Sugar Coated

  On the list of things that didn’t make sense to Brynn, being handed everything ranked very low. When she had the wall that trapped them, the Workers who watched them, and the ocean that threatened them, who could worry about being given everything you need? That seemed like a good problem to have.

  She wasn’t exactly sure what she expected to find if Aywon existed. Perhaps a Worker training facility that revealed nothing more than orientation videos and surgical rooms. But somewhere deep inside of her, she knew there was something more to it. The reaction of the Angel she’d met on the train when she was nine was enough to confirm that whatever was happening in that city was something secretive, exciting, and worth knowing.

  “I guess we’re going to find out,” she said with a grin.

  * * *

  “Oh, go ahead Brynn. Just let yourself in,” Ty called from his living room where he, Amber, and Bennett lounged on overstuffed brown sofas watching the week’s top ranked movies in Halcyon.

  “I wouldn’t have to if you’d come open the door every once in a while,” she said as she joined her friends on the couch, plopping down between Amber and Ty.

  “Notice anything different?” Amber asked, tilting her head from side to side and showing off a bright pink stripe in her golden blonde hair. The pink matched her default outfit perfectly, picking up the same hue in her sundress.

  “Beautiful,” Brynn said with a smile, nudging Amber with her shoulder.

  “It’s not too…you know?” Amber asked her, worry lining her features.

  “Unless you start dyeing your hair blue, wearing 3-inch lashes, and putting spikes all over your shoes, you’ll be hard-pressed to keep up with the people in this city,” Brynn reassured her. “I think it’s pretty.”

  “That’s what I keep telling her, but she won’t listen to me,” Bennett piped up from beside Amber, who didn’t deny the statement, but simply shrugged in agreement.

  “Where have you been?” Amber asked, looking over at Brynn almost suspiciously.

  “At the library,” she said elusively.

  Ty turned at this statement, giving her a look she couldn’t quite read.

  “Oh I see,” Bennett teased. “With Jonah?”

  “Maybe,” Brynn answered, feeling like she was about to be pulled into a conversation she didn’t want to have.

  “And what did you and Jonah do at the library?” Ty asked in a neutral tone.

  “Planned their wedding, probably,” Bennett said with a giggle.

  “We were actually just discussing some travel plans,” Brynn said, instantly regretting the statement the second the words escaped her mouth and her friends all turned their attention sharply to her.

  “What travel plans?” Amber and Bennett asked in unison.

  “To Central Wildwood,” Brynn answered, keeping her eyes trained on the movie screen in front of her and trying to keep the blush from rising in her cheeks.

  “Wait, what?” Ty asked, turning his body to face Brynn so that he could get a good look at her. “You aren’t serious are you?”

  “Oh Ty, calm down,” Amber said, coming to Brynn’s defense. “She’s a grown woman. She can do what she wants.”

  “Yeah, but she barely knows him!” he exclaimed, his voice rising as he spoke. “What if he’s some sort of creep or something?”

  Though Brynn wasn’t quite sure what he meant by ‘creep’, she knew she didn’t like where this conversation was going. It always bothered her to be talked about, especially when she was in the room and being ignored.

  “He’s not a creep and I’m an adult,” she snapped at Ty, turning to look at the friend who always took such good care of her.

  “You’re not acting like it,” he said back flatly.

  “Oh thanks, Mom, I’ll log that away somewhere special,” she retorted in irritation.

  Even though she felt horrible being rude to Ty when he was only trying to watch out for her, she still couldn’t seem to stop herself from getting defensive. It was true that she didn’t know Jonah that well, but she had found a kindred spirit in him. Somehow they just understood each other.

  “Brynn,” Amber said chidingly, calling her friend out on her biting tone with that one word.

  Silence fell between the group of friends as the movie played on in the background, oblivious to the tension in the room. Ty stared at Brynn as she stared at the floor, fuming. Bennett tapped her thumb uncomfortably against the sofa before standing.

  “Well, I think I need a drink,” she said awkwardly, pulling Amber wordlessly up off of the couch with her.

  The two girls padded silently out of the room, looking back over their shoulders at the uncomfortable scene before retreating into the safety of the kitchen.

  “Why do you care what I do?” Brynn asked petulantly, though she already knew the answer to her question.

  “Really, Brynn? You really need to ask that?” Ty responded, his brown eyes still trained on her. A pause stretched on between them while Brynn tried to calm herself down and see reason.

  “Fine. I’m sorry I snapped at you,” she relented reluctantly, turning to look at her childhood friend.

  “I’m sorry I cared about you,” he said in a slightly joking manner. “I’ll try not to do that anymore.”

  “Jerk,” she answered with the smallest hint of a smile, glad that even though she and Ty were quick to snap at each other, they were also quick to forgive.

  “Just please be careful,” he said, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pulling her over to him. “I know he’s a good guy and everything, but you’re very…trusting.”

  “The girl with the conspiracy theories is too trusting?” she asked incredulously.

