Careless//Bellamy Blake [1]

29

Chapter song-

Like a river-Bishop

"My fellow citizens, this is your president speaking. I have news to share with you that will change our lives forever. For ninty-seven years, Mt. Weather has been our home. It's kept us alive, but has also held us captive. Most of us have made peace with what we've had to do to survive. We've done these things for one reason. So that our people could one day return to the ground. That day is today. Before my friend, Lorelei Tsing, was murdered by the Outsiders still at large in this mountain, she found a cure. It was in their bone marrow. This has been the dream of our people since the bombs. But to reach it now, I need your help. The forty-five criminals that irradiated Level Five, killing fifteen of our people, are now keeping us from that dream. Although we've repaired our home, we can never replace the lives that were so viciously taken from us. Yet as hard as it is to believe, there are those among us who would help the people who did this. And I am speaking to you now. If you truly want to end the blood treatments once and for all, then the forty-five murderers you're now hiding are the key to doing that. You have one hour to turn them on without punishment. After that, we'll be forced to consider you enemies of the state. I'm asking you, please, do what's right for your people, our people. So that we can all take our rightful place on the ground. We're almost home."

The knocking on the large metal door made Maya and Jasper go silent. Both of their hearts raced as they feared for the middle-aged couple who hid them.

"Yes?" The older man asked as he was greeted by two guards.

"Step aside, please." The guard said as the older man opened the door more.

"Why? What's wrong?" The guards walked in and looked around the room.

"We'll just be a moment." One guard—Emerson—looked down at the middle aged lady who was drinking tea on the red sofa.

"If you tell us what you're looking for, maybe we can help you." She said innocently.

"You know what we're looking for." One guard—Tilling—said to her in a stern tone.

"Honestly, we don't know." The older man said.

Down in the corner, beside the sofa, was a patterned part of the wall that the kids could see out of. Jasper sat there and watched this all happen.

"According to your neighbors, you've been bringing home extra food after meals." Tilling said.

"That's not true."

"Is it true that you've refused treatment twelve times in the past fifteen years?" The older man choked on his words and Tilling turned to look at the woman. "Or that you've refused them thirty times. Do you deny that?"

"We take the blood when we need it. We don't take extra food." The woman said.

"Then you've got nothing to worry about."