Disclaimer: The usual. I don't own anything.
Pain. That was the first sensation Bellamy felt when he woke up. Lot of pain. Then memories of what happened flooded back to him. The spinal surgery he underwent by the mad doctor to extract something from him. And then use it on another girl that miraculously recovered from her injuries.
He realized why they needed him now. He could see the kind of treatment the grounders went through. It also explained all the near dead bodies in the reaper tunnels. They were all victims of the mountain people's desire to cure themselves.
Bellamy heard the door open. He groaned as he lifted himself up to see who it was. The pain shooting through him, caused by his movements blinding him for a minute. He accumulated and looked again. He saw a new girl speaking to the soldier coming with her at the doorway. The soldier nodded and seemed to stay outside as the girl entered the room alone. This is new, Bellamy thought to himself. Not that he was in any position to take advantage of the situation.
The girl came with the tray of what he realized was his breakfast. He had slept through a whole day since his surgery, it seemed.
The girl placed the tray at the table and approached Bellamy. It was new too. Usually, they left the tray in the table and go.
"Hi" The girl said shyly. Bellamy took one good look at her. She seemed familiar.
"Do I know you?" Bellamy asked in a croaking voice, confused as to who she was. She wasn't one of the delinquents. That much he knew.
"No. But I'm alive because of you." The girl answered. A light went on in Bellamy's head. He realized who she was. She was the girl who was saved by his bone marrow.
"You're the girl in the bed." He said, more to himself than her. She nodded in confirmation.
"My name is Maya. They told me they used your bone marrow to save my life." She told him.
"What are you doing here?" Bellamy asked her, confused as to why she was there.
"I needed to thank you. I volunteered to be your carer during your stay here." She informed him. She patted his pillow in the bed as he observed her.
"I'm not here voluntarily." Bellamy couldn't avoid the bite in his words. But he didn't want to pretend like it was not a prison. And the way Maya's eyes dropped to the floor indicated she knew.
"I know. Without you, I wouldn't be alive right now. I owe you, my life." She said apologetically, her eyes begging for his forgiveness.
"I'm glad it worked." Bellamy said, genuinely glad that she was saved. She seemed very innocent in all of this.
Maya seemed to brighten at that. She went back to the tray and pulled a box out of it.
"They didn't allow this in your meal. But I sneaked in my portion for you." She said, and gave him the box.
Bellamy opened it with a bit of struggle, his arms still trembling from the pain his body was experiencing. Inside, it was a piece of chocolate cake. Bellamy hasn't seen one like it for years. Long before, he ate once and shared it with Octavia during one of their Unity Day celebrations.
"Is this…" Bellamy didn't finish. "Chocolate Cake." Maya answered him quickly.
"Thank you." Bellamy told her gratefully.
"It's the least I could do." Maya answered bashfully.
Bellamy felt as if he could trust this girl enough to ask the question he had in his mind.
"Can I ask you something?" He asked, hesitantly.
Maya nodded hesitantly.
"Do you know what happened to the people at my camp?" He asked. Ever since he arrived, he didn't feel the comfort to ask that question until now.
"President Wallace said that the camp was destroyed by fire." Maya told him. Bellamy let a sigh of relief hearing that. That meant the plan worked. Clarke had fired up the engine. It must have killed or repelled the grounder attack.
"But there was nobody at the camp when our guards went there. They had already left. President Wallace suspects that the outsiders took them prisoners." She told him.
"Outsiders?" Bellamy asked, not understanding.
Maya blushed with embarrassment. "The people that live on the surface." She clarified. Bellamy realized she was referring to the people he called grounders.
He wondered if what Maya said could be true. He wondered if his people were prisoners of the grounders. But something in him told that wasn't the case. Octavia is with Lincoln at his village. She wouldn't sit still if her friends are prisoners. He needed to know. Only way he could know, is to reach out and see if his people respond in any way.
"Can you do me something else?" He asked her in a hurry.
Maya looked nervous at his question. She took a moment to steady herself before she answered "Yes."
"Do you think you can send a message to the outside? To my people?" Bellamy asked her.
"I don't know how to do that. I don't have access to that floor or the skills to use the communication system." Maya told him, helpless at his request.
Bellamy was disappointed at the only chance he had to escape didn't pan out.
"I'll come back at lunch time." With that, Maya left the room with Bellamy still in bed.