  “Okay, fine, maybe trusting isn’t a good word. You’re very unaware of the effect you have on guys,” he corrected.

  “Trust me, this trip is all about business. No pleasure involved,” she assured him, though he still looked unconvinced.

  “Just remember to keep me on speed dial and order pepper spray from Charlie before you leave,” Ty said, giving her a squeeze.

  Chapter 16: Possibilities

  Brynn was used to riding around in trains. She had taken the same trip from Seaside to Central Wildwood every month for two years since her sixteenth birthday. What she wasn’t used to was having someone to talk to on the long train ride. As she sat in the plush armchair beside Jonah, she allowed herself a small, secretive smile at this new development.

  “I think you’ve been lying to me,” Jonah said from his position beside her. He had his head tilted back and his eyes closed, a smile gracing his lips.

  “About what?” Brynn asked.

  “Everything,” he stated simply, opening his eyes and looking over at her. “You don’t think there’s something dark and sinister going on in the cities. You just say that to justify taking this trip every month,” he finished with a grin.

  “You caught me,” she deadpanned.

  “Look at this place,” he said, glancing around their decadent train compartment. “I’d make up an elaborate lie too.”

  “Well, I guess there’s no need to do any ‘work’ on this trip now that you’ve figured out my plan,” Brynn responded as she popped a sugar cube into her mouth.

  “What was that?” he asked, looking at the small pile of white blocks in her hand, which she extended to him in a silent offering. “Are those sugar cubes?”

  “Maybe,” she said around a mouthful of sugar.

  “And you’re just eating them plain?”

  “It looks that way,” she answered, a mischievous grin crossing her face like a child caught with their hand in the wall’s cookie dispenser.

  “I guess on the list of ‘crazy things Brynn does,’ that is pretty low,” he stated with a shrug, closing his eyes once more and leaning his head back against the armchair. “So what do you do for twelve hours?”

  “I spend the first six hours wondering if the train will stop,” she admitted dully. “Then after it doesn’t, I wat
ch movies and sleep and call Ty, Amber, and Bennett.”

  “Well, since we’re stuck here for a while, why don’t we check out the lock to the control room?” Jonah suggested, already restless only a few hours into the trip.

  The pair made their way to the front of the train where the lock stood silently mocking Brynn with its impossibility. Jonah bent down so that he was eye level with the frustrating technology and quietly examined it. Brynn watched his quiet calculations as his blue eyes flew back and forth over the series of numbers and letters on the touchpad.

  “Definitely don’t touch that thing,” he said after a long pause. “I’m not an expert like Ty, but I’m pretty sure it’ll trigger an alarm if the door is opened.”

  Brynn sighed deeply at this news, slumping against the wall in the hallway in resignation. “Then how are we supposed to get off the train?” she asked, her voice sounding much more whiney than she wanted it to.

  Jonah thought this question over for a long time, tapping his thumb against his pant leg as he worked through the problem in his head.

  “Follow me,” he eventually said, walking back through the hallways toward their compartment.

  Once they reached their box they continued on through the various train cars, down the long carpeted hallways that swayed from side to side with the movement of the tracks. Each compartment had windows that looked into the normally vacant hallways and a few heads turned as they made their way to the back of the train. People rarely left their compartments during the actual trip, when everything they needed was within reach.

  “Where are we going?” Brynn asked Jonah as he continued on without explanation.

  “You’ll see,” he answered vaguely, quickening his pace until they reached the very back of the train, where the hallway ended with an open door leading to a smaller compartment and yet another door.

  Without saying a word, he simply pointed to the lock on the door, which looked to Brynn like a much less intimidating prospect than the one at the front of the train.

  “It’s a manual lock?” she asked, looking down at the open grooves where she knew the right key would slide in and open the door to the possibilities of the outside world.

  “It’s a manual lock,” he repeated with a triumphant smile. “That means it’s probably not hooked up to any alarms, we don’t have to figure out a code, and we’ll most likely be able to pick it without too many problems,” he stated, ticking off each attribute on his long fingers.

  Brynn looked at the lock in silent awe. She had never picked a lock before, but Jonah sounded confident enough that she began to allow herself some hope that their plan might work.

  “How do you go about picking a lock?” she asked, wanting to know every detail of the great adventure she was sure they were about to have.

  “I’ll get a few pictures of it and see if I can find anything in the library back home about different types of locks,” he said, pulling out his tablet and snapping a few screenshots of the lock at various angles.

  “Why don’t you just use your tablet to look it up so we can get to work right now?” Brynn asked anxiously, looking down at the clock on her own tablet to see that they were nearing the six-hour mark of their journey, almost to the point where they’d be crossing Aywon.

  “I hate to break it to you, but we aren’t jumping off of the train tonight,” he informed her. “We need to do a lot more planning. We’ll need supplies, a way to get off the train safely, and a plan.”

  “Who needs a plan?” she said, waving away his concerns with a smile.

  “You’re right. Let’s just blow the door open and jump,” he replied with a laugh before becoming serious again. “Besides, I don’t want to look anything up on my tablet. You never know who might be monitoring our searches,” he said ominously, causing Brynn to shiver slightly.

