Day 21

CHAPTER 25 Bellamy

The stairs led down to an enormous metal door embedded in a rock wall. It had a huge, impenetrable-looking circular lock, but the door itself was ajar.

“Sort of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?” Bellamy pointed to the gap between the heavy door and the rock.

“Not really,” Clarke said, slipping past him for a better look. “Until recently, they were the only human beings on the entire planet. There was no one to keep out.”

“Can you see anything?” he asked, trying his best to keep the concern out of his voice. He’d been hoping to catch the Earthborns who’d taken Octavia out in the open. Desperate as he was to find his sister, even Bellamy knew better than to waltz right into an enemy compound in the middle of the night. But once Clarke got an idea in her head, there was no stopping her, and he had no intention of letting her go at it alone.

“Not yet.” She spun around, and her face softened as she saw the worried look in his eyes. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “For doing this. For being here with me.”

Bellamy just nodded.

“Are you okay?” Clarke asked.

“It’s just Jim Dandy.”

Clarke reached over and squeezed his hand. “Aren’t you excited? You’re finally going to meet people who understand your weird, old-man Earth slang.”

He managed a smile, but when he spoke, his voice was serious. “So, do you think they’re expecting us?”

“No, not expecting us, exactly. But Sasha said they’d be happy to help us.”

Bellamy nodded, hiding his fear. He knew that if something bad happened to Clarke and himself tonight, they’d never be seen again.

“Let’s do it, then.”

Clarke pulled open the door, flinching as the creak of rusty hinges rang out through the silent night air. Then she slipped in between the gap and motioned for Bellamy to follow.

It was dark inside, but not pitch-black. There was a strange ambient light, but Bellamy couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

Clarke took Bellamy’s hand, and they crept along what seemed to be a tunnel through the rock. After a few steps, the ground began to slope down sharply, and they had to slow their pace to keep from losing their balance and tumbling to the bottom. The air was much cooler here than it’d been outside, and it smelled different as well—damp and mineral, instead of woodsy and crisp.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and keep his steps slow. The weeks he’d spent hunting had changed the way he moved, his feet seeming to float soundlessly above the ground. Clarke seemed to do it naturally.

But then she stumbled, gasping, and he pulled her close to his chest. “Are you okay?” Bellamy’s heart was pounding so fast, it seemed like it was trying to betray him to the Earthborns.

“I’m fine,” Clarke whispered, but she didn’t let go of him yet. “It’s just… it drops off here.” The stone floor had given way to steep metal stairs.

They made their way down slowly, following the stairs as they twisted sharply downward. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but it seemed like they were spiraling into an enormous cavern. The walls were damp and made of stone, and the farther they went, the colder the air became.

As they descended the stairs, Bellamy thought about what Clarke had told him about Mount Weather. He tried to imagine what it would’ve been like, running blindly for the safety of an underground bunker, saying good-bye to the sun and sky and the world you knew as you hurried into the darkness. What had gone through the minds of the first people who clambered down these steps? Were they overcome with relief at their good fortune, or sorrow for all those they’d left behind?

“Do they have to go up and down these stairs every time they leave?” Clarke whispered.

“There might be another entrance,” Bellamy said. “Otherwise, why haven’t we seen anyone yet?” As they reached the bottom, Clarke and Bellamy fell silent, the lonely echo of their footsteps far more eloquent than any chatter.

The stairs ended in a vast, empty space that seemed more like a cave than somewhere humans could’ve lived for centuries. Bellamy froze and grabbed Clarke’s arm as an echo bounced through the darkness. “What was that?” he whispered, jerking his head from side to side. “Is someone coming?”

Clarke gently shook his hand off and took a step forward. “No…” Her voice contained more wonder than fear. “It’s water. Look at the stalactites,” she said, pointing at the craggy rocks above them. “The condensation collects on the rock and then drips down into some kind of reservoir. I guess that’s where they got their drinking water during the nuclear winter.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Bellamy said, grabbing hold of her hand. He pulled Clarke through an opening in the rock and into a hallway with dull metallic walls, similar to the old corridors on Walden. Long strips of lights ran along the ceiling, wires spilling out from cracks in the plastic cover.

“Bellamy,” Clarke said breathlessly. “Look.”

There was a plastic case on the wall, similar to the locked boxes on the Colony that housed control panels. But instead of a screen or buttons, there was a sign. At the very top was an eagle inside a circle, holding a plant in one claw and a bunch of arrows in the other. The words ORDER OF SUCCESSION ran above it in two columns. The column on the left contained a long list of titles: President of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Speaker of the House, and so on.

Next to each title were the words SECURE, MISSING… and DEAD.

Someone had circled the word dead in black ink for the first six titles. Secretary of the Interior had been marked as SECURE at first, but then someone had crossed that out and circled DEAD in blue ink.

“You think someone might’ve taken this down by now,” Bellamy said, tracing a finger across the plastic case.

Clarke turned to him. “Would you have taken this down?” she asked quietly.

Bellamy shook his head with a sigh. “No. I wouldn’t have.”

They continued down the hall in silence until they reached an intersection. There was another large sign, except that this one had no plastic cover.

→ HOSPITAL

← SEWAGE TREATMENT

← COMMUNICATIONS

→ CABINET ROOM

→ GENERATORS

→ CREMATORIUM

“Crematorium?” Bellamy read aloud, suppressing a shudder.

“I guess it makes sense. You can’t float people on Earth, and you certainly can’t bury them in solid rock.”

“But where do they live?” Bellamy asked. “How come we haven’t seen anyone yet?”

“Maybe they’re all sleeping?”

“Where? The crematorium?”

“Let’s keep moving,” Clarke said, ignoring his quip.

To the right, a red light began flashing. “That’s probably not good,” Bellamy said, tightening his grip around Clarke’s hand, ready to pull her into a run.

“It’s fine,” Clarke said, though she’d already begun to move away from the light. “I bet it’s on a timer or something.”

The sound of echoing footsteps made them both freeze. “I think someone’s coming,” Clarke said, her eyes darting from Bellamy to the end of the long hall.

He pulled Clarke behind him, slid his bow off his shoulder, and reached for one of his arrows.

“Stop it,” Clarke hissed, stepping to the side. “We need to make it clear that we’ve come peacefully.”

The footsteps grew louder. “I’m not taking any chances,” Bellamy said, stepping in front of her again.

Four figures appeared at the end of the hall. Two men, and two women. They were dressed similarly to Sasha, all in black and gray, except that they weren’t wearing fur.

And they were holding guns.

For one excruciatingly long moment, they stared at Clarke and Bellamy, seemingly bewildered.

Then they shouted something and began running toward them.

“Clarke, go,” Bellamy ordered as he drew back the bow and took aim. “I’ll hold them off.”

“No!” she gasped. “You can’t. Don’t shoot at them!”

“Clarke! Move it!” Bellamy shouted, trying to give her a shove with his shoulder.

“Bellamy, drop the bow.” Her voice was frantic now. “Please. You need to trust me.”

He hesitated, just long enough for Clarke to slip under his arm and stand in front of him, her hands raised in the air. “We have a message from Sasha,” Clarke shouted. Her voice was loud and firm, though her whole body was trembling. “She sent us here.”

There wasn’t even time to see whether the name registered on the Earthborns’ faces. A strange whooshing sound filled the air, and Bellamy felt something sting his upper arm.

Then everything went black.