Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The next morning, a loud alarm clock woke me up from my slumber. I sprung up, surprised, and looked around. The girls who had shown up with me moved around in the same fashion, looking around scared. The ten girls who were in the other corner jumped out of their beds without a care in the world, as if they had done this repeatedly in the last few weeks. 

Without a word they started changing into their second pair of clothes, which were much dirtier than the ones that they had worn to bed. They sent repeated looks at us as if trying to convey something. After a few seconds of us staring at them, one of the girls finally said, “get up, get dressed, and make your beds. You can borrow one of our ponytails until they decide to give you one.” 

None of us moved and one of the other girls snapped. “Move it now,” she said, pissed. “If your late when they come in, then they won’t give you enough food to survive.” Her words quickly panicked me, and I scrambled out of bed. I looked around for my second set of clothes and saw that they were no longer sitting on my bed and had fallen to my bed. Clearly having fallen off from where they had been sitting on my bed. I winced and bent to pick them up. I looked at my bed and sighed. I would have to move the clothes again to make my bed so instead of grabbing my clothes I started pulling my sheets to the top of my bed. I quickly tucked it into the corners and made it as best as I could. When I was done, I finally bent down and grabbed the clothes off the floor. 

“What are some of the rules?” I asked, looking in the direction of the front of the cabin. 

“You can talk in the cabin,” a red headed ten-year-old said from the front of the cabin. “But you can’t talk anywhere else in the camp. Sometimes we talk in the mornings, but we usually don’t have time to talk. We usually try to talk, but we work long hours in the warehouse, so we don’t usually have energy to talk.”

“The PSF’s don’t like being annoyed, so don’t say anything, and don’t try to annoy them ever,” another girl said. “They will get mad and try to eat as much as you can. I know the foods disgusting, but it's better than eating nothing.” 

I gave a sharp nod and finished pulling my shirt over my head. Marie slid off her bed and hopped onto the ground. She reached up and grabbed her clothes off her bed. I looked away as she started to change. I looked at the camera, interested, and saw that the little red circle in the camera part was on. One of the girls must have noticed me looking at it, because she said, “they watch us all the time. Have mostly okay audio, I think. Also, one thing to do, never, ever use your powers, the camp controllers hate it when you do.” 

I gulped and looked down at my hands. I didn’t want to look at anyone and I could practically feel their eyes on me. Fear spread through me, fear at being caught, and what would happen if I was eventually caught. I knew deep down that if I kept my head down, and didn’t cause problems, that I wouldn’t be caught, but an accident could happen, and people could get hurt. 

I was brought out of my thoughts by the rustling of footsteps. I looked up, and saw the girls were starting to line up at the door. The red-haired girl looked back at us, and said “line up according to your numbers.” I looked at Mirable confused, before we walked together to stand in the line. Mirable in front of me, Marie beside me, and Delta in front of her. Two girls lined up behind me. 

It wasn’t a minute later, when the door opened, letting in sunlight, and a somewhat cool breeze into the cabin. Two PSF’s dressed in colder gear than the ones who brought us in yesterday walked into the cabin. The one on the right, a tall white woman with brunette hair, walked down the line to line up behind the two girls behind us. The woman in front stepped in front of the line, and walked forward, the two girls behind her started following a few steps behind her.

I eventually started moving forward with the line and walked the few steps out of the cabin. The woman had turned right when she had walked out of the cabin. She had lined up the kids next to the front of the cabin and waited for us to finally walk out of the cabin. When we all finally stopped, the woman behind me turned and I heard the door swing close and the jingle of keys as the woman closed and locked the door. Her footsteps behind me moved the woman in front of the line to move forward. She stepped a few steps and walked to the cabin two doors down, as she opened the door, I looked at her curiously. When she opened the door and stepped aside the girls in front without a word. 

As I walked into the building, I saw that it was a bathroom with three sinks on the wall to the left. There were multiple stalls on the wall, and the girls in front immediately started walking into some of them. Taking a chance, I opened a door, and a low toilet in the stall. I quickly went in, happy to finally have a toilet. The toilet paper was terrible, but I was honestly not expecting any considering the somewhat poor state of our uniforms. As I walked out of the stall, and towards the sink, I saw that there weren’t any mirrors above them. There was soap at least, which was something like you could find in a poor hotel. 

I quickly washed my hands, and noticed the girls were starting to line up again. I quickly turned off the water, and shook my hands off, before lining up again before the PSF’s could get mad at me. Everyone else followed closely behind me, and when we were all perfectly lined up, the PSF’s lined up again. 

We walked silently out of the cabin and waited for the woman behind me to close the door behind us. We walked silently down the road, and passed cabin forty-eight, who were headed towards the bathroom. They were in terrible shape, even though they hadn’t been here for very long probably. Their clothes and shoes looked fine, but their eyes were sunk in, and they looked like they no longer wanted to be alive. 

I only saw them for a few seconds before we were shoved forward towards the gate. As we came to a stop, I saw that the camp didn’t look better in the light. Looking around I saw that the other colors were walking out of their cabins slowly. I could see the silvers and reds were walking out of the cabins near the three-story building. 

The greens and yellows were in the garden, pulling weeds and carrying baskets of what looked like tomatoes. There were ten or so cabins standing behind the tower, but as I watched several PSF’s and what looked like a doctor walk out of the gated area, and not any kids. 

