Isaac surveyed the drop site of Raven's pod, watching as almost everyone from camp was helping to lift things. He had no idea what he was supposed to do, so instead of screwing something up and ruining any chance of success, he was standing off to the side, waiting for Raven to give him a job. "Uhh..." the mechanic was biting her lip as she looked across the clearing, her eyes finally landing on something. "Help Finn carry the control panel back to camp," she suggested, gesturing towards where the long haired boy was struggling to lift a piece of metal with lots of buttons on it.
Isaac said nothing, instead sending Raven a nod as he made his way towards Finn. He bent over, roughly grabbing the end of the panel before silently cursing at himself for making a show of it. "Isaac," Finn began, sounding tentative. Isaac resisted the urge to give the boy an icy glare, instead hauling the panel backwards as they began towards camp.
"We need to launch those flares ASAP if we have any hope of saving those people," Raven called, urging the others to work quicker. Finn and Isaac, carry that control panel back to camp. You, pull out those wires in one piece or otherwise they won't work. Clarke, can I have a hand?" The nineteen year old was giving orders, sounding like a true leader already.
"Isaac," Finn tried again. Stormy blue eyes rose from the ground and looked at him expectantly. Finn could see the annoyance, the anger directed at him from a simple gaze. Isaac liked to think he was good at hiding his emotions -everyone in the camp, especially those he knew well, thought otherwise. "I'm sorry."
The curly haired boy scoffed lightly, his eyebrows crawling up his forehead a bit as he glared at Finn. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
Finn pursed his lips. "I thought I'd never see her again-"
"But you never mentioned her," Isaac interrupted. "You let Clarke believe that you liked her and her alone. You gave her hope that you had no right to give her."
Finn almost stopped walking as he felt a wave of anger rise up in him. "And who has that right, you?" he spat.
Isaac shook his head. "I'm not good enough for her. No one is."
Finn blew out a breath through his lips loudly. "What was I supposed to do?" he asked desperately. "Clarke, she- I'm not just pretending to have feelings for her. I really like her, but.... I still like Raven."
"Well life isn't a romance novel," Isaac told him harshly. "You need to make up your mind because down here this kind of problem is not the kind we should be worrying about."
Finn looked furious, and Isaac was sure that if they weren't friends the boy would have dropped the panel and come at him. "Look, I know what this is about," he said finally, the anger turning into an almost superior look.
Isaac narrowed his eyes. "What, Finn? What is it about? Me actually caring if you break someone's heart?"
"No, this is you caring about me breaking Clarke's heart," Finn spat at him. Isaac froze, pulling Finn to a stop as well.
"What?" he croaked.
Finn was almost smirking. "I see the way you look at her. Clarke. I guess I'm not the only one with feelings for her. But the thing is, I know why you're so bothered by this. She chose me, and you can't stand it. She prefers me over you, and now since she can't have me you'll end up being a sloppy second, if she even goes for you. Because I might be with Raven but Clarke will still like me." Isaac knew it was Finn's anger talking, nothing else. He was taken over by rage and annoyance, otherwise the boy wouldn't be saying any of these things. He tried to keep a steady heartbeat, tried to ignore what was being thrown at him. "She'll never choose you. And you hate that."
Isaac sucked in a breath; okay, so maybe he was affected by the words. "Finn, you're angry. I get that. But we need to keep mov-"
"You did this to me!" he snapped. "Accusing me of being a bad person-"
"I never said that!" Isaac's eyes were wide. This was going somewhere he didn't want it to, but it seemed like there would be no preventing it. "I just said that you did a bad thing, there's a difference! We all do bad things Finn!"
"Oh really?" the other laughed cruelly. "What have you done, huh? What's the good little boy done? You killed you parents-"
Isaac blinked, a look of shock washing over his features. His lips parted as his mouth hung open slightly. His eyebrows furrowed as a hurt expression appeared, making him seem almost like a wounded puppy. "I- that wasn't... I didn't do that."
Finn looked shocked. "Oh my g- Isaac, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-"
"You said it, didn't you?" Isaac drew in a heavy breath, the air feeling like lead in his lungs. His eyes were closed as he tried to keep himself calm. Tears were batting against the backs of his eyelids, which he ignored as he bit his lip, swallowing hard. "You think I-" his voice began to thicken and he cut himself off, dropping his end of the control panel, starting to back off. "I think you -you should find someone else to carry that with you," he breathed. His head was bowed as he hurried away, walking quickly. He bit hard on his lower lip as he walked away.
He was just angry, right?
