Monotone | ✔️

Chapter Twenty Eight

The next day, I was awoken from my fitful sleep by Robyn. As her hand slapped me across the face to rouse me, the lingering fragments of my nightmare flashed in my vision, the residual images clinging like cobwebs in the back of my skull. Blinking heavily to try and dispel these venomous thoughts, I looked at Robyn in surprise. It seemed she had ungracefully slithered toward me in order to stir me.

"Be careful of your leg!" I snapped quietly, my words interjected by a yawn.

"I need to talk to you." She replied. I could sense the dire urgency in her tone, hence why I nodded for her to carry on. My hands clutched together in my lap, a habit I'd had since I was born. Before Robyn continued, her eyes traversed around the area, as though wary of anyone listening. With my curiosity heightened, I hastily spoke.

"The others are off finding supplies. Stephen and Clara are guarding opposite sides of our camp, but they won't be able to hear."

The dubious look still resided in her eyes, but she soon complied, nibbling her lip as she contemplated what to say. After a pause - a very tense, palpable one - her mouth formed sound. "I think I should tell you the purpose for being here. I know we still have a day to wait for Chris but with their arrival... I'm scared there won't be any proper privacy to inform you of the plan."

I avoided her gaze. "I understand."

Another pause elongated, but a faint noise scratched at my ears. Daring to look up again, I saw Robyn pull out a necklace from around her neck, a delicate silver chain I had never noticed before. Dangling at the end of it was a key. "Jay and I were the children of the people who designed the technology that formed the robot." She whispered. "When we were twelve, we had news that they had died in a laboratory fire. It was all over the news; their team had been the best, the elite. We were rendered orphans in one day..."

That explained why she was always so trenchant and cold - her parent's death had contorted her, changed her for the worse. On the other hand, Jay had simply shrunk into himself, becoming quiet and sullen.

"But then, a few years after their deaths we received a letter." Robyn continued. "By then, the robots had took control. We were living with our aunt. Jay and I opened the letter; it said 'We're sorry. We couldn't stop them. We couldn't stop them. Be free x'  And it was signed by our parents. Naturally, that got us thinking, we started to research our parent's work, claiming it was a grieved craze, and that we should be left alone in order to cope with our elongating insanity." She sounded bitter. "Our parents had always told us of their work. Their team was the supreme group, but they were all fairly young and eccentric. It seemed they were trying to be too smart, and make these robots, a smart database, that could decipher complex human body and speaking language. But these robots... they revolted against their superiors. They made them too smart. And soon, they were usurped by their own creations. We pieced that much together, but then there was a gaping hole: what happened after the initial incident."

She took a moment to steady herself, eyes flicking around once again. "We decided to run away to join the main band of Freedom Fighters. We did this because of the last two words in our parent's mysterious letter: be free. Our names, you see, we were named after birds. Our parents were always big believers of peace and serenity. Before it all happened we lived in a remote area, we were always allowed to run around and do as we wished..." A small smile curled her lips, her eyes briefly distant as she reminisced in the memory. "We underwent training, just like if we joined the army. Then, after a year, we were assigned to a group. Me, Jay, Chris, Ollie and Ruby. Ruby and Ollie died within the first year, then it was just the three of us. Between the time we were reduced to three and you joined, we devised a theory, one we've been pursuing for the whole time. Are you following me right now?" Studying me, she looked intelligent, in control. All traces of the broken little girl had all but vanished, pushed to the back of her mind. It was obvious she felt very strongly about all this.

I nodded. "Yep."

"A few times, we observed the main city from afar. It was derelict, abandoned, everyone lived elsewhere. Why hadn't they knocked it down and put it to better use? That was the question that preyed on us. But, one of my parent's bases was in the city. I - we - thought that the reason this place is still here is because my parents and the other scientists are in their somewhere, and they're being forced to improve the robots. Maybe they're not even aware they're doing it, maybe their loved ones are being threatened as blackmail. This key --" she motioned to the chain around her neck. "Is the key to their office. Chris has Jay's one. We're planning on infiltrating that building, breaking in and freeing the scientists. It won't stop the robots and the decay of the human race immediately, but we can use them to shut it all down."

I briefly wallowed in silence, sure that my mouth was agape. This is what it is all about? I was glad I knew the truth now, glad I could offer my services in a more worthwhile manner. I just hoped the theory was true.

"We worked out where the suspected building is: around the corner from here."

"Wait." I murmured. "Stephen said they came here because they saw all the robots come to this area. Why is this?"

A ghost of a smirk flickered on her face. "Because the prodigy daughter has arrived."

{Were you surprised at this? I hoped you enjoyed the chapter!}