Three days after I changed Felicia's status, I was woken up to the sight of Mirable lying in the bed next to mine. I was happy to see her again, but was pissed to see that she was still covered in bruises. She should have been in the infirmary, and not in the cabin. Mirable slowly climbed out of bed, and I winced as she stood up, and put pressure on her feet.
I could feel Marie wince as she saw her, but she didn't say anything as she climbed out of my bed to get ready for the day. I slid out of the bed behind her, and stood up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Marie grab her day clothes off the hook they were on. While she was distracted, I walked the two steps to Mirable's side. I grabbed her hand discretely, and started healing her wounds. I couldn't heal the ones that couldn't be covered by her uniform.
"Thank you," she signed as her wounds stuck together.
"What happened?" I asked, and pulled back.
"Took me to a cage-like room in the tower for a few hours, then they took me to the infirmary. What happened to you after I was taken into the tower?"
"The PSF who took us a few days ago has a child that was brought in teh same day. She was an silver, so he had me change her status to a green one."
"How did he know?
"I have no idea." I felt something hit me in the side of the head. I looked down and saw a shirt fall to the ground. I looked up, and saw Delta staring at us pissed. I threw my hands up, and started getting changed into my day clothes. My movements were slow from tiredness.
When I was done, I looked at the clock and saw that it was three fifteen in the morning, not bad for talking with Mirable and getting dressed, but it was unusual for the guards to show up fifteen minutes after we woke up. They were usually here within ten minutes. "Where are the PSF's?" I asked, and Delta looked at me, then at the clock. She looked back at me surprised, and shrugged.
"No idea," Delta said and I paused, I had gotten used to checking the camp whenever I had a second. Usually, it was checking how the kids were doing, and seeing who was moving around. The yellow's cabins were empty, but the greens were filled. I could hear rumbling in the distance, and I started feeling on edge.
"Are you okay?" Mirable asked, and I looked at her. I opened my mouth to answer her, when the door was thrown against the wall, and Calvin barged into the room. The girls scrambled out of his way, jumping onto the beds and their mouths dropped opened as he barged past all of them, leaving the door completely unchecked. He walked right up to me, and grabbed my shoulder.
"Come on," Calvin ordered, leaving no room for argument. He dragged me past the other girls, and out of the cabin. He slammed the door behind him, and I saw the door didn't completely shut behind us. We walked quickly onto the street, and in the distance I could see that reds and silvers were being dragged from their cabins and in the direction of the tower.
"What's going on?" I asked as Calvin and I walked through the gate.
"Reds are being sent to an experimental camp," Calvin said, getting straight to the point. "Yellows are being sent to a non-experimental camp. Greens, blues, and purples are remaining here because there is no reason to send them anywhere else. Most of the oranges and silvers are to be killed, while a select group is to be taken for experimentation. I couldn't come and get you earlier. I want you to help them out and hide them. I don't know what you want to tell them."
My stomach dropped to my feet, and for a second, I wondered if he was about to turn me in, but remembered that if he turned me in, I could easily do the same thing to his daughter in revenge. "Look," I said, "it was really lucky that I could help your daughter, but I don't think I could help them. It's too big of a burden for one person to do." Calvin and I paused.
"Look, most of the PSF's will be around the buses their taking out, no one will notice if you take control of everything. I also saw what you did with those camera's you can easily beat everyone here, and you seem to have no incentive to do it."
"Destroying four camera's and making two dozen people ignore me is one thing, but what makes you so sure that I can control everyone here?"
"There are four hundred total adults here. All but two of the cooks are asleep, none of the doctors are awake, there is no one in the laundry room or warehouse. There are about fifty adults in this operation, sixty if you include the drivers for the buses. Do you think you can handle them long enough to knock them out?"
"Sure, I guess."
"Good, knock them out, have one of the oranges fry the brains of the drivers. Have them tell the higher ups that they all escaped and were killed in a gun battle. We can make the crime scene later."
"What about the people in the tower?"
