stay by my side... [ray x oc, the promised neverland]

chapter four

date: october 28, 2045

ray's pov

"hey, emma!" norman said. "let's start to train the kids in teams for tag."

norman, emma, and i were doing the laundry outside, letting tablecloths air dry. madeline was babysitting the younger kids, playing playground games with them. her smile always made my day better, and i was glad she was happy and making herself company while i was with norman and emma.

"teams?" emma questioned.

i turned my head towards emma and replied "at this rate, most of the kids will die individually. but they're not doing terrible, and they all are improving. so, we should not break up everyone."

"we'll make formations and run away in teams. we'll play like how we would escape", norman added.

emma responded, "right, the real escape."

norman spoke up again. "oh! i also have another idea: we should tell don and gilda. we'll tell them the truth and have them lead the teams in tag."

"but what if they're mama's informant?" i know norman is smart, but he has to remember that there's an odd child out.

"finding out who the informant is and convincing them to side with us are two things i can do. also, i made a plan to figure out who it is."

to stop norman from talking, i told emma to memorize 100 types of formation patterns. i knew she could handle it, and emma memorized them by ear.

we split everyone up into teams for tag. madeline and i lead a small team together while emma and norman lead the rest of the kids. everyone got more confident since people are now working together as a whole with the older kids. my team was it while norman and emma's team had to try not get caught in ten minutes. as soon as i said start, emma and norman's team ran towards the forest quickly.

madeline's pov

as soon as the time came, our team ran to search for the others. we were catching up to norman's team when they split by norman's signal. i saw ray smile when norman and emma used the formation patterns and won the game. i was glad they won too, and as also proud of the younger kids for beating me and ray.

"what was phil's score again?" ray asked norman, emma and me.

we were taking a break from tag, and i was worried that ray was trying to target phil as a possible traitor. sure, phil was super intelligent for his age, but phil is someone i wouldn't want to bring into this. at the same time, phil would be a useful person to frame for being the traitor.

"he's been averaging about 203 lately", emma said.

"that's really high." norman seemed to be catching on to what ray was thinking.

"he was one of the people that won the game of tag today and when we played tag with sister krone", ray added. "he's always with madeline and looks for you and norman with sherry."

"but, i helped phil win that game of tag. maybe he's just that lucky as a four year-old." i was not going to let phil get targeted over something as baseless as that.

emma, however, seemed to be pretty convinced and had a face of shock.

"stop it! i don't want to suspect people of betraying us!" emma shouted.

ray responded strictly, "emma, cut it out, you idiot! you need to be suspicious of people! this is life or death."

we all seemed to be affected by this and looked at the kids in an entirely different way. could we be suspicious of gilda? don? nat? emma seemed to stiffen and look at everyone else attentively.