☾THE MECHANIC☽

12. Operation Jeep

The seven of you sit on the wall by one of the solar lights. You sigh as you look up at the red sky. You feel a pressure on your left shoulder. You glance down to see Taylor resting her head on your shoulder. You place a hand on her knee, giving it a gentle squeeze. Taylor places a hand on top of yours.

The seven of you are dressed in all-black suits that Aiden bought on a whim. A good choice on his call. You glance down at the phantoms who are standing at the edge of where the light is cast on the ground. The phantoms avoid light, not because it kills them but because it just makes them lose whatever form they're holding onto, which is what you and Ashlyn have concluded. "Are we going to be able to deal with that?" Taylor questions, lifting her head from your shoulder.

You stand up, answering her question, "Most of them will be distracted by the traps we set up". Ashlyn stands up beside you. For the past month, the two of you spent your time planning out every little detail. You've run simulations of the plan a million times. The jeep is the first step to getting the seven of you out of this place, you're so close. After how hard you guys worked, you're not letting this scare you away. You sit on the bus as the rest of your friends go down the ladder. Well, except for Aiden. He jumps off the side of the bus.

"Alright, let's go over the plan one more time" Ashlyn begins. "Um... Are we sure we want to do this?" Taylor says, sheepishly. You and Ashlyn both furrow your eyebrows at the female twin. "What?" Ashlyn turns to her. "I mean, y'know, maybe just staying here in the graveyard every night wouldn't be so bad, right?" Taylor starts to explain, "Especially with the lights up... Couldn't we just hide in here? Till the seven hours are up?". "I- I like that idea..." Logan squeaks. "Are you serious? I thought you guys wanted out of here? Now you're saying you don't mind being trapped here for the rest of our lives?" Ashlyn crosses her arms. "And you, why are you being so quiet?" She turns to Tyler, "You're the one who pitched a fit wanting to go to Savannah, so why are you passive about it now?". To be honest, you're curious too. Tyler always has something to say.

"That was before we knew about the lights and before there was a horde of those things right outside the door!" Tyler argues, "I'm not saying we should stop trying to find a way out- Just maybe not with this plan. We don't even really need guns anymore, right?". You jump down from the bus, landing beside Tyler, causing the boy to flinch. "You're choosing to bring this up now? You- Nevermind" You sigh, "The guns are still a necessity. Even if we didn't have the lights, you think we wouldn't have found out about the horde of phantoms out there sooner or later?".

Tyler opens his mouth but you beat him to it. "After all the prepping, the training, the sneaking around placing traps, and right before we actually do something, you want to back out?" You feel your anger rise. You're not letting everything you've guys done or everything you and Ashlyn planned out go to waste. "There's too many right now!" Tyler glares. "That's why we have traps!" Ashlyn argues. You make your way over to the ginger-haired girl. She turns around, "No. No!". Ashlyn faces everyone again, "I'm getting that jeep. Even if we decide we don't need guns, eventually we'll need to get out of there and learn how this place works so we can find a way out! That is what we agreed on!".

"Hey, Ash... Maybe you should-" Aiden is interrupted by Ashlyn. "Don't tell me what I should do! If you hadn't been so persistent in bothering me, I never would've gone to Savannah and none of this would've happened! You keep pushing my boundaries and I'm tired of it!" She lashes out. Now it just became awkward. "Why are you so worked up?!" Tyler shouts. "Because we're ready now, but if something goes wrong in the future because I let us wait and not take initiative, it'd be my fault as the leader!". "Yeah, well no one said you had to be the 'leader', you did that on your own!" Tyler scoffs. "Who else other than [Y/N] was going to do it?! I've been hearing those monsters all my life so apparently I have some weird connection to this place! This all happened when the phantom grabbed [Y/N] and me, and we didn't say anything about it" Ashlyn gestures over to you. Your lips thin into a straight line as Tyler's eyes glance over at you for a second.