atlas ↠ b.blake

13↠ i remember

     Kane nodded, "Let's keep this information in this room. Like Lane said, ALIE isn't a threat to us unless someone finds her."

     Finally, after all this time, Lane got everything burdening her mind off her chest. Her transparency with Kane and Abby appeared to allow them to trust her more. They no longer wondered if she was hiding information from them. 

     The decision to keep ALIE under the rug, for now, was smart. Lane knew telling everyone in Arkadia about an A.I. was an agenda to harvest their minds was unwise when they didn't know for sure if Becca was right about her surviving these ninety-seven years. Lane left the Chancellor's chambers feeling better about the situation, and for the first time since she woke up in this crazy new world, her mind felt clear. 

↠ ↠ ↠

     The weather matched Lane's mood. The sun radiated warmer in the sky as the grass began to regain its green color. Small buds appeared on the branches of the cherry trees by the lake. In the mornings, Lane still needed her jacket, but by noon the air was warm enough for a simple t-shirt. Winter was finally waning with spring right around the corner peeking out in the fresh wildflowers in the wide field outside the front gate of Arkadia. 

     Three weeks was enough time for Lane to realize that her attachments in Arkadia were tied deeper than she thought. Every morning, as the people of Arkadia sluggishly began their routine, Octavia and Lane would sneak away for a while to ride horses, which Lane hadn't done since her visit to Sunnyside Summer Camp when she was fourteen. At first, Lane felt tentative on the back of the tall animal, uncomfortable in the saddle, but Lane was a fast learner, and eventually, she felt like a natural on a horse.

     Once her horse escapades were over, she would meet Monty and Raven in the mechanics room to build radios and other various contraptions. She made some much-needed repairs on the computer system in the control room, and she even built a stereo for Rover 1 so the rides to different Sectors wouldn't be so boring. 

     A few times, she followed Miller into the training room to spar, but she tried to avoid the training room as much as possible because 1: Bellamy was there and 2: ninety percent of the time, Bellamy was shirtless, and that was just a path Lane did not want to send herself down. She already had to witness the PDA of him and Gina, and that was about enough for her.

     "Don't you leave tomorrow, Lane?"

     Lane looked up from the radio she was currently fixing, finding Raven standing in the doorway. Jasper dropped one of their best radios in the lake yesterday, and then almost fell in himself. He was getting worse and worse every day.

     "Yeah,  I don't think I have much to do in Polis this time. I may only be gone a week. Maybe two," Lane screwed the back of the radio on as she glanced at Raven. "How's Jasper today?"

     Raven put her hands in her back pocket, "He's passed out by the piano."

     "I wonder if he'll ever get past this."

     "He watched the girl he loved burn to death from radiation. I seriously doubt it," Raven answered. "We're going to Sector Seven today. Maybe getting out of camp will be good for him."

     Lane nodded as she carefully put the fixed radio back on the shelf, "I hope so. When are we leaving?"

     "In ten, so move your ass," Raven grinned. "We're using the stereo today. It'll be a fun ride."

    After cleaning up her work station, Lane quickly grabbed her bag from the floor and followed Raven to the Hanger. Raven immediately went to Rover 1, siding under it to make the final checks. Across from the Rover, Gina was unloading the trucks that had just come back from Mount Weather with supplies. They went up there every other few weeks, but the people that went always said it felt weird being in Mount Weather after everything that had happened only three months ago.