CHAPTER FIFTY
( eleos )
OCT 16, 2149
DAY THIRTY FOUR ON THE GROUND
"SCORED YOU A COUPLE OF EXTRA CLIPS." Raven mentioned in a low voice, Fallon watching as she opened up a black duffel bag full of machine guns.
They were at the edge of the live fence in a more sequestered area sheltered by a hunk of metal that had catastrophically splintered from the Ark and wedged itself into the earth. Raven had easily managed to obtain the weapons for them, and now Clarke was meeting them in their hiding spot.
"Hey. My mom's in surgery and the team going after Kane just left. We should too." she informed.
"Did you find Octavia?" Bellamy inquired, equipping himself with one of the firearms.
"No, I found you." the youngest Blake came prancing up, two tight braids woven on each side of her head; sword secured on her back.
"Extra." Fallon rolled her eyes as she continued.
"I'm not letting you leave here without me."
"Octavia—" Clarke began, the dark-haired girl not pausing long enough to let her speak.
"Finn and Murphy are headed to Lincoln's village. I've been there. Have you? Has she?"
"You done?" Bellamy lifted his brows, tilting his head to the side at his baby sister; thick curls obscuring his chocolate eyes. Her lips parted in confusion, Clarke passing her a navy bag.
"What's this?" she queried.
"Your pack. Lead the way." Bellamy smiled, hints of playfulness and pride among his features as she pulled it over her shoulders.
A relived and happy expression washed over her face; she'd been waiting for this side of her brother to return. And she didn't know if it was the fact he knew Dakota was alive now, or that it was so blatantly obvious she was no longer a little girl, but it filled her with joy that he was treating her with such trust and respect. Maybe he had finally surrendered even an ounce of his over-protectiveness. She felt like giving him a hug, but instead, she only smiled and began to sneak out.
"Woah. Not so fast, Pocahontas." Raven stopped her, everyone observing as she let the end of her crutch lightly tap the wire; bright sparks emitting with a zap.
"I thought you said it was handled." Clarke whispered in worry.
"It is." the mechanic assured cooly, entirely unbothered as she lifted a walkie to her lips.
"Shut her down, Wick."
They waited a few seconds before the device beeped twice, Raven testing it again; no sparks or bright flash this time.
"Handled." she smirked.
Octavia was the first to escape, tossing her pack out and climbing through the wires; Bellamy next, and Clarke following.
"Hasta la vista, assholes." Fallon saluted lazily, watching alongside Raven as the three hunkered down and slinked through the tall grass; eventually reaching the forest and taking off.
She wasn't joining them for two reasons. A, she couldn't hold a gun with only one functioning arm, and b, she had no desire to help rescue Finn nor Murphy.
"They're not rationing alcohol anymore." Raven mentioned after a moment.
"See you at the bar." Fallon nodded with no hesitation, Raven chuckling as she picked up her other crutch and followed hurriedly after the hotheaded blonde.
༻✧༺
"AND YOU BELIEVE HIM!?" Monty narrowed his eyes incredulously, aggravation brimming in his tone.
"Yes, I believe him." Jasper muttered, short on patience.
Jasper and Dakota had returned with the news that Dante was giving them a free pass out of Mount Weather so they could search for their friends, along with the news that Fallon and Clarke had intentionally left. Only Monty was in the dorm with them as they discussed it, and it was safe to say no one was agreeing well on how to proceed.
"Clarke left us, Monty. She faked being crazy to get into medical and she took off. Fallon proved that she was actually crazy and then left."
"Can we we just take a deep breath and stop calling people crazy and fake crazy?" Dakota encouraged gently, not finding peace-making effective in the midst of their circumstances.
"We need to go after her." Monty's eyes widened urgently, speaking of Clarke.
"We can get volunteers. That way no one is forced into doing anything they're uncomfortable with." the Thompson girl pointed out again.
"Kody, no one is gonna volunteer besides you and me, and it's not safe to go alone like that. We need everyone." Monty argued.
Just then, Maya entered the room; fiddling with her fingers as she picked up on the tension. Monty huffed and rolled his eyes, tightening his jaw as he stormed over to his bunk; yanking a bag out from underneath the bed and beginning to pack.
