Flame ➸ John Murphy

19

Wests head pounded. Her body felt heavy. Around her she could hear talking. Peeling open her eyes she became more confused. Everything appeared upside down. Feeling herself being lowered, she began looking around. Arms wrapped around her back and under her legs as she neared the ground. Startled, West winced and tried to move away.

"It's just me." Bellamy said to her.

To her right was Bellamy. His arms wrapped around her as her legs lowered to the ground. Her eyes wandered to a girl that was standing near two people on the ground. The feeling of her feet on the ground pulled her attention back to Bellamy. He let go of her laying form and moved to the restraints on her ankles.

Once they were off, Bellamy helped West stand. He was quick to pull the tubes and monitors from her skin. She winced as the tube that was sucking her blood was pulled from her vein.

"Help me get their clothes." Bellamy motioned to the two people on the ground.

West was now able to get a better look at the two. Blood poured out of the backs of their heads. They were dead. Her heart leaped to her throat as she slowly moved over to the dead bodies.

"Now West." Bellamy ordered as he began undressing the man.

West hesitates before she headed towards the dead woman. Her hands shook as she took off the woman's outer clothing leaving her in her underwear and undershirt. The strange girl was leading Bellamy to an area to dump the body while West put on the guards clothes like he had done. Coming back, he grabbed the woman's body and dragged her to the disposal site. Clicking a button, West could hear the bodies fall to an unknown place.

"You've done enough," Bellamy said to the girl as he put on his belt. "You should walk away now."

"You don't know where you're going." She said to him.

"Draw me a map."

The two went back and forth before the girl gave Bellamy a gun. She said that she was in it as much as they were. Whoever she was, West felt like she was a good person. They decided to go to the radio, stopping at the dorms on the way there.

As they walked towards the door the girl stopped them to rip the name tags off their shirts. She handed them hats before instructing them to keep their heads down.

"Roll up your sleeves." She said to them both. "I need to take out the tracking chip or you'll trip all the alarms."

Bellamy moved quickly and rolled up his sleeve. The girl cut his arm before removing a chip. She stood in front of West and held the bloody scaple.

"Do it." West said, holding out her arm.

Her eyes scrunched shut as the blade tore through her skin. Biting her lip, she held in any noise she wanted to make. In a few seconds, she felt a piece of fabric being placed over the spot.

"Thank you." She said to the girl.

As she handled her new wound, Bellamy put the trackers in their cages. Once everyone's wounds were covered, they ran out of the horrible room.

"Bad timing, but I'm West." The girl introduced as they walked through the halls.

"Maya." She gave a weak smile. "Jaspers told me a lot about you." West smiled, thinking about how much she missed the boy.

They moved through the concrete hall before getting into an elevator. Before the doors could close a man stepped in. Wests eyes shot to the ground as she prayed the man would ignore her. Eventually they were able to leave the elevator and move through more of the halls.

When they were about to turn a corner, Maya stopped them as the sound of a bell rung through the room. West looked around the corner to see children piling into a class room. Bellamy began speaking, causing West to look at who he was talking to.