Who We Are [Bellamy Blake]

Chapter 23

                As she continued with the war plan, battle tactics and how to potentially survive the imminent war on the horizon, she began to feel antsy about Bellamy. The nerves got to her as she neared the end of her little speech. However, a weight was lifted off of her shoulders as she realized that the kids she had just instructed were looking at her as an ally, not the enemy anymore. Harper was the first to rise as Athena concluded the meeting, and walked up to Athena. Two people took off to man the wall, while the remaining kids watched to see what Harper was going to do.

                “Thank you.” She said, “We’ve been under so much pressure lately, trying to survive when we were never taught these things, and I saw you as the enemy. But… We are all just people, you know?”

                “It’s a shame we can’t all see it that way.” Athena knew little about the history of the world, why it was the way it was, why people were coming down from the sky. However, she knew it was because of a war that was almost a century old now. People fought people, for reasons that were absolutely petty, though the people who tried to stop it stood alone, or far and few in between. “I’m going to check in with Octavia.”

               Athena looked over at the people she had just told everything about her own people to, and wondered if any of them would survive. The painful statistics suggested that they wouldn’t, but they had held themselves this long. As she neared the drop ship, she heard the gun shot and gasp, running to where Octavia was, yelling at Murphy through the hand held device they had. Athena had never seen anything like it, but it allowed them to talk to Bellamy and Murphy who were inside the thick drop ship walls.

               

        “What happened?” Athena asked, but Octavia didn’t know.

Jasper came running out from under the drop ship and his face was white. “That doors going to open any second. Guns ready.”

Athena flipped the dagger in her hand, over and over until the doors began to open. The tarp that still hung in the opening made going in dangerous; Murphy had a gun in there too. However, Bellamy’s life was on the line, and Athena didn’t wait to run in. She darted ahead of everyone, Jasper on her heels, and pushed through the tarp. Murphy was climbing up the hatch, locking himself in the upper level where Lincoln had been held. Her brown eyes found Bellamy, hanging limp from a noose.

Jasper’s quick thinking was to grab Bellamy, to lift him up. Athena darted to the location where it was tied up, and slashed at it with her dagger. The fabric snapped and Bellamy fell to the ground. Athena darted over, shoving Jasper out of the way and pressing her ear to Bellamy’s lips; he was breathing, but it was hoarse. She placed her hands to his carotid artery. His pulse was slow, but he jolted up, gasping for breath. Athena leaned back, landing on her hands and breathing in relief as he rose, his voice sounding as though it had been through a grinder. It was low, vicious, filled with malice as he shouted after the man who had just tried to hang him.

Rage filled Athena; even though Bellamy was alive, she wanted Murphy dead. She stepped away from Bellamy and let him rise to his feet, a similar anger in his expression that mimicked Athena’s. She watched as he climbed the ladder to the top of the drop ship, trying to get through but the port was locked and jammed shut. Balling her hands into fists and grinding her teeth, she tried to calm herself. Joy should have filled her that Bellamy was alive, but she knew rage better than joy, she was more familiar with it.

She stepped out of the drop ship and looked around at all the kids who had stopped what they were doing to see if Bellamy was okay. Once again, she realized that she had to take this opportunity to take control; if she could keep them alive for another few days, she would not be a stranger to them. She would not be the enemy, and while she would never be one of them, she would be seen as equal and that was enough for her.

“Bellamy is fine!” She raised her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Go back to fixing the walls, making bullets, mines, armour. The army could arrive by sundown.”

“Sundown?!” Someone shouted.

Athena nodded, “We must prepare for the worst, and then we might make it.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Harper muttered.

An explosion sounded and Athena cowered, sheltering her head so fast that she ripped open the wound on her side. A gasp escaped her lips and she forced her eyes open. After seeing that she was alive, unharmed (mostly) and the only one cowering from the sound, she rose quickly, ignoring the pain on her side and the dampness that followed. She was bleeding through her gauze and cauterized skin again. Grimacing, she looked up at the drop ship where a billow of smoke danced in the air. A shudder ran down her spine; she had be injured in many wars, battles and combat, but she had never suffered the fear of anything that had harmed her. The explosion on the bridge lingered longer than a dagger or an arrow through the flesh; this type of warfare was dangerous.

She saw someone running away from the drop ship, just outside an area of the wall that hadn’t been completed. With basic knowledge of the situation, she assumed it was the one who had nearly killed Bellamy, and so she pulled her dagger from her hip and held the tip between her thumb and index finger, both calloused from years of holding weaponry. With precision, as Murphy stopped to look at the drop ship, she aimed and threw her dagger. It whizzed past him, nicking his cheek; he reached his hand to the scrape that began to bleed and then he took off.

A sudden wave of disappointment took over her, overwhelming her like a hot flash. She glanced down at her hands; she had missed her target. With a shake of her head, she looked back at the drop ship as Bellamy exited from it, a faint smile on his lips, but anger in his eyes. It was then that she realized, as she studied the man that she had left her people for, that this thing between them was making her lose her way. Her way might not be the proper way of life, but these emotions she had trained herself to ignore, neglect, and never feel were making her lose sight of who she was. Trembling slightly, she realized what she had to do.

“There’s someone coming!” A voice on the wall shouted, and all the guns made clicky noises, boots shuffled.

“Wait!” Someone called, “It’s Clarke and Finn! They’re back!”

The gates opened, they stepped in and everyone raced to greet them. From the look on her face, blood stained and eyes wide, Athena knew she had seen something she never wanted to see. As she tried to grasp what it was, she realized that Clarke might be the one to get these people to leave instead of fight. She had to hope.

Wattpad is being so weird. I have to double space all my writing on Microsoft word for it to space it properly on here. I do hope they do an update soon. I may have a trailer coming up soon for this story! And I'm so excited!