- 100 -
Abby woke up, feeling better than she has been feeling lately. After thinking, she decided to take the pills provided, so she can be useful as a doctor. She didn't feel she could handle treating people otherwise. The pills were potent and worked quickly. In the morning, she felt the anxiety building in her fade into the background, clearing her head. She felt more focused.
During morning breakfast, Abby sat with to discuss the possible alternative experiments they can do to make the cure work. wanted to share something with Abby after breakfast and Abby promised to join her, once she met with Jaha and other council members.
The council was working with the President in getting their people settled in. With a lot of survivors from the two stations, they needed to organize beds and food, so they won't run out of resources in the complex. The President has been more than willing to accommodate them. And the Ark survivors with experiences in farming in close quarters have offered their services to help produce more.
The survivors are integrating with the community with ease. The people at the complex are warm and welcoming, and survivors are creating friendships with them. They are not sitting separately anymore, as Abby has observed. They are now mixing with the locals and sitting together, laughing and talking.
They still maintain two different leaderships. Jaha and the council are still in charge of the survivors and President Wallace and his team are in charge of the locals. Abby hoped, soon they will all become one. They can be a united front when facing the grounders.
The council meeting started simple. Jaha updated everyone on what was happening with the survivors and the future plans. He informed that President Wallace told him about the grounders blocking the mountain people from going out in search of survivors. They were sieged in.
"Do we know why the grounders don't attack the mountain if they have us surrounded?" Kane asked Jaha. It was a question Abby had in her mind too.
"According to President Wallace, the mountain has defensive capabilities to prevent enemies from closing in. He didn't elaborate on what those are, but whatever they are, they have kept the grounders away." Jaha informed the council.
"How long can we survive the siege?" Another councilman asked.
"Based on the resources they have and the population increase to include feeding us, they don't have much time. But that's not the worse situation." Jaha said mysteriously. Everyone listened to the problem they are facing.
"The complex was not supposed to sustain people for this long. It is breaking down. There are surface air penetrating the hull of the complex in random places. They had a radiation leak yesterday in one of the dorms of the locals. A girl was injured." He told them.
"Is she ok?" Abby asked, concerned.
"She's been treated. I'm sure will let you know when you meet her today." Jaha replied back to Abby.
"I should get back to her." Abby stated.
"That's all for today. Meeting's over." Jaha announced and he got up from the table, followed by Kane and Abby.
"How are you doing?" Kane asked Abby, concern in his voice. Abby looked at him. "I heard about the girl from yesterday." Kane told her. He didn't have a chance to talk to Abby after that.
"I'm ok. Have to find and carry on with the tests." Abby stated and walked away quickly, leaving a confused Kane behind.
Abby rushed back to the lab she was in yesterday. She didn't feel like talking to Kane about yesterday and she was in need of the pills once again. She popped a couple when she got to the lab and turned towards who was waiting for her.
"I heard about the radiation leak from yesterday." Abby said, wanting to discuss that matter first.
"Yes. Unfortunate that it happened but it gave me a chance to test my theory." Lorelei said excited. Abby was curious at what she was talking about it.
"Come and see the results." Lorelei invited and Abby walked up to the monitor behind the doctor.
The results were plain to see. Abby can see the cell damage from the radiation initially and then the cells regenerating and new cells being produced.
"What caused this?" Abby asked in wonder. It looked like a miracle.
"Your theory works. The marrow bone is the solution. Only the sample we tested wasn't sufficient." Lorelie informed her.
"What do you mean?" Abby asked, looking at the results once again to make sense.
"We used a small sample of the marrow bone before. This time, I drained half of the spinal liquid and it worked." Lorelei told her, proud of her achievement.
"But… how?" Abby asked, confused. "Did you find another grounder? Did you go to the surface? I thought nobody was going to the surface, because the grounders have us surrounded."
"Oh that. Uhh…" Lorelei hesitated to answer. She knew she had slipped up. Abby got suspicious at the guilty expression in the normally smiling doctor. "President Wallace was able to find a grounder prisoner they had. I was able to take it from him." She explained and Abby didn't feel like she was getting the whole story.
"There are grounder prisoners?" Abby asked further. Lorelei looked like she didn't want to be there anymore.
"You should ask President Wallace about these questions." With that, Lorelei left the lab in a hurry.
