Disclaimer: The usual. I don't own anything.
Bellamy is scared. He admitted to that reality a while after the morning visit. He was waiting to hear back from Maya in the morning breakfast. Instead, a new girl arrived with his food. Unlike Maya, this girl didn't want to look at him, let alone interact with him. Bellamy tried to talk to her first, and when she didn't respond, he raised his voice. That only resulted in the girl running out scared and the guards stepping in to keep him in place.
He had unwittingly revealed himself to be in better condition than he was pretending to be. He realized that, when he was left alone in the room. If they come back to extract the bone marrow from him again, he wasn't sure he would survive to escape his imprisonment.
As a result, he was scared. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was too easy, the way he was able to plan with Maya every day for the last few days. It has led nowhere, other than put Maya at risk. He was concerned for the innocent sweet girl that had taken the risk to help him. He wished he would know what happened to her and somehow, she was not blamed for his actions. He could take the punishment if it would spare her.
He had nothing else to do but wait. And he did, counting the minutes for the doctor to appear at the door again.
Soon, the moment came. He heard motion outside the door and braced himself, not willing to show the fear he was feeling. The fear went away in a flash as surprise filled him when the door opened with Maya rushing in. He could hear the sirens going off outside the door.
"Come on. Hurry." Maya yelled at him from the entrance, keeping an eye outside.
Bellamy didn't have to be asked twice. He jumped from the bed to his feet, reaching the door within seconds. Maya took hold of his hand and started pulling him down the corridor. Bellamy followed her, matching the speed she was running at.
"What's going on?" He asked her as they turned around a corner.
"We're breaking you out." Maya replied, taking deep breaths to fill her lungs. She wasn't used to the running.
"We?" Bellamy asked, not comprehending what was happening.
"Kane and I. He unlocked your door and disabled the cameras. I'm taking you somewhere safe." She told him and started running once again. He followed her, not asking anymore questions. There will be time for it, later.
They took the elevator down to another floor. Maya led him out, away from the elevator. Soon, they were in a crowded area. Bellamy could see some of the familiar faces that he has seen in the Ark. They are walking around casually as if they belong. He realized that the Ark survivors have mingled with the people in the mountain and have made themselves a home.
He wasn't identified amongst the crowd. Not many would remember him from the Ark and the mountain people wouldn't recognize him in the middle of all the newcomers. The guards were the concern, but Maya and Bellamy were able to navigate themselves out of the crowded area to the living quarters.
Maya pulled him along in a normal speed, now that they have avoided the guards successfully. She walked to a closed door and opened it with a key. She walked in and Bellamy followed her close behind.
Bellamy saw an old man sitting in what looked like a cushioned chair. He immediately stood up when he saw Bellamy enter. He stared at him first for a moment, before turning his gaze towards Maya.
"Is this the boy?" He asked. Maya nodded, hesitantly.
Bellamy felt uncomfortable standing there. He was being scrutinized by the older man and he didn't know who he was.
"Bellamy Blake, sir." He said, politely. He hoped it would break the tension in the room.
The older man came closer. When he was close, he reached out and hugged Bellamy.
"Thank you for saving my daughter's life." He said emotionally. Bellamy didn't know what to say. He realized that this man must be Maya's father.
"I didn't do anything." He said weakly, uncomfortable for the praise. It was true. He didn't do anything to save her. The doctor did that.
The older man let him go and shook his head. "You're the reason that my daughter is alive now. And she's free from this prison. She can go out in the ground and make a life for herself." He explained, grateful that his daughter can have a life outside.
"She and you have done more for me than what little I did. I really appreciate it." Bellamy thanked him. They both helped to send out the message and now giving him sanctuary.
"It's the right thing to do. The President is wrong in keeping you a prisoner. We didn't like what he was doing to the outsiders, but at least they were trying to kill us. Or so we thought. You didn't do anything to us. It woke up the guilt on some of us." He said, guilt written on his face. "I'm Vincent." He introduced himself.
Vincent turned towards Maya. "We can't keep him here. They will come searching our home first. We need to hide him with Peters' until they finish their sweep." He told her. Maya nodded and opened the door. Bellamy took that as an invite to leave with her.
"Don't worry. We'll meet again once they finish their sweep." Vincent assured him. Bellamy nodded and followed Maya as she walked through the quarters. She walked down the hall and turned to the right and stood in front of another door.
"These are Peters' family. They are close friends of my father. They have volunteered to help us against the blood treatments. They should be able to shelter you until the guards finish checking." Maya explained, before knocking on the door.
The door opened to show an old man smiling at Maya. He looked over at Bellamy curiously. Bellamy could see the other old woman inside the apartment, peeking from the back.
