Responsible for survival

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MONTY'S POV

Maya hurriedly charges round the corridors, bringing us in her wake, and we cram into the lift, with a grinning guard in it. Maya's eyes bug a little, but she makes polite small talk. His kids have their vaccinations tomorrow. Twins. Maya's administering them. She drags us all out and walks faster when we reach our floor. The door slams against the wall behind her. I shut it cautiously. She turns up the radio. Graham looks up from his game of cards with the older little kids and Scott, and frowns, confused. Jasper runs over to her. "What's-" she doesn't let him get the word out, her lips slamming into his. He turns bright red, but kisses her back softly, shyly, hyper aware we're all there. Her hand presses lightly on his chest. They come up for air, both red. I clap, cheering. FINALLY. Harper whistles. Clarke grins, wide mouthed. Miller bounces up and down on his toes, clapping. I don't know why that warrants us being dragged away from the radio, but the tension has left Maya's shoulders. She breathes a couple of times, grins at him, then grabs his hand and pulls him to us. The others begin to go back to what they're doing. Graham's gaze lingers for moment, but he looks away. Fox flicks Maya a thumbs up, still smiling. The smile fades from Maya's face, but she doesn't let go of Jasper's hand. She's squeezing it tightly, his fingers are going purple. "I have bad news." She says through a grin. "I need you two to come with us." She nods at Miller and me. "Clarke, Harper, do NOT let anyone leave." She winks at them, and Harper nods repeatedly, grin wide and confused. Maya tears out, dragging Jasper behind her. Miller shrugs and saunters after them. I look at Harper. "Go." She grins. "I promise I'll be careful." I nod, and it takes everything in me not to hug her. Something's wrong.

I run after the others, already halfway down the corridor. Jasper has his other arm round Maya's shoulder's. Miller looks mildly grossed out. "Erm, did you make us come with you to watch you two have PDA because like, nooo..." I call. Maya throws me a dirty look, and leads us into a lift. It's empty this time. Miller opens his mouth to talk and Maya sends a nuclear death glare at him. Jasper strokes her shoulder. "That was a much better way to tell them than my way." He laughs.
"Tell us what?" I ask, arching an eyerow.
"We're together."
"WHAT?" I grin. Miller taps my shoulder excitedly. I can't stop smiling, but Maya's still seems forced. She drags us out onto a new floor. Jasper walks comfortably, not fazed by the number of doors. I wouldn't count their relationship as bad news... Jasper stops at one of the doors, and goes to open it. Maya yanks him further onwards. "Maya...? That's...?"
"I know." She says coldly. "We're not going in that door." She pulls us down a small side corridor. A large red door with capslocked 'NO ENTRY' squats at the end of the corridor. Maya pushes past it, and it creaks open. She waits for us all to come in before gently shutting the door. "Stay there." She calls. She walks into the dusty darkness. Miller's shoulder bumps against mine and Jasper steps back onto my foot. "Ow?" I whisper.
"Sorry." He whispers.

A blinding amber light hits our eyes. I blink, squinting purple spots out of my vision. The beam drops. Maya holds a small torch. She begins to navigate the stacks of wood. "This is the store room." She whispers. "Technically not allowed to be here... but no one really cares anymore. Dante brought most of it into main view." She takes a sharp right and ducks under a shelf. I raise my eyebrows at Jasper. He crawls after her. Me and Miller scramble under it. An eerie, dead eyed skeletonal face grins chaotically at me through dusty cobwebs. . Maya turns deeper into the warren, before stopping at a large pictue of swirling clouds, wait no, not clouds. Bodies. Swirling up and round and round in curvy loop the loops, towards an exploding grey circle above a faceless man. A chill plays the xylophone on my spine. Maya stands on tip toe, and takes the picture off the wall. There's no wall behind it. Wires run their own wall, red, blue, green, gold, brown, yellow, silver. Maya gently places the painting against the wall and walks over to the skull head, and stick her arm into it's mouth. I recoil as cobwebs lace her arm, but lean in again as she pulls out a black box and a curly wire. She puts them outside of the shelf gently, and sticks her arm in again, reaching further for something. Maya leans against it, the majority of her arm inside the skull. I walk over and pick up the black box. It's heavy. Maya pulls out a microphone. She crawls out from between the shelves. "You two know how to build a radio right?" she asks, looking at me and Miller. I nod. "Good. Pink wire, thick one at the back is the one you'll want to use. It's connects to the main radio broadcaster on the surface. Connect it to that, and find a frequency you can tell the others to get on without being obvious on the main radio."Maya nods at us. "The guard's shifts are meant to be every half an hour, but today's a Tuesday. It's Hugh. He walks slowly, likes to look at the art. He's also lax with his control of his torch. Hide behind the skull." She looks at us again, and presses the microphone into miller's hand. "When you're done, put the radio on silent and place it GENTLY on the wall. Put the picture back up and go out under the shelf." She breathes in deeply. "Go to the other wall and follow it along until you see a statue of medusa. Next to it is a small grating, about two feet high, open it and climb in. You're in my wardrobe. Knock on the wardrobe door twice." She intertwines her fingers with Jasper's and begins to walk away.
"Why?"
"Do you want to talk to your friends or not?" Maya hisses, the torchlight making her look possessed. She pulls Jasper under the shelf.