I heard the gate open, and looked forward so that I could move as soon as the others started walking out. After I walked out of the gate, I heard it snap close, but we didn’t have enough time for the PSF to close it behind us. It didn’t matter since the gate opened again, and footsteps passed through the gate. 

I wanted to swing around and look but wasn’t brave enough to do it. Instead, I kept my eyes on Mirable’s head as we walked the short distance to the one-story building across the street from the infirmary. There didn’t seem to be any security system on the door since we were able to waltz right through the door and into the building. 

As I walked through the door, I immediately saw eighteen long tables in the room, all of which could easily hold a cabin or two. There was still plenty of room, but when the camp started to become fuller, it would probably change. The oranges, reds, and silvers were sitting on the tables in the middle of the dining room. Where they could easily be seen by the PSF’s who were walking up and down the aisle of the seat with their hands on their large guns. The oranges had their muzzles off, but they were attached to their right arms so they couldn’t be thrown. 

They still had their handcuffs on, I wasn’t expecting them to be removed, and the ones who had been here a while looked like they were used to having to eat with their hands bound. I looked over their heads and saw that there was a small kitchen in the back of the building, and I could see through the window between the two rooms, multiple kids dressed in green scrubs were walking around and doing basic tasks that didn’t require a knife. 

The woman led us forward to the window and had us line up against the wall. The first girl in line picked up a tray of food from a kid I recognized from the bus I was brought in yesterday. His green uniform was probably too large, and hung on his skinny shoulders, making him look even smaller than the grown adults around him. He easily handed food out to the kids, though it seemed like he hadn’t fully gotten the hang of it yet. When it was my turn to grab a tray from him, I smiled at him, and he gave me a sad one. I stepped away and let the girls behind me get their trays as well. 

I looked down at my tray and saw that there was a small carton of milk that reminded me of the cartons used at school. There was a blob of something grey in a tray in the middle of it, and some corn in the corner. It looked absolutely disgusting, and if there had been another option, I would have thrown this in the trash, but there wasn’t and if the girl in front of me was to be believed I had to eat all of it. 

The woman stepped forward and led us over to the far wall far away from the orange tables. She came to a stop beside one long table and made a sit here motion. I walked slowly behind Mirable, as the line split in two, and sat down next to her as she sat down, setting my tray down on the table as I went. I looked down the table to the girls who had been here, and saw that instead of waiting for utensils, they started scarfing down their food without any problem. 

I looked down at my tray again, and with much hesitation, reached down, and grabbed some of the corn. It was sticky and gross, but I picked it up, and threw it into my mouth. It was terrible tasting, and it didn’t help my stomach, but it was food. When I was finally finished with it, I looked at the grey stuff, and with the same hesitation, grabbed the bowl and brought it up to my mouth. With a glance around me, I started drinking the soup, and tried not gag. It took me three gulps before I was done and set the bowl down back on the table. I wanted to puke but knew that it wouldn’t go well if I did. 

I looked up and down the table and saw that most of the others had finished their food and were setting their bowls back down on the table. The others looked just as disgusted as I was, but no one said anything. I could practically feel their disgust directed in the direction of the bowls, but their will to stay alive was stronger than saying anything. 

When Marie finally finished her food, the PSF assigned to our cabin waved her hand, and the girl who was on the left side of the table stood up and started collecting the trays and bowls. She easily stacked all the bowls and trays together and left the milk cartons behind. I grabbed my carton and managed to drink it in three large gulps before I set it down back again. It wasn’t as bad as the soup, but it wasn’t good either. 

When the girl showed up again, the PSF knocked on the table, and the rest of the girls stood up. I quickly stood up as well and stepped behind Mirable as the woman started walking forward. We walked quickly away from the table, and into the aisle. Kids we passed gave us strange looks, before looking away. I heard the door open, and a breeze hit my skin. We quickly left the building, gravel scraping against our shoes as we walked. We walked down the street and turned left before the three-story building. 

We walked down the street, where I could see the two-story building better. It was made of dark red bricks, and two long windows stood on the wall with a door on it. The door looked like the rest of the doors that I had seen, and I saw that there wasn’t an electric key card machine by the door. Apparently only the cabins got that honor. So the woman in front could easily push in the door without any resistance. 

I was curious about what was inside, but at the same time wanted to hide in the cabin until I died. But I couldn’t do that, so I put a brave face on, and walked into the building after the girls in front of me. Inside there were short tables standing in neat rows, purples and blues who had come in here before us were already standing around the tables, getting ready for their shift. 

Electric cords hung from the ceiling, giving a clear reason why yellows weren’t in here. Some of the cords were connected to sewing machines, while others were rolled up and hanging from the rafters of the walkways that made up the second floor, which seemed to be entirely made up of metal walkways. Three PSF’s were already in the rafters, walking around the walkways, making sure no kid dared to disobey the rules of the camp. In the corner of the building opposite the door, stood several doors that seemed to lead somewhere.

There were two ladders that led up to the second floor, and there were two big windows on the wall opposite of the door, and when I looked up, I saw the lights were out. It was probably to save money since some people were starting up some sewing machines. Most of the kids who had been here before yesterday had looks of sadness on their faces, while the ones who were from yesterday were just as confused as I. 

The woman in front of the line led us to several tables that were about halfway down the main aisle. Some of the blues I had seen earlier looked up at us as we passed but didn’t seem as interested as the people in the dining hall. The girls at the front of the line seemed surprised that we were being led to these tables. 