"Hi, Maya! I like your dress." Dakota sent a friendly smile.
"Thanks." she nodded uneasily with a tiny smile in return, ambling over to Jasper.
"Where are you going?" Jasper asked in annoyance as Monty continued to angrily shove a few button ups into the duffel bag.
"The drop ship, for starters." the Green boy snapped.
"Just slow down for a sec, please, and let's have an actual conversation about this." Dakota urged.
"I just heard. You're leaving?" Maya anxiously approached Jasper, who was looking downcast as he distracted himself by organizing a random box of tools.
"Yes, we are." Monty informed.
"No, we're not." Jasper declared sternly, ire a little more prominent in his tone this time as he glared at the boy.
"TBD." Dakota added with a nervous chuckle, trying to diffuse the tension.
"What would Clarke do?" Monty questioned, using it as a dig to the Jordan boy's apparent lack of bravery.
"No, you can't. It's too dangerous." Maya continued.
"Don't worry. I'm a coward." Jasper swallowed with a rueful smile, though the Vie girl only sent him a genuine one in return as she shook her head.
"You're not. You're smart. You can't make them come back."
"Monty's right. Clarke would go after me, but why am I so scared to do the same thing?"
"Jasper, you're not a coward." Dakota began sincerely. She knew she should probably let his crush have the opportunity to give him a pep talk, but her rather maternal instincts urged her to comfort her best friend.
"You know what goes on outside this place, and anyone would be hesitant to—"
"Woah. What?" she was interrupted by the Jordan boy's whisper, eyes widening as he scrutinized Maya's face; the Thompson girl freezing when she looked for herself.
Rapidly, Maya's skin was turning a bright shade of red. It started in small splotches across her forehead and cheeks, and within seconds, it had expanded across her face, chest, and arms. It was happening so fast it didn't even look real. At once, the trio had forgotten entirely of what their argument had even revolved around.
"Radiation." she inhaled a trembling breath. Monty stopped his packing, all of their eyes dilating in horror as a shrill alarm began to wail through the facility.
Only did they realize it wasn't a nightmare in which they would soon wake from when her eyes began to fill with tears of horror and pain; chest beginning to heave up and down.
"There's a containment breach."
"H— how?" Jasper stammered.
"I don't know!" she gasped, rushing past him and over to one set of closed doors; frantically pressing her key card against the proximity reader. Their stomachs dropped even further when it lit up red— denying her access.
It didn't take long for Dakota's hands to begin to shake as she watched everything play out, unsure of how to help; the thud of her heart growing more vicious with each passing moment.
"What do we do?!" Monty threw his hands in the air, the girl's rampant whimpers even overpowering the blaring siren as she scurried to the other door; her key card not working for either of the exits.
"NO!" she screeched, gasping for air as she pounded her hand against the door in desperation; soon turning back around to powerlessly face them.
Dakota's hand flew over her mouth in bewilderment.
The girl's skin was cracked like desert sand, blisters causing her damaged flesh to rise and fall unevenly against her body. It looked as if she was wearing Langston's old skin like a coat of torment— the solider they had seen come in who had also fallen victim to radiation days ago. She leaned back against the wall, screaming and sobbing in agony; fiery pain they couldn't begin to imagine festering across her entire body.
The three raced to the double doors, their exigent bellows for help overlapping each other. They beat their fists furiously against the tiny windows and jerked desperately on the locked handles, which wouldn't budge. The Thompson girl seized the key card from the floor, sprinting to the other door to try her luck on that side once again; nothing giving way.
"HELP! HELP, PLEASE!" Dakota shrieked, tears thronging her eyes as she hurdled her body into the door with no avail.
"HELP US!"
"ANYONE!! HELP, HELP!!"
The further Maya crumpled to the floor and withered away, the more distressed they grew; trying anything and everything to escape the room and save her life. She was dying before their eyes, and no matter how fervently they begged and implored for assistance, no one came. After another moment with no progress, Dakota fell to her knees before the fading teenager.
"Maya?! Maya, just breathe. We're going to to get you out of here, I swear. It'll be okay." she promised intently; not sure the girl could hear anything in the midst of her unfathomable anguish.
