The City of Light (Bellamy Blake x Reader)

XI - Demons

Racing across the golden fields, the sun shining down on our rover, I finally felt much better. Yesterday had been so incredibly stressful and emotionally draining. Sitting here in the rover surrounded by most of my friends in good states of mind was all I could have asked for. I glanced to the front where Bellamy was driving, and found him glancing at me through the rear-view mirror.

"Becca's journal is amazing," Raven exclaimed, turning the pages of the yellowed leather book that Clarke had brought with her. "At twenty-six she found a pathway to access the human mind. That same year, she had to lock up Alie because her answer for what was wrong with the world was "too many people." She was twenty-seven when it launched the bombs."

I sucked in a breath. Of course Alie ended the world. Now that she was back, overtaking everyone in Arkadia and probably the rest of the world, I didn't have a good feeling. Perhaps she would try to kill us all again. Completely wipe out humanity. Not the ideal situation.

"What did she write about the Flame?" Clarke asked turning around in the front seat.

"Alie 2.0," Raven responded. "She saw it as a way to atone for her sins. She designed it to not just access a human mind, but to merge with one. It could never wipe us out, because it would be one of us. She would put it in herself first. Altered her genes so her body wouldn't reject the implant."

Clarke nodded. "Bekka Pramheda. The first Commander. The gene therapy made her blood black, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Raven replied.

"How'd you know that?" I asked.

Clarke explained, "Nightblood. That's where it came from. Somehow it became hereditary. Luna has it. That's why we have to find her. If she can access Alie two-"

"She can tell us how to stop Alie one," I finished, astounded at the intelligence of the idea.

"Bekka Pramheda gets her second chance at atonement," Sinclair added.

"Get back to the mind pathway," Monty said, not tearing his eyes away from the chip in his fingers. "If Alie uses it to upload our minds to the City of Light, then there's a chance my Mom's still alive."

I sighed, and turned my attention to my fingernails. I doubted that was possible. Her mind might be still exist, but her body was dead.

Raven threw him a tired, sorrowful look. "That depends on your definition of alive."

Silence fell. Everyone was looking at Monty with pity. I tried not to. Pity was never helpful. Just being there for him when he needed it was what was important right now.

Bellamy broke the silence. "Eyes sharp. Weapons hot. We're almost home." Then he grabbed the radio. "Miller come in. Harper, you there? Your ride's two minutes out."

Static. My stomach dropped. That was not a good sign. If everything was okay, they would've responded. And that unsettling feeling swelled when we reached the cave we'd left them in, to find it empty. I tried to keep calm, but I could't shake my anxiety. Solve one problem, and another pops up.

When we reached the entrance of Arkadia, Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia, and I hopped out of the rover, walking at a steady pace on either side of the vehicle. Weapons brandished, we kept at the ready for anything to come towards us. As we approached Arkadia, my stomach dropped at the sight of the shattered gate, of the hollow buildings, the empty air.

"We left two days ago," Clarke murmured. "Why haven't they fixed the gate?"

"Maybe because there's no one here to fix it," I responded, glancing warily around me. There was nothing inside the walls. No children playing, no people laughing, no drunken fights. Nothing. It was eerie. Unsettling. Like I was walking into a ghost town.