IN MY HEAD¹ ━━ Bellamy Blake

𝐗𝐋: Echoes

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ECHOES

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HER DESPAIR QUICKLY is shoved to the back of her mind. Though flames had blazed deep inside of her like a wildfire, slathering her bones with scorching heat, now there is no time to focus on it. No time to think of the brain matter still stuck beneath her nails. No time to think of the crimson blood staining her hands. No time to think of the the corpse slumped against the earth, left behind to be scorched by acidic fires.

     She shot a man in the head. She is seventeen and she just shot a man in the head, but she has to get up and walk it off because they are running out of time.

     Now Bellamy helps her crawl through the vent and into the harvest chamber. It is just as horrifying as she remembers it to be. The slate-grey room is cavernous, rugged rock vaulting high over her head, and the entire chamber glints a sickening blue. Cages loom all around them, stuffed with dying Grounders.

     This is the next step. Acid fog, free the Grounders. Then. . . then they all get to go home.

     Bellamy, to his credit, is much more controlled than she is. His guarded eyes sweep the room once for signs of any threat and then, upon finding none, takes the keys from his belt and strides towards the nearest cage. A female Grounder is crumpled inside, barely breathing through waxen, blood-crusted lips. Her dull eyes flicker with recognition when they find Bellamy, and Lyra immediately knows who she must be; the girl who'd saved Bellamy's life when he first came to the Harvest Chamber.

     "Get up. It's time to go," he says gruffly as he fumbles with the padlock and then seizes the Grounder by the waist, helping her to the ground. "I told you I'd come back for you. Our people are marching on Mount Weather right now."

The older girl's gaze flits to Lyra's, her dark eyes like knives. Lyra tries very hard not to be afraid of her and says, hoarsely, "Heya, ai laik Lyra kom Skaikru."

Hello, I am Lyra of the Sky People.

Bellamy moves impatiently to the next cage only for the heavily bandaged Grounder to beat at him weakly. "Hey! It's OK. We're getting you out!"

"Slow down," the Grounder girl forces him to back off, taking him by the arm. "They just bled him."

Upon hearing this, Lyra is startled to find that she's starting to feel less and less sorry for what she's done. The man she killed might have been the one who bled this terrified Grounder. And if she hadn't shot him, he would have killed Bellamy. These people are monsters.

     "Listen to me," Bellamy hisses to the older girl. "There's an army inside this room, and I need you to help me get them ready to fight. Can you do that?" The older girl gives a jerky nod. "Good. Start with him."

The older girl takes his place to heave the Grounders from his cage, saying a few words in Trigadasleng that Lyra cannot understand. In the meanwhile, Bellamy approaches the cage below and starts to undo the padlock. The hundreds of caged Grounders surrounding them seem to realize what is going on and start to clamor to be the next to be freed: screams in both Trigadasleng and English bleed together into one great unintelligible cacophony, cages rattling furiously.