𝐃𝐔𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐘 ── bellamy blake ¹ ✓

epilogue + sequel

EPILOGUE
the three of us against the world

___

THE WAY BACK to Camp Jaha is agonizingly exhausting. It is only our fifty-second day on the ground, but time has stretched so thin that it feels like I've been walking for the entirety of our newfound life on Earth, and the events before it cease to exist.

Or, maybe it's what I hope for. For time to cease to exist, for the events of it to perish. But the image of the mountain is permanently burned behind my eyes and it's in no rush to leave. Only we are. We leave the premises of the ghost town that was once Mount Weather as soon as we can, escaping the countless deaths around us, for us, leaving behind only the phantom of life and ghosts of our wrongs. They will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

The trek back is disturbingly happy. I do get it, I mean, the reunited families and friends, and lovers -- the end of this battle means peace and time together to them. For me? For Bellamy, for Clarke? What does it mean for us? What do we get for the price we payed, when our friends laugh and hug, and kiss, but we lead them home, solemn and defeated in the front of the group, where heroes should be standing, carrying their pride of an ended enemy and the promise of a peaceful future.

But we're not heroes. We're murderers. More than three hundred lives, almost four hundred, taken by the single push of a lever and three hands. We saved our people, but our doings are still sickening and vile, inhuman. We are no better than the Mountain Men were.

When we stand by the opened gates to make sure everybody gets in safely, the atmosphere grows overwhelming. Camp Jaha rustles awake beneath the heat of the afternoon sun, yelling and crying while the survivors pile in from their devastating adventure. Abby is carried in on a stretcher, and I make sure to force my dad to stay by her side and not to worry about me. The Millers walk in, shoulder to shoulder, and Wick carries in a heavily wounded Raven with his own arms. If there's anything I'm grateful for, it's that for the most part, my best friends ended up being safe, even if some of them may hate me for the rest of my life.

Jasper is stopped by Raven several feet in front of us, but I don't have the energy to listen in to their exchange. I just rest my head on top of Bellamy's folded arms around my chest from where he stands behind me, wrapping them around my frame to keep me flush against himself. I could fall asleep any minute now.

Then, Aiden walks past us, on his own, gazing down towards the ground. He doesn't pay attention to me, so it must mean that he just needs some space from reminders of Mount Weather; that I will give to him. Only then, a female voice calls his name so loudly that it overpowers the excited chatter of the entire camp, and my brother snaps his head up in search of its source. He finds it instantaneously, but I have to follow his line of sight to see who is so happy to greet him, not of the delinquent group.