And as if the words were magic, the doors finally swung open from the other side; a group of men in hazmat suits breaching the room and scooping the Vie girl up from the ground, commanding them to follow.
༻✧༺
MAYA BARELY LOOKED LIKE HERSELF ANYMORE.
Her bright red skin and the mustard yellow of the blanket draped over her lower body were the only pops of color amongst the intense white room; the girl supine and unconscious in a medical bed.
Her appearance right now was possibly the sickest Dakota had ever seen anyone look. Sicker than the blood virus, and when Finn had been poisoned, and when John Murphy had been beaten to a pulp and nearly hanged. She swallowed with a grimace as the mountain girl's blistered skin stirred the memory of Atom in the woods that day— looking quite similar to the deceased boy.
The Thompson girl's fingers were intertwined with Jasper's trembling ones, tightly squeezing his hand every once in a while in silent, moral support. She stood along with her two best friends at Maya's bedside, clinging onto each word exiting Dr Tsing's lips and every number on the medical screens covering the back wall— the woman safe and sound in her puffy hazmat suit.
"Temperature's 104 and rising." she announced tonelessly, holding onto the clipboard with her uninjured arm; not with the one Fallon had allegedly broken.
Dakota held her wince for Jasper's sake, though she knew the boy was more than aware of the dangers presented with a temperature of 104.
"Blood pressure, 180 over 120. Blister coverage now 75 percent. Standard treatment isn't working."
"Wait. What does that mean? Is there a nonstandard treatment?" Jasper asked, voice shaking as he spoke; Dakota giving another reassuring squeeze to his hand.
Tsing looked up from her clipboard and over to her assisting nurse— also in a hazmat suit— before glancing back over to them; something changing in her voice when she spoke again.
"There is one thing we could try."
"Then what are you waiting for?" the Jordan boy questioned aggravatedly, eyes darting uncomfortably back and forth between her and Maya.
"It's... unorthodox." she explained, taking a few steps closer to the trio; Monty narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"Because you were raised in space, your circulatory systems developed the ability to filter radiation out of your blood. Now, it's just a theory—"
"If Maya's blood circulated through our system..." Dakota's eyes gradually widened as she caught on to the hypothesis.
"It could make her better." Jasper realized.
"It would be ground-breaking science. A— a medical miracle!" the Thompson girl stammered in wonder, corners of her lips twitching as she nearly forgot their horrendous situation.
Monty, however, wasn't paying attention to the medical miracle it could produce; he was paying attention to the wheels turning behind Jasper's eyes.
"What happens to him?" he was quick to ask, promptly pulling Dakota back into reality; her eyes wide for a whole different reason now.
"I'm not sure." the doctor answered honestly.
The Jordan boy's jaw tightened, his breathing growing mildly heavier as he scrutinized Maya, fading further with each passing moment. Instantly, his friends knew what he was thinking, and the dark-haired girl's chest was filling with worry.
"I know that look. Don't even think about it. It's too dangerous." Monty warned seriously, certain Jasper was about to recklessly agree.
And like clockwork, the next thing Jasper said was—
"I'm in."
Quickly, the Green boy's attention turned to Dakota; perfectly aware of what she would say next.
"I—"
"And you, don't volunteer. You're both my best friends, and I'm not letting either of you become a lab rat today." he cut her off sternly, meaning every word he said.
"Well I'm not letting Jasper take the chance, and Maya needs help. Sorry." she frowned, and though it was an odd time for the promise she made to Fallon to kick in, she shook her head with a sigh.
"No, I'm not sorry, actually. This has to be done a—"
"And it has to be me." Jasper stated, Dakota locking eyes pleadingly with him.
"Jasper, I can't let you do this."
"Time for me to prove I'm not a coward... okay?" he chortled uneasily with an anxiety-terrorized smile, squeezing her hand this time; glancing over to Monty too.
"It's not just anyone, guys... it's Maya. I have to do this."
It wasn't long before Jasper was prepped and ready, and Dakota had already stress braided six braids into her hair. The Jordan boy sat anxiously in his bed parallel to Maya's, the three of them watching Dr Tsing prepare what had to be at least a 3 inch needle. Tension was high in the room for more reasons than one.
