Bruised Beyond Beauty // John Murphy// The 100

Chapter 7: In the Cage

Hours pass.
My nerves increase till I'm visibly shaking as I'm dragged through the woods, walking till all of a sudden we stop.

"Get off of me!" I shout as someone grabs my arms and starts to pull me in a different direction. What is going on? Where are they taking me?

People shouting, the sound of rusted doors opening and the smell of blood fill my senses. Suddenly the bag is pulled from my head and I see nothing but black. Hands shove me forward and I stumble into what feels like steel bars. My eyes begin to adjust and I see the outline of a metal cage in front of me, only a few feet wide and tall.
Rough hands shove me again and I am crammed into the cage before the door is shut and locked behind me.

Screams of pain and anger fill the air as I sit huddled in the far corner of my box, afraid that that will be me next.

Several hours pass before a grounder approaches my cell with a key. Quickly he shoves the metal object in the hole and twists it causing the lock to open before the door. He reaches in, roughly grabs my arm and yanks me out of the damp cage.

I thrash in his grip as he drags me through dark tunnelled walls filled with cobwebs. The sound of screams increase the further we go and I begin to feel a panic attack coming on. I've never really had one before but this is what I thought one would feel like. I get light headed, heart starts beating loud and fast, it gets harder to breath, movement becomes difficult and sheer panic takes over my body.

A wooden door swings open and I see a crudely made wooden table in the middle of the carved out cave-room lined with tools and bloody objects I've never seen before and hopefully never encounter. In the corner of the room, water drips slowly and steadily in the same spot making the room damper and smell like rot.

The grounder shoves me forward toward the old table before untying my hands. Behind him five more large Grounders enter the room blocking my escape as two stand guard and the rest approach me. A loud bang echoes through the room as the door is slammed shut causing me to jump as stumble onto the table.

"Sky person, what is your name?"
The closest grounder asks in a thick accent. So they speak English... However, I refuse to tell them anything. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die knowing that I did what I could to keep the Grounders from Ace.

"Boy! I said what is your name???" The grounder shouts just before a loud knock emanates from the door.
One of the two guarding slowly opens it to reveal a young girl who looks a year or two older than me. She steps inside, a tray with some items on it clutched in her hands.

"Heda?! (Commander)" The burly man says in a surprised tone. Is that her name?

"The commander sent me. She wants him alive, but speaking. She sent me to give him these." She says gesturing to the tray in her hands. The man nods and lets her pass and approach me.

"Tai em op en ta wada na foso tel in em o op. Ai laik a hepa, ot yu heda in hir, ifn oso gaf em in o shish op."
(Bind him and the water will force him to talk. I am a servant, not your commander in here, if we want him to speak.) She says once she places the tray down and the men look agitated.

"Then hurry up, and do not forget your place. If the commander gives us orders, do not feel as if you have power. Clean this place, it smells." The man says angrily before pushing the girl to the side making her tumble to the floor. I start to scramble back but he grabs my ankle, dragging me forward.

"Get off me!" I shout as I kick at him causing three of the other to grab my arms and legs. Panic sweeps over me as the Grounders clasp cuffs tightly around my wrists and ankles that barely protrude from the wall as if it had swallowed them. Cold water drips onto my hair and face as the cuffs hold my arms so I can't wipe it away.