[anything in italics is pieces from Artemis' journal about these moments. it'll make more sense in the next season. YEAH BITCH I SAID NEXT SEASON. I DONT PLAN ON ENDING THIS SERIES ANYTIME SOON]
Artemis got a total of 4 hours of sleep that night before she was paged into med-bay by Jackson at the ass crack of dawn. She got up out of bed, doing her best not to disturb Jasper, and put a pair of black jeans on, with her black turtleneck and a bohemian vest. She put her black high tops on, brushed her hair, teeth, and washed her face, before making her way down to med-bay.
Not very many people were awake, it was only 06:29, and so Alpha Station was quiet, very quiet. She heard as her footsteps echoed through the metal halls, and she could even hear her own breathing.
Artemis walked into med-bay, swiping her key card and grabbing her lab coat. She walked into the lab, grabbing her test results from yesterday, and walking up to her patient, who she found out was named Maria, and started putting more water into her blood, due to the dehydration levels on her blood test results.
As the day began, new broke that the people were limited to 2 meals a day. And as Artemis thought about it, she thought about how that was going to work. With how hard their people work, they shouldn't be rationing like this. But if there is one thing their people understood, it was rationing.
Artemis checked in with her other patients as they began to wake up, and Jackson was doing some restock from what was left from mount weather. Abby had come home yesterday from Polis, so at least Med-Bay wasn't backed up. Over the PA system, one of the guards spoke, "We need some medical help at the front gate, looks like we got some sick people out here." Artemis looked over at Jackson, "Go." He said, walking over to her to take her spot. Artemis ran out the door and down the hallway, walking out through a hole in the wall, she ran to the front gate.
There was people standing there with guns, and Artemis rushed through them, "Move!" She pushed through them.
She rushed out the gate, to see Nyko holding a young girl, Luna with her arm around a young man, and a few other people behind them. "Nyko. What happened to them?" Artemis asked, Clarke walking forward, standing behind her.
"The sickness. We lost more than 40 on the way." He answered, and the red head began to cough.
"Luna?" Bellamy questioned,
"Please dont turn us away because of what i did to you."
Abby came walking through the crowd of people, "Out of the way. Please, let me through." She came in, looking at Artemis, walking up to her, she handed her a cloth, "Put it over your mouth."
Artemis holds the cloth over her nose and mouth area as the two lead down and begin to examine two people. Artemis looks over at Abby, lowering her voice, "Abby, that's ARS. Look at the burns."
Clarke bent down to their level, "What is this?" She looked at both of them for an answer. "Fever, lesions, vomiting. It's ARS, Clarke." Artemis said, and Abby nodded her head as Clarke looked at her for approval. "What's ARS?" Bellamy asked,
"Acute Radiation Sickness." Artemis said, her stomach turning as the words fell from her lips.
Clarke stood up, and Artemis began looking at the little girl first, "When did the symptoms start?"
"I'm not sure. Right before the fish started dying." Luna answered, and Raven piped up in question, "The fish are dying?"
Nyko looked up at her, "Floating on the sea to the horizon in every direction." Raven and Clarke looked at each other. Abby stood up, "It's not contagious. Let's get them to med-bay." And Artemis grabbed Luna, pulling her arm over her shoulder.
They helped to get the group into med-bay, and Abby had placed them in beds. All Artemis could think while watching the sick patients cough was, 'It's already here.'
Artemis was doing the best she could to keep the patients stable while Abby and Jackson tried to think of a way to help them. "They're getting worse. There has to be something that we can do." Artemis thought aloud as she paced the small nurse station.
"Delactivene might help, but Raven's got the meds on lock down." Jackson said, standing there with his arms crossed.
"Leave Raven to me." Abby said, moving into a question, "What, exactly, do the tests show?"
"The exposure is acute." Artemis says, holding the tablet with the results in her hand, "Without any treatment, there is a little to no chance of recovery." From behind them, they could hear as Luna began to vomit. "It looks like the radiation is more internal, ingested from irradiated fish." Artemis continued over the vomiting sounds, "None of the out breaks seem to be from airborne exposure. That's the good news."
