Rose Tinted (19 page)

Chapter 23
: Caves

The entire dynamic of the group had changed overnight and it left Brynn utterly off balance. Devey hadn’t spoken since her screaming fit in the train but no one seemed to press her on the matter. Everyone tip toed around the small, fragile girl as if she might shatter at any moment. The scowl she normally wore was gone, replaced by a haunted look that never left her angelic face.

The group had relocated to a
large cave on the coast, far from Eastern Metropolis or any other city. Rusty explained to them that she knew about almost every cave system on the coast of Halcyon since she’d been forced to find one just right to store her submarine in and had come across, what appeared to be, an old Worker’s headquarters that had long since been abandon. This was where they would be spending their time.

After directing everyone to their new temporary headquarters, she’d left right away, fearing that Jonah would tell Eris where The Bucket was hidden and that the Angel, in turn, would completely destroy the mechanical feat Rusty had been so proud of.

Amber, who had never been one for having adventures
, had changed in A1. Brynn hardly recognized her friend’s determination or sudden leadership skills. Amber had taken charge once Rusty left the group behind to go get Rift and any other recruits willing to join them in what now appeared to be an all-out war. Amber and Hadlock constantly held private conferences in the cavernous room near the sea, strategizing and keeping information on a need-to-know basis.

Apparently Jonah’s betrayal had left everyone
with the feeling that sharing every detail of their plans wasn’t such a good idea.

Brynn
and Ty didn’t speak for days after their return to the relative safety of the cave. They avoided eye contact and skirted the subject of Brynn’s lie until eventually, the sadness that Cambria’s death had left behind, forced them into an unspoken agreement that they had forgiven each other. Brynn could no longer face her quickly worsening nightmares on her own and Ty could no longer watch her wake every night in terror without wanting to help her. It was in his nature to watch over her.

The small grou
p that made up The Alliance slept on the floor of the cavernous cave, crowded into one spot in a mess of clumsily scattered blankets and pillows. In the midst of the chaos, Brynn spent her evenings beside Ty, trying to stop the dark thoughts that wouldn’t seem to leave her alone. Her dreams were more vivid now, more violent than they had been before, though the walls still shifted and the lights still flickered on and off. In the background of her dreams, Brynn constantly saw a mangled and bloodstained version of Cambria, staring wordlessly at her.

Her
normally pale skin looked more purple than white and the usual smile was gone from her face, replaced by a silent scream that even Brynn couldn’t hear. Her headaches were coming with more force now and the dizziness she had almost grown accustomed to over the last few months was now too much to handle.

Things were falling apart.

One night, when the rest of their party was asleep, resting up for the next day when Rusty would be back, Brynn replayed her conversations with Jonah to give herself a rest from her constant visions of Cambria’s lifeless body. She tried to find some clue that he had been working with Eris all along but didn’t find anything that suggested such a betrayal.

Jonah hadn’t ever approached her. Brynn found him in the library and practically forced him to work with her.

Jonah hadn’t ever come up with the ideas that ultimately led to them finding A1. Brynn had decided to jump off of the train.

If Jonah knew what was happening all along and was trying to lead Brynn to A1, he hadn’t done a very good job of it.

Brynn shifted next to Ty at the thought that she had left Jonah in A1 to die.

“Are you all right?” Ty asked sleepily.

Rolling onto his side to face Brynn and breathing deeply as he attempted to blink away whatever dream he had been having.

“Jonah didn’t know,” Brynn
whispered, the phrase so common for her now that it almost felt rehearsed.

Ty sighed at this statement and brushed a few stray hairs away from Brynn’s f
ace to get a better look at her, being quiet so that he didn’t disturb the others sleeping around them.

“I know you don’t want to believe that he betrayed us,” Ty began slowly. “As much as we didn’t get along
, I never would have thought him capable of that. But it doesn’t change the facts Brynn. Jonah is an A.I., and that means he’s been working with Eris.”

“The one fact doesn’t lead to the other,” she protested. “I know it seems bad because he didn’t know he was an A.I.
, but think back to all of the times I was alone with him, Ty. How many times could he have hauled me off to A1 forcefully? How many times could he have killed me or you?”

Confusion passed over Ty’s sleepy face for a moment before he answered.

“Eris loves her test results, right?” Ty asked, to which Brynn nodded in response. “Maybe this whole thing with you was a test to see how much they could get you to remember without having to torture the information out of you. She already knows that doesn’t work out too well since she killed Rachel without getting any answers. Maybe she’s getting smarter. She does have artificial intelligence; that means she’s capable of learning from her past mistakes.”

“But Jonah never approached me,” Brynn said, repeating the one thing that convinced her Jonah had nothing to do with Eris. “If I hadn’t happened to go to the library that day
, I never would have met him.”

“I don’t know if that’s really conclusive evidence,” Ty began, but Brynn quickly cut him off.

“Even after I met him, he didn’t make an effort to seek me out, Ty,” she said pleadingly. “I had to go find him again and try to get him to help me. He didn’t come looking for me after we met.”

“Maybe you’re right,”
Ty agreed halfheartedly, though Brynn could tell he was just saying it to get her to rest. He pulled her close to him, letting her rest her head against his chest and stroked her long black hair methodically. “We just can’t know anything for sure yet.”

Brynn touched her nose gently to Ty’s neck with closed eyes and breathed in his comforting scent, hoping that the familiarity she felt there would help her fall back asleep.

