Chapter 16
“Raven Reyes, I hate you with a deep seated passion.” Clarke snarled as she lifted the makeshift shovel once again with a disgusting squelch.
Raven glared back. “You think I’m having a good time?”
“It was your idea, ‘use the manure’ she said, ‘it’ll be easy’ she said.” Clarke grumbled. “How the hell did I get stuck helping you?”
“Because I pulled the short stick so Monty is rigging the barrels we need to make this shit- no pun intended- into gun powder, and I’m stuck with harvesting. And I just so happen to have blackmail material on you so shut your mouth we’re almost done.” Raven retorted.
Clarke gagged at the next squelch, and then again before Raven deemed them finished. “I’m never helping you with anything ever again. Understand? Never again. Bellamy can do this next time.”
“Bellamy was busy with the hut construction. He’s tired of them collapsing when it gets windy.”
“Yeah well, shut up.”
“Anyway, I’ve gotta cart this off and start dehydrating it as much as possible. If I can get the water out as soon as possible, I can cut down the evaporation time and get the KNO3 out quicker. It won’t be fun so tap out now while you can.” Raven rolled her eyes.
“Bye.” Clarke nearly sprinted to the water for a swim to wash off the refuse from their hour or so of digging.
Clarke didn’t get much time to herself immediately following her short bath. Lexa waved her over to talk with her mother and Kane, Anya had a strip of canvas, likely taken from the plane before they moved, and a piece of charcoal in her hand. She had drawn up a mockup of the island, what they knew of it, and a few hesitant labels. A majority of the map was blank.
“Now that everyone is here,” Anya rolled her eyes, glaring at Clarke. “Let’s get to it. How many buildings did you say they had?”
“Three or four, we were held in a resident building, a large basement. I think a dormitory just above that was evacuated for us, and a large living room, lobby, activity center above that.” Kane answered immediately. “Wallace claimed a very modern compound. Frequently, burned A.L.I.E. members come to this island to get away from the authorities. Dante is all about comfort and luxury. He doesn’t like getting his hands dirty. He let Cage do all the work.”
“Dante told us that he’s a pacifist. He doesn’t believe in violence, but he wants to change the world. I guess this is his way of helping the cause, sheltering members until they can obtain a new identity and get back out to the world at large. He’s practically untouchable by any nation’s authorities.” Abby added.
“So they’ll have trained personnel on hand, Heda.” Anya murmured to her younger cousin. Tris meandered over and crouched next to her oldest cousin to scrutinize the map.
“With a recent transport of weapons, and probably more since they escaped, plus time for training, we have to assume they’re all trained and armed.” Tris looked up to Lexa. “Right? Better safe than sorry?”
Anya nodded. “Sha,”
“Any self-respecting strategist would immediately train troops with those weapons.” Lexa waved off, beginning to pace in the space between Clarke and Tris. “Do you know the layout of the buildings?
Any insight into the movement of the people inside the compound?”
Kane shook his head. “We would, but Pike and Rashid left our inside man for dead in the forest.”
Lexa stopped. “You didn’t tell us this.”
Abby shifted in her seat, glancing towards Clarke. “We couldn’t in front of him. He and Rashid are dangerous. They turned on Maya, the girl who got us out, tased her as we were running and left her to the people chasing us out.”
“They have weapons?” Lexa’s eyes were sharp and concerned. Clarke tensed, Lexa’s bordering fear startled her. “You kept that quiet for so long?”
“It seemed they were deferring power to you, it was the best decision to make at the time.” Kane defended. “If we had brought it up before now, wouldn’t you have made a big deal about it?
Confronted them in front of everybody and made them turn in their weapons? We can’t risk setting them off into violence towards the rest of us.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Lexa snarled, crouching to eye level with Kane. “This isn’t cheating on the juice cleanse you and your girlfriend agreed to, what I don’t know will kill all of us. You let us live with two armed murderers unknowingly for three weeks. They could have turned on all of us weeks ago and we wouldn’t have been able to defend ourselves. Tris, where’d you put Bellamy’s gun?”
