by Kass Morgan
In the distance, he heard someone cry out. He released the girl and staggered backward just as a pair of arms wrapped around him and dragged him away.
It wasn’t the first time Bellamy had been sent to the director’s office, although he’d never shouted quite so many obscenities en route. The minder who’d grabbed Bellamy shoved him into a chair and told him to wait there for the director. “Stay away from this one,” the man said, addressing a girl in the chair across from Bellamy.
Bellamy scowled as the minder waved his hand in front of the scanner, waited for the door to open, and strode back out. Part of him wanted to make a run for it now. Did trying to choke that piece of space trash who’d been bullying his sister count as an Infraction? He’d already had so many warnings, it was only a matter of time before the director wrote a report that landed him in Confinement. But he wouldn’t last more than a few days as an outlaw, and then who would take care of Octavia after he was captured? Better he stay here and try to make his case.
He looked up at the girl. She was about his age, but he’d never seen her before; she had to be a new arrival. She was sitting with her feet tucked under her while she fiddled nervously with the buttons on her sweater. Her wavy blond hair was neat and shiny, and he felt an unexpected pang of pity as he imagined her getting dressed in her room for the last time, carefully arranging her hair for the trip to this hellhole.
“So what did you do?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts. Her voice was slightly hoarse, as though it had been a long time since she’d spoken—or like she’d recently been crying. He wondered how she’d wound up here, if her parents had died or perhaps committed Infractions and been floated.
There was no point in lying. “I attacked a girl,” he said in the light, careless tone he generally used when discussing his various indiscretions. The girl’s eyes flickered, and suddenly, he wanted to explain. “She was hurting my sister.”
Her eyes widened. “Your sister?” Unlike the blond girl, she made the word sound like something rare and precious. Okay, she was definitely new; everyone at the care center knew about him and Octavia. With the strict population laws, there hadn’t been siblings on the ship in at least a generation.
“Well, technically she’s my half sister—but we’re the only family each other’s got. Her name’s Octavia.” He smiled, just like he did whenever he said her name. “So did you just get here?”
She nodded. “I’m Lilly,” she said.
“That’s a pretty name.” The words slipped out before he realized how stupid they’d sound. “I’m Bellamy.” He tried to think of something else, to prove that he wasn’t a complete doofus, but the door slid open and the director trudged in.
“Not you again,” she said, shooting Bellamy a look of disapproval before turning her attention to Lilly. “Lilly Marsh?” she asked, in a voice Bellamy had never heard directed at him. “It’s very nice to meet you. Let’s go into my office and I’ll tell you a little more about how things work here.” As Lilly rose slowly to her feet, the director turned back to Bellamy. “One month of probation, and if you so much as step a toe out of line, you’re out of here. For good.”
Relief and confusion washed over Bellamy, but he wasn’t going to stick around long enough for the director to change her mind. He jumped from the chair and hurried toward the door. As he waited for it to open, he glanced over his shoulder to look back at Lilly.
To his surprise, she was smiling at him.
CHAPTER 6
Clarke
Whatever you do, don’t go inside the lab.
The anguished cries reached out to her, until Clarke couldn’t tell what was coming from the other side of the wall, and what was echoing in the shadowy depths of her own brain.
The experiments use dangerous levels of radiation. We don’t want you to get hurt.
The lab was nothing like she’d imagined. It was full of hospital beds instead of workstations. And in each bed was a child.
It’s our job to determine when Earth will be able to support human life again. Everyone is counting on us.
Clarke glanced around the room, looking for her friend Lilly. She was lonely. And scared. Everyone around her was dying. Their small bodies withered away until they were hardly more than wisps of skin and bone.
We never wanted you to find out this way.
But where was Lilly? Clarke came to visit her often, whenever her parents weren’t in the lab. She brought her friend presents, books she took from the library and candy she stole from the pantry at school. On Lilly’s good days, their laughter drowned out the sounds of the heart-rate monitors.
It wasn’t our idea. The Vice Chancellor forced us to experiment on those children. They would’ve killed us if we’d refused.
Clarke moved from bed to bed, each of them containing a sick child. But none of them were her best friend.
And then, suddenly, she remembered. Lilly was dead. Because Clarke had killed her.
They would’ve killed you too.
Lilly had begged her to make the pain go away. Clarke hadn’t wanted to, but she knew that Lilly had no chance of getting better. So eventually she’d agreed, and gave her friend the fatal drugs that ended her suffering.
I’m sorry, Clarke tried to tell her friend. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
“It’s okay, Clarke. Shhh, it’s okay. I’m right here.”
Clarke’s eyes snapped open. She was lying on a cot, her arm wrapped in bandages… why? What had happened?
Bellamy was sitting next to her, his face dirty and haggard. But he was smiling in a way Clarke hadn’t seen before, a wide, beaming grin without any hint of amusement or mockery. There was something startlingly intimate about it, as if this smile exposed more of Bellamy than she’d seen when they went swimming in their underwear.
“Thank god you’re okay. Do you remember getting bitten by the snake?” he asked. Clarke closed her eyes as fragments of memory shot through her mind. The slithering movement on the ground. The blinding pain. Yet at the moment, the only sensation she was aware of was the warmth of Bellamy’s hand on hers. “We gave you the universal antidote thing, but I wasn’t sure you got it in time.”
