Chapter Twenty-Four: Lexa

Chapter Twenty-four
~ Lexa ~

I sighed as I packed my tent away for what seemed like the millionth time in my life. I felt embarrassed about the way I had broken down earlier. I had been so mad and scared and overwhelmed. But I was fine now. Grey had helped me calm down. He was like this older brother to me that sometimes was a total dick, but sometimes, he remembered to show he cared. A rarity. But so was Grey with hope. For the first time in years, he was being I don’t even know, but the best I could describe it was, he was more human. In fact, he was so hopeful that S was going to pull through for us, that it was his idea to tell everyone to pack up. I was less certain of this decision. Not that I didn’t trust S. I did. I had no choice but to trust her. But what if it wasn’t up to par? What if they got caught along the way? What if they got eaten by vengeful animals? Okay, so that might be a little overdramatic. But I had already made one mistake crying in front of everybody. We did not need another.
“Hey, you good?” Grey asked, walking over to me when he saw my hands had stopped moving.
“Yea,” I replied, trying to smile. “Yea, I’m fine.”
“Lexa…” He started.
“Don’t Lexa me,” I interrupted. “We have a lot of stuff to pack up. I don’t need another lecture.”
Grey looked angry at me for a split second before his face went back to normal. Him and I had butted heads for as long as we’d be in charge, but we had always agreed that our people came first, and whatever our decisions were, they had to benefit everybody. And it worked most of the time. Usually after a heated argument or two. But there was limited time to argue anymore. I still thought that them leaving last night was a mistake, but the subject was closed, and I had to get over whatever it was I was feeling. That meant no more talking about it. I was fine.
Grey knew the rules of the game nearly as well as I did. He knew better than to ask again even though he looked like he wanted to.
Luckily, Jax came barreling down the tunnel, looking like his pants were on fire.
I stood up immediately.
“Jax, what’s wrong? Where’s Will and S?”
“Nothing’s wrong, Lex,” He smiled.
It was good to see him smile. We hadn’t had the kind of life that leaves time for a lot of smiles. We worked hard. We fought for our lives, but there was little room for smiles. I couldn’t remember my Mom’s smile anymore.
“You found it?” Grey asked excitedly.
“Yea, we did,” Jax smiled. “It’s incredible. It’s going to be perfect for what we need it to be. We’ll probably lay out sleeping bags the first couple nights. But there’s heat and hot water, and all sorts of amenities. And there’s medicine!”
I smiled too. Maybe there wasn’t going to be some terrible thing that was going to come out of this. It still seemed too easy, but maybe, just maybe, the war for freedom was about to have a new contender. And maybe, this was a sign that we might be able to win this time.
“We’re almost all ready,” I told Jax. “Start a line out the nearest exit to it. Only as many as you can protect at a time, nothing more. We have a lot of people to get to safety. And not a lot of time.”
It was almost right on cue that one of our sensors went off.
I closed my eyes trying to think as the annoying beeping didn’t stop.
“Go.” I said after a moment, when neither Grey nor Jax moved. “But Jax? Make sure you take Santana with you in the first group. She can set up more sensors and put an illusion on the building. We’re going to need all the protection we can get.”
Jax nodded and ran out of the tent calling for anybody who was ready. There was an exit a smidge closer than the one they had exited earlier, but it was still incredibly risky. Slowly, but surely, the underground began to empty. Grey and I paced each tunnel making sure we had gotten all that we could. We were about ⅔’s done when we started hearing explosions on the surface. Gracie clung to me, terrified, and I didn’t blame her. I was scared too. Each time the tunnel door opened, I feared the few of us left had been discovered. Each time it was just Jax moving in to take the next group. There was little that could be done but to wait, even as the explosions seemed louder and louder.
Grey and I both had to keep our calm, but every now and then he’d walk over to me and squeeze my shoulder before walking away.
Time seemed to pass slowly. I wasn’t ready to give up this place. I had built it with my bare hands and a ton of energy when I was only 9. I was scared, but this was my work. All of this. Every part of these people’s lives was my work in some way or another. Between me, Will and Jax and Grey and even Gracie we had done good for these people. And I wasn’t sure I was ready to give up on that quite yet.
So as Grey, Gracie and I sat with the last three people of the group, a young mom, her husband and their child, a newborn baby who had been born only 2 weeks ago. I closed my eyes trying to think happy thoughts. I had thousands of memories of helping people and I hoped all that I had done was enough.
Finally, after god knows how long, Grey made the decision that I was thinking too. Jax hadn’t been back, and our tunnels would collapse soon.
“We need to make a run for it,” He muttered in my ear.
I nodded, and squeezed Gracie’s hand, tight.
“You don’t let go, no matter what, got it?” I told her.
She nodded, her hair loosely falling into her face, the tunnels almost completely dark. Everything about the moment said time was running out.
I watched as the young couple handed Grey their baby. He was faster than all of us. His sister would run with me. The odds of some of us surviving we’re better this way. I had no idea the stamina of the young couple next to me, and part of me felt as though this was letting them down. But this was survival. The chances of us all making it there in these conditions were slim to none. But we had to try before we died in the tunnels. And Grey was trusting me with his little sister.
“3, 2, 1.” Grey said through gritted teeth as he opened the tunnel door, climbing the ladder first.
The couple followed, and then Grace and me. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going. I mean, I had seen the general idea of a map earlier when Jax had come back, but I hadn’t been there. I didn’t know. And neither did Grey and neither did the couple, but we had to try.
I was surprised by the murkiness of the forest and the fresh smell of smoke. I could hear bombs going off, and I pulled my shirt up to cover my mouth. Gracie and I had run these woods many times as training. She had no problem keeping up with me. Her hand in mine, we moved as one.
Finally, after it felt like an eternity. After the world seemed like it was on fire, and there were explosions every 20 seconds, we reached clean air.
“WILL!” I screamed. “WILL!” IT’S ME!”
Suddenly the illusion that was matching the burning forest disappeared to me and Gracie at least. And a large building seemed to appear.
“Lexa!” Will exclaimed, running to meet us, S right behind him. “Thank god you’re okay.”
He wrapped me in his arms tightly, and I saw S wrap up Gracie.
“Where’s Grey?” He asked, looking past us.
“He’s not here yet?” I felt my lip begin to tremble.
“No…” Will let go and I could tell he was worried.
“He was ahead of us. It was everyone for themselves.” I leaned over trying to catch my breath. Running on a normal day was hard but running through smoke was harder. “Is Jax here?”
Will shook his head and I felt tears threaten to burn.
“He never made it back to us.” I told Will. I had to keep it together this time. “The bombs were too close. We had to go. There were only a couple people left. Literally only 3, they had a baby. Grey took the baby, and I don’t think… I don’t think the couple made it. We all got separated almost immediately. It was too smoky. So dark. It didn’t even look like daytime. We couldn’t see. It was all a hope and a prayer.”
“You did good, Lex.” Will told me, pulling me back in for a hug. “You did good.”
But it didn’t feel like it. It felt like I did the opposite. And all there was left to do was hope that Grey and Jax were okay and would be back soon.