Something Always Survives: Chapter Four
“She hasn’t even been gone that long,” he heard Echo groan, but Bellamy refused to respond. He kept walking the perimeter of his cell.
“It’s longer than normal,” Murphy argued, and Bellamy swallowed. At least one other person in here recognized what Bellamy did… that Clarke had been gone for too long.
“It’s her first session. Maybe that’s why it’s taking so long,” Wells suggested, as Bellamy bit his lip. He vaguely remembers Wells’ first session taking a long time, but Echo’s didn’t. Then again, Echo said Clarke was more like Wells than them.
“What happened in your first one?” Echo asked, and Bellamy switched directions, now walking counterclockwise.
“From what I could tell, a lot of blood work. I was really dizzy for a while afterwards,” Wells mused, and Bellamy let out a huff. While he was glad that he was knocked out for whatever torture the doctors put them all through, he also desperately wanted to know what they were doing.
He spent most of his first year here trying to figure it out, asking his fellow inmates questions, looking for clues as to what they all had in common. He thought that finding the common factor would help him. But, it only gave him more questions.
It wasn’t until Sterling mentioned Becca that it started to click for Bellamy. He vaguely remembered a woman named Becca who would come by his house when he was really young and sick. His mom couldn’t afford whatever treatment he needed, but someone recommended that she reach out to Becca. She offered to perform a few experimental treatments on Bellamy, and warned his mother that it might not work.
Bellamy still didn’t know what she did to him, but, whatever it was, it worked. This Becca person had brought him back from the brink of death.
As each new inmate came in, they would have similar stories about her. Some barely remembered her, some had much clearer memories of her… but, none knew exactly what she did to them. But, whatever it was she did, Bellamy knew that Cage and Lorelei were trying to replicate it.
They frequently got stuck, taking more risks with some of the newer bodies here. But, occasionally, they would find a new subject that would help them along. Then, they would go through periods like now, where they focused a lot of attention to the new subject, giving the other four a much-needed break.
“Probably just collecting data, then. But, I’m pretty sure they did that when Clarke first arrived,” Murphy huffed, and Bellamy could tell that Murphy was getting as flustered as he was. The two of them had been here the longest, had seen what happened to Sterling, to Roma, to Monroe… to too many others. They never spoke about it, but there was an unspoken rule that they no longer shared their theories with the new ones. There wasn’t really a point. It always gave them a sense of hope, and broke Bellamy and Murphy’s hearts when that hope died… when they stopped hearing their friend’s voice on the other side of a wall.
“Maybe they already killed her,” Echo muttered, and Bellamy’s head jerked up.
“Don’t say shit like that. You know that’s Bellamy’s prison wife,” Murphy teased, and Bellamy let out a loud groan.
“Knock it off,” Bellamy snapped, clenching his jaw, as he picked up the pace of his walking. Then, Bellamy heard the click of Clarke’s door. He quietly tiptoed over to the corner, hearing Cage’s faint footsteps, followed by the sound of something being dropped on the bed. Bellamy let out a breath, realizing that Clarke had to still be alive.
He noticed that the others had stopped talking all together, and Bellamy wondered what Cage must think about that. He was pretty certain that Cage didn’t have audio surveillance over them, so this must be the only time he could hear them talking freely to each other. Bellamy wondered if Cage even cared about what they talked about.
As soon as he heard the door click again, Bellamy let out a breath, and could sense the others calming down too. But, this calm was short lived, since Bellamy immediately heard the gas start in another cell.
“Whose is it?” Bellamy asked frantically, since it wasn’t his or Clarke’s.
“Echo,” Murphy said, and then the noise got even louder. “Fuck!” he heard Murphy shout.
“Wells, what’s going on?” Bellamy shouted.
“It’s Murphy too,” Wells said, his voice catching slightly. Bellamy blinked a few times, not understanding. They never took more than one of them at once, and never so soon after bringing one back.
Then, the noise got louder again, drowning out the muffled coughs from Echo and Murphy.
“They’re taking you too, aren’t they?” he heard Wells ask, as Bellamy felt the gas start in his cell too.
Something Always Survives
