The 99

Chapter Eight: Bellamy

"What?" He repeated again, furrowing his brows in distrust. The fire in Bellamy's shoulder was getting worse, until he could no longer distinguish where the pain began and where it ended. It was everywhere. His body itself had become pain, until he couldn't remember what it was like not to feel it.

Beneath that though, there was panic. Maybe even anger. No, there was definitely anger, directed at every single thing that had gone wrong with a plan that had originally been pretty basic. A part of him even marveled at his level of bad luck. Just after Bellamy had thought it couldn't get any worse... It was clear he'd spoken too soon.

"I have a proposition for you," the girl said. Her voice coming from the shadows sounded detached, as if he were talking to a ghost. As if a person weren't really there at all.

Maybe this was all in his imagination. Maybe his delirium from the bullet wound was messing with his head. Bellamy had thought he was speaking to his sister in the cryo chamber. But this was a much more sophisticated image than he would've given himself credit for. Did hallucinations have the ability to offer up deals? He supposed it really didn't matter; the knee digging into his own was enough proof that this was all very, very real.

But hallucination or not, Bellamy already had his answer.

"Not interested," he told her, grabbing for the handle. He still needed to figure out what to do with her. He doubted he'd be able to see his threat through. Killing Jaha...he felt he could justify some of it. But killing someone just because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time? There was no way to make that right.

"Even if it saves your life?"

"I have no reason to make deals with anyone. Especially someone like you," he hissed. "Medical training? That's enough to tell me you're an upper Station girl. Good education. Probably got whatever you wanted as a kid. And you conveniently end up in the Sky Box? What'd you do to get yourself there? Missed curfew? A dare gone wrong? Did you reject a guard?"

A moment of silence passed between them.

"Does it matter?" She finally asked. "It doesn't change the outcome that both of us will be floated, regardless of what we've done. But that infection will beat you to it. It's already made it into your bloodstream. Fever, redness, swelling. I estimate you have a few more days before you lose consciousness completely. And it seems like someone who was so desperate to do what he needed, who was willing to shoot the Chancellor to do it, has a good reason to keep himself alive."

Bellamy scrutinized the shadows, despising her assumption as if she knew him. "It's like you said," he lied. "I just had an opportunity. Did what no one else had the courage to." If one could call it courage, to kill in cold blood.

"If that were the case, you wouldn't be hiding," she said. "Which tells me you have something else out there to live for. And I'm offering you a chance to get back to it."

Bellamy swallowed his retort. "I take it you wouldn't be helping me out of the kindness of your heart."

"No," she replied honestly. "I'd be sneaking into the med bay, which puts my life at risk. It's only fair I be given the same courtesy in return."

"I thought you said your life wasn't your priority."

"That doesn't mean I don't need to hang on to it for a little while longer."

Bellamy grimaced, feeling whatever choices he'd had slip through his fingers. He could die or, maybe, avoid it. Those were his options, and the latter only laid with this girl. If she was even speaking the truth.

"Whatever this deal of yours is...how do you know I won't just back out when I get what I want?" He asked. He wouldn't put it passed himself, after all, not if it risked his chances of making it to the ground.