Responsible for survival

Walking

CLARKE'S POV

We run down the corridors, desperately trying to not let our feet slam to loudly. Our breathing becomes ragged as we reach the back stair case, Monty guarding the door. We stop running, and gently take each step, stairs rattling with every misstep. My heart hammers against my throat. Monty casts a worried look back over his shoulder. I flash a thumbs up, and keep climbing. The lights, weak and yellow, are strange in this world of harsh white fluorescent ones. The loudness of our shoeless feet on the stairs sends a press of fear into my chest. Harper stops me at the doorway to our floor. She squats to the keyhole, and shines a torch quickly through it. The door creaks open slowly.
Miller's scrunched up face welcomes us to the final straight. He gently pushes the door closed, burying his head into his shoulders as it creaks. We run, skidding on the slippy floor. Murphy stands on the doors, hand casting bouncing shadows in the green security light. He audibly sighs in relief when he sees us. He shuts the door, and pushes the chair against it.
"We did it." I breath out and squeeze Harper's arm. "Good spot."
"What?" The others whisper.
"There was a guard. End of the corridor."
"When?"
"Control room..." she breathes out, and high fives me. "Now we've got to sleep, and come up with a brilliant bullshit story." She sighs, stripping to her vest there. She crawls into her bed, and I slip into mine. As I take off the sling, my shoulder aches. Lactic acid build up isn't a friend to injured muscles.

Cage throws us a dirty look when we walk into breakfast. I smile at him, feigning ignorance. He knows I'm lying. Dante doesn't and grins back. We go and sit with Maya and Jasper, behind their pillar. Maya smiles at us, passes me her notepad. A burning orange sun glows in the middle of the page, small flecks of orange glowing across the rest of it. "IT'S AMAZING!" I can't help myself. I've never seen art like it. I press my hands to my face. Maya grins, flushing bright red.
It also means Bellamy used the secret radio... but that joy is nothing on the awe I feel for Maya's art skills. "We have to do art together. Seriously. Wow... I've never seen ANYONE draw something so well..." Maya look at her plate, ears tipped red. Her grin is massive as I pass it back.
"Wow." Harper peers at it. "THAT is some good art."
"I got bored last night..." she shrugs. Her smile's massive as she picks up her steaming mug.

We walk back to the dorms, Maya's hand clutched tight in Jaspers, Monty and Harper bumping shoulders and blushing. I smirk at Miller. He grins, and leans down "If they get together before Bryan comes down he owes me something." Miller winks and I choke on the laughter.
I elbow Harper when we walk in, raising my eyebrows. She pouts at me. Fox wanders over smirking. Harper groans, covering her face with her hands. "We're going on a gossip walk." Fox giggles. Monty pokes his head round one of the beds, and smirks.
"Gossip walk?" He questions. I glance at Harper. This could be our chance to access the radio...
"Like..." Harper pauses, "When... You know..." She stumbles. Fox sighs theatrically, and you can hear her eyes roll.
"It's a thing, you walk and talk, because people are less likely to overhear your whole conversation and can't judge you..." She pauses, then laughs, nudging me, "Much." Monty grins.
"I'm coming." He laughs. "I want the hot gossip." We grin, and Fox slyly nudges Harper on the shoulder.
"Lead the way." I stifle a laugh.

