It happened so quickly, so fast. They were all pinned to the walls with chains around their wrists that bit at their flesh and grinded into it as the cool metal buried itself in whenever they jerked away from the adults that were circling like sharks.
It happened so quickly, so fast. The guards were moving in for a new patient, for a new victim to murder. It started out like a thick blush against their pale skin, and soon overwhelmed their cheeks as it crept down their throats and rose past their hair lines. It clouded their skin with a darker red hue, blooming over their flesh as it dug small craters into their skin as it bore holes in their faces and pulsed with a fresh slathering of thick blood. Pieces of skin turned dark red began to flake around the growing patches. Bleeding wounds scaled down their arms and bled through their shirt sleeves, giving color to the barren white of their dreadful uniforms. The harsh crimson of their blood brought out their eyes as they widened in fear while screams pinched at their throats and clawed their way out in a strangled moaning cry for relief. The shrieking rippled through the crowd of bodies as they tumbled into each other on sore, beaten legs before collapsing over the feet of the prisoners handcuffed to the walls. The delinquents could feel the pain pulsing from these people, these enemies, these savages. But in this moment they were none of that. They were simply people in pain. Their hands were scraping at the ground as they tried to crawl away in the hopes of getting to a sealed location, but it was a hopeless feat for their bodies were too overwhelmed by the radiation seeping into their pores and exposing the flesh beneath the layers of skin.
It happened so quickly, so fast. And it was a bittersweet sight as the bodies shook and spazzed, crumpling around the floor in a wreathing mass of gory limbs. Screams pounded into the delinquents' ears and rocked them to the core, sending a sharp jolt of icy pain across their backs with each body that slipped into silence.
It happened so quickly, so fast. The animal-like screeches quieted down as their hearts stopped working, and their body's gave in to the radiation that soaked deeper into their core with each shuttering breath.
It happened so quickly, so fast. The door gave a click and creaked open. A woman of small stature squeezed through the doorway, pushing back a blackened body to free the door's path and allow her entry. Her black boots toed at the limp arm before crossing through the mass of frozen and shaking limbs of those who had yet to give in to the pain. She made her way towards the center of the room in a fit of silence that matched that of the delinquents that gaped at her with wide eyes that managed to balance precariously on the line between horror and contained joy. Her eyes remained stony, but her lips crinkled at the edges as she gazed around the room to take in the sight of her living companions.
It happened so quickly, so fast. The cheers started up from no where in particular, but soon the room was pulsing with voices as the teens shouted and sobbed in relief and utter joy. Long last, Clarke had saved them. It was tinged in sadness for the bodies that lay limp at their feet, but those same bodies had been hosts to cruel beings and so they lifted their chins to boast their luck of having a leader so strong, so brave, and yet so broken. So very broken.
It happened so quickly, so fast. A single mourning sob silenced the crowd of teenagers, causing their heads to turn as they met the sight of a friend struggling to cope. Jasper hung from his chains, his legs bent beneath him as he groaned and screamed and sobbed out the name of a lost friend, of a lost love. Maya. The girl hung limply from her chains at his side, a quiet moaning betraying her dead appearance.
It happened so quickly, so fast. The girl raised her chin to meet the gaze of her new best friend, a strained smile creasing her bloody cheeks as she took in the sight of her companion one last time. A shudder rippled down her spine and she drooped in place. Gone. Gone too soon for one so brave, so strong, so selfless. The room sat in silence as the boy sobbed.
It happened so quickly, so fast. Their chains were gone and bloody wrists were revealed, but they were alive. They were alive, but to what extent? The cheers had long since been ceased by the tragedy of a hero's death, and of the many friends that had been lost in the moments leading to their rescue. To what extent was this victory that revealed a room full of bloody corpses and heavy breathing as allies within the mass of villains were mourned. To what extent would this victory have on the teenagers that saw too much pain, too much blood, too much death. To what extent would this victory have on the leader that opened the door for radiation to encompass her enemies and in the same instance slaughter the lives of the innocent. To what extent would this victory weigh on their shoulders when they walked through the hallways of dead bodies of that of the old and the young and the innocent. Of the bodies of not only their enemies, but their friends. To what extent would this victory have on the teenagers who were already broken. To what extent could they break before they shattered into nothing but a memory of a friend and the echo of a name silenced by the slice of a knife or the tightening of a rope around a throat in the desperation to free oneself from the horrors they suffered through, the horrors they committed, and the horrors they could no longer escape from.
It happened so quickly. So fast. But to what extent?