We finish setting it up as the torch beam sweeps round the corner. Miller flicks ours off. I stand on my tiptoe and gently place the painting over the hole. Shuffling feet echo round the storage area. I crawl to the skull, and Miller presses against me. The torch swings onto the picture. It looks eerier in the cold white shine of military torches. I hold my breath. His legs, short and stumpy dawdle past us. The light shines round the corner, and I count another few seconds before breathing out. We hurry as quietly as we can to find the Medusa statue. We walk into it. It towers above us, snakes writhing almost realistically. My gut drops like a stone, and I drop to my knees, searching for a grate. Miller slips round the other side. "Found it!" he whispers. I walk over to him.
"That is so not two foot." I whisper, helping him pull it up. I expect it to screech, but it doesn't. It opens silently. Miller drops to his stomach, and wiggles under the lid. He sticks his arm back through, holding it open for me. I wiggle along the cold floor, face brushing against dust. I curl into the wardrobe, soft fabrics tickling my nose. Miller gently closes the grate. I scooch over to the door and knock twice. A bed creaks, and light shines on us. We blink. "Done?" Relief rolls over Maya's face. We climb out. It's pretty in Maya's room. A single bed, plain white bedding with a daintly M stitched into the corner, flowers slowly spreading up the blanket, and the same on the pillow. Jasper grins at us. "Hey!" He high fives us. The tension in Maya is reflected in Jasper. He knows the real bad news.

We walk to of Maya's room, her dad asleep on the sofa. It's cosy in there, photos of a pretty woman and a few art peices. Maya closes and locks the door behind us. "Dad doesn't like randoms coming in." She smiles. She forces herself to seem happy, waving at one of the kids who walk out their room. The mother smiles at her, which turns into a disapproving one when she sees her clutching Jasper's hand. We walk to the lift, and a wave of teenage boys pour out. They stop when they see us. Maya drops Jasper's hand. The teenagers stop in front of us, sweaty from the gym. Jasper tries to steer Maya away, but she's locked in battle of glares with one of the boys, blonde. Maya loses, gaze crashing to the ground, ears burning. "So which ones your boy friend Vie? All of them? Getting them to tell you the wonders of the outside we'll never get to see?" The one in the middle smirks. Maya grins, and looks back up at him, pulling her neck up. The boy's eyes flash down her shirt.
"I know you signed up for 'The Truth', Jack." She spits his name like it's poison. "You won't like it." she struts past, and into the lift. We hurry after her. The doors slam behind me. We zoom up. She's practically vibrating with anger. Jasper opens his mouth.
"Don't." She snaps. The harshness of her voice hits us all. "You don't want to know..." she whispers, deep brown eyes flooding with tears. She walks fast to our dorm. She pushes the doors open.

The dorm's in chaos. Kids leap from bunk bed to bunk bed, Graham is tied upside down to one of the beds, screaming at the kids to calm down. Amaya is chasing Scott down with a yellow marker. Charlotte is tucked under one of the beds, shooting cards at socked feet. Joel pauses, one leg about to take off the bunk bed to the nearest one to us. "MONTY!" he yells, catapulting onto the next bed, and lying across it, his chin poking over the railing. "The floor's Lava!" I crinkle my eyebrows.
"Oh NO!" Maya yells, forcing herself to smile, and leaping onto the bottom bunk. "Quick boys, or you'll burn." Jasper practically jumps on top of her, and they laugh, faces close together. Scott jumps onto my back. I stumble forward. Jasper kisses Maya.
"Help." Scott wails in my ear. "Harper, Clarke and Fox went for a walk and the kids went mad." Amaya giggles, running closer, waving the marker in the air. I stand up straight and Scott falls off. I scoop Amaya up how Harper does: arms under hers. She laughs, legs and arms spiralling. Miller ducks each wild arm and steps back. "Amaya calm down. Drop the pen." I say, lifting her higher. She's heavier than she looks.
"Will one of you buggers help me!?" Graham yells, his face red. Charlotte throws a wave of cards at him. Miller runs to him, jumping over skidding kids.
"THE FLOORS LAVA MILLER! YOU'LL DIE!" Lilith screams, and throws him a pair of pillows. He scoops them up, and hops from one to the other, and starts to help Graham. Amaya finally drops the pen. I kick it to the corner, and plop her on Jasper and Maya's kissing session on the bunk.
"GUYS!" I stand in the middle of the room, waving my arms. "STOP!" I yell. Kids stand still on the beds, and the loud laughter stops. Charlotte sends out a half hearted spurt of cards. I cross my arms and glare at her. "Okayyy." I draw it out. "Calming down time. The floor is no longer lava. Let's... let's clean up." I walk over, and flick on the radio and turn it up. Graham slumps to the floor as Miller lets him down. I take his arms as Miller picks up his legs. We wobble to his bed, and place him in it. Kids complain as they climb down from beds, scooping up pillows and throwing them onto beds.