Abby was concerned. She realized that was hiding some secrets from her. She didn't care if the secrets were personal, but when it came to the experiments, she wanted full disclosure. If the doctor was not willing to share, she was going to find out.
Abby started typing into the computer. She has become familiar with the system since she has been working in the lab, and it was rudimentary compared to the Ark systems. She looked at the identification of the bone marrow used on the girl Maya and checked where it was procured from. The system warned her of restricted access. She tried the identity card she was provided and she didn't have access. She looked around helplessly, when she saw something.
had left in a hurry and she left her own identity card behind. Abby picked it up and inserted the card into the recognition system and the security access allowed her in. Abby found a sequence code tagged to the sample. Based on the system, Abby could tell that the code represented a level number and a door number, followed by a sequence of numbers that she couldn't tell the purpose of.
Abby logged out of the system and pulled the identity card and pocketed it. She knew her access will not let her in other secured areas. She was determined to follow through to the source of the bone marrow.
She walked towards the restricted area near the quarantine zone. Abby was nervous at what she might find, but the anxiety pills she took gave her the courage she needed to carry on her investigation. She reached the entrance and used the key card from to access that area. The door opened and let her in.
The lift stopped and Abby got off the floor. There were security guards there, and they didn't stop her. She walked as if she belonged there. The lab coat she was wearing probably made them think she was one of the doctors to be allowed on the floor, Abby presumed. She walked to the door number she saw in the computer and pushed the handle. The door wouldn't open. It was key locked.
"Is everything ok ma'am?" One of the guards asked her.
"Everything's fine." Abby answered back, smiling to hide her nervousness. She looked at the lock. It seemed to be similar to the card system in the computer. Abby pulled out Lorelei's card and inserted it into the reader. The light in the lock turned from red to green. Abby pushed the handle and this time, it opened.
Abby walked inside and froze at the sight in front of her. She can see cages as she stood, with human beings inside them. Abby observed for a minute, before she started walking further inside. The people inside the cage looked weak. They all had scars and tattoos. They looked like the cave people in the books from the Ark she read as a child. Abby realized this must be the grounders others have mentioned. When they saw Abby, some cowered while others rattled their cages in anger. Abby was scared but she kept walking. She could tell that these people were violent from the way they were behaving. She could also see the patches in their bodies from needles.
As she walked in further and further, she saw that the area was open in the back. And there were a lot of noises coming from the back. She walked all the way inside and looked at the edge of the place. It opened up to a deep hole, probably running all the way underground. Abby can see a lot of holes in the wall, just like the one she was standing in. And all of them seem to have cages like hers.
"Oh my god." Abby whispered in shock. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't this.
Abby looked back at the cages in the room she was in. She now understood the source of the grounder blood and bone marrow. She looked at the cages and saw the rest of the numbers from the computers. It must be some kind of tag system to represent the person in the cage. They were numbers to the doctors, experimenting on them.
Abby tried to remember the number she saw. She vaguely remembered it since it was a long string of numbers. She looked at the cages to see if any of them popped up in her memory. Luckily, one of them did. She looked up to find the grounder, only to see the cage empty.
"Where's he?" Abby asked the grounder next to the cage. She didn't even know if that grounder understood her or not. Or if the grounder would even answer her.
The pretty grounder in the next cage looked at her with disdain. "He's gone." She spoke back in a harsh tone.
Before Abby can speak any further, she heard sirens blaring in the room. It rattled the grounders in her room and others. It was chaos all of a sudden.
The door she walked in through blasted open suddenly. The guards came running in. Upon seeing her, one of the guards spoke on his radio. "I have her."
The guards approached her and grabbed her by her arms roughly. Abby didn't struggle. She knew she would be caught eventually. She hoped to uncover more secrets before she did.
They took her straight into the lift and pressed the level she knew where the President's office is in. Instead of being taken to prison, she is being taken to the President's office. She let herself get dragged without resistance to the office where Dante Wallace was standing.
"Abby, please come." Dante Wallace invited her in.
"Didn't think I had any choice." Abby bit back, walking into the room to face him.
"Well, you left me in a difficult position." Dante said, looking apologetic. Abby didn't respond and he continued.
"We were alerted by when her identity card went missing. While searching for where it was last used, we found you with it. Security breaking is a very serious offense in our system. And you are found guilty of that." President informed her.
"I wasn't being given full disclosure on the experiments I was asked to help in. I decided to investigate myself." Abby argued, justifying her actions.