"Come in Maya." Mr. Peters invited her. She walked in and Bellamy followed her behind.
"This is Bellamy. He's the prisoner my father mentioned." Maya introduced him. Mr. Peters looked at Bellamy sympathetically.
"I'm sorry for what you went through, young man." He said, sorrow in his eyes. Mrs. Peters looked at Bellamy with concern.
"Why don't you take a seat? I'll make something for you to eat." The lady offered as she walked to the kitchen area. Bellamy sat in the sofa, taking in the surroundings.
The apartment was medium size with modest furniture around. It seemed like they were the only people living in the apartment.
"I need to go to my home. Otherwise, they will become suspicious." Maya said and left in a hurry.
Bellamy sat in the sofa, uncomfortable at the silence with two strangers he didn't know.
"Here you go dear." Mrs. Peters handed him a bowl with something that looked like stew. Bellamy realized he was hungry, having skipped breakfast and now it was past lunch time. He started eating, relishing at the home cooked meal.
"Thank you." He said, grateful at the hospitality he was receiving from the strangers.
"You can stay here as long as you need to." Mr. Peters offered. Bellamy nodded, not knowing what else he can do. He needed to wait until Maya and her father came back with a plan.
"I'll prepare your bed for you. You can rest there until dinner time." Mrs. Peters told him as she walked into the rooms.
Bellamy didn't realize there were rooms until she went into one. He had lived in a small room with bunk beds all his life. A separate bedroom within the apartment was a new concept for him.
When Mrs. Peters announced that it was ready, Bellamy left the bowl at the kitchen isle and walked to the room she was standing at. It was small, but nicely furnished. There was a single bed and a shelf with books and a table and chair. He went inside and sat on the bed, feeling the comfort it offered. After being a prisoner in a room for days now, it felt nice to be in a place where he was not trapped in.
"Thank you." He said gratefully at the Peters', who were standing at the entrance, watching him.
"Take some rest. I'll come wake you when it's time for dinner." With that, Mrs. Peters closed the door behind her.
Bellamy couldn't lie down again. That's all he has been doing lately. Instead, he walked to the bookshelf to check the titles of the books there were. He wanted to find something interesting to read.
He pulled out The Odyssey from the shelf and ran his hand over it. He had a copy of it back in the Ark that was in very bad condition. But he treasured it, because it was a valuable possession for him. The one he had in his hand now was in good condition, the hardbound binding still there and the ink wasn't smudged. He sat on the chair, placing the book carefully on the table and started to read.
He was lost in the literature that he didn't realize how much time had passed. He snapped out of it when he heard the knocking at the door. He stood up from the chair, closing the book carefully and went to the door to open it.
Mrs. Peters stood outside with a smile on her face. "The dinner's ready dear. Do you want to come join us?" She said politely.
Bellamy followed her as she walked back to the main room. Mr. Peters was reading something, sitting in the couch next to the sofa. Mrs. Peters started placing the dinner in the dinner table.
"Why don't you take a seat?" She told him, pointing to a chair at the table. Bellamy sat as he was instructed, and saw Mr. Peters stand up and come to take a seat next to him.
"Did you get a good rest?" He enquired, concern evident in his voice.
"Couldn't sleep. I was reading The Odyseey instead." Bellamy shrugged. At that, Mr. Peters eyes lit up.
"Oh. You're a fan of the classics huh? It's a lovely piece of literature, isn't it?" He asked, happy to have someone to discuss his interests with.
"Yeah. I've read it before in the Ark. But this was in good condition." Bellamy said appreciatively.
"It's one of those items I treasure. I've had it in my family for generations." Mr. Peters replied wistfully.
Bellamy didn't know what to say, so he remained quiet. Mrs. Peters placed the bread loaf in the table with stew. Bellamy poured some onto his bowl and took a piece of bread to start eating. They all ate in silence.
"How was it to live in space?" Mr. Peters asked, once dinner was over.
Bellamy took a moment to respond. "Restricted. With limited resources, we had a lot of problems. They had to allocate the resources to the privileged, leaving the commoners with little to scrape by." He explained.
"That must be a difficult life. I heard from other survivors that you kids were prisoners, sentenced to be executed? That's why you were sent first, because your life was supposed to end anyway. Is that true?" Mr. Peters enquired. He has been talking to other survivors who have been with them.
"In a way." Bellamy said vaguely. Looking at Mr. Peters and the concern he had, Bellamy felt the need to explain more. "The Ark had strict rules that everyone is supposed to follow. Even minor infractions is punishable by death. We have someone who was punished for stealing. Another for taking water more than they were allocated. We have some who were caught stealing some herb for recreational use. Another was thrown in for stealing medicine to survive." He listed out some of the crimes that the delinquents committed. "And then there's the innocents." He said at the end.
