Chapter 2
Lyanna felt troubled about all these people which were still imprisoned in this damned room, but she followed Clarke and the unknown woman out of the room and into an adjacent small one.
She let out a startled scream when the floor suddenly opened underneath their feet and they fell into a kart.
Their fall was gentled by something and it took her a moment to recognize that it was gentled by bodies that had already been filled into the kart.
Her stomach churned at the realization of how these bodies were dressed in the same weird white bandages as the woman Clarke had just rescued.
Before either of them could do or say anything, the kart suddenly began to move and Lyanna spotted a man behind it, pushing it. The other two women remained down, so she did the same.
They stopped a few moments later and suddenly hands reached into the kart. They pulled out one of the bodies and it was carried away.
Lyanna felt her stomach twist when there were low screams suddenly around them and sounds of what could only be flesh being torn off the body. They were alone at the kart right now though.
Clarke already climbed out of the kart, while Lyanna saw the other woman murmuring a few words and she shrieked when she saw her snap the neck of the body she had landed on.
The woman's brown eyes snapped to her immediately and Lyanna swallowed forcefully at the raw emotions swimming in them.
"We need to go" Clarke urged both of them and Lyanna took her hand when Clarke offered it to her to climb out of the kart, while the other woman quickly climbed out herself.
Several piles of clothes were strewn around the kart and Lyanna watched the other two look through them and change their clothing.
"You should switch too" Clarke addressed her lowly, casting glances in the way the figures had disappeared and Lyanna tilted her head to the side in silent question "You will find that a dress is not practical in the woods".
"The woods" Lyanna echoed in an awed tone. She did bend down and chose a pair of pants, a shirt, and a bulky jacket for herself though as well and changed into them quickly.
She felt the other woman's brown eyes rest on her heavily all the time, but she remained silent.
They walked through the dark tunnels for a while, but Lyanna could not recognize anything, to her everything looked the same. It seemed that the brown-eyed woman had recovered slightly and she was walking steadily again.
"What are they doing to us?" the brown eyes had switched to Clarke now.
"They use your blood. I saw a man with radiation burns and after a blood transfusion, he was fine again" Clarke explained quickly "I have never seen something like this before".
Anya ground her teeth together. She needed to get the word about this to the commander and she needed to get the nightblood woman to Polis as well.
"Come on this way," Clarke said and turned, but the other woman was not following her and Clarke quickly turned around again "Hey, what are you doing?" Clarke said when Anya turned away to head a different way.
"That's the way back to the Reapers" Clarke added in a rushed tone.
Lyanna watched them with furrowed brows. She gathered that Reapers must have been the figures they had encountered before.
"You go your way, I go mine," the brown-eyed woman said, turning away again.
"Anya, we need to stick together" Clarke followed the woman and the desperation was clear on her features.
Anya whirled around again and Lyanna could see something spark within the woman's brown eyes "I told you there is no "we".
"I saved your life" Clarke argued, trying to blackmail the grounder woman.
"You saved my life because you need me. I know the way back to your people. I know where the traps are hidden. You'll never make it alone" Anya retorted.
Lyanna did not miss the little wince Clarke gave at the woman's words and her brows furrowed deeper. She had assumed that Clarke had saved Anya because she knew her and maybe cared for her, but that was obviously a misconception. She felt torn on who to follow.
"We don't have time for this. Our best chance is to stick together" Clarke had turned around while she spoke and Lyanna watched Anya disappear silently with an astonished expression.
For a woman who had been visibly weakened, the other woman moved extremely fast and without causing any sounds in addition.
It seemed that the decision had been taken from her though and she turned to Clarke "She left" she informed the blonde.
"Dammit" Clarke murmured and turned around again in the other direction.
"Is it true that you only saved her because you need her?" Lyanna probed as she fell into step next to Clarke, watching the other's expression was enough of an answer though.
They came to a crossing sometime later and Clarke hesitated.
The light of a flame suddenly flickered on one side and Clarke urged Lyanna to move through the other one.
Lyanna was worried that her father had been informed of her escape attempt. She did not know what they would do to her if they caught her.
In the dim light ahead of them they could suddenly make out another Reaper coming closer to them and they turned around, only to be faced by another.
Lyanna backed up against the wall and she felt her breath quickening. She had not envisioned her escape to end like this, probably being eaten alive by these creatures.
Suddenly there was a shrill noise and the Reapers fell to the ground clutching their heads as if they were in pain.
"Clake Griffin" a man in a hazmat suit appeared behind one of the reapers. His gaze flickered to Lyanna "Cage Wallace will be pleased to get his bride back".
Lyanna felt her heart fall into the pit of her stomach. She had been in the hospital part of the Mountain after she had refused to share his bed. The man had lashed out at her and brought her to the medical facility when he had stopped hitting her.
