28: W e L i v e o r W e D i e
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[PREVIOUSLY: Octavia takes her stand against Clarke and Bellamy when she realises that she is wavering in her loyalty to her people. In the meanwhile, Finn, Harper, Monty, and Bryce trek out into grounder-ridden territory. Finn is knifed by a poisonous blade and now Clarke needs her mother's help to extract it].
BANG. BANG. BANG.
"Raven? Let me up! Hurry! It's urgent!"
I desperately smashed at the trap door leading to the upper level of the drop-ship. Tears burned the back of my eyes and blurred my vision. The panic that was racing through my body left a fazed fog of my mind.
All I knew for sure was that I needed to talk to Raven ... straight away!
A muffled noise occurred from the other end of the closed door. Something scraped sharply against the upstairs floor, then the sound of a bolt being slid from a lock reached my ears.
CREAK.
The trap door was pulled open and Raven's head appeared in the opening. "What?" she demanded, annoyed. "It can't be that important!"
"Have you fixed the radio yet?" I countered quickly.
Raven huffed, rolled her eyes and moved as if to slam the door shut in my face. However, before she could do so, I stretched my muscles and heaved myself up through the opening and onto the upstairs floor.
Raven's eyes widened when she saw how fast I had reacted. "W-what's really going on?" she asked, her words laced with suspicion.
"It's Finn," I whispered, ducking my head so I wouldn't have to look her in the eye. "He - he's been hurt ... by a grounder."
A loud cry burst from Raven's lips as she strode over to me and grabbed my shoulders. "What happened?" she yelled. "Is he okay? Is the injury bad? Come on, TELL ME!"
I lifted my hands and placed them over Raven's. "Raven," I said gently. "It's bad. He was stabbed in the chest with a knife; it's been poisoned. Clarke doesn't know how to extract it without doing damage to his inside organs. He could internally bleed to death if she doesn't do it right. That's why she needs help."
"Help? From who?"
"Abigail Griffin," I responded with a dead-calm.
"A-are you serious?" Raven gaped at me. "Abby's on the Ark. I - I'm not even close to fixing the radio yet, how could you possibly expect me to ..."
I quickly cut her off. "Raven, we're running out of time. Clarke says that if she doesn't take out the knife in the next hour, Finn will be dead. C'mon, Raven, think! Is there anything else besides the radio that we could use to contact the Ark? Anything at all?"
Raven hesitated. "Uh ... well ... " she backed away from me, deep in thought. Then, her eyes brightened. "Wait! When I was downstairs earlier, I noticed the length of wires that used to be connected to the P.A! We - we could use them to transmit a S.O.S signal to the Ark or - or even better, fuse the wires back together, connect them to the radio's black box and broadcast an accurate frequency that should bounce back into the atmosphere! We - we could talk to the Ark!"
I couldn't help but smile. "You're brilliant Raven! Yes! Do it ... now!"
"Hang on, there's a catch," Raven grabbed my arm. "Octavia, this won't work without an electricity flow to spark the wire plugs. If we don't have any power, there's no way I can get those wires running - even with days and days of work."
My heart sank. I shook my head. "We don't have any electricity down here!"
Raven smirked. "Yes we do."
"We do?"
"Yeah. I'm gonna need your wristband."
I stared at her and then down at the silver cylinder shaped metal clasped onto my wrist.
"These wristbands are still connecting us to the Ark!" Raven explained. "They're the one and only thing that I can use to transfer onto the main stream so I can transmit a signal!"
"But Raven, the wristbands die the minute you take them off," I frowned.
"And that's why I'm gonna have to hook you up to the P.A. wires ... so when I take the wristband off, the electricity that is in it will immediately spark up the system," Raven told me gravely. "B-but Octavia ... if this plan backfires, if the current re-circumnavigates through your body, if you get electrified, you will die. With the amount of volts that are in this wristband ... well, if they re-enter your body, your brain would fry instantly."
I gazed at the brunette for a long moment. Then I smiled and nodded. "Hook me up, Reyes. Today, we either live ... or we die."
A few moments later, Raven and I clattered noisily back downstairs, our arms heavy with tools and the radio.
"Make way!" Raven yelled at the growing cluster of people that were gathering in the drop-ship. "Make way!"
"O, what's going on?" Bellamy demanded as he strode towards the two of us.
"Raven knows how to contact the Ark," I explained briefly as I chucked Raven's mechanic bag onto a nearby table. "It's not going to be easy, but she can do it."
"Oh, thank God!" Clarke exclaimed as she hurried forward. "Raven ... how?"
Raven cast a sideways glance at me before responding, "First of all, I need everyone to clear out so I can concentrate and second of all, just trust me. I know what I'm doing."
"We can't," Bellamy shot back.
"You can't what?" I repeated in confusion.
"We can't clear out. There's a strong wind blowing in from the west," he shrugged. "We've tied down all the tents and any loose items but all of us have to stay in here until it passes. There's not enough protection out there to shelter us from the storm."