The woman eventually stopped and waved at the tables that we were supposed to be at, which were loaded with several boxes of shoes. They were mostly the PSF’s boots, but I saw several spare shoes for kids. “Four to a table, except for you three,” the woman said, picking three kids out of the line, including Marie. 

She looked up at me scared but stepped out of line as I followed Mirable to one of the tables. There was some shoeshine, and cloth on the table I ended up at, and nothing else. The girls closest to the boxes of shoes picked a pair out of the box and started checking for anything wrong with them. I looked at her curious, before stealing a look at Marie and the two girls who had been pulled out of line. 

They were being led to the back of the warehouse, where I could see several boxes waiting to be picked up. The boxes seemed to be light, since even Marie was able to pick up a box without much trouble. I watched as the three girls were led out of the warehouse, and eventually as they walked out of the warehouse, and the door closed behind them. 

I was shaken out of my staring by Mirable. I gave her a concerned look, and she held up the pair of shoes that the girl had been working on earlier. Mirable set the shoes down in front of me, and I quickly picked up the shoeshine and started shining the shoes in front of me. When I was done, I set them down in the box next to me. 

We worked like that for hours, working through the boxes. It wasn’t hard work, just boring. Every two hours, my cabin mates would be pulled from our stations and taken into the corner of the warehouse where a small bathroom was. We would quickly go, get a few mouthfuls of water before being brought to our stations again. 

The bathroom breaks were our only breaks, and it was the only way to keep track of time. After our sixth bathroom break, instead of being taken to our stations, we were led out of the building and towards the dining hall. As I walked down the street with my numb legs, I saw that the workers in the fields were still working, even though it had been at least twelve hours. 

The woman led us through the door of the dining hall, through the line again, before leading us to the same table that we had been sitting at earlier. As I sat down, with my disgusting food on the table in front of me, I saw that the reds, silvers, and oranges were already in the room. They were looking just as tired as us, even though I hadn’t seen them working anywhere earlier. 

I looked over at the girls who were sitting at my table and saw that they seemed to fear the upper scaled kids. I looked back down at my food, which was the same grey stuff as earlier, some peas and a water bottle. It wasn’t appealing, but much of the camp wasn’t. Though they were tired, most of the kids were inhaling their food, as if they were scared the PSF’s were going to come and take it from them. 

I looked around nervously but started eating my food just as quickly. I didn’t like the food but if it was eaten fast instead of slow then it didn’t taste as bad. It wasn’t good, but less bad. Within a few seconds of me finishing my food, the same woman knocked on the table, and the same girl stood up again, and started collecting the trays. 

I willingly gave up my tray, and watched as the girl collected the trays, and walked them back to the kitchen to be cleaned. The green boy who picked up the trays, looked both pissed off, and extremely tired. The girl walked back quickly, and the woman knocked on the table again and we all stood up. When I stood up I saw Charolete sitting amongst the purples. She looked at me surprised, before shoving her face in her food again. 

I didn’t say anything, not that I was allowed to, as I turned to face the front of the line. As soon as I was facing Mirable’s back, and we were all lined up, the woman stepped forward away from the table, and we stepped forward behind her. We walked out of the building, and my eyes were immediately blinded by the sun. 

I dragged my feet along as we walked back toward the blue section. I looked over at the garden again and saw that they were still working. They were working exhaustingly, and they might have had time off, I still felt bad for them. I turned to face Mirable’s back again. We didn’t walk for very long before stopping in front of the gate. There was a small bus, and the gate swung open. 

The woman stepped forward and we followed close behind her. We all walked tiredly behind her and didn’t try to run away as we stopped in front of the cabin. The woman unlocked the door and shoved the door open and stepped aside to let us inside. We slowly walked inside and started falling onto our beds. 

As I climbed back onto my bed, I realized exactly why the shifts were as long as they were, because they didn’t leave enough energy to let anyone think about escaping. My bones were tired. The bed felt a lot better now than it had last night, but it still wasn’t the most comfortable. I was content to fall asleep when I heard Marie’s voice peek up from above me. 

“What is this place called?” she asked in a small voice. I sat up curious as to what the answer was. 

“Tundra. From what I heard, I figure it's one of the later camps built, because the PSF’s are always threatening to send us up to these two experimental camps up north,” came the response from down the way. I looked in the direction and saw the red-haired girl had spoken. She was leaning against one of the posts of her bed and seemed slightly annoyed at us. 

“Why do they hate the oranges enough to put them in masks?” Marie asked, and my heart broke at the innocents still in her voice. I wish I could protect her but knew I couldn’t do it. 

“Simple,” another girl said. “They're too dangerous. The bus I came in on, had an orange try to run for the gate. A PSF caught her, and the girl spoke two words to the woman, and the woman shot herself in the knee.” I felt like she had shot herself somewhere else based on her tone, but she seemed to have stopped when she realized that Marie was young, even compared to the rest of us. 

“Now, lay down. Most of us want to go to sleep,” the red-haired girl said in a kind voice.

“Fine,” Marie mumbled. “What’s your name?”

“Jackie,” she said in response, and she laid back down on her bed.

“Marie?” I asked, and I heard her grunt in acknowledgement. “Where did you go today?” 

