08 | THE TROJAN HORSE
trigedasleng in italics

     "CAN you not pull so hard on the rope, I can only go so fast with this log on my shoulders," Irene heaved as Lincoln continued to weave his way through the trees and shrubs with such agility. Though since this was Irene's first time being dragged around with a rope around her neck and a log on her shoulders, she was having a rough time keeping up.

     "Don't worry, we're almost there," Lincoln urged as he turned around to look between Irene and Bellamy before reverting his gaze ahead of him once more, and just as Lincoln had said they were soon in front of one of the reaper caves. Irene felt chills run up and down her skin as cold wind blew past them as faint howling whispers escaped the mouth of the tunnel, the moans of the monsters who lurked within the darkness echoing from the walls.

     "Come on, lets do this." Bellamy panted alongside Irene who was attempting to catch her breath after having to stealthily jog through the woods tied to a thick tree branch. Though, as Irene noticed the hesitant look on Lincoln's face she sighed heavily after gulping down the lump in her throat.

     "You can do this, Lincoln. We'll go through this together," Irene murmured, her breathing slowly evening out as she spoke, watching Lincoln for a moment more before he continued to lead them forward and into the cave.

     It had been a few hours since they had ventured deeper within the caves as the light from behind them faded away slowly. Though they soon came to a stop, causing Bellamy to question why they were halting so soon on their journey. Irene gave a shallow gasp as she saw the almost empty red vial upon the floor, flickering her eyes between the red liquid and Lincoln. Though once Lincoln smashed it with the bottom of his boot, Irene sighed in relief as she did not know what she would have done if Lincoln became tempted with the desire to have the red liquid once more.

     "You okay?" Bellamy questioned hesitantly as Irene took a step toward Lincoln, about to ask him if he was truly willing to go through with this before Lincoln spoke up immediately after Bellamy.

     "As soon as they open the intake doors, we attack." Lincoln rushed out, keeping his gaze locked on the corridor ahead of them, "do not let it close." Lincoln moved closer to the two tied up individuals beside him, "once they're all dead, you two go in. I'll make it look like you both escaped." Irene opened her lips to restate how the plan was too risky before Lincoln shook his head in disagreement, knowing how his friend disapproved of what their plan held in store for him. "Once you're both inside—"

     "We know," Bellamy quickly commented, glancing to Irene with a nod as she shifted the log over her shoulders, missing the feeling of her bow, quiver, and sword upon her shoulders rather than the weight of the log. Shouting was then heard in the distance, causing the hairs on Irene's skin to rise as she felt fear course through her veins, making her heart pound underneath her rib cage as they were about to go through with the plan.

     "Alright, lets just get this over with," Irene sighed as she opened and closed her hands, feeling sweat accumulate over her skin as she saw the faint light where the Reapers were towards the other end of the tunnel.

     "Another raider party," Lincoln breathed before quickly moving towards Bellamy and Irene and began to untie them.

     "What the hell—" Irene huffed as Bellamy questioned why Lincoln was removing their bonds.

     "We have to go back," Lincoln quickly stated, causing Bellamy to jerk away under the grounder's touch.

     "Go back? No way," Bellamy furrowed his brows in disbelief as Irene pulled away from Lincoln.

     "We can't go back now," Irene uttered as her eyes glanced to where the light was beginning to get closer before reverting her attention back to Lincoln. "We have to do this—"

     "There's three, maybe four, we can't fight our way through." Lincoln stated, panic rising within his chest as she attempted to undo the knots for the rope on Irene an Bellamy's wrists.

     "We'll never get a better chance," Bellamy exclaimed.

     "Lincoln you can do this—" Irene began right as Lincoln interrupted her with a fearful look in his eyes as he glanced between Bellamy and Irene, causing the grounder girl to flinch slightly at the sight of fear in her friend's eyes.

     "I thought I could do this, but I can't. Okay, it's over." Lincoln uttered as he reached to untie Bellamy's right hand.

     "No, no way," Irene shook her head as Bellamy shook his head in denial as well.

     "We can join them," Bellamy stated, causing Irene to think about the newly revised plan as well.

     "What do you mean?" Irene questioned, wondering what Bellamy was up to.

