september 14 2149
WELLS HAD FOUND Aria early that morning to check she was okay. Apparently he had returned to the ravine after Murphy and the others left him alone but he couldn't find her.
"I'm fine, Wells." Aria insisted for the hundredth time. "He didn't even get my wristband."
She tried her hardest not to think of the night before. How Bellamy had pressed the gun to her head as she cried. Aria was used to feeling powerful and in control. In the operating theatre, a humans life hung in her hands. Her actions decided their fate. But last night? Aria was at the total mercy of Bellamy Blake. She hated that.
Wells didn't seem to believe her, but nodded. "Come on, let's bury them." They had decided to lay to rest the two boys that were killed in the landing yesterday.
It was tedious work. They'd found shovels in the dropship. They chatted as they worked, which was slightly macabre. "Really that's insane!" Aria laughed as Wells finished telling her a story about a family game night gone wrong that Clarke's family had hosted. "What happened there - with you two?"
The air became tense. "Not much to tell. She told me that her dad was planning on breaking the law and I told my dad."
The way he said it made Aria's eyes narrow. It just didn't make sense, Wells had been speaking about Clarke all morning, it was crystal clear he adored her.
Aria cocked an eyebrow, "Really?"
"It's complicated." Wells said defensively. He didn't need to elaborate, plus he was a terrible liar. Wells didn't turn Jake Griffin in.
"Right." Aria decided to drop it. "Here, help me with this." They had decided to undress the dead bodies, they'd need the clothes and resources. It felt wrong, but it was a necessity.
These were people. They had families, friends, dreams and feelings. She didn't even know their names.
The laid them to rest, Wells picked up a shovel to start covering them with dirt, but Aria stopped him.
She cleared her throat, "In peace, may you leave this shore." Wells joined in. "In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels, until our final journey got the ground. May we meet again."
She wiped a stray tear from her face. She didn't even know these boys, but she supposed that was the point. They should have had their funeral words spoken by their loved ones, by people who knew them. Not strangers.
Wells placed an arm around her shoulder, Aria was grateful for the act of comfort. "Come on, let's get this finished."
They worked in silence for the remainder of the burial. It was a peaceful spot. Aria wished they could have seen the Earth. By the time they were finished, they were both slick with sweat. Aria was sure she stank, but a shower or even soap would have to wait.
The kids in the camp were running carefree, whooping and chasing each other, and running wild. They passed two delinquents straddling each other. Not a care in the world.
"Do you ever get jealous?" Aria pondered out loud.
"Of what?" Wells shot her a quizzical look. "Of them?"
The young doctor shrugged, "They don't see the world as we do. Since we got here, me, you and Clarke have been the only ones to worry or think about responsibilities. Sometimes I wish I could just not care."
Wells mulled that over silently, "I guess we're just hardwired differently, for leadership."
Aria didn't want to be some kind of leader. But she had a budding feeling she wasn't going to get too much of a choice in the matter.
"Hey, where'd you get the clothes?" Atom, one of Bellamy's goons asked as he emerged from the dropship.
"We buried the kids that died in the landing." Aria explained, gripping the shirts she was holding tighter.
"Smart." Atom grabbed the bundle that Wells was holding, "You know, I'll take it from here. There's always a market for-"
"We share based on need, just like back home." Wells cut him off.
"You still don't get it, do you, Chancellor?" Bellamy emerged from the dropship, shirtless, with a girl following behind him. Aria resisted rolling her eyes, she couldn't resist taking a second to stare at his bare muscular torso, but her blood ran cold when she saw the gun tucked into his waistband. All too well could she remember the feeling of it pressed against her forehead. She felt better as she notice a small bruise on his cheek. He kissed he girl before she glared at them and left. "This is home now. Your father's rules no longer apply.
He sauntered over to her and snatched one of the tops from her grip. "Thanks, angel." He smirked.
Wells made a move to grab it back, but Atom intervened. Funnily enough, it was Bellamy that stopped the growing fight. "You want it back..." He drawled, "Take it."
Wells turned, throwing the remaining clothes to the floor, instantly the boys behind them made a run for them. Aria held on the remaining top with defiance.
"Is this what you want? Chaos?" Wells questioned.
"What's wrong with a little chaos?" Bellamy joked, tugging his new shirt over his head. Aria rolled her eyes. "You got something to say, angel?"
"Nope." She popped the p, and pursed her lips.
Bellamy's eyes dragged down to the shirt till in her hands, still adorned by her wristband. "Still being stubborn, I see."
"Yep." She popped the p again. He glared at her with annoyance.
"You know your punches need-" The older boy was cut off by a scream. All three of their heads whipped around and they took off in a run to see the source.
Murphy was holding a girl over the fire. "Bellamy! Check it out. We want the Ark to think that the ground is killing us, right? Figure it'll look better if suffer a little bit first.
"Let her go!" Wells and her screamed in unison. He barrelled forward, pushing Murphy off her. Aria quickly ran to the girls side, making sure she wasn't burnt.
"Are you okay?" Aria pulled the girl away from the fire. She nodded in response and scurried away.
Wells turned to Bellamy. "You can stop this."
"Stop this? I'm just getting started."
Murphy launched himself at Wells, punching him across the face hard. Much harder than Aria had punched Bellamy. But Wells didn't fall to the floor.
"Fight!" The crowd called. As Wells rounded back, Murphy caught him in the stomach with another hard jab.
"Stop it!" Aria screamed. She ran to intervene, but Bellamy gripped her shoulder, restraining her.
The two boys threw punches at each other, neither with the upper hand, until Murphy barrelled at him, tackling him into the floor. He sat on him, throwing punch after punch to Wells face.
