My heartbeat thunders in my ears as I watch Pike's boots circle in front of the vent.
"Do you have a walkie on you?" My dad asks from behind me. I respond my handing him mine and he turns to a different channel before saying, "Do it now, Abby. I repeat, do it now." He hands it back to me and doesn't offer any explanation.
But before I can ask, the guards and Pike outside catch wind of the situation.
"Something isn't right." Pike mutters before grabbing his walkie. "Unit 4, what's your status?" Silence. "Are the prisoners secure? Unit 4!" He screams into the walkie, making me glance back at my dad to see a small smirk on his face. "Come on." Pike yells, running with the guards towards Unit 4.
I pop open the vent and I jump down with Kane, Lincoln and Miloch following me.
"It's a little bit tight in there." My dad says, making me chuckle.
"Try hiding in a closet for 13 years." I say, making him shut up with a hug. "Loch." I say, engulfing him in a hug. I offer Lincoln a handshake but he instead hugs me, making me laugh. "Come on, we need to find Sinclair so he can get us out of here and back to Octavia."
We take off running towards the hanger bay and meet Sinclair, Harper, Miller, Bryan and Abby.
"Well if it isn't my old student." Silnclair muses, offering me a quick hug. "Be safe out there okay? We haven't gotten to catch up quite yet and I want to hear about how you used your engineering skills to survive down here." He chuckles, before leading us towards a back door that leads out to a cut in the fence.
"On it." I say, offering him a smile before turning to my dad, who is speaking to Abby. "We need to go." I say, butting in, but they don't hear me as they share a small kiss.
"May we meet again." Abby says.
"We will." Kane says before turning and jumping through the gate, followed by the others.
"Attention all citizens. Emergency lockdown is in effect. Return to your quarters immediately." Pike's voice comes over the intercom.
"We need to go now." I say, my voice thick with nerves.
I let Miloch and Lincoln through and then I jump through last.
"May we meet again." I say to Sinclair, making him smile.
We begin running through the trees but stop when Pike's voice once again comes over the intercom.
"I have a message for the traitors in this camp." We all stop. "There will be an execution today. Either turn yourselves in or the other Grounder prisoners will die in your place." My blood drains from my face.
"No..." I mutter, turning to Miloch and Lincoln. "Please, no." I say, jumping in front of the two of them. "please don't do this, Lincoln, O needs you."
He shakes his head, a somber smile on his face. "No, she doesn't, but I will live on in her mind." He presses his lips together. "She'll try to push you away, don't let her." He says before walking back into camp.
I watch him go with wide eyes as Miloch takes a step next to me.
"I need to go with him Hailey." He murmurs.
"No!" I yell, not caring who hears me. I grab a fistfull of his armor. "I am not letting you die too." I grit my teeth with the effort. He tries to pry me off, but I shake my head as tears come to my vision. "We are so close, Loch. Please."
He stops trying to pry my fists off of his armour and just holds them with his hands. "You are strong and so I'm not going to lie." He takes in a deep breath before setting his forward on mine. "This will break you and you will have to build yourself back up again, but just remember all that I've taught you and all that you've learned."
"Please." I cry, my tears falling down my face. "I can't lose anyone else, please. Please." My sobs shake my shoulders.
"You have made everyone that has passed prouder than you can even imagine, so trust me when I say this," He squeezes me into a tight hug. "I am and will always be immensely proud of you, Hailey." He sighs, and I feel a tear fall onto my shoulder. "You are more than your nicknames that the grounders have given you. You are better than them, kinder, more empathetic." He continues. "Do not let yourself get lost in the bloodshed."
I nod into his chest. "I won't, I promise."
"I'm so truly sorry, Hailey." He murmurs before I feel a prick in my shoulder and the world goes black.
----------
I wake up on the back of a horse. My horse.
My eyesight is blurry for a few seconds before I'm able to sit up without being disoriented and then it hits me.
Miloch.
I jump off of the horse and stumble, almost hitting the ground but Octavia catches me. I grip onto her as I see Lincoln and Miloch being marched out of Arkadia with guns to their heads.
"No..." She breathes out, holding onto me tighter.
All the moments with Miloch flash through my mind. All the times he guided me, taught me, and cared for me. Now I have to watch him die.
He kneels next to Lincoln and they both stare up at the sky.
"Lincoln of Trikru, you have been sentenced to death, in accordance with the Exodus Charter. Any last words?" Pike says, his voice loud and booming as he points his gun at Lincoln's head.
"Not for you." Lincoln says, but murmurs something unintelligible, but it was undoubtedly for O.
The shot rings out and he falls.
My heart rate thunders in my ears as I stand and begin to run towards camp, but Miller wraps his arms around my middle stopping me.
"No! Please!" I scream, flailing in his arms. "I have to save him!"
"There's nothing you can do." He says, holding me.
"Miloch of Trikru, you have been sentenced to death, in accordance with the Exodus Charter. Any last words? " My sobs drown out his voice, but I can make it out.
"Ste yuj." He says, his gaze turned to the sky.
Pike raises the gun to his head and he fires.
The next three seconds feel like a lifetime.
1
The bullet enters and exits through his head.
2
He begins to fall.
3
He hits the ground.
My knees give out as sobs writtle my body. If it weren't for Miller, I would have stayed there in a ball of grief. Instead we walk back to the area Indra picked out for our rendezvous spot.
We all walk in with O and I last.
"Where's Lincoln and Miloch?" Bellamy asks and I snap.
I rush towards him and shove him against the wall with a knife from my belt pressed against his neck. "Pike put a bullet in their brains." I grit. "I should kill you right here, right now. You deserve it for what you've done."
He stares at me, his gaze wide and fearful. "Hailey... I am so sorry." He says, his voice thick.
"Let him go, Hailey." My dad says, but Miller silences him.
"Let her be." Miller says.
"You deserve to die for what you've done." I say again. "For what I've let you do." I shake my head.
"What I've done is my fault not yours, Hailey." He says as I ease up on his throat. "I've made so many mistakes and now they've cost Miloch and Lincoln their lives."
"Yes, it has and that is on you." I spit, letting go of him entirely. "You're dead to me." I whisper, turning and exiting the cave, but not before I hear Octavia land a few punches on him.
I walk a couple hundred feet away from the cave and lay on my back on the grass. I pull out the little black bottle that Orla gave me and look at it. I move it around in the moonlight and a curious thought pops into my head.
I sit up and pop off the lid, smelling it. It smells metallic in a way, but also sour. Even though Orla said to wait for when I need it, I decide that I don't want to risk it breaking, so I drink it.
It leaves a gross aftertaste in my mouth, but nothing happens. Until something does. Pain emits from my chest almost immediately. I clutch my chest as my teeth grit in pain. The pain travels from my chest to my stomach and then it branches outward to the rest of my body before leaving all together.
I let out a breath and let go of my chest. I unclench my fist and find little crescent shaped wounds on my palm, but something's different.
My blood isn't red. It's black.
------------
a/n
okay, SO i'm aware this mystery drug doesn't exist canonically, but for this lets just let it exist because it sets up future story lines
mwah mwah