Defiance • Bellamy Blake [1]

2. The Leader

I dropped the wood onto the ground. I placed my hands on my hips, exhausted. It was my tenth round and I was finally starting to feel the effects. I looked up from the ground to see a pissed off Wells walking away from the guy who picked a fight with him earlier. Wells came up to me.

"What was that about?" I asked him.

"Nothing." He muttered.

"Well it's definitely something if you looked that pissed."

"Just drop it, Harley." He snapped.

"Whoa. What's got your panties in a twist?"

He glared at me. I threw my hands up in surrender as he walked away. I looked down at the wood. I needed water, I was so thirsty.

I went over to the bin and grabbed a handful of water. I brought it up to my lips and drank it slowly. I wanted more, but I knew I couldn't take more. There's a 100 people here. I'm not going to be greedy.

Nightfall came sooner than I thought. I helped build the fire. It was huge and the flames rose high into the sky. Once I finished, I stepped back and went to go find Wells. I found him in the drop ship.

"Hey." I said.

"Hey."

"What are you doing?"

That's when I saw him holding a black chess piece. The knight, to be exact. He was flipping it around in his hands. I took a seat next to him.

"Do you miss your dad?" I asked.

He nodded his head. "You should have saw his face when he sent me down here. He was disappointed in me."

"For getting sent to jail?"

"For getting sent to jail so I could see my friends."

"How did you even get arrested?" I asked.

"I burned down a tree. One of the trees Kane's mother had."

"Kane was probably pissed."

"Oh, he was. He's the one who suggested sending me down here." Wells told me. "My dad listened to him. But at the same time, I feel like he sent me down here because we're losing oxygen up there, and at least I could die a hero to our people."

"That's what you think we are? Heroes?" I asked.

"Well we're down here, finding a way for everyone else up there to live. Yes, I consider ourselves heroes." Wells said.

"I never thought of it like that."

I looked down at my hands. I heard whooping and clattering coming from outside. I wonder what they were doing.

"Why are they all cheering?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly. "Wanna go outside and see?" I asked.

Wells nodded his head.

"Yeah."

The two of us got up and exited the drop ship. We walked through the people to see why they were all cheering. That's when I noticed they were taking off their wristbands. I stared at them in disbelief.

"Who's next?" Bellamy called out.

"Of course you would be leading this." I yelled to him. Everyone stopped as the stared at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and walked forward. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Slicked hair - who's name I found out was actually John Murphy - came up to stop me but Bellamy put his hand on his chest, stopping him.

"We're liberating ourselves." He explained. "What does it look like."