"You sure about this? Look at her. I know you like her, but her blood is about to go into your body." Monty leaned down with a whisper. They glanced over to Maya, Dakota's stomach churning at her worsening condition.
The three of them flinched in unison when Maya's body jerked violently in her bed, the beep of her EKG suddenly going off the frtiz. She convulsed and thrashed as if she were possessed, body twisting into knots like a circus of torment.
"What is it?! What's happening?!" Jasper questioned pressingly as Dr Tsing and the nurse rushed to push some sort of medicine into the IV in her forearm; calming her instantly.
"We need to do this now." was the woman's only grave response.
"Jasper." Monty pushed in a last ditch effort, the boy's head snapping over to finally address his pleas.
"I can't just let her die!"
Then he turned to Tsing, inhaling a quivering breath as he nodded.
"Let's do this."
"Hey." Dakota whispered, stepping closer and scooping up his hand into hers once again; Jasper's fearful eyes staring into her calm and loving ones, knowing it might help set him at ease. It had in the past.
"This is gonna work." she smiled, a mixture of reassurance and unshakable faith on her features. And even now, as Maya seized and he dove head first into a dangerous experiment, she looked so certain. So certain everything would be just fine.
He nodded slightly as his heart thudded viciously against his rib cage, tightening his grip onto her hand as Tsing approached them with the wretched 3 inch needle.
"This will sting a little." she deadpanned, plunging the needle into his tense neck; unbothered when he yelped in pain.
"OW! A little?" he retorted wide-eyed.
With that, Tsing pressed a forbidding button, and Maya's blood was traveling hastily up the clear tube connected to the dialysis shunt in her chest; straight into the machine that served as the middle man between her and the boy. Though her fear was mostly gone, Dakota diverted her eyes from the dark red substance to avoid the risk of growing queasy; resisting the urge to keep obsessively braiding her hair as the experiment unfolded further. From the machine, it moved swiftly into Jasper's IV, and from there, it moved directly into him; contaminating the blood gushing through his veins.
Eagerly, and on edge, they all closely surveyed his face; his eyes only taking a mere matter of seconds to begin rolling into the back of his head. Dakota's heart skipped a beat as the rigid hold he had on her hand slackened in involuntary relaxation; not having expected such a severe reaction from him so instantaneously.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Monty immediately interrogated, eyes darting over to Tsing before back to Jasper; who only snorted and tilted his head back in a daze.
"Nothing, ha. I— I feel nice." he grinned lazily.
"What's making him so woozy?" Dakota asked, making sure there was a clear absence of panic in her tone.
"Maya's been heavily sedated. You will of course feel that too. It's perfectly normal." Tsing explained with a smile, Jasper humming happily as he let his head fall back against the cushy pillow.
Dakota smiled too, thankful this was an effect of the sedation and not the blood; patting his shoulder as his eyelids fluttered. Quickly though, her smile disappeared when she fully registered what had just been said; Monty asking the question before she could.
"If you've never done this before... how do you know?"
At this point, it was quite obvious that Monty had assumed the same level of suspicion and distrust for Mount Weather that Fallon and Clarke had fostered while they were here.
"You're right." Tsing nodded after a moment of consideration, correcting herself.
"I should've said, it's to be expected. This will take a while. Why don't you both head back to your room? I'll send for you once he's awake."
Monty and Dakota exchanged a look— over their dead bodies.
In a wordless response— a rather mocking one— the Green boy held up two fingers signaling for her to wait before pulling up a chair, soon crossing his arms and taking a seat there; his unbending expression letting her know he nor Dakota would be going anywhere.
༻✧༺
BELLAMY STARED DISTANTLY INTO THE DANCING FLAMES OF THE CAMPFIRE HE HAD BUILT, ITS WARMTH slicing through the gelidity of the wintry night. The sparks of red and orange crackled loudly as they preformed pirouettes against the bleakness of the stygian sky; their euphonious hisses and serene glow having already surrendered Clarke to a deep sleep as she laid closely by them.