"Innocents?" Mr. Peters asked, not understanding.
"Some of them were in there without committing a crime. My sister was in prison because she was a second child." He said, feeling the anger in him still burning.
"That's a crime?" Mrs. Peters asked, astonished. Bellamy nodded in response.
"Ark had a law that a family can only have one child. My mother broke that rule by having a second. She and I hid my sister in our room most of her life. But I made a mistake and let her out once. She got caught and they found out the truth. They floated my mother and threw my sister in prison." He replied, guilt of his actions still plaguing him.
"That's horrible!" Mrs. Peters exclaimed. Mr. Peters remained silent, listening to Bellamy.
"I came with my sister to protect her. She's the only family I have left." Bellamy explained.
"You must love her very much." Mr. Peters said, understanding the emotions behind Bellamy's voice.
"That I do." He confirmed.
"What about Clarke? Your doctor has mentioned her a few times. But she didn't tell why her daughter was sent with the prisoners." Mr. Peters asked. He didn't feel comfortable to ask Abby or others that question. The survivors who did speak about it, said she was a traitor. But based on Bellamy's description, there's different sides to the justice enforced.
Bellamy chuckled at that. "Abby won't say anything about that. She's the reason her daughter was thrown in prison. Abby's husband Jake found out that the Ark won't survive and wanted to tell that to the public. Abby revealed that to Chancellor Jaha who floated Jake and threw Clarke into the prison to keep her from talking." He revealed the truth. He didn't see the need to hide it from the people who has given him shelter.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Peters looked shocked at hearing that. They didn't have a child themselves. But they couldn't imagine betraying someone they loved in any way.
Looking at their faces, Bellamy continued. "Yeah. We have done some horrific acts in the name of survival, just like your people. We aren't that different from one another."
Mr. Peters nodded solemnly. "We couldn't live with it anymore. That's why when Vincent told us about what was happening to you, we decided to join and help." He explained.
"Thank you for that. You and Maya and Vincent have shown me that not everyone in the mountain is evil and bad. Just like the people in the grounders are not all bloodthirsty killers." Bellamy told him. He is finding more and more people who are innocents caught in the middle of the war perpetrated by some.
Someone knocked on the door to the apartment, cutting off their chat in the middle. Mrs. Peters pulled Bellamy into his room and closed it behind her while Vincent went to open the door.
Bellamy could hear muffled voices from outside the door. He waited until the door was opened. Mrs. Peters stood outside, letting him back out to the hall.
When he exited his room, he saw Maya and Vincent sitting in the sofa. They looked sombre, avoiding eye contact with Bellamy. He had a bad feeling in his gut that something was wrong.
"What happened?" He asked, nervous to hear the answer to his question.
Before anyone spoke, a loud announcement came through the speakers all around the mountain complex.
"Attention. This is President Wallace speaking. There has been a security breach. Someone has broken the trust we have placed in them and tried to open the vents to the outside. We have apprehended the guilty party before they succeeded. To prevent any further acts like this, we are enforcing martial law until we are confident that there's no one else involved. Please follow the rules and regulations."
Everyone stayed silent in the room.
"What happened?" Bellamy asked once again.
"Kane got captured." Maya told him. Bellamy's eyes went wide. "He was in the security office to unlock the doors and disable the cameras. He didn't escape in time and the guards caught him." Vincent informed him from what he was able to find out.
"We need to rescue him." Bellamy said, desperate to help the person who got caught because of him.
"He's under guard now. Any attempt to rescue him will only get ourselves captured." Vincent replied, thinking logically at the plan. Bellamy knew it was true.
"Besides, our first priority was to rescue you. Kane is too higher up in your council to be in danger like you were. Your Chancellor will probably approach this more diplomatically." Vincent said, trying to appease Bellamy's worry.
"We need to get you to the radio to talk to your camp." Maya pointed out.
That's when Bellamy realized he hadn't asked about the transmission yesterday.
"Did you talk to them?" He asked Maya, ashamed to have forgotten to ask about it.
"Yes." She said, excited. "I spoke to Jasper and then Clarke." She was beaming at being successful in her mission from yesterday.
"Are they ok? How is Octavia?" He asked in a hurry.
"They're fine. They said they were under the protection of the outsiders. Clarke and Kane talked and realized what was happening in both sides. I told them that you were alive." She paused for Bellamy to comprehend it.
Bellamy looked surprised. He thought his secret message should have revealed to Clarke that he was the one sending it.
"Didn't she get the first transmission?" He asked, confused.
"She did. She thought it was Finn who sent the message." Maya said, apologetically.