"Great. When things couldn't possibly get worse," Raven huffed. "Fine. But most of you have to stay upstairs, understood?"
Bellamy nodded as he turned around to face everyone. "Alright, you heard the girl, get your asses upstairs, NOW! C'mon, move it!"
Raven rolled her eyes at Bellamy's choice of words as she knelt down to examine the cable of wires that were running the length of the drop-ship floor. "This is gonna take some time," she murmured, more to herself than to me.
"Raven," I leaned over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You can do this."
Raven nodded and bit her lip to keep her emotions in check. "Alright. Then let's do it."
By the time everyone had reassembled upstairs, the only people left down on the lower level of the drop-ship was Raven, Bellamy, Clarke, Monty, Jasper, an injured Finn and I. Bellamy refused to stay upstairs; instead he helped Clarke shut the drop-ship doors and stood watch, seeing as the two grounders that we had captured were locked up only a couple metres away.
No one except Raven and I knew the risk that we were about to take. Everyone else just took it for granted that Raven needed my wristband and that was that. Even Clarke didn't have any objections this time round.
Raven and Monty spent nearly half an hour fusing the wires back together. But with the hardest part behind them, things moved along quickly after that.
As Raven plugged some of the wires into the radio's black box, Monty seated me down on a chair and began to unscrew the bolts holding my wristband together. Raven completed her task a few minutes later and then set about placing the remaining wires on my upper chest and forearms.
"W-what are you doing?" Monty demanded, his eyebrows quirked in confusion.
"Shut-up Green," Raven hissed.
"Wait. Raven!" Monty gasped. "Y-you're hooking Octavia up to the wires? You know she could die right?"
"I said, shut-up!" Raven whisper-yelled.
"Is there a problem over here?" Bellamy called out from his position a couple paces away.
"Nope! No problem!" I nodded reassuringly at my brother as I raised a warning finger at Monty. As soon as Bellamy had diverted his attention elsewhere, I turned to gaze at Monty. "I'll be fine, okay. Just - just trust Raven."
Monty swallowed hard. "You could fry to death, Octavia."
"I know. But if it means that Finn lives, then that's a risk I'm willing to take," I told him, reaching down to squeeze his hand.
Monty sighed and nodded as he removed the last of the bolts from my wristband. He glanced questioningly over at Raven, who was flicking on the radio switches. Slowly, she turned back around and looked at me.
"It's time."
I exhaled shakily and leaned back in my seat, clasping the sides of the chair until my knuckles grew white.
"Monty ... remove the wristband," Raven's solemn voice cut through the air.
With trembling hands, Monty complied. He grasped the clasp of my wristband and quickly snapped it open.
BAM.
I gasped in pain as a sudden bolt of electricity shot rapidly through my arm towards the wires on my chest.
A low sparking sound occurred as the electric current reached the wires ... but then, the current abruptly diverted and travelled back through my body towards the wires hooked up on my arms.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.
A singe of pain pricked my chest and I made an incoherent gurgling sound in response. I felt my jaw clench tight and my entire body tense up. Salvia frothed up in my mouth and burst through my lips. Drop of blood trickled down my chest and I let out a scream of agony that echoed throughout the room.
Wave after wave of pain engulfed me with welcome arms and I felt my body start to shut down. Helplessly, I started shaking all over ... I was seizing.
My brain immediately clouded over and I couldn't even tell who the hazed figures in front of me were anymore. My eyesight quickly diminished and my mind began to black out.
Everything went still.
"Octavia! Wake up! Octavia!"
A concerned voice pierced my skull. Slowly, groggily I came back from the edge of the dark abyss that I had been standing on.
My eyes flickered open and I stared right up into the warm brown ones of my brother, Bellamy.
"B-Bell?" I choked out, a stream of blood projecting down my chin. "W-what? What happened?"
"You just saved us, O," he whispered as he fondly ran his fingers through my hair.
My eyes widened as I gazed up at him. "W-what?"
"Calling Ark ship. Calling Ark station. Can anyone hear me?" Raven's voice sounded from my left.
With a little difficulty I turned my head and watched as she spoke urgently into the radio set up on the table in front of her.
"Calling Ark station. Does anyone copy? This is Raven Reyes," she repeated, a desperate tone surging through her words.
The loud sound of static suddenly played through the sound system as a disconcerted voice responded to her plea for help. "This is a restricted channel. Who is this? Please identify yourself."
Raven squealed in delight as she seized the radio and yelled into it, "This is Raven Reyes. I'm transmitting from the ground. The 100 are alive, I repeat, the 100 are alive!"
I leaned back against my seat and uttered a low laugh. We had done it. We had contacted the Ark.
"Please ... we need your help," Raven said. "We need to speak to Doctor Abby Griffin ... now."
Gif: Octavia as she starts to seize. Btw, I'm sorry this chapter is a bit long. :/
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