She wished now that she had opted to follow the brown-eyed woman. She had no idea if she would have brought her to safety or if such a thing even existed for her, but being brought back to this man was not what she wanted at all.
Clarke seemed to think about fighting back, but when another man in a hazmat suit appeared, she held up her hands in defeat and followed them.
Lyanna tried to calculate her chances of just turning around and running from them, but she doubted that she would get very far.
Just as they neared a door back into the Mountain facility, there was a scream and Anya suddenly launched herself from the shadows at one of the men.
Clarke fought with the other one and ripped the mask from his hazmat suit.
Lyanna watched the man fall to his knees with agonized screams. She had never seen such a strong and instant reaction to the radiation in the air around them.
"I found a way out" Anya suddenly proclaimed "This way" she motioned to another end of the tunnel and Lyanna tore her gaze away from the two men.
She heard the door behind them beep and Lyanna knew that reinforcement was there for the two wounded men on the ground.
She ran behind the two women, praying internally that the way out would not be too far.
Suddenly there was light ahead of them and Lyanna's eyes needed long moments to get used to the change in lighting. Her eyes widened when she took in where Anya had led them.
They were high up ahead of what appeared to be a waterfall. She could barely make out the water surface on the ground and she had no idea if such a fall was even survivable.
"Wait there has to be another way" Clarke shouted against the loudly rushing water ahead of them.
"There isn't" Anya retorted just as loud.
Lyanna had turned back and noticed that the reinforcement had followed them.
She heard Clarke suddenly shout the other woman's name and she turned around just in time to see the brown-eyed woman jump from the opening.
"Give up" the reinforcement called out loudly.
Lyanna spotted the guns in their hands. She did not know if her father wanted her life spared, but she did not care to find out. She had come to a decision and she would take her chances with the fall.
She made a large step ahead and shrieked with the sickening feeling of losing the ground beneath her feet and suddenly falling what appeared to be endless.
She had not been prepared for the water to come closer so quickly. The hit to the water physically hurt and suddenly there was nothing but water around her and she felt herself being pulled deeper and deeper beneath the surface.
Lyanna had no idea how to swim and the light on the surface above her seemed to fade as she felt her body being pulled by something.
She coughed strongly when her head broke through the surface and there was air again to breathe.
"You cannot swim" the words were an assessment and not a question and Lyanna could only continue to cough up the water from her lungs, unable to formulate words for the moment.
Lyanna let herself be led out of the water by Anya and she was thankful for the help. She still felt out of breath and she just noticed now that they seemed to be on the shore of a river, which was surrounded by trees.
She looked around frantically, taking in the water, the shore, the river, the crisp blue sky above their heads, and the mass of trees around them.
"Wait here" Anya suddenly said and stood up again, wading back into the water.
Lyanna only spotted now what the other woman had noticed already and she watched how Anya pulled Clarke from the water as well, dumbing the blonde non too gently on the shore as well.
She watched the brown-eyed woman sit down for a moment as if to catch her breaths as well.
"You have not been outside" was another assessment and there seemed to be confusion in her tone.
Lyanna tore her gaze away from the trees and looked at Anya as she nodded her mute agreement. She had never left the settlement of her people. Like the people from Mount Weather, they also lived under the ground.
Clarke sputtered out some water and heaved heavy breaths before she looked at Anya as well, gasping "Thank you. I think we should go to the Drop Ship first and see…".
Whack.
Lyanna was startled when Anya suddenly struck Clarke along the head with a rock from the shore, broking skin immediately, dazing the young blonde woman obviously.
"We are not going to your Drop Ship," Anya said, straddling Clarke's legs, as she pulled out some kind of rope and bound Clarke's hands with it roughly "You killed three hundred of my warriors. I cannot show my face without a prize".
Lyanna shuddered slightly at the unexpected violence and held up her hands to show that she did not plan on offering any kind of resistance "I have nowhere to go" she offered as an explanation.
The brown eyes narrowed down on her, but Lyanna stood up on her own when Anya pulled up Clarke forcefully.
"Follow me" Anya ordered briskly and Lyanna obeyed immediately.
She had spoken truly after all. She literally had nowhere to go. Her own people, ruled by her father would either condemn her for treason as she had run from her arranged marriage or they would just hand her back to her groom. She also had no idea in which direction their settlement actually was.
She knew that the Mountain Men's facility and their own were connected through a very long tunnel. They had traveled through the tunnel for a long while, longer than she had ever walked before.
But now that they were on the surface, she had absolutely no orientation.
Only a handful of her people had ever left the tunnels of their settlement and even fewer returned to them. Her people had no information about the people who had populated the ground and, in all honesty, she was intrigued to find out more about them and to see what earth really was like.