"Oh well, as the case may be. We had no intention of hiding it from you. We wanted you to get to know us before you judge us." Dante said, placating Abby with his words.
"Human experiments using the grounders? I would never agree to that." Abby stated. It went against her oath as a doctor.
"Well, we are left without any choice. We needed to survive when we are exposed to the radiation during the containment breach." Dante explained.
"By doing what? Using grounders?" Abby asked for clarification.
"Yes. Their blood was able to circulate and filter the radiation. When one of us are exposed, we use a grounder to filter the radiation to keep us alive. It's a necessary evil. One we want to get rid of by finding the cure." He pointed out.
"I'm onboard to finding a cure. But keeping grounders in cages and using them is wrong." Abby argued.
Dante chuckled. "My father was the President before me. It was fifty-six years ago when we first saw the signs of a grounder. We called them outsiders. We saw them on our security monitors. My father believed it meant Earth was survivable again, and so, he opened the doors. Within a week, fifty-four people were dead from the exposure. My mother and sister among them." Dante told her.
"I'm sorry for your loss." Abby said, sad at the lives lost in the past.
"Loss, pain, regret. They all healed with time. As time went on, we tried to communicate with the grounders as I said before. They reacted violently towards us. We realized that the only way we can find out how they survived is by capturing one of them."
"You experimented on the grounder and realized their blood can handle the radiation." Abby concluded.
"Yes. As time went on, we realized that one grounder is not enough to help us during containment breach. The complex had started to break down as time went on. We managed to patch any leaks we find, but more and more people were getting exposed. Women, Children and others. As a last resort, we ended up capturing grounders to filter more and more radiation. When one wasn't enough for each person, we captured more." President Dante explained the history behind the grounders in cages.
"This is why the grounders have been attacking you." Abby realized the reason behind the grounders attacking.
"In a way. The outsiders are a warring people. They have been in conflict with each other from our observations. We were another enemy for them. We are fighting for our survival here. We don't have the luxury to go out and find another place to survive." Dante justified.
"Still doesn't excuse the actions you are taking." Abby said, even though she can see the argument Dante was making.
"It doesn't." Dante conceded. "After my wife died, I was trying to think of what I was doing. The burden it was on my soul. But I bare it, so that my people don't have to. I made the choice for us to survive this way, and I endure it by taking the medications I gave you." Dante said and showed her the bottle he carried with him. Abby could see that he was taking the pills like she was.
Abby didn't know what to say at that point. She could see the argument on both sides. As a doctor, she was concerned for the wellbeing of the grounders in the cage. But as someone who had to sacrifice her own husband for the sake of her people, she understood the necessary evil.
"I will have to tell the council about this." Abby said, finally.
"By all means. I would have told them myself after a week or more, when you have learned more about us to not judge us by the actions we took to survive." President told her.
"Am I free to leave?" Abby asked. She wasn't sure if she were to be punished for her actions.
"Yes. But please don't do this again. I won't be able to bend the law for you once more." President Dante told her. Abby nodded in understanding.
- 100 -
Abby found Jaha and asked him to convey an urgent council meeting to discuss an important matter. Jaha sent out his people to find all the council members and ask them to meet in the room they have been using as their base of operations.
"Abby. You asked the council to meet on an urgent matter. Why don't you tell us what it is about?" Jaha addressed her.
Abby remained quiet, trying to figure out how to tell them.
"I checked on the medical records of the girl from the accident yesterday." Abby started. "She was healing from radiation sickness and her cells had regenerated and metabolized the radiation it absorbed." She explained. Looking at the confused faces around the table, she simplified. "They found the cure." She told them. A loud exclaim and cheer went around the table. Jaha was smiling. Kane noticed Abby's expression.
"You seem troubled." He pointed out loudly. Everyone looked at Abby's lack of celebration.
"I asked about how they managed to procure the bone marrow so quickly and in that large quantity. In the morning, Jaha mentioned that Dante informed him about the mountain being surrounded by the grounders." She looked at Jaha who nodded in confirmation. " wasn't forthcoming about how it was obtained." Abby carried on.
"Did you ask the President? Maybe he has an explanation." Kane suggested.
"No. I looked into the medical records further. I didn't have the security clearance to access it. So, I used 's card to gain access." She confessed. Some of the council members took a deep breath when they heard it.
