Disclaimer: I (sadly) don't own The 100, which was created by J*son Rothenberg.
- - - -
- 04 -
- Savages -
It was now later in the day, and Coralie was helping Wells burry the bodies of the two boys who were killed by the landing.
Though Coralie's idea of 'helping' is very different from the actual term. She thought helping would also conclude that 'just being there' is good enough. So that's what she did. She was 'just there'.
Wells, though he was doing all of the work, enjoyed her company, being that she kept him entertained with her blabbering mouth.
In the beginning she spoke about plants and how fascinated she was at the thought of them. Then she started talking about her personal opinions on Earth and how she expected it'd look like from her perspective. Currently, she was telling stories about random things varying from the Ark to the soil beneath their very feet.
"You know, I thought dirt would be different here on the ground," she thought aloud as she braided her hair. It was getting hot out and she didn't want the hair clinging to her skin because she was sweating so much. Her sleeves were pulled back and it was the first time since they've arrived to Earth that she had taken off her gloves, which were shoved in her back pocket, the ends sticking out effortlessly. "Mom had kept a tree alive back on the Ark. She told me and Marcus that if we ever were to come to earth, we should plant it for her. I always said that she'd make it down here if Marcus and I were ever to, but she always said that the chance of her coming down to Earth was a load of B.S."
Wells never cut in when she was talking. He listened carefully and directly, hearing every word that came out of her mouth clearly.
"Have I been talking this whole time?" She frowns. When Wells chuckles, she blushed and bit her bottom lip to keep from talking any farther.
"Don't worry. I would rather listen to you talk up a storm than be alone," Wells assured her.
Eventually, though, she did realize that she was babbling and decided to turn the conversation towards him.
"So let me get this straight," Coralie cocks her head to the side. "They woke you up in the middle of the night to take your bracelet off?"
"I've only said that like eight times," he breathes harshly, wiping his forehead. "Hey, why don't you get off your ass and help me?"
"You see, I would, really..." She trails off, and Wells looks at her to finish her excuse. "But I don't want to." He scoffs and turns to finish throwing dirt over the last body.
When she finished braiding her hair, she was in luck because it was the same time that Wells was done patting the dirt down.
Wells walked over to the pile of clothes, which Coralie had refused to remove from the corpses, and pulled on his own jacket. She got up herself, taking one of the jackets and tying it around her waist before grabbing one of the shirts and one pair of shoes that she knew she couldn't fit, but she was helping Wells because there was nothing else to do.
He has promised her that she could get one of the jackets and one of the shirts, which she would eventually use. Wells grabbed the rest of the clothes and the two walked back to their tent, watching their surroundings along the way. A couple made out while they were walking up a hill, and a few boys ran around playing Rugby. Coralie didn't know how they could play around so roughly with each other.
"Watch it," Wells pushes her behind him with his free arm as the boys almost pushed her down the hill.
"Thanks," Coralie sighs as they continue walking. "Have you ever read any books about animals back on the Ark?" She asks out of nowhere.
"Yeah, why?" He looked down to her with raised eyebrows.
"I really want to see one," she shrugs. "I just hope we run into one eventually-"
"Hey, ah, where'd you get the clothes?" She was interrupted by a boy who made them both stop by walking in front of them.
"Buried the two kids who died during the landing," Wells replied.
"Smart," he says, looking down to me. "You know, I'll take it from here. There's always a market by-" as he reaches for the clothes in Wells's hand, Coralie jumps in front of him.
"We share based on need," Wells said, pulling Coralie back by the shoulder. "Just like back home."
"You still don't get it do you, Chancellor?" Bellamy said, exiting the rags of the drop ship, his torso bare. Coralie tried not to stare but... 'damn' she thought.
"He comes out of nowhere every time," Coralie whispered harshly as she ripped her eyes off of his body. She watches as a girl emerges from the ship behind him, only wearing a sports bra and pants. Coralie rolls her eyes as Bellamy and the girl share a loud and chaste kiss.
"This is home now," he declares as the girl walks away, swaying her hips. "Your father's rules no longer apply." He than rips a shirt out of Wells arms.
Coralie than proceeds to take small steps towards Bellamy only to be held back by this Atom dude.
