I'm so sorry for the horribly long delay between this and the previous chapter. I don't know. I could blame it on that school started so I needed to get back into a routine. I could also blame it on that I got major writer's block for it. I'll start to pick up the tension in this chapter then the action in the next. Hopefully that will snap me out of my current funk. I don't know about anyone else, but I write better during school. The summer is just so...long and monotonous. I kind of feel sick during the summer sometimes just because I have no will power to get out of bed to do, well, nothing. Now that school's back in session, hopefully updates will become more regular. Thank you for hanging with me.
Thank you to i just like to read theses for faving!
And thank you, also, to Ocelot9 for faving as well as reviewing. Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so glad you've spent the time to read my fic. Thank you so much!
I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to Rooster Teeth.
I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson.
"Connecticut! Connecticut! Where are you~?" Washington sang, as he led Maine all over Wyoming's property.
So far Team CWM had woken up with no sign of their third member so Wash decided to investigate.
"Do you think you can sniff her out or something?"
Maine shook his head and made a noise that almost sounded like a chuckle. Wash shrugged.
"It was worth a shot."
They looked around several, tin buildings that dotted Wyoming's property. There were more than Wash remembered seeing when they first came. They already passed the scorched building that they had been responsible for burning the interior of it to ashes. So far they had also gone by a building for lawn care, another for maintenance storage, and a yet another building that was full of spare parts –lightbulbs and duct tape and the like.
Near the next building they came across on the campus they heard music so they rushed toward it to find it was a garage. There was a huge truck, muddied up from offroading, sitting in the middle. Two legs of denim stuck out from under it.
"Conni-um, I mean, Connecticut?" Washington had to shout to raise his voice above the classic rock blaring from a junky boombox on a bench nearby.
Rolling out from underneath the car was a greasy and confused 479er. She reached over and turned off the boombox and turned back to them.
"What do ya want?"
"S-sorry. We were looking for Connecticut. Have you seen her?"
"Boy, I've been under this truck all morning getting it back into top shape after running Erasers over with it. It threw the alignment off which is a royal pain for me to fix. So, unless she decided to wedge herself into the underside of this truck, I haven't seen her. Now if you want me to be able to go into town and buy more food, then you'll let me be, capisce?"
With that she jammed the power button on the music playing device, wiped her forehead off with the back of her hand, and rolled back under the truck.
Maine and Wash exchanged a look, shrugged, and continued their search.
Past the garage was a smaller building with his desired brunette standing by a small window. Wash smiled as he made his way over to her, being careful not to scare her.
She barely acknowledged him as she continued to rub at the window so she could see clearer inside. Wash tried to see in too, but had just as bad a view through the filthy window as Connecticut.
"So…what's up?"
She gave a frustrated growl as she gave up trying to see inside and crossed her arms angrily.
"I was just exploring the compound, and I got a feeling about this building."
"A feeling? What kind of feeling?"
Connecticut must have been having one of her premonitions. Wash's ear's perked up waiting for her response.
"I'm not sure. I just know I need to see what's inside."
The grey-winged boy stood back and walked around to find the door. Just like he expected it was locked. He looked up at Maine who replied with his series of growls.
"I don't know. We've already destroyed one of his buildings completely. I'm not sure I want to add another door to the list, but thanks for offering."
Maine nodded reluctantly and returned to brainstorming.
"Ah! I remember York saying that he knew about picking locks."
Connecticut shook her head.
"No? Is it a feeling or do you just not trust them?"
"…I can't risk it. My sense probably won't even tell me he's not to be trusted until the exact moment he opens the lock and there's no going back."
Washington's ears drooped slightly. It was very frustrating for her to deem her powers useless. She had a wonderful talent that had helped them many times. She just needed time to learn how to use it.
"Don't worry, Connie. You'll get the hang of your gift eventually."
"It's easy to have such a bright outlook on life when you had a window in your cell, isn't it?"
Wash frowned. She was still mad about that? Why was she doing this to herself?
"Connie, let's just ask York "
"It's Connecticut. Or if you really want to give me a nickname, call me CT."
"Did I hear someone needed to ask York for assistance?"
The CWM trio whipped around to see York and Carolina as well as the twins approaching the building too. CT narrowed her eyes as she was unsettled by the coincidence and the fact that their conversation had been overheard.
"W-what are you guys doing here?" Wash asked hesitantly.
CT rolled her eyes. He probably couldn't even tell a convincing lie if his life depended on it.
"Well, from the sound of it, we were doing the same thing you were going to do except I have the lock picking equipment with me."
"Why would you want to-"
"We explored this compound yesterday while you all were getting all beautified," South explained. "This was the only building that was locked. It seemed suspicious."
"And we were bored." York smiled as he dug out the equipment from his pocket.
"I still say that this is rude and unnecessary," Carolina said, defiantly. "This is his property. Wyoming's allowed to have locked buildings."
