Chapter 52
They started to move through the pipes towards the harvest chamber.
"Adara?" came the Commander's voice. Adara held her hand up and they stopped.
"We're here," she said after she turned her mic on.
"What's happening?"
"We're on our way to the harvest chamber to free your people. We are gonna cause carnage and confusion inside here. Get ready to join in, Commander." Adara said, watching the pipes ahead of them. They heard voices coming from the corridor below.
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"...we supposed to fix it?"
"I don't know, I'm not an engineer or a mechanic!"
"Why won't the fog work?"
"I don't know! Shut up and keep moving."
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They heard footsteps moving off down the corridor. When they could no longer hear anything, they heard the Commander.
"I heard that. Monty, get that door open now!"
"Doing it now," replied Monty, working as fast as he could.
"Done," he said a few seconds later.
"Kom War!" the Commander roared in their ears. They knew she was addressing her warriors. Adara and the other two made their way to the harvest chamber. Once there they looked through the vent which was about eight feet off the ground. Dr. Tsing was there. She was telling the clans that if the mountain was breached, then all the clans would be killed, both inside and outside the mountain. Adara, being in the lead, kicked the vent and it burst from its fastenings and banged to the floor a good ten feet from the wall it was mounted to. The noise caused everyone in the room to turn. Adara had sprung out of the vent and had the doctor in a chokehold before she even knew what was happening.
"Surprise Dr Tsing," said Adara, holding her against one wall, still in a choke hold. The doctor was gasping for breath and couldn't talk let alone scream. "O, search her for the keys and start letting the warriors out of their cages." Adara looked at the caged clansmen.
"The Commander has gathered the clans and is fighting the mountain men right now. She's in the mountain fighting for you. We kill those who kill us!" The clans started to yell and scream in agreement. They were rattling their cages, trying to get out. Octavia let out Echo first. She went to one of the cabinets and pulled it open. She reached in and took something small from it and threw it to Sterling.
"Let the others out as well," she said. Sterling snatched to object out of the air and looked at it. Keys. He gave a grin as he ran to the next cage to be opened. Adara looked at the doctor.
Once several of the clansmen had been let out of their cages, Adara had one of the bigger warriors hold the Doctor. Adara went over to Echo and pulled her to one side. Echo fought to free herself but one look at Adara's facial tattoo and she relented. Once far enough away not to be overheard, Adara whispered Gromyo to her. She had the same reaction as everyone else.
"Where's Bellamy?"
"Still on the Ark. Things were different this time around. Octavia's over there, though," she said, pointing towards her warrior opening cages. Echo looked at her.
"She looks different,"
"Bellamy didn't let Lincoln be killed because he's still on the Ark. Pike didn't happen - he's on the Ark also. All of the hundred are still alive." Echo looked at Adara.
"What now?"
"Now, we kill those who did this to your people." She turned towards the other warriors. "Today, we free the mountain!" A roar rang around as Adara walked back over to Dr Tsing and she once more took hold of her.
"You know, you should be glad to see me. I'm one of the sky people you've been trying to find. You know, the ones you want to kill for our bone marrow so you can leave the mountain and slaughter the clans." There was a howling growl of resentment from the clanspeople still there. Adara closed her eyes and concentrated on finding clan weapons for them. There were some in an armoury close by. She transported a whole load of them to the room. The clanspeople were shocked by that, but they had seen the tattoo on her face. She was a leader and a shaman. "O, lead them to the battle." They rushed to find weapons for themselves and when they were armed, Octavia grinned as she led the way to the fighting.
"Now, Dr Tsing," said Adara, when the able warriors had left and the only ones remaining were those too weak to fight and Sterling. "Dr. Tsing here would like you to know that she's deeply sorry and ashamed of her actions towards you, aren't you Dr Tsing?" Adara squeezed tighter and the doctor squeaked out a yes. "Good. Now what are we to do with you? I think that we should put you in one of the cages." Adara had Sterling hold the Doctor as Adara stripped the doctor down to her underwear and stuffed her in a cage. The remaining clanspeople grunted their approval.
"Don't harm the doctor, clansmen. She is to be accorded clan justice. Let the Commander deal with her!" The clansmen roared. "Good, Sterling, stay with these people and protect them. Are any of you fit enough to handle a sword and protect those of you who cannot?" Four people stood up, two of them swaying a bit but determined to start to take their lives back. They got themselves weapons. "Sterling, I'm going to join the fight." Sterling nodded and started to move the injured and infirm to the back of the room to give them fighting space. After that, he grabbed a sword and stood there, waiting for the fight to come to him.
Adara moved from the room after picking up a sword and knife. She also placed a bow over the shoulder and a quiver of arrows at her hip. She ran up a corridor and down a set of stairs.
"Jasper," she panted as she continued. "You got everyone to safety?"
"Yes, everyone we could get to come with us is here. I think there's about 730 odd here including everyone in the school." Adara stopped and closed her eyes for a second in relief.
"Good job, Jasper. Now keep them there, the fighting out here is intense."
"Will do," said Jasper before closing his mic. Adara had long since left the mic on.
