Chapter Forty: Lexa

Chapter Forty
~ Lexa ~
I spoke quickly even though I had gone over the plan with S and Jax a thousand times.
“You need to try and get into the labs. Show where we were kept. The battle will be one thing but show how they treated us. Why we ran is just as important if not more. Are you sure you don’t need me to go?”
“Yes,” S sighed as she packed her backpack with extra rations and clothes. “Do you even know how to work a camera, E?”
I sighed too. “No.” I replied. “I’ve never seen one. Except for in the lab.”
“You can’t run from this, E. Besides, your ability to manipulate energy will be put to use way better here.” She tried to comfort me.
“I really don’t want to stay here,” I confided. “S, your dad already is trying to kill you. We were both in the city just the other day. What if going back is a trap?”
“It was your idea, E,” She reminded me. “You said we need exposure. This is how we do it. And you being flippy floppy on the whole thing is just annoying me.”
I hated when my own words could be used against me. She was right though. I was flip floppy. And not because I didn’t think the plan would work. Because it would. But because this was dangerous. The most danger any of us had faced yet. S and Jax were going to the city, Jax with a kill order and S with her own father trying to kill her to meet Grey’s mother who could turn on us at any moment. She didn’t know her children. She didn’t have any real reason to help us, and that scared me.
“I should go too,” Grey walked in and stated tensely.
“No.” S stated firmly.
“Aspen, please,” he pleaded, with more emotion than I had ever heard him talk with. “It’s my mother. I should be there.”
“Do you know what a camera is, Grey? Or anything about electricity?”
He frowned.
“A what?”
“You’re more useful here,” S touched his face gently, and I winced in surprise. I hadn’t realized they had become so close. “Now is not the time for emotional reunions or goodbyes. I’ll come back. I promise.”
“S,” I grabbed her arm as Jax said it was time to go and spoke in a low voice. “If all seems to be failing, I have a backup plan. But you’re in charge of calling it. If we keep going through the woods, there’s the ocean. I'm going to try to get my hands on a boat before the battle starts, and if we have to flee, we flee. I will not let everyone here die and be used for god knows what.”
S looked at me seriously. “Why do I call it?” She asked.
I felt my edge coming back as though it had never left.
“Because you have the least attachments to us all. And that’s not saying you don’t care. Because I know you do. But you can separate reality from emotions. And I don’t think the rest of us are capable of that to the same extent.”
S nodded, but her face looked tense.
“E,” she called out when I turned away to walk out.
“Yea?” I responded.
“Nothing too reckless, okay?”
I nodded. “You too.”
“And E,” she called out again.
“Keep them close to you, I know there are a lot of feelings right now. And tensions are high. But they are your best friends. You don’t want to go into this with bad feelings. Unity is important.”
I swallowed hard. She was right. Whatever I felt. Whatever mean things Grey had yelled and whatever happened with Will, had to be pushed away.
I walked out of her room and hugged Jax tightly. He cared more than life about us, but he would never show it. As a coping skill, he kept his emotions on a rope. But he loved us. He may not admit it. But he loved us.
“I know you’re up to something,” Jax whispered in my ear. “Be careful, okay? Nothing too reckless.”
First S, and now Jax, I felt a little offended. Their comments were not unwarranted, but they didn’t understand that I was only ever reckless with myself. I would do anything to protect my people.
“Be careful,” I responded as I let go.
S was right. There was no time for emotional goodbyes, but when she walked out of her room, I couldn’t help but wrap my arms around her. She tensed at first in surprise, but then gripped me back firmly.
The building was bustling with everyday life, but as Grey and S shared a moment, I realized that everything was changing. And I had to walk away before I got too emotional about it. I moved to the office and began to make preparations for if we needed to escape.
“She better not die.”
I looked up from my papers to see Grey standing in the doorway.
“We’re at war, Grey, I don’t know what you want me to say,” I responded, going back to my maps. They were all slightly different, but I needed to be able to test new thoughts as they came.
“What are you doing?” He asked with some anger and frustration still in his voice.