"Most phones aren't allowed on the property, most outside communication devices don't come to think of it. The only phone that the camp has is a stat phone in the director's office, and the computers in the infirmary couldn't be used to communicate because the only things they're good at is seeing test results, and accessing the system where all the kids are put into. There aren't many computers in the towers because everyone is affraid a kid will sneak in there and leak everything to the media. The computers are used to keep watch of the camp, and track shipments and how much we produce in the garden."
"You are making this way too easy to do."
"I know," Calvin said with a smile. I looked around him towards the tower.
"Okay. I don't have much control over the yellow one's so I'm going to need to get closer."
"Come on then," he said, and turned to practically run towards the tower. I froze for a second, before chasing after him. He skidded to a stop beside the tower, and I almost ran into him as I stopped as well. I looked towards the gate, and saw that the yellows were already in the buses, while the oranges, silvers, and reds were being loaded into others. The oranges and silvers seemed to be going on the same bus.
The oranges were being loaded onto the bus closest to the tower, and the last few of them seemed to have noticed Calvin and I skidding to a stop a second ago. What are you doing? I heard one girl think. "Here goes nothing," I muttered, and I sent a projection to the three girls who noticed me.
I'm a black, and my friend here was nice enough to bring you over here to help you out. I'm going to short circuit the cameras in the tower, and knock the guards unconscious. I'm going to need help moving them, and keeping the rest of the kids under control. Who among you is good at using their powers?
Everyone but Betty is good at it, but she showed up yesterday, the African-American girl thought. Name's Penelope by the way. She pointed at the thirteen-year-old Hispanic girl next to her, then the ten-year-old Japanese American. Her name is Camilla, and her name is Macy.
Okay, I thought back to her and looked back at the tower. I concentrated on the camera's and short circuited them. They're off. You can go.
"Brown," I heard a voice call, and looked to see the captain walking toward us. "Who is she?"
"Umm," Calvin said, and looked down at me. I shrugged, and simply took control of his mind. His eyes went pale, and faced the ground. He slowly stumbled around me, and he stopped walking a few feet in front of me. I swung around and focused on the other PSF's in front of me. The one nearest me walked around me without a word, and lined up beside the wall.
The silvers and reds, who weren't handcuffed together for some reason, started walking into the dining room. I heard some banging sounds coming from the bus, and the yellows started clambering towards the same building. Calvin's eyebrows raised into his hairline.
"What?" I asked.
"That went better than I thought," he said, looking at the yellows walking past him.
"Sure," I said, and looked at the oranges in front of me. "Penelope, Camilla, and Macy." All three of the girl's heads snapped back in the direction of me. "How about you three help me out?" All three nodded, and raised their hands.
"On it," Calvin said, stepping forward making a grabbing motion for his keys. The suspicion only seemed to furrow in the girl's eyes. Calvin didn't even pause and continued walking forward until he was in front of Penelope. "Look kid, if she hadn't wanted me here, I wouldn't be moving."
She gave him a doubtful look, but handed out her hands Calvin nodded and quickly unlocked her handcuffs. As soon as her hands were free, and Clavin had started on the ones for her feet, she reached up to her head, and untied the muzzle on her head. Her fingers were quick, and the mask was off in seconds. She threw the mask aside, and took a deep breath. "Thank you," she said, rubbing her hands.
"You're welcome," Calvin said with a smile.
"We're going to need the keys for the guns," I told Calvin.
"Get me the keys off some of the guards," he said, moving onto the next kid. I turned around, and grabbed the keys off the captain's belt, as well as the next three PSF's. I brought them over to Calvin, who stood up to see which key's were which. He grabbed one set of keys, ran through them, and paused for a second confused. "Who am I supposed to give these too?"
"Give them to Macy," Penelope said, pointing towards the girl.
"Alright," Calvin said, handing the keys to the girl. "I doubt she can carry all of them."
"You think we're going straight to the cabins?" I asked, concerned for his sake. "Where's the infirmary?"
"Take the first hallway down the right of the entrance hallway, and then it's the first door on the left, why?" Calvin asked.
"Alright, we'll clear the tower, and send someone to find the rest of the PSF's," I said, seeing Macy's hand's free. "Who is going to get everyone else out of the cabins?"
