The One Who's Fallen

Chapter 123

I give Lincoln back the bottle that held the nasty medicine. He takes it with an apologetic, knowing smile. I'm guessing that means he knows what it tastes like. I run my tongue along the back of my teeth, grimacing and trying to get away from the lingering aftertaste that's almost as terrible as the taste.Octavia hands me some leaves and I nearly groan with happiness.

"Thank you." I say before popping the leaves in my mouth and chewing.

"What is that?" Raven asks curiously.

"Mint leaves. Lincoln made me drink that one time when I got beat up especially badly by a Grounder on one of my first days of training. So I know how bad it tastes."

"Oh. And um," Raven hesitates awkwardly for a second. "Clarke? You know you're still shirtless, right? Because as much as I like looking at your abs because wow, your girlfriend is now glaring at me like she's going to kill me."

"Lexa." I say and her eyes snap back to me.

I don't say anything more, just raise an eyebrow and hold out my left hand. Lexa huffs but gives me a soft smile and takes it in her right. It feels weird, holding her hand with this hand instead of my right. But she feels just as perfect as usual. I squeeze her hand gently and she nods before dropping mine.

She helps me get my armor back on, freezing every time I flinch or make a quiet, pained sound. It takes quite a bit longer than usual, since I try to move my right arm as little as possible.

Lexa tugs on the last strap and looks back up into my eyes. "Are you ready to go or do you want to rest here for a little bit longer?"

"I'm good to go as long as everyone else is." I say.

The others all give Lexa a nod of assent. Well, Lincoln and Octavia do. Raven gives her what has to be a purposefully dorky thumbs up.

We start walking again after Lexa picks up the dagger that stabbed me and putting it into one of her spare holsters. Judging by the stormy look in her eyes, she has a plan for it. I don't ask what it is, knowing she will probably want to keep it to herself, at least for now.

Through the rest of the tunnels, we somehow luckily don't encounter any more Reapers. It doesn't take us long to reach an iron door with patches of rust on it. Raven reaches out to touch it and an ear-splitting squealing sound comes out of a nearby speaker, making us all clap our hands over our ears. When Raven takes her hand off of the door, a second later the sound stops.

"Dang," Raven murmurs. "So what do we do?"

I look around and notice an odd patch of rock. It blends in unless you're looking for something out of the ordinary, with it seeming like it's something painted to look like the wall. I walk over to it and press my hand to it. No squealing noise comes, so I count that as a win.

I run my fingers over it and am surprised to find that it isn't rock or metal like I expected, but a painted cloth attached to what feels like a wooden frame. I carefully lift it up and it seems like it's on a hinge because something squeaks. Dust and rock particles fall from it as I slowly lift it. I let go of the frame carefully but it doesn't fall. Underneath it is what looks like a keypad.

I squint at it, trying to make out the keys but it doesn't seem to be on. There's no light emanating from it's rubber-looking keys.

"Rae, get over here." I say.

"What did you find?" She asks as she steps beside me. Ravens eyes light up when she sees it. "You found a keypad! That's awesome! I can hack into this, easy. It's less advanced than we had on the Ark and I used to hack my way in and out of places all the time."

"Is that how you and Mom never got caught?" I ask curiously.

"Yup. They had no evidence. My brilliance was unmatched by those dimwits." Raven mutters almost absentmindedly as she carefully studies the keypad. Raven presses a couple buttons and the keypad lights up. She grins, rubbing her hands together. "Oh how I've missed this."

Her fingers fly across the keypad, pressing the buttons more quickly than I can tell which number she hit. After a couple seconds of that, she pulls back her hand and then dramatically pokes the pound key. The door clicks.

"Please wait for one moment." An emotionless, automated voice comes from the speaker. It plays boring elevator music for a few seconds. "Thank you for waiting. Your party may now proceed into the decontamination chamber." Lincoln and Lexa don't look very happy at that.

Raven, on the other hand, seems excited. She claps her hands and beams. "Awesome."

She turns the door handle and the door groans more than I did when Anya first made me train/exercise.

I walk in first despite Lexa's quiet protests. The room is small and is covered in white tiles on the floor and the walls like a giant shower stall. The white tiles are no longer white. Most of them are stained gray from water damage that's stemming from the sealant. The single light in the center of the ceiling flickers ominously but other than the creepy feeling, it seems safe enough. I gesture for the others to come in and they do, albeit hesitantly. Once everyone's in, the door closes behind us and clicks. We all jump and look back.

"Lincoln!" Octavia bats his arm. "You were the last one in! Why did you close it? It's probably locked now."

"I didn't close it!"

We exchange worried looks, which of course is when cold water starts falling from the ceiling.

Oooh... Weird, right? Aaand it looks like I'll have to look up what the decontamination process is for next chapter... Oh well! Next chapter, we continue with this! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!