Bellamy growled. 'Bloody Finn. As if he would have the balls to do it', he fumed to himself.
"What did she say?" He asked Maya instead.
"She said that she and Octavia are fine. Someone called Lincoln and Indra are looking after Octavia. She asked Kane to help rescue you." Maya told him.
Now Bellamy understood why Kane suddenly took action out of the blue. Clarke had asked him to.
"What did Kane do?" He asked Maya, knowing she's the only one who knew what happened.
"After the call, Kane said he will try to get into the security offices. This morning at breakfast, I helped him find a security guard who will have access to the office and Kane managed to steal his card. He went to the security office at lunch time when there's less people around. He told me to be ready at your door when he unlocked it. Once he did, I came and got you out." Maya explained.
'That explains why Maya wasn't there in the morning', Bellamy thought to himself.
"What should we do next?" Bellamy asked Maya and Vincent. They seem to be the ones with the plan.
"Let's wait till tomorrow. Right now, everyone is tensed and looking for someone to blame. By morning, things may slow down and we can plan then on what we should do." Vincent suggested. It sounded like a good plan to Bellamy.
"Ok. I'll see you in the morning then." Bellamy said. Vincent and Maya stood up, getting ready to leave. Bellamy stepped back, giving everyone some privacy as he went back to his room. He had a lot to process. Not to mention the guilt he was feeling for Kane getting captured.
- 100 -
Abby was rushing to Chancellor Jaha when she heard the announcement. She wanted to find out what happened. President Wallace has been communicating with the Chancellor regularly, and she wanted to know if he was informed more than what was told over the speakers.
She was stopped by the guards on her way, informing her about martial law. She told them that she had to go meet the council, at which point they let her go.
When she got to the meeting room, she found others already present. She sat in the chair next to the Chancellor and noticed that Markus Kane was not present.
"Where's Kane?" She asked Jaha. He shrugged, not knowing the answer to the question.
"We were asked to assemble here on the request of the President. We're waiting for him to come." Jaha informed her instead.
They all waited in silence for the President's arrival.
He came in soon enough, followed by guards.
"What's the meaning of this?" Chancellor Jaha demanded, when he saw the guards.
"For my safety. We are under martial law now." Dante answered in response. He took a seat at the edge of the table.
"I have to inform you about one of your council members." Dante said to everyone in the table. He looked at them to see if he had their attention.
"Markus Kane has been arrested on the charge of treason." He informed the council. A collective gasp went around the table.
"What's the reason?" Chancellor Jaha demanded.
"He was found in one of the security offices with a key card he didn't have the rights to own." Dante explained.
"Why would he be there? What was he trying to do?" Chancellor Jaha asked, confused at why Kane would be in the security room.
"He was trying to unlock the doors of the Outsiders' prisons." President Dante told Jaha. Understanding dawned on Jaha and Abby's faces.
They knew that Kane was having problems with the treatment of grounders by the mountain people. He has made his objections clear. Chancellor Jaha has been regularly visited with arguments by Kane of reasons why they should intervene. Abby has been avoiding him, because she hasn't been able to justify it to his satisfaction. But neither believed he would act on his own.
"It's out of his character to behave in such way." Chancellor Jaha commented, less hostile now.
"We've had protestors here as well. It doesn't sit well with everyone on the means we survive. It's difficult for me too. But I burden it so the others don't have to." Dante explained.
"What's going to happen to Kane now?" Abby asked, concerned about her friend.
"We are holding him in a room for now. No outside contact. Once we are satisfied that he's not a danger to us or others, we will release him to your control." President Wallace informed them of his decision.
"He deserves a representative. A lawyer." One of the council men argued.
"We don't have a legal system like that here. And Kane's guilt is proven beyond doubt. We need to ensure that he won't be a danger to us. Otherwise, he'll have to be sent out. I'm sure you don't want him in the hands of the outsiders you call as grounders." Dante answered. There was no objection from anyone to that.
"Good. Now that it's settled, please obey the rules of the martial law. Stay to your quarters, only come out when it is absolutely necessary. Will you be continuing your duties, Abby?" He asked Abby directly.
Abby had no reason to stop. Solving the problem with their radiation sickness would be the solution for them to get to the surface. It would let them get away from their need for the grounders to be kept prisoners.
She nodded her head in confirmation. President Wallace tipped his head in appreciation.
" will come and get you every day at your quarters." Dante told Abby of the new rules.
"You can have your daily meetings and you can assemble with your people in the commons area during lunch time. You will be given all the courtesy you have been receiving until now. But you can't roam around any secure areas anymore. All restrictions applied to our people will apply to yours as well." He informed every one of the new rules under the martial law.