I sat in my room with Monty, relaying all that he had missed at the memorial, and he caught me up on Jasper's situation.
"Seems like we're all screwed in one way or another." I complained, rubbing my wrists absentmindedly. The bruises encircling them ached at the touch and I winced slightly.
"You should go see Abby about those." Monty commented, eyes filled with sympathy.
"Not much will help bruises. And the pain I can handle. What I can't handle is seeing our friends fall apart in front of my eyes."
Monty sighed, leaning back against the wall. "I feel you there. But I don't know what we can do to help."
"What I wouldn't give for some good news…" I sighed.
"Well, you stood up for what you thought was right." Monty grinned slightly. "That's some good news."
"You got to see your mom again." I told him. "More good news."
"Clarke is alive and well, thanks to your help." Monty tacked on.
"You probably saved Jasper from having to get his stomach pumped." I smiled a little.
"See?" Monty pushed my shoulder in a good natured way. "Small victories."
"Small victories." I agreed. "Shall we go get some coffee?"
I had just slipped my boots on when a knock came at the door.
"Tara? Open up." My dad's voice sounded on the other-side. I raised my eyebrows, and walked to the door. It was odd for my dad to be seeking me out during working hours. Normally he had his hands full.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I need your help with something." He started to say, and then looked in and saw Monty. He paused, clearly not wanting to discuss it further until we were alone.
"I'll catch up with you later, Monty." I grinned. "Save me some coffee. I'm in dire need of some."
Monty looked curious, but headed down the hallway nonetheless.
"Do you still have the acetylene torch?" My dad asked, stepping into my room.
"Uhh…"
"I know you were listening in on the council meetings." He rolled his eyes. "Tara, where is it?"
"How'd you know?" I asked, walking to my closet and digging out the box in the back which held the torch.
"Patrick came and showed Abby a notebook with your handwriting, with notes from meetings you weren't at. I pieced together how you were eavesdropping." My dad replied, taking the torch.
"But how did he…" I ran over to my bed and pulled up the mattress. Sure enough, the notebook was gone.
"Slimy, son of a …." I trailed off. "He came in my room. When I wasn't here."
My dad nodded, and an angry look crossed over his face.
"And he's with Pike now, so they'll be watching you closely. Me, as well. That's why we have to work fast. And you can't tell anyone about this project."
"Project?" I asked as we stepped into the hall.
"I'll explain when we get there."
There turned out to be an old storage room off the side of the medical bay.
"If I'm not mistaken, if we cut through here and here, we can access the panelling behind which will lead to the side of the ship." My dad said.
"We're making an escape route?" I asked.
"More like a spy tunnel." He corrected. I grinned.
"What?" He asked.
"Now I know I didn't get all my troublemaking from mom." I teased. Sadness touched his eyes, but he smiled back.
"Let's get to work."
An hour later we had a door which was indetectable if you didn't know it was there. It swung up to reveal a tunnel out of the ship which dropped the spy in question just outside the electric fence.
"Okay. Phase one done." My dad said, running a hand through his sweaty hair. I was covered head to toe in dust and dirt from the newly exposed tunnel, from where I had been rerouting all the electrical wires out of harm's way. It was easy work, but dirty.
"What's phase two?" I asked.
"Wait here."
I shrugged and got back to cutting metal panels out of the small tunnel and feeding the wires through so they were out of in no danger of being pulled out if someone were moving in a hurry.. In ten minutes, my dad was back with Octavia and a sword.
"What's going on?" She asked, eyeing the tunnel as I emerged, covered in filth.
"I need you to sneak out of camp and find Indra." My dad told her. "She radioed. Find out what is going on and report back. You may be the only one she trusts."
"How do I get out?" She took the sword from my dad's hand, accepting the mission with ease.
"You use this!" I gestured proudly to our glorious escape route. "Don't worry, I made it wide." I added, remembering the other girls fear of small spaces.
She grinned at us both. "I was born for this."
As soon as she entered the crawl space, we slid the panelling shut, rendering the tunnel invisible. Just in time too, as an announcement boomed over the P.A. system.
"Marcus Kane, Lincoln kom Trikru, and Tara Kane, report to Chancellor Pike. I repeat, Marcus Kane…" The message droned out.
"Sounds like things are about to get interesting…" I commented, wiping off dirty hands on even dirtier pants. My dad rolled his eyes.