He was under the impression that Octavia too had fallen under the lullaby's idyllic spell, but was proved wrong when his baby sister arose from her spot in the dried leaves and plopped down next to him on the log on which he sat; letting her head fall against the warmth of his shoulder. For a moment, they sat in silence as she too did nothing but stare into the vibrant blaze. But soon, she spoke up.
"What are you thinking about?"
His poor heart ached at the sound of her voice. Every ounce of innocence it had once so wondrously possessed had disappeared. She had been burned and scarred by the cruelties of life, and she sounded now when she spoke like nothing more than a jaded adult. He longed for the days in which she still spoke like a child, but her tone now and the look in her darkened eyes made things quite clear— childhood was gone.
Nevertheless, he answered her question truthfully.
"Eleos."
"Wonder why." Octavia mumbled sarcastically, chuckling quietly when he did.
Eleos was, in Greek mythology, the goddess of compassion, mercy, and clemency. Any mortal could rest in the comfort that she'd always be there for them if ever there came a day when they needed endless forgiveness and kindness. She was rumored to have pale skin, and dark, full hair. The youngest Blake knew exactly who her brother was picturing as the highly adored goddess.
A large part of him wanted to rant to her; get everything he'd been feeling about Dakota off of his chest. How with each passing moment, he became more and more aware of just how far apart they truly were. And how with each new ounce of awareness, his chest tightened further and it grew a little harder to breathe. But he was the big brother, and he knew she was hurting too, so he said nothing; not wanting her to take responsibility for more burdens than she already had.
There was another moment of silence.
"I'm glad... I'm glad she's alive. One of us deserves a happy ending." Octavia swallowed the lump forming in her throat at the thought of Lincoln— which had been her only thought as of late.
Bellamy didn't know what other response to give besides wrapping his arm around his sister's shoulders in the cold of the night, and pulling her closer into his side as they continued to watch the flickering light.
"I'm sorry about him, O. He was good."
"I know."
When another interval of silence blanketed them like a thick layer of fog, the lump in her throat grew, and it became increasingly harder to take a steady breath that wasn't overcome by devastation.
"Can you tell me a story? One that's not about Dakota, or anything else that's... just a good story?" she requested, voice wavering as she blinked back a set of tears in hopes of holding it together; pressing herself further into him.
Bellamy understood. Desperately, she needed a decent distraction. Frankly, he could use one too, before his nausea leveled up to actually vomiting from worrying too hard about the girl locked up in the hellhole they called Mount Weather.
"How about Roman this time?" he asked in his gruff voice, causing her to smirk slightly; quick to swipe away a tear that managed to break loose.
"Like Augustus and Octavia?"
"Yeah. Like that." he tenderly rubbed her shoulder.
༻✧༺
"WAIT, WAIT. Repeat that, please." Fallon shook her head with a grin, brows knitted as Raven's laugh grew a little louder; the mechanic leaning back in her seat with her tin cup of vodka.
The two had been sitting at a small table— aka a barrel with rotted wood— having drinks and sharing stories since Bellamy, Octavia, and Clarke had snuck out. The alcohol no longer being rationed brought out the better side of both of them; it was actually nice.
"He made me reassure him, over and over again, that he was the most beautiful broom in a broom closet of brooms." she explained, crossing her arms and taking another sip of her beverage.
"All because of the jobi nuts?" Fallon confirmed, soon shrugging it nonchalantly off.
"Well, that's still nothing compared to seeing highly brilliant and ultra-nerdy Monty Green shove his face full with pinecones."
"Pinecones?!" Raven slung her head forward, Fallon cackling loudly at the mental image resurfacing in her head, only causing the mechanic to laugh harder.
Suddenly, the Reyes girl's face was falling serious as she scooted up in her rickety seat; spotting something approaching in the distance.
"What now?" Fallon whined at her shift in demeanor, letting her shoulders sag.
"Abby is coming over here, and she does not look happy." she muttered quickly, the Walsh girl gasping sardonically and twisting around in her chair to see the woman; feigning obnoxious glee.
"Madam Chancellor, what can I do you for?" the blonde asked, taking another gulp of the vodka, which had lost its burn at this point in the night.