"Atom, Atom, no," Bellamy shakes his head. "If she wants it, let her take it." He dangles the shirt in his hands and she stared at him with pure annoyance in her eyes.
Wells heaves a deep breath before throwing the articles of clothing in his hands onto the floor behind him. Almost instantly the kids who sat around the fire ran in to retrieve something.
"Get the shirt!" One called.
"What the hell, Wells?" Coralie frowned. "You really need to learn how to stand your ground."
Wells ignored her and turned to Bellamy. "Is this what you want? Chaos?"
"What's wrong with a little chaos?" Bellamy smirks as he pulls the shirt over his head.
"Why are you such a dick? Seriously, is it genetic or something?" Coralie inquired with bewilderment. Bellamy only chuckled and reached forward to grab the shirt and jacket from her grasp, only for her to take two steps back, quick enough for her to avoid his reach. She opened her mouth to snap at him but was interrupted by a startling scream across the camp.
She took off to the sound without hesitation, heading towards the area the fire was held. She stopped in her steps when she saw Murphy holding a random girl over the fire, her face scrunched up as she whimpers.
"Bellamy!" Murphy calls. "Check it out. We want the ark to think that the ground is killing us, right? Figure it'll look better if we suffer a little bit first."
"Murphy! What the hell are you doing?!" Coralie shouted.
"Let her go!" Wells marched forward and took matters into his own hands, shoving him away from the burnt teenager. He then turns to Bellamy. "You can stop this."
"Stop this?" Bellamy chuckles. "I'm just getting started."
"Wells, watch out!" Coralie cupped her hands over her mouth, calling to the boy as Murphy shot up and swung at him. Her warning was too late as Wells was punched in the face harshly.
Kids chanted them on to which Coralie scowled at.
Wells stood back up and the two went at it, punching and pouncing on the other like wild animals.
"Murphy! Wells! Stop it!" Coralie demanded, walking forward before being held back by Bellamy, who was watching the fight with amused eyes.
After fists were thrown an odd amount of times, Wells finally managed to get the upper hand, punching Murphy one last time before leaving him on the ground. Wells stood and turned to Bellamy, who held Coralie somewhat captive.
"Don't you see you can't control this?"
Murphy lets out a grunt as he rises from the ground, his makeshift knife now in his grip. "You're dead."
"Get off of me!" Coralie squirmed in Bellamy's hold for one last moment before she finally was out of his hold. "You're all acting like children! Ignorant, mindless children!"
Murphy takes a few steps forward, ready to use the weapon in his hold against Wells. That was before Bellamy pushed himself in between the two, holding his hand out to stop Murphy from trudging closer to Wells. "Wait."
Coralie lets out a sigh of relief, that relief cut short as Bellamy pulls out his own blade, throwing it at Wells' feet. "Fair fight," the tanned boy states.
"Y-you're kidding me, right?" Coralie's hands reach up to clutch the sides of her scalp. "I'm surrounded by idiots." She lets out an unbelieving choke when Wells reaches down to take the blade into his hand.
The teenagers surrounding them encourage the two with shouts and hoots to hype the air up. Too bad it was the wrong type of encouragement. They were being protagonists and instigators.
Wells and Murphy circle each other for about two seconds before Murphy pounces... or attempts to. Wells moved out of the way almost quick enough to avoid the blow. His upper arm gets cut by the blade, and Coralie stands still as her hands cover her mouth anxiously.
"This is for my father!" Murphy growled out, leaping forward. Wells takes this as an opportunity to successfully take Murphy's discombobulated form and spin him around, ending up with the crooked noses boy in a headlock.
"Just stop!" Coralie pleaded with agitation clear in her voice.
"Wells!" Clarke's voice puts a holt to all of the commotion. Everybody's heads turn to the group who had come running back onto camp grounds, out of the wilderness. "Let him go!" Clarke demanded as she walked up to the two.
Coralie raced over to Finn and gave him a hug, to which he wrapped his arms around her waist. Wells huffed before he harshly shoved Murphy to the floor, and if it weren't for Bellamy he would've tried to strike again.
Coralie stares at Murphy with bewilderment. What is happening to him? He's always been a trouble-maker but now he's morphing into a savage in general. His behavior reminded her of a book she read back in her younger school days called 'Lord of the Flies', where a group of kids were stranded on an island and slowly turned into savages as time passed.
