Who We Are [Bellamy Blake]

Chapter 9

                Though the tension in the cave was still thick as mud, Bellamy and Athena both sat comfortably as possible on the rock floor. Athena had more padding on her clothing, and so she tucked her coat underneath her butt to soften the ground. Bellamy dealt with his uncomfortable position smoothly, and it was as if he was used to sitting on rock hard floor his whole life. Athena didn’t know that he was used to it; being in the lower sector of the Ark he hadn’t gotten the luxuries of comfortable living. He never complained though, because it was his sister who was trapped under the floor, not him.

                “Tell me…” Bellamy started, “Who are the Mountain Men?”

                “I do not… uhm… know?”

                “Know, yeah, that’s right.” He nodded.

                Athena didn’t show that she felt stupid, but rather, accepted his generous encouragement. “I have never seen t-them. They cannot leave t-their mountain.”

                “Why?”

                She pointed out to the exit of the cave, though it was out of sight. “How do you say… the air is…”

                “Toxic?”

                She glanced up at him; she had never heard the word before, but it sounded accurate. “Like now.”

                “So, the air is toxic to them, just like this fog is to us?”   

                She nodded, “Yes.”

                A silence passed through the cave, Bellamy was thinking about what he had just learned. The Grounders were not the only threat, and he was worrying more and more about Octavia. She hadn’t looked at him the same since Atom died, which was not his fault, and now she was disgusted by the way he treated the Grounder that Athena called Lincoln. He was losing touch with his estranged sister, but perhaps this connection he felt with Athena would show Octavia that he was giving them a chance, these Grounders, but that he couldn’t risk any of them hurting her.

                “Why are you still here?” Bellamy asked, “Lincoln?”

                Athena couldn’t answer all his questions; she was here because she had nothing to go back to Lexa with. She wanted to go back and either prevent this war that lingered like smoke over a fire, or to start this war and get it over with, before she felt any connection with the Sky People. From what she had seen, they weren’t all that bad, but Lincoln had limped out of the camp hardly able to even speak, and that negative was more heavily weighted than the good she had seen from a few of them.

                Bellamy himself had ups and downs, but he had chosen not to kill her the few chances he had, and Athena had not been able to kill him either. With so much being juggled in her head, she knew in the back of her mind, somewhere deep in there, that it would be easier to try to make peace with these people. Their camp was small enough, and they would probably never stray into the Wood Clans territory. Chances are, in time, most of them would die off from simple things like exposure, animal attack, or the acid fog. Their chances were drastically lower than those who had been born and raised on Earth.

                “Lincoln is free.” She said, but decided not to go in further than that.

                Bellamy’s jaw tightened and his expression darkened, but then he softened up almost as fast as he tensed. Perhaps it was because he recalled that Athena gave him one day to free him, and now that he was free, it didn’t really matter.