Chapter 16
Bellamy gave the door one more wrench for good measure, more a show than an actual attempt to open the door, but no one called him out on it. They were locked in. Prisoners once more.
“What was that brilliant idea about staying here again?” Murphy mocked.
Bellamy wouldn’t respond to him. He had other problems to worry about. Mainly the ones regarding the locked door and the psychotic murderers surrounding them. Wells was fidgety, more than usual. “Think this has anything to do with Clarke?”
Wells looked up guiltily. “Knowing her… yeah.”
Bellamy swore under his breath. “You think we can talk our way out of this?”
Wells shrugged. “We can spare ourselves without a doubt. Getting Clarke out of trouble is different. If Mount Weather is anything like the Ark… she could be signing her own execution order.”
Finn Collins sauntered over to join the boys at the door. “So, what’s the plan?”
Murphy scoffed. “Nothing yet. Our oh so brilliant leader didn’t think of this.”
“We need to get Clarke.” Bellamy ignored Murphy. “We don’t know where she is.”
Finn clenched his jaw and nodded. “The door locked?”
“Yeah, dumbass. Where’ve you been the last twenty minutes?” Murphy sneered.
Finn rolled his eyes. “Okay, so how do we get out there? Through the air vents?”
“Yeah sure, I’ll give you a boost Mr. Bond.” Murphy rolled his eyes. “No point in making a plan until we know what’s going on.”
“Everyone please keep calm, there is a breach in the containment facilities, we have it under control.” Dante Wallace’s soothing voice sounded over the loud speakers. “We’ll have this all sorted out in a few minutes, there is no danger to any civilians so please, go about your business as best you can while in lock down.”
The com system shut off, leaving the room dead silent. Bellamy shared a concerned glance with Wells before he moved to his own cot. “You heard him. It’s a containment emergency. We’ll wait until it’s sorted out and then we can get on with our plans.”
“Yeah, and what if that containment emergency is us?” Murphy countered. “We were just about to leave. You can’t convince me this isn’t some George Orwell shit right here.”
“Shut up, Murphy!” Bellamy shouted. “I get you have some tragic past and a deeply ingrained distrust for authority, but this is the only choice we have! So, shut up, sit down, and wait until something of actual significance happens! They haven’t done anything but put the whole bunker on lockdown. Probably to protect us from the Grounders.”
Wells stepped between them. “Bellamy’s right. We don’t have much of a choice. Once they sort out whatever’s going on out there, you’ll be able to leave.” He placated. “Fear mongering and making everyone else nervous is going to get us killed.”
Murphy scoffed and stalked towards his group of followers, muttering under his breath to them and gaining nods and murmurs of their own.
Bellamy leaned towards Wells. “We need to get someone out of here to get to Octavia and Raven. We’ll send Finn with Murphy and his group, he’ll get the girls and bring them back here to safety.”
“Are you sure? He hasn’t been the same since the hallucinating nuts…” Wells furrowed his brow. “You should go with him and make sure he doesn’t do anything reckless.”
Bellamy shook his head. “Dante sees me and you as the leaders here. I don’t think he’d appreciate one or both of us abandoning him with a bunch of children known for their inability to follow the law.”
Wells nodded. “We’ll just have to trust him then.”
Raven needed to step up her cardio. She and Anya had been jogging through the brush for hours now, and she wasn’t entirely sure that they had lost the Mountain Men. “The Ark is going to fall any minute now, Anya. When are we going to get there?”
Anya shook her head. “We’re not going to make TonDC before night fall.”
“Then can we at least slow down? We haven’t seen one of them in hours.”
Anya slowed enough for Raven to catch up, coughing, bent at the waist. Raven didn’t miss the wince on the other woman’s face as she rubbed at her own chest. Raven’s lungs ached, Anya deserved the discomfort. “We can cut through the valley, get to TonDC before midnight, but then we run the risk of running into the Skaikru before they’re ready.”
“We’ll take that risk.” Raven pushed the hair from her face. “The Skaikru won’t hurt you as long as I’m here. I’m their best mechanic; there’s no way they’ll risk hurting me.”
Anya rolled her eyes. “Let’s go then.”