“I’m strategizing,” I replied, and motioned him to come over. “The kids should all be in this room on the bottom floor, say they try to set us on fire, that gives the kids a chance to get out. They might be captured or still killed, but it gives them a chance, and there’s also no floor above that room so if there’s explosions then nothing will fall down on them.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” Grey nodded, so I continued.
“So, if they’re being smart, they won’t come at us head on. Most likely we’ll be surrounded, but since we know that we can prepare. We cannot fire the first shot. I don’t care what happens, but we have got to wait till they fire first. It will look better. So, if we have people located at all angles, we’ll do better. The goal will be for Santana to keep the illusion strong, and for Jax and S to get back and record from our point of view, and theirs. We should use the building to our full advantage as protection. Scatter our placements, remove all windows. Create new ones. Set up a room near the cafeteria as our ‘hospital’. Gracie will be stationed there.” Grey started to interrupt, but I held my hand up. “It’s just as protected as the room the other kids will be in. She’s a healer though, Grey, we don’t have a choice but to rely on her.”
Grey muttered something under his breath, but I didn’t catch it.
“Anyways,” I continued. “You’ll be positioned over here, close to the cafeteria so you can keep an eye on things. You have to be listening for any surprises. I found these,” I handed him a walkie talkie. “We’ll be able to communicate from our locations and make real time decisions as long as we’re in range.”
Grey took it and turned it over in his hands.
“How does it work?” He asked.
“It’s programmed to be set on channel 7. It’s a random one I picked, don’t ask.” I added quickly. “You just hold that side button down as you talk.”
“Testing, testing.” Grey tried.
His voice rang through my walkie, and his eyes lit up a little. “That’s pretty cool.”
I nodded before continuing.
“So, Will will be stationed up here on the roof. Since he’ll be able to see people’s auras before he actually sees any person, he can call out the directions and where our focus should be. I’ll be outside for a while. Again, do not interrupt me.” I said frustratedly when Grey tried to say something. “We all know I harness energy better outside because there’s more of it and I’ll make sure I stay behind the illusion. I’ll be able to pull from them better if I’m closer to them. When S gets back, she will come from over here, and enter through a tunnel I’m setting up so she’s less likely to be seen. This is also our escape route. If it all goes south and we are getting crushed, we get the hell out. This tunnel will take us to the shore about 10 miles away. There will be a boat there waiting to take away whoever we can, there’s a few islands south of here that are uninhabited as well other countries. I’m not sure how other countries handle powers though, and I don’t know if they will accept us. I think our safest option is the islands and go from there. S is in charge of calling it. When she comes back, she’s going to be everywhere. She doesn’t have a set spot so she can see everything to call it.”
I didn’t tell him the rest of that plan though. I assumed when we stopped firing, they would enter the building, and when that happened, I planned to bring it down and crush them all. At the very least it would buy us time.
Grey nodded looking over my maps and drawings, and thoughts.
“Okay, that covers us, and kids, what about everyone else?”
“So, people who can throw spears and knives with serious accuracy go with Will. Jax and Santana are at their usual spot at the computer security center. Our other techies will be working to create us weapons from whatever the hell we can find. Alex and Alice are already trying to create some things. Elemental people are outside with me. And anyone with a firing weapon or bomb, Ted and Barb are trying to create those, will be in the windows, as well as those who can create forces to throw like Evangaline.”
“Wow, you really thought this out.” Grey looked at me seriously as he ran his hand through his hair.
“It’s the only thing I’m good at,” I told him. “I’ve been preparing for this since I was 8 and we are dangerously underprepared. We need to set up the hospital and a more secure place for people to sleep in masses in case this lasts days. You can give that job to Will. And give him a walkie. I need you to organize everyone and get them into position. I need to go do the tunnel. We’ll meet in here in a few hours.”
“Aren’t you going to make up with him?” Grey asked as I started to leave the room.
“As S said, now is not the time for emotional reunions or goodbyes.”
And I walked out the door hoping my planning had been enough, and I could build this tunnel before it was too late.