     "Listen to me, when they bring out the Red, you grab it, and run like hell." Bellamy spoke as he eyed Lincoln intently, though Irene knew how hard it would be for him. "The Reapers will go nuts, the Grounders will run and the Mountain Men will have to deal with it. No one will be looking for a Grounder running into the mountain." Bellamy quickly urged, though Lincoln's fear was rising to a breaking point which then caused him to pull away at the log on Irene and Bellamy's shoulders, causing the two of them to fall to the ground. Irene groaned as a throbbing pain was felt in her shoulders as she quickly made her way to stand up and look to Bellamy with a questioning look before turning to face Lincoln who was almost immediately pinned down by Bellamy. "Irene come help me," Bellamy ushered Irene over to where he was and the woman proceeded to help Bellamy in pinning Lincoln to one of the nearby carts. "Fight back, they'll think we're trying to escape." Irene nodded to Lincoln, allowing him to roughly push her away against the ground and turn Bellamy around and make him kneel to the floor just as the other Reapers approached them.

     "These two tried to wander off," Lincoln uttered with a knife held to Bellamy's throat and one foot on Irene's abdomen as she laid upon the hard ground, awaiting what would then happen to the two individuals who were attempting to sneak into the mountain, "they're mine."

     "Put them on the log," one of the Reaper's stated as he eyed Lincoln with such intensity. Irene resisted the urge to look up at him as she had faintly seen the horrible warts growing upon the man's face as he had lost majority of the hair upon his head too from the effects of the addictive red drug. Lincoln then rose from his kneeled position and brought Irene and Bellamy up with him before dragging the two to where they would be tied to the log where they were then blindfolded and led to where they would meet the Mountain Men.

     "Show no fear, Bellamy," Irene spoke quietly as they continued on, feeling goosebumps crawl across her skin as she feared for the worst, surrounded by the killers who lurked within the shadows of the night and had hunted her people down and brought them to the mountain since she could remember. Though soon, as Lincoln had mentioned earlier in the woods, Irene was hosed down roughly before being put down on her knees to the right of Bellamy, feeling his muscles clench as he did not know what was to happen.

"Hurry up! We get the Red then we eat," a Reaper spoke in a rough tone of voice, readily awaiting his next fix from the drug and how his meal will come to him in the form of a person most likely, causing Irene to let out a shaky breathe of air as her blind fold was suddenly removed from her face. Bellamy looked around before his eyes landed upon the jagged scars adorning the small woman's upper back before looking to the intricate markings of the tattoo placed upon her left shoulder. Irene and Bellamy then eyed Lincoln for a moment before the heavy metal doors opened suddenly, revealing individuals in rubber suits with a loud pitched ringing noise which caused all the Reapers to instantly stand back and away from the people on their knees.

Irene held her head down as one of the Mountain Men spoke out to the Reapers whilst making their way in front of the newly brought in grounders. Irene then clenched her jaw and gulped nervously as a woman in a hazmat suit came and stood in front of Bellamy with a clipboard in hand and looked up to him and pointed her pen towards him in a nonchalant manner.

"Harvest," she stated before looking to Irene, who exhaled in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Harvest," the woman stated before moving on to the man beside her to her right. Irene then turned her head and faced Lincoln as Bellamy did and watched as the man with a syringe began to approach him. The two watched Lincoln eagerly as they waited for him to snatch it and run off, though as Irene watched the man get closer and closer to her friend, somehow the woman knew he would give in to the drug. Irene let out a pained sigh, tears brimming in her eyes as Lincoln kneeled to the floor and took the dosage, causing his eyes to roll back in ecstasy as he took in the drug and easily became addicted to it once more.

"No," Irene whispered in a pained tone before she was picked up alongside Bellamy and before she knew it, the man to her left began to fight the Mountian Men, causing her to do the same. She wanted to go through with the plan, though since Lincoln gave in to the drug so easily she and Bellamy had to find another way to cause a distraction which then consisted of fighting their way out of it, to which they had lost as Irene was pinned to the floor by two guards while Bellamy was slammed to the floor as well. "Bellamy!" Irene called out before she was hit once more in her side, causing her to go quiet as she took the pain and was dragged inside the mountain. Though before the door closed behind them, she turned her head and looked to Lincoln once more with a betrayed expression within her eyes before the hard metal door was soon locked behind her, making the grounder realize how she was finally within the enemy's walls, like a trojan horse.