Clarke sat up, suddenly alert. “You carried me all the way back to camp?” Her cheeks flushed at the thought of being unconscious for that long in Bellamy’s arms. “And you figured out about the medicine?”
Bellamy shot a quick glance at the door. “That part was all Wells.”
The name landed with a thud in Clarke’s chest. After Wells stopped her from rushing into a burning tent to save her friend Thalia, she’d fled the camp in a haze of grief and rage. But as she looked around this new infirmary cabin, all she felt was sadness. Thalia was gone, but she couldn’t really blame Wells for what he’d done. He’d saved her life—twice now.
On the other side of the small cabin, a girl was curled up on a cot. Clarke pushed herself onto her elbows for a better look, but when Bellamy noticed the direction of her gaze, he sat down on the edge of Clarke’s cot, as if shielding her. “So,” he said, shooting a glance over his shoulder. “About that.”
In a strangely detached voice, he told Clarke about the attack that had killed Asher, and the girl Wells had taken prisoner.
“What?” Clarke sat bolt upright. “You’re telling me that girl over there was born on Earth?” Some small part of her had expected this since the orchard, but waking up to find an Earthborn meters away was almost too much to process. Thousands of questions exploded in every sector of her brain. How had they survived the Cataclysm? How many of them were there? Were there pockets of people all over the planet, or just in this area?
“Keep your voice down,” Bellamy whispered, placing a hand on Clarke’s shoulder and gently guiding her back down on the cot. “I think she’s asleep, and I want her to stay that way as long as possible. It’s creepy as all hell having her in here.”
Clarke shook off his hand and rose to her feet. The excitement and shock pulsing through her veins left her wh
ole body trembling. “This is unbelievable. I have to talk to her!”
Before she could take another step, Bellamy grabbed her wrist. “That’s not a good idea. Her people took Octavia and killed Asher. We caught her spying on us.” His mouth twisted into a sneer. “She was probably trying to decide who to take next.”
Clarke stared at him in confusion. Why would they speculate about the girl’s motives instead of asking her? “Has anyone tried talking to her?” There was no danger in trying, especially since her hands and ankles were bound. Clarke rose onto the balls of her feet for a better look. The girl was curled up on her side, with her back to Bellamy and Clarke. It didn’t look like she’d moved at all.
Bellamy pulled Clarke back onto the cot with a tug. “I think the girl speaks English. She hasn’t said anything, but it seems like she understands what we’re saying. As soon as we get some useful information from her, I’ll head out to find Octavia.”
His voice was calm, but he couldn’t hide the note of anxiety when he said his sister’s name. For a moment, Clarke’s thoughts left the girl on the cot and returned to the woods where she and Bellamy had been following Octavia’s footprints. She felt a stab of guilt that he had abandoned Octavia’s trail in order to carry her all the way back here.
“Bellamy,” she said slowly as another thought took shape. “That wreckage we found. Did you see the logo on it? It said TG.” Every child on the Colony knew that TG, Trillion Galactic, was the company that had originally built their ship.
“I know,” he said. “But that could mean anything.”
“It’s not from our dropship,” she said quickly, her voice rising in excitement. “Which means it has to be from something else the Colony sent down. Maybe some kind of drone? Or what if…” She trailed off, suddenly hesitant to share the spark of an idea forming in the back of her mind. “I think it’s important that we figure out what it is,” she finished vaguely.
Bellamy squeezed her hand. “As soon as we get Octavia back, we’ll go check it out.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “For everything. I know you lost a lot of time bringing me back here.”
“Yeah, well, it would have been a shame to lose the only doctor on Earth, even if you were arrested before you finished training. Can you remind me again which body part I should avoid injuring?” he said with a smile. “Are you better with elbows or ankles?”
Clarke was glad to see him in a playful mood, but it wasn’t enough to shake the guilt building up in her chest. She lowered her voice, glancing again at the girl across the infirmary. “It’s just… if you need to leave again, you should go. I feel terrible that you already lost a day because of me.”
His teasing smile softened. “It’s okay.” He reached up and absentmindedly began twisting a strand of her hair around his finger. “I think for now, my best chance is to see what this girl knows, before I go back looking for the trail.”
Clarke nodded, relieved that Bellamy didn’t resent her, and relieved that he wasn’t planning on leaving right away. “Octavia’s lucky to have you,” she said, then cocked her head to the side and surveyed Bellamy with a smile. “You know, I remember when I heard there were siblings on Walden.”
Bellamy raised an eyebrow. “My reputation precedes me? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. How could you not talk about someone this good-looking?”
Clarke knocked against him, digging her elbow into his ribs. He made an exaggerated grimace, then laughed. “It’s true,” she continued. “My friend Lilly remembered you guys from the care center. I think her exact words were, ‘There’s a girl with an older brother. It’s great that she has a sibling, but he’s so spectacularly attractive, no one can look directly at him. It’s just too blinding, like staring at the sun.’ ”
Instead of smiling, Bellamy’s face went pale. “Lilly? It wasn’t Lilly Marsh, was it?”