* * * * *
The forest around him was lit up purple and blue by the light of the flares as the rocketed above the treeline, illuminating the sky and earth around them. Isaac was leaning against a tree, the bark rubbing against his back through the thin material of his shirt. He was just a few feet away from the entrance to the bunker they'd hidden in with Charlotte when they were running away from Murphy. The same bunker where Clarke and Finn had-
No, he didn't want to think about that.
Even though thinking about it made Isaac want to throw up, or punch a tree, or maybe punching a tree while projectile vomiting across a river, he knew that it was something that happened and he couldn't change it. But he still didn't want to acknowledge that. But for some reason he felt compelled to go inside. So he bent down and curled his fingers around the freezing, rusted metal of the handle and pulled, the trap door swinging open. He kept the door open as he climbed down the ladder. When he got to the ground, he used the faint light coming in from the outside to search for the candles, remembering that they had been in the cabinet near the sink. He found them easily, lighting a few before going back over to the ladder and stepping on the second-lowest rung and closing the trap door after him. He lit the rest of the candles and put them across the counter, one side of the bunker lit almost to daylight while the rest was a soft darkness, illuminated by a dim orange glow.
At least, Isaac thought to himself, they bothered to clean up. The blankets were neatly folded at the end of one of the bunk beds, and the curly haired boy sat down on the edge of the mattress, pulling one of the blankets towards him and tugging at the corners to spread it over his legs, wrapping another one around his shoulders. He let his mind drift away from what he'd been thinking about the entire journey there, instead thinking about the family that had owned the bunker. The one that was supposed to be in here.
He'd seen the picture last time he was here; it had been a typical picture, a mom and a dad, with two kids, a boy and a girl. They had obviously been posing just above ground, near the place where their secret bunker was hidden. The girl had been holding a teddy bear against her pink t-shirt, the boy beaming happily, showing off the gaping hole where his two front teeth should be. The parents looked kindly enough, and the father was looking at wife wife lovingly, instead of the camera. Isaac found himself mourning for the people he'd never known. They hadn't deserved to die, hardly anyone had. But yet the world had been destroyed, taking billions of innocent people with it.
He took a shuddering breath. He knew he couldn't stay in the bunker for long. By now people would have realized he was missing. But he thought that he could let them worry. After all, that was all he did about them.
* * * * *
(okay so i'm switching it up a bit, it's going to be Clarke's P.O.V.! i hope you like it!)
Clarke wasn't awoken by Bellamy's yells. She was merely startled; she hadn't expected anyone else to be up, much less to be awake and shouting about the camp like there was a monster after them. "Octavia?" Bellamy was calling. He sounded closer than the last time he had yelled, and soon enough he was pulling back the curtain of the tent Clarke was in, his eyes widening in mild surprise. "You're up?" Bellamy asked, curiously.
"Yeah," Clarke sighed. There was a slight bitterness to her tone as she stood, pushing herself outside. Bellamy knew she was still angry with him, and he wished she weren't. He wished she would forgive him for trying to protect his sister. He had gone to extreme, unnecessary measures, but he'd been trying to do the right thing. "Knowing that hundreds of people might be dying on the Ark makes it pretty hard to sleep."
Bellamy felt the blow and bowed his head in guilt for a split second, wetting his lips. "Raven's flares will work," he tried to assure Clarke, but if he was being honest he wasn't sure if he believed it himself.
"Her radio would have worked better," Clarke shot back, glaring.
Clarke had been expecting anger, but something she hadn't been prepared for was the anxiety and fear shining in Bellamy's eyes. "Have you seen Octavia?" he asked quickly. His voice was tense, both with worry and something else he'd only come upon recently from all the insults.
"No." Clarke wasn't worried. "It's Octavia. She's probably off chasing butterflies."
"Clarke, I've checked the camp. She's not here," Bellamy's mouth was pulling into it's usual frown.
Uncertainty washed over Clarke as the worst scenario suddenly came to mind. "Okay, I'll help you find her. Wake up Isaac so he can help too, I know Octavia's his friend."
Bellamy's eyes were almost panicked now. He looked afraid, or apprehensive. "You don't know?" he asked her, sounding surprised.
Worry sloshed inside of the blonde's stomach as she looked up at Bellamy in confusion. "What?" she could hear the fear in her own voice, and there was no doubt the boy in front of her could hear it too.
"I haven't been able to find him either," he told her.
Panic seemed to seize Clarke around the throat. "What? Are you serious?" Bellamy nodded solemnly, earning a shaky nod from the girl in front of him. "Well, m-maybe he's with Octavia."
Bellamy felt a flare of anger at the suggestion, but then he remembered how the boy looked at Clarke and how that if he was Octavia it might mean they were safe. "We can hope," he grimaced. "But I doubt it."
