CHAPTER 172: 172-SOMETHING TERRIFYING

Clementine:

The night was so hard to pass. After we heard Valerie call for help, every few seconds I would rush to the window to look outside and see if I could spot her. I knew going out at this hour, with all the darkness and an unknown monster lurking around, would not only put my life in danger but others too. I didn’t want to be the reason anyone died. Besides, I didn’t even know where Valerie went. North was a huge unknown territory for me.

After that, I fell asleep and Ian took over. When we woke up in the morning, everybody decided to ration the food, since last night everyone had quite a splurge. I don’t know what it was, maybe there was something in the air.

"No, you’re supposed to put it first," Oriana told me as I was trying to make an omelette. I had never worked at home, so I didn’t even know how to cook or boil an egg. We had a small gas cylinder and were cooking in the living room. The others were wandering around, discussing how they would go about the day. My squadmates were sitting on the couch in front of me, staring. It was so uncomfortable.

Haiden was on the single couch, sitting with his legs hanging off the armrest. His head was lowered, eyes lifted, just watching me blatantly. Then there was Yorick. He was leaning against the long seven-seater couch, his elbow bent, fingers making an L-shape, with one finger on his temple and his thumb near his cheek. He watched me with the same look Haiden had. Then there was Troy. He paced around with his hands in his pants pockets behind Yorick’s couch. But his eyes stayed on me. Even when he walked away, his head turned back toward me, and when he walked forward, his eyes were still on me. I guess they were just shocked at how incompetent I was at chores.

Oriana was good though. She knew what she was doing.

"Clementine, may I have a word with you?" I heard Joshua say from a little afar. He was walking toward me with his hands in his pants pockets. He was tall, but he always had this weird posture whenever he was onto something. He would just hunch over randomly.

"Can you please take over?" I asked Oriana, who gave me a look because she knew she was already doing the most. I stood and walked toward Joshua. That’s when I noticed my squadmates frown.

"What is it?" I asked as I met him in the middle of the living room. The minute Joshua and I started talking, all the squadmates turned their eyes on us.

"Listen, I was thinking it would be better if you don’t mention anything from last night to anybody else," Joshua whispered, almost leaning over me. He was always this way, but I didn’t like when someone hunches over me, especially someone as tall as him, and then reaches to my ear to whisper. It felt a little intimate, especially when he kept coming closer.

"Why?" I asked, pulling back slightly and pointing at him to let him know he could talk from a good distance. Still, I could tell it was a very private conversation. So he stepped closer, and this time I didn’t move away.

"I think even Jack agrees," he mumbled. My eyes shifted behind him to Jack, who was staring at us. Then I noticed Suki looking from Jack to Joshua. They were by the dining table, filling juice glasses for everyone.

This was the first time we had so much food in the North, so it kind of felt like a party. But I noticed nobody was thinking about rationing until my squad brought it up, and then Oriana took over, because like I said, she was really good at it.

"But why though?" I asked Joshua again.

"Because it will freak everyone out. We don’t know what that thing outside is. They won’t even want to leave the house," he whispered, reminding me how it had crawled all the way up, and how its tail was so powerful it could smash the glass doors. Still, I didn’t understand why the mansion windows hadn’t broken. Anywhere else, this thing could crawl, it could run, it could break things. Which meant we had no idea how to defend ourselves.

"And then there’s Valerie. If they find out, it’ll be a distraction. We need to fix the net first. But you know what will happen when we tell Jessie that Valerie is alive? She’ll want to go after her, and she’ll take some squadmates with her. She has friends, and they’ll follow her," Joshua explained.

Honestly, the more he spoke, the more reasons he gave not to tell, the more I felt like we should.

"Don’t you think we should let them know there’s a monster they need to watch out for? And as for Jessie, it’s her right to know about her sister. We can’t just expect the world to disappear when we close our eyes, Joshua," I whispered.

I noticed him slowly cracking his neck. And because he was still so close, I could hear it clearly.

"You really don’t listen to anybody else, do you?" Joshua muttered, finally pulling away from me.

"What is going on?" I guessed my squadmates had finally had enough. They gave me as much privacy as they thought I deserved, and then Haiden got up from the couch and walked over.

"Is there a problem?" he asked Joshua, his tone almost threatening.

"Your squadmate herself is a problem," Joshua snapped, angry because I disagreed with his plan of hiding things when we should be telling everyone what to watch out for.

Haiden turned to me, like he was asking what was going on.

"There is something you guys need to know." I stepped up. There was no way I would let this man bully me into silence. I could tell it was already on.

Joshua shook his head in disbelief and walked away. He reached Jack and swiftly whispered something in his ear before pulling back.