Reckless- The 100 English

Kapitel 36

Lincoln kneels next to the fallen deer, slicing open its stomach and smearing blood over his face. We all wear Grounder clothes, thick and heavy.

"Okay. So we make it to the intake door without any of the real Reapers seeing us. What happens then?" Bellamy asks.

"I kill everyone, and you slip inside. Limestone." Lincoln says. I watch as he draws three white lines over his face.

"Let's go. We have a lot of ground to cover before dark." He stands and we begin walking again.

"Hey. I need to know what happened after the intake door." Bellamy asks.

"They take away your clothes, shower you in boiling water, then douse you in something that burns even worse. Then you're lined up, while a doctor looks at you and sorts you. Most are marked for the Harvest, but we were marked for the Cerberus program." I tell Bellamy and his eyes shadow as he looks at me.

"Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld. My mom read mythology to us all the time. Octavia loved it." Bellamy says quietly, and then he adds to Lincoln. "You're good for her. You made her strong."

"She was already strong."

"Hey, I need to ask you something. You protected my sister before you even knew her. Why?" Bellamy asks.

"When I was a boy, I saw a ship fall from the sky like Raven's. The man inside was hurt, his body broken. I couldn't get him out." Lincoln stops walking for a moment.

"Suicide by Earth. I heard the stories in the guard. I just didn't know they were true." Bellamy says.

"I brought him food, water. I didn't speak the enemy's language yet. So I couldn't understand him, but I wanted to. So on the third day, I told my father. He made me kill him. The world has been trying to turn me into a monster for as long as I can remember. Let's keep moving." Lincoln turns away.

"Wait. The parking garage where we found you, it's north, that way."

"There's a mine entrance closer to where the Reapers hand us over. We'll go into the underworld when we have to, not before."

We're pretty close to the entrance when we pause again. Lincoln begins whittling down a log for us to be bound to.

"The mountain has many eyes between here and the tunnels. From now on, details must be exact." He says

"What if we run into real Reapers? Won't they wonder where you've been? Won't they recognize Ree?" Bellamy asks.

"All they see are the red." I try to explain. "That all that matters, is getting more, satisfying that hunger."

"How much do you remember from when you were on it?" Bellamy asks softly.

I look at Lincoln, who meets my eyes.

"Everything." I say.

"Turn around." Lincoln raises the log and begins to bind our hands to it.

We head down into the tunnels and even just the musty smell is enough to make my stomach turn. I swallow my growing fear enough to focus as we move.

After about twenty minutes in the dim light, Lincoln pauses.

"Why are we stopping?" Bellamy asks, and I notice the red gleam on the floor, the mostly empty vial of red. The desire to reach down for a taste is nearly overpowering, but the hatred of the thing is even stronger.

Lincoln crushes it into the floor.

"You okay?" Bellamy asks me, and I nod shakily.

"As soon as they open the intake doors, we attack. Do not let it close. Once they're all dead, you go in. I'll make it look like you escaped. Once you're inside -" Lincoln says.

"I know."

Suddenly we hear the sounds of other Reapers coming down the tunnel.

"Another Raider party." Lincoln says, and he grabs the log we're tied to.

"What are you doing?" Bellamy protests as we're cut free.

"We have to go back. It's the only way." Lincoln says.

"Go back? No way. There's three, maybe four. We can fight our way through." Bellamy says.

"He's right, we won't get a better chance than this." I say.

"I thought I could do this, but I can't. It's over." Lincoln says desperately.

"No. It's not. We can join them. Listen to me. When they bring out the red, you grab it, and you run like hell. The Reapers will go nuts, the Grounders will run, and the Mountain Men have to deal with it. No one will be looking for a couple grounders running into the mountain!" Bellamy says.

"I said no!" Lincoln grabs Bellamy forcefully and I grab onto him angrily. Bellamy shoves against Lincoln.

"Fight back. They'll think I'm trying to escape." He hisses, and Lincoln draws a knife, holding it to Bellamy's neck.

He turns to face a Reaper striding towards us. I stand next to Lincoln as he advances.

Lincoln says something in his language to Reaper, who replies. Then we're roughly dragged over to the log, blindfolds placed over our eyes. Bellamy's hand squeezes mine before we're pulled apart and tied to the log.

I'm stripped once more and set on my knees, and my only hope is that the doctor won't recognize me in my grounder state.

The door opens and the doctor walks out, followed by a couple others who begin administering the red.

"Harvest." The doctor says to Bellamy, and I keep my eyes downcast as she passes me.

"Harvest." She says, and I breathe a sigh.

"Harvest." She remarks to the next one as well.

"Next. Come on. Next." The man behind me is getting increasingly irritated with something. I turn to look at Lincoln, who's staring at me sadly. In that second, I know exactly what he's thinking and my blood freezes and I think I might throw up.

"What's the holdup?" The man asks, and Lincoln falls to his knees, craning his neck to the side. The red floods into his veins and he collapses to the ground.

Bellamy looks at me, and I stare back helplessly. I can't go back inside the mountain. I can't become a part of their system again. I can't lose Bellamy.

"Harvest them all." The doctor says.

"Come on. Let's go." The man behind me picks us to our feet, and suddenly, Bellamy lashes out, knocking the guard away.

"Run!" He shouts at me as he pushes the guard away from me. I choke back a sob as the guards grab him again and reach for me.

"Run, damn you, run!" He yells, and I think I see desperate tears in his eyes too as he struggles to reach me. I can't breathe and my feet are like rocks. Can I really run? Really leave him?

I turn and flee down the dark tunnels, away from the writhing Reapers, away from Mount Weather, away from someone I'm certain I love more than life itself