want to go back to the research again."