"How about cabin one handle the PSF's and the greens and blues, while cabin two keeps everyone else under control and gets the purples. I think five cabins have kids right now, while the green and blue one's have about five hundred fifty," a male orange said. I paused for a second trying to figure out what cabins were filled.
"How about cabin two stays in the dining hall and get's everyone's handcuffs off, while cabin one gets everyone else," I suggested, and the boys face fell.
"Come on Macy," I said, and turned back to my prisoners who were still as motionless as before. "You take the first twenty. Penelope takes the second twenty. I'll take everyone else."
"Of course," Penelope said, getting control of the PSF's I asked for her to do. Their heads snapped up, and I was surprised by their responsiveness. The first twenties head snapped up as well, and I made the last one's do the same. They turned slowly, with their eyes to the ground, and as a group started walking forward. I heard a door open, and when I rounded the corner I saw that the door for the control tower was open and the people were walking inside slowly.
I joined behind the line, and forced them inside in front of me. As I walked through the door of the control tower, I closed the door quietly behind me, and followed everyone else as they walked down the hall, and made a left at the first hallway. As they got closer to the armory, they stopped and waited their turn to remove their guns from around their necks, and to hand their keys to Macy's waiting hands.
The armory was painted in the same paint as the hallway. There were no widows in the armory, and several safes lined the walls. There was no one in the infirmary except for the PSF's. "Come on now," Penelope said, directing some of the PSF's out of the room, and letting more into the room.
I waited in the hallway, waiting as PSFs came in, and out of the door. When they were almost done, Camilla and another orange I didn't know the name of walked in more PSF's. "We found them around the camp," Camilla said, making the PSF's line up against the wall. "Do you want us to take some of them?"
"Yeah, make sure that none of the other adults can get out though," I said.
"We already have some over there. None of the other silvers seemed to have figured out the passing out trick," Macy said, before taking control of some of the PSF's to take them back to the cabins.
"I'll knock them out when I get there," I said.
"Okay," Camilla said, getting her own group of people. Penelope and I waited for the rest of the PSF's to finish unloading their weapons into the safes. When the last of them were in the safe and they were locked, Penelope and I led them out of the building, around the side of it, and through the gate.
There were five cabins on each side of the road, and the cabins were designed by gender, with the women at the front of the cabins, and the men in the back. As we watched the group go into their cabins, Penelope's curiosity got the best of her and she asked, "are you really a black?"
"Yeah."
"You have all the powers?"
"Yep," I said, popping the p.
"How did you manage to hide?"
"Tricked the doctor who was testing me."
"What are we going to do? If we leave then it'll be noticed right away, and we couldn't help any of the kids who are coming into the camp. If we stay, and don't do anything about the adults, then we'll be hurt."
"What if we stay for now, and then leave when its safe enough for is to leave? When no one is going to pay any attention?"
"Ehh, sounds fine for now." I heard footsteps behind me, and saw one of the orange boys walk into the small gated area. "Ava, this is Karl. What are you doing here?"
"One of the silvers, Isabella, knows how to use her powers. She walked around the camp and said that none of the PSF's were wondering around the camp. She and some of her cabin mates also checked the infirmary, dining hall, and warehouse, no people."
"Can silvers do that?" Penelope asked, turning towards me.
"I can tell exactly where someone is, and if close enough can tell if someone is sick," I answered. "I don't know if its a common power amongst the silvers or not."
"Okay," Penelope said, slightly scared.
"I'm going to knock everyone out," I said, and held out my arm to Karl, who without question took the walkie talkies. "I want you to keep an eye on every walkie talkie, okay."
"Of course," Karl said in a serious tone. I nodded, and walked towards cabin sixty one.
"Anything we missed will be piled into the center of the room," Penelope called behind me.
"Thank you," I called out. Macy and Camilla were walking out of the cabins at the end of the row.
"Give them to Karl," Penelope called, and the girls nodded. They walked past me, and I walked into the next cabin. It didn't take me more than ten minutes to check the cabins, and knock the people out again. When I was done, and walked out of cabin seventy, I saw that the only kid left was Penelope, who was standing guard next to the gate.
"I sent everyone else ahead in advance," Penelope said as I joined her. "Karl said he would keep an eye on the armory once we clear things up with the PSF's."