"Let's go get this over with."
We walked quickly to the command office, meeting Lincoln along the way. The three of us stood, arms crossed, waiting for the inevitable.
"Prep u op na rele justiz?" I asked Lincoln sarcastically, and the side of his mouth twitched up in a small smile. Apparently he believed Pike to be a fair man even less than I did. Hardly surprising given that Pike had done nothing to chastise the guard who had stoned him.
"Tara…" My dad's voice had that familiar warning tone I was used to hearing when I was dancing on the line of insubordination.
"What?" I asked him. "We're all screwed in our own way and you know it."
He rolled his eyes at my blunt statement.
"We have to give him a chance to govern. The people voted. This is what they want." Ever the diplomat, he sighed.
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes, as though my Dad and I hadn't just been making a secret exit for camp. For all his words of trusting democracy, and Pike's leadership abilities, I knew my Dad saw the camp for the sinking ship that it was.
The door in front of us slip open, and Bellamy stepped out, clutching a guard jacket. My gaze hardened as my eyes met his.
"He's ready for you."
"Oh I'm sure he is." I bit out, sarcasm thick on my voice.
"What the hell happened out there?" Lincoln's voice shook with barely contained anger.
"We did what we had to do." He spat.
I scoffed, looking up at the ceiling, about to launch into a verbal attack when I Dad beat me to it.
"Wake up. You attacked an army that was here to protect us! You murdered innocent people. Is that who you are now? You thought you couldn't live with yourself after Mt. Weather? Well, you just started a war that'll kill us all."
I couldn't have said it better myself, and a surge of pride for my Dad finally taking a stand on the correct side of the battle field flooded through me. On the ark he had been someone for who morals had taken a second chair to hierarchy, but it filled me with hope to see that maybe the deaths on the ark, and life on the ground was changing that. Unfortunately, Bellamy didn't seem cowed. If anything the statement just fueled his rage.
"No, you need to wake up. And don't tell me the difference between Azgesa and Trikru. Or have you forgotten the 37 of us who were killed when they attacked us? Hmm? Tara?" He was shaking with anger.
"How dare you even say that!" I hissed. "But we weren't blameless in that war."
"God, you sound like Finn." He shook his head in disbelief.
"Kane, Lincoln." Pike called.
"You should go." Bellamy glanced at the open door as my Dad and Lincoln walked into the room. I glared at him and scoffed, meaning to march in after them when Bellamy had a change of heart and grabbed my arm.
I looked at his hand with raised eyebrows.
"You have exactly 3 seconds to get your hands off me." I told him.
"I had to do it, Tara." His voice was soft.
"Do what? Kill 300 people? Or lock me up so you could do it." I pulled my arm away from him with force.
"You don't know what Patrick had planned if you tried to stop us. It was for your own good." His voice went from soft to gruff in a heartbeat, and then he was glaring at me again.
"For my own good." I laughed. "Thanks. I'll remember that. But next time, don't bother. I'd rather deal with Patrick. At least he has the decency to be a backstabbing dick to my face."
I marched into the command room before he could say more. I was still fuming when I took a seat beside Lincoln, and my anger was not helped by the fact that moments later the door opened again and Patrick, the devil himself, walked into the room, twirling my notebook between his long graceful fingers.
"Well this ought to be good." I commented, mostly to myself, but I caught my dad's worried glance.
"I'm going to keep this quick." Pike cut out. "Lincoln, Marcus, you are both relieved from your positions in the guard."
"But I'm the captain…" My dad defended.
"I think I made myself very clear." Pike leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "As soon as you turn in your jackets you're dismissed."
"And why is Tara here?" My dad asked as he shucked himself out of his coat.. "She's not in the guard."
"No, she's not." Pike pushed himself up from his seat, so he stood over us. "But Patrick here tells me she likes to listen in on council meetings, which deal with matters that do not concern her." He walked over and stood in front of me directly.
"Spying will not be tolerated in my camp, Ms. Kane."
I rolled my eyes.
"I don't think you're taking this matter as seriously as you ought to." Pike laced each word with venom.
"Your dad can't help you anymore." Patrick smirked from the side. A glare from Pike shut him up, though I could still see the triumph glinting in his eyes.
