"We don't have much time, but we can talk freely here," she said as the door closed. She looked nervous.
"What the hell is going on?" Jasper asked. She started to crying. "Maya?"
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"About what? What? What do you mean, it wasn't an accident?"
"She means they exposed her to radiation on purpose," I said. Why would they do that?
"I'm betting it was to get you to agree to be her blood brother," Monty said. Maya nodded. "I knew it. Clarke was right."
"Monty, be quiet," Jasper said. "Did you know about this?"
"No."
"And why would they do that to you?"
"Because the standard treatment sucks compared to you," she said.
"That's what Dante said," Jasper said.
"What's the standard treatment?" I asked. Isaac said something about circulating blood.
"Through there," Maya said. She led us farther into the room.
It hit me right before I saw them. Circulating blood. The transfusion circulated Maya's blood through Jasper's system. Why else would they have Grounders in the mountain? They were using the Grounders to keep them alive.
It was still an awful sight. Hundreds of cages full of hundreds of Grounders.
"Oh, my God," Jasper breathed. "Are those all Grounders?"
"Wait a second," Monty said. He looked back at Maya. "Why are you showing us this?"
"Because I'm afraid," Maya said, sniffling.
"Of what?" Jasper asked, looking at her.
"That you're next." She was nearly crying now.
I would not let that happen. We are not going to be put in cages.
"Who else knows about this?"
"Everyone, but nobody talks about it. We learn not to ask questions. Look, without the treatments, we'd die. What are we supposed to do?"
"Die," Monty said.
Harsh. But somewhat true. They can't just torture people like this.
"We have to get out of here," Monty said. "Dante said we could leave, right?"
By this point, they've figured out that Jasper's blood is better. They would never let us leave now.
"He was lying," Jasper scoffed. "He knew I'd be too scared to leave, just like he knew I'd do what had to be done to save Maya."
"So we don't ask," I said. "If Clarke got out, we can, too."
"You'll never make it," Maya said. "Ever since Clarke disappeared, security all around the mountain has been increased."
"Not all around," I said. "I was able to get to the dungeons."
"What?" all three asked, turning to me.
"I stole Emmerson's card and explored. I found these stairs that went a level lower than Dante's office. They were bringing in Grounders. They washed them and wrapped them up, just like those ones," I said, gesturing to the Grounders. "We could escape through there. We just need time and weapons."
"We're not leaving," Jasper said. "I won't leave the others behind. That means they end up in there."
"What choice do we have?" Monty asked.
"We volunteer," I said simply.
We volunteer a couple times. They will be too preoccupied with working with those who volunteered, they won't need to take us yet.
But our volunteering will only get us so far. We do still need to get out of here.
We found the others, convinced Harper and Nate to volunteer as well, and went to medical. We quickly changed and laid in beds. The treatment would be three or four hours and we'd probably sleep the entire time.
Isaac was prepping me.
"It'll be easy," he said with a smile. "You'll just sleep for a little while."
I nodded.
He didn't lie to me. But he didn't tell me the whole truth. I didn't know how to feel about that.
"Ready?" the doctor asked, stopping by my bed.
Isaac sat down on the edge of my bed and held my hand. I glanced over at him before nodding. I hissed when the needle went in and squeezed Isaac's hand. The doctor turned on the machine and I was already feeling the effects. I was high off the drugs.
I had never been high before. Apparently I'm an emotional person when I'm high. It's only weird because I'm not a super emotional person normally; I like to keep things bottled up.
I loopy smile appeared on my face. Isaac laughed.
"You okay?"
"Better than okay," I murmured. My eyes crossed for a second. "I don't even care that there's a needle in my neck." I laughed.
Isaac went to stand up but I quickly grabbed his hand again and pulled.
"Don't leave," I practically yelled.
Isaac slowly sat back down again.
"You can't leave," I said, firmly. "Everyone always leaves. My stupid boyfriend left not once but twice." My eyes almost crossed as I thought about it. "I get him leaving the first time; he wanted revenge. But he just left me the second time. So if I ever see him again, I'm gonna punch him in the face."
