Ready, Aim, Fire

Chapter Two

"Bellamy, would you stop pacing? You're making my feet hurt." I groan irritatedly. Kane has kept Bellamy and I locked up in this small metal room all night, visiting occasionally to "gather intel," and neither of us has gotten a lot of sleep. Not that I haven't tried. Bellamy seems to have ants in his pants and hasn't even sat down let alone stood still, and everytime I close my eyes, I either have horrible dreams about what could be happening to our friends or horrible memories of my whole life before crash landing on Earth. Being locked up in a small room does nothing but remind me of my tiny cell from less than a month ago.

"Our friends could be dying, and you want me to stop pacing?" Bellamy says, luckily stopping his pacing as he stands in front of me, and glares down at me, and I return his annoyed look with one of my own, raising my eyebrows at him from my seated position on the cold, metal floor. Kane didn't even offer to bring blankets. "Bell, all I'm trying to say is that we need to save our energy for when we do get out of here." I say, relaxing my glare and letting myself show how exhausted I am.

Bellamy's face softens as he sighs. "I just don't like feeling useless." He says, sitting down next to me with a huff, our arms brushing. I lean my head on his shoulder. "Bellamy Blake, you are anything but useless." I say, looking at the tip of his nose because I'm too tired to move my head. Bellamy lifts his arm and wraps it around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him and allowing my head to rest on his chest. "Thanks, Princess." He says, and I smile at the old nickname, allowing my eyes to drift shut. "No problem, Bell." I mumble, feeling myself drift off.

Just before sleep takes me sweetly into oblivion, the sound of the doors opening causes Bellamy to shoot right up to his feet, and I barely stop my head from falling to the floor. "So close." I mutter and slowly get to my feet as the doors shut behind Kane.

"How long are you going to keep us locked up in here?" Bellamy demands as Kane pulls up a chair, both men all business. The tiredness quickly vanishes from me as both Kane and Bellamy take their seats. "'Til I'm confident you're no longer a threat to others." Kane says, and I walk up behind Bellamy, standing just behind his chair. "Let's continue." Kane says and pauses.

"You said there were hundred of Grounders attacking. Two, three hundred?" Kane asks, completely ignoring my presence as he stares down Bellamy. "We didn't exactly have the time to count." I say,. Throwing as much sarcasm into my voice as possible. Kane's been ignoring me every time he's come in here to interrogate us. I'm sick of it.

Kane's eyes flick to mine before returning to Bellamy. "Why do you think they attacked? What provoked them?" Kane asks, moving right along. "We crash landing in their territory. Just being there was enough." I say, and Bellamy's whole body seems to tense up with anger. "We're wasting time. The others didn't just vanish into thin air. They were taken and we need to go after them." Bellamy snaps, and I place my hands on his shoulders to try and calm him down a little bit. If he pushes too hard, we'll never get out of here. "A search team is prepping to leave, but not before we've gotten the intel we need from you." Kane says, and I throw my own advice out the window.

"We need to be on that team. Please." I beg, almost cringing at how desperate I sound, but I don't because I am desperate. This is my family we're talking about here. "It's out of the question. You're not trained, It's too dangerous." Kane says, addressing me for the first time, and I snort in response. "Oh, so sending all of us to the ground without our consent is just fine, but when we volunteer to find the people who mean the most to us, that's too dangerous." I state, infuriated with the typical Ark adult thinker in front of me. "And I think I;ve had more experience on the Grounder than you have."

"Miss Griffin, do I need to excuse you from this conversation?" Kane says, his voice patronizing in every way. I open my mouth to say something witty back, but Bellamy places his hand over mine, causing me to stop. "Those are our people out there." Bellamy says, keeping his hand over mine. "They're my people too." Kane says, and I scoff, rolling my eyes, but I keep my mouth shut. "You wanna help them? Tell me what we're up against, Grounder tactics, their numbers, what kind of weapons they used."