"Thanks," I said. She smiled at me, and stepped through the gate. I stepped out behind her, and closed the gate behind me. Like the rest of the fences in the camp, this one was electric. Since none of the guards have any keys, it was the perfect holding place. I stepped forward, and Penelope stepped up right next to me. I knew she wanted to talk about something, but she seemed to understand that I had no idea how to answer her questions.
We walked together around the control tower, onto the main street towards the gate, and into the dining hall without saying a word. I immediately saw that all the kids were inside the building as soon as I was in the door. There weren't that many quite honestly, and we could easily fill in the building without trouble. As I walked into the room, the upper scaled kids started quieting down, while the others continued to talk.
Calvin was leaning against the wall that was connected to the kitchen. He was no longer wearing his weapons, and I gave him a look of confusion before I smiled at him and he smiled back at me. I walked up beside him, and leaned against the wall beside him.
"Do you have a plan?" he asked, and I shrugged.
"Maybe," I said, and I saw one of Penelope's cabin mates walk towards me. It was one of the older girls, maybe thirteen years old. "You mind helping me quiet everyone down?"
She nodded and turned. She looked around, and without much effort, the kids in the room quieted down, and looked in my direction. My jaw dropped slightly. I knew the oranges were powerful, from personal experience and watching others, but that was the most impressive thing I had ever seen. It was also terrifying.
I straightened myself, and prepared my throat to shout what I was about to say. Before I could open my mouth, Calvin tapped my shoulder. I turned to look at him, and in his left hand was a loudspeaker. I looked at him surprised, and he simply shrugged. I grabbed it out of his hand, and brought it to my mouth.
"Hi everyone, my name is Ava. I know all of you are confused, but we're fine at the moment. I know all of you are confused about what happened tonight, but most of the upper scaled kids were supposed to be moved tonight. Red and silvers were supposed to be experimented on. Yellows were going to be moved to a camp with no electricity, and the oranges were going to be killed." Kids gasped and looked around at one another.
"What's going to happen to us? Are we going to leave? Are we going to stay here?" A boy I recognized, but didn't know the name of said.
"Some of the oranges are able to create false memories in the PSF's. I talked with some of the others and I think the best course of action is to stay here. Get shipments from wherever they came from, and help the kids who come in before we leave. Let the heat die down, and everyone can start learning their powers." People grunted and started disagreeing. I felt like I was losing their attention, when someone asked a question that I was wondering when I was going to happen.
"Why should you be in charge?" a small green boy asked.
"Because she's a black, and she managed to convince a PSF into letting her out of her cabin and help a bunch of kids. She managed to save forty kids from death, and a few hundred from being experimented on," Penelope said, defending me. Everyone looked at me in shock.
"She is also one of the few people who actually has a plan," a silver girl I recognized from earlier said. "She is trying to keep kids in a place where food and water is regularly delivered, and has built-in-shelter. In a place where we can practice our powers in peace, we can protect others since more and more are going to show up, and we can find our families. All we would have to do is control the PSF's, and anyone passing by to make sure they don't know what's going on."
"How would we prevent her from gaining too much power?" the boy asked. I raised an eyebrow at him, surprised.
"Well, we could put her in charge, and put together a team of kids to advise her, one from each cabin, so she could have a fair bias of what everyone wants," a green girl suggested and I blinked. That would work, in a sense. "And the person from each cabin would have to be picked by the cabin, not someone she likes."
"Sounds good, but what about her cabin, should she be in charge of that one or someone else?" Penelope wondered.
"We should kick her out of the cabin and put her somewhere else," Delta said, and I looked at her shocked. "Sorry boo, but you nearly set our cabin on fire a couple of months ago, and I would prefer if you were somewhere where you couldn't kill a bunch of kids when you have a nightmare." Yeah, she knew, I thought and looked away ashamed.
"Okay," Penelope said and looked at Delta weirdly before addressing everyone else.
"Does that sound like a good idea? To stay here and have her in charge until we move away?" Practically everyone nodded, even Calvin, who was still awake for some reason.
"What about him?" the silver girl said, finally noticing him as well.
