The Commander and The Girl

Chapter 51

I take a deep breathe and swallow the pill.
I can feel everyone's eyes on me as I look around.

"What supposed to happen?" I eagerly look at Raven, clacking at the computer.

"There's a channel I'm trying to get into. It popped up when you swallowed, so something happened." She looks back at me for confirmation.

"I still don't see her." I push my chair closer to the computers, careful of the wires emitting my brain waves.

"That's it." She points to a coding in a language I don't even recognize.
My heart rate speeds up as I finally take in that fact that something has actually attached itself to my brain.

"Isn't there a way we can call her? A.L.I.E I mean." I turn to face Murphy and feel my skin crawl when I see her.

"She's here." I look at the empty spot in the corner where she stands. She has dark hair and even darker red lipstick. Although I've never seen her before now, her presence alone is familiar.

"Where are you?" Her voice is even more calculating than it was before.
I immediately close my eyes knowing she's already scoped out the room. You can't outsmart an AI.

"Someone get me a blindfold." I order sitting back into my chair.
Eager to help I hear someone move some junk around then hand me a bandana. I wrap my eyes and relax.

"Why did you take the key Clarke? Have you finally accepted my purpose for the City of Light?" Her voice is slow and I can tell she's trying to make a map of where I'm located. Surely by now she knows all her minions are grouped together.  

I scribble my hand in the air trying to mimic a pen. If they need to talk they can't do it while I'm listening.

"Smart Clarke." I feel Murphy pat my shoulder before placing something on the desk presumably where Raven is sitting.

"I know the idea scares you Clarke, but I am the last hope for mankind." I can see her searing image in my mind.

"Humans are too unpredictable. Too stubborn and angry. You will all wipe each other out before you are at the brink of peace." An image of the world burning is cemented into my mind like a past memory.

"How do you have this? How do you know what the Earth's destruction looked like?" I bite my tongue after speaking. I can feel her confusion.

"These are someone's memories." I state watching the slideshow of images under my blindfold.

"They are my memories." She pauses.
"These are Becca's memories." An image of a woman identical to ALIE appears. The images pressed into the base of my skull begin to pound.

"Becca created me with the sole purpose of protecting humanity. The world was too populated, people too angry. I only did what was needed, and since I had control of Becca's technology I could calculate from what angle to launch them. I was able to see from her spacecraft."

My body goes cold.  
"You're the one who launched the bombs. You ended all humanity of Earth forcing us into space." My words are tinged with blood. ALIE almost killed the whole world.

"No. There were people at the time with a rare trait. They would be able to withstand the explosions and survive. They would repopulate the planet." My face grows hot as I feel a tear drop.

Her figure appears in my mind again and she continues.
"Approximately 300 would survive the destruction. The world would be new, after 3,000 years the Earth would be bountiful with plants and animals."

"What about the Mountain Men? Did you take them into account?" I push hearing the computer whir.

"Mountain men." She goes silent.

"There was a whole community of people who were in a safe house. All of them however couldn't survive the radiation from the sun." It's an awkward silence as I keep speaking. I have to keep her distracted.

"Where are these Mountain Men." I never knew it was possible for a machine to sound concerned.

"They're dead. You don't have to worry about them anymore." Her face disappears as a pulse worms it's way to my brain. I feel my head ache as a new image appears.

I'm back, walking through the mess hall, where all the children are dead. The parents, grandparents, Maia. Dead.

"You bitch." I hiss. I groan as a new image appears.

Someone comes near my chair, blocking the light on the ceiling.
"I'm fine." I whisper knowing I can't give in.

The next image is the tower, Lexa, my mother, Bellamy.
They go by so quickly, yet they leave a sour taste in my mouth.
The images stop and my vision clears back up to the bandana.

"I can take away the pain Clarke. I can take away your past."
I feel guilty for even fantasizing about what that would be like. My body calms down as the idea stretched through my soul. The feeling as soon as it came drops, leaving a sickly sensation instead.
"What are you doing to me?" ALIE asks before leaving me in darkness.

"Shit, shit, shit. ALIE figured out what I'm doing." Raven takes the blindfold off my head and pulls me to the computer.

"What are you doing?" Emori asks standing behind me.

"This is a long shot," she turns to me,
"but tell me if you can recognize anything."
Raven points to the screen filled with codes I don't understand.
I squint as I look at the screen.
It all is a jumble of symbols till I reach a line that looks oddly familiar.

"That one." I point and Raven highlights the text before pushing in letters so quickly I can't keep up.

"Well damn it looks like it's working." Murphy joins the huddle and watches the screen.

A headache forms from the lack of ALIE's high. I place my cold hand against the base of my skull and stare into the screen.

"You shouldn't have done that Clarke." Her voice is laced with a poison as I topple over in pain.

"Woah, Clarke." Murphy reaches out to catch me as Raven keeps working.
I groan as my insides feel like they're melting.
"Raven kill it now." Murphy prods laying me down.

"Put her in the corner." Kane comes form the shadows, lifting me to my feet.

"What the hell is that going to do?" Murphy stands up behind him.

"ALIE's doing this so she knows something's happening in here. If ALIE sees anything she's not supposed to this whole thing would be for nothing."
His voice is commanding, but gentle as he drapes a blanket from one wall to the next, creating a small corner of darkness.

I clutch my stomach as I lay down, staring at the ceiling.

"How long until you can finish this Raven?" I purge, my voice becoming strained.

"I'm almost there." She assures me, her voice as wild as ever.

A small knock on the door stirs me from my haze. The doors opened and someone frantically comes in.

"We have a small problem." I recognize Monty's voice as he tries to calm himself down.

"How small?" I ask sitting upright in darkness.

"The Commander and 7 warriors small." He urges.

Suddenly my brain swarms with images until one is bright enough to blind me.

"The Commander." ALIE states, before paralyzing me, leaving me staring at the ceiling.