Haunted || Octavia Blake || 1 ||

54: P r i n c e s s M e c h a n i c

"Hey, can we talk about this later?" I snapped. "Bellamy's life is in danger, remember?"

"Yeah right," Raven clicked her fingers at Bryce. "Can you hand me the torch that's inside of my bag? Thanks." With a flourish, she switched on the powerful light and flashed the beam inside of the panel.

We all crouched down to take a look.

Coils of wires wrapped around metallic panels lined a short boardwalk leading into a space beneath the drop-ship floor. A large cemented tub graced the centre of the small, cramped room and a row of dashboards, flickering with lighted buttons and wound up with wires, were situated against the far wall.

Raven smirked as she peered inside. "Very cool. Jasper, Monty, you're with me. The rest of you stay here and keep look-out."

"Wait!" I grabbed Raven's arm as she turned away. "You'll need someone to stand watch with you in case Murphy gets a whiff of our goings-on."

Raven raised her eyebrows. "And, lemme guess, you want that job?"

"Aren't you claustrophobic, though? You know, after all your years of being under the floor in the Ark?" Finn asked, lines of worry creasing his brow. "It's okay, Princess, I'll go in instead if you want."

Raven stiffened upon hearing the nickname that Finn so fondly voiced.

I cast a swift glance between her and Finn and shook my head. "Bellamy's my brother. I owe him this at least. Besides, I'm not that scared, little girl any more. I've got this."

I turned to watch as Raven, Jasper and Monty crawled through the panel. Sending Finn a firm nod of my head, I hitched my sword higher up on my thigh, ducked down and went in after them.

As I entered the tiny room, I gazed around. The roof looked like it was going to cave in on me and the walls seemed like they were about to collapse. The air around me felt hot and suffocating and the amount of space left around me started shrinking. My breathing became fast and rapid. My head began to pound. My vision began to dance and sway.

I - I can't do this. I can't do this. I have to get out of here!

"Hey!" Raven suddenly snapped her fingers in front of my face.

Startled, my head jerked backwards as I glanced up at her.

"You good?" she questioned.

Swallowing, I nodded.

Raven turned away and began talking to Monty and Jasper.  "Help me find the door circuit," she whispered. "The door locks from the inside so the only way to open it is to hot-wire it."

My eyes scanned the room once more. Pushing down the overwhelming fear that was rising up within me and threatening to drown me, I shuffled forwards, situating myself near the large cement tub in the middle of the room.

Slowly, I drew my sword out of its sheath, perking up my ears as I heard the distant muffle of voices sound from overheard. "They're over here!" I hissed.

Raven looked up at me and nodded. "Good. Keep tabs on them while I try to find this ... Holy crap."

"What is it?" Monty demanded.

"Hydrazine. There's tons of it!" Raven straightened up as best as she could and pointed to some large tanks overheard. She flashed her torch along the whole length of the roof as she lifted her fingers and tapped them against the tank's smooth surface. The swishing of liquid resounded from deep within the pipes.

"The engines must've fired late on the way down," Monty observed.

"Can we hurry up already?" Jasper persisted, his voice teary and cracked. "Bellamy's up there because of me!"

"Jasper! Shut-up!" Raven warned him as she flailed her arms around. "They're, like, right above your head!"

BANG.

The sound of a gun-shot echoed through the drop-ship.

We all jumped.

Several tears slipped down my cheeks. I bit down hard on my lip, stopping the furious string of curse words that threatened to escape from my mouth. If Bellamy was dead ...

"Hey, he'll be alright," Monty spoke up from across the room, staring sympathetically at me.

I gritted my teeth and nodded. "Yeah. I know."

BANG.

Another gun-shot spiralled through the air.

"No," I whispered to myself. "No."

"We need to do this ... now!" Jasper urged in a low tone.

"Look, I found it!" Monty hissed. "The circuit to the door!"

Raven scurried over to where he was. "Quick, let me have a look at it." After a few moments, she sat back on her heels and sighed, "Crap. The wires for the door are mixed in with the ignition system. Sparking the wrong one could be bad."

"Just do what you have to do," I strung out my words, placing emphasis on each one.

"Wait, I think I've found it," Raven called out as she tugged a handful of wires out of the circuit board. She turned and nodded at me and Jasper. "Wait outside. Be ready when it opens."

Raven didn't need to tell us twice. Within a jiffy, Jasper and I were outside and dashing madly towards the front door, Finn and Bryce on our heels.

We assembled near the doorway. I held my sharpened blade out in front of me, ready to charge. Finn and Jasper raised their rifles to their shoulders and snapped the safety locks off of them. Bryce drew two small daggers from his belt and flicked them around his fingers.

"Be ready," I told the others, every single muscle in my body tense, rigid and ready to spring.

For a moment, there was only silence.

CCRREEAAKK.

Then, the drop-ship door began to open.

As soon as it started lowering to the ground and was within my reach, I rushed forward. Leaping up, my hands gripped the top of the door as I pulled myself up and over it, hurtling straight inside.

I ungracefully stumbled to a halt and glanced around.

My mouth fell open in horror as a shocked scream flew out of my throat. "BELLAMY!"

For there, right in front of my eyes, was my big brother, his body dangling helplessly from a rope that had been strung up in the middle of the room!

Gif: Octavia as she stands in front of the drop-ship.

XX