~𝓐𝓴𝓻𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓪~

3.5

*Athena's POV again*

    I wake up with the telltale throbbing headache, looking at my clock to see it's either noon or midnight I move the curtain next to my bed to see it's is in fact twelve noon. "Mother fucker." I whisper, adjusting my sweats and hoodie and rubbing the side of my neck.

    I walk out of the hut, heading to the kitchen. "Hey beautiful." I roll my eyes at the greenie continuing my trek to the kitchen. "Hello, Ben. Fuck off." I say waving him off, literally. He chuckles behind me, jogging to catch the rest of the way up and matches my stride shoving his hands in his pockets. "Have fun last night?" He asks with a raised eyebrow. "Fuck. off. Ben." I repeat speeding up and closing the kitchen door behind me when I get here.

    Fry turns around at the sound of the door closing. "Good morning sunshine." He says handing me a plate of toast and a coffee. "You're an Angel." I say taking the coffee and food, setting the latter on the counter and hopping up to sit next to it, taking a giant drink of the coffee.

    "Don't you have to work in like, fifteen minutes?" Fry asks pointing to the clock above the stove. "Oh mother of fucks." I groan getting off the counter and placing my dish in the sink, pouring another coffee and stirring in some sugar.

    I walk into the med-hut, nodding to Clint who's working on one of the slicers, per usual. Starting to take inventory stop at the pain medication, looking back at Clint. "Hey, when you're done with that can you come over here?" I ask double checking what I'm seeing. He nods and finishes patching the boy up before sending him off with the usual warnings.

Clint walks over to me, looking over my shoulder. "When was the last time we used anything in the locked cabinet?" I ask pointing to the glass cabinet sealed with a padlock, an unlocked padlock at that. "I don't think we've used any of that stuff since we had to knock George out." He mutters grabbing the lock and taking it off. I try not to wince at the memory, failing to do so.

Clint gives a sympathetic look, squeezing my shoulder. "Who else has a key to this thing?" I ask nodding to the one around my neck. "Um...just Alby and Newt I think." He says scratching the back of his head. "We should be careful, this could really end up hurting someone if we aren't." He says double checking the count of the bottles. "Nothing else is open and no bottles are missing." I say with furrowed brows. "How many doses are left in the bottle?" I ask reaching up for it. Clint hands me bottle, letting me read the label. "There's three and a half missing." He says looking up alarmed. I share his look, doubt forming in my chest. "Maybe we should just ask Jeff, something could've happened while we were off?" I try, walking out the door to look for the boy.

Clint locks the cabinet back up and follows after me, leading us to Jeff. "Hey man, can we borrow you for a second?" I ask pulling him a away from Zart and Winston with an apologetic look. "What's up?" He asks once we're out of earshot. "There's a couple doses missing from the Morphine, almost enough to kill someone." Clint days lowly, gesturing to the now locked cabinet. Jeff's eyes widen in fear, or surprise at the knowledge, confirming it wasn't any of us who did it.

I walk out of the med-hut Clint and Jeff trailing closely behind me. I grab Newt and Jeff fills him in on the way to the homestead. "Alby?" I ask walking into his little office area. He looks up, seeing the worried expressions on all four faces in front of him and puts down his book. "What is it?" He asks standing up and closing the door behind us. "Someone got into the cabinet with the padlock, enough Morphine for a heavy overdose is missing from the bottle." I inform. Alby's face goes carefully blank, he walks over to his seat to pull out a key matching the one Newt and I wear on our necks. "We're the only ones with a key. So who the hell in here is sneaky enough to get into my office and steal mine? You two never take yours off, right?" He asks looking between us. I shake my head 'no' Newt doing the same.

"Someone clearly thought this through and has a plan. He stole enough to knock out a horse for fucks sake." I'm leaning against the wall in the homestead and running a hand through my hair. "We have to tell the Keepers. No one else for now, got it?" Alby asks looking over our group. I nod in response my arms crossing over my body as I push off the wall.

Alby calls a keep meeting and has Fry join. "Why are we here exactly?" Minho asks within five minutes of being in the building. "Just sit down, we're still waiting on Winston." I say walking over to Newt's side. Winston wanders through the door a few minutes later, throwing a glare at Gally and sitting near Zart. I raise an eyebrow at the action, deciding it can wait for now. "Alright, now that Winston has graced us with his presence will you please tell us what we're doing here?" Minho asks once again. I look to Alby, silently asking how he wants to do this. He nods back at me, letting me start.

I walk to the middle of the small group of boys, crossing my arms in front of me to conceal the tremble in my hands. "Someone broke into the cabinet with the more dangerous of the medication last night. He stole enough Morphine to knock out a thousand pound horse, we don't know who it is or why they've taken the drug." I say letting my eyes find Gally's and take comfort in the concerned nod he gives me. "We are the only people who know as of right now and we intend to keep it that way. Panic and distrust among us is the last thing we need. So if you are to see one of your boys acting strangely you are to report it directly to Alby, Newt, or myself. Do not question him or incriminate him without consulting one of us first, is this clear?" I ask, my eyes pausing on Winston and the keeper for the Baggers for a split second before moving the other boys' faces.

I wait until I've received some kind of confirmation from each of the boys before backing to wall and letting Alby step up. "Everything that Athena just said, and if we can't find the stolen medicine we will have to conduct searches, they will be spaced out and discreet to not cause suspicion." He informs crossing his arms too. "No one else is to know of this, you can talk to each other about it in private and only in private. You can speak to me, Newt and any of the Med-jacks about this too if you need." He nods to Newt, asking if he has anything he'd like to add, receiving a shake of the head. "Any questions?" He asks.

Winston sits up in his seat, raising his hand. "How do we know it's a 'he'?" He asks glaring at me. I scoff at the boy, uncrossing my arms and resisting the smile that wants to fall up one my face when Gally and Minho both clench their fists on their laps. "Because if I were to steal something from my own supplies I wouldn't be stupid enough to leave the cabinet unlocked." I say returning his glare until he drops it. "Anyone else?" I ask putting my hands behind my back. "How do we know it isn't someone in this room right now?" Zart asks, sounding genuinely worried. "We don't. We have to trust that the leaders we've chosen aren't stupid enough to try to kill one of us with our own sh-supplies." I answer earning a stern look from Alby. "We'll be conducting interviews with each of you separately." Newt pipes in observing the looks on each boys face before letting his arms fall back over his chest.

    Alby dismisses the keepers from the homestead, not moving until the last one has disappeared from sight. "Any ideas on who would have the balls and lack of brain to try and pull this off?" He asks turning to Newt and me. "Jordan, the keeper for baggers?" I ask looking between the two of them receiving a nod from Newt. "What makes you say that?" Alby asks, a crease forming between his brows. "He wouldn't keep his eyes on the same place the whole time, didn't sit straight or still and kept crossing his arms over one another. It was him or he's really bloody fidgety. We should hope for the latter." Newt says pushing off the wall walking to my side.

    Alby looks between us again raising an eyebrow. "You picked all of that klunk up from a one sided conversation?" He asks looking surprised and somewhat skeptical. "That's how we work. One of us talks and we both observe, never fails." I shrug waiting for his reaction. He lets out a small huff, a tiny smile resting on his face. "Alright then, that assumption does not leave this room until we know for sure okay?" He asks restoring his blank expression. Newt and I nod turning to leave the room as well.