Who We Are [Bellamy Blake]

Chapter 32

                After half an hour, Athena wondered if they were torturing Bellamy in another room and were just going to tell her about it. They had not brought him in, they had not showed her what they were capable of doing to him. She decided that they were bluffing about hurting him in order to scare her into talking, but surely they knew she was harder than that to crack. The knowledge she had about the kids that were missing wouldn’t hurt the Wood Clans, and might actually help them. If the Arkers were pitted against the Mountain Men, they might be abolished for good and there would no longer be a fear of Reapers and Acid Fog.

                When Kane came in, his face was red, he was unimpressed. “You keep telling me your people didn’t take the kids.”

                Athena glanced up at him, saying nothing, but hinting that she was all ears.

               

                “Well two of my prisoners are missing, Bellamy included, and my guess is that they are on their way to find the missing kids, which they believe your people took.” Kane was using this information to make Athena feel guilty about not telling him what she was storing. She envisioned Bellamy storming into one of the villages, and being slaughtered. She shuddered, but showed nothing. Bellamy had survived this long, and was not a fool.

                “I’ll tell you what you need to hear.” She dragged a fingernail under another, removing the grime that had built up underneath them. Not looking at Kane and focusing on her hand both stopped her anger at herself, as well as made Kane think she looked down upon him.

                “For?”

                “My freedom.” She said, her eyes finally glancing up at him. “I will not harm anyone in your camp, I’ll get Bellamy and return him to the camp, then I will go to my commander and try to set up an alliance.”

                “Why would I want an alliance with your filth?”

                Athena grimaced, “Because the people who had those kids have been sitting pretty in a mountain with weaponry far beyond what you can scavenge from your Ark.”

                “Mount Weather?” Kane figured it out, “It was supposed to be vacant… People survived?”

                “The strongest of us survived on the Earth, the weakest of us survived hiding behind rocks and guns.”

                “Weakest?”

                “The air is toxic for them, they die in minutes from exposure.”

                “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

                “Because I have nothing to prove to you. You have nothing to offer me but my freedom. And Bellamy’s.”

                “Well Bellamy has already broken out; I can’t free you until he returns, I’ll use you as a bargaining token.” He explained.

                “My people will tear this Ark to pieces when they figure out I’m in here. They probably already know, as they pinned up your three guards to show they are waiting, watching.” She threatened, but she knew that it was a lie. They were trying to scare the Arker’s, threating them if they stepped out of their walls, but they were not doing it because she was in there. If they knew she was in there, they would probably ask for her head, and she had no doubt Kane would hand it over on a silver platter.

                “We’ll see about that.” He shook his head, bringing his hand to the bridge of his nose and pinching it as if he had a headache. “Would an alliance be possible?”

                Athena looked up, wondering why he was still talking to her, asking questions. She shrugged her shoulders carelessly. “Ask Clarke.”

                “She isn’t here.”

                “You know where she is now. Does Abby?” She asked, wondering what Kane would trust Abby knowing. If she knew her daughter was locked in a mountain with people who did torturous things, she wouldn’t be sitting pretty waiting for them to show up.

                “Abby helped Bellamy escape, gave them weapons.” Kane said, “She thinks your people have them, and I think you are lying about these Mountain Men.”

                Athena hissed at him; she had given him the only information that was worth keeping her alive for, and he didn’t even take it seriously. It sounded absurd, people being trapped in a mountain behind guns, reapers and the threat of missiles, unable to breathe the air that Earth offered, but it was the truth. Kane left the room with nothing more to say, because Athena had no more words for him either. She could think of some crude words, but she did not know the English translation for them, and they would mean nothing to him. She was alone in her cell again, trapped, and feeling a dread creep through her body.

                Maybe she was safer inside the Ark, away from the other Grounders that wanted her dead for changing sides. She thought of Aslan then, wondering if he was safe in the mountain pass. If he was safe, was he mad at her? Did he hate her? Was he worried about her? She considered what would have happened if she had gone with him, but it was a bittersweet thought, leaving Bellamy to die at the hands of Tristan or worse.

                But it crossed her mind that Bellamy had broken out of his imprisonment in the Ark and had not bothered to try to free her. If he had, or even tried to get Finn to contact her, he would not be walking into a village right now, ready to shoot up any Grounder he spotted because he had an inkling that they had his friends. If he had come to her, she would have told him that three boys with guns cannot get his friends back, they would need the participation of everyone on the Ark, as well as every Grounder. They had a common enemy, they could come together and work as a team to bring down the Mountain Men, they could have peace for the first time on Earth since before the cataclysm.

                But Bellamy hadn’t thought to spare her, to break her free. So she was sentenced to sit and brood, chewing her dirty nails down to the bone. She was almost glad Bellamy had made the mistake of pissing her off frequently in the last seventy-two hours, because when she found him dead whenever she was freed, she would not feel so sad about his death. She had fallen for a fool.

Grrr, I worked early this morning so I didn't get time to write, and I work all week. If I don't post tomorrow it is because I only have half of the next chapter written. Hopefully I can find some time tonight to write, or get up early tomorrow, but I work early tomorrow as well.