the other woman - charlie kincaid

9 - Wake Up, Break Up

❝ black out days, I don't recognize you anymore. ❞
- black out days by phantogram
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OCTAVIA'S POV: SECRET HEADQUARTERS

"Lockdown initiated," I heard the AI's muffled voice over my stifled sobs and blurred vision. I quickly wiped off my tears and began to panic, standing up from the corner I was rotting in. The room started flooding with smoke, making me cough out and stumble into a large stack placed in the middle of the room that I had not noticed before. I thumped my chest to stop coughing and looked up at the stack, a glowing orange ball with the pattern of magma printed on it, floated on the top of the rocks.

It was making a weird swirling sound, like metal smoothly scraping against each other. I was drawn to it; like a magnet. I stepped up, the ball pulsing brighter and dimmer. It was so mesmerising, that I didn't even notice my hand reaching for it. I gently removed the ball from its stand, the colour of the room changing from just silver honeycomb patterns reflecting a gold from the light, to a bright cyan blue. I stepped back down from the platform and gazed at the ball in amusement, another voice began ringing in my ear.

"Generating predictions," It said, before my whole life began flashing through my mind.

Visions of war.

Famine, extinction.

I felt like my eyes were about to pop out at any second, different images flashing through, clicking every time it changed; warping.

"Octavia!" I heard a voice scream. I jumped out of my trance, a teary-eyed Charlie grasping onto both shoulders and shaking vigorously.

"Huh?" I calmly answered, like I hadn't just witnessed humanity die out.

"What the fuck is that?" I heard Berger say, running into the room. I saw Maya run up from behind him, a look of panic and relief on her face.

"I thought you were captured!" Maya shouted-whispered.

"Captured? By whom?" I asked, still holding onto the ball with care.

"There are people with guns, no time to explain, come on!" Charlie urged, pulling on my oversized sweatshirt to the exit of the room. His fingers slid down from my sleeve to my wrist, grabbing onto it while I firmly held the ball in my other hand. We ran into a slightly narrow hallway, two other sets of feet rushing behind us.

"Whoever is here, I know you can hear me," We heard a voice come from the speakers placed everywhere in the headquarters, slowing down to a jog before stopping at a halt, "We have this place locked down so there's no escape,"

"Yeah, no shit," I mumbled, looking down at the ball – what if, this was what they were after?

"We've come to retrieve an object," The man said, making the three others stare at me, then at the ball, "And we followed the energy trail to this exact spot, so we know it's in here," I held the ball closer to me, the lights flickering in the background, giving the hallway an eerie feel.

"The van," Maya whispered.

"We came for the object, not you, so you have a choice. You can just give it to us and no harm will come to you, or you can get in our way and you will be sorry,"

"Bullshit!" Berger said a little too loudly, making all three of us whip our heads and hiss at him, "They always harm us, no matter what we do," He said, slightly quieter. We ran back into the room, Berger panicking and taking another puff from his inhaler.

"What do we do?" Charlie asked, realising he still had his grip on my wrist, releasing it in embarrassment. We then huddled up together, trying to think of a plan to escape.