“I had to take things to the silver cabins,” she muttered. “They do some manual labor in their cabins to keep them from trying to think about running away. The reds and oranges apparently do the same thing. Anyway goodnight.” I laid back down on my bed, content for now to know where I was, and terrified that there could be a place worse than this. Conversations started up eventually, but I was too tired to join in, and was happy when the lights finally switched off. 

&&& 

Days seemed to pass quickly by Tundra. I would get up with my cabin in the morning and do the same exact routine that I had done the first day I had shown up on. Despite blues being common, it took three buses for the cabin to be filled all the way. The girls who had shown up were just as scared as I was, and Elizabeth calmed them down with her soothing words. 

She seemed to be a kind of leader, though only because she was the last blue on her bus and had to figure everything, she told us out on her own until the next group had shown up two weeks later. The bus system was the only way I counted the number of weeks that had passed, because no matter what, rain or shine, the buses showed up every two weeks. 

Though I couldn’t see them come in because I was in the warehouse, I knew when they showed up because I could hear the bus in the distance and kids walking down the street to fill the cabin next to mine and start filling up the one across the street from us. There was always a varying number of kids, and few were above purple. 

The oranges, reds, and silvers weren’t seen much by the rest of the camp, but from what Elizabeth told me, they weren’t that interesting to begin with. They were the most depressed out of everyone here because they very rarely got to do anything, and rarely saw outside of their own cabins. 

One afternoon, in the beginning of May, five months after I came to Tundra, instead of walking immediately out of the cabin like she usually did, Silver Eyes stuck around. She waited for us to line up in front of our beds before she addressed us. “Tomorrow morning, you will be taken out of the warehouse and put to work in the garden. Apparently, it's recommended to have a purple near a garden, so my superiors are having one grow the plants, so we don’t have you brats starve to death. Unfortunately, the purple cannot control her powers, so all the plants are growing in the garden including the weeds. They do not have enough greens and yellows right now, and not enough work in the warehouse, so you were slated to work there.” 

I blinked slowly at her. She didn’t seem to be joking, and instead of saying anything else, she turned around and started walking out the door. She caught the door and closed it behind her. As soon as the door closed, we all groaned, and sagged out of our straight positions.

“They really hate us now,” Mirable rumbled rubbing her shoulder. 

“Why do they have to do this?” Elizabeth groans. “I know I complain about my job, but it's better than the garden. I’ve only seen them give jackets to the greens and yellows a couple of times, and that was in January when it was freezing outside.” 

“I know,” Jackie groaned, sitting down on her bed. I sat down as well, trying to imagine my day tomorrow. Elizabeth was right, the kids in the garden didn’t get treated fairly, even amongst the others. Even the reds, silvers, and oranges were able to stay out of the cold for long hours at a time. I groaned and buried my face in my pillow. I could practically feel when Marie climbed onto the bed above me. 

She groaned and flopped down on her bed. I smiled and rolled onto my side. I curled into the fetal position. I cupped my hands together, and slowly brought a small fire into my hands. I didn’t do it for more than a few seconds before turning it off and rolled onto my stomach again. 

According to Elizabeth, who sometimes worked as a runner in the tower, said that greens had one of two powers: intelligence, and perfect memory. I had both, and since I really wanted to be out of Tundra, I was slowly practicing my powers to help my escape. I could only practice my red ones when the lights were on, and everyone was awake. If I did it when the lights were out, the camera would catch onto the light immediately and it would have blown my cover. It was a risk since the others could easily see me doing it, but even if they did, they probably wouldn’t tell anyone. 

Some of the powers were easy to learn and use, like green, while others could only be used in some circumstances, like to heal the wounds of the others caused by the PSF’s, but things like purple and blue were harder to do. I was nowhere near the garden where it would make sense, and since everyone thought that I was blue, they were watching us more for those instances than anything else. 

I didn’t feel like using any other powers, so I tried to fall asleep. Most of the cabin was still moving around and talking though they seemed to be moving around more slowly than usual. I could hear Marie muttering something above my head. I didn’t want to say anything to her, but she seemed to be muttering something bad about her mother. I heard her feet hit the ground and felt her climb into my bed. 

Marie had started getting night terrors a few months ago and had started climbing into my bunk at nights. I didn’t have any problem with it, but it did make practicing my powers any easier. As soon as she was settled, I finally managed to fall asleep. 

When the alarm finally woke me the next morning, and I looked at the clock above the door, I saw that it was three in the morning. I pushed Marie off me, and she slowly started moving around. I saw that most of the cabin was moving just as slowly. I groaned and shook my head. I picked up my clothes and changed as quickly as I could. When I was done, I heard the door open and heard the PSFs walk into the room. 

“Come on everyone,” I heard Silver Eyes murmur, and quickly lined up with everyone else. The woman nodded, happy to see that we had gotten it down to perfection. She turned around and started walking out of the cabin. After a quick bathroom break, silver eyes led us toward the gate. As we approached, I saw a cabin of green girls walking towards the same gate. The woman called halt, and we all stopped behind her. The greens walked quickly through the gate, and the PSF’s in the back held the door open for the woman in front of us. 

We walked through the gate, and to my surprise, we didn’t walk towards the dining hall like we had been used to, instead we walked immediately to the garden. I looked at Marie confused, but I kept walking forward until Silver Eyes waved us to a stop. Most of the greens and yellows found their ways to their usual spots, while the rest of blues stopped. Silver Eyes looked around for confirmation, which she got from a completely covered PSF from nearby. She nodded and led us down the slim walkway to about a fourth of the way down from the tower. Close enough where we couldn’t use our powers to lift ourselves over the fence, but far enough where we wouldn’t steal from the PSF’s cabins or tower. 