"Not for them." Abby said, staring into space as she gathered this information. Artemis had noticed Bellamy's arrival, and turned on her heel, walking up to him and Luna who sat in one of the beds, sweating from all the vomit she had just let out.
Luna looked at Artemis, "This is all that's left of my people. Can you save them?"
With a sad smile on her face, Artemis spoke calmly and collected, "We're gonna do everything we can. You have my word." Luna began coughing again, and Artemis stepped away with Bellamy.
"Please tell me you have something good to say."
"Raven's looking for us." He walked past her, out of the door of Med-bay.
Artemis looked back at Jackson and Abby before walking through the doorway and down the hall. She made her way to engineering, where Raven sat in front of the monitoring screen, Clarke and Bellamy standing behind her.
Raven typed into the keyboard for a few seconds, before pointing up at the screen, "So, Luna's rig is here." She pointed at the red dot, "If the fish in these waters are dying," She gestured to the water around the rig, "Well, basically, we're screwed."
"I don't understand. ALIE said we have 6 months." Bellamy's voice echoed through the room, not many people there.
"We don't."
"Well, then how long do we have?" Artemis asked, looking at the screen, then Raven as she spoke. "It's hard to say. Radiation is dispersed by jet stream, and carried by ocean currents, so it's not an exact science, but the leading indicators are small die-off species-- Fish, insects. Based on the new data i'd say we have.... Two months of survivability... Maybe less."
Artemis felt a pit in her stomach, rethinking every life decision she has made, she decided in that moment, that she wasn't gonna be telling Jasper about this new data. He didn't need to know. He was happy right now, and this information could mess that up.
"The Ark wont be ready." Bellamy said, his eyes wandering from the monitoring screens to Raven as she turned around in her spinning chair, "It'll be close. If we triple the man hours and work around the clock, then we should be able to achieve a hard seal before the black rain comes." She looked at Clarke directly, "We just have to decide who gets to live here."
"Raven, we are not talking about the list again."
"Clarke, we are running out of time." Raven stood from her spot in the chair, "We have to make a plan for the day we close the doors, drill for it, make sure only the survivors have guns, agree on protocols for dealing with the people who are pissed off they're not chosen." She lowered her voice as she realized her anger had taken slight control. "You asked me to be in charge of rationing, and i am doing it, but choosing who gets to live or die is your specialty."
From behind them, they could hear the start of the rover engine. "No one was scheduled to take the rover." Raven points out, curious as to who it could be.
Bellamy was the first one to start walking outside towards the commotion, they went outside to see Jaha sitting in the drivers seat of the rover, Bellamy knocked on the door, grabbing Jaha's attention, "Out of the vehicle." Bellamy opened the door. "I need to make a run." Jaha said.
"All supply runs go through me." Raven spoke in a stern voice over the loud engine, "And shouldn't you be working on the patch in sector 5?"
Jaha stopped the engine, hopping out of the vehicle, and closing the door. "A patch for a ship that can only save a hundred people? Why are you surprised? I am an engineer. We have no way to generate water. The harder number is 400." He looked directly at Clarke, "Can you really sentence 400 more of our own people to death?"
"We dont have a choice." Clarke exclaimed in frustration, causing a few people to turn heads.
"What if you do?" Jaha lead with this a more of a mystery, "What if i told you there might be a fall out shelter less than a days drive from here? A fall out shelter built to sustain thousands?"
"I'd say you're full of shit." Artemis says, crossing her arms. "We've been through all of the chancellors files. All of the bunkers you considered for us when you sent us to the ground are either compromised or unviable. And now, thanks to the Ice Nation, Mount Weather is too."
Jaha looked at Artemis as she aloud her wittiness to take over, "Those were government bunkers." Jaha reached into the rover after opening the door, he handed Clarke a tablet from engineering. She took it in her hands, and the four of them viewed the article.
