Red Lighter ✧ John Murphy

LVII - Predator & Prey

Chapter Fifty-Seven

We kept barricading the door. It was failing, of course. They were trying their hardest to break through, and it was working.

"Look out!" Octavia said as she and Miller continued to throw pieces of furniture on the top of the pile.

"This isn't gonna hold for long," Bryan said.

"How the hell did they even get in here?!" Miller shouted over to Bellamy and I.

"That doesn't matter! They're here now and we have to deal with it," I told him, and I saw Octavia look at me in both surprise and gratefulness.

"This is where we make our stand," Bellamy told them.

"Sounds like there's a lot of them!" Miller said, grunting as they hit the door another time and almost made him lose his footing. "Maybe time to go to guns."

"We've got something better than guns," Pike said from behind us. "Surprise."

He explained it to us, and I volunteered to be the one to meet Kane. We would fill part of the corridor with water, making sure that it was between two steps so that it resembled a pool. They would step into it, and we would electrocute them. Maybe even to death, if we were lucky. I would be the one to lure them into it.

They came around the corner, Kane at the front of the group.

"Wait, Kane!" I shouted, and he paused for a moment before continuing to walk.

He stayed quiet, but glanced down a the water then back at me before walking through it with everyone else following behind him.

"I want to take the chip again. It was..." I looked down at my feet and bit my lip. "It was easier when I had taken it."

I wasn't lying. It was easier. But easy doesn't mean better.

"Good. No one else has to die. Ever," he said. His expression was almost one of happiness, he even looked content. It was unsettling knowing what was really swimming around in that skull of his. "Maybe you can convince Octavia's mentor of that."

"Indra is alive?" I asked, raising a brow. In reality, I was jumping for joy inside. That woman was a true warrior. It seemed she could never be killed.

"Yes. She is suffering on the cross needlessly."

"Now!" I shouted, jumping from the water and up onto a wooden box.

The boys all ran out from around the corner, throwing the batons into the water. The water was shot to life with electricity, shocking everyone that was stepping in it. They all dropped, their bodies continuing to convulse while they were in the water.

"The charge is clear," Pike said, walking towards the water. "Hurry up, let's get their weapons."

I saw Emori in the crowd, and she looked pale. Her feet were burned from the shocks. She looked like she was dead. I hoped she was.

I felt guilty for thinking that.

*

We went to the throne room, where Clarke was unconscious and apparently now in the City Of Light. I knew she was able to find the kill switch, but we needed to keep her safe until that happened. Murphy was now pumping Ontari's heart to make the blood go faster, and I would have been willing to take over just because of how utterly disgusted he looked, but Abby told me that they needed me to fight. So, I prepared myself.

They were forcing their way in. The furniture in front of the doors was unstable and falling with every passing second. They were coming.

They came in, and we fought. Kane, unfortunately, came straight for me.

Kane sent a punch at my throat, which I blocked and gave him a quick uppercut.

Since they didn't feel pain, we had to either knock them out or kill them. I wasn't willing to kill Kane. I had to knock him out. I had to.

I put my knife back in my belt as we stayed a few steps away from each other, dancing back and forth like a predator and their prey. I knew for sure that I was not the predator in this situation. He wanted me dead, but I could not say the same for myself. I didn't want to hurt him.

"I won't kill you, Kane. I won't."

"Bad choice, Venus," he stated, going forwards and punching me across the face once more. That one actually knocked me to the ground.

Kane darted to Bellamy, and knocked him down as well. He had his arm at Bellamy's throat,

I was going to go after him, but another grounder came at me, and my instincts set in. I stabbed him in the chest, right in the heart. I felt a jolt of guilt and disbelief that I had actually killed him, but then removed the knife and allowed him to fall.

I ran to Kane and tackled him, the force of the blow knocking the wind out of me roughly.

Bellamy was trying to breathe beside me, but was struggling. He was coughing, but I had a feeling he would be alright. My thoughts of him vanished when Kane was suddenly on top of me, his hands around my throat.

I couldn't breathe. I could hear Murphy screaming my name and Abby telling him that he couldn't leave, then I heard the cocking and firing of a gun and screams and shouts filled my ears. Spots danced across my vision when suddenly the screams got louder, and the expression on Kane's face changed entirely.

He looked down at me in horror, then removed his hands and fell back. He was now sitting up and staring down at me.

I sat up on my own, rubbing at my throat and taking deep breaths. I looked around and saw that everyone else was the same. The injured were wallowing in their pain, and the people who had once been controlled by ALIE were all filled with terror.

Clarke had found the switch.