Wildfire • Bellamy Blake [2]

11. Demons

"Becca's journal is amazing. At 26, she found a pathway to access a human mind. That same year, she had to lock up ALIE because her answer for what was wrong with the world was 'too many people'. She was 27 when it launched the bombs," Raven said.

She had Becca's diary on her lap, and she spent most of the drive reading it.  We were on our way back to Arkadia to get Lincoln's book. Apparently we had to find someone named Luna and her whereabouts were written in his book. We planned to make a short detour though to pick up Harper, Miller, and Bryan.

"What did she write about the Flame?" Clarke asked.

"ALIE 2.0. She saw it as a way to atone for her sins. She designed it to not just access a human mind, but to merge with one. It could never wipe us out because it would be one with us. She would put it in herself first. Altered her genes so her body wouldn't reject the implant."

"Bekka Pramheda, the first Commander."

"The gene therapy made her blood black, didn't it?" I asked, turning around in my seat.

"Yeah," Raven said.

"How did you know that?" Octavia asked.

"Nightblood. That's where it came from," I said, and Clarke nodded her head in agreement. "Somehow it became hereditary."

"Luna has it. That's why we have to find her. If she can access ALIE 2..." Clarke trailed off.

"She can tell us how to stop ALIE 1," Octavia concluded.

"Bekka Pramheda gets her second shot at atonement," Sinclair said.

"Get back to the mind pathway. If ALIE uses it to upload our minds to the City of Light, then there's a chance my mom's still alive," Monty said with hopeful eyes.

"That depends on your definition of 'alive'," Raven said.

"Eyes sharp. Weapons hot. We're almost home," Bellamy said. He reached for the radio and spoke into it, "Miller, come in."

There was no answer, only static.

"Harper, you there? Ride's two minutes out."

"Good start," Jasper muttered.

Once we got closer to Arkadia, everyone but Jasper, Monty and Raven hopped out of the rover. We had stopped at the cave before but no one way there, so we just assumed that the others were already here. 

We each had our respective weapons aimed in front of us, keeping a watchful eye at our surroundings. Jasper's body poked out of the sunroof with his gun pointed forward, while Monty drove the rover into Arkadia.

"We left two days ago. Why haven't they fixed the gate?" Clarke asked.

"Maybe because there's no one here to fix it," Jasper pointed out.

"It's like a ghost town," I muttered.

"Miller, where the hell are you?" Bellamy asked again into the walkie talkie. "I don't like this."

"Maybe they got chipped," Jasper said.

"If they got chipped, they'd been waiting for us at the cave."

"Maybe they saw the open gate, went in for Lincoln's book."

"Maybe you should stop saying 'maybe'," Octavia said.

"If they are chipped, ALIE already knows we're coming," Clarke said.

The rover came to a stop, and that's when I noticed a spot of blood on the ground. I glanced over at Octavia, who was just staring at the spot with a painful look on her face. I made a guess to why.