Free Minds

Chapter 107.

   Instinct drove me toward the stage's stairs but I didn't even take one step when I heard Rav say to me,

"Stay where you are!"

   Feeling more helpless than ever, my gaze switched to Dorian, who looked like he was a millisecond away from going into shock at the scene that just unfolded and continued to unfold before us.

   A part of me clung to the wish that what I was witnessing was made up. That the weight of everything that had happened in the last few hours since our entry into Zavlon had finally taken a toll on my mental health. That all I was seeing should be blamed on my delusion.

   But the other part of me, the part that somewhat foresaw this the minute I connected the dots, the part that, despite the latter, felt like a million bee stings executed at once knew what I was seeing was the stark, unfiltered reality.

"How did you know?" The traitor asked.

"Get off of him, Camila." I refused to answer her question, only focusing on her and Rav's current position and trying not to panic.

   My fists balled up at the sight of Rav, with his hands tied behind him, struggling under the weight of Camila's body sitting on his upper back which made his breathing next to impossible. I could only attribute his ability to yell at me to stay where I was to some miracle.

   I just hoped that that same miracle stopped any of his bones and spirit from breaking when Camila tackled Rav to the floor and held a minute, foldable (now unfolded, of course), laser gun to his head.

"How did you know?" She repeated, using her other hand to toy with the Neuroskel she'd claimed from Rav during her sudden attack.

   In order to not lose it, I had to keep reminding myself that the Camila we'd known from the time this all began, was never really the Camila from Zavlon. We'd been with a mind-controlled Speck puppet all along, just like with Landon. Despite her excuse given in the bunker as to how the Virtuo Glasses was not on her head when it acted out at the dance, the Camila we knew disappeared the moment the mind-control devices were activated on the first day of Liberation Week. Dorian and Rav (after she contacted them, by the way) and I came back to Zavlon after that day one week and two weeks later respectively; long enough for her eyes to not remain dilated and her placement mark scar to be well-covered up.

   Although I said all this in my reply to her question, I made sure it was directed to Speck instead, "Just for the record, I didn't want to believe it was her. I was really hoping I was wrong. Especially since my main basis for believing it was her was that it wasn't the rest of us. I'm not Sherlock Holmes with all the clues. But the only way you would've known about our move from Ridgeton and everything else is if any of us told you. It couldn't be Talise because you said you knew everything up to the details of our plan, something Camila and Rav came up with after she was taken.

"Camila was the only one amongst us latched onto her phone every night, and that wasn't because she was reading and commenting on mystery-thriller web novels, was it? Also, I found it strange that Landon–who she suddenly decided to be your partner at the eleventh hour instead of Rav– was blindsided by a blow to the head while heading to the Tunnels with you even though he swore that he didn't see any Yunies following them and then he wakes up with placement marks later. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Rav and I were knocked out in the hallway moments after she and Minji just disappeared into thin air. Especially with Viola and Talise passed out next to us."

"Is that all?" he scoffed.

"Well, she's currently suffocating the life out of Rav," I held his scornful gaze. "So there's that."

   I turned to Camila who was giving me a long, hard look. Then to my, Dorian's and most definitely Rav's lungs' relief, she rose to her feet.

"Your ingenuity is admirable, Beth. I'm starting to really appreciate my decision to limit all forms of communication between Camila and me to our phones. I am more confident than ever that you would've found us out sooner if it were otherwise." Speck smiled. "Just to clarify a few things though, Cami didn't use a placement gun on him. She knocked him out so that I could. With you and Rav however, yes, that was her, but if you'd stayed in Sacury's lab like you were supposed to she wouldn't have had to do that.

"You mean you wouldn't have had to do that." Rav, still on the floor and in a much better state, scowled at Speck.

   In an instant, the room was filled with everyone giving Speck a piece of their minds.

"The nerve of you acting like you didn't orchestrate the whole thing..."

"And to think I was making the perfect plan with you..."

"You sick, demented, fu–"

   A thunderous blast no one saw coming rippled throughout the assembly pod, stunning us all to tongue-tied silence.

   All gazes shifted to the source of the noise. Not without hesitancy though.

   Camila.

   Over her head and still in hand was her gun, whose smoke remnants were becoming one with the clouds of dust formed by the fallen roof debris.

   The big smile that spread across her face would have had me wondering whether she'd really shot at the assembly pod's roof if it wasn't so lifeless. "Now that I have everyone's attention."

   Rav snorted. "Nice try, Speck. Guys, let's not take whatever she says personally from now on–"

"I'M IN PERFECT CONTROL OF MY MIND, YOU IDIOTS! ALWAYS HAVE BEEN! NO ONE'S CONTROLLING ME!"

A/N: Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! To those who have been reading Free Minds the entire year, know that I'll be forever grateful! 

Any resolutions for the new year? Or you don't believe in that sort of thing at all.

@Wattpad @WattpadOutreach @adventure @Ambassadors @TeenFiction @WattpadExplorer