Isaac just nodded, unsure of what to say. I don't blame him.
"But see he's not even the first one to leave," I said. "And he's still alive. He could still come back. I could still punch him in the face. Not my dad or my mom or my daughter. My dad left me six years ago. I was raped and he was killed. Does that sound fair to you? He was trying to protect his daughter and he was killed." My eyes were wide as I studied the ceiling. "And my mom and daughter. They were almost here. They were on the ship, coming down. And then they exploded. They left me."
I looked at Isaac now. "The only people really have now are in here. I mean I can just assume everyone's dead out there. You guys haven't found them and they haven't found us. They're either dead or they don't care. Either way they left me."
My eyes started to droop closed suddenly. "Everyone always leaves," I whispered before I passed out.
I woke a couple hours later. Isaac was gone but that didn't matter much. I needed to throw up…now.
I leaned over the side of my bed and hit the trashcan. I puked up my guts and fell back against the bed.
I don't remember anything from when they started to when I passed out. Did I say anything? I probably did. I probably embarrassed myself in front of Isaac.
"You're awake," Monty commented, looking over.
"Sadly," I groaned, holding my stomach. "How long you been awake?"
"Just a couple minutes," he said with a shrug. "The patients just left."
"Hope they feel better than I do," I muttered. I leaned over and threw up more. Apparently I had more in me.
Monty leaned over and dry heaved into his can.
"This is awful," he sighed.
"Yep," I sighed, leaning back. "Just plain awful."
For another couple hours, we stayed in bed. They brought dinner but there was no way I was eating anything. I'd just throw it up again in minutes.
"Will I be seeing you in the library?" Isaac asked.
"Probably not," I sighed, sitting up. "I've been throwing up for hours. The second I'm discharged, I'm going to bed."
"Well then let's go," he said with a smile. "Here are your clothes. I'll be waiting outside."
I smiled and threw back the covers. The only people around were Monty, Harper and Nate. I quickly threw my jeans on under the gown and then faced the wall to take off the gown. I put on my sweater and slipped on my shoes.
"See you back in the dorms," I said with a wave.
"Cory," Nate called.
"I'll be fine," I said, waving him off. I opened the door and Isaac pushed off the wall.
We walked in silence for a few seconds.
"I didn't say anything, did I?" I looked up at him. "I remember feeling really weird but I don't remember what happened."
He shook his head with a little smile. "You stared at the ceiling and fell asleep."
"Good," I sighed with a smile.
We stopped in front of the dorms.
"You are okay, right?" he asked, looking down at me.
No. I shrugged and half smiled. "Not fun but I'm okay."
The truth is, everything hurt. My stomach was still upset, like I could throw up at any moment. But I didn't have anything to throw up so nothing was happening. And my head was killing me. I felt lightheaded still, like I didn't have enough blood in me even though I had all my blood back.
"Well get some rest," he said with a smile. "I'll check on you tomorrow morning."
"Thanks," I said with a smile. I got a kiss on the cheek and then he was gone.
I laid on my bed and waited until the others got here. Jasper was already here.
"How are you feeling?"
"Crappy," I said, looking at the bunk above me. "I feel so weak."
"Sorry."
I looked over at him. "Jasper, I'm fine."
The others came in. Jasper turned up the music and we talked.
"Okay, it's safe to talk," Jasper said. "We bought ourselves some time, but we're gonna need to recruit some of the others, only people we trust."
"How much more time are we talking about buying here, exactly?" Nate asked.
I groaned just thinking about doing it again. I was wrapped in a blanket because I couldn't get warm enough right now. A side-effect of the treatment.
"Long enough for Clarke to break us out," Monty said.
"We don't even know if Clarke's still alive," Harper pointed out.
"She has to be," Jasper said softly.
"Well, then she better hurry the hell up," Nate said.
I realized then that we couldn't just rely on Clarke. We needed to figure something out too. But what? How are we supposed to get 47 people out of a mountain?
I ended up sleeping in my bra and shorts. I was way too hot. A side-effect of the treatment.