"As far as I'm concerned, everything in that notebook was written before you could even guess what the inside of this room looked like. And therefore, it is of no consequence to you. Nor can you punish me for it." I spit. "I was only doing what I believed best, and I like to make informed choices."
"Well, as you so eloquently put it, I can't punish you for eavesdropping on a meeting that took place when I wasn't in charge. After all, Patrick has already informed me that he told Abby and she didn't think it pertinent to act on this information. But," he paused, glancing at Patrick and then at me. " what I can do is deter you from undertaking such actions again. You're suspended from your work as an electrician."
"What?" I gaped. "How is that relevant at all?"
"She is one of the best electricians we have, you can't do this." My dad defended.
"Oh Marcus, really." Pike said with mild condescension. "It's only a suspension, and she isn't one of the best. In fact, I doubt she'll even be missed."
"And what am I to do in the meantime? Make daisy chains?" I was still shocked.
"I would suggest using the time to learn a new trade, and maybe reflect on your actions." Pike turned away. "If you're caught with electrical tools, equipment to get into the ventilation shafts, or with modified walkies, we'll be back here and the conversation won't be so… pleasant."
My dad pushed up to his feet, Lincoln following astute. I glared at Patrick, as I stood as well, pulling off my I.D card that let me access the equipment bay, and dropping it on Pike's desk.
"Thank you for your time, Chancellor." My dad said graciously before leading us out the door. How he found the ability to be polite at a time like this was beyond me.
"So what new trade are you going to take up?" My dad asked.
I laughed. "Somehow I don't think they'll let me into the guard…"
"If we're careful, I can train you a little more." Lincoln spoke up. "There's nothing wrong with learning to defend yourself. Even Pike can't argue with that."
"I'd like that." I nodded, thinking of Patrick and Bellamy. Despite the small amount of training I had done at Mount Weather, I knew I needed to learn some new tricks for whatever the future held.
"Pike won't like it." My dad cautioned.
"Pike can go float himself."
"Tara, you have to be subtle. We'll be being watched now. Everything we do matters." He chided.
I glanced over my shoulder and felt the eyes of the guards more heavily than I had previously.
"So what would you have me do?"
"Train with Lincoln, in secret, but also take up a trade. Something useful. Come on. We'll go see Abby. I'm sure she can use a new apprentice since Clarke is gone."
I sighed and waved bye to Lincoln before following my dad to the medical bay.
It took quicker than I expected for my dad to explain what had happened, and I was surprised when Abby told me I could begin medical lessons under Jackson.
"She's always been a quick learner, and we can always use the help." She said to my dad. "Especially with all the grounders coming in."
"I worry they won't be coming in for long." My dad replied. "With Pike in charge and all…"
I left them to talk and went to find Jackson.
"We'll start with anatomy, because that will be the most helpful." Jackson told me, handing me a datapad. "Today you learn the muscles in the hand and arm. Tomorrow, the veins and arteries. With that basic knowledge you can try your first injection or IV hook-up without fear of hurting someone."
Overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge there was to learn, I took the datapad to an empty med bay office. and began reading through. It was helpful in the sense that the diagrams were interactive, and the way the nerves and veins connected through the body reminded me of electrical circuits and wires. All needed to be connected in just the right order. What I couldn't wrap my head around was why there were so many medicines to memorise, not to mention their interactions with the human body, and other drugs as well.
I was so lost in my studies I didn't even notice that 4 hours had flown by until a loud crash from the door jolted me out of my learning trance.
"What are you doing?!" Abby's voice cut through the crash. "These are sick people. You can't just throw them out. I set the tablet down and peeked out the door, unsurprised to see Pike ordering sick grounders thrown from their beds. Bellamy stood behind him, looking on with unease, but not stopping the maltreatment of the patients. Patrick, of course, was happily hefting ill people to their feet, and leaving them to collapse on the floor when they were unable to stand on their own. Lincoln dashed forward to catch one young girl before her head hit a metal pole.
"We asked them to come here! You can't do this!" Abby tried again, and Pike silenced her with a sharp retort.
"We don't have the supplies to care for them."
"Then I'll take them somewhere else." I said, stepping out of the office, drawing the attention to myself. "The dropship. It still has heat. And we can make basic medicines out of the plants."
Abby nodded at my suggestion.
