Chapter Ten: It Never Ends

That evening, Elyza realized how incredibly nervous she was. It took them nearly twenty minutes to find the mess hall even after asking someone for direction. When they arrived, it felt like high school all over again. It oddly reminded Elyza of being the new kid. She didn't know where she was allowed to sit, but the sting of loneliness was lessened by having Octavia standing next to her in line.

The food wasn't the most appetizing, but there was a limited supply so Elyza didn't really feel like she had the right to complain. It was delicious though, especially since she didn't know if she would be going without food any time soon. There was a chance something could go wrong and she'd be fighting for her life again.

Octavia drew her out of her thoughts as they took a seat at a secluded round table, "So what did you do after you left?" Clearly she was trying to be as non-judgmental as possible by making her voice sound light and conversational. But it was obvious that she wanted to know why Elyza had abandoned them so quickly.

Elyza didn't think it would be a good idea to tell her that she'd been drinking her sorrows away, so she went with a much less depressing story. "I was on my way to Santa Monica and holed up in a storage unit one night when I heard some noises and went to investigate. I got into some trouble with an infected and some of these guys saved me. Then I woke up here."

Octavia nodded, but didn't comment on her story—which Elyza was grateful for—and instead decided to shovel food into her mouth. Bellamy, Finn and Aurora followed soon after, sitting down across from the two girls. There wasn't much discussion as the five took in their surroundings—their new home.

Almost every sailor was in the mess hall, and there wasn't many. A maximum of sixty people surrounded them, all talking to each other while others ate in silence. There wasn't as much light and cheer as one would think, maybe because the weight of the current world situation was too serious to make jokes at.

Elyza could understand that, it took a while to wrap your mind around a situation you'd only watched in movies or read about in books. People getting sick, dying and then coming back capable of getting other people sick through biting. This is a TV show everyone loves, but nobody wants to be a character in, Elyza mused silently.

After a while, Elyza noticed that Harper had entered the mess hall with two guys following behind her. The two girls made brief eye contact before Harper stepped away to get food, which gave Elyza the chance to see who her two friends were.

One was a tall, lanky man—no, boy—with shaggy brown hair and heavy fatigues hanging off of his body. His eyes were large and kind of bulged out of his head, he had a not so attractive five o'clock shadow on hollow cheeks. He was angular and continued to hop on the balls of his feet, clearly jittery for some unknown reasons. Elyza thought he looked like the type of guy to be doing something illegal and being unable to get away with it.

The other boy—that was the only way she could describe the two—was much shorter with dark black hair the swooped into his eyes. His eyes were dark and he continued to look down at the ground, standing close to the taller boy. His shoulders were held back with a ridge confidence though, even if he was acting meek. Elyza had a feeling that the sweet, innocent look of his was more of a cover that people underestimated.

"What are you looking at, Aussie?" Finn leaned over and touched her arm. She jumped away and returned her attention to the people before her.

"Hmm?" she asked, before processing what he said, "Oh, nothing. I'm just watching everyone."

Finn's eyebrows came together, "That's kind of creepy."

"No its not," Bellamy added, "It's good to sit back and watch and listen instead of talking all of the time, Collins. You can learn a lot about people from body language."

Octavia rolled her eyes, "Alright, Mr. Philosophy. He was just trying to lighten the damn mood. Relax."

The group fell in to silence again, silently eating their food. Elyza shoveled the gruel into her mouth mechanically, she didn't taste anything. Her mind continued to run a mile a minute.

Nobody seemed at all interested in befriending the new crew members, so the five managed to slip away together once they had all finished eating. Elyza didn't know how to describe her relationship with the rest. They had all known each other beforehand and saved Elyza, who just so happened to be there. She didn't know if they trusted her—they probably didn't, but this epidemic was something that forced people to make decisions they weren't sure were the best. She didn't know if she trusted them either, but she really didn't have any choice but they hadn't done anything for her to doubt them. She had no control over her fate anymore.

They returned back to their secluded living space and—still, nobody spoke. Elyza tried to think of a way to get away from them so she could go back and see Harper. Finn slid up onto the upper bunk and flashed Elyza a tight lipped smile, "I'm going to bed." He wasn't his usual, lighthearted self.

Elyza only sent a single nod his way before glancing back at Bellamy who was sitting on the edge of his bed. Octavia had already silently rolled over and covered herself protectively with her blanket. Aurora kissed Bellamy on the forehead and smiled softly at him, murmuring something Elyza couldn't hear. She quickly settled down on her bed and curled up into a similar position as Octavia.

I can wait until everyone's asleep and then sneak out, she thought, and I'll act like I'm going to shower so I'm not suspected. She didn't exactly know why she was keeping this from the rest of the group, but felt like it was needed. They wanted to feel safe and so telling them that there was a possible outbreak on another ship would seriously endanger that feeling. So she kept her mouth shut and swore to deal with this on her own, with Harper's assistance.