  She hadn’t ever thought of that. Having Jonah around was turning out to be even better than she thought. He was just as paranoid as her and definitely smarter, so he had the brains to think about things she hadn’t considered before.

  “Well, on that creepy note, let’s head back to our compartment,” she said in an attempt to sound lighthearted, though Jonah’s statement had definitely cast a shadow over the excitement of what they were trying to do.

  * * *

  The sun had already set by the time the train pulled into the station in Central Wildwood. The moon shone brightly over the tree-filled city, illuminating even the darkest streets as Jonah and Brynn made their way to the same hotel she had stayed in every month for two years.

  “Wow, this place is so…different,” Jonah noted as they walked side by side past small outdoor cafes and movie centers.

  The tall glass buildings and crowded rec centers of Seaside cast a dramatic contrast to the quiet restaurants and cozy shops of Central Wildwood. Brynn had taken the drastic differences for granted as the city became familiar to her, but walking with Jonah through this home-away-from-home allowed her to see it through the fresh perspective of an outsider.

  “Even the air here feels different,” he said after a long pause, as his eyes darted from one thing to the next, never resting in one place as they walked.

  “It feels wet,” Brynn said, remembering thinking that exact same thing the first time she had come to the city.

  Though they lived near the ocean and were constantly battling humidity, somehow this place seemed to hold even more moisture in the air, making everything feel slightly cold and damp compared to the hot, sticky air often present in Seaside.

  “That’s the perfect way to describe it,” Jonah agreed as they arrived at the hotel.

  Brynn punched her confirmation number and personal ID number into the front desk computer and the card to her room was dispensed. Though you didn’t necessarily need to make reservations when staying at a hotel, it was always safer to ensure you got the room you really wanted.

  “So what’s the uh…rooming situation?” Jonah asked, trying to keep his voice even and neutral.

  “I just booked the room I normally get, but ordered two beds,” Brynn replied, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as they arrived in front of their room. “Is that…okay?”

  “Sounds good to me,” he said, his voice still betraying no emotion.

  In the moment, Brynn hadn’t given their rooming situation a second thought, feeling like their entire trip would be spent strategizing on how to escape the train and survive the impact of hitting the ground at a high speed. Any sleep would be obtained after long hours of deliberation and planning and would hardly seem important.

  At least, that’s how Brynn had felt until she and Jonah were actually standing in their room together. Once she was actually occupying the place she had stayed countless times before, now with someone she barely knew, she could see that the sleeping arrangements were actually quite a big deal. Ty’s warnings kept replaying in her head though she quickly waved them away. She and Jonah were so similar that she just knew he was there for the adventure and the possibility of discovery. Nothing more.

  “This place is amazing,” Jonah said, completely oblivious to Brynn’s inner turmoil as he walked back and forth inspecting every little thing that was so familiar to Brynn.

  He opened the door to the bathroom to peek in and examine the large granite shower that dispensed scented water, then made his way to the sliding glass door that led out to a balcony. The tall pine trees rose up on either side of their balcony, framing their view of the mountainside with green needles.

  “Forget beds, I say we camp out on the balcony,” Jonah said with a grin as he re-entered the room, apparently happy with his inspection.

  “I’m glad it warrants your approval,” Brynn replied with a laugh and a shake of her head.

  “I thought people in Central Wildwood were supposed to be roughing it?” he asked, looking doubtfully at the large wall screen and plush, feather stuffed beds.

  “This is roughing it,” Brynn answered sarcastically, motioning towards the lux
urious amenities. “The in-house computer doesn’t just automatically know that I like sugar frozen into my ice cubes. It doesn’t get much rougher than that.”

  Jonah looked over at Brynn with his eyebrows raised, a skeptical look on his face.

  “Okay, so maybe the in-house computer does know about the sugar. But it didn’t at first,” she amended.

  Jonah tossed his small bag on the bed closest to the balcony. Neither of them had brought much since the hotel could make everything for them, though default outfits were hard to get exactly right when the house didn’t know you personally, so most people traveled with at least that.

  “It’s pretty late,” he finally said, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. “I say we get down to business tomorrow when we’re well rested and able to think.”

  “I agree. If we come up with a way to jump off of the train right now, we’ll probably end up a splatter on the ground,” Brynn said. Though her tone was joking, she couldn’t suppress a shudder that passed through her body at the thought of the danger they were actually putting themselves in.

  “Beautiful imagery, Brynn,” Jonah said.

  “Just a good incentive to get it right, since we won’t get a do-over,” she responded seriously.

  * * *

  The next morning was spent exploring the city. Brynn led Jonah through narrow streets to her favorite spots and tried to ignore the fact that everyone knew who she was.

  “I feel like you’re more well-known here than you are in Seaside,” Jonah said with a laugh as they passed by a small café where a young girl sitting at an outside table nodded in Brynn’s direction by way of a greeting. “That can’t be normal.”