Ark Mafia Unleashed (Bellarke)

Bombs Away

"Is that a bomb?" Clarke asks in a soft voice. She sounds so scared and innocent. She rubs her hand over her still-small stomach. I know what she's thinking and I'm just as scared. But, instead of letting her see my fear I hold it in and take a deep breath.

"Yes. We have plenty of time to get home though. We'll be fine. Kane won't let us get hurt." I tell her and take her shaking hand in mine. I press a little harder on the gas pedal just for good measure.

"What did he say? Why is he doing this?" Clarke asks.

"He said we just need to drive and get it to Nyko. I think it's just another test of his." I lie. I honestly have no idea. He's probably doing it just for kicks. I know from how he was talking that he has a camera and mic somewhere in the car so he's probably sitting in his secret office with a bowl of popcorn laughing.

"Are you sure we'll be okay?"

"Yes, I promise." I squeeze her hand and take a second to look at her. When her eyes meet mine I add, "Princess, I won't let anyone, including Kane hurt you. Ever."

I don't know who the last part was more for, Clarke, me, or Kane. It seems to do the trick for Clarke because she eases back against her seat and starts to breathe more evenly.

"Can you please just talk to me about something?" She asks with her eyes closed.

"Yeah, of course. What do you want to know?" I ask her grateful for the distraction as I press the gas pedal down just a little more. We're now going fifteen over the limit. As long as I keep an eye out for speed traps we should be fine.

"How about the carnival? Tell me about it." She says.

"Well, it's the whole town. We all get together for a week. It's actually pretty cool because it's the one week that no one cares who you are. You can act like everything is normal; like our town is completely screwed up. I remember this one time when I was twelve..."

I flashback to the day when Octavia and I snuck out of the house.

"I had been grounded because I talked back to my teacher and O wasn't supposed to go outside but she had just heard about the ponies. She wanted so badly to go to the petting zoo and I wanted to ride a bull."

"Wait. You rode a bull?" She asks with disbelief in her voice.

"No. I was too young you have to have a parent sign a permission form for it."

"Good. That's dangerous."

"Sure it is, but it thrilling. As soon as I could I started to do it."

"You're crazy."

"Unchallenged."

Clarke laughs and I can't help but join her.

"So, what did you do if you couldn't ride your bull?"

"Well, we went to the petting zoo which I will admit I actually loved. We fed goats and sheep. I got to hold a skunk and opossum. We even got to go on horse rides. Octavia and I got on our horses and then kicked them to get them to run. Soon we were sprinting down the track that they had set up. We went in circles like we were jockies racing horses. Everyone stopped to watch us and even started putting money on us. By the end of the next hour we both had over two hundred bucks just from the bets. It was a great day. Atom set it up so that we could race every day for the carnival for the rest of the week. He was our inside bet guy. He helped us make more."

"And your mom had no idea?"

"Please. Small town, remember? She found out by 7 the first night. She made us give her the money we made to make up for disobeying, but it was worth it. Plus, I had never seen Octavia so happy. She couldn't stop smiling even after she had fallen asleep. She finally got to be just a kid for a day." My heart sinks as I realize that she won't be there when we get to my house. She's still gone. I can't believe how much I miss her. You'd think her being my kid sister I would be fine with not seeing her for a couple of months. My throat tightens and I can feel a lump rising.

"You'll get to see her again. For now she's safe. It's for the best." Clarke's words comfort me, but not enough to get rid of all of the pain. I take a look at the clock and see that we've been talking for over an hour. As I pull the case open I see that we have fifteen minutes left on the timer. A bead of sweat runs down my back.

"We're in trouble aren't we?" Clarke asks, serious again.

"No. We're almost there. We still have enough time." I say as I pull off at our exit. It'll take just two more minutes to get to Nyko's.

The phone rings and we both jump. I pick it up and listen for what Kane has to say.

"I'm impressed. You definitely are good under pressure. Now pull over." He says.

"Okay." I pull off to the side of the road and put the car in park. "Done."

"Now open the case. Do you see a blue wire?" He asks.

"Yes." I touch it gently.

"What's he saying?" Clarke whispers.

"It's nothing." I mouth back.

"Pull it out." He demands.

Without a moment's hesitation I pull on the wire. The time jumps from 14:26 to 1:00. I tilt it so Clarke can't see.

"What the heck did you just have me do?" I growl into the phone.

"I want to see how you deal with real pressure. There is one way to disarm it. Figure it out. You have 54 seconds. Good luck." The phone clicks as he hangs up.

"Bell, what's going on? Why did you pull the wire out?" Clarke demands.

"Kane told me to. I thought it was to disarm it. I don't know what to do." I admit.

"Just take a breath and think." Clarke's voice soothes me and I think about Atom. At that carnival we also made a couple of bombs out of fireworks. I remember that there were only certain ways that we could connect them and have them work right. He was the one who knew.

I pull out my phone and click on Atom. He answers on the first ring.

"Bellamy, man it's been too long. Where are you?" He calls out over the noises of a garage.

"I don't have time. I have a bomb and need to disarm it. What do I do?" I yell.

"Crap. A bomb? What kind?"

"It has four wires. A blue, red, green, and black and white. They are connected to a timer and that's all I can see. I pulled the blue wire and the time dropped to one minute."

"Okay, where do the other wires connect? Just send me a picture."

I take one and send it. When I hear him inhale sharply I know it's bad.

"I don't know what to tell you man. There's no way to know for sure what to do. You need to throw it and run."

I look down to see 00:17. 00:16.

"Clarke, get outside and lean against the edge of the car."

"You need to get out too."

"I will. I just need you to move. I'll throw it and get over there. Just please move."

Clarke finally listens when it hits ten seconds. I can hear her crying as she huddles on the side of the car. I pick up the bomb, open my door, and chuck it. Then I sprint to where Clarke is and crouch down, covering her with my body.

A/N Yay! Back to updates more often. Hope you're okay with a longer chapter. I got caught up in writing this chapter. Hopefully you like it. :)