CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

"I would rather be stabbed again than say this..."

***

"Lovejoy's key-card will get you into the armory. The guns are locked, but the guard has a key and I can lure him away-" 

 "Don't you worry about us getting the guns," I allowed myself a smug little smirk, crossing my arms over my chest. I could see Phia roll her eyes, and Maya scrunched her eyebrows up in confusion. "But, the guard-" 

 "Trust me on this one." 

 Maya stopped in her tracks, glancing behind us at the empty hallway. 

 "Once we get the guns, how do we get to level five?" Bellamy brought us back to the matter at hand, "there are guards at every door." 

 "Maybe not... the mess hall has a trash chute." 

 I don't know if this was the privileged boy in me talking, but my nose wrinkled at the very thought of sliding down a trash chute. "A trash chute?" 

  "There's one on every level," Maya, mistaking my disgust for interest, explained. "Best part is that there is no radiation alarms, hatches leak like crazy so they put in these airlocks just to be safe. You get the guns, I'll get them to the mess hall." 

 Bellamy gave the girl a small smile, "you're a natural born revolutionary."

 She didn't smile, "my mom was a revolutionary, I'm just doing what's right." 

 Bellamy nodded, "be back here in thirty minutes," he gestured for us to follow him, so we did, Phia saluting Maya as she passed. "Nice job, maun gada." 

 Maya blinked, "um, you too." 

 Phia gave me a smug smile when she passed, immediately taking the lead  out of the two of us, throwing me a smirk over her shoulder and making me roll my eyes, shoving my hands in my pockets and averting eye-contact from the boy next to me. 

 "Still mad at me?" 

 "I'm not mad." 

 "Shut up." 

 "You shut up!" 

 "Shh!" Phia turned around to shush me, raising a finger to her lips and giving me a stern look. I clamped my lips shut, feeling my cheeks heat up as Bellamy allowed himself a small smile of victory. "See? Mad." 

 "I'm not mad," I whispered back, "I'm annoyed that you can't see that some people are important to me, and I don't want them to freaking die." 

"Well I'm annoyed that you can't see that you're important to me, and I don't want you to freaking die." 

 I blanched, definitely not knowing what to say to that. Maybe it was because I have been alone so long I have kind of forgotten how to say nice things to real human beings, or maybe it is just because I don't remember the last time someone really actually cared for me. 

(Except for Monty, but we always count him by default.)

"This is all very nice," Phia took the gun from her waist out, making me eye her cautiously. "But we have to get those guns quickly, or else someone else is going to die." Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her lips parted in a very sudden expression of concern. I looked behind my back, expecting to see someone with a gun pointed at my head, but was slightly disappointed when nobody was there. 

 Bellamy tapped my arm, withdrawing his walkie-talkie, and my own that I dropped in my moment of insanity back there. I heard a male voice speaking over the radio, a voice that I wished I didn't know. 

 "This is President Wallace speaking to the kids who just killed ten of my men." 

 I shared a worried look with the two next to me. 

 "I thought we'd try something different this time. There are only twenty minutes of oxygen left in Maya's suit. I know she is a friend of yours, and in twenty minutes your friend will either suffocate or burn. But you can save her... all you have to do is surrender." 

 I gave Bellamy a wide-eyed look as Phia cursed in Trigedasleng under her breath and Bellamy ran his hand anxiously through his hair.

 Well... this just got a lot more complicated. 

  ***

"Do we seriously have to get in that?" 

 "Shut up, princess!" Phia snapped and I felt my eyebrows pull together at her very poor choice of wording. She gestured to the hole in the wall again- which, by the way, I was supposed to get into, and glared at me. "It's just a trash chute!" 

 "I know, but it's dirty!" 

 "You literally lived in the woods for like, a month!" 

 "But that's garbage!" 

"This is a matter of life and death!" 

 "Why can't Bellamy go first?" 

 "Oh my God!" The man himself exclaimed, giving me a look that I am pretty sure meant that he was about to strangle, or break up with me. He pointed roughly at the garbage chute. "You are such a privileged boy! Just get in the damn chute!" 

 I scowled, sticking up my middle finger at him, before turning around and peering down the dark hole. "Is there even a bottom?" 

 "Laik yu-" I heard Phia mutter, before I felt her kick the back of my legs, making my knees buckle and my body fall directly into the trash chute. I yelled some sort of obscenity as I fell, reaching my arms up to shield my face as they sharply hit the bottom, clanging loudly against the metal as my legs fell, making me struggle to flip around so that my feet were under my body. 

 It smelled disgusting in there which, as pathetic as it sounds, was the first thing that I thought when I landed. The second thing was that I wanted to kill Phia. The third was that I should probably try to open the door. 

 "Please be the right door," I mumbled quietly under my breath, knowing better than to raise my voice, although I wanted nothing more than to scream up at the two above me. "I can't believe that they made me go first down a garbage chute. I went first down the freaking cliff to get Mel! Why do I always have to do everything?" 

 While I was whining like a two year old, I realized that the door wasn't opening.

"Damn it-" I pushed harder, leaning my weight onto my hand and squeezing my eyes shut, feeling my face heat up with the effort. I relaxed, huffing and only growing more pissed off. "Uh, guys?" I tried, my voice as loud as I dared. Bellamy was the one who answered: "is everything okay?" 

 "Well, no... the door isn't opening."

Right as the words left my lips, the universe seemed to be playing a trick on me, as the door opened and I proceeded to fall right out of it, almost taking out Monty, and landing on my back, turning around and pointing to the door. "Get in, get in!" I didn't even have time to hug my friend, which I would have appreciated, as I had to hustle to get back into the chute, following after Maya and Jasper, and saluting my friends in a response to all of the calls of my name I got. "Sorry guys! Gotta go! Stay safe and don't let them take your bone marrow, Bellamy will be here soon!" 

