American Assassins

Chapter 20: Kimberley

I decide to spend the night in the hut.  I really don’t want Ronnie talking to me at all.  Yeah she’s a great sister but she is a brat and thinks she’s the boss of me.  I’m older, and smarter than she is.  I just need some time alone.  The only person I really want to talk to right now is Jason, but he’s studying for a big mid-term tomorrow.

                He carries a 4.0 on his shoulders and has time to train and have a social life.  I can barely multitask just a 3.0 and train and sort of have a social life.  Jason is in much better shape than me in life.  Blake, he carries a 3.75.  He’s as smart as his brother, but lacks the homework part of school.  Social life he has. I don’t know how he does it he can just walk up to somebody, say hi and start a random conversation.  Why can’t it be that easy for me?

                I pull out my laptop Logan got for me for my birthday and type in Outcast tribes in the search bar for google.  Lists upon lists come up.  I select one and find the location and look for the names I’ve been searching for ever since I could use a computer. 

                I click on the list of names for the Outcast tribe in Florida, but no, they’re not there.  I click the back button and try the tribe in Colorado.  No. 

                It takes me about an hour to scroll through all the tribes not even finding the names I am looking for.  I sigh and lean my head back in frustration. 

                I remember seeing them on TV.  The oldest was dirty and filthy.  His tall, body structure made him look like a walking skeleton.  His eyes were sunken in and they all looked starving.  He had very light blue eyes and short brown hair.  His name was Zack. 

                The second oldest didn’t look as dirty as the oldest boy but looked just as hungry.  He was much shorter than Zack.  His eyes are a bright blue color and stood out against his tanner skin and blonde, highlighted hair.  His name was Cale.

                The youngest was a girl.  She was clutching her oldest brother as he was holding her.  Her blonde hair turned to brown because of the mud and dirt.  She looked dead in his arms.  Her eyes were closed and she sucked on her thumb.  Her name was Lizzy. 

                All three of them had probably walked for days, without any food or water.  The news reporters said their parents left them in the forest alone.  Zack told them his mother said we would be right back, then never came. They were in the forest for days. The news reporters said they were in an orphanage.  But I knew Zack wouldn’t allow his brother and sister to suffer like that, and I was right.  The next day the news reporters said the three children are gone.  They haven’t been seen since.  That’s why I search for them on line in the tribes.  I just couldn’t shake the guilt of seeing them.  I hardly recognized them when I saw them.  My cousins, my other cousins. 

                I remember them, they used to visit us more often than Jason and them but the last time I saw them in person was the summer right before the murdering. Zack is one year older than me and Cale is the same age as Ronnie.  Lizzy is three or four years younger than Cale.  I search for them all the time, but I always have a gut feeling they are dead.  I probably knew it all along, they are dead. 

                I feel hot tears start to runs down my face accepting the truth.  I slap my computer shut and curl up on the couch with the blanket I brought up.  I cry myself to sleep that night, thinking of my other cousins.  I don’t want to believe it, but I know, I know well they’re dead.

                A week goes by and my detention is a quarter of the way over.  Drake has stopped talking to me after the day I hit him.  Mostly the whole school doesn’t want to look at me or even talk to me for that matter.  Great, everyone is scared of me.  I hate my life.  I close my locker and walk to my class, biology.