“Kneel down every five feet from each other,” Silver Eyes ordered. “If you pick anything, throw it into the exact basket that it’s needed to.” I looked at her confused, before following Mirable down the row of plants and kneeling five feet from her. The tomato plants in front of me were overgrown, and weeds seemed to be everywhere. 

Not knowing what to do, I started picking tomatoes off the stems and threw them in the basket that was near me. Slowly I got used to the routine, picking tomatoes or weeds, and throwing them into the respective baskets. The purple who was growing the plants must have been there a while because the tomatoes and weeds grew back almost as soon as they were pulled. 

A few hours into my shift, and the sunlight started shining, I heard a PSF walk up behind me. I looked a little to my right and saw that the man beside me was one I called Bucktooth. Bucktooth was the guard who had walked onto the bus the first day. He was one of the nicer adults in the camp, only being mean when there was another PSF around, or a kid had used their powers. 

“What are you doing?” he growled from behind me. I looked down at his feet and tried to think of what I could have done wrong. After a second, I realized that I had done nothing wrong and that he was being mean, just to be mean. I was surprised, Bucktooth was one of the ones who wouldn’t immediately be mean to a kid who would do something wrong. 

“Hey, I’m talking to you,” the PSF said to get me to look at him, which I didn’t. Among the many rules that the PSFs had was don’t talk back and don’t look them in the eye. Mirable knocked over the large bucket next to her. The tomatoes that we had been picking spilled onto the ground, with some of them smashing along the way. 

Bucktooth immediately homed in on Mirable, and instead of doing anything he said, “You know if you're going to waste food, you're going to have to be punished, right?” Mirable nodded confused. The man looked around and instead of hitting her, he reached down and picked up some of the fallen vegetables. He threw them back into the container, and when he was about to leave, another PSF walked up. He was one of the cruelest guards at Tundra and enjoyed bringing pain to the kids. 

“What happened here?” he asked. 

“Got clumsy and knocked over the girls' basket,” the kinder guard said with a shrug. The cruller one seemed to think that wasn’t the truth, and taking the opportunity to punish a kid, grabbed Mirable by the hair and yanked her off the ground. He started walking away from where Mirable had been, much to the objection of the other guard. 

Mirable looked at me and I winced. Sorry, I thought, and her eyes widened. I flinched and realized that I could have accidentally sent her a thought. Mirable didn’t say anything, and I was grateful for it. The reward for discovering a black would be large, so much that Mirable probably wouldn't be punished again if she played her cards right. 

The PSF dragged her over to the electric fence and forced her onto the ground. The man handcuffed Mirable to the fence, making sure that the rubber side was facing towards the fence. Even though I felt sorry for her, I knew that I couldn't do anything without attracting the attention of the PSF. Doing so would mean my death. When the sun had risen, Silver Eyes called for our attention. I looked at her surprised. 

“Come on, time for breakfast.” I looked around at the others, before looking at Mirable, who was still at the fence. No was going to get her, and I couldn’t do anything, so I stood up with my cabin. We lined up easily, and Silver Eyes led us down the rows before turning us down the main one. We all walked solemnly down the main row, before walking around the tower, and in front of the dining hall. We walked inside, were given our food, ate, before walking back to our cabins to nap. As soon as Silver Eyes walked out of the room, I was jumped by several people. 

“What happened to Mirable?” Elizabeth asked. 

“That PSF was bothering me, so she knocked over the basket to distract him,” I said simply. I didn’t feel like saying anything else, so I laid down on my bed again. I looked at the clock again and watched as the hours ticked by. Mirable showed up in the cabin when we were eating dinner and was waiting on her bed as we walked into the room. Her thighs, shoulders and arms were completely sunburned, and she winced as she sat up to greet us.

Since the PSFs were still in the room, the hellos were polite nods and smiles of sympathy. As soon as silver eyes closed the door though, she jumped off her bed, walked around to my bed, and shoved me further into the corner. The bed could barely fit Marie and I, so it was quite a squeeze when she shoved in next to me. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were an orange? I would have tried to protect you more,” she whispered. I looked around the room, and noticed no one facing me, so I grabbed her injured wrist and healed it. She gasped and I saw the question in her eyes. I nodded and she looked around to see no one was paying attention to us. She leaned back, trying to figure out what to say and after a second, she leaned back in and whispered. “I knew it.” 

“You did?”

“Yeah, I mean most of us knew you could do strange things for a blue, so we connected the dots a while ago.” 

“How? You've never mentioned it before."

“Really in this camp? That would have killed you. How much do you know anyway?” 

“Practice orange, silver, and red. I know how to use the others, but I couldn’t find a place to use them without being caught.” 

“Why didn’t you hide as a green?” 

“I panicked okay, it was easier to hide as a blue because if I accidentally threw something then everyone would think I was a blue and not something weird was going on.” Mirable nodded in understanding. I hope she really did understand. Though she and I had become closer in the last few months, she could easily slip up, and tell everyone. Though it seemed like everyone in the cabin at least knew what I was. 

“Okay everyone,” Delta said loudly, getting everyone’s attention. I couldn’t see her because of the angle I was lying at, but I could hear the smile in her voice. 

