Chapter 138

"He's ready."

"Yeah, but are we?"

I was surprised to hear Raven ask this question, then again despite her smarts, she hadn't experienced the true horrors of our relationship with the grounders, at least compared to the rest of us. Surprisingly enough, Luna, who was standing beside her had the same expression, both not wanting to go forward with this kind of experiment.

Maybe Abby, Sinclair, Clarke, and even Miller might forgive these questionable ways if it means saving our people, and the human race, but some of us like Raven or Luna won't simply accept this kind of way, and for a good reason. Despite being the reason more than a thousand grounders are now lying dead, I was also not exactly happy doing something like this, but in the end, if this is the only way to save our people, what's one more dead body to the pile?

Emori, was the only one happy about this decision, mostly because she said that this guy, Baylis or something killed her brother and abuse her.

"The guy's a monster, people. He's the best choice we have."

"We've been over this. None of us wants to do this, but the death wave will be here in 10 days. Luna's stem cells grafted successfully, and Baylis is making Nightblood on his own. This really is our only hope."

"Clarke and Emori are right, besides we really are still arguing about this? The black rain is already here, and two people died in it yesterday at Arkadia. If the Nightblood can let us walk around in it, I, for one, want to know about that."

There's another moment of hesitation before Abby accepts the fact that we would have to do this. She took a deep breath before she turned towards Sinclair and Raven.

"Okay. Sinclair, Raven let's proceed."

"Copy that."

Sinclair reaches for the controls for the chamber, slowly spinning a dial. "Initiating…500 REM."

Even though it felt wrong, all of us watched closely the whole process. Maybe it was luck or maybe the blood worked, but other than the lights that changed, nothing happened. Baylis was still asleep and there was absolutely no reaction from him when the radiations hit him.

"850. This is where we'd see symptoms in a person that doesn't have the Nightblood."

Clarke and her mother move closer to the chamber, getting a better look, searching for any signs of redness or wounds just as Raven checked his vitals.

"Everything is in order with both the blood pressure as well as his temperature. I even dare to say that he's quite comfortable."

"There are no visible effects from radiations on him yet."

"I'll increase the amount then. 1,000 REM….1,500."

"All good here."

"2,000 REM, that's the level of the black rain."

"Still nothing, it's working. We can save everyone"

Hearing Clarke's words, made the Azgeda prince smile for the first time since I'd known him. Meanwhile, under Abby's orders, Sinclair increases the amount of radiation once more. "2,500."

As soon as the radiation reached that amount, everything went wrong. The monitor that was beside the chamber started beeping louder and louder while all over the body of the man, burns start appearing at an alarming rate.

"Mom! Turn it off!"

Sadly, for the man, it was already too late. Baylis woke from whatever anesthetics Abby gave him, screaming as hard as he could. "It stings! It stings! Please help me!"

Right when Baylis woke up, Abby rushed towards the chamber ready to open it when Sinclair grabbed her and dragged her away, not wanting to risk the life of his friend. "Wait! We can't save him, Abby. It's not safe yet!"

Unfortunately, none of us could do anything to help him, and because of that, we were forced to watch in horror as Baylis continues to scream in agony. While it didn't take long for his scream to be replaced by coughing blood in the end the succumbs to his wounds.

Abby, the one who in the first place decided that we would proceed with this experiment watched in horror the body of the man she had just killed.

"What have I done?"

It takes a few more minutes for the chamber to clear up, but as soon as it does, Abby pulls it open, and she and Sinclair transfer the body from the chamber onto a gurney. Reluctantly, she takes one final blood sample from him before covering his body, ready to bury him as soon as the black rain stops.

"Abby, take a look at this."

Before she could properly cover him, Luna grabbed something from his body and showed it to Abby. "The stones of his ancestors."

While Luna was showing Clarke the stone, I was standing beside Abby looking at what Sinclair was pointing.

"What are we looking at Sinclair?"

"Sodium polyethanol sulfonate. It's an additive used to prevent clotting. Looks like the radiation broke it down and caused a chain reaction."

"Does that mean that this isn't necessary for the experiment?"

"Well, Leon, from what I know no, we don't need this additive."

"Wait you two. If we don't need it, what would happen if we remove it?"

"In theory, if we remove it we could save everyone."

I would lie if I were to say that no one was eavesdropping on our conversation and as soon as Sinclair mentioned that we could somehow make this work, they all look at him expecting the impossible to happen.

"You could? So, you're saying this can still work."

"Not without testing, Abby. We can't just do it without…"

"But it would work right?"

"As I said, yes, after we test it."

Suddenly, Raven turns towards Abby, clearly angry by what she had just heard. "The last guy just died, screaming in agony, and you wanna try it again? This time on one of us? Since I don't recall seeing a second grounder that attacked us on this fucking island!"

"What do you even care, Raven? In the end, it would save everyone, so what's wrong with that!"

Hearing both of them arguing made me realize that if I don't step between them then everything would go down south. However, before I could stop Abby from saying something that she would regret, Clarke turns towards Raven, looking guilty and sad.

"Give us a better idea, Raven. Please."

"Let's say we do this Abby. What are we going to do? We just go out there, hunt for someone else and bring them back here?"

"No Murphy, no one's going anywhere in this storm."

"Well if Miller says so, then we wait for it to pass."

Until now, Luna just watched everything quietly, but ever since she saw what happened to the man, her opinion about this thing changed dramatically and now she decided to speak up, not wanting to see anyone die in such a gruesome and painful way.

"You people are monsters! Hunting for someone else to kill. What's the matter with you people? Even Baylis honored the dead, he wore the stones of his Rock Line ancestors. Who will honor him now?"

"Wait, Baylis was Sangedakru."

Almost as soon as Clarke said those words, Emori steps forward, speaking for the first time since the man died. "He was, yet he was also a thief. He probably stole those stones from one of his victims."

Something wasn't adding up, but it wasn't my place to argue, after all, it was either that grounder or one of us, and let's be honest, none of us would have traded our place for that. Besides, it was clear that Emori lied because she was scared Abby would use her as a test subject since she wasn't one of us. At the same time, Roan, glanced at Emori as if he found out a lie in her story. "A thief who didn't bear the mark of Sangedakru."

Clarke looks over at me, and I just nod my head confirming what she had just found out about this whole story. "That wasn't Baylis, was it?"

"Come on Clarke, that's crazy. Of course-"

"Not now, Murphy! Who did we just kill?"

Instead of answering her, Emori grabbed the IV pole and run towards the chamber in an attempt of smashing the machine before she could be thrown into it. Unfortunately for her, Roan who was close to her grabs her and lifts a knife to her throat. Once she was subdued, she shouted at her boyfriend, hoping that he would take her side. "John, take out the machine!"

As soon as he heard his girlfriend's words, Murphy tried to smash the chamber with his metal bat that he had on him, but before he could even move a muscle, my pistol was already resting next to his head. "C'mon Murphy, don't be an idiot."

"Looks like we know who's next."

"No, Roan. Despite what these two tried to do, I won't let Abby or any of you kill her or Murphy."

"Leon, for the love of god, think about it. Let Abby do what we must do."

"I'm already doing that Raven. If you haven't noticed, Miller's already aiming his rifle at you just in case you try to attack me and knock me out so that you could use Emori here. Do you want a test subject so badly? Then use me, after all, you have never liked me."

"I …"

"You can't? Why? Because I'm the only reason we still have mount Weather? Or because I'm one of the few people Arkadia that would do anything to keep my people alive? "Or it is because you realize that I was never the monster you thought I was back on the Ark? Luna's right, right now. We have become the monsters we tried to save ourselves from."

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