"This may cause some serious diplomatic issues Abby. What were you thinking?" Jaha scolded her. Abby looked up at him.
"I wanted to know the truth. I found out the location of the bone marrow in the complex. I went there using the 's card." Abby paused at that. Everyone was watching her, some wary and some concerned.
"What did you find?" Kane asked her.
"I found grounders. Hundreds, maybe more in cages. They have been using the grounders to cure themselves. They filter out the radiation using the grounders as a filtration system." Abby told them. Loud gasps were heard around the table. Jaha looked pensive, Kane looked disturbed.
"Did you tell this to the President?" Jaha asked finally.
"They caught me and took me to him. The President explained that they have been buying time using the grounders until they found a cure." Abby replied back.
"Maybe that's all it is. President Wallace did tell me that they are desperate to find a cure. They must have been surviving using the grounders until they did." Jaha said. Kane didn't look satisfied with that.
"Using humans like they are machines? There should be a line that shouldn't be crossed." Kane argued.
"When you are desperate, people do things they won't usually do. They were fighting for their survival. They found a way. Like we did when we were running out of air to breath." Jaha mentioned. Kane dropped his head in shame. They all committed necessary evil in the Ark in the name of survival.
"We're in no place to judge them for what they have done. Now that they have a cure, maybe they won't need to do it anymore. We helped them find a cure. They would be grateful to us. This could be a way for both our communities to bind together." Jaha exclaimed. The council members across the table nodded and murmured in agreement.
"Abby. Please continue helping them with the cure. Maybe with your help, the process will be easier." Jaha requested. Abby remained quiet.
"Are we not concerned about the wellbeing of the grounders?" Kane asked the question to Jaha, but addressed everyone in the council.
"It is not our decision what happens to the grounders. But we may use them as leverage to get back our people. Once the people here in Mount Weather have been cured of their radiation weakness." Jaha stated. Others seem to agree, including Abby. Kane was the only one with objection.
"Let's adjourn the meeting. We will keep each other informed of the progress in our daily meeting." Jaha said and got up. Abby left the room with Kane on tow.
"You can't be ok with this." Kane asked Abby once they are outside.
"It is what must be done. We have a way to help these people and get our people back. Get my daughter back. I'll do whatever is necessary to do that." Abby told him, resolved with her decision.
Kane knew there was nothing he can say to change her mind. He let her go, trying to decide if he was in the wrong for questioning the mountain men's methods, when they have done irreprehensible acts in the Ark.
- 100 -
Maya returned back at lunch time with a tray. Bellamy looked at her when she turned from the table and approached him, with a glint in her eyes.
"I have some news." Maya told him, excitement in her voice.
"What is it?" Bellamy asked her, curious to know what could have happened to make her this excited.
"I spoke to my father. He said he will be able to send out the message, if it's short and simple." She was excited that she is able to help Bellamy.
"Why would he help me?" Bellamy asked, confused. He couldn't understand why someone in the mountain would help him.
"Not everyone agrees with the methods we've been using to survive." Maya confessed. "My parents were against the treatment of outsiders and using them to keep ourselves alive. My mother died resisting the treatment when I was little. My father believes in it, but he accepted the treatment as necessary for survival, to protect me." She explained.
"I'm sorry." Bellamy sympathized. He knew how it felt to lose a parent at a young age.
"He wants to help because he doesn't believe it's ok to keep you prisoner for our own survival. He has skills as a technician and knows how to get around accessing the command centre to send the signal out. But he can only make it a short burst in a repeating loop. So, the message must be short."
"Ok. I'll think of something and let you know at dinner." Bellamy told her. Maya nodded and walked back to the door.
Bellamy lied back, lunch forgotten, trying to find the right way to inform the camp about his survival and what was happening in the mountain. It kept him busy for the rest of the day.
When Maya returned at dinner time, the guard was with her inside. Luckily, Bellamy had the tray from lunch next to him and the guard was not suspicious since he was still pretending to be weak. Bellamy didn't waste any time when Maya was next to him to collect the tray.
When she was close enough, and he said "Grounders. Danger. Bone Marrow. Princess" in a whisper, so only she heard it. Maya nodded, confirming that she heard the message and she left.
Bellamy, satisfied that he managed to do something from his predicament, walked to the dinner tray with a beat on his step. He couldn't wait to plan his escape. And knowing that there are people in the mountain who may be on his side, made him feel better about his chances of escaping.