“We’ll finish this talk later,” I said quietly, and she nodded. She didn’t move though, instead she laid there as Delta started going on about a long-winded story, she claimed that she had heard when she was younger. There were interjections, and craziness, but it was a good story, nonetheless.

When it wrapped up, everyone started crawling around to get ready for bed. Marie dropped down from her bed and gave Mirable a pointed look. “I’m getting up,” Mirable said, raising her hands in a surrendering motion. Mirable rolled out of bed and stood up. As soon as she was gone, Marie made a cluck noise and slid into the bed next to me. 

Mirable slid into her bed, and she seemed to relax into it. I smiled at her, and she seemed happy for now. I wanted to read her mind but didn’t want to push her personal life. Instead of immediately going to sleep, I started working on my plan to escape from the camp. I had been working on it for a few months, trying to find a good way to escape and bring some of the kids with me. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was a plan. 

&&&

The next morning when everyone woke up, I looked over at Mirable, who gave me a smile, paused, and waved me over. “What’s going on?” I asked. 

“My sister and I were planning on escaping. Couldn’t tell you last night because of Delta and Marie. We’ve been using a form of ASL to talk, and the plan is to run when the next bus comes in. If the two of us run when the guards are distracted, then they’ll look at you guys. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Mirable explained quietly. I paused and nodded. 

“I’m good with languages, could you show me some of it?” She nodded and started signing some of the words. As she did, I started changing, then she did as well. Right as I was about to talk about the plan, Silver Eyes showed up to take us to our terrible breakfast. I wanted to talk with Mirable more about it but had to keep quiet as we walked to the garden.

The garden work wasn’t hard first thing in the morning, so it wasn’t hard getting into the repeating cycle of work. All was going well until one of the guards stopped behind me. “What are you doing?” Bucktooth asked. I paused for a second, because usually there was disdain in his voice, not anger. Bucktooth reached down to pick something up, and I saw Mirable look over at me as he did so. I took a deep breath, and before he could touch my shoulder, Mirable used her powers to shove the weed bucket next to her into the man’s leg. 

I paused and looked over at her in shock. I heard the rustling of plants stop near me, as the girls in our cabin started to realize what had just happened. Mirable using her powers was a strange thing, since she had never done it before. One because everyone knew that using your powers ever, especially to hurt a guard, was to get beaten, and locked in a cage like room in the control tower for the night. Secondly, because Mirable was a rule stickler, and had never used her powers before. 

Kids couldn’t even use their powers to save themselves. An eleven year old girl in the cabin across the street was almost beaten to death because she used her powers to get fire ants off her after a PSF had shoved her into the ant hill. It took Bucktooth three seconds after the bucket hit his leg to figure out what exactly happened. He looked down at Mirable pissed, and without a second thought grabbed her by the hair and yanked her off the ground. 

He yanked her to her feet, and I could see her strain against him as he reached down and grabbed me by the hair as well. He yanked me off the ground, and I stumbled to find my footing as he led us out of the row, and onto the pressed down dirt that made up the main path. I could practically feel my hair straining as he yanked me off the dirt path to the concrete around the rest of the camp. 

Bucktooth immediately started walking towards the control tower, while Mirable and I tried to yank away from the harsh grip on our hair. It didn’t work, and only seemed to make the man more pissed. As he dragged me along one thought seemed to go through my mind; why did he want to punish me? Mirable, I understood, she had used her powers, but I had done nothing wrong. 

There was always a PSF standing in front of the control tower, because it was a good tactical advantage to see everything right in front of the building and provided good backup. So, as we rounded the front of the building, the woman standing in front easily snapped her head to her left and saw us walking forward. 

“She used her powers,” Bucktooth said, releasing Mirable, and pushing her forward. Mirable stumbled for a few seconds, before the woman grabbed her by the arm and pulled her beside her.

“What did she do?” the woman said, looking at me. Bucktooth looked down at me, seemingly not understanding why he was mad at me. He picked his brain for a second, before saying anything. 

“She made me mad,” he said, and without saying anything else, started pulling me away from the tower in the direction of the infirmary. There was a camera angle behind the infirmary, because the purple cabins were behind it, but the angle of the camera didn’t show a twenty-foot area, which was why it was considered a perfect spot to beat the kids who misbehaved. 

The woman didn’t say anything as he pulled me away, and I could hear Mirable’s footsteps going quieter as the woman unlocked the door, and pushed her in. The slam of the door sealed her fate, and only seemed to make the PSF madder. He yanked me by the hair down the street, around the building, and he threw me as we got into the blind spot. 

Not wanting a beating, I gathered my courage as best as I could, and decided to use my powers, because who could say he really hurt me if no one could prove it? My orange powers were simple, I could use mind control to gain control of anyone who was within a forty-foot range. I didn’t have to touch a person, or look at them in a certain way, they just had to be forty feet from me to control them. I didn’t use them much, but it was nice to knock a PSF down a bit without them knowing what I could do. 

I took a deep breath, and tried to control his mind, but to my surprise, he didn’t stop moving, and just seemed confused. I tried it again, and it didn’t work again. Now I was confused, because no one seemed to be able to resist my mind control before. Horrified, I shuffled through my memories to see if I had ever tried this trick with anyone before. 

