Revolution (Collide, #4)(27)

The constant noise of the place was…well, constant. It never ended. There was no escaping Pap and Margaret's yelling, or Miguel and Rylee's fighting, or the kids playing with the dog or groaning about being bored, or Danny and Celeste's canoodling because they had no shame. But there really weren't places to canoodle anymore.

I was going through some serious Merrick withdrawals. Serious.

And judging from the way his eyes followed me around, I assumed he was missing our alone time as well. I raised my eyebrows at him when I caught him staring again. He smiled at being caught and shrugged. I laughed and turned back to working in the 'kitchen area' we'd blocked off with Marissa and Lana when Cain came in and plopped two large cans of beans on the counter. "I know you don't want to hear this," he started.

"Oh, Lord! What now?" I asked and laughed.

"We only have 10 cans of beans left, 2 bags of rice, a couple cans of cream corn, all those green beans in the crates and one box of brownie mix."

I chuckled, almost hysterically. "But there's no grease or butter or eggs, so that does us absolutely no good." He shrugged. I wrenched my necklace violently. "Great. No more shampoo, no soap, no toothpaste, nothing to wash our clothes with, no medicine." I sighed. "We're screwed."

"We'll just have to make a run." He came and put his hands on my shoulders. "There's nothing else to do. We just didn't know how good we had it before."

"We had to leave so much stuff behind," I mused. "I wonder if we could go back and-"

"Nix on that. There are watching the store, I'm sure of it."

"Ok, fine." I stood taller and felt the dog bumping my leg with its tail. I glanced at him and back to Cain. "Why don't we have a meeting and let them know that we'll be going on a run then."

"We? As in you and me?"

"Yep. I can tell if they're lying and you can blast 'em if they come after us."

"You know Merrick's not gonna like-"

"We have to!" I gave him a look to tell him I was done playing. "We have to. This isn't about shampoo anymore, this is getting scary. You can't survive on beans alone. We have to do something!"

He thought, playing with his lip ring with his tongue, and then nodded. "Ok. Let's go, shorty."

"Really?" I said stunned. I glanced at Marissa who was giving us the 'You’re gonna get it' look. "That easy?"

"Yep. You're right. There's nothing else to talk about. It's not like we can go hunting for food. Unless the dog is some indication that the animals are coming back. I doubt that." He reached down and rubbed the dog behind the ears. "I think this guy just got really lucky."

"Yeah. Well I'm sure the Keepers have something cooked up. Merrick's been doing that Keeper talk thing a lot so they probably have a plan of some sort."

"Oh, they do," he said. "Simon's been plotting all sorts of things with his new face." He grimaced. "He seems to have forgotten that they can still sense a Keeper regardless of what face he's wearing."

"My ears are burning," Simon said. He was perched at the edge of the 'kitchen area' with arms crossed and brow bunched like the sneaky man he was.

"It's true, is it not?" Cain rebutted. "Don't you have something planned?"

"Maybe," he said and turned away.

"Showtime," Cain said and grabbed my hand as he bolted out of the kitchen, dragging me along. Simon must've called the Keepers in his mind because they were all present and accounted for.

Cain crossed his arms once more and studied them. "We know you've all got something planned, but it's not going to work."

"We don't have anything planned," Merrick said and nodded to Jeff. "Some of us still have our heads screwed on right."

"I know they can detect me!" Simon yelled. "Are you just going to let your charges die of starvation?"

"Of. Course. Not," Merrick growled. I left Cain and went to his side. He smiled at me a little and then went back to glaring at Simon. "But running out there all cocky because you've got a brand new body isn't going to solve the problem. We've done runs before. We know what has to be done."

"And what has to be done," Cain cut in, "is that Sherry and I are going on the run."

Merrick stiffened, his arms tight and angry, and looked down at me. "What? Now who's plotting?"

"I wasn't plotting," I insisted, but backtracked, "I mean technically I was plotting, but not all sinister like. We just need me to go and you know it. If Cain and I go, I can lie detect and he can blast them if we run into trouble."

Silence engulfed the room like the smell of stale coffee.

I knew they were all waiting for Merrick to blow up. So was I for that matter. His eyes were tight and calculating. It wasn't hard to notice as we all stood around how scruffy and unkempt everyone looked. The girls' hair was a mess of ponytails. The guys had beards and shags. Everyone was so thin and...unhealthy looking. We needed to do this.

I raised my eyebrows at Merrick in contest when he remained silent. He let a breath out through his nose and said, "We were planning to send Miguel and Simon - though Simon was completely against what we wanted - to get food, supplies and medicine. They were going to be gone for two days to get everything. We hadn't said anything to anyone yet because for one, we don't think Simon should go-"