After signing off with Bellamy, I had decided to go find Murphy and Raven.
I hadn't made in very far into the corridors when a loud alarm began blaring, causing me to almost trip over my own feet in shock.
I quickly spun around, trying to pinpoint the reason behind the alarm, but came to no definitive decision.
It was then that I took off running, my feet pounding against the ground as I ran in search of my two friends.
"Raven!" I screamed, trying to carry my voice over the noise. "John!"
As I rounded the corner, I almost ran directly into someone.
I let out a shocked scream as the person grabbed onto me. "Jesus, Collins. There you are!" Murphy yelled, still gripping onto me as he began pulling me down the hall.
"Where's Raven?" I demanded, speeding up as Murphy quickened his pace.
"In here." He explained, nodding toward the cryo room. "They're trying to vent the oxygen from the ground. They're trying to kill us."
Of course they are.
"So it's time to pull the plug?" I questioned, my worried eyes looking over to him.
He titled his head slightly as he yanked open the door. "Not exactly."
As the two of us entered the room, I felt my heart drop into my stomach as I froze.
Raven turned to us with panicked eyes, slowly backing away from the pods...the pods that were currently opening.
"Guys," I whispered in a shaky voice, watching as the prisoners slowly awoke. "What the hell did you do?"
Raven stopped beside Murphy and I, not taking her eyes off of our newly awoken guests. "It was the only choice." she responded quietly. "They can't kills us without killing all of their own men."
I gripped onto Murphy as one of the men closest to us focused his eyes on me, eyeing me up like I was live prey.
The blaring alarm had since subsided, meaning they had closed the docking bay doors...but now we had 283 dangerous prisoners locked in a ship with us.
Raven grabbed onto the other side of me as we slowly inched our way toward the door. "Survival instinct sucks."
---
"What the hell do we do now?" Murphy demanded from where he sat, back pressed against the wall.
I stopped my pacing, pulling my hands out of my hair. "I don't know." I whispered, still trying to go over everything in my head.
"We keep the door lock." Raven pointed out the obvious solution.
"How long do you really think that will keep them in?" I pressed. "There over 200 of them in there."
She sighed, shaking her head as she glanced toward the cyrobay where we had recently locked 283 vicious prisoners in. "I don't know, okay!?"
I groaned, leaning against the wall. "We're so screwed."
"Okay, listen. If you want to be such a fatalist then-"
Raven was cut off by the sound of something down the corridor...the docking bay.
Murphy shot up as I pushed myself up off the wall. "Oh no." I muttered, my voice cracking in fear.
"Run." Murphy hissed, grabbing onto both Raven and I as he began to pull us down the hall with him.
"Where are we going to go!" I questioned, knowing there wasn't many placing you could run in a confined ship.
"No where." A voice called, causing my blood to run cold as every hair on my body seemed to stand.
All three of us stopped, sharing terrified looks before slowly turning around.
There stood Diyoza, flanked by five men who caused me to cower just at the sight of them. All of them had guns pointed directly at us, there was no running.
She wore a menacing smirk as she looked between the three of us. "What do you say we take a little trip back to the ground?"
I pushed down the lump in my throat as the men lunged forward, grabbing a hold of the three of us.
I tried to resist, squirming the best I could in order to free myself from their grasp. But it was no use and I knew that from the start.
A particularly strong blow to the side of my head rendered me immobile for a moment, giving the man restraining me a chance to secure something around my neck...it was a collar.
"You don't have to do this." I begged as they began steering us toward the dropship. "Please, we don't-"
I was cut off as immeasurable pain shot through my body. Electric currents were flowing through my newly acquired collar into what felt like every inch of my body.
A pained scream fell from my lips as my body collapsed, hitting the ground harshly.
"Stop it!" Murphy screamed, trying to fight against the men who were restraining him. "Don't touch her!"
My captor looked down at me, a devious smirk on his face. "I like this one." he commented, licking his lips as his eyes scanned my body.
I tried to push myself away from him, terror rushing through my body.
"McCreary, enough!" Diyoza snapped. "Get her up and get them into the Gagarin. We don't have time for this right now."