As I came to the last of my memories of the last few months, I realized that I had never tried to control him before. I’ve never had a reason to because he usually didn’t beat a kid. I looked at Bucktooth’s face, which was in a resting confused look as he tried to find out exactly what I was. I hoped that he couldn’t figure out what I was, but Elizabeth had said last night that he was now working with the oranges. After a second, he paused and looked me in the eye. 

“Are you an orange, or a black?” I looked at him dumbly, before waving my hands in a, look at my clothes, motion.

“I’m a blue,” I said, trying not to make him mad. 

“I seriously doubt that, and I don’t care if you’re either. I’m not going to turn you in. I need your help.” My left eyebrow raised, and he noticed it before he contoured talking in a fast tone. “My daughter, she's silver. She was picked up the other day and is being driven into Tundra today. If you switch her classification to green or blue, I won’t tell anyone what you are, okay?” 

I looked at him surprised, if he really had a daughter, that would explain that while he was mean, he was kinder than the rest of the PSF's, using violence, when necessary, because he wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to his kid if she was in the same position. If his daughter was a silver, she would be treated horribly at the camp, and if I helped him, he couldn’t turn me in because I could hand his daughter into the camp controllers. 

“Look,” I said, thinking about it. “I’ll help you, but the second you betray me, I’ll turn in your daughter to the PSF’s.” 

“Deal. Though we’re going to have to fake an injury, to get you into the infirmary. I don’t know how to get into the registration wing though.” 

“I have an idea. Toss me your knife,” I ordered, and he looked at me surprised before reaching down and grabbing the pocketknife in his right pant leg. He tossed it to me, and I caught it one handily. 

“What are you going to do?” he asked, looking slightly scared. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to attack you,” I said, snapping it open. I looked down at my palm, trying to figure out exactly where to cut so it would look believable. “What’s your name anyway?” 

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

"What's your name?" I asked, looking up for a second. "If I'm going to help you, I want to know your name."

"Calvin," he said, and I looked back at my hand again. "What's yours?"

"Ava," I said. 

“What are you doing with my knife?” 

“I’m trying to figure out where to cut my hand to make it believable,” I said, finding the perfect spot to cut it. I quickly sliced my palm, missing the veins and arteries, wincing as I went. I folded up the knife and threw it back at him. “Come on.” I walked past him, with a small smile, and he had to scramble to grab my arm. He grabbed my elbow and put a pissed off look back on his face. We walked together around the building, down the side of it, and onto the street. Right as my feet hit the pavement, I heard Calvin’s radio buzz. He ignored it and grabbed my arm. He yanked me towards the door. 

Calvin opened the door, and shoved me inside the building, surprising some of the doctors and nurses who were heading up to the registration wing. One of the women, a six-foot tall Hispanic woman who I somewhat recognized stepped away from her colleagues to meet us. "What do we have here?" she asked curiously. 

"Cut her hand, didn’t want blood spilling into the food," Calvin said in a monotone voice. She nodded, looking at my hand. 

“This way,” she said, gesturing to her right. Calvin gave a sharp nod and pulled me to the cell that was next to the stairs. The woman followed a few steps behind us. “Sit on the bed.” 

Calvin released me, and I sat down on the bed facing Calvin. He sent me a small smile and stepped away to let the woman working on my hand. She seemed surprised how shallow the cut was. Calvin noticed it but didn’t say anything instead walking out of the building.

I felt a sting in my hand and saw the woman had grabbed a small rubbing alcohol wipe. The blood was cleaned off in a few seconds, and when she moved to throw the wipe away, I looked back at the door that had just opened. A PSF walked through the door followed by a group of kids. The door shut behind the last PSF and they all walked slowly up the stairs to the registration wing. 

Their footsteps topped the stairs, and I could hear kids being shuffled into offices. Two minutes later, the door opened again, and Calvin walked through the door bringing another line of kids behind him. He waved for my attention, and I turned to the nurse. I pressed, and her eyes turned blank, she was under my control. I stood up and looked at the girls in the line. The girl at the end of the line was wearing yellow rubber gloves, which meant that she was a yellow. 

I gave her a look, trying to figure out how to short circuit the camera’s without it looking bad. I looked up at the camera, which was pointed away from me, towards the new line of kids. Some of my anger bubbled to the surface, and I could feel the camera shut down. I smiled to myself, and quickly joined the line behind the man. 

I walked up the stairs, and rounded the stairs with the group, short circuiting the camera upstairs with my suppressed anger. As I rounded the corner, and looked down the hallway, I saw that the first groups of kids were being led out of the offices, and into the side hallway while others were being replaced from them. As I looked around, I used my powers to not notice my presence. Calvin was standing in the corner and waved to me after I looked around the hallway.

“Girl is the eight-year-old at the end of the hallway,” Calvin said, pointing towards the opposite side of the hallway. I looked down the hallway and saw the red-haired girl at the end of the hallway. She was obviously scared, and kept looking toward her father for reassurances, but none came. 

“Alright. You’re going to have to explain why the security cameras are down in this hallway, downstairs pointed at the stairs, and in that office.” 

“What did you do?” 

“I shut some of them down,” I muttered, and walked away before any of the PSF’s could notice what I was doing. I could hear him sputter in surprise, and I felt bad for him for a second, but it was only for a second. I shook it off and walked calmly into the office number seven. 

The little girl was lying in the bed, looking around scared at her surroundings. She looked even smaller since she was in pajamas. They were pink and sporting little elephants on them. She looked like she had been yanked out of bed yesterday. I knew Calvin wouldn’t have called her in. He saw the signs of being a silver, and he knew how she would be treated as one in the camp. Even if he did, he couldn’t have been sure that someone could change the test. 