Tris’s eyes widened. “I gave it back to Bellamy, he’s the only one with a holster and I- I don’t know you were busy.”
Lexa held her hand up to stop her rambling. “Fine, we’ll talk to Bellamy. We need to be sure that there’s someone armed to keep an eye on them. I’m going to assign him back to the fishing group. They’ve had three weeks to plan a move against us.”
“You mean you,” Abby argued.
“A move against me is a move against all of us.” Lexa barely gave her a passing glance as she continued her pacing. “If I fall chaos will tear apart this group. We’ll die without each other. If you want that, by all means, remain passive.”
“Mom, she’s right. We can’t afford another upset like Murphy.” Clarke reasoned.
“And if anything happens to either of my cousins, any and all people involved will have hell to pay.” Anya growled.
“Listen, we did what we thought was best.” Kane held his hands up in an attempt to soothe Anya, though Clarke could tell that it only pissed her off more. “Nothing bad happened, so we’ll let them be for now and get on with escaping this hell hole.”
Lexa nearly growled. Clarke supposed Lexa hated to lose control. “Fine. What do you know about the joka on the other side of this jungle?”
Anya snorted and Tris smirked down at the sand. Lexa was tense, but neither of them seemed to fear their cousin the way Abby did, so Clarke took a breath and relaxed the tense muscles in her shoulders. Lexa fought tooth and nail for them, and now she was a hound on the hunt and she’d caught her prey’s scent.
Abby shook her head. “We were running for our lives. We didn’t get much of a look around.”
Lexa took a breath. “And that’s all you can give us?”
Kane shrugged. “That’s all we know.”
“Big help.” Anya sneered.
“It’s like we’re playing chess when we can’t see the board or any of the pieces until one of us is killed.” Tris murmured.
Lexa turned back to Clarke, glancing between the blonde and Anya. “We have to scout them. We have no choice.”
“But who goes?” Clarke asked, leaning forward. “We can’t risk any of the injured, which leaves out Raven and Anya, half the camp.”
“Indra and Octavia, they’ve nearly healed entirely, correct?” Lexa asked quietly.
Clarke shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, but you know Bellamy will pitch a fit.”
Lexa shook her head. “If he goes with them then we risk a fight breaking out between Octavia and Bellamy. Our scout team needs to be one cohesive unit. Octavia and Indra work perfectly together.”
“Tris and I-“
“I need you two here to help with preparations. You were raised by my father and his brothers, you know something about strategy and weapons. We can’t just separate now.” Lexa shook her head.
“Lexa? Anything I can help with?” Aden approached timidly, glancing towards Abby and Kane hesitantly.
Lexa gestured towards the spot next to Clarke with her chin, and Aden took a seat to watch them work. “Aden you see a lot of the group when they’re not around us. Who works well as a team?”
“Octavia and Indra.”
Clarke slung an arm around Aden’s shoulders and shot a wry smile up towards a slightly frustrated Lexa. “He’s not wrong.”
“Fuck it,” Lexa growled. “Tris go get Octavia and Indra. They’ll need to know about this plan. Anya I need a list of what we have and what we can have by the end of the month. Ask Raven if you need to. Abby, Kane, go back to your duties, we’ll call you over if there’s anything else we need.”
The well-oiled machine was set in motion. Clarke had to admit, it was fascinating to watch. And maybe a little hot.
Really hot.
Clarke planted a kiss to the top of Aden’s head and squinted towards the sky as Lexa continued to pace. “So what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that there’s no way we’re taking over the entire base. The best we can do is hijack a boat, or a helicopter if we’re really lucky. I think the explosives will be useful in giving us a decent distraction.” Lexa explained, crouching before them and giving a small smile to Aden. “We’re getting off this island.”
Aden grinned back, before his smile petered out. “A helicopter has a weight limit.”
Lexa’s smile died just as soon as he spoke. “Boat it is then.”
“Boat it is.” Clarke squeezed Aden’s shoulders. “Excited?”
Aden nodded. “I miss my dad. Mom too, but you know, won’t see her again.”