"We can use our own stock as well." Lincoln added.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Pike smiled. "You see, if I let you people go, you'll go tell our enemies our secrets. You'll add the their numbers. You're to be interned in the holding area until further notice."
"What?!" I snapped. "That's ridiculous. These people are too ill to be moved."
"Not to mention it's freezing in containment." Abby chided. "Some will be dead before the week is over."
"Boo hoo." Patrick mimicked wiping away tears., while pulling a grounder girl called Denae from her bed. Lincoln had had enough, and stepped forward.
"She can't stand." He snarled as another guard stepped in front of him to stop his advance on Patrick.
"Looks like she's standing fine to me." He shrugged, dropping her to the floor. Lincoln shoved past the guard and went to help Denae to her feet, when the guard lifted the butt of his gun and went to strike Lincoln on the back of the head.
"Look out!" I shouted, and Lincoln turned, disarming the man quickly, following the attack with two quick punches.
"Lincoln, stop!" Bellamy shouted, stepping forward, trying to get him into a hold. Lincoln threw an elbow catching Bellamy high on the cheek.
"Ach!" Bellamy shouted, caught off guard by the hit. He righted himself a moment later, squaring up to Lincoln, ready for a fight.
"Stop it! Bellamy, stop it." I shouted, stepping forward. "Is this who you are now? Lincoln is your friend!"
"Lincoln." Abby's anxious voice caused everyone to turn, only to see Pike holding a gun to Denae's head. She was barely conscious on the floor.
"He goes with them." Pike said, referring to Lincoln.
"Once a grounder, always a grounder." Patrick grinned, pulling Lincoln away in cuffs. The rest of the grounders were dragged out of the room and to the containment facility. Leaving the med bay much emptier than it had been a few minutes earlier. The violence had turned my stomach and I didn't feel much like studying anymore so I went to see if I could find Harper.
I was halfway to the canteen when I bumped into Octavia, who was back from her mission. Upon seeing me, she grabbed my arm and pulled me into a room no one was using.
"How bad is it?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.
Octavia shook her head. "It's...they're all dead. He killed them all."
"I don't know what has happened to him. We always clashed on thing, but this…"
"That's not all." Octavia told me.
I gestured for her to continue.
"Lexa knows. She's going to raise Arkadia to the ground." Her voice was filled with icy calm, whereas her message shot fire through my veins.
"Oh my god, we have to evacuate. We have to get people out of here." I started pacing, and making plans.
"It's not all bad. I brought back someone who can help."
"Clarke?" I asked, and Octavia nodded.
"She's convinced the commander to spare everyone if we can give her Pike."
"That sounds more than fair. What do you need me to do?"
"Can you make walkies with a private channel?" Octavia asked. "We need to set up a resistance."
"Pike took away my clearance for supplies, but luckily I have a box with spare parts stashed in my room. I'll only be able to mod three until I get more parts though."
"Three will have to do then." Octavia nodded.
"Where is Clarke?"
"In meeting room A." Octavia stated. "I'm going to get Bellamy right now."
"Well if anyone can talk some sense into him…." I sighed, running my hand through my hair. Octavia looked haunted by what she had seen. I set off to my room to start on the modified walkies, and rummage through my meager supplies. Pulling out the box I kept at the back of my closet, I was about to start work when I noticed I was missing a screwdriver. Luckily, with a tool like that, I could just ask someone to borrow it and I wouldn't need to go to the equipment bay.
Dashing out into the hall, I was just about to the garage when I saw Bellamy storm out of meeting room A. He didn't see me as he continued down the hallway the other direction, but seeing this as an opportunity, I rushed towards the room to see Clarke.
I opened the door to see her crying and handcuffed to the table.
"Clarke!" I whispered and rushed in. Clarke looked up in shock, with a tear stained face.
"What the hell happened?" I asked, pulling a pin from my hair and beginning to fiddle with the lock on the handcuffs. I cursed, knowing that I still needed follow up on getting Miller to teach me how to properly pick a lock.
Clarke shrugged sadly, resigned to whatever Bellamy had told her. "The truth hurts."
"What truth?"
"That when I'm in charge, people die." Clarke wept. I wanted to slap Bellamy for saying that to her. Especially considering what he had been a part of.
"I'm trying to do the best I can..." Clarke continued.
