Mother Earth // Bellamy Blake

One For Hundreds • 97

I handed Bellamy a rag soaked with chemicals before we entered the hydrofarm. Before he took it, he signed his hands to me. 'This will work.'

He was still trying to convince me that this was the best course of action. He took the rag from me and I looked over to Clarke, I nodded my head to her letting her know it was time to get this done.

Clarke and I stayed outside while Bellamy snuck in, no matter how many times I told him I should be the one to do this he wouldn't let me. I bit at my finger nails and stared at Bear as we waited.

"Bellamy, what the hell?!" I could hear Monty shout from inside. This told me Bellamy had succeeded, Clarke and I now entered the room.

Bellamy was picking up Cooper's body as we made our way to the processing room door. "Come on Monty. We need you to open this door," Clarke told him.

I went to look at Monty, his face was filled with shock and a little bit of anger. "If you want me to open that door, you're gonna have to explain what's going on," Monty ordered.

"We're stopping the war. We're saving our friends," I answered him.

"I was stopping the war," Monty fired back. He was talking about his algae again. "You're killing her, aren't you?"

I felt a lump form in my throat from his question, I wasn't able to answer with words so I just nodded in response. Monty's face turned to disappointment, it made my insides twist.

"If you don't open that door, we're the ones who get killed," Bellamy pleaded. Clarke went to grab the magnet and held it out to Monty.

Monty shook his head as he snatched it out of Clarke's hand, "and of course... I help."

I watched as Monty worked his magic on the lock, like he did before. As soon as it opened, he turned to look at us again. "What's one more, right?" He mumbled.

I wanted to wither away in that moment, I felt sick that I was the one to come up with this.

"That's not fair," Bellamy stated. "We're talking about one life to save hundreds."

"Really? Let's kill Octavia then," Monty spat and was met with silence. "That's what I thought."

He swung the door wide after his statement and stepped out of the way as Bellamy carried Cooper in. I watched Monty slowly walk away and drop the magnet to the floor.

"We're doing the right thing," Clarke said to me softly. She caught on to how I felt about this as well.

I looked back to Clarke as I answered, "maybe if you keep saying that, he'll believe you. Maybe I'll believe it."

I pushed past her to enter the processing room, Bellamy was already putting a hazmat suit on Cooper. I stood frozen as I watched Clarke pull out a knife and crouch next to her body. She sliced a tiny hole into the glove Bellamy had just put on her hand. Once she was fully suited up, Bellamy went to put a hazmat suit on himself.

As soon as he was finished, he picked Cooper up and dragged her into the glass enclosure. Clarke shut the door as Bellamy went to release all the worms that they have bred, I could hear their high pitched squealing as Bellamy ran to get out of there. I quickly opened the door for him and slammed it shut once he was safe on the outside, locking it so nothing could get out.

I turned to watch Bellamy take his gear off, I could not get myself to talk. Once he hung the suit back in its previous spot, he stared at me.

"We need to stay to make sure the worms kill her. You should go," he told me in a soft voice.

I shook my head at him, "I'm not going anywhere."

He looked like he was going to argue against me, but ended up holding back. He knew I wasn't going to leave.

We watched for thirty minutes, some worms entered through Cooper's glove but other than that nothing seemed to be happening. Cooper was still out cold, but alive. I hoped the worms would kill her before she woke up, but I wasn't so fortunate.

We stood still as we saw Cooper stir awake. She was confused as she looked around. I watched her as she looked at the empty box where the worms were stored. She stood herself up and stared at the hole in her glove. Panic was written all over her face when she finally looked to us, I couldn't even imagine what she was feeling.

"You will all die for this!" She raged. All of a sudden, she yelped in pain as her body folded forward. The worms had horrible timing, this should have happened while she was unconscious.

Cooper screeched as she dropped to the floor. She tore off her helmet and opened up the suit through her moaning. I felt my hands trembling while I looked at her exposed stomach, the worms were furiously moving around within her.

"Please make it stop!" She cried, I could feel tears well up in my eyes. I turned my back to the scene I had caused, listening to her screams. I couldn't stand looking at it anymore.

I felt a hand on my lower back and heard Bellamy's voice, "let's go. We don't need to stay for the rest."

I said nothing in return, I just listened to his instructions. Clarke, Bear, Bellamy and I left the room while Cooper begged for her life.

It was time for Indra to follow through on her part of the plan.

—

I was sitting in a chair within a tent that was outside of the bunker. My tears wouldn't stop rolling down my face, I felt guilty and disgusted with myself.

Bellamy was kneeling down in front of me with Bear sitting right next to us. He was trying to get me to calm down, my breathing was sporadic.

"I didn't think it was going to be like this down here either, but it is. We do what we need to, Kota," Bellamy lifted my chin with his hand to get me to look at him. "You're so special. Through everything we've had to deal with, you've kept your humanity. You need to believe me when I say that."

His voice calmed me down, his words were filled with emotion. I nodded to him as my nose sniffled. My air intake had slowed and became under control.

"I love you so much my beautiful girl," Bellamy practically whispered.

I returned his declaration with putting my lips on his. I wished I could feel the way I felt when we kissed all the time. I felt safe, I felt real comfort. I adored him for making that possible.

He pulled away from me and kept his gentle gaze on my eyes. I could feel the stinging from my tears as he wiped the fallen ones off my cheek.

Any feeling of content I had was sucked away from me. Wonkru guards barged in on our moment, making Bellamy and I shoot up to our feet. Guns were immediately aimed at the two of us. Octavia marched in, she looked pissed. She knew what we did, what I did.

"Octavia-" Bellamy started but was cut off.

"Take her," Blodreina ordered as she stared into my soul. Miller approached me and turned my body to the side.

"You're under arrest for the murder of Kara Cooper," he said to me as he put my hands in cuffs.

"What? No," Bellamy was furious. "Are you insane?"

"Am I?" Octavia shot back to her brother. "We weren't taking the worms. We're using their eggs which are already loaded in the rover, so what was Cooper doing there?"

Bellamy looked at me and then back to his sister, "it wasn't her. It was me."

I felt my stomach drop hearing him say this. Octavia didn't believe him though.

"I know this was her plan, her eyes say it all," Octavia noticed my earlier crying. "Careful big brother or you'll be a prisoner too and we'd have enough people to settle this in the pits."

I widened my eyes as Bellamy looked back over to me and barely shook my head to signal for him to shut up. He couldn't help me out of this if he was arrested too.

Octavia broke the silence, "I guess we'll settle for an execution then."