***
“Tamryn, wait!”
I just barely catch up with her before she enters the main hall. She pauses at the end of the tunnel, but doesn’t turn, her body stiffening from head to toe.
“Please,” I add, grasping her arm gently and turning her to face me. “Can we talk for a minute?”
She stares up at me as if unsure before sighing and gesturing toward a nearby door. “In there. Quickly. Baron is not a patient man.”
We duck into what looks like a utility closet and Tamryn closes the door and flips on a light. “What do you want, Gage?”
Her venomous tone doesn’t surprise me. She hates me for what I did to her, for what I talked her into.
“I just… I wanted…” What did I want? Blythe had told me to go get some closure and I guess that’s what I need. To know that she’s okay, and that she doesn’t hate me for talking her into becoming something she didn’t want to be.
“I’m glad you’re all right,” I say. “I thought you were dead.”
She smiles, but it is not a happy gesture. It is laced with sarcasm and irony. “Well, here I am, alive and well.”
“Yeah, and hanging out with the Rejects. What’s going on? Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Tamryn folds her arms over her chest and smirks at me. “Looks to me like you’re the one in trouble. I never thought you’d be ballsy enough to join the Resistance. You’re not even one of them, Gage.”
“No, but my niece is. You know that.”
“Do they know? Who you really are?”
“What does it matter?”
She laughs dryly. “That’s my Gage, always avoiding confrontation.”
She has me there and it stings like a bitch. “Look, Tamryn, I’m sorry, okay? I did what I could to help you. I thought that if you had another chance at life, you would be happy. But you just couldn’t accept your new body and I’m sorry for that. If I’d known that you would hate it so much, I would have left it alone.”
“Sure you would have. His Perfect Royal Highness wheeling around a crippled girlfriend? Not likely.”
“That’s not fair,” I reply, my hand biting into her arm as I lean down over her, resisting the urge to give her a shake. “It was never about that for me. I loved you regardless.”
“Loved? Has even that changed, then?”
“Of course not. It’s just…” I trail off, trying to find the words.
She shrugs. “It’s cool, okay? I get it. We loved each other in a way that doesn’t create passion and romance. We never were that kind of couple. And just so you know, I’m not mad about becoming a Bio. At least, not anymore. I was—I’ll admit that. I was depressed and still adjusting to the changes. Then they started coming after us and I was scared. It was easy to blame you for all of it, but I made my own decisions. I couldn’t bear to be a cripple, any more than you could have stood watching me live as one. I’ve accepted what I am now and I’m proud.”
I cringe. “Proud enough to join an extremist group of terrorists?”
“Don’t call us that!” she shouts, her voice shrill in her denial. “We are just trying to survive.”
“By targeting everyone who is not like you? By killing mercilessly? Tamryn, I don’t know how you came to be here, but you’re not safe with these people. You need to leave.”
“They saved me!” she insists. “When the MPs came and took me, Baron and his crew apprehended the craft holding me and several other prisoners before they could take us to Stonehead. They have done nothing but protect and shelter me.”
“Have you even left this place since they brought you here? Don’t you watch the news or know anything about these people? They’re animals, Tamryn. They believe—”
“I know what they believe! I know, and I agree with them.”
My jaw drops so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t scrape the floor. “You’ve gotta be shitting me. You can’t believe that!”
“Fuck you, Gage! I am so sick and tired of having my life controlled, of having people tell me how to act or what to think. Poor little Tamryn, too sweet and innocent for the realities of the world—let’s shelter her and coddle her and pamper her like a perfect, spoiled princess.”
“Look, I get it. We’re from the same world and I understand how you feel.”
“Maybe so, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re one of the people who used to treat me like that. The blinders are off and I see the world just fine, thank you. I know what I’ve become a part of. This is a true revolution, a war, and in war there are casualties.”
“Innocent people?”
“No one is innocent—can’t you see that? Those people, those idiots out there who lap up the government’s shit and call it chocolate ice cream, are the worst perpetrators. They stand idly by and watch the government terrorize us and take away our rights. They are no more innocent than the ones doing the killing.”
I shake my head, backing away from her toward the door. “This is insane. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
She shrugs. “Sorry, honey. Things have changed and so have I.”
I can’t accept it. I won’t. I can’t accept that I had a hand in causing this new Tamryn to emerge. “Let me help you, Tamryn. Come with me.”
She snorts sarcastically. “How would your little girlfriend feel about that?”
“She’d be happy,” I answer, knowing I’m right. “Because rescuing people like you is her mission. It’s what she does.”
“Thanks for the offer but I’m fine here,” she answers, pushing past me and reaching for the door. “I hope that seeing me again has at least put your fears about my death to rest. But life has led us down different paths. Contrary to what you might think, I chose this path on my own.” She goes to leave, but then turns, glancing back at me over her shoulder. “Oh, and take my advice. Your little girlfriend? Tell her the truth, Gage. Tell her before it’s too late.”
And with that, she is gone. I watch her leave, standing at the entrance to the main hall as others trickle in, taking turns in line at a counter lined with boxes of rationed protein bars and canned shakes. Just like that, Tamryn is really and truly gone, banished from my life forever.