The man-McCreary- glared at Diyoza briefly before hauling me up from the floor, shoving me toward the ship.
"Which one of you is Raven?" Diyoza demanded as we entered the dropship. She looked fed up, stressed and that made me think that maybe our people were putting up a bigger fight than she had expected.
"I am." Murphy spat, shooting daggers with his eyes.
Diyoza's eyes flickered toward her men. "Lock him up." she ordered, nodding down the corridor.
Murphy struggled against the men. "Don't touch them!" he screamed, anger ripping through his word. "I swear to God, I'll-"
His voice fell silent as he was ripped from the room and dragged down the hallway. I prayed that they weren't going to reprimand him for his outbreak.
"Leave us." Diyoza barked to the rest of the men who remained in the ship. "Go get the rest of our men."
The men quickly obeyed her, making their leave which left only Diyoza, Raven and I.
She painted a small smile on her face as she looked between the two of us. "I'll ask you again...which one of you is Raven?"
I clenched my jaw as Raven and I shared a look...we weren't going to say anything.
Diyoza noted our silent agreement and nodded. "Fine." she whispered. "We can do it that way."
For the second time in the last five minutes, pain ripped through my every cell.
My body seized up, collapsing to the ground as electric shocks continue to surge through me. It felt like my every nerve was being burned.
Diyoza glanced down at me, holding the remote that controlled my collar in her hands. She stopped the assault for a moment, raising a brow. "I can do this all day."
I looked up at her through teary eyes, gritting my teeth as I spoke. "Be my guest."
She let out a humourless laugh as she nodded. "You think you're that tough?" she mocked, turning the dial on the remote. "Let's see how you handle this then."
This shock hurt worse than the last, much worse.
I could barely move at all this time, the electricity seeming to grip my body with each shock.
"STOP!" Raven pleaded, her voice ripping through her throat. "I'm Raven!" she screamed through tears. "It's me!"
The pain stopped, and I was left heaving for air as my body still shook from residual effects.
A satisfied smile spread to Diyoza's face. "So you must be Avery." she observed, looking down at me.
I let out a choked cough as I looked up at Raven. She looked back at me, her face tear stained.
"Falk!" Diyoza yelled, causing me to flinch as she took a step toward me.
She still wore an amused smile as she looked down at me. "I'm sorry we had to do it that way, Avery. You seem like a sweet girl...you really do."
I glared at her, still unable to speak from the pain.
Diyoza smirked, turning as another man entered the room. "Take her to lockup." she demanded. "Put her in a different cell than the boy...Raven and I, here, are going to have a little chat."
My body was too weak to resist as the man by the name of Falk yanked me off of the ground. He was basically forced to carry me toward the door.
"Don't hurt her!" I begged, using all of my force to form words. "Please don't."
Raven looked over at me, trying to put on a brave face as she nodded. "I'll be fine, Aves." she assured with surety.
But I really didn't think she would be.
---
I wasn't sure how much time had passed since I was locked in a cell, but I knew it was long enough for the pain from my multiple shockings to have subsided.
My body still felt weak as I leaned up against the cool wall of my cell, my mind flashing back to my time in the Skybox.
"John?" I called weakly, my voice breaking from the strain that had been placed on my body today.
"Yeah?" He replied from a few cells down.
I sighed, leaning my head against the wall as I closed my eyes. "Just making sure you were still awake." I explained, feeling comfort over the fact that he was near me.
It was silent for a couple of moments before I spoke again. "There's no getting out of this one is there?" I assumed, voicing the thought neither of us wanted to accept.
"We'll find a way." he assured...but we both knew he was lying.
The sound of the door down the hallway opening caused me to stand, my muscles screaming in protest as I moved them for the first time in a while.
I couldn't see anything until the door to my cell swung open, letting in a flood of light that caused me to wince.
"Let's go." A man ordered, roughly grabbing onto me and securing my hands behind my back.
"Where are you taking me?" I demanded, trying to pull away from him.
"Avery!" Murphy yelled from down the hall, drawing my attention toward him.
This scene eerily reminded me of the time in which the two of us had both been held captive by the Grounders. That truly felt like lifetimes ago.