“Ty, I love you for always trying to keep me safe,” Brynn began, her eyes still closed and her voice barely above a whisper. “But I have to go back to A1 and get Jonah out of there whether you come with me or not.”

Ty was silent for a long time and it was impossible for Brynn to tell if he had fallen back asleep before her proclamation
, or if he was thinking it over, deciding how to respond just as Jonah always did.

“Ty?” Brynn finally whispered, unable
to take his silence any longer.

“Well I love you too and that’s why I’ll follow you back into that de
ath trap if you insist on throwing away our lives for someone who betrayed us.”

Though it wasn’t the most enthusiastic response he could have given her, Brynn decided in this instance, she would take what she could get.

“Rusty said they had to take a less direct route to get here so they’ll be arriving tomorrow instead,” Hadlock informed the group the next day. “She was afraid the A.I.s would know where to find her sub if she took the normal path so she’s switching things up a bit.”

“Are they bringing any recruits back with them?” Amber asked, being her new and efficient self with gusto.

“The only one who opted to come was Royter,” Hadlock said sadly.

“She’s coming back?” Tate asked from the other side of th
eir cavern, his interest piqued by the mention of the girl Brynn wasn’t sure she trusted.

“She’s the only one,” Hadlock reminded him, apparently not as happy that only one person wanted to come save the world with them.
“Rift salvaged what he could from our base and destroyed everything else, though it doesn’t really matter now. The A.I.s know what we’re capable of building.”

“They know who we are,” Bennett pointed out solemnly.

“They know every place we’ve ever hidden,” Dash added.

Though she knew she shouldn’t, Brynn couldn’t help but feel that the constant Jonah attacks were digs at her as well. Any time someone mentioned Jonah’s betrayal she had to quell the anger that bubbled
up inside of her, knowing that they would never believe her when she told them he didn’t know he was an A.I..

Being the only person in the group who still believed in the boy she’d met in the library was beginning to take its toll on her and the longer this division of opinions persisted, the more ostracized from the group she felt.

“What did you find in the files about Eris?” Brynn asked, wanting to turn the topic of conversation away from Jonah and his supposed affiliation with A1.

“Nothing,” Hadlock said, looking over at Brynn sadly.

“What do you mean nothing?” Ty asked incredulously. “There has to be something in there that will help us take her down.”

“The files weren’t real,” Amber answered for Hadlock.

She hadn’t said it in a mean or hurtful way and yet, the words still felt like a slap in the face to Brynn.

“They weren’t real?”

“They were dummy files,” Hadlock explained calmly. “
Somehow
Eris knew when we were coming and what we were coming for so she replaced the normal files with fakes.”

“Why even bother replacing the files at all?” Ty asked, voicing Brynn’s thoughts exactly.

By now the rest of the group had gathered around to hear about their failure that had cost Cambria her life.

“To give us something to wait for?” Hadlock said with a shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“The more time we took to upload the fake files, the more time Eris had to come after as many of us as she could,” Amber answered, looking at Devey for a moment before quickly averting her gaze.

If the girl noticed, she didn’t show any signs of it. She simply continued to stare straight ahead with the same blank look she’d worn e
ver since leaving the facility.

“So we don’t have
any
information on how to shut Eris down?” Brynn asked heavily, massaging her temple against the headache that was beginning to form there as it always did.

“Not exactly,” Hadlock replied, now looking more hopeful than he had before. “We were able to get most of the real files pertaining to the sugar scented gas,” he said happily. “I don’t know how or why
, but for some reason those files were completely legitimate and now we’ve got blueprints, instructions, and just about anything else we could need about how to shut down the gas.”

“We don’t have a way to stop her but we have a way to make her at least slightly less deadly,” Amber finished, looking just as proud as Hadlock.

“What do we need to do to destroy the gas?” Dash asked from the back of the group, his voice and physical presence so small that everyone had forgotten he was even there.

“We’re going to need to break into the facility again,” Hadlock said hesitantly, his eyes trained on Devey to
gauge her reaction.

“I’m sure they’ve blocked off the train tunnel by now,” Brynn pointed out. “Or they’re at least monitoring it better. Now that they know about the weak spot in their
security they aren’t going to let us go the same way twice.”

“While that may be true, it’s also true that they’re arrogant when it comes to their facility. They feel like it’s a fortress no one can get into,” Hadlock countered.

“Except for us,” Ty said simply.

“Twice,” Brynn added with a small
smile in her friend’s direction.

The gesture was short lived but it still felt good to Brynn to be joking around with Ty once more.

“Eris feels like the only reason you were able to break in was because she knew you were coming and
let
you break in,” Hadlock said, stating a fact that Brynn couldn’t deny.

Eris was nothing if not overly confident in her ability to run things. She would never admit that Brynn could outsmart her.

“But if we don’t use the main door above ground and we don’t use the train tunnel below ground, how do we get in?” Brynn asked.

“Or better yet
, how do we get there in the first place without a train?” Ty asked.

“That’s what we keep Rusty around for,” Hadlock said. “She built a car a while back that I think a small group of us could fit into.
We got the plans from some of our stolen A1 files.”

“A car?” Brynn asked, confused by the term. “Like a train car?”

“Kind of. It’s like a train car with bigger wheels so that it doesn’t need a track. It can just drive right over the terrain.”

“That sounds made up,” Bennett stated simply.
“Like something you’d read in a book.”

“When have you ever read a book?” Amber teased, sounding much more like her old self for a moment.