Wildfire • Bellamy Blake [2]

38. The Dark Year

"I need you to swallow this tube, okay?" Clarke said desperately, shoving the tube down her mother's throat. Abby started choking as Clarke pushed it down further. "Please let me do this."

"Madi, take Athena away. She doesn't need to see this," I said.

For once, Madi didn't argue and led Athena away from the scene. When they were a little further away, I turned my attention back to Clarke.

"Okay, give me the saline," she said. I passed it to her and she worked quickly but efficiently. "I need you to hold the funnel up high, okay? Good."

Abby started to heave as we poured the saline down her throat. Clarke rolled her mother onto her side and she began throwing up the contents of her stomach into a bucket. Abby made a retching noise and I dropped to my knees, rubbing her back soothingly.

Once everything was out of her system, Abby passed out. Clarke left her on her side, and breathed out in relief. She looked at me and shot me a small smile.

"Madi, everything's okay now," I called.

Athena and Madi started to move closer right as the door to the gas station opened. My head snapped in that direction, and my eyes widened when I saw McCreary.

"Doc, we ready to get back to work?" McCreary asked, not yet noticing us. He pushed the door open further and slowed to a stop when his eyes landed on us. I didn't miss the bottle of pills in his hands, and that made me narrow my eyes. "How the hell did you get here?"

Madi looked at us in fear but our faces remained passive.

"I think it's time we talk," I said.

McCreary only led Clarke and I to the mothership, separating our group. They left Abby, Madi and Athena at the gas station while they forced the two of us to follow them to the command room. I didn't want to leave Athena but Clarke reassured me she would be fine.

Once we were in the command room, we told him about Octavia's plan. I offered to show McCreary the feed myself but he didn't trust me touching the monitor, so he made one of his own guards do it. And god he was so slow it was almost painful to watch.

Finally, the freaking guard was able to pull up the surveillance.

"Stop just before midnight. As close as you can get," I said. The guard paused the video and I took a step forward. "Okay. Play it forward."

McCreary watched the screen carefully. The two people who were previously walking on the screen disappeared. The feed glitched before starting over again.

"A 24-hour loop. Clever," McCreary muttered.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have to see my --"

"How long do we have?" He asked, cutting Clarke off.

"Assuming they left this morning, six days, maybe seven," I said.

"Override the loop. I want to know where the hell they are."

"Brother, it took me ten minutes to find rewind," the guard responded.

"Yeah I know, and it was agonizing to watch," I muttered.

McCreary suddenly broke out into a coughing fit. That's when I stopped and paid closer attention to my surroundings. He wasn't the only one coughing. In fact, multiple of the men on the ship were. Cold drops of sweat were also rolling down his face.

"You're all sick," I realized. "That's why you took Abby with you from Polis, why you helped us open the bunker."

"Yes, and now that you're back, she might actually do her job," McCreary said. He pulled the pills out of his pocket and tossed them to one of the guards. "Take these to the Doc. If she's still out, force a few of them down her throat. Let's get our functional junkie functioning again."