Clarke’s chest tightened as she realized what she’d just let slip. Of course Bellamy and Lilly had known each other. There couldn’t have been that many children in the Walden care center, could there? Lilly had rarely volunteered information about her life on Walden, and Clarke hadn’t asked. It hadn’t been a conscious decision, but she realized now that it was easier to think about Lilly as a girl without a past, without people who cared about her.
“How did you know Lilly?” Bellamy was staring at her, searching her eyes for the information she was desperately trying to hide.
“I met her at the hospital, during my apprenticeship,” Clarke said, not bothering to count the number of lies in the short sentence. “Were you friends?” She prayed he’d shrug and say something about knowing her vaguely from the care center.
“We were—” Bellamy paused. “We were more than friends. Lilly was the only girl I ever cared about. Until you.”
“What?” Clarke stared at him in shock. Lilly, her friend and her parents’ test subject, had been Bellamy’s—
“Are you okay?” Bellamy asked. “Does it bother you that I had a girlfriend back on the ship?”
“No. Of course not,” she said. “I’m fine. Just tired.” Her heart racing, Clarke rolled onto her side before she could see the look on Bellamy’s face. Better he think she was irrationally jealous and possessive than do anything to hint at the truth.
“Okay,” he said, clearly unconvinced. “Because it was a long time ago.”
She didn’t turn around. Lilly’s death may have felt like a long time to Bellamy, but Clarke relived her friend’s final moments every day. She still saw Lilly’s face whenever she closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep. She still heard her voice echoing in her head.
Lilly’s death was never far from her thoughts. Because Clarke had been the one who killed her.
CHAPTER 7
Glass
Glass and Luke were silent as they left his flat for the very last time. As they stepped into the eerily empty corridor, Glass reached for Luke’s hand, shocked by the silence. The chaos that had overwhelmed the ship for the past few days seemed to have died down, washed away by a heavy tide of despair. The dim ceiling lights flickered wearily, like an exhausted child trying to keep his eyes open.
They took the main stairs quietly, finally reaching the lower levels of the ship, which were used to house the electrical and plumbing systems. Neither spoke until Glass pulled Luke to a stop in front of the air vent, then reached up to remove the grate.
“Please,” Luke said. “Allow me.” He pulled the grate from the wall and placed it on the ground with exaggerated delicacy. “And to think, all those hours I spent worrying what kind of date to take you on, it turns out we could’ve gone on a romantic crawl through the ventilation system.”
“It’s all your influence,” Glass said, managing a smile despite the prickle of tears she could feel building behind her eyes.
“What?” Luke reached out and ruffled her hair. “Slumming it?”
Glass rose up onto her toes to give him a kiss. “Being adventurous.”
Luke pulled her into a hug. “I love you,” he murmured into her ear. Then he boosted her into the vent, waited for her to climb inside, and replaced the grate.
Glass paused for a moment to wipe away the tears threatening to obscure her vision. “I love you too,” she whispered, knowing that Luke wouldn’t be able to hear it. Then she gritted her teeth and began to crawl down the narrow metal chute.
As she slowly made her way forward, straining to see in the dim light, Glass tried to imagine the look on her mother’s face when she opened the door. Would she be overwhelmed with relief? Or would part of her still be furious that Glass had risked her life by sneaking onto Walden? The thought of all the pain she’d caused her mother over the past year made Glass’s heart cramp. If this was the end, then she needed one last chance to apologize, one final opportunity to tell her how much she loved her.
Glass winced as her ankle knocked against the metal wall. If someone had told her two years ago that she would someday crawl through an air vent from Walden to Pho
enix, she’d have laughed in their face. Things had been different then—she had been different. She smiled in the darkness. Now her life might be in danger, but it was finally one worth fighting for.
“… when the Cataclysm struck, there were one hundred and ninety-five sovereign nations, although the vast majority had joined one of the four major alliances.”
Glass yawned, covering her mouth halfheartedly. Their tutor had dimmed the lights to make the holograms easier to see, so there was little chance that she would notice that Glass wasn’t paying attention.
“In the first six weeks of World War Three, nearly two million people were killed…”
“Cora,” Glass whispered, leaning over the desk. “Cora.”
Cora lifted her head and blinked sleepily at Glass. “What?”
“… and in the next six months, more than five million died of starvation.”
“Did you get my messages?”
Cora rubbed her eyes, then blinked again, activating her cornea slip. She squinted as she scrolled through her unread messages, including one from Glass asking if she wanted to go to the Exchange after tutorial.
A few seconds later, there was a flash in the top right corner of Glass’s vision field. She blinked as a message from Cora appeared. Sure, if we’re fast. I have to meet my mother at 3.
Why? Glass blinked back.
Greenhouse duty
Glass smiled. “Greenhouse duty” was Cora’s family’s code for when they took an extra visit to the solar fields. It was totally illegal, but the guards turned a blind eye because Cora’s father was the Resources Chief and no one wanted to risk upsetting him. Glass didn’t really care that Cora’s family got the best produce this way—her family had perks of their own—and Cora let her come over for fresh berries every now and then.
