Monty sat near Harper in comfortable silence. The fire was dancing before them but he felt no warmth. In fact, the only thing he felt was the pulsating pain in the drill holes with every heartbeat. He knew she felt it too.
Jasper was sitting across the fire, turning his old googles between his tired hands. He had not talked to him, not even spared him a glance in the three days they had been back in camp. Miller had tried to bring some sense to the boy but he didn't look like he believed it himself. Bellamy's second trusted their leader but these three hundreds people in the mountain were a hard blow. And Monty felt the weight of every soul. Bellamy and Clarke were the shooter but he was the gun.
"Will you stay with me tonight?" Harper asked.
"Sure."
They left the fire place under the pitiful looks of the adults. They settled in the tent they shared and when after a few hours Harper sprang up panting, Monty crawled to her bed.
"It's okay. You're safe. We're out of the Mountain, we got out. We're back at camp, it's safe here. We're safe."
He robbed her back until her breath evened out.
"Have you slept?" Harper asked.
"Still can't. Later maybe."
"You hear them, don't you? It's not the nightmares that keep you awake, it's not the fear that they'll come back to drill you again. It's the dead that keep you awake."
"You didn't see them Harper. They were having lunch. Perfectly normal people were having lunch, they had nothing to do with Cage. There were kids there, innocent kids and…"
He stopped, at loss for words. It was Harper's turn to rub his back while he was rocking back and forth, his eyes seeing what was no longer before him.
"I know" was all she said. She didn't try to erase the guilt, she knew it would be no use. What happened back in the Mountain was something he would have to come to terms with and only he could do that.
It took Harper a long time to speak after they were both settled back into their respective beds but Monty still wasn't sleeping when she called his name.
"You saved us. You saved us all, and we're going to make it worth it."
The boy didn't answer but she knew she had planted a germ of forgiveness in his mind.