When the doors opened, the guards filed in. "Link up, people." Shauna, Monty, Jasper, Miller, and I formed the first line. The rest of the older kids lined up behind us, and the youngest were hidden in the back.
Dr. Tsing walked past the guards and pointed out the girl she wanted from the second line. The guards reached for her and we pushed. He was shoved back a few steps, but more guards came, pulling us apart. I kicked one in the stomach, and he hit the ground. Another guard came for me, restraining my arms. I jerked my body away from him. "Stop!" He hissed, I recognized the voice immediately.
"Bell?" I whispered.
He shushed me quietly, leading me a few steps away from the chaos. "They're killing the kids," he told me. "The next time, you fight back, and you fight back hard." I felt him press something into my hands. "Use this, promise me you will."
My fingers tightened around the gun, I remembered how ready I was to kill Dante. "I will. Find Dante, he'll help us."
"Hey, everything okay over there?" Another guard called.
Bellamy squeezed my arm once. "Yeah!" He called back. He threw me hard onto the ground. The gun almost went flying out of my hands, but I managed to keep my grip. I kept my eyes on the ground, even though every part of me was screaming to look up at Bellamy, to make sure he was real.
I heard the doors close behind the guards, and I looked up. I pulled myself up, looking around the room. "Is that the best we've got?"
★ ★ ★ ★
I showed my friends the gun. "Bellamy gave me this, we have a chance."
"You sure you're going to be able to use that?" Jasper asked. "Maybe I should-"
"No," I said. "I've let these people down too many times, its time for me to make up for that."
"What about the rest of us?" Miller asked.
"We might be able to unscrew some beams from the beds," Monty said. "They're not guns, but they're better than fighting with out bare hands."
I nodded. "Shauna help him with that." I looked to Miller. "Look for anything else that can be used as a weapon. Let's try to arm as many people as we can."
Everyone split up, trying to look for something. When we were as ready as we were going to be, we formed our lines again. "What's taking Bellamy so long?" Monty asked.
"Maybe they caught him," Miller said.
"No," I snapped. "Bellamy is smarter than that."
"They're going to take someone else," Harper said.
I shook my head. "They're not taking anyone from this room. Not without a fight."
The doors opened again, we did nothing as they walked towards us. "This one," Dr. Tsing said, this time she pointed at Monty. Shauna was the first to react. She leapt from the line and swung her metal bar, hitting a guard across the face. He crumpled clutching his nose that was spewing blood. When a guard came for her, I shot him. That's when everything erupted into chaos; metal bars were being swung every which way.
I shot a few more times, but everyone was moving so quickly I had to be careful I didn't shoot one of my own people. Then the gun was knocked out of my hand and I was thrown down next to Shauna, who was clutching her arm in pain. "Take her instead," Dr. Tsing said.
"No," Jasper said, standing up in front of me. A guard shoved him to the ground, and then grabbed me, yanking me to my feet. They pulled me out of the room; I let them lead me away. They took me to the elevator, but just as the door was opening the guard holding my arms started to let go.
"Something's wrong," one said.
Dr. Tsing fumbled for her radio. "Containment breach, level five." A few of the guards dropped.
Kids from the dorm started running towards me. "Keep going!" I told them. "Get to the mess hall! Grab all the weapons you can!" Kids ran by, picking up guns off the fallen guards. Dr. Tsing crawled towards the elevator.
I lunged for it, but Jasper was there first. He stuck his arm in-between the doors and they opened. "You can't do this," she said. Her skin was beginning to melt off.
"I hope you know you're very special to us," he said. She screamed and then fell silent. I turned away, not wanting to look at what was left of her.
"Come on," I said. "We've got to get everyone ready to fight." I ran towards the mess hall with everyone else on my heels. Most of the kids were already working, digging through drawers for knives, or moving large furniture towards the doors.
"Monty, get these doors shut!" I told him. He nodded and started working on the control panel. "Miller and Jasper, move the dining tables in front of the door, set up a barricade. We have the level for now, but don't think we've won yet!" I called to everyone else. Fox knocked out a camera. "Good, get the hallway cameras."
"No, leave them, we could use the eyes out here," Monty said. "Shauna, can you set that up?"
She smiled at him. "You got it."
★ ★ ★ ★
A few hours passed with no trouble from the Mountain Men. Then there was an explosion. "They're here!" Shauna shouted, looking up from her tablet.
"You were right," Monty said, looking at the screen. "No guns."
"Some of them aren't wearing hazmat suits," she said confused.
I looked between Monty and Jasper. "They're cured."
The Mountain Men knocked in the door and then threw a few smoke bombs over. "Get those in the vases!" I called quietly. Fox ran towards them with two vases of water. "Careful, stay away from the smoke!" She covered her face and grabbed them. "Everyone get down, you know the plan."
Once Fox had neutralized the gas bombs, I motioned her to the back of the room. We all lay down, pretending to be knocked out. The guards knocked down our barricade and walked into the room, looking us over.
I heard someone reach into the vase that was next to me and pull out the bomb. I jumped up, swinging my knife. It sliced the guard across the shoulder. The others followed my lead; guards were dropping left and right. We weren't messing around anymore. This was life or death.