"Whoa, whoa. Hey! Enough, Murphy," he growled before his head turned to see Octavia limping with her arm around Monty's shoulder. "Octavia! Are you alright?" He ran to his sister's aid.
"Yeah," she sighs, wincing.
"What happened to her?" Coralie asked Finn.
"You know how you've always wanted to see a snake?" Finn asked and she nodded. "Well it didn't want to see us."
"Where's the food?" Bellamy asked, standing straight up.
"We didn't make it to Mount Weather," Finn panted as Coralie helped him sit on one of the logs, hand on his back as he leant against her shoulder.
"What the hell happened out there?" Bellamy's voice boomed.
"We were attacked," Clarke frowns.
"Attacked? By what?" Wells takes it upon himself to ask.
"Not what. Who," Finn replies. "It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last grounder."
"It's true. Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us."
"Yeah, the bad news is the grounders will," Finn sighs.
"Wait, where's the kid with the goggles?" Coralie asked, counting all of them in her head. He wasn't anywhere around.
"Jasper was hit. They took him," Clarke answers. She then looks down at his wrist and then back up at him. "Where's your wristband?"
"Ask him," Wells nodded towards Bellamy. Coralie shakes her head as Clarke steps forward.
"How many?"
"Twenty-four and counting," Murphy's battered up face answers.
"You idiots," she breathed. "Life support on the ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know 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!"
After a moment of silence, Bellamy walks forward.
"Here we go," Coralie murmurs.
"We're stronger than you think. Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many do 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! Your fighters, survivors! The grounders should be worried about us!"
Coralie rolled her eyes at this. How many of them have fought against anything? What did they ever survive? Yeah, they made it to Earth. Congratulations. And the grounder thing? That's bigger bull crap than actual bull crap.
Coralie stands up and shakes her head, turning to Finn.
"I can't listen to this," she humorlessly chuckles before hopping over the log she once sat on and walking away from the savaging teenagers who wouldn't know left from right.
Clarke grabbed her by the wrist as her and Monty chose to walk away from the clamoring as well.
"What now?" Monty asks.
"Now? We go after Jasper," Clarke says.
"I'm totally coming for this one," Coralie smirks, prepared for the worst.
•
Coralie leant against the wall, one leg up as the sole of her foot presses against it. Her and Monty wait for the arrival of Clarke and Wells from above them. When Clarke comes climbing down the ladder, Coralie pushes herself off the wall.
"It's not your ankle, Wells. It's you," she hears Clarke say.
"You came back for reinforcements. I'm gonna help," he argues.
"Clarke, he's right. We need him," Monty calls out. "So far, no one else has volunteered."
"I'm sorry, Monty, but your not going either," she shakes her head.
"Like hell I'm not. Jasper's my best friend."
"You're too important. You were raised on farm station and recruited by engineering."
"So?"
"So food and communication. What's up here, it's gonna save us all," she taps on his head, telling him this as nicely as possible. "You figure out how to talk to the Ark and I'll bring Jasper back."
He frowns and Coralie purses her lips. Just as Clarke begins to walk out, Finn walks in.
"Hey. You ready?" She asks.
"Oh, I'm not going anywhere, and neither should any of you. That spear was thrown with pinpoint accuracy from 300 feet."
"So what, we let Jasper die?"
"That's not gonna happen," Coralie shakes her head.
"Spacewalker?" Clarke scoffs at him. "What a joke. You think you're such an adventurer but you're really just a coward."
"It's not an adventure, Clarke. It's a suicide mission."
But Clarke ignores him and heads straight out.
"Finn, what's up with you? You used to be more..." Coralie furrows her eyebrows as she struggled for the word. She gave up after a second and assumed he knew what she was getting at.
"Coralie, your definitely not going out there."
"And why not?" She scoffs.
"What about Raven? What if she comes down here only to find out that your dead?" Coralie opens her mouth to reply but then shuts it afterwards. "She wouldn't care," is what Coralie wanted to say.
"Raven isn't here, Jasper is," she says before leaving the drop ship.
Wells walks out next, right after telling Finn to build a wall using fallen trees.
"Jasper looked up to you," Monty says after the three had left, leaving him and Finn alone. Though after Monty leaves to climb up the ladder, it's just him.
Outside, Bellamy tends to Octavia's cut.
