After the End [ The 100 ]

10. Who put the acid in the fog?

earth kills

[eiden]

My eyes remain on Ali's who still looks at me despite my fingers beneath her chin gone limp. I finally pull away, eyes slitting in a frown.

Heavy footsteps invade the lower level and commotion erupts not long after. "What is that?" I ask.

She quickly gets up, slipping an "I'll look," before going to the ladder. Suddenly it's budging open, and I hear the protests of the other delinquents.

My eyes widen as I look down at Warren. He's groaning in pain, face contorted and eyes either creased or swollen shut.

Getting up to find whatever I can to hide him from these people, I catch Ali just as she stomps on the door. "Eiden, hurry up!"

Ignoring her, I find a tarp like the one downstairs and rush back over to Warren.

"Shh," I whisper down to him. He doesn't react to me, only to his pain. "You have to stay quiet."

"Let us up!" a girl cries.

"It's the fog," a boy adds.

I glance over in confusion after laying it over him just as Ali gives up. She stumbles back when the hatch gives, and one-by-one, the delinquents climb the ladder inside the level.

"What the hell," someone says angrily, but I'm already heading over to Ali.

Her mouth's pinched in discomfort as she holds her leg. I run a hand over her shoulder before helping her walk over to where Warren's covered up. But by now we're walking through a crowd of loud delinquents.

"Fuck them," she hisses through the loud noise.

Thankfully, nobody came for Warren. At least I think. But some of the people in this level were sure to know what happened to him. They were here when we got sent down. Some of them had to have been. One of them has to know who 'Bex Monroe' is.

"Look, I know you lived with these people, but I don't think you're close enough to joke like that."

"Wasn't joking," she replies, finally straightening and seeming to have recovered.

"Still hurt?" I ask in concern.

"No. You know hitting your funny bone? That's what it felt like but in my leg."

Good, I nod softly. Then I look at the mound that is Warren. I'm aware that Ali's standing right there. But... she's...

I clench my jaw instead of sighing angrily and look up at her. Her head inches up from Warren. "Yeah?"

I really don't want to ask this. "I need your help."

A smile pulls at her mouth. "Okay."

I almost roll my eyes. I hate that. "Just watch him please. I'm going to find out what all this is about."

Ali nods, and just as she opens her mouth to say something, I quickly get up, pretending I didn't see it.

It hurts, and I don't want to do it to her, but I'm still upset. She's working with me, though.

[ ... ]

When they tell me what the deal is, I'm a robot: lips parted, eyes dead, legs moving on their own as the world slides past me. As my body barely registers everyone else's bodies sliding past my own.

Finally, I see them on the other side: Ali's still crouched in front of the blanketed mound that is Warren.

I don't even feel myself sit, but all I can do is gape at the mound.