"I agree with Carolina. I mean, what do you even think you'll find in there?" North said, calmly.
"Something we need to see," CT said ominously.
"I don't know, Lina. I found from experience that the locked doors are the kind that have the most interesting things behind them."
Before Carolina could protest, York had opened the lock and swung back the door. Everyone followed him inside -even Carolina too who was still condemning the action of breaking and entering for reasons that weren't life and death.
Washington found the light bulb by pulling on a string that went to the ceiling and instantly the whole shed was illuminated with a yellow glow.
The first thing South noticed was that it wasn't that dusty. Even though the room was barely big enough for all seven of them to stand in, it looked like someone came in here often enough even though the contents seemed boring enough. There was a desk and some filing cabinets, and that was basically it.
"Well this was a bust. There's just office junk!"
Wash looked around and would have drawn the same conclusion if not for his faith in Connie. He looked toward her to find her staring at the filing cabinets.
"CT? Follow your instincts. Why did you sense we needed to come in here?"
She reached out a hesitant hand and pulled out a door on the filing cabinet. Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the sound.
"What's in there? Are those names?"
Inside the cabinet were manila folders labeled by both a name and a numerical identification that was six digits long –just like their identification numbers for when they were being tortured under Project Freelancer.
North took a folder out and opened it up on the desk, paging through its contents.
"It looks like this person was one of the past refugees."
"How can you tell?"
"Well, it has their name, when they came, how long they stayed, and…."
"…Just spit it out, North! What else?" South couldn't take the suspense especially since she knew her brother all too well to know that it was probably bad news.
"And the date of when he was recaptured back to Project Freelancer."
A silent bomb went off in the shed.
"Let me see that."
York switched places with North and saw it for himself, but he only got more and more scared as he read it.
"Well, it does make sense. I mean, if he kept records of everyone, it would make sense to record that information as well. It's just always a possibility. There never was a guarantee that we'd be safe after this," Washington said, sadly.
"Poor guy."
"What was his name?" Connecticut asked softly.
"Um, it says he never gave his real name, but he went by 'Georgia.' Heh. Guess he had the same idea as us, hu?" North said.
There was a moment of silence for the poor kid. However, the silence was broken by a growling emanating from their Eraser friend.
"What, Maine?"
He repeated the long series of grows and grunts.
"What is he saying?"
"Um…he said that while we were looking at Georgia's file, he was looking at the rest, and he says all of them have dates of recapture on them."
"You're lying. Sure some of them are still…."
With that, the seven mutants descended upon the filing cabinets like wild dogs upon meat. They made minimal effort of keeping the folders organized as something much more important was at stake. Fear strangled their hearts as they found time and time again that the folder they held said that the bird kid had been recaptured after leaving Wyoming's compound.
"How could he even know they were recaptured?"
"I don't know, but have you noticed the dates? All of them were recaptured exactly a week after they arrived here."
"…That's no coincidence."
"But what does that mean?"
There was a crushing silence, but South was too frustrated to care.
"It means that they're all backstabbing traitors is what it means! We have to leave! Now!"
"I…I can't believe it."
"Why would they betray us like that? We…we trusted them."
Carolina looked…broken. Not in the "sad and distraught" sort of broken, but it looked as if she were that cartoon robot that tried to comprehend emotions and exploded. She looked like she wasn't able to function properly any more. Many of them were also too shocked for words, resorting to vibrating with anger.
It was North that calmed first.
"Calm down, everyone. We need to come up with a plan of action."
Carolina stood in the circle and prepared to act as the leader. No one asked her to, but they didn't seem to object so she took the role.
"O-okay," she started shakily. "We know that we will probably be handed over to Project Freelancer again after a week of being here. However, we've only been here for four days. That still leaves three more days until they turn us over. Now we have to decide what we're going to do next."
"Well," North began, "we have option one: get the heck out of here as soon as possible. Then we have option two: wait until the last second to ditch so we can get as much free food and comfy living as we can before we escape."
"North, you forgot about option three: we somehow figure out a way to stop Wyoming, Flowers, and 479er so that this never happens to anyone else again."
York practically spat at the end. He was seething. He had been holding out on this hope for years. He'd even risked Carolina and the twins' lives by insisting they come with him. If he could help it, he wouldn't let anyone else fall into this trap!
They started debating and arguing amongst themselves when Wash asked Connie.
"Do you sense what we should do? Or where we should go when we escape?"
"I'm not that good, Wash. I probably won't know until the second we try escaping."
"I still think we should probe them for some answers. Maybe they'll give us a hint of what we should do once we do make a run for it," York said, bitterly.
"Should we sleep on it?"
"That sounds like a good idea. We can meet out here again tomorrow and debate after we've had time to think. We still have a few days left before we have to decide anything."