"You could've been killed," he tells her.
"She would've if Jasper didn't jump in to pull her out," Clarke says as they approach the two.
"You guys leaving? I'm coming, too," Octavia begins to clean herself up to stand.
"No no. No way. Not again," Bellamy demanded.
"He's right. Your leg's just gonna slow us down," Clarke says before looking up at Bellamy. "I'm here for you."
"Clarke what are you doing?" Wells asks the same time Coralie very loudly groan from behind them.
"I hear you have a gun," she mentions. He looked her in the eye before lifting up his shirt, showing the gun he kept in his waist band. "Good. Follow me."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because you want them to follow you. And right now, they're thinking only one of us are scared." She lifts her eyebrows to prove a point before walking off, Wells and Coralie in her footsteps. Coralie drags her feet as a sigh escapes her lips.
As the three of them walk down a dirt slope, Coralie throws her hands in the air and places her hands on the back of her neck, stretching her arms.
"Those guys aren't just bullies, Clarke," Wells says. "They're dangerous criminals."
"I'm counting on it," she replies, looking straight forward.
"Since when are we in the rescuing business?" Murphy asks Bellamy as they walk with a more than reasonable distance from the three ahead.
"The Ark thinks the prince is dead. Once they think the other two princesses are, too - they'll never come down. I'm getting those wristbands. Even if I have to cut off their hands to do so."
The group walks for a few, Coralie counting as many trees she can while they walk by them, just to pass time.
"Hey, hold up!" Bellamy calls, stopping Clarke, Wells and Coralie. "What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart." He says, dangling the weapon in his hand like it's some kind of toy.
Wells pushes Clarke and Coralie behind him. "Put the gun away, Bellamy."
"Why don't you do something about it, huh?" Murphy shoved him.
"Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste." Clarke turned to continue walking but Bellamy grabbed ahold of her wrist first.
"As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go," Bellamy smirked.
"The only way the ark is gonna think I'm dead is if I'm dead. Got it?" She ripped herself away from his grip.
"Brave Princess," Bellamy chuckled.
"Why don't you find your own nickname?" All heads turn to Finn as he makes his presence known, descending form the bushes he was previously behind. "You call this a rescue party? Got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me."
Coralie lets out a breath, keeping her words to herself. She begins walking forward, ignoring the small pain at the fact that Finn just chose someone who wasn't Raven over her.
"Great news, Sunshine. You're with me," Bellamy reached forward to take her forearm into his, but she side stepped him.
"What's it with you people and feeling the need to just grab me?" Coralie throws her hands in the air. "And I would rather choose who I'm to be partnered with, thank you," she pulled away from him and went to stand beside Wells.
"Too bad I don't care," Bellamy crookedly smiled as he pulled her along with him down a trail that lead them deeper into the woods. She looked back at Wells, giving him an apologetic look before turning back to Bellamy.
"I'm not handicapped. I can walk without your help," she pulled her arm closer to her once again.
"Physically? No. Mentally? I'm starting to think so," he said, not looking directly at her. When she didn't reply, he continued talking. "You know, I heard what you did," he tells her. "Can I know why?"
She rolls her eyes, knowing what he was bringing up.
"Just curiosity," he shrugs.
"Haven't you ever heard that curiosity killed the cat?" She crossed her arms.
"And satisfaction brought it back."
She lets her arms fall and slowly looked back at him, her eyes raking up and down his body with an amused expression on her face.
"So, tell me. What'd you assault a guard for?"
"I was having a bad day and took it out on him. All he got was a bruised nose, I don't know why I was sentenced to freaking death."
"Even Kane's little sister thinks the rules are a load of shit."
"Yeah but that doesn't mean I want him to die. I love my brother, even if we aren't connected by blood."
"What if they don't die. They just stay up there and live out of our hairs for a little?" Bellamy suggested, his eyes glancing down to her wristband.
"Didn't you hear Clarke? Life support is failing up there," Coralie questions his sensibility. "Plus, Jaha said that all of our crimes would be forgiven."
"All of your crimes," Bellamy ran a hand down his face.
"What did you do?" She furrowed her eyebrows.
"Some stuff," Bellamy shrugged.
"Well then that's a you-problem."
- - - -
And then Coramy begins.
Sort of...
Any other ship names?