Raven trudged forward once more. Anya stopped them after a few yards. “Empty field, we won’t have any cover. Their flying scouts could find us. We have to be careful.”
Raven sighed as they crouched at the edge of the tree line, eyes scanning the field ahead of them. Anya took several long steps, swiveling her hips and never raising her head above the grass tops. Raven stumbled after her, obviously unpracticed. Focused on her feet, she hadn’t noticed Anya freeze with her eyes on the sky. Raven knocked her over and both tumbled in the grass. Anya pointed towards a point in the sky in awe, and Raven followed her gesture smiling at the trail of fire in the sky. Her smile faltered as it came closer and closer.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have cut through the valley they were aiming for.” Raven winced.
Anya was stiff, clearly, despite having witnessed this twice before, hadn’t prepared her anymore for the Ark’s final descent. “You did not tell me there would be two of these Arks.” Anya pointed to another trail across the sky heading north.
Raven swore. “They must have broken up or something. Abby said they were having trouble with the drop ships. What’s up that way?”
“Azgeda,” Anya was grim, her jaw set. “They do not take kindly to strangers within their territory. They are violent, brutal. They are traitors and savages. Your people will not last long in Azgeda territory. Not unless Heda can convince Queen Nia to hand over your people alive. Nia is opportunistic. It will cost the Skaikru much more than tek.”
Raven sucked in a breath. “What will it take?”
Anya shrugged. “That’s up to Nia and Heda. And perhaps Clarke.”
Raven nodded. “We need to get going.”
Anya led the way as they nervously picked through the field, one eye on the tree line, the other on the growing ball of fire. They scrambled across the field in just a minute, but by then the ball of flame had grown into a roar. Raven couldn’t help the grin grow across her face as the Ark made contact with the ground no further than a mile away, sending tremors through the earth and a wave of dust to engulf them. Of course, Raven hadn’t expected the trees to tilt and fall. Pain bloomed across the back of her head and all of the sudden she couldn’t find Anya.
As she panted, the air only grew thicker with dust and debris and it only took a few seconds for Raven to lose consciousness.
Raven woke up to groaning and a pounding headache. As she sat up, a half inch thick film of dust and dirt fell from her body, and she realized as she coughed up the dirt from her lungs that she had been the one groaning. “Anya?”
Another coughing fit seized her as her throat contracted. She could use some water. Raven couldn’t tell if there was still tons of dust in the air, blocking out the light, or if they had been out long enough for the sun to set. “Anya!”
There was a grunt somewhere to the right, a shift in the debris, and Raven felt the sting of a concussion as she moved towards Anya. “Think I’m pinned.” Anya garbled through mouthfuls of dust.
“I’ll dig you out, just stay still.”
“You hurt?” Anya grunted as Raven dug through the branches and twigs covering Anya’s body.
“Don’t think so. Is that your concussion or mine?”
“Mine, definitely mine.” Anya groaned. “A branch hit me when the tree fell.”
Raven nodded. “We’ve been unconscious for a few hours. I’m assuming once I get you out you can walk?”
“I’ll be fine. Let’s just go. The Maunon will be here soon to intercept the Skaikru.”
The Grounders were endlessly efficient in immediately surrounding the smoking hunk of metal. True to Lexa’s plan, they kept to the trees, out of sight and ready to come in to their Commander’s aid should the Skaikru prove dangerous.
Clarke sat atop a horse, a real horse, for the first time in her life, and frankly she couldn’t tell if she was excited or petrified. The thing was massive, were they always that big or had the radiation caused the horses to grow bigger? Lexa had smirked at her the entire time as she struggled to first approach the beast, mount it, and then ride it. The Commander, unsurprisingly, sat atop her massive stallion regally. She looked like the queen of the forests, which Clarke supposed she very well may be, and she swayed with the horse as gracefully as the dancers Clarke watched in the Ark Archives.
“The trick is in your legs.” Lexa grunted when Clarke nearly slipped from her mount again. “You can’t just sit on her back. You need to hold yourself up and allow the saddle to distribute your weight comfortably for her.”
Clarke shifted again. “Like this?”
Lexa glanced over her posture. “Not perfect, but better. You will need to learn to ride if you wish to be taken seriously by the Coalition.”