She ran through corridors and rooms, checking to make sure no-one was hiding or lurking in the shadows. She found no civilians, but she had killed three guards so far.
"Monty, how we doing?" she called out.
"You're one level above the main fighting. Anya and Indra are fighting on level five and the Commander, Murphy and Miller are on level four. They are trying to get to the control room, but are under heavy attack."
"Got it. Guide me to the Commander!"
"Turn left at the next junction, down the stairs and along the corridor," Monty said. "Murphy, Adara's on her way. The prisoners are free."
"Got it," said Murphy as he blocked the rifle butt with his sword and used the handle to punch the guard in the face. The guard went down and one of the warriors behind the Commander reached past her and stabbed the guard in the gut.
"O, where are you?" Adara asked, running down the corridor after descending the stairs.
"With Indra."
"Monty, guide me!"
"Keep going. It's a long corridor. Go around the corner and there's another corridor to the right. Take it. It leads to the fighting."
"Got it." Adara ran. She heard fighting up ahead and she stopped before she could careen around the corner. She took a quick peek and pulled her head back. She then ran at the guards from the rear of them. When they realised there was an attack behind them, they started to turn and that was the distraction the Commander and her warriors needed to finish them off. When the last one was down, the Commander walked to her and clasped her arm.
"Glad you're alive."
"Me too, Commander. I'm glad you made it too. Let's finish this and bring this mountain to its knees!" The Commander gave a feral grin. "Let's go!" she yelled. The warriors with her gave a tremendous yell and started running after the Commander and Heda Adara.
"Where next?" asked Adara, speaking into her mic.
"Indra and Octavia need some help one level down. Take the stairs to your right and then turn left down that corridor, they're at the end of it."
"Got it." They set off racing down the corridor. Adara got to the bottom of the stairs when she heard Harper's voice.
"Cage and Dante are trying to leave the mountain in suits. Second level, near the storeroom you were in, there's a hidden doorway. They've got it open. They've left my view. No cameras in there."
"Damn it!" Adara yelled and grabbed a few warriors including Fio to go with her to capture the leaders of the mountain. They ran through corridors and up stairs and finally got to the secret door. Adara stopped and took a quick look in. It was dark. She couldn't see any light at all in there. She felt around and found a shelf. She took an item off the shelf and looked at it in the corridor. A hand light! She switched it on and handed it to Fio while she grabbed one for herself. She set off down the tunnel and soon ran into another door. She tried to open it but couldn't. Most likely they locked it after them.
"Kick it down," she said to the nearest warrior. He nodded and drew his foot back and smashed the door apart. They were through in a flash. It was a garage filled with their vehicles. One was just starting up and they chased the sound, coming upon the vehicle just as it was starting to move off. The warriors were trying to stop it by hitting it with their swords to no effect.
"The tyres! Slash the tyres!" she yelled, pointing to the black circles the vehicle rested on. The warriors punctured the tyres and they deflated immediately, slowing the vehicle down. Adara grabbed the door handle and pulled. It was locked! She pulled back her hand and using the sword guard, she smashed the window, punching Dante in the side of his head at the same time.
"Stop the vehicle and get out!" she yelled. "Or they cut your suit to ribbons!" Cage tried to gun the vehicle and knock them down, but with so many of them and a vehicle that was sluggish at best, they didn't get very far. Adara reached in and held her knife to Dante's suited throat. "Really wanna do that, Cage?" she asked. Cage looked at her, then at his father. Dante nodded and Cage turned the engine off. "Get out," she said to Cage, whilst pulling Dante out of the vehicle on her side. Fio grabbed Cage.
"Where do we put them?" Fio asked.
"In the cages your people were in. Dr Tsing, their lead healer - is already in one."
They dragged the protesting duo to the harvest chamber and after stripping them, shoved them in cages too. She could see that several others had been brought down and imprisoned as well - including Emerson. Sterling and several fit and healthy warriors were standing guard. Adara looked through the glass into the infirmary on the other side and saw Clarke and Nyko leaning over a warrior, slapping bandages on a bleeding wound, trying to save his life. In the next bed though, she saw Murphy. He was barely moving and had a large bandage around his midsection. There was a lot of blood seeping through the bandages.
"What the hell?" she exclaimed.
"They're using any infirmary space they can to help the injured warriors," Sterling said. Adara took off running and entered the infirmary just as Clarke and Nyko turned away from the warrior that had just died.
"How bad?" asked Adara.
"Murphy will live if we can operate. Several more will too, but we need medical help, here." Adara thought about it.
"Are there any more healers, here?"
"There are some outside." Adara turned to Fio.
"Go get as many healers from outside as you can. They are waiting at the camp for warriors to be brought to them. Go get them." Fio nodded and several warriors went with him as he ran down the corridors.
Adara looked around her. It was a mess. The Commander, Anya, Indra and Octavia were still fighting. Clarke and Nyko were struggling to cope in the infirmary and they still hadn't found the command centre. The only thing that went right so far was Jasper and Maya getting the civilians to safety. Adara sighed. Time to find the command centre and end this.