"Stop it please!" Aria begged. Wells twisted out of Murphys grip, turning on him with an animal ferociousness, gaining the upper hand he sent a hard blow to Murphys face, slammed in to the floor and punched him again for good measure. Aria sobbed.
"Don't you see that you can control this." Wells looked at Bellamy, his face was bloody. Murphy rose, pulling his knife out.
"Wells!" Aria warned.
Murphy glowered at him with a look of death. "You're dead."
"Wait." Bellamy finally intervened, pushing Aria to the side. It was silent as he stood in between them. He held up a makeshift knife. "Fair fight."
He threw the knife to Wells' feet.
"No!" Aria screamed again, "Bellamy stop this!" Her voice was desperate, but her pleading was ignored, and he just regained his hold on her arm, not trusting her not to run into the fray.
Wells picked up the knife. It was almost like Arias heart stopped beating. They circled each other slowly. Then Murphy lunged. But Wells was quick, backing off. Either his ankle must of healed at record time or he was ignoring the pain, because he was moving with skilled agility. They continued to skirt around each other. Arias face was wet with tears.
She felt like all she had done since she'd reached the ground was cry, be manhandled and argue.
Murphy lunged again, but this time Wells wasn't quick enough, and Murphys knife caught his upper arm. Wells cried out in pain and Aria let out a fearful screech, annoyed, Bellamy covered her mouth with a sweaty palm. God, will just he get off!
"This is for my father!" Murphy lunged at him. But Wells coughed him, and twisted him around, using Murphys momentum against him, and Wells had his own knife to Murphys neck. The crowd let out a collective gasp, Aria could feel Bellamy tense beind her, but she wanted to let out a grin in relief. Where the hell did Wells learn to fight like that?
"Drop it!" He yelled at Murphy.
"Wells!" The sound of Clarke's shocked voice cried out. She descended into the clearing with Finn. "Let him go!"
Wells roughly pushed Murphy to the floor. Wrenching herself out of Bellamy's grasp, Aria ran to the Wells. However, Murphy wasn't finished, he lunged for them, but Bellamy caught him. "Enough, Murphy."
"Are you okay." Aria looked at Wells with concern, but he just nodded. Liar.
Just then, Octavia and Monty came into the clearing, Octavia obviously limping. "Octavia!"Bellamy took his sister into his arms, helping her down. How does a person go from so cruel to so caring in seconds? "Are you alright?"
"Yeah." She muttered, but it was clear she was injured.
"Where's the food?" Bellamy questioned.
"We didn't make it to Mount Weather." Finn said. Aria groaned internally, no food, no supplies. And while she has gone longer in the past without a meal, her stomach was starting to claw at her with hunger.
"What happened?" Aria and Bellamy asked together, well, Bellamy yelled.
"We were attacked." Arias brows furrowed in concern. Animals had survived, but which ones?
"Attacked?" Wells looked as worried as Aria felt. "By what?"
"Not what? Who." Arias blood ran cold at Finns words. Humans? "It turns out, when the last man from the ground died in the Ark. He wasn't the last Grounder."
The silence was papable as they digested the meaning of that. Aria broke it. "We're not alone?"
"It's true. Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people out there, survivors. The good news is, that we can survive, the radiation won't kill us." Silver lining, hey? But that did calm a large worry of Arias. It was safe. Medically at least.
"Yeah, the bad news is the Grounders will." Not so good.
"Where's the kid with the goggles?" Aria whipped around, counting the group, they were missing one.
"Jasper was hit. They took him."
Arias eyes went wide. "What? Hit with what?"
"A spear." Finn frowned. Not a bullet. Aria mulled that over, perhaps that technology had been lost, of course they had no factories or way to make them she assumed.
"Where is your wristband?" Clarke's eyes fell to Wells' bare arm.
Wells glared at Bellamy. "Ask him."
"How many?" Clarke's voice waved with anger.
"24 and counting." Murphy almost looked proud of himself. Aria noted he had a new jacket with a horrible spiked sleeve.
"You idiots!" Clarke cursed and turned to the crowd. "Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know if the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them! You're killing us!"
Aria thought back to her last few months in Medical, how many more people had been coming in with oxygen deprivation symptoms. Suddenly everything clicked. It was silent for a second as the delinquents let the new information in. Aria resisted the urge to panic, her father, her brother, Beck were all still up there. She was glad she'd managed to punch Bellamy, how could she have forgiven herself if she'd let him take her one chance to help her family.
"We're stronger than you think." Of course Bellamy Blake had something to say. "Don't listen to her, she's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they'll forgive your crimes. I say you're not criminals!"
"Yeah!" The camp whooped.
Aria laughed, she was washed with deja-vu from last night. How many times can they have this same argument? "How stupid are you?" She glared Bellamy down.
"We cannot take care of ourselves, we have no idea what we are up against! We have no clue how many grounders are out there or how advanced they are! We need the Ark, and you are not one of us! You're a stowaway! But I bet you are a criminal, huh?"
They were chest to chest, Arias face flushed with anger. "You don't want to cross me, angel." He said quietly, before she had a chance to respond, he turned back to the crowd of delinquents. "We're fighters, survivors! The grounders should worry about us!"
The crowd cheered. Clearly, Bellamy's anarchist ideals appealed to the hundred criminals that surrounded them more than the sensible ones of Aria and her friends.
Arias heart was filled with fear.
They weren't alone, and the ark was dying.
She told herself to calm, but it was getting harder and harder. She followed Clarke and Monty out of camp. Aria can't fix the situation on the Ark, but she could try and figure out what to do about the grounders and what happened to Jasper.
"What's the plan?"
"We go after Jasper." Aria nodded grimly. She had no time to be a scared little girl.