"Retreat!" One of the guards yelled. The remaining guards fell back. I turned to our group, triumphant, and then I heard a scream.
"They took Fox," Shauna shouted.
Jasper ran towards the door, but I grabbed his arm. "We can't."
"I told her...I told her everything was going to be okay."
"We'll get her back," I told him. "But we can't do that with a target on our backs."
"We're going to need a lot more than a little water and four guns," Miller said. "They're going to come in hotter next time."
I nodded. "I know."
One of the walkie-talkies beeped. I picked it up. "This is President Wallace, speaking to the people who just killed ten of my men." Shauna and Monty ran towards me with the tablet. Jasper and I looked at it; Maya was standing in the hallway in a HAZMAT suit. "We thought we'd try something a little different. Maya has twenty minutes of oxygen in her suit. Either you turn yourselves in, or she suffocates."
Jasper ran outside and got Maya. I went over to them. "Fox is okay," she told us.
"Bellamy saved her. He's going to bring guns through the trash chute."
"If we can get guns in here, we can get you out," Jasper said.
"No we can't," Monty said shaking his head. "I disabled the chute, I didn't think we'd be opening it ourselves."
Maya's breath quickened. "Stay calm," I told her. "You'll use up more oxygen if you're breathing fast."
"I can fix it," Monty said. "I'll get Shauna." He ran off towards the kitchen. I did a round, making sure the others were still working on the barricade. Then I joined them.
"This is harder than I thought," Monty said. "I can't get the connection back."
Shauna reached out and yanked the control panel off the wall. We all stared at her. "I cut power to the door. Don't just look at me, help me get this open!" The guys started pulling at the door, but it was stuck.
Then the door burst open and Bellamy stuck his head into the room. "Get her down here!" He said. I pushed Maya towards the chute, and Jasper helped her climb in. We slid down after her. As soon as we were down the slide. Maya ripped her helmet off. Jasper hugged her.
Bellamy helped me to my feet. For a minute I just stared at him. "I'm sorry."
I hugged him. "I don't care, I forgive you. None of it matters anymore." I held onto him tightly. "I thought you were dead." He held me with one hand on my back and one on my head, like he was never going to let me go. "Is everyone else okay? Raven, Finn, Clarke?"
"Raven and Clarke are alive," he said. I sighed in relief. "Finn..." He trailed off.
I let go of him. "Tell me later. We've got to get out of here."
A man walked into the room. "Dad?" Maya said. Jasper let her go and she ran and hugged him.
"We need to get everyone down here," Maya's dad told us. "We're going to hide you all."
I jumped up on the dumpster and leaned into the trash chute. "Miller?" I called.
"Maia?"
"We need to get everyone down here. As quickly as possible."
"Roger that, boss."
"Boss?" Bellamy asked.
"It seems like we have a lot of catching up to do," I said.
Maya and her father ran ahead of us, presumably to set up whatever the next step of the plan was. Once everyone was down Bellamy led us out into the hall. "What about the cameras?" Shauna asked.
"Maya disabled them all," Bellamy assured her.
"We're all sitting ducks in a group like this," Miller said.
"You're right," Bellamy said. "We're splitting up."
"No," Monty said. "We stay together, we survive together."
I looked up to see Maya standing in front a group of Mount Weather civilians. I looked at Bellamy. "You trust these people?" I asked. He nodded. I looked back at everyone else. "Go with them." The kids all ran around me, and Maya's friends divided them into groups.
"We're coming with you," Jasper said to Bellamy.
"No, you're not. They don't know I'm here, and I need to keep it that way."
I nodded reluctantly. I didn't like the idea of leaving Bellamy this quickly after I found him, but he was right. "What do we do?" I asked.
"Stay alive, get ready to fight," he told us. He nodded and then turned to leave.
"Bell?" I called. He turned back around. I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards me. I kissed him quickly, just a peck. "Don't die on me, okay?" I turned and grabbed Jasper and headed towards the others.
★ ★ ★ ★
Miller and I were sitting on someone's couch drinking coffee, as we had been for the last day. "I hate this," I said.
"Me too."
"I should be out there, fighting, helping."
"You aren't going to be any good to anyone dead."
I rolled my eyes. There was a knock on the door. The woman who was hiding us motioned for us to get inside a secret compartment under the counter. "Whatever happens, do not reveal yourselves. I believe in this cause, and I will die for it."
She slid the panel back into place and went to answer the door. Miller and I were squished close together. There was no way for us to see what was going on in the room, but we could hear.
"Routine inspection Ms. Velasquez," a man said. I could hear them moving around the room.
"Have you found any of those murders yet?" She asked.
"That's confidential information," he said. "But I can promise you, we will be on the ground before you know it." I shuddered.
"A witness said they saw you leaving the mess hall with extra food," another voice said.
"I took an extra slice of cake the other day, I know it's frowned upon. But I always get a craving for chocolate in the middle of the night."
The footsteps got closer. I tried to hold my breath. The guard drummed his finger on the counter. When he got to our hiding spot, the sound changed. He stopped. There was a moment of silence and then he kicked in the panel. A shard of wood hit me in the face. He reached in and yanked us out.
Ms. Velasquez lunged at him, and he shot her in the head. Blood spattered the room, and I flinched. "Take them to the lab."