Chapter 4
Raven Reyes was no stranger to pain.
Emotional pain? She had that in droves. Her mother was an asshole, to put it mildly, and her old high school sweetheart was not so sweet. She didn’t have many friends that didn’t also work with her and frankly, her life kind of sucked.
Physical pain? Yeah, Raven wasn’t unfamiliar with that either.
But this? This wasn’t pain. This was agony.
“Raven?” The voice was familiar. Soft, caring, drowned out by the pain. “Raven?”
“Mom?” It slipped from her mouth before she really could place the voice.
“Raven, honey I need you to wake up now.”
Raven groaned and peeled her eyes open, the bright fluorescent lights burning her retinas. Finally, Abby Griffin blinked into her field of vision, a strange combination of relief and underlying worry written across her face. “Abby?”
“Hey, welcome back.” She smiled, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.
“Where-“
“I don’t know.” Abby whispered. “I was pulling you from the wreckage when these people showed up. They sedated us with darts. I convinced them to let me remove the shrapnel from your back after I woke up.”
“I had shrapnel in my back?” Raven yelped.
“A small piece, yes. It’s out now. But I need to check if there’s any nerve damage.” Abby explained softly. “I need you to tell me if you feel anything.”
Raven felt a small tickling at the bottom of her right foot. “Yes,”
“Okay, I’m going to move to your left now.”
Raven couldn’t see Abby, but the longer it took for the woman to touch her, the worse she felt. A ball of anxiety set itself at the pit of her stomach until she felt the tickling at her kneecap. “I feel it.” She whispered.
Abby sighed. “Raven,” She paused to let Raven collect herself. “I’m sorry to say you have nerve damage to your lower left leg.”
Raven couldn’t hold back the sob building in her throat. She couldn’t imagine not having use in her left leg. She had always been an active person, always playing sports and running around and, in general, doing things.
Abby kept her distance, she had no idea how Raven would react to any attempts to comfort her. Since Clarke brought Raven over one day shortly after the Finn debacle, Abby had come to consider her a second daughter, it tore her apart to see her in this sort of pain.
Finally, after a few minutes, she built up the courage to approach her, set herself on the edge of the bed, and stroke her hair. “I’m sorry.”
Raven cursed herself, over and over, what was she doing? Crying over something like this, she was being weak. She needed to grow the fuck up and quit her whining. She gasped for air and shrugged Abby’s hands off of her, grunting and forcing herself into a sitting position, ignoring Abby’s protests.
“Raven, I don’t want you to exacerbate you wounds, stop!”
“Get off, Abby.” Raven hissed. It was agonizing, to say the least, but eventually she was supporting herself. She took her chance to look around the room. It was barren, but not hospital-sterile, it had the awkwardly empty look of a room hastily cleared out. Raven recognized the bed she sat on was simply a longer metal table improvised as a cot, with a few coarse blankets thrown over it. “Tell me what’s-“
“Ah, you’re awake!” A voice sounded from the opposite side of the room. Raven whipped around to see a tall, pale man with wispy white hair stride confidently into the room, the heavy door closing behind him. He smiled broadly, a strangely white smile stretching across his face. He had kind blue eyes that seemed to take in the two women before him like a dehydrated child sucking down the first water he’s seen in days. “I was concerned for you. You have quite a talented surgeon taking care of you I must say.” He nodded amicably towards Abby. “My name is Dante Wallace, you could say I’m in charge here. After all, I do own the island.”
“Island?” Raven looked to Abby for answers.
“The plane went down.” Abby explained with nothing more than a cursory glance towards Raven. “Why did you sedate us?”
Dante’s friendly smile faded, replaced with an uncomfortably strained smile. “You see, Doctor Griffin, I own this island, and I’m not fond of trespassers.”
“Our plane crashed.” Raven couldn’t believe this man.
“Which is why we’ve allowed you to live.” Dante stepped forward, gaining some of his self-confidence back. “See, I’ve got myself a good little setup here, and unfortunately, our plans didn’t exactly pan out quite the way we wanted them to. I understand you and your other little group down at the south beach are simply caught in the crossfire-“
“Other group?” Abby interrupted, hope daring to enter her eyes.
Dante stopped, tilting his head. Raven got the image of an owl, his blue eyes knew too much, more than they would ever understand, and he was sizing them up, deciding just how much they needed to know. “Your plane split in half, your half landed very close to our facilities, the south beach however, is much more difficult for us to reach. That group is still there from what my scouts have told me.”
“Clarke!” Abby blurted. “Is Clarke there, blonde girl, blue eyes-“
“EMT?” Dante smirked. “Yes, from what I’ve heard she’s also got a knack for surgery.”