"Before we leave, I know this is probably unnecessary, but don't talk about this at all once we're out of this shed. Just think about it quietly to yourself. Formulate your opinion then only voice it when we're back here tomorrow. Understood?"
"Yeah, yeah. Gotcha." South waved her off, heading back in the direction of the main compound.
Later that afternoon, 479er walked into the compound carrying a load of groceries.
"Merry Christmas, ya bird freaks! Now help me carry in this stuff so we can have a proper meal!"
They didn't need a second invitation as all of them scrambled at the chance of food. In a whirlwind of cooking, they had prepared for themselves a meal and were absolutely devouring it at the dining room table.
"So, 47, how long are you going to let us stay here?" York asked, with a mouth full of mashed potatoes (that he didn't burn this time).
The bird kids gave him subtle glares as the food was stuck in their throats. The question itself was innocent enough and he said it very casually, but they just could not risk it knowing what they knew. Still there was no taking the question back after it was asked.
479er wiped her chin off with a napkin and replied, "Well, Wyoming usually allows refugees about a week before he takes them to another safe house where they can stay. Can't have you staying too long 'cause that would just make it that much easier for the Erasers to track us down. Luckily they haven't discovered us yet."
"So where is this other safehouse?"
"I…I don't know, actually. I never needed to know so I never asked. I can ask him later if you want?"
"That would be great. Thanks, niner!"
South cleared her throat and followed York's lead.
"So do you maintain contact with the past refugees?"
"No. It would just give another opportunity for the Project Freelancer to track them down. I never see them again after they go to the safehouse. It's sad. Some of them were really cool, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."
CT looked at the human's expression. Her eyebrows were creased, her eyes were open, her speech pattern was irregular as she really was confused. Everything about her body language said that she was telling the truth. She didn't know that the other refugees were recaptured. What's more, her "power" confirmed it too. Was it possible that she wasn't in on it?
Later she confided the information with Wash, and he believed her without a second thought. Typical Wash. He said that he would try to ask Flowers sort of the same questions. While he wasn't the greatest at reading body language, surely one of the other guys were.
479er again found herself confiding in Wyoming late at night. He didn't seem to mind her odd questions, but she still would have come anyway. She had been thinking of all the past refugees and the nostalgia was too much to handle. Wyoming was the only one who she could talk to. And the only one she wanted to talk to.
"Hey. The kids were asking some funny questions at dinner tonight."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Hey, why weren't you at dinner?"
"I had to make a call."
"A call? To who?"
"To whom."
She rolled her eyes and gave him a playful punch in the shoulder.
"You know what I meant."
"I was calling the electric company. I had to report that one of my buildings will no longer be in need of electricity considering it's in cinders now."
"It took you a long time."
"…It was important."
"But you did eat, right?"
"I…didn't feel like it."
"Are you sure? I just went to the store. I can heat somethin' up for you, if ya want?"
"I don't have an appetite any more."
"What about I make you some tea? You're always up for tea. I'll heat it up in a kettle like you like it."
"479er, thank you for your concern. I'm fine. Now, you were mentioning the bird kids were asking strange questions. What about?"
"Oh, yeah," 479er brushed her dark hair back as she adjusted her train of thought. "They were asking about the past refugees. They were even asking where the next safe house was, but, come to think of it, I don't think we ever told them that we were taking them to a safe house after this. Why did you tell them that? Did you tell them when you were gonna take them?"
"…No. I didn't tell them."
Wyoming's face became dark. It was that darkness that 479er abhorred. It was what kept her from a closer relationship with the man. She just knew that kind of darkness was no one to be involved with so she held back. If she couldn't trust him completely….
She coughed to break the tension and Wyoming, thankfully, snapped out of his spell of darkness.
"Huh. Maybe it was Flowers. He probably told them for some reason. You know him. Always blabbing."
She laughed nervously, and quickly made for the door, the images of the dark look looming in her mind still. She bid him a quick goodnight and powerwalked to her own room, happy for the two sets of doors she could place between them.
"479er, what's wrong?" Carolina asked, noticing the look in her eyes.
"Nothing. Go to sleep, ya freaks."
With that CT, South, Carolina, and 479er, all in their sleeping places, were encased in the darkness from the switched-off lamp. However, all of them took a rather long while to actually go to sleep. They were reeling in their own thoughts, and, if they did sleep, their brains flung them into chaotic dreams that were vigorous and dizzy.
The next day was fated. Even the ones who didn't have the powers of premonition could sense it, and none of them wanted to face the next morning.
Sorry about the choppy-ness. I just really need to get a move on with this story or else I'll stop writing. That would be bad for everyone. I promise action is in the imminent future -probably in the next chapter. There might even be some sadness. That's all I'm going to say about that. Once again, I apologize for the untimeliness of this chapter. I really hope that it will be back to its normal updating schedule as I settle back into the routine of school again. Thanks for sticking with me.
Looking forward to it.