The men holding Murphy gagged him, shoving him down the hall toward me.
The guards (rather prisoners) on me, turned me away from Murphy, dragging me toward a door. I continued to struggle, knowing it was no use, but not caring.
Eventually, they pulled the door open, shoving us into a more open room.
My eyes vigorously scanned it, quickly landing on Raven who laid in a heap on the ground, seemingly as a result of repeated shocks...they were torturing her.
"No!" I yelled, trying to get to her.
My attempts were met with force.
Once of the men holding me delivered a hard hit to my stomach, causing me to double over in pain.
Murphy let out an angry grunt as he attempted to lunge forward, only to be hit across the face. He was unable to speak due to the gag in his mouth, but his eyes were furious.
"STOP!" Raven screamed. "Stop! They didn't do anything."
The man from before, McCreary, wore a taunting smile as he roughly took me from the other men. "I think this one here knows more than she likes to let on."
I winced as he threw me to the ground, resting my head against the bench as he roughly grabbed a chunk of my hair, driving my head into the hard metal of the bench.
My breathing was rapid as my eyes darted between him and Raven.
"Now, which one of you killed my good friend Kodiak on the mothership?" McCreary demanded, looking at all three of us.
He was talking about the man that had attacked us, the one Bellamy had been forced to kill.
"McCreary, just back the hell up." One of the men ordered. He didn't look like the others. He wasn't wearing a prison jumpsuit, but instead a crew's uniform.
I recognized him quickly...he was the lieutenant who had been spared in that captain's log entry...he was their pilot.
McCreary ignored him, and quickly drew a knife. He gripped on tighter to my hair as he pressed the cool blade to my neck. "You have five seconds to tell me how to unlock those missiles." He was looking directly at Raven. "One--"
"--McCreary!" the lieutenant snapped.
"I don't know." Raven cried, shaking her head as large tears flowed down her cheeks.
I looked over at her, giving her a look to let her know it was okay. I knew she didn't lock the missiles, so I knew that McCreary was likely about to kill me.
Suddenly, Bellamy's face popped into my head...I was about to die and all I could think about was Bellamy.
"Two."
"Please! I swear to God!" Raven cried. "I didn't do it!"
"Three."
"Please!"
I looked up at McCreary, trying to hide the fear on my face. He couldn't have the satisfaction of knowing I was terrified of him.
"Four."
The cocking of a gun cause my eyes to dart toward the lieutenant. His angry eyes were locked on McCreary, his gun pointed at the prisoner's head. "Put down the knife." he ordered sternly.
McCreary's face fell as he slowly leaned away from me, looking up at the lieutenant. "You're making a mistake."
"Yeah? Wouldn't be the first time." he challenged. "Now get out. All of you."
McCreary slowly removed the knife from my throat as he looked to the lieutenant. "I may not be able to kill you, but you don't need your legs to fly."
With one final menacing glance at me, McCreary pushed himself to his feet, beckoning the others to follow after him.
The minute the door had closed, Raven pushed herself over to where Murphy and I sat, pulling the gag out of Murphy's mouth.
She looked between the two of us, paying extra attention to me. "Are you guys okay?"
I shifted slightly, scanning her body for any prominent wounds. "Are you?"
Raven gave a small nod as she brushed the stray hair away from my face, something I couldn't do with my hands tied behind my back.
"Don't tell them anything." Murphy advised, wincing slightly as he moved.
"She couldn't even if she wanted to." The lieutenant announced, drawing all of our attention toward him. "I'm the one who locked the weapons systems."
-an-
hey guys, just a little update on my life situation right now. so I just found out today that my grandma has been diagnosed with cancer. I'm very close to her so this is hitting me hard :(
Im just letting you know because I can't promise frequent updates right now, just while I wrap my head around things. But writing also is my escape so who knows, maybe I'll be writing a lot.
I also have a bunch of midterms coming up so that could hinder updates as well
anyway, enough with the bad news. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. the holy trinity (yes that is what I will be calling them) are back on the ground but are in some trouble, uh oh!
comment your thoughts
love you all
-maddy xoxo