Abby fell to the cot next to Raven, relief washing over every ounce of her being. Raven certainly understood the feeling. She was glad Clarke was alive herself. “Knack for surgery?”
Dante shrugged. “She removed shrapnel from a girl’s chest. Cauterized the wound. The girl is still alive now. As I was saying, we won’t be able to secure this group immediately-“
“Okay, hold on.” Raven snapped. “’We’? Who the hell are you? Stop speaking in fucking riddles. Why are you holding us captive? When is help going to arrive for the others?”
Dante sighed. “It wasn’t my intention to reveal everything to you. But I suppose, after everything you’ve gone through, you deserve to know the truth.”
Dante stepped further into the room, drawing the chair from the corner and taking a seat, crossing his foot over his knee and knitting his fingers together over his raised calf. “You see, I’m one of the many members of the global organization known as the Allied League for Intelligent Equanimity, or as you’ve heard of us, A.L.I.E.” Dante paused for them to take in this newest information.
Abby gripped Raven’s forearm firmly, she couldn’t tell if it was a grounding technique or protective. “You’re a terrorist.” She gasped from Raven’s side.
“Now, that’s not true at all. I align closer to a pacifist, actually.” Dante clucked his tongue, a sad little headshake at her accusations. “Our goal is worldwide peace. How could that possibly spawn terrorists?”
“Easily, when you take it as far as you do.” Raven spat.
Dante sighed. “This is the exact reason I didn’t want to reveal all of this. But I suppose I should continue.”
Raven narrowed her eyes. “Go on.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Raven, I never did catch your full name, your mother- er friend? She was too concerned to answer our questions directly.”
Raven felt her cheeks heat up, and she suspected Abby might look similarly embarrassed. “Raven Reyes,”
“Well, Ms. Reyes, Doctor Griffin, I was wondering if the two of you might want to visit my favorite room in our facilities.” It was phrased as an invitation, but his tone, his body language suggested they had no choice.
“I can’t walk.” Raven whispered, pushing back the tears threatening to reappear.
“That’s alright, we’ll get you a wheelchair.” Dante Wallace moved to his feet, pulling a cheap disposable phone from his pocket and pressing speed dial. “Cage, bring down a wheelchair for the injured girl, Raven Reyes, she’s awake and fine, barring the nerve damage to her leg.”
Dante smiled down at them as they waited for her chair to arrive, Raven could feel the shame move down the back of her neck and course through her veins. She’d slow Abby down when they escaped.
Yes, they’d need to escape. They had been captured by fucking terrorists.
Eventually, there was a knock on the door and Dante let in a younger man, just as pale, with a scar on his upper lip, the aftermath of a cleft lip that had been fixed as best as could be, and greasy looking brown hair that had been swept to the side in a semi-professional wave over his forehead. He pushed a wheelchair forward and grimaced at the two. “Doctor Griffin, Ms. Reyes, I’d like you to meet my son Cage.”
Cage bowed his head slightly, stretching a snide smirk further across his face. “Ladies, Dad, I’ll have to catch up with you three later, I’m afraid the other survivors need me.”
“There are others?” Raven leaned forward.
“Yes, we found eight others around you. All of those eight are alive and four of them are perfectly fine, besides some minor cuts and bruises. The others are currently unconscious and being treated by our doctors and nurses.” Dante explained cordially as he wheeled the chair towards Raven.
Cage slipped away as Dante made to help Raven from the bed to the chair, but Raven jerked away and closer to Abby. Dante took the hint, allowing Abby to be the one to help Raven into the wheelchair.
Raven didn’t really want any help, but if she had to accept help, she’d rather it be from someone she trusted. Abby saved her life. Abby could be trusted. Abby treated her like her own daughter. Abby cared.
Once Raven was situated, she couldn’t help but stare at the traitorous leg that wouldn’t move at her will. She tried and tried to wiggle her left big toe, but nothing. No movement. Her eyes threatened to fill with tears again and she swallowed back another sob.
Abby took her place at the helm of the wheelchair, and Dante swept them through the door and into a dark hallway, lit sparingly every few yards by weak fluorescent lights. “Unfortunately we haven’t perfected our solar power panels, so our energy use has to be at its minimum.” Dante explained.
They passed several doors, but Dante nodded towards two of them towards the end of the hall. “Your fellow survivors are in there, being briefed by Cage. He’ll explain everything that I am explaining to you two. Though the pilot and surviving copilot will be separated from the others, I’m sure you can understand why, the government has classified A.L.I.E. as a dangerous organization, so you can assume we take our security very seriously.”
The end of the hall opened up into an elevator that Dante opened and gestured for them to enter. “To the top.”
“Top?” Raven asked. “Aren’t you concerned that the government might find you?”