Monty guesses pretty quickly this isn't a gossip walk, leading us easily to the art store room, loudly talking of how he, Miller, Maya and Jasper had come back to the dorm last night to find Graham hanging upside down. Harper elbows Fox whenever Monty mentions Scott. He gasps as we enter what I'm assuming to be one of the last corridors. "You like Scott?" he breathes, "Oh my..." Monty grins. Fox burns red, and glares at Harper.
"You better not tell him." Fox hisses.
"I won't." He laughs, before casually turning down a one end corridor. A big red door with 'NO ENTRY' plastered over it guards the end. He pushes it open. I glance at Harper before we walk in. The door shuts, pitch black swallows. We stand still, and Fox's small hand presses into mine. I am painfully reminded of her innocence, and squeeze it tightly. Monty walks away, and comes back with a glowing gold torch. "We should be OK for guards, they won't come for about 25 minutes, and there's more than enough hiding places." He laughs, before walking off. Harper hastily walks after him. I clutch Fox's hand and follow them. She doesn't pull away.
Monty drops to his knees, standing the torch shining to the ceiling. Harper stoops and picks it up, lighting Monty crawling through a shelf. "HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!" Harper hisses loudly.
"No..." his head pokes up on the other side, chin poked up over the paintings lined together. Harper passes us the torch and crawls after Monty. She pokes up the other side.
"Go." I whisper letting go of Fox's sweaty hand. She swallows, then drops under the shelf. She stops half way down, and an odd noise, like jamming food processors comes out of her. "You OK?"
"The skull's fine, just a statue."
"It's MASSIVE" She yelps, not moving.
"It's a hiding place." Monty states. Fox breathes deeply, and starts crawling. I quickly follow, almost banging my head as I stand up. Fox is shaking, Harper already draped round her. I squeeze them tight, arms round their warm bodies. Monty already walks further ahead, to a painting, swirling loops of ghostly bodies, entering a man's head. That is definitely not a radio. Monty stumbles on his tip toes, and holds both sides of the picture frame. Our arms drop off Fox, and we lurch forward.
There's no wall behind the painting.
Wires line the gap, a rainbow of glimmering electrical hazards. And on the thick wall, a black box balances. Monty cusses daintily, and shoves his hand behind the wall. He pulls up a smaller black box. A microphone. THIS is the radio. Monty presses the large grey button.
"Come in solar flare, this is the sun." He calls. "Come in solar flare, this is the sun." A woman's voice comes through the radio.
"Password?"
"Lexa, you don't need the password when you've used the code names."
"WOW great Roan, now they know my name."
"They both of your names now." I look at Harper, and grin slowly spreading over my face.
"Lexa?" I take the microphone off Monty.
"Hi Clarke. You guys alright?" Lexa's voice is conversational. I snort.
"No, we have no idea when they're going to start the operations. You?" I mimic her conversational tone.
"We're alright."
"Wait, why are you..." I teeter off, unsure how to ask why they're in our camp and alone in the dropship.
"Oh, Bellamy's on guard duty, Raven's gone somewhere, and Monroe's trying to get as much out of the prisoner as she can." Lexa reels off matter-of-factly.
"PRISONER?" I splutter. Harper gasps.
"Yeah... She wants as much as she can get about the treatments out of him." Lexa sighs.
"Since when did we have a prisoner?"
"Oh." Lexa sounds surprised, "Since they took you, Bellamy stopped Monroe killing him so he could save you, but they'd already taken you." She slowly gets quieter and the others step closer.
"Okay... Can you bring her down?" Harper leans over and asks.
"Who's with you?"
"Harper, Monty and Fox." I explain, "Can you get Monroe, without getting on the camera?" I know there are people in there, probably watching the camp. It twists my gut, and I swallow down the sick that crawls up my throat.
"Yeah... The prisoner's on the top floor of the dropship."
"Nice..."
"IS SHE USING ELECTRICAL TORTURE?" Monty splutters, snatching the radio.
"No?" Lexa goes as if we're stupid, as if we should know everything going on at our dropship.
"She's kneed him in the balls a couple of times, hit him round the face and tightened his bonds. And he's told her everything." Indra says. There's a touch of pride in her voice.
"Indra!" I sigh in relief. "Did Octavia come with you?" I ask, hopeful. I doubt O would be dead without Bellamy telling me but doesn't mean Indra didn't leave her safe in Polis.