I looked at the doctor, who was standing behind her standing desk. She was dressed in a black shirt, black pants, and a white coat. Her silver hair was pulled behind her head in a ponytail. I recognized her from the day that I was brought in. She hadn’t been the one to test me, but she was in the hallway. She snapped up surprised as I walked into the room and closed the door behind me. 

“Who are you?” she asked, surprised. 

“Uh,” I said, before taking control of her mind. Her head immediately snapped down toward her computer again, ignoring me. 

“Hi, my name is Ava,” I said, walking forward, and kneeling beside her. “I’m a friend of your dad’s.” 

“What’s going on? Where are we?” 

“I’ll explain in a second,” I said, looking at the woman who was trying to speak. I stepped back, releasing her somewhat from my control. The woman shook her head, and the woman snapped back, though she didn’t notice me. 

"What's your name?" she asked in a monotone voice.

"Felicia Brown," the girl said, looking at me in suspicion.

"When you were brought in, were you given a color?" the doctor asked.

"Color?" Felicia asked. The woman sighed and pointed at the poster. Felicia’s eyes snapped over to the poster, and quickly ran over the eight sections of the poster. I could see the questions in her eyes, and I wanted to explain what was going on better, but the computer beeping rang out in the small room. 

I walked quietly around the computer and saw that on the screen there was a scan of a brain, presumably Felicia’s, on the left side of the screen. On the right side of the screen was Felicia’s information, including her name, birthday, height, and weight. There was a silver glow on one section of her brain that I didn’t know the name of but was probably attached to one of the powers. 

There was an alert above the brain scan that read silver, with the word detain underneath it. I looked at it confused for a second, before I turned to the woman. I gave her a look, and without a word, she clicked a button which popped a small tab that asked, manual override? She instantly tapped the confirm button, and it popped up a list of the eight colors. The woman dragged it over and hit the green button. 

The brain scans immediately changed from the silver one and picked out a different section of the brain that lit up green. Another alert showed up with the word green on top, and the words safe to approach underneath. I sighed in relief but felt a gnawing feeling in my gut. Me changing what the camp controllers understood to be her power was an opportunity, one I hoped she didn’t waste. The woman reached over and hit the call button for one of the nurses. I walked around the desk and kneeled in front of Felicia. 

“Look. You have a chance here. Okay? They treat silvers horribly here, but they treat the greens well. If you play your cards right, you will never be treated like the silvers. You must promise me that you will never use your powers. Understand?” She didn’t say anything. “Understand?” 

“I understand,” she said, nodding quickly. 

“Good,” I said standing up. The door opened behind me, and small footsteps walked into the room. I looked over my shoulder and saw one of the nurses walk into the room, holding two green uniforms in her arms. She noticed me, but I had her ignore me. “I need you to change into one of those uniforms, okay?” Felicia looked at the uniform and looked at me sadly. 

“Will I be, okay?” she asked me. 

“I think so, but I’m not sure. I must go.” She gave me a look of understanding, and I stood up. I walked through the door, and into the hallway. The next group had been brought up, and I could see Calvin waiting for me at the end of the hallway. He nodded his head at the stairs next to him, and I nodded. I walked through the hall, avoiding everyone. 

I didn’t stop beside him, but I could tell that he noted his daughter’s new color. I walked down the stairs and into the cell where Calvin had taken me originally. The nurse who had treated me was sitting on the bed, staring at the wall with glazed eyes. I gave a small glare, and the woman stood up. She walked out of the cell and started climbing the stairs. I sat on the bed and waited for the rest of the kids to go through the line. When Calvin finally reappeared, he looked impressed at me. 

“Thank you, but why did you go with green instead of blue?” 

“Because they keep the blues more monitored than the greens and let’s be honest no one expects anything from the greens. Plus, if I went any higher, she would be treated the same, nonetheless. Also, why can they manually change the classification? I just thought that they deleted everything but the blue for me.” 

“You’re a black?” 

“Say anything, and your secret comes pouring out,” I threatened. I looked down at my hand, where it was still bleeding slowly. I healed the wound easily. “You mind handing me one of those alcohol wipes?” I pointed at the cabinet where the nurse had been messing around earlier. He nodded, and I looked out of the cage at the kids passing by. While he messed around with the cabinet, I looked at the kids passing by. 

“What story did you manage to create?” 

“Yellow kid accidentally destroyed them,” Calvin said, walking back up to my side. He handed me the wipe, and I used it to clean my hand. 

“Thank you,” I answered before throwing it into the trash can. “Come on.” He nodded, grabbed my arm, and led me out of the cage. We walked together out of the infirmary. I looked at the bus as we passed and saw that there were even more kids waiting to be taken into the infirmary to be tested. How many of them would be sent to the upper scaled cabins? How many of these kids were in the same position as I was once in but didn’t have the same opportunity as I once did. Calvin yanked my arm, and instead of dragging me back towards the garden he dragged me to the street that led to the green and blue cabins. 

“What are you doing?” I asked curious.

“Returning you to your cabin, your shift is almost over,” he whispered. I nodded in understanding and walked with him to the cabin. 

“So why can they manually override the color?” I whispered asked him.

“I have no idea. Maybe it’s something in the programing,” he said with a shrug.