Clarke leaned her head on his, she’d grown affectionate for the kid since his mother died. He was a genuinely very smart kid, and Clarke hated the way life had dealt him his hand. “I know. Believe me, I do.”
Aden nodded, leaning into her embrace. He cleared his throat of the slight wobble in his voice and forced a smile. “It’ll be okay. I have you guys right?”
“’course!” Clarke assured. Lexa nodded, leaning forward to ruffle his hair.
“Yu ste ai seken.” Lexa smiled. “We’re family.”
Aden lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her neck in a hug. Lexa, in true Lexa fashion, was entirely caught off guard. Hesitantly, she hugged him back, grinning slightly at Clarke over his shoulder. Aden sat back, wiping tears from his cheeks before they could fall. Clarke twirled a finger around one of his strawberry blonde locks in amusement. “Your hair is getting long. Should we cut it?”
“It’s been bothering me.”
“Lex, your knife?”
Lexa produced a knife from her belt and handed it to Clarke, handle first with a smile. “I don’t know, a mullet might come back in fashion, I hear they’re bringing back the eighties.”
Aden wrinkled his nose. “Over my dead body.”
“Alright,” Clarke leaned forward and flicked Lexa’s ear as punishment. “Leave him alone. How short should we go?”
“Not too short, I don’t want a sunburn on my head.”
Clarke shrugged. “I can do that. Sit still.”
A few minutes later Clarke turned his head back and forth to check the symmetry. “Look even, Lex?”
Lexa leaned forward to run her fingers through his hair. “You missed a spot here.”
Clarke clicked her tongue and leaned forward to cut the tuft of hair Lexa held between two fingers. “Better?”
After another run through Lexa nodded her approval. “Looking good.”
Aden rolled his eyes. “I need some water. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Clarke and Lexa watched him go with identical smiles on their faces. “I think he’s adjusting pretty well without his mom.” Lexa sighed. “I feel bad for his dad. He probably thinks both of them are dead, and then when we get back, he’s lost his wife. Then that just gets me thinking about my own dad you know? He’s lost his only daughter, plus two nieces, and no heir to lead the clan.”
“I’m sure it hurts now, but he’ll be so happy when we get back.” Clarke bumped Lexa with her shoulder. “But back to the actual escape. I want to go with Octavia and Indra. Mom, Monroe, they both have the health care here covered, since most of us are in the clear. I want to do something useful for the group and with three of us going we’ll get more information and be better protected-“
“If you’re going then I’m going.” Lexa cut in.
Clarke shut her mouth with a click. “They need you here.”
Lexa looked away, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. “Anya can handle things for a few days. You’re right, we need more people to scout them properly… and besides, they- you need someone who knows the forest, knows how to survive. Anya still doesn’t have full range of motion, and I’m certainly not sending out my little cousin.”
Clarke furrowed her brows. She had to admit that having Lexa there would make her feel safer, but she really didn’t need to go. “And if I changed my mind?”
Lexa looked back, eyes wider than usual. “I’d uh, still go. I meant what I said.”
Clarke nodded slowly. “I won’t change my mind. I’m going.”
Lexa gave a nod. “We’ll go in two days. I’ll prepare enough rations for us to travel. We’ll set up camp a mile or so away from the compound so that I can set enough traps to feed us while we’re there.”
Clarke chuckled wryly. “My mom won’t be happy about this.”
Lexa shrugged. “You’re a capable leader. She must see that.”
Clarke shrugged. “I’m her daughter, I understand her hesitance. It’s just, I’m not a kid anymore.”
“The first time I ever went hunting with just Anya, my dad would never admit this, but Heda mothered us so extremely that we could barely carry our packs with how much he tried to make us take with us. I’m talking two extra gallons of water each, three separate bright orange hats, rifles and extra rounds, so many rations. It was bad. Way more than necessary for an afternoon hunting trip.” Lexa huffed in amusement. “My point is, they worry, and that’s not going to go away. But the best you can do is prove that their worries are unfounded, that they can relax a bit and nothing bad will happen. A little difficult around here with our current situation. But the drones are down, which means the forest is way less dangerous now. I don’t expect anything bad will happen to us.”