Bellamy

I frowned when I found her—our—room empty. All of the Azgeda citizens were long situated. Roan must have given her another job.

I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that something was wrong as I headed to find the king. It was unlike her to take a night job and not have someone tell me so I wouldn't worry. I mean, we've only been together a short time, but she was an efficient girl and thinks of every scenario, so she wouldn't leave me in the dark.

She's fine, I told myself. Today was a crazy day for everyone, she forgot to let me know. She has to be okay.

"Roan!" I spotted the king up ahead, deep in conversation with my sister, Indra and Kane. I picked up my pace.

Their conversation halted and they turned to me, frowning at my very apparent distress.

"Is Echo giving you a hard time?" Roan asked in slight amusement.

"That depends. Where is she?" I asked earnestly.

It was Roan's turn to frown. "She isn't in her quarters? I set her free from duty hour ago. She said she was going to wait for you in her quarters."

Panic rose in my chest. "She isn't there, it doesn't look like she's been there since this morning…"

Roan growled. "Is any of her belongings missing? Or is there any chance of her being with her parents?"

"Her bow and arrows were against the wall and her coat on the bed where she left it this morning. Is there any chance she'd go to her parents at a time like this without leaving a note or telling anyone?"

Roan swore. "It's worth a shot. Let's go look."

Echo

The first thing I heard when I woke up was footsteps and a man's voice muttering in the background. The first thing I was aware of was that I was captive. As royal guard and a spy, I knew well enough to pretend I was still out cold. I kept my breathing even and stayed still.

I was lying on the ground, stone and cold and slightly damp, all of that telling me I wasn't in the bunker.

My hands and feet were bound with sloppily knotted ropes, ropes that were burning into the skin.

I was blindfolded, the feeling of sweaty leather rubbing over my eyes.

And a scratchy fabric was in my mouth, pinches the corners, leaving my mouth slightly open and dry.

And then came the realization that I felt the cold ground because I was only in underwear and my thin tank top. Which told me one thing: I was not in the bunker, if I was in the bunker they wouldn't need my clothes or weapons.

Every cell in my body screamed at me to fight. But I knew it was pointless. If I fought now, bound and blindfolded, then my fate would be sealed. I had to bride my time. And I hoped, oh how I hoped, that Bellamy would rescue me.

But one thing I learned from Nia was that when it counted, the only person I could truly rely on was myself. And that's one of the few things that Nia said that was true.

Bellamy

Roan and I searched the bunker, every inch of it. We spent—no, we wasted, several hours searching.

The cold, gut-wrenching realization came upon me: she wasn't here.

"She wouldn't have taken off, not this close to Praimfaya," I said, maybe to myself, maybe to Roan, maybe to nobody.

"No, she wouldn't," Roan agreed.

Octavia sighed from beside us. "That means, what? She was taken? Someone abducted her from the bunker?"

I shook my head wearily. Roan looked just as confused and devastated as me. "Who would do that to her?"

Ilian spoke up for the first time of the day. I almost forgot he was with us. "Maybe…maybe it wasn't to hurt her. Stop thinking about our enemies and think about yours, Bellamy. Is there anyone you pissed off recently that would hurt or kill her to hurt you?"

I felt dizzy at the word kill. No, she was fine. She had to be.

"I don't…"

"Bell, think!" Octavia snapped anxiously. "Who would want to hurt either of you?"

I tried to think. Every thought kept going back to one moment. Just one. Richards, with the look of pure hatred to me and Echo. Richards, with his comments about Echo. Richards, with my hands around his throat. Richards, with his eyes hungry for revenge.

"I did this…it's my fault…he did this to her…"

"Who?" Roan grabbed my shoulders, shaking me roughly. "Who has her?"

"Richards."

Echo

It was just the one. I could tell it was a man from the way he picked me up and held me uncaringly, carrying me to an unknown destination, tossing me on the hard wooden floor. A woman wasn't strong enough to carry me or throw me like that.

The impact of hitting the floor caused me to cough and gasp as the wind was knocked out of my lungs.

"Rise and shine, bitch." I felt a toe hit my side harshly before the gag and blindfold was ripped away.

I knew him. He was the man who had threatened my people, the man Bellamy tried to kill. This was his revenge. He pulled me up in a sitting positon, slamming my back and my bound hands into the wall. I felt and heard the crush of my hands smashed between my back and the wall. I refused to scream in pain, to satisfy him. His face turned red, unhappy with my quietness.

"Bellamy loves you, doesn't he?" he asked, squatting in front of me, awkwardly due to the suit he was wearing.

When I didn't respond, his fist connected with my face. I blinked, trying to rid the pain from my left eye.

"Answer me. He loves you, doesn't he?"

It took three more punches and a kick to my stomach for me to finally respond. "Yes," I whispered through a mouth full of blood.

"I don't particularly like you, but I didn't want to kill you. But him? Your death, it will destroy him. And with just over a day until the death wave, he wouldn't dare come out here." He reached out, brushing a damp strand of hair off my forehead. "You aren't feeling well, are you? The death wave is close, you're feeling to affects. You're pale, hot, sweaty. Soon, your skin will start blistering. You'll vomit. When the death wave arrives, your skin will melt off your body and your bones will incinerate. There will be no evidence that you ever existed. And that, that will kill Bellamy."

