Fallout [The 100]

7

The door opened and I ran towards it clutching the metal pole that had held my IV as a weapon. "Whoa! Stop, stop!" A voice shouted from inside a blue hazmat suit. "I'm not here to hurt you, I swear!" I slowly lowered the pole, but didn't let it drop completely.

"Who are you? Where am I?" I asked.

They slowly pried my fingers from the pole, one my one, and I reluctantly let go. "Please, just come up stairs and let us explain everything." I nodded and walked into the hall. I glanced in the windows of the other rooms; just two doors down from me, Monty had his cheek pressed against the glass. I stopped. Fingers lightly pressed into my arm. "You'll see him soon."

I was led into an elevator. As soon as the doors closed the person unzipped their hazmat suit, I realized it was just a girl who didn't look any older than me. I resisted the urge to ask questions as we rode up to the fifth level.

When we reached the level and the doors opened again, I was assaulted with a cacophony of voices. At my surprised look the girl smiled at me. "Welcome to Mount Weather." I looked around; there were so many people. Most of them carried on with their business but a few smiled at me.

There was a door at the end of the hall, which opened right in front of us. A man in a suit smiled broadly. "Hello, I've been waiting for you." He motioned for me to join him inside and after a moment of hesitation the girl came in as well. "I am sure you have many questions, but allow me to introduce myself first. I am the president of this community, but you may call me Dante."

"I'm Maia," I mumbled. "Maia Farrin."

The girl's timid expression changed dramatically. "I'm Maya too!" I looked at her surprised. "With a Y?"

I shook my head. "An I."

"Still, that's funny, isn't it?" Dante gave Maya a look and her smile dropped. "I should probably get back down to level three. It was nice meeting you, Maia."

Dante waited until she left before continuing. "Maya is one of the lab techs in charge of getting your people through quarantine."

"Quarantine?" I asked confused.

"Yes, that is where you were. Level three is home to our hospital and laboratories, level five is residential and community," he explained. "While you were out we ran tests to determine the levels of radiation in your system. Fortunately you and your friend-"

"Monty," I supplied.

"You and Monty both appear to have DNA that has evolved to process strong amounts of radiation, we assume the rest of your people will have similar DNA structures. This is why you were all able to survive here on the ground."

"And the grounders, they're like us too?" I asked, I had never been very scientifically inclined but I had read books about biology and chemistry.

"Well, yes, and no. Through natural selection, the people you know as grounders, evolved to be a body of people that can handle the Earth's radioactivity. Your people, on the other hand, evolved because they were exposed to space's radioactivity."

"The grounders, you separated yourself from them," I noted. "Why?"

"We may live here, on the surface, but our people never experienced the evolution their people did. Mount Weather is our protective bubble from the radiation outside, that's why you had to go through quarantine."

"If you people didn't evolve then...the ground is still toxic to you, right?"

"Yes, if we were to go outside of this facility we would die."