"Yeah... Her and Lincoln are upstairs, one of your kids fell off the climbing frame and broke their arm." Harper snatches it out my hand.
"WHO?" She sounds desperate, and a wild look comes over her eyes.
"Erm, Alice? I think." Harper swallows, and passes me the radio back. Fox rubs her back soothingly.
"Yeah, Alice, she has brown hair." The deep voice cuts.
"Who are you?" I ask.
"King Roan kom Azgeda."
"Oh..." I grimace. Monty shrugs. There's a moment of silence.
"CLARKE! HARPER! MONTY! FOX!" Monroe's relieved voice comes through the radio. "You're OK." She breathes deeply. "Thank gods."
"We heard you have a prisoner missy." I laugh.
"I do..." Monroe laughs. "His name's Jack, he's married with a kid. I killed his best friend, who has a wife and three kids, a set of twins and a toddler. His favourite colour is silver and his wife's is bronze." She snorts after reeling off the list.
"Oh... All that from a knee in the balls?"
"No..." Monroe laughs, "All that from looking at him... Almost killing people gets you places." She laughs again, and it's pained.
"What's wrong?" I ask softly. Monroe sighs.
"You mean beyond getting flashbacks of you and Bellamy having sex? Everything." She laughs again, short and sharp. She sighs. "I can get Bell for you... OH and you've got seven minutes until a guard comes..."
"Ah... Right... Well tell us with like four minutes so we can hide."
"Okay... What can you tell us about inside? We need the details a mountain born wouldn't think of."
"The doors to the outside are only connected to the main building by three lifts and a rickety set of back stairs. The back set of stairs and loud and echo-y, but we've used them a couple of times for sneaking around. Oh, our room is on the same floor as the canteen. Maya's home is three floors down from there, and it's directly two floors above the control room..." I pass the radio to Harper.
"There's lots of place to hide. Lots. I played hide and seek around our floor with the kids two days ago and nearly lost Amaya. There are staircases connecting the main floors but they're well patrolled and constantly watched... and they have giant water pipes next to them on our floor, so Amaya hid behind it. You could've hid nearly all of them behind it."
"Oh, guys, you have five minutes..." Monroe calls. "Come back after if you can, but if you can't, we love you and we're getting you out."
"We love you to." I whisper, before turning it off. I tuck the microphone in between the wall and the radio box. Monty nods, before picking up the painting. Harper spots him as he lifts it. I smirk at Fox, who giggles. Monty guides us around the shelves, pointing at gaps behind paintings leant against walls, and sculptures that if hollow could hide us all with space to spare. Fox wiggles into a gap behind a pile of paintings. I hide behind a thick, realistic tree sculpture. Monty take Harper to the skull. They settle, and Monty flicks the torch off. Marching feet stamp into the area, and I breath out my mouth, heart hammering so loud I'm surprised they don't realise I'm here. "It's finneee Gianne." A sickly voice hisses. "The guard won't be through for ages." The voice laughs. There's muffled sobbing. "Oh stop being a baby..." The voice sighs. "I'm not going to do anything THAT bad." Anger courses through my veins, and if the next set of footsteps weren't paired with a cold sweeping bright light, I'd probably have jeopardised us all.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, Jack?" The deep voice cuts. I hold my breath.
"Erm..." HE squeaks. "Showing Gianne the lovely art work in here." His voice squeaks. I try not to sigh.
"Of course you were. Come on." The guard spits. "You OK Gianne?" She's keeps crying. There's the buzz of radio. "Can someone please get Mrs Baraka and Mr Lue Senior to come to the level 7 entry for the art store to pick up their kids... And can someone send in a request of probation and removal of 'The Truth' for Jack Lue Junior." The guard barks down the radio. There's a gasp of mortal pain from the boy, Jack.
"No... Please... Not 'The Truth'... I need it."
"To what?" The feet begin to march, followed by shuffling of the girl, whose sobs are echoing down the halls. "Attempt to rape more girls?" the voices get fainter, till we can barely hear them. Monty flicks on the torch. "We're not staying. He has to do his complete route... We'll have to go via Maya's." He whispers, shielding the torch with his fingers. It suddenly seems awfully bright.