Conflate | Bellamy Blake ¹ ✓

✯ | chapter eighteen

❝we're dead! we're dead! we survived but we're dead!❞

-dash, the incredibles

♛

MAYA LEADS US DOWN a series of hallways that I've stopped trying to commit to memory by now- I'm terrible at memorizing twists and turns like this. Every few steps marks another corner that we have to go around. This area of Mount Weather is beyond bland; nothing stands out to me except for the chips in the paint. I keep noticing countless signs about restricted areas and wonder if the entire damn mountain is one.

"There are 382 people inside this mountain," Maya informs us as we turn yet another corner. "If any of them realize you're not one of us, you're dead."

Great.

We pause by an elevator, where Maya swipes her identification card through a slot beside the buttons. She presses one of them so a ring of light beams around it.

"We're on level two," she notifies. "The dorm's on five. There's a camera in the upper right-hand corner. Keep your heads down."

The doors slide open and we walk inside the tiny thing. Bellamy adjusts his hat so it covers most of his face, while I direct my head toward Maya. Just as the rusty doors are about to close, a man's voice shouts, "Hold the elevator!" and his hand presses between them to prevent them from closing.

My heart beats faster as the young man wedges his way inside. He's sharply-dressed, wearing a grey suit with a blue button-down and a red tie. It appears he might be about nineteen or twenty - somewhere around that age - and he has a certain aura to him that suggests innocence.

"Hey, Maya, Victoria," he greets with a smile as he steps inside and presses one of the many buttons on the side of the door. I'm slightly confused at this until I remember my lookalike. "You know, Maya, I missed you in my Expressionist class." He steps toward her and causes Bellamy to duck his head further.

"Yeah, I..." Maya nearly blanks as she searches for an excuse. "I...had some work to do."

The man pretends to sigh in disappointment and whispers cheekily, "I'll get you the notes."

My eyes catch Bellamy with a hand on the gun in his pocket and shoot him an incredulous look, pinching my eyebrows and widening my eyes. He directs his gaze toward the man and then back to me in a silent question. I shake my head and almost scoff at how is first thought is to kill the guy. He's done nothing to us.

A ding tells us the elevator is stopping, and after a few seconds, more people get on. I feel my heart begin to thud harder when the guy in the suit eases beside me. My palms start to sweat. I hate cramped elevators, especially when it means there's a larger chance of someone noticing I'm not Victoria Chen and Bellamy is not anyone recognizable.

Finally, after another ding, Maya nods to let us know our this is our stop. She and Bellamy file out after two more people. But when I start to walk out, the young man grabs my left arm in a firm yet gentle grip.

"Hey, Vic, aren't you supposed to be headed to seven?"

I shoot a discreet glance at Maya, who smiles to let me know how I should act. I turn back around and beam at him in my brightest grin possible. Hopefully Victoria looks similar enough to me that he won't realize I'm not her.

"Not today- I've got to stop here first, and then seven," I lie easily. He nods and then looks down at my arm, where a trickle of blood from the tracking device removal is still smudged on my skin. I feel my nerves practically freeze inside of me.

"Hey, you're bleeding--"

My smile slips off of my face. Ohshitohshitohshitohshit.

"You were exposed!" Maya exclaims, pushing the man out of the way as she pulls me into the elevator. Her hands cup my face and pretend to check for a fever. "We need to get you cleaned up." She turns to the man with a panicked expression, and I notice with relief that her acting is pretty good. "You'd better go."