Adeline’s face turned red. “You’re not listening. I don’t want an exit.”
He continued speaking. “I had a premonition you would bring an energy storage device. Please tell me it’s true.”
Slowly, she turned and took her bag into her hands. She reached inside and pulled out a small battery. “Made from carbon fiber composites,” she said. “It allows for faster speeds and higher power.”
I had never seen anything like it. I chuckled when I thought about all the hoops she must have had to leap through to get one of those things. Then, I realized she probably hadn’t. “Does your team know you brought that?”
A faint smirk appeared on her face. “No, but I didn’t know what I’d find on the other side. I needed to come prepared.”
Mag gave a sigh of relief. “Then, maybe some of the hallucinations are, in fact, guiding us, after all.”
I took the battery in my hands and observed it to the best of my ability, sniffing at the rounded metal edges to digest the details. It looked like a capsule, or a small atom bomb, and it felt dense in the center. It felt like it was spinning. “There is a rotational device in the heart of this... machine?” I asked.
She nodded and carefully took it back, placing it in the center of the room. “That’s what allows for its power, but I’m not sure how long it will last here. It could be as long as five hours or as short as fifteen minutes.”
The three of us were silent, but Adeline was able to put things together in her head fairly fast. “Look, I’m guessing this battery needs to power a device you’ve found. I can help you with that, but I’m not leaving without you.”
I took the battery and placed it among my things. It was so fucking weird. She didn’t give one thought to how we looked. We were massive. Men would find us threatening. Women would recoil and scream for help. When I was younger, I read Shelley’s Frankenstein more than enough times to get my fill of human vitriol. I didn’t need to experience the backlash of mankind.
“They will kill us,” I said.
“Not if we kill them all first,” Mag grunted.
Cadmar did not say a word. After all, he was the architect. How could he leave the world he created?
“My team isn’t like the others. They will help you,” she insisted.
Adeline had a pure heart. She didn’t see us for what we looked like on the outside. But those scientists would not help us. There were only two paths for atrocities such as us. A life of experimentation or death.
She was pure, but she wasn’t stupid. She lowered her head and sucked in a breath. In a way, we had been running from the truth. It hit me at the same exact time. We were stuck here. We would never find a way out, but she would. She could tell the world about what their government did. She could right the wrongs of the past, and eventually find love with a caring person.
We were going to have to let her go. It broke me, but I had to accept it.
“I suddenly feel very tired,” she whispered, cold and distant.
I knew the truth would hurt her, so all I could do was hope time would heal her. She laid her head against my chest and closed her eyes. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “Everything is going to be okay.”
She would not sleep in this eternal night zone, this wild reflection of a world gone wrong. If she saw any pictures, it was because the maddening effects of our dreaded home were strengthening around her subconscious. For now, we would keep her safe and hold our heads high.
“I’ll never leave you,” she whispered, shivering slightly with fever.
But she didn’t know it—she already had begun to.
10
Adeline
Spinning into a starry cosmic pool, I felt my body give way and my soul set free. The feeling didn’t make much sense, since I didn’t necessarily even believe in a soul. But I was somewhere, and my body wasn’t present. Images flashed in front of me, hallucinations that normally would have scared the hell out of me had I not experienced them on a regular basis. In that dark ether, I swam directly to where I heard the voices call to me.
“Adeline...”
So familiar. So soothing. I knew those voices, but I couldn’t pinpoint who exactly they came from.
Suddenly, I found myself walking through a mountain range. I turned back to see multiple rows of buildings. I squinted to see more detail and noticed the white tarps draped across the metal foundation. They were greenhouses filled with incredible plants. I could not see the vegetation, but I could somehow smell the life emanating from inside. Yet, instead of feeling good about what I saw, I felt a deep sense of longing.
I turned back around and faced the rocky path forward. I was getting closer to my destination, a cave thirty meters away.
“Adeline.”