Clarke rubbed the sweat from her forehead onto her sleeve. “What is the Coalition like?”
Lexa grunted again, though, after closer inspection, Clarke realized it had been carefully concealed laughter. “You’ve seen a group of children divvy out sweets to each other, yes?” Lexa smirked. “It’s much like that. Only, instead of children, they are grown men and women arguing between themselves over horribly boring things such as trade routes and tax rates and military jurisdiction.”
Clarke furrowed her brows. “Those aren’t already set out?”
Lexa sat a bit straighter. “I didn’t create the Coalition until four years ago, when I had finally gained the respect I deserved as Heda.”
“So you were the one who formed the Coalition in the first place?”
Lexa nodded once, though there was no missing the pride in the set of her jaw and the subtle flexing of her shoulders. “It took many months and sacrifices that I’m not sure I’d make a second time.”
Clarke fought the immediate urge to question her, it wasn’t her place. But at the same time, she had kind of been there… in a way. She felt the slightest hum of an ache in her chest, and on instinct, she clenched her right hand.
“Stop that.” Lexa snarled through gritted teeth. “Just, stop.”
Clarke flinched. “Habit, I suppose.”
Lexa seemed to deflate as she avoided Clarke’s eyes. “Thank you.” She was so quiet Clarke could barely hear her, and she could feel the guilt build up in the pit of her stomach.
Good. She deserved it after the shit she pulled in the planning tent. Lexa couldn’t ignore her forever. And frankly, it had hurt knowing that Lexa wanted to ignore that Clarke even existed. “We will be there soon. You will speak to your people, ensure that they will not harm us, and then we will come to meet with your people to discuss the terms of our alliance.”
Clarke nodded along. “And if my people decide that they will ally with the Mountain?”
Lexa’s expression darkened. “Then they are enemies of the Coalition and I will have no choice but to exterminate your people.”
Clarke’s heart dropped to her stomach. “They’ll do what’s right.”
Hopefully.
Anya must have exaggerated her ability to perform with a concussion, because she was all over the place. Raven had become the chief navigator through the woods because Anya could hardly walk in a straight line. “Anya, you need to see a doctor as soon as we get there. Abby is a friend of mine, she can help you.”
Anya nodded dimly. “We need to get to Lexa. I’m her Chief Guard during military expeditions. If something happens to her, it’s on me.”
“You’re not going to be very useful with the concussion you’ve got right now.” Raven winced at another round of throbbing. “It’s bad enough that I can barely think straight, and it’s not even my concussion.”
Anya hardly listened to her, and simply continued to trudge her way through the brush. All pretenses of being quiet and stealthy forgotten. They were wounded animals at this point. If anyone were to follow their trail, they were dead.
Raven scrubbed the sweat from her eyes, she looked away for just a few seconds, when she looked up, there were two spearheads inches from her face. Raven yelped and stumbled back into Anya. The warrior grunted. “Hod yu op, gona.” Anya straightened as much as she could. “This skaion is mine.”
The spears dropped immediately, and Raven uncrossed her eyes enough to see the two figures before her, nearly perfectly camouflaged with their surroundings. One was tiny, perhaps half Raven’s size, clearly a child learning to be a warrior. “Go report to Heda that General Anya and the sky girl has been found.” The warrior clearly enunciated in slow English to the child.
“Sha, fos.” The child chirped and took off without a sound through the trees.
The warrior turned. “Heda has entered camp, she told us to send you to her when you arrived.”
Anya nodded her head. “Mochof, gona.”
The warrior nodded and stepped aside to let the two pass. Raven followed as Anya struggled to lift her head and pretend nothing was wrong. As soon as they left the warrior’s sight though, Anya slouched again, making as much noise as before.
“So we have to be close, if there’s guards out here already.”
“Sha,” Anya murmured. “Clarke must have successfully convinced your people to join an alliance with ours rather than the Maunon. We’ll see if they can accept Heda’s terms.”
Raven nodded, smiling slightly. They were safe for now, with guards around them in the trees and her people under control, Raven finally had the chance to relax and enjoy the soft breeze rustling through the trees.
Until shots rang out and Anya’s body hit the ground with a hollow thud.