notion • john murphy

42 - SOLUTION

   "And they brought more than just the machine by the looks of it." Sayah replied as she and Clarke approached Bellamy.

   A young boy exited out the back of the truck with Bellamy's help and Clarke paused in her tracks. "Riley?" She whispered as she walked towards the boy slowly.

   "Clarke." The boy, Riley, choked out.

   Sayah watched as the two embraced eachother. Sayah glanced over to Bellamy, who was helping a young girl. Sayah stepped towards the small child. "Hey," Sayah smiled gently and the girl simply looked at her with wide eyes. "You're safe now, promise."

   "Get Riley and the others to medbay and tell them we'll take them to their villages in the morning." Bellamy ordered Harper and Monty.  The young girl took Riley's hand and followed with the others to medbay, Harper and Monty leading them away.

   "Where is it?" Raven said as she appeared beside Sayah, eyes searching in the back of the truck.

   "We didn't get the machine." Bellamy replied.

   "It didn't survive landing?" Clarke questioned as Sayah frowned.

   "No. It did. But I had a choice—bring the machine home or use it to save them," He nodded over to the group that they saved.

   "Oh, we are so screwed." Raven sighed in frustration.

   "We have time, but I am not sacrificing any more innocent lives." Bellamy stated.

   "You just did." Clarke replied.

   Sayah glanced down at her feet. If she was in Bellamy's position, she would've done the same thing. She more than understood that Bellamy was making up for the things he had done too — something she believed he shouldn't beat himself up for. Pike had manipulated him while he was grieving. Bellamy had done what he was believed to be right, all because Pike had twisted it.

   "I made the call, and I'll live with that." Bellamy said.

   "Yeah, you're not the only one who has to live with your call, as usual." Raven replied, arms crossed over her chest.

   "Well, go tell them." Bellamy fired back. "Go tell Riley I should've left them to die."

   "Enough." Sayah shook her head. "Decision was made, it doesn't matter now, it's too late. We don't have the machine—sorry, Raven—but Bellamy saved who he could today. It's finished, we move on, we figure out a new plan." She glanced around at the trio. "Okay?"

   Clarke pursed her lips and nodded before turning to Raven. "Okay, how many of us will the ship sustain without a hydro-generator?"

   "No more than a hundred," Raven shrugged sadly. The other three let out sighs of defeat.

   "What am I supposed to tell the people now?" Clarke asked.

   "The truth." Raven replied. "Crowdsource it like we talked about."

   Clarke paused, thinking for a moment, before nodding. "Call for a general meeting." Raven nodded in return before walking away with one last glance at Bellamy.

   "What are you gonna do?" Bellamy asked Clarke.

   "Hope that there's a forgiving god." Clarke answered.

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   "So now you know the truth." Clarke stated finally as she stood high above the crowd. "I know you're afraid. I know you're angry, but when I shut down Alie, I knew there was a way for us to get through this together." She paused, glancing over towards where Sayah, Bellamy and Raven stood. "Alpha station is that way."

Sayah furrowed her brows before looking over to Raven in confusion, who's lips parted in surprise.

"Every single one of us will survive on this ship." Clarke continued. "It won't be easy. Raven needs volunteers if we're gonna get it ready in time. It'll be a lot of work, but now you understand why we need to do it. If we stick together, I give you my word, we won't just survive. We'll thrive."

Murmurs and chatter resonated at her words throughout the crowd and Sayah let out a deep sigh, sharing a quick look with Raven, who looked less than impressed. It made sense that Clarke would lie. People would panic if she straight-out told them the whole truth, and nothing would get done — it'd be chaos.

It's just with lying, it always seemed to come back and bite you in the ass.

"Nice speech." Raven commented as Clarke approached the trio.

"Sometimes hope is more important than truth." Clarke replied.

"Your dad would be so proud." Raven said coldly. Sayah shifted her weight onto her other foot.

Clarke inhaled sharply. "You wanted workers, you got them."

Sayah glanced between the two girls. Raven simply shook her head before turning and addressing the large group of volunteers. "Everyone to the hanger bay. Now."

Sayah looked back over to Clarke and Bellamy. "We save who we can save today." Bellamy nodded to them.

"Never easy." Sayah sighed.

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a/n

BAM double update.
okay bit of a boring chapter ik but it gets better. trust me
i think murphy shows up at arkadia in the next chapter so that'll be interesting i think .. hm

^ sayah when raven was like "YoU kNoW hES tHe ReaSoN WhY MURpHy lEfT rIgHt" like RAVEN. NO ONE EVEN BROUGHT THAT UP— RAVEN. YOU CANT SAY STUFF LIKE THAT! WE'RE FRAGILE