Abby said nothing, but instead slapped down a clear sheet of paper covered with a handwriting both of them recognized. It read in white marker, "mom, I hope you understand that I had to do this. CLARKE." Unfazed and keeping their cool, their eyes drifted back up to the woman, who looked like she was seconds away from blowing a gasket.
"Did either of you know about this?" she interrogated.
"No." Raven answered believably after taking another glance at the paper, Fallon merely shrugging with a small smirk, one to piss her off even further. The woman angrily pulled over a spare chair and joined them at the table.
"Sure, have a seat." the Reyes girl gestured sarcastically, the rare moment of fun they had found themselves in ending with her unwanted presence.
"Tell me where they went, and you won't be in trouble." she warned lowly, a grave and desperate look in her eyes.
"Abby, I—"
"Someone got them through the fence, someone gave them guns."
Fallon furrowed her brows at the way the woman was rising slowly back to her feet, leaning forward into Raven's face; rage boiling in the blacks of her eyes. The mechanic took a small breath, speaking again in the most collected, level, straightforward tone she knew; trying to get the woman to snap out of the rage she was seconds away from flying into.
"I don't know what you're talking—"
The nineteen year old was cut off with a harsh slap to her face, her head involuntarily swinging to the side as the sharp noise echoed in the night; heads turning from the few people seated around them. In an instant, and with a scowl on her face, Fallon was jumping to her feet; Raven hurriedly grabbing onto her wrist to keep her seated.
"Don't make any more of a scene. You'll wind up back in a cell." she whispered to the blonde, entirely unbothered as Abby sat back down, tears filling her eyes.
"I love causing scenes, didn't you get the memo?!" Fallon hissed through gritted teeth, Raven only tightening her grip when she tried to stand back up again.
The Walsh girl, face smothered in ire, stared at Raven for a long moment before giving in with a huff; annoyed she was letting her decisions suddenly be dictated by someone other than herself. Even worse, it was someone who sported rather high morals. Still, she abided by Raven's wishes, and did not cause the scene she so badly desired to.
"I'm not drunk enough for this." she grumbled sourly, hastily downing the rest of the vodka in her cup as Raven slid her own beverage towards Abby.
"She thinks that because of what she's been through, she's changed. But she's still just a kid." the Griffin's lip quivered as she spoke.
Fallon scrunched up her face in disgust at the infuriating words. Still a kid? Hasn't changed? She opened her mouth to insult and ridicule, but Raven's ever steady and gentle voice came instead. The words she spoke, however, packed quite a bit of punch.
"You're wrong, Abby. She stopped being a kid the day you sent her down here to die."
There was a long interval of silence, Abby's wheels turning behind her eyes as she digested the heavy, but very true statement she had just been delivered. Soon, Fallon was taking a deep breath and standing up from her seat; deciding she truly wasn't intoxicated enough for this.
"Abby, I'll clock you another time. Raven, I know where they hide the good scotch on the Ark. Care to join?"
Her confidence almost visibly faltered when the mechanic shook her head no, choosing to stay here with the broken woman instead. Fallon's features contorted in aggravation and confusion— how could she possibly feel sympathy for the person sitting before them? After everything she'd done on the Ark, after sending children to a planet full of war and bloodshed, after hitting her for no reason?
"Fine. Enjoy your circle jerk." she spat coldly, spinning on her heel and storming off; angered by the way that had just played out.
She understood they each had vastly different relationships with Abby, but still, it made the mechanic look like an utter push-over. Raven had built something with her that almost resembled the complex bond between a mother and a daughter, and Fallon had held in whimpers countless times when Abby would unknowingly press on bruises beneath her clothing during check ups as a child. To Fallon, she was merely another person in the Ark's system and on the council that had failed her since she was a little girl. Another person who never paid close enough attention to rescue her from what had been going on behind closed doors.
As she stormed off, she abruptly changed direction and headed for the tents to find a place to sleep instead; abandoning her plans of getting completely hammered tonight. She was no longer thirsty for the highly sought after scotch methodically nestled under one of section 19's floorboards— suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that she only knew of its location because there was once a day where she had been forced to steal it for Mason Walsh. The girl grimaced as a question she spent years suppressing surfaced from the deepest, darkest depths of her twisted mind.
Why did he still rule her life?
A/N!
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word count 4,930