"He can steal for us, and we don't even have to mind controlling him," I said and got several weird looks from the others. "It's called blackmail, his daughter is silver. He asked me to switch her powers earlier, and someone who asks someone like me to do that, won't be handing us over to the proper authorities."
"Everyone should be able to pick their own jobs and who they want as a cabin leader. How about everyone really quickly come up with someone you want to be your leader, I know you guys have one," I answered. It was fairly easy for the cabins to make their own decision since there were already two or three cabin leaders already in the cabin. I looked back at Sage, who used her powers once again to seemingly convince everyone to focus on the task at hand.
"You okay?" the silver girl asked me. I nodded, though I could feel a little light headed. She didn't seem to believe me, but she didn't say anything.
"Go join your cabin," I said, and both girls nodded though only the silver girl walked away. Penelope stayed right in her place, seemingly talking with her cabinmates. After a second, she looked at me with a determined look on her face.
"Everyone wants me to be cabin leader," she said confidently.
"That was fast," I said.
"There are fifteen of us, there wasn't much of a discussion," she deadpanned.
"Plus, she was able to keep us under control," Sage said, and I couldn't agree more.
"Fine," I said. "What are we going to do for security? I don't want just anyone in charge of that."
"What about Mirable?" Penelope suggested.
"Why her?"
"Because she hasn't been nominated leader of her own cabin, and she managed to convince twenty eight kids to go check on someone with a few words. She's motivated, and can learn her powers soon enough, plus I can loan her some of my kids."
"I would have thought you would run for that position yourself."
"I would, but I would rather devote myself to keeping track of my kids instead of running the entire camp's security. I have problems that wouldn't work well with security."
"Thank you for your honesty," I said, and looked at Felicia, who was still sitting amongst the green cabin she had placed in. "Hang on." I concentrated on her, and sent her a thought go join the silver girl who had been next to me earlier. She looked at me surprised before standing up, and walking towards the silver girl. Her cabin mates looked at her confused and one of the older girls was about to stand up, and grab her arm when I stepped in and sent her a thought. It's okay, she's silver. The green girl looked at me confused. What's your name?
Do I just think back to you? I could hear her think.
Yes, I answered. I can't hear your thoughts usually, only when I focus really hard. Who are you?
Alex Sophrao, she thought. Cabin thirty-one, I just got promoted to cabin leader.
Okay Alex, I want you to ask your cabinmates what they want to do, I suggested. She nodded, and turned back to her group to ask them what they wanted to do. I turned back to Penelope, and the silver girl who had just returned.
"Who is in charge of cabin three?" I asked.
"You're looking at her," she said, and I raised an eyebrow. I looked at her cabin mates who nodded in agreement.
"Alright," I said. "Name's Ava, she's Penelope."
"Isabella," the girl said. She looked over at Calvin, who was still leaning against the wall nearby. "You know, he apologized to some of the kids unprompted for his behavior earlier, said he was out of line, and should have never done what he had,"
"That was nice of him," I said. "Anyway, Penelope and I were thinking about putting Mirable in charge of security, because Penelope thinks that it's the best way to go."
"Eh, probably. What are we going to do about the young kids though? The really young ones like the eight-and-nine-year old's, I don't think they should be doing as much as everyone else."
"You make a good point, but what can we do with them?" Penelope asked.
"Maybe a school," Alex said as she joined the small group.
"Who are you?" Isabella asked.
"Alex, cabin thirty-one," I said. "We don't have enough people for a school, and not enough to teach them at the moment."
"Have them learn how to use their powers," Alex suggested. "I know for a fact that the greens would be willing to help them out. At least until Calvin manages to steal enough things for them to use."
"I might even have someone who can do the school thing," Isabella offered. "Her name's Charlie, we went to school together. She used to tutor kids before we came in, and I know she knows how to use her powers. She's red."
"Thanks," I answered, looking around to see anyone walking around. "How many kids are under ten years old in your cabins?"
"I've got two," Penelope said, and everyone gave their answers. As the last of them answered, five more kids walked up and joined us.
"What are you asking?" one of the girls asked.
"We're trying to find the kids who are under ten so they can be kept out of everyone's hair. Seeing if we could start a school."