I started shaking when he described the death I was facing. But the panic in my chest, it wasn't because I was going to die. It was that Bellamy would have to live with that for years, he'd never get to say goodbye, and wouldn't get closure. Could he live with that? Would he live with that? Was Octavia be enough to keep him alive?

He kicked me, hard, in the stomach, leaving me doubled over and choking on my own blood. He gave me one last, cruel smile before walking away. "I'd normally say 'may we meet again,' but I know we won't."

And then he was gone.

Bellamy

"Bellamy, you can't go out there? The death wave is too close!" Kane argued. "You'll never find her and you'll both die!"

"I won't let her die, Kane. And if she does, well, I don't want to be alive without her!"

I broke my sister's heart, I know I did. But she understands, she does. Echo is to me what Lincoln was to her. I had other girls before. Gina was my Ilian, she just came first. Echo, she's the love of my life. The center of my universe, after O of course.

"Take me with you, Bell," she pleaded. "I know this city better than you. And I know that creep as well."

After a long moment of silence, I nodded. If I was going to die today, it would be by my sister's side.

"Suit up, O."

We'd been out searching for hours with no luck. We were hot and tired and most of all frustrated. "She has to be somewhere! We have to find her!"

Octavia sighed beside me. "Bell?" her voice shook with tears. "Bell, we have to head back."

I turned to her. "What?"

"Bell…I'm pregnant. If I die…the baby dies. It's Lincoln's baby, Bell. It's Lincoln's."

I froze. Octavia…pregnant? "It's Lincoln's?"

She nodded, a single tear training down her cheek. "It's the only thing left of him. And he or she needs their uncle."

"O…if we go back, then she dies. And I'll never know what happened to her, and I won't have anything left of hers besides her clothes, which with time will lose their scent and meaning and all they'll be is rags that once belonged to someone I once knew. Someone I loved. Someone who would in time fade into a distant memory of a time on the ground. If you could have saved Lincoln…would you have? If you could have died trying to save him, would you?"

She didn't say anything, but I knew. She cares for Ilian, she might even love him, but she'll always love Lincoln more, she'll always long for him. For one last kiss, one last touch, one last goodbye. She didn't have it in her to deny me of that.

"Bell…look," she pointed over my shoulder. I turned to see Richards heading our way. All I saw was red.

I ran over to him, knocking him to the ground. I barely heard Octavia's scream. "Where is she, you bastard? What did you do to her!"

He just laughed, a cold and heartless laugh that sent shills down my spine. "You'll never find the girl in time, if she's even still alive. She has no suit and no doctor."

No suit…no doctor.

"What did you do? Where is she? Tell me!"

He laughed again. I wanted to hit him, to hurt him, to make him bring me to her. But I was paralyzed to the spot. Octavia wasn't. She pushed me out of the way and ripped his helmet off. He gasped as the radioactive air hit his lungs.

"Where is Echo?" she demanded. She pulled out a knife, solely cutting his throat, pushing it deeper by the second. "Tell us now or I swear I'll remove your clothes and nail you into the wall where Praimfaya will claim your life, and you'll watch it happen until you're nothing but a pile of dust!"

Richards sobbed, "The old barn! She's in the loft of the old barn!"

She decapitated him quickly, watching his blood spill, spreading over the stone ground. She removed his hazmat suit, picking it up in her arms along with the helmet.

"Let's go save your girl."

We reached the barn in minutes, climbing the ladder so fast we both nearly fell. I looked around, sighing in both relief and distress when I saw her lifeless body.

"Echo!"

I ran over to her, Octavia on my heels. "Echo!"

Octavia quickly cut the binds on her wrists and ankles. She wasn't looking good. She was pale, too pale, and feverish. Her left eye was swollen, her bottom lip split, both her hands and wrists raw and bloody from fighting the binds.

"She breathing," Octavia announced. "Barely, but she is. She's strong, Bell." I helped get the suit on her, attaching the helmet. I scooped her up in my arms, holding her close to my chest. "Let's get her home."

We hurried, keeping a fast paced to get back to the bunker, cutting the forty minute walk in half. We were careful not the slip on Richard's blood as we passed his remains. He would never hurt anyone again.

We arrived at the bunker, nodding quickly at the soldiers guarding the entrance and hurrying inside.

Roan and Ilian met us inside. "Echo!" Roan reached for her and my tired arms handed her over. We ran to medical, not even bothering to remove our hazmat suits at the door where they belonged.

"Abby!" Octavia shouted. Abby met us outside medical.

Everything was in slow motion. Abby was yelling but I couldn't hear a word she said. Echo was placed on a bed, her suit removed. An oxygen mask was placed on her face, a needle pushed under her skin to pump fluids and medication into her veins.

Fifty-four seconds. That's how long it took her to flatline.

Love is a funny thing. It make you happy, it fills your heart and soul. But it also has the ability to destroy every fiver of your being in mere seconds.