Bellamy still sat there, the light embedded into the wall between his bunk and his mother's still on. Elyza turned off her own and sat down, but didn't take her eyes off of Bellamy. His shoulders were slouched and he ran a hand through his frizzy curls.

Elyza continued to watch, curling her legs up underneath herself and attempting to get comfortable on the creaky bed. Bellamy was stressed out—she could tell. She hadn't really thought about it before, but he probably felt like it was his responsibility to keep his family alive; his sister and mother. He's 'the man of the house', Elyza thought. He probably had this impression that the responsibility rested on his shoulders and his alone.

Elyza herself didn't know how she would feel if she had her mother or the Jahas with her. Would she feel the weight of that same responsibility? She didn't think so, her mother always wanted to take care of her. Everyone always wanted to take care of her, because they thought she wasn't capable of doing it herself.

Well, except her father. He had always known that she was capable of great things. Jake would always encourage her to do her very best. He pushed her, sometimes when she didn't want to be pushed—which caused arguments—but he always seemed to know that she could do things that she wasn't even sure of herself.

Bellamy caught her eyes as he stretched his back and yanked off his jacket and t-shirt to reveal a white tank top underneath. She didn't say anything, only held eye contact for a moment before he broke it and turned off the light and the room was flooded with darkness. The blonde wasn't able to catch a glimpse of whatever emotions flashed across the boy's face, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

She rolled onto her side, her hand subconsciously finding the cold, smooth metal of the kaleidoscope colored pocket knife. She ran her thumb over it, tracing the engraving of her initials before shutting her eyes and pretending to find sleep.

It was nearly an hour later when she reopened her eyes and sat up, pulling the knife from under her pillow and shoving it into her pocket next to Harper's note. She grabbed a pair of pants from the drawer next to her and carefully pulled herself out of bed, trying to avoid as much creaking as possible.

Elyza straightened her body and glanced at Finn, whose back was to her. He was breathing steadily and she heard small snores escaping his lips. She held her breath, straining her ears as she listened for any irregular noises. Nothing moved. Everything was silence except for the noises of the ship.

She clutched the clothing close to her chest and slowly walked towards the door. The hallway was well lit and the light flooded through a vertical rectangular window, casting a yellow glow over the sleeping forms in the room. Taking a deep breath, Elyza turned the handle and pulled it open slowly. Not wanting to risk making noise, she slipped through when the crack was wide enough and clicked the door shut once again behind her.

Nearly blinded, she waited a second, leaning against the wall for her eyes to adjust to the new brightness. She rubbed the drowsiness from her face and glanced around. Where would Harper be? She thought.

The girl knew that Elyza wouldn't know how to get around the ship and she also didn't know where the other blonde's room was. She would have found a hidden place nearby and would be waiting for Elyza to find her.

Deciding that wandering towards the mess hall would be her best bet, Elyza headed in that direction. It was a few minutes later, after she'd probably missed a turn or ended up turning the wrong way that a door slammed and a hand grabbed her arm, yanking her into a side room. A strangled cry of surprise escaped before she could muffle it and a hand was over her mouth.

The person holding her smelled like vodka and dirty laundry and their hand felt rough against her face. "It's just us, Elyza. Don't worry." Harper stepped into her line of vision and the hand slowly left her mouth.

Elyza shook the person off of her, shoving him away hard. "You didn't have to fucking jump me." The tall, lanky boy from earlier had been the one to grab her.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to scare you."

Huffing, Elyza straightened her clothes. "You didn't scare me…you just caught me by surprise. There's a difference."

The short, Asian guy stepped forward and held out a handheld radio, "There really isn't a difference. But anyway, that's not the point of this meeting." He turned away once Elyza had a firm grasp on the radio. He began speaking quickly, forcing Elyza's tired brain working hard to keep up. "That radio is so we can keep in touch with each other from the Freedom. Harper will have the other. If you need to get in touch with her use the signal button on channel 7, there isn't anyone using that one at this time."

He began pacing back and forth, running fingers through his hair. Honestly, Elyza hadn't expected so many words to come out of him. He seemed like one of those quite types that didn't say much, but when he did, you really should pay attention. So that was what she did.

After taking a breath, he stopped pacing and continued talking, "Jasper, Harper and I are going to be boarding the Freedom tomorrow morning at 0600 hours. Which is six o'clock." He paused and glanced at Elyza, as if to say if you're even getting this.

"I know what 0600 hours means." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms with irritation.

Harper rested a hand on the Asian's arm, "Alright, Monty. I think I can take it from here. I think your nerves are getting the best of you."

"Yeah, Green. Calm down, it's not like we're totally going against orders or anything to help some Australian chick we don't even know." Jasper quipped from his relaxed position against the wall. He seemed less jittery than when he'd been in the mess hall.