Clarke shook her head. Nothing was wrong. Isaac wasn't missing. Octavia was in camp. Everything was okay. But she could only convince herself of that for a moment before reality crept back into her mind. Taking a deep breath, she bit her lip, peeling away a small piece of skin. It stung, but she took no notice. "Right, well, we -we need to check camp again," she said finally. She took off walking, lacing confidence into her strides despite her immense worry for her friend. "You go to the drop ship. I'll check the rest of the tents."
"Thank you," Bellamy sighed gratefully.
"Don't thank me," Clarke scolded him. "I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it for Octavia. And Isaac." She whispered the second name, for some reason feeling the need to do so.
- - -
"Hey everybody, gather round and grab a weapon," Bellamy bellowed into the darkness of the camp, everything only barely visible thanks to the torches that had been lit. "My sister's been alone out there for twelve hours, and who knows how long Isaac's been missing. Arm up, because we're not coming back without he- them."
Monroe was the first to grab a weapon. She took a long metal pipe, the end of it decorated with a sharp piece of metal. She curled her fingers around the handle, the cold grip almost familiar by now. Then, to everyone's surprise, Jasper reached down to grab an axe. "Hey," Clarke reached up to put a hand on Jasper's shoulder. "Jasper, you don't have to do this. You haven't left camp since we came back."
Jasper shook his head. His eyes never met hers for more than a second, his gaze flicking all over the camp. "Clarke, I need to do this."
"We need all the people we can get," Bellamy added from behind Clarke, sending a nod towards Jasper in appreciation. Jasper twitched his head as if he were making to nod in return, for once a serious look on his face. It was almost unnerving, seeing looking so grim. But then again, the situation was grim as well, and even on Jasper the expression seemed fitting. "We need a tracker," Bellamy said. He looked to Clarke, almost as if asking her permission to bring the boy he had in mind along. She nodded not hesitant. "Finn, get out here!"
It took a while, and Bellamy was growing impatient. "Finn, we're leaving!" he called towards the tent, before motioning for everyone to move out. Turning to Clarke, he pursed his lips. "He can catch up."
Clarke lagged behind, making sure everyone got along safely. She was in the back when suddenly Finn came out his tent. Her heart ached when she looked at him and his slightly shorter hair and she turned on her heel, beginning to walk away. "Hey," Finn blurted. "Hey, wait." He jogged to catch up with her.
Clarke almost groaned. "Nice hair," she said. Her voice was cold and collected, sounding just like it had the first day on the ground when she'd told Finn that he was responsible for the deaths during the landing. Finn winced, thinking that maybe Isaac had been right; he deserved this kind of treatment. He'd screwed up.
"We should talk about this," he sighed. He wanted to make things right, he really did.
Clarke tilted her head to the side, looking somewhere between confused, amused, and annoyed. "You have a girlfriend, Finn. There's not that much to talk about." She made to walk away, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Hey, wait. Okay, so it's true," Finn told her. "I care about Raven. But you and me, we started something."
"It's nothing we can't stop." I didn't want it to stop, Clarke told herself. But that's what needs to happen.
"Are you sure?" Finn asked in a low voice. His brown eyes searched her green ones for something, anything that might point him in a direction other than go screw yourself. "Because I'm not."
It almost seemed like they were having a moment when Miller yelled something from his spot by the gates. "Guys, guys look at that!" Clarke broke away, heading towards the noise and Finn quickly followed. "Look up there!"
Everyone looked up towards the sky, where a few hundred lights were pouring down upon the earth like a shimmering rain, elegant and pure looking. "It's beautiful," a girl whispered.
Fear ripped at Clarke, and apparently Raven sensed what had happened too after she had crawled out of her tent to join the chattering group. "It didn't work," Raven gulped. "They didn't see the flares."
"A meteor shower tells you that?" Bellamy asked, sounding skeptical.
Clarke was about to burst. "Those aren't meteors, it's a funeral. Hundreds of bodies being sent to Earth from the Ark. This is what it looks like from the other side."
-
Five miles away, in the forest, Isaac was gazing up at the sky. His cheeks were wet with tears as he watched the bodies of the Ark's citizens speed towards the ground. They were glowing, glimmering, and they looked like angels. He wondered if he knew any of the bodies.
Silently, his voice barely reaching a whisper, he parted his lips and spoke to the sky, a final goodbye, a parting gift.
"May we meet again."
A/N: wow okay so that was really depressing oops i am so sorry i made myself have emotions. also I realized i've been forgetting to add songs at the beginning of chapters so what i'm going to do is just make a playlist at the end of the book with all of the songs and the scenes they correspond with. i hope that's alright. yeet