“Oh the government knows exactly where we are.” Dante waved her off. “Some of them are in our pocket, and besides, it’s not like they have any evidence that I’m affiliated with A.L.I.E., they’d need a search warrant to even land on my island. Without proof, they can’t get a warrant. Restricted by their own laws, foolish.”
“It’s also the point.” Abby’s voice was cold as ice, even Raven felt intimidated by the voice behind her. Then again, it’s not surprising, her daughter was in danger. Raven would never want to step between a mother and her endangered child, she liked breathing. “To restrict government and protect the rights of citizens.”
“But see, it’s been made clear that the people are incapable of avoiding conflict. Perhaps it should be left to a higher power.” Dante argued. “But I’ll wait until after I’ve shown you everything.”
Finally the elevator doors open to a great open room. The walls and ceiling were all made of glass, allowing the sunlight to pour in at every angle. Raven could guess based off the sun’s position that it was early afternoon by now. Her eyes were burning at the sudden brightness of natural light, but she couldn’t help feeling slightly uplifted at sight of daylight.
But around the room, white rectangular columns stood, and on each side, a painting, some held more than one, but all of them seemed to be beautiful landscapes. Raven was pushed further into the bright atrium as Dante drifted towards some of the paintings towards the center of the room. “See, this, this is what I live for.” He smiles at a painting, fingertips floating just centimeters from the oil decorating the canvas. “All of these are masterpieces. Monet, Van Gogh, brilliant artists, not all of them are famous or worth billions of dollars, but all of them demonstrate exactly what A.L.I.E. stands for. Peace.”
He paused to let the two women take in his words. They drifted about the room in awe. “So this is where all those pieces ended up. You’ve been behind all the stolen art recently?” Abby sounded out of breath, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Personally, Raven hadn’t heard of the missing art pieces. She supposed that wouldn’t surprise anybody, she knew about all of the pitfalls and advantages to every car on the market since 1960 and a number of muscle cars from even before then. She knew about cellphones and rockets and anything with nuts and bolts. But art? That was more Clarke’s speed.
Dante gestured to a beautiful painting that looked vaguely familiar to Raven. “This, my pride and joy, is-“
“Monet,” Abby hissed. “You weren’t lying, you stole Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Lilies.”
Right, that’s what it was. “Ah, an art aficionado Doctor Griffin?” Dante smiled at her, ignoring her deploring tone, taking pride of his accomplishments. “Yes, Monet and his famous Lilies. A beautiful piece. He’d paint the same bridge at different times of the year and different times of the day to capture just the perfect tone to describe his feelings towards those water lilies. Brilliant. Look at it, this bridge, hidden in the colors of nature, taking nothing from the beauty, but adding to the peace. Bringing together two shores to complete one picture of tranquility and joy. I think Monet and I would have gotten along quite famously. I’ve always enjoyed nature, and Monet and his landscapes are the best of the best.” Dante laughed. “But this is the importance of A.L.I.E.’s goal. You see, today’s artists, they’re nothing like the impressionists of days gone by. They’ve lost touch with their deepest souls. Too busy fighting and killing over the dregs of oil at the bottom of the barrel. And the art, it’s dreadful! Soup cans? How downright uncreative, no imagination, no soul. A.L.I.E. is about bringing the humanness back to humanity, by taking away the thing that warps and destroys our hearts. Conflict.”
“A.L.I.E. is killing people, right now, with all of those government secrets you leaked-“
“Now, Doctor Griffin, that wasn’t me. That was another branch, I only know her as Beca, but we can all assume that’s not her real name. She exposed the dark secrets the government holds, things the people deserve to know. How can we possibly be a good, peaceful nation if we’re doing things like spying on our allies, torturing suspects, and supplying the allies of our enemies with weapons? Whose side is the government really on? Not ours, I can tell you.”
“She exposed secrets our enemies can use against us, exposed military information, she’s the reason thousands of our soldiers are dying in the Middle East!” Abby snapped, she’d lost patients to the wars over seas. People flown to her for surgery, surviving against all odds just to take their own lives months later after the horrors they witnessed on the battlefield followed them home. Raven knew that she took every loss personally, she supposed it’d be hard not to. When someone’s life is in your hands and you fail… she could imagine it hurt.
“She’s hardly the reason those soldiers are fighting a war that could be avoided. They were dying before she exposed anything, but now, we know about them. They’re no longer disappearing mysteriously, now they’re being honored, like they should have been before. But when A.L.I.E. succeeds, we won’t have a need for soldiers or martyrs. There’ll be no wars to fight, no battlefields to clean, no rubble to sift through, no bombs, no gunfire, and no victims. A.L.I.E. is the path to a better future!” Dante gestured widely to the bright room full of masterpieces. “A.L.I.E. is our future!”