Set in chains, Irene was covered in a certain powder before acid was sprayed all over her skin, causing a small grunt of pain to escape the grounder girl's lips. She and the other men around her were subjected to a series of check-ups, as well as medicinal injections and pills before she was thrown into a metal washroom where she was roughly hosed down and sprayed clean of the outside radiation. She gritted her teeth and grunted painfully as they pulled on the metal leash, turning her different directions to make sure she was clean enough to be taken inside the mountain. Irene breathed heavily as she furrowed her brows, anger seething from her eyes as she was pressed against one of the walls as they harshly scrubbed at her skin, causing a raw feeling to coat her body. The last thing the grounder saw was Bellamy's fearful eyes, hearing his screams of pain before she was injected one last time, causing her to loose consciousness.

"Irene, are you alright?" A voice sounded, like an echo ringing in the back of the grounder's mind. Irene slowly opened her eyes, looking to the cage beside her as she saw Bellamy's face. He clutched onto the thin metal bars of the cage as he looked to the grounder beside him, waiting for her to come to as she began to reach out and carefully held onto one of his hands in a reassuring manner.

"No need to worry about me, we have to find a way out of here," Irene groaned, still feeling sore from the injections, spraying, and scrubbing. She then sat up slowly and began to look around, her mouth opening slightly in shock as she truly saw the horror the Mountain Men have done to her people. Two bodies in particular were hung upside down, tubes of blood most likely traveling from their bodies and through the wall to keep the individuals of the mountain alive. "Those monsters," Irene gritted as she gripped onto the door of her cage, her eyes flickering over the other surrounding cages, wondering if she may see her brother.

"We have to find a way to break out," Bellamy grunted quietly as he began to grip his cage tightly, reaching his arm out in an attempt to break the door of the cage. The rattling of the cage door sounded throughout the room, causing the other surrounding grounders to revert their attention to the man who was attempting to break free from his cage.

"Bellamy wait—" Irene uttered at a hushed whisper, glancing to the other grounders who wore worried gazes as they began to look away from the man.

"Quiet, they take the strongest," A woman's voice sounded from the cage to Bellamy's right, causing Irene to lean over and look to the woman carefully, eyeing her slouched and weakened posture. Irene pursed her lips tightly as she leaned her back against the metal bars behind her before glancing back to Bellamy who shook his head in confusion, not understanding the grounder language very well.

"I can't," Bellamy paused, shaking his head, "I don't understand you."

"She said—" Irene began as the woman instantly scooted herself closer to Bellamy, her eyes narrowed in a disgusted manner as she eyed the man in the cage beside her.

"Sky Person," she spat from her lips, as if the words on her tongue were poison. The woman then reverted her gaze to Irene her eyes forming into slits as she tilted her head in cautiously. "And you, a member of the Sky Clan too?"

"I would watch your tongue if I were you warrior," Irene spoke in a steady tone, not recognizing the woman to be of the Trigeda Clan.

"You should all keep it down, the Mountian Men could come in at any moment you know," a man's voice sounded below the woman, causing her to clench her jaw and roll her eyes angrily, knowing he was right.

"And you should mind your own business for once," the woman spoke, a faint scoff escaping her nostrils. Irene squinted her eyes as she slowly wrapped her hands around the door of her cage, attempting to get a good look at the man who sat with his back facing her, his semi long shoulder-blade length hair covering the tattoos upon the center of his back, which were similar to the marks her brother had received before being sent away into his first battle. Though before Irene could speak out to the young man to clarify his identity, the woman on the other side of Bellamy spat in his face, the angered glare still lingering in her eyes.

"I take it no one has told you we're not enemies anymore," Bellamy spoke as he wiped the spit from his right cheek, his gaze reverted to the floor of his cage.

"Back off if you know what's good for you," Irene scoffed, eyeing the woman beside Bellamy with a glint in her eyes before reverting her attention back to the Sky Person to her left, who glanced to Irene with a determined gaze.

"I need to get out of this cage," Bellamy whispered, attempting to think of a plan which could free him, causing the three surrounding grounders to listen to the Sky Person intently, waiting for him to speak of a possible way out.

"And then what?" The grounder woman to Bellamy's right uttered in a monotone voice, her eyes settling a glare in the Sky Person's direction. Irene furrowed her brows as she eyed Bellamy, recognizing the fearsome glint in his facial features.

"And then I'll kill everyone in this mountian," Bellamy responded with determination in his eyes, willing to do anything to save the people he cared about who were trapped within the walls of such a horrid place.