"A doomsday cult?" Bellamy questions, causing Artemis to scoff, "Only Jaha would pull some crazy shit like this out of his ass."
Jaha gave her a disappointed look, then looked at Bellamy, answering his question. "That's right. The Second Dawn."
"They built a bunker?" Clarke asked, looking up from the screen at him.
"Their whole theology was riding out the end of the world."
Raven piped up with a question, "Why didn't you consider it?"
"We couldn't prove it was real."
"So, why are you considering it now?"
Artemis looked at Bellamy, after he had asked the question, "Because now we need it, Bel."
Clarke looked from Artemis to Jaha, "You found it, didn't you?"
Jaha looked to see if they were being observed, then lowered his voice, "We can't be sure unless we check it out."
Clarke looked over at Raven, "No. No way." Raven uncrossed her arms as she spoke, "We need that rover for hauling pieces of a 3-ton patch we're building--"
"Yeah, but if he's right, we don't need a patch."
Raven looked between the three of them, "Can i talk to you guys for a second?" She stepped away, followed by Clarke and Bellamy, and then Artemis turned to them.
"Artemis, can you please remind Clarke what happened last time Jaha went looking for salvation?"
Artemis took a deep breath as they all three looked at her, "Listen, i think Jaha is crazy, out of pocket, and deprived of life, but if that bunker is real, we can save a lot more than a hundred people."
"If it's not... We've lost another day." You could see the frustration Raven had through her body language, her ferried eyebrows, the way she was standing, and the stern way of her voice.
"Hey, look. If it's not, i'll make the list... Okay?"
Raven looked between them for a moment, before scoffing, "Oh, do what you want. I've got a ship to seal." And turning to walk back into Alpha Station.
Artemis looked at Clarke as she spoke of the list, as Raven walked away, she leaned in, whispering to Clarke as so Bellamy doesn't hear, "If Jasper's not on that list, don't put me on that list."
Clarke nodded then looked at Bellamy, "I'll drive." He said, then looked at Artemis, "Keep everyone in line. We'll be back soon."
She nodded, although she wanted to go with them, she knew she was needed in Arkadia. Artemis watched as Jaha, Bellamy and, Clarke drove away, then made her way back inside Alpha Station. She found her way to med-bay, where she stayed taking care of her patients.
---
In med-bay, Artemis was sitting in a chair with a book about medical radiation and how to cure it in her lap. She wasn't even reading it anymore, she was just staring at it. Ab by walked into the room and sat down on a chair beside Artemis. "Raven won't give me the medicine. What the hell are we supposed to do now?"
Over her shoulder, John Murphy held the pills, "Looking for these?" Artemis looked over at him, "John?" Abby looked over, grabbing them, "How did you-- Never mind."
"I didn't know how many you needed so i just took them all."
Abby and Artemis looked at each other, stunned. "What are you waiting for?" Murphy questioned, "Go. Be doctors."
Abby handed the pills to Artemis, "Give it to the child first, and if it works, you give it to the others."
Artemis nodded, giving Murphy a smile, then turning to go over to the child. Abby made her way over shortly after, and they helped the girl to sit up. "It's okay. It's okay."
"Adria." Luna croaked out from the bed beside them, the little girl looked over, "It's okay. You can trust her." The little girl looked at Artemis, "It's like food. You just put it in your mouth and take it down with the water." Adria put the pill in her mouth, and Artemis handed her a glass of water. She drank the water with the pill, and Artemis helped her lay back down.
"What about the others?" Nyko asked.
"We're gonna monitor Adria for the next few hours, if her symptoms start to improve, we'll treat the adults."
"Thank you." Luna whispered over to them as she began to fall asleep.
Artemis nodded and they turned away as Adria and Luna fell asleep. Jackson approached them, looked over at Murphy, "His father was floated for stealing medicine to save him. Who knew he had it in him?"
