Conflate | Bellamy Blake ¹ ✓

✯ | chapter twenty-four

❝suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.❞

-aristotle, philosopher

♛

THE GUARD CARRIES ME for a seemingly endless amount of time. I bounce on his shoulder, trying to ignore the piercing pain every time the bone goes into my stomach. The desire to attempt to free myself is strong, but I know it would be for nothing. I'd never get very far.

I prop myself up by resting my elbows on his back. The scenery has changed drastically from the bleak walls and chipping paint. Now, everything is white again and I notice doors on either side of the hallway we're moving down.

"Where are we going?" I ask him.

"Somewhere you'll be less likely to get out of," he responds to my surprise; I hadn't been expecting a reply.

When I turn my head, I notice an elderly man laying on his bed inside of one of the rooms. I barely catch a glimpse of him through the circular window. However, his name pops up in my mind. Dante Wallace- the former president of Mount Weather.

My mind sparks with interest. If he's here, and I'm here, could Bellamy find me? Do I even want him to find me? If he did, we'd raise hell with my escape, and where would we go?

The guard unlocks one of the doors a few spaces from Dante's and brings me inside. From there, he plops me down on the bed and sends a flare of discomfort to my hip. My face twists in a cringe.

"President Wallace will be here to speak with you shortly," the guard informs me. "I'm sure you'll make yourself comfortable in the meantime."

I glare daggers at him until he leaves and locks the door with a click.

The room is fairly small, with just enough space for a plain cot, a table with a single chair, and an IV stand beside the bed. Blinding fluorescent lights shine from the ceiling. The room is so such a stark white that it almost hurts to look around, especially from how dark the previous one had been. My eyes take a few seconds to adjust to the new lighting.

I sit up on the cot and grit my teeth at the agony it brings. Part of my nerves still buzz from the electricity, humming beneath my skin. I notice bruises on my knees, calves, and elbows from crawling through the vents.

And then a voice sounds from a speaker somewhere in the room, causing me to freeze.

"My fellow citizens, this is your president speaking."

I don't stifle the annoyed groan that comes out at the sound of Cage.

"I have news to share with you that will change all of our lives forever. For ninety-seven years, Mount Weather has been our home. It's kept us alive, but it 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 someday return to the ground. That day is today."

My blood freezes in my veins. I sit completely straight, fighting not to be sick. My empty stomach churns like it's threatening to burst.

"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-four criminals that eradiated Level Five, killing sixteen 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-four murderers you're now hiding are the key to doing that. You have one hour to turn them in 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."