 And I dove back into the chute, shutting the door behind me. 

 Jasper and Maya seemed to be having a moment as I fell down into the hallway, although it was definitely ruined when I fell down onto the ground, swearing loudly and scrambling to my feet. "Stupid garbage! Jesus Christ why do I always have to be the one who smells like garbage?" 

 I turned around, "oh, hi, Maya." 

 She gave me a nervous smile and a wave as Jasper grinned. Before I could even fully regain my composure, he jumped on me and hugged me so hard that I thought my lungs would collapse. "Oh my- Hi Jazz!" 

 "Nate!" 

 Phia slid down the chute next, landing gracefully on the balls of her feet and flipping her hair over her shoulder like a cat and narrowing her eyes slightly when Jasper jumped about a million feet in the air when he saw her. "Oh my-" 

 "It's fine, she's cool." I tried to assure, but Jasper's eyes were wide, and his nails were beginning to dig into my arm. I winced, "she hasn't tried to kill anyone for a while, so we trust her now." 

 "Didn't she stab you?" 

 "Past is past, Jasper." 

 Phia gave my friend a small smile, which really wasn't helping my point on how she wasn't going to kill anyone. "And technically, I didn't stab him." 

 "Yes, let's all get into the technicalities of how Nate was previously killed-" I waved my hands around and rolled my eyes, Jasper detaching his claws from my arm and giving Phia a curt nod of his head, Maya discreetly stepping away from her at the teeth-baring grin she received. "-No, it's fine, okay? We have more pressing problems right now." 

 "It's all clear up there," Bellamy also slid down gracefully, which pissed me off to an extent, nodding up at the trash chute. "We can get them all out if we do it quick." 

  "Good." 

 Everyone in the room seemed to have a like thought, as three guns were drawn and pointed in almost perfect unison, making a man with a familiar face throw his arms in the air. I relaxed when I realized that it was just Maya's dad, and quietly slipped the weapon back into its holster. 

 Maya gasped, "dad? What are you doing here?" 

 He patted her shoulder, "what your mother would have done." 

 As the two embraced in a rater heartwarming moment of family love, Bellamy walked forward so he could talk to Jasper in a quieter voice, his eyes brushing over me as he did. "Clarke is coming with an army of Grounders." 

 "What?" 

 "We have to keep all of you safe until then."

 Jasper gave me a coy grin, his next sentence making remorse build in my chest when I remembered Raven's words. "Don't tell me Finn finally got one of his peace talks?" 

 Bellamy caught my eye, and I bit my lip, averting my gaze and letting him speak the next words. "Something like that." 

 I kept my gaze on the ground, not even lifting my eyes when I felt a reassuring squeeze on my hand. "Come on, we have a lot of work to do." 

 ***

"It's all clear." 

 I peeked my eyes around the corner, waving to Phia to let her know that Bellamy was right, and she quickly ushered everyone forward. I have to say, even considering everything that has happened to me on Earth... this might be the weirdest. We were smuggling a crap-ton of teenagers through a highly guarded underground facility that is home to God-knows how many people who want to kill us... and it was working. 

 "Won't they see us?" Miller asked from beside me, making me feel short as I had to angle my eyes up to see him, and Bellamy shake his head. "Relax, Monty took out the cameras."

 "Yeah, well we're all sitting ducks in a group like this." 

"That, my friend, is true." I agreed, earning an annoyed look from Bellamy. I laughed, "what? It is! That's why we're going to split up." 

"No." Monty popped up out of nowhere, almost hitting me with his shoulder as he crossed his arms. "We do this together, we survive together." 

"They don't trust Maya anymore." I tried to explain to my friend, who pursed his lips, before I could continue, Miller interrupted. "Exactly. Who's gonna help us now?" 

 I winked at my name-buddy, gesturing ahead where a group of Mount Weather citizens were gathered, giving us nervous looks. "They are." 

 "We're gonna hide you," Maya explained, her father's protective hand on her shoulder as she spoke with authority. "Not everyone here agrees with Cage... not by a long shot." 

 "Come with me, we'll divide you on the way."

 Monty turned to look at Maya's dad, and then back at me, tugging on my arm so I could hug him again, his forehead resting lightly on my shoulder as the others rushed forward. I closed my eyes, trying to savor what could very possibly be my last moments with my best friend. I hate that I always have to leave Monty... it's like I am always the one running away. 

 He pulled away, giving me a sad look. "You're not coming?"

 I shook my head grimly, grinding my teeth. "I'm sorry." 

 "Just... please be safe." 

 "Only if you are." 

 We embraced again, briefly, before Monty gave me one last sad look, turning and joining the bigger group, while Bellamy came up to stand next to me. I didn't look up at him, because I didn't want him to see how upset I was about leaving these guys again. I also didn't because I really wanted to hug him right now. 

"Nobody is coming with us!" Bellamy announced, "they still don't know that we're here, and I'd like to keep it that way." 

 "I would rather be stabbed again than say this," I piped up, "but we have to put our trust into these complete strangers for the time being while we figure out how to dismantle the acid fog." 

 "Don't they know that you're here, though?" Harper asked, looking a lot better then she did last time I saw her, although still quite shaken. I gave her a small grin in response, tipping my hat. 

 "Yep, luckily I do a very convincing Australian accent." 

 "So what do we do?" Monty asked, nervously twiddling his thumbs. Bellamy sighed deeply, his answer both ominous and vaguely terrifying. 

 "Stay alive, be ready to fight." 

 Phia was the one who finished his sentence, although she didn't look scared as she tilted her head. 

 "War is coming."