"I did." Artemis said.
---
Artemis was still in medical, cleaning the floors as Abby and Jackson sat in the lab. She mopped her last section quickly, then made her way over to the lab. She swiped her key card, allowing herself to walk in. "Hey, I'm gonna go spend some time with Jasper, is there anything else you guys need me to do before i go?"
Abby gave her a small smile, "No, we're all good. Go. I'll page you in the morning."
Artemis gave her a smile and thumbs up, before walking out of the lab, and through medical. When she reached the door, she walked through it quickly, practically running through Alpha Station. As she walked outside, she spotted Jasper sitting on a log next to the fire. She walked up behind him, holding her hands over his eyes, "Guess who."
"My beautiful, amazing, sexy, incredible girlfriend?"
Artemis removed her hands and sat next to him, "No, just me."
He kissed the side of her head, "You are my beautiful, amazing, sexy, incredible girlfriend."
"Did you know that Murphy was back?"
"Like John Murphy?"
"Yeah, he stole Delactivene for the ARS patients."
"Hm." Jasper shrugged, "Do you wanna go get drinks?"
"Sure."
Jasper stood up, grabbing her hand, he led her into Alpha Station, through the hallways and into the kitchen. He filled her cup up with moonshine, then filled his as well. They just stood there in the kitchen, talking, and enjoying each other's company. In that moment, the world wasn't ending in 2 months, in that moment, we were gonna live forever.
But of course, a moment is only a short period of time, and it always comes to an end. As Artemis began to feel the alcohol kick in, her pager went off. She quickly pulled it out of her pocket, "What the hell--" She saw as it read "911: Abigail Griffin."
Artemis groaned, "I've gotta g--"
"Yes, i know. Go be a doctor. I love you." Jasper kissed her lips.
"I love you too."
Artemis pulled away from his touch and made her way to medical, there she saw Luna holding Adria as Adria wheezed and coughed. This broke her heart. Murphy could smell the booze on Artemis' lips from a mile away.
She walked up to Abby, "It didn't work?" She questioned, keeping her voice in a low tone. Abby shook her head, and then ferried her eyebrows, "Are you drunk?"
"I was off the clock."
Abby gave her a slightly disappointed look, then turned back to her dying patient. Artemis could barely watch this. She felt numb, she knew Luna's pain, she had been there before. Artemis had held one of her favorite people in her arms as they died.
Once Adria had passed, the doctors had walked away as Luna and Nyko grieved the loss of one of their loved ones. Artemis sat down beside Abby in the lab, "When is this day gonna end?" She groaned out as she plopped her head onto the counter.
Once Bellamy, Clarke, and Jaha got back to Arkadia and had informed Artemis and Raven that the bunker wasn't gonna work, Artemis was slowly wishing she could figure this out, but she couldn't.
With her head hanging on her arm, sitting in a swivel chair, Artemis was sleeping like a baby. That was, until she heard Clarke Griffin's voice say, "Luna?"
Her eyes opened, and Artemis' eyes adjusted to the light, she looked over to see Raven, Abby and Clarke looking at Luna, who was alive..?
Artemis stood up, "Luna?"
Abby felt her forehead, looking over the healed radiation burns. "We didn't treat her." Raven states, her voice stayed in a questionable tone, much like her face.
"You're fever's down." Abby said, "How?" Nyko asked, approaching Luna.
"Her body's rejecting the radiation on its own." Abby had a surprised smile on her face. "Here. Please sit down." Abby grabs a chair, Luna taking a seat.
"I'd like to run some tests." Abby turns around to face the few people standing in med-bay, "Artemis."
Artemis walked towards them, crouching down to Luna, "What did you do?
"Nothing. There's only one variable. There is one thing that separates Luna from the others." Abby looked at Artemis. Artemis had finally put the pieces together, "Night blood." She said, thinking out-loud.
Everyone looked from Artemis to Luna, and then Clarke spoke, "From the ashes we will rise."