Chapter Twenty-Two: Lexa

Chapter Twenty-Two
~ Lexa ~
I stared in disbelief at Grey and S, my anger growing.
“I cannot believe you two!” I shouted.
Something had made me walk down to the exit closest to the village. I walked there thinking I could get some clarity on the situation that was about to happen in a few hours, only to find Grey and Aspen gasping for air as if they had been running. It turns out, they had been.
“You put us all in danger! And for what?!” I was livid.
“Listen, Lex, I can explain.” Grey tried to reason.
“I’d expect something like this from Grey,” I continued, completely ignoring him. “But from you, S? I can’t believe you’d go along with this!”
“I thought he was going to kill me,” She shrugged, still fairly breathless.
“What?!” Grey looked at her in surprise. “How could you think that?”
“I don’t know. You hated me, then you were being nice, and it was weird.”
“I never -”
“Enough!” I bellowed, cutting him off. “Team meeting. NOW!”

I turned away from them, and they fell silent and followed me. I sat down on the rock while I let Grey wake up Jax and Will. I knew he had to do it because if he did he could warn them, give them his side before I yelled more.
S sat by me silently. She seemed numb to everything. Maybe she was. But that didn’t let her off the hook.
“What’s this about, Lex?” Jax asked.
He looked as though he had been woken from a dead sleep.
I shot him a glare as he sat down next to Aspen.
“Oh, she’s mad at me, can’t you tell?” S responded sarcastically, which only added to my anger.
“Why?” He looked back and forth from me to S.
“Where is Will? And where did Grey disappear to?” I demanded.
“Will’s on duty.” Jax answered, giving me a worried look. “Grey’s looking for him.”
“What, Jax?” I snapped when I noticed he didn’t look away.
“Lex. You only came back to us yesterday.” He started. “You look pale. You don’t have to be okay yet. You need to rest.”
“I’m fine.” I answered shortly.
Jax rolled his eyes and was about to argue, but Will and Grey finally showed up.
“Lex,” Will squeezed my shoulder. “Why are you mad?”
His voice was calm. He was always calm. It made me more mad.
“Because they nearly blew everything! And worse they were almost caught!”
I heard a round of sharp breaths around me. It was Will who spoke first.
“Oh, that’s why you’re upset.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
“You were afraid we were going to end up like you and Will.” Grey all but smiled.
“No!” I exclaimed in frustration. “That’s not it. I’m mad because your stupid idea put us all in danger.”
“No worse than it would have been when we led everyone there tomorrow!” Grey argued.
“They could have been gone tomorrow!”
“Or there could have had more!”
“And we would have had back-up!”
“We would have been risking the lives of everyone!” Grey yelled back at me. “We have kids in our care, Lex! We can’t just take uncalculated risks. I had a hunch that something was wrong about it, and I was right. Drop it and let’s move on.”
I glared at him, but he was right. I was still mad, but he was partially right.
“So what now?” I asked, feeling suddenly very tired.
“I don’t know,” Grey answered, looking at all of us. “We just can’t go back there, and we can’t stay here. We’ll freeze soon.”
“I have an idea,” S spoke up, looking nervous.
“Whatcha got for us, City girl?”
“I don’t know if it’s a death wish, but I think I know where an abandoned government building is, and it should fit everyone in these tunnels and buy us some time.”
We all exchanged glances before realizing S was once again, our only hope. And once again, we had no idea the dangers it would invoke.
“S, you, Will and I will go check it out. We’ll leave as soon as possible because as soon as those people you stopped get back, we can guarantee our woods are not going to be safe to travel through. Jax, you will stay here and keep watch. Signal us if anything goes wrong. And Grey, stay out of our fucking way.”
Grey narrowed his eyes at me in anger.
“I’m sorry, I don’t take orders from you,Lexa. And it’s not fair, Aspen gets to go and she went out with me. I’m going too.” He sounded half dangerous and half child-like.
“Aspen is going because she is the only one who knows the way.” I replied. “But fine. If we get caught, I’m sacrificing you first.”
I knew it was cold, but I didn’t care. I just got up and walked away. I was livid still. They were treating this like it was just a game. Like there weren’t lives at stake. Okay, so they knew there were lives at stake. But they hadn’t been in those prison things. Their bodies didn’t still hurt from those poisons. They didn’t know fully what we were up against.
“Lexa?” Will called as he entered my tent. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I snapped.
“You’re lying.” He retaliated, moving to put his arms around my waist. “Why don’t you sit this one out? Grey, Aspen and I will be fine. You and Jax can keep watch here and start preparing our people.”
I pulled away from him.
“No.”
“Lexa, please. You’re clearly not ready. Your anger isn’t going to do anyone any good.”
I looked at him in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he was defending them.
“Fine.” I replied, grabbing my backpack. “I’ll go myself. Wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or egos.”
“Lex!” Will called after me as I stormed my way to the exit. “Why the hell are you so mad?”
“Because!” I answered exasperatedly, fighting the tears that were threatening my eyes. “They could have died or worse! They could have been test rats! It’s no fun being a fucking test rat!”
We were out in the open. Everyone could see us. They were all watching. Will and I were at a standstill. But I wasn’t expecting Grey to walk right up between us and wrap me up in one of his tight hugs.
“I’m sorry,” He whispered in my ear. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry, Lexa.”
I started to cry. I felt like a child. But I couldn’t help it. It was all too much, so Grey lifted me with ease and took me back to my tent.
“Will,” He stated in as gentle and calm of a voice as Grey has. “Take Jax and Aspen and go find this building. I don’t want to be a test rat. And I don’t want anyone else to be a test rat. Lex and I will handle things here.”
Will nodded and turned to leave, but Grey called him back. “And Will?”
“Yea?” He asked.
“Make sure Aspen doesn’t get too in over her head.”
Will smiled. “I’ll ask you to do the same here.”
Grey nodded and I was left to wonder what on earth they meant by that.