"Clarke, you're best is better than most peoples." I told her. "And you've been forced into making the hard choices. Yes, people died. Good people. But you also saved people. No one else was stepping up to the task." I fiddled with the lock, pulling at the chain. I wished I had a pair of bolt cutters. A blunt solution would have been perfect for this.
"We all make choices. The choices you make are heavier than the one's regular people have to make. That means there will always be those who don't understand them. Or understand the price you pay by making them. But never forget who you are, Clarke. You save people. Hell, you saved me. If it weren't for you, I'd likely still be a science experiment in Mount Weather, getting tortured by Cage everyday."
"Thank you, Tara." Clarke replied, wiping her eyes, some of her stoicism returning. "I don't know if you can pick the lock on these."
"Well, I'm not just going to leave you here to be brought to Pike." I huffed in frustration.
"You need to get out of here before the guards get back and see you trying to free me."
But it was too late. The door slid open and Bellamy was back, accompanied by two other guards. Seeing me, he glared in exasperation.
"I should have known." He snarled, stepping forward and grabbing my arm, dragging me away from the table.
"Bellamy, think about what you're doing!" I shouted, as he held out a hand to a guard for another set of cuffs. I didn't fight back, knowing the punishment for resisting arrest. One quick minute later, my hands were cuffed in front of me, and Bellamy was releasing Clarke from the table.
"Is that your new MO?" I asked, as we were dragged down the hall. "Handcuffing people to things?"
He ignored me, and that just made the anger flare brighter.
"Oh right, no. I forgot. It's guilting other people for murder, when you just committed a genocide yourself." I spit.
"Shut. Up." Bellamy hissed, between clenched teeth.
"Oh no, you should hear it. You should hear what you are from a person who knows you. So that it settles in the back of your mind and eats away at you until you finally snap out of this goddamn spell Pike has you under! You're a murderer." I shot back.
"So is she." He snarled, pointing to Clarke. "So are you."
"I've never killed anyone." I replied.
"Not yet." Bellamy was wroth. "But you will. Everyone becomes a killer down here."
"We all have choices to make." Clarke said softly.
Bellamy scoffed. "The mighty Wanheda would know."
"You don't have to do this." Clarke persuaded. "Just let us go."
"Believe it or not, I'm doing this for your own good."
I rolled my eyes at that.
With that, he turned and our trek down the hall continued, until Octavia rounded the corner and swept the legs from the guard who was pushing me down the hall. She kneed him in the chin, before quickly grabbing the shock baton and taking out the other guard as well.
"O, what are you doing? You can't just hit a guard!" Bellamy was exasperated beyond all belief.
"I just did." She shrugged. "Let them go."
"I can't do that."
In the distance I could hear boots approaching. Octavia cocked her head as well, indicating that she knew time was dwindling fast.
"They're coming." She noted.
"You should go." Bellamy urged. Clarke used this distraction to grab his shock baton and caught him in the stomach.
He collapsed on the ground gasping for air, as the electricity coursed through him.
"I'm sorry." She said, pulling the handcuff keys off his belt. She undid her cuffs, and then turned to me to do mine.
"Clarke hurry up!" Octavia told her.
"Just go. You need to get out. I'll be fine. Go." I said. On the ground, Bellamy was catching his breath and was reaching for Clarke's ankles.
"Go!" I commanded. "You're not safe here."
"Neither are you!" Clarke countered.
"I'll be fine. Trust me." I grinned quickly, before taking the shock baton from her. Bellamy's grip closed on her ankle, and I zapped him again, to make him let go. Again, he was wracked with convulsions, and though I had thought the sight might make me feel better, I was annoyed to find that it didn't. I threw down the baton and sat beside him on the ground, waiting for the guards to arrived. Clarke and Octavia were gone. It was just me left to face the consequences.
"I'm sorry, Bellamy." I said softly. "I know you're only trying to do what you think is right. But that's all I'm trying to do too."
"I won't be able to protect you this time." He replied, as 6 guards came around the corner, one of whom was Patrick.
"I never asked you to protect me in the first place." I reasoned.
"Is it such a bad thing that I wanted to anyways?"
I didn't get to answer that final question, as Patrick grabbed me and hauled me to my feet.
"You couldn't even go one day without getting into the thick of it." He grinned. "Shall we go see what Pike has to say about you assaulting 3 guards?"
