In The Afterlight (The Darkest Minds #3)(93)

“No,” I said quickly, “no you’re not. You’re different, that’s all.”

“They said the good ones were the ones that died,” she said, and I noticed a faint scar running down her left cheek, a narrow, spiraling pink line. What could have left a mark like that, other than someone intentionally scratching it into her skin? “That we were all wrong and we’d—we’d never get out. But they never did anything to help us. I want—I want to be fixed, we all did, we did everything they asked, but it wasn’t enough.”

“If they made you feel that way, then they were the ones who were wrong,” I said. It took me a moment to realize why the words came so easily. Clancy. How was this any different from what he kept trying to tell me? I shifted uncomfortably, trying to think of Cate instead, how she had talked me down after I escaped Thurmond. “The most important thing you ever did was learn how to survive. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you shouldn’t have, or that you deserved to be in that camp.”

“You were in one, too?” Rosa asked. “You got out and things got better?”

“They’re getting there,” I told her. “Your mom is helping us.”

There. One small, trembling smile. “Has she been wearing her red suit?”

“Red suit?” I repeated.

Rosa nodded, finally sitting back against the seat. “Mom had this dark red suit she always wore when she had to go in for a big vote or debate. She said it scared the old white dudes who kept trying to shut her up or make her sit down.”

“No,” I said, “but you know what? I don’t think she really needs it anymore.”

The girl spread her fingers over her blue uniform shorts. “And you’re totally...you’re sure she wants to...I mean, I would understand if she didn’t want to see me. I was with my Gran when they came. Mom never saw me after I got damaged—changed, I mean.”

“She wants you,” I said, the words spilling out from some place I hadn’t dared to touch since I’d left Thurmond. “More than anything. It doesn’t matter what you can do, or what any of the people at that camp told you. She’s there and she’s waiting for you.”

They were the right words. I knew it by the pain that came with wrenching them up from where I’d buried them.

I knew it, because they were the exact words I’d fantasized about someone saying to me, just before Grams would arrive to rescue me.

She turned toward me. “Thank you for coming to get us.”

I wasn’t sure I could trust my voice, but I said, “You’re very welcome.”

“You’re going to get more kids out, right?” she asked. “Not just us?”

“Everyone,” I reassured her, leaning my head back against the seat and closing my eyes. It was the only way I knew of to keep from crying. It was more than just a possibility. We had done this. We could do it again at Thurmond. We could make this moment everyone’s reality. Every single kid.

Zach brought the bus into the garage as Cole had instructed. The kids who’d stayed behind were there, opening the large, rolling door we’d kept shut and locked the whole time we’d used the space. Senator Cruz and Cole stood a way inside; the woman had her hands folded in front of her, and while she seemed otherwise serene, even from a distance, I could see the white-knuckled hold she had on herself. I pulled back the curtain and leaned away, so Rosa could see her as well. The senator must have spotted her at that exact moment, because she lost the fight she’d been waging to control herself and ran for the bus’s doors, just as I stood to let Rosa pass. The girl launched herself at her mother from the top step, and nearly took them both to the ground.

The other kids looked away. We’d explained, on the drive back to California, what had happened in Los Angeles. And knowing that many of their parents had been involved in the Federal Coalition, or had simply lived in the area, hadn’t sugarcoated the harsh reality.

“But we’ll help you find them,” I’d promised. “If Senator Cruz doesn’t know for certain where they are, we’ll try searching the different networks for clues.”

Cole had remained where he was, nodding to the team members who came down from the bus, slapping their backs and proudly congratulating them as they spilled out and formed a cluster around him. There was a backpack at his feet, but he didn’t reach for it, not until Liam and Alice finally exited the bus. I knew what was about to happen, but frankly, I was too damn pissed off myself to try to prevent it.

He signaled to Senator Cruz. With Rosa still pressed against her side, she said calmly, “All right, everyone, follow me. We’ll get you a nice warm shower, some new clothes, and a good meal. How does that sound?”

Liam and the Amplify reporter had their path toward us cut off as the Oasis kids streamed by, forming a line that followed the senator to the tunnel down, passing Zu, Hina, Mike, and Kylie, who’d come running to meet us. They joined the group of kids who had been left behind here, standing on the white crescent moon painted onto the cement.

The moment he was within range, Cole stooped to pick up the backpack and tossed it to Liam, who sagged under its weight as he caught it.

“I took the liberty,” Cole began, his voice edged with ice, “of packing your things. You’re finished here. Get on your little bike and go home.”