"Oh," she said in response. "I have three kids under ten in my cabin if that helps."
"Thanks. Where do you guys think we should meet?"
"There are several meeting rooms in the control tower," Alex offered. "I was a runner for them for a while."
"Alright, what's a good time for everyone to meet?"
"Around seven a.m. and p. be good," Jasmine suggested. "Everyone but the people in the garden wouldn't be working, and they could leave long enough for the meeting."
"Okay, does seven a.m. work for everyone?" I asked and several kids nodded. "Alright back to the school for a second, where exactly would we house this school? We don't have enough room to hold that many."
"It depends on if we're going to have more meals," Mirable said. "If we are going to have the same schedule with an added meal here and there, then we can put the kids in here until we have a better idea where to put them."
"That sounds good," I said.
"I can find school supplies in local towns," Calvin offered, which earned him some side eye from the others.
"Do that," I said. "On a somewhat related note, what are we going to do with the PSF's? I know the oranges can do their thing, but do we really want them around for so long? Even if we move them, where would we put them, and who would watch them?"
"I have an idea," Calvin said, stepping into the conversation. "This is actually the second location for Tundra. The first one was a bunch of little workers cabins nearby with a dining hall and several bathrooms. It's not very big, but should be big enough for the adults to be house."
"How far away is it?"
"Five miles away from here. We could walk there."
"Okay, I'll go look at it later," I said, and the last of the cabin leaders walked out of the woodwork. I looked over at Mirable, who was sitting in the corner of the room. Do you mind coming up here? She looked at me shocked before nodding and standing up and walking down the aisle towards us. "So, we came to an agreement, Levi, you want to be in charge of the dining hall?"
"Sure," he said.
"Penelope, I know you don't want to be head of security, but would you be willing to at least be willing to guard the PSF's until I can see that the old camp is secure?"
"Fine," she said. She wasn't happy about it, but she was the type of person to want to keep them locked up. I started going down the list of kids, trying to find good kids who people not only trusted but seemed best fitted for the job. As I went down the list each kid made a noise of agreement.
"Alex, you mind keeping an eye on the tower? Isabella the infirmary? Philip, the laundry room? Will, the warehouse? Sabrina, the garden? Charlie, the school? Finally, Mirable security?" Mirable seemed surprised when I said her name and suggested job title.
"Why me?"
"Because you're the only one I trust to do it, and most of the time you wouldn't be doing anything."
"Fine," she said after a second.
"Alright," I said, and grabbed the microphone again. I put it up to my mouth, and started speaking into it. "Alright everyone, I thank you for your patience. I know all of you want to get out of here and do something else. We have come up with a solution, and we will be taking care of jobs carefully. We have leaders who are willing to do certain jobs as well as ones who are leading their cabins. All kids under ten years old will remain here and start up a school system. When I finish handing out assignments, please start going to the location. Kids who want to work in the kitchen, line up against the wall behind me. Garden workers line up by the control tower. Warehouse and laundry workers line up near the doors of the warehouse and laundry. The person in charge of the tower, infirmary and security will be slowly pulling kids from the other groups to put into the groups. Understood?" A few people nodded. "Good, you can leave now." Kids started standing up, and walking towards the door. Everyone dispersed to head towards their cabin mates, while Levi walked back towards the kitchen to get started on breakfast. Penelope stayed behind so she could say something else.
"Most of cabin one is willing to work for Mirable," Penelope said. "They want to keep the peace more than anything else. Despite everything, we don't actually like making people hurt themselves."
"I know," I said.
"Cabin two is willing to work with Mirable, at least to keep an eye on the PSF's," Felix, leader of cabin two, said. "There are a couple of them want to move immediately start in the garden."
"Talk with Sabrina," I said. Sabrina was a yellow girl who was good at her job. She could do math in her head very quickly and could figure out exactly what we needed for the camp. "Though thank you for offering the kids."
"No problem," Felix said, and walked off. I sighed and sagged a little bit. Penelope instantly noticed it, and I could feel her concern.
"I'm alright," I said, and she looked at me doubtfully. "I'm not fine right now, but I will be.:
"Fine," she said, stepping forward. I stepped after her.