Harper crossed her arms and shot the shaggy guy an annoyed look, "Shut up, Jasper. You weren't there and you haven't been on shore. You have no idea what the hell is going on out there. It's nothing good."

Jasper kicked off the wall and glared, his back straightening with tension, "I don't know what's going on on shore?" He was nearly shouting. The venom and anger and underlying hurt in his voice made Elyza jump. "I was having a good old conversation with my girlfriend on the phone after nearly a month and told her everything was fine. Next thing I know she's screaming and crying and shouting for my help. I listened helplessly while she was devoured by one of those infect." He snapped bitterly. "So I know what the hell is going on. I've just stopped giving a shit."

The dark room fell silent and Elyza played with the button on the pants in her arms awkwardly. What the hell do you say to that? I'm sorry, just didn't seem to cut it. She was painfully reminded of her mother in that moment, but forced herself to push it down. They needed to stay focused on the task at hand.

She stepped forward, "Alright, you get what's going on. This infection spreads quickly. Harper and I ran into a dead infected yesterday aboard the Freedom after it had already bitten another guy whom we then killed ourselves to prevent further spreading. But, from what I've noticed and heard this disease is seriously contagious and it's aboard a ship in the middle of the ocean. We need you guys to figure out if anyone else is getting sick and find a way to get rid of those who are quietly so we don't scare the rest of the sailors. Can you do that?"

After a moment of silence Monty cleared his throat and nodded, "I can easily hack into the doctor's system and scan through. Then I can isolate who is sick and who isn't. But if there are a lot of sick people, I don't know how we'll get rid of them quietly."

"We could just blow the ship. It might be the better plan," Jasper piped up.

Elyza shook her head, "We try to save as many people as possible first. That's the back up."

Jasper huffed a sigh of annoyance, "Fine. I can get Reyes to come up with something that we can take with us if we have to blow it."

"Who's Reyes?" Elyza wasn't sure that she liked so many people knowing about what was going on.

"Raven is an engineer in the engine room," Harper supplied, "She has an explosion obsession."

"That sounds dangerous."

"Yeah, well, this whole situation is dangerous. We live in a dangerous world now," Monty said.

The four fell silent. Jasper had settled himself back against the wall and had his eyes closed while Harper and Monty stood shoulder to shoulder. Elyza was still stuck near the door, tense and glancing between the three strangers.

"Can we go to bed? Its late and we have to be up early," Jasper complained.

Harper nodded, "Yeah, we can." She then turned her attention back to Elyza. "Remember what Monty said about the radio. Keep it hidden. We'll check in every day before dinner over here. If anything happens that you need to know about we'll send two long signals, okay?"

Elyza nodded, "Got it. Be safe, alright?" She wished she could offer more. She wished she could help because she didn't feel like trusting any more people. They were all stuck in a tin death trap if that disease caught them. There was no telling if anyone would be able to escape and Elyza didn't want to risk it.

Both Monty and Harper nodded, Jasper seemed to have fallen asleep against the wall. Elyza finally turned and opened the door, stepping back into the yellow light of the corridor. Her heart was beating faster than normal and she was scared for the three young sailors. They didn't seem to be older than herself and it was beginning to worry her. Could they really do this?

She didn't like relying upon other people, but she didn't really have a choice with the current situation. Being independent and taking care of things on her own was what she was used to doing and giving up that control made her feel anxious. Part of this anxiety was the possibility that her life and the life of her friends were in the hands of three strangers.

With a deep breath, Elyza pulled herself away from the wall and ran a hand through her hair. Harper exited the room and looked at her appraisingly, "I thought you could use an escort back."

Nodding, Elyza said, "Definitely."

Harper guided Elyza through the twists and turns of the Pearl Harbor before they returned to a familiar corridor. At the very end, Harper stepped to the side. "We're here."

Elyza stepped forward and squeezed Harper's arm with her empty hand. "Seriously, be safe…" she hesitated for a second before adding, "and don't hesitate to shoot next time." She didn't wait to hear a reply before sneaking back into the barracks.

Walking on her tiptoes to her bed, Elyza slid open the drawer next to her bunk and slipped the radio in, covering it with the pants. She closed it again as softly has possible before settling back down on the thin, creaky bed. She laid back and tried to relax, but her nerves from the late night meeting and the impending mission for the three sailors kept her mind racing. It took nearly another hour before she was able to calm her thoughts and fall asleep.

A/N: Hello, all! Here's another chapter. We're about to get into some serious stuff. If you would like to help me determine where this story is going (I have two different plots I've been mulling over) please PM me. I will pick two people to discuss with what I have planned for the story. I promise, not very much will be given away, I just want to know what my readers think!

Comment how you think Alicia should come in! She'll be here within the next two chapters, I promise! Just bear with me for a liiiittle bit longer!

PS I hope you like the early-ish update.