The Outliers (The Outliers, #1)(79)

“Wait, so you helped him get us here? On purpose?” I say, because I still can’t really believe it. “You texted us that you were scared and needed help because he told you to do that?”

“Yes,” she says, the tears making the horror in her eyes glow. She motions to Jasper, the cabin. “This is all my fault. But I swear, Wylie, I didn’t know that you were the person he really wanted until it was too late. At first, he said you were just a way to get your dad here. But then once you and Jasper were here in the cabin, everything changed. He told me that you were the Outlier. And he said that he would kill you—both you and Jasper—if you wouldn’t help him. He said that I had to convince you.”

“Help him what?” I ask.

“Help him do what you do,” she says.

“But I don’t know how to do anything!”

“I know, I know,” Cassie says, and she looks so worried. “But he thinks he’s an Outlier, too. He’s convinced that he just needs you to ‘unlock his potential.’ I know because he said that to me when he thought I was the Outlier. And not just an Outlier, but I was like the Outlier. Totally off the charts. And the most messed-up part is how flattered I was.” All I feel is heartbreak when she looks at me. “He promised that if you helped him, he would let you go. That he would let us all go. And I thought that was true, or at least I hoped it was. I thought maybe you could do some of his ‘training exercises,’ the ones he tried with me, which were kind of like your dad’s test, and that would be that. But then when I went to borrow some of Fiona’s clothes, I was alone in the other cabin. Instead, I decided to look through Quentin’s stuff and see if I could figure out what he was really up to. And I saw this set of, like, instruments in this bag under his bed. I don’t know for sure what they were for, but as soon as I saw them, I got really scared he wasn’t ever going to let you go. Even if you did everything he wanted. But then I was also scared that if I told you and Quentin found out somehow, he might have Stuart shoot all of us or something.”

“What do you mean instruments?” Jasper asks.

“Like for a surgeon or something,” Cassie says quietly. “Whatever Quentin has in mind, Wylie, it’s not just some kind of question or answer. Or if that’s how it starts, it’s not the way it’s going to end.”

“But how can I teach him how to do something I don’t know how to do?”

“You can’t,” Jasper says. “That’s why we have to get out of here.”

“What about my dad? What’s going to happen when he gets here?” I ask Cassie. “And is North Point even real? Somebody shot Fiona.”

“I don’t know,” Cassie says, hugging herself harder. “Quentin stopped telling me anything as soon as we got here. Maybe he had Stuart shoot Fiona, I don’t know. But he seemed worried about someone finding us here. Maybe that was an act, or it could be someone really coming.”

“It was so stupid to trust him, Cassie,” Jasper says, his voice cold and sharp. He won’t even look at her. “Totally f*cking stupid.”

Cassie looks over at him, her eyes desperate. “You’re right, totally right,” she says. Then I watch her face change, set with determination. “But I am going to fix this. I promise.”

“Awesome,” Jasper says. “And I’ll be sitting here, holding my breath.”

I remember the plywood in the corner then. Did Jasper forget how close we already are? Soon, who was wrong, who lied about what and to who—none of it will matter. Because we will be free.

“Wait, what about …” I head to the back of the cabin, heart racing, to the spot where we spent so long turning those screws earlier. But Jasper is already shaking his bruised face. He looks like he feels sorry for me. “What do you mean, no?”

He makes his way over in silence, finally pulling out all the screws and lifting the plywood away.

And all I can do is stare. There is a hole in the cabin wall. The one I put my hand through. It’s even as tall as the plywood. But it’s much, much narrower. Large enough to have felt like a way out, but not to be anything of the kind.

I look up at Jasper, my eyes wide. “I know,” he says. “Messed up, huh?”

“They’ll have to come back eventually,” I say. “If Quentin thinks he needs me so bad, he’s not going to just leave me out here.”

“Yeah, and?” Cassie asks. “How are we going to get out with him in here?”

“We’ll just have to figure out a way.”

Because I don’t have to be an Outlier to know that much for sure. That our lives depend on us getting out that door.

In the long hours that follow, we discuss plan after plan, none of which have any hope of succeeding. At least we think it’s hours. All of our phones have been taken now, so we have no idea what time it is. And the day is gray, so it’s not easy to track the sun. But it seems like a long time. And by the end, we are just throwing ideas out so we can watch them drift away into the useless ether. We do search the cabin again for another way out. But Jasper and I have already done that. There is nothing left to find. Jasper hands out the granola bars that Quentin left there when we first arrived and some water. The last thing I